“Which plan are we going to go for? The first one?” Mariam asked from the second row.
“Yes, we're going to continue with protocol, if any part of plan A looks like it's going to fail, we will implement plan B immediately. So, we need to be mindful of that as we work” Sheryl replied.
“If plan A works then it's less work for me to do” Auton said, with what sounded like humour.
It was going to be hard to adjust to working with a robot, even harder to accept that the robot in front of them was just the shell; the real Auton existed independently of it and wasn't being controlled by a human. There was a delicious irony there. They all had another cup of tea or coffee, whichever each of them preferred, and then began to start planning between them on how to make things work.
As a mathematician and statistician, Danny was tasked with calculating trajectories required for the craft. David and Emma would be able to help with the input as they were familiar with the mass, gravity pull and other parameters the craft would encounter. Mateo would be helping to engineer the software that the craft would use and that Auton would upload itself to. Monique would test Auton's well-being and life signs, to make sure it was running correctly. She had done all the same tests before, but Auton had encountered numerous situations she hadn't prepared it for and wanted to ensure that it was coping correctly and as expected. Gina would build robotic parts for the craft, with help from James and Jarrah, making sure it was fit for purpose and functioned the way it was required to. The rest were required to help the others, assist them with any tasks, their own specific skills not required at this stage, not until the plan had been completed.
So, for the next two days it was all hands-on deck, everybody racing around to do their part, to get the craft ready for its final journey. It was a hectic few days, they barely slept or ate, they preferred to use all their time making things perfect. All the time Auton was learning from the others, its vast intelligence increasing rapidly. Brandon showed it his notes on DNA and his research into cloning, Samir gave it a full run down of the characteristics of the human body, Mariam and Olivia showing it papers on genetics and microbiology. Sheryl gave it Ben's notes on Nano-bots and the small box Danny had been given and the folders of research they had retrieved from Niel. Even with all this information being thrown at it, it still wanted to learn more.
Mike had nothing to tell Auton, other than crazy stories of surviving in ridiculous situations he had put himself in. Each word had Auton transfixed though; the tales were like the magnificent epics a father would tell his son at bedtime, except these were true. Auton had only seen a tiny part of the world it was created in, and all this new information was telling it so much more about humanity, nature and the dynamics of the whole planet. Every new snippet of information was remembered and assimilated into its mind. It enabled it to daydream and think of novel new concepts out of the blue. Auton began helping Mateo with the software, learning it quicker than Mateo could teach it.
Auton then turned its attention to the craft itself; it was almost replacing Sheryl as the co-ordinator by this time. It knew what it needed on there, it helped confirm the trajectories required, picking up on some minor details David and Emma had missed that could have sent the craft on a slight detour. Auton was now a fully-fledged member of the team and became a master of all his colleague's professions, with very little effort. At any other time, some of them would have been wary about this, the 'taking over of the world by machines', but they had learnt to trust it, and they would ultimately need it to help humanity get back on track.
Gina had an idea to make Auton seem more like a member of the team, promptly pulling out a marker pen.
“What are you doing?” Auton asked as Gina wiggled the pen around in front its eyes.
“You haven't got a mouth, we need to give you a big smile” She said as she drew a maniacal grin that span from one side of its make-shift head to the other, “There you go that's better”.
“What do I look like?” It asked baffled.
“You look very happy” She replied.
It was just the sort of off the wall thing Gina would do, so no one was the least bit surprised, although it took a little while to get used to a robot with a serial killer's grin plastered across its face.
At the end of the second day Monique sat with Auton, checking it again, making sure everything was okay.
“You're learning very fast” She said laughing, “You could probably do all our jobs by now”
“That's easily possible yes, but why would I want to do all your jobs? What would you all do?”
“I'm so pleased you made it here” Monique said as she put her hand on the square structure that acted as its face, “I was really worried you know”.
“Worry” Auton said, “That's one thing I cannot do. I would like to know what emotions feel like”
“Ha, no, believe me, sometimes we’d love to not have emotions, they're not the easiest things to deal with” She replied, "You came back to help, was that not driven by some emotion?”
“I had an impulse,
