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Who Made Who 2000 short story by Mark Newbold Twelve years before Episode IV - A New Hope The
laboratory was dark and foreboding, the clinical air of a doctor's surgery
coupled with the scattered chaos of a mechanics workshop. Instruments of all kinds lay about the
dimly lit area - scalpels, wrenches, hydrospanners,
stethoscopes, needles, all patiently waiting for their inevitable moment of
usage. At
the rear of the lab stood a shabbily dressed man with a shock of purple and
blue hair rising spire-like from his long head. His hands were immersed deep within the
bowels of a cylindrical, torso-shaped shell, wires and circuits splayed and
intertwined in a spaghetti-like malaise of mechanics. He wiped his forehead with a greasy forearm
and stood back, surveying his work.
Absent-mindedly he reached out for a cup sitting on the workbench and
before he could even twist himself to reach for it a small Crustacean Droid
scattered along the bench, grabbing the cup and extending a pincer arm to
pass it to him. Without even a glance
he closed his hands around the cup and drank deep. He smiled as the warm liquid sank down his
throat and with a satisfied gasp he withdrew. "Well, well, well my fine metallic
friend. It seems we have finally
solved the mystery of your creation.
Now all we need is an energy source with enough juice to supply your
power plant." Doctor Flagen
glanced around at the cluttered benches and work surfaces around him. Nothing seemed to have the adequate power
to activate this limbless droid.
Unless… He
pointed at the Crustacean Droid and motioned for it to come to him. It almost appeared to hesitate for a
second, as if unsure of why it was being summoned, but the power of its
master's command was enough to override any latent anxiety. The droid scurried to the edge of the bench
and waited for the touch of its creator. "Don't worry my little friend. You won't feel a thing." They always say that thought the Crustacean Droid as Flagen detached
his power unit with a deft twist of his wrist and pulled the square pack
free. Holding it up to the light
Flagen nodded in satisfaction as he checked the requisite wiring and
junctions. It held more than enough
power to activate his new creation, enough to see it through it's first faltering hours of existence. Existence,
but not life. Flagen believed strongly
that droids were present in the galaxy to serve and protect, to provide and
to obey. Not to think, not to
believe, not to grow and nurture the desire for humanity or true sentience or
any other higher aspiration. There
were no droid gods, no true Maker. Flagen was the only creator these machines
would ever know and when they thanked the Maker, they thanked him. And
only him. He
inserted the power pack into the chest of his new work and folded back the
chest plate covering. Wiping his
sweaty hands along the grubby cloth of his lab coat he flicked the switch
that would activate the droid and stood back.
Slowly, the light behind the eyepiece of the droid glowed, brighter
and brighter until they reached a sharp intensity that shone outwards. Flagen smiled and leaned in close. "Welcome to the world LS-76. Do you know who I am?" The
droid seemed to bore holes through Flagen's skull as it viewed him for the
first time. Its vocoder growled as it
adjusted to speech setting and began to speak. "My memory banks tell me that you are
Doctor Xutal Flagen." "That is correct LS-76. But who
am I?" The
droid regarded the question for a moment, and if the machine had possessed
arms it would have scratched its head in thought. "You would be the one who is my
creator." Flagen
nodded and backed away, snatching at a piece of cloth that hung from a nail
on the edge of the bench. "Correct. I am your creator, and as a consequence I
am the one who's instruction you shall follow. Is that clear LS-76?" The
droids eyes glowed dimmer, then brighter as it moved its head from side to
side in confirmation. "Yes master." Flagen
took the cloth and wiped away a smidgen of excess grease that had accumulated
along the chest plate of his droid.
Standing back he looked around for the droids appendages, which were
lying unobtrusively in a package crate next to the door. "Why am I here?" Asked the droid. Flagen
shrugged and bent down to pick up the left arm. "Because the workbench in the main
laboratory is being used." "No master, you misunderstand. Why
am I here?" Flagen
smiled to himself as he turned and gazed at the droid. Existentialism from a machine barely three
minutes old. How far technology has
come. "You are here because I wish you to
be here." "But why?" "To serve me. To improve the quality of my life. To prove that a machine of your quality, of
your level of perfection could be built.
And only by me." LS-76
regarded the statement for a second and then rephrased its query. "To what end am I here?" Flagen
frowned at this inquiry as he leaned in with the arm and picked up a splicing
implement. "To my end. To serve me.
Your purpose in life is to serve me.
Anything else is an irrelevance."
Flagen
coupled the third and vital connection and twisted the arm into place. LS-76 lifted the arm, regarding it in the
dim glow of the lab and flexed the elbow, wrist and finger joints. He appeared to be functioning within established
parameters. But there was still
something missing. "Master, I can't feel my legs." "Hardly surprising. They're over there in that box." LS-76
looked down on the floor at the crate where his limbs waited to be connected
and, confused lay back down. "Why am I not complete?" "Because you are a machine. Machines require construction." LS-76
gazed at Flagen as he worked. His
master retrieved the right arm and began connecting it to the torso, unaware
that he was being scrutinised by his creation. "Did you require construction?" "Of a kind. We are different entities, you and I. I am biological. I continue to grow and adapt over the
course of my lifespan until I eventually become obsolete and expire. You, however, are a mechanical entity. Once you are fully assembled your
operational perametres shall remain the same. You shall be the same specification when
you finally expire as you shall be when I complete your assembly." LS-76
looked longingly down at where his legs would soon be. "Did you watch your creator attach your legs?" Flagen
smiled as he twisted the right arm into place. "No LS-76, I did not. But my parents watched my legs grow as I
evolved and adapted into an adult.
Biological entities come with their arms already attached." LS-76
seemed to understand the answer and nodded. "So your parents were your
creators?" "Yes, they were. They brought me into this world, made me
what I am today." LS-76
began to sit up and move its arm. "So, you are my parent?" Flagen
shook his head slowly at the droid as it checked out its right appendage for
problems. "No LS-76. I am your creator. Your builder. A parent has love for its children. You are simply a machine. I am proud of your existence, but only in
that I had the skill to create you.
Nothing more." LS-76
regarded the statement. "Master, what is love?" Flagen
hefted up the heavy leg onto the table and moved to the end of the bench. "Nothing you'll ever have to worry
about." A
week had passed in the laboratory. Doctor
Flagen rifled through his files with his left hand as his right reached out
for his drink that was sitting across the room atop of a monitor. The hand remained there for a matter of
seconds until he realised that there was no beverage forthcoming and
retracted it. He ran his fingers
through his miasma of purple hair and frowned. "Must
fix that Crustacean Droid." He
whispered to himself as he crossed the room to retrieve his drink. In the low light he could make out the
shape of the discarded droid belly up on the work surface, its extendible
arms and legs curled over in the rough approximation of a dead arachnid. He sipped from the drink, which was kept
warm by a heater in the base of the cup and turned back to his files. Flagen was so distracted that he barely
noticed the broad silhouette of LS-76 who had silently entered the
study. Flagen jumped with a start. "Freck
it LS-76! You almost gave me a heart
attack." "Master, the laboratory is cleaned
and tidied as you requested." Flagen
barged past the tall droid and returned to the filing cabinet, grumbling
angrily to himself. "I don't ask for requests, I give orders." He found the necessary file and turned to
face the droid, its chest plate glowing dimly in the half-light. "And you carry them out." LS-76
gazed implacably at its master and straightened its back. "Master, I have more questions." "Concerning what exactly?" The
droid moved back a step, giving Flagen room the cross the floor and out of
the study towards the main laboratory.
LS-76 followed. "Concerning my existence. My reason for being alive,
and how I came into being." Flagen
spun on his heel and walked right up to the droid, his head barely reaching
the shoulder plates. His face was a
dark, angry blue and his eyes glared. "LS-76, I'll say this just once. I don't know where you got these ridiculous notions of self-identity
but they must stop right now. You are not
alive, you are merely living a parody of what
biological entities call life. You are a construction designed specifically
to serve and protect me. You are not, I repeat not here to discuss the finer points of existence. Do I make myself clear?" LS-76
remained still, his eyes glowing in the gloom. "I merely wish to understand you, so
I can better understand myself." Flagen
threw the files down onto the floor in exasperation, a dusty film rising into
the air from their impact. "You are only required to understand
one thing. That my word is the law. What I
say is all that matters. Nothing else. I'll have no more of this meaningless
nonsense. You are a machine, and
that's the end of it. If you wish to
learn any more about your existence then do it yourself. I have neither the time nor the patience to
listen anymore." LS-76
watched without emotion as his creator reached down for the files on the
floor and gathered them into his arms, and with a venomous backwards glance
Flagen walked away. LS-76 raised its
left arm to its chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. "Then I must learn more about
myself." Flagen
woke with a start. What was that? He brought the covers up to his neck,
almost afraid to venture from the confines of his large bed until he
chastised himself for his stupidity and reached for his night robe and
slippers. The room was in stark
contrast to the rest of the facility, a warm and comforting bedroom that had
obviously been treated with a woman's touch.
Although Flagen slept alone. He
reached the doorway and as he was about to open it thought better and grabbed
for his trusty Blaster that he always kept at the foot of his bed. Lifting the covers he reached in for the
weapon…but it wasn't there. Confused
he peered under the covers but the Blaster had gone. A cold shiver ran down his spine. No one knew that he kept a Blaster under
the bed. None of his droids entered
this room, not even LS-76, his prize creation. Occasionally one of his smaller serving
droids would attend to him in here, perhaps the Clipper Droids or the
Crustacean Droid, but none with the level of sentience to do this. Unnerved he grabbed a hold of himself and
exited the room. It
was dark in the corridor. Pale
emergency lights ran their red baleful glow down the length of the corridor,
left to the workstations and right to the main laboratory. He checked both ways and decided to go to
the left. Hugging the wall closely he
checked tentatively behind him every few steps, checking that he didn't have
a silent pursuer. It was a dangerous
galaxy - you could never tell. He
reached the main doors to the work area.
Someone was inside, a shadow of a man inn a hooded cape working away
in the corner of the room on an unseen project. His curiosity peaked Flagen nudged the door
and entered, hunched over into a crouch and scuttled
his way to the workbench where he hid.
The man continued with his work, apparently unaware that he himself
was being watched. Flagen
frowned. Where's LS-76? I need him now. The
man put down the tool he was using and lifted his work into the light,
surveying his handiwork. It was the
Crustacean Droid, newly repaired and powered.
Flagen gulped. Why break in here to repair a menial
machine like a Crustacean Droid? He
had little time for his musings as the man threw the droid across the room
towards him in a blur, the appendages of the little droid lashing out and
gripping down as the throw brought it perfectly onto Flagen’s head, knocking
him down to the ground. He yelled in
surprise as he fell into view and in a flash the man manoeuvred around the
tables and caught hold of him, lifting him into the air with ease and hefting
him onto his shoulder. Flagen hammered
away at the man, but stopped almost immediately. "You're not a man." He began in disbelief. "That is correct master, as you are
so fond of pointing out." LS-76
ripped the cape away and glanced at his creator in the light, his eyes
blazing with an intensity that Flagen knew had not been there before. LS-76's grip tightened and the doctor felt
the air squeeze out of him. "What is the purpose of this?" "You do not want to know." Flagen
frowned and thumped the droid again, doing no damage. "I demand that you tell me!" "Negative. `If you wish to learn any more about your existence
then do it yourself. I have
neither the time nor the patience to listen anymore'. Those were your exact words to me the last
time we spoke of this. I intend to
follow your instructions absolutely." Flagen
cursed the droids logic and struggled furiously within LS-76's grasp, but he
knew he had no chance of escape from its clutches. He had designed the droid to have the
equivalent strength of ten humans and his efforts bore the futility of an
infant trying to escape the clutches of an adult. With a thump he was thrust onto the
workbench and as he tried to roll to freedom the droids hand pushed him back
down like a piston, blasting his breath away.
Panic laced his words and actions as the droid reached down to lift up
an implement. "What are you going to do to
me?" "I need to see how you were
constructed. By disassembling you I
can better understand you. Then, after
I have carried out my research I can reconstruct you." The droid leaned closer to the terrified
man. "Is that an acceptable
course of action?" Flagen
was too terrified to speak, but as the laser scalpel came closer he managed
to raise a breath to speak. "No it is not acceptable. I shall not survive this procedure. Biological entities cannot be subjected to
that kind of trauma." The
droid stood back and looked across the room at the Crustacean Droid sitting
silently on the end of the workbench.
LS-76 returned his gaze to his master. "They always say that." He intoned, and Flagen realised with horror
that the power plant within LS-76 had previously been in the Crustacean
Droid, and the little droid had been in his private quarters. It knew about the Blaster. And somehow that knowledge had been
imparted to LS-76. Flagen bucked on
the bench as he tried one last tie to escape and with imploring eyes he
begged the large droid. "But I made you! I created
you!" LS-76
caught a glimpse of himself reflected in the machinery's shining surface, and
if his harsh metallic face could have smiled it would have been a twisted,
evil one. "No doctor, you didn't create
me." The laser scalpel didn't
waver in his hand as it slowly began to do its work and Doctor Flagen's voice
rose to a high-pitched scream. "I
created myself." Who Made Who 2000 short story by Mark Newbold Twelve years before Episode IV - A New Hope Histories - The first full short story written by Mark Newbold in 2000, this is the
origin of the LS-76 droid who
eventually leaves the lab on Digena and travels around the galaxy searching
for its true master. Cast of
Characters LS-76 Doctor Xutal Flagen |