Lost Robot [Open]

Castor looked from pot to pot, jotting down some notes. He had to force himself to be organized enough for this particular venture to be successful. He really wanted to just take giant leaps and wing it, but progress would only come through rigorous testing and extensive data collection. The horticulturists and botanists of the Academy had come a long way in getting Earth plants to grow on Mars. Enough to give them a breathable atmosphere and thriving ecosystem. But there was further progress to be made. There were a countless number of Earth plants that were still not able to grow in Martian soil. That was why Castor was taking notes on a number of Earth plants growing in a similar number of Martian soil types, arranged in rows and columns of pots. 

In the middle of a note, he heard the door open rather suddenly. "Teddy!" Came a voice from the door. He turned to see a young woman standing at the door looking around the room. She was wearing a lab coat, something Castor currently had in common. She seemed to be familiar with the Academy, but Castor had never seen the woman before. He quickly searched his memory for 'Teddy'. No one came to mind. Theodore? No. There weren't many people left in the Academy at this hour and he knew most of the professors and students who regularly stayed past dark. He swiveled in his chair to fully face the woman. "Sorry. No Teddy here." He said with an apologetic smile. He stood and took a few steps toward the woman while speaking. "Maybe if you told me what he looked like, I could think of who you're talking about." He offered. He thought it possible that Teddy was simply a nickname he didn't know for someone he knew. 

"Oh." Castor said with a laugh when she said Teddy was a robot. The name made more sense seeing that it was shaped like a stuffed bear. Here he was racking his brain, trying to think of a Teddy in the Academy. When she pointed at one of the chairs to give him an idea of how big the robot was, he turned to look at the chair. He immediately said in his mind, without thinking, 'Two feet, four and three-eighths inches.' He didn't know why but lately he had started guessing at measurements when he first looked at an object. He found out quickly that he had quite a knack for it. At this point, he had a hard time not guessing the measurements of an object when he first looked at it. He couldn't turn it off.

He turned from the chair, thinking again to the robot. Had he seen an over-sized walking teddy bear, perhaps hiding somewhere? Not that he could remember. He gave his thoughts a minute to dig up any memory. He pictured the bear-shaped robot in his mind, even attributing to it the height measurement of the chair. The picture in his mind suddenly grew crisp. He could see the robot standing still in a dark place. The vision then disappeared.

He shook his head and continued listening. He laughed at her last comment. He didn't have much experience with artificially intelligent robots. But the image of a large walking stuffed animal boarding a ship was funny to him. 

"Hm. I can't say I've seen it hiding anywhere in the Academy but it's totally possible." He thought again briefly to the clear image of the bear in his mind. It came again, this time with a sense of direction. He didn't know what it meant. "I can help you look for it if you'd like. We could at least rule out The Academy as its hiding place." He tried to keep his face from looking concerned. He felt like he knew where the bear was but he didn't know how. 

Castor gained a sense of urgency when she mentioned her daughter needing the bear to sleep. He didn't have any kids or had much experience with them even. But he wanted them some day. And the thought of a little girl crying because she can't sleep was just heartbreaking. He immediately put his tablet down and walked to the door, heading out into the hallway with the young woman. He realized just how young the woman was when he got closer. She looked like a teenager and she had a daughter and a husband, or boyfriend at least. He decided it was inappropriate to inquire further. 

"I just meant I can help you rule it out." He really did want to help but this was his subtle way of saying that he wasn't about to search the whole city for a Teddy bear. He was familiar with The Academy and if he could help her to quickly rule it out as a possible hiding place, then he would feel good with his efforts. He wasn't sure he was willing to help past searching The Academy. He suspected it was close by, considering the fact that this woman was searching here. She was a mother. Mothers always know where their child's things are. 

This was an artificially intelligent robot however. Her daughter hadn't left it somewhere. It was hiding. It could be anywhere as the woman had illustrated. But Castor had a feeling it was close by. He wasn't sure why. It was like when he saw the bear in his mind, he was actually seeing where it was. He tried picturing it again in his mind and he got another sense of direction from the vision. It was giving him a head ache. 

"Why don't we try the geology wing." He suggested, leading the way. Partially, he assumed she had searched the chemistry wing fairly thoroughly and didn't need to continue looking there. But mostly, his feeling of direction was pulling him toward the geology wing. "My name is Castor, by the way." He said as they walked, giving her a friendly smile. 

He heard the question in her voice when she said 'Mister Castor.' He realized he had only given her his first name. He wasn't sure why but it was a habit of his in informal situations. He supposed he thought the last name was privilege for a closer relationship. "Just Castor is fine." He said with a laugh. More often than not, other people gave their last names upon introduction. Doctor Dorothy Deucalion was one of those people. He was reminded of his habit even more when she gave her full name. Why was he saw awkward when meeting new people? It was like he forgot how to be normal, being alone for long periods of time. 

They moved through the halls just peaking into the rooms. Dorothy didn't seem too inclined to search this area too thoroughly. Castor wasn't either, his mind still pulling him in the same direction, past the geology wing. She asked him about his affiliation with the Academy. "Both, I guess. I'm working on my Doctorate with the Academy currently. This night I'm working on a little side project of mine. I tend to jump around a lot in my studies." He said with a smile. "Did you attend the Academy as well?" He asked in return. She had called herself Doctor, so obviously she had studied somewhere. 

They reached the end of the hallway, where there was a set of double doors leading outside. He opened it, holding the door open for Dorothy, and stepped outside. His sense of direction was pointing to one of the buildings on the Academy grounds. He wasn't familiar with it. He thought about how it might look if he continued to follow his sense of direction and it somehow lead directly to the bear. He didn't think it was likely that this random feeling he was having was serious. But he couldn't help but feel in his gut that it was pulling him in exactly the right direction. 

The Robotics Institute. Well, that made sense. She certainly seemed competent when it came to robotics. She mentioned that she wasn't old enough to have studied on Earth. That could have meant she wasn't of college age by the time Earthly human society was destroyed. But Castor suspected she meant that she hadn't been born yet at that time, which meant she twenty or younger. And a Doctor for the Robotics Institute. Impressive. Castor suddenly felt intimidated. He was twenty-seven and still working on his Doctorate. 

"Applied Ecology is my major." He responded to her question. "I've also studied Biology, Geology, Zoology..." He trailed off. "Mars has a long way to go before it's anything like Earth. And I hope to help with that process." He added as explanation. 

He turned to her, not sure if she was joking about the Literature Department. "Nope. This is what some people call 'Outdoors.' I don't get to see it as much as I'd like to either." He said with a sarcastic tone and a laugh. If she was anything like him, she had spent far to much time inside, studying. He hoped he was guessing along the right line at the meaning of her calling the outside, the 'Literature Department.' 

Keeping the conversation and their search going, he said, "I think we have to widen our search a bit." He looked around at the various buildings, stopping his eyes every once in a while on the building that he sensed the bear was inside. He looked closely at it, trying to see some excuse to go check it out. The building was dark and there was no movement. If the bear was there, he wanted to go right over to check. But he couldn't be that direct when he didn't know what was going on in his head. "You are the robotics expert." He said turning to her again. "Is there anything in their programming that would lead you to believe it was in a specific spot? Like, is there a series of questions that a robot would ask itself to choose the best spot? Certainly it would consider certain things, like the fact that your daughter must be able to find him. Are there any parameters that might help us narrow down his location?" He figured it was worth a try. If he could help her figure out where the bear was without having to reveal that he possibly already knew where it was, then he would. 

Castor listened as Dorothy explained the possible thought process that the bear made before hiding. He hadn't considered that a bear robot would think like a bear. He figured the AI was mostly the same for all robots. He had never seen a bear back when he was on Earth. And there certainly weren't any on Mars. Really the only life on Mars from Earth were what happened to be in the city of Starhaven, with the surviving humans. This included a large number of plants, cats and dogs, rodents, small lizards and birds, and insects. He was sure there were still Blighted bears on Earth but no one had documented them. All he had to go by was his memory from a zoology text book from Earth. Bears hibernated during the winter, commonly inside of a cave. Dorothy was on the right track. 

"Hm. A cave is a good place to start, I would say. However, the closest cave to New Starhaven is over a mile away. I would have to assume that any AI would take a path of least resistance. It would try to accomplish the order as fast as possible within certain parameters. I would also assume that your daughter was close to the Academy when she gave the order, since you are here looking for the bear." He looked around again at the Academy grounds and to the building he suspected the bear was in. Now that he thought about it from a different perspective, he remembered that the building was empty. "Taking those assumptions into account, I would say the bear is somewhere close-by in a cave-like hiding place." Castor pointed to the building he was thinking about. "That building has been empty for the last year or so. The windows are shuttered and it stays dark inside even during the day." He looked back at her to see what she thought of his suggestion. 

Castor still had the sensation of direction as they moved closer to the building. It was as if there was a connection between himself and the bear, if that was truly what was drawing him. It felt stronger as they approached. He thought he could even tell that it was pulling him beneath ground level. The bear would be in the basement then. That made sense if the AI thought like a real bear. The basement would be darker and perhaps damper than the upper levels. More like a cave. 

He wondered how the robot could have gotten inside. There were a few broken windows but the doors were locked or boarded up. Could it climb? It was a teddy bear meant for children so it surely didn't have claws. But it was a robot and an AI, so who knows what it's capable of. He hoped Dorothy did, trusting it to sleep next to her daughter. Castor wasn't sure he could trust anything like that with his own hypothetical child. 

He turned to Dorothy at her question. "Not sure." She looked inside one of the windows so Castor did as well. He strained his eyes to see in the dark. He couldn't make out much, the street lights hardly illuminating the inside of the building. He saw something on the other side of the building and stared at it, trying to get his eyes to focus. Suddenly he felt like he was being pulled into the window. Not physically. It was like the far side of the room grew closer. He shut his eyes and stepped backward away from the window. This again. He had experienced it on occasion over the past few weeks. Always when trying to focus on something far away. 

"Let's check for that back door. I don't want to have to climb through one of these broken windows." He said, beginning to walk around the back. He spoke in a low tone, as Dorothy did. He wasn't sure why they needed to. Would the robot run away when it knew it was found? He supposed it depended on the rules of Hide and Seek. He had played many versions as a kid. 

There was indeed a back door. The knob was broken off and the door was slightly ajar. He gave it a gentle push and it swung open to blackness. "You have a flashlight?" They wouldn't be able to find anything without some kind of light.