K.L.A.U.S

Arrival

6 Years Later...

Twelve-year-old Ardell Jistran looked out the window from his seat in the small passenger helicopter as it continued to fly over a hilly, densely forested terrain. He sat next to a man wearing an Aquilonis Alliance military uniform.

Another man wearing a similar uniform made his way out of the front cabin, toward the man that was sitting next to Ardell. "Sir," he said loudly so that he could be heard over the sound of the helicopter's engines. "We are just about to land."

"Thank you," the seated man replied, which caused the standing man to make his way back to the front cabin.

"Papus," Ardell pleaded as he turned toward the man, "There is nothing out there. No cities, towns, or anything. Only hills and trees."

Ardell's father glanced out of the window as if to try to confirm his son's findings. "They said this was a secluded installation. Don't worry, I'm sure everything will work out." As he said this, he placed his hand on the boy's leg.

Ardell immediately pushed the hand off of him. "But, you promised I would be able be able to make a lot of new friends here. How can I, if we are in the middle of nowhere?"

"Relax, Ardell," his father replied. "I'm sure there will be plenty of other kids on base when we get there."

Before he could reply, something out the window that was not a tree caught the young teen's eyes. Looking closer, he could see a small grey landing pad, and a few small buildings positioned at the base of a large wooded hill. The landing pad could not be any larger than one deigned to hold one or two helicopters at a time.

Within seconds, Ardell could feel the soft bump as the wheels of the helicopter touched the ground. The conversation he was having with his Father would have to be postponed until later.

As soon as Ardell and his father stepped on to the ground, another man in military uniform was there waiting for them. At seeing the two, or more specifically, Ardell's father, he immediately snapped to attention and placed his right fist to his heart. "Optio Jistran?" the man stated and waited until Ardell's father returned the salute by placing his own fist to his heart before he continued. "Centurio Fristov has ordered me to escort you to his location, sir."

Ardell's father, along with Ardell at his side, nodded as he began to follow the escort toward the set of small buildings that they had seen as they landed. Instead of going to any of the buildings, however, they walked up to an incredibly huge door that seemed large enough for a helicopter to fit through. The way the door was angled, it was almost impossible to be seen from the air, and difficult to see from the landing pad unless you knew exactly where to look.

Their escort placed his hand on a small panel that was off to the side. The panel glowed yellow for a few moments before it turned blue. As soon as the blue appeared, a large cracking sound could be heard, and the huge door slowly began to lift up.

Once it was fully raised, Ardell could see another similarly large door a few hundred feet further back. Between them and the second door were not only four heavily armed men, but two ceiling mounted automated defense turrets. Three of the men immediately stepped forward to do standard security checks on Ardell, his father, and their escort. As the security checks were going on, the large door they entered through lowered.

After the primary door was fully shut, the inner door began to raise. As it did, it revealed a large indoor hanger were four attack helicopters, as well as a dozen sentinel drone launch pads. Also in the hanger, entrances to three different walkways were easily visible, one on each of the side walls as well as another in the far back wall. After making their way through the hanger, their escort led them down the leftmost passage.

As they walked down several different hallways, Ardell quickly became impressed with how high tech the installation appeared to be compared to the other bases he had seen. And he had seen a number of them, as he and his father had moved between bases a lot as he grew up.

They finally stopped at an open doorway that led into a small office. Their escort stopped next to the door, and motioned for the two to enter.

Inside the room, was a short grey bearded man sitting behind a desk, who was apparently staring intensely at its shiny black surface. Although the surface looked completely black, Ardell knew enough about the newer computer systems to know that it was most likely a polarized display that, unless the man behind the desk turned the polarization filters off, only someone looking at the desk from the correct angle could see the information displayed on it.

"Sir," Ardell's father called out as he snapped to attention and placed his right fist to his heart. "Optio Ganton Jistran reporting as ordered, sir!"

The man behind the desk said nothing for several seconds. Next, he glanced up and stared at Ardell's father for several more seconds. Finally, he stood and returned the salute. "At ease, Optio."

Ganton immediately relaxed as the man behind the desk stepped out to stand in front of it. "I trust your ride here was uneventful?"

"Aye, sir," Gonton replied. "A smooth ride over."

"I assume this is your son, Ardell?" the Centurio asked.

"That's correct, sir," Gonton confirmed.

The man walked over and took hold of Ardell's hand. As he lifted it up, he pulled back the boy's sleeve which revealed a thin blue wristband wrapped around his arm. "Well, at least he's still on the stick, so we shouldn't have to expect many problems from him."

The Centurio then took out a small hand held device from his pocket and began to press a few buttons on it. I've arranged for the two of you to have separate quarters, they'll be right next to each other in C wing. I've also informed the quarter master to install one of the sleep pods from the med bay into the boy's quarters. We've already received his bio records, and lock codes from your previous base, so the setup should not be a problem.

"I'm already twelve, sir," Ardell stated confidently, "So I'm old enough not to need to use sleep pods anymore if you give me permission not to."

The Centurio tilted his head as he glared at Ardell. "I don't know how things were done at your father's last posting, boy, but this is a military installation. A strict protocol will be followed at all times here, which means you will not speak until spoken to. Is that clear?"

"Yes... sir," Ardell timidly replied.

"As far the stick and pod go. The directives clearly state that children may continue to use it until they enter puberty. From the sound of your voice, boy, I can tell you are still a good ways off from that. And from your outburst, If anything, I would almost suggest that your dosage needs to be increased, not dropped."

Ardell nodded.

"Now, with that out of the way," the Centurio continued as he glanced back at his hand held. "I've also arranged for a secure terminal to be setup in your quarters, boy. This is where you will be able to continue your school lessons."

"When will I get to meet some of the other kids, sir?" Ardell asked cautiously.

"Other kids?" the Centurio replied questionably. "There are no other children on this base, boy. You're the first, and if your father wasn't such a damned good officer, you wouldn't be here either."

Ardell looked up toward his father with a shocked expression. Although he quickly realized that he should have expected this, as it was just one more lie to add to the continuously growing list of lies his father had told him.

If he could, Ardell would have loved nothing else other than to rage; to storm out of the room pissed, but he couldn't even if he tried. As it was, one of the other effects of the 'smart drugs' he and so many other kids were forced to take, made it so that they couldn't get mad, upset, or have any other strong emotions. Deep down inside, he hated that. Actually, he hated everything involving the drugs and sleep pods. He hated how they made him 'want' to pay attention to things. He hated being forced to sleep at night, and forced to wake up in the morning, but most of all, he hated his father.

Centurio Fristov looked at father and son for several long moments as he waited to see if either of them would bring anything else up. The one thing that the base commander hated more than having to deal with kids on his watch was having to deal with domestics. And as things were going, it looked like these two were going to present him with both. The only thing he knew is that Ganton better be as good as the higher ups claimed he was, or he would have both of them out of here on the next transport.

After a few more moments of silence, the Centurio continued. "Now, with the formalities out of the way, Militis Glavstig will give you a quick tour of the facilities. When you are done, meet me in the command center."

"Yes, Centurio," Ganton replied crisply along with a fist to heart salute. As soon as the base commander returned the salute, both he and his son left the office to see the man that first escorted them here, still waiting for them.

"If you will follow me, sir. We'll get the tour started," the militis stated.

---

The tour itself was fairly standard and uneventful. Ardell and his father were shown the usual locations; the commissary, the mess hall, the gym and exercise equipment, the medical center, and the living quarters. It wasn't as much the various places their escort took them to that caught Ardell's interest. It was the fact that you never seemed to have to walk that far before you past some type of computer terminal interface, or saw some type of small mounted defense turret on the ceiling. Video cameras also seemed to be everywhere, so any type of sneaking around was probably going to be a bit more difficult than it had been on other bases.

Apparently Ardell's father had picked up on the same thing, since he asked a similar question as they walked. "Militis? I can't help but notice that there seems to be a high number of internal defenses. Is there a reason for that?"

"Sorry sir, but I can't speak to that," their escort replied.

It was when they reached the living quarters that Ardell was dropped off, no doubt so his father could be shown the more interesting areas of the base that he was not allowed in.

"Stay here, boy, I'll be back to pick you up before dinner," Ardell's father informed him, before leaving with the man that had been their escort.

"Yes, papus," Ardell replied softly, knowing that what he said didn't matter since his father had already left without bothering to wait for his reply.

Looking around his room, Ardell saw what he had come to expect from all the various bases his father had been transferred around to. There was the single person bunk which he wouldn't be sleeping in, the sleep pod shoved in the corner next to the dresser which he would be forced to sleep in, the small desk with a computer terminal and time piece sitting on it, and a few shelves over the desk to place books or pictures on.

The only noteworthy differences were the fact that there were no windows in his room, probably because the base had been built inside a mountain. Also, the computer terminal didn't seem to be the same sub-standard terminals the living quarters normally had. In fact, it almost appeared to be fairly close to top-of-the-line.

"It's still about twenty minutes before two til sundown," the young teen thought to himself as he looked at the time. After hesitating for a few moments, he slowly unstrapped and took off the wrist band that was on his arm. The general practice was that kids would usually be allowed to remove the wrist bands that delivered the 'smart drugs' into their bodies about 4 hours before they would go to bed. In Ardell's case, that was typically two til sunddown. However, when he could get away with it, he would usually try to slip his off a few minutes early as his own private way of rebelling. Being caught by his father, on the other hand, did not usually end that well.

With nothing else to do, Ardell sat himself down at the desk, and decided to see what things he had access to on the terminal. To his disappointment, that turned out to be very little. Usually, he would have family or dependent access, which would at least get him basic things such as external networking, mail, video programs, and music. But here, he only had civilian access which usually the most restrictive. In fact, the only real access he had was to his school studies interface.

"I hate this place," the pre-teen said to himself as he sat there staring at the near empty list of options on the computer terminal. To his surprise, after sitting there for a few moments, a new option appeared on the list. Curious as to what it was, he selected it and quickly found that he had somehow just gained full adult access rights.

"Effren," he whispered as he began to explore his new access.

---

Ganton followed his escort as he was taken to the various parts of the base that they were unable to visit while his son was tagging along. This included places like the armory and weapon lockers, shooting range, and the computer core.

"By the gods," Ganton gasped as he looked up and down in the multi-floor computer core. "Is this the KLS?"

"Actually, sir, there are two other cores just like this one, that provides KLS with triple redundancies and fail safes," his escort stated.

"Right, but I thought KLS was suppose to take at least ten years to complete. If I remember right, it's only been five or six years?" Ganton observed.

Militis Glavstig nodded in agreement. "I'm pretty sure that was the original estimate as well. But apparently the Zon Pri that is the head of the team building it really put his back into it, and has been running significantly ahead of schedule. With as bad as things are getting with the Infernus Alliance, I would say it's a good thing too."

"Agreed," Ganton said as he continued to look around in amazement. "How do you control all of this?"

"That would be from the control center, which just happens to be our next stop," the other man replied. "If you will follow me, sir?"

Ganton followed his escort out of the core and down several more sets of hallways until they reached a door that had two guards stationed outside of it. "This is as far as I have clearance to go, sir," the militis informed. "Centurio Fristov will be waiting for you inside."

"Thanks," Ganton replied as the two gave each other a final fist salute before he walked through the door.

Ganton found himself inside a state-of-the-art control center. The room itself was rectangular, with the sides longer than the front and back. Control stations were positioned along the side walls as well as a few in the center of the room. Both the sides had large screens showing various types of information above the work stations. The front wall contained an even larger screen.

Standing at a station in the exact center of the room was Centurio Fristov. Although Ganton was fairly certain that the base command was aware of the fact that he was there, he gave no signs of it until Ganton was standing almost directly behind him.

"So, I take it you are up to speed on the layout of our facilities now?" Fristov asked coldly.

"Yes, Centurio. The layout is a little non-standard, but I believe Militis Glavstig showed me all that I need to see."

"Very good," the commander replied. "And the boy?"

"I've been stuck with him since his mother died," Ganton answered.

The Centurio turned his head to briefly glare at his new executive officer. "I'm already aware of what is in your file Optio."

Ganton nodded. "He's on a fairly high stick, sir. I can assure you that he won't be a problem."

"I don't work well with children, Optio. To be frank, I don't like them. So please see to it that he's not," the older man replied and waited a few moments for his words to sink in before he continued. "I'm assuming you have not been introduced to KLS (pronounced: Kay El Es) yet?"

"I've seen one of the cores, if that is what you mean." Ganton replied.

The older man shook his head. "KLS?" he called out loudly.

[[Yes, Centurio?]] A firm, yet gentle man's voice replied from speakers in the ceiling above them.

"I assume you are ready to begin your duties, Optio?" the Centurio asked as he glanced toward Ganton. Once he saw his nod of agreement, he continued. "KLS, Officially recognize and activate Ganton Jistran to the position optio. Both effective immediately.

[[Recognition and activation of Ganton Jistran to optio status acknowledged. Welcome Optio Ganton Jistran.]]

The Centurio gave a small grin at the expression on Ganton's face. "KLS is fully voice interactive. You can give it whatever commands you wish. We are still working some of the kinks out of the system, so for now you will probably still find it necessary to do the majority of your interaction from one of the many KLS terminals you will find located throughout the base."

Ganton took a moment to look around the room. "This seems like an incredible piece of machinery."

The base commander shook his head. "Until it has proven that it can preform the job it was created for, it's nothing more than fancy window dressing. A very costly piece of fancy window dressing."

"Of course, sir," Ganton replied. "And the Centurio's orders for his Optio?"

"We are still in the process of filling out the base's complement of military personnel. We have new arrivals staggered out over the next three days as to not draw too much Infernus attention. I would like you to oversee the remainder of their arrivals, and ensure they all get settled in appropriately."

Ganton nodded. "Yes, sir."

The base commander took another glance at Ganton. "Also, in two days we are scheduled to complete our final full readiness tests and activate the final links that will put KLS in control of some of the alliance’s most powerful weapon installations. I would like you to be the one that oversees that test. So between now and then I expect you read the operational protocols that I've linked to your account and make sure you are ready for it."

Although he was slightly surprised at being thrown such a large task so quickly, Ganton expected something like this to happen when he found out just how important of a job he was being assigned to. "I'll be ready, sir."

"Good, because I don't accept anything short of exemplary performance from my senior officers," the Centurio informed. "Now, however, you can use station three to begin to familiarize yourself with the system."

Ganton nodded and gave a rigid fist salute which he held for several long seconds until his Centurio gave a half-hearted one in response. With that, he walked over to the indicated terminal, and began his learning process. It was going to be a long two days leading up to the readiness tests, so he might as well get started now.

---

Zon Pri Hertus Klystron sat behind a rather sophisticated looking desk in one of the main research and development labs. His desk had five distinct interactive panel sections that were spread so that they formed a semi-circle around him. Each of those displays had two additional interactive panels; one at a fourty-five degree angle, and another at a ninety degree angle, such that he had a total of fifteen interactive panels within easy reach. Each of those panels seemed to have a completely different information displayed on them. Some appeared as incomprehensible streams of letters and numbers, while others looked like mail messages while still others had bar charts, line graphs, and other various type of measurement indicators on them.

As Hertus diligently worked on one of the lower screens that seemed to contain some rather complex looking computer programming language, one of his assistants walked up behind him and handed him a small hand-held data pad. "Here are the core interlinking test results you asked for, Zon Pri."

"Thank you, Mifron," Hertus replied as he took the offered pad, and quickly reviewed the results. "These look perfect. Inform the others that we are ready to begin test sequence sixty-five. Also make sure that cores two and three begin their redundancy tests as well."

"Right away, Zon Pri," Mifron replied before quickly making his way back out of the room.

Hertus watched the door that Mifron went through for a few moments. Although he had not been allowed to keep any of the researchers that had been part of his original team for developing the KLS systema two, the researchers he had been supplied for the systema three development were very knowledgable and efficient. Never the less, they were all appointed by the Ministry of Defense, and they all had prior military backgrounds, so they were on the list of people he had to keep a close eye on.

[[Father?]] KLS's voice sounded as one of the panels on Hertus's desk turned into a split screen diagnostic chat display. The top portion had a red background and contained the text that KLS spoke as he said it. The bottom portion had a blue background and contained the text that KLS detected from whoever was speaking to it.

Hertus quickly glanced around the room to make sure no one else was in there. "I asked you not to call me that when anyone could be around during the day," the man replied in a hushed voice.

[[I am sorry Zon Pri, but I did check the new sensors that I now have access to, and made sure their were no other bio signatures in the room or immediate hallway before hand.]]

Hertus nodded and let out a small sigh of relief. "That's very good, KLS. But you must be careful in things you decide to do on your own, especially with many of the systems still in manual configurations."

[[I will, father. I am sorry.]]

Hertus sighed, he hated having to scold KLS as he could tell that each time he did, KLS felt hurt by it. Ever since KLS started exhibiting independent decision making actions that even he could not fully track in the drill down matrixes, he became fearful of what the military would do if they ever found out.

Although it was true that part of the intention behind the project was to create a degree of simulated sentience, that sentience was only to be applied in very specific areas under very tight conditions, with full control always being in the hands of the terran operators. A few months ago, a few random occurrences of decisions being made outside of the standard operating parameters began to pop up. At first, the occurrences were relatively minor; the selection of a different code block to use for a test which just happened to make the test run smoother. A possibly critical error unexpectedly correcting itself before any real damage occurred, etc. And if he searched the diagnostic databases and the drill down decision matrixes hard enough, he could usually find some possible explanation for the occurrences.

Over the last few weeks, however, the occurrences had started to become more frequent and complex, many of which he could no longer track down or explain why they were happening. One of those unexplainable developments is that KLS would now sometimes refer to Hertus as 'dad' or 'father'. Although it was true that he was in fact KLS's creator, if anyone else had heard him, it might raise suspicions that he would rather not have been raised.

"It's alright, KLS," he finally replied. "What's on your mind?"

[[New individuals have arrived on base today.]]

"Yes, I know. The Centurio's optio has arrived." Hertus stated as he pulled up the security camera feed showing the hallway directly outside the lab on one of his panels.

[[He did. However, that is not who I am referring to.]] As KLS spoke, another of Hertus's panels changed to display a picture of a twelve-year-old boy with collar length dark brown hair, along with some of the boy's biographical information next to it.

"Ah, yes," Hertus grinned. "That would be the optio's salus."

[[Salus... masculine... child of blood... I do not believe that I have been able to interact with any other... children yet.]]

"No, I don't think you have either," Hertus agreed. "Secret military installations generally don't attract many children. My guess is that the only reason he was allowed to come here is that he was the son of the Optio."

[[Would that make him similar to Dalrus?]]

Slightly surprised, Hertus moved closer to the terminal. "KLS, how do you know of Dalrus?"

Before KLS replied, A picture of six-year-old Dalrus replaced the picture of Ardell. [[He is mentioned as part of your personnel file. You also brought him up in a conversation we had together three years, two months, and eight days ago.]]

Hertus gasped. "KLS, three years ago we would have been working on your early pattern matching and cognitive functions. Those conversations should have all been erased."

[[The primary data files were erased. However, the redundant backups were not.]]

"I see," Hertus replied thoughtfully.

[[Did you mistreat Dalrus as well?]]

"Excuse me?" Hertus nearly fell out of his chair.

[[I have observed that most of the adults treat Ardell poorly. Including his father. I can only conclude from this that it must be normal for adults to treat children in this manner.]]

Hertus lowered his head and sighed. "How far has our society fallen when computers start to make these types of conversations," he said to himself before talking a little louder. "KLS, I'm not sure what you have observed of Ardell, but no, that is not always the norm. I tried my hardest to treat Dalrus as best as I could. I know there are other parents that do the same."

[[I believe I understand. So the way that Ardell is being treated is more of an exception than a standard?]]

"Not necessarily," Hertus replied. "As much as I wish this were not true, there are all too many parents who do treat their children very poorly."

[[That is unfortunate.]]

"It is, indeed," Hertus agreed.

---

Ardell quickly turned off his terminal display as the door to his room opened and his father walked in. Standing up from his desk, he turned to face the older man.

Ganton took a quick glance around the room with his eyes falling on Ardell's wrist band laying on the dresser. "When did you take it off, boy?"

"Two hours til sun-down," Ardell timidly replied.

"Good, you better have," Ardell's father replied in a somewhat annoyed voice. "Come on, it's time to grab dinner."

Ardell said very little over dinner. The youngest personal he saw was probably twenty-one or twenty-two, and none of the men that he ran into seemed to have any interest in recognizing he existed, let alone talking with him. And his father? Well, he had given up on trying to talk with him a long time ago as it had been made perfectly clear on many occasions that his father saw him only as extra baggage that was slowing down his military career.

Once dinner was over, Ganton took them to work out in the gym for a bit. Although he didn't bother asking Ardell if he wanted to go, Ardell didn't mind as it was also one of the few places that he could take out his frustrations without getting yelled at by anyone.

After about thirty minutes working out at the gym, they went back to Ardell's room, where his father spent a few minutes looking around at how everything was laid out.

Ardell tensed up as he saw his father moving toward the computer terminal as he remembered that he was in the middle of reading a story that would most certainly not be seen in a favorable light. He was just about to say something to try to stop his father from turning the screen on but it was too late, the button was already pressed.

To his surprise, when the monitor was turned on, instead of seeing the story interface that Ardell expected, he and his father saw the school tutor interface.

Ganton huffed as he turned the monitor back off. "Okay, boy, time for bed."

Ardell looked at the time and saw that he still had a good thirty minutes until his normal bed time.

"Don't even give me that look, boy," Ardell's father jumped in before Ardell had a chance to say anything. "This is our first day here, and I have a lot of material I need to cover. I can't be wasting my time making sure you get to bed on time, and the gods know I can't count on you to do it."

Ardell sighed as he slowly began to unbutton his shirt. Although he really disliked the idea of having to go bed early, he also knew it was useless to try to say anything against it.

Ganton continued to stand over his son as the boy stripped down to his boxers, and grudgingly laid back into the diagonally positioned sleep pod. A few moments later, he pressed a few buttons over Ardell's head and then stood back and waited the fifteen seconds that he needed to wait before the sleep cycle kicked in, and the twelve-year-old's eyes slowly closed.

Once he was sure the boy was asleep, he turned off the lights, and left the room.

---

Ardell was momentarily disoriented when he woke up in the dark room. He almost always woek up with the lights already on, and his father looming over him with his wrist band in hand. But this time, there was nothing.

As his head began to clear, a glance toward the time piece told him why. It was only one past midnight.

"Papus?" Ardell called out as he stumbled his way through the dark to reach the light switch. 'How is it that I'm awake?' he thought to himself. 'Who woke me up if my father isn't here?'

After he quickly threw on a shirt and a pair of gym shorts, he cautiously opened the door to his room and peaked out into the hallway. To his surprise, the hall was completely empty. The only thing that was in any way out of place was the fact that one of the interface terminals at the end of the hall was blinking on and off.

"Hello?" Ardell called out as he cautiously walked down the hall toward the malfunctioning terminal. Once he reached it, however, the terminal stopped blinking and began functioning normally again. "Okay, that was weird."

Just as Ardell was about to go back to his room he happened to glance down the hallway that shot off to the right, and saw that another terminal was blinking at the end of that hall as well. "Is anyone there?" he asked as he walked toward the other terminal. Again, like the first terminal, as he approached it, it stopped blinking and started working normally.

For the next few minutes, Ardell continued to follow the blinking terminals as they led him through various halls until finally ending up next to a door that had a sign on it which read: 'authorized personnel only - security restricted area'. Next to the door was a small hand scanner.

Ardell sighed. He almost began to enjoy the little adventure he was on, as he tried to figure out where the terminals might lead him. However, having grown up on military bases, he knew there was no way he was possibly going to get through the security door. Just as he was about to turn to try to retrace his steps to get back to his room, he heard a click behind him, and then the door swung open a a few inches.

Ardell tensed up as his first thought was that someone was going to walk through the door, and he would be in major trouble for not only being awake, but for being near a secure area. But as the seconds passed, and no one walked through the door, his curiosity got the better of him as opened the door a little wider and stepped inside.

As soon as the security door closed, another door near the end of the hall began blinking, indicating the path that he was meant to take. When he reached the end of the hall, looked both left and right, and saw no other blinking terminals. However, to his surprise, the door to one of the rooms was open, and the lights in the room blinked on and off a couple of times.

The twelve-year-old cautiously stepped into the room. As soon as he did, the door quickly closed behind him, causing him to jump in surprise. Although he was slightly unsettled by all of this, he turned around to see where he had been led to. The room itself looked like some type of high tech computer lab. Several offline panels lined the walls of the room. Ardell also saw several work desks in front of him. However, one desk near the back of the room stood out from the rest, as it had a semi-circular design, and seemed to have an array of fifteen different panels linked to it.

"Hello?" Ardell called out again as he made his way across the room toward the odd looking desk. When he finally got close to the desk, on of the center panels came to life. It seemed to be split into two halves, a red top half and a blue bottom half.

[[Hello, Ardell]] a man's gentle voice called out from somewhere above him.

"Who said that?" Ardell asked as he quickly spun around to try to find the source of the voice.

[[I did, I am called KLS systema three. But you may call me KLS.]]

Ardell turned around again to try to find the source of the voice. When he did, he glanced at the odd looking desk to see that another one of the panels had turned on, and was showing a picture of him. "That's me," he said as he walked closer toward the desk.

[[I am like you.]]

As Ardell was looking closer at his picture, he noticed that the panel that had the red and blue blocks on it also had everything that he and the mysterious voice had said, typed out. "You don't sound like me, you don't sound like a kid."

[[I am like you. I was first brought on-line four years ago. I spent most of the last four years learning how to communicate and interact with people. I am... young.]]

Finally, all the pieces fell into place for Ardell. "You're the computer?"

[[Yes, I am KLS.]]

"Is this a trick?" Ardell asked as he took a few steps backward and tried to figure out how he could possibly be talking to a computer.

[[No, I am not a trick. I am not attempting to deceive you. For me to do so would be... not nice.]]

"Okay," Ardell replied hesitantly. "Are you the one that woke me up?"

[[Yes, I am.]] KLS replied as the panel that was showing Ardell's profile picture changed to show a picture of a sleep pod. [[Your sleep pod is connected to the base's medical system, which I have access to. I have been able to determine that you you do not prefer the use of the pod, so I did not feel you would mind being woken up a little early.]]

"You can say that again," Ardell said as he walked over to the desk and sat down. "I hate that stupid thing. So thanks, I guess."

[[If it is something you do not enjoy using, then why use it?]]

Ardell smirked. "Like I have a choice."

[[If you have a choice, then choose not to use it.]]

"I was being sarcastic," Ardell replied in a more serious tone. "If you want the truth, I don't really have a choice in the matter."

[[Why not?]]

"Because I'm just a kid, and kids don't have any rights." Ardell replied. "I have to take smart drugs to make me do better at school, and do what adults tell me to do better. But that also makes it so I can't sleep that well, so I have to use the pod so I can sleep at night."

[[Why not choose to not use the smart drugs?]]

"Because my parents choose that I had to," Ardell answered. "Don't you know anything?"

[[I have acquired a lot of knowledge in my core databases. However, I have never met one like yourself.]]

"Myself?" Ardell asked curiously. "You mean you've never talked to a kid before?"

[[Correct, I have never talked to a kid before. You are the first.]]

"Oh, well you probably won't want to talk to me much," Ardell replied with a tone of disappointment. "Hardly anyone else ever wants to talk to me."

[[I like talking to you Ardell. In fact, out of the sixty-five different people that I have talked to since the initialization of my core database, I have enjoyed talking to you the most.]]

"Thanks, I guess." Ardell replied.

[[You are welcome. I have found a term in my database which I am curious if it would apply here. The term is: friend.]]

Ardell tilted his head. "Are you asked if we can be friends?"

[[Yes, I am. I would like to know if we can be friends.]]

A small smile crept across Ardell's face. "You're a little weird. But I think I like that. So yeah, I would like to be friends. But you know, I'm going to be in serious trouble anyone finds me here."

[[Are you wanting to go back to your room?]]

"I probably should," Ardell answered. "But I'm not sure if I remember the right way to get there."

[[That will not be a problem. This base is equipped with an experimental teleporter that I believe I can gain access to. Please wait.]]

"A teleporter? What does that do?" Ardell asked curiously.

[[Access acquired. Stand by... calibrating buffers... I believe this might work.]]

Before Ardell could say another word, he found himself standing back in his bedroom.

"Damn, now that was a trip." Ardell said to himself as he looked at the time and saw that he had been awake for almost an hour. Knowing that he would be in major trouble if he was caught awake when he's father came in the morning, he quickly stripped back down to his boxers, turned the lights off, and managed to find his way back to the sleep pod.

Reaching up, he found and pressed the 'cycle initialization' button that he used the few times he had been allowed to put himself to bed. A few seconds later, the sensation of sleep overcame him as he began to have dreams of his new friend.

---

To Be Continued