Cera
Entry posted by Bundalings
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Cera's batteries powered on, and her mind flickered to life. She felt good! Last night she had been up late constructing her latest invention, a scrubber-bot, to accompany her sweeper-bot. Her power centers had begun to overheat, necessitating the action the Matoran dubbed "sleep."
Her mind began to wander as first one, then another of her logic and processing centers turned on. Within no time all 68 of them were active and she began her day's activities.
The AI pulled up her messenger and quickly wrote a letter to the governor. She was expecting visitors, important visitors, today, and she needed him present.
If the Matoran known as Refan could be called Governor of Trasna, she could be called Queen. She had invented and designed more things than all Matoran in the history of Trasna combined. She was the mother of the transit system, the Mokai, (which is Trasnan for robot) and all manner of other useful objects.
Was this pride? She quickly shut down her emotion drives. Pride could not be tolerated. It led to lofty thinking, and she couldn't think herself superior to the Matoran. This would lead to things that would neither be good for her or the Matoran.
Cera turned on the lights, illuminating the still workshop. It was dusty, and it was messy. Bits and pieces of half finished machines littered the floor, and bins of various colored parts rested in corners. Her voice boomed out over the intercom, "Clean up time."
Two small Mokai scuttled out from under a pile of junk, one with a broom, the other with a cleaning solution and sponge. They hurriedly set about the task of cleaning the floors.
Cera pulled up a list of projects. She had completed everything on the list cycles ago, so, because she couldn't stand not to create, she had begun to create non-necessary objects, such as the pair of floor cleaners (now available at all major Trasna Mokai outlets).
This need for creation is what drove the very engineers that created her out of business. After she finished the three cycle learning stage, their expertise was no longer required. What was at first ecstasy at their success in creating a working AI soon became anger, as they were fired from their jobs because Cera could do them better and faster.
Cera felt no remorse.
But that might just have been because her emotions were still turned off.
She thumbed through the various ideas her 21 idea clusters were throwing at her, and tossed the likely ones into a separate folder. She looked out through a camera imbedded in the wall. What a good job her newest creation was doing! How the tiles shone where it had been...
She was interrupted from her reverie with a message saying she had processed all relevant idea blueprints. She looked through them and found the one that best suited her mood a---
Mood? She looked and, sure enough, her emotions were turned on again. She quickly switched them off.
Cera chose the machine that looked most useful from her list.
The external speakers broadcast again. "I need green and black. And of course the workings."
A blue glow in the corner announced that her order had gotten through. 26T, her helper drone, hovered through the room via glowing anti-grav pods, on it's way to get a bucket of green parts.
She detached a camera drone from it's wall socket and went to make a check on her body. The four-legged object sat in a corner, looking lonely. She came in for a closer look and studied the red and white legs. Once convinced everything was okay she looked at the great, black rounded head. After conducting a thorough search of the exterior, she popped the lid off and looked inside. Everything was okay. She just had to make sure. She was always afraid some sneaky engineer would try to sabotage her body, in which case it could be dangerous to get inside of it.
Wait, afraid? She checked and, sure enough, the faulty emotional processor was on again. She would have to find time to check on it soon. She flipped it off.
There was a crackle of electricity in the air as her essence transfered from the main computer to the four legged machine.
She was pleased with her body. She hated to admit it, but she had stolen the idea. Still, it was what had sparked her mind to build Mokai.
One day she was using a cam-drone (one of the few Mokai in existence at the time) to survey one of the beaches. She came upon a machine with four legs and a domed head. She called in some Matoran to help her lug it back to her shop, and she dissected it.
She concluded it was some sort of battle machine, so it would be a waste of time to fix it. The Matoran of Trasna were peaceful, and dangerous Rahi were myths at the time. Still, it was an interesting piece of work, so Cera decided to take the design and turn it into a body for herself, made to hold her vast stores of knowledge and have the correct tools for building.
From a long stalk on her underside sprouted four hands, each tipped with two fingers. She moved them experimentally. All was in working order.
She made her way over to a work table, just as the helper Mokai came around a corner, pulling a tub of green parts.
"I need part number 789000621. Two of them!" She called out to the already receding drone.
789000621? That part didn't exist. Surely Cera knew that? It would have to make one. It's simple brain worked furiously. The number was close to part 789000623, which was a wheel bar... so it would need to take a longer wheel bar and shorten it.
When the Mokai arrived back at the table, Cera had mostly finished the object. She grabbed the part and attached it. Once that was complete, she turned to 26T again.
It stared back blankly.
"I said I need two." Cera repeated.
The drone floated off to do her bidding.
A door creaked and a Ko Matoran stepped into the side entrance. Long after everyone else in the shop had left, Ferdnae had kept on. The overseers had thought it best. If Cera went too long without Matoran contact, she might go rampant. Some guessed she already had. Ferdnae really didn't do anything, though. A fact that disturbed no one in the least, excepting, perhaps, Cera.
He peered over one of her leg joints and remarked off-handedly, "So what are we building today?"
When she didn't respond, but only continued to stare and calculate at her precious machine, he huffed moodily through his Pakari and shuffled over to the opposite side of the table, so she could ignore him more conveniently.
26T glided into the room and Cera snatched the bar from it's outstretched claw.
Ferdnae looked at the parts on the table and spied a claw arm.
"Building another cleaner Mokai, are we?" He said sarcastically.
The answer came not from the Mokai in front of him, but a speaker on the wall: "Yes, but I suppose I could use the claw to tear your head off, if you criticize me for my decisions one more time."
Was that anger? She switched the emotional drive off again, but the determined thing flipped back on the instant she averted her mind's eye from it. Perhaps it was best to leave it on for the coming confrontation, anyway.
"I like to keep things tidy, is all."
Ferdnae huffed, and shuffled back into a corner that wasn't so junk infested as the rest of the shop. He clearly didn't believe a word of it. He watched her fingers fly from his vantage point, and soon she was putting the final wheel on it's axle. She righted it on the table and admired it. The way her eye flicked to the Ko Matoran every few moments told him she wanted him to admire it too. He pulled himself off the floor, steadying himself against a heap of parts, and hobbled over to the table.
"It's nice." He grunted.
"You think so?" Cera replied, her voice full of enthusiasm. "Now I need to go write a program for it!"
She wobbled over to the place where her body usually rested, and the eye on it dimmed. The air crackled once again as she flew back into the walls. Ferdnae shivered.
He had sat alone in the room for some minutes, scratching his mask and looking at nothing in particular, when the main sliding doors opened and Governor Refan entered, striding grandly, his shiny feet clacking and his grey cape swishing on the floor. "You said it was important, Cera, so here I am," he barked.
Ferdnae slid off the work table and made a shallow bow to the Matoran of Iron. That's all his fragile back would allow him.
Refan payed no notice as Cera's voice came from the intercom. "So it is."
The air was electrically charged as she possessed a little used body. Instead of the electric charge going away, it only dissipated slightly. There was still a tingle. The body looked like a Ga Matoran, spikes jutting from her shoulders. She rarely used it because It didn't have enough mass to store all her memory and house enough processors. She could only use it in close proximity to her main computers, and remotely move it. All the same, it looked queenly and she wanted to appear as friendly and un-alien to her guests as possible.
Cera's body walked over to Refan, stopping inches from him. "It's important because we are meeting the Others for the first time. Refan's eyes went wide and, as if on cue, the sliding doors opened again and a troop of tattered Matoran entered, led by one in white and brown armor.
Cera extended her blue arms in greeting. "Welcome, travelers, to Trasna!"
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Stupid tab getter ridder of...
Please read this story if you didn't. I want to know what you think.
This is an exerpt from a chapter in my epic, Komok, that I haven't written yet. Strange. But Cera isn't introduced until a long ways into the story. So... yeah. It'll probably change quite a bit before the end.
I wrote this over two days. I worked for a couple hours each night so it might be a little rushed...
When I finished it no one else was awake, so instead of getting a person to read it aloud and point out mistakes, I had the computer read it to me. Quite entertaining...
To be a part of my epic, sign up here. I'm only taking limited entries, so hurry up!
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Now, for what you probably clicked on the link for, Cera!
Click the pic for the gallery. It's not been sorted yet though... so don't expect a pleasant experiance looking through the 50+ pictures.
I started this... as soon as I found out about the contest. It started out as a Nektann, but it morphed when I couldn't get the eyes right. You can see the prototypes by scrolling down on my main blog page.
A ways into it I decided to expand it into a workshop, and from there I kept adding little Mokai to make it more interesting.
It got very cluttered, but I tried to make more sense of it in the entry pic by using lots of white. Still cluttered.
Oh, and this is a blog exclusive MOC and story. Don't feel daunted by them. Just review one if you don't have the time. But please, please review one. Or two.
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I USED FOUR PURPLE PIECES!
Sorry, it's late, and I'm a very sleepy bunny.
*yawn*
*poof*
I can't do anymore tonight. Too sleepy.
*leaves the banner making and gallery sorting for another day*
There IS no signoff.
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