...And also these.

[thespaceopera]

[ Calibration Rooms ]
( for N-Z characters )

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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

N - Q Nami Natasha Romanoff Nelkeila Tarid Nux Nyssa al Ghul Octavia Blake One Peggy Carter Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève

R - U R. Daneel Olivaw Rapunzel Remy LeBeau Riku Robin Redbreast Rogue Santanico Pandemonium Shawn Hunter Stefan (Alesci) Salvatore Steve "Orion" Rogers Steven Quartz Universe Souji Seta Stiles Stilinski Syeira Tadashi Hamada Tekhetsio

V - Z Vash the Stampede Vima Sunrider Vision (The) Wanda Maximoff Wrath Yamanaka Ino

Comments

R. Daneel Olivaw

[thezerothlaw]

[This is a workshop.

Granted, it's a room with stylish lines, and large windows that show a variety of views. One shows a pastoral sort of parkland, robots of an ordinary sort tending flowers under a slightly orange sun and a slightly turquoise sky. Another shows a more Earthly view, with a domed City in the distance hinting at underground building. Another seems to be view from inside the City: covered, dark, enclosed, with endless crowds of people moving from point A to point B.

Still, it's a place for work. There's a desk, with a terminal. There's a plain chair surrounded by diagnostic tools, and an image of a programming matrix to be applied rotating on a holographic display nearby. One entire wall appears to be a filing cabinet, with a ladder to reach the highest drawers. They're each labelled neatly, with names or places.

Elijah Baley
R. Giskard Reventlov
Dr. Han Fastolfe
Dr. Roj Nemmenuh Sarton
Lady Gladia
Earth
Aurora
Solaria
Baleyworld

There are many more.

In the middle of the room, in the chair surrounded by diagnostic tools and with a thick cable connecting one to the back of his skull, Daneel sits, his hands resting on his knees. His eyes are open and staring, but he neither moves nor responds at this time.]

[dancingmd]

[Even if the technology is different, Beverly knows a cybernetics lab when she sees one. Though she doesn't expect him to respond, she calls out Daneel's name softly, just in case. When he doesn't answer, she nods, confirming her assumption. Were she at home, she might attempt finishing running Daneel's diagnostics and reactivate him on her own, but she doesn't want to take any chances with unfamiliar technology, dream world or not. So, she begins searching the room for anything that might give her a clue as to how to go about this properly.

The names on the filing cabinet draw her attention, as she recognizes a few of them. Elijah Baley... that must be Partner Elijah and R. Giskard Reventlov is another robot, Daneel's friend. Aurora is the name she settles on, however. She recognizes it as the name of Daneel's homeworld, so perhaps these files will tell her something about their technology. Grabbing the handle, she begins to slide the drawer open...]

[thezerothlaw]

[From within the drawer springs a holographic display, the three-dimensional projection of a planet, orbiting slowly under a list of pertinent bullet points. It's an Earthlike world, temperate and pleasant and terraformed, with a 22 hour day and a year of 373.5 days. The capital, and only, city is Eos; outside of Eos, suburbs and farms are distributed evenly throughout the planet. Population: 4 million. Average lifespan is thirty-six decades for both men and women, and rising. Birthrate is currently falling. It is the first extrasolar world settled by humans. Auroran society is generally equitable between the sexes, sexually liberal, with very little emphasis placed on family bonds -- children are typically raised by robots, not their parents. Robot labour is essential to the economy of Aurora, and most individuals own 12-17 robots themselves.

A panel at the base of the projection provides a place to search for further information.]

[dancingmd]

[At first, the statistics for Atroma are familiar enough. The same sort of things could be said about Caldos, for example. And then...

The average human lifespan is 360 years? How could that be? Human neural pathways would start to deteriorate too much after 150, 160 years. At least... as far as you know, Beverly. The Aurorans are light years ahead of the Federation when it comes to positronic brains, perhaps there have been great advances in their knowledge of the human brain as well.

And Daneel wasn't kidding about how dependent his culture was on robots and androids, was he? She plugs in a query into the search panel: Auroran cyberneticists.]

[thezerothlaw]

[There's a pause, as this system seems to have a minor problem with the unfamiliar term 'cyberneticist.' Still, after a moment, it produces a list of names.

Han Fastolfe *
Roj Nemennuh Sarton *
Kelden Amadiro *
Vasilia Fastolfe, a.k.a. Vasilia Aliena
Levular Mandamus

The list goes on for some time in that fashion. The asterisks seem to note that there's a drawer somewhere marked with their name.]

[dancingmd]

[Eventually, as the list goes on, Beverly brings it to a stop. With no other information to go on, the first two names seem good enough, since she saw their drawers earlier. Closing the Aurora drawer, she opens the Han Fastolfe one instead.]

[thezerothlaw]

[A profile is projected up from this drawer, depicting a bald man who looks about sixty, though given Spacer life expectancies, that may not be a good estimate There's a short biography, a birth and death that do indeed give him a life in the thirty six decade range, three listed wives, and two daughters -- one of whom is Vasilia, who was listed before. He's noted as a prominent roboticist of Aurora for his work with humaniform robots, and a member of the Robotics Institute, as well as for his political work that helped make further settlement from Earth possible.

One of the windows flickers, and begins to play a video. It seems to be from Daneel's point of view, and the same man, Fastolfe, is looking intently at him before breaking into a smile.]

That should do it, Sarton. Yes, that's good, he's waking up. Hello, can you hear me?

[The next voice is Daneel's own.]

I hear you, sir.

[Fastolfe is nothing short of triumphant.]

Excellent. Your name is Daneel Olivaw, do you understand? I'm Dr. Fastolfe, and over there is Dr. Sarton. Flex your right fingers for me, Daneel.

[The view shifts as Daneel turns his head to look at Dr. Sarton, a ginger-haired man who looks shockingly similar to Daneel, though perhaps a little older, who also has an expression of pleased excitement on his face. Here, the recording ends, and the window flickers back to its previous view.]

[dancingmd]

[Beverly stands staring at the drawer for a minute, collecting her thoughts. Essentially, she just witnessed Daneel's birth. Seen from his perspective, it's an odd thing: To not exist and then to suddenly exist, with none of the messy human mechanics of slowly developing self-awareness. Then there's that triumphant look on Fastolfe's face... so different from the joy, the wonder, and yes, sometimes the heartbreak and the rejection, that human babies are greeted with upon entering the world. It's a much more... well, scientific reaction.

And she has to wonder at the egotism of cyberneticists that leads them to create robotic copies of themselves. That, at least, seems consistent between their universes.

While she would like to contemplate the memory she just saw more, it was not particularly helpful in her quest to reactivate Daneel, so she closes that drawer and opens Dr. Sarton's instead.]

[thezerothlaw]

[This drawer produces another profile projection. The closer view of Dr. Sarton just emphasizes how much Daneel looks like him, though perhaps there's something a little idealized about Daneel in comparison. The profile notes a wife, and descendants, that he, like Dr. Fastolfe, was a citizen of Auroran. His birth and death, however, give him a far shorter lifespan, having died a full two hundred years before Dr. Fastolfe. There's a note, too, that he died on Earth.

Another window flickers into a memory: Dr. Sarton, gesturing briskly for Daneel to follow him into the entrance of a set of apartments.]

You'll stay here with me, when we're not running diagnostics on you. You'll have more responsibilities later, but for now, I'll be keeping an eye on you.

[The memory ends there, apparently just a brief thought. After a moment, the word murdered flickers into view on the profile -- someone has difficulty thinking about that, evidently.]

[dancingmd]

[Well, this wasn't any help eith-- oh.

Oh no.

Beverly quickly slams the door shut. That's not something she should be prying into. Yet... there is that small part of her that desperately wants to know, that is intrigued by the word "murdered," so she backs away from the filing cabinet for now. She comes back to Daneel and lays a cautious hand on his.]

Daneel? Please tell me you're in there.

[thezerothlaw]

[Going through the memories seems to have triggered something; Daneel's finger twitches under Beverly's touch, and his eyes open. He seems able to focus on her, but not quite able to speak. He lifts a hand to touch the cable in the back of his head, but stops and lowers his hand again.]

[dancingmd]

[Beverly's shoulders relax when he moves and she lets out a long breath.]

Can you understand me? Blink twice if you can.

[thezerothlaw]

[He does blink, twice. This is... disorienting, to say the least, for someone who does not sleep. After a moment, he lifts his hand, and points at the nearby computer panel.]

[killedwithlove]

[When Cole arrives, he looks about brioefly and then comes to sit opposite Daneel by dragging the desk chair over to right in front of him.]

I don't know how to disconnect all those without risking hurting you. Sorry.

[thezerothlaw]

[He hears, but he doesn't move. He can't, right now. Still, he understands, and fortunately, he's in no discomfort.]

[killedwithlove]

[See, the problem is, Cole doesn't interact with the world like other people do. So he doesn't react with these rooms the way anyone else would.

He leans in and places a hand on Daneel's.]

Oh, that's not as bad, then. I don't know how to help you yet. Do you know how to help you?

[thezerothlaw]

[He does know. It's a matter of diverting power. Disconnecting him from the external power without turning his own power on first will result in a permanent deactivation. He knows it can be done from the nearby control panel.]

[killedwithlove]

[Cole looks to the control panel, but he doesn't understand any of that other stuff.]

That? I go there and I can make things better?

[thezerothlaw]

[It absolutely can. It should be simple. He needs his own power on before he can be disconnected from external power, and well, Daneel doesn't know another way to turn it on.]

[killedwithlove]

[Cole looks at the console.

He has no idea what to do. So he touches it.]

[thezerothlaw]

[Well, it does something. Daneel stirs, blinking, oddly disoriented.]

Yes. That is. Helpful. But don't disconnect. Me yet.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole pokes the screen again.]

Do I keep doing this?

[thezerothlaw]

[Daneel gives an odd little twitch. No.]

In the lower left corner, I believe, is the right spot.

[killedwithlove]

[Cole pokes the screen in the lower left corner, firmly but not roughly.]

That?

[thezerothlaw]

[That does the trick. Daneel reaches back and unhooks the cable from his neck, closing the seam so that it's completely hidden.]

Thank you. I am much improved.