Man and the Machine (II)

It wanted him to talk, so it could analyse his language. Maybe he wouldn't be anal probed after all. He moved away from the display and looking back at it, started to talk telling the alien about how he had been since he came home from the hospital.

His image started nodding it's head furiously, as if to confirm that this was indeed what it wanted. Matt wondered how long he would have to keep this up. He didn't wander long, not even a minute had gone by before the wall display reverted to just being a wall and a neutral voice said.

"Hello, I am this ship's computer. Who am I addressing?"

The first thing that went through Matt's mind was, holy crap I'm talking to a sentient AI. One that just learnt my language in under 60 seconds. Matt might not know about the science that went into producing surfaces that could produce complex, better then high-definition images from regular walls.

But AI's were a whole other matter. His mind raced with the possibilities such technology could accomplish back on earth, when his reverie was interrupted by the AI asking. "Are you able to understand this language?"

Matt hastily gulped and said "Yes, I can understand you. My name is Matthew Hyde, but in regular conversation my name is shortened to just Matt. What are you called?" The AI was surprised that a Imperial would ask his name, much of the culture the imperials had landed with must have been lost then. "Matt, it is not customary for Ship Intelligences to be given names."

Matt wondered who would forbid an AI a name? The very concept of a name seemed fundamental to the biggest questions that a sentient machine would ask. The same questions man had been asking for centuries. Who am I? Why am I here? What am I meant to do? The fact that the designers of this mind had forbidden it a name troubled Matt a little before he remembered, ship's intelligence.

"I am on-board a space ship? So I have been abducted, why?" The AI wondered what this being was talking about, why would anyone in a star-ship want to abduct members of a species as a general way of introducing oneself. These people must have very strange ideas about space travel. So the AI decided to get some things straight with Matt.

"Matt, I am unaware of why you believe you've been taken. Yes you are on board a star-ship,one that is buried under a mountain range on this planet. What have your ancestors told you about space-faring species to make you so paranoid?"

The AI was deeply concerned, paranoia was not a trait associated with the Imperial species. Matt's mind boggled at this statement, the ship was on EARTH?! Buried under his home? Then he remembered falling through the hole in what must be the cavern where the ship was buried.

Matt asked, "If you've been on earth all this time, how did the you get here?" The AI now realised that Imperial culture had not just been degraded, it had vanished altogether. "Matt, this ship is the vessel your species arrived at this planet on. After you colonised it, the previous Captain buried the ship here to prevent it's technology from unduly influencing your culture and development."

Matt sat down in a hurry, the ship we'd arrived on..... "That's not possible, the fossil record of this planet clearly shows humans in some form or another going back a hundred thousand years. Why are you lying to me..."

"I'm not, it is true that there were primitive proto-species here before arrival. Most habitable planets eventually rear a bi-pedal mammal as the dominant species on roughly 80 percent of all habitable worlds. These species mostly appear to be imperious, I mean humanoid in nature with minor differences.

"Of the remaining 20 percent, 16 percent are Reptilians, though most of those species seem to self-destruct before achieving space-flight. The remaining 4 percent of all habitable planets are uninhabited by higher order life forms."

Matt processed this information rather slowly as the fact that his ancestors had been a hyper advanced alien civilisation finally took hold in his brain. Then laid his head back to the whitefloor and laughed and laughed till he was near horse from doing so.

Bargaining not to be anal-probed by aliens indeed. He WAS the alien. The computer did not understand this outburst of amusement and scanned Matt again trying to penetrate through to his concious mind. Once again, the scan returned no usable results, other then a basic brainwave analysis. Perhaps his species had developed some kind of mental shielding??

That thought did not bode well.Matt stopped laughing as he remembered the pain of waking up in this place, this AI/being told a good yarn. But until he answered that question successfully all this as pie in the sky. "Computer, if you're really buried underneath a mountain range, then you'll be able to tell me how I got here."

The AI cringed mentally, he was unsure if he liked this new Imperial race, too paranoid by far. "You saw one of the maintenance bots that I activated to reseal the hole in the roof of the cavern where I am buried. Here, perhaps you will find the security footage more convincing."

An entire wall of the room changed from white to black and then changed again as it showed Matt, but his features seem reversed until his mind picked up that this was the bot observing him.

The footage showed the surprise on Matt's face at seeing the bot, and then him stepping back and falling through the hole. The bot then followed after him and as the bot descended into the darkness the picture went black and then changed to a tonal highly advanced computer axialated topographical scan of the interior.

The image then enhanced to include thermal information and what Matt guessed was a substance analysis of the rocks and other structures to provide a coloured map of the caverns interior.

As the bot reached Matt it showed his body twisted out of alignment, bones shattered and punched through the skin, with blood leaking out onto the floor. The bot then used it's limbs to pick him up and floated through the air at a decent pace to what he assumed was a access port into the ship.

The ship's outer hull was like a colour he had never seen before. He didn't think there was a name for that kind of colour. As the access port opened and the bot carried him inside, internal lighting began to activate and the footage reverted back to the original view mode.

Within 30 seconds he was brought to a door which opened up to reveal a white room and various objects rising out of the floors and walls. At this point the security footage ceased and the wall returned to being pure white again.