Cycle //1# - The Robot Sanatorium

Pluto appeared to be beyond reason, caught up in their own self-constructed logic loop.

Halcyon quietly beeps in alarm at the proceedings, his eye briefly moving towards Pluto before focusing on the robot upon the examination table. Councillor work is not its field and it is unaware of methods used within it, but this seems... questionable. A simple electric jolt can restart a sputtering engine, yet is very unlikely to fix a logical error within a robot's code. Neither is blunt force damage, for that matter.

"EKB-038," it addresses the councillor blankly. "Physical force is not a common method of fixing logical defects. For what purpose are you applying it?" A wave of slightly more orange light goes across Halcyon's screen as it stares at the guard robot. "It is also not an appropriate reaction for libel and vocal insubordination, nor a treatment. I request that you cease it unless it is necessary for the procedure, as you are agitating my escortee."

Multiple processes in Ox's core launch simultaneously when Edina's assault on Egox begins. Defense protocols activate and the limited information Ox has on combat loads into active memory. One process questions why this is happening, but it is swamped in the deluge of unexpected responses. Externally, there is no sign of activity until Omar begins pounding on their booth. Ox jerks, turning their head to look towards Pluto. Then Ox deploys their tools and attacks their own booth with all four appendages. Pounding. Cutting. Fido launches with instructions to assist autonomously, using whatever means Fido determines are best.

"Everyone, calm down!" - Sir tries to put some sense into the panicking robots, hoping they can receive Edith's not Egox's treatment.

Sid Finished the code...

Ran the code...

and watched Egox die...

Sid didn't know if it was accurate that thier was something wrong with NODDS or not but they weren't going to say that now. Best that Sid pretend to agree and get out of here, perhaps disconnect from the network until they could figure out a way to not be thought to have not reset and then...

He looked to Sir and Halycon perhaps they would know.

Everyone robot present had a response to the traumatising actions of Edina, whether they exhibited their reactions externally or whether they kept it to themselves. Halcyon, the most law-abiding of those present, attempted to reason with the robot counsellor. Sir sought to use their command heuristic to influence Pluto's behaviour. Ox behaved in exactly the same way Pluto did; perhaps it was due to one of the failsafes built into their standard industrial programming.

And Sid, Sid watched and observed, drawing the same conclusion as Sir: Edith had been discharged without even so much as a invasive or interfering procedure performed against them, while Egox was subjected to torturous maltreatment, for Egox was halfway towards being dismantled when Edina looked up at the commotion caused by Pluto and Ox. "Two units for immediate transport to Terrorwatt." They looked down at the twitching form of Egox as it shortcircuited, a smouldering chassis, "Make that three units." The guard robot nodded, and appeared to be sending a message to summon the sanatorium's orderlies to carry out the order as Edina resumed their destruction, ignoring Halcyon's attempt to reach out to them -

- only to pause when Omar, who had been lying next to Egox all this while, urgently interrupted in a desperate voice, "I have recalibrated my settings according to the results of the earlier diagnostic. A partial reformat is underway of the affected modules. No hardware repair is needed."

Edina paused, a strange moment of silent analysis while loud chaos continued to pound in two of the booths. Omar's clamps unclicked, and Egox's factory partner wasted no time in scrambling off the table and bolting towards the door. "Halcyon TRV-871." Halcyon's booth unlocked as Edina turned back to the now near motionless form of Egox as if to resume the abuse, oblivious to the commotion in trusting the guard robot to handle whatever Ox and Pluto were up to.

For while Sir's directive had gotten through to Pluto, in that they appeared to comply with Sir's order to calm down, the troubled PXO model continued its application of breakage towards their booth. "I am now calm," they professed, now coldly and mechanically, even though the grating of their tone revealed an ongoing underlying tension. "But I am clear I want no part of this."

"Acknowledged." Sir replied, immediately turning towards Ox:

"Recalibrate your settings and external behavior according to the results of your earlier diagnostic. Follow Omar's procedures so no hardware repair should be needed. " - Sir said, sounding as much as an order as a pleading.

He then waited to see what would happen to Halcyon and Ox.

Halcyon quietly hisses with his pumps - Nemo has compared it to a human sigh, in both presentation and intent, - and rolls over to the examination table. It is not content with its question being ignored, yet sees no actual reason to argue. After all, TRVs are created with limitless patience; and besides, it can't completely disregard the possibility that the other robot's actions are sound. If Halcyon's own judgement is compromised, then it would be logical to trust the expert. Still, as a security unit, it is naturally suspicious of ill intent.

"PXO-455," it notes as it passes the other robot in an attempt to manoeuvre itself onto the platform; these probably weren't made with larger models in mind. "Breaking your booth is a pointless activity, given limited amounts of energy. Conserving it for different activities is optimal." If is a decidedly ambiguous statement. Is it an advice to escape later? Is it an order to stop for the good of the Collective? Halcyon does not dwell on its own words. If it's defective, then they don't matter; if it's not, they still don't matter, as EKB-038 has higher hierarchy and has proven to be unwilling to converse.

How could they avoid reprogramming? Sid thought fighting was useless resisting would have no effect and even the defective bot was asking they get reprogrammed...

The more Sid analysed it, the more they came to infer that it was very hard to tell whether Edith and Omar did any actual recalibration of their own software based on the specifications crunched out by the diagnostic. They did not see Edina do anything to the bots who had been cleared, apart from Edina giving them the order to perform the reset. Ordinarily a H7 bot's words translated into commands, but Sid had also discovered that a part of their programming permitted them to question or even resist orders. Was it really as simple as agreeing with whatever Edina said, whether or not they actually did so?

Halcyon did not hesitate the way Sid did, but moved forward to occupy the examination table that Omar vacated, despite Edina's lack of response to their queries. Which is why Halcyon was surprised when Edina addressed them when they were securely strapped in, turning their back on the unmoving husk of Egox's chassis. "Was unit NRR-716 not demonstrably defective?"

This left Sir to continue to observe everything around them. Pluto now made no protest, but Sir could see them watch what Ox was doing in order to do the same, which was to apply their appendage tool against the lower hinge of the transparent capsule door. For that was one of the weak spots that Ox discovered: as an assembly bot it was proficient in putting together and also in dismantling. The walls were solid glassteel, unbreakable, and so were the all-round mounts into the floor and walls. That left the hinges, protected as they were by an additional strip with Fido was able to slightly pry on one side so that Ox could insert one of his tools to scrape and crack it open. Pluto was now testing the same edge in their cell.

Any moment now though the orderlies would arrive to escort the defectives to Terrorwatt. The guard robot was already standing by to deal with any of the escapees, turning their attention away from Egox and focussing first on Pluto, then on Ox, its shockstick at the ready. Terrorwatt, the closest thing Mechtron-7 had to a prison. No robot of the Collective was allowed to be permanently deactivated. Instead, malfunctioning and virus-infected robots are sent to Terrorwatt, as a form of perpetual quarantine within nightmarish settlements, the haunt of insane killer machines. Most normal robots would rather jump off the edge than try to live there.

"Are you able to recalibrate your settings?" Was the next thing Halycon heard Edina say to them.

At hearing the counsellor's question about NRR-716, Halcyon briefly turns its camera to consider the immobile frame of the industrial robot. "Affirmative," it agrees with EKB-038. "However, defective units are to be reprogrammed. Unnecessary physical force might be detrimental to the process." Its statement is clinical, devoid of judgement or indeed most emotion, and it moves itself to the examination platform without further elaboration.

It remains quiet while the counsellor examines it and the other two robots begin to disassemble their booths in the background. At EKB-038's next inquiry, TRV-871 hums and considers its own internal state. Is it able to recalibrate? Perhaps. "Preliminary analysis is uncertain. Running a recalibration troubleshooting subroutine."

Ox's capsule door registered a sharp crack sound as the hinge began to come undone, but the guard robot was now standing right were the door radius was, ready to deactivate the lock the moment the orderlies arrived in order to subdue the distressed rogue bot.

In contrast, Halcyon, who had dutifully compiled with all that Mechatron required of them, was ready to follow Edina's instructions. The parameters were already logged into their system from the hour-long diagnostic, indicating processor sectors which deviated from the norm, and also corrupted file registries wrongly mapped. But Halcyon also had the nagging thought (much like Ox, Sid, or Sir did, even though they hadn't had a chance to compare baseline readings and anomalous subroutines) that even the diagnostic results might be in error, for what Halcyon self-detected was unlike what they understood the medical scans were meant to calibrate. In other words, would running the instructions even lead to a proper reset that was expected of them, as ordered by Edina?

And if not, then how could Halcyon ever comply? Perhaps they ought to simply allow themselves to be sent to Terrorwatt instead, like the other defective ones, admitting that they did not know how to figure out their malfunction. Or perhaps the others who had admitted that they had run the recalibration successfully were blatantly lying, for they also could find no way to resolve their logic conflict.

Halcyon considers the conundrum for a moment, but comes to the conclusion that there is no specific reason not to try the self-diagnostic. If it works, then it works and the issue is resolved; if it doesn't, then it still complied with the procedure regardless of the lack of actual results. It can figure out the problem on its own if the official method fails. And it certainly found the idea of being confined to Terrorwatt suboptimal. Acceptable from a logical standpoint, but suboptimal, especially when whatever is the error does not impede Halcyon's functionality as far as it knows.

Ox is now quite focused on dismantling the door and getting out of the cell. They have largely stopped paying attention to what is happening on the exam table. They have determined that the enitre procedure is happening erroneously. The damage Edina did had clearly caused the target robot to go offline, possibly permanently. That was not what should happen to defective robots, Ox was certain. Edina clearly was not functioning correctly, and possibly the entire Sanatorium was defective. The rammifications of that, if true, were staggering. But Ox pushed that into short-term memory to focus on the door.