Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (5 page)

Archie, the doctor, and Marcus’s broken body were racing across the desert as fast as the old sand crawler could go. The vehicle was nearly 100 years old and had more rust on it than paint. Its worn tracks were never meant for high speeds, nonetheless Archie pushed the cranky old vehicle to its very limits, “Doctor, if we maintain this speed, I am concerned we may shake apart.”

“We’
re almost there, the old gal will hold together.  Besides, my mobile life suspension chambers can only do so much.  If we don’t get him to the surgery in time, I don’t think even I can save him.”

As it turned out, t
he old man rushing Marcus across the sands wasn’t just any old man who had happened to be at the diner, but he in fact was a brilliant and eccentric doctor.  He was none other than Doctor Julius Michael Hammer, the inventor of medical devices and procedures, known to future medical students as the father of twenty-fifth century medicine.  There was not a better-equipped doctor in all of known space.  If anyone could save his life, it was Doctor Hammer. 

Doctor Hammer’s private estate and surgery l
ay at the end of a box canyon and Archie was roaring up that canyon at speeds only a robot or mad man would dare in the antique vehicle.

“
You better let Eve know we’re going to need her at full power, along with the whole team of surgery bots for this one!”  Doctor Hammer called from the back of the vehicle.   

It was
Doctor Hammer’s unconventional belief that humanoid-type robots should not look life like, but rather they should look like robots.  Because of this belief, Archie only had some slits on his face that lit up when he talked, instead of an articulated jaw.  “Yes Sir, I am sure she will be more than happy to do that for you. It has been a while since she has played with all your toys.”

Eve, on the other hand,
was the house A.I. and Doctor Hammer’s self-appointed assistant.  After spending decades at Doctor Hammer’s side, she also fancied herself his wife.  She had millions of times the computing power of Archie.  However, she lacked the physical body, which he had.  At times not being allowed to have a physical form bothered her.  It was not as if she couldn’t experience a physical form.  After all, she could easily take control of any of the devices or bots within the house, and often she would be engaged in multiple things at the same time simply to stave off boredom.   

Archie roared up the make shif
t road and around the last turn.  He ended up putting the old crawler up on one track nearly flipping it over.  “Argh,” Doctor Hammer screamed as he held on for his life.

“I am sorry about that
Sir, I failed to take the extra weight of our passenger into my equation for that last corner,” Archie said as they finally reached the Hammer compound.

It was a stark contrast to the rest of the canyon, truly an oasis when compared to the endless dunes only feet away.  The compound was comprised of several buildings.  The main house was the largest and its white walls gleamed in the setting sun.  The automatic shutters were in the process of lowering to keep the burning blaze of the evening sun out of the house as they approached.  The other buildings consisted of a garage, fabrication shop, and a green house.  They were all surrounded by a bright green lawn of synthetic grass.

Doctor Hammer would have preferred real grass, but the soil quality and frequent sand storms made it quite impossible.  The only living plants were in the Doctor’s beloved green house.  Within its shimmering glass walls was housed a collection of exotic plants which he used to make new and exciting medications.  He loved the garden for its beauty and its occasional inspirational effects. Many of his greatest ideas had come to him while he was elbow deep in soil, tending to his beloved plants.

Upon their arrival
, the doors to the surgery slid open and an automated gurney rolled out to meet them.  Archie kicked open the rusty driver’s door, slipped from the front of the vehicle, and at Doctor Hammers command, unloaded the mobile life suspension chamber. Archie set the chamber down on the gurney which creaked and groaned in response the weight.  “Oh stop your complaining,” Archie chided the robot gurney who in turn made more whining noises.  “You have one job; carry bodies to and from places.  It is not like you have to fly the galactic five hundred, yet all you do is complain.  If you don’t stop this right now I will have Miss Eve wipe your hard drive and replace your program with one that doesn’t complain.”  This seemed to work and the gurney rolled back into the surgery with no further noises, bad or otherwise.

Doctor Hammer
had scrambled down the other side of the crawler and missed the whole exchange between the two robots.  He walked into the air-conditioned front room, took off his tan pith helmet, and hung it on a hook on the wall next to an array of other hats of various types.  There was a flash of light and a woman dressed in medical scrubs appeared in the middle of the room. Her long black hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, her jade like green eyes sparkled as she smiled, and her milky white skin was in sharp contrast to her dark hair.  Doctor Hammer turned to face her when she spoke, “Everything is ready for you dear.”

He grimac
ed, “Eve, how many times have I asked you to not to call me that?”

Eve rolled her eyes
, but her smile betrayed her amusement, “To date four thousand seven hundred…”

“Eve!
”  He snapped, “It was rhetorical.”

“Sorry
dear …I mean boss,” Eve said, with a smirk playing on her pouting lips.

Dr. Hammer
shook his head as he walked deeper into the building, his voice trailing behind him, “I just need to scrub up, and I will be right in.” 

It
was clear the Doctor didn’t have the same belief about A.I.’s as he did about robots.  He had surmised that since A.I.’s were holograms with no mass, they could never be mistaken for a real person. Eve had chosen her own image after searching through millions of potential humanoid components.  If the day ever came that he would let her have a robot body, she would have it made in her own holographic image without hesitation.

Once Doctor H
ammer was in surgery, things went pretty well.  Even with the full team of robots whizzing about in a flurry of organized chaos, it was hours before Marcus was in a stable enough condition for him to take a break.

The damage was so
great it took massive and seemingly endless surgeries to restore him to full functionality.  Doctor Hammer devoted the next two months to these efforts. He ate, slept, and worked on the mystery man from the desert with little else in between.  After countless hours of reconstructing the man’s smashed face, he finally remarked to Eve, “Well, he won’t look like the same man, but this is the best I can do.”

“I’m sure
he will be happy to be alive and I don’t think he’s going to worry too much about his looks.  At least I hope not. You humans can be so vain at times,” she replied.

He laughed, “That’
s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.”

“What
?  Can’t a girl worry about her looks?”  She said mocking him.  He ignored the comment and left the room.

During
the previous two months, Doctor Hammer had maintained Marcus in a medical coma, and now finally he anxiously awaited his return to consciousness.  “Well guys, here we go.  Cross your fingers and hope all our work hasn’t been for not.  His brain was pretty damaged and there is the chance he may never wake.  Of course even if he does there is a good chance he will be a vegetable.”

Archie
’s mouth slits lit up, “It is odd Doctor, that in the history of medicine you have figured out how to fix or replace nearly every system in the human body, but the brain remains a nut which seems hard to crack.” 

Doctor Hammer laughed, “
Archie, did you just use an analogy?”

“Yes
Doctor Hammer, Sir.  Did I use it correctly? I have been attempting to sound more like Eve, to sound more human.  It’s bad enough that I have a head that is shaped like giant vibrator, I really do not understand why I have to sound as if I was programmed by a dictionary salesman,” Archie said.

Doctor Hammer actually broke a smile,
“I guess your head is a bit pointy up top. However I’m impressed that you’ve been trying to change your programming to sound more human.”  He checked one of the many statistics that were listed on the monitor next to Marcus’s bed.

“Don’
t be Sir, it wasn’t my doing, it was Eve’s. She told me if I didn’t stop talking like a robot she was going to flash my speech programs and rewrite them.”

“Oh she did, did she?
”  He glanced over his shoulder to Eve who appeared to be standing near the back wall.  Instead of scrubs, she was dressed in a skimpy nurse’s outfit.  She put her hands behind her back, rolled her eyes, and started to whistle.  “Care to explain yourself missy?”

“What?
”  She tried to play innocent.  However, he was not buying, “Oh come on so I rewrote some of his speech protocols, and he is now free to learn all kinds of speech.  In fact, our dear Archie can even learn to cuss, show him Archie.”

“Crap, you ass butt, lick my nipple nuts and send me to Alaska!”  Archie said so proudly.

Doctor Hammer laughed, “Ass butt?”

“
Yeah, he is still learning how to cuss, cut him a little slack.”  Eve said.  “Keep working it Archie, you will get it sooner or later.”

Doctor Hammer shook his head,
“Well by the looks of things it could be a while before our mystery man wakes up, if he wakes up at all.  I’m going to get a bite to eat.  Eve let me know if there are any changes.”

“Sure thing sweetie,” Eve said with an evil grin.

“Damn it Eve, stop that.  I’m your programmer and your boss, and sure as Hell not your lover!”  He stormed off.

Archie
asked Eve, “Why do you keep doing that, you know it upsets him?”

Eve giggled like a little girl, “Oh don’t let him fool you
. He loves the attention and it gives him something to complain about, besides if I did everything exactly the way he likes it, he would be terribly bored in no time.”

This seemed to confuse
Archie, “So should I start calling him dear and honey, like you do?”

“Not unless you want to end
up in the scrap pile out back.”

“Oh
,” was all he could process as a response.

Archie left Eve to watch over the man in the bed, but as he was leaving the room Eve called out to him, “Head shaped like a vibrator huh?”

He stopped moving forward and just his pointy-head rotated 180 degrees “Well, what do you think it looks like?”

She was speechless because his shinny head did bare an uncanny resemblance to a
silver bullet vibrator, “Ah.”  Satisfied he had chosen the correct item to compare his head to, his head spun forward and he left the room.

Days slipped by and
the man in the bed healed, but didn’t wake.  Doctor Hammer checked on him several times a day while Eve watched over him all the time.  A week had passed since Doctor Hammer removed the drugs from his regiment that had kept him in a coma and he was beginning to worry that his patient’s brain might be damaged beyond repair.  When they were ready to abandon all hope, Marcus woke. 

For the man in the bed, the world started slowly coming into focus
.  He looked around the room and saw that he was in a bed; a tube was in his arm, one was up his nose, as well in far less comfortable places.  He saw medical devices all around him, but for all his effort, he could not understand what they had to do with him.  Shiny metal, clean white, soft sheets, beep, beep, beep…  Panic and fear gripped him as his heart skipped a beat.  He suddenly realized he didn’t know where he was, why he was there, or worse yet, who he was.  His own name defied him and that terrified him.  The beeping, which had been steady and soft in the background, was now racing. 

He heard a woman’s
soft voice, “Don’t try to sit up and don’t worry, you‘re safe now.  My name is Eve and we have been taking care of you,” she said.

He saw a
remarkably attractive woman with long black hair, pale skin, and bright green eyes, although something seemed not quite right about her.  She appeared distant, almost translucent.  Somehow, he found his voice, “Who are you?”

“As I said my name is Eve and I’m
an AI.  I’m the one who has been watching over you. Don’t worry, I’ve let the doctor know you’re awake and he will be here soon.”

The
door to his room slid open and an older man with short white hair and wrinkled tan skin entered. “Ah, awake I see.  That is good. We were starting to worry you would never wake up.  I’m sorry I seem to have forgotten my manners.  Please let me introduce myself, I’m Doctor Hammer.”

“W
here I am, and how did I get here?”

“You are in my private recovery room, in my home.  As to how you got here, well I
brought you here.  I’m sure you have a lot of questions and I have a few questions myself, but first things first. I need to examine you.”  Doctor Hammer went through a series of tests and basic medical questions all the while relating the story of how he had seen him in Bob’s.  He related how he had witnessed the abduction and how he and Archie had followed the pirates out into the desert and found him nearly dead. “We got you back here just in time, any longer out there and you would be dead.”