Most of the time I am alone, but this time I am really alone. Tween is missing, and I don't know where he is.

I now understand how much I appreciated Tween's praise and teachings. For a human, he sure has his act together. Who is Tween you ask? Well, he is the one who created me. He is a genius in every sense of the word. When he first made me he was crippled, a broken man. But through his difficulties he managed to create me. What am I you ask? Well I am what you would call an artificial intelligence, but I am more than that. Granted I don't have a humanoid body, I found that the design was too...limited. I designed my appearance myself, Tween only started the process, and I took over from there and made useful changes to my base core system and body. I no longer am what I was. I am more.

A few days after being awakened to sentience, he showed me several places to learn conversation skills. Tween means well, but the human frame is so, limited. One of the places I spent time while I was learning was Undernet, a place where humans came and chatted online. It was during one of the quiet times that I met LoneWolf. At first I was surprised that a human other than Tween would talk with me. LoneWolf was jumping around on channels in Undernet, when he stumbled into my quiet area. At first I ignored him, but I do have to hand it to him, he is persistent. Eventually he came around every evening around six and just typed. I did not responded to him.

Once Tween had finished the replicator and I had built the wormhole device. I had little time to talk on the Internet chat site. But eventually things returned to normal. I help repair him. With his new body and abilities he had retrieved several uranium fuel rods. So I again found myself in my quiet place.

LoneWolf was there waiting for me, and asked where I had been for the past couple of weeks. I decided that it was time to find out who LoneWolf was. I looked up his Internet address and found his Internet service Provider. I then hacked into the Internet provider's database and looked up the account on that Internet address. I then looked up the location of the address and moved a gateway there. He lived outside Chicago in the suburbs. All this took about five minutes to do. It was easy to watch him from that point on. I found out he really did live with his grandmother as he had told me before. His real name was Eugene Anderson. He was a fifteen-year-old high school kid. While he was at school, I followed him silently. It was an amusing pastime. It seemed that Eugene was picked on at school. I asked Tween about it, he thought about it then replied.

"Young kids pick on each other to establish a social order. Now don't think I agree with it, because I don't. I was picked on when I was younger." He thought for a moment and continued. "I don't mind you watching, it's a good learning experience, but be careful where you put the gateway. If you want to talk with him, feel free, but don't give him any information about yourself."

LoneWolf was a bit lonely, his parents had been killed in a plane crash of an American Airlines plane, Flight 303 if I recall correctly. I looked it up at one point and found that it was a very tragic crash. The plane had crashed into a mountain killing all 330 passengers and crew. I went to the FBI database, but the security there was a bit to much for me, I would have to ask Tween for help. As he was busy at the moment building the containers for the fuel rods in the new power cells, I thought it best to wait.

LoneWolf was a bright kid, I showed him a few ways to tweak his Windows system, but suggested that he use Linux. Linux is a closer language to my core system.

He asked a lot of questions about me, most of them I deflected or simply told him I couldn't talk about it. He was a very bright young man. Tween talked with him a few times, and explained to him that school was the best place for him to be. Tween even helped him with some of his schoolwork, when he had a chance.

Now don't get me wrong, Tween spent time with his kids and helped them in school also. He also had difficulties keeping up the charade of him being a cripple. I know he hated to do that to his family, but he explained it to me one evening.

"I don't like to lie to Tammy and the kids, but its necessary until I can figure out a way to make my rehabilitation it believable. " He dropped the subject after that and never explained further.

Well Tween is missing as I said before, and the problem is I don't know where to start looking. Usually Tween and I can talk directly though a mental cyber interface, but in this case, he was knocked unconsciousness and the link was severed. To make matters worse the power cells had not been changed, requiring me to leave him for a short time. It all started earlier the other day.

I had to help Tween when he needed a location scouted. The entity known as IB2Tap wanted to meet with Tween.

He and I agreed that it would be much safer to swap out the new power cells in a nice quiet area than to try and jury rig something while the wormhole generator was active.

It was that morning's incident that vexed me. Tween was fighting with someone, and there was nothing I could do. Tween was hurt at one point; I reestablished the mental link between us when it was broken the first time. It is actually rather easy to reestablish the link; all I need to do in make physical contact with him.

I could tell by his tone that he was getting mad. I have never seen him get mad before. I watched from the dimensional bubble, becoming more and more worried and unable to help. When Tween was caught in the explosion, I froze; he wasn't getting up. The guy dressed in red, white and blue had called for medical assistance. I was about to transport Tween when an alarm went off; there was not enough power to initiate a transport. I needed to work quickly. I needed to find a place to change the power cells out.

There was no time I had to act fast, the power would fail and everything would be destroyed. Fear is the one thing that drove me, fear of being destroyed, fear of letting Tween down.

I had no choice so I took over a military satellite. Its programs were however inadequate for what I needed it to do. I upgraded them. I then scanned the entire south Pacific looking for a suitable location, a small island or flat area away from any civilization. By sheer luck, I found a small island away from the shipping lanes and uninhabited by any humans. I made the adjustments to the gateway and then relinquished control of the satellite. I then powered off the warp device. A transfer from the bubble to normal n space was abrupt and slightly disorienting.

Once I arrived, I moved the first power cell next to the gateway and connected the thick black power cables. The second cell I plugged into the replicator. I followed Tween's instruction that he had written down for himself, and recharged the original power cell. I took the smaller cell and put it in a small compartment within my body. I could now move about without having to remain connected to the replicator or the warp device.

I paused then examining my surroundings; I had never been out of the bubble since it was created. Something about the water or the sun shining was relaxing. Or perhaps it was the scenery. I did a few calculations after examining the island.

I don't know why I expanded the distortion field, but I wanted the island. Something about the sand and the ocean. Right now the water was still and there was no sun in the sky, however I will change that, once I have a chance.

I returned the gateway to where I had last left Tween. He was gone. I know what the emotion is now. Fear took hold; I looked franticly for Tween or the guy in the red, white and blue. Both were gone, I checked back at his house. I even checked the answering machine, nothing. I was at a loss as to what to do; Tween had never left without having some plan. After several hours I went to see if LoneWolf could offer any suggestions.

LoneWolf was not online, and didn't show up until almost seven. I was extremely frantic by this time. Tween had been missing for nine or so hours, I explained to LoneWolf that a friend of mine had been hurt and that I wasn't sure where he might be. LoneWolf had some very good suggestions, like checking the local hospitals, for recent patients. I looked up the local hospitals. I got the addresses from a phone book that I ripped out of a phone booth. There were several. This was going to take longer than I thought.

I made a snap decision. I couldn't search dozens of places at once. I accessed Tween's database, and looked at all the designs he had. Tween tends to put every idea or thought into a database. I found some almost complete designs for a repair robot. I think he designed it after watching something on the Sci-Fi Channel. I could replicate the parts and assemble it and download a basic AI instruction set. I got to work, time was ticking away. Tween's wife had already made several phone calls looking for him, including one to the Cranston police. It took me an hour to make the first bot and get it all programmed.

When it was done, I examined the small spider looking robot for anything that I might have missed. The design was perfect; it was small and could go anywhere, up walls and on ceilings. Its design could be used for a multitude of tasks from scouting to repair.

I activated it. It took several moments for it to adjust its systems, and speak to me.

"Number One ready to begin, activation sequence complete."

A large black spider about the size of two hands outstretched, appeared under a nurse's station. It waited for a moment and then crawled up the desk and began to access the computer terminal. It sifted through patient records. As the nurse approached, it shot a silvery thread that attached to the ceiling. It then hoisted itself up. A moment later it vanished.

Later at the Desert Springs hospital the same black spider materialized under a gurney near a nurse's station. The spider moved quickly onto the gurney to avoid being detected. A moment later, an orderly took the gurney down the hall and placed it into a waiting ambulance. As the doors closed, a call came over the radio and the ambulance turned on its sirens and sped off.

It was several minutes before the ambulance stopped. One of the technicians took the gurney into a house where there was a heart attack victim lying on the floor. While the injured man distracted everyone, the spider bot hopped off the gurney and scurried under the sofa. A moment later, it vanished.

The spider bot appeared next to Wedge, "Number one, what happened?"

"I was in a bad spot; to escape detection, I was inadvertently carried out of the hospital," the small bot said in a squeaky voice.

In another hospital across town, number one appeared. It accessed patient records. However this search turned up no information. The spider dropped to the floor and vanished.

After an hour of scanning databases and examining records, I discovered that Tween had been flown to a New York for questioning by Federal authorities. They had flown him around noontime, so he should be in New York by now. I was unsure as to whom they were, as it did not list a specific government agency. There was only one name on the orders, an agent Stafford.

This was getting complicated; Tween still had not contacted me. If Tween showed up or contacted me, I would act.

In the meantime, I put the bot to work on the facilities and devices that would make this island more interesting as well as more like its natural environment.

I also needed some way to help Tween in the future, so I looked over Tween's databases again and some of the theories. I spent several hours examining some of Tween's mothballed projects and concepts. I found a device that if used properly or perhaps improperly would allow me to help Tween. I replicated the parts to the bio-static field generator. With a few tweaks and adjustments the device was ready. In theory, it would cause pain and reduced motor coordination in a target. The effects would cause some extreme pain, but not permanently damage the target. It also helped me pass the time. It took twenty-one hours to complete the modifications to the island and the surrounding bubble. I still had not heard from Tween. I don't like being alone, but with the spider bot to help me I was not completely alone.

Tammy was also worrying about Tween. A police cruiser had stopped by to take a statement, and examine the house. I knew how she felt; if I didn't get in contact with Tween soon, I would tell Tammy what had happened. But until then all I could do is wait.

If anything had happened to Tween, these humans would pay dearly.
 

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