It was a few days before Halloween and I was hunting through a ruined part of Castle Smrt looking for my parents' wing. Couple months back I had been scouring the library learning things when I had stumbled upon a map of the Castle. Upon studying it carefully I was surprised to learn that my parents had a Wing of Castle Smrt all to themselves. Even better yet, according to the map, there was a treasury located directly behind my parents' wing.
My hope was that the treasury had been untouched and I could use the funds for repairs and food as whatever or whoever had attacked Castle Smrt had burned the surrounding land and crops and the earth had yet to heal from the fire and the kitchen was dangerously low on supplies. So far though I hadn't had any luck.
What's worse the map was practically useless due to the
destruction of the Castle and I was now wandering around what I believed was the Servant Wing. It also don't help that according to a book I had found in the Grand Library called Castle Smrt: A History in which the author pens "according to my research, the original architect of the Castle designed it so the layout of the Castle changed based on ones current needs. I once had the chance to visit Castle Smrt though I can neither confirm nor deny if the layout of the Castle actually changed based on ones needs though despite its vast size I never got lost and always ended up where I was supposed to be going even without the aid of a guide. I only mention this as anyone who truly knows me can attest to my horrible sense of direction and will testify that leaving me alone to wonder on such a vast estate is by far the easiest way to be rid of me as I would wonder around lost for eternity."
Normally I would have taken it as nonsense except that it validated the rumors of the servants. And would explain why the sign said Servant Wing and not Velebilje which happened to be my family name. So now I was wondering aimlessly around the Servants Wing looking for a way to Velebilje Wing.
It was nearing time for me to head back to base camp to gear up for my evening patrol when I stumbled upon a door marked AutoServi. Curious as to why a door would be marked as AutoServs, I opened it only to stop short wide eyed and slack jawed.
When I opened the door the entire room lit up revealing its secrets. In front of me stood the coolest most realistic robot I had ever seen. I only knew it was a robot because why else
would humans stand completely statue still for god knows how long? By the dust on the floor it had been years since the robots had been used. Curious to see if they still worked I began to examine my surroundings looking for the operation station. That's when I noticed exactly how MASSIVELY HUGE the room I was in.
Along the wall directly to my right was a set of metal stairs that ran up the length of the wall too much to my delight a catwalk. It was when I stepped onto the cat walk when I realized the size of the room I was in. The closest thing I could compare it to was a hangar big enough to hold at least five Boeing 747s comfortably with all the equipment need to properly house and maintain the planes for constant and daily use. I had actually seen this before thanks to my uncle insisting on me learning aviation.
Wall to Wall. Front to back. Shoulder to shoulder. Row upon row stood robots that to someone who hadn't seen them in this room would instantly take them as a human. Well at least at first glance standing still until they noticed the missing details that give away the signs of life. However until I figure out how to turn them on to see if they worked, exactly how human like they actually are, is unknowable. So I started my search on the catwalk.
Much to my delight that didn't take long. About half way across the catwalk, it branched out to the right going to a platform suspended directly in the center of the room. In the dead center of the platform was a podium much like those used in public schools for teachers to teach at. Except that as I
approached the podium I realized a lot of differences.
As I stood in front of the podium and watched slacked jawed in awe, the podium hummed to life and a holographic display appeared in front of me. As I watched, text scrolled across the screen:
AutoServi
Dobrodošli u AutoServs
Dvorac Smrt Automatizirani poslužitelji
Aktivirati osoblje?
Da/Ne
Once again it was in the language associated throughout Castle Smrt. The book I had found on Castle Smrt called it Croatian. After a few seconds I translated the text on the holographic screen to:
AutoServs
Welcome to AutoServs
Castle Death's Automated Servants
Activate Staff?
Yes/No
I couldn't believe my eyes! So that's what AutoServs meant! It was short for Automated Servants. This was going to be a major game changer. With this army of robot staff the repairs to Castle Smrt were a feasible reality now and wouldn't take as many years as previously anticipated. Though I was obscenely smart, I was still limited to what I was actually capable of due to my age and height.
Unfortunately most everything I needed currently required me to be an adult and main stream society still saw me as a child. However so long as these robots functioned as well as I believed that would no longer be a problem and I wouldn't have to wait till I became a legal adult.
Quickly I pressed on yes with my finger assuming that was how it worked. To my delight the screen changed at my touch. Thankfully it didn't take me long to translate everything:
SYSTEM ERROR!!!
Now switching to
manual control. Please wait.
System Processing...
Time Remaining: 30s
25s
20s
15s
10s
5s
3s
2s
1s
Manual control activated
At that point the machine hummed again and a pad with a hand shaped indent on it rose from the podium.
Please place palm on
the reader to register as Master...
As soon as I placed my right palm on the reader, the message on the screen changed again:
Please wait...
System Processing...
Do you wish to register
Master as James Nightshade?
Yes/No
As soon as I pressed yes, the screen once again changed and began to hum as the AutoServi came to life:
Please wait....
System Processing...
AutoServi coming online...
Time Remaining: 30s
25s
20s
15s
10s
5s
3s
2s
1s
Scanning Castle Smrt...
Scanning of the grounds are complete...
AutoServi need is critical...
AutoServi has been preprogrammed....
AutoServi must bring Castle Smrt
back to full operating power
before any additional tasks can be assigned...
Time until AutoServi can be reassigned: 13 months 13 days 13hrs 13min 13sec...12...11...10..
With a shrug, I turned away from the podium and headed back to the Grand Library. My 13th birthday was right around the corner and I was planning an expedition to a different part of Castle Smrt. Sort of my way of celebrating my own birthday, All Hollow's Eve and Halloween all at once. Yea I was born at midnight between All Hollow's Eve and Halloween.