File 7.3 - The Wrong Place for Truth

An hour passed perhaps, Ed didn’t have any concept of time. He even forgot when he finished training even though it was the same time as always. But it took that long for him to start to actually become consciously aware of his surroundings in a real sense. “Where am I?” he said aloud as his first natural reaction. It had a familiar and unfamiliar appearance to it. He recognized equipment and crates marked for use, but the room was foreign to him.

“You’re in the storage room,” a voice from above said.

He pulled his head back towards the voice, but saw no one. It took him a moment to realize from the sound of the distortion that the person wasn’t in the room, it was a speaker. The voice seemed sort of familiar, but not one that he immediately recognized. “Storage?”

“That’s right. Camera picked you up about two hours ago.”

“Two hours…”

“Come on out. Probably could do better than the stuffy company of metal crates and blank screens.”

Slowly standing up, Edgar realized that he had been using one of the crates for a backrest and that the room appeared much larger than it initially seemed. “Storage…” He peaked around the current row of lined up crates in search of the supposed exit. It was nearby from the light highlighting the exit. “Where’d I end up?” he wondered aloud as he walked out.

The storage room’s double doors slid open greeting him to a sight that he hadn’t anticipated on seeing. He immediately knew where he was now. “Tha AESIR…” In front of him were the pair of machines Freya and Od, Shizuka and his machines still under development. He knew what they would eventually look like based on the simulations that he ran every day. Seeing it in person reminded him how massive they were. It had been a while since the last time he visited. ‘Su says they’re fer war…’

“I see you found your way out of the maze!” the voice from the speakers said.

He got another surprise as he turned to find the last person he expected, Shizuka’s estranged father, Doctor Kitawara. “It’s you doc…”

“It was quite the surprise when I found you just sitting in the storage room. What were you doing?”

“…nuffin…” he answered, which remained pretty accurate while still dodging the question.

“Did you come to see the Od?” He looked up at the giant with a look of admiration. “Sometimes I like to just stop what I’m doing and stare at it.”

‘Jes stare?’ Edgar didn’t really understand him. He was not acting like he had seen the last time. It was a little off putting for him. He almost seemed normal. “Why?”

“It gives me perspective at times. Other times, I feel like I see the future in them.”

“Tha future? They’re machines.”

Kitawara shook his head and grabbed Ed’s wrist pulling him along with him. He guided him up to the feet of the Od. All around there were work crews assembling parts and doing checks on the electronics. So many people just to make a single machine meant for him to pilot.

The doctor pointed up at the Od trying to get Ed’s attention. “They’re more than just machines. I wouldn’t be making them if they were just going to be machines.”

“What ya mean?” Not making any sense started to make him feel a little more like what he was expecting. Yet he remained unsettlingly different from the last time. It left Edgar on edge around the man.

“Each machine is specially made and I’ve given them their own soul.”

“Eh?”

“Not a real soul, of course. What I mean is that I’ve designed them with a purpose in mind. But more than that they’re also a guide.”

Things quickly got lost on him. He knew machines and electronics well enough to know that the man sounded more like a crackpot than an engineer at the moment. Calling his expression a healthy dose of skepticism would be underselling it.

Kitawara picked up on his doubt. He pulled him along to the lift alongside the Od. “I’ll show you a little of what I mean.”

He hesitated a little, but found himself a little curious as well. All he knew about the machines was from the specs given to him and the simulations, which were supposedly complete reproductions of the cockpit. Edgar stepped onto the lift and rode it up to the shoulders of the machine.

Doctor Kitawara walked over the shoulder completely ignoring the height, making it clear how familiar he was with the walk. The face of the Od’s head was open with the cockpit greeting anyone to enter. “This is what I mean.”

“Ya ain’t makin’ sense, doc.”

“The Od will make sense to you.”

“Eh? How’s that?”

“I believe every human has different codes that they follow, rules if you will. We each come up with different ideas of what we think and believe. It’s informed and created by many different sources in our life. But each is unique to the person.”

“And?” He was quickly losing what the doctor was trying to get to with his little speech. It seemed to have even less to do with machines.

The middle-aged man stepped into the cockpit and turned the seat to face Edgar. “I designed these machines with a similar philosophy in mind. While they might only look like killing machines on paper they are much more than that. You’ll understand once you’re in this seat.”

“What’s yer point? Why tell me this?”

“Because you looked lost when I saw you in the storage room. The Od will help you find your path, that’s what I believe.”

“Mah path?”

“That’s right. You have your own sense of right and wrong and different things you value to protect with those hands, right?”

The question made him pause for a moment. It wasn’t really something he gave much consideration to before. It was just not the sort of person he was. Though he would be lying if he didn’t believe in certain things. Things that he viewed possibly right or just. “I’m not sure.”

“Well you’re still young and growing. What’s important to you and what you want to protect changes a lot. Do you have something you want to protect?”

“Somefin tah protect?”

“Yes, it’s very important to us humans to have something to protect. It gives us purpose and drive. It allows us to push past what we think are our limits. It’s very important in this age to know what you want to protect.”

“Protect?” The thought made him pause again. He had to think about it. And with it made him think about what he had wanted to protect. It was the reason that he was lost. “I dun ‘ave anyfin.”

“Are you sure? Everyone has something, someone.”

“YES! I’m sure!” he snapped back. His voice rang clear through the hanger stopping all of work as people tried to figure out what was wrong. Edgar looked around the massive chamber seeing all of the eyes on him. “Whacha lookin’ at?!”

His yelling sort of got everyone to turn away and pretend like nothing was happening. He walked back to the lift. Keeping his back to the doctor, he stared out into the hanger. “Doc, do ya believe in evil?”

Doctor Kitawara leaned forward out of the chair, a little curious by the question. He stepped out of the cockpit and stood on the shoulder. “That’s a complicated question. And not a very easily answered one.”

“Before today…I’ve seen lots of things. Tha way tha world works ain’t pretty, but it made sense in a twisted sorta way.”

“And today?”

“I ain’t sure…maybe…I jes can’t believe it all.” He turned back around to meet the doctor eye to eye again. A thought came to him while talking. The purpose and reason for everything in his running. He tried to escape it all. ‘I need tah know…fer sure…’ Edgar locked in on the man with his features sharpening suddenly. “Can ya look in tah somefin?”

He tilted his head a little as Ed added to his curiosity. “What you want to know?”

“Tha truth.”