Ambassador sat in a small room that was no bigger than a janitor’s closet. The robot had now mastered the mannerisms of the language of, as far as he believed, all the Earthlings. Ambassador had interacted with several people, this time adults, since arriving on Earth. The array of people had included both human males and females. Having decided to identify more with the males of the species, partially due to an affinity felt toward Jeremiah, he had decided to refer to himself using male adapted terms.
He finished the final steps in the routine scan of his self. This was the seventh such scan since his journey to Earth with Jeremiah. He was amazed to find that his molecular structure had not returned to its previous state. He was now certain that it would not return to its normal state. Finished with the scan he turned his thoughts toward Jeremiah.
Ambassador was concerned for the fate of his ‘friend’ Jeremiah. He had decided that ‘friend’ was the word that applied best to his regard for the boy. He had not seen the boy since the first night he had landed on the planet. Night was a strange concept to the robot as well. The Creators’ planet had nothing near what the darkness of night on Earth was. This was part of why his visual sensors had not seen the men sweeping the walls, floor, and ceiling with radiation meters in Jeremiah’s bedroom the night they had first traveled back to Earth. The men had been wearing radiation suits and they had immediately swarmed Ambassador and Jeremiah, pulling them apart and carrying them out of the house. Ambassador could recall the sound of screaming from Jeremiah and also a woman that he later learned was Jeremiah’s mother. The men had taken Ambassador and loaded him into the back of a van. He pleaded with the men to no avail, begging them to tell him what had happened to Jeremiah.
After pleading for nearly an hour without any response, Ambassador then tried to analyze the recording of the events. This was the first time he had noticed that he could not see on this planet. He ran a program, enhancing the light of the recording, and replayed it in his vision field. He analyzed the video of his capture and determined that the men had taken Jeremiah with them as well. He then decided that his visual sensors had to be recalibrated to detect light at a far lower intensity on Earth. He was thankful to find that it was within his capabilities.
Ambassador had been locked in this room for nearly a week by Earth’s time standard, and he wanted to discuss his mission with Jeremiah. None of the people he interacted with would tell him what had happened to Jeremiah, however. They also insisted on calling him MBS-ADR1. He had grown fond of his name Ambassador, and it annoyed him when they refused to recognize him by that name.
On the ninth day of his imprisonment, in the late night hours, Jeremiah appeared in Ambassador’s room. At first Ambassador had been shocked. Then he remembered that he had been built with an internal Hook device because the Creators hoped that it would draw Jeremiah to him. This had not worked on his own planet, probably because the original Hook had been more familiar to Jeremiah. Now though, Ambassador contained the only Hook on Earth, so Jeremiah was instantly drawn to him when he tried to escape his own imprisonment without any real destination in mind, for fear that going home would mean recapture.
When Jeremiah realized that he had not escaped he began to cry. He cried for a long time, so long that Ambassador began to suspect that someone might enter the room any minute and find the two of them together there. It wasn’t like they could do anything about it now. If Jeremiah wanted to be with Ambassador he knew how to find him again. When Jeremiah finally stopped crying Ambassador whispered faintly, “I am like you now. My molecules, I mean. They do not bond back together.”
“Can you not travel back to your planet then?” Ambassador knew that Jeremiah did not want him to go, but the boy would not unjustly ask him to stay imprisoned on Earth because of selfish reasons. The people who were holding them captive obviously didn’t care about the mission Ambassador had been sent there for.
“I suspect that I cannot go anywhere else without your guidance,” He replied coldly.
“Why?”
“Because I contain a Hook within myself. That means that if I try to go, the most familiar place for me to travel to is here.”
They talked in depth for a while about MDT and how the Hook affected them both. Finally, Jeremiah asked, “What if you removed your Hook? Then could you go somewhere else? The Hook wouldn’t be part of you anymore and you could travel away from it.”
Ambassador thought on this for a moment. He decided the logic was sound, but he was devoted to ensuring the success of his mission to achieve MDT space travel. As if in answer to his decision, the door to Ambassador’s room burst open.
Two armed guards strode in along with a man in slacks and a dress shirt. Jeremiah seemed horrified. Ambassador did not have time to react, however. The man strode forward and seized Ambassador by the arm. “Now that we know the nature of what you claim to be MBS-ADR1, it is time that we begin studying you and Jeremiah.”
Neither Jeremiah nor Ambassador protested. This would probably be the best way to resolve their imprisonment and begin to fulfill the mission they were given.