A.I.: Orphans of Terra (HTTYD)

34

Chapter 34

'Initiating nanotech treatment. Starting nerve animation sequence'.

Hiccup pondered this as he read the words. He didn't really know what they meant. Then came a whirring sound and he looked up, through the somewhat foggy glass of the tube, to see small mechanical arms moving in the direction of Astrid's cloned body. Syringes containing a somewhat metallic liquid were attached to the various mechanical arms.

"Are those nanites?" Hiccup asked aloud even if no one was in the room with him.

"Nanites?" Astrid asked since she couldn't see into the room.

"They are being injected into the clone. Is that bad?" Hiccup asked as he watched the process.

"Not necessarily," Astrid sounded thoughtful. "They may be needed for the transfer. But it is a pretty advanced leap in technological thinking to use nanites to facilitate a reverse transfer of consciousness. Yet not totally unexpected."

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked.

"The process is a bit too complicated to explain," Astrid could be heard muttering. "Though it is safe to say that the nanites, if they are really there for the transfer, would be of great help with containing the flow of extra information."

"It just feels like this entire process was designed for someone else." Hiccup stated as he looked around. "The room not attached to the main system, the retrofitted cloning tube and transferring equipment." Hiccup mumbled. "I don't know Astrid. All of this seems like it would take more than a week to set up. Drago definitely had his own agenda. I think he wanted to do more than just work on a cure for Midas."

"Hiccup you said you found notebooks. Maybe a possible solution to Midas is in there. I did hand over what research data we had found on it to Drago the week before." Astrid stated while sounding pensive.

Hiccup looked around on the desk and frowned. The notebooks looked old and worn. The pages already turning yellow. He flipped through several of them but they only showed mechanical devices and pages entirely crossed out as if in a fit of rage. A couple of pages depicted a giant, fearsome looking machine. On the top of one of the page it read 'Bewilderbeast'. The drawings were done in much finer details than anything else that Hiccup had come across so far. It was as if this weapon, because from what Hiccup could see and read it was indeed a very big weapon, was what kept Drago sane while pretending he was on Mary and Hank's side. Hiccup thought that if Drago ever had had the chance to actually built this then Hank and Mary would have very likely been his first targets.

He rifled through some more of the documents, cluttering the desk, but found nothing that even resembled Midas. Hiccup was about to give up when he stubbed his toe against one of the edges of the workstation. He then looked down and squinted as something was wedged under the desk. He bent down, ignoring the pain in his toe and his eyes widened. There was another notebook there, wedged under the desk keeping it level. It looked far newer too and Hiccup proceeded to yank it loose.

Hiccup's eyes widened when he leafed through it. "Jackpot," He told Astrid as his eyes continued to scan the pages. "That was probably the weirdest place to hide a book," Hiccup mumbled as he relayed where he had found it.

"Or perhaps the smartest," Astrid corrected. "You only found it by accident."

"True." Hiccup nodded. "I can take these out of the lab so you can scan them with the camer-" Hiccup stopped and looked at the growth tube. It was making a whirring sound.

"Hiccup what's going on?" Astrid asked.

He placed the notebook on the table and hurried to the screen attached to the tube. 'Final cycle complete. Neural suspension active. Releasing subject'.