The following day, Darian slowly opened his eyes to Matt calling for him, "Yo, man, are you awake?" With his hand, Matt touched Darian's shoulder, shaking him.
Darian, confused and not understanding what was happening, slowly opened his eyes again, only to find himself sleeping in a chair with his head resting on the table.
As he opened his eyes, he slowly rubbed them, confused. "Eh? I was sure I slept in bed…" Darian looked around, only to find some papers under his arm on the table. "Yeah, we thought so too… we couldn't stop laughing when we saw you there."
It was around 12 p.m. by the time the group woke up. When Matt and Ali entered the house, they saw Darian sleeping on the table, and before waking him up, they burst into a big laugh.
But Darian wasn't listening to them, he was simply looking down at the paper on the table.
"Did you guys write this?" Darian interrupted Matt, who was speaking, by grabbing the paper and showing it to the others. Both Ali and Matt looked at it, confused. "Darian, it's very similar to your way of writing," pointed out Matt.
"Maybe yesterday, when you were drunk, you did that without noticing?" While Ali asked this, Darian analyzed the paper, and Matt was right, it really was his handwriting.
"It seems like you drew a kind of robot… Ali, what did you put in Darian's beer?" Matt asked playfully to his friend, who laughed softly.
"You know what?" Before Ali could answer Matt, Darian abruptly interrupted both of them. "I think that this idea is not bad…" Ali and Matt, more confused, walked behind Darian to check the paper too.
"I wrote here that this robot will wait for me once I return after 50 years… he will take care of the base while I'm gone… and here I wrote something about a really powerful AI…" Darian read exactly what it seemed he had written on the paper.
"Do you think that this is possible?" asked Darian to his two friends. "We built a whole base in three months… obviously it is," said Matt. "I can take care of the AI, I know how they work really well, it won't be a problem."
"I don't know how to help you guys with this, I'll count myself out of this project," answered Ali, not knowing anything about this type of stuff.
"Darian, then you need to be the one who takes care of the construction of the robot…"
"Yeah, for me it won't be a problem. I should have some materials at my parents' home, I can use them," answered Darian.
"Perfect, then if you really think this is a good idea…" said Matt, still unsure about it.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure about this robot. I think it can be a good creation for this base."
"Yeah… but we won't be using rusty materials," said Matt, a bit annoyed.
"Maybe you're right…" Darian looked again at the paper and especially where he had written the name of the robot. "But once I return, the metal over his body will still be rusted, then his name will be Rusty," said Darian, proud of himself for being able to come up with such a good name.
With that, the group decided to head out and return to the city, especially because tomorrow Darian had a flight to return to America. While they were traveling through the desert in Ali's car, they spoke together.
"So, Matt, how much time do you think it will take for you to create this AI?" asked Darian, worried that his robot would still not be working before he left for XERBAB-7.
"Just give me two months… or no, even three. I realized that we need to download every bit of information that humanity knows directly onto him. We can't let him connect directly to a server, they might find his location and even the secret base," answered Matt.
"Wait… then how much memory is this robot going to have??" Darian shouted, confused. There was too much information on the internet, downloading it all would take a lot of memory and time.
"A lot… you wanted it to be the most powerful AI, right?" asked Matt, smirking.
"Well, the thing that will take the most time is still going to be downloading all the information."
"But if something new happens? How will he get the information?"
Matt thought for a moment before answering. "I'll install a VPN on him so he can access my PC directly and search for the most important stuff."
"Still… how much memory will I have to buy?" asked Darian, worried about his money. Yeah, he had a lot of it, but still…
"I'll give you all the details in a few days. For now, just focus on building the robot, alright?" Darian nodded, and with that, the group returned to the city.
The following day, Darian took a flight to return to America, to his family.
"It was nice to spend these three months together with you guys." Darian warmly hugged both Ali and Matt.
"Good luck on your travel, Darian." Ali and Darian shook hands. "Thank you so much."
"I'll send you the details in a few days, Darian," said Matt after the long hug with his friend was over.
"Yes, I'll buy everything, don't worry." With that, Darian waved to them and got on the plane. It was time to head back home.
During the flight, Darian took out a paper again and began sketching how things really had to work on the robot. Once he woke up, he noticed that the idea was good, but everything else was just placed there randomly without following a proper order. If Darian had built it the way he wrote it while he was drunk, the robot would have never turned on.
Darian spent those seven hours drawing and creating everything perfectly, without any more problems. 'Let's hope that we have some materials at home… but yeah, if I remember correctly, they should be there.' Sometimes Darian tried to remember if they really had the materials he was searching for at home; otherwise, he would need to ask one of his friends, and that would mean his secret base was actually less secret.
After the end of the flight, he had been able to come up with a small plan; now, at least, things were working, even if it wasn't finished yet.
With that, Darian took another taxi and headed toward his home.
"I'm back!!" shouted Darian happily after he returned home. It was around 1 p.m. and his parents were already eating.
"You're here, Darian!!" His mother immediately went and hugged him. "How did things go, Darian?" asked his dad the moment he entered the kitchen. Darian saw that they were eating spaghetti with meatballs.
"Everything went well, I spent such a great summer with all my friends…" Darian thought about whether he should tell them about his secret base, but they were definitely going to ask him what he did during these three months. He couldn't come up with an excuse right now, so he decided to tell them.
"Before you tell us what you did, do you want some, too?" Anny offered him some pasta, and Darian could only accept. "Yeah, I haven't eaten anything all day… I'm starving." With that, Darian sat with his family and told them everything that he had done during these last three months.
"Mhm, I must say that this thing you built is really interesting… and well, once we aren't here anymore, the factory will probably pass to your cousins; you won't have it anymore." Darian hadn't thought about that; the factory wouldn't be sold, but there were still his other relatives who could inherit it.
"Still, the idea of the robot is really cool. In our basement, we should have some materials that can help you with that… though they might be a bit rusty," said his mom. As Darian spoke with his relatives, telling them about everything that had happened, around two hours passed, and they remained in the kitchen listening to him carefully.
'Matt, then the robot will actually be rusty! I've won!!' thought Darian, remembering when his friend told him it was better if the materials weren't rusty.
"Yeah, it won't matter, they will be alright," said Darian. With that, they kept talking until Darian had finished everything he could tell.
"Guess I'll go and check the materials." Darian got up from the chair and stretched his body. He had remained there talking with his parents for three or four hours. Darian headed toward the basement to grab the materials for his robot.
"I'll come and help you, Darian." His dad, knowing that the materials there were really heavy, offered to help his son.
"Thank you, Dad!" Darian thanked his dad and they headed toward the basement.
The basement was really big and full of stuff. Everything Darian had collected when he lived there was now here, and even the stuff his father and grandmother had collected over the years; it could easily be a museum.
"Still, I don't get why we have this much metal in our basement." Darian, with the help of his dad, grabbed all the rusted metal and left it on an old couch in the basement.
"It was for an old project… I was supposed to do it with one of my friends… but in the end, we didn't do it anymore. That is why we left it in the basement; I thought it was going to be useless." The dad left the last plate of metal on the couch.
"You can work here… better not bringing it up or the house would be a complete mess, and you know how angry your mom gets when the house isn't tidy…" Both the dad and Darian remembered when the house had been a complete mess, created by them, and the mother forced them to tidy and clean it all.
"Yeah, I know… I mean, working here will be better. At least I won't get any distractions and I can focus only on this." Darian wanted to start working today, but as he looked at all the metal on the couch, he felt too tired.
"Guess I'll begin tomorrow." Darian and his dad headed out of the basement, and the sun was setting. The moment they went out, they could see the sun going down in all its beauty.
"You know… I'll miss you, Darian," said his dad, looking at the sun slowly going away.
"Me too, Dad…" After Darian answered, silence remained between the two, who were both sad to leave each other.