Keerahk-655: Sentience and the Law

This story serial is brought to you by V.K. Seeker of Legends.

The thoughts and chronicle of a Vahki Keerakh looking for his place in the world after discovering the long-loved art of curiosity. A little longer than a short story, too long for an epic...

Part One
Keerakh-655, reporting. Criminals were surrounded, and attempted to escape. Stun staffs applied. Matoran subdued, handed over to superiors for punishment.

That’s how I would have explained the day if I had been asked by Turaga Dume, or any of the other Vahki. But that’s not how I was feeling.

It still seemed strange, even kind of wrong at that point – the notion of “feeling”. It was not a Vahki thing to do, at least not the way I saw it. The others seemed so cold, uncaring… mechanical. But I was different.

For one, I was using the pronoun “I”… a Vahki did not refer to itself as “I”… at least not in Ko-Metru. It was “Unit” or “Vahki” or “Keerakh-402” or whatever their serial code happened to be.

Anyway, I was “feeling” how those Matoran felt… true, they were breaking the law… but they were doing it for better reasons. They were not trying to burn down Metru Nui, or hunting the Toa Mangai… they were smuggling Rahi from the archives to make them free again. Wasn’t that a noble cause? Wasn’t that something be respected, not punished?

No. Not according to Dume. The law was the law. Interestingly enough, do you know the Matoran word for law? Vahki. So the Vahki was the law… and the Vahki followed the law, and Dume, blindly.

It was the day of the Archives smuggling that I raised this suggestion to my compatriot. If Vahki had friends, Keerakh-632 would have been it for me. He… if you could call a Keerakh “he”… was in my squad, often my partner for hunting and subduing criminals.

“Keerakh-632,” I called to him, in the high-speed, high-pitch speech of a Vahki.

“655. Orders from superior? Criminal activity?” he replied.

“No, no orders,” I replied, “More of… a question. Have you ever really… thought about this all?”

“Request not recognized, 655. Restate request, proper protocol.”

“Look, 632, I’ve just been thinking lately… with all this Matoran crime and all… and after what happened with Tuyet a few weeks ago…”

Oh. Right. I forgot to mention that, didn’t I?

A few weeks before the smuggling, a few Dark Hunters had appeared in the city, while many of the Toa Mangai were away. A Matoran had been found dead in Ta-Metru, the name of a Toa, Tuyet, had been found on a tablet with the body. The same thing happened a couple times more, even after the Dark Hunters were subdued.

Here’s the thing. It wasn’t the Dark Hunters. It was Tuyet… the very Toa who appeared to be the victim of this hideous chain of crimes. She killed three Matoran, all to protect some stupid artifact… something that would give her more power.

Isn’t that what all sapient beings want? Power. It seems that way. Even when they have it, like Dume, they want more, like his army of Vahki. Or the Matoran… although they controlled their own lives, they captured the Rahi in the Archives, or longed to be the boss in their chain of work - the head scholar, or the chief archivist, or the best mask-maker, or the teacher with the highest proto levels or… uh… what would Le-Matoran and Po-Matoran dream of? I don’t know… probably the biggest sculpture, fastest airship, shiniest mask, strongest arms… something primal.

But that’s not what this is about. I wouldn’t know, anyway. I wasn’t sapient. I was a Vahki. Attempting to have a philosophical discussion with his fellow mechanical monster.

“See, what I’m saying is… what if someone else took over the Vahki? We may trust Dume… but what if it was another Turaga? Someone who made laws to enslave the Matoran, keep them under oppression. We’re programmed to subdue, punish, uphold the law, 632,” I insisted, “Blindly. No matter the cost… no matter how horrible it may be.”

632 nodded. At least it was something. At least I could pretend in my mind that he agreed. Or I could have if he didn’t say anything afterwards.

“Vahki Programming. The law is the law. All those who break it shall be deemed criminal. The law may not be bent, except by the superior.”

I sighed. Well, Vahki don’t sigh. I made a drawn-out “huh” noise in my metallic vocal convertor. 632 did not recognize that as a command, and so, walked away to the hive to recharge.

I, however, did not. I had to do something… different… something much more important than recharging my power cells. And as I grabbed the electric cutter from the Vahki repair table in the center of the hive, I knew – it was something that had to be done.

To Be Continued