The Unchained Melody of Life

This story is yet another variation of the Astro Boy origin story. More emphasis has been placed on Tobio in this version than on Astro, for reasons that will become apparent as the tale unfolds.

NOTE: Astro Boy is the creation of Osmau Tezuka.

Chapter One

Dr. Uma Tenma had three loves in his life; his wonderful wife Hoshie, his beloved son Tobio, and his job at the Institute of Science. He was a devoted father, a loving husband, and was also dedicated to his career as a leading robotic scientist. At times he did have a problem setting priorities in his life; often he would work late, coming home devastated that he had ignored his son and wife. After such an occasion, Uma would try to make it a point to leave early from work the next day to make up for his previous indiscretion. Sometimes though, it might be many days before he could return to a more normal schedule. In such cases, he might take a week off from work to even things out. It was a balancing act that he constantly performed. Hoshie understood it all too well, she could see the joy in Uma's eyes when he was with her and Tobio, and also when he was busy at his job. She almost hated to bother him by calling him at work on the video phone; he was never mad when he answered the phone to take her call, but she could always see the look in his eyes that he wanted to get back to his work.

For years robots had been mindless servants, doing only the tasks they had been programmed to perform. If a robot ran into a problem that its programming didn't cover; it would either malfunction, or perform the task in error; sometimes with disastrous results. Later robots had the ability to make simple decisions for themselves; they could adapt to problems that their programming didn't cover, at least sometimes. What Tenma had sought to develop was often referred to as Kokoro, the ability for a robot to think like a human being, as if it had a real conciseness or soul.

The basis for all robot AI been laid down by Dr. Kutcher years ago, his work was the foundation for all modern robot AI software. Just before he died, Dr. Kutcher had bequeathed to Tenma his final discovery. It was an algorithm that could finally make Tenma's dream of Kokoro possible. Tenma was so paranoid about Kutcher's final discovery being stolen from him that he refused to keep any of the details on a computer system that could be hacked into. He kept the only known copy of the data on a secure read only memory stick that he wore around his neck, like a pendent on a chain, under his shirt. It never left his person. Tenma knew that secretly, there were two other copies of the data, one was buried in Kutcher's casket with his body, the other's location had been known only by Kutcher, and therefore would probably never be found. Someday soon, Tenma hoped to make use of Kutcher's final discovery and create a robot AI with the full Kokoro he sought.

While the Kokoro initiative was his pet project, there was also the super robot that he was now spending most of his time on, he now had most of the laboratory staff working on it. When completed, this robot would be able to handle the most dangerous work that the police, fire fighters, rescue workers, and even soldiers now had to handle. How much better the super robot would be if he could complete the kokoro initiative at the same time!

Tobio Tenma's ninth birthday was approaching and his parents wanted to get his something special. Uma had already planed an outing at a local amusement park, and he and Hoshie had been looking though the stores trying to find something he'd like. One thing that they had already surprised him with was enrollment in a 柔道 (Judo) class. He'd already had a few lessons as the class had started a few weeks ago. Tobio was one of the smaller kids at school and had complained about being picked on by bullies, Uma had thought that learning one of the martial arts might boost the boy's self confidence.

Dr. Tenma took Tobio to the high school where the Judo class was being offered in one of the community rooms. The instructor, Higeoyaji Ban, had been in the military and now taught physical education in the high school. He worked with younger children over the weekends and a few evenings a week. Dr. Tenma sat on the sidelines with a few other parents while the youngsters had their lessons on the mats. Many of the parents just dropped their offspring off and would pick them up two hours later, but Uma loved to watch Tobio trying to learn his Judo.

Today Higeoyaji was demonstrating how to disarm an attacker. It was something that a few of the boys had asked to see. He asked for a volunteer from one of the parents, and Uma stepped up. Higeoyaji handed the doctor a fake hand gun carved out of a block of balsa wood. Dr. Tenma pulled the pistol out of his pocket and pointed it at the instructor, who then faked a move to one side and quickly came out of nowhere to knock the weapon from Uma's hand. The class cheered, and then the boys got their turn to try the move. Tobio picked it up right away and easily disarmed his father.

"Don't you think it's a bit risky showing the boys that?" Tenma asked the instructor. "They easily mastered it against me, but I was hardly threatening. If they had to do it for real, it might not end so well."

"If they practice what I teach them, they will be OK." Higeoyaji replied. "I wouldn't expect them to be able to do something like that tomorrow, or even next month, but by the time they finish my class they WILL be able to defend themselves quite well."

During the rest of the session the class practiced the disarming move, and then went on to do their usual drills. Tobio was enjoying the class and was disappointed when it ended.
"We'll be back again tomorrow for another session, Tobio." His father told him.

The boy smiled. "I really enjoy the Judo class father. Can well practice together at home?"

"You think you can throw your old man to the floor? Well, we will set up the practice mats outside in the back yard and we will see about that." Uma told his son.

Hoshie Tenma looked out the window into the back yard. Uma had dragged out several exercise mats and laid them end to end covering the patio's hard surfaces. He and Tobio were now Judo wrestling, giving the boy a chance to show off his newly learned skills on his father. Dr. Tenma allowed his son to throw him on the mat quite a few times. The boy was actually pretty good at it, it was only the fact that the father outweighed the son by about three to one that would have made some of his feats impossible without a small amount of 'lack of enthusiasm' on his fathers part.

Hoshie was pleased that Uma was paying so much attention to his son. The man tried, but so often he got so tied up in his work that he actually might not come home for a few days on end, or work such long hours that he'd get home after both the boy and herself had already gone to bed. Still, after going on such workaholic binges for days, even weeks at a time; Uma would switch modes and become a real family man again. He was in that mode at the moment, hopefully to remain so until at least after his son's birthday.

Poindexter Drake had been working at the Institute of Science for several years now. Drake was an expert mathematician, and was also were versed in A.I. theory. He had been doing most of the theoretical work on all of the robot development at the IOS, and his work was well know by Dr. Tenma.

Drake's abilities in mathematics first showed themselves when he was in high school, and he really blossomed in college. Drake didn't need to spend very much time studying, his brain was like a sponge and he quickly caught on to everything he was exposed to in class. This left him a bit too much idle time, something that would get him into hot water.

During his college days, a few upper class men had noticed Drake's mathematical mind, especially his mastery of the laws of probability. Drake was also an excellent chess player, he could see the game many moves in advance. He had an excellent memory as well, rarely forgetting items he had seen and in what order over hours at a time. One evening, he was invited over to a frat house for a friendly game of poker. Drake remembered every card that was played and he was able to formulate in his mind the odds of each player having a winning hand. While they were only playing for penny stakes, by the end of the night Drake was up several hundred dollars.

The event wasn't lost on the frat men, a week later they shanghaied Poindexter and dragged him down to a local casino to see how good he might be at the black jack table. They didn't have much money to stake him, so they went to the low stakes table where all the old ladies and beginners played. Drake sat there, counting cards in his head and computing the odds as he played. The boys left the casino that night with enough cash to have dinner at the most expensive restaurant in town.

Eventually, Poindexter was hooked on the games of chance and he became a regular at the casino. He left the frat men to themselves, and now gambled on his own. Drake moved up to the more exclusive tables where he was playing against some very heavy hitters of the gambling set. As in most casinos, the mob had a large interest in the place, and they took a dim view of someone becoming too good at the games. They knew Drake was counting cards, they just couldn't prove it because he did it all in his head.

The mob finally had enough of Poindexter's cheating, for that is how they viewed his skill. They set him up to fall by stacking the decks against him. They called in their best dealers who could manipulate the game such that even a card counter like Drake would not have a fair chance. At the end of the night, Drake found himself deeply in debt to the mob. Drake thought he was done for, that they would kill him. However he was simply thrown out of the casino and told to never come back. The big boss did tell him, "One day Mr Drake, you are going to be someone important, I can see it in you. You owe me big time, and I have a marker on you. One day, I'm going to call in that marker, and you will do what I ask of you."