Zero-1 (episode)

Zero-1 is the second episode in the tentative order of Reckless City. The episode remains in development. The Stardance Kid sets out to build a capable motorcycle and unexpectedly creates Scout, a sentient being. What begins as a technical project becomes a responsibility toward a new individual.

Creating and caring

Stardance's ambitions for the vehicle involve navigation, communication, reasoning and mobility. Their combination has consequences beyond the usefulness of the resulting machine. Weyland urges her to teach Scout, spend time together and speak to Scout as a person.

Roger brings humor to the disagreement over how the experiment happened. The parental teasing gives the new responsibility a familiar shape, but does not perform the work of caring for Scout on Stardance's behalf.

An agricultural threat

The episode also develops a malfunction affecting a herd of Epsilon m00s, the city's robotic cattle. Their strange collective movement threatens an agricultural district. The danger brings the group's ongoing work in the damaged city into contact with Scout's emerging place among them.

The premise asks how a new being learns about purpose and risk, and what his creator owes him. Scout's formal class, final design and operating limits remain unsettled. The episode's full staging and final runtime are still in development.