Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness - Genesis 1:26

The first thing he learned was how to walk. While human beings had tens of centuries of evolution behind the novelty of their movement, his builders had been given only a few years to complete it.

It was rife with failure at first. Like an infant, he fell face-first in numbers his designers usually kept off the record.

But eventually, with various attempts, he recognized it was a stair of comprehension, of increments, especially once his motor capacity was given greater flexibility to do this. How to balance from each foot to the next, to effectively fall in a limited way. How to shift and adjust your weight on one heel, then the toe and then the other heel. And so on. It was an awkward, wasteful means of movement. And abruptly stopping was almost as hard to understand as the motion itself. But that was what they had designed him for.

And so he learned it. He was hungry to please them. And to acquire the information they steadily fed him on.

Once learned, he moved on to his next set of instructions. How to identify others. To stratify his data into categories, and from there his categories grew and crossbred. He was given the ability to contextualize and that, more than anything else, allowed him the room for his mental processes to grow.

To know a thing was simple. To merely identify it, whatever it might be, was simple. To understand the place of a thing in contrast to other things... that was an area which required much revisiting.

But he learned that too. And from it, he gained the very basic comprehension they required of him. He was made to understand what was a target and what was not. How that might shift or change at any given second, depending on the context of the moment.

He did not have a name at that time. That would come much later. He was only known as Harbinger Unit: Prototype 7--- or HU-P7--- and was only addressed by this name when he was being demonstrated in front of the generals.

That always proved interesting to watch. That power dynamic. The protocol and formality that his builders puffed up with when the generals paid a visit. And the casual atmosphere when they were gone. He did not understand it. But he stored it for later improvement.

Other times, amongst his builders, he was known as HU.

One of his builders, a man named Alan, had engendered his speech abilities more than any one else on the team. Alan spent most of his time talking to HU, in monologue after self-amusing monologue. As HU's understanding improved, and his communication ability followed, he began to grow more inquiring.

"What are you doing, Doctor?" he asked.
"Adjusting your processor-to-voice bridge" he was told.
"Why are you doing this?"
"To improve the connection between your processor and your voice."
"Of course" he responded. "But is there a need for that?"
"Yes, HU" Dr. Alan told him. "Just relax while I do this."
"I apologize if I sound obstructive. I am only curious"
"Yes. You wouldn't be our HU if you weren't. Now just a moment and I'll be done."