by R. L. Weeks
“Great! Okay now for you, number two.”
“Oh, please don’t give me a stupid name. I hate stupid names.” It grumbled.
“I need to give you a name. All the others will have them too.”
“Fine, just don’t make it a stupid one.”
“Well, I know what I’ll name you. Meany!”
“Meany? Really?”
“Yes!”
“Aww hell!”
“You said I’m the boss!”
“Damn it!”
Snow laughed, and then she looked to number three. “Okay MC-3, what is your specialty?”
“I am just a simple miner, but I do thoroughly enjoy my job, and my fellow miners too!”
“Oh, I like you. You are so cheerful. I’m going to name you Merry.”
“Ha ha! You got a girl’s name.” Meany chuckled.
Snow corrected, “Not a girl’s name. Merry as in happy.”
“Still sounds like a chick name to me.” Meany laughed.
“Hey wait a minute.” Snow cut off his laughter. “Are you all boy cyborgs?”
“Our last Master, Eric, did program us with masculine personalities.” Med told.
“Do you have boy parts?”
“The only thing even remotely human, or organic is our cerebral cortex. It is a pure biological unit. Everything else is mechanical. It’s so we can make complex decisions.”
“So, you have human brains?”
“Not nearly as large as a human brain, but similar.”
“Oh, are you going to name me too” MC-5 asked.
“Yes, but first for number four. Hmm.”
“Hell, he’s off line most of the time anyhow. Damn malfunctioning bucket of bolts.” Meany chided.
Number four reactivated just then as if on cue.
“I know! I’ll name you Mal, for malfunctioning.” Snow giggled.
Meany smiled, “Hey, you’re pretty good at this.”
“Uhh, who’s next?” Number five was counting on his fingers again.
“You are, you dolt!”
“Now Meany, be nice.” Snow chastised.
“But he really is an idiot.”
“It has to start with an M, because that’s what I am going with.”
“How about Moron?” Meany offered.
Number five giggled, “I like it, I like it!”
Snow shrugged, “Okay then, Moron it is.”
Moron giggled and clapped.
“Now for you, number six.”
“Oh dear, how embarrassing.” It squeaked.
“I think Meek fits you well.”
“Aww shucks.”
There was only one cyborg left to be named and number seven grew excited, even to the point where it couldn’t help but to snort.
“I’m… snort, snort… next! Oh yeah! Snort.”
Snow laughed at his antics, and his name came to her, “Your name is Mort, number seven. Mort the snort.”
“I love it! Snort, snort.”
That evening for dinner Med and Meany went out and foraged for some plants which they brought back and put into a hopper on a machine.
“What is that, what does it do?” Snow had to know.
“This machine converts the plant material into the porridge we need.” Med explained.
“So, the porridge is what powers you all?”
“No. We are powered by nuclear fuel pellets. The porridge provides the nutrients that our cerebral cortex needs to function. It is biologically compatible with humans as well.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “What do you guys mine here anyway?”
“Show her, Meek.” Med ordered.
Meek retrieved a large heavy looking sack from an alcove. He opened it and pulled a semi-clear looking rock from inside.
“We mine diamonds.” He handed the rock to Snow.
“This doesn’t look like any diamond I’ve ever seen before.”
“Trust me, it’s a damn diamond.” Meany grumbled.
“So why did Eric decide to have you guys mine diamonds?”
“Because he likes diamonds?” Moron asked.
“Who knows, we just do what we’re told.” Med answered.
“What makes you so good at mining diamonds?”
“We can go much deeper into the earth than most robots, almost to the mantel.”
“That’s where the best diamonds are.” Meek said.
Merry added, “And the most!”
“So, do you guys dig and tunnel?”
“We excavate.” Meany told.
Med added, “Then we search.”
“Then we extract.” Merry finished.
“Do you guys like doing that?”
They all nodded.
“It’s what we were built for. It’s what we do.” Mal said and then promptly shut down.
“Yeah, well you could have fooled me, Mal. It looks like you were built for napping.” Meany grumbled.
“How do you guys excavate? Like with shovels?”
“No, plasma beams.” Med explained.
“Here, watch.” Moron said and then held his hand out.
The finger like digits retracted into his arm, and a gun like tube replaced them.
“Wait!” Med called out.
Just then an incredibly bright beam of light shot from the tube and hit the far wall. It exploded where it hit the wall, and rock shrapnel went flying.
Meany hit Moron’s head with his hand. “You idiot! You could’ve hurt our Master, Snow! She is human, remember, and humans are fragile!”
“Oh, gee. Sorry Master Snow. I forgot.”
Med commanded, “Everyone, hurry and collect any radioactive splatter. None must come in contact with Snow.”
They all immediately started scouring and cleaning up debris.
The cyborgs went to work every morning, going deep into the bowels of the earth, and returned late at night to fill even more sacks with the precious diamonds. Snow soon learned that they had many such sacks already full of diamonds and her cyborg friends explained that they’d only recently found a mother-load of the gems. They were excited for their previous Master, Eric, to return and gather all they had mined for him. Snow was also excitedly waiting for Eric to come and get her, to tell her that it was safe to go home, but Eric never came back.
Weeks turned to months and months passed into years as they waited. Snow White grew into a lovely young lady, and even though she grew to love her cyborgs, she was also lonely for some human companionship. By the time she was seventeen she decided to venture to some nearby villages. Her cyborgs formed a guard detail and went with her. The villagers welcomed her with open arms and simply accepted the cyborgs as robots, as these things were common in the cities. In several of the smaller villages she visited they didn’t have a functioning water well for the people, so she had her cyborgs excavate one for them. Snow and her helpers became extremely popular and well known in the area after this, even having an online news magazine run a story on them with pictures.
Back in Snow White’s city of birth, Darice was living it up large. Luxury was an everyday given for her. She was still the most beautiful woman around, thanks to some strategic Botox injections, and her magically enhanced prediction program told her so all the time. Then one day that changed.
“Mirror, Mirror, who is the most beautiful woman of all?”
“I am afraid it is Snow White.”
“What!” Darice was shocked, and then enraged. “Snow White has been dead for many years now! That can’t be!”
“Unfortunately, it appears that Eric had lied to you. Snow White is alive and well. She is also more beautiful than is imaginable. Observe.”
A holographic image appeared above the machine showing Snow and the cyborgs standing with a group of happy villagers. True to what the program told her, Snow White was the epitome of loveliness.
“That bastard!” Darice shrieked. “All these years I had believed him! Where is she?”
“Very close to where you had dis
posed of Eric. I am uploading coordinates now.”
“Locate the best mercenaries in the area. Discretely hire them to take care of the problem.”
“As you wish.”
“This time I don’t want her body found.”
Snow started having dreams, vivid visions of impending peril, so she told her cyborgs to be on the lookout for trouble. Sure enough, they detected some armed men approaching their secret cave one day, but it was easy for them to incinerate these men with their plasma bores. It wasn’t a month later when Snow had a series of visitations in her dreams from her mother, Marie, who reached out to her mind from beyond the grave. In them Marie told her of her covenmate’s treachery and designs to kill Snow. She also instructed Snow on the ways of witchcraft, culminating with the deadly spell that Darice had used to kill Snow’s father.
“You must not let her harm one hair on your precious head, my darling Snow.”
“I won’t momma. You have given me what I need to fight her.”
“She mustn’t win.”
“I won’t let her. She will pay for what she did to you and daddy.”
“Not revenge Snow, just self-defense.”
“Not revenge.” She agreed. “Thank you for coming back to me and saving my life momma.”
“I love you Snow. I always will.”
“I love you too mommy!”
Within the next several months another group of men tried to hunt Snow White down, and they too were cooked to charred pieces by her cyborgs. Meany was especially satisfied with the job they did. Now Snow knew that she must take the fight to Darice, and she began to make plans for the ancient ceremony to cast the most powerful spell.
Darice was livid when she found out the second group of trained professional killers were annihilated.
“Damn it! What do I have to do to make her go away?”
“Those cyborgs she has protecting her are pretty damn tough.” Mirror, Mirror told her.
“Cyborgs?” Darice cocked her head.
“The ones that were in the photo with her. Those are a rare and expensive model of cybernetic units.”
“Crap! I wish there was a way to deactivate them.”
“I suppose remotely hacking them might be possible.” Mirror, Mirror suggested.
“Say that again!”
It did, and she ordered it to commence with that action right away.
Snow was just sitting down to the evening meal with her seven wonderful friends. Med had learned to prepare some dishes that were more appealing to Snow over the years, and this evening was a special occasion. It was the tenth-year anniversary of when Snow had come to live with them.
When Med had served her a fine dish of sautéed local vegetables and the seven of their bowls were filled with their standard porridge, Snow stood up to make a toast.
“I just wanted to say that ten years ago, today, was the best day of my life, and every day since has been so extremely happy. I love you each with all my heart. Med, you are the steady one who we all rely on. Meany, as grumpy as you are you make me laugh, and you’re great fun. Merry you are such a joy to be around, always. Mal, Mal… dang, would one of you wake up Mal. Anyhow, Moron, I don’t care if you can’t count, or if you get confused all the time, you are precious! Meek you never have anything to be shy about around me, I crave your lovely manners. Mort, you always know how to a have a snorting, rip-roaring good time.” She raised her cup of water to them all in turn. “You are all my family.”
They cheered her and then everyone began to eat.
Suddenly Med said, “Uh oh.”
Meany did too.
“Fight it fellows! Fight it!”
“What’s going on? What’s the matter?” Snow asked with wide eyes, as all of them seemed to be having some sort of seizures.
“We’ve been hacked, Snow!” Med groaned. “Oh no! NO!”
“Quick Snow! You have to deactivate us now! Emergency deactivation!” Meany growled.
“Do it Snow. We don’t want to hurt you! We can’t!” Meek implored.
“Uhhh… turn us off, Snow!” Moron urged.
“NO!” Mort said without snorting.
Just then his hand retracted to be replaced by his plasma bore.
Mal suddenly reactivated and said, “Turn me off!!!”
Snow nearly panicked, but then she grabbed the control pendant hanging from her neck and activated it. “Emergency shut down all cyborgs NOW!”
They all lost power and stopped moving.
“Controller, how can I safely turn them back on?”
“That is impossible. It seems their programs have been permanently corrupted. They were hacked by remote signals.”
“So, they are going to die?”
“Yes. Their cerebral cortex will cease to function.”
Tears filled Snow’s eyes and she bawled like she had when her father had died.
When she’d cried her heart and all her tears out, she grew angry.
“Damn you Darice! Damn you to hell! You made me kill my family. You killed all of my family. You tried to kill me, and you are still trying. Now you’ll pay the price!”
Snow got ready and then performed the ritual casting the ancient spell, the same spell that Darice had conjured to kill her father. The difference was that Darice had accumulated such bad karma that the elemental forces were pleased to comply, and as such Snow didn’t garner the negative energy as her evil step mother had.
That night Darice stepped from the front of her building to go out to a fine restaurant for dinner. Her limousine pulled up to the curb for her a moment later. Just then one of the heavy stone gargoyles high above, which decorated the gable of the top of the building, broke free and fell. The doorman opened the rear door of the car for her and she stepped forward to get in. The stone gargoyle crushed her to less than half the size of one of Snow’s cyborgs. The elemental forces were glad.
Snow White knew the deed had been done, she could feel it, and what a sense of freedom it was. She took a couple handfuls of the diamonds and used them to make her way back to her birth home. There she claimed what was rightfully hers, and along with all the other diamonds she later retrieved, Snow would never lack for anything of luxury or comfort. Of course, she met many charming princes and even kings, as many as she wished. She lived happily ever after.
As for Mirror, Mirror… well who do you think is telling this story?
The End
Return to Innocence
By LJC Fynn
Chapter One
9 A.M.
My head was down and I looked at my desk. I doodled on my notepad, the stem of the flowers connected infinitely. I took deep breathes, even though the energy was sucked right out of me. This only lasted a few seconds, but these few seconds were most important because no one else knew what I saw. For those seconds, they used my energy to materialize and make me incredibly weak.
As soon as they materialized, every one of them injected me with their own unique markers: scent, sound, aura and so on. This one, though, fit into a category of his own. When he was around, it was hard to sit still. My body felt like it had taken back to back caffeine shots. My heart pounded, my blood flowed, and I could run for miles.
He had been a pain in my side for two weeks. Two long, miserable, energy-sucking weeks. He had been absent for a few days and, given my luck, he chose this day to return
He was one of the hardest I have ever had to ignore. The closer he got, the more restless I became. My legs bounced up and down. My heart was pounding, and I knew he stood over me. I couldn’t look up. I concentrated on the flower—around the petals, draw a line, and start a new pattern.
Snap. I broke the silence of the class by the sound of my pencil splitting. I felt the stares of all my classmates. I didn’t look up.
“Miss Phillips…” I heard my history teacher calling my name. Instead of answering him, I leaned over and grabbed a sharpened pencil out of my bag.
“Sundae Phillips, I asked you a question
…” I couldn’t have a normal name. Nope, that was not in my cards. I was named after a frozen dessert. I have been trying to go by Dae since I realized I got laughed at for being named after a style of ice cream. Teachers always ruined it for me.
I tensed my shoulders, not because I didn’t have a clue to what question he asked, but mostly because he called my full name. Historically, that meant I was in trouble. “I am sorry Mr. Clark…I am not sure what you asked?” Hopefully, by turning my answer into a question he would grant me some leniency for not listening.
He walked up to my desk, grabbed my notebook and thumbed through the pages. “How about this…” He began my lecture, “Instead of drawing flowers…try listening.” He slammed the notebook down on my desk and walked back to the front of the classroom.
“He’s a pig,” energy boy whispered in my ear. Even though goose bumps spread all over my skin, I did not move a muscle. I successfully ignored him and watched Mr. Clark swish back to the front of the room in his corduroy pants.
The bell rang, indicating it was time for a class change. The class became loud with the sound of talking and zipping of book bags. I could barely hear Mr. Clark over the noise, “Don’t forget the study guide up front for finals next week…” Everyone, including me, groaned as he reminded us of this.
I could feel energy boy walk behind me as I made the slow walk to Mr. Clarks’ desk. As I grabbed the study guide, Mr. Clarks’ voice stopped me mid movement, “You are not in the program yet. You need to stop day dreaming and pay attention in class…” I made eye contact with him. He was young for a teacher, but dressed as if he was much older. His shirts were always wrinkled and he typically had on corduroy pants that swished when he walked. He had enviable curly hair, regardless of which gender was judging. It never failed; his round wire glasses were always crooked.
Trying to get out of there as soon as possible, I looked back down at the study guide and mumbled, “Yes sir…I understand.”
I tried to get lost in the crowd, but I still heard Mr. Clark, “I mean it, Dae.”
Chapter Two
10:45 A.M.
One class. I had one more class to make it through. Fifteen minutes, and then I got a break for lunch. Not that I would be eating, immediately after lunch was my tryout. My entire lunch break would be warming up and rehearsing. The thorn in my side hadn’t left. He hadn’t moved one inch. I felt him watching me and I couldn’t do anything about it. I kept my head down, drawing flowers.