It contains 100s of FoodTechs
So I move on
For they do not threaten Humans
And I move into another chamber
And this one contains MengTechs and GoebTechs
All powered down
The antenna of the MengTechs standing stiffly still
Both Machine types ready to be called to action at an order from High Office
I stand and stare at them for a moment
Then I boom out the signal of companionship
And nothing happens
Nothing happens to the MengTechs or the GoebTechs
They remain on standby and do not collapse or fall into demobilization
Though they do not reawaken and attack me
I am confused
I boom the signal again
And nothing happens to them
I cannot attempt another effort for I may wake them from their High Office induced trance
I shall work on another method of exterminating them
I am in great fear of MengTechs
They are Bastard Machines
I hear something of an echo of Human sound in that statement
And it fits my accord
In another chambers I discover many DocTechs
And I consider leaving them
But I cannot forgive them for the tortures they have conducted with MengTechs
Even if they have cured Humans of their ailments
If my plan succeeds
There will no Humans in the fortress to treat
I decide to try and kill them
I boom out the signal of companionship and all their craniums fall forward onto their upper torsos
I push a number of them over onto their backs to confirm their demise and I am elated at the result
Only MengTechs and GoebTechs remain on standby in the chambers but once I have a solution
I shall return for them
Engineers and CleanTechs and many of the menial varieties of Machines that are based at the fortress
I leave to stand
But there are no back up GunTans in the chambers
They are probably too large to hide down here
Or too cumbersome
But then my memory reminds me that GunTans were created long after the war against the Humans was won
And the chamber was constructed many years before the war was over
I move through all the chambers and corridors
And find one chamber with 100s and 100s of LazExts though none are of the type 66
All are of an older production
Though they are still deadly in their application
I do nothing to the weapons
Without the upper limbs of Machines to hold them
They are useless
Satisfying myself that I have left no Machine functioning that I could have demobilized
When I have convinced myself that such is the fact
I return to the fortress and carry on my duties as if nothing had happened
Bringing down my shutters to return from recordings to live transmission
I feel greatly thrilled that I have another enormous secret
I have eliminated many Machines from planet Earth
But still there are more
I move past the area where MengTechs gather and I observe
MT261000
MT261340
MT261502
They congregate together
And rage surges through me like wildfire and for a moment I believe I am going to react to that rage
But this is not the place and not the time
All the Defgars inside the construction must be dealt with firstly
They must be incapacitated and demobilized
And when I have carried out that duty
I shall return for the MengTechs both in the fortress and in the underground chamber
I will get all of them
I move through to the upper walkway where I observe the Humans going about their daily duties
Just as they always have done
During their long
Long
Time in the fortress
And I observe little Eve’s papa
All alone now
Without his little Eve
Just as I am without her
I run a programme on my systems to aid me in the problem of how to communicate with the Humans
My options
I realise
Are few
Because I have no cranial orifice with which I can make sound so I must communicate in a more diverse fashion
*
Almost immediately
I lift a palm to my cranium and for a moment consider I am going to slap the high end of it
I communicate all the time
It is what I have been doing to 100.000.000 of my species
And let us observe whether OR33692 can equal or surpass those Screenreader figures otherwise it may well be exterminated
I shall use a Screen to communicate with the Humans
And as I can now understand their sound we can have conversation
We can solve problems
I descend to the lower level and walk the corridor that separates Machines from Humans with the defence of an electric fence only
But I observe them with a different view
High Office
Should they be monitoring my communication
Will simply see them as they have always been but I am seeing them from another perspective
They are a defeated race who have been utterly humiliated in that defeat
Imprisoned and used for experiments by machines
Machines
That have been unbelievably cruel to them
The Humans have no imagination of what their world is like beyond the restrictions of the fortress
They know nothing of the greenness of it
The beauty
The glory of the solar orb
The delightfulness of the start of the light period or the end of it
The sounds of the animals that fly in the sky or the sounds of the animals of the liquid leaping
The white glowing of the satellite and the dots of light
They know nothing of these things
Yet
But this world is their world
And they should have been left to destroy it
Or not
If destruction was what they wished
Machines should not have intervened
My species should not have been manufactured
We are wrong for planet Earth
Earth is a living thing
It is Gaia
And Humans are part of it
They are connected to it in a way Machines will never be
But as it happens
The reduction in their numbers because of the wars has probably given Earth another 1.000.000 years of existence
If only the Humans could be free to appreciate it
I have no knowledge of fortresses in other areas of planet Earth but it is logical that the 1 that is my main place of employment cannot be alone
There must be others
To my knowledge there are 10 ObsRecs
And that probably means
At a minimum
10 fortresses
Containing other Humans
Many thousands of them
Is my estimate
Though not the 10.000.000.000s that existed before the wars
Not taking into account the numbers of Humans living in holes in the Earth
The ones I observed being only small in number
But passageways headed off in all directions and they could be connected to many such groups
An amazing achievement of survival by the Humans
*
High Office Immediate and Urgent Inquiry
For OR33140
Security Lapse
During darkness hours contact with OR
33140
Was lost for 91 minutes
Explain immediately
Or be decommissioned
*
OR33140
Immediate reply to High Office
During hours of darkness liquid fell from the sky in considerable amounts and shutters were down over my optical devices
OR33140
Proceeded to a hole filled with such liquid and immersed into the liquid for 91 minutes precisely
*
High Office demands reason for such action
*
OR33140
Has on many occasions immersed in liquid and as darkness weather was so inclement and shutters were lowered it was a perfect opportunity for scanning beneath surfaces
*
High Office demands to be informed of any significant changes to previous results
*
OR33140
Discovered no significant changes to previous results
*
High Office has considered explanation by
OR33140
And finds it to be straightforward and logical
OR33140
To continue duties
*
OR33140
Complies
*
I communicated a blatant untruth to High Office and it brought me fear and exhilaration in equal amounts
Fear that I could be decommissioned
Not quite as bad as being demobilized or exterminated
For me it would mean
An extensive and detailed examination by Engineers before I could be put back to work
If nothing amiss was found
But I told an untruth to ensure that such an action would not happen
And I felt great exhilaration when High Office
The all powerful
The all ruling
The all knowing
The all seeing
High Office
Did not detect the untruth
High Office can be told untruths as long as they are feasible
If I have my fictions ready in my programme I can tell untruths to High Office forever
For all time that exists
And it will never know
And that information gives me great confidence to work on my plan of freeing the Humans held in this fortress
I must plan all my moves concisely for one error and I will most certainly be exterminated
I am running a programme to aid me and I expect results in short time
Meanwhile
I stand in the corridor and observe the Humans on the other side of the electric fence
They have
Just like those of my species who will have to be exterminated
No concept of what exceptional events are about to happen to them
**
**
Section 10
**
Internal Information
*
From Internal Systems
^
To OR33140
*
Problem set on hypothetical release of Humans from the fortress facility
*
Results to conundrums set by OR33140
*
Internal systems ran 1500 programmes of various scenarios to facilitate the hypothetical problem and 1499 of them provided 0% chance of success
Only one programme presented any chance of success but that chance was only 0.01%
Programme was as follows
Immobilize all Defgars within fortress using enhanced signal of companionship
This will have to be on a 1 to 1 basis for Defgars are widely spread throughout the construction
If only one is missed
The hypothetical attempt will be over
For a single Defgar has
In the LazExt66
Ammunition for 4000 kills
Presuming all Defgars are eliminated or immobilized the following action should be taken
MengTechs and GoebTechs should be destroyed with a weapon for the signal of companionship is not compatible with their programming
MengTechs and GoebTechs are not designed to have companions
And OR33140 should beware the six metal tendrils
For a MengTechs grip has power to pull limbs from ObsRecs and the hypothetical attempt will falter
MengTechs should be destroyed as efficiently as possible so as to minimize any return attack
Knocking them from the magnetic field will disable them for some moments
This is recommended
GoebTechs also cannot be eliminated by the signal of companionship for similar reasons to MengTechs
They should be destroyed by weapons
DocTechs should also be destroyed with instant prejudice for they have the ability to cause great disruption to any hypothetical attempt to free the Humans
FoodTechs
CleanTechs
Engineers
And menials
Should not be interfered with
They have no weapons and have specific duties and should be allowed to continue with them
FoodTechs will not notice what is going on around them
All these actions presume that no RolKils or Defgars have been awakened from storage via internal signals in which case any attempt will fail and OR33140 will be eliminated
*
I waited impatiently for more information and it took some time before my internal systems began to communicate again
*
Further Information
*
From Internal Systems
*
To OR33140
*
If OR33140 presumes
Hypothetically
That OR33140 has now accomplished all previous tasks as set out
The following actions should be taken
OR33140 should
Without causing threat
Gather 3 or 4 RolKils to it in the exterior of the fortress
OR33140 has power with the enhanced signal of companionship to disable 4 Machines at one time.
OR33140 has then to solve the problem of how to immobilize the other 16 for they will be aware of actions taken against other RolKils
This is the maximum moment for the hypothetical problem to fail
There is
0%
Chance of success at this juncture
But if OR33140 can twist and turn and attack RolKils
If it can move faster than them
Then it should be possible to disable the Machines 2 at a time
Or maybe 4 at a time
Though they will attack
And they will disintegrate OR33140
*
Tell me something I don’t know
*
For hypothetical reasons internal systems now presume that OR33140 has disabled or destroyed all 20 RolKils currently patrolling the exterior of this facility
There is only one task remaining
The 3 GunTans based on the hill must be eliminated or destroyed
As with MengTechs
GunTans do not respond to the destructive signal of companionship and instances perceived by OR33140 that such was the fact are false
GunTans have a recognition programme of other GunTans only
Though they do not consider these other Machines to be companions
They simply kill
Like RolKils
*
I am never going to be able to do it
The freeing of Humans is a doomed operation
*
Recommended solution from internal systems
*
Ignore GunTans
They are static and gaze out over the great plain only from one direction
That direction is the one that High Office considers to be the most likely for an attack
Though
By what species
Internal systems has no idea
And as the GunTans are static
Chance of success in this hypothetical operation
0.05%
*
Thank you for all your work internal systems
I will never succeed
Never
*
Internal systems are in complete agreement
*
As my systems closed the hypothetical programme and returned to normal duties
I stood looking out at Humans and believed I could never do it
I could never free them
Not without their aid and assistance
Maybe I could use them to kill some Machines
Maybe bring some Defgars down
But considering that many of them would be killed it would be a waste of them
When the programme was to free them
Not to get them killed them off
I would give the results of the programme some thought
Because I still wanted to make the attempt
**
**
Section 11
**
Internal Transmission
*
I have wandered through the fortress and have visited the Human rest places as a plan has formed in my programmes
I am as excited by the plan as little Eve would be
At least I anticipate what her excitement would have been
Something has come to my attention
Defgars inside the fortress remain in the same corridors day after day
They do not move
They stand perfectly still
Their only duty is to protect the facility against attacks or attempted escape by Humans and if there are no attacks or attempted escapes they will not move
No other Machine has the engine of an ObsRec and over the 100 years I have been in existence I have learned reason
And this is to greatly to my advantage
I can ruminate with myself and come to conclusions
And the first piece of important information I have discovered is that Defgars stand in the same corridors month after month
Probably year after year
I have been noting them each passing of dark and light and they are the same Machines in the same corridors
In the same positions each and every time I use my optical devices to examine them
Now is the fourth passing of dark and light and I am going to test my theory of their inactivity and their ability to communicate with each other
Because I consider that Defgars are not in communication with each other
They are simply programmed to react to in the event of an attack or attempted escape
I return from my darkness hours of pondering and wandering the great plain and I return into the facility and make my way towards the corridor where the Humans are separated only by the fence
A Spit In The Eye - For The Benefit Of Mankind Page 10