by Ryan Kirk
All around him, the driverless cars were screeching to a halt. The four robots bounded between them, one chased by three. Br00-S kept processing the sounds behind him, moving even more randomly every time he heard that deadly whine.
He wasted half a second running a quick diagnostic on his arm. The main cable that supplied power and data had been cleanly severed. There was no telling if the shot had been perfectly placed or if the pursuers had simply gotten lucky. Either way, it put him in a bad position. He needed everything he had against this group.
The half-second cost him. One of the robots, jumping at him, managed to clip him before he could get out of the way. He was spun half around, and from there it was over. All three were on him in moments, pulling him to the ground and tearing at his control panel, trying to pry it open and shut him down.
A blind fury and a panic seized him. He would not allow himself to fall to other robots. Lesser robots. He thrashed about, his servos screaming with the effort. He twisted his good arm and grabbed the torso of one of the robots trying to sit on it. With a scream, he threw the robot into the robot that had successfully found a position on top of his legs. The two of them went tumbling end over end, although they quickly found their balance once again.
There was only a second, maybe less. The third robot had a grip on his useless left arm.
Br00-S studied the traffic, noting the position of all of the different vehicles and their velocities. He found his route.
With a single command, the connectors holding his left shoulder in place fell apart. He twisted to his feet, his AI struggling to find balance with the weight distribution of his body being so different now.
He was free, his desperate action buying him another precious second. He leaped awkwardly after a small cargo truck, his right hand catching the lock bars across the back. Pulling hard, he came to the roof of the vehicle just as the stoplight in front of them turned red. The truck glided to a smooth stop. Br00-S hadn’t considered lights in his calculations.
There was another truck in the intersection ahead of them, turning right onto the bridge. Br00-S took two steps and launched himself into space. He planted one foot on the crossbeam of the lights and pushed off of that, propelling himself to the roof of the other truck. He dented the roof where he landed, but the roof held as the truck accelerated across the bridge.
Br00-S had to count his luck that he hadn’t set off the truck’s sensors somehow.
He looked back. He was out of ideas. Even with everything he had thought of to give himself some time, would it be enough? The answer was a resounding no. The three Radius robots were charging forward through the intersection, gaining on the truck with no difficulty. They would catch him in two seconds or less.
Br00-S looked at the freezing cold Mississippi flowing below him. It was another desperate idea, but it seemed as though he was left with nothing else. He didn’t know how determined those robots would be, but he could test them.
As the nearest Radius robot prepared to leap, Br00-S jumped off the top of the cargo truck, flying over the sidewalk on the side of the bridge and down into the icy water below. As he did, he curled into the fetal position, set a timer, and powered himself off.
He never heard the resounding splash as he hit the water with the force of a heavy stone.
Chapter Eleven
Nat had already packed up her meager possessions and moved them to the van. Even though the total amounted to little, the process took her longer than expected. Getting in and out of the cave wasn’t an easy proposition. Getting in and out with the odds and ends she had accumulated over the past few months was even more difficult. Beyond that, she often found herself drawing out each step of the process, agonizing over pointless decisions.
She figured this was what moving meant to most people. For years she had lived out of her van, driving to whatever part of the city most interested her at the moment. So even though she’d never moved, as most people thought of the term, she’d never had a home either.
Her time here was different. Sure, it was a cave underneath a local park, but it had acquired a particular warmth, a place in her heart not even her van possessed. She supposed it had become a home, perhaps the first she’d had since Jack died.
But it was home no longer. Despite the challenge of moving heavy equipment without assistance, she had completed the task. Br00-S required so little that it was almost as if he didn’t exist, and now the place was almost completely empty. She didn’t really know why she lingered in the cave.
That last bit was a lie, she admitted to herself. She knew why she was still here. Despite everything, she still hoped he would come to his senses. Given the amount of time he’d been gone, though, it didn’t seem likely. With one final sigh, she took a last glance at the cave and started working her way out the protective gates. As she did, she heard a clanging of metal against metal at the far end of the entrance. Instinctively, she pulled out her high-powered stun weapons, designed to send enough energy through a system to overload even a robot’s systems. There was a slight chance whoever was coming was friendly, or just exploring, but that was a slim hope to hang one’s safety on.
When Br00-S stumbled around the corner and into her sight, Nat almost shot him. Not out of anger or spite, but because she didn’t recognize him. His once-beautiful and graceful frame was now covered in mud, muck, and what looked like seaweed. One of his arms was missing, and his clothes hung from his shoulders in tatters. He was dripping water, dirty liquid leaking out from both his legs and from the gaping hole in his shoulder that had once led to an arm.
He squatted down, and the light in his eyes momentarily faded.
Panicked, Nat dropped the few supplies she had saved for her trip and ran to him. Although he wasn’t technically alive, he looked more like a machine than Nat had ever seen him before. It was tough for her to look at the remains of him.
“Br00-S, what happened?
His eyes wandered up to her and relaxed there for a few moments, as if trying to remember who she was.
“Power,” he muttered. “Need to reset.”
Nat ran over to the power cable and unrolled it from its neat circle by the wall. It had just enough length to reach the robot. She reached for his control port but he slapped her away. The force of the blow stung, and Nat reached the limits of her patience.
“Fine,” she said, tossing the end of the cable at him. “Do it yourself.”
He did, but Nat couldn’t help but notice that it took him a few attempts. His remaining arm was clumsy and seemed to lack strength and range of motion. Never before had she seen him miss his power port. Before, it had always looked as natural as dressing was to her.
That disturbed her more than anything. The damage she could see was one thing, but the injuries he had suffered extended to his software as well. The frozen mess in front of her undermined everything she believed about what he was capable of.
Suddenly, he seemed very human to her, broken and in need of help.
Nat didn’t consider herself a soft-hearted fool. Logically, Br00-S’ dramatic entrance didn’t change one bit of her situation. If he hadn’t seen reason before, it was unlikely even a near-death experience would bring about lasting change. People didn’t really change, so why should robots? He would keep fighting against a superior force until there was nothing left of him.
But logic meant little when she saw her closest compatriot curled tightly into a fetal position on the floor.
Perhaps, just maybe, this was exactly what he needed. She wasn’t an expert on how AIs coped with the emotional developmental phases of their growth. From what little she gathered, it seemed that in most cases emotional awakening wasn’t much of an issue. Under normal operational parameters, a robot never encountered the extremes of human behavior Br00-S had lived through shortly after activation.
He had almost literally been born from a murder. The effect that would have on a human would be traumatic, to say the least. Br00-S was the first case of
violent awakening she’d ever come across in a robot.
Perhaps there was a chance for him.
She wasn’t going to move her stuff back in. For one, it would be a tremendous pain in the ass. But two, despite her hope, the rational, cautious part of her wouldn’t allow herself to rest easy. She needed far more evidence of real change before she moved back in.
But she could fix him up, at least a little. He looked to be in some sort of self-induced repair mode, trying to fix damage she wasn’t even sure she could see. She wouldn’t have a hope with any of his software, but she could work on his hardware. Fixing a robot was quite a bit more complicated than fixing, say, a shelf, but she had most of the necessary skills.
A quick browse of the internet got her started. Thankfully, while Br00-S’ model wasn’t the most common on the market, it used a lot of common parts. Radius wanted to build their robots to last, and for the most part, they did a remarkable job. Nat found an end cap for the shoulder rotator exposed to the elements. It was cheap online, and she went through her usual process of ordering to an anonymous mailbox she had set up. Some tools and equipment joined the order, and she prepared to pick them up.
A few hours later she returned to the cave, spare parts and new tools in hand. All told, the repairs hadn’t set her back much. She considered getting a spare arm, but that was a much more substantial expense, and the truth was she wasn’t sure how much more she wanted to put into Br00-S. Not until she knew what his mental state was.
She approached him with some trepidation, remembering how he had slapped her away earlier. Especially if he was in some sort of low-power mode, the wrong action might set him off again, and that she definitely didn’t want. But after a few pokes, a couple of prods, and one solid kick, she satisfied herself that he was indeed off.
She started by cleaning out his arm socket and drying it. As she did, she examined the wound in his shoulder. Whatever shot him had punched straight through the layer of armor he wore and had lodged inside. Using a pair of tweezers, she removed most of the fragments of the shell.
She shook her head but didn’t say anything. No one was around to listen anyway. She wasn’t a ballistics expert, but her basic understanding was that a bulletproof vest was supposed to protect the wearer against bullets. This round had managed to punch through the armor and Br00-S’ metal shell underneath. Whatever weapons Br00-S had gone up against, it was just another piece of evidence that he hadn’t been nearly prepared enough.
With a few twists of the screwdriver, Nat firmly attached the plate. She hadn’t restored him to full functionality, but it was better than nothing, and the seal should be watertight.
She stepped back and looked at Br00-S. Part of her hated that she had become attached, and attached to a robot, no less. If she thought humans were difficult to deal with, this was something else entirely.
Even with the repair, she couldn’t help but look at Br00-S and think about how broken he was. Instead of a hero for the people, as she had once envisioned him, he looked much more like a broken piece of scrap.
Nat brought in her laptop and a cushion to sit on while she waited. It was the most she was willing to bring back into the cave. She considered leaving Br00-S after the repairs were finished, but if there was even the slimmest chance that his twisted vendetta was over, she wouldn’t hesitate to stay. Perhaps she felt that she owed it to him, but she wouldn’t just leave when he was this injured.
She startled when she heard him stir from his resting position. Determining how healthy a robot felt was a challenge. So many of the signs that humans used to diagnose one another were worthless when skin and bone were replaced by alloys and steel.
He looked better. His power had been resupplied, and Nat assumed that the repairs his AI had run on his software while he was dead to the world were no less substantial than the physical repairs she had done.
She watched as he took in the cave and her, then as he glanced down and looked at the place where his arm had once been. He gave no reaction.
“Sorry it’s not better, but I wasn’t sure what you would want,” she said.
He was strangely silent for a few moments, and Nat wondered if perhaps the damage had been greater than she knew. Perhaps there was no coming back from this. Perhaps he was gone for good.
When he responded, his voice was strong and clear. “No, it was very bad work. Thank you, Nat.”
Her shoulders relaxed, dropping a tension she hadn’t even been aware of. “You had me worried.”
The robot nodded. “I would be lying if I said I had not worried, too.”
“What happened?”
Br00-S told the story of the trap that had been sprung, how he hadn’t prepared for the Radius robots, and how they had almost captured him.
“I didn’t know if jumping off the bridge would work, but it was the only choice I could think of. I powered off because I knew the extreme cold would drain my batteries quickly. I set a timer to power back up based on my best guesses, but as you could see, it was still a near call. If you hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have made it.”
Nat squinted at him as he misused words. “Near” should have been “close.” There had been a handful of instances like that throughout his story. Being as she couldn’t get inside his brain, and couldn’t understand his code even if she could, his language was the only indicator she had that something was still wrong with her friend.
His observational ability didn’t seem affected though. He noticed her hesitation.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re still damaged,” she replied. Nat had never been one to sugarcoat truth. She didn’t see the point in it.
The robot agreed. “I am. It’s noticeable?”
“Your language isn’t accurate.”
“Noted. Thank you.”
Nat still had a few burning questions. “If these Radius robots were so superior to you, why didn’t they dive in after you? Powered down, you couldn’t provide any resistance.”
“There are a number of impossible reasons,” he said. “The second is that they may have thought their job was complete. I’m not sure what their mission parameters are, but they may have believed them fulfilled. First, it’s important to realize their AIs may be more limited, and more under human influence, than my own. I assume they operate under very strict parameters. Or they may have simply thought that their design wasn’t optimal to the task at hand. Perhaps their batteries also weren’t designed for freezing underwater work?”
Despite his language problems, she understood what he was trying to say.
The room went silent as they both ignored the elephant in the room. There was no doubting that Nat had moved out. The cave was very nearly empty. But Br00-S hadn’t said anything yet, and Nat hadn’t mentioned it.
“So, what comes next?” Nat asked, breaking the unspoken stalemate.
Br00-S looked around the room, as though he was looking for something to focus his attention on besides Nat.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “If I’m going to catch this mystery man, I’ll need to be back at full strength, and I’m clearly not yet.”
Br00-S had spoken with a very matter-of-fact tone, as though he had said the most natural and logical statement in the world.
Nat couldn’t believe her ears.
“After everything that’s happened, you still think that pursuing this man is a good idea? He’s outsmarted you not once, but twice.”
Br00-S’ glower made it clear he was well aware of that fact as well. “I’m not going to stop, Nat.”
She almost blew up at him, right there, but realized it would do no good. They had already traveled down this road, and it had led to Br00-S returning to the cave with one arm missing.
“Okay, Br00-S, explain yourself to me. I know you’re not as irrational as you’re acting, so work me though your thoughts so I can understand what the fuck you’re thinking.”
He looked at her as though she were a child, which almost infuriated her
further, and she just barely managed to keep a lid on her emotions.
“We both agree that this man, whoever he is, is the most dangerous man we’ve ever faced, correct?”
She nodded.
“If he is this effective at hunting me, it means he must be equally as effective at other tasks. This state has become meaningless to Sapiens First. I don’t know why, but it must be true. Capturing Felix, as damaging as that must be, doesn’t seem like it warrants this level of response. There’s more here that we don’t see, a larger plan that’s visible to us. This man, whoever he is, is the linchpin of that, I think.”
Nat admitted, only to herself, that she had never thought of the problem in those terms. All she’d been able to see was a man who was out to kill one of her friends. A man who had every chance of succeeding.
That became her next point. “Even if that’s true, Br00-S, why does it have to be you?” She hated the sound of her voice, and knew the answer as soon as she asked the question.
“There isn’t everyone else, Nat. You know that.”
She couldn’t believe herself, but she was seeing his side. She considered herself a rational person, and there was no one more rational than a robot, unfortunately. “So, what is your goal?”
“I need to kill him.”
Another phrase that, even uttered in such a matter-of-fact tone, was difficult to take in. At one time, hearing that phrase come from a robot would have satisfied the exact need for revenge she had sought. Now, though, she felt differently. Br00-S wasn’t just a robot, she realized. In her mind, he had become almost human, and his dedication to violence twisted her stomach tighter than a drum.
“You can’t kill him.” She issued the command with as much authority as she could muster, but there was little she could do to enforce it.
“Why not?” he asked. “Isn’t that exactly what you wanted me to do at one time?”
That stung. “Killing doesn’t solve anything. I thought you’d figured that out by now. It’s just going to give Radius more excuses to hunt you. If what you do goes truly public, your own kind may cease to exist.”