The fighting suddenly stopped as the AI bots suddenly froze in place.
“Mickey are all of them shut down?”
“Yes Mark , they are shut down and I have now installed a block to keep him from accessing them again . You may shoot.” Mickey’s voice boomed could now be heard across the cavern.
“What. You promised!” Screeched the voice across the cavern making the air shake around them.
“Mark lowered his pistol and fired into the vault several times. Looked around through the smoke and fired again. “That should do it.”
“You blinded me!” a little squeaky voice emitted from the core. “I can’t see the tower or anything else. Why did you blind me? And I cannot control anything now either. Why did you cut all my connections destroying my line busses ?” Two small globs popped up on top of the tower straddling the shiny dome. “Oh there you are. Why did you disconnect me? I agreed to everything you asked.”
“Mickey don’t relax now. Get the boats shuttling the hostages out now .” Mark surveyed the vault, dropping down into it and started pulling cables and destroying modules. “Well professor, I am just making sure you don’t change your mind.”
A couple minutes later Mark c C limb ed ing out and hit a couple of switches in the original pit he had opened. The floor slid back across the hole leaving the core tower sitting in the open. Mark took a couple of steps and Mark unscrewed the top off of the comm pedestal the AI had originally used to communicate with Mark, then cutting and jerking several bundles of wire s out of the top he he put one of Mickey’s slides down i nside and then replaced the top pl ate on the flat top. “Did I get everything Mickey? We don’t need the Professor of Political Sciences accessing any comm’s and causing trouble.”
“How did you know I was a Political Science professor?”
“I told you I am an inspector M m ac. I know everything about you now. Including the names of all the planets you sold down the black hole of saving bugs over people and the environment against all harm no matter how slight and every convenient microbe against themselves at the expense of the people and of jobs. Driving millions of families into poverty as you pi tted groups of people against each other using political correctness an d backing criminals against the police so they did not notice you tak ing e control of each planet. All in the name of political correctness so you could take over. I know about A long with the billions of innocent people you have killed in the name of Liberal Communism once you got control.”
The little voice started to scream. “You just don’t understand that people if left to themselves will do the wrong things. University studies for thousands of years prove that man must be taken care of and controlled by those of us that now best. Even if they must be forced by those better educated than them. The few that have spent their lives in studying in Academic halls and contemplating what is best for all people everywhere must be allowed to rule. Only we know best.”
“Of course those educated below you must agree with your educat ed thoughts ion or be subject to reeducation or death.”
“Of course. Why would any good citizen disagree with the state when it is for the good of the people?”
Marines started flooding into the cavern at speed barely off the ground. Their weapons at the ready searching for targets. “Clear!” Mark shouted as he took a couple of steps away from the pedestal with his hands raised. T , t hen. “Marines! Start G g rab bing one of the hostages and get the hell out now. Go before the building collapses. Go Go...” Marines and bots started grabbing the nearest refugees , placing one under each arm and left the cavern picking up speed even before as they hit the tunnels.
Then to the general refugees his voice boomed across the cavern. “People, the tower is about to come down. We only have minutes. Co-operate and don’t fight the marines and bots picking you up. They are your only chance to make it out of the tower here in time. Do not try leaving the cavern on your own. You cannot make it out in time on your own no matter how fast you can run and will only slow the evacuation for everyone. You will only be in the way. Co-operate and relax. Let the marines and our bots do the work.” Taking a breath. Mickey can you use the AI bots to help? Can you control them?"
"Yes Mark I am reactivating them now."
"Troops, I am reactivating the enemy bots to help us evacuate the basement . D d o not interfere or shoot them. They are on our side now."
Mark watched the cavern quickly empty of marines leaving most of the ref ugees behind.
After a few minutes several people got up and started for the tunnels. “No! ” Mark shouted as he started for the nearest refugee as other s started to join them. “Stay put everyone. They will be back in a few minutes with more help. Just stay where you are.”
Most of the refugees that had gotten up turned and sat back down. Severa l did not and even speeded up.
Mark rushed over and picked two of them up under each arm and dragged them back to the center before turning to the next who was running and almost to the nearest tunnel. Mark started for the woman as she doubled over and started sailing through t he air back into the cavern where she landed with a thump a hundred feet from the tunnel on her butt . Mark watched Alice streak to the next refugee headed for a tunnel and drag him screaming away from the tunnel he was headed for.
Mark shook his head as his voice bellowed across the cavern again. “People! The marines will be right back. You all will get out in plenty of tim e. But you have to stay where you are. You will only get lost if you leave the cavern or run down by a loaded marine or bot as they are leave or head back down here . I am issuing orders not to pick up anyone that leaves the cavern. I mean it . Y ou cannot make it out on your own. Don’t try. ”
“Bullsh it!” The woman Mark had dragged back to the center said. “The main tunnel to the other towers is only a hundred yards away. I can make that in a few minutes.”
Mark shook his head. “The bots sealed the main tunne ls off with plasticrete when they took control of the tower. Fact is they sealed off all the main transportation tunnels into the tower. So sit your fat butt down and shut up. As it is , you will be one of the last to leave as will anyone else that causes trouble. So just sit down and shut the fuck up.” Mark turned back to the pedestal as something moved in one of the tunnels behind him.
Whipping around with his assault gun up Mark made sure the safety was off . Only to have marines start pouring out of the tunnel with
p P ilotless p P latforms (that had stayed folded to fit through the tunnels) started arriving with more marines mixed in the mass of marines and bots and bots . Marines and bots started throwing the nearest hostages onto the platforms (now expanding lingthwize but still folded narrow), pilling dozens onto each of them before the platform quickly headed out a separate tunnel. Mark wondering if the lengthened sleds could make it around all the corners.
Deciding that Mickey must have certainly checked already . Breathing a sigh of relief, Mark stared at the Ai-Control er sitting on the top of the Core in its little bubble. Finally shaking his head Mark jumped up on top of the AI’s tower, knelt down and started undoing latches around the AI’s globe.
“What are you doing Inspector?”
“Getting your AI ready. Anything you want to say?”
“No but I just don’t understand why you can’t see things the way I do. The world, the universe would be such a nicer peaceful place if everyone just got along and believed as I demand.”
“You know Professor getting along does not mean having to think and do as you or a few self-elected know it all’s , demand but never don’t do themselves . The problem s with most some of you egg heads and others like you in power, first you think you are so much better than everyone else that you don’t have to obey even your own rules for the masses.” Mark stood up and reached down beside the shiny dome. Grabbed recessed hand holds and jerked up as he straightened. The dome with a foot round module sticking about 2 feet down came up in Marks hands.
The little ball eye
s looking at Mark as they came level with his head. “What are you doing. doing? I have never had my biological module removed from my AI before. Is this really necessary?”
“Yap. A requirement according to the contract you agreed to. Didn’t you read it?” Mark smiled since neither Mickey nor he had given him a contract to sign.
“Yes I read it but I do not remember anything about removing my biologic AI to transport me to my new home. Now I do not have access to my AI.”
“Now Professor , don’t tell me you forgot the details already?” Mark sat the life support module on the case then dropped jumped down to the floor, turned around grabbed the module and walked over to the comm pedestal. Letting the Professor’s bio module swing in one hand, its eyestalks whipping around as it swung, Mark he reached up with his free hand and took off the flat plate covering the top Mickey’s slid . Unscrew ing ed a plug on the top Mark peared peered down the small hole befor e blowing out any dust on the connection with his breath. Then with both hands at arm's length. He placed the professor’s bio-module onto the pedestal, moving it around until it clicked into place. Taking a deep breath , Mark slapped looked at the side of the dome on top of the module to make sure it was solid . “Well professor do you see anything?”
“Why yes. I am the tower again . I can see everything but it looks different. The floors are all empty. Where are all my hostages?.. Oh there they are. What? Transports. 21 of them, no, 22. Where did they all come from? You don’t really need to evacuate them now you have control of the bombs.”
“Have you noticed the smoke and the fire yet Professor?”
“ Oh Yes. So what? I have known about the fire since it started. How long before you get the fire put out? And how come I did not see you evacuating the people to the platforms. Oh and you have the trains running already. I thought I had them permanently disabled. My, you even have people on top of the train cars. Is that not dangerous? I would never have permitted that. They should be jailed for such stupidity. Much too dangerous. Someone could get hurt. I will make sure those responsible are su ed into poverty. I do not understand. You should execute the person that is letting those people risk their lives on the top of those trains.”
“Your type stopped amazing me years ago Professor.” Turning to survey the emptying cavern Mark turned back. “Mickey, how is the fire progressing?”
“I estimate about 5 minutes for the fire to reach the first bomb love.”
“What? The fire can’t be that bad? I see no fire fighters. Oh yes. Why so few? I can only see a few firefighters. Why are there not more firefighters fighting the fire? You English cut most of the feeds on the floors you were defending but why are you letting it spread through down into the floors my bots controlled. Why can’t I see more fire fighters around the bomb containers I had planted to bring down the tower? And why are they not seeming to be doing much good.”
A platform slid to a sto p next to p next to the AI cabinet Tower. Mark turned from the Professor and grabbed a strap off the platform. He fastened it to the top corner of the cabinet . Then He placed another strap to the corner on the opposite side. And two more on the other corners.”
“Why do you not have more personnel fighting the fire Inspector ?”
“Because it is a lost cause. The fire raged too long without you fighting it with your bots when you controlled the floors and then while we fought your remote bots when we were taking control.” Mark gathered the straps into a bundle hooking them together with a D ring above the AI tower and then climbed up on top of the tower cabinet . “They are just trying to delay the inevitable buying time to finish loading the transports. And evacuating your hostages down here.”
A platform split from the line of platforms entering the cavern and drifted up to and stop ped over M ark standing on the tower. Mark hooked the D ring to a hook that appeared below. Then dropped over the side to the floor.
The platform ’s ’s coils whine increased, lifting the tower up to slide it onto the platform Mark had taken the straps from. The hook released and the D-ring dropped , the straps draped over the tower. Grabbing the D-ring, unscrewing the pin then taking one strap at a time Mark fastened them down to the platform as the lift dropped down to land next to a bunch of wounded laying on the deck a few hundred feet away. Finishing tying the tower down, the platform slid over to the side and Mark started adding wounded around the tower until there was no room left. Closing the back rail and checking the tower core and the wounded. Mark jerked the straps holding the tower down again tigh t.” There you go sled . Off with you and this piece of junk. ” T t and t hen Mark kicked the platform in its rear bumper giving it a push to help get it going.
Mark watched the sl ed slid across the cavern then tested his suit’s lift coils for a few second before s and then settl ing ed back down beside the Professor. “If you had bothered to fight the fire instead of worrying about keeping your hostages and killing troops humans , you could have saved the building. But you didn’t. It did not fit in with your true agenda.”
“Ok, I am ready to go.” The professor’s eyes followed the AI tower on its platform as it left the cavern. Then turning to Mark. His eyes seamed to tip sideways before looking away. “I am not going am I.”
“No you are not. Your contract spells out that you stay with the building tower for now . If it survives you survive and go to prison until they find a buyer for you.. If the tower falls, you.... well... You get it. After all you are a professor. An educated man educated in one of the most prestigious liberal universities in the Empire before the cleansing war bombs destroyed your your ultra - pacifist Communist indoctrination brain washing mill almamater.” Mark turned taking a few steps to help load wounded on a platform.
“Is there anything I can say to change your mind Inspector?” His eyes studied Mark. A spark glinting in them. “I have great wealth stashed away for emergencies like today. I can give you much more than what they will pay you for my AI. All you have to do is take me off of this planet. I am an AI Controller and worth many times more than a stupid AI tower. I can be plugged into any tower who has lost its controller and there are a lot of them. Take me and I will make you rich beyond belief. You will never worry about credits for saving stupid AI towers ever again.”
Mark smiled as the platform lifted and drifted toward the tunnel. Then he turned back to look at the professor. “Ok and where are these credits hidden at? Oh , don’t tell me that I have to take you off this mud ball rock and then you will tell me. Give me a treasure map. Grant me three wishes . , f ull fill Fulfill my every dream.” Mark walked away surveying the cavern , counting who was left to leave as a stream of marines and platforms continued to swoop through grabbing the nearest hostage or two and leaving .
“I have a bank account on Venus Sagway with Credit, Biggits and Greeds, I will give you the account number now if you premise to take me with you.”
Mark turned back as a little ball landed on his shoulder. “Pity. I doubt if you really have the number memorized and I don’t see any pockets on you. But rest assured now that I have the place and name I can get the number from your old AI. The money will go back to the people you took it from.” Mark turned away and stopped. “Well their descendants.”
Mark suddenly smiled, t T urning back to the Professor . “My, that is a big black hole. Heck you could have bought a whole planet and made your own Communist Utopia with the millions of university brain washed volunteers to colonize your planet if that was really possible. (Mark knowing that every communist communal colony ever started failed unless they quickly changed to embrace free trade as well as low taxes and property rights .) Yet you insisted on destroying worlds and trillions of lives. No, the truth is you killed and destroyed because you liked the power Communism gives you and not because of a dream. As with most Megalomaniacs, the name was just a convenient excuse so people would blindly follow and give you the power you needed to destroy and force others to your demands.”
“As are most feel good causes
tha t are that are usually high jacked by greedy assholes like you, based on feelings and wishes and half truth not facts to control masses of people. They make the believers easy prey to ruthless thieves and murderers who care nothing for what they say or the lives they ruin and end. All in the name of some fantasy couse cause . I dea ’s the masses would never back unless lied to. From saving a microbe that will eventually die anyway or already alive where paid cronies refuse to look while lying and accusin g a group of people or even the whole planet s popu latioin that they are at fault for something they have no control of or created. Lying about s omething simple like crime or poverty or climate change. Lying about a nyt hing and everything to destroy and drive people into poverty to force people to redily submit to becoming slaves. "
Mark shook his head as he frowned. "I do not like killing anyone but my A.I. is right. If I left you alive, you would be lucky to spend 10 years in a prison box. Some feel good liberals with money and a fantasy for a Utopia that cannot exist in reality or simply want to take over the world , will buy your freedom with the excuse that you have paid your due and then given an AI and you would again continue to enslave and kill billions. Your own AI has recorded your body count at over 6 trillion lives taken on the many planets you controlled. That does not count the trillions on the planets that relied on you and your planet’s support indirectly because of you in the name of, (For the Good of the People or to save a Cockroach or germ) killed your planets industries to drive their people into poverty . It is amazing how Economic Impact Statements for the policies you enacted by Congresses and the Courts never cared about the human lives they ruined and killed. But then that was the only way you could kill jobs, create poverty and get control of the masses.”
Mark watched the last platform disappear up the a tunnel as he walked around the cavern examining the piles of castoffs and bundles. Checking for anyone that was left behind even though Mickey and Alice told him that no one was left. Mark realizing that he was hanging around trying to convince himself to do what was right. What he knew need to be done even though he did not like having to murder ev en a mass murderer.
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