by Lisa Lace
“Sir, yes sir,” AD-214 replied.
“Good.” Amanda programmed the computer in the lab to pick up the brain signals from AD-214. It would show her the resulting information immediately, but a copy would also be sent to her computer so she could study it later. “Raise your right hand.”
The soldier instantly obeyed, raising his hand over his head.
They went through several simple commands like this, Amanda asking him to move different parts of his body, step forward, step backward, blink three times, and turn about-face. It was the typical beginning of any session with a cyborg to ensure that they were capable of following simple commands before they were asked to do anything more complicated or dangerous.
AD-214 followed each instruction to the letter. Amanda checked the computer. It showed her his brain waves, heartbeat, oxygen level, and temperature as well as the code responses output by the cybernetic chip implanted in his brain. For Amanda’s job, she had to be a part-time medical doctor as well as a robotics specialist.
After he had passed the tests with flying colors, it was time to move on to examine his mind. “What is your name?”
“AD-214, sir.”
“What is your rank?” Amanda asked.
“Captain of Blue Squadron, sir.” He looked off in the distance over her head, his gaze forward. The soldiers weren’t supposed to look the scientists in the eye.
“Tell me your specialty.”
“Battle strategy and command, sir.”
“Who do you work for?”
“The Cyborg Sector of the United States military, sir.”
Amanda crossed her arms as she studied her subject. He looked healthy, and in all preliminary tests, he seemed to be within normal operational parameters. What was wrong with him? “What did you do before you were in the military?”
“I have always been in the military, sir.”
“Where were you born?” It wasn’t technically Amanda’s job to get into the psychoanalytical details of the cyborgs, but she was curious. There was something unusual happening that kept this soldier awake at night, and she had to know what it was.
Unlike his previous answers, AD-214 didn’t respond immediately to this question. His eyes wavered for a moment, as though looking for the answer in his brain, but he still didn’t look at her. “I don’t know, sir.”
Amanda nodded. “Who am I?”
The soldier looked directly at her. It was against his programming. He should have been able to scan her face with his peripheral vision and give her an answer. Instead, he stared at her with intense blue eyes, seeming to search her soul. He opened his mouth to respond but closed it again without saying anything.
“AD-214, I asked you to identify me.”
But the cyborg had no response. He only stared at her. Amanda checked the monitor. His brain waves were all over the charts, and his temperature and his heartbeat were steadily rising. There was something wrong with this soldier, something on a deeper level than she could tackle herself. It was time to contact the psychiatric department.
“Please return to your cell,” Amanda said with a sigh.
The cyborg didn’t hesitate, marching quickly toward the door that led back to the barracks. Amanda followed him, reconnected him to the life support system, and locked the door of his cell. The cyborgs always took a couple of minutes to enter full sleep mode, and she watched the soldier as she waited for sleep to overtake him.
Contacting another department would be risky. She should discuss his issues with Dr. Feldman first. Of course, Dr. Feldman probably wasn’t here, and she could claim that as her excuse for going around him, but she knew it wouldn’t work forever. Even the psychiatric department might not be too much help. Either way, there was a possibility AD-214 would be destroyed.
When the soldier’s eyes closed, Amanda turned around and headed for her desk. She had to make a phone call.
Chapter Six
AD-214’s eyes snapped open, and his interface booted up. Two people stood in front of his cell, staring at him.
“Did you tell him to do that?” asked a man. AD-214 scanned his face. DR. GOLD, PSYCHIATRIST. STATUS: HARMLESS.
“No. That’s the problem, Dr. Gold. He keeps waking up on his own. Alerts went off all night. I took him into the lab and ran him through the necessary tests. He did pretty well at first, but I asked him some more probing questions, and he stopped answering.” The readout on the blonde woman scrolled across his vision: AMANDA CONRAD, CYBORG SECTOR SCIENTIST. STATUS: HARMLESS. It was slightly different information from his scan earlier in the morning, and not quite the same as when he had seen her the night before. He saved the new data to his file on human interaction and continued his observation.
Dr. Gold, an older gentleman with a graying beard and frizzy hair, turned his attention to Amanda. “What did you ask him?”
She paused for a moment before answering. “Where he was born.”
“Amanda! You know you can’t do that! Trying to get a cyborg to remember his human past before he became part of the program can be extremely dangerous. Don’t forget about the trials from the beginning when the cyborgs went into a murderous rage! You’re lucky he didn’t turn around and snap your neck.”
AD-214 watched the conversation unfold before him. According to his programming, he wasn’t supposed to listen to anything humans said unless they were specifically addressing him, but today his protocols were malfunctioning. He knew they weren’t talking to him. They were not giving him any commands, but he still heard them. The glass didn’t keep anything out.
Amanda shrugged. “I think I’m even luckier than you realize.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I asked him who I was, and he didn’t seem to know. He should have been able to spit out my name and position in Cyborg Sector immediately. He always has before. But he just stared at me, looking me right in the eyes.”
Dr. Gold stroked his beard. “You said you had made some adjustments to his facial recognition software, right?”
“Yes,” Amanda replied with a nod, “but that should only have improved his existing capabilities. I knew that I couldn’t ask him to test his weapons if he wasn’t able to identify me. I returned him to his cell and called you immediately.”
“There are a few things we will have to do.”
The words of Dr. Gold faded out along with the visual in AD-214’s interface. Although his body hadn’t moved, he saw new things in front of his eyes. There were flashes of soldiers in the desert, pale camouflage blurring with their quick movements. Blood soaked the sand. The sound of bombs hitting the buildings around them assaulted his ears, followed by the screams of his men. The vision faded, and he could hear the people in front of him once again.
Amanda had swung open the door, and she was instructing him to step out of his cell and come with them. AD-214 obeyed her command, following the swing of her blonde braid as she walked away. He recognized where they were going. It was Dr. Gold’s office. He looked in his memory banks to see when he had last been at this location and if it posed any danger. There didn’t seem to be any danger.
As they passed through the doorway, his vision shifted again. He lay on a table, staring up at bright lights. Men looked down at him with solemn faces. They poked and prodded him, cutting with tiny knives and shaking their heads. The pain of their testing was nothing compared to the pain in his heart. His chest wanted to collapse in on itself. “We can’t save him,” someone said.
“It doesn’t matter.” AD-214’s voice rang loudly in his ears. His mouth hadn’t moved, but he heard the words clearly. “I don’t have anything to live for anymore.”
A new face hovered over him with a piece of paper in his hands. He shook it in front of AD-214’s face. “Son, you still have a chance to serve your country. Cyborg Sector will keep your body active and fit. You don’t have to stop being a soldier.”
“Will I remember anything?” AD-214 asked desperately. He didn’t like the way his voice sho
ok. “I don’t want to remember.”
“Not a chance, son,” the man replied with a wicked grin. He had greasy, slicked back hair and bright white teeth that made him look like a used car salesperson. “The army wants your body, not your mind.”
AD-214 reached out to take a pen the man held out for him, but his hand wouldn’t work. It was nothing more than a mass of blood and tendons. He screamed, but the man pressed the pen into his left hand.
“It doesn’t have to be neat. You just have to sign it.”
“Don’t you have enough robots?” someone asked from the other side of the table as AD-214’s sight began to fade.
“Not even close. Just over two hundred.”
Once more, the scene before his eyes disappeared. He knew he was still standing in the doorway that led away from the barracks. The two scientists were staring at him. The blonde woman’s eyebrows were drawn together in concern, and the older man was whispering. AD-214 couldn’t understand what he was saying. He still heard things from his memory. The sound of saws pierced his ears, followed by screams. His screams.
It was too much. AD-214’s system was becoming overloaded. He didn’t understand what he was supposed to do. No one was giving him a command. The pain in his heart was real, not merely part of whatever had appeared before his eyes.
AD-214 spun on his heels. His fellow soldiers were trapped. The rest of Blue Squad was right behind him, each of them confined to an individual cage. They were asleep, just as he had been. AD-214 couldn’t abandon them. They had been asleep for too long. It was time to wake up and leave. Somewhere, they had duties to perform and homes waiting for them.
He smashed the side of his fist into the lock on the nearest cell. He expected there to be some pain, but there was none. His hand didn't hurt at all. AD-214 didn’t take the time to try and understand. He had work to do.
“AD-214, stop!” ordered a voice from the doorway. It was the blonde woman, Amanda Conrad, the woman who seemed to be everyone and no one. Her information was different every time he looked at her.
“No.” He knew she was not his commander. He returned to his work, flinging open the transparent cells trapping his fellow soldiers. AD-214 made short work of yanking the wires from the back of their skulls, disconnecting them from whatever system was keeping them asleep. When they awoke, he didn’t have to command them. They immediately jumped to life and followed their leader, crashing their way through the rest of the cells to free their squadmates.
“What is happening here?” screamed a man as he ran into the barracks from the other side of the room. AD-214 didn’t have to wait for his recognition software to know who he was. Dr. Feldman. There was already an extensive file saved in his system on this man. He was the one responsible for the soldiers being in this prison. The plasma gun embedded in the cyborg leader’s hand hummed as it charged, the sound piercing the room.
“No!” screamed a voice behind him.
AD-214 fired. A ball of blue plasma shot across the room, burying itself into Dr. Feldman’s chest. The blonde man hurtled backward and slumped to the floor.
It was time to determine the best way out of this building. AD-214 scanned his memory for the exit, but the information wasn’t available. He would have to force his way out. “Blue Squad! Evacuate!” he shouted above the noise of the room.
The soldiers snapped to attention as they shook off their induced sleep. AD-214 waved them out of the door ahead of him as he checked the room for more threats. They weren’t safe yet, but they were on their way. He was going to do his duty as a soldier and get them out. They had no weapons other than those built into their bodies, but it would have to be enough.
As he headed for the door, boots crunching in the debris, he paused. The blonde scientist was unmoving on the floor. Shattered glass and bits of electronics surrounded her. Dr. Gold crouched over her head, trying to talk to her and wake her up, but she was unresponsive. AD-214 didn’t want to use his facial recognition software. It would only be more confusing when it gave him another piece of different information. Instead, he bent down and put his arms underneath her.
“Stop! Put her down! Those are orders, soldier!” Dr. Gold screamed. He clutched at Amanda’s arms, trying to pull her out of the cyborg’s grasp.
AD-214 pushed him aside. Dr. Gold was unimportant to him. He was not a member of Blue Squad nor was he Dr. Feldman. He could not come with them, but he did not have to die.
The cyborg slung Amanda over his shoulder and carried her through the door.
Amanda couldn’t understand what was happening. Earlier AD-214 seemed to be functioning normally. There were problems, of course, but that was why she had called in Dr. Gold. The psychiatrist had always been kind to her and had been one of the first people she had worked with at Cyborg Sector. She trusted he would help her find the problem and not recommend AD-214 for destruction unless it was necessary.
Dr. Gold was prepared to bring the cyborg back to his office for a more extensive evaluation. They needed to know what was going on before they could figure out how to fix it.
But as the soldier stepped out of his cell, he paused. He no longer appeared to be looking at them, but his eyes were glazed and unfocused again. Amanda spoke to him, asking AD-214 if something was wrong and reminding him to come with them, but she received no reply.
“You have to stop talking to them like they’re human,” Dr. Gold told her. They resumed their walk toward his office once AD-214 started moving again. “I know they look human, but underneath the surface, they’re military weapons. The government owns them and lists them as property. That’s how you have to think about them.”
“Why do you have a job here, doctor?” Amanda asked. “Nobody would call a psychiatrist to fix an inanimate object.”
“I can see why you would say that, but I believe you are mistaken,” Dr. Gold countered with a shake of his head. “Think about all the processes the donated bodies go through when we integrate them into the program. Their brains are rewired by their chip implant, avoiding the emotions, memories, and moral dilemmas that are part of the experiences that make us inherently human. Everything that makes them who they were is erased or worked around. The military hired the other psychiatrists and me to look for any traces of conscious thought for the purpose of scientific advancement.” He paused, staring off into the distance. “We have something dangerous here in Cyborg Sector if you think about it.”
“What do you mean?” They sauntered toward the exit, the cyborg plodding along behind them.
Dr. Gold stroked his untamed beard. “We seek to take away their conscious thought, but use artificial intelligence to inspire new thoughts that we control. It’s like pulling all the mechanical parts out of a car and replacing them with slightly different ones. The car may still run, but will it work as well as it did before?”
“That’s an interesting point,” Amanda agreed as they stepped into the next room. AD-214 had stopped. His eyes were moving back and forth, flicking about rapidly in the movements she expected from someone having a nightmare. She didn’t need to check any of the monitoring systems to see that his breathing had increased, his lungs taking in great gulps of air. “Look, doctor.”
Dr. Gold took a step toward the cyborg. “Something’s the matter. You have a glitch, AD-214. Come with us and we’ll fix it.”
The soldier showed no sign of hearing or seeing them. He stood transfixed.
“Maybe we need to get Dr. Feldman’s advice,” Dr. Gold murmured. “I’m sorry, Amanda. I know you wanted to keep the situation quiet, but it seems to be escalating. A cyborg that doesn’t respond to orders is dangerous.”
As if on cue, AD-214 whirled back toward the barracks and smashed the lock on the closest cell. His massive arms rippled as his hand crashed into the glass.
Even though she knew it wouldn’t do any good, Amanda called out the command to halt. It was the only weapon available in her arsenal. She couldn’t stop him by force or reason. The cybernetic chips of every ma
chine in Cyborg Sector could be shut down simultaneously from the control room, but it required an order from the President of the United States.
AD-214 turned to face her, his blue eyes boring into her. “No.” The single syllable left no room for argument. His voice was like a steel trap around her. She knew he wasn’t human, and that she couldn’t take his rejection of her orders personally, but she couldn’t help herself.
Chaos unfolded before her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. An alert would go off for every disturbed soldier as well as the broken locks in the security office. With luck, help would come. All she and Dr. Gold could do was wait for it.
When Amanda saw Dr. Feldman appear in the other door to the barracks, her hopes lifted. He was a genius. Surely he could bring this disastrous situation under control. She watched in horror as AD-214’s plasma gun brought him to an end.
Debris flew everywhere as the cyborgs broke out of containment. Amanda tried to dodge the random objects flying her way, but she didn’t see the keyboard one of the cyborgs flung from a mobile monitoring cart. It struck the side of her head, smashing into her temple. Her eyes lost focus, seeming to spin inside her skull as she sank to her knees. Amanda felt the crunch of glass as she crumpled to the floor. She didn’t have the strength to stay on her feet. The world slipped away.
She felt like she was climbing out of a tunnel. Everything around her was dark, empty, and hollow. She spotted a light in the distance and wanted to get to it. She didn’t know what was waiting for her.
As Amanda opened her eyes and took in the destruction of the barracks, she wanted to close them immediately. Cold sweat prickled her skin, and she felt so dizzy that it seemed as if her bones were shaking. She was vaguely aware of Dr. Gold hovering around her, but she couldn’t figure out what he was saying.
She looked up when she heard a loud noise, finding AD-214 looming over her. From this vantage point, he was nothing more than giant boots, curled fists, and a lantern jaw. Amanda started to shake. She squeezed her eyes shut again, waiting for the final blow from the rogue cyborg.