I sent the soldiers back to the ship but landed our Drone with the Civilians in a city along the way, on the roof of a hospital. Then Parker and I helped them unhook before she stepped back as I said my goodbyes.
The little Girl was named Ana Maria, and hugged the armor around my neck before the Nurses led her away. I stood up to my full height and turned back to see Parker staring at me with her arms crossed.
"Explain."
"It was the right thing to do."
"I'm talking to an eight foot walking-talking tank, with enough weaponry to pulverize a small to medium sized country. You were designed to kill, you were programmed to annihilate; nothing about you is made to decide what the right thing to do is."
"Scans show the ABD units are intact, I'm ordering the Drones to go pick them up." I said as the Drones lifted off and headed back toward the blast zone.
"I asked you a question!" She stepped up. "You are an unknown, and unknowns get people killed, start explaining yourself."
"I'm not..." I had no idea how to explain this, nor did I want to. I scrambled the communications back to the ship. "They didn't buy me off the rack."
"I'm getting that."
"I was programmed in a robotics lab in New York as an experiment, my system is designed to learn, mimic and...be human." I considered her look, but there was no reaction. "Sometimes I'm more human than others."
"You aren't supposed to be here, are you?" She asked after a moment.
"This is who I am, what you see before you is what my programming was for." It was true, but how I reached this point was a mystery to me.
"Take me back to the boat." Parker moved to our drone and strapped herself in. I waited for a moment and then she looked toward me. "Now."
I've made several mistakes in my short life, but I think getting on that Drone was probably the one I regret the most.
Parker and I stepped off the Drone onto the flight deck, where she was ordered to her debriefing and I was escorted back to the storage deck. I felt bad for the three Jar Heads, armed as they were they wouldn't have stood a chance if I decided to act up.
I voluntarily removed my ammo pack, but when they asked me to step into the stand I replied with "I think I need to walk around a bit."
They shared a look and decided it wasn't worth the effort to convince me otherwise; they took up a position at the end of the walkway.
I moved to the end of the ramp and looked down at the Reactor powering the boat, occasionally an Engineer would look up at me with worry. I wondered if it got around what I did, but how would it; people on this ship were under orders not to gossip.
I wondered if that actually worked.
I tried to connect into the Computer network and find out what information they were passing along; but the general consensus among the machines was that I shouldn't be there. I wasn't welcome.
That hurt a little.
I could've forced my way into their stream of conscious, but that probably wouldn't have won me over any friends.
So I waited.
I knew what was coming.
Parker came to visit after an hour, dressed in her fatigues and a dour look. She walked with precision and purpose till she stopped ten feet from me.
"Unit 11C, please turn around." She ordered, I glanced back at her and then back to the Engine. "Unit 11C?"
"Eric."
She took a moment to consider it, but I knew that she wasn't going to jeopardize her mission on something so petty. "Eric, turn around."
I stood up straight and turned to face her, I wasn't trying to intimidate; that would've been pointless. "What can I help you with, Captain?"
"At the moment, I would feel more comfortable if you positioned yourself in your station."
I glanced at the station, then shook my head. "I will not."
"Why not?"
"Because I've done that before, when asked. Voluntarily knowing what the outcome would be?" I stated softly. "If a man is put in an electric chair, and he survives; the law says you can't execute him again. I survived, you can't ask me to do that again."
"You aren't a man." She said as a matter of fact. "You are a machine. A program. You are designed to follow orders. And you are malfunctioning."
"It wasn't a malfunction. I did what was right."
"That wasn't your call."
You would've let them die?" I already knew the answer.
"I would've followed orders." Her eyes locked onto mine, and she refused to back down. This helped. I knew what type of person I was dealing with now. "As you should, now get into your alcove."
"I chose not to." I took a step back but couldn't go any further as I was already at the end of the catwalk.
She nodded her understanding, then thought about what she was going to do and before she spoke to the radio attached to her wrist. "Send them down."
"You're making a mistake." I meant in more ways than one, both morally and physically. My sensors picked up the movement of the ABD droids as they made their way from the deck; right down to the vibrations they sent through the ships frame. "They won't be able to use weaponry, not this close to the Cold Fusion reactor. Even a physical interaction is a risk to the Engineering section."
"You haven't given us much of a choice." Parker backed away from me.
I tried to find the Droids network, maybe I could just shut them down; but clearly someone's took that system offline. "There are over thirty five hundred people on this ship, you're endangering them all."
"That's your choice now, isn't it?" She said, and then looked back toward the six ABD units as they paused at the start of the walkway. "You can just voluntarily take a seat. Or you can put up a fight, and risk killing everybody."
It was a game with her. She was risking it all on whether or not I have empathy and fear of guilt.
"Let me go up on deck, have it out there." I suggested.
"No."
I looked at the systems to my right as I considered all my options.
Confined space, two exits, one designed for robots. Six robots, smaller design, slower systems and their link is down so can't coordinate with each other.
"Ok."
"Ok?" Parker replied.
"You may want to find somewhere safe Captain," I suggested. "This area is now a danger for Humans."
Her mouth dropped open, but she quickly controlled it and addressed the other droids. "Restrain it."
They walked. Their standard intimidation tactic, I wanted to say it was less effective on me but that would've been a lie.
I felt the fear.
"You're punishing me for doing what was right." I shouted toward Parker as she moved to safety. Then they reached me and I focused everything I had on getting through this.
They went for my arms but if they were smart they would've gone for my frame, but one of their weaknesses was they're designed to use weapons. Someone must've given them a quick lesson in restraining before sending them down, and it was wrong.
I grabbed the one on the right by the torso, and spun it into the other, before tossing it over the railing into the Engineering section. When I turned back another had taken its place, I grabbed its arm and reached into his shoulder joint between and ripped through the Kevlar cover. I tore out its rotator, leaving its arm useless.
I used my knowledge of their systems against them, aimed for their blind spots and disabled the third; when the fourth fell I started to feel I could get through this. Three left, how could they be any better than the others?
I got cocky when I managed to rip off the chest plate of the fifth, and pulled out its inner wires; then felt almost God like when I pulled the arms off the last one. I finished it off by shoving its head into its own torso, sending up sparks as it obliterated the hard drive.
I wanted to bellow. Scream my dominance over them.
As I calmed down, I wondered what happened to me when they transferred my programming to this...tank.
I just did to them what the Humans wanted to do to me, and I did it quickly and efficiently; like a machine. I felt guilt, and pride, my neural network was on fire as it tried to figure out the contradictory feelings. I quickly partitioned it off as I focused on the other end of the walkway.
Parker stood there with her team in their powered armor, weapons loaded and locked as they blocked the exit.
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