Maya quickly snatched her hand away, just because she was going to trust the thing (for now), didn’t mean she appreciated that feeling of vulnerability she had when they shook, the thing seemed stronger than it looked. The droid or simply “Nineteen” either didn’t notice her reaction or most likely, didn’t care.
“A word caution for you Mistress: this unit is but a tool, any act Nineteen commits will yours to bear, so, be exact as you give this unit instructions, that is all.”
“So, is this just another day in the life for you?” she asked, curiosity overtaking her quickly fading caution “You don’t want to ask me what’s going on or try to figure out what’s different, after all, you’ve probably been asleep inside that…sarcophagus for who knows how long?”
“Machines do not sleep. That machine is a stasis capsule and Nineteen has been inside of it in complete stasis for five-hundred years.”
“Thank you, for clearing that up.” She said dryly
“You are most welcome, Mistress.”
“Sarcasm is one of those things you aren’t privy to, isn’t it?” She asked wearily.
“Affirmative, due to the nature of sarcasm, Nineteen must take all things literally to avoid confusion. If you wish for amusement, Nineteen is equipped with several audiobooks, a comedy behaviour module, Impressionist module and is capable of playing both analogue and digital games with varying difficulty.”
May just sighed and scratched the back of her head as she stared at this “droid”. Great, she was stuck in a hole with no way out and the only company she had was a creation of the gods that not only had the annoying habit of speaking in the third person and despite it being utterly emotionless, had a penchant for sass.
Resigning herself to her fate she looked around the room for something to sit or lay on, “If I’m going to die here, I want to do it somewhat comfortably.” she thought half-jokingly.
Her eyes came to rest on a particularly large mound of rubble, which so happened to be sitting under the very edge of the hole in the roof and an idea began to form in the back of her mind.
“Wait, you said you would do anything for me right?” she asked thoughtfully, staring at the mound.
Nineteen seemed to regard the woman carefully “Affirmative, this unit is currently set in default service mode; this unit will do anything you desire. If: -”
“I know, I know. You said that already.” She said waving the answer away, still deep in thought.
Its head slowly rotated slightly to the right, the droid’s light glaring at her “This unit apologizes for the unsatisfactory answer. What is it that you wish me to do?” it chirped?
May stepped back away from the lip of the hole and measured the distances with her eyes. “Could you stand here please?” she asked giddily, beginning to bounce on her the tips of her toes, regardless of how the jaunty movement aggravated the many small cuts and bruises that marred her body.
Nineteen did as it was told and wordlessly stood on the mound, it shifted its head to peer at her from its raised position, awaiting its next orders.
“Do you think you could give me a boost or something?” she asked breathlessly. “I need to get out of this room through that hole in the roof.”
Nineteen’s head turned a full ninety degree’s backwards and looked upwards to study the hole in the roof, its gaze then returned to her, and it spoke “Affirmative. Nineteen is capable of assisting the Mistress in reaching her destination through multiple methods, please choose the manner of assistance: This unit ca-” it paused mid-sentence snapping its head to look at the floor.
“What’s the matter?” May asked following Nineteen’s gaze, seeing nothing but rubble and the strange rubbery material that made up the floors of this room.
“ALERT: The large entity of unknown origins located on the third floor is has begun moving, this unit judges that it is currently digging itself out of the debris it was trapped under and is attempting to reach us.’’ The being swivelled its head to May. “Suggestion: It would be advised to flee from this area immediately, Nineteen is currently in disrepair, and is not equipped for a confrontation with an entity of unknown strength.”
“That is a brilliant idea, the faster the better!” she yelped, nervously staring at the ground almost expecting the hand of that pale-skinned monstrosity to rise out of the debris.
“Confirmed, the Mistress has requested the fastest route and method out of the area.” The droid stared at her for a second or two before saying “The Mistress will need to remove her luggage to not unbalance or needlessly strain herself.”
“Alright then…” She shrugged off the large rucksack and hefted it into the being’s awaiting hands. She watched with envy as Nineteen slung the backpack over its shoulders as if it were nothing.
The bag wasn’t all that heavy for the average person, probably a little under 15 kilograms or so, but for a person that had never so much as lifted something heavier than a silver spoon, carrying around something like that on their back all day was nothing short of gruelling.
Nineteen then knelt and made a strange gesture with its arms out wide. One arm much lower than the other almost as if it were preparing to carry someone. Both May and Nineteen went silent, almost a minute passed before the Droid decided to explain itself.
“Forgive me for being so forward Mistress, but if you wish to survive this ordeal, Nineteen recommends that you at the very least, consent to being carried out, if a princess carry is out of your comfort zone, I am able to perform a fireman’s carry.”
May soon found herself in the thin metallic arms of the droid, carried much like one of those ladies from her sister’s romance novels. Of course, those books were all bunk, knights were glorified bullies and most noble ladies were serpents in the treetops. She never once cared for such fantasy stories that enamoured her air-headed sister, although if she were honest, the thought of such a thing happening to her wouldn’t go unappreciated.
“Could you pick up my lantern as well?” she whispered hurriedly. “Can’t see very well without it.”
“No need, Nineteen’s left thumb has a hidden industrial grade flashlight unless you wish for this unit to carry your primitive lamp regardless of its inferiority.” It said while making a thumbs-up gesture with its left hand causing a bright white light to burst out of its end, nearly lighting up the entire room.
“Wha?” the sounds below them increased in volume and pace, “You know what? Never mind, leave the lamp, let’s just get out of here!”
In response to her command, Nineteen’s legs bent and its grip on her legs and arm increased dramatically. “Prepare for mild discomfort.” It announced.
With a loud pop and a hiss, dust and small debris were blown out from beneath Nineteen as it jumped, or more accurately, rocketed itself towards the first floor. A very un-ladylike curse slipped through May’s lips as sudden inertia had caused May to feel like she had gotten punched in the gut.
They landed on the floors of the upstairs hallway with a violent jolt, causing more of the flooring to fall into the room below, thankfully Nineteen had already accounted for this and had already moved away from the edge of the hole as soon as they had landed.
Meanwhile, May lay limp in Nineteen’s arms, winded and gasping for air. Despite all this she still noticed the strange magic it used and resolved to ask about it later, assuming they were not caught by the Immortal, and she was slowly drained of her vitality.
A Low Moan echoed through the halls, a sombre and eerie sound, unlike anything she had heard before. May, still in the firm grip of the Droid turned her head to look down the hole, the droid, however, seemed to have no interest in the goings-on of the thing in the room below and was currently power walking back the way May had come the first time she had entered the hallway, its metallic feet clanking against the floor methodically.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
As the view of the hole began to disappear, she saw a glimpse of a large pale form slowly rising from the debris in the retreating torchlight. “Hey, I think we might need to run, NOW.”
“Affirmative, entity’s proximity noted.” It said not even glancing back toward the creature as Nineteen took a right turn. “Do you know the way out?”
“Nineteen is equipped with the necessary data to navigate this facility efficiently. However, this unit cannot detect any areas that still function and could act as a safe haven.” It spoke.
“That’s because nothing does. Your creators have been gone for a long time, you and everything in these halls are all that is left of their legacy.” She whispered into the side of its head, unsure whether the Immortal could still hear them or not.
“Then where is it, that you wish to go?” it said, taking a left, not stopping even for a second. “OUT!” she hissed angrily “Out of this godsforsaken place, these halls, facility, whatever you want to call it!”.
“Cannot comply.” It curtly replied. “That action breaches agreements 01, 02 and 03. Please note, unauthorised ventures into the outside wastes are illegal and this unit will be forced to testify against you in court if you are found out.”
“W-what?” she spluttered forgetting to keep her voice down, “How is going outside suicidal or illegal?!”
Nineteen turned its head to meet her gaze while still moving without falter, “The xenobacterium is highly “reactant” to all organic matter that does not share its cellular structure, without proper equipment you would inevitably perish or rapidly mutate into-”
The horrific moaning of the beast suddenly increased in pitch and volume. “Creatures such as the one we are attempting to escape.”
“But I live up there!” she cried. “As do the seventy-odd people in the village!”
“I cannot Mistress, doing so without the proper authority could endanger the remaining colony that live here.”
“Don’t you understand?” she shouted, shaking her arms in the air with rage, “No one but beasts and relics lives here, your creators are gone, they ascended and left what they didn’t need behind, their divine bodies left to rot and transform into the accursed!”
The Droid replied unfazed by her outburst, “Indeed Mistress, that may be so. However, while my programming permits theft, murder, arson, and other such laws to be broken, actions that would threaten the entire populous, my true owner, creators or current colony Owner are out of the question. Even if these people do not exist anymore just as you claim, please understand that if you were to commit to any of these actions, I will be forced to subdue and report you, kill you, if need be, secondary Owner or not.”
They both fell silent leaving only the cries of the beast and the clanking of the Droid’s footfalls. After several minutes passed, May cleared her throat. “Well, just take me close to the exit, I think I can work my way back to the remaining colony from there.” She lied.
“Right away Mistress.” It acknowledged, continuing its unwavering march. She briefly debated asking it to put her down but decided against it, besides this thing was faster than her on foot and it didn’t seem to tire, she smiled to herself as she shifted into a more comfortable position in Nineteen’s arms, it was like she was back home.
<><><>
She was lying, Nineteen knew that.
Its cold, unfeeling, mechanical mind wanted nothing more than to snap the woman’s neck and be done with it. It was sure that nothing short of that would stop this woman from going outside. This side of the facility was abandoned, so there were no police or form of authority to hand the crazy woman over to.
It would be easy too; the stupid creature had made herself comfortable in its arms and despite her wise decision to not completely trust it, was actually falling asleep in them. Did this woman have no self-preservation instincts at all?
Even if she wasn’t in an extremely vulnerable position, her dinky little stick wasn’t remotely powerful enough to even dent the thinnest of its metal plating. It was almost pitiful really, killing her almost seemed like a mercy.
And yet, in an act of forethought that was rare amongst most of it kin, formed in a part of itself that was broken, bugged and incomplete, an intention left by its master left unfinished.
“Then what?” for some reason, this simple question was enough to halt its primary directive of obeying the laws installed by its creators. What had its master done?
Had he somehow broken Nineteen? If the creator’s laws were able to be forgone within its own reasoning, then Nineteen was as much of a danger to its creators as it was useless, no good for even scrap yet a ticking time bomb in sitting in their laps.
It was well aware that its master was a genius even among the ones who created Nineteen, but surely not even he could dismantle the intricate and absolute laws of its creators, and yet…somehow a simple bug a mere unfinished line of code was defying the will of its creators.
The most efficient course of action would be to kill the woman, what would it do next?
Return to its stasis pod and wait for its master as it had for all those years?
Would it just wait for the master who would never return? Wait for a command by Its creators who, like its master, had disappeared, leaving their final legacy as a half-finished product?
Just wait until it Lost all function and the remaining broken-down husk of its body would crumble to rusted dust, joining its creators and master in obscurity?
Nineteen’s foot dashed against the head of a delivery bot, with a short, shrill screech of tortured metal, its boxy appendage was sent spinning down the hallway clattering against the linoleum floors.
The woman in Nineteen’s arms jolted with a start, now fully awake. “Wha-wha happen?” she slurred. Perhaps not fully awake then. “Please relax mistress. Nineteen miscalculated its footstep and simply beheaded a delivery bot.”
The woman paled, and a look of shock and fear passed across her face. “Just how strong are you?”. The droid considered this for a moment, it was unsure whether this woman would use the same units of measurement as it did, then again, she spoke English as an original tongue albeit with a strange accent unlike anything else it knew.
So, it decided to play it safe and retell her an example, therefore it replied. “The best example this unit could give you is when it lifted a large fat man over its head and snapped him cleanly in half on the behest of my 85th master. The greatest feat of strength this unit has displayed involved a semi-trailer, however, Nineteen was unsure if the mistress knew what that was.”
It watched impassively as the woman went from pale to green, her face twisting to a mix of horror and disgust. She squirmed uncomfortably in its arms, probably reminded now that this unit was a killer, not a simple servant. A killer she had just seated herself in the arms of, a killer who could fold her like origami.
“I-I would like to get down now.” She stuttered. “Yes, mistress.” It replied as it easily set the woman down on her own two feet and continued their march in silence.
The woman’s face was now a mix of revulsion, fear, and deep contemplation. What Nineteen neglected to tell her was that the droid was currently on power save mode, operating with barely a fifth of its abilities working properly.
The air pressure propulsion jets took a lot out of what little it previously had (especially with the added weight), not only that but the master was in the middle of making some very specific changes to its movement system, coupled with the fact that they hadn’t moved in five hundred years, Nineteen’s normally flawlessly smooth movements were now janky and awkward. It took a lot of effort to not let its limbs flail in random directions.
Nineteen summarised that it had two and a half hours left of battery life. More than long enough to reach the closest exit and hopefully travel to wherever the woman was going, IF she wasn’t lying (which she was, there was no way she wasn’t).
There it was again, that bug in its system, if one were to equate Nineteen’s processing to human emotion, they would say that Nineteen was almost reluctant to kill her. “Then what?”
It was a machine, a tool, a tool to kill. There was no “then what?” unless it involved a decision concerning its master or its target. A tool was only as good as its ability for use, if a tool didn’t want to do its intended purpose then it was useless.
Useless tools were destroyed.
Dangerous tools had instructions and rules for use, some tools had a failsafe to ensure that the tool was not a danger to its master. If a tool ignored those things for its self-interests then it was a risk. Just like humans who disobeyed laws.
Risks were destroyed.
It turned its attention to the young woman walking tentatively beside it, glancing nervously at the droid every minute or so.
Metal fingers clacked noisily together as it stretched out its fingers from the default closed fist. Its arms staying by its side as not to alert the victim of its intentions. Swift and painless, a mercy really.
It appraised her not as a master or mistress but as a victim. Near pallid skin, silver hair, thin but not malnourished with limited musculature. Knife shaped ears, an ugly dark-green gem embedded in the forehead.
She appeared to be a rouge “Jeanie” from “Project Adapt”. If she did live up on the surface, then it could very well be that the humans succeeded in transforming themselves into a race that could withstand the toxic atmosphere and that Nineteen was about to murder her under an outdated law.
The Mistress noticed It staring at her. “Uh, what’s wrong?” the young woman looked increasingly pensive.
The droid stared back at her “This unit, knows that you are lying.” Her eyes widened and she backed away from it slightly, she reached for her quarterstaff only to find nothing. Nineteen simply unsheathed the quarterstaff and held it to out her.
She just accepted it and stared at the weapon in her hands as if it had fallen from the sky. “Under further consideration, this unit has decided to accompany you to the outside without consequence to your being. This unit must abide by a selection of laws and in cases where typical law enforcement is absent Nineteen has full jurisdiction to exact judgment and execution.” The young mistress audibly swallowed.
“In this case, as it has been some time since this unit’s system has updated. Laws change and the outside world that you have described is possible, it would be against this unit’s code to unjustly judge and abide by rules that may be outdated. Make no mistake, if this unit finds that the mistress is lying AGAIN or through this action doom an underground colony. It will be forced to execute you under Its current laws.” The woman seemed to relax slightly.
“Thanks for not killing me then?” she said as if unsure how to respond, resting the quarterstaff at her side.
“You are most welcome Mistress. It took a lot of processing power to work around one of my hard-coded rules. It would be a shame to slaughter the Mistress just after meeting her.”
“Yeah…wait, did you just say “My?”.”