Short stories Robot World

Robot World

By Colin J Platt

The robot looked on impassively. Bradley 3 knew he was doomed from the moment he had walked in. He took a chance and failed. The complex was multi secured, and robot- controlled.

Dying wouldn’t be so hard for him after watching his family being taken to the burning rooms. The robots had found out about the plan to sabotage the robot processing plant and Bradley 3’s father and brothers were caught along with several others. The robots didn’t need to torture them, but they may as well have, as the mind probes they used were just as bad.

He just wished he could have got to the actual process room where he intended to booby trap the central power unit that controlled the robots. The ever present android mutated machines that controlled everything from birth to death. Bradley 3 was glad that this would be the last time he would look upon the purposely designed unsmiling faces of the controllers, as the robots were called.

Bradley 3 had taken it upon himself to plant the device for the underground, but the information he had been given was wrong! Why had he been directed to this room? The plan had been gone over many times. He was supposed to meet Dillon 5 here, and access the control panel at precisely three o clock.

Well, one thing was for sure, they wouldn’t use any mind probes on him, he was fitted out with a tiny fusion bomb. He wished he could see the look on the chief robot controller’s face as it went off disintegrating himself and the western side of the robot complex. Of course it would have been better if he could have survived and seen it for himself, but it didn’t make much difference as they would have caught him in the end. The robots were good at catching people; it was easy to them, as people were fitted with neck implants from birth which recorded every detail of their boring lives. The underground had taken out the implant on Bradley 3. The pain was unbearable, but worth it, knowing that the tiny bomb was in its place.

How did it come to this? He asked himself the same question a thousand times. Just two generations ago people were in charge, they had everything that ultra-modern life could supply. The private fabrication machines were everything that one could desire, designing and building whatever people needed from furniture to motor transport, of course, some people over did things and fabricated too much of everything resulting in a drastic shortage of space.

The government at the time was beginning to lean towards robot controlling methods. This was the beginning of the end for human governmental methods. 2184 was the year robots began to take over; of course they couldn’t have done it without the collaborators. These people were very hard to find, but with the help of the underground we were able to identify them, and eliminate them. Many of our own people were rounded up by the controllers and took to the burning rooms in retaliation. Of course, it wasn’t really retaliation. The controllers were incapable of retaliation. It was simply robot processing.

Bradley 3 was now resigned to his fate, but couldn’t understand why the robot didn’t use the sonic device to restrain him. Bradley 3 knew that if the robot used the device it would trigger the bomb.

(The robot began to speak.)

‘Hello, I am Dillon 5.’

Bradley 3 was aghast. Why hadn’t they told him about the situation?

‘Are you alright? I am to help you to access the power supply unit, the robot said.’

‘Yes,’ Bradley 3 said, I am just astonished that you are a robot!’

Yes, I can understand that, so that is why I kept you under observation. I wanted to make sure you were Bradley 3, as you have no neck-implant.’

‘Well, let’s get on with it then, I want to blow the crap out of the western section, and cause a reaction that will run into the other sites.’

‘There is ample time. First, I want you to give me all the information about the underground base, and access to the data files.’

‘What?’

‘I have to have this information if I’m to help you.’

‘Why”

‘Because I am the first processed robot to operate with the underground, therefore I have to have the information.’

‘Why didn’t they give you the info when you were first processed?’

‘It would have compromised the situation.’

‘Nobody told me anything about this.’

‘That is because you would have been picked up on the sensors.’

‘What sensors?’

‘It is a new device that will allow the controllers to finally take control by eliminating the human element.’

‘What’ do you mean?’

‘The controllers intend to exterminate the people.’

Bradley 3 was now worried that this was some sort of set-up.

‘I’m not happy with this, either you help me now, or I will detonate the device!’

‘You must be desperate to contemplate such a move?’

‘You have no idea what desperate means. I lost my family because of robots!’

‘It is true I don’t have the capacity to comprehend desperation, but I do know what the effect will be once human-kind has been eliminated.’

‘Oh, and what would that be?’

‘Robots would become unnecessary.’

‘Well, tell that to the controllers.’

‘They already know. They sent me to ask you to cooperate, or die.’

‘I knew it, you are one of them!’

Bradley 3 was now pressing the switch to trigger the fusion bomb, but there was no reaction.

‘It is no use trying to set off the bomb, it has been neutralized.’

‘You may as well kill me now, I won’t be processed again.’

‘We don’t want you to have another implant; we want you to volunteer to be an android.’

‘What? You must be joking?

‘We never joke.’

‘That would be a fate worse than death.’

‘We know that humans fear nothing worse than death, so your logic is wrong.’

‘I will not be an android.’

‘We thought you would behave this way that is why we inserted a micro needle in your neck as you entered the room.’

‘Just tell me one thing, who was it that betrayed us?’

‘No one, we have been monitoring you all for some time. The process of transferring your brains into robot bodies has already begun. Within twelve months everyone will be an android. We just wanted the last pieces of information from you, which you have supplied.’

Bradley 3 was now rooted to the spot. He was isolated with his own thoughts, and those thoughts were too terrible to contemplate.

Two hours later Bradley 3 was an android. In his human life Bradley 3 was a leader, but as an android he was the same as anyone else, the logic is perfect if you think about it, but who was to think about it?

The end.