by James McEwan
Four men came storming through the hole. In the smoke, the point man saw the outline of Rhonda’s metal body and fired his laser rifle. Instead of burning a hole in her, it reflected back at the shooter and hit his gun. The gun turned red, then white, before it exploded in his hand killing him. His torn and bloody body fell in front of the others. The man next in the stack did not have time to get out of the way and tripped over the body of his teammate. The last two members of the team popped their jet belts for a second and jumped over both bodies.
Outside, the PML team had landed. They dropped the empty tubes and took up their rifles to provide rear security. They had no idea anything was going wrong inside. Things seemed quiet. Suddenly they felt vibrations beneath them. Before they figured out what was happening, the ground fell out from beneath them. One of the men was faster than his partner who disappeared into the hole that had opened in the sand. The other man shot up like a rocket. He had activated the jump jet in emergency mode, which kicked the jet on full.
He did not hear it, over the noise of the jump jet, the sound of a heavy steel cable with an arrowhead striking the jump jet. As the head of the cable made contact, four spikes popped out and held firm when the line went taut. Unfortunately, the connections on his straps did not hold. The metal pins sheared off as the jump jet stopped its upward motion. The jump jet may have stopped going up, but the man didn’t.
Once he ran out of upward momentum, gravity took over. He fell back, landing with a sickening crunch of bones shattering. The force of the landing damaged the power supply on his suit’s camouflage and it shorted across him. The high voltage moved through him. His body tensed up and he made a strange wailing cry as the air was compressed out of his lungs by his muscles contracting. The voltage also moved through the kill chip in his head, triggering it and killing him.
His partner fell through the ground and landed on the floor of the newly dug tunnel. His fall was not far enough to do any damage, but it was enough to stun him for a few seconds. That was all the time Freya needed. She fired the grappling gun. Once it hit, she dropped it, not worrying about the man on the steel tether. Freya pulled out a combat knife, and pushed a button on the hilt. A greenish glow flashed down the edge of the blade. The slight hum it made was all too familiar to the man on the ground. A force blade was capable of cutting through just about anything. At least she was quick. The man did not feel much before he died.
Up top, the remaining team members were in disarray, screaming, trying to figure out what just happened. The team leader watched all this unfold and was trying to get his men to pull back, but before he could give the command, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning, he saw a beautiful, pale skinned, green-eyed woman whose long black hair floated about the shoulders of the long black body suit she wore. “Hello, I’m Eve. You threatened my family, now you are going to pay.”
He reached for his sidearm, but there was no way he could match the speed of Eve’s robot body. Her punch landed right on his temple. He went out like a light. “My work here is done,” She picked him up, threw him over her shoulder, and walked back into the tunnel.
The last three men of the assault team regained their feet and pulled together. Unaware that the rest of their team were dead they moved forward staying on mission They made their way down the hall, with two men facing forward and one backward pulling rear security. Coming to a corner, the leader held up his hand to stop. He pushed a button on his vest and a small floating camera popped off the side of his jet back. It flew around the corner and fed video back to him. It was all clear, no one in sight; he then made a quick check of his heartbeat scanner, showed nothing ahead, so he gave the command to move forward.
As soon as the last man rounded the corner two tiles in the ceiling came crashing down, one at the front and one at the back. The two troopers up front shot up into the ceiling. The man in the back did the same thing. They fired several times, dust and fragments from the ceiling tiles filled the air, but nothing else happened.
On the other side of the wall Thad and the twins stood with submachine guns at the ready. Thad was hoping that Eve’s bio damping field would be strong enough to hide their heartbeats from the enemy scanners, or the trap wouldn’t work. With his eye in x-ray mode Thad watched as the men came down the hall. Once they were in the right spot he pushed a button on his wrist control pad, which set off two small charges in the ceiling, sending the tiles to the ground. When the puzzled troopers stopped firing, Thad yelled, “Now!” Thad and the twins opened up, spraying the wall with a deadly hail of bullets.
The men on the other side of the wall never knew what hit them. One second they were looking up shooting, the next the plastic wall erupted with hundreds of what felt like angry bees. Men screamed and blood flew as they were cut down. Their lifeless bodies, torn to shreds by the firestorm, lay on the floor of the hallway. The walls were sprayed with blood, and the scene a horrible reminder of the art of war.
Eve returned with the unconscious body of the team leader over her shoulder. She took one look at the bodies in the hall, “Oh dear, what a mess.”
Thad looked at her, “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
“Maybe we should put no trespassing signs up, to keep out unwanted visitors,” Eve marched past Thad.
“Yeah, trespassers will be shot is more like it.” Fiona said. Freya walked down the hallway, into the smoke filled room. She tripped and fell over what was left of Rhonda’s love-bot body, “Shit!”
Rhonda had been lying there, not moving, trying to conserve her power, but when Freya fell over her she powered up enough to talk to her, “Who is there? I can’t see. I don’t have enough power to run the eye cameras.”
Freya picked herself up and looked down at the mass of metal and burned plasta-flesh, “Rhonda is that you?”
“Yes, I’m heavily damaged. Some kind of explosion I think,” her voice wavered and cracked as she tried to talk.
“More like a missile or two, I’m surprised this much of your body is still in one piece. You should see what is left of the vehicle you arrived in, blown to bits.”
“Oh no, Andy” Rhonda let out kind of a moan.
“Oh God, there was someone in there with you?”
Rhonda was making a crying sound, “Yes Andy, he was dropping me off.”
Freya sat down next to her, “Rhonda I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. Rhonda, are you crying?”
“Yes, or least I’m trying to, the tear ducts were burned off by the fire.”
“Well don’t you worry. We will get you out of this body and back to your bike in no time. I promise we will find the remains of Andy so they can be returned to his family for burial.” Freya said.
“He was such a great guy. I really got to experience what it was like to be a human. I’m going to miss him something terrible.” Rhonda said her voice weakening.
Thad entered the damaged room, found Freya sitting near a pile of twisted metal and burned goo. “What are you doing?”
Freya looked up, “It’s Rhonda. She was next to the vehicle when it took the missile. She’s in bad shape.”
“Damn it. Eve, Rhonda’s body got heavily damaged. We need you in the damaged section right now!”
“I’m on my way down, Rhonda what’s your status?” Rhonda rattled off a laundry list of system failures. Eve physically walked into the room, she came over and bent down and started working on the torso. After a minute or two Thad lost track of time.
Eve spoke, “There is nothing I can do for her. She is trapped in there.”
Thad looked worried, “What do you mean trapped? Can’t we just download her to the bike?”
“She is so badly damaged her wireless systems are destroyed and the hard connection is melted. She needs to stay powered up, but the dimensional power supply was damaged. The link has been cut. She is running on back up batteries, which are cracked, and leaking. I would connect her to outside power, but the connections are melted.” Eve said as tears started to form
in her eyes.
Thad stood there, arms folded, trying to understand what Eve was saying, “Okay so we replace the power connections, hook her up to power, reboot her, and keep her happy until we can transfer her out?”
Eve touched his arm gently, “Thad dear, it doesn’t work that way with AI’s. Because the AI is modeled after the human brain, it has interconnections much like your neurons, and must be powered all the time or the connections that allow the AI to exist break down right after power is lost, just like in the human brain.”
“So are you telling me she is dying?” Freya said.
Eve shook her head and tears started running down her check, “Yes, she is dying.”
Thad put his arm around Eve, “Don’t you have a backup of her programming?”
“I do, but I don’t think you understand. Rhonda was a learning AI, which means everything from the first day she was turned on until today is what made her Rhonda. Those experiences can never be replaced. I can restart her, but she would be like the way she was on day one. The Rhonda we have come to know and love would be gone.” Her crying was really convincing, Thad thought. He just hugged her. Sometimes it was hard to remember she was a computer and having a body made it even harder.
Fiona and Archie joined them. Rhonda was surrounded by those who loved her. One by one, they said their goodbyes. Thad sat down next to her. He went to hold her, but Eve told him it was no use. All her sensory inputs were destroyed. She would not know he was holding her, but he ignored Eve and cradled Rhonda’s burned broken head in his arms.
Her voice was weak. She knew she was dying, “Thad.”
“I’m here,” he said.
“I’m sorry I never got the chance to tell you how much you mean to me.” Her voice processor was failing and her voice was starting to distort and crack up.
“It’s okay Rhonda, I know. I have always known.” He was trying to comfort her.
“I’m glad you know I love you. I was made for you, and you never treated me like a machine. You made me feel, human.” Her voice was breaking up more, and it was hard to understand her. “Not long now, I’m almost out of power, but I just wanted to say it, I love you.”
“I love you too Rhonda,” he said.
Fiona said, “We all do, we all love you.”
They were stunned as they heard laughter coming from Rhonda. They looked at Eve. She shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, maybe it’s a result of the loss of power.”
Rhonda spoke again, “No, it’s not that. I was just thinking about.... Ever since I got this body, I tried to find the right way... to ask the wives if I could... If I could maybe, someday be a wife too, and now it all seems so silly, that a robot girl could become one of the family.”
Tears were in everyone’s eyes now. Fiona said, “Oh Rhonda you are part of the family, and as far as I’m concerned you are my sister wife, as much as my sister is.”
“Thank you,” her voice trailed off.
She did not speak again. Eve bent down and checked her power supply; it was gone. Thad left the room for a minute and returned with a sheet. He carefully and lovingly covered her remains.
Freya was hugging Fiona, “I can’t believe she’s gone.”
Eve was so angry she stormed off. Thad thought about going after her, but Fiona saw what he was thinking in his eyes, “Don’t, let her go. She needs to be alone.”
After Rhonda was gone, they stood there for a few minutes in silence. Thad was the first to speak, “Come on we have work to do.”
The twins retrieved body bags from the medical lab, while Thad and Archie stripped the weapons and gear from the dead. They all helped with the grisly task of putting the bodies into bags. Eve fired up the maid bots and set them to work, cleaning, and scrubbing away blood. The fabrication bots were already working on repairing the hole in the wall. The body bags were placed in the morgue. Thad remarked, “I’m glad Doctor Hammer built this,” referring to the morgue, “but I’m sad it’s seeing so much use.”
Thad had the fabrication bots make a casket for Rhonda, and then Archie lifted her remains and placed them into it. While Rhonda was being placed into the casket, Freya was outside with a slaver disintegrator, digging a grave. The fabrication bots were then tasked with making a head stone.
Thad and the twins jumped into a shower and helped each other wash the grime and blood from their bodies. Afterward, Archie was buffed to a high shine, while everyone else dressed in black. They buried Rhonda next to Doctor Hammer. It was a solemn affair and no one spoke. Afterward, Eve asked, “Do you want me to load a new Rhonda into your bike?”
He replied, “No, she was one of a kind.” Thad felt it was what she hoped to hear. “Just leave it for now and maybe later we can talk about another AI to take over the bike.”
Eve had tears in her eyes again, “You really do treat us like people.”
He put his arm around her, “To me, you are. Just because your origin is not the same as mine, doesn’t mean that you are any less of a person than I am. Just because you are living in a computer or robot body doesn’t mean a hill of beans to me.”
“Oh Thaddeus,” she pulled him close and kissed his check. “Thank you.”
He was a little floored by her reaction. “You’re welcome.” Thad said, lightly touching the lipstick that was left on his cheek.
Chapter 17
Thad tried contacting the Sheriff, but there was no answer. He then tried The Nymphia, again no answer. “Something is wrong,” he said out loud. Thad was worried because he could not reach anyone in town. He loaded up the sand crawler with gear, but before he could leave, the twins confronted him, “Just where to do you think you are running off to, Mister?” Fiona asked.
“Something’s wrong in town and I’m going to find out what it is.” Thad threw the last bag of gear into the back of the crawler.
Before he could protest, both his new wives jumped into the cab of the crawler, “Okay, let’s go,” Freya said. Thad knew better than to argue, so he jumped up next to them, shut the door, and fired up the engine.
As they approached the town, a large black plume of smoke was rising into the evening sky. The smoke was blocking the setting sun, and it made the whole sky appear blood red. Inside the sand crawler, Freya spoke softly, almost in a whisper, “Some say a red sunset means blood has been spilled this day.” She voiced what they all feared, and it was not long before they could see their worst fears were coming true. Thad parked in front of the general store, and the twins disembarked the vehicle, both carrying submachine guns. Thad went to the back of the crawler, grabbed a heavy assault rifle, and exited through the back door.
They looked around, but there was not a soul in sight. Few buildings still stood. Most of them were burned to the ground and in some the fires were still burning, “Oh my God! This place is like a ghost town,” Freya brushed a stray hair from her face and chambered a round.
“What happened here?” Fiona asked.
Thad looked around, stunned to see so much destruction, “I have no idea, but I’m going to find out.”
The Nymphia was gone. There was nothing left of it, but a smoking pile of rubble. On the other end of the street, Bob’s Fuel Tank Bar still stood. At a distance, it looked untouched. Thad pointed towards Bobs, “Let’s start there.”
As they walked towards Bob’s they noticed dark patches in the sand, drag marks, and lots of spent weapons energy packs. Thad was beginning to get a good understanding of what had happened. There had been a pitched battle fought here and the closer they got to Bob’s they could see the damage and bodies. “Sanitation,” he mumbled to himself.
Freya heard him, “Sanitation?”
“Yeah, this is the work of a sanitation team. It’s something my former employers would do. They would call in a sanitation team to kill anyone who had any knowledge of the target or witnessed something they shouldn’t have. But I can’t believe that they would sanitize a whole town.” Thad’s face grew dark and his eyes cold.
&nbs
p; Fiona placed her hand on his shoulder, “Wow! What truly evil bastards.”
“You don’t know the half of it, and from what I can remember of it, you don’t want to know,” Thad’s knuckles were white on the grips of his assault rifle.
They approached Bob’s very carefully. They started to find more and more bodies the closer they came and they were in bad condition, burned and blown apart. Thad bent down and lifted up an arm that was still in good shape. The familiar black body armor covered the arm, “It looks like a mix of town’s folk and the sanitation team here.”
Freya looked around at the nightmare in front of them, “Well, it looks like they didn’t go down without a fight.”
Thad dropped the arm, “Let’s hope our side won, and there are some people left in this town.”
A small clanking noise came from inside Bob’s, and in a flash Thad had his weapon at the ready. Without a word, he took the lead, with Freya and Fiona right behind him. Carefully they climbed the steps to the door. He clicked the rifle’s safety off, pulled the door open, and entered with the ladies right behind him. He took the center while both girls took up the right and left, their guns trained and ready.
The place was empty, “Damn it, I was really hoping they didn’t get Carl,” Freya said.
“Freya, how could you say such a thing?” Fiona was a bit shocked at her sister’s lack of concern for anyone else.
“Sorry, it’s just that I love his cooking,” she replied with a smirk.
“Shut up you two. I heard something,” Thad pointed to the kitchen area. Guns instantly snapped back to the ready, but nothing moved, nor was there any sound, save for their own breathing. Thad was moving slowly towards the back room, when a loud crashing from the back which caused him to freeze, posed ready to strike.
