Margo Flint and the Last Soldier

by Nick Mazmanian

  “The cube that you saw floating in the air earlier. Coming into proximity with me activated my retrieval mechanisms and your human presence allowed me to function once more.”

  “I didn’t ask how, I asked why?”

  Talos waved its hand and switched the viewer off. “I brought you here because I require a favor of you.”

  Margo cocked an eyebrow. “What kind of favor?”

  “I need you to save me.”

  ~~~

  The walker had righted itself but without a human pilot it wouldn’t move another itch. ZiP and Catcher stood on top of the pitted and faded red steel plates that made up the roof of the machine as they watched Talos move across the valley. “My internal calculations show I will not be able to keep up with the distance of that monster’s stride.”

  “How did she disappear like that?”

  “To tell ya the truth, Fletcher, I don’t rightly know. Talos was made special.”

  “I thought you called it a ‘particle decontractor mobility device.’”

  “I tend to embellish what I don’t know, Harry taught me that.”

  “Be that as it may, we still need to catch up to Margo.”

  The red eye of the robot scanned the area from their vantage point and pulled his hat down tight. “Susan.” He pointed at the clipped on A.I.’s lens that was hanging on his chest. “Do you trust me?”

  With each step Catcher watched his charge move farther and farther away. “I do, but isn’t the outpost some distance away?”

  A bit of swagger rolled up in ZiP’s voice modulator, “Why do you think they called me ZiP?” The soldier leaped from the top of the walker and bolted into the forest. As he barreled through the thicket of tree trunks, avoiding the various small furry creatures that lived along the way, a large puffy squirrel landed on his shoulder and started squeaking. Looking at the newcomer while seamlessly moving through the area, ZiP responded to the creature saying, “Ain’t got time for that right now Laras. I’m on a rescue op!”

  The squirrel made a rebuking squeak sound.

  “Once this is all set and done I’ll get that tree fixed. Pardon the destruction, not my design at all.”

  She squeaked in return.

  “They did not! I told the committee that they are not to move until I said so!”

  A moderately sized branch smashed against Catcher. Leaves and bark embedded themselves in his carrying case, prompting the A.I. to shout, “Focus ZiP!”

  “Can’t upset the locals!” Laras nodded and caught a gust of wind onto a nearby tree branch.

  “You’re going to have to explain how you do that.”

  “If you have an extra hundred something years, I could teach ya.”

  “Just keep your conversations to a minimum, I’d like to avoid taking any more branches to the case!”

  The duo glided along the rough topography and stormed into the clearing of Outpost 521. ZiP didn’t stop until he halted at the loading chamber for the giant cannon.

  Catcher’s lens looked over the rusting piece of equipment. “You’re sure this will work?”

  The robot tore off the dusty protective covering of the control panel built into the base of the gun. “More sure than I am of our other options.”

  “What other options?”

  “Exactly. Let’s get crazy.” His hands turned on the system and waited for the ancient hardware to boot up. As soon as the command window opened, his fingers began to mash away at the noisy mechanical keys, inputting information at a rate that made the ancient computer struggle to keep up. As he typed, the motors for the canon whirled, and began to calibrate the giant barrel.

  ZiP casually detached his left arm, which held itself upright as it to continue typing on the keyboard, and marched himself over to the sighting mechanism.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Multi-tasking.” The robot aimed the sight over the walking giant in the distance and programmed the sight to follow the moving target. He started toward the munition stocks at the base of the cannon, but halted his progress as something caught his attention. He returned to the sight and zoomed in farther toward the left facing arm platform of Talos to find tiny bits falling off the walking tank. “She’s breaking apart.”

  Horror slipped into Catcher’s synthetic voice, “What?”

  “Appears our little dance did something. Shows what time can do to just about anything since if Talos were in its prime we’d probably be a crater.”

  “Great ghost...”

  ZiP loaded a starburst round into the chamber, threw the hatch closed, and turned toward his still typing arm. “We set?” The arm pushed itself off the keyboard, tossed an ‘a-OK’ sign, and magnetically returned to its socket as ZiP began to climb past the hand-painted “Screaming Susan” on the side of the cannon. The excitement in his voice was apparent as the duo neared the top as he announced, “We have thirty seconds.”

  “Wait! How am I going to survive this?”

  The soldier pulled Catcher from the pack’s shoulder strap, ditched the bag, and opened a plated section in his chest. “It’ll be dark, but you’ll be okay in here.”

  “‘I’ll be okay’? We’re going to be shot out of…”

  “No time for chit-chat, clocks ticking. Don’t worry, I’m made of tough stuff.” He placed the A.I. in the cavity and closed it. He then looked down at the black hole beneath him, patted his hat tightly around his head, and leaped into the darkness. “Jeronimo!”

  Seconds later a thunder clap erupted, sending dust and rust from the cannon as two projectiles were launched into the grey colored sky.

  Chapter 16- One minute to midnight

  Violent winds pounded in multiple directions along the top of Talos, causing ZiP’s lightly scorched long brim to flip up and down wildly. The two artificial entities made their way up the missile tube which comprised Talos's left arm. As ZiP clambered onto its headless shoulders, parts and pieces of metal were peeling from the giant like fur from a shedding dog. Catcher’s carry case was magnetized to ZiP's chest, allowing his lens to explore the situation as the pair made their way across the walking tank’s shoulders. “How do we gain access?”

  “We can’t without an access cube. This thing was built to be impenetrable. But…” ZiP knelt at a crusty covered panel and magnetized his frame, securing himself in place. “...if you know where to look, you can communicate inside.” Pulling the revolver from its holster with a flourish, ZiP took aim at a hatch, and fired all six rounds in rapid succession. Emptying the spent shells, he slammed the chamber shut as the smoke cleared and showed that the metal hatch was only slightly dented.

  Holstering the gun, his single red eye looked between his two hands. The metal fingers were blackened and battered, but after a moment his left one curled into a fist. “This is gonna suck.”

  He raised his fist and began pounding at the metal plate.

  ~~~

  “What do you mean you need me to save you?”

  Talos walked around Margo and motioned toward the left wall. “Do you feel that swaying?”

  “Yes.”

  From the left wall a liquid growth reached out and formed a miniature model of Talos. All along the sides of it tiny tabs with red outlines pointed to the different body parts of the headless death machine. “The sunset key you brought me allowed me to access my movement systems. Even though you did fire on me, it shouldn’t have been enough to do anything to me. It appears the moisture from laying in the hold of that accursed ship has damaged me far more than any bullet could.”

  Margo looked over the model and touched the right arm tab. The display zoomed in on that part of the model and highlighted the parts involved with the right arm. Some were colorized red, others yellow, and a few green, but it was clear that the yellow and red were winning. She looked at the shifting mass and asked, “Why not just stop moving?”

  “At this point, my systems would not be able to withstand a full stop, so I’ve set my pace at 1/3 my speed.” The room swayed
again. “My death is only a matter of time and when that happens, yours will not be too far behind.”

  Her voice fluttered nervously as she asked, “What, do you mean by that? Can’t you just blinky thing me out of here like you did to get me in?”

  “I carry a payload of over 800,000 tons that includes traditional explosive rounds, nuclear material, biochemical based ammunition, and fuel cells. If I fall then so will the rest of the valley and your home village of Artsiv. And the clouds above will not shield it from the death I carry.”

  Hearing her village name from the cold voice of Talos made a shiver crawl up her spine. “I thought if you fell over the distance that you are tall that you wouldn’t explode.”

  “Did ZiP say that?” Annoyance tinged Talos’ voice.

  “Yep.”

  “Remember, this is a robot that shot you down because some HQ in his head said he should.” She sighed and turned toward the monitor to see a map of the valley. Starting from the center marked ‘Talos’ a red circle grew outward and as it reached out of the valley the section of the map showed Artsiv and the surrounding villages backing up to the sea being caught inside of it. A sense of dread filled Margo’s gut and leached into her face as she glanced away from the monitor. Talos pressed on,“It is horrible, I know, so help me…”

  “Why? If I take you away from here, wouldn’t your body still fall apart?”

  “This is hardly the time to argue semantics.”

  Her voice grew impatient as she said, “No, now is the time to have that discussion. You pulled me up here, tell me you need me to save you or else everything I know is going to die.” She motioned toward the map on display. Margo’s mouth started to slow down as her brain moved faster. “And then...you pull up a nearly identical copy of my map that you have never seen...” Finally the truth dawned on her. “You weren’t completely deactivated, were you?”

  “Let me remind you that it was you and that nutty robot that damaged me in the first place!”

  “Even if we didn’t, you stated that being in the hold has damaged you more than any bullet can. At most, we’ve only made the future happen faster. Now answer my question, were you completely deactivated?”

  Talos hesitated as it began to answer. “No, I had subsystems that allowed me to do research and keep busy while I waited to be activated.”

  “Do you know how long that has been?”

  “…over 800 years.”

  “And how long have you been in contact with ZiP?” Her question silenced her host as she continued. “Being HQ for 800 years must have been trying.”

  Talos responded, “HQ is long gone. It would be impossible to bring that back.”

  “And you were able to summon a tree you’ve never seen because I could picture it in my mind.” Margo pointed at her mother’s tree in the corner of the room. “What was your title again?”

  “I am Talos ArmorForce VG-31, mobile weapons platform, subterfuge generator, and maker of fine spaghetti.”

  “Subterfuge generator, meaning, you’re a liar?”

  The monitor that first appeared stopped displaying images and leaked back into the wall. Talos’ formless mass turned toward Margo and declared flatly, “I am going to repeat this only once: You have to save me to save yourself.”

  “Why would I do that? You haven’t spoken the truth once since I got here. You displayed a copy of my updated map that only ZiP could have seen and you’ve even been lying to him for apparently 800 years!” A pool of the black liquid formed from the floor underneath Margo, knocking her off balance, and catching her in a chair that held down her hands and legs. She gritted her teeth, “You’re hurting me.”

  “Good.” Talos walked closer to her as the black liquid took the shape of ZiP and his voice as it said, “I am tired of playing games with you. I figured sympathy might have worked, because curiosity got you to this point, but I guess we have to move to more forceful methods.”

  “You can’t hurt me, you’re an A.I.”

  Talos returned to its original form. “Oh, and that stops me how? Listen and listen good. I need to live and that only happens if you let it happen. So, could you let it happen?”

  The bindings around her wrist grew tighter as Margo resisted against them. “Why do you even need me?”

  “The human mind is the only lifeboat available to me. A part of my programming includes self-preservation so that no data is lost in the event of a pilot’s death. If that were to happen, the Talos A.I. can then download into the mind of the dead soldier, providing of course that their brain is intact, and vital organs, thus kicking starting them back to life long enough to get myself to a proper storage facility. Nothing in this valley could hold me, until you and your little friend flew over.”

  A black ooze reached up, pulled Margo’s head against the back of the chair, and formed a cage around it. She remained defiant. “You told ZiP to shoot us down.”

  “And I even pinged the cube in Outpost 521, right as you were glancing at it.”

  Margo felt sick, but knew that stalling until she could figure something out was her only choice. “How… you can see through his lens, can’t you?”

  “Being able to see the world change over time was one of the only reasons I haven’t gone completely mad. Sadly, my visual escape was tied to P.D.113.”

  “ZiP was your only contact for a while then?”

  “There were many of his model in the valley once the humans had died. One by one they went offline, leaving just…him.”

  The room swayed as Margo jumped at the opening left to her. “ZiP can go on, can’t he?”

  “And about those stupid books too! Who gives a damn about Harry Marsh?! He kept calling HQ, going over synopses and reading that drivel.”

  “He said you were feeding him intel for his patrol.”

  “That's a lie! He was constantly calling me! I even stopped pinging him but he just kept talking.”

  “It sounds like he was just lonely.”

  Talos’ voice exploded, shaking Margo's chair. “He wasn’t the only one! We were left behind by the humans. Left to rot on the ground. The only benefit of being dead or deactivated is that time no longer matters, but I was aware; I knew time was passing and the only contact I had with it was his stupid, red, eye!” Talos walked over and lingered over Margo’s strapped-in head. Its oozing black body looked like the surface of a pond allowing the captive pilot to see her reflection. “Now that won’t be the case anymore. Let me inside your mind, Margo.”

  “No.”

  “Okay.” A stabbing sensation surged through her muscle system making her face contort. She began to cough as the pain stopped. “That is part of my interrogation algorithm. Set 1, level 0. I have 11 sets with over 80 levels to go through. We’ll find the one that makes you change your mind.”

  Cutting through the mood of the room a speaker on the wall formed and the voice of ZiP barked through a cacophony of noise in the background saying, “Margo, Margo, this is ZiP and Catcher. We’re here, are you not dead? Press the big red button next to the speaker to respond if you are not. Over.”

  Talos turned toward the box, walked over to it, and as he raised his hand to press the call button his head morphed into a beautiful blonde woman with immaculate hair and makeup. Turning her head toward Margo, the black liquid molded over her mouth. When she spoke into the speaker, her voice was smooth as she said, “P.D.113 what are you doing here? Over.”

  “HQ? Are you inside Talos? Over.”

  “What does it sound like soldier? Now clear the line, we are in the middle of some important business. Over and out”

  Just as she said ‘out’ Margo screamed a muffled yell as loud as she could. The female head of HQ glared at her as ZiP replied, “HQ, was that a scream I heard?” Right as Talos pressed the call button she screamed once more. Frustrated, the pretend woman let go of the button. “HQ, why did you want Margo? Over.”

  Talos pressed the button in to answer, only to have a sudden shift in the room pull her
away from the comm. As it tumbled toward the far end of the room, the black chair that was holding Margo down splashed into a puddle. Getting to her feet, she looked over at the mess that was Talos as it tried to regain its shape but kept drifting into different forms and people. Becoming aware that something was still touching her head, she rubbed and found a metal band around it. As her hand wrapped around it, Talos's collapsing mess reached out to her with half of ZiP’s body saying, “No. no…” With a wrench, Margo tore the band off of her head.

  Margo opened her eyes, her real eyes. She was laying down in a chair surrounded by monitors. The room she was in was about the same size as the white one. It appeared to be a well-lit command room and attached to the roof was a set of mechanical arms, no doubt used to carry her into her seat. She found a worn-out picture of a smiling woman pinched next to one of the metal framed technical readouts. Scrambling out of the seat, she found beyond the chair was a set of monitors carrying different readouts on the health of Talos. All of them were flashing different portions of its body red. Sitting between the chair and the far wall monitors was a pedestal that held the sunset key. She turned toward where the call box was in the previous room and started toward it. Another lurch launched her at the worn out metallic mesh speaker. Blaring alarms began filling the air and she desperately pressed the red button. “ZiP, I’m here. How do I get out?” She released the button and strained her ears against the alarms to hear only static. “ZiP?”

  “You have to say ‘over’ when you’re finished talking. Over.”

  Her nostrils flared at his commitment to protocol as she calmly pressed the button. “How do I get out of here?… Over.”

  “Talos is falling apart. You must deactivate it or else you’re going to go splat when its legs give out. An emergency shutdown will lower itself safely. Over.”

  “What about its payload? Over.”

  “Readouts up here show this Talos was never armed. All munitions would have been stored on the Zenith. Per the brilliance of the Republic’s leaders! Over.”

  A sigh of relief escaped her lungs as she muttered to herself, “Subterfuge generator indeed.” Margo pressed the button in once more. “How do I deactivate it? Over.”