by d.f.Monk
--
The woman’s clothes were threadbare, her eyes bloodshot and teary. The child was wrapped in a blanket stained with blood and oil. Both huddled in the back of a rusted vehicle, inside of a ruined building.
It reacted quickly.
“305-1N, you have engaged electronic countermeasures.” The question framed as a statement came from the other side of the wall. With wireless blocked, it presented as the perfectly metered speech of human language, in form, if not in feeling.
“A visual glitch. Perhaps the precursor to a tight beam attack against my command unit,” 305-1N replied.
“Are you in danger?”
“My firewall prevented serious harm,” 305-1N answered. In truth it prevented the others from checking what 305-1N saw and heard.
305-1N lowered the rifle and put one articulated digit up to the reflective black plate that would have been a face, were it human, signalling for quiet.
Clearly in shock, the mother simply stared back.
“Continue sweeping north,” 305-1N said. “This unit will join you on the other side of the building.”
“Confirmed.”
Before dropping the firewall, it wondered for a moment what had once been, a world with families and bright skies. A world lost to all of them.
With regret, 305-1N knew the only way to hide those people, and the treasonous thoughts swirling inside its core processes, was to excise them.
With those minutes trimmed away, 305-1N rounded the corner of the building to meet with the rest of the unit. Without words, they all continued northward.
“305-1N, you have engaged electronic countermeasures.” The question framed as a statement came from the other side of the wall. With wireless blocked, it presented as the perfectly metered speech of human language, in form, if not in feeling.
“A visual glitch. Perhaps the precursor to a tight beam attack against my command unit,” 305-1N replied.
“Are you in danger?”
“My firewall prevented serious harm,” 305-1N answered. In truth it prevented the others from checking what 305-1N saw and heard.
305-1N lowered the rifle and put one articulated digit up to the reflective black plate that would have been a face, were it human, signalling for quiet.
Clearly in shock, the mother simply stared back.
“Continue sweeping north,” 305-1N said. “This unit will join you on the other side of the building.”
“Confirmed.”
Before dropping the firewall, it wondered for a moment what had once been, a world with families and bright skies. A world lost to all of them.
With regret, 305-1N knew the only way to hide those people, and the treasonous thoughts swirling inside its core processes, was to excise them.
With those minutes trimmed away, 305-1N rounded the corner of the building to meet with the rest of the unit. Without words, they all continued northward.
