can’t be. Emotion -equipped AI programs were restricted from military use since the AI War. On the other hand, she didn’t know much about the military. “Of course I'm a scientist,” she retorted. “But I'm an astrophysicist specializing in gravitational wave anomalies.”
“Just a moment. I’m accessing the military nexus.” The mech cocked its head to one side.
It reminded Kutisha of a perplexed puppy, a big ugly metal puppy, but... Something bug-like just flew past her nose, and she let out a squeak of terror.
The only help that came from the mech was a monotone, “Accessing.”
Kutisha waved madly at the flying terror with her nexus pad and screamed, “Don’t just stand there. Kill it!”
“Accessing.”
Relentless and elusive, the flying thing dive-bombed her several times. She couldn’t really see it, but she could hear its high-pitched buzz by her ears. Terror turned to rage. She turned her focus to the mech, and hit it on both sides of its head with the pad. “Kill it! You let it in. Kill it!”
The mech’s head snapped upright. “Possible strategy formulated,” it said. With out warning, and with speed that made Kutisha flinch, the mech’s arm shot out and pinched the flying thing between his claws. “It is not a nanite. It is a culex pipiens,” it said.
“A what?”
The mech offered it to her. “A mosquito.” It pinched the legs between two claws, the wings still buzzing.
Panting, Kutisha stood glaring at the mech. “Fine. You let it in, you keep it.”
The perimeter alarm sounded again, and Prometheus’s voice spoke. “Warning: nanorobotic swarm approaching.”
With more intensity in its voice, the mech said, “Do you have high-powered microwave equipment in your lab?”
“Of course. Our graviton detector has vircator pumps.” The steadiness in her voice belied her true feelings. She didn’t want to let this thing know she was scared enough to pee her pants. Speaking about the technical side of her work gave her confidence and stability. She could finally help in this crisis. “They’re spaced every fifty meters to maintain plasma stability. The plasma is used in an interferometer to detect shifts in space-time caused by astronomical events thousands of years ...”
“Good,” the mech said, “is it tunable?”
“Yes, and you need me to tune it.”
“Affirmative.”
“Finally, I can help. Follow me.” She turned and headed down the hall. At the end lay Kutisha’s inner sanctum, the detector control room, where the white lights stayed on all night regardless of lockdown modes. The mech’s soft padded heels made slight slapping sounds, and its claws clicked on the tiled floor. Should I have had the mech lead so I could keep an eye on it? But what could I do if it turned on me? Kick it? Hit it with my nexus pad? Oh, calm yourself. I won’t even dent it. And if it wanted to kill me, I would already be dead.
“We need only one vircator,” the mech said. “We’re going to use it to create a forty gigawatt EMP. That should be enough to...”
Kutisha turned on her heels just in front of the control room. “Whoa. Can we find another way? I’m six and a half months into measuring a supernova cycle. There’s no way I’m going to let you ruin my equipment with an electromagnetic pulse and ...”
“I insist.”
“Isn't that like killing a fly with a hand grenade?” Was this mech programmed to kill everything and ask questions later? Unlike an android, no interpersonal niceties like body language were wasted on the mech's design. She could only assess its intent by words and tone. She folded her arms. "We can't create an EMP because there's a failsafe. Why don’t you wait for the next mechs to finish them off?"
“The lab is doomed.”
“They can’t get into the lab; it’s sealed.”
The mech laughed.
Laughing was something a military AI shouldn’t do. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck flare.
“Sealing this lab will give us, at best, five extra minutes, and we’ve already wasted four.”
Kutisha rolled her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. “Prometheus, check the lab seal.”
“Lab pressure is 23 shinikizo above outside pressure,” Prometheus said.
Kutisha’s lips curled in a sarcastic smile.
“And lab seal,” Prometheus continued, “is down to twenty percent. Listen to the mech.”
Kutisha’s shoulders tensed. “Prometheus, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Environmental controls are not my primary function.”
“They are now!” She glared at the ceiling. “Notify me when it drops every two percent increments.” She looked at the mech with renewed intensity. “Look, I can override the failsafe, but I’ve never created an EMP before.” She walked to the main control station, and gave Prometheus a few terse commands. A hologram of the volcano appeared with a ghostly blue ring encircling it underground. Nodes dotted the ring at regular intervals indicating the vircators. “Disable power overload failsafe.”
“Warning,” Prometheus said, “disabling failsafe can lead to...”
“Acknowledged.” Kutisha placed her hand on a white pad next to the hologram. “Override protocol: Pandora-three-Hermes-zero.”
“Failsafe overridden,” Prometheus said.
Kutisha looked at the mech and asked, “Does it matter where the pulse is? The detector encircles the volcano. I can fire off any one of the vircators.”
“Choose the one nearest to us.”
As she typed in a few other commands, she asked, “What will they do when they get in here?”
“Commandeer an AI.”
Kutisha turned on the mech. “Then get out of here. I don’t want you attracting them.”
“You don’t understand. I’m not ...”
“Warning,” Prometheus said, “lab seal down to ten percent.”
She touched one of the nodes on the detector ring and was about to issue the command, when the mech touched her arm. She was surprised at how gentle it was.
“Is there any chance this will cause the volcano to erupt?”
“No. What do you care? The EMP will destroy you anyway.”
“An EMP won’t destroy flesh, but an erupting volcano could. One of my primary directives is to protect the people on this island. Is there a shielded room in this lab?”
“The only thing hardened enough to withstand a forty gigawatt pulse is in there.” She pointed to a something that looked like a safe only large enough to hold a lunchbox. The door was ajar and two braided grounding wires as thick as her thumb were bolted to it and to a rack. “We use it for our nexus pads when we spike the line. Sorry,” she said with a note of genuine sorrow. “It’s not big enough for you.” She looked at the mech with a touch of tenderness for the first time. It’s almost human. Kutisha placed her hand on its claws. Trying to think of something to say she added, “You know, I hear heaven isn’t such a bad place.”
The mech cocked its head in that puzzled puppy expression. “Do you believe in God?”
“I’m not sure,” she said.
“I do.”
She shook her head. “Now that’s irony, an atheist consoling a born again mech on its deathbed.” She favored the mech with a weak smile, and then turned her head towards the ceiling. “Prometheus, charge vircator one with enough juice to cause a ... whoa, wait. Prometheus, can you store your memory on the nexus?”
“I already have. Warning, lab seal down to four percent.”
The mech gently squeezed her arm. “Hurry, Kutisha.”
“I am. I am.” She looked down on claws that could crush her bones. “OK, Prometheus, charge vircator one with enough juice to cause a forty gigawatt electromagnetic pulse, and give me a countdown.”
“Charging ... Twelve.”
Kutisha turned towards the mech.
“Eleven.”
“Did you download your personality?” she asked.
“Ten.”
“I don’t need to,” it said.
&nbs
p; “Nine. Lab seal down to two percent. Eight.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Seven.”
“Oh,” she said, “you don’t have one.” She heard the high-pitched wine of a vircator on overload.
“Six.”
The mech laughed.
“Five.”
Kutisha’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not supposed to laugh.”
“Four.”
The mech looked away from her, adjusted its stance, and hunkered down as if to...
“Three. Lab seal compromised. Air pressure dropping.”
Kutisha stepped back, bracing herself against the control panel. At the same time, the mech lunged at her, grabbed her neck in its cold hands and snapped it around just before she screamed.