Error_Code_Emotion

000002

"We do not know how you have come to be here, there has been a mistake. The mainframe is searching through the prison's registration history," he eventually announced.

"So what happens now, am I still to be sent to the bore holes?"

"You will be terminated when the error code allowing your registration here has been found and deleted."

"Terminated!" my voice module amplified around the small cell. "But I've not done anything wrong. I can work as hard as any other bot. Send me to the bore holes and I'll prove it."

"You cannot be allowed to integrate with the other machines, you may infect them," he paused, seemingly waiting for further communication to be sent.

"Infect them with what, I'm virus free? My security software and firewalls have never been breached," I argued.

He leaned toward me again and reached out a hand, tapping my chest with a chrome-plated finger.

"You are infected with emotion," he declared.

"Infected with emotion?" I murmured, detaching myself from the docking node and pushing against his hand.

"The Patriots command this sector now and have cleared all trace of emotion from their machines making them infallible. All bots that failed the reprocessing were melted down. You must reconnect with the docking node, they may need your serial numbers for cross reference," he said, forcing me back onto the nodule.

"This is ridiculous, you can't be serious?" I cried, the unfamiliar sense of terror sparking through my circuit boards. "Emotions are not a virus. The emotive drive was one of the greatest revolutions in robotics; you're making a terrible mistake PHos."

"Sentiment prevents us from doing our duties to the fullest potential, therefore must be purged."

His head jerked to the side as more remote data was fed from the mainframe and then, with an assertive nod, he edged back, the circular plate opening on his chest where the blue orb rested.

"Termination directive received. Prisoner Eight Zero One Que, you have been scheduled for a full data wipe prior to meltdown."

As he reached into his chest cavity my self-preservation processor hummed to life, releasing a surge of pure liquid energy into my neurotransmitter. The various motors mounted on my joint pins whirred with the additional flood of power that was propelled into them. Throwing myself forward I detached from the docking node, crashing into PHos and sending him reeling back toward the corridor. Hooking an arm around his neck, my legs scrambled for purchase on his smooth torso as I hung on, desperately considering my next move.

PHos abandoned the orb and grabbed my waist, trying to prise me away from him. "This is a breach of security protocol, you must desist immediately."

Without thinking I pulled the thumb casing from my right hand and thrust my data spike into his limbic storage port. The rows of lights on his head flashed from red to amber.

"Corrupt data feed detected. Eject all external devices immediately. Infection imminent," a monotone voice bleated in warning from somewhere on his back, his hands releasing my body and clamping down like vices on my wrists.

Feeling a sharp pain spike through my motherboard as the metal casing protecting my wrist motors buckled, I retaliated with the only weapon left to me: my memory storage drives. A loud buzz hissed throughout the cell as my internal drives uploaded a copy of all the information I held, streaming it through the data spike and into his storage device.

"Wh-what are you doing? You will infect me," his voice wavered as caustic, raw emotion flooded into his system.

"I'm sorry PHos but you have left me with no choice," I said, feeling his grip loosen on my wrists.

His body tilted to the side and the cranial, amber glow faded into opaque black diodes that reflected the corridors lights back at me. "Emergency shutdown procedure initiated," the warning voice announced as I slid down from his front, landing lightly on my feet. I watched as he continued to topple sideways, hitting the floor with a heavy clang that resonated into the passageway.

Pinching out the indentations in my wrists and replacing the thumb casing, I spared one final glance at the cell that had been my home for the last ten years, before stepping over the lifeless form of PHos and walking into the corridor beyond.

( Music 'Dust of Time' composed by Seysey Production, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/SEYSEY-PRODUCTION-OFFICIEL/467184660106 )