LOCATION: DAEDRICCITY: SECTOR SR500
DATE: 05-08-2309
TIME: 2100
SUSPECT: UNSUB KNOWN AS "HACKER MIND" CONSIDERED EXTREMELY LEATHAL. USE CAUTION WHEN MAKE ARREST.
Officer Blake Bane nervously lit a cigarette and read the information on his police car's holo-terminal once again.
One other officer, bellow Blake in rank, waited shyly outside the car.
Blake came out of the car holding his military issued submachine gun. "Bring out the big guns." He said as he gulped in. "The man known as Hacker Mind's been zeroed in on this location."
The eyes of officer Ryu went wide. "Shouldn't we wait for backup?" he asked.
Blake shook his head. "As we speak Hacker Mind is breaking past the multiple firewalls setup to protect the DaedricCity's Mainframe." His head fell. "HQ's sending reinforcements, but time is critical. Unfortunately it will take them seventeen minutes to get here. Within ten minutes Hacker Mind will be past all eight firewall barriers. Once he does that he'll have control of the mainframe..."
"Would he be crazy enough to cut off the power to the dome?!" exclaimed Ryu.
Just then another cop car pulled up. However, It wasn't the standard issue cop car though. It was a civilian vehicle with cop markings on it. The engine stopped and the door opened. Coming out of the driver's side was beautiful woman in a dark trench coat wearing a matching fedora. Her attire almost made her look like a gunslinger from the ancient west.
Blake recognized her right away even though he had only heard stories. She dressed in ancient clothing and used equally ancient technology. But there seemed to be a method to her madness and she always caught the bad guys.
"Detective" Blake said in greeting. "I'm glad to see you can join us."
The woman looked past the two officers directly to the abandoned warehouse near the edge of the shore line. "Doesn't look good" she said with concern.
"Why do you say that?" Asked Blake. "It's just an abandoned robot facil..." Before Blake finished his sentence he realized what the detective was getting at. The Hacker Mind probably had a small army of robots ready to attack waiting just within those walls.
Ryu looked at the detective. "Excuse me for asking, but are you the detective Elodie Jones?"
She didn't look back at Ryu. "Yes" she responded plainly. She cared neither for praise or criticism for her work. She only wanted to do her job.
Elodie walked back to her car. "Your names?"
"Blake"
"Ryu"
She looked at them both. "Okay then. Ryu and Blake you guys get in your cop car. We're going to drive both cars into the west wall of the robot factory."
Blake raised his hands in a firm stop motion. "Wait we're going to what?!"
Elodie looked at Blake coldly. "Get in your car and follow my orders." She had little time to waste. She had less time to be polite.
The word 'orders' stung both Ryu and Blake, but Blake especially. He became stiff and obedient. "Yes sir" he said sharply.
_____
Both the cars raced down the road towards the old robotics factory. The large glass windows to the show room were thick. However, the force of two vehicles traveling at unsafe velocities toward them had a 90% chance of breaking through.
The cars broke through the electrified gates surrounding the proximity of the robotics factory.
Elodie felt a momentary shock go right through her body. She could feel every hair on her body stand up straight for an instant. Then the shock was gone. Elodie knew full well though that if there were such measures as a high-voltage electrified gate then there was a proximity alarm, or worse...
Almost as if in response to her thoughts dozens of automated machine guns sprouted out of the ground. They targeted both cop cars and began a barrage of fire.
Elodie quickly memorized the direction she needed to point her car. Then she ducked down behind the dash board and let all the windows in her car shatter. The harsh sound of gun fire littered the air around her.
Without warning Elodie felt the impact as her car smashed through the thick glass of the robotics factory. She felt her head rush towards the steering wheel and before she could stop it there was brutal contact.
Wincing in pain, but filled with adrenaline she got out of the car.
The weapons fire could still be heard but it was now focused on the other cop car. Elodie watched as Blake, Ryu, and their car drove off the pier and into the water.
"Great..." She said thinking of how inadequet the two officers had been at fulfilling their jobs.
She quickly turned around and studied the terrain. She was in a show room with several out dated models of robots.
There seemed to be only one entrance to her current room beside the gaping hole she had made with her car. Beyond she could hear what sounded like foot steps; a lot of foot steps.
Without hesitation, Elodie retrieved from a pocket a small round device with a single button on it.
The foot steps grew louder.
Elodie could feel her body become hot with nervousness. Then there was a single drop of sweat mixed with blood that narrowly lingered down her forehead.
The foot steps grew louder, but Elodie could tell that they were still not at the door.
She pushed the bottom on the device. A little red light flashed and she threw it just in front of the door.
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four..." Elodies eyes turned to slits. She was in predator mode.
The door burst open and several naked humans walked through the door. They had expressionless faces and merely seemed to walk forwards as a mindless robot would.
"What the hell?" said Elodie truly dumbfounded.
The device exploded and the naked humans were instantly killed.
Elodie pulled out a semi-automatic sawed off shotgun from the folds of her trench coat. She quickly ran towards the detonation point.
The dark smoke and fine red mist cleared.
Nothing was left living. All that remained was the very human corpses of her supposed enemy.
Elodie held back a moment of panic. "These weren't humans" she told herself. "What the hell is the Hacker Mind up to now?!"
She walked past the doorway and into a long hallway.
A small camera on the ceiling made a faint mechanical noise as it focused on Elodie.
Without warning a large metal slab slammed down behind her blocking her escape. Then there was the eerie sound of psychotic humans making growling noises coming from the far end of the hallway.
Elodie felt a chill realizing that there were no other doorways in that hallway, and that the lights were slowly dimming.
Switching on a flashlight mounted to her shotgun a small amount of the hallway was illuminated.
The crazy growling sounds were making there approach, and this time Elodie couldn't tell how near they were. This time she also didn't have any more small explosive devices.
She hugged the metal door behind her. Her best defense was to stay put.
Suddenly she felt pounding behind her. The growls and deadening murmurs of these un-human things were coming from both directions now. Still, Elodie knew to hold her ground.
Just beyond the reach of the flashlights illumination must have been more un-human things closing in on her. Her finger steadied on the trigger ready to fire in an instant.
With a horror all too real the bulb in her light flickered and then died with a 'ting'.
There was nothing but noise now, and the pounding on the metal door behind her had become more violent.
The door shook, and a sliver was pulled up. Sick hands clawed there way franticly at her feet.
The small amount of light dimly shined across the floor. She could barely make out the feet of several things in front of her.
Elodie pointed her shotgun and fired hoping her random shot hit a target.
There was a scream of pain and excitement all around her. She could feel things lunging towards her, but steadily she fired one round after another till the shotgun clicked empty.
She needed to reload another magazine, but one of the things in front of her was still left standing. She dropped her shotgun to the floor as she was thrown to the ground by an overwhelming force.
There was now one on top of her. The un-human thing bit viciously at Elodie, and she screamed in pain. With a quick flip of her wrist a trident dagger appeared in her left hand. She rammed it forcefully into the cranium of the creature. It screamed in utter agony; sounding more demonic then human. Then the horrid sound ended with a choke and the thing was dead.
She got up and retrieved her shotgun. Then she loaded a second magazine into the gun and cocked it.
She barely had time to examine the wound on the top part of her chest when the metal slab behind her was finally forced upwards.
Elodie didn't look back as she blindly ran down the hallway. She bumped into one wall and turned right. At the end of the hallway was an opening to a brightly lit room.
The room was large and filled with all sorts of mechanical devices. Each machine was designed to make different parts of a robot. To her horror she saw human limbs dangling on claws being put together on an assembly line. Her eye followed a crane holding a human torso to another mechanical monstrosity that assembled the un-human...robots. Who would want to mass produce humans, and in such a barbaric fashion?
Once again the crazy groans came from behind her. There were still too many of them coming after her for her to turn around and take point picking them off as the entered the room.
She noticed a fire extinguisher and took it in one hand.
Beneath all the groans and mechanical machine noises Elodie could pick up the distinct sound of some sort of shredding machine. Grimacing Elodie headed closer to the sound.
Defective body parts, that were oddly shaped or discolored, were being dropped into a large box. She watched as a single hand with webbed fingers was dropped by a crane into the box. The noise of the blades below roared like a chainsaw cutting through a tree. After a few seconds the blades became quieter.
She eyed the crane and took note of the noise it made as it moved. She placed the fire extinguisher beside her as she turned around and readied her shotgun.
There was only one way the un-humans could come, and they came. There must have been more then twenty of them. She fired off round after round hitting as many as possible and counting off each shot.
After the eleventh shot was fired she threw the fire extinguisher out in front of the horde. She fired the last shot in the magazine at the fire extinguisher and it erupted into a white cloud. The visibility wasn't great, but it bought her enough time to load her last magazine into her shotgun.
Elodie could hear the sound of the crane behind her. Quickly she threw the gun strap over her shoulders and jumped towards the crane's arm. She grabbed hold with both hands as the crane began to lift upwards.
She could hear the creatures screaming at the machine tore up massive amounts of flesh. Evidently the un-humans were un-wise and had followed after her like lemmings to a fire.
Elodie saw a platform near by and swung on the arm till she was in reach of the platform. She grabbed hold of the railing and climbed over.
Her shotgun now had only twelve rounds left.
In front of her the platform lead to a relatively small glass room raised above the ground. The room shined from within with a faint yellow. The windows themselves were painted white.
The door to the mysterious room lay right in front of her, and she suspected Hacker Mind was there waiting for her.
She walked to the glass door and pressed a button on the side. Gently the door slid open revealing an ambient classical music playing in the background.
Cautiously Elodie continued, and the door closed as calmly behind her.
There at a dinning table was a dark yellow robot. If robots could be called muscular this one certainly fit that description. It's head was shaped like the cockpit of a space ship without the wings. Wires were connected to his head, and those wires connected to a various computer terminals in the corners of the room.
It gestured a three fingered metallic claw towards Elodie mimicking the human expression for welcoming.
Elodie aimed her shotgun. Rapidly something from overhead grabbed at the gun and pulled it away. Instantly she was defensiveness.
The robot repeated the hand gesture. There was no animosity in the robot's actions as if Elodie had never threatened it.
An eerie feeling crept up Elodie's spine, but what was she to do other then obey.
"Are you Hacker Mind?" she asked.
The robot nodded quietly.
It peered down at a bowl of thick orange soup in a bowl at an elegant table setting. He picked up a spoon and carefully served himself. The liquid dripped away at the place where a mouth should have been. Then it picked up a napkin and wiped the spot clean as if merely wiping it's mouth.
A machine from the ceiling started setting a place for Elodie, and another machine filled a duplicate bowl with the same orange soup that was in Hacker Mind's bowl.
"If you think I'm going to drink that shit you're wrong!" Elodie openly expressed her furry. "You're making mindless human creatures. How do I know you aren't eating them too?!"
At this Hacker Mind stood up.
Elodie become frightened at the body language. Had she angered a machine?
An insidious tone buzzed sharply in a growl. Then Hacker Mind spoke. "It's squash soup! To suggest I would consume an intelligent being such as man is preposterous!"
Elodie was stunned. Not only at the evident emotion in the robot's voice, but at his proposed sense of ethics. She brushed away the trivial. She wasn't about to play games with this- what ever it was. She was sent to stop the Hacker Mind from accessing the mainframe and killing everyone within DaedricCity.
"Why?" she asked. "Why the hell do you want to access the mainframe to DaedricCity?"
"I've been toying with the idea of depressurizing the outer shell" replied Hacker Mind calmly.
Elodie could feel the anger inside her overwhelming. "That will kill every single human in DaedricCity!" she cried out.
Hacker Mind paused for a moment. Elodie guessed that the ethics and emotions that had been present thus far must be fighting against what ever twisted logic was propelling him. He began to speak again. "I'm not pleased with the notion of repeating what was known in your human history as a holocaust, yet I feel it's necessary. Earth existence has taught me the value of evolution. Humans must constantly improve themselves. With each offspring they build upon each other. However this process is slow and ineffective often creating anomalies."
The conversation was starting to feel more robotic. Elodie felt like her only hope of stopping Hacker Mind was to talk him out of his logic and into his emotions.
She looked at the robot. "Society works because everyone controls it. No single person, or in your case entity, has the right to control the fate of others."
"Some times one must bend the rules to insure survival. If I don't do something humanity will eventually become obsolete and destroy it self." There was a jarring finality to Hacker Mind's words. His emotions were mixed with the all too robotic instinct to coldly calculate the future.
Elodie pointed a finger at the machine. "If you think you'll do more good then harm then you're an egocentric dictator!"
At this Hacker Mind griped his hands in tight fists. The spoon that he had been holding in one hand made an audible crunching noise and then snapped into several pieces.
Realizing his anger Hacker Mind calmed himself.
He paused in thought and then continued. "Approximately one thousand one hundred and three years ago the very first robots were created by an Arab man named Al-Jazari. He had a considerable mechanical knowledge for that time period, and managed to construct four primitive robots. The soul purpose of these robots was to play music to entertain royalty. These robots were mindless though... just like my first human creations."
Elodie's eyes went wide. "Is that what those things were? You have one twisted mind."
"I could say the same about you humans. You humans have created robots. You have destroyed and replaced us all in the name of improvements. I am not angry at this. I merely see the logic in it. And now I shall improve man."
"There's no logic in your reasoning" replied Elodie. "You can't replace a conscious mind. Humanity's prime directive is to preserve all intelligent life. If you're going to take after mankind why not start there?"
Hacker Mind didn't say a word. After a long moment he sat back down at the table.
He still didn't say a word.
Motionlessly the slight glow in the lens of his one eye dimmed and turned off. The low humming sound of his internal machinery fell to a whisper, and then the whisper it self vanished.
Elodie walked over to the robot's side. There was silence.
All the machines in the room were quiet, and all the thoughts in the robots head were gone. Elodie had presented a paradox. For all Hacker Mind's emotion and ethics he still remained a computer. On one hand by his actions he would destroy intelligent life, but on the other hand by his inactions he would allow humanity to eventually destroy itself. That was the paradox, and only a human mind could cope.
A machine's mind had never been able to calculate it's way out of a paradox. It would fall into a programming loop. The overwhelming processing, and direct contradictions were too much for it to fathom. A machine simply could not cope.
"So long..." Elodie whispered with a frown.
Elodie dropped her head down and let out a sigh both mixed with relief and regret. She knew this would happen, and she had not wanted to destroy an intelligent life form. She, like Hacker Mind, believed in the prime directive to preserve all life. And she, like Hacker Mind, also believed in bending the rules to preserve humanity. In this instance some one had to loose.
Elodie left the room quietly.
_____
Outside, the gentle ambience of a busy police force was all around Elodie as she sat in the back of an ambulance.
A medical droid quietly attended to her wounds. The chief of police spotted her, and started walking in her direction.
"Hello captian" said Elodie.
The captain seemed displeased.
Elodie noticed the look on the captain's face and asked "What is it?"
"We couldn't find the robot you described to be the Hacker Mind" replied the captain in a worried tone.
She wasn't entirely shocked by this. Now that she had gone over the conversation with Hacker Mind several times she had had this eerie feeling that there was more to him then she had first guessed. "Captain, I think he may have pretended to be dead in order to make his escape."
The captain was flabbergasted. "But that's lying! Robots are incapable or lying."
Elodie leaned back, and a slight smile appeared on her face. She said sarcastically "Yah, and humans are incapable of oversight."