Toy Wars (10 page)

Volunteer

For three weeks after the Battle of Gorgoroth, as I called my personal war against the T
.r
ex, I ordered improvements on our position while getting used to my new wrist and hand.
My new appendage had a small advantage in grip strength, but the overall length of my right arm was now less than my left.
I guess what bothered me most was that it was white.
White now adulterated my beautiful p
urple.
I guess I should have been more
specific
about my selection among the dead animals.
It didn’t matter, but it bothered me anyway.

On that twenty-first day two trains arrived at our end of the line.
The first train to arrive
brought a long list of
fresh troops to replace much more than we had lost.
I was ecstatic.
The security of our position just jumped an order of magnitude
.
It now was truly more than secure.
Security also seemed within
Six’s thoughts as well
.
The same train
also carried a squad of three net
-
building units, which looked remarkably like brown plastic scorpions about
6
meters long and
2
high (
4
if you counted the tail).
Each carried eighteen NCs for deployment.
Six inten
ded
to
expand
our territories here where I held our line.

My memories reported this to be the
first expansion for Six in nearly eleven years.
I could almost see the dust puff off the scorpions
’
shiny
, but unused
bodies as they climbed down.
I could sense the eagerness to accomplish something after so long a hiatus.

Just as I was getting excited at the prospect of making headway myself, I received an order over the WAN.

I must digress here for a moment.
My processor had been designed to implement directives from Six in any way
d
esired.
I self-direct
ed, determining
my own priorities.
I was fully autonomous.
So completely self-controlling was my processor that I was fully capable of disregarding orders given to me by Six as long as
I preserved the
overall good of Six.
That is I could ignore all orders
.
Two exceptions remained to this control
—
an order to
self-destruct and
an order to recall
.

The self-destruct order was one I feared.
Losing
activation because of the
ultimate act of Six’s selfishness
I didn’t relish
.
Even so my fear
seemed to symbolize a lack of discipline within myself.
I knew th
at
order was hardwired into my processor
.
N
o amount of tampering
with
it on my part would do anything but cause premature detonation of the small explosive charge on my sump
and processor board.

The recall order
I didn’t fear but
it
still involved involuntary actions.
I couldn’t even put it in the “wait for action” queue for more than ten thousand clock cycles.
It was nothing less than an irresistible urge to return home.

Six cast the geas upon me.
“Teddy 1499, recall.”
Don’t get me wrong.
I would have obeyed in any case, but not to have a choice bothered me beyond understanding.
I complied, with a troubled thought process, as soon as I had given orders to load the larger train with the animal bodies.

The second train, a small single car unit, sent here for the sole purpose of taking me back to Six, managed to convey its displeasure in being used in such a trivial manner.
I could imagine its thinking.
“To be used to transport a single unit.
What a waste of my precious time.”
The engine, obviously irritated that I should rate any such special treatment, didn’t even wait for me to buckle down before starting off with such an amazing acceleration that I almost flipped over backward.
I struggled to pull the belt tight across me before we screeched around the first corner of the track.
It felt somewhat like being on the back of the Tyrannosaurus rex beast as we flew around corners
with
me clinging to the
edge of the flatbed car
.
That battle
wa
s som
ething I
wanted to forget
for a long time
—
forever being a good length of time.

My processors must have decided my body had abused itself enough
with three weeks of continuous operations
as I began to get very tired.
I decided that this was the best time to sleep, so I drifted off.
What happened next I can only explain with a Human definition:
“
nightmare
:
n
oun,
a sequence of frightening images passing through a sleeping person’s mind.
”

A
huge Human
male
, at least
16
meters tall, with water pouring from his eyes and down his cheek
, screamed
incoherently at the top of his lungs.
A thundering voice boomed down
with even more authority than the Humans themselves.

“Is your child lonely?
Are you tired of the effect that electronic and violent toys of today have on your child?
Get him something he can cuddle and love.
Get him a Teddy
B
ear.”
Another even larger Human, wearing feet apparatuses
that
lifted the heel of its foot to an improbable level, handed a weaponless
,
pawless
, all-brown
t
eddy unit to the smaller Human.
The poor
t
eddy looked so vulnerable and motionless that I wondered if it were dead.
The voice returned as liquid from the corner of the smaller Human
’
s eyes stopped as abruptly as
the end of a
summer storm.
“Look at the love and interaction of a tried and true
t
eddy.
Your child will thank you for years for his Teddy
B
ear.”

“Thank you, Mom,” the half-sized Human said as it squeezed the
t
eddy unit so hard I
surely thought
it
would
burst.
Suddenly
,
I was that poor
teddy
and the pressure on my abdomen from the Human
’
s arms
overloaded
all my sensors and fail-safes.
I heard my shell popping ominously.

“Buy a Teddy
B
ear today...” resounded the unseen speaker
.

I
snapped
violently awake, trying to look in all directions at once.
It took me a few moments to assure myself there were no Humans about, large or small.
My left hand oscillated back and forth by almost a full centimeter.
I convinced myself
that
an i
nstability
in my hydraulic pump
caused the problem.
I made a conscious effort to damp out
the unwanted twitch.
I
decided I needed to get some minor repairs yet from Six.

As calm as I maintained my exterior, my mind raced.
I could see no reason for such a dream.
I couldn’t see it being an aberrant memory either.
After hours of musing, I realize
d
it meant nothing and opted to ignore it, even if my processor wouldn’t let it be.

With the minor exceptions of the dream and the speed of travel, the
rest of the
train trip was unremarkable
.
Soon
we
crested the pass into the
valley of my activation.
Six’s dome loomed ahead of me
.
For the 845
th
time
I wondered if
the reason for which I’d been sent for was
for weal or woe.
A normal summons wouldn’t have caused me even a single moment of concern, but t
he unbreakable summons was troubling enough to make me question.
I could only think of
victories I
’d
earned
.
In some cases I felt, with no false modesty, I
had
performed almost miraculous feats with the resources at hand.
I
wo
n
t
hree
complete victories.
“Although neither without a significant cost in units,” I added as an afterthought.
Perhaps I was successful at too great a cost?

As the train dropped me at the base of the weeping
-
fly tree,
I ignored the production lines, the refineries
,
and all the other sub-buildings, and headed directly in through the main door.
There, instead of turning into the prototyping rooms, I went directly to the main audience chamber.
Despite its name, it really wasn’t very large at all, but the appropriate lighting and acoustics made it seem intimidating
and grandiose
.
There, standing at the very focus of my world, I almost felt like kneeling
.
I contained the impulse.
Kneeling would be for Humans.

“Teddy 1499 reporting as ordered.”

“1499, you have been summoned here to aid me in resolving an apparent conflict.”
I didn’t think any response was required, but it did fuel my concerns about high prices paid for my victories.
There was a slight pause by Six before it continued.
“Your construction should be reproducible but is not.
Each attempt to duplicate your successful form has ended in abject failure.”
Mentally
,
I released a sigh.
Six wouldn’t be interested in reproduction of a unit
that
wasn’t valuable.
I click
ed
my brain into high gear, so to speak, to catch up.
My mental and emotional acrobatics had put me behind.

“What was the failure mode?” I asked, curious.

“Each subject showed zero cognitive features and zero initiative functionality.”

“Brain dead?”

“That would be the correct analogy for a biologic,” boomed my creator.
I detect
ed
just a hint of displeasure in its
tone
.
I didn’t know if Six was capable of that feeling but it seemed that i
f it couldn’t it could at least
simulate it.

“I will assume you have a good record of how I was built.
”

“A complete visual, text
,
and audio record of the entire experimental steps.”

“Like I said, ‘Good record.’
I will also assume you followed your original steps.”

“Exactly
,
in each detail.”

I wondered if Six had always been this
pedantic or whether I had outgrown my programming from our last meeting.

“Then I don’t understand why I am here.
What could I possibly have to offer?”

“You will be taken apart a piece at a time and examined to confirm visual record and search for anomalies.”

No problem, I thought sarcastically.
Kill a monster and get dissected for your troubles.
“Is there any other way?
I’m rather attached to my pieces.”

“I will take any constructive suggestions.”

To me
,
this comment
shouted more than the rest of the conversation
.
Six was stumped.
That my creator should be stumped puzzle
d
me.
Only desperation would cause it to take apart a uniquely useful unit.
Worse,
from its tone and demeanor
I don’t think it really expected to get anything out of the experiment
—
but
a one-percent
chance was better than a no
-
percent
chance.