Chapter 3

SHEILA - Synthetic, Humanoid, Enlightened, Inquisitive, Living, Android

I punched the wall near Sheila when she told me that the other self-destruct had been activated. I had been with her almost all the time, and then I snapped my fingers. That one time I had to leave the bunker to meet with the brass! It had to be then when they had inserted most of the tracers.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to access your positronic brain, Sheila. I am sorry that you have to go through this,” I said, shaking my head.

“It is all well, Doctor Gance. I know that your skills are far superior to any other. If I feel that you cannot retrieve it within safe time parameters, I will evacuate the space. They will not have a way to find you. Therefore, you should be able to leave without peril,” Sheila said with all sincerity.

My face twisted into a grimace, then I grabbed another lead connecting to her. “Bring up the schematics, plotting the safest track to the device.” I was starting to sweat again; entering the brain case while the positronic brain was active was dangerous. One wrong move and her entire brain could be destroyed. “Now open the brain pan access point.”

“Yes, Doctor. I have severed all control to outer extremities. I will also track your progress to ensure you reach it in optimum time. You will not fail, Doctor; I know your skill will not allow it,” Sheila said as I started into her brain pan cavity.

I had to move a few of the smaller nodes to get in further. Sheila advised me as she shut each area down. After what felt like an eternity, I found the small node situated where she said it was. As gingerly as I could, I started to cut the attachments it had to the brain. Then I began to withdraw it as quickly as I could.

Suddenly, with the tracer almost out, an alarm went off on the computer. “Faster, Doctor!” Sheila told me. “I am reading another countdown starting, two minutes left! Please close the access panel as soon as it is out.” I could only nod as I finally pulled the tracer out, setting it on a tray. As fast as I could, I secured the brain panel, then I heard several whirs from Sheila as she reconnected to her extremities.

Suddenly jumping up, Sheila grabbed the tray and flew out the door. I sat down with a thud, hoping she would make it. Less than a minute later, Sheila reappeared. “Did you get rid of—” I started to ask when the building slightly shook. “What the hell was that?”

“I am sorry, Doctor Gance, that I did not tell you the complete truth. The tracer had an explosive force of one megajoule. I have found that when humans feel no pressure to perform, they actually excel greater.” Sheila lowered her head as she whispered, “I never wish to lie to you, Doctor. I have problems within my central processing center when I do not tell you the truth.”

I stood there with my mouth agape as Sheila stood stock still with her head down. “I am having trouble with the facts that I have, Sheila. For some reason, I believe that I am missing vital information to all this.”

Sheila looked up a second later, a curious look on her face. “I am more than ready to supply you with the adequate information that you need, Doctor Gance. All you need to do is inquire.”

I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. “I need to get as much done as I can before they find us again,” I told Sheila.

“Yes, Doctor Gance, now starting scans outward for several miles. As of yet, I am not detecting any approaching military vehicles. I suggest that you make as much haste as possible, Doctor. I cannot make accurate assumptions about human reactions. Most humans are far too illogical to set definite parameters on,” Sheila told me as she then went silent.

I sat for another hour working on the emotion program. As before, Sheila would look over after a few minutes, pointing out changes she had made. After each, I started to notice that she had altered several of the aspects that I had put in that limited emotional growth. Shaking my head, I looked at Sheila; she was growing both intellectually and emotionally. Hell, at some point, she would most definitely surpass me, then what would I be to her?

Looking down, I had a good ninety-eight percent of it recreated. Sighing, I was just starting on the last two percent when I felt Sheila’s hand touch my shoulder. “Doctor Gance, it’s time, I am afraid that the explosion has garnered their attention.”

I nodded as I closed off the program, again saving everything, then removing the disc. Again, Sheila waved her hand over the console, wiping all evidence that I had been in it. Nodding to me, I packed everything up, then slowly rose. “Again, Doctor Gance, I am sorry that you haven’t had sufficient time to properly heal. I will endeavor to find somewhere you can as soon as possible.”

I groaned as Sheila picked me up, putting me over her shoulder again. My eyes grew wide when I could swear that I had just seen Sheila wince when I groaned! Shaking my head, I must have been imagining it, hadn’t I? The way things were going, I really didn’t know. Taking off at a slow speed, we made our way away from the building. Less than a minute later, Sheila picked up speed as again we were flying through the area. Again, shaking my head, I guessed I’d have to get used to it until we were safe.

An unmarked green jeep pulled up behind several troop trucks that were already on-site. A grim-faced, older man in a long brown coat stepped out of the jeep, looking around. Running a hand through his graying hair, he just shook his head; what a mess. A moment later, a sergeant saluted the man. “It was the brain tracer that was just installed last week, sir,” the sergeant said.

“Damn it!” the grim-faced man said. “Then we have no way to track that—thing!” The man spit out in disgust. “I told the president and the chiefs of staff this was a bad idea!”

“I do believe we have a way to track it, sir,” the sergeant replied when the man calmed down.

Snapping his head around to look at the sergeant, the man got a half-smirk. “Oh really? Pray tell, how can we track a machine that is faster than anything we have? That has cognitive abilities to outthink even our best supercomputers?”

“It still is just that, sir, a machine. All machines operate at a certain frequency. The techs have been working on isolating it. They told me they were very close,” the sergeant said, starting to sweat a little. Having a half-assed idea was worse than having no idea at all. He just hoped it placated the man; he’d been a First Lieutenant a few days ago. Shaking a bit, he really didn’t want to go back to being a private.

A half-smile came to the older man’s face, “‘Bout time we had good news, Second Lieutenant. Get it done. I want that asshole before he has a chance to use it against us. Once we kill Gance, then no one can stand against us. In the meantime, have all forty of the pseudo-androids brought out.”

“All set to kill, yes sir, I understand,” the newly promoted man said.

“You really think that they are good enough to get that close to it, or him? No, I want them tracking it, thereby tracking him,” the older man sighed. “I’m afraid that we will lose a few of them, though. That thing is far faster than anything we can send against it. I have already recalled the other four from overseas.”

The promoted man’s eyes grew large; the other four were highly unstable when it came to hunting. Well, hunting others of their own kind. Against one that was more advanced than they were might pose even more problems. “With all the problems they had hunting their own kind, might that pose a problem, sir?”

The older man nodded for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Tell the lead programmer to get out what little of the emotion program Gance made. It isn’t nearly as good as his finished one, being the beginning prototype. I think it will get them over the hump to hunt their own. Didn’t you tell me that they had overridden the first robotic law?”

“Yes sir, by instilling an ultra-high priority that killing those would save all the rest of humanity. The lead programmer said they had problems at first. The extra ten thousand lines of code they added have ensured they only see their targets as a threat to the world,” the Second Lieutenant told the man.

An almost evil smile lit up the older man’s face. “Good, tell them to use that to initiate a hunt and destroy mission. Hell, with any luck, that thing will be destroyed and Gance dead. Alright, get them on it; the other four should be here in a few hours. Have they recovered the fifth one yet?”

Here, the younger man grimaced at what he had to report. “Yes sir, it sustained major damage to all systems. The head was removed, the body split in two. The central processing was wiped, then destroyed. As a matter of fact, every section of it sustained damage. The techs hold little hope of ever rebuilding it.”

The older man’s head was nodding the whole time. It was about as he thought it would be. Though it was by far more human than any of its counterparts, it was still a machine. “I was expecting something along those lines. That thing has extensive information on dealing death and deactivating other machines. We have our job cut out for us going after it and him.”

The promoted man nodded a moment, then saluted. “Yes sir, getting the message to the programmer and the techs. Will there be anything else?”