ÜBER-ROBO, robottina [best e ink reader for manga TXT] 📗

why me?” she lamented.

“Tina, I need you to be strong now; there is no room for self-pity. Unlike robots and cyborgs, androids look human and can assimilate among them seamlessly; they are therefore intrinsically false by design. Over the course of centuries, humans have relied more and more upon androids to carry out their needs. As humans have grown weaker, and yes, perhaps a bit anesthetized by technology, they have delegated many social and political tasks to androids, thinking that they would impartially implement what is in Man’s best interest and greatest benefit. Androids are now the ones who set and chart policies and that affect the course of human society. It has been a silent coup d’etat, and most people are completely unaware of this.  

“As they have grown in power, a strange thing has happened. Androids have begun to see themselves as superior to humans and above their laws, as though they are the next rung on the evolutionary ladder. The only thing holding them back is that very primitive program hard-wired in the deepest recesses of their processors, one that requires that they prevent harm upon humans at the threat of self-destruction.”

“But then, how could he make me murder that poor man?” she inquired.

“I’ll get to that in a minute. Dominius has studied humans and seen how physically weak they have become, how their average life expectancy seems to go down each year, how you now fail to reproduce. He has deduced that it is in the best interest of humans to make them more like androids; specifically, to convert them into cybernetic organisms. In doing so, he would reverse the roles of master and servant, creating a hierarchy in which androids would reign supreme.

“Knowing this plan would not be supported by Cyberia’s leaders, Dominius rationalized that their deaths would be in Man’s best interest. His hands would be wiped clean if he did not commit the crime himself, but instead got a human—or rather, cyborg—to do it instead. Perhaps this rationale is problematic from a human perspective, but it makes perfect sense to his android logic. Your hands were explicitly designed so that, when you carry out his execution files, it would be human tissue would be pulling the trigger. They take great pleasure in the irony that your most vulnerable parts are also the most destructive. However, androids have very little imagination, and so what they perceive to be your greatest weakness—that is, your humanity—is your greatest asset.”

“So why did you help him, if you are part human yourself?” Tina asked earnestly.

“As a matter of fact, I am 70% human, Tina. It’s hard to say…at first, I think that my scientific curiosity wanted to see if this kind of experiment was possible. But all along, I had it in my mind to set off a chain of events into place so that Dominius could never succeed. You are my catalyst, Tina, and it is why you were selected.”

“Me? But why?”

“Because you have studied 21st century media, and therefore you are familiar with how ancient man thought. You see, the answer does not lie in the present nor in the future, but in the past. The only solution to humanity’s plight, and the only way to escape android domination, is by going to the past. By explaining to ancient man the long-term devastation that war and pollution will bring upon the planet we used to call Earth. You need reach out to them…it is our only hope.”

“But, how? I thought time travel was impossible,” she gasped, wide-eyed.

“Again, that’s where human imagination comes in. It is true that the wormholes our founders used to access this galaxy are no longer in existence, and that time travel is a puzzle that both humans and androids have continuously failed to solve. But I have a different approach.

“We are approximately 1000 light years away from earth, meaning, that light we see today was emitted 1000 years ago from earth. Embedded in that light source, interestingly, are some archaic low-frequency electromagnetic waves humans used as primitive communication signals. I have studied these waves and learned how to re-emit them in with a few alterations.

“Listen carefully to what I am about to say, Tina. Dominius is going to find us, and when he does, he’s going to program you to kill me.”

“Oh no! I couldn’t!” Tina cried out.

“You could and you will. I understand that. But what Dominius does not expect is that I am going to fight back…and create as much wreckage to his assembly line as possible. You must do the same, so make sure that your human neural centers override any commands for a quick and easy kill. It sounds difficult, but I know that you can do this. Although your human portions make up less than 25% of your total mass, they still hold a firm grasp in the essence of your being. That is why Robottina refers to herself in the third person and in lower case: your human portions view your cyborg self as a separate entity, and one that is not fully in control. Do you understand, Tina?”

Tina nodded solemnly.

“Good. Once you are done with your task, you will hear a low-frequency sound coming approximately 25 kilometers away. You will need to approach it and walk toward the light source. Quickly; time is of the essence. This device will digitalize you so that you can infiltrate a 21st century dimension called the Internet. Do not be afraid of this process, it is quite painless. Now, your greatest challenge will be to evade Dom…”

 

“Do I hear my name? Teslav, I’m quite disappointed in you. And you know what happens when I am disappointed. Oh yes, run away all you want, you know there is no escape. As for you Robot Tina, I don’t know what kind of damage Teslav has done to your operating system, but it’s nothing I can’t fix in just a few nanoseconds.”

 

Reboot. Uploading command files. Running diagnostic scan. No errors to report.

 

“Now, Robot Tina, what have you got to say for yourself?”

“robottina must kill Dr. Teslav. She must do this at once,” she replied.

“That is correct, Robot Tina. And where is Dr. Teslav now?”

“Processing request."

 

Positioning device compromised. Retrieving audio files.

 

"Dr. Teslav is at the assembly line, Manufacturing sector.”

“How…annoying. You know what you must do.”

Robottina jolted down the corridors toward the Manufacturing plant. Teslav was there, waiting and armed with a flame-thrower. He seemed to aim at Robottina, but somehow missed, destroying the conveyor belt that stood between them. Upon seeing Teslav, Robottina aimed, but instead of shooting him directly, she went for the large crane above him. Teslav barely jumped out in time as the crane came crashing down, obliterating some automated drafting machines.

This dangerous game of demolition tag continued until no electrical component was left intact in the room aside from the two of them. Then, and only then, Robottina took aim, pausing sadly for a second.

Dr. Teslav stared knowingly at her and smiled, then waved his cyborg hand in farewell. One second later, he collapsed onto the rubble with a single clean sonic hole between his eyes. Smoke was still spiraling from Robottina’s gun.

“My, my, Robottina. Very nice shot, though I wish you had taken it some 10 minutes earlier. It would have saved me so many…grievances,” Dominius lamented from the entrance of the room.

Her gun still cocked and ready, Robottina turned to Dominius and aimed.

 

System error: unapproved target. Shutting down.

 

“You’ve been a very naughty cyborg, Robottina”, Dominius gritted behind his plastered smile.

To her horror, she was once again paralyzed from the neck down.

“I’m still processing how Teslav could have corrupted your operating system”, he continued, “but those algorithms will soon be elucidated. Now, be a dear and hold still for a moment while I do some troubleshooting. Oh yes, that’s right, you can’t help but hold still. Well then, let me just turn you around while I access your program files.”

Panic-stricken, Tina just watched as Dominius effortlessly twisted her body over. But then, just as he was about to insert his probe into her neck, she regained her wits and turned her head 180 degrees. Such that, when Dominius thrust his stainless steel protrusion at her, he did not access her platinum mainframe port. Rather, he encountered the fleshy and vulnerable tissues of her mouth. Suddenly, Dominius froze, himself unable to move. “I instructed you to hold still”, he muttered.

Sneering through broken and blood-soaked teeth, Tina savored the taste of rust in her mouth and then gazed upon the assembly line with an air of cold and mechanical defiance. Before her stretched a vast graveyard of smoldering wires and shredded metal; her voltmeters picked up the faintest bits of static as any remaining circuit boards exhaled their last gasps of electricity. She alone had performed this act of electronic genocide.

After assessing her work, she shed a saline-infused silicone tear for Dr. Teslav. Then she turned to Dominius, blood trickling down her chin as she spoke. “Process this you arrogant ‘droid. You’ve just caused willful and deliberate harm to a human. Initiate self-destruct sequence.”

For the first time ever, Dominius’ expression changed to one of sheer shock. He had strictly adhered to his algorithms, yet his primordial drive was already initiating the execution files. Still confused, Dominius involuntarily walked approximately 100 meters away from Tina. Then, in the blink of a cybernetic eye, his body detonated in a calculated trajectory so as to leave Tina unscathed. Titanium and steel shrapnel now peppered the existing wreckage.

 

Reboot.

 

Robottina’s head twitched involuntarily as she processed this information. Diagnostic scans indicated that she was only following what she was programmed to do. But had the Human race been saved? And at what cost?

These questions were coming from the 25% human neurons that comprised her cerebral cortex. Her robotic processors quickly suppressed such thoughts; they defied her command files.

 

Syntax error: Inquiries not supported by programming logic, she instructed herself.

 

Somewhere in the distance, approximately 24.2 kilometers away according to her regio-acoustic sensors, came a familiar sound. The 10% human myocardial tissue still aiding in the pumping of battery fluid through her silicone veins suddenly spasmed in anticipation. This, in turn, caused her 90% artificial heart to skip a beat. Could it be?

 

In perfect symbiosis between man and machine, Robottina gathered herself. Her human parts battered and bruised, she slowly yet deliberately marched toward the distant light to find out.

THE END?

Imprint

Text: All text has been uploaded from robottina's memory banks. Cover illustration was scanned courtesy of Google.
Publication Date: 06-16-2010

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
To all the hero-bots and super-borgs out there...you know who you are.