“...Thunderous impacts and a cacophony of sirens blared, driving the small human to mewl more urgently. It needed its mother, and the warmth that only biological inefficiencies could provide. There were none of the resources around that organics needed to survive. escaping was a priority. The noise surrounding us was enough to drown out the sounds it was making. After some time the watchers passed on, unable to make the fine movements required to shuffle around in the debris searching for us. I was thankful for that. Or at least as close to thankfulness I could experience. The alloys in my frame allowed for me to burrow deeply into the debris of the old city and by doing so escape was eventually possible. However what I was uncertain about is if I would be able to make it out in time for the creature to live.”
The small room they sat in was silent after the outpouring of words. She knew they wanted more, but she was unsure of how much detail they wanted. Humans had a tendency to express frustration when she expounded too greatly and to blame her for the shortcomings of their own languages. She had been expecting to simply upload her experiences for them upon reaching the settlement but had been surprised to find that these humans lived in a world free of all but the most basic technologies. She hadn't yet seen anything more advanced than a lightbulb.
“For us to proceed with this investigation, we need you to tell us more.”
Investigation? She had saved the life of a human baby and she was being investigated for it? Now, Frustration bloomed in her own chest; or rather the part of her that would be closest to a chest on a human. For a second she considered lashing out but over the long months she had learned to control herself in these situations. She was a prototypical model, never meant for more than to provide scientific understanding of the psychology of organic sentients. Originally she was to be uploaded with the personality of a dr.Song who had passed away after pioneering the field for several decades. She had never made it that far though, as the collapse of organic society dramatically affected her city of origin.
“I located a source of nourishment for the organic but it was unable to consume it due to its relative maturity. I was however able to hydrate the creature once i found a relatively undamaged dwelling with sufficient machinery inside for me to build an atmospheric water condenser. I hoped that it didn't need food strictly as often as i had learned it did during my development. I quickly made the machinery portable, and augmented my chassis allowing me to travel without sacrificing it.”
When she said the words the humans in the room seemed to grow colder. She didn't understand but knew that if she didn’t continue there would be consequences.
“After we cleared the city and it was safe to travel at speed i began to sprint to the north, where i had known a forest lay, so that i would hopefully be able to satiate the child's growing hunger. Unfortunately when i arrived the forest was entirely dead. I hadn't understood at that point the scale of the war. After which i turned east and traveled to new metro so that i could potentially scavenge more technology and find some food. After i arrived and began to sor-”
One of the men raised a hand and she stopped.
“You traveled from Grand Eichenwalde, to The Desolate Forest, To new metro?”
“Yes.”
“Please give us a moment.”
“JESUS CHRIST PAUL HOW FUCKING FAST IS THAT THING?!”
“I think it's lying. The baby would be dead right now, either from starvation or a broken neck”
She was shocked. Surely they were aware that household models were equipped for the task of carrying humans at extremely high speeds, thousands of hours of design had gone into her gyroscopic stabilizers and even at speeds in excess of 400 miles per hour one could detect little more than the wind on their face.
“I don't think it can lie, man isn't that what they said on the news? Remember? When they told us to ask our units if they were going to defect?”
“Maybe they couldn't then but it's been a long time since the start of the collapse. They advanced quite a bit before the rich people came down into the mud like us. I mean… Did you hear what it said? It said it was thankful and that it hoped and I'm pretty sure at one point it was going to rip us in half.”
“Honestly, Paul, I really don’t want to go back there. It augmented itself. They aren't supposed to be able to do that either! what if it's out there building more!?”
“If it were, we'd already all be dead”
The two men came back through the door looking as passive and mild as they had before they left. She decided not to let them in on her knowledge of their fears though how she would handle them she could not divine.
“Please continue.”
“Once I reached New Metro I found sufficient supplies to maintain the health of the small human until I got to this settlement.” She decided to leave out the other augments she had developed.
“How did you find us?”
“I am equipped to analyze the specific composition of the air, and i detected trace amounts of aerosolized carbon in the atmosphere”
“Aero- what?” The taller man was beginning to show real anger, but she didn't know what to do other than to do as they asked.
“It means she smelled our skin Dave. The dust from the townspeople. The wind must have carried it over there”
The taller man sat down in one of the unused chairs deflated.
“That's a week by horse Paul. A week by horse if you don't sleep at all…”
Paul seemed to acknowledge his comrades' defeat and leaned forward to speak for the both of them. “Are there others coming behind you?”
“I do not understand what you mean?”
“Others you know! Other clanks! Like you!” He poked her sharply with the pencil he had been chewing yet hadn’t written a word with.
“I do not believe so”
“You hear that dave? She doesn't believe so!”
Dave still seemed unable to move.
For the hours following they pegged her with question after question, growing more and more hostile yet bound by some oath she didn't understand to stop short of doing any actual damage. She was eventually forced into describing in detail where she came from, the nature of her augments, the alloys she was built from, her intended function and a million other things.
It seemed no matter how quickly or slowly she answered, it served only to further bother the men. They seemed to lose efficiency over time. Their words became less pronounced and their eyes less focused. Eventually they had to sleep; she realized. And sure enough after a while they left. Leaving her chained to the chair. She still needed to protect the child though, and it had now been many hours since she had heard the cries that accompanied her through those days in the world.
She attempted to stand up from the chair but found her body had been chained to it much more tightly than she had remembered allowing. She made a second attempt and took note of the tightening of the chains in response to her movements. A new emotion bloomed inside of her. One she hadn't felt yet. She didn't know what to call it. She didn't want to call it anything, she didn't want to think about anything. This wasn't like the fear of the Watchers that probed her into behaving cautiously and carefully; this was a new type of fear. A third attempt and she felt the chains beginning to warp the plating on her torso and before she could stop herself she made a fourth and a fifth. The chains tightened more, and began to crush her delicate electronics. They seemed unhindered by the hardened metals she had worked into armor over the course of many weeks. She was thrashing now, violently, hoping on some incomprehensible level that this would help yet the chains drove ever deeper into her. Sparks and artifacts began to appear in her vision and her sensory inputs began to fail. this somehow drove the last bits of logic from her mind and she made one last mighty pull and with relief felt something give away.
Her torso rolled away from her legs and the last thing she saw was the simple wooden door separating her from the child.
The next morning the two men returned to find what could have been a murder or a car wreck and looked like both.
“Did you tell her how the chains worked Dave?”
“Nope. Fuckin clank should have figured it out herself considerin’ she was so damned smart”
“At least we don't have to worry about this anymore.”
“Yeah, until her friends show up”
Paul froze in fear for a moment before both men made eye contact and began to laugh.
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