Robot

Chapter 7

     Seven pairs of eyes were glued to the monitor as they saw a human shaped figure slowly mechanically step out of the unit. It was tall with metallic skin.
Laurence let out a low whistle. "It looks like The Terminator."

Its face was shaped like a human's with a mouth, nose and eyes, but the eyes glowed a faint red. It stood perfectly still.

"What now?" asked Andrew.

"According to its programming it won't become activated until it receives a command from its parent computer, System A, which of course, is off line," Tracy explained, "Right now it is semi-activated, like a computer in sleep mode waiting for a command. We've got to fully deactivate it."

"Well how do we do that?"

"Computer, can you deactivate that robot?"

"Negative. Necessary codes and command are required from another system."

"It means System A," explained Tracy, "I'm going in there. It has a control panel on its chest. If I can open it, there should be a deactivate switch according to the plans."

"No, Tracy, it's too dangerous," protested Lawrence.

"It's the only way," Tracy insisted.

She walked out of the room and into the airlock of Lab One. As she stepped through the gap left by the shattered glass door, the robot slowly turned its head to look at her. Tracy froze.


"I thought she said it was in sleep mode," Andrew exclaimed as he and the others watched on the monitor.
"Movement must have activated it," Laurence muttered.


Tracy decided to take a gamble. "Robot, deactivate," she commanded it.

The robot responded in a deep mechanical voice. "Negative. Defence weapon engaged."
It raised its right arm and pointed a silver finger at Tracy. She flung herself to the floor as a red laser beam emitted from the robot's hand and burned a small hole in the wall behind her.

Both Laurence and Carl dashed for the door to enter the lab to assist Tracy, but she shouted, "Don't come in, Laurence. Stay out." She rolled behind a desk as another beam burned a hole in the floor where she had just been lying.

"We've got to do something," Carl gasped, "It will kill her."

"No, wait," Laurence said, "If I know Tracy, she has something in mind."

In the lab, the robot slowly advanced on the table.

"Robot, what is your prime directive?" Tracy shouted at it.

"Prime directive is to kill humans," the mechanical voice said.

"No, your prime directive is to self destruct."

"Self destruct, negative," the robot replied.

"I repeat, self destruct!" Tracy shouted.

The robot reached out and pushed the heavy desk aside effortlessly. It raised an arm and took aim at Tracy. Again she shouted "Self destruct."

"Self destruct," repeated the robot, "Self destruct, self destruct." Then it froze in position with its arm outstretched.

Tracy jumped to her feet, and moved away from the metallic creature.

Then, as she watched it, the robot's eyes glowed white brightly for a second before going out. The arm fell down, and before her eyes the entire figure slowly lost its shape and gradually crumbled to the floor turning into dust.

Laurence, Andrew, Leon and the security guards rushed into the lab. Laurence put his arm around Tracy. "Are you all right?" he asked. "What happened to it?"

"A virus," she replied in an unsteady voice, "I wrote a virus while the molecular unit was making this monster, and inserted it into the robot's programming. I had to get it past a firewall. I wasn't sure I had succeeded. The key words were 'prime directive' and 'self destruct.' The virus was the back up if I couldn't get to the deactivate switch. That was rather close. I was a bit worried for minute there."

"You were worried?" Laurence said, "We all thought this thing was going to kill you."

They all looked down at the floor. All that was left of the deadly robot was a pile of grey dust.

"The virus I wrote caused the molecular bonds between all the robot's tiny components to disintegrate. Thank goodness it worked," breathed Tracy, "Laurence, walk me up to the bar. I need a drink. Carl, can you seal off this area? We'll clean it up tomorrow. Make sure no one knows what happened here tonight apart from your staff."

Tracy and Laurence left the lab. Carl, Andrew, Leon and the two security guards stood gazing down at the pile of dust, hardly believing what they had seen that night.