Deliver Us Huis

I burst into our control center to see Petrus watching the news. “Did my eyes turn green?” I asked, looking at the current newscast.

Petrus turned around in his chair, “Your eyes are green now, what are you scared of?”

“Did you not watch the debate?” I asked, slightly offended that he wouldn’t care to watch me on the television, “Caliban asked about the missing resources. It could have been just a question to throw me off my guard, or he could be on to us.”

My voice rose, “But right now I need to know if my eyes flashed green when he asked the question! If so he, and all the rest of the city will know I was afraid of that question, and then they could get suspicious, and then they could figure it out, and then everything will be ruined!”

Petrus walked over and placed his hands on my shoulders, “Tel, before you see anything you need to calm down. Whatever happens, we’ll handle it, it’ll all be fine.”

I nodded, trying to calm down. Not because of his words, but because he was standing quite close, eyes looking into my own. He was so close that if I raised my head a bit more, our lips would touch.

My face started turning red at the thought, just as Petrus went to find the interview on the television.

I shook my head, clearing my brain, as Petrus fiddled with the remote, finding the interview. Once he had found it he clicked over to Caliban’s question. I heard him again say, “What is your thoughts about the recent robbery of natural resources that have been going on in this very city, what should be done about them?”

The camera panned over to me, and Petrus paused.

“Look!” I said, “There’s a faint hint of green!”

“There is?” Petrus asked, walking over to examine the screen more closely.

“Yes, very faint, like it’s just faded, another second and it will be gone.”

Petrus pressed on the remote and the interview continued, not another flash of my eyes throughout. At the end of the interview Petrus powered it off and turned to me.

“Alright, so your eyes did flash green, but the camera only caught the faintest glimpse. Any viewer who catches a green glint that faint will easily pass it off for nerves.”

“But that means General Caliban most definitely saw the green in my eyes,” I said, worried.

“Maybe he’ll pass it off for nerves too, but if not, if he checks the times of the robberies he’ll find you were in interviews for all of them.”

“True,” I said, “But either way he has called the public’s attention to the issue. We need another distraction, something that will put both Caliban and the public off of the issue of stolen resources before they find out too much.”

“Agreed,” Petrus said, “Any ideas?”

“I’ve got nothing,” I said, shrugging, “It should be something huge, something that really grabs the attention of the press. But I don’t want any civilians hurt.”

“Agreed,” Petrus said, “But what could grab their attention?”

“And what could we do that wouldn’t get us caught?” I added.

“Fire?” Petrus suggested.

“No, arson isn’t enough to grab the attention of the press.”

Suddenly Petrus’s eyes lit up, “What about explosions?”

“Explosions?”

“We could find an old building, or something under construction, it doesn’t matter as long as no one’s in it. We get Nickolai to make us a bomb. Middle of the night, we set it off. All evidence will be destroyed, and the public will go nuts. No one will be stuck on such boring news as disappearing resources.”

“Genius,” I said, “I’ll ask Nickolai to work on it in between his construction of the androids. In fact, I looked at the clock, “He said he would have final plans drawn up by 1:00, and it’s 1:14. Shall we go see the plans, and give him orders for our bomb?”

“Sure.”

We took the elevator down to the lab, where we found Nickolai making final revisions on his plans. Petrus and I sat down at the table.

“How is the design for the android coming along?” I asked, eager to see his concept design.

“First of all, sweetheart, Androids with fighting capabilities are called Anthrolems.”

“Anthrolems?”

“Different that the household droid, or even a working android, the Anthrolem is made for military pursuits.”

Petrus sighed,“Thanks for the vocabulary lesson, brother, now what are your plans for these Anthrolems?”

“Well,” Nickolai said, turning his back to Petrus and coming alongside me at the table, “The plan is for the figures to closely resemble Huisic appearance. If you wish I can make them appear almost exactly like an ordinary Huisic.”

“That would be wonderful,” Petrus nodded, coming to the other side of me.

“Currently I have two separate classes: Class A is for close range assault, and Class B is long range, used for anti-armor, and anti-fortifications.Class A is better for specialized missions with few casualties. Class B, however, is much more powerful, though less precise.”

“And the difference will mainly be in their programming?” I asked, trying to subtly inch away from Nickolai who was coming too close to me for comfort.

“Programming will be part of it,” Nickolai said, coming closer, not noticing my discomfort, or perhaps ignoring it,“But most of the difference is in their weapons.”

He placed two different charts in front of us.

“I’ll begin by showing you Class A.” He pointed to the right hand of the Anthrolem diagram, “This hand will be able to change into what I call the Paralyze-Cement effect, or Paracent. This gun that will instantly paralyze a subject. A part of the charge remains in the target’s body, if any living thing touches the victim, the paralysis will spread to them. However all paralysis effects remain only 30 minutes to an hour.”

I nodded my approval. That setting would be very helpful in military pursuits with as few casualties as possible.

“Class A is also equipped with a vibro blade, and special fight programing, allowing them to fight in hand to hand combat. They can be fatal, though they are not designed to be. Powerful silent thrusters means they can fly in and out of almost anywhere making them the best spies available.”

“They sound amazing,” Petrus said, nodding his head, “But not best for, say, war.”

“That’s where class B comes in,” Nickolai said, “Class B will be equipped with back mounted rail guns, to deploy, they drop onto all fours and extend spikes into the ground for stability, converting them into cannon like structures, unable to be moved without excessive force.

However the rail guns have a much more serious effects than the Paracent. Basically, using the strongest electromagnet on the market, we will be able to accelerate projectiles at very high speeds. Using some new technology, the Anthrolems are capable of send one pound smart projectiles upwards 300 miles at twelve rounds a minute.”

“So they convert into cannons?” I asked.

Nickolai smirked, “Cannons that can destroy a Class A apartment complex roughly every 22.6 seconds.”

“What else are they equipped with?” Petrus asked eagerly, looking over the design.

“For anti armor, Vibro technology allows the shell to detect and match the frequency of the targets atomic vibration, thus increasing all penetration power three-fold. Vibroblades that follow the same principle are equipped for any hand to hand combat the Anthrolem may face.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but was quickly cut off by the excited Nickolai. “One idea that was rejected by both the military and the Ethics Committee alike was Muscle-Droids. Instead of using a single hydraulic or similar contractent as with the first generation of Androids, we model the muscles of our own bodies, with individual fibers.”

Nickolai paused, “However the Anthrolems will have one crucial difference: Each fiber is a separate robot, fully capable of moving and attacking. As soon as each robot loses a signal from the Anthrolems brain, they disconnect from the skeleton. On each end of the newly freed robot, there is a vibroblade, allowing it to slice through anything. Using the vibroblade it can also burrow into the earth, into a tank, and either tear things to shreds or await orders of detonation.”

I shook my head, lost in all his technical jargon, “So, in essence, if the Anthrolem is destroyed, it becomes a bunch of even smaller robotic weapons?”

“Basically, yes, even in their defeat they have been designed to be useful.”

Petrus leaned forward, “And how long will it take you to construct an Anthrolem?”

Nickolai leaned back, “Once I have the specifications all figured out, given the 3D scan and printing devices given me in this lab… I should be able to start making Class A’s at the rate of 25 a day, Class B’s 15 a day.”

Petrus nodded, “You have the beta chip, and most of the raw material to get started, anything else you need?”

“Whose intelligence are we using for the AI chip?” Nickolai asked.

“Tel,” Petrus said, without blinking an eye.

“Once we have her information, and I draw up the computer code for the mechanical schematics we can start the process.”

“Perfect,” Petrus said, leaping out of his chair, “We’ll leave you to drawing up the mechanics, and Tel and I will be down in an hour to get her information programmed in.”

My mouth almost dropped open. Was this not my plan? Did I not have a say? Did they think to ask me what I thought about these weapons designed to injure and kill.

I opened my mouth to give voice to the indignant thoughts, but Petrus was already walking out of the room, and I ran trying to catch up.