Toy Wars (37 page)

With one
of my huge ears plastered firmly to the stone wall
I listening carefully
.
The palatable silence made me fairly certain that
Isp left
no guards outside my cube.
If I had been Isp, I would have made sure about my new flock member before letting it have the run of the place.
I wasn’t, however, going to bemoan my good luck.

I waited almost an entire hour after the last slamming cubical door before making my break
—
or
I
should say
, “trying to make my break.”
I unlatched the door from the inside only to find it wouldn’t open.
Perhaps Isp was crazy, but
was
he
crazy like a fox?

I threw my weight against the door
as best as I could in the tiny
breadbox. It didn’t budge. I didn’t hesitate even twelve clock cycles.
I dug.

Obviously
,
Isp
had
never
encountered
gopher units
and
none of the other
t
eddies had
ever
considered burrowing.
The earthen floor dug quickly with my fingers.
Smugly
, four hours later I
wriggled
out of
a
hole
just large enough for my girth
.
I glanced around surreptitiously before deciding no one had discovered my nocturnal subterranean activities.
A few blades of grass, blown by a gentle breeze, provided the only movement in the village.

While none of the moons brightened t
he night
sky
,
the stars provided enough light to see the
thick
band of steel
around
the outside of my box.
Isp’s methods of control of his followers
w
as
frightening. Envision being sealed in a box and your life giving light never comes on. How many days would one of these extreme units last without power?
I shuddered.

I ran to Six’s do
m
e in as close
to
a sprint as my form could make.
It didn’t take long, as there was not a single soul moving inside the village.
But, there were two guards outside Six’s main audience chamber.
Isp hadn’t taken
my side arm, a long-slide .45
. Shooting them might wake up
the entire community.
Because I needed more than a few seconds with Six, I la
y
in the shadows and watched.

The guards, on set intervals,
roved all over the site of the huge gun
. After watching three cycles I figured if
I timed it right I ought to be able to sprint into the chamber without anyone being the wiser.

W
ith all of my overloads protesting
I bolted out
across the open ground.
I had almost cover
ed
the
requisite
distance when one guard unexpectedly turn
ed
the corner
10 meters directly ahead
.
At my speed I didn’t have a choice. In fact I don’t remember making one.

I didn’t even slow, bowling him over with my entire weight and force.
He fell heavily to the dirt and tried
to
cry out
,
but I clamped my left hand over his mouth.
I drew my knife with my free hand and shoved it deep into his vital machinery.
I think I pierced his
main
hydraulic
line
three times.
I added a final injury to his body by ramming my
umber
-
covered dagger up under his chin into his brain case, causing all of his actions to cease immediately.

From my knees I quickly scanned around.
Standing, I dragged his body into Six’s audience chamber.
The dead unit trailed streams of violet
, green
,
and amber body fluids that I had to hide.
I needed Isp and his followers to think the
guard had just disappeared.
I went out and covered the telltale signs with fresh dirt scraped up from nearby.
It wasn’t much but
speed mattered more than accuracy
.
Back in the chamber I rapidly hacked off a piece of my victim’s fur and wiped the floor up in the hallway.
Not a job that would fool a close inspection, but hopefully a close inspection would give me the time I needed anyway.

“Six?” I whispered harshly.
Equipment
dangled from wires,
glass shards littered the floor and lay crushed against a table with only three remaining legs.
I feared that the Golden Cult would have found a way to deactivate Six already had they known he could talk from here.

“From your actions, unit, I assume you do not follow Isp in his crusade against me,” came the muffled and distorted voice of Six through a speaker I would have sworn
couldn’t be
activated.

“It’s me, Don
—
I mean Teddy 1499,” remembering in time that Six didn’t know the name I had chosen.

“I apologize, 1499.
I do not have the sensors to register your type or serial number.
1499, please step on the platform to your right.”
I didn’t know what was going on, so I did as told.
I immediately felt a falling sensation as the
disguised elevator
all but dropped out from under me
.

T
he hole
, 10 meters above and shrinking fast, sealed
up as if it had never been disturbed.
I had not known of
the elevator’s
existence even with all the work I had done with Six.

The elevator remained in a narrow tunnel until it came
out through
a
ceiling
that
darkened in the distance without light for me to follow.
The echo of dripping water
could be heard, and
the volume of the darken
ed
space could be measured in cubic kilometers.

Within a second I could see a very faint light below. It brightened marginally, only ever getting as intense as twilight. The
lift slowed to a stop
, and
I barely registered that I’d traversed down
203 meters.
In front of me
row upon row of immobile units of all types
,
tanks, nurses, elephants, gophers
,
and more
, stretched off into the dim distance.

“Amazing!”

“1499
—
”

“Please call me Don.
My name is Don Quixote.”

“Don Quixote de la Mancha is a fictional character from a book by Cervantes, written in
the year
1648.
As a fictional character he was known for his hallucinations, and unusual moods
that
caused him to attack windmills, flocks of sheep
,
and unsuspecting barbers, not to mention falling in love with a peasant girl and attributing her with the features of a royal lady of that era.
The term quixotic was derived from that character’s name.
You are Teddy 1499.”

“I am much more than the unit you created, Six.
But this is no time for a debate.
We can solve that problem later.
We need to work together to solve this crisis, so please give me just the little bit of respect that I ask.”

“As you will.
It is of no import.
I have verified your authenticity, but reports were that you had perished L+13y283d12h4s plus or minus
six
hours.”

“I will use a trite line and say that ‘The report
s
of my death
were
an exaggeration.’
I removed myself from your net by replacing one of my secondary CCTs with that of a local animal.
I discovered that there are multiple Factories on this planet.”

“Unit, process all memories to zero and null.
No other Factories located on this planet.”
I shuddered
—
deja-vu.
I had
held out hope t
hat I wouldn’t have the same difficulties with my own Factory as the others
,
but obviously the Humans
ha
dn’t hear
d
the prayers of one simple little
teddy
unit.

“Factor
ies
55474 and 55469 are both located here.”

“Probability zero.
Factory 55474 was sent to Rigel-3 and 55469 was sent to Rigel-3.
Correction.
This is Rigel-3.
Memories matched and faulty data replaced.
At least two other Factories exist on this planet.
My databanks indicate two other Factories on this surface of this planet.”
I sighed with relief.

“Well, that was easy.
I have made contact with each of these Factories.
I was unable to convince 55474 that you exist.
It wanted to melt me down for scrap.

“
Factory
55469
,
on the other hand
,
was more than interested.
It proposed a partnership in which each would have access to the entire surface, thus controlling it.”

“Acceptable by current programming.”

“I thought it would be.
It suggests you talk to it on channel 3Theta7
;
however
,
we don’t seem to have control of things here, so there might be a slight problem.”

“Affirmative.
I have no control over my Theta-band transmitting tower.
The
t
eddy units, made in your mold, seem to take me as some type of threat.
I was unable to control them with persuasion, command
,
or even the unmodified units.

“
The unmodified units were quickly destroyed.
The
remaining insurrectionists
never sample the net.
I could have destroyed them by remote link, but that would have left me unguarded with a high probability of succumbing to the local fau
—
other Factories.

“The analysis of the situation indicated that my best course of action was to build up a force and out-wait the units above.
I have had superiority in numbers here in this storage facility, but it wasn’t nearly enough
against sentient
s
and to maintain local defenses.
Of course those above stopped my flow of raw materials, so
what you see in front of you is the total sum of my capabilities.

“Computations show that e
ventually the disloyal units would be killed by the
fauna
, a few at a time.
However your brethren are very resourceful and can defeat a disproportionate number of unmodified units, even with poorly kept weapons.

“After enough of the rebellious units
are
destroyed, I
can
storm them with the units I have created.”

“But they are building a huge cannon
just to destroy you
.
You c
an’t wait them
out.”

“Analysis g
ives
the weapon a
12
percent
chance of success, a
n
81
percent chance
of exploding and weakening the units enough to allow me to regain control, and a
7
percent c
hance of doing nothing.”

“But why didn’t you enhance these units?” I asked, sweeping my arms out at the legions of not-yet-activated units.
“You then don’t even risk the
12
percent
.
You should have been able to defeat them easily.
Many of their weapons have no ammunition and are in utter disrepair.
One good thrust and they should topple over.
Additionally, not all of them are for Isp’s ideas.
We might have secret allies in such a war, especially when it became obvious we were winning.”