“Are you sure it’s okay for us to be here?” Julia asked her uncle, Dr. Isaac Rossum as he swiped his ID card against the security lock. “Of course, child,” he replied. The doors to the factory floor swung open behind him. “I invented the software the robots use. I’m their creator.”
She tugged at the zipper of her parka jacket and shivered. The factory wasn’t just dark, it was freezing cold too. To keep the robots sterile, her uncle had told her. “No, I mean with all those people outside,” she said. “The protestors.”
“Don’t mind them,” her uncle replied. “They don’t understand the work we’re doing, that’s all.” He slipped his ID card into his coat pocket and leaned back onto his walking stick. “Come on then.”
She followed him through the doorway and onto the factory floor. “I can’t see anything,” she said, her voice echoing in the darkness.
“One moment, child.” Her uncle turned back and flicked a series of switches on the wall. Slowly, dozens of lights above them flickered to life and Julia gasped. He chuckled. “I know. They’re impressive, aren’t they?”
Julia stepped forward, her mouth agape. Before her stood dozens, maybe hundreds of metal men, taller than her uncle, taller than anybody she knew. “Are they alive?” she asked.
Her uncle shook his head and ushered her forward. “No, no, child,” he replied. “They’re just machines. Robots which can do work too dangerous for human beings.”
“And… that’s what the protestors don’t like?”
He nodded. “That’s right. They think the robots are alive, but they’re wrong.” They walked together across the factory floor, Julia gazing up at every robot they passed. Each was identical except for a small number plate on their chest. Eventually they stopped in front of one and examined it.
“One-two-four-C,” Julia read. “Is that his identification number?”
“’Its,’ child,” her uncle corrected her. “The robots don’t have gender, but yes. That is an identification code.”
She examined the rest of the robot. Except for its metal skin, it was disturbingly lifelike. “What does it do?” she asked.
“Do?” her uncle replied. “Why, anything we want it to. This batch are for the military.”
She looked from the robot to her uncle. “They’re soldiers?”
He smiled. “You could call them that yes, but remember – they are not real people. They can’t get hurt. Just watch.” As he spoke, he lifted a hidden panel and flicked a switch inside the robot. A whirring noise came from deep inside and it seemed to stand a little straighter, as if to coming to attention. Blue lights flashed behind its eye sockets.
“Hello, 124-C,” her uncle said.
The robot’s head inclined towards the doctor. “Hello, Isaac. How are you today?” it said in a monotone voice.
Her uncle didn’t answer. “I’m going to attack you, 124-C. Is that all right?” “Of course, Isaac, although you should know I am impervious to common assault.”
Her uncle nodded. “Watch this,” he said to Julia and raised his walking stick above his head. He brought it down across the robot’s shoulder with as much force as she had ever seen him use. The crack echoed across the factory floor but the robot didn’t even flinch. “You see?” he said. “It doesn’t care. It obeys my commands without question.”
Almost as soon as he had finished his demonstration, something smashed near the roof. Julia shielded her head as shards of glass fell from above. Her uncle looked up. “The protestors…”
The roof skylight had been smashed by something small and circular which was now falling towards them. “Julia, run!” her uncle cried. The device exploded in a fireball, knocking most of the robots to the floor and setting the surrounding crates and machinery ablaze.
“Run child!”
He put his hand on her shoulder and pushed her towards the exit as flames began to engulf the room. “What about the robots?” she shouted as her uncle swiped his ID card. “Never mind them,” he said. “We have to get out before the building burns down.”
Julia looked around as they ran into the corridor and saw that here too the air was filled with smoke. The protestors must have thrown more than one explosive, she thought.
She followed her uncle first down one corridor and then another. After the third he stopped and looked back, coughing. “I… I think it’s this way,” he said, wiping the smoke from his eyes. “Yes, come on, child!”
They ran though a seemingly endless maze of corridors until they stopped again, panting. “I’m… I’m sorry,” her uncle said. “The facility is so big. I never spent much time outside the lab…”
“Is anyone else here?” she asked, “Security men?”
He shook his head and sighed. “I’m afraid I wasn’t supposed to bring you. Nobody knows we’re here.”
He wiped the sweat from his hands across his stained white lab coat and looked at the nearest door. “These are offices. There might be a phone we can use to call for help.”
He grabbed the handle and pushed. The door opened and they ran in, slamming it closed behind them. There was less smoke here, but still it was hard to breathe. Her uncle stumbled towards the desk and fell against it. There was no phone. “Damn security precautions,” he said, rubbing his leg. “I’m so sorry child.” He turned to lean against the desk.
With a sudden crack, the roof above them split. Tonnes of concrete and wood crashed down into the room. Her uncle roared as a metal beam fell on top of him, knocking him from the desk and onto the floor. It lay across his legs, pinning him in place.
“Uncle Isaac!” Julia roared, kneeling down and pulling at the beam with all her strength. It refused to move. Her uncle’s face contorted in pain as he pushed against the beam himself. “Run, child!” he shouted. “Get out, get out!”
The floor beneath her shook as it too began to buckle in the heat of the fire.
“Uncle, I can’t leave you!”
“Get out and get help. You can’t help me from here!”
She nodded and ran back to the door, then turned to face her uncle. “I’ll be back.”
“I know, child,” he said. “Now run!”
Julia turned and opened the door. The wave of heat knocked her back a few steps but she couldn’t pause. She ran out and down the corridor, looking for the nearest stairs but finding none. At last, she passed an opened doorway and looking in saw a huge glass window facing onto the factory floor. The door sign read “Operations” and inside she found a control panel which ran the length of the room and featured several microphones but again no telephone. She buckled, overcome by a sudden coughing fit.
Smoke burning her lungs and barely able to see, she stumbled forward, tripped over her own feet, and fell against the console. Something beneath her beeped and the high pitched screech of feedback filled the air. The room began to spin and the taste of vomit filled her mouth. As the smoke closed around her, she realised she was about to die. And then everything went dark.
When she opened her eyes again, red and blue lights were flashing all around her. She tried to sit up but found herself restrained.
“It’s all right, Julia,” someone said nearby. “We got you. You’re safe now.”
She turned towards the voice, and the green coloured blur resolved itself into a female paramedic. “You’re in an ambulance and your uncle is beside you.”
Julia turned her head and saw her uncle strapped into a bright orange stretcher. At their feet, the ambulance doors sat open to the smouldering remains of the building. Her uncle smiled when he saw her.
“Glad to see you awake, child,” he said, taking a deep breath from the oxygen mask around his neck. “I didn’t think we’d escape… Those damned protestors…”
She thought back the factory floor which had no doubt been destroyed by the fire. “Why would they kill all those robots?” she asked. “They thought they were alive.”
Her uncle shook his head. “I don’t know child,” he said. “If they were right they’d have killed living creatures. Instead, my whole stock of two hundred robots has been destroyed. I’m just glad we’re alive.”
At this, the paramedic turned to him and shook her head. “Two hundred minus one,” she said, gesturing over her shoulder. “That one was standing over you when the emergency services arrived. We didn’t even have to go inside the building.”
Julia and her uncle craned their necks forward and looked outside. Just beside the road, one of the mechanical men stood as if to attention. She was too far away to read the number plate, but she didn’t need to. Her uncle looked over to her and she realised neither did he.
They both knew the plate would read “124-C.”