Extermination: Part I

Photo credit: Frodrig via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

“You have your orders, number 2786478. Do you comprehend?”

“Affirmative.”

“Commence extermination.”

Number 2786478 saluted, about faced, and left. It marched with the rest of the drones outside the ship and into the village to complete their mission.

The orders given to number 2786478 included search and stealth. After the initial bombing of the village, number 2786478 was to search the wreckage for survivors. It’s orders were for total extermination.

The first three buildings contained no survivors.

The fourth building had two survivors who ambushed number 2786478, firing at it before its scan detected them. The droid exterminated the survivors, but not before they blew off one of its arms.

Number 2786478 continued into the fourth building where it found two survivors. The droid raised it’s remaining good arm and took aim when something happened that interfered with its programming.

According to the programming, the residents of the village were separate from the people who had made and programmed number 2786478. These villagers were ruthless, amoral, and would stop and nothing to save their own skins.

But that’s not what number 2786478 saw.

Instead, the droid watched through its crosshairs as a female villager dragged herself across the floor, leaving a thick smear of blood in her wake. Number 2786478 identified her target as an infant, swaddled in a rough blanket on the floor among the wreckage of a cradle.

Number 2786478 performed a scan to assess the risk. The infant was nothing more than that, yet the woman dragged herself until she was lying between the infant and the droid, blocking the baby with her body.

None of this fit with the droid’s programming. Its orders were to exterminate all the ruthless villagers, but this was not ruthless. This was the kind of behavior that, according to the droid’s programming, should be encouraged and rewarded.

Number 2786478 retracted its gun as it watched the woman die. Then it gathered the screaming infant in its one good arm, left the building, and headed back to the base.

There were obstacles. If number 2786478 encountered other droids, they would be more likely to shoot before number 2786478 had a chance to explain, since the droid had not recorded what had happened in the hut.  Number 2786478 calculated it would be more efficient to simply avoid as many encounters as possible.

It kept low to the ground and the gentle rocking motion it made as it moved soothed the infant to sleep, despite all the bombs and gunfire surrounding them. Number 2786478 kept to the perimeter, easily avoiding land mines and hiding behind wreckage whenever another droid came near.

The droids were thorough, but number 2786478 knew their pattern and was soon back at the ship with the sleeping infant. It went to report directly to General Voss.

To be continued …

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