Today is Episode Four of Unbiased Law, a robot drama set in 2111. As humans are phased out of the system of law, robots replace them becoming purely black and white in their dealings with the public. Crime is down, and almost eliminated completely due to the accuracy rate of the droids. However, after one man in prison is found innocent, the law system is thrown into question. If one robot can make these errors, how do they know more won’t… or already have?
If you’re just tuning in, Episode One is here feel free to catch up and then return to this Episode! Enjoy!
As my charge completes, the daylight nearly incinerates my visual processing core. I always try to lay down to charge, but apparently I went into sleep mode staring straight at the window. That wouldn’t have been creepy to anyone walking by, not at all. I unplug and make my way to the computer, processors still adjusting to the abnormally bright sun. No new emails, that’s always a good thing. Some days you prefer for business just not to be booming. As I check the news however I stumble upon a headline, “Serial Number Killer” just below it reads “Robots missing all over town as serial killer kidnaps and disposes of at least five public service droids.” Strangely enough, I think the number is six, I was supposed to be the first. I guess I’ll have to keep it on the down low until I can work on that case.
I turn off all the lights, lock the door and then make my way into the back office area. Stooping to open my safe, I find my brown fedora tucked under a nearby end table. Well, one case solved today, I wonder if I can make it two? As the safe clicks open, a large silver box covered in dust is all that remains within in. I couldn’t remember if I kept anything else in here, so I guess not. Placing the box on the table, I blow the dust off and open it. I stare into the case, and my human face stares back at me. “Hello Jonathan.”
Let me explain, I wasn’t always a robot. Well, it’s complicated… but there is a reason I was allowed to leave the force. I used to be one of the officers on the PAID training force. I was a human who took to cybernetic implants very well. You see in the early days of implants, most bodies rejected the nanites, tiny robots poured by the millions into your system. Each robot type had a purpose. Some were meant to cure cancers, others to repair cell tissue, others to enhance performance; But the entire time almost no patients survived any of the tests. It was very secretive as they were testing on live human subjects, but the government gave the program the green light. I never agreed with the program, until one day.
It was a routine exercise, distract and deploy, except today the gunman in the liquor store had more than we expected. The exercise we had activated dozens of times, but normally the gunman had a pistol or rifle. I was supposed to distract the hostage taker while robots flanked him from all sides until he would just give in from the sheer number of ways he could die. This guy though, he looked ragged but he had something I had never seen before. The weapon looked like a television remote, and at first I didn’t think anything of it. As I made my way toward him, talking all the way, one of the hostages shouted for me to look left. I didn’t move, until the gunman nodded. The body down the aisle was still smouldering. Suddenly, this feeling of unease came over me. I’m going to die. As the robots deployed their part of the deal, the gunman who normally gives up, decided he would rather die than go to prison. I didn’t feel a thing as I burst through the front window of the liquor store. As I came to rest on the ground, I’ll never forget the look on the poor officer’s face who got to me first. Then I blacked out.
When I awoke, I was amazed to see I was in amazing shape. I jumped up and skipped around. I was alive! Eventually my doctor came in and sat me down. He explained that the nanites were repairing my body, but in doing so they converted a lot of blood and bone to tissue. My bones had apparently been replaced with metal now. I thought this was too awesome, I was becoming a robot! I continued returning to the doctor for check ups and apparently my body was handling the nanites just fine. However the nanites were working their way toward my brain and if they found something else to maintain, there was a possibility of brain damage. I underwent the emergency surgery and came out just fine, at least it felt fine. Until I realized I couldn’t feel the bed below me, or the fabric of the sheets. I ripped the sheets off to find that my body had been replaced with that of a droid’s. What the hell is going on?! I jumped up and I saw my head floating in formaldehyde and there’s just something about seeing that kind of image that really knocks you out.
When I awoke, there was a doctor and a government official standing over me. The news was the nanites had completely rebuilt the outer hull of my body, and has rebuilt ninety percent of my muscle mass. This took my bones and a lot of blood to manage. However, the remaining ten percent could only be rebuilt from primary body tissues, I couldn’t have a donor. Sadly it would come from my brain or my heart, and without those obviously I wouldn’t be alive. Instead, the government had fast tracked a program of developing robot people. What that means is they hooked my brain up to a computer, let it absorb all the data and then it uploaded it to this robot’s memory banks. They said it would take some getting used to, but I was one hundred percent machine now. Congratulations they said. I was the first.
As I stared at my old face, I remembered the first few months. The face was a nanite representation of my entire head. That meant if my thought process was to move my ears, it moves them only as much as I would have been able to before. I couldn’t bend my own memory and limitations, so if my tongue couldn’t touch my nose, it wouldn’t now. The doctor put it on and pointed me to a mirror. It was remarkable, I looked human in head only. The doctor recommended I try and blend in more with robots and use the face only to remind myself that I was human once. But now, I needed it to blend in among the humans, in case my killer happened to spot me.
The face fit naturally and I put on a pair of gloves to hide my hands. Donning my hat, I slipped out the back entrance and into the alley. As I stared up into the sky, it felt strange to know today I would be perceived as a human again after so long. Did I even remember what it would be like to be a human? I flagged down a cab and hopped in. The driver was a robot and I had hoped it would be my cab driver from the other night, but not so lucky. “Where to mac?” I thought about my joke, and brushed it off. “The Courthouse please.” The cab driver nodded and pulled out. I immediately panicked, Oh no, robots transfer other robots their fare, but what do humans do these days? The cab driver caught me in the rear view. “You ok back there? You’re looking a little pale, don’t you throw up!” I looked around anxiously, Pale? What does he mean? Is my face broken? As we got a few blocks from the Courthouse I got even more nervous, and my brain apparently told my face to gag. The cab driver slammed on the brakes, “Get the hell out! I just detailed this car and I’ll be damned if you’re going to throw up all over it meatbag!” As I jumped out I realized my face was giving away my thoughts. This would take some getting used to.
That’s it for today’s episode, the investigation begins with the courthouse however I hope today’s piece was satisfactory enough! Feel free to email me or comment below!