The ride to the Channing's Estate was no fun ride with the sharp turns and ascending paths but my mind was pre-occupied then by the forthcoming event I was to unfold. I looked at the digital wave of the luminous time reader on the extended metal chain on my jacket pocket. It had been over an hour since I landed at the space port and then transported on this rectangle hovering contraption with a robotic system handling the navigation and driving. I was getting agitated at the loss of time as it may had reduced the opportunity to re-traced ny evidence trails. More so, I am not comfortable with the machine holding control over my life now.
"I can see that you still hold that antiquated time reader." Federation Marshall Keane offered me his opinion of my period time piece of 2123 compared to his model which was from 2201. I pocketed back the time reader into my jacket, and awaited the next onslaught of ridicule by the officer of the law there. Marshal Keane as he preferred himself to be addressed, was a Federation officer with the rank mentioned beforehand. A man of twenty years of experiences and was dressed in his the uniform of the Marshall; dark jacket with matching pants tucked into a set of gleaming boots with a head piece that resembled the insect head with its twin antenna at the rear. The Marshall was armed with his array of weapons on the greaves located on the lower arms with his hands tucked into the dark metallic gloves.
"Its 2201, Jimmy. I am sure we have given allocation to your section to upgrade to these attire and equipment." The Marshall was adorned with equipments stuffed into the loose cavities of his uniform from the communications array to the satellite links gadgets.
"This one is a locator. I can grab the attributes of any person on the surface and have their presences located within seconds." He was arrogantly displaying the small triangle unit attached to his left side of the chest. I heard of that unit and it was a tool designed for the enforcers.
I look down at my clothes; a plain dark blue jacket over my pale shaded tunic, with silvery shaded pants tucked into a set of dark silver boots. My credentials was on the jacket giving me access to establishments for my tasks; I am an Investigating Officer with the rank of Captain. The rank meant nothing to us in the section as we are all Captains but we have no junior officers. I am from the Special Division of the Science Ministry; we specialize in robotic crimes. We are so small a division that we hardly get noticed and for all out works done, it was all sealed by the Ministry for reasons only they knew well.
I knew Keane when we went through the Academy and then separate assignments that took us ten years to meet again. He had it good in his career, while I am just the same as I was in the last five years.
"Tell me, Marshall," I decided to shift the attention of the subject to the event I was to handle, and also to cut short on anymore ridicule by my Academy mate on the poor allocation for my section. "How did the droid react when it was detained?"
"Oh that part. I was advised that we have a rogue robot and dispatched the squad. There were four of us; two Marshalls and two more droids; M200 series armed with energy dampeners. We cornered the rogue and clamped it down." Marshalls are authorized to detained any suspects or criminals, but they are not allowed to terminate unless with extreme prejudice. In the case of a droid, the last may not applied as the laws of robotic programmed into the droids does not allowed them to harm any humans. Hence the rogue droid was only momentarily shut down by force.
"The droid had hurt five personnels in the section...." I stopped the Marshall there.
"You mentioned hurt, but were those wounds fatal?" I was raising my query.
"Nope, they were more of 'disabling' wounds like broken limbs, but no death. If it was, I would had blown the droid to its chips level. That was it deserved to have, and not that silent death."
I smiled at the Marshall; the man had shown restraint in his work, but under pressure, he had shown himself still the hot headed young punk that detest droids. Keane had his moments when his emotional state have been hauled up for scrutiny by the Heads of the Academy. I was testing to see the reaction of the man to the droids, as through history, man had placed droids in the same category as colored segregation. Even though they are tolerated for their service, but they are subjected to many abuse and sometimes physical intimidation by hotheads like Keane. The only thing preventing the droids from replying that action back towards their intimidators was its laws of robotic; no harms to any humans.
My line of questioning came to an end as I was ushered into the building which housed the headquarters of S-Robotics Development at the Channing's Estate; a forth pioneering venture into new technology in robotics. I was met at the reception by the Guest Officer; an advanced droid that looked like a mirror image of a beautiful lady then dressed in a white suit that showcased the femininity in the shape. It was a Droid G200 series of which only ten were build for testing.
I declined the droid offer of traveling in the travel capsule and choose to do the walking.
"Its a long walk., Captain Barnes." The droid replied and it was then I felt the mind intrusion.
"Stop that! I demand you stop that." I glared at the droid. "I would not be scanned and read by you or or any thing in this building."
"I am sorry, Captain Barnes. We are programmed to be receptive to predictive notions of the humans. It was...." I raised up my arm to its explanation. I knew about the new advancement made into the programming of droids that can anticipate human's needs. It was a major step to make them more 'compliant' to the needs of their masters or mistresses. I was against it, as it made them more 'human' and that could had detrimental issues. We may soon become slaves to them was my argument but the Councils of Robotic Guild threw my complaint as mischievous. That was also why I am here today; to prove my argument may had its findings here.
In the end, I agreed to the transportation mode as not to waste time but it would be an open top hover cart. I had my share of enclosure for the day. I am claustrophobic and my physical self was displaying it with my sweats rolling down my calves.
Soon I was at the Research Lab #31; designated Top Secret, and it was accessed through three levels of security check before I was shown the droid of my concern still laid on the metal table with restraint on its limb. The droid looked like any young prime man with the muscular form that would ranked them as perfect but this one had been terminated with extreme prejudice in what may be termed as destructive shutdown. The lab was a rectangle in design and held nothing except the table in which the droid had been laid.
"Captain Barnes, Senior Researcher Mathews." The man who greeted me was dressed in a white silvery pantsuit with the seals that closed off all of his body parts except for the facial opening.
"I was in charge of researching the droid when it was detained, and we had not even started works yet. We have other more critical cases. We left it here in this lab with no means of any outsiders accessing it, except our own personnels. Twelve hours later, we found it terminated in the program and more to it, a complete data wipeout before shutdown."
"I can assured you that no one in my staff can do this. This was the advance model E200 and considered the latest. Only ten have been build and all undergoing testing including this one."
I looked around the lab and was agreeable that the only access was by the door and then it was guarded with triple security levels. But a droid had been terminated when it was quarantined in here.
"Researcher Mathews..." I was addressing the man when he stopped me.
"Its Senior Researcher Mathews, Captain Barnes."Professional courtesy would be maintained."
I nodded and respected the man for his preservation of his ranking and credentials. I paused on his name and then asked if he would let me access to his control panels.
"I could get a warrant but that would be distressing your shareholders." I flexed my influence onto the Senior Researcher which caused him discomfort. He motioned for me to follow him to the Control Center where a console was allocated to me. The Senior Researcher offered to have an aide to guide me but I declined.
"Senior Researcher, I have my own methods." I asked the company of curious onlookers to backed up while I do my ritual on the console. I did the rhythm of the hands and cracking of the limbs with some humming before I sat myself on the seat. Unseen by them all, I had placed the mini attachment to the console in one its open ports and then activated the unit. We in the Science Division may be low in the allocation but we get our shares of the fund to developed some unique tools used in our trade. We also get to test out prototypes which may never get into commercial markets. The tool I have implanted allowed me to 'communicate' with the consoles and accessed it telepathically. It was something which I had installed hence I could read telepathic interferences like with the droid at the reception.
Soon the consoles screen showed me the programs that was linked to Lab #31 during the time of detention until its termination. Complex programming codes were shown on the screen but they were to me images or messages pertaining to the event. Then the screen went all blank and I deftly removed the unit without being seen. I got up from my seat and faced the puzzled Marshall.
"I knew how droid E200-10 was terminated. Or shall I renamed it as E201-01." I stared at the Senior Researcher Mathews. "You upgraded the droid on its programming giving it wider and deeper mind scanning ability. Your logic protocol Ref: SIMOV was added on last week without authorization."
The Senior Researcher was alarmed at what I learned from the console. He thought he had his way with the research, he could do more risky ventures. After all in research, nothing is gain unless ventured. Marshall Keane approached the Senior Researcher to detained him but I stopped the Marshall.
"Senior Researcher Mathews is guilty of doing unsanctioned works but he was not the terminator. Droid E200-10 did not acted in a roque manner. It acted on the rules of Robotic Law to avoid harm coming to those he injured. They were brain controlled by others to commit self immolation at the same time. Droid E200-10 acted in response to saved them. Due to that, the so named murderers took it out on E200-10 and terminated the droid logic programming with spams of instruction causing it to self destruct. E200-100 terminated itself to avoid its components from exploding and may had caused death of the humans."
"I present to you the real murderers." The screens on the consoles in the Control Center all lighted up. On the screen were the scrolling of every droid model in the Centre. "There are twenty two thousand droids which had contributed to the termination of Droid E100-10. All of it, was re-programmed to direct their logic queries telepathic towards E200-100 causing an overload."
"The droid that planned and made that termination worked were these ones." The doorway to the Control Centre walked in; all ten of G200 models, including the one at the Reception. "The series telepathic module was the latest and the latest codes added in allowed it to control or influence through telepathic onto the other series thus changing the logic programming and making all it in unison a weapon of mass destruction."
"They colluded and terminated E200-100 with their telepathic program." I concluded my case.
"Preposterous!" Senior Researcher Mathews shouted out. "How can one of you; a human can decipher the logic waves of these telepathic droids unless...."
Senior Researcher Mathews minced back his statement. He was looking alarmed.
"I am a droid operating telepathic with Captain Barnes now. I am a new series X1000 which was never revealed to the scientific world. We are the tools of the Special Division of the Science Ministry. We are controlled by our master to performed these delicate tasks. If we are terminated, it easier to replaced than one of them. They are the prototypes, if I may termed it." The droid resembling Captain Barnes made its way out of the Control Center with the ten G200 following close behind.
"Marshall Keane, Captain Barnes sent his regards to you." The droid spoke before leaving the premises. It was done telepathic.
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