Science fiction
Flash fiction
Nature Futures, February 2020
KillMech 486.C5 had a name once.
It remembers this name as it walks through the shallow water lining a beach … she remembers the name, the word bubbling up deep in her cybernetically modified brain. A mumbling sound that forces its way to her lips.
Momma.
That’s what the boy called her. The one she is beginning to remember. She can’t recall his name, or his face. But she holds onto the sensation of his soft skin on hers.
Thirty feet above, a Hunter/Guidance Drone, Crow, issues a stern warning. Its metallic voice blares in her head.
Latent memories are forbidden!
KillMech steadies herself in a wave, holding her rifle above her head. Her body is damaged, mechanical components corroded from years without maintenance, her organic parts stinking with infection.
The humans are close.
No bad guy in a movie or story thinks they're the bad guy. They all think they're doing the right thing. Even terminator robots, from the Terminator franchise are doing what they were built to do. It made me think - what goes on in the head of such a villain? Maybe not a full robot - but what about a cyborg? What if there was a killing machine that somehow discovered compassion and empathy? What if the machine was designed purposely to kill, as part of a combat unit? What if the war was long over? What if the machine was finding itself?
I chanced on an image online, of a modern cruise ship that had a hull which let it soar above the water. It was very cool and very aggressive looking, and I instantly thought of some attempted witty line like "This is the ship that the hunter robots of the future will seek out and kill the last humans in".
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