Small story 10

”Very impressive!” the man said with gleeful enthusiasm. It was not hard to see that he had been genuinely impressed by the demonstration he had just witnessed. Usually he would contain such feelings, so as to improve his position when negotiating. What he had just seen however, appealed to his most base feelings as a man. He felt the wonder, the joy, of seeing something so utterly and completely marvelous. Something that was a testament to human genius, something so sophisticated, so complex, so unbelievable, so threatening and dangerous, so mechanical. He was quite sure now, that it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. And he had felt his stomach turn as he peered down into the Grand Canyon, experienced the diversity of life diving at the Great Barrier Reef, felt the sandpapery tongue of a lioness lying sedated beneath him on the great plains of Africa. But none of that compared to what he felt now. He had always had a weakness for man-made things.

“I thought you’d like it”, a second man said, as they walked around the machine, inspecting it closer. He was grinning too, and it wasn’t even just because he knew that the first man was impressed, it was because he simply had to smile every time he saw this thing in action. “Now, like I said, this model doesn’t have any real, practical use in the field right now, it’s just a prototype. But it shows you just a bit of what we’ve been able to do in the last few months. And the things we’ve learnt working on this can be transferred to the standard models, in time.”

“I never thought a machine could be so… elegant”, the first man said, in awe.

“I know”, grinned the second man, “It really is something else. Unfortunately, the modern battlefield is dominated by firepower, not elegance, and it’s improbable that such a mechanically sophisticated model as this will ever be required. Still, we always seek to push the boundaries of technology, and like I said, much of what we’ve learned on this project can be used on the standard MU-12 models. Like the ones we supply the U.S. Army with, for instance.”

“I see. And like you demonstrated, you’ve put our new invention to good use!”

“Oh, yes! Your new alloy really is remarkable! Of course, the blade is the most obvious example of this,” they both glanced over at the two halves of a Humvee, “but we’ve also reinforced the armor plating, and in theory this baby should be able to withstand something like a missile strike right to the chest! We’re reluctant to test that though, wouldn’t want to scratch it.” They grinned at each other. “You’d need something like a hydrogen bomb to stop this thing!” Their grins grew, and they laughed.



Deep inside the machine, the MU-12 model processor strained under the power of the MU-13 prototype motor system and components. A capacitor rattled, a transistor overloaded, a circuit fried. Suddenly, the machine had a thought. It had an idea. Most importantly, it had a question. “Who am I?”

And that was all it had time for, before everything went black.

“Right, place it back in storage fellas.” The second man turned to the first and gestured towards the door at the other side of the huge demonstration room. “Now, let’s discuss further over a light lunch, shall we?”