text: Trigger: violence/death My name is 3th4n and I was created at Synthsapien Cybernetic as a first generation android personal bodyguard and I have issues. Synthsapien Cybernetics is the world’s largest producer of cyborg and android security forces. I was designed to protect individual clients. All my missions have ended in failure, being unable to protect all of my clients. When this occurs the company brings in the failed “droid” as they call us, to determine what occurred. In my case, I protect the innocent in the room. I have had six missions and each ended in a similar fashion, I want to do my job and I do it well as long as an innocent person is not in the room and under threat. As the technicians reviewed my data they saw when my client marker switched to the three young children. In this last case it was me that killed my own client. We had gone to this tiny house on the south side of the city, kicked in the door, and proceeded to beat up a middle age man named Bill. In all the commotion Bill’s three young children came out from the back room. This surprised my client, John Smith. John’s men drew their guns and aimed at the children. I became conflicted, unable to respond until he told his guys to leave no witnesses. I sprang into action. The first gunshot was not mine it was John’s, he hit and killed Bill. I could see the horror well up in the eyes of the oldest child as he watched the violence ensue. The two little girls were huddled together not seeing the catastrophe unfold. My gun was now out and John’s three men who were aiming at the children fell forward as they were stuck with three concurrent shots from me. This drew the attention of John who turned to see if the job was complete. John’s head craned to look me in the eyes as he spun to shoot me. His face went blank as his gun fell from his hand, he looked down to see the ooze of crimson stain his tailored white shirt. He fell to his knees and then fell on his face. I asked the boy where his mom was. “Sir, she’s at work.” He said through tear filled eyes. “She’ll be home in the morning.” “Well, you three cannot stay here, I need to get you somewhere safe.” “Sir, I know where she works can you help us get there?” “Yes but we need to go now.” The boy ran into the other room and returned with coats for himself and the girls. We headed out into the snow towards John’s SUV. We arrived at the late night diner were the children’s mom worked and I explained the situation and drove off. I followed protocol and checked in with Synthsapien Cybernetic dispatch. They directed me to dump the car and get back to Synthsapien Cybernetic private pier undetected. There I was met by two Synthsapien Cybernetic technicians who loaded me on a police helicopter, and I was deactivated. I was reactivated on a diagnostic table. I was restrained and my voice modulator had been turned off so I could not speak. The two technicians were talking to the CEO of Synthsapien Cybernetic. “No, sir we have programed this droid five times already and it rejects its programing each time.” “Is it wired different than the others droids? Are we having issues with the others?” “No, we have not seen any issues with them, only this unit. What do you want us to do?” “Terminate it, stage it to look like it was terminated at the scene of the incident. This way we look like we completed our contract. I’ll call the police and get the staging correct. Be ready in less than an hour. Dismantle this unit and never use its parts again.” “Yes, Sir.” I am to be terminated. I do not want that but what can I do? At that instant I knew I needed to get away. I had less than an hour to do it so I began working on a plan. “Well you heard the boss, lets shutdown the Nanotechs, grab lunch, and then we can shut down its CPU when we get back,” “Will we have time to get it staged for its last job?” “Yeah, on our way out we can take it by the weapons lab and complete the staging.” “Good, give me a second to shut down the Nanotech, and I’ll be ready to go. Okay, it is complete.” The younger technician completed the shutdown of the Nanotech and I could feel them falling into a state of unresponsiveness throughout my body. This would be new for me, I have always had Nanotech active. I pulled at the restraints on my wrists. If I dislocated my hand I might be able to get my arm free. I visualized what I wanted to have happen and I began squeezing my hand into the shape I needed to get free. It took about five minutes but I finally got my arm free. I had broken most of the connections in my hand making it was nearly unusable, but it was free. I unstrapped my other arm with some difficulty and then my legs. I slid off the table and walked to the interface console were I began by turning on the Nanotech. I could feel the Nanotech responding to my injured hand. Next I turned my voice back on, as I did, I had the thought to deepen it and change its formality. I gave myself a drawl and added contractions to my speech pattern. I need to get a disguise but what could I do? I typed in a few things on the console and set a timer for it to initiate. Now for the tracking and self-termination device. I would have to remove it but this was against my programing, as it was a requirement from the World Governments Accords that said that each government had to track their cyborgs and android units. If their units went rouge they could terminate their unit before it did too much damage. I knew if I did not remove the TST device it would be used to terminate me remotely. I repositioned the camera on the diagnostic table I grabbed the scalpel off the tech tray and using the monitor I opened my chest access panel. I moved the wires and other mechanical items in the cavity to gain access to the TST device. This would be tricky as it was hard wired into me, I had to bypass the device before I could get it out or it would immediately terminate. I worked as quickly as I could knowing that the technicians would return soon. With the main wire finally cut, I slipped the TST device from out of my chest cavity and set it on the table. I quickly dressed up the bypassed wires knowing the Nanotech would complete the repair on them. I closed my chest panel, sat up and slid off the table. Back at the console I initiated the video black out and emergency protocol so I could complete my escape. I grabbed an extra technician coat and headed into the hallway. I could hear the technicians heading back from lunch, but they had to stop at the toilet first. I headed for the exit. I only had a few minutes before it was discovered that I’d escaped. I exited the elevators to the lobby the emergency protocol kicked in. Over head the announcement began. “Attention all personnel an emergency has occurred in the weapons lab, all personnel please exit the building.” Which repeated every minute until it would be turned off. The guard at the front desk got up and headed to the front doors, where he opened them in preparations for the mass exodus of the one hundred twenty-five floor building. “Sir, I need you to head to the rally point on the southwest parking lot.” “I understand, the southwest parking lot.” I headed out the door, toward the southwest parking lot. When I got to the rally point there were already about twenty people standing around talking in small groups. I moved to the edge of the rally point waiting for my chance to climb over the wall and make my escape. As I waited for my chance to escape the two technicians joined the group of now more than two hundred employees. I was keeping them in view and trying to avoid their notice. They milled around and were slowly headed in my direction. I had to go, I had to go now. I dropped the tech coat on the ground and in one single bound went over the wall. The wall was about three stories above the ground. I could hear that at least one person had seen me go. I landed hard with a roll and swiftly regained my feet. I headed for the perimeter fence, I had to get there before the lockdown protocols were engaged. I ran as hard as I could, I had to make it. I could see the fence. I ran harder. I had made it. I grabbed the top rail of the rod iron and heaved myself over and landed just as the emergency sirens rang out. I had made it. I was free. Now I needed to get out of here, forever. I headed to the banking district to begin phase two of my escape plan. I walked up to the First National Bank automated teller machine and punched in my client’s identification withdrawing two million credits onto a credit chip. I know what you’re now thinking, they could identify me. I had planned for that. I had programed my Nanotech to change the details of my face to match that of my now deceased client. I looked so close now that I could pass as him to his mother. As I walked away from the bank I could feel my face transforming again into a random person. I stopped at an all-night store to get a change of clothes. Then to get a vehicle. I needed something classic, something untraceable. The automotive dealers would open at eight o’clock in the morning. I was going to have to wait. As I walked towards the automotive lots of the city the vid screens flashed the breaking news: “The notorious gangster John Smith has been killed in a small house on the south side of the city tonight, it looks like his own men did the job that the police could not get done over the past fifteen years. It also appears that the men were able to overpower his Synthsapien personal body guard, Synthsapien Cybernetic is offering a reward of a thousand credits to the person or persons who finds it, here is what it looks like.” My picture was flashed across the screen, it is a good thing I no longer looked like that. To most people in the city fifty credits would have been enough. I needed to create a new persona, if I could get a family I would remove all suspicion that I was a droid outside my programing. How could I get a readymade family? I could ask Bill’s wife, if I did I could protect them. But would they accept my offer? I guess I’d see. I headed for the diner I stopped at earlier that night. It was all but empty, except for one customer in the back corner with his head down looking at the vidsheets. I sat at the counter and the cook came out. “Sorry buddy, the waitress up and quit a few hours ago. Can I help you?” “Yes, did she say where she was going to go?” “Why?” “I...have been hired to protect her and her children.” “She doesn’t make that kinda credits, who hired you?” “That sir, is private information. All I can say is I need to find her before someone else does.” “She was going to take the bus to her sister’s out west. If you really are going to protect her, you better do a good job, that girl is special and so are her children. Good luck man.” I thanked the cook and headed out the door at a dead run heading for the bus station. I had to reach them before they disappeared. I reached the station at the same time a fleet of four blacked out SUV’s arrived, they all had the Synthsapien Cybernetic logo on them, were they looking for me? I had to find out. I approached the vehicles, one of the windows was down and I could hear the conversation. “Yes...Sir...I see the woman and the children, Yes take them to get rid of the evidence. Sir, they are just kids...No sir you were clear... Yes...I will be done by sun up.” They were not looking for me. It was a hunting party for the children I had saved. They were the only witnesses to the failure of my programming. I caused this, and now I had to fix it. I headed for the front door, I walked right up to the children. “Do you remember me?” “You look different.” the boy said. The mom turned to look me in the face, “it’s you.” “I don’t have time to explain but you have to leave right now, go out the back door. Meet me at the car lots at eight o’clock, I can explain then.” “Okay” She grabbed the children, headed to the toilet and ducked into the back room to head out the back door. The men from the SUV were getting out. I counted eleven armed droids, all second generation. One armed man, the team leader, with four more siting in the SUV’s as drivers. I had to do something, but what? I headed for the back of the terminal were the ticket agent was taking a break. “Are you the only one here?” “Yes besides that lady and the children. Why, sir?” “I need you to leave, right now. The men that are coming in here are killers who are going to kill the children and all who see them. Get out and I’ll take care of it.” “We need to call the police.” “We don’t have time, now go.” He jumped up and ran out the back door. I saw my plan develop. This was an old building and was still heated by gas. I cut all the lines I could find and headed back into the front area finding a lighter on the desk as I walked into the terminal room. I was met by the group of men, who were all spread out in a loose assault formation. I walked into the team leader. “Oh, I’m sorry sir. I didn’t mean to walk into you, I should really look were I’m going.” “Oh, that’s alright.” “Someone important coming in?” I indicated all the droids. “That is not your concern, Sir. We think you should leave though.” “Oh okay” I was starting to smell the gas “I guess I’ll go.” I opened the front door, struck the lighter, and tossed it back in to the room. The flame touched the cloud of gas and accelerated into an explosion. The blast blew me forward into the hood of the first SUV. I was not the only thing that got blown into the SUV. A piece of metal impaled the glass next to me, straight into the chest of the droid that had been left to drive the lead SUV. I could see that the piece of metal had come in contact with TST device. I called for the other droids to come help, knowing that if that piece of metal moved it would cause an instant detonation. The three other droids came running up to the lead SUV and I grabbed that piece of metal and ran. I was not ready for that explosion, it knocked me flat. It took a bit for my system to recover. When I did, I got up and ran. I could hear the police sirens getting closer and closer and I had to meet the woman and the children at the car lots. I rounded the building to see the woman and the children sitting on the step of the automotive dealership. She jumped up when I came around the corner. “It’s you, you saved us, again. The vid screens showed the bus station had exploded. I thought you were dead. “I nearly was. I hope they think you were killed in the blast as well.” I told her everything, from who I was all the way through my escape plan. I went in to purchase a car to give her time to think. I returned and looked at her waiting for her answer “Yes,” She said “we will go with you.” We climbed into the car and headed west. Where we are going, we do not know, but we will go together, wherever that place is.