Chapter 30 #2
“No, no!” Troy was quick to assuage them. “Nothing like that! The new ones are fine. It’s just… still active in Ray’s.” He worried his lip before admitting, “And Milo’s.”
“What?” Rowan snarled again.
“It was part of the tests! All factors needed to be identical between Milo and Ray for accurate results! But it’s fine!” Troy started hurriedly typing away at the console. “To be safe, I just need to disable it before we—”
“Before you what?”
All of them whirled around toward the entrance into their corner of the manufacturing area to see Andrew entering with Jay close at hand. They froze, Milo just as much as the others, because even if they outnumbered their enemy, a physical fight was not how he wanted this to end.
“I’ll admit, you did quite a good job of covering your tracks today,” Andrew continued, maddeningly collected as he scanned his lying eyes over each of them, lastly Milo, like being a bot made him an especially unpleasant insect to squash.
“You even kept the usual alerts from coming through that would have told me this area was in production.
“But you didn’t really think you could have tens of thousands of packages shipped out without my notice, did you?
Even without the alerts, Jay is programmed to inform me of anything out of the ordinary with my company, and several hundred more drones and trucks than usual for unscheduled deliveries does not go unnoticed. ”
They had accounted for that, they just hadn’t believed Andrew would be on top of it enough to take notice in time.
“The only reason I haven’t contacted the authorities about this is because this is proprietary information that I do not want leaked to the press. Now, tell me… what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Milo bristled, hating this man like he had never believed he could hate anything or anyone else, but before he could answer, Rowan spoke for him.
“Going to the press first, asshole.”
“Really?” Andrew sneered. “That would be a breach of all of your NDAs, and you,” he added with an extra derisive scoff at Milo, “are nothing more than property.”
Such petty attempts to belittle Milo did not cow him, and he held firm by having Rowan beside him, and his friends here with him too.
“Even if that might be legally true, Andrew, I belong to Rowan, not you. The difference is that he does not treat me like property. You don’t even think of me as alive, do you? ”
Andrew rolled his eyes as if Milo was oh so very quaint. “Considering you were made in this factory rather than birthed? No, I don’t. But you are an impressive enough facsimile to the real thing, enough that—”
“That you think shareholders and consumers will be placated by human-like bots and let you fire your entire workforce?” Raina spat at him.
“Why not? Would you expect us to pay them?”
“Troy!” Rowan called. “Keep doing what you were doing.”
Troy looked flustered for a moment, but then immediately returned to his typing.
“Don’t you dare!” Andrew squared his footing, almost as if he was readying for a boxing match, but clearly, he didn’t do his own fighting since Jay took that stance like a direction to square up in kind and moved in front of him. “This ends here, or you are all going to prison.”
Without looking away from the console, Troy answered, “We’ll take our chances.”
“Jay!” Andrew barked, and Jay snapped to attention like the enforcer he was. “Incapacitate Dr. Palmer.”
“Excuse me?” Raina leapt in front of Troy like a barrier.
“Keeping working, Troy!” Milo called like Rowan had, and moved around his ginger giant, because despite Rowan’s size, Milo was the enforcer between them. “I’ve got this.” He moved in between Raina and the advancing bot, while Rowan stood to the side, looking frustrated in his helplessness.
Milo wished Rowan didn’t have to feel that way, but this was Milo’s fight more than anyone else’s.
“M.I.L.O. B-model bot, designation Milo,” Jay spoke as robotically as expected with Ray’s voice, “I ask that you stand down and allow me to carry out my Master’s orders.”
“If I might answer in an appropriately human manner, given I am as alive as any of the others in this room…” Milo widened his footing and raised his arms to go on the offensive. “Suck my synthetic balls.”
Launching a punch at Jay faster than any of the humans might have been able to follow, Milo hoped to make this a quick fight, but it seemed Jay had been designed as a bodyguard first because he effortlessly caught Milo’s fist.
Shit.
Gripping his closed fingers tightly, Jay flung Milo out of his way with enough momentum that Milo nearly went flying. He only barely managed to keep on his feet and immediately pivoted to leap at Jay again, tackling him to the ground.
Less elegant but effective.
“Milo!” Rowan cried.
“Finished with Ray!” Troy shouted in kind.
Jay bucked up against Milo’s slighter body, trying to dislodge him from grappling him on the ground.
INQUIRY: What methods are considered fighting dirty?
Processing… In hand-to-hand fighting sports, "fighting dirty" generally refers to—
Just give me a list!
Processing…
-Eye Gouging
-Biting
-Fish-hooking
-Headbutting
As Jay bucked up again, finally succeeding in throwing Milo off of him, Milo leapt right back toward him like a feral cat and rammed his forehead into Jay's.
WARNING: Concussive impact to—
It hurts, I know! Milo thought wildly, but at least it seemed to have also hurt, or at least disoriented Jay, who shook his head as if to clear his now concussed thoughts. Milo would try as many dirty tricks as he needed to, but he didn't want to hurt Jay unnecessarily.
Jay's cold, unfeeling expression said he did not share the same sentiment as he flung an arm forward to grasp Milo by his shirt collar.
Another body slammed into Jay, tearing his hand from Milo and creating a quickly moving blur as they rolled along the floor.
Rowan! Milo thought fearfully, for as soon as they stopped moving, Jay proved the one on top, raising a closed fist that he punched into Rowan’s midsection.
“No!”
Jay raised his fist again, this time as if to slam into Rowan's face.
Milo reached them, catching the closed fist before it could impact again.
Despite bot protocol to not kill humans, circumstances like this were exactly when accidents happened—and knowing how readily Andrew played dirty, Milo doubted it would even be an accident if Jay’s programming had been tampered with.
Using his grip to throw Jay off of Rowan, Milo immediately turned to pounce on him yet again, slamming his fist down into Jay’s face in a purposeful mimicry of what the bot had almost done to Rowan.
Jay’s eyes remained lit but had dimmed significantly, likely from processing the damage and as if he were stunned.
Milo first checked on Rowan, who was grimacing while holding what was likely bruised if not broken ribs, but otherwise seemed okay and nodded to indicate as much.
Then Milo advanced toward Andrew.
“Almost got Milo!” Troy announced.
“This is ridiculous!” Andrew snarled, backing up a step as he pulled a small tablet from his suit pocket. “I didn’t want to have to start completely over, but in case you have forgotten who else has access to our shared controls, I don’t need you anymore!”
Just as Milo reached for him, Andrew pressed an unknown button on his tablet and every part of Milo’s internal components went cold.
Initialing full wipe and reboot sequence.
“Milo!”
Everything went black and Milo’s body crumpled to the floor.
Notes:
Not. Saying. A. Word. *runs*