Chapter 4 – Rodney's Weakness
Unit 318 stared out into the room. But for him, patience was not something he recognised or had to endure. He could wait for thousands of years, not so much as moving a single inch, without growing bored or restless. While he waited for McKay to regain consciousness, he bided his time by continuing to scan everything to the fullest extent of what his sensors could show him.
The facility was exactly how he remembered. His creators had placed the stargate in the centre of the building and the power reserves had not drained even after all this time remaining dormant. The facility's main power only activated when he got there just as he knew it would. The security features had left many skeletons littered around the gate room, some fresher than others. The laser turrets aimed at the gate had recognised one of their own and had not blasted Unit 318 or the organic creatures he had brought with him.
He adjusted his sensors back to the room where he was standing. The other man he had taken, Zelenka, was helping McKay where they both lay on the floor. Unit 318 scanned them both. Zelenka's ankle had a minor fracture but it was not affecting him too seriously, other than a slightly higher heart rate along with the associated and occasional vocalisations. He could not walk though, at least he would not be able to do so very quickly or easily.
McKay was more badly hurt. The lack of oxygen had caused him to fall unconscious, but he also had some contusions and burns. Why it was affecting him so badly was beyond the programming of Unit 318, but he could use it to his advantage. He already knew that a small flame applied to any part of a human's vulnerable and fragile flesh could elicit them to do almost anything after a time. Some areas were softer or more sensitive and would therefore make them co-operate more quickly and work faster.
While he stood there, he heard Zelenka constantly asking him for food, water, bandages, heat... Unit 318 also knew that what Zelenka requested was needed, but to speed up their co-operation, he had to deny them access to such things.
The food and water that these speech/thought-capable animals required in order to function had always puzzled Unit 318. It passed through them and was used and altered to keep them active and functioning within normal parameters. The first humans Unit 318 had captured had been plugged into the central power conduit to recharge; the same as all the Units. But instead of their batteries being filled, it had nullified them; turning their flesh black and deep red in the process.
Unit 318 and all the others had been given a 'do not kill humans' directive after that trial mission. But they had found a way to circumvent it, for it only prohibited them from striking a direct blow that would kill a man. There was nothing stopping them from hurting humans or denying them access to the basics. If they then died from complications later on… that was of no consequence.
McKay started to come round again in a series of whimpers and moans. Unit 318 scanned him again; his heart rate was up, but not dangerously so.
Zelenka shushed him, and they whispered quietly together, thinking they couldn't be overheard. Unit 318 listened and calculated.
"Why isn't it moving?" McKay asked.
"I do not know. I believe it is waiting for us to fix the others."
"It… it looks like it's shut itself down."
Zelenka looked over at the robot. "But the eyes…"
McKay scrunched up his face and his heart rate increased further. He sighed and said, "I know, but it was nice to have a little hope that B1-66ER over there could find at least some redeeming qualities in itself and let us go."
"B1… who?"
McKay frowned, "The Matrix?"
Zelenka shook his head.
"Never mind. Get Sheppard to show it to you when you get back."
Zelenka gently placed his hand on Rodney's face and said softly, "You can show me when we both get back."
Neither man made any move to get up and start working on activating the others. So, once Unit 318 detected that McKay's heart rate had slowed sufficiently for the robot to continue his persuasions, he turned his head and walked swiftly over to them and stopped. He looked down at McKay first and the man held up one of his arms and shielded his head. Unit 318 could see his body trembling as Zelenka said, "Please, do not hurt him again."
McKay uncovered his head and frowned at Zelenka. "It's alright, Radek. What's one man against an army of crazy Cylons?"
Sparks of electricity flew through Unit 318's metallic brain and it shifted its gaze from McKay and onto Zelenka. If direct physical damage to McKay had not worked, then there was always the second option…
It reached down and grabbed Zelenka's injured ankle and squeezed. The human it was now injuring screamed as loudly as the other one. Unit 318 had no idea why humans cried so when they were damaged. It had no comprehension of the pain and suffering it inflicted upon the living beings it tortured. Its only goal was the achievement of its programming, how it got there did not matter. No amount of reasoning, pleading or begging for mercy from its victims could ever work on the robot because it didn't understand or even recognise such things.
McKay pushed himself painfully upright and turned his wide eyes on the robot. He was shouting and gabbling the whole time for Unit 318 to stop. But then the robot heard the exact thing it wanted to hear: "Stop stop stop! I'll do it, please just stop!"
Unit 318 released its grip and dropped Zelenka's leg. He curled up and moaned as he shook uncontrollably. Unit 318 scanned him; his ankle was crushed more seriously than before, but it would heal… in time.
Unit 318 turned on McKay and then pointed at the first alcove. He said, "Reactivate the others and I will not damage either of you any further."
McKay nodded and looked down at Zelenka, "I'm sorry, Radek. It didn't give me a choice. I hope this works."
Zelenka whispered harshly, "Don't, Rodney. Don't do it."
McKay shook his head and limped slowly over to the first alcove. He kept his legs parted as he went and curled one of his hands around his chest while the other hung limp. Unit 318 could detect torn ligaments and muscle damage in his shoulder where he had forced the bone back into the joint after its dislocation. He needed McKay to be able to work, which he would not have been able to do with such an injury distracting him or restricting the movement of his arm.
Unit 318 took up his position by the door again and waited.
McKay tapped the control panel by the first alcove. Unit 318 had detected that McKay was one of the few who had the correct activation code within his blood. Zelenka did not have it, so his only use now was to assist in making the other one work faster.
McKay suddenly hummed a single low and brief note and then glanced over at Unit 318, but the robot couldn't recognise the expression or any emotion, or even the significance of it if there had been one.
McKay typed furiously fast, ignoring the damaged tissue in his shoulder to bring his other hand in and increase the output. He spoke while he typed. "This one's now got power and about to be fully up and running. I just need to input the correct activation sequence, which, of course, being a total genius, I remember it even without my computer."
Unit 318 thought that the humans, with their frail bodies imprisoned in flesh, were odd in that such fragile and fleeting creatures could accomplish so much. Especially this one called McKay. How could he reactivate one of the Unit's so quickly without the aid of a mechanical brain to hold and process all the information?
McKay gritted his teeth and pressed a few more keys before hobbling backwards and watching.
The alcove hissed open and Unit 600 stepped out.
Zelenka gasped, "Rodney, what have you done!? Now there are two of them to kill us!"
McKay nodded at the new Unit, which looked exactly like Unit 318, right down to the red eyes and metal skull.
Unit 600 looked down at McKay, and then at Zelenka, before finally settling its glowing eyes on Unit 318. It then turned to McKay who smiled at it and then pointed at Unit 318, and then down at his own battered body before he said, "That one did this to me."
"Rodney?" Zelenka asked.
McKay jumped and then quickly pointed at Zelenka, "And it hurt him too."
Unit 600 stared, but didn't move, and neither did Unit 318
Unit 318 said to McKay, "There are four more in this room alone. Activate them all or I will deactivate Zelenka."
McKay held up his hand to Unit 318 and gabbled, "There will be no 'deactivating!' I'll get them fixed, but we need food and water. If all your nuts and bolts held together by madness can even comprehend that in your dense metal brain." He spoke slowly and lifted his uninjured arm to motion with his hand, he pointed to his mouth and said slowly, "Must... eat... food..." His hand fell and he winced before continuing. "I'm hypoglycaemic. I suppose you don't know what that is? Well, it means if I don't eat regularly, I get really, really cranky and then I die."
He aimed the last part about dying at Unit 600. But it kept as still as Unit 318.
McKay huffed towards the new addition to the room and said, "It's like talking to a couple of crushed cars! Fine then. I'll have to do it the hard way." He widened his eyes at Unit 600 as he said, "But you'd better not just stand there like a metal moron."
"Rodney, what are you doing?" Zelenka asked.
McKay didn't answer as he lurched and whimpered his way over to Unit 318 by the door. He gestured out through the archway as his eyes darted nervously from the door to each of the robots and then to Zelenka. "If there's food in this place, I'm going out to find some. Don't hurt Zelenka."
McKay tried to limp past Unit 318, but the robot was faster. It placed a heavy hand on McKay's chest and sent him backwards to the floor. It then crouched down and pressed its hand in the middle of the human's upper chassis to keep him still, right over his power core. It brought its other hand down and placed one of the fingers against McKay's lower abdomen. It extended the blade several millimetres and pushed it inside the squirming human. It was not enough to kill, but it should certainly stop the human from thinking it had any power and to quash any further thoughts of escape.
Unit 318 knew that dragging sharpened metal across a human's outer shell or using it to penetrate them would draw a thick red liquid out. It seemed that this was like their battery fluid, and without it, or if they lost too much of it, they would cease to function at full capacity. Even replacing it with a similar compound could not get them to function again once operation had ceased; unlike the Units, who can be reactivated and repaired at any time even after serious damage and deactivation.
McKay was making unusual and quiet gargling noises and pushing his weak and small hands feebly against the robot, so Unit 318 twisted the blade it held inside the human's gut to cause the most pain and damage possible. It then pressed down on the fairly sturdy shell of bones around McKay's core, but the chassis had no strength against the weight of the metal. It crushed McKay until it felt him break with a loud snap and loosening popping sounds. The human then abruptly stopped squirming and went limp. Unit 318 could still feel the gentle tap of the man's inner core against his hand as it beat quickly inside him. When he lifted his hand away and removed the blade from the shallow stab wound, the man did not start breathing again and he remained on standby.
Unit 318 was about to call Zelenka to assist in reinitialising McKay, when he felt strong hands grabbing him and lifting him upwards.
He turned to face his attacker and found Unit 600 had moved over to intervene. The new Unit called to Zelenka in an identical voice in pitch and speed to Unit 318's. "He has stopped breathing. Can you repair him? I have no breath to give."
Unit 600 used the laser cutting tool on its forearm to scythe several deep gashes into the metal of Unit 318's upper chassis. The heat quickly melted right through and Unit 600 then jammed its metal hands into Unit 318 and punctured his inner core with the tools of fire inside its fingers.
Unit 600 repeated the same phrase over and over while it worked; "Error! You are defective. Error! You are defective. Error! You are defective…"
It grabbed and pulled out the power crystals, leaving Unit 318 to slowly shut down as the reserves of the power circulated his systems and were used up. His last vision was of McKay lying blue faced and still as Zelenka pinched his nose and blew air into him.
As his core finally lost power, Unit 318 fell to the ground, his only thoughts were of indifference. This other Unit was the imperfect one, even if these humans left this place, then others would return in the future. Eventually they would activate one of the other Units which shared the same programming as Unit 318 – the only true goal of their creators. There was no way that Unit 318's deactivation could prevent it from happening.
Perfection would be achieved for all.
TBC
A/N – B1-66ER was the first robot to kill a human in The Matrix universe. See The Animatrix – The Second Renaissance - which also heavily influenced a lot of our psychotic robot friend's inner workings in this chapter...
