Metal in the Blood (The Mechanicals Book 1)

  Metal in the Blood

  The Mechanicals:

  Book One

  Nicola S. Dorrington

  Dedication

  For D.A. You are my world, little man. Even if you make finding time to write a whole lot harder!

  ‘I’d never seen one up close before, not the newer models, but I’d heard the stories. You couldn’t tell they weren’t human, right up until the moment you looked into their eyes and realised there was nothing looking back at you. Nothing. No love. No hopes or dreams. No soul. Just the inner workings of a machine.’

  - Extract from a Daily Mail Article on the latest model of Mechanical (Robot)

  One

  Two boys took the seats behind me with heavy thuds, throwing themselves down before leaning forward to hang over the top of the headrest. I could feel their hot breath on the side of my head. Four others took the seats across the bus aisle. I tensed, my fingers clenching around my bag in my lap.

  “So, I gotta ask, are any other parts of you metal? Or just your heart?” The teenage boy hanging over the back of my seat tried to sound honestly curious, but the effect was somewhat marred by the hooting laughter of his friends. It really wasn’t that funny.

  “Careful,” one of them whistled. “You don’t want her to fry a circuit, do you? She might set fire to the whole bus.”

  Just keep your head down, I told myself. Don’t let them get to you. I shook back my hair and kept my eyes fixed on the back of the seat in front of me. Someone, or many, had doodled all over the plastic in sharpie. Mostly just variations of ‘Kelly wuz here’, and similar. But right in the middle, drawn over the years of past graffiti, was a robot hand in a red circle with a line through it.

  It was new, fresh. Seeing as I sat in the same seat every day, someone meant for me to see it. My knuckles turned white around my bag strap.

  “Don’t you jerks ever get bored of being immature three year olds?”

  I looked up, flooded with relief as a shadow passed over me. Debs threw herself into the seat beside me, ignoring the mutters coming from the rows behind us.

  “Seriously, El,” she said, shoving her bag down between her feet. “Why don’t you ever just tell those idiots where to shove it?”

  I offered her a weak smile, but didn’t answer. It was easy for her to say. She didn’t have any reason to worry. She was tall, leggy, and flame haired. Most of the guys in school would have licked her boots if she asked them to. She could get away with things I couldn’t.

  After all, whilst I had my attractive attributes, I also had one thing she didn’t. A metal heart. A clump of plastic, and microchips, and metal, sitting in the middle of my chest where flesh and blood should be. It had been there for years, the only reason I hadn’t died as a small child.

  Debs noted my silence with a quirk of her lips but didn’t call me out on it. She was used to me by now. We’d been friends since our first day at school when an older boy had pushed me in the dirt and told me to go back to the labs with the other robots Debs had picked me up off the ground, helped me dust off my blue gingham dress, and told me that boys were stupid.

  In the intervening years she’d picked me up more times than I could count. Metaphorically and physically. She was pretty much the only person I knew who wasn’t freaked out by my heart, by the fact that a large and rather important part of me was made out of metal.

  We sat in companionable silence for most of the ride to school. The boys behind us knew better than to give Debs crap. Mostly because most of them fancied her and didn’t want to ruin their chances.

  We were only a street or two from the school when the whole bus fizzed with sudden tension. It raced from front to back on a tide of whispers. The road was blocked. People milled around, hundreds of them, spilling from the pavements into the street. The bus rolled to a halt and even as thirty kids shifted towards the windows the driver locked the door.

  “Stay in your seats, kids. I’m sure we’ll get through soon enough. Keep – keep away from the windows.” He tried to keep his voice calm, but there was an underlying tremor that gave away his nervousness.

  Riots happened a lot, and they could spring out of nowhere. It had been that way for years. People were poor, beaten down, and desperate and that desperation all too often bubbled over into anger and violence. When you barely had enough to eat the law started to mean very little.

  Debs leant around me, trying to peer out the window. “Can you see what’s going on?”

  Ignoring the driver’s instructions I pressed my forehead against the cold glass and peered ahead of the bus.

  The street had been a busy shopping thoroughfare once, but most of the shops were boarded up now. Covered in graffiti. The robot hand in the crossed out circle was repeated over and over again, normally painted in red so that it stood out above the scrawled names and gang signs. The sight of it made my skin crawl. But I couldn’t see anything to explain the growing crowd.

  The bus edged forward as the driver desperately tried to force his way through and get the thirty plus kids under his care out of danger. But the road was filling up fast, and the police and militia were nowhere to be seen.

  Finally we broke through a heavy cluster of people and I saw what the growing tension was all about.

  A man stood at the side of the road. Or at least he looked like a man at first glance. Until I took a closer look and realised that he wasn’t carrying a broom and dustpan, they were actually part of his arms. Arms that weren't flesh and blood, but wires and metal. Only the face was human, grafted with artificial skin and made to look as real as possible.

  “Why do they do that?” I hissed at Debs, though I’d asked the question a million times before. I’d never understood how the creators of the Mechanicals, the robots who did so many menial, difficult jobs in our world, and that had been the cause of so much violence and unrest, could have thought it was a good idea to make them look human. Perhaps if they’d left them looking like the machines they were, it wouldn’t have created so much tension, so much fear.

  The Mechanical in question stood frozen at the side of the road, hemmed in by our bus and the encroaching crowd. Its eyes darted around, and I would have sworn it was terrified if I hadn’t known better. Mechanicals couldn’t feel. They were tools. They were simply programmed to remove themselves from dangerous situations. They were far too valuable to allow themselves to be easily destroyed. They were supposed to return immediately to their home lab.

  This Mechanical’s eyes darted wildly as it looked for a way out, but there was nothing. The crowd advanced, and even as I watched a bottle shattered on the pavement by its feet. It stepped back, nearly falling as it caught one heel on the raised kerb behind it.

  With a howl of rage from a hundred different mouths, the crowd closed in. I closed my eyes and looked away. Machine or not, I couldn’t bring myself to watch it get torn apart. The face was too human. Besides, the geek in me was horrified by the destruction of such an incredible piece of technology.

  “Oh my god!” Debs exclamation forced me to open my eyes again.

  For a moment I could only stare in shock, my brain struggling to make sense of what I was seeing. The Mechanical had gone down under a mass of people, but those people were being thrown back. Crashing to the ground with sickening thuds. The Mechanical struggled back to its feet. The tools on its arms became weapons, swinging wildly at anyone who got too close.

  There was blood everywhere. People were dying. The Mechanical was killing people.

  “They – they can’t do that. Can they?” Debs looked at me for confirmation, assuming I would know.

  I shook my head wordlessly, feeling
the gaze of half the kids on the bus. Debs wasn’t the only one who knew about my interest in robotics. But I was as dumbfounded as everyone else as the Mech pressed its attack.

  The driver spat out curses, desperately trying to get us out of the now panicked press of people. The bus rocked as the crowd began fighting itself in a panic to escape.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off the Mechanical. It shouldn’t be fighting back. It wasn’t possible. They weren’t programmed that way. It was what had always made their destruction that bit more pathetic. They normally just stood there, eyes blank as a vengeful crowd ripped them apart. They were programmed not to hurt humans. To obey all commands given to them by a human.

  The idea of one fighting back was – terrifying. How many were there around the country now? Thousands? A million? As soon as the first ones rolled off the production lines, or walked I should say, the demand for them had been sky high. It had only been later, when the government finally realised the damage they were doing to the economy, to the stability of the country, that they began to limit production. They still made them, but only highly specialised models.

  If they could all suddenly begin fighting back they could bring down the country. They would win, without even trying.

  They were stronger than us. Practically invulnerable to harm. We wouldn’t stand a chance against them. They could wipe out the human race, and it wouldn’t even trigger a hint of remorse.

  The bus jolted forward as the driver finally found a gap in the crowd and the still fighting Mechanical disappeared behind us. In the far distance I finally caught the sound of sirens. The buzz of conversation on the bus was almost deafening, but I tuned most of it out. Instead my mind was puzzling over the Mechanical’s behaviour. How had it overridden its programming? Was this the first time? If it wasn’t, how had I never heard about it?

  The news reached school before we did. A group of teachers hustled us off the bus, holding back the press of curious students, and into an empty classroom before any of us could protest.

  The headmaster stood waiting for us, his face white and strained as he had a furious whispered conversation with a stony-faced man in a black suit.

  “Government?” Debs hissed as we were ushered into seats.

  I jerked my chin in a tiny nod. Almost definitely. Though he might have been from Genesis Labs, the sprawling complex where all the Mechanicals were made. How he had beaten the bus there I didn’t know. ‘Copter maybe? But there was no doubt in my mind why he was there. They wanted our silence. The news might have spread already, but they wanted to contain it and spin it. Of course they did. The panic if people thought the Mechanicals were capable of killing would be immense. They reviled enough as it was just for existing.

  “All right, settle down.” The headmaster turned away from his frantic conversation to flap his hands at us. “Now, I understand you’ve just had a rather traumatic experience. We don’t want to dismiss that out of hand, but Mr Beaker is here to explain what you all saw. To help you – understand.”

  I snorted under my breath, but not quietly enough to avoid a sharp glare from the Head and a few of the teachers.

  Mr Beaker, though I doubted that was his real name, stepped forward and gave us all a thin smile. There was something in his eyes I didn’t like. Something patronising and condescending. As though he was confident that we would simply swallow whatever he chose to tell us. As much as I hated to admit it. He was probably right.

  “Now, children.” He broke off as there was a chorus of laughs and muttering. The youngest person in the room was fifteen. “Sorry, young adults, I should say. I know that you saw something today that must have been very shocking, very disturbing. But I want you all to know that the Government has this situation well under control. This was an unfortunate case, but an isolated one. You must all be aware that the scientists and engineers who developed and built the Mechanicals have ensured that there is no possible way for one of these machines to harm a human – “

  “Yeah, sure looked that way,” someone shouted from the back, and the room buzzed with angry murmuring.

  “Now, now. Settle down. I don’t think you saw what you think you saw. That Mechanical did not attack a single human.”

  I stared at him in astonishment. They were just going to outright lie? Debs quirked one eyebrow at me but I ignored her.

  “No, listen to me,” Mr Beaker interrupted the rumbling. “That Mechanical suffered from a catastrophic malfunction. But he did not attack any humans. Any casualties were accidental. Not intentional.”

  There was still grumbling around the room, but most of it seemed less hostile to the idea than I expected. People were warming to the idea. Of course, the murmurs said, the Mechanical didn’t actually attack anyone. It had malfunctioned and sadly some people were caught in the crossfire.

  I tried to keep my expression neutral. How could anyone believe that? Surely they’d seen the same thing I had. The Mechanical had attacked. It had killed. It had broken its programming. The only coding that mattered. A robot must never harm a human.

  Finally, surprising myself with my own bravery, I raised my hand.

  “Yes, young lady, you have a question.” Something flickered across Mr Beaker’s face as he looked at me. Recognition perhaps? It was gone before I could identify it, but I filed it away.

  “Yeah. What’s going to happen to him – I mean – it.”

  There were a few snickers and I cursed the slip of my tongue. Despite their human appearances, no one referred to the Mechanicals with a gender specific pronoun. That made them people, not machines.

  “The unit in question has already been taken back to the factory. It will be – destroyed.”

  I sunk down in my seat feeling an uncomfortable twist in my stomach. I knew it was just the fact that they had human faces. Others seemed able to keep in mind that they were just Machines. But somehow, I had always struggled.

  Mr Beaker was still talking, but I tuned him out. I had too many thoughts twisting around in my head. I wanted to get to the computer lab. I wanted to do a little research of my own.

  Two

  I didn’t get the chance to hit the internet until nearly the end of the day. We were all late to our first class and I felt like I spent the rest of the day catching up. But I did hear the rumours floating around the halls. Those of us on the bus were doing the Government’s work. Spreading their lies quite happily without even realising it.

  Or at least, that’s how it seemed. The general consensus around the school by the time I was grabbing my books from my locker was that it had been a tragic accident. Nothing more.

  Debs appeared by my shoulder as I was eavesdropping on the couple a few lockers down. They’d taken a rare break from their marathon snogging session to gossip about the rumours with a friend.

  “You don’t believe it?”

  “Huh?”

  She smirked as she leant back against the locker door beside me. “All this crap about it being an accident. You don’t believe it.”

  I shrugged, stuffing books into my rucksack. “Does it matter?”

  “Not really. But I know I’d trust the biggest robotics geek in school over some rando from the Government.” She twirled her hair around one finger. “What do you think?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know. I want to get to the lab.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I should have guessed. I suppose that means I’m getting the bus home alone?”

  “Sorry. I’ll get my Mum to send a car to pick me up later.”

  “No worries.” She blew me a kiss as she started walking towards the doors.

  By the time she was gone most of the corridor had emptied out. There weren’t many after school activities these days. No sports, or drama club. The Government could barely afford to keep the schools open as it was. But there were a few of us that tended to stay late. The geeks and the weirdos who didn’t have anywhere else to go.

  As I pushed into the computer lab I found two of my fellow geeks alre
ady there. One of them, Gav, barely even glanced up from the screen in front of him, grunting in welcome. But Will kicked his chair back on two legs and grinned at me as I took the empty station beside him.

  “I should have guessed you’d be here today.”

  I cocked an eyebrow at him even as I booted up the screen in front of me. “Oh yeah?”

  “Mechanical goes wild in the streets? That’s right up your alley. I heard a rumour you were even on the bus when it happened.”

  Will was a conspiracy theory nut. He spent hours every afternoon on strange websites that seemed to believe everything from extra-terrestrials, to the idea that the Government was slowly poisoning us all through our drinking water. I knew if I told him my suspicions he’d jump on it in a second, but for a moment I hesitated. What if I was wrong and it had just been a big accident? Will would have the word out there in a heartbeat, and I might be responsible for starting even more of a panic without any good cause. But I was certain I wasn’t wrong.

  I dropped my voice. “I know what I saw. That Mechanical – it broke the First Law.”

  Will’s eyes widened. With anyone else I might have had to explain, but Will got it. They called it the First Law of Robotics. Based on some old sci-fi novel from back in the day. A robot must not harm a human. It was the most basic programming built into all of the machines. The base code. And it was supposed to be impossible to break. Infallible.

  “But the government is trying to make out it was an accident?”

  I nodded. “Of course they are. Can you imagine? People already hate Mechs. They already rip them apart in the streets. And that’s just because they took people’s jobs and destroyed the economy. Can you imagine what they’d be like if they thought Mechanicals were killing people?”

  Will whistled through his teeth. “Do you think it’s a one off?”

  Scooting my chair closer to his, I dropped my voice even further. “I don’t know. If one of them can do it, then there must be a flaw in the programming. That isn’t going to be isolated to a single unit.”