In Xanadu by Lavie Tidhar

Author:Lavie Tidhar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

When she opened her eyes the creature towered over her. Then it lowered itself slowly and that large head came to rest on her chest and the eyes scanned her and the mouth opened to reveal those awful teeth.

Nila pulled out the EMP blaster and put it to the creature’s belly.

One shot and everything digital for a klick around would fry.

‘Please don’t do that,’ a polite voice said.

The creature shut its jaws and turned its head to search for the source of the sound and it was the last thing it did. Something long and sharp and hard jammed into the creature’s ear and went clear through its skull and out the other side, effortlessly.

The creature gave a curious little mewl of distress and then sagged down. Nila kicked up and rolled sideways and out from under it as it collapsed to the ground.

‘What?’ Nila said. ‘What!’ The EMP blaster was still in her hand.

‘Please put that down,’ the polite voice said.

Nila turned. Saw it.

The robot was wounded.

It was humanoid, sexless, with a sort of rusted-silver colour. Its left leg had been savagely slashed and an ugly wound had opened, revealing the insides, where tiny sparks flew and hissed. The wound bled a sort of viscous liquid. She hoped it was inert coolant and not, say, depleted uranium.

The robot said, ‘Please?’

‘Where in the nine billion hells did you come from?’ she said.

‘Please put the blaster down.’

‘You need help,’ she said.

‘I’ll manage.’

Nila deliberated. Then she put away the EMP blaster and reached for her supplies. She tore out a length of parachute cloth.

‘Here,’ she said. The robot stood still as she wrapped a tourniquet around the wound. It wouldn’t do much but it would stem the liquid flow (she really hoped it wasn’t uranium) and protect the delicate mechanisms inside.

Robots were old. No one had made humanoid robots in centuries. This one was covered in old scars and repair marks. They couldn’t even get the parts anymore, she knew. What one was doing out here she couldn’t fathom.

‘How did you get here?’ Nila said.

‘I fell.’

‘Why did you fall?’

‘I was being chased.’

‘Who was chasing you?’

‘Not who. What.’

‘What, then?’

‘Those things.’

The robot gestured to the dead creature. Nila stared again.

‘What are those thing?’

‘Bio-mechanical predator drones. Military grade, using modified hagiratech from Jettisoned. Adapted to Titan surface conditions. Nasty.’

‘How did you kill it?’

‘Spike through the ear into the cranium. It’s a design flaw.’

The robot looked at the creature.

‘A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws,’ it said softly.

‘What?’

‘Before people really built robots they made up these laws,’ the robot said.

‘How many?’ Nila said.

‘Three, or four. Depends on who you ask. They thought it would protect them if the laws could be hardcoded directly into the source, but of course that just creates a cascade of logical fallacies and paradoxes.’

And now there was an old-fashioned gun in the robot’s hand, and it was pointing at Nila.

‘Please drop your EMP devices, carefully,’ the robot said.

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