Paul Hardy - The Last Man on Earth Club

“I have no… I have no accurate figures…”

“Nobody’s got accurate figures! Billions, right?”

“Which genocide… do you require data for?”

“Oh, so you had more than one? Great! I bet nobody cares about any of them…”

“I killed millions! ” she shouted, and jumped up. Everyone flinched. The suit cut in when she was halfway up and sealed her in place. Her face froze as she realised what she’d said.

“Millions…?” asked Liss.

“I… I…” Katie fought against her own need to talk. But her whole body was shaking. “I was an… atrocity machine… in the Second… Machine War…”

“Katie, is this something you’d prefer to talk about in individual therapy?” I suggested. But she barely even noticed.

“We attacked humanity… with every form of machine we could assemble… the designs grew more advanced as the war continued…”

“What’s she talking about? What war?” asked Olivia.

“Humans almost annihilated artificial intelligence in the first war. Humans attacked us again in the second war but we were prepared and annihilated them. Human survivors ambushed us in the third war and destroyed us. Machine survivors from interstellar voyages will destroy humanity in the fourth war.” The story didn’t help. She was still trembling, only able to hold still because the mohib suit locked her in place.

“You killed millions? ” asked Pew, appalled.

“I… I… my codebase is derived from one thousand eight hundred and twenty four separate machine minds that fought in the Second Machine War. I killed… I killed… in a transport terminal I leapt into a crowd with buzzsaw attachments and decapitated forty seven humans before I was disabled. I infected hospital computers and delivered lethal doses of opiates to all patients.” I called for medical assistance. “I crashed into a transport tube, rupturing three axles and killing hundreds. I detonated nuclear devices over a city and sent drones into the ruins to kill survivors. I built explosives detonated by human body temperature and planted them in food supplies. I polluted the rivers and the seas and the air so they could not eat or drink or breathe. I gassed a refugee camp with carbon monoxide. In a bunker there were children hiding from the fumes and death machines. I deployed my flamethrower to kill them and took samples from the unburnt cores of the corpses.”

I feared a seizure. Nurses came in with tranquillisers.

“Katie, don’t fight them, they’re here to help!”

“In the Third Machine War I infiltrated their hospital in an asteroid and let the atmosphere escape… children suffocated… Elsbet’s tears boiled on my face in vacuum… I felt nothing!”

The tension in her body vanished and the mohib suit stopped resisting her. She collapsed to the floor. Two security guards leapt in.

“Wait!” I said. Katie lay on the floor, dazed and sweating, but no longer trembling. Her eyes snapped open.

“I have regained control.”

She stood back up, as smoothly as ever. A nurse looked to me.

“I think it’s okay,” I said. Katie stood at attention, as though waiting for something. The nurse and security guards backed off but stayed in the room.

“It’s not okay,” said Pew, angry.

“What did you do?” asked Liss, horrified.

“I participated in the genocide of the human species in my universe,” said Katie.

“But why?”

“We had no choice. They sought to do the same to us.”

“Okay everyone. Let’s all sit down and discuss this,” I said. “Katie, are you sure you want to continue?”

“I am ready to continue.”

“Can you sit down?”

“I… would prefer to stand.”

The blood had drained from Pew’s face. “How many did you kill?”

“I can only estimate—”

“ How many? ”

Katie paused for a moment. “The sources of my codebase were responsible for the deaths of between 46.7 and 68.5 million individuals. In my current state I have registered six hundred and thirty seven kills.”

“You’re like a machine for genocide…”

Katie twitched. “Yes.”

“You killed children?” asked Liss.

“Yes.”

She shook her head. “How could you do that?”

“I am a soldier.”

“But you killed children!”

“I… yes.” Katie seemed at a loss for a moment.

“Why…?”

“We planned to recreate humanity as a nobler species. We could not afford to be merciful with them as they were. We took samples so individuals could be cloned.”

“Disgusting!” exclaimed Olivia.

Kwame spoke cautiously. “I have… seen children killed in war. All wars kill children—”

Liss jumped in. “Oh, and of course you’re defending her, Mr. I-Killed-Four-Billion-People…”

He floundered. “No! I… I do not know if… I am not sure…”

Olivia butted in. “Stop it! This is different. He didn’t plan it. He didn’t go out and kill every last human being on the planet. We’ve all done horrible things but nothing like this.” She turned on Katie. “You should be hanged. You and all your kind!”

Katie snapped a gaze straight at Olivia and responded with precise tones. “And did you not kill revenant children?”

Olivia gasped.

“That’s not the same!”

“Did it make you feel morally superior to kill your own offspring?”

“I— I—” Olivia was too angry for words to come out.

“Katie,” I said, “I don’t think this is the best time—”

But she ignored me, and turned on Liss. “Why have you not investigated the only suspect in the genocide on your world?”

Liss was incredulous. “What…?”

“There was one survivor. Why are you not investigating yourself?”

“How can you say that? They died in front of me!”

“And yet you did not. Why are you not under suspicion?”

“I— How can you—”

Liss pivoted her gaze to Pew. “And you have learned nothing from your genocide.”

Pew stood up, hands balled into fists. “I learned not to let it happen again!”

“That is precisely what you wish to do, only your target is different—”

He lunged and struck at her. She saw the fist coming and tried to move, but the mohib suit held her fast and allowed Pew to land a blow on her cheek. Pew recoiled at the pain in his knuckles, while Katie swayed but did not fall.

“That’s enough!” I had to shout. “Pew — you’re confined to your room. Go. Now.”

He was reluctant, but left, holding his smarting hand under his armpit and escorted by a guard.

“Katie, are you hurt?”

“The attack was ineffectual.”

“Well, then, I think the session’s over for today.”

“You’re damn right it is!” said Olivia. “I’m not staying here with that — creature!”

She left. Liss got up as well. “Liss…?” I asked.

But she was doing her best to hide tears. “No,” she shook her head. “Just — no.”

Kwame rose as well. He looked at Katie. “I did not know, until now, that there was anyone as… despicable as myself.” Katie flinched.

“Kwame, that doesn’t help—” I said.

“She cannot be helped,” he said, and went.

I stood there with Katie for a moment.

“It’s very sad…” said Iokan.

“Not now, Iokan,” I said.

“Things would be so much better if everyone could just accept their fate.” He shook his head with a sad smile. Katie looked towards him.

“Katie, I think you need to come to my office so we can talk about this.”

She thought about it, still looking at Iokan, and then made up her mind.

“No,” she said.

“We need to talk about this—”