Draft 1.26
Golem Project In Progress
Pointless.
Wessel had thought there was some reason for Lillian’s betrayal. Surely she had a good reason to betray her friend, to take his things and endanger everyone.
No. She was just doing this because she wanted to.
Anger surged in Wessel’s throat, pounded in his skull until his vision dimmed. He ran forward. No plan. No time for a plan. Lillian jumped back to the top of the pod-car’s cab as Wessel scrambled up after her.
“Come on!” she yelled, a flicker of uncertainty on her face.
Wessel froze as Lillian’s sleek, rose-gold golem twisted out of the skirmish and slipped in their direction. The golem was lithe, smooth, with a rounded torso and thin limbs. Every movement it made was precise, powerful, as it vaulted over an oversized pod-car and sprinted toward Wessel.
The first law of Robotics, enforced by the Golem Project, declared that golems could not hurt people. Lillian, with the program that Wessel and Aizi made, had broken that rule.
Aizi was busy protecting Ethany and Jakob from the other three golems in the garage, and Wessel was now alone. There was nothing stopping Lillian’s golem from breaking every bone in Wessel’s body.
And yet Wessel kept going, scuffing one knee as he climbed onto the cab of the pod-car. No changing the plan. No hesitating. He would act.
Lillian backed away, then nearly fell off the top of the car. Wessel was almost on her, and it was too late. Her golem leapt for them.
And the grinding screech of metal on metal echoed through the room. Lillian’s ‘heart’ golem crashed to the ground. Jakob’s ‘power’ golem had a hand tight-wrapped around the ‘heart’ golem’s ankle.
“Whoa now!” Jakob said, a smug grin showcasing his pointy teeth. “You wunnit be sockin’ Wessel while his golem’s all caught up in fightin’, would you?”
Lillian’s golem continued to struggle forward, attempting to ignore Jakob’s golem, but he dragged her back.
“You can’t do nothin’ if my golem is just stronger—” Jakob said, then jumped out of the way as one of Lillian’s friends trampled in from behind, atop a golem with broad shoulders and long fingers. “Hoy, quit cheatin’!” he yelled.
Wessel took advantage of the reprieve to full-on tackle Lillian. They collided, and despite her attempts to brace herself, they tumbled down between the pods of the car.
Wessel didn’t know how, but he ended up below her. He landed hard on his side and shoulder. Suddenly, he couldn’t breathe.
“Would you let go!” Lillian panted. She tugged away and tried to stand.
Wessel’s hands, one gripping her shirt and the other her forearm, were like vises. He couldn’t let go. Even if it killed him.
Would it kill him? He couldn’t breathe. He should have been able to breathe by now. He croaked out a response, tried to suck in wind. Nothing. His chest spasmed, and he panicked, eyes wide.
Still he did not let go.
Anger and fear shone bright in Lillian’s eyes. She reached back and slapped Wessel, hard, trying to stun him. Her other arm twisted and wriggled like an agitated eel. Wessel held on, no matter how much she jerked away. No matter how much his eyes watered, how much it felt like he was drowning in open air.
A cough ripped out from Wessel’s lungs. With it came a small breath of fresh oxygen, something to keep him going. He blinked, and his vision cleared. Lillian tore away, ripping her shirt from his grasping hand, and grabbed his wrist with her other hand. She was on top, she had the advantage, all he had was a weakened grip on her arm.
He refused to let her get away. Refused to lose.
His grip tightened, enough that Lillian cried out. He pulled down, upsetting her balance. One foot under him. He moved his body weight, pinning the girl, maneuvering to take the advantage. Her hands twisted on his wrist, and it burned. An ache took hold of his arm as he pushed it to its limit.
One foot in position, he hurled his body weight to the side again, and Lillian’s grip slipped. He pinned her by her left arm to the ground, panting.
Before he could say anything, he heard loud voices. Adult voices.
“Get on the ground!”
“Stop right there!”
“Hands behind your back!”
Stuck where he was in-between car pods, Wessel could only listen as Golems were thrown to the ground and pinned. Jakob complained, talking about his father, Ethany cried out as she was forced down, the other teenagers ran right past before being scooped up and detained by a dozen more golems that had entered the room. Aizi and the other golems stopped fighting.
All was still for just a moment.
A uniformed man stepped in-between the pods, next to Wessel and Lillian.
“On your stomachs, hands behind your back,” he said. A small object in his hand crackled with static, despite the lack of power. A beetle-shaped golem stood behind him.
Slowly, Wessel moved off of Lillian and got on his stomach. Lillian didn’t move, still breathing hard and glaring daggers at Wessel. That was okay. The cops would sort everything out. There was no need for him to get in the way. Lillian needed to be taken care of, and they would handle it.
The cops could figure out what to do with the law-breaking golems. They—
Wessel’s breath caught in his throat.
The computer.
If the cops found the program, if they used it or found out what it did… Wessel would be in trouble. The cops might use it just like Lillian did. They might come across government secrets. Aizi might be taken away. Everything he’d done to find this program, to keep it a secret, might go to waste.
He couldn’t let that happen. But… what could he do?
“I am next to the box,” Aizi whispered, in his head. “I am unharmed. They will take us into custody soon, all golems, all people, and the computer.”
Wessel didn’t take too long to think about it. There was only one obvious solution, only one that he had time for. He shut his eyes tight, tears forming in them. Then he sent Aizi a command through their link.
He heard his computer splinter into pieces.
“I am sorry, Wessel,” Aizi said.
Wessel didn’t respond.
One by one, the uniformed policemen bound Wessel, Lillian, and the others there. They were hauled to their feet, and made to stand in a line. Wessel was relieved to see that both Ethany and Jakob were okay, and it didn’t seem like any of their golems had suffered major damage. When Ethany smiled at him, though, he found he couldn’t meet her eyes.
Lillian and her group didn’t put up much of a fight. Even with their golems, they were outnumbered by the dozen protective golems that had come in with the officers. Wessel expected to see one of their golems step forward, fight, free them. They did nothing. Nothing at all.
“Right,” one of the officers said. He was a man with a beard as thick as his waist, and seemed to be constantly chewing on something. “You hooligans pay attention. I ain’t going to ask these questions many times.”
“Yessir,” Jakob said, and got a withering glare in response.
“Speak when spoken to, son,” the officer said.
“But you did speak—”
“Hush. I ain’t got all day to argue.” The officer puffed out his chest. “Now, you,” he said, pointing to Ethany. “What’s going on here?”
“The redhead girl and her cronies there outfitted their golems with new tech so they could attack people. They used that to steal from my friend and this guy’s dad, down the road.” Ethany nodded to Jakob, and he nodded in turn. “We was doin’ out neighbor duty to stop them.”
“Likely,” the man said, rolling his eyes. “Breaking the first law, right. I suppose you have a story of your own, ponytail girl?”
“My name is Lillian. I—”
“Don’t care. What’s your take?”
Lillian’s lower lip trembled. “We were just t-trying to get a network set up so I and my siblings could communicate with our golems. Then these guys came in and attacked us!”
“City kids,” a thin officer with a clipboard said. The golem standing behind him mimicked his pose. “They get the golems at age twelve, and just go nuts. Stupid to have the age that early.”
Wessel’s jaw had tightened to the point that his head was aching. The larger officer caught his eye.
“Well, you have another story for me?”
“Lillian is a liar,” Wessel replied. “And Ethany is right. Those golems need to be wiped.”
“Your golem should be wiped!” Lillian yelled, tugging at her restraints. “No, it should be taken away! You have—”
“Shut up,” the large officer boomed. He wiped his forehead, then spoke to the thinner officer. “Alright. Take them all in. Run full diagnostics on the golems, detain them all till tomorrow. Make sure their parents pick them up, and verify their info. I’ll take the rest of the team over to the temp tower.”
Full diagnostics. Wessel wondered if that would discover Aizi’s special functions? Her ability to think, to guide, to adapt. And didn’t she have a second copy of his program in her memory?
“Roger that,” the reedy guy said, dashing a pen across his clipboard. “Righto. You seven follow me. If your golems do anything funny, like ‘defend’ you from being captured, on my money I’ll get you all sent out of state.”
All I can do is hope, and leave it up to Aizi, Wessel thought. She knows what I want. His shoulders sagged as he followed the man out of the garage. He stopped as he saw the vehicle waiting for them.
An all-terrain transport, with large thick treads holding up a massive green metal box. There was plenty of room in the hull for up to twenty people and their golems, and wall restraints for everyone. The reedy officer watched them as they packed in to the stale compartment, had another couple of officers restrain them in the rough restraints, then followed his golem around to the front.
“Won’t be far,” he called. “Don’t get too comfortable.”
The vehicle began to crawl through the empty streets.
“What’s the plan?” one of the boys asked Lillian.
“Shut up,” she said.
“No, really,” he sister said. “We’ve got enhanced golems. We aren’t just going to sit here and let them take us away, are we?”
“The ‘plan’ didn’t involve getting strung up and wheeled out,” Lillian snapped. “I’m thinking.” She glared at Wessel, and he looked away. It wasn’t like he was in a better situation. Aizi was in a sort of danger here, and there was nothing he could do.
The siblings resorted to squabbling, and Wessel hung his head in silence.
“Hey,” Ethany said, from next to him. “Wes.”
He lifted his eyes to her.
She shook her head. “I told you we couldn’t go to the cops. What kinda mess is this? My mom’s gonna be crazy mad.”
Wessel shrugged and looked back down.
“H-hey. You okay?”
“I’m not hurt.”
“But are you okay?”
Once again, Wessel found himself without an answer.
Kyle Adams 