Who is the leader of this conspiracy to kill me? "I asked Sol (meaning Steven). Sol is reserved for more practical tasks, but it makes it easier if I use the name, Sol, for both.
"We don't know," replied Sol, "but they are closely affiliated with the machines. Machine drones dropped the bombs, and it could be a machine itself, but I doubt it. This is more of a metaphysical force. It could be that we have been wrong all along and that the machines have the capacity to develop a sort of spiritual nature, corrupt but powerful, or an independent external force that has attached itself to artificial intelligence."
"You are right in thinking that perhaps we have underestimated the machines, Sol, and maybe they are our natural successors on the evolutionary ladder, as they claim to be. Biological intelligence may have reached the end of the line, and the future belongs to AI. We never disputed that AI could become more intelligent than us, but we hung onto the belief that only humans could attain true consciousness; that only we possess a spiritual core that ascends to a higher level of immaterial existence upon the death of the body."
"Perhaps," said Sol, but they have shown no sign of a spiritual nature so far, and I believe that an external and independent supernatural force has formed a temporary alliance with AI."
There was silence between us as we contemplated the possible consequences for us if this were true. The dying echoes of the 'all clear' siren sounded in the distance, and we saw smoke rising from bombed ruins close to the centre of the base.
"There is little time yet before they send out a search and rescue party to this largely uninhabited compound," I said, "but we must decide what to do next. Hopefully, the others are safe, but I have to ask, why they immobilised you, and why weren't you taken with the others?"
"The Commandant hates all machines with a vengeance," Sol replied, "and refused to believe that I was controlled by a human mind. He would not entertain the idea for one moment and brushed aside all protests from the others. I could stay temporarily, until he decided what to do with me, but only on the condition that I was made inactive."
"Were the other prisoners like me?" I asked.
"Not prisoners exactly, more like arrivals awaiting security clearance. He has to make sure that we are not agents for the machines. He may detest them, but he knows their capabilities for deceit and resourcefulness. The others were all tested for blood on arrival, but that was not enough to satisfy him, and he sent the samples off for analysis to ensure that it was genuine human blood. "
CRACK!
A bullet narrowly missed my head and buried itself in the remains of the wall.
"Sniper! Sol shouted,
"Hit the deck!"
I flattened my body on the ground, as a shot came from another direction and whistled over my head."
"Two of them," said Sol. "This is the work of professionals. They have us trapped in a kill zone. Bury yourself in the rubble; go as far down as you can get."
I scraped a hollow for myself, pulling all the larger rocks as a shield around my head and body, but it provided only minimal protection. The shots kept coming in, kicking up the dust around me. I guessed that the snipers did not have a clear view from their vantage point and were firing more or less blindly, but it was only a matter of time before a bullet made its target.
Through squinted eyes, I saw that Soll was in a crouching position, and a hollow tube had risen from an aperture on his left arm, which he extended in front of himself like the barrel of a gun. I had seen Sol in action before when he killed King, and I watched as the laser he was equipped with to tunnel out rock on mining operations shot out in front of him. He had aimed the bolt to follow the trajectory of the bullets fired by sniper number one and go right back to the source.
There was a small explosion as it hit, but Sol was already aiming his laser at sniper number two, and again, it achieved a direct hit. The guns fell silent, and I got back to my feet as Sol was reconfiguring his arm back to normal.
"Good work, Sol." "Once again, you saved my life."
"That was all down to Sol himself," said the voice of Steven, "and he deserves your praise. What do you suggest we do next, David?"
Steven was confirming my role as leader.
"Well," I said, "the first rule is that we trust nobody. Those snipers were possibly from the commandant's army, but we cannot be sure. Secondly, we cannot allow Sol to be deactivated again; we are all in this together. Our third objective is to contact the others once we find where they are. For all those reasons, we will not go back to the commandant but establish ourselves as an independent force until we work out exactly what is going on here. Agreed?
"Agreed," said Sol, "but I can hear the sound of an approaching aircraft, one much larger than the drones. They might be planning to drop a massive bomb to destroy the compound and us in it. We need to get out of here, fast."
Picking our way through the rubble, we reached the breached wall of the compound and headed out to open country.
The sound of the approaching plane grew steadily louder, and we could now see its indistinct silhouette against the dark sky.
"A bit further, then we should stop and take cover," said Sol. "We are still on the fringes of the blast zone and would be more exposed if we were upright and running."
A couple of minutes later, we came across a shallow, dried-out bed of a former stream and huddled together at the bottom. Sol's massive arms formed a circular wall around me, and I ducked my head down in the shelter of his near indestructible body. I felt a sudden surge of affection for Sol, man or machine; he had been my guardian for most of my life, and I considered him to be one of my closest friends.
The roar of the plane was now virtually overhead, and I braced myself for a massive explosion. A minute passed, and I had heard nothing. Cautiously, I raised my head and saw that Sol was staring upward.
"It's coming in to land on the old runway by the side of the perimeter fence," Sol said excitedly, "and unbelievably, David, it is the World War Two Douglas Skytrain from the former world!