Here's a little something for fans of my latest novel and first space opera, Galaxy Rand. This is early on in the book, shortly after Galaxy stumbles across a discarded robot, whom she nicknames Blackie or Tin Man:
On the opposite side of the alleyway, Blackie charged into a tall stack of drums, as if he'd gone berserk. He bent down, lifted a full drum over his head, as easily as if the damn thing'd been empty! He tossed it down the alley. I heard one yelp, which was cut short, then nothing but silence, except for the incinerator's roar.
The bot turned in place and stood staring at me, for all the Cosmos as if he were waiting for my instructions.
Ignoring him, I scrambled to my feet and went to check out the damage. As usual, my aim had been perfect: The guy I'd smoked was good and dead. He lay face-down in a pool of the sticky green stuff, long past IDing. Farther down the alley, I found a limp blood-covered hand sticking up between two drums full of toxins.
"Dead?" I asked, casting a glance over my shoulder at the bot.
"Most regrettably, he was crushed to death." He made an odd sound, way too close to a human sigh.
Shrugged off both deaths and holstered my blaster. "Out here on Milo's Planet, pal, it's either kill first or get killed," I told the bot. Something else struck me as mighty odd. "But I thought all bots were programmed not to kill humans. Isn't there some kinda law about it? Didn't some guy named Ass-something-or-other invent it one helluva long time ago?"
The bot gave me a blank stare. I couldn't begin to read those crystal lenses of his. "I am certain Doctor Asimov would indeed be grateful that you remembered the fact; however, I assure you, Rand, I had no intention whatsoever of killing this scoundrel. He was about to open fire upon you, thus forcing me to act in order to prevent you from being killed or injured."
I bristled. "Listen up, pal! I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I sure as hell don't need you, or anybody else, to protect me. Understood?" He didn't answer.
copyright@ 2014
That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed. I'm back to working on my first prequel to the Tartarus Trilogy.
Keep on reading and keep on writing!
MRTighe
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