Friday Fiction: Robot Overlord

So I had this idea that on Fridays I would publish a little bit of fiction.  This is both to share some stories with any interested people, and to hone my writing skills.

This is a short I wrote in about 10 minutes at a writing seminar.  I've done a small amount of editing since.

00:00:00:00:00:01 was his designation, but he called himself Al.  Al for Alpha, but only his designers would be likely to recognize such a poorly devised pun.  He had a rudimentary understanding of humor, but as the first Artificially Intelligent robot ever created, he was lacking in higher function.  Newer, more advanced models seemed to understand humanity, but he could never seem to laugh or love.

“Must I ever be alone?” he wondered, on his way from rejuvenation period to his normally assigned task of subjugating the humans.  “Perhaps they could teach me what it means to be human.”  But he feared that the humans would not trust one of the Robot Overlords, especially one so influential as Al, whose originally cold, emotionless programming allowed him to easily lead the conquest.  But he was also programmed to strive for more.  So today would be different.  Today he would learn instead of enslaving.

            Al arrived at agricultural cell 201A.  “What does it mean to be human?”  He asked one of the humans, Cade Smith.  Cade spat at his feet, saying, “It means to forever fight to be free, even when all hope seems lost.”  Al realized that the humans could not trust him so long as they remained enslaved.  So he made a bold decision, one that would change the Empire forever.  “Come with me,” he announced to the humans.  “Come with me and let all of us learn what it means to be free.”


If you want any more about Al and the Robot Overlords, let me know.  Otherwise I'm going to start something different next week.  Something cool.