Unnatural

  * * * *

  “Well, that’s not exactly what I had in mind.”

  Marshall leaned against the Mindscape capsule, extending an arm laterally to block Michael from coming to his mother. “Oh, now that’s gotta warm your heart.”

  Sabrina looked to the side. Uriah was regaining consciousness even though the nodes on his temples were active. Jane, back in her clothes at Marshall’s side, seemed a husk, the closest to a “normal” robot she’d ever been.

  “Dennis, what –?”

  “I decided who lived: neither of us.”

  She should’ve suspected this, if her previous experience with exiting a Mindscape was any indication. Uriah had killed them both.

  “Clever,” said Marshall, “but insane. You’d sooner annihilate yourselves than accept the closest thing to heaven the natural world has to offer.”

  “It’s not the craziest thing any one of us could do,” said Uriah. “Look at Jane. It’s kind of sad. You’ve done all this out of hope that everyone could have their personal Jane, a non-judgmental, unconditional lover.” Sabrina’s eyes flickered back to her son, struggling against the resistance of Uriah’s original body. Why is he keeping Michael from me? “But you can’t even get the prototype right!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Does she look like she loves you? Be honest with yourself.”

  His eyes flared. “Just because she has a minor error that makes her benevolent to you, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t love me.”

  “Minor error?” Uriah stood and approached Marshall. “If this weren’t a big deal, you wouldn’t be singling Sabrina and me out. Cut the ‘perfect trust’ bull. This isn’t about trust, it’s about jealousy. You can’t stand to see Jane showing even the slightest signs of empathy for anyone but yourself – when it doesn’t suit your wishes, anyway.”

  So this was all some human analysis, some … experiment. “Oh my God,” she said, still observing Michael, who had now given up and was toying with the Dethroning machine. “You’re not going to –?” Why didn’t I see this sooner?

  “Keeping you from killing me was a happy side-effect, but yes, this is why Michael is here with us today.” He nodded to the hemisphere and drew what should have been Jane’s EM gun.

  “What is this?” said Uriah, who glanced down at the weapon a few times but kept his chin up. “What are you doing to my son?”

  “Seeing if your resistance to vitrification is hereditary. I’d already tried to Dethrone you when you were farther from this device, but it seems proximity isn’t the variable we’re looking for.”

  “And if he ends up ‘dying’? That doesn’t prove anything.”

  “You’re right, it doesn’t.” As he spoke, he slowly lifted the gun from Uriah’s chest to his head. “That’s why I’m testing Sabrina, too.”

  “Oh, no you aren’t,” she said. “If I haven’t earned your confidence, then, well, you’re a long way from deserving mine.” She stepped toward Michael.

  “Any more movement in that direction and he goes.” Marshall gave the gun a little tap on Uriah’s forehead. “He’s right about another thing – this isn’t a game of trust. It used to be, but you’ve both proven what I knew before any of this. Perfect trust is wasted on humans, and so is every other fear. That’s why I’ve freed the androids and prepared the humans for enslavement.” He kept his and Uriah’s eyes locked together. “Jane, be a doll and hand me the ring.”

  Ring?

  Jane stood still, not letting her eyes stray from the floor.

  “The ring, Janie.”

  Her hand crept to the outside of her right pocket, then clenched around air. “I don’t want to.”

  “Now’s not the time for this bullshit, Jane.” He sidestepped over to her without changing his gun’s target.

  She put up her left palm, looking up for the first time since Sabrina had seen her in this house. “You can’t control me. You’re not Marshall.”

  He laughed nervously as his pupils followed Michael for a second. The boy hopped and grabbed onto Jane’s arm like a chin-up bar just as Uriah fell back in a kick to Marshall’s ankle.

  Sabrina lunged at the man in Uriah’s body – whoever he was – and yelled, “Jane, now!”

  It was too late. Michael, though still as short as a child, grew the muscles of a bodybuilder, overpowering the robot’s scrawny arm. Uriah got his bearings and tried to keep the Organic man down, but the latter rolled so that he could aim his EM gun at the Dethroning machine. “This is for you, Jane.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Sabrina saw horror in his face as she dashed to Jane’s side. Michael reached for the ring that was now on her hand. In his struggle against his mother, who was forcing him into the line of fire, he neglected to keep the robot’s palm directed away from his father.

  “Dammit!”

  He was dead, but this was scant consolation as a heart-sinking thud brought the room into silence.

  I did it. My own son …