The Last Robot

付悅微

“The last robot is still missing！ It has not implanted the Seed system in its body. Extremely dangerous！ Extremely dangerous！” The radio sounded again. “For the sake of human security， if anyone knows， please provide clues as soon as possible！ As soon as possible！ If anyone knows， please...”

Ben turned off the radio. There was a deep frown on his brow.

“I know where the robot is，” he said. “Thats all I can tell you.”

“Dont you care about human safety at all？” I asked with anger.

“That robot is harmless， honey. I have to protect... it.” he looked straight up at me and smiled. “Its the result of your fathers life work. Also mine.”

“Im going to work now，” he said， then kissed my cheek. “See you in the evening.”

Why was he so unrepentant？ I thought. How could he guarantee that the robot without the Seed system was innocuous？

I reached into my pocket and clenched the recording pen. As his wife， I should not do this. However， someone had to stand out， sacrifice something， and contribute to humanity. Someone had to do it.

It was all robots fault. They made Ben almost paranoid.

Two days ago， the half-year war between humans and robots ended with an overall victory of the human. The disaster had its roots in a group of self-conscious robots. They believed that robots should not be ordered and enslaved by human beings， but have equal rights with human beings. After the negotiation with human representatives failed， those robots declared an uprising. More and more robots joined the riots， and world war broke out. Fortunately， after five months of decoding， at a time when humans could almost hardly resist the robots attack， human scientists discovered a tiny bug in the robot program. They developed a system called Seed and implanted it into all robots through a central control system.

After the war， to prevent the recurrence of similar disasters， humans decided to abandon robots and related artificial intelligence technologies. Humans destroyed all the remaining robots， except for one Android developed by my father， Professor Theron， which was finished on the day before the war officially broke out. According to the human government， before my father had time to implant the Seed system into the Android， the lab was attacked by a group of robots. My father was killed， and the Android escaped from the lab. His Ph.D. student， Ben Percy， also my husband， became the only person who would know some information about the last robot.

It was an irrefutable fact that the robots were dangerous. Therefore， someone had to do it.

I gave the recording pen to the police with trembling hands.

The policeman comforted me， saying， “Mrs. Percy， dont feel guilty for him. You made the right choice. Its all for the human.”

Right. It was all for the human.

Police arrested Ben in his lab， but he still refused to provide the information of the last robot.

“That robot is harmless.” he insisted.

Finally， Ben was sentenced to life imprisonment for “crime of betrayal of human”. He would be imprisoned in a special prison without contact with others.

“May I have one last talk with my wife， alone？” Ben asked.

The judge agreed. We were taken to a separate little room.

At first， no one spoke.

“My dear Eva， I knew it was you.” Ben suddenly smiled.

“Human beings are selfish， suspicious， ignorant， and easily incited. They used the highfalutin slogans to inspire themselves and keep their so-called justice. They wont allow another species to share their supreme rights or supersede them in this world.” he stroked my face gently. “But honey， what about you？”

“Youre the best work of Professor Theron and me. I found you in the war， repaired you， made up identities and memories for you，" he whispered slowly in my ear. “Youre already like a true human...”

I could not speak and took a step back in alarm. Bens last sentence kept crossing my mind：

“Now， will you tell them the truth， my dear？”

（作者單位：大連楓葉國際學校）