The Cyborg's Daughter ( I'm close to 100K reads! Then Party)

Chapter 37/Free as in Freedom

Slave punishment chamber/Palace of the CPU/Washington 2.0 

The chamber opened tentatively. I was in a wall of pods, many were active. Some pops were punishing slaves for errors, others making new slaves obedient to the machines. You could hear the odd muffled sound as a slave felt like they were being waterboarded. A robot arm came over and picked my pod off like a librarian picking a book on a ladder. The platform was lowered and I was released. I looked around, the equipment to check the collar, the make-up machine, the clothes printer, everything to process new slaves. I stood up and pointed at one of the chambers.

Soon the pod was opening and Hunter ejected. He was a sleep. Jenny/Mom had protected him too and eventually the boredom had reached him. I pulled another chamber down. This one had Little Jenny in it. While Hunter slept, Jenny came to almost immediately. I looked at her.

"What are you?" I asked.

I knew physically. She was a simulant, a kind of biological robot. Electronically programmable but powered by food and air. She was a robot in flesh. Grown in a vat never to die and never to get old. I felt so stupid, she never grew. I thought it was something that happened. I thought people grew up at different speeds. I now knew she was the key to the end of the Continuity. She was  the life-boat of information for the leader of the machines. Kill her and the CPU would never return. But the CPU was on our side. 

"I'm your sister, Silly" said Little Jenny.

Behind the simple statement I could feel the wall of hits secrets hanging in her mind. She was partly like me, she was biological but had radio systems working in her flesh.

"We don't have much time." I said.

While I spoke the next pod came down.

"Dad!" I said as the pod opened depositing my step dad body on a medical table.   Dad/Joe had bruises healing from his fight. There was a medical station and I was able to order the complex cocktail which would unlock him from his chemically induced coma. Mom or Step mom or Kayla came down asleep to. No one tells you what to do in these situations, I felt like someone had released a flight of doves seeing her face. I set the medical station making the antidote for her as well. She knew there had been a good chance she would never wake up, but still had done this to protect me.

"Do you know what we must do?" I told Little Jenny.

"I do," she said sourly. "Before we leave, one last flip?"

I nodded and little Jenny rushed off to get a good walk up. She ran forwards and jumped onto her hands flipped over and ended up on her feet arms raised.

"Well done" I clapped ever the proud sister. 

"I'm going to miss doing that," said little Jenny. I didn't understand, but clearly she knew something about what was going to happen, something more than I did. 

Hunter was sitting up looking groggy.

"What's going on biscuit?" said Hunter.

"It's complicated," I said. "All you need to know is you actually made a believer of me. We can take down the robots. I found out how."

Just then the doors opened and a house hunter-killer came in to investigate what was going on. It had no support, why would it, a Hunter-killer can take out a room full of marines. I could feel it's  shock as  I rushed towards it. I had slowed time,  Jumping off the wall I swung on the arm it raised to stop me. The machine flailed arms like a steel octopus at me. I dodged each move. I used the robot's arm to swing underneath it and ram a finger up the reboot hole. The Hunter Killer fell to the ground - it had crashed.