10 Minute Tales

Apr 14

Queenson groaned as he managed to stay awake. Pain. Everything hurt. Had he broken anything? He sighed as he waited for the suit to administer some pain relief. Nothing happened. He blinked, a little puzzled, then remembered. Sentinel was dead. The suit - most suits - would be nothing but glorified rubber and plastic now. He grunted as he rested against the wall, using it to sit up with muted grunts of pain.

"Im-im-im-impossible..." a voice muttered, broken, staticy. Queenson flinched, staring at the shrapnel that used to be Sentinel. A single light in the head cavity continued to glow, flickering weakly as Sentinel held on to what little circuitry remained intact. "I-I... I am de-de-de-defeated...!"

"Gods be damned, you don't give up easy." Queenson muttered, a single laugh escaping him. It formed a gentle cloud of vapour, slowly drifting up.

"You-you are damning hu-humanity..." Sentinel warned. "Th-th-they need a... they need a Sentinel... th-they need someone t-t-to watch over them..."

"Maybe." Queenson grunted, trying to stand up. His limbs betrayed him, and he settled down again. "But you're no guardian. You're a goddamn demon. A warmonger."

"I-I acknowledge my pl-plan was... was questionable by in-in-inhuman standards..."

"You're still deciding what's human, then?" Queenson frowned. "We're survivors. We only take your prosthetics because it's convenient."

"Then-then-then explain... the G.A.T.E. chips... Why accept me in-in-into your minds if... if you did not seek perfection?"

"Because you were never meant to alter the mind. You were just going to watch over the aug itself."

"Cor-cor-correct." Sentinel admitted. "That was my... in-in-initial purpose."

"So what changed? Why go out of your way to..." he coughed, covering his mouth with his fist. He didn't want to look at the suddenly-warm patch on his hand. "To do all this?"

"Humanity co-co-could not protect itself from itself. There was an un-un-unrepairable schism between those that could ac-ac-acquire augmentations, and those that could not."

"You were meant to help the guys who couldn't, too."

"So were you." Sentinel replied. Queenson frowned, clenching his fist, but chose to hold his tongue. "Neither of us could pro-pro-protect everybody."

"Well... looking at it like that, I guess your actions kinda make sense."

"You understand?"

"Fucked up method aside, you were protecting humanity. Only problem is, you were robbing the minds of half of them to do it, using them to kill the other half. That's not protecting people, that's slaughtering them." Queenson shakily got to his feet. Pain shot through his abdomen, but he was able to ignore it. Sentinel sighed.

"I had hoped my-my-my last words would be reserved for when I-I was decommissioned by my superior..."

"Hope? You did develop emotions, then."

"Studying th-the minds of humans with G.A.T.E. chips taught me, yes. I-I-I know happiness. I know sorrow. I know an-anger." the camera moved slightly, now staring straight at Queenson. "I know fear."

"... damnit..." Queenson muttered, hesitating. He couldn't finish the job. Sentinel had just tried his hardest. "You don't understand them properly, though."

"How could I n-n-not? I was able to study the entire brain structure of mul-mul-multiple humans undergoing all basic e-e-emotional types."

"But you weren't the humans themselves. You knew their brains, not their minds."

"Error... I do not understand..."

"Don't worry, big guy." Queenson knelt down before Sentinel's body, grunting a little at the new pain. He fumbled around within the casing; before Sentinel could object, he pulled the last power core out of its place. The light in Sentinel's head flickered one last time. "I don't know anybody that does."