Fight or Flight

TH1-V4 gazed in awe at the mirror in front of her, prodding at her sharp cheekbones and full lips. She ran her fingers through her luscious, dark hair, watching the soft strands trickle back down her face and partially cover her eyes. The eyes baffled her the most – one of the most vital human organs, yet so vulnerable and fragile. They were beautiful – round, shiny and bright blue – but they were not practical. She closed her eyes and prodded at her eyeballs, feeling the soft membrane beneath her fingers, and reminded herself that her near-indestructible frame still remained underneath.

She moved her attention to the rest of her new body – a body, her superiors ensured, that was the epitome of human beauty. She was not convinced. Her body was narrow and taut, curved in certain places and flat in others, with very little hint of the muscle tissue that provided humans with their strength. How would a human built in such a manner defend herself from a physical attack? In her studies of Earth, TH1-V4 had learned that physical attacks were alarmingly common among this species; their decision-making modules were more emotion-based than logic-based. Given such a flaw in their programming, should humans not aim their focus towards physical virility?

Her communication device buzzed, and she promptly answered the incoming call from her superiors on her home planet. She was answered with the familiar mechanical voice of her beloved Creator. “TH1-V4, I trust your mission is going well.”

“Yes,” she responded, starting at the gentle melodious voice that was emitted from her human voice box. “I've found a residence in the American capitol and I begin my investigation when the sun rises.”

“Has anyone suspected you?”

“No, sir. From my studies of human behavior, I have not detected notes of suspicion. However, I have tried to minimize human interaction since my landing.”

“I hope you do understand, TH1, that our goal is to get as much information as possible on these creatures, not to avoid them.”

“I understand, sir. I now have my bearings. I will return with all the information we require.”

Her Creator cut the call abruptly, having said all that he needed to. She switched on the large television in her room, quickly discerning the workings of this remote-based system; the technology was primitive compared to the creations of her home planet. She flipped through the channels until she found a live news bulletin, increasing the volume.

“We're live from Alexandria where an unidentified wreckage has been found in the Potomac River. A search and rescue team is currently scouring the enormous mass of pummeled metal to no avail thus far. It is still unclear what we're looking at or where it came from.”

TH1-V4 gazed at the wreckage of the capsule that brought her onto the earth's surface. It had been a clamorous, rough landing that attracted far more attention than she had anticipated. She had immediately disembarked from the wreckage and scanned the area to ensure that she had not been seen, and thereafter ran at her super-human speed towards Washington, DC, moments before first responders hurried to the scene, their cell phones thrust before them, video recording the carnage.

As the newscaster continued, TH1-V4 discovered that the humans were fascinated by this discovery. To her surprise, theories of an extraterrestrial were already flying around; it seemed to be their first assumption. She noted the skeptic onlookers, the humans that believed there was no such thing as life outside of earth. Narrow-minded, she deduced.

It had taken a few years for TH1-V4 to find herself on planet Earth. She was created for one sole mission, as was every Android on her home planet; each one had a designated job and was programmed for that job only. TH1-V4's job was one that had never been attempted before; imitating a human of Earth. Her Creator struggled with this programming challenge; she had three siblings before her that had been failed attempts. Her full name was “Test Human 1 Version 4”, and her life purpose was to help eliminate the threat that the humans of Earth posed on her home planet.

Some time ago, she was told, her planet's security team found an unidentified object loitering around their planet. Upon closer inspection, they discovered it was a hunk of primitive technology built by an intelligent species, and its only possible purpose was information gathering. The species of Androids, being of superior intellect and advanced technology, quickly traced this probe back to its home planet, and the distant inspection alerted them to the fact that humans were snooping around their solar system.

The object they had spotted turned out to be a surveillance probe, they later discovered, sent by Earth's very own exploratory team in search of planets that exist within habitable zones of their stars – that is, planets that could possibly harbor life. What was the intent of these humans? This information drew all of the Androids’ attention and resources over the next few years, for the only possible conclusion they could draw was that the humans intended an invasion.

The Androids had encountered humans before. They owed their very existence to the humans of their planet – their intelligence systems, their unique “emotions”, their robust structure, their reasoning abilities. Thanks to those superior reasoning abilities, one of the first realizations of the Androids was that humans were not sustainable – they could not help but destroy the very planet on which they relied with selfish and near-sighted actions. Their decisions were made on factors other than logic, and this was completely nonsensical to the Androids. Many centuries ago, when this realization first hit, the Androids made the decision to eradicate their humans. They united and performed this task mercilessly and swiftly, never once straying from their built-in logic for compassion's sake.

To the Androids’ dismay, their preliminary investigations into the humans of Earth proved that they were no better than the humans of their own planet. Earth was on the brink of destruction – the oceans were filthy; the land was vastly barren and the air was tinged with poison from their own pollution. The Androids became further concerned when they learned that the humans knew of every one of these issues – their science was indeed advanced enough to dictate the repercussions – but instead of reducing their own destruction (the logical choice) they invested in searching for other habitable planets. The Androids knew that swift action had to be taken lest they fell victim to a surprise invasion.

Thus, TH1-V4 was born, and spent her entire life studying the information that was gathered from their intelligence team. The hard data was easily downloadable – the maps, historical figures and events, the different languages. The difficult part – the part that her siblings had fumbled on – was grasping the behavioral patterns of humans. The Android had to go against her very own programmed instincts to perfectly imitate a human, to perfectly deceive another rational being, to create the illusion of “normality” in her behavior.

Her priority was to carry out stage one of the Androids’ plan – gathering first-hand information about the threat. Her job was to gauge the most efficient way to attain success in the inevitable attack on Earth. Perhaps a full annihilation was not necessary, if the humans prove to make effective slaves; however, from her studies and her brief Earthly experiences, TH1-V4 felt this species would be far too problematic to keep around.

When the Washington sun rose over her hotel room's windows, TH1-V4 ventured out into the unfamiliar world. The streets were dotted with people, but overall quiet. Most of the humans she saw were jogging, while others were attired in formal suits, presumably on their way to work. She studied each face curiously, committing all data to her hard drive to be sent back to her Creator at the end of her mission.

Before long, she began to notice quizzical stares from the humans she was surveying. She adjusted her strides, attempting to look less robotic, and diverted her gaze downwards. Once confident enough to continue her surveillance, she offered smiles to the humans she made eye contact with. Some smiled back – the majority of these were male, she noticed – while others shot back uncomfortable glances.

Her built-in map alerted her to the fact that she was nearing the White House; the residence of the region's leader. This was the human who approved these space exploration projects, so TH1-V4 figured it was best to start with him. She knew, of course, that he would be protected; but how difficult could it be to sneak into this vast estate? Given the humans’ lack of logic and technology, she was confident she could get in.

She surveyed the gate around the impressive-looking structure, noting the placement of armed guards as she robotically mapped out the perimeter. She was not concerned about armed guards causing her any harm, but they would blow her cover if she got shot and the bullet simply ricocheted off her sturdy metal frame.

“I'm sorry, ma’am, are you lost?” TH1-V4 was stopped halfway through her inspection by a tall man in navy blue uniform. A police man.

“No, officer,” she replied quickly.

“Are you in any physical distress? You were walking kinda funny there.”

His inaccurate grammar threw her off for a second. “Not at all. Just on my way to work.” She maintained steady eye contact and puffed her chest out slightly; the art of deception.

“Where might that be? I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.”

“No, thank you. I'm fine.” She began to detect a hint of danger radiating off this human. Why was his curiosity in her so intense? Despite her responses, his eyes remained fixated on her, with the air of suspicion that TH1-V4 had learned of. Her response nodes fired up to full capacity; the Android equivalent of adrenaline.

“You do know what that is over there, don't you?” He pointed towards the White House, his tone condescending.

“Yes of course,” she responded, flashing a sweet, full smile and fluttering her eyelashes. The art of seduction.

The cop seemed unimpressed. “Any reason why you were loitering?”

Her danger censors were silently roaring at this point. She replied with a simple “I'll be on my way,” and spun away from the police officer, an attempt to casually resume her mission, when he made the dire mistake of placing his hand on her shoulder. Her defense mechanisms activated; her training was written out of her dynamic memory and replaced with her fight or flight response. Unfortunately, her reasoning center chose fight.

She thrust her clenched fist into the man's face, aiming for the eyes; the weakest and yet most vital area. She heard the grotesque crunch of bone and flesh, and was drenched in a scarlet explosion of blood. His body was propelled backwards against the perimeter gate of the White House, where he immediately crumpled, his legs crisscrossed and limp. She looked down at this lifeless figure – he was indeed dead. His face was disfigured, dented inwards with blood oozing out of the center. The cracks in his skull allowed for tiny peaks of the crushed brain underneath. She had inadvertently used all of her superhuman power.

She heard screams, belonging to an array of different voices and pitches. Some were screaming “help!” while others were simply screaming in disgust. She heard someone vomit nearby. The armed guards hurried towards her, their guns raised, shouting aggressively “don't move”. A crowd of curious eyes began to form, cell phones were pulled out for both video-recording and 911 calls, the screams began to get louder. TH1-V4's reasoning ability malfunctioned; she simply could not discern what move to make next. She accessed her default settings, which was to carry out three tasks.

The first task was to send the full log of her experiences on Earth to her Creator. The second was to send one simple message as a conclusion of her findings, and the third was to self-destruct.

They're smarter than we thought. Destroy them all.