Ficlets

Lights and Clockwork

“It’s revolutionary,” said the Professor, smiling. “By putting our global defense systems entirely in the hands of the new World-O-Tron Computer System, we need never worry about a war again.”

“Well, you say that,” said Graham, “But this sort of thing never ends well, does it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on. Haven’t you seen I, Robot, or The Matrix?”

“No.”

“What about the Terminator movies? Surely you’ve seen those.”

The Professor simply shrugged.

“Do me a favour. Before you activate this Globe-O-Tron…”

World-O-Tron.”

“Whatever. Before you activate it, just do me a favour and watch these movies, okay? Go home, watch all of them, then come in tomorrow and tell me whether or not you think this is a good idea.”

“That might present a problem.”

“Why?”

“Because I activated World-O-Tron about two minutes ago.”

The very next day, the planet was hit by an asteroid and the entire population was wiped out. This just goes to show that things don’t always end the way you expect them to.

View this story's 4 comments.