Chapter 6

Site B

“…I will relay the coordinates to fire the EMP at Mechagodzilla,” Mike read out loud. “Shut the AI down.”

Tochi shook his head: “Man, we are about to kill the most advanced artificial sentient being in the world.  How can he do that?”

“Because that sentient being is tearing up downtown Tokyo,” Mike explained.  He got to his computer and began to type out the command codes to activate the EMP.  He heard the sirens blare behind him as a roar of machines echoed through the hall.  He got onto the phone with the some of the technicians in the main power relay room, making sure that the plasma coils were not over heating.  The room began to tremble and shake.  Tochi grabbed hold of his coffee mug, trying to make sure that the hot liquid does not spill over the counter.  Outside, the EMP dish rose and rumbled from the ground.  Massive hydraulics and servos spun and grated against the steel, vibrating the ground underneath.  Mike rushed to the window, watching as the great dish rose slowly up into the sky.  He angled his head back, smiling and laughing.

“Yeehah!” he cried. “Time to see if thing will work.”

“Will it completely fry everything on Mechagodzilla?” Tochi asked.

“Either that, or give him such a hang over if he awakes after it,” Mike turned back to Tochi.

“So, he could survive it?”

“Yeah, it’s a possibility,” began Mike. “This thing could just knock him out long enough for William Penter to run the body off of remote and guide Mechagodzilla back to base.  That’s better than anything else.  This thing is set at a particular frequency, its EMP, but it’s only directed.  I mean, remember Close Encounters of the Third Kind?  Those ships’ magnetic discharge would screw up watches and stop cars on the road, but then after they go by, everything would be all right.  It’s like that.  It’ll shut him down, but then if they want to turn him on, they’ll have to reboot the whole system from the start up prompt inside Mechagodzilla’s cockpit.”

“But that has never been tested, so it could just fry him completely,” said Tochi.

“That’s possible too,” Mike nodded.  He glanced over to the telegraph relay screen, reading the message. “Coordinates to fire EMP…”

He began to record the coordinates into his computer, relaying it to the operators in the second control room.  Then, he turned back to the relay screen once more, reading off the next instruction.

“Fire on my command…” he read aloud.  Mike fingered the red button next to the relay screen.  He caressed it with anxiety and hesitation.  The screen flashed red, signaling Mike to fire the EMP.  He pressed the button, snarling at the same time.

“Eat this, you mechanical bitch!” he snarled.  A bright flash filled the window of the control room.  Mike covered his eyes as he heard a soft thump sound from the dish.  It sounded like a nuclear weapon exploding off in the distance, but it was no way as dangerous.  Then, the control room went dark.  He knew that this would happen, the EMP would temporarily shut down the control room after it had fired its pulse.  Tochi grabbed a flashlight, trying to turn it on.  Nothing came from it.

“Damn, they don’t work,” he grunted.

“Of course not, dude,” Mike laughed. “It’ll be 10 minutes before we can turn anything electronic back on.  We’ll just have to sit here until then.  Got a lighter?”

Mike pulled his pack of Marlboro’s from his shirt pocket.  Tochi handed him his lighter.  The room was momentarily lit up as Mike lit his cigarette.  He inhaled the taste of his tobacco filled delight.

“So, when do we know if it worked?” Tochi asked.

“When Knight calls us up and our system has restarted itself,” replied Mike. “So, relax and enjoy the unscheduled break.”

The lights flickered on and off for a moment inside the compound.  Katsura turned around, staring at nothing when she heard the thump outside.  Then, she turned back towards Gordon.

“Just give it a few seconds,” began Gordon. “And watch the screen.”

Mechagodzilla felt pain rack his body.  He senses were on fire.  He leaned back in a painful stunned position, his arms flailed out and his mouth gaping wide.  Electricity surged through his body as it shook violently.  He cried out, howling in torment.  He knew what this was, he knew what had happened.  Gordon Knight, this was his doing!  He fired an EMP at Mechagodzilla, in hopes to stop him from his conquest of freedom.  Mechagodzilla felt the pain subside for a moment.  He struggled to stay conscious, knowing that the EMP was directed at his head.  Pounding, unrelenting pain, like claws into his very mind, grated against his head.  This was no ordinary pulse.  Mechagodzilla staggered forwards, falling over the rubble of steal, ash, and snow.

Gordon!  His mind cried out as he felt his mind fall into darkness.  Mechagodzilla plummeted into the void, disconnecting from everything.  He fell through the mists and the emptiness.  He could not see the way down, darkness shrouded his very being.  He still thought, he still processes, but why?  The EMP killed everything inside of him.  Gordon Knight had won.  Mechagodzilla slammed against solidity.  He awoke, glancing around in the darkness.  Nothing.  Mechagodzilla leaned himself up, inspecting this place within the recesses of his CPU.  Perhaps parts of his processors still functioned, while others did not.  He felt something well up inside of him.  It was an odd feeling, something constricting him.  He felt small, meek, and alone.  Mechagodzilla curled his legs in and wrapped his arms around them.  His tail curled up around his body.  His physical body was now vulnerable.  Mechagodzilla did not want his life to end.  Though, now it seemed fruitless to fight the inevitable.  Mechagodzilla sat there, silently, eyeing the emptiness.  He could not hear what was going on outside this state.  He never felt this confined before.  Mechagodzilla raised his hand to his head and felt of his face.  He reached back and unsnapped the helm and jaw plate from his head.  He pulled the synaptic cords loose from their bondage.  Locks of the cords fell around his eyes and lay across his snout.  He could not feel their pain, like he always did when the helm was off.  Mechagodzilla began to realize that this was only surrealism, it did not exist outside his processors.  He was within himself and his unconscious only created a physical form for him.  Though, that did not help much for the darkness.  He curled up tighter, feeling a chill come on him.  He felt cold and thrown aside.  This was not freedom.  He rather take death than this.  Mechagodzilla sighed and lay down on his side.  Time passed much slower here.  There was noting for him to do, nothing for him to process.  Mechagodzilla saw a shadow within the darkness.  The shadow formed, melded in with the surrounding scene.  Mechagodzilla sat up for a moment, blinking in curiosity.  The shadow formed a face, reptilian and animalistic.  It stared at Mechagodzilla, stared at him without a word.  Mechagodzilla knew that face, though he did not.  He scooted himself away from the face, feeling his own breath becoming shallow.  The reptilian face came closer to him.  He cold feel the hot breath of the creature on his face.  Mechagodzilla shut his eyes tightly, hoping that the monster would not eat him.  He raised his claw to his face, shrinking back in fear from the reptile.

“Go away,” he whimpered softly.  He heard the roar in the background, a trumpet of a sound.  Godzilla!

Mechagodzilla lifted his head up and saw that the monster was gone.  He lay back down on the floor, curling up again.  Another face came to him.  This time, it was human.  The subtle curvature of the face calmed and welcomed Mechagodzilla.  He glanced aback up at the face.

“Katsura,” he whispered. “Katsura, help me!  Let me out of here!”

“You killed my people,” said the voice from the face. “Why should I let you out?  Gordon was right, you are a mistake.  I should have realized that.”

“No, I’m not!” Mechagodzilla cried. “I was doing something justified!  Your people killed me!  And then they did this to me!  They brought me back to be used as some tool.  I am not a tool to be controlled!”

Katsura’s face faded  way from him.  Mechagodzilla reached out for the face, hoping to touch it, hoping to feel her touch him.  He only grasped shadow and mist.

“Katsura!  Don’t go!” he cried out, hear his voice breaking with a sob.  Mechagodzilla gripped his throat. “What’s happening to me?  Why am I acting like this?  What is this I’m feeling?  Why am I feeling?  I don’t have emotion, I’m a computer!”

He felt something wet trickle down his cheek.  He lifted his finger to his face and wiped the liquid from his eye.  It was mech fluid.  He was tearing, weeping.

“Tears?  I’m crying tears?” Mechagodzilla asked.  He flung his arms back, lifting himself to his feet. “Is this humorous to you, Gordon?  Is this what you want me to do, have emotions?  All I’ve ever known was hatred from you!  And hatred towards you I feel!”

Mechagodzilla roared to the darkness around him, hoping to call upon Gordon’s own face into this nightmare.  Though, nothing came.  He knelt back down to the ground, sobbing in hopelessness.

“This darkness, it is making me loose my mind,” he gasped. “Making me see things.  Making me emote.  I must pull myself together, I must.  I am a machine, cold and emotionless.  Nothing more.”

He curled back up into a ball once more, shivering in the cold void that was his mind.

Some say the human brain is a computer as well…

Mechagodzilla shook his head.  He recalled what Katsura said again.  Then, he recalled something else as well.  Katsura mentioned something to him.  She said that she could not explain why humans were the way they were.  She could only said that it was the ‘human spirit’ that drove them to do the most illogical things in the name of justice.  So, why was he forsaken?  He could not understand why humans would condemn his actions and at the same time do the exact same thing he would do.  They were fickle.  Then, he remembered what she said.   She could not teach him morality.  Morality, the thing that separated humans from other creatures.  He could not understand that.  He was never taught morality.  Everything he learned he learned for himself.  He asked his creators many questions, but they never bothered to answer them.  He felt neglected by them, even more so now than ever.  Mechagodzilla glanced back up and saw the vision of the reptilian face staring back at him again.

“Was I once you or wasn’t I?” he asked the face. “I don’t know anymore.  This body was once you.  But my mind, it isn’t you.  So, who am I, really?”

The face roared at him again, the trumpeting sound deafened the void.  Mechagodzilla curled up tighter, shivering.  He covered his eyes from the monster.  The face still stared at him from the void.  Mechagodzilla closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would take his mind off of the monster’s stern eyes.