The Killing Machine

by Michael Tinker Pearce

This short story was the author's first published work of fiction in 1991. It has been presented in its original form with minimal editing.

A young soldier must work with an alien. Not an extraterrestrial, but one of our own making; an Autonomous Combat Vehicle with such sophisticated AI and Expert Systems that it blurs the line between machine intelligence and sentience. It is powerful, self-teaching, self-directed and in the absence of specific orders it makes its own decisions… But when it comes down to life and death, which of them is really the killing machine?

Approx. 3300 words

Contains strong language and violence

13 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Michael Tinker Pearce is a world-reknowned sword and knife maker, a student of Historic European Martial Arts. He is married to his co-author Linda Pearce and lives in Seattle with far too many dogs and cats. He is currently involved with the Foreworld Saga and co-wrote 'The Shield Maiden' from that series. The couple have released their first full length novel, 'Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman,' and just released a novella in the series, 'Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman: Rear Guard' which is available on Amazon and Smashwords. They have just released their second novel, "Rage of Angels," a military Science-Fiction novel.

He currently blogs at Michaeltinkerpearce.com

Reviews

[Michael Pearce]

I wrote this at a time that I wasn't a 'writer;' I was a game-designer and illustrator. Mind you, I'd had a go at writing before, but was handicapped as to improving my writing because no one that I showed my work to was willing to tell me that it sucked. By the time that I wrote this I had given up on fiction entirely.

Then this story formed in my head and asked to be let out, so one afternoon I sat at my typewriter and hammered it out in about two hours. A rewrite and some judicious editing later and it sold to a small-press magazine run by friends. To my complete shock; I'd sent it in figuring they would have to give me an honest opinion now.

Go figure.

This story touches on my fascination with the 'other;' The 'other' in this case is a sophisticated machine that may or may not be self-aware. An alien of our own making...