“Profesor”, a voice said from the doorway.

“Yes”?

“There a droid at the door waiting for you”,

“I'll be right down”.

Torr was reluctant to leave his book, and he didn't want to meet with the droid. He hated them. Humans with mechanical parts implanted into them to make them stronger, faster, and smarter. It just wasn't natural. 

Torr slowly walked down the hallway and down the stairs. Wondering how human this droid would be. Probably not much, as most humans liked to be as mechanical as they could be. Torr was one of the few humans left who wasn't a droid. It was sad how humans depended on technology so much, never exercising or socializing just communicating through the implants in their brains. 

The bare minimum for a droid to still be human is that the brain is at least half natural, and the heart is completely natural. If everything else was mechanical then the human would live about 700 years.

As Torr got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw the droid. And he was surprised at how human it was. Only its legs and arms were mechanical. And they were made out of tungstentainium, a durable yet strong metal that only the rich could afford. He wondered who this droid was.

“Good afternoon”, I said

“Hello, I am Arthur. How are you”

“I’m well, thank you”

“I have come to escort you to the capital, on request of your father”.

“I must decline. I have to take care of Matthew here”

Torr beckoned for Matthew to come forwards, as he did the droid said something surprising.

“You may bring Matthew with you”

“I’m sorry what”?

“Your father said that you could bring Matthew with you”

“Why”?

“He appears to have located the boy's mother”.

“Really”? Matthew said, excited.

“Yes, go pack your bags”, said Arthur

As Matthew rushed up the stairs Torr contemplated what the droid had said. Matthews mother was alive he could have sworn that she was dead, he had seen her fall into the core. It had to be fake, a trick to get him to come out of the house. Just then the boom of an electric missile launcher rang out.

 “Run”, Torr yelled as he and Matthew ran to the cellar.

As they all cramped in Torr hit the button under the desk and it seemed like the ground fell out from underneath them.

When they landed they were in a brightly lit room with 2 magnocycles. Magnocycles were the ideal way to get around the metal earth because they moved on the magnetic fields that pulsed around the earth. Torr and Matthew took one and Arthur took the other. They zoomed out of the underground tunnel and into the dimly lit streets of the city. 

Suddenly they heard a whir as a third magnocycle skirted onto the streets behind them. 

“Get in front of me”, Arthur shouted, as he primed one of the missiles in his hand. But just as he fired it he hit a bump and the shot went wide, the second time thought it hit the magnocycle spinning it out of control then exploding in a ball of flaming debris. 

As they sped towards the capital nobody else bothered their ride. As they entered the capital building they quickly bypassed the numerous security checks. But as they entered Torr's father's office, and they found him lying in a pool of blood.