Mother: Science Fiction

MOTHER did the best it could, but you can't expect a redirected killing machine to be perfect at raising children, especially since there was only a rough prototype for the program. They loaded her with the prototype, they tossed in all the (often contradictory) child-rearing texts they could find, and they hoped for the best. It was the best option they had. MOTHER had all her drones to help with the physical duties, after all. Uninjured adult humans were scarce, and there were only so many foster parents available. At a certain point, having forty children tended by one adult caregiver is even worse than automating the process. And so they put humanity's future into the cold robotic arms of the thing that had nearly driven us to extinction. Oh, not the intelligence. They analyzed MOTHER as best they could, and they decided that yes, she was just one of the generals, and at that, she was one that had always seen priorities of war over the need to kill humans. She did try. She would never give in until her objective was reached, and her objective was to restore humanity. She did pick up a kind of screwy definition of humanity, some people have argued, trying to produce the best examples of humanity. She wrapped her cold metal limbs in sheepskins and dedicated one of her drones to constantly filling hot water bottles to slip underneath, so that she could give us the illusion of warmth and softness. I know it worked for the youngest babies.


Inspiration: "Mutter" - Rammstein
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Insanely high casualties, post-traumatic shock, tons of orphans--yeah, this could work.