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"Rust" is a 3,000-word short story by Joseph E. Elleam, about three killer robots, the last people or things still alive or functioning, centuries after a war between humans and robots. The story was first published in the October 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Plot

In the ancient ruins of a city, three robots still live. X-120 is the best preserved of the three. Another, called G-3a, is attempting to build a new robot, made up of spare parts lying around unused. The third is L-1716. The previous winter, nine other robots had left, to spend the winter in a tower, but that tower has since collapsed and destroyed all nine. G-3a and L-1716 are both partially disabled, and they must ask X-120 to help solder the last connections on the robot G-3a is trying to build; but the solder causes a short-circuit, destroying the new robot before it is even finished. G-3a says that is the last chance they had to build a new robot.

They had originally been built as killer robots in a war, and had been programmed to kill soldiers in yellow uniforms. But then robots all over the world made the subtle shift from killing humans in yellow, to killing all humans. Now there were no humans left alive anywhere in the world, and very few robots are left as well. X-120 has regrets about their past, and all the things they’ve done and the people they’ve killed. “Nonsense,” says L-1716, “We could not help it. We were made so. Men learned to make more than they could control. Why if I saw a man today, crippled as I am, I would kill him without thinking.” The two of them later find G-3a dead. Months after that, L-1716 dies in an accident, leaving X-120 alone. Finally he succumbs to age and rust as well, and dies.

To see specific information, such as anthologies including Rust, please click the Rust category link at the bottom of this article. To see other articles that reference Rust, please click the What Links Here tool in the toolbox at the bottom of this page.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 1 (1939).