Knight Rider: Reckless Aim

Michael was standing in the empty warehouse, his gun loaded. He startled when he caught the unexpected sound of his boot as it brushed across the concrete, but after that, an eerie quiet fell over the large warehouse room. He dared to take another step. Kitt had analyzed this place as safe, and he trusted his partner, but there was still no room for fatal mistakes. The quiet was so deafening that Michael’s ears strained to hear the slightest sound, even if it was only the freezing Colorado wind howling outside the warehouse. He felt a little guilty about leaving Kitt out in the snowstorm alone in such hostile territory, but he had managed under worse conditions. The wind died down and the ear-splitting silence set in again. He startled when he heard the crunch of tires on concrete and didn’t think to look before he spun around and pulled the trigger with a steady hand and perfect aim. Normally, he would congratulate himself on such a perfect shot, but the last thing he expected to have hit was his own partner. Sure enough, the Trans Am was leaning against the wall, trembling. Michael ran to the car and pulled out a pocketknife in an eleventh-hour attempt to pry the bullet out of the scanner, but he only deepened the wound.1

“Michael,” Kitt desperately called. “Is that…you?”2

“I’m here, partner. I’m here.”3

“Michael…why?”4

“I…I don’t know.”5

Kitt’s air intakes were working overtime in a useless attempt to keep his engine cool, since the coolant pipe had cracked open. He gasped and the entire frame began heaving with the heavy respiration. All he could possibly comprehend was that his scanner had been hit with a lead bullet and his chances of survival were only about fifteen percent and dropping by the minute. The only thing that kept him holding on right now was Michael’s constant support. He had just enough time to send out a severe distress signal before he was forced unconscious.6

-_-_-7

Michael was gently stroking Kitt’s hood, a little concerned that no one had shown up yet. Devon and Bonnie had their coordinates and a helicopter capable of towing Kitt, shouldn’t they have come by now? He was beginning to give up hope that they would be rescued in time to save his partner, and he was a little afraid of it right now. All Michael could do was play his partner false and tell him that everything would be okay, even though deep in his heart he knew the truth. He knew Kitt was fading fast, and if he was going to do anything, he should start now. Michael had to bear the weight of that for a minute before the truth was realized. What could he do? Try and fix Kitt? No, he would probably end up killing him even faster.8

“Michael,” Kitt called for his lifeline.9

“I’m here, Kitt.”10

“Cut…the power.”11

Michael couldn’t believe what Kitt was asking him to do. “What? No!”12

“Please, Michael…trust me.”13

“Kitt, I won’t be able to live with myself if I do that.”14

“Do you want…to watch me die…like this?”15

“Well, no, but –“16

“Cut it.”17

“No!”18

“Please! You cannot…save my life, but…you can save…me.”19

“How is that saving you? I’ll just be killing you!”20

“Michael…”21

Kitt’s voice was almost a plea. “Alright,” Michael accepted. He carefully climbed into the cabin, opened the dashboard, and found the wires that powered the entire AI unit. He began to pull the wire threads apart, repressing tears, when he felt a light shock.22

“I can’t do it, Kitt!” he shouted and pulled his hands from the wires. “I just can’t do this to you, partner!”23

“I understand…Michael,” Kitt reassured, a little disappointed. He sounded totally defeated and it hurt Michael to hear him like this.24

Michael sat back in the suede seat. If he hadn’t so recklessly shot his own partner, he wouldn’t be faced with this decision. He was the cause of the pain that made Kitt ask Michael to take his life and save him the suffering that he would otherwise have to endure. Michael understood why now – Kitt was going to die either way and he was asking Michael to make it easier on him. “Okay, partner. I’ll do this.”25

Kitt gasped and Michael figured that he just hadn’t expected his voice. He put his hands to the wires. “Are you sure?”26

Silence.27

“Buddy?”28

Silence.29

“Kitt?”30

Silence.31

Michael lifted the cover and jabbed the reboot button on the LED box, but no startup signal came. He folded his arms across the gull wing wheel and began to cry.32

He had killed Kitt.33

If only he had cut the power. If only. The words echoed in his head. If only he had listened to Kitt and shut him down, FLAG may have been able to reboot him. If only he had listened, Kitt may have had a much more peaceful deactivation, if at all. But Michael hadn’t listened or trusted, as he had been tied up in his own selfish reasons for not shutting down the CPU. He didn’t want to live with Kitt’s death on his shoulders, but now that he had gotten his way, he had to deal with it being unnecessarily painful and his entire fault. He was jerked out of his thoughts by footsteps coming toward him.34

“Michael?”35

“Bonnie?”36

“Is Kitt okay?”37

There was a long silence between them. “No.”38

“What happened?”39

“I…there’s been tragedy.”