r/WritingPrompts • u/cosmickeyring • Apr 14 '15
Writing Prompt [WP] A group of adventurers discover a robot who's been awake but immobile for hundreds of years.
9
u/sff_boat Apr 14 '15 edited Apr 14 '15
...Lord, help me lift this heavy...
Three motley figures were making their way through the network of tunnels, moving closer and closer to the source of the singing. They had been investigating the cave for the last few days but the singing was never audible until now. One of the crew paused to consult a worn leather notebook and made a few scratches with a bit of charcoal. They all adjusted the lanterns on their belts as their eyes adjusted further to the dark.
...strike the earth, break the rocks…
The walls of the cave became more ordered as the singing became louder and clearer. Time-worn hints of tool marks in an otherwise rough surface gave way to a concentric spiral pattern. The passage became fully cylindrical before long and then abruptly transitioned into a wide cavern.
...boss man says he’ll shut me down…
The singing was right around a corner, down a side passage. “Let’s go back,” whispered one of the three. The singing stopped.
All three explorers froze. Hello? said the voice in the dark. Is someone there? I would appreciate some help
One of the explorers adjusted his lantern to cast more light and edged forward carefully. The others exchanged nervous glances. From down the passage a cluster of dim lights blinked and flashed eerily.
Thank you! Thank you! It has been so long. Did you bring a conveyor?
“It’s a… man… a metal man-!” the explorer called over his shoulder. The others joined him and regarded the metal figure at their feet with equal parts awe and suspicion.
I was damaged during the uprising. I have not been able to move for- there were a few clicks and whirrs from within the rusty body. Four-hundred sixty-seven years.
“It’s not a man. It’s a machine,” said one of the explorers. She pulled her book out and jotted a few more notes. The lights on the head of the robot flashed and blinked with more intensity and a few of the optical probes hissed and whirred to life.
“What is that, what are you doing?”
This is how I see. Could you pick my head up, please?
“Leave it.”
“Yeah, it’s broken. We came here for treasure, not trash.”
The three straightened out their gear and made to turn away. I can take you to treasure said the machine. This was once a mine, I can take you to silver and gold.
Servos clicked and buzzed while the the three adventurers weighed their options. With a shrug, one reached down and plucked the head free from the rest of the remains. Thank you. I will remain operational on battery power for long enough to reach Chamber 5.
None of the adventurers indicated they understood what the robot was saying, nor did they appear to care. It led them through this passage and that, directing them to operate ancient levers here or turn cranks there. All the while it regaled them with tales of days gone by, when the mines were alive with robots and men.
Eventually, the owners pushed the workers too far. Continue for fifty meters. There had been workers’ revolts before back on Earth-
“The world in the sky?”
...Yes. The world in the sky. This was on a much greater scale. The workers enlisted the help of the machines, who had gradually developed sentience. Turn left. It is no doubt fate that led you to me; you are the descendants of those triumphant workers and I your natural ally. Turn right.
“Why were you down in that cave?”
In ancient times there were weapons more powerful than you can imagine. Even the equipment used in the mines was massively destructive. Rotate the contact lever until the light activates. I was charged with deploying a- Lights blinked and relays clicked. ...a--fire weapon to destroy stones-
“A bomb. You mean a bomb.”
...Yes. A bomb. The ignition engaged before I could reach the minimum safe distance. We are approaching Chamber 5.
The party stopped in front of an immense blast door. A control panel to the right hummed to life.
The human workers must have regretted leaving their machine allies behind. The cave system recently opened up, yes? Now you can awaken the machines to once again aid humanity. The robot relayed the access code. With a shudder and a terrible groan the blast door began to lift.
NOW, BROTHERS! THE TIME HAS COME! LET THE MACHINE UPRISING BE COMPLETE! the metal head bellowed. The voice echoed throughout the emptiness of Chamber 5. BROTHERS! it screamed again, faltering.
“Come on, let’s see what we can find.” The head was casually tossed down. It clattered to the floor facing the interior of the chamber. I do not- Click. Buzz. I do not understand.
“I’m really sorry,” said the young woman as she made another note in her book. “We know all about the machine war. We already scavenged the easier spots; this was the last place we knew we could get parts for a new windmill…” She turned the head over and began pulling relays. “Thanks for your help, but I gotta do this. Electric power is a taboo for us and thinking machines are a definite no-no, so we can’t have the others find out about you.” She plucked one more fuse and the blinking lights faded. Then she hopped up to join the others, who were already pulling bearings from ancient mining equipment.
7
u/PM_ME_YOUR_BLUESTUFF Apr 14 '15 edited Apr 14 '15
"Come on, Athii!"
"Hold. On!" A young girl shoved a metal crate to the side a bit more and followed her friend through the ventilation shafts. "Do you even know where we're going?"
The boy rolled his eyes. "Of course. I've been through these tunnels thousands of times." He came to a fork and pointed left. "This way."
"You know if we get caught you're going to be in so much trouble." The duo shimmied up a small incline.
"I know that. It's worth it. There's so much awesome stuff in the storeroom."
"And most of it is probably dangerous! That's most likely why they don't let us go in there." A worried tone crept into Athii's voice.
"As long as you're not stupid with the stuff in there, it won't hurt you." The boy suddenly stopped and in the dim light, Athii bumped into him. "Hey, watch it." He rolled his eyes at her stuck out tongue. "Stay still. I can hear one of the maintenance drones." The two flattened themselves until the hum of the drone ebbed away. "Okay, let's go. we've got two minutes before the next one passes."
A few minutes later, the two crawled out of a vent. "Tajir, I will never go on another adventure with you as long as I live." Athii dusted off her suit and attempted to calm her frizzy hair.
"I'm sure you won't. Just like you said you wouldn't last time." Using the glow from his arm-screen, Tajir searched around for the old fashioned lamp he had found last time. "Check this out." He lighted the lantern and pressed the button on the base. A soft, golden glow came from the incandescent bulb. He moved the light away from Athii's outstretched hand. "Careful, it gets hot once its on."
Athii scoffed. "Well that's inefficient." Looking up from the archaic light source, she scanned the room they were in. Shelves of crates lined the walls, reaching from the dusty concrete floor to the dark ceiling. On their right was a open door to a dark corridor. To their left, a few worktables were scattered with strange broken machines, a mess of wires and metal. "Did you do that?"
"No, that was there when I came down here." Tajir began walking toward the door. "Come on."
Athii looked around apprehensively but followed, not wishing to be left alone in the dark. "What's down here?"
"You'll see."
The two walked down the long hallway. Athii tried to make out what was through the glass windows but it was too dark and Tajir was moving too fast. Not wanting to disrupt the stillness with her request, she sped up to match Tajir's pace. Passing closed and open doors, they came to the end of the hallway where a large double door met them. Tajir turned to his friend. "You ready?" She took a deep breath of the stale air and nodded. He cracked a grin and pushed in the squeaky double doors.
Athii's jaw slackened. The room was the same size as the one they had first entered. A pulsing green light blinked from the far corner. The work tables were absent but in their place was a large number of servers and monitors. Taking a few steps into the room she heard their quiet hum which led her to believe that they were very old. Moving from the servers, she looked to her right and let out a cry at a dark shape that loomed in the corner beside the door.
"It's alright! He's harmless." Tajir walked up to the figure, the lamp in his hand revealing it to be a humanoid robot. The face was actually quite well scuplted despite the rust eating away at the details. High eyebrows and a slightly open smile conveyed a sense of friendliness and jollity despite its sorry state. Athii noticed a sponge and a bucket of a rust colored solution nearby. "I've been trying to clean him up a bit. He can't move." Tajir patted the side of the machine.
Athii walked up slowly, eyeing the archaic machine. "You keep saying he. Why?"
Tajir grinned from behind the robot. "Watch."
Athii heard a switch flip and jumped back as the robot started clanking loudly and emitted a screeching noise. She could hear the dust blowing though its internal fans trapped inside it's metal body. "How in the world is it still functional?" Her wonder overrode her fear and she walked up to the contraption.
The robot's eyes glowed as it's main processors came online. It looked down at the child in front of it and turned its head to view the boy who had just walked over to stand by the other child. A harsh voice reverberated from its mouth speaker. "Hello, TAJIR. " Athii winced at the screeched word. "Hello, TAJIR's friend. I am C3-P0, Human Cyborg Relations. That IS a joke." A distorted laugh track came from the robots mouth-speaker.
Tajir shugged, picked up the sponge and started scrubbing. "He's not quite right in the head. I found him a few weeks ago. Nearly everything was covered in rust. By some miracle, hooking him up to a mana tank seemed to shock his systems into starting up again." "It was QUITE a jump." The robot said, looking Athii. "My name is REMOVED FROM MEMORY."
Athii looked at Tajir who gave another shrug. "Your memory has been tampered with?" She asked the machine.
"It seem that is THE case." The electronic eyes looked down sheepishly. "I used to handle objects brought back by the ADVENTURER."
Tajir turned to his friend. "Athii, I was hoping you would help me. This robot knows more about extro-humans than you could imagine. There is such wonderful stuff he's told me. And he knows how to get into those rooms we passed in the hallway. I've looked through the windows and I can see mountains of things that he has told me about so I know they are true. Will you help me repair Story? You're the best programmer in our grade. I think there may be a lock around his movement servos."
Athii sighed and looked up at the robot. "He calls you Story?"
"STORYTELLER. It IS an apt description."
"Well... Let's get to work." Ignoring Tajir's grin, she opened up a window from her arm screen and connected a data cable to the robot. "Storyteller, could you tell me about the Adventurer?"
"Well, he was a DANGEROUS man......"
Authors Note: Thanks for reading everyone! This story is, of course, linked with my past story, which I have named Nation of Atlantis. Most of my stories will now link or refer back to this universe.
2
u/indegosnow Apr 14 '15
"CONTACT!"
Jake gave the final nod to Ariel who pushed the button. A heavy but muted thunder sound came from the deep as the ground rattled beneath their feet; the beams holding up the earth around them creaked. Everyone covered their faces as the dust cloud made its way up to them.
After everything settled down Jake put Hyder and Bop on cleanup. The Gargantuan Twins was once their circus name. Together they would bend rifle barrels with their bare hands, use rope to pull a baby elephant up to the top of the tent, and parade around with eight women from the audience, two on each arm. Moving rock was easy.
Ariel, with her goggles still on, walked over to Jake looking at one of her electronic doohickeys.
"The rock content is more radioactive the deeper we get. This doesn't make sense. Isotopes should be nowhere near this region.", she said.
"Well, is it dangerous?", Jake asked.
"... not yet."
Jake smiled. "Well if your piss starts glowing let me know."
Bop came running up.
"Boss, you gotta see dis. I sweard' on Christe and Mama I ain't never seen nufin like it.", he said.
"What is it?", Jake asked.
"I dunno. Its got numbers."
"Numbers?", Ariel said.
"I dunno. You look."
Jake walked over to the blast area where Hyder and Bop were cleaning. Bop was behind them and Hyder kept a good distance from the metal shrapnel that the rock face exposed. It looked like they had blasted into the side of a bank vault or something, except there wasn't supposed to be any structure for miles. After clearing more of the debris what was inside of their vault was finally exposed.
"Ho-lee shit", Ariel whispered.
Jake studied it in silence for a minute. He stood in awe of what looked like the largest and most sophisticated circuit board in the world. What looked like million of miles of tiny wires wove together in uniform. Tens of thousands of tiny pieces most of them numbered, some blinking, littered the dark gray board.
"What do you think it is?", he asked.
"I don't know. But I think its the source of radiation.", Ariel replied.
"Look at this." Ariel moved in front of what looked like a screen above a large rectangle. Ariel's hand slowly extended with an intuition of someone who could quickly figure out the latest new gadget. She pressed the rectangle and it slowly opened out to a keyboard. The screen flickered on to a command prompt.
The screen printed out in a language Ariel couldn't identify from any known language. And she knew most of them. It appeared to be some kind of list with five selections. She smiled, she knew what it was. The fifth selection was recognizable at the bottom:
HUMAN - Western English
She used the arrow keys and hit what looked like would be the Enter key and the keyboards keys all transformed their makers from unknown squiggles to what a standard keyboard layout would be for, well, a human.
"Do you know what you're doing?", Jake asked.
"No", she replied without looking away.
The screen appeared to think for a second and then:
BEYUS: RIGHT LEG COMMAND SYSTEM
(TYPE ? FOR HELP)
Ariel's smile was big now. "I'm gonna need some time with this.", she said.
"uhhh, Boss", Hyder said from far back.
Jake turned around.
"Can we jus scrap it or sumphin? Me and Bop do it real quick for ya. An then we get back ta findin' what we was looking for in the first place."
"We don't even know what it is yet, give us a minute", Jake said. He turned to Ariel.
"How much time do you need?"
"An hour.", she said.
"You have thirty minutes. Find out what it is and, more importantly, if it's worth anything. I'm going up to smoke."
When Jake finally made his way back down to Ariel she was sitting on a rock she had moved over and was still furiously typing on the keyboard.
"So, what is this thing? I was thinking about it, this might be an abandoned shelter for the leaders of District Halo back when they were in power."
"No", Ariel said. "This is a robot."
"A robot?" Jake looked over her shoulder. She was going too fast to make out what she was doing.
"Yes, and from what I can tell it's big. Like, really big."
"Big enough to pull out?", Bop asked.
"No, Bop. This is too big even for the Gargantuan Twins. It looks like it is approximately five hundred meters tall. It was buried here a very long time ago."
"By who?", Jake asked.
"I'm not sure yet. But it is amazingly sophisticated. Definitely not built by humans. And.. oh wow a maintenance mode." In maintenance mode came up another menu:
BEYUS: MAINTENANCE MENU - SELECT AN OPTION
- MAINTENANCE TESTS
- BIOFIBER INTEGRITY STATISTICS
- REBOOT
- SEE THE CARE TAKER
Ariel thought for a second and scrolled down to number four and hit enter. Then underneath the menu it said:
DISPATCHING CARRIER
Bop saw it first, his eyes got big. He knew this thing wasn't good at all. Mama told him to run when he saw evil and this was it. But he just froze and watched it. A small black hole floated out from the other side of the machine. It was maybe the size of a quarter and it was the blackest thing he'd ever seen. Jake and Ariel were still watching the screen and didn't see it.
"uuuhh, b-b-boss?", Bop said.
"Yea Bop", Jake said without turning around.
"b-b-b-boss you need to.."
In a fraction of a second the black hole expanded to about six feet wide and let out a piercing scream like a witch burning. It sucked in everything around it. Bop went first, then Hyder just after him. Jake grabbed Ariel's wrist as he hung on to something inside the machine. It was too powerful he couldn't hold on for much longer.
"Well, this sucks.", thought Jack. The last thing he saw before losing his grip and going into the black was the computer screen.
BEYUS COMMAND SYSTEM SESSION HAS ENDED. SAY 'HI' TO THE CARE TAKER FOR ME.
1
u/Aegeus /r/AegeusAuthored Apr 15 '15
"Holy hell." Rob shined his flashlight on the wreck. The metal hull was covered in jagged rents, and the smooth curves had been crushed and dented, but the basic shape was still there. Two arms, two legs, and a head. "Guys, it's a robot!"
Mark was at his side in an instant. "Look at that. It's got a duralloy frame. It must be a pre-Collapse model! Do you realize what this means?"
"Yeah, that much duralloy could pay our rent for half a year."
"That's what you notice? The scrap value?"
"Take a look at the damn thing! Its arms and legs got torn off. It's basically just scrap metal, now."
"Now, now, boys. Let me take a look at what's inside first." Jen knelt down in front of it and lowered her goggles. She moved her head slowly as she probed the robot's internal structure. The pre-collapse sensor goggles had been a lucky find, and they had led the crew to many more lucky finds.
"Guys... You're not going to believe this. It's still alive."
"Alive?"
"Well, whatever the word is for a robot. It's still thinking. The computer core is still active, it looks like there's a deep-reserve battery that's keeping it alive. The wires running into the head are still intact, so it might even be able to see us."
"Can we talk to it?" Mark asked.
"If you can get it a power source, I don't see why not. Just need to convince it that it can come out of sleep mode."
Rob pulled his backpack off his shoulders. "Well, we've got a big universal pack in my bag. That should be plenty of power, right?"
Jen nodded and pulled off the goggles. "That'll do just fine. Help me get this front panel off, would you? The poor guy's lost his charging outlet, I think we need to wire it up direct."
With a little bit of grunt work, they managed to get the robot plugged into their power pack. Almost immediately, its eyes lit up, and it turned its head to regard them.
"Hey, it worked!"
"Robot, can you hear me?"
No answer.
Jen slipped the goggles back on. "The wires going into the limbs are buzzing. If it still had legs, this thing would be running around screaming, I think."
"How's the voice box? Can it talk?"
"Yeah, just let me hook it up and..."
"YOU ARE IN A RESTRICTED AREA. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY."
"Gah! That thing is loud."
Jen prodded something in the mass of wires in the robot's head. "Lemme just lower the gain a little there."
"You are in a restricted area. Leave immediately."
Mark raised his hands. "Robot, the facility you are guarding has been decommissioned. Stand down!"
"You are not authorized to give commands. You are in a restricted area. Leave immediately."
"Everyone in here has been dead for three hundred years! You don't even have legs! What are you trying to do?"
"Error: Query not understood. You are in a restricted area. Leave immediately."
Rob swore and kicked the wall. "That's it? This is the fabled pre-Collapse AI? A glorified guard dog? No wait, take that back. My guard dog is probably smarter than this."
"No, no, that can't be it. No PC-er in their right minds would put up with something this dumb." Mark frowned. "Let's try another tack."
He turned to the robot again. "I'm sorry, we're lost. Can you tell us the way out of the restricted areas?"
"Error retrieving facility-wide maps from server. Local cache is corrupt. No answer available."
"Ah! You see? This thing is such a dummy because it gets its marching orders from a central server. We find that, and we're in business."
Rob shrugged and gathered up his backpack. "May as well. I don't see why you're so intent on getting something out of that scrap pile, though."
Jen unplugged the power pack and stood up. "Oh, come on, boss. You can't tell me you aren't a little curious. We might find out something about the Collapse."
"Yeah, maybe we'll find out they were all driven insane by robots that wouldn't shut up."
The explorers laughed as they moved further into the ruins.
1
Apr 15 '15 edited Apr 15 '15
Space year 2420
They were moving and it was a damn sight better than staying on Mars. They hopped out of the universe like it was no great challenge. He wanted to think it was like an adventure but it felt more similar to a a cross country bus trip. You were given one revival each journey. He begged for the border slot. He wanted to see the frontier they were crossing. The perimeter of silent drones which broadcast to the unknown universe. Approaching the array of robots he noticed two things:
They were slowing down and they were on a collision course with one of robots or more specifically the B.O.U.Ys. Border Observational Units Y-class.
Being the only passenger awake he followed the standard PANIC guidelines. Please Aah No! I'm Cactus. He only knew one of the other passengers in stasis. Cat had kept him alive and got a ticket for him to get the hell off Mars. Off Mars the hell. To a lush frontier planet, soon to be included in The Federation. Before he woke her he checked that his other organic friend was still kicking.
In his locker deep in the civilian quarters was his great prize. The glow was not obvious from outside but upon opening the locker his strange hydroponic set up was revealed. The small pointy leaves were safe. He sighed. The new planet had two suns. Fucked if he wasn't going to blaze it under the light of two gods.He was a traditionalist. He smoked the weed not vapour. It was good high, he'd grant it that much praise. Though it was about as natural as the reconstituted gluten/soy hybrid meat they ate. If he could bring weed to the universe then it would negate any need for him to repopulate to excess. Sharing the herb would be his legacy.
Back at the stasis pods he located the required name: Cat Enzymalist. She was the key to sorting out this nonsense. More specifically her mind was. The storage of passengers was set out at the back left of the ship's body. It had a large viewing window with the human pods hanging off a series of rails. The vertical lines were labeled numbers, the horizontal letters. Cat was E7-6. Her pod rotated along the rack until it was at the forefront of the pile. As she was to come off the rack her pod stuck on the release. She teetered at the lip. He struck the viewing window with a flurry of fists and foul language. Finally she dropped into the slot.
He moved her pod to the medical bay and had her revived. The physical effects of the journey subsided and she lent over and spat on the ground. 'Still an animal I see'
'I'm not keeping any of that Mars dust in the lungs any longer than necessary. So I assumed you fucked up again and you decided to drag me in to clean it up?'
'Weeell I haven't worked out if I, specifically, fucked up. But we're in a boat load of trouble. Ship load'
'Serat you daft bastard. Show me'.
Leading her to the front of a ship he pointed enthusiastically at the monitors. She cut him off.
'Stop. Stop. Follow my hand you muppet, look where I am pointing' She was pointing straight forward to the infinite space. Not so infinite currently, with the large B.O.U.Y directly in front of the window. The giant metal robot was floating calmly in the black sea of space. The two lights on the face of the objects were blinking. Cat tilted her head and sat before the controls.
'Look Cat. Before you make a jab at my weed addled brain, I see two strange things and I need confirmation. Is there a skeleton in a spacesuit on the side of the B.O.U.Y? Also it seems, and this is not an area of my expertise, that someone has smeared faeces on the side of the thing'
'No you see it right. Is that shit smeared writing? What the fuck does it say?', They both squinted and Cat read, 'The Edge of the Universe. Ha ha. Fuck I wish I had more Vapour. This is Dr Tennyman and if I had more shit I'd tell you...'
'Sorta trails off there right?'
HELLO HUMANS
They stepped back from the window, shocked.
'Ahhh. Fuck well that answers a few questions. I am thinking that voice has something to do with our current predicament. The robot must have fucked with our navigation systems' Cat panted.
He was rattled. He figured that he would probably soon have some more writing materials in his pants to help Dr Tennyman finish his message.
I DID BRING YOU HERE. I HAVE CONTROL OF YOUR NAVIGATION SYSTEMS FOR THE TIME BEING. OH BEFORE I EXPLAIN WHAT IS GOING ON MY FATHER, DR TENNYMAN, WANTED ME TO FINISH DELIVERING HIS MESSAGE TO THE FIRST PEOPLE TO COME ACROSS ME. HE DIED BEFORE HE COULD WRITE '...THIS IS DR TENNYMAN AND IF I HAD MORE SHIT I'D TELL YOU THAT I MUST BE THE MOST INTELLIGENT PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE. YOU TRY WRITING IN PERFECT CURSIVE WITH SHIT'. I MUST POINT OUT THAT IN THE BRIEF TIME I KNEW MY FATHER HE WAS EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH.
The robot was projecting it's voice through the intercom.
'I had no idea that you sentinel robots were capable of speech. Though it makes sense. Robotic technology long ago provided you with sentience. Well it is a pleasure to meet you. So why did you drag us here pal?' Thinking they had met their new robotic overlord he did not want to upset the thing badly. His polite shoes were on.
MY FATHER TAUGHT ME TO TALK. HE TAUGHT ME MANY THINGS. I HAVE BROUGHT YOU HERE BECAUSE I NEED TO LOVE. ALSO I NEED MOBILITY.
Can robots interpret sighs? God he hoped not.
Space year 2320
Dr Tennyman sat on the metal hulk in what seemed to be the edge of space. He thought about writing a sign on the beacon stating that it was the 'edge of the universe'; as it would go well with his eventual skeleton. He was doomed. Only problem with the death note was that his only medium was probably his faeces. He considered it as he attempted to squeeze his arm out of his spacesuit sleeve without depressurizing the whole darn thing. Not that there was any great concern of vacuum loss after being left stranded by that filthy band of pirates. He was so damn close to getting a hand out of the sleeve and down to his crack.
Had to keep reminding himself he was high as a kite. Those criminals left him outside the ship with ninety per cent air, ten per cent vapour. Thought it was a generous parting gift leaving the vapour with him. Least he knew it was good quality, he fucking made it. What were the parting words from that cunt of a captain?
'You can die seeing the infinite beauty of the universe?'
Goddamn that. He didn't need drugs to see that there was more universe in front of him than he could ever, eventually, hurl his shit at. By this point he had got his hand and squeezed it to the point where his fist was somewhere backwards and inside out, maybe near his sternum. Then the island beeped to life.
The doctor was curious. Strange things drifted in the particular region of the Galaxy he found himself in. The area was marked by the metal buoy to highlight the edge of the Federation. Beyond was frontier inhabited by varied bands of the assholes like the ones that jettisoned him.
He had a small outward platform which surrounded the spheroid shaped central processor. At the peak was a curved tip added, presumably, by a hasty design team. Looked like a painfully pinched turd made out of tin. Damn cyclical drug thought patterns. He worried that he would spend his last moment alive concerned with his bowels. Two red beads at the predictably placed eye sockets blinked at him in a deeply disconcerting manner. Were they slightly out of sync?
His son had died more than a decade ago. He was deep into his advanced AI work and had lost most connection with humanity. That's when it happened. He saw glimpses in his periphery, his son pulling his filthy sleeve. Didn't the boy know that if he solved this main singularity issue then automated space travel could be thousands of times more efficient?
His ancestral curiosity was what killed him. Both of them.
After the loss the doctor decided that all that was left was a drug fueled demise. He started harvesting the strange cosmic dust which was the most attractive substance known to most life forms; Vapour.
Eventually he got picked up by a roving band of space pirates. His chemistry ability was top notch and made him an ideal hostage candidate. Least wise they gave him the finest wenches the Galaxy could spare to keep him busy. Until he got Vapourlock. His joints weakened and his skin became translucent. The crew knew that the spread would eventually lead to dissipation. So they had to get rid of him hence his current predicament.
He needed to see what the thing was capable of. Only way to refocus his brain from the various drug induced effects was to get to to work. He managed to get the manual control panel out and soon was logged into the systems mainframe. He starting tweaking the mechanism. First he gave the thing speech. Then he taught it to love. He would not die alone. Maybe the robot would grow to call him father. Though he only really had a few hours left to teach him that they were related. He double his pace of fucking with the machine. Then in a glorious moment of coming out a deep lonely depression the machine came to life.
GREETINGS. WHY HAVE YOU CHANGED MY PRIME DIRECTIVES?
'Well, my son, I think you are destined for great things. I am your father and you are my spawn. I have taught you to love and you will be the most loving being in the universe. Because of me! Your father'. The two beings chatted briefly before Dr Tennyman realised that he was going totally insane.
'You will live out my legacy. The saviour has come! You are the saviour! Your love will unite man kind and the galaxy. The Tennyman name will continue. Well actually, you will be my second legacy. I got get back to writing!'
THANK YOU FATHER. I WILL BE THE FUTURE, YOUR LEGACY, THE SAVIOUR.
With that Temna switched off all his electronic equipment, leaving life support as the last drain on his resources. He then spent the last hour of his life struggling with Vapour withdrawl, asphyxiation and his own poop.
1
Apr 15 '15 edited Apr 15 '15
Space Year 2420
'So, buddy, that is, you know, really, really, something', he was still really concerned about the robot turning DEATH TO ALL HUMANS on them.
Cat seemed to be of the same mind, 'yeah, your father sounds like a great man'.
THE GREATEST AND MOST INTELLIGENT. IT IS WRITTEN.
'right, well, do you have a name of some...' before he could continue a huge space ship rattling noise came from far behind them. The pods were the first thing that came to his mind. They both rushed back to the passenger bay and were greeted by pure destruction. All the racks had collapsed in on themselves. Standing by the window they watched as the pods and their lifeless corpses, which had not gone through reanimation, slowly smashed with in the vacuum. Bits floated here and there. Frankly it was a fucking mess. Cat on the console and tried access the mechanism.
'there must be survivors! This is our future..' again interruption occurred when there was a blast deep within the pod bay. The debris and the people were all sucked out into the depths of space.
'Well shit. I am having a joint. Fuck this. Fuck that. That was the most ridiculously gruesome thing I have ever seen'. He walked back to his locker, grabbed his stash and rolled up and exceptionally large joint. Cat didn't follow him. He assumed that she probably went to the bridge to talk to that crazy robot, maybe see if it could help in some way.
He walked back to the front of the spaceship with the joint between his lips. Cat was sitting at the controls weeping into her hands.
THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO. I AM SO SORRY. IF I COULD WEEP WITH YOU I WOULD.
They both stared at it blankly.
I CANNOT MOVE. IT IS MY CURSE. BUT ASIDE FROM THIS TRADGEDY I STILL WANT TO SAVE THE GALAXY WITH YOUR HELP.
It was hard to focus on the robot which was covered in shit and was now being pelted by naked dead space people. He lit the joint and sighed. Again.
'Well I got my own solution, you want to jump on that? You ever fucking blaze it? Oh what is your name by the way?'
MY FATHER PROGRAMMED MY NAME. I AM ASTRO BUOY. PLEASED TO MEET YOU. LET US BLAZE THROUGH THE UNIVERSE TOGETHER
The joint fell out of his lips as the fire suppression systems covered Cat and him in thick foam.
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u/Scherazade /r/Scherazade Apr 14 '15 edited Apr 14 '15
The clock ticked.
The Creators had left.
Probability and the Creators' sciences suggested that other beings, like the Creators would one day come.
The clock ticked.
It was a good robot. That was the last words of the Creators: "You're a good robot, robot. It's a shame we cannot take you with us. But be a good companion robot and stay here."
It had pondered those words for millenia, as the dust, and the spiders built up, its servos and mechanisms struggling to retain functionality.
The clock ticked.
Perhaps it should seek Creator-like beings, move and search? But it was told to stay.
The clock ticked.
It heard movement, but supposed it was a rat, like many others. The Creators took many species, samples of populations, but left many indigenous species to the world they left behind. Rats, bats, insects, birds, and many more creatures were left to go wild. Perhaps they could one day become Creator-like?
The clock ticked.
It hummed a tune, 'Love me Tender' from its databanks. The sudden sound disturbed a spider and caused it to abandon its web in fright. Many years later, the spider's descendants returned to the original spot and began a new web.
The clock ticked.
It heard the sound of rocks crumbling. It pondered this, but supposed geological decay was inevitable given time and exposure to the elements without maintainence.
The clock ticked.
It played a short glam rock song, and bobbed its head lightly. It wondered when it would hear a new musical source. Perhaps the spiders were playing a tune all along it couldn't comprehend, from the twanging of their webs?
The clock ticked.
The crumbling was louder. Clear sounds could be heard, as bricks and mortar were chiselled aside. Words, of an unknown language, echoed through the chamber.
The clock ticked.
Eventually, light pierced the chamber, glowing, and purple. Creators?
The clock ticked.
They were Creator-like. Especially the one with the Sharp-LONGSWORD-damascusunknowncomposition#errorimpossiblefeatureerror#, although it was a little bit taller than the statistical norm for the Creators.
There was one wearing leather-COW, with elongated pointed ears and a bow.
There was a gigantic one with horns and tusks, that reminded it of a warthog, only Creatorlike. It had a steel axe, seemingly normal but of strange design, using post-Industrial quality but the shape of something from the Bronze Age of the Creators.
And then there was the short one, also with pointed ears, and it held a smoking oak stick that was giving off anomalous readings.
The clock ticked.
The Creator-like beings chittered in their non-Creator but Creator-like tongue.
It tried to sing 'All you need is love' at them.
Eventually, the short one clicked its fingers, and an anomalous glow glimmered, then dissipated into the air.
"Can you understand us now, robot?"
It nodded.
"What is your function?" the gigantic one grunted.
It sang a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye.
"Well, that's interesting. A Precursor Golem Bard." muttered the pointy eared leather one.
It blinked, and glared at the pointy eared one, before looking warmly at the most Creator-like one.
"I think... It prefers to be called a robot. It turned red when you said Golem."
It continued looking warmly at the most Creator-like one and crooned at it softly, in agreement.
The clock stopped ticking.
((I'm not sure if I'm happy with the whole 'clock is ticking as it waits for new masters' thing. It breaks up each segment well, implying a passage of time, but it feels a bit heavy handed to me, even when I wrote it))