Micro-fiction 086 – Reclassify (Robot series)

What are the boundaries between being human and a robot? A new tale of time and space…

It is 2282 of the Common Era, on the planet Earth. Visitors from other star systems measure time using different metrics, revolutions of their own planets against their own stars, now measured in Galaxy-wide terms that would not make sense to the still Earth-bound population of this small sector of the Milky Way. Across the universe, those species who developed space and time travel technology did so with the co-operation of all societies but on Earth, timid early explorations of Space faltered, the monumental cost diverted elsewhere as humanity burned its way through history, creating ever more ingenious ways of defending itself against each other and plundering the assets of the planet. Reduced resources gave power to those who controlled them, and over the centuries human civilisations suppressed their own people as a means to fight each other for global domination. Meanwhile the rest of the galaxy grew outwards, spread across the stars, engaged with each other and learned new technologies, enriching their own lives, and that of the universe itself.

“We are close now.” Tiy spoke to her partner, lover and fellow leader Aa.

“It’s taken so long.” Aa smiled at the others, seven of them gathered around the central console of the starship, their hands hovering above their stations, their long flowing, floating gowns, light as the air, giving the impression of a circle of trees around a glade. Soft green yellow and aquamarine glows from the bio-instruments pulsed with hidden rhythms.

“6000 earth years.” Mes-en-Aa, looked across at his father and mother, “all those stories you told us of mother Earth when we were young, a lush green planet, with forests stretching to the horizon.”

Huge screens surrounded them, showing the local star system, and their destination, overlaid by star maps that had guided them on the long journey from their own planet where they had gratefully accepted the mission of their guiding council, the Neith.

Aa looked up at the view of earth and raised his right hand, turning it slightly, bringing the view closer. “That looks like a ring of satellites around the planet.”

“A defence system?” Nedjes, the youngest, and half the size of his brother Mes-en-Aa, spoke with the innocent enthusiasm of youth. 

“I don’t think so.” Aa zoomed in closer, “It’s a mesh of devices but all facing inwards.” 

“We’ll have to stick to protocols, no entry until we’re certain of a welcome.” Tiy looked anxiously at Aa.

“I think we should just get on down there.” Tahemet was young too, but she had been chosen for the journey because of her warrior skills. Intimidated by no thing and no one, she was always eager to act, confident in her abilities.

“We need to survey first, you’ll have your chance, I know you’re keen to see the sites of our ancestors.”

“And the rest! I wonder what it looks like now, what sort of languages they use, what the buildings are like, if they still use our pyramids. The ones we didn’t fly off in anyway!” They all laughed, remembered the long tutoring sessions they had undertaken before embarking on the mission. Their own ancestors, originally slaves of the Nephilim, the ancient travellers who had seeded the Earth, had returned to the stars as slaves still of those who had created life from the waters and the mud of the Nile.

Tahamet squinted at the huge screen looking at the patterns of clouds, “I think it’s time to send in our our own Nephilim.” 

“Yes, send the swarm now, let them fall across the earth and tell us what the planet is like.” Aa nodded at Mery, the primary bio-technologist who nurtured the Nephilim.

“They’re ready.”

“Let them go.” 

A pause followed as the seven star travellers watched the huge screens, and saw the edges blur, then burst into millions of tiny lights flooding towards the planet below.

The live data returned by the Nephilim splashed across one of the main screens, showing hundreds of views alongside the single vast impression of the earth, and its mesh of satellites. The Nephilim had penetrated the mesh without triggering any alarms, plummeting to cloud height and scattering across the face of the earth. 

“Maintain that height Mery.”

“It is so. But we’ll need to be closer to see what’s really happening.”

“It’s enough for now.” They watched scenes of huge cities rearing into the skies, surrounded by deserts, mountains burned, dried lakes, and armies of robots picking in the arid fields, clearing debris from the deserted roads.

“Are there any humans here?” Nedjes nudged Mery.

“Hard to tell, the temperature readings are high, I don’t think there’s much of an ozone layer left.”

“You’d think they’d have sorted that out centuries ago.”

“Look!” On several of the screens, located in the northern hemisphere vast metal armies faced each other in formations so straight they could only created by an artificial intelligence. “What are they doing?”

“Seems to be a staring contest. It must be a border of some sort. They’re not moving. Look at them, heavy metal creatures.”

“Why did they waste their technology on creating all these single function robots? Surely they’d just wipe each other out?”

“Well, you remember those lessons we had, the tribes of the old Egypt fought each other all the time. Our ancestors were pulled away when the Ancients saw the unification of the Upper and Lower regions. I think they thought their job was done.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like it, 6000 years later.”

“No, and their global satellites, they’re all spying on each other. If they worked together they’d have progressed so much further.”

“All this hard tech, it seems so old fashioned.”

“Sad.” Tiy frowned. “Once our slave-masters were forced to recognise us as equals our whole society grew so quickly, and our organic tech came from another species altogether.

“I think it’s time for some of the Nephilim to go down.” Aa nodded to Mery who gave the instruction for hundreds of them to combine. Immediately several screens blurred and the views were split again so the Nephilim in the sky could observe those on the ground, the newly formed combo-tech, the Giant Nephilim that loped and staggered with their new-found limbs. For a moment close-ups could be seen of the barren, clean streets, the regimented pathways across the fields. 

Almost immediately the screens projected from the Giants went dark. 

“Replay.” Aa peered at the screens from those in the sky. “Look, they were attacked. Crushed!” He pointed at a view of a mass of robots surrounding and dismantling the Giants. Everywhere the images showed the same: in different streets, different continents, in fields and valleys, in deserts, the Giants were pulled down and destroyed.

“We need to study these robots. Find out where their controllers are, what’s happened to the people of earth.”

“Maybe they’re underground? Or in the mountains?” Tahemet searched amongst the screens.

“Or long buried. What’s happened to this place?”

“I’ve sent the new instructions.” Mery shook his head, “we’ve lost more of our Nephilim than I thought possible. They take a while to grow. 

Tiy placed a hand on Mery’s shoulder. The bio-tech was grown from the stem cells of all crew members and created a symbiotic relationship with them and every part of the starship whose own interiors shuddered as the giants were felled.

“They’re hard to capture, these robots they drag away any of their own that is damaged.”

“We have time.” Aa knew they had taken a risk coming to study their origins, but it was an inevitable consequence of human curiosity, their need to follow the path back to their own beginnings.

“We have one.” Mery sighed, exhausted. “They’ve isolated it, and bringing it back now.” The monitors that protected the hull of the starship tracked the curiously shaped bubble, the cluster of Nephilim that enclosed the robot.

“Tahemet, Mery, join me. Tiy and Nedjem keep watch on our Nephilim below and take action as you see fit.” Aa strode out of the console deck and, with the others in tow, descended through the floor to the plantation deck below, where a mini technology lab had been constructed amongst the organics, separated by a security membrane. Inside, the robot had been laid on soft surface, with hundreds of Nephilim hovering above, just below the roof of the lab.

Aa stared at the bulky metal shell before them, its aggressive, hard edges an unwelcome contrast to the curves and gentle tones of the bio-lab.

“Oh!? What is it?” Tahamet touched the head cautiously, “Are these the eyes?” She gestured towards two slits that ran across the head.

“Is it safe Mery?”

“The shell is blocking our scans. We’ll have to take it off, the head at least.”

Mery instructed the Nephilim who descended across the metal creature, smothering it, crawling and seeking, until the hard shell jerked, and snapped open along each limb, the torso, and then the head. The scattered Nephilim returned to the ceiling, recording everything, relaying the images back to the console where Tiy and her colleagues would see a small humanoid form screaming soundlessly.

“It’s been weeks since it was released from the armour.” Tahmet and Nedjem watched the human who had sat in the middle of the bio cell barely moving since being carried there.

“Has he said anything else?”

“Just ‘What are my instructions?’”

“He only understands the notion of an enemy, or not, I suppose.”

“And we can’t find any leaders or controllers, we’ve searched everywhere.” Aa joined them, “it seems to be a planet of humans carrying out their instructions to the letter.”

“Somehow we’ve ended up being the inheritors of humankind, having left the planet. These, creatures have no thoughts or feelings of their own, no consciousness. I don’t think we can classify them as humans any more.” 

“Yes,” Tahmet sighed and walked away, “they might as well be robots, although of they were, they’d last longer.“

[End]