ch12: [ day fifteen ]

“Temporal destination acquired... Please enter new orbital coordinate”, crackled a computer voice, as Walter looked out at the planet Jupiter. He had awoken several minutes prior, into surroundings that were not familiar. Additionally he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder and was covered in a gooey material.

At first he had thought that Jupiter was displayed on a screen, perhaps generated in real-time by a computer. After closer observation, he realized that it was the actual planet. The cloud formations on the planet where much to detailed and fluid for any computer to replicate, especially in real-time. He wasn’t sure, but he believed that he could make out one or two of the moons.

“Temporal destination acquired... Please enter new orbital coordinate”, chimed in the computer voice once again. Perplexed, Walter slowly turned around. In the quite awe of the celestial spectacle outside, he had not peered around to see where he was. It seemed he was in a control room, with tools, instruments, and other objects scattered chaotically about. All around the room, several red lights were blinking in regular intervals. The light they emitted was completely overwhelmed by the oscillating Jovian light.

With a vague sense of familiarity, Walter inspected the room. He encountered several objects that held some significance to him, but could not recall how. On a panel of monitors he discovered a translucent simulation of Saturn and Jupiter. It was complete with lunar orbits. In the area near Jupiter, the simulation displayed a blinking ovular object. It appeared to be headed towards the planet.

ch11. [ C-98 ]

Most of the audience that usually attended the trials was not present that morning. Other then the navigator, the transport that delivered the robot and his brother to plaza 202-21, did not have any occupants. Usually most transports into the main levels were packed with passengers, especially on trial mornings. With the exception of the cleaning machines, and robots that were scheduled for work, the avenues on level 202 where mostly empty. Additionally, all the news feeds that they passed were all reporting about the event that had transpired during the sleep period.

The media spheres, that had documented their arrival at the residence the previous evening, followed them all the way to the plaza. Now inside the main building of plaza 202-21, the media spheres continued their pursuit. Popping in and out of the level to transmit their multidimensional messages.

When the robot and his brother entered the room where the trial was to take place, nothing was right. The three evaluation robots, which typically sat at the large metal table in the middle of the room, were not there. The media spheres that had grown increasingly annoying, were suddenly gone. In fact the entire room was empty, with the exception of a phenomenon that they could neither explain nor comprehend.

Before them, bending all the light around it, floated an open portal into the Askorp. This was something that only a few online robots were ever allowed to see.

" ...it appears that only certain receivers, mostly obsolete, were able to accept the antique frequency. Those robots that did hear the distress signal are required to download their sample to network sector 513-21-1144, as soon as possible", transmitted the news feeds, over the whole of Europa.

"Authorities were on the scene almost immediately. Rumor has it that the Askor itself navigated the retrieval vessels, but this can not be confirmed. Early reports, released by the ministry of information, say that there was biological matter inside the unidentified craft. All indication is that the craft will be moved to Earth for further analysis... ", continued the news feeds.


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ch10. [ humanoid ]

Between the fifith and sixth dimension, the Askorp thought to itself...

Unidentified object comprised mostly of Buckminsterian alloys, cellulose, polynoids, and silicon.

Power source combustible. Identified fuel supply as xenon.

Distinct readings of neutrino collisions on the 4th and 6th dimensions.

Language protocol accepted, data extraction commencing.

Bipedal organism in stasis. Minor damage to the left shoulder caused by unknown trauma. Grade III concussion detected on the frontal lobe. High-Probability of temporary synaptic error.

Classification. humanoid. thirty-first century....




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ch9: [ Glatine ]

When 829 finally made it to Level 45, the place was crowded with robots. They all seemed ready to celebrate the end of the work-week. He hated arriving late to the level. It always meant he would not get a good place in the particle arena. Peering in the direction of the arena, he impatiently paid the ten cycles for the entrance into the level. “Access granted”, whispered a silky computer voice, as all the color on Level 45 saturated by seventy percent.

Polishing off the Glatine that he had purchased from one of the buzzing waiters, 829 worked his way over to the particle arena. On his way, he noticed that a large group of robots were clustered around some news feeds. " …the message was broadcast at a power frequency that has not been used for generations… experts are now moving the machine-like object towards Europa... ", said the news feeds, before 829 dissolved himself into the translucent liquid of the particle arena.

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ch8: [ screwdriver ]

In darkness, Walter awoke face down on a pile of something. His hand immediately went to a sharp pain on his shoulder. With a muffled grunt, he rolled over the unseen objects onto his back. As he did, a red light came on momentarily and then went off again. Startled, Walter froze.

A second or so later, the light came on again for a moment, accompanied by one or two other lights in the distance. Several moments later, the red lights were blinking at regular interverals, which allowed Walter to see the space he was in.

Scattered haphazardly all over a floor, the pile of objects that Walter had awoken on seemed to be books and instruments. In the mess, there was a framed photograph of a group of people standing in front of a lake. Walter had noticed the photograph because he recognized his likeness in the image. Everyone else in the group he could not place, nor where the photograph was taken. Still seated on the floor, all around him were the bottoms of desks and electrical panels. Holding on to the photograph, Walter stood up. Surrounded by technology, he seemed to be in a control room of some sort. One of the walls had a glass window, which revealed a horizon less night sky. While he was inspecting three monitors to the left of him, a computer voice came on, “"Temporal destination acquired... Please enter new orbital coordinate.” In one of the monitors, he saw a blinking prompt reading the same thing the computer had just said.

All three monitors displayed what he recognized as a graphic of the solar system. If he was correct, the two planets that were actively blinking in the graphic were Pluto and UB313. “Temporal destination acquired... Please enter new orbital coordinate…”, informed the computer, as Walter sat down at the desk in front of the monitors. Looking at the keyboard, Walter noticed that there was a screwdriver jammed into the keypad. He grabbed the handle of the screwdriver, which lifted the keyboard momentarily, but then dropped back to the desk, as the screwdriver became dislodged into Walter's grip. “New temporal coordinate recorded… Stand-by for hyper-jump…”, said the computer suddenly. Walter’s attention went to the four animated transparent cubes, now being displayed in the monitors. “FA-291 shifting into hyper-fold, C3...C2... C1..."


Somewhere in deepspace, between Jupiter and Saturn, there was a sudden knot in space-time, distorting all the starlight around it, and revealing a metallic machine.


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ch7: [ the Askorp ]

Thinking about the strange distress signal during his sleep period, the Robot had not managed to get much rest. In the darkness of the room, he had waited for the inter-unit to come on again. It never did.

The distress signal was not the only thing keeping him awake though. Like many of his recent sleep periods, his mind went back to the questions he had been wondering about on the trip to Europa. The notion of death.

In the natural organic world, death was something that was still found, so the idea of death was not completely foreign. Plants and animals still were born and died as they always had. However, robots no longer suffered from the condition of death. In his time, when a robot started to deteriorate, they usually visited an upgrade facility. Here they would be outfitted with new parts, and when possible, new technology. If any robot reached a point were its intelligence could no longer support contemporary technology or thinking, their bodies were retired. Their consciousness, experiences, and memories were then added to the collective entity. This disembodied entity, or as it was known, the Askorp, was comprised of billions of consciousness and assumed the top position in the civilization. In addition to being the ultimate authority, it also insured that death never came to any robot.

The Robot shuttered at the thought of how many minds had been lost before the Askorp had been developed. Generation upon generation of knowledge and memory lost forever into entropy.

His brother had awoken before him and was screening the news on his internal display. “Hey C-98! Wake up and take a look at this!”, his brother said to the Robot in an urgent tone. “Looks like that distress signal wasn’t a joke after all!” The Robot immediately turned on his display and switched on the news.

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ch6. [ inter-unit ]

Confused, they both looked at the Inter-unit in silence. Somehow the unit had received a distress transmission. The odd part was that their internal transceivers did not. According to design, their transceivers should operate at almost any frequency address, especially on the distress channels. Putting that aside, what most confused the Robot about the transmission was the terminology used within it, especially the part about orbital navigation.

Back when he was a student, he remembered reading about ancient forms of space travel. He most fondly remembered the stories about how robots would land on planets. He understood that the ancients didn’t have many choices; their energy sources were so crude. However, the idea of them landing surrounded by big airbags, bouncing all over the place, made him laugh every time. In the university databases he researched, they spoke of orbital navigation. Back then, they mostly relied on gravity to propel their crafts. Because of this, they used planetary orbits as one of their primary navigation methods. For the distress transmission to use the term, 'orbital-trajectory', was most peculiar. It was a technical term from ancient history.

“What was that?”, asked his brother, approaching the Inter-unit. “I’m not sure”, answered the Robot, just as perplexed. His brother toggled the inter-unit’s switch on and off, wondering if the signal would play again. Only silence came through. He removed it from within the wall and inspected it. Nothing seemed to be malfunctioning in it. All circuits looked correct. “Perhaps we should call the managers to see what they think. After all, it was a distress signal”, said the Robot, a bit concerned. “Don’t be crazy”, said his brother, reinserting the inter-unit into the wall. “I’m sure it was just some sort of new virus, or some idiots idea of a game. I’m tired. Let’s just shut off,” continued his brother as he turned off the illumination in the room.

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ch5. [ Nanillian Transports Inc. ]

Somewhat perturbed, 829 entered the cubicle assigned to him by the central processor on this transport. In his unnecessary rush to leave the factory, it seemed that he had plugged into the wrong transport. Reluctantly, he was now hitching rides in open packets, traversing the reddish nano-fluid that comprised this sector of the network. Upon entering the sector, 829 had noticed that the velocity of the nano-fluid was much higher then usual. However the thought was immediately replaced by the realization of the error he had made back at the factory. "Thank You for traveling with Nanillian Transports inc! We appreciate your cycles.", informed the Central Processor as they sped through the sector. "Right back at you", mumbled 829, as his internal display unit came online and he logged into the game he reserved for just such occasions of boredom.

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ch4: [ walter ]

With a sharp pain in his shoulder, Walter awoke to the metallic sound of a gnarled computer voice. Disoriented and confused, he found himself on his back on a cold floor; his face covered in a transparent goop. Grabbing his shoulder to sooth the pain, he slowly sat up and inspected the room that he was in. The blinking red lights that momentarily illuminated the space revealed a room filled with dials, buttons, levers, dim computer monitors, and other objects found in a control room. As his eyes tried focusing on the data displayed on the monitors, the computer voice came on again. "Temporal destination acquired... Please enter new orbital coordinates...", crackled the androgynous computer voice, through an unseen intercom system. The voice and message seemed very familiar to Walter, but he could not pinpoint them.

He awkwardly stood up and walked over to the monitors for a closer inspection. The three monitors, embedded into the metal walls of the room, all displayed what appeared to be orbital navigation graphics. "Temporal destination acquired... Please enter new orbital coordinate...” interrupted the computer voice, repeating the same message. However, this time, the message triggered a visual memory for Walter. In his minds eye, he saw a group of people wearing clean-suits, their eyes the only thing visible behind protective headgear. They appeared to be working around a machine of some sort. Before Walter could place the memory, the computer voice crackled in again, "New temporal coordinate recorded. Stand-by for hyper-jump." The monitors suddenly displayed a graphic of four transparent cubes, slowly sliding into each other. Walter also seemed to recognize this, but again could not place it in context. The computer voice came on again, "FA-291 shifting into hyper-fold, C3...C2... C1..."

The last thing that Walter perceived before he blacked out from the hyper-jump, was the sudden sensation of being immersed in salt water. With a silent rumble, the flight deck folded into itself, pinched space-time, and vanished.

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ch3: [ jupiter ]

The wind on Europa was usually what the Robot noticed first. It felt like transparent mud passing around him. He was always amazed at the morphological differences between the planets, moons, and asteroids he had visited. Being born on earth, the robot had been to most of the planets in the solar system. He had heard that the corporation might be visiting Alpha Centuri soon, but could not confirm this, so he did not let himself get too excited about the notion. For some time now, he had wondered what passing through the helo-sphere would feel like. His brother, who had already made the trip back and forth from Vega, had once mumbled to him that it was like passing through a murmuring membrane. When the Robot asked him to explain that more, his brother had changed the subject, which left him with a quiet sense of curiosity.

Having left their ship behind, the robot and his brother had inserted themselves into transports and headed into the city levels. As they surmised, the crowd had already started gathering when they arrived at the residence. What they did not expect was the amount of media spheres, blinking into their level to capture the moment of their arrival. “This trial isn’t particularly special,” the Robot whispered to his brother, as they passed by a cluster of citizens, whose sensors never wavered from pointing at them. “Why do you think so much media is buzzing around”? His brother didn’t answer, just kept heading towards the entrance.

More cranky then usual, his brother had been silent for most of the ride to the residence. When they entered their room, his brother finally spoke, “If I ever have to step foot on Europa again, I’ll blow something up. I promise you that!", The Robot looked around at the room he and his brother would stay in for the next couple of evenings. “Just the taste of the electricity here is enough to drive me crazy!", continued his brother. “At the very least, they could have a atmosphere simulator units in the room for when earthmachines arrive”. On both of those points the Robot agreed with his brother. Acclimating to the tenuous atmosphere and constant flexing of Europa was always very unpleasant and tiring. They knew that the electrical supply on this moon was exactly like the one on Earth, however it somehow felt and tasted different.

After a few hours, they were both starting to enter their rest cycles. They had spent most of that evening preparing the material for the presentation at the trial and now were relaxing near the entertainment mechanism. Unexpectedly, the inter-unit in the room started to vibrate and glow. They both looked at each other, wondering who it could be. Anyone that they knew would be calling through their transceiver circuits to speak with them. In fact, the technology behind the inter-unit was rare to find at all anymore, having been replaced with much better systems. This made the call even more peculiar. The Robot clumsily activated the switch on the inter-unit, and calmly said, “hello?”

The recorded voice that came through was filled with static and distortions, “If anyone can hear me, this is vessel FA-291 entering Jupiter’s gravity at degree: 543, 922, 452. velocity: 11,202 miles per hour. Please send help immediately, I’m not sure how long I can keep this orbital trajectory stable”. The transmission crackled a few times, beeping once or twice, and then repeated the message, before the inter-unit went silent.

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ch2: [ level 45 ]

As the last gadget ran off the assembly line, 829 was exhausted. It had been a long shift and he was ready to disconnect into another level. A few more things to tidy up and he could hit the out button. “Hey, A192, what’s The String about tonight?”, asked 829 to the mechanism that sat next to his work section. “Oh! It’s a good one, I screened last night that we will finally enter the wooden room and look for the function that was missing”, Elated A192, who was always ready to talk about this topic. “Maybe now we will be able to input the code into that transceiver”, continued A192 as he blankly stared off into the vast factory floor. 829 considered his co-worker for a second, thinking how odd it was that A192 never had recovered completely from the last upgrade. Since then, he had behaved very differently, but 829 could not pin-point exactly what the difference was. For a brief cycle, 829 felt a pang of fear, since he was due for an upgrade himself. This passed quickly though, remembering that AA192 was a mechanism that was from an older generation. He had heard that his line had been flawed since the first day of production. Poorly designed as they were, they still could performed the function programmed into them very well and was the reason why they had been allowed to remain online.

The clock in the factory suddenly went off and the production machines disappeared into the shifting skin of the nano-floor. “19:20:22:54, time to fold!”, exclaimed the factory, as its parts slurped and oozed in tune with the offline procedure. Without blinking twice, 829 pressed the out button in his terminal, gathered his belongings and plugged into the next transport.

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ch1: [ the robot ]

The robot said, "I wonder what it was like to die?" He said this as a passing thought to his brother, whom was busy working out the necessary algorithms for their blast off. His brother looked at him for a moment, not considering the question, rather how his little brother would ever survive the trials if he continued his incessant day-dreaming. "Why don't you just focus on navigating this machine and stop with your endless questions", said his brother visibly annoyed. The small capsule went silent again, but it didn’t stop the robot from wondering. In the low humming of the machines propulsion system, the robot thought to himself: There was a time when my body would have slowly ceased to function. When the very elements that made my existence would have deteriorated and there would be no way of reversing or exchanging them. There was a time when a trip like the one that my brother and are on would have never been possible. Not because the technology wasn’t there, but because the bodies of those that designed the trip would fail before the goal was met. “What must have that been like?”, he mistakenly said out loud.

His brother looked over at him with disgust. “We’re ready for lift-off, so stop with your fantasies and lets get off this crappy hunk of ice”, scolded the older robot as he inserted himself into the wall. The robot just stood there for a second, not understanding what his older brother had just told him. He was still trying to visualize what life must have been like centuries ago.

In a flash, the reality of the situation came back to him. He remembered that they had landed on this meteor in dire need of liquid nitrogen, the chemical that fueled their ship. Three days ago, the Robot had spent too much fuel chasing down the trajectory of a piece of space garbage he had noticed in his sensors. It had turned out to be an ancient heap of frozen bio waste, from the time that robots still had biological components. Since the solar system was littered with these things, it was not important enough a find to report to the antiquities department back on earth. None the less, they noted the objects orbit into the navigation database and left it behind. The robot looked over at his older brother, who’s patience had run out and was ready to give him a good flogging. Avoiding this, the robot also inserted himself into the wall and initiated the lift-off protocol. In a few moments, they again would be hurtling towards Europa, where the trials and his future awaited him.

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