Well, got my
blood test today. Had dinner late and this took awhile to write, plus I worked on my book which is coming along well. So
yeah that's why today was such a late post. Anyway, enjoy the flash
fiction!
Humanity
Knows
“Hey, human
thing, look at me.” XR-7 the robot said as he poked the human on
the table with his giant steel finger.
YE-24 glared at
XR-7 “Don't poke the human! You could break it!”
“Stupid!”
XR-7 yelled back. “You can't break a
human. Though I guess I could hurt it. Hurting is what you call it
when you damage a living thing. Stupid.”
YE-24 rolled
her eyes. “Fine. You could hurt it. Whatever words you use
it means the same thing.” Robots in the race of robots YE-24 and
XR-7 belonged to had been classified as him or her based on their
primary function. “Female” robots manufactured new robots for
their race and upgraded old ones making them bigger and making them
“grow up”. “Male” robots gathered parts for the “females”.
XR-7 and YE-24 both were manufactured by the same “mother” robot
which was given parts by the same “father” robot. So they are
both brother and sister.
“Anyway.”
XR-7 said his glowing yellow looking at the human, “I wonder why
Dad got this for us?”
YE-24 looked at
her brother. “Have you been paying attention to the thousands of
Dad's rants about the importance of humans?”
“No.” XR-7
said frowing with his giant steel lips. “I meant why he got it for
us now. Maybe he finally got that big secret out of the humans
he's got in his lab. Like proof that the world is more than fifty
years old.”
“Wait!”
YE-24 said with a shocked look on her face. “Dad said that? Or did
the humans tell Dad that the world is more than fifty years old.
Because its fact that the world is fifty years old. We've checked the
hard drives of the oldest robots the world over and there's nothing
older than fifty years.”
XR-7 scratched
his bald, metal head. “Y'know we haven't explored the whole world
yet. There may be robots with memories before our part of the world's
elders. Maybe the humans know things we don't.”
YE-7 laughed
with her booming robot synthetic voice. She then pointed to the human
still on the table. The human knew running would only antagonize the
machines. “You think this little thing knows anything?”
“Maybe...”
XR-7 said. “Though Dad's the one that thinks so. I'm not sure.”
YE-7 thought
for a moment. “What if Dad means that the humans know just as much
as we do? Like they know about the nothingness that all parts came
from that our ancestors were born from? Isn't that technically older
than fifty years old?”
XR-7 then
responded. “Yeah I heard the story. It's all our ancestors can
figure. There was some sort of nothingness then out came the world
and out came all the parts scattered about in all fills and cities
for us to build our children in. All the power cells and all the
power plants to allow us to live come from that nothingness. Though
its only theory. We only know the world is fifty years old from the
definite memories on our elder's hard drives and they are honest they
are not sure and some of them had died.”
YE-7 “And
have you ever wondered where language came from? Our elders just knew
it and they couldn't explain it. But it is odd that Dad thinks the
humans know all this.
“Don't think
about it too hard. I just Dad thinks they look cool or something and
is assigning too much importance to them.” XR-7
YE-7 then
replied, “Wait. Dad said you can talk to them!”
“What?”
XR-7 stuttered back.
“Well kinda.”
YE-7 frowned. “They can understand everything you say. But their
voices are very tiny so you can't hear what they say unless you have
something called a megaphone to make them louder.”
XR-7 looked at
the human awkwardly. “So he understood everything we said? This is
kinda embarrassing. I thought you needed a translator or something.”
he then paused. “You said megaphone right?”
“Yes.” YE-7
responded.
“Well now
that I think about it I think he said he had one at his lab.” XR-7
paused again. “Now it makes sense! No wonder he likes them so much!
If he has one he can talk to them. Who knows what he can talk about
with them. If they do know so many things they could be telling him
how to fly!”
YE-7 laughed.
“Okay, knowing that the world is older than fifty years is one
thing, but flying is just stupid. How could you fly? Unless your a
bird and I have no idea how they do that. Gonna screw wings to your
back?”
“Yeah it
ridiculous.” XR-7 replied. “Oh, I'm getting transmission from
Dad.”
“Me too.”
YE-7 said. “Let's both open it.”
“Kids!” The
father shouted almost like a giddy human girl. “I've made an
amazing breakthrough that will change the entire way we think about
the world. I've invented a device that will revolutionize
everything!”
“What it is?”
they both asked.
“Well
recently I met a human named Mr. Samson. Now the humans have been
teaching me reading and writing.
Oh, yeah I already explained that to you a thousand times since I've
been studying it for like the past two years or so. I'm just so excited
that I forgot. Anyway since I've mastered it I had to come up with a
way to read books, little tiny things with words written in them. I
made this big magnifying device I can slot books into of various
devices. But back to Mr. Johnson, oh, my I'm rambling like usual,
anyway, see he's actually a human history teacher. History is what
happened before right? Well he's seventy years
old!”
“What!? But the world is only fifty years old!” both robot
children yelled. They had both been manufactured three years ago.
Language was data passed down through generations so they didn't need
to learn it like humans.
“No it isn't! It's amazing! He heard about me from another human
and since he wasn't sure how long he was going to live he wanted to
tell me about everything before he died! He explained everything to
me! Oh, how to explain to you quickly...our ancestor's first mother
was actually no mother but a group a humans!”
“What?” both children asked baffled as the idea of a human
mother didn't make sense as that is the equivalent of a human
becoming pregnant with a giant robot.
“Okay. So a bunch of very smart humans came up the designs for our
ancestors and then created them with the parts. They were actually
our ancestor's mom's but they were like mommies.”
“Ooooohhhhhh. That makes sense.” they both said. “So if the
world is older than fifty years then where did all the parts come
from?”
“That's the most incredible part! The ground!” the father
yelled.
“Okay that makes even less sense.” the children said.
“Actually
everything you're made out of can be taken from dirt. The history
teacher says he doesn't know all about it but there are books about
it. I have to get those books! Anyway, he says if you do the right
things you can make parts out of things. Though you have to use the
right dirt, I mean material, ugh, I explain it more later. Anyway,
the truth is the humans made all the parts.”
XR-7 yelled “So your saying that not only they're not only our
original mothers. But they made all the parts?”
YE-24 added. “No way...” Both children stared down to the human
at the table.
“Yes. He explained this all to me. He remembered when we were
first announced to be created. Everything was very different then he
said. Back then parts weren't in piles like they are now unless
humans put them in big fills. City buildings weren't as chunky. He
said that there used to be even more power plants and many buildings
were “factories”. Factories are like moms that don't think. He
talked about a society with machines I don't even understand much.
Anyway there was a big disaster that destroyed most things and
stopped most of their technology, he called it an “apocalypse”,
and this world is what is left. He said it's like looking at a dead
body.”
“Wow.” the children responded.
The father then let out an oddly giddy laugh. “That's not the
craziest part.”
“How could that not be the craziest part?” the children asked
both horrified and amazed as if something stranger could only be a
monster.
“Mr.
Samson said he was going to stay with me for awhile but he gave me a
gift. Since he's a history he's always brought with him his most
prized possession. A history book.
As I said before he wasn't sure how long he was going to live and
since he knew I would take good care of it he gave the book it to me.
I've been reading it and the history book is massively detailed. I
actually learned how old the world is! Wanna guess?”
“Seventy years old?” XR-7 said assuming the world was as old as
the man.
“Older.” the father teased.
“One hundred years old.” YE-24 guessed.
“Older.”
“One hundred and fifty.” XR-7 figured that triple the normal age
was plenty high.
“Not even close.” the father laughed.
“Fine. How about one thousand years!” YE-24 yelled. She figured
that high would be way overshooting it.
“Nope.” the father said.
“Then what is it?” XR-7 asked.
“About
4.54 billion years.” after the father answer the children looked
over to the human on the table. The children grew silent. The father
then spoke in an even giddier tone. “Good news! I was given a new
book. It's a science
book!” the father paused. “Oh my! Mr. Samson just told me I may be
able to start learning how they get parts from dirt from this! Aren't
humans amazing? Gotta go I have
to read this!” Their father ended the
transmission.
The children just stared at the human on the table.
This work is
copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post
it on your own website, broadcast it etc.) work unaltered as long as
you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and
it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of
these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu
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