XWE 2 woke up
with a start, staring into the darkness without any thought or memory. Then
something whirred into life at the back of his head and his memories came back,
some of them like nightmares in the way they shook his digital soul. The 14
years of darkness... the war that never really went away. The dying gasps of
the planet seemed to ring in his ears again. The planet had survived
apparently. But so had the darkness.
A series of
panicky beeps emanated from his chest. His powercore was about to drain out
completely. This meant that he’d been asleep for centuries. He looked around. Absolute
darkness. He switched on his Third Eye. The power drained faster now. He
quickly took a look around before shutting it off. There was a dead XWE lying
not far from him, chest caved in, face torn from head. Because the XWE had died,
his powercore would not have drained much. If XWE 2 acted fast, there was a way
he could save his own life.
XWE 2 made his
way to the metal carcass. A few seconds later, the dead robot’s powercore was
in his hand. He hesitated. After he’d removed his own powercore he’d have a
precious few moments before he was immobilised forever. He’d have to be precise
with his movements down to the last millimetre, and really quick.
Click.
Darkness grew
around his eyes... before...
CLICK.
With a hearty
whir XWE 2 was up again. He switched on all his light sources and soon figured
out he was inside a cave. He had to get out and see what had become of his
planet. He wondered if he’d find it just as it had been before, dark and
abundant, drenched in life forming metal. He remembered the sulphur rains he
loved to watch from inside the safety of his pod. He hoped his pod was still
intact somewhere out there.
Soon, XWE 2 had blasted
an opening through a weak part of the cave wall. He collapsed onto the ground
as blinding light fried his visual sensors. He switched to auxillary, taking a
moment to adjust to the assault of light. Cautiously, he made his way out and
found himself at the bottom of a canyon. He stood up to peer over the top of
the escarpment. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. There, in front of
this eyes were scenes from the fabled Age of Humanity. Blue skies, brown soil,
trees... They were real. The first of the creators were the humans. This he
knew.
Right in front
of him was a cave, bleeding blue light into the golden of the sun. He stared at
it in fear and anticipation, until he saw what he was so fervently hoping to
see.
A small boy
walked out with a dog. As the dog started barking, the boy and the Robot stared
at each other. And there was no way to tell whose eyes held more wonder.
