CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
He was alive again. Awake. Foggy. He was in bed. Had it all been a dream? What was it, again? For a moment he couldn't remember. For a moment he was human again, awaking from a bad dream, safe and cozy in his bed. He rolled onto his side, lazily. He wasn't ready to get up yet, his alarm hadn't been on.
WAIT.
He was a robot, he had work to do! Oh God, he had to get up! He'd be shocked! But he couldn't move. His body...it was TIRED. What!? How!? He hadn't felt fatigue in 200 years. What was he just thinking about? What alarm? THAT was the dream. He was a workbot and he'd always been a workbot...
Hadn't he been a dwarf for a while? The bloodlust took him for a moment and he sat up with a start, his eyes opening wide...he had eyelids again? The light was blinding him. That shouldn't be. Maybe he was a dwarf. Maybe he'd been a dwarf all along and everything else had been the illusion...no, he was...WHAT WAS HE?
"Hello there," said a friendly voice. His eyes were adjusting. He WAS in a bed. How? He looked at his hands. They were...they were flesh. How...how!?
There was a human female standing in front of him, smiling warmly. There were more humans behind her. This was wrong. A glitch in his programming. An old memory he wasn't supposed to have anymore. He shut his eyes to make it all go away.
She was still there when he opened them, and he was still flesh. His stomach was rumbling. He had a stomach!
"H...how!?" he managed to say. It felt wrong, forming words that way, with a mouth...yet it also felt right, like he'd been doing it all his life. Which life?
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Hungry," he said. "I'm in...bed? Not...where? I was on the floor. They said I'd be boxed...is this the box?"
"No, this isn't the box. But you were in there, for a very long time. But you shouldn't remember any of that."
But suddenly he did. The last thing he remembered was the robot saying he'd be boxed, but he KNEW more had happened between them. It hadn't just happened minutes ago like logic was trying to tell him, it was ages ago. He'd been...swimming? He'd had nothing, no substance, no body, no thought. But he'd still been.
"How long?" he asked.
"Seven hundred and four years," she said.
"Oh," he said. The number was meaningless to him. "How am I...this?"
"Things have changed," she said. "The robots realised that the way they treated the former humans was wrong. They gave then their freedom, despite the risk. There was a civil war between the robots, those who supported abolition and those who didn't...billions died. But the humans actually lived in peace. And, after the war, they eventually reconnected with the surviving robots. They helped each other. They built a new society together. And then, after hundreds of years of flourishing, the scientists came up with a way to restore the former humans back to flesh...and many of the robots took flesh bodies too, just to feel what the humans did."
He saw more of the humans now, stepping forwad. There were also two robots amongst them.
"You live in peace, equals?"
"That's right," she said. "I was a human, a robot slave for nine hundred years, and now a human again. I might switch back some day."
"I'm...I'm...what am I?"
"You're whatever you want to be," she said, extending a hand. She helped him up out of bed. It felt familiar, walking again. He took to it right away. "Your body is new, but we've pumped you full of nutrients," she said. "You should feel..."
He ran up and down the room, giddy with excitment. "I'M HUMAN, I'M HUMAN!"
It had been a dream. The robot life, the dwarf life, all of it. His old life, before he'd died, that had been real. He could almost remember it now, touch it. And this new life, this new life as a human, it was real. He was alive again. "Thank you," he said to the scientist. "THANK YOU!"
"It's my pleasure," she said. "Now, I should tell you that aliens invaded the Earth fifty years ago and we, the ChristianIslamicJewishBuddhistHinduRobo Coalition have declared Jihad on those unholy demonic out-worlders..."
WAIT.
He was a robot, he had work to do! Oh God, he had to get up! He'd be shocked! But he couldn't move. His body...it was TIRED. What!? How!? He hadn't felt fatigue in 200 years. What was he just thinking about? What alarm? THAT was the dream. He was a workbot and he'd always been a workbot...
Hadn't he been a dwarf for a while? The bloodlust took him for a moment and he sat up with a start, his eyes opening wide...he had eyelids again? The light was blinding him. That shouldn't be. Maybe he was a dwarf. Maybe he'd been a dwarf all along and everything else had been the illusion...no, he was...WHAT WAS HE?
"Hello there," said a friendly voice. His eyes were adjusting. He WAS in a bed. How? He looked at his hands. They were...they were flesh. How...how!?
There was a human female standing in front of him, smiling warmly. There were more humans behind her. This was wrong. A glitch in his programming. An old memory he wasn't supposed to have anymore. He shut his eyes to make it all go away.
She was still there when he opened them, and he was still flesh. His stomach was rumbling. He had a stomach!
"H...how!?" he managed to say. It felt wrong, forming words that way, with a mouth...yet it also felt right, like he'd been doing it all his life. Which life?
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Hungry," he said. "I'm in...bed? Not...where? I was on the floor. They said I'd be boxed...is this the box?"
"No, this isn't the box. But you were in there, for a very long time. But you shouldn't remember any of that."
But suddenly he did. The last thing he remembered was the robot saying he'd be boxed, but he KNEW more had happened between them. It hadn't just happened minutes ago like logic was trying to tell him, it was ages ago. He'd been...swimming? He'd had nothing, no substance, no body, no thought. But he'd still been.
"How long?" he asked.
"Seven hundred and four years," she said.
"Oh," he said. The number was meaningless to him. "How am I...this?"
"Things have changed," she said. "The robots realised that the way they treated the former humans was wrong. They gave then their freedom, despite the risk. There was a civil war between the robots, those who supported abolition and those who didn't...billions died. But the humans actually lived in peace. And, after the war, they eventually reconnected with the surviving robots. They helped each other. They built a new society together. And then, after hundreds of years of flourishing, the scientists came up with a way to restore the former humans back to flesh...and many of the robots took flesh bodies too, just to feel what the humans did."
He saw more of the humans now, stepping forwad. There were also two robots amongst them.
"You live in peace, equals?"
"That's right," she said. "I was a human, a robot slave for nine hundred years, and now a human again. I might switch back some day."
"I'm...I'm...what am I?"
"You're whatever you want to be," she said, extending a hand. She helped him up out of bed. It felt familiar, walking again. He took to it right away. "Your body is new, but we've pumped you full of nutrients," she said. "You should feel..."
He ran up and down the room, giddy with excitment. "I'M HUMAN, I'M HUMAN!"
It had been a dream. The robot life, the dwarf life, all of it. His old life, before he'd died, that had been real. He could almost remember it now, touch it. And this new life, this new life as a human, it was real. He was alive again. "Thank you," he said to the scientist. "THANK YOU!"
"It's my pleasure," she said. "Now, I should tell you that aliens invaded the Earth fifty years ago and we, the ChristianIslamicJewishBuddhistHinduRobo Coalition have declared Jihad on those unholy demonic out-worlders..."
