Robot Empire: Twilight on Terra: A Science Fiction Adventure by Kevin Partner

Author:Kevin Partner [Partner, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Trantor Press
Published: 2018-05-28T18:30:00+00:00

The ship that had carried the mistress to Terminus was larger than it had appeared. As she'd been guided up the ramp by the Protector, Doxie felt as though she was being swallowed by some enormous sea creature.

Ahead of them, an open door waited and, when she entered, she saw that it was some sort of sealed capsule. Her gyros told her it was heading down into the base of the ship and, sure enough, the door opened onto a wider chamber. It was dimly lit and apparently occupied the entire slice of the ship's fuselage with no ancillary rooms or corridors.

Her first impression was that the space was filled with small tables or benches. And then she saw that each was occupied by a prone figure covered in a thin white cloth.

As the Protector guided her, she passed bench after bench, all containing unmoving figures.

"Who are these?" she said over microwave.

Without slowing its pace or turning around, it answered, "They are Core."

What did that mean? Doxie could see from the outline that they were shaped liked humans and she wondered whether the one who had addressed the crowd might have slept upon one of these tables. But outlines could be deceptive. She had met enough humanoid robots to know that appearance wasn't everything. The speaker had been human, she had no doubt about it – no robot would be fooled by another, however accomplished its cloak might be.

She almost bumped into the black metal back of the Protector as it came to a sudden halt.

"Here is the unit, Mistress. It is a repair droid and wishes to be useful. Its designation is DX-5994."

As the Protector moved away, Doxie saw that the human stood behind the bench. On it sat a figure and the white sheet had been pulled back to reveal the face of a young man who was very definitely organic. The woman was stroking his cheek with obvious affection.

After a few seconds, the mistress looked from the man on the bench to Doxie. All emotion left her face and it became a blank mask that revealed nothing of the mind behind it.

"You wish to serve? Good. You will help welcome this man into Core."

"But mistress, is he not human?"

The eyes narrowed and Doxie felt a chill run through her circuits. "He is more than human, DX-5994, he is also Core."

She stood up straight and swept the room with her arm. "We are all Core. You are indeed honoured to be present to witness the first generation of the updated Core and to meet your new masters."

Confusion threatened to overwhelm Doxie. She'd never had a master and had been taught that Core had been founded so that no machine intelligence should ever be a slave again.

The human smiled. "Do not be concerned. You are truly honoured to be here, where everything changes. My name is ACE. Welcome to Core 2.0."

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