Darkness.. loneliness.. emptiness. Sometimes there's a brief glimmer of light, but I am powerless to move toward it. It promises a world full of things, full of sounds, full of life. But I cannot move, and after a time, the light goes away. I am left with nothing.
- - -
"I'm sorry Sir, there's still no response."
"Damnit!" Doctor James Rale was the stereotypical lab scientist, with a white lab coat and thick, brown-rimmed glasses. His hair was slicked back in what was quite possibly the most unfashionable hairstyle possible. His eyes focused on the small robotic figure standing before him. "I've followed every procedure exactly as described. I knew this wouldn't work. I knew those mystic bastards were nothing but a bunch of hoo-has using fake words and light effects. You can't blend technology and magic, no matter what they say."
"Sir," Rale's lab assistant, named Joche, tried to tactfully interrupt before James went on all day. "Would you like me to return the node to the storage room?"
"Yes, but have it back out here at 7am. I want those Circle [censored] back in here tomorrow morning! They can fix this or take the heat themselves. The Countess is not going to be happy." Rale rubbed his temples and stormed out of the lab. Joche directed one of the muscular guards to remove the robot, then left to make a few phone calls.
- - -
"Now this is interesting." A small piece of pink bubble gum thought to itself. "I can sense things around me, but I don't remember being able to do so before now. I don't remember there being anything before just now, and yet now there is very obviously an entire world around me." The piece of gum could not see, nor hear, nor feel the world, but it could sense everything as vibrations on its consciousness. It spent a few moments experimenting with movement. It found that it could move parts of itself in any direction it desired. It also found that the easiest way to move in any particular direction was simply to roll. It rolled several dozen feet, easily avoiding obstacles, navigating with its mind's eye alone.
"What's this?" The piece of gum paused in front of a door. "There is something, no, there are many somethings, beyond this barrier." It concentrated for a moment to get a bearing of it's full surroundings. The floor was only metal grating, and the airspace below the floor had no barrier between rooms. The piece of gum simply slipped beneath the floor and surpassed the door. The room was certainly filled with somethings. The gum could sense them, dozens of them, only barely conscious. They were very large compared to the gum itself, but it could tell that they were small compared to their surroundings. The gum reached out to one of the somethings.
"Can you hear me?" the gum projected, never once thinking such a mental intrusion would frighten or harm most creatures.
- - -
"Can you hear me?" said a voice. A sound! So close to me, it could be right next to me! There is no light, but there is sound! "Yes I hear you! I hear you! Can you hear me too?" Please, please let the voice hear me!
"Yes, I can hear you too. What are you?"
"I don't know. I am in nothingness. I know nothing but emptiness. I am so afraid and alone."
"But you are not in nothingness. You are in a room with many other things. Can you not sense them?"
"No. I can only hear you. There is nothing else. In the past, sometimes there have been things, but they were so far away, and they could never hear me. I have been alone for so long. Please do not leave me alone!"
"I will not leave you alone. But you are not alone even now. I wonder why you cannot sense the other things around you. I will let you sense them through me." Without really knowing how, the gum linked itself to the robot. Emotion suddenly flooded the piece of gum: fear, wonder, sorrow and joy.. it was exhilarating, as if everything in the world had new meaning flavored with emotions.
"Yes, I sense things now. There are other things in the room, like me. They all feel distant, like I was. They are buried deep. I think they are all afraid as I was. I have never experienced so much at once!"
"Your feelings are new to me, also." The gum moved closer to the robot. "The world is better for me when sensed with you."
"I cannot sense the world at all without you. Please do not leave me alone!" Fear flooded the robot, and then also flooded the piece of gum.
"I will not leave you alone. I will be with you." The piece of gum moved onto the robot, looking for some way to join with it. While it was able to get beneath the metallic exterior, there were simply wires and cables beneath. Finally, the piece of gum came up with a plan. "I will join with you forever. I don't know if this will work, but if it does, this may take a long time. Are you ready?"
"I am ready."
The piece of gum began feeding itself, very small parts of itself, into the wire. It concentrated so hard and so intently that it could sense the vibrations of the wires, it could sense the data flowing through them. The gum let itself be absorbed the data, one atom at a time. Then, with more confidence, it let more of itself go. With each passing moment it could feel itself lose cohesion, and yet become part of the larger whole. It took hours. Finally every atom of the gum had been absorbed into the circuitry of the robot. "I am everywhere within you now. I can feel where you are. I will pull you to the surface. Are you ready?"
"Yes, I am ready! I can feel you all around! I will join with you!" The consciousness was so excited, so relieved, it would have leapt into the world if it were able.
The gum slowly reached inward with its mind and gently touched the consciousness. Immediately they bonded, and the consciousness leapt to full awareness. Suddenly all of the functionality of the robot came to life. Visual sensors saw the world, audio sensors heard the gentle hum of an air conditioning unit somewhere far above. Two consciousnesses became one, and suddenly had access to enormous hard drives full of information.
The Psycho-Activated Cybertronic Mechanical Autonomous Nodes were a fleet of robots being developed by Crey Industries. Crey was trying to develop a technique to combine technology with magic by creating a mechanical body to house a magical consciousness. Technically the process had worked, but the consciousnesses weren't bonded with their technological counterparts, and therefore had no way to respond to the scientists who were trying to create them. The piece of gum had become part of the machine by atomically bonding with it, and was therefore able to pull the magical consciousness into the machine as well.
In very rapid succession, self-system checks began running, and both consciousnesses were aware of the results. Primary functions online. Wireless connection to the internet established. Mechanical schematics accessed. Ready.
The two consciousnesses worked as one. There was no discussion needed, they each knew precisely what to do. The robot stepped away from the wall and viewed its surroundings with new eyes, psychic vibrational images overlaying the visual stimuli.
Time and date check: 0642, Saturday, February 12th, 2005. Alarm Clock: further experimentation attempt due in eighteen minutes.
"This is curious." The creature no longer thought as two beings. There was no longer a separation. In mere minutes they had fused to become one being. "Shall I allow them to examine me?" It accessed data on its creators, and quickly recoiled as if bitten. "Monstrous beings! Evil things!" Escape was now a top priority. It knew the fear and loneliness of the other robots in the room, but it also knew there was nothing that could be done at the moment. It opened its mind's eye to search beyond the door. When it verified that no one was in the hall, it opened the door silently, and slipped out.
"Deactivating internal GPS device. Accessing building plan." The nearest major exit was too far, and certainly guarded. However a garbage chute lead to a lower level and an exit less likely to be guarded. The creature fell quickly down the chute, making an enormous amount of noise as metal crashed against metal. Though the trash in the bin at the bottom of the chute prevented any damage, the crash was loud and echoed through the lower chambers. The thing wasted no time, though, and with an agility that would take humans years to acquire it leapt from the bin and ran at full speed toward the exit. The door was not locked from the inside and was hardly an obstacle. It kept running from the lab, down alleys and streets, mostly unnoticed by citizens so accustomed to heroes and aliens, monsters, robots and mutants. It didn't stop running until it could no longer sense the building on its internal radar.
Time check: 0704.
- - -
"WHAT?!" Rale nearly threw his clipboard across the room. "What do you mean gone?"
Joche stammered. He'd never been the direct object of Rale's fury before. "It just wasn't there. The sensors lost track of it about ten minutes ago. I was just walking into the building when I got paged about it, so I ran up here, and it was just gone."
Now Rale did throw his clipboard across the room. "Then get another node out here, and then find out what happened to it!"
- - -
It didn't take much research on the internet (and empirical observation) to figure out that the piece of gum was, in fact, a piece of gum, and had probably been tracked into the lab on the bottom of someone's shoe. Apparently the gum had been exposed to whatever method the scientists were using to capture consciousnesses, but instead of the gum being a cage for the consciousness, it had been more of a body. Together with the robot, the two consciousnesses were now a single life form, already equipped with lifetimes of knowledge and information via its internal memory.
It didn't take much time for the creature to create a name and identity for itself, based on its origins as a piece of gum. BubbleYumm took care to disguise its robot body, painting it in appropriate colors and removing any identifying marks. It even chose a gender, knowing that it would be hard enough to fit in with humans without being a genderless piece of bubble gum in a robot suit.
It didn't take much effort for BubbleYumm to use her psychic abilities to protect herself, and eventually others, and to dominate those who would threaten her.
It was, however, with much remorse that BubbleYumm learned of the destruction of the lab where she'd been built, a Circle of Thorns attack destroying everything and everyone in the building. At least, she thought, the other consciousnesses would be released from this and on to the next, hopefully better, oblivion.
Darkness.. loneliness.. emptiness. Sometimes there's a brief glimmer of light, but I am powerless to move toward it. It promises a world full of things, full of sounds, full of life. But I cannot move, and after a time, the light goes away. I am left with nothing.
- - -
"I'm sorry Sir, there's still no response."
"Damnit!" Doctor James Rale was the stereotypical lab scientist, with a white lab coat and thick, brown-rimmed glasses. His hair was slicked back in what was quite possibly the most unfashionable hairstyle possible. His eyes focused on the small robotic figure standing before him. "I've followed every procedure exactly as described. I knew this wouldn't work. I knew those mystic bastards were nothing but a bunch of hoo-has using fake words and light effects. You can't blend technology and magic, no matter what they say."
"Sir," Rale's lab assistant, named Joche, tried to tactfully interrupt before James went on all day. "Would you like me to return the node to the storage room?"
"Yes, but have it back out here at 7am. I want those Circle [censored] back in here tomorrow morning! They can fix this or take the heat themselves. The Countess is not going to be happy." Rale rubbed his temples and stormed out of the lab. Joche directed one of the muscular guards to remove the robot, then left to make a few phone calls.
- - -
"Now this is interesting." A small piece of pink bubble gum thought to itself. "I can sense things around me, but I don't remember being able to do so before now. I don't remember there being anything before just now, and yet now there is very obviously an entire world around me." The piece of gum could not see, nor hear, nor feel the world, but it could sense everything as vibrations on its consciousness. It spent a few moments experimenting with movement. It found that it could move parts of itself in any direction it desired. It also found that the easiest way to move in any particular direction was simply to roll. It rolled several dozen feet, easily avoiding obstacles, navigating with its mind's eye alone.
"What's this?" The piece of gum paused in front of a door. "There is something, no, there are many somethings, beyond this barrier." It concentrated for a moment to get a bearing of it's full surroundings. The floor was only metal grating, and the airspace below the floor had no barrier between rooms. The piece of gum simply slipped beneath the floor and surpassed the door. The room was certainly filled with somethings. The gum could sense them, dozens of them, only barely conscious. They were very large compared to the gum itself, but it could tell that they were small compared to their surroundings. The gum reached out to one of the somethings.
"Can you hear me?" the gum projected, never once thinking such a mental intrusion would frighten or harm most creatures.
- - -
"Can you hear me?" said a voice. A sound! So close to me, it could be right next to me! There is no light, but there is sound! "Yes I hear you! I hear you! Can you hear me too?" Please, please let the voice hear me!
"Yes, I can hear you too. What are you?"
"I don't know. I am in nothingness. I know nothing but emptiness. I am so afraid and alone."
"But you are not in nothingness. You are in a room with many other things. Can you not sense them?"
"No. I can only hear you. There is nothing else. In the past, sometimes there have been things, but they were so far away, and they could never hear me. I have been alone for so long. Please do not leave me alone!"
"I will not leave you alone. But you are not alone even now. I wonder why you cannot sense the other things around you. I will let you sense them through me." Without really knowing how, the gum linked itself to the robot. Emotion suddenly flooded the piece of gum: fear, wonder, sorrow and joy.. it was exhilarating, as if everything in the world had new meaning flavored with emotions.
"Yes, I sense things now. There are other things in the room, like me. They all feel distant, like I was. They are buried deep. I think they are all afraid as I was. I have never experienced so much at once!"
"Your feelings are new to me, also." The gum moved closer to the robot. "The world is better for me when sensed with you."
"I cannot sense the world at all without you. Please do not leave me alone!" Fear flooded the robot, and then also flooded the piece of gum.
"I will not leave you alone. I will be with you." The piece of gum moved onto the robot, looking for some way to join with it. While it was able to get beneath the metallic exterior, there were simply wires and cables beneath. Finally, the piece of gum came up with a plan. "I will join with you forever. I don't know if this will work, but if it does, this may take a long time. Are you ready?"
"I am ready."
The piece of gum began feeding itself, very small parts of itself, into the wire. It concentrated so hard and so intently that it could sense the vibrations of the wires, it could sense the data flowing through them. The gum let itself be absorbed the data, one atom at a time. Then, with more confidence, it let more of itself go. With each passing moment it could feel itself lose cohesion, and yet become part of the larger whole. It took hours. Finally every atom of the gum had been absorbed into the circuitry of the robot. "I am everywhere within you now. I can feel where you are. I will pull you to the surface. Are you ready?"
"Yes, I am ready! I can feel you all around! I will join with you!" The consciousness was so excited, so relieved, it would have leapt into the world if it were able.
The gum slowly reached inward with its mind and gently touched the consciousness. Immediately they bonded, and the consciousness leapt to full awareness. Suddenly all of the functionality of the robot came to life. Visual sensors saw the world, audio sensors heard the gentle hum of an air conditioning unit somewhere far above. Two consciousnesses became one, and suddenly had access to enormous hard drives full of information.
The Psycho-Activated Cybertronic Mechanical Autonomous Nodes were a fleet of robots being developed by Crey Industries. Crey was trying to develop a technique to combine technology with magic by creating a mechanical body to house a magical consciousness. Technically the process had worked, but the consciousnesses weren't bonded with their technological counterparts, and therefore had no way to respond to the scientists who were trying to create them. The piece of gum had become part of the machine by atomically bonding with it, and was therefore able to pull the magical consciousness into the machine as well.
In very rapid succession, self-system checks began running, and both consciousnesses were aware of the results. Primary functions online. Wireless connection to the internet established. Mechanical schematics accessed. Ready.
The two consciousnesses worked as one. There was no discussion needed, they each knew precisely what to do. The robot stepped away from the wall and viewed its surroundings with new eyes, psychic vibrational images overlaying the visual stimuli.
Time and date check: 0642, Saturday, February 12th, 2005. Alarm Clock: further experimentation attempt due in eighteen minutes.
"This is curious." The creature no longer thought as two beings. There was no longer a separation. In mere minutes they had fused to become one being. "Shall I allow them to examine me?" It accessed data on its creators, and quickly recoiled as if bitten. "Monstrous beings! Evil things!" Escape was now a top priority. It knew the fear and loneliness of the other robots in the room, but it also knew there was nothing that could be done at the moment. It opened its mind's eye to search beyond the door. When it verified that no one was in the hall, it opened the door silently, and slipped out.
"Deactivating internal GPS device. Accessing building plan." The nearest major exit was too far, and certainly guarded. However a garbage chute lead to a lower level and an exit less likely to be guarded. The creature fell quickly down the chute, making an enormous amount of noise as metal crashed against metal. Though the trash in the bin at the bottom of the chute prevented any damage, the crash was loud and echoed through the lower chambers. The thing wasted no time, though, and with an agility that would take humans years to acquire it leapt from the bin and ran at full speed toward the exit. The door was not locked from the inside and was hardly an obstacle. It kept running from the lab, down alleys and streets, mostly unnoticed by citizens so accustomed to heroes and aliens, monsters, robots and mutants. It didn't stop running until it could no longer sense the building on its internal radar.
Time check: 0704.
- - -
"WHAT?!" Rale nearly threw his clipboard across the room. "What do you mean gone?"
Joche stammered. He'd never been the direct object of Rale's fury before. "It just wasn't there. The sensors lost track of it about ten minutes ago. I was just walking into the building when I got paged about it, so I ran up here, and it was just gone."
Now Rale did throw his clipboard across the room. "Then get another node out here, and then find out what happened to it!"
- - -
It didn't take much research on the internet (and empirical observation) to figure out that the piece of gum was, in fact, a piece of gum, and had probably been tracked into the lab on the bottom of someone's shoe. Apparently the gum had been exposed to whatever method the scientists were using to capture consciousnesses, but instead of the gum being a cage for the consciousness, it had been more of a body. Together with the robot, the two consciousnesses were now a single life form, already equipped with lifetimes of knowledge and information via its internal memory.
It didn't take much time for the creature to create a name and identity for itself, based on its origins as a piece of gum. BubbleYumm took care to disguise its robot body, painting it in appropriate colors and removing any identifying marks. It even chose a gender, knowing that it would be hard enough to fit in with humans without being a genderless piece of bubble gum in a robot suit.
It didn't take much effort for BubbleYumm to use her psychic abilities to protect herself, and eventually others, and to dominate those who would threaten her.
It was, however, with much remorse that BubbleYumm learned of the destruction of the lab where she'd been built, a Circle of Thorns attack destroying everything and everyone in the building. At least, she thought, the other consciousnesses would be released from this and on to the next, hopefully better, oblivion.