lichen wrapped itself around the ruins, covering and smothering the solid concrete in its ever-growing embrace. Trees forcefully drove their roots through every crack and cranny they could find in the old surfaces that had once been woven together into a jungle of their own, one of stone and technology, yet if no helpful cracks presented themselves, the plants made their own, driving down into the surface and pushing it apart.
Sometimes they were aided in their activities by machines, varied designed with almost as much variety of their own as the wildlife around them: small humanoid figures with slender arms and gentle touches, large tracked ones wheeling along, planting vast fields in their wake. Each machine had its purpose and to that set purpose they stuck, it didn’t matter that all the people they’d originally been built to serve were dead or that the local ecology had completely overrun everything, all that mattered was their task. So they continued day in, day out, tending to and nurturing the plants, regardless of where they grew.
Yet not all that remained from the once flourishing civilization was completely ignorant of the world around it. One last triumph remained, slowly wandering the world on mismatched limbs scavenged from any and all sources. A single sentient machine simply known as The Entity. Humanity's last achievement.
-------------------------
The Entity ducked back behind the concrete pillar, practically cowering away from the machine that trundled on past in what must once have been crowded streets. It knew that the machine didn’t actually care about it and that had it wanted to, the advanced sensory equipment storied inside that towering metal bulk could have pinpointed its location several miles off. Still, the simple act of pulling behind the pillar helped steady its nerves, allowed it for a few seconds to feel grounded in this unreality of a world that it lived in.
Gently a hand reached out, the smaller of the two mismatched arms attached to the bulky looking torso and pushed a strand of vine aside. The machines outside were docile, yes, harmless even. The only problem is that they were authorised to escort any damaging factor away from plantlife, which was on the face of it a rather innocent order. Simply pick up something or someone damaging wildlife and put it down where it is no longer a threat, the problem arose that in picking up, it tended to crush whatever it was holding, something the Entity had discovered many times.
Today it was going to explore a new building, another in the seemingly endless forest that made up this megapolis. It looked just like the thousands it had explored the years previously and the thousands more it expected to explore later. A towering structure of concrete and glass, with a now faded neon sign hanging loosely over the entrance.
“--------- Cryo ----- st-rage ---- “
Half the words were faded or destroyed beyond recognition, still, it felt good to speak what it could recognise aloud. In a small way, it reminded the Entity that it was more than the lifeless machines which roamed the planet.
The first few floors yielded nothing but abandoned workplaces, desks and chairs that once housed human workers and terminals for the machines that they worked alongside. If only it knew how to repair any of them, it knew that they were still powered, the solar fields outside the city saw to that, generating an infinite power source for a city that no longer needed it. The Entity wondered what stories they'd be able to tell. If any of them knew why it had been created.
A noise zipped through its hearing circuits, blowing away all other thoughts instantaneously. Surely it had misheard?
The faint sound made itself heard once more, the sound of electricity coursing through water. That single noise brought more excitement to the metalic brain than anything had done for years previously, for it only meant one thing. Some part of this ancient facility was still working, some machine even was still whirring away, something with more intelligence than the husks which tended to life outside.
It was the least the Entity could do to stop itself from bounding upstairs and damaging something, even now it had to tread carefully. A careless movement could break whatever delicate machinery remained, severing this single clue to the past.
One flight of stairs, then the next flew by, time seeming to slow as it drew closer to the source of the noise. Until it rounded a corner and came face to face with the sight that awaited him.
A single terminal inlaid into the wall glowed faintly in a small display of information, while above and below remnants of wires drooped from walls into shallow pools below, letting off the occasional shower of sparks as the near-infinite energy supply dumped itself into the only available destination.
Gingerly tiptoed around the pools, an act that still the Entity itself didn't understand, it would be unharmed by the water and yet it still avoided it, automatically taking the route presenting the tiniest number of hazards. As it moved closer it read aloud the small information displayed by the terminal.
Cryostorage chambers 1 - 4,
1 - Status: Partially flooded - 1 lifesign remains
2 - Status: Energy failure - no lifesigns remain
3 - Status: Environmental damage- no lifesigns remain
4 - Status: Fully functioning - 1 lifesign remains
Recommendation: Repair chambers 1,2 and 3 and freeze new occupants
------------------------------
--------------------------
Emergency defrost - engage? YES / NO
" .... Creators?"
The question seemed silly, but there was no one left to hear it, not until now. Of course, the Entity had theorised that it's creators had been organic, they had to be, after all, it matched all the skeletons it continued to find. Now it had concrete proof, they were organic and here were two survivors, frozen away.
It didn't even give itself time to think before it hit the small button to the bottom, practically shattering the thin glass with its eagerness. Only to jump back again as a weak voice rung out through the floor.
"Chambers one through four engaging emergency defrost, standby to aid any who are struggling and welcome them to a bright new future."
The Entity stood for a second, beyond the door beside the console, there presumably lay a corridor and off that - the species that created it. Yet it couldn't bring itself to take that first step, there were too many questions it wanted to ask, they needed time to adjust, that voice said so, it couldn't bombard with queries yet, that could wait.
So it stood there, one hand hovering gently beside the console should it need to do anything else and waited. Waited for the first human the walk the Earth in hundreds of years to step through that door.
Sometimes they were aided in their activities by machines, varied designed with almost as much variety of their own as the wildlife around them: small humanoid figures with slender arms and gentle touches, large tracked ones wheeling along, planting vast fields in their wake. Each machine had its purpose and to that set purpose they stuck, it didn’t matter that all the people they’d originally been built to serve were dead or that the local ecology had completely overrun everything, all that mattered was their task. So they continued day in, day out, tending to and nurturing the plants, regardless of where they grew.
Yet not all that remained from the once flourishing civilization was completely ignorant of the world around it. One last triumph remained, slowly wandering the world on mismatched limbs scavenged from any and all sources. A single sentient machine simply known as The Entity. Humanity's last achievement.
-------------------------
The Entity ducked back behind the concrete pillar, practically cowering away from the machine that trundled on past in what must once have been crowded streets. It knew that the machine didn’t actually care about it and that had it wanted to, the advanced sensory equipment storied inside that towering metal bulk could have pinpointed its location several miles off. Still, the simple act of pulling behind the pillar helped steady its nerves, allowed it for a few seconds to feel grounded in this unreality of a world that it lived in.
Gently a hand reached out, the smaller of the two mismatched arms attached to the bulky looking torso and pushed a strand of vine aside. The machines outside were docile, yes, harmless even. The only problem is that they were authorised to escort any damaging factor away from plantlife, which was on the face of it a rather innocent order. Simply pick up something or someone damaging wildlife and put it down where it is no longer a threat, the problem arose that in picking up, it tended to crush whatever it was holding, something the Entity had discovered many times.
Today it was going to explore a new building, another in the seemingly endless forest that made up this megapolis. It looked just like the thousands it had explored the years previously and the thousands more it expected to explore later. A towering structure of concrete and glass, with a now faded neon sign hanging loosely over the entrance.
“--------- Cryo ----- st-rage ---- “
Half the words were faded or destroyed beyond recognition, still, it felt good to speak what it could recognise aloud. In a small way, it reminded the Entity that it was more than the lifeless machines which roamed the planet.
The first few floors yielded nothing but abandoned workplaces, desks and chairs that once housed human workers and terminals for the machines that they worked alongside. If only it knew how to repair any of them, it knew that they were still powered, the solar fields outside the city saw to that, generating an infinite power source for a city that no longer needed it. The Entity wondered what stories they'd be able to tell. If any of them knew why it had been created.
A noise zipped through its hearing circuits, blowing away all other thoughts instantaneously. Surely it had misheard?
The faint sound made itself heard once more, the sound of electricity coursing through water. That single noise brought more excitement to the metalic brain than anything had done for years previously, for it only meant one thing. Some part of this ancient facility was still working, some machine even was still whirring away, something with more intelligence than the husks which tended to life outside.
It was the least the Entity could do to stop itself from bounding upstairs and damaging something, even now it had to tread carefully. A careless movement could break whatever delicate machinery remained, severing this single clue to the past.
One flight of stairs, then the next flew by, time seeming to slow as it drew closer to the source of the noise. Until it rounded a corner and came face to face with the sight that awaited him.
A single terminal inlaid into the wall glowed faintly in a small display of information, while above and below remnants of wires drooped from walls into shallow pools below, letting off the occasional shower of sparks as the near-infinite energy supply dumped itself into the only available destination.
Gingerly tiptoed around the pools, an act that still the Entity itself didn't understand, it would be unharmed by the water and yet it still avoided it, automatically taking the route presenting the tiniest number of hazards. As it moved closer it read aloud the small information displayed by the terminal.
Cryostorage chambers 1 - 4,
1 - Status: Partially flooded - 1 lifesign remains
2 - Status: Energy failure - no lifesigns remain
3 - Status: Environmental damage- no lifesigns remain
4 - Status: Fully functioning - 1 lifesign remains
Recommendation: Repair chambers 1,2 and 3 and freeze new occupants
------------------------------
--------------------------
Emergency defrost - engage? YES / NO
" .... Creators?"
The question seemed silly, but there was no one left to hear it, not until now. Of course, the Entity had theorised that it's creators had been organic, they had to be, after all, it matched all the skeletons it continued to find. Now it had concrete proof, they were organic and here were two survivors, frozen away.
It didn't even give itself time to think before it hit the small button to the bottom, practically shattering the thin glass with its eagerness. Only to jump back again as a weak voice rung out through the floor.
"Chambers one through four engaging emergency defrost, standby to aid any who are struggling and welcome them to a bright new future."
The Entity stood for a second, beyond the door beside the console, there presumably lay a corridor and off that - the species that created it. Yet it couldn't bring itself to take that first step, there were too many questions it wanted to ask, they needed time to adjust, that voice said so, it couldn't bombard with queries yet, that could wait.
So it stood there, one hand hovering gently beside the console should it need to do anything else and waited. Waited for the first human the walk the Earth in hundreds of years to step through that door.
