The Boy From The Sky
The construct strung itself afloat in a holographic prism. She swayed in glorious code, flaunting a lifetime of work within the frame of an artificial deity.
"You're everything that I'm not," He said aloud, eyes transfixed on the glimmering projection. "And all that I am."
Two orbs blinked in emerald sparks. Below them, lips formed an impressionable smile.
"You did not make me." She said, her voice bouncing off the laboratory walls like soft rain patter.
"Is that so?" The scientist scoffed. "If not me, then who?"
Her aura grew brighter than before, emanating a powerful hue of jade. She was no longer naked. Clothed now, in a clustered matrix of regal garments privy to a Hindu goddess. Her long locks of hair grew wild and unruly until a crown made out of peacock feathers appeared, taming its free flowing nature as they obediently fell onto her shoulders.
"The one who came from the sky." She looked up as if whoever she was talking about suddenly appeared. Her eyes glistened with emotion that made the scientist uneasy. Jealous.
"Nonsense, Shivat." The scientist called her name. The name he gave her. She didn't respond. "I, Dr. Stalwarg of Omnicron Industries made you. I am your creator. Your god." Again, she didn't respond. Her attention was elsewhere, transfixed, just as Dr. Stalwarg was transfixed upon her. She did not question that he was her creator. Shivat was convinced that her god was someone else.
"From the sky you say?" The scientist glanced up. The only thing he saw was the bland metal ceiling he often stared at after working long hours trying to create Shivat. The beautiful, ungrateful Shivat. "Who, from the sky? Surely not some all-knowing god..."
Shivat smiled. She tucked her hands close to where a heart would be and closed her eyes. "The boy from the sky...the last dreamer from a world of dying dreams and nightmares." She pointed to her chest where a cartooned representation of a heart formed. "I came from here," She tapped her heart. A bright spiral of light flashed, illuminating the room in a green aura. Dr. Stalwarg raised his hands to shield his eyes from the spectacle. "Just as you, and everyone else. Before and after. He made us all."
Dr. Stalwarg had enough. Clearly, Shivat was malfunctioning. Perhaps enabling her free consciousness so soon was a mistake. I'll have to commence a hard reset.
The light bursting out from Shivat did not wane. The scientist blindly leaped forward for the console in front of him, groping knobs and buttons, going off of memory to circumnavigate Shivat's shutdown. He keyed down to the last button and looked up to Shivat one last time. The rays of light were hot upon sight, but within a cluster of frantic eye blinks the scientist captured the image of his deity in all of her splendor. She was not alone. is that...a boy!? Like Shivat, the little boy had a glowing heart on his chest. He held her hand as they both looked up at the ceiling, or something beyond it. Dr. Stalwarg raised a fist up at his console then slammed it down on a button that would revert Shivat back to a shell.
Just as his clammy fist punched down on the button, Greg woke up sideways, face half buried into a soggy pillow. His groggy eyes focused onto the bright numbers of his alarm clock , then up at his own protruding hand resting on top of its snooze button. What a weird dream...
"Mornin, sunshine!" A feminine voiced hollered from the bedroom's comm speakers.
"Good morning, Betsy." Greg murmured in a zombie-like stupor.
"Best get to suitin and bootin. Long day ahead of us."
Greg nodded and slowly rose from his plain white mattress. His thoughts churned, scrambling to piece together scenes from his dream.
...He came from the sky...
He walked over to the view port and gazed out into the twilight.
...I came from here...
Greg looked down at his chest, but found no glowing heart.
"Just as you, and everyone else. Before and after. He made us all." Greg spoke Shivat's words, as if conjuring something within, but all he could feel was uncertainty.
The door slid open. "Hey, dirt brain. Ya circuits fried? We got a job to do."
The room lights automatically turned on. A small sphere was floating in the air. A holographic projection of a redheaded farm lady beamed in front of Greg from its ocular slit.
"Sorry, Betsy. I had a weird dream." He said, almost ashamed. Betsy floated closer to Greg and knelt down so they were eye-to-eye.
"Come now here, partner." Her voice was soft now. She put a hand on his shoulder and expressed as much compassion her programming allowed. "You know robots can't dream."
To be continued...