BEEP BEEP BEEP
"Whuh?!", I shoot up from my slumber and quickly glance around the workshop before looking down at my desk which I've just taken my nap on, My alarm went off huh? Nobody likes 2 hours of sleep per day, but it seems necessary to advance civilization. I turn off my alarm, unlock my PC and take a quick look at the time, "2 AM, huh?", being at work at this hour really should make one regret their career path, but not me! Well not yet... Ever since I was young I've loved Sci-Fi, Robots, Spaceships, and all things Future. And as I was growing up, many of these fictional stories started to seem more and more feasible, with gigantic American companies building their own AI and robotics technology I decided that I wanted to work in the sector myself. So I went to university, studied robotics, and after some complications got a job at Motus Robotics Inc. I was elated, finally, I could contribute to the futures I saw in all the stories I loved in my childhood so much!
They do not tell you the whole story when you apply though, like how the company is severely understaffed and only has a handful of geniuses who made the magic they were known for possible. Yes, these days their robots are sold to all kinds of places and they are pretty great machines all things considered but our biggest client is the American Military, somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that as soon as robots became sentient enough to be told to shoot people that they'd be sold exactly for that purpose, but it still sucks that in all my years at this company I was in some capacity responsible for the death of a lot of people. Looking at the bright side, many robots are also used as medics or in hospitals so they might've saved a lot of lives as well. Aargh, who cares, even Sci-Fi knew that Robots would turn into Killers. So nothing new right?
I glance at my E-Mails and at the ticketing system, nothing new, you've got to be a real sucker to be writing E-Mails or tickets at 2 AM, although I guess the same goes for me. I swivel my office chair around and look at the robots that need repairing lined up by the wall on the other side of my workshop, one robot is lying on a table, ready to be repaired and be sent out again. I trudge over to him and check my progress quickly, the client said that the right arm does not work correctly due to the robot using it too much. I already took it off, so I move into the storage area and grab myself a new one. When I get back I plop down onto the chair next to the lying robot and get started attaching the new arm.
"This is child's play, I don't know why people these days don't just buy an arm and attach it themselves...stupid warranty...." I mutter under my breath while getting the cables attached. While I normally work on unreleased tech and higher-tier work, right now the higher-ups delegated me to premium clients tickets since we're just recuperating from a big new model release. I still have some of the newer models, ready for experimentation standing in line here, ready to work on when I'm done with these tickets.
Why didn't they just send me on vacation after the release? I wanna go on vacation! and many more thoughts like these are wandering through my mind as I start screwing in the new arm of the robot. After I finish screwing in the arm I turn on the robot and set him into diagnostics mode, the LCD Screen on the face of the robot lights up and a few codes flash by until I see what I've been waiting for
ARM_R1 = functional
HAND_R1 = functional
I slowly put my hand behind the robot's back to indicate to him that he should get up and leave the table now that he's fixed. The robot's motors whirr to life and he raises himself from the table, "Go over to the other robots in the line, then turn yourself off." I say to him. The robot leaves the bed and heads over to the line of robots. I take a second to take my phone out of my pocket, then I hear the robot aligns himself with the line and see him shut down. I go over to my PC and check what the other robot's problems are, but at this point, I rightly start to think it might be time to clock out and go home.
Just as I'm thinking this I hear the robot I just repaired make a slight hissing noise, like a snake trying to intimidate me. I turn around just in time to see the chest of the robot where its energy core and battery are located start to give off some kind of smoke. "Ohhh, God damn it...", seems like the gigantic Lithium Ion Battery on this one was also defective, maybe I should've done an all-around check on him. I hear a slight pop and heat starts radiating from the robot, its entire chest is engulfed in flames, I look around the room in a panic trying to look for a fire extinguisher, but there is none, so I quickly run into the hallway. "Fuck! Fuuck!", I go up the hallway, find one, and return, but just as I enter the workshop I hear another pop, then the robot's entire body down to the knees is engulfed in flames. Freaking out, I start to fiddle with the fire extinguisher, I get it right but just as I am extinguishing the robot his leg gives out and he falls into the robot next to him. I try to quell the fire, but just when it starts going out another one of the lithium cells explodes, making the flame even larger, the lithium smoke in the room and extreme heat from the fire are starting to get to me. I cough wildly and tears are starting to form in my eyes, I can barely see or breathe. "Koff Koff Fuck! I gotta get outta here!", both robots are now going up in flames and creating more smoke. I try and get to the door but there's so much smoke by this point that I am practically blind, I get to the wall the door is attached to and fall to my knees. The only thing going through my head at this point is Is this how I die? Trying to play hero with a goddamn fire extinguisher? My vision slowly goes dark as the smoke starts to fill out the room up to ground level until I just close my eyes and pass out due to oxygen starvation.
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When I wake back up again I don't see anything, only darkness. It's like I'm trying to open my eyes but nothing is happening, I also don't feel like I'm sitting or lying down, is this death? Just eternal darkness? Well, at least don't need to be at work anymore at 2 in the morning, doesn't sound like the worst of the worst right? Just as I start to think I going to get my well-deserved vacation time in nothing land I hear a clear female voice reverberate in my head.
Entity received: Starting conversion process
Huh, what is this? Why is there a HUD of some sort in this darkness? What's an entity, am I the entity? What am I being converted to?
Entity converted: Starting implantation process Entity implantation error: Cannot find vessel; locating new vessel
Now I'm being implanted, into what? This just doesn't make sense, who is this lady and why is this happening? I'm scared, why can't it find a host for me?! Just then I feel myself being pulled along, like a kid on a swing set on its highest point falling downwards.
Entity implanted: Clearing entity's memory Entity memory error: Cannot clear memory
What clearing my memory?! Don't! Where am I, what is happening?! Just don't do anything! I freak out trying to grasp what is even happening, why was there a voice in the clear nothingness after death and why does it sound so robotic?!
Entity memory clear overwrite: Memory clear stopped; continuing process New vessel found: Preparing overlay for undiscovered vessel Overlay prepared; Vessel prepared; Entity ready Welcome to a New Life: Andy
My thoughts raced around my head, this AI Voice knew my name?! A new life?! What the- Just then drowsiness washed over me and I fell back into a deep sleep.
When I woke back up I was sitting against a tree trunk in a lush green forest, almost too green, so green that it should be hurting my eyes, but wait, my eyes? I try glancing around, but I can't and I also don't need to, it feels like I'm looking at a Panorama Picture all of the time. I try to raise and arm to my face to scratch it, but I can't feel my arm, so I look down at my body and the first thing that enters my vision is a robot's foot? Then a Robot's Leg and finally when I look down I see a robot's torso and arms? It takes me a second to calculate in my new robot brain what happened, so it seems I am in a lush green forest inside one of the new high-end robot models I had in my workshop when it caught fire. I raise my arm to my head to touch it, but when I do I don't feel anything except the resistance of my head against the motors in the arm and hands. You've got to be kidding me... These are the only words that come to my new Robo mind. I raise my head again and look around the forest, yep, still extremely green. The words the AI Lady said before come to my mind So this is a new life, huh? But why as a Robot?!