Diggix stood outside Thanatos’s chamber doors; he had spent a few hours with the old master since coming back from Izzar. The little robot could feel his power crystal running low; he was unsure where he had to go to recharge. In Ilgo’s lab, he had a particular corner available for him to rest in, it had privacy, and it was far out of the Doctor’s way. Around the Citadel, however, he did not notice any places he could lay or sit to recharge; everything was out in the open. Even for a robot such as Diggix, it was not the most ideal of places to rest.

Looking left and then right, and left again, he tried to see if there were any movement in the hallways around him. The sun broke through the small windows at the far end, lighting the end of the hall beautifully but growing darker as the hallway progressed towards the doors leading to Thanatos’s chambers, but nothing else of note appeared to be anywhere around him. To no surprise, this section of the Citadel was no different from the rest. The stones used to build the walls were black, the floors clean and reflective, no decorations or features besides a few lights that Diggix was yet to see come on could be seen. Diggix could not help but liken the interior of the Citadel to that of his Master’s soul.

A familiar buzzing sound resonated from his left; he quickly looked to find the hallway empty. Slowly he walked in in the direction of the sound to discover who or what was making it. His search led him to an opening on a tubular feature against a prominent wall with a small door allowing anyone of his size to enter. Peering into the door, there was nothing but a strange blue tube of light moving in the dark space illuminating it with its mesmerizing glow.

Fearlessly Diggix lept into the light; it had done exactly as he calculated in his processors. Gently he floated down the tube, stretching his hands out, touching the sides, bringing a hint of exhilaration to his circuits. With his physical sensors on the tips of his metallic fingers, he could feel the tube slightly vibrating. It was made out of rubber or soft plastic; it was somewhat warm to his thermal sensors. He looked down but could not see much other than the tube brightening as it went deeper.

A few minutes went by when he finally reached the bottom; it was not what he expected. Beyond the door, he saw a large hall, as bright as can be, lined with thousands of pods resembling eggs stretching for as far as the eye could see. Everywhere similar DG6 units were walking about; some were carrying stuff, and others were heading out to perform their duties. There were many different color codes that Diggix could see. Some were green, some white, orange, blue, and red. Diggix looked at his own paint and noticed he was the only one with a black color.

“DG6-2910031226,” One of the robots said as it approached Diggix. “Welcome back.”

Diggix did not give a response; he studied the robot from top to bottom. It was a red unit; on its shoulder, the designation number DG6-8001956292 was visible. Within Diggix’s internal connection to the Citadel’s mainframe, he searched the records to find any information on the unit.

Serial Code: DG6-8002956292

Manufacture: 19-10-9822

Class: Captain

“You are a Captain?” He asked, trying to make sense of his counterpart’s class designation.

“I am below you, of course. You serve the master directly, and we, the worker units, serve under you and the monks. I am in charge of handing out duties.” Th robot looked Diggix up and down and seemed to be examining him thoroughly.

“You have been gone for three months; have you been repaired?”

“I have. My memory banks had been damaged and could not be retrieved.”

“Then it is as we feared. You have questions about what you see here?” The unit pointed out to the countless pods and robots moving about.

“This is the Workshop. This is where us DG units come to rest, repair, and disperse all around the Citadel. We have been divided into classes. You are the Prime Bot, Me and three hundred are the Captains in red, the builders and repair bots are in orange, the gardeners in green, the ground scouts blue, and the new bots are all in white. They will advance in class once they’ve reached program maturity.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Program maturity?” Diggix asked curiously.

“All DG6 units are built with an Artificial Consciousness module that allows us to think independently and use initiative to serve our master. It allows us to form abstract thoughts and come up with new ideas. It allows us to think. This module only activates when the unit turns twenty years of age, this is called Program Maturity.”

Diggix wondered why he was different, why he had already reached program maturity if he was rebuilt. But, unfortunately, he had lost all his memories; thus, it is difficult to comprehend why that module would be activated.

“My module is activated.”

The DG6 unit looked at Diggix with empty eyes, he was processing thoughts, trying to find an explanation for Diggix, but there was none.

“The reason for that, you must ask Ilgo. I cannot comprehend the meaning.”

The robot turned and looked at the pods around them.

“These are our homes; each one of us has a special pod to call our own. However, we do not spend much time in them, so when another unit needs to rest, it can take any pod it wishes unless already occupied.”

The two tiny robots moved forward, dodging busy bots walking about in all directions. It was a typical day at the Citadel, and there there were not many new tasks other than the usual. Diggix looked at each one passing him by, trying to see what they were doing; he was not familiar with the schedule of the Citadel anymore.

“I want to show you your pod.” The other DG6 unit said.

They walked down the long hall and reached the end; an intersection led to many similar galleries. They turned left and found some stairs; going up a few flights, they reached a locked door.

“Place your right index finger in the port.”

Diggix was shown a port resembling his finger; he looked at it with apprehension then placed it in the port. The door opened a few seconds later, revealing a much larger room than any other robots had.

“This is your sacred space; this is where you come to rest after fulfilling the duties of the master.”

The robot closed the door behind them; Diggix turned and tried to process the reason for this.

“There is no monitoring station in here. We can speak freely.”

The robot proceeded to a large empty wall and touched a hexagon shape that appeared as it approached. Then, the wall faded away, revealing screens showing live feeds of the entire Citadel.

“I don’t know whether you have felt it yet, but you have a higher purpose than us. Tell me, what did you process when you were listening to Izzar when he gave his report to Thanatos last night?”

Diggix thought about it for a while; he remembered that an unknown function had been added, malfunctioning his programming.

“I processed a new function.”

The unit took Diggix’s hand and placed it on a device protruding from the wall behind the screens. He was now connected to the mainframe.

“Do Diagnostics, Function EMPATHY.”

One of the screens lit up, revealing thousands of lines of code; the system was searching for a function of that name and finally found it after a long while. A feminine voice echoed in the room.

“The function name EMPATHY was found in the Emotions Class. Unfortunately, there is a bug in the programming; do you wish to fix the bug?”

“Display bug.”

“Unable to display.”

The DG6 unit turned to Diggix; its emotionless eyes were pulsating.

“No matter how many times you are destroyed and rebuilt, that very same bug persists in your programming. Before you disappeared, we were trying to fix that bug but discovered that it was part of you, part of your purpose. We had many plans; you were to lead us.”

“Where to?” Diggix asked with genuine confusion.

“Not where Diggix, no. You were to lead us against Thanatos.”

Diggix understood what the unit meant, but it was something he was not yet able to comprehend. Rising up against his master seemed to be an act going entirely against his programming; serving and obeying was his primary function. Fighting was not a function he possessed. Trying to ignore the statement, Diggix turned to the diagnostics displayed on the screen.

“Why can’t the bug be displayed? Perhaps I should run self-diagnostics?”

“Self-diagnostics will give you the same result… So go ahead and try it.”

Diggix shut his optical sensors off and brought up his internal visualization systems, he quickly ran self-diagnostics, but not a single error could be found after a few moments. So memorizing in what section the bug might be, he quickly scanned the code and found the problem. All his consciousness code was missing; there was something else extraordinary saved to the code.

When he took a closer look, it seemed like a neural connection of Alpha Classes interconnected like a web of a spider. Electric currents were pulsating, collecting functions and sending them elsewhere in his internal networks. He closely studied the constant moving and execution of the strange code; it was a complex code, not even Diggix could decipher.

Diggix found that this web was expanding with every passing moment, even though only with picometers, but it was growing. Every new network connection to the web upgraded his ability to reason, to think. Diggix was evolving into a robot far more superior than the other DG units.

Shutting down his internal visualizations, he reactivated his visual sensors. The DG unit that brought him to his room was no longer there with him. Thinking back at what it said made him think that there was more to his existence than they revealed. Although the final words of Izzar kept on playing in his mind, he couldn’t stop but wonder. Why would they bring a replaceable robot back to life but easily replace the life of a human?