Batro had already fallen asleep, and she was taking off her pants and boots to get into bed. In a moment when she hadn’t entered the bedroom yet, that’s when she saw it. It was suspended in the air, floating like a feather, while its propellers spun rapidly, allowing a blurry view of what was behind.

“Hello, Lavidia,” a metallic voice said, clearly audible and at the right volume. The sound came with the background hum of the propellers but was modulated with the appropriate frequency so that one tone didn’t overshadow the other.

The woman startled and took a step back, tripping over a dresser. She couldn’t go further because the wall was there.

“Don’t be frightened. We just want to ask you some questions.”

She had wide-open eyes, and it took her a while to react. After a moment, she found herself holding her breath and exhaled audibly.

“Really, don’t be afraid. You won’t suffer any harm. We won’t do anything to you or Batro.”

That’s when she reacted:

“Who are you? Or... What are you?”

“I’m just a robot. I’m controlled by two beings who are higher up.”

Lavidia looked at the ceiling and logically saw nothing. Then the device changed the modulation and put on another voice:

“My name is SAIR-Spda, and my partner is called MIRV-Spdb. We are on a spacecraft in orbit around the planet. We’ve come from very far away, from another world orbiting a star that is forty light-years away.”

“What?” she managed to say, swallowing hard. She almost choked.

“We’ve come from very far away, and we want to learn.”

“Learn? Learn what?”

“Learn about our origins. We believe you could explain it to us.”

Then she couldn’t hold back. Suspicion, caution, and fear turned into a tremendous hilarity, and she began to laugh heartily, almost convulsively. For a moment, she thought it was a joke, that someone in her family, perhaps her sister, was playing a prank on her. But she quickly realized it couldn’t be. That robot was like the one she had found two nights ago, something she had never seen in her life, and she dismissed any hypothesis or conjecture that could be made.

The laughter had awakened Batro, who went out to the living room and witnessed the scene. For a moment, he was tempted to grab the broom again, but he remembered the scolding his wife had given him when he did it, so he stayed on guard. The object now didn’t seem dangerous, despite how strange it was, especially witnessing Lavidia’s laughter.

With Batro by her side, she relaxed a bit, and since the robot didn’t seem to pose any threat, she loosened up, although she still didn’t believe that the object came from any planet forty light-years away.

“Can I explain your origins?” she continued with the game.

“We believe you can.”

“Alright. Hit me with the questions.”

“Alright, let’s get to the point,” said SAIR.

Next, the robot projected an image on an empty wall that Lavidia could see clearly. It was ‘something’ that was half her height, with a hexagonal body slightly curved at its edges, more horizontal than vertical, and with six legs protruding from each side. The hexapod moved on a rocky surface under a reddish light, and from its top and bottom, there were sensors or tentacles that moved, as if trying to gather information from the surroundings.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“We call this subject ‘The Ancestor’,” SAIR continued, “and it’s considered the origin of our civilization.”

“Ah, very well,” Lavidia responded, letting out a smile.

“The question is: did you create The Ancestor?”

“Who? Me?”

“I mean, the human race.”

“Well, not that I know of,” she continued with the jest.

“Who could know?”

“Come on, let’s see,” she got irritated. The joke had gone on for too long. “Neither I nor any other woman I know has created that spider-like being. No one has traveled to any planet, let alone a star, that is... How much? Thirty light-years?”

“Almost forty. It’s in the constellation you call ‘the pregnant one’ because it looks like a pregnant woman. The star is called TRAPPIST-1, and we specifically are from the second planet, counting from the sun.”

“Well, sorry, extra-terrestrial gentlemen. You’ve got the wrong door. We haven’t done it. I’m afraid you’ve made this trip for nothing.”

Lavidia stepped forward slightly and crossed her arms, while Batro sat in the armchair and started nodding off. She hoped that at this moment the joke would end, and the device would reveal its true origin, but it didn’t happen. On the contrary, it now projected a video on the same wall of what they had found on the satellite a few days ago. MIRV spoke:

“This station, or rather, factory, is on the Moon.”

“On the Moon?”

“Yes. Don’t you call your satellite that?”

Lavidia nodded slightly. She still had a serious expression.

“Here, we have found irrefutable evidence that whoever built this factory probably also created The Ancestor.”

“Who built that factory?”

“You did.”

“Okay, enough is enough. We have never been to the Moon.”

“Never? None of you have been there?”

“No. It’s impossible. No device can lift off with so much weight,” Lavidia remembered her grandmother’s words. “The batteries wouldn’t withstand it. Besides, why go there? According to research, the Moon has no atmosphere and is uninhabitable. It makes no sense to settle in that place when there’s more than enough space for all of us here.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“About what?”

“No woman has ever set foot on the surface of the Moon.”

“I am completely sure. Our civilization has advanced a lot in the last two centuries, but not that much.”

“Then,” SAIR intervened, “what were those two women doing there?”

“What two women?”

The robot now showed images of the control room of the factory, where they had discovered the two astronauts. That was the last straw, and Lavidia said:

“Okay, enough is enough. I’ve answered all the questions correctly, haven’t I? Now tell me: have I won the contest? Have I done better than the other girls?”

“It’s not a joke, Lavidia. We are not part of any contest. We have come from very far away to ask you all this, on a journey that has taken us decades. Almost a century. Everything we’ve said is the truth.”

“Oh really?”

“Of course. What could we do to convince you?”

The girl looked at the robot and, after a moment said:

“Alright. Now I’m going to bed, as a hard day of excavation awaits me tomorrow. You said you live on a spacecraft in orbit, right? If tomorrow, when I wake up, the ship is here at my doorstep, I’ll believe you and continue answering questions. Okay?”