In Progress Waiting in Earth (Original)

A/N: It came to me, as ideas normally do, when I was doing a mundane task. In this case, it was making lunch. And as I normally do with plot bunnies, I latched on to it. So I hope that you enjoy the prologue. Please R&R!


A snap disturbed the quiet of the abandoned house, sending a man’s leg straight through the decaying floor. His partner spun around, kicking up centuries of dust. “Quiet!” he hissed, eyes nervously darting left to right. “You could alert something!” The other man groaned as he pulled his leg from the rubble.

“What something?” he asked. “There’s nothing here except you, me, and all these damn vines!” The man glared at the vines that covered the entirety of the building. They had already tripped the two of them up countless times, and they seemed to be as old as the house itself. His partner scanned the room, searching for something in the dim light. “Now, Chris, would you please inform me of why we’re risking our lives on the Old Planet, which we are not allowed on, may I add, when we could be nice and safe on the ship?”

Chris looked back at him, disinterest in his eyes. “Because, Jack,” he said slowly, as if he was speaking to a child, “We could find something valuable. And you know how well Val pays for any piece on technology that the Old Ones left behind.” Jack sighed, before rejoining his friend on the search.

“It’s not worth the risk.”

“I know.”

“We’re not going to find anything.”

“Of course.”

“And even if we did, you know what they would do? They would just-“

“Arrest us for going down here. We’ve been over this already, Jack.”

“Chris, would you listen to me for one sec-“ And then Jack’s foot hit against something, and a metallic clang was heard. Chris stood there dumbfounded, moving his foot away slowly. Chris hit him aside the head.

“Don’t stand there doing nothing! This could be our find!” Chris shouted, dropping to his knees and working the vines off of the object. Jack nodded, mimicking Chris’ movements. They were quiet as they worked; only pausing every so often to grab a knife to cut the thicker vines. The first part they discovered was a scarf, blue, faded, and frayed. Jack looked at it before tossing it into a hole in the floor. A piece of cloth was worthless after all.
The dim light turned orange before fading away completely, leaving only the full moon and the many lights of their ship to light the place.
It was then that they made the discovery.

“I-imposable!” Jack said, hands shaking and jaw dropping. “T-there’s… There’s a man here!” He stared at the man. “Though, I’ve never seen one with blue hair before…” Jack shivered as the man’s glassy eyes stared at him, never blinking and completely empty. “Ugh, it’s creepy too,” he stated, before realizing something. “Hey, shouldn’t he have decayed already?” Chris narrowed his eyes before studying a dark triangular cut on the man cheek.

“Aha!” he said, pointing. “That’s no man, Jack. See?” Jack peered at the cut, eyes widening when he saw metal instead of maggots.

“It’s one of the robots!” Jack exclaimed. Chris smirked.

“Who said we weren’t going to find anything?”
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Valerie looked at the screen before her, sorting through the flies that she had found. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as the types commands, trying to uncover the last little bit of information that she was missing. She sniffed, winkling her nose and coughing. “I thought I told you two to take a shower! You smell like death.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “We just want to know how big of a find we found, Val. What’s the use of risking our lives down on the Old Planet-“

“It’s called Earth, Chris,” Valerie stated, still staring at the screen.

“Who cares what the Old Ones called it, Val? Anyway, what’s the use of risking our lives for a bunch of trash?” Valerie sighed.

“Unfortunately, boys, it seems that’s what you found,” she informed Chris and Jack sadly.

“What,” Chris said, deadpan.

“The robot’s personality matrix is fried, its X-modifier is overrun by vines, its generator has been reduced to dust, and I can’t find the reset code anywhere. Your ‘bot is dead.”

“What did I tell you, Chris?” Jack asked, face in hands. Chris scoffed.

“Don’t you get started! You got just as excited as I did when you saw it!” he yelled, clenching his fists. Jack leapt up looking like he was ready to fight Chris.

“Oh please! I warned you and you know it!”

“You warned me? Are you insane?”

“Well I don’t know! Did I say that we would make our for-“

“BOYS!” Valerie yelled, glaring daggers at the men. “We’ll still make money! His memories are still intact.”

“And how is that going to make us money, Miss Scientist?” Chris asked. Valerie rolled her eyes.

“For years people have been wondering what happened while we were gone. We could give a datacard with the memories to Alice and she could claim that they picked up a robot on the search beam. As for the body,” Valerie looked to the dead robot. “We’ll scrap it and sell its working parts.” Jack squirmed.

“Isn’t that wrong?” he asked, recalling what he had read about the robots that the Old Ones had built so long ago. Valerie gave him a wolfish grin.
“Of course it’s not wrong. It’s only a machine,” she said matter-of-factly. Chris grinned.

“Then get started!” Valerie once again sniffed.

“Only if you two shower like I told you to,” she said.

The two men groaned.

“Women and their silly concerns,” Jack said, shaking his head.

“Ye-“ Chris started, but he was cut off by the feeling of pin heels striking the back of his head.

“OW!” both men yelled out, glaring back at Valerie. Valerie just battered her eyes.

“Why, how could little ol’ me have done that?” she asked, hand over her heart. The men just turned and stomped out. Valerie laughed at their stupidity, before getting up to retrieve her shoes. As she walked back, she stopped to look at the blue haired robot. “You know,” she said quietly. “I wonder what could’ve broken you down from the inside like that…” She put her hand on the cold robot, feeling the fake skin and the rags that used to be clothes. “…If you could work, you could’ve saved yourself,” she said turning to the computer, and pushing a datacard into its slot. She sighed. “Still, in the end you will enlighten us all…” she muttered, absent-mindedly beginning downloading the life of the robot, starting from the date that the ship had been launched. She stood up, staring at the screen as it began to flicker to life, a picture appearing and sound starting. Valerie was quiet before turned around, staring at the room before flicking off the lights.

She felt bad about what she was doing. But she knew it didn’t matter.

It was only a machine. And machines couldn’t care.

A/N: Look, look! I'm updating something! Take a picture while it lasts.

23XX 07 19 1200

“Sasha, hurry up!” Mistress called franticly. Sasha looked from me to the doorway before yelling out.

“I’m coming, Mom!” she yelled, stuffing her video game collection franticly into her suitcase. As she zipped it out and turned to run out the door, she tripped over the trash and clothes piled around the room. I quickly reacted, catching her in my arms. She sighed with relief. “Thanks, Bleó,” she said. I nodded.

“You are welcome, Sasha,” I replied, followed by a short bow. Sasha giggled.
“There’s no reason to be so formal, you know.” I blinked.

“You are a human, I am a robot. There’s every reason,” I told her. She always seemed to have trouble remembering that. Sasha smiled sadly.

“I’m gonna miss you, you know. When Mom sad that there were no robots allowed, well…” She laughed. “It’s nothing.” She turned to walk out of the door and I followed her, trailing slightly behind. When I caught sight of Mistress, I stopped in the doorway. Mistress looked Sasha over with a well trained eye.

“Well, you look alright,” she said. She opened the door, hot air rushing into the room. “Come on, the ship won’t wait forever.” Sasha looked at me sadly, pulling something out of her pocket. She handed me the object, made of cloth before turning away, tears in her eyes.

“I know you won’t need it, with the desert and all, but I thought that you might like a little reminder of me, Bleó,” she told me. I unfurled the cloth.

“A scarf?” I asked her. She nodded. I wrapped in around my neck. “Thank you,” I said. She just ran out the door, climbing into the car and shutting the door with a loud bang.

“Bleó.” I turned to Mistress. She looked at me, softer than I had ever seen her do before. “I have no more orders for you. Please recharge until we come back.” I looked at her with surprise.

“You will be back?” I asked. That wasn’t what Sasha had told me. Mistress was quiet.

“Of course,” she said. But it was lacking the strength I had normally heard her speak with. She swiftly walked out and I walked up to the doorway watched her drive away into the heat. I stood there for a while. Was the decease really that bad? Was the climate really that bad? Did the humans really have to leave Earth? I gripped the doorframe.

“Come back safe,” I muttered closing the door and walking to my recharge pod. Before I fell asleep in the pod I wondered one last thing.

“Will I wake up again?”


24XX 04 23 0000

That was the moment the power went out. I jolted awake, the shock of it forcing me online. “Sasha?” I called out. “Mistress?” There was no reply. I sat up, trying to look around the room in the dead of night. I climbed out of the pod, nervously listening to the way the house squeaked under my weight. I gulped, a feeling of dread passing through me. As I made my way to the door of the quiet house, I listened to the way the sand crunched under my boots. Wait, sand?

I looked down. It was as if the sand had made its way through every crack in the house. Also on the ground was something I hadn’t noticed before: the glass from the windows. Okay, so a hundred years, give or take a few, had passed. But the amount of disrepair was unnerving. I gulped, once again moving forward.

Every so often, I saw a dark shape move before, causing me to stop in my tracks. Had the surviving animals moved into the house in my family’s place? Was it the same in all the other houses in the neighborhood? I found myself at the front door. This wouldn’t have taken half the time that it did if I wasn’t scared out of my wits I realized glumly. I grasped the cold doorknob, turning it.

The world outside my house had not changed as much as the inside of my house had. It was still a desert, a result of World War III, something that happened long before I was activated. I gulped again, making my way into the world. I knew I wouldn’t survive in there; my back-up generator was fueled by sun and human food. While, judging by the size of the holes in the roof, I might get enough sun; the food supply had to be long gone. I took a deep breath and stepped into the world.

I had no idea how to get food.

But I would have to try.
_______________
I walked all that night, until the peeked up before the horizon. All night I had heard the howling of wolves, which both confused me and scared me. But so far it had just been me and the never-ending sand.

That is, until I heard the wolves much, much closer to me. I stopped and turned. To my shock, what I saw was a pack of dogs, skinny, strong, growling, and hungry. They had long since lost their differences, leaving a pack that looked much like their ancestors, the gray wolves.

Except so hungry that they would try to eat metal. What a lovely end to a lovely life. I could see it all before my eyes, the shock of just existing all of a sudden, the chores, Sasha as a baby, Sasha when she would pull on my hair, Mistress ordering me around, Master’s death to the disease, all of it, all of it. I wondered where to robots go after they die. To where humans did? Did we have a separate place? Did we just pop out of-

“Get out of the way!” a man shouted, pushing me into the dirt.

“Wha?” I asked, watching as the blur of red beat back the dogs.

“Chew on this!” he yelled, fists raining down. The dogs barked at first, diving into the man, but they were beaten back. It seemed to me that the man was too strong for them to handle. The leader of the pack barked and the rest of the dogs joined their leader, running off. My savior stood there breathing heavily, glaring at the receding pack. “That’ll show ‘em…”

“Are you okay?” I asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. He waved my hand off and turned around to face me.

“I’m fine,” he said. Indeed, he barely had a scratch on him. “See?” He smiled at me. He then looked at me with seriousness. “What’s a man-“

“I’m a ‘bot,” I told him, arms folded.

“Excuse me ,a robot, like you doing out here anyway? It’s dangerous out here.”

“That much I can gather,” I told him. I sighed. “The power went out at my house. I was snapped out of recharge. But it’s nice to see that not all the human have left.” The man laughed. “What?” I asked. I hadn’t said anything funny, right?

“I’m no human either,” he told me. “No human naturally has this red of hair. Or range eyes for that matter.” I puffed out my cheeks.

“Well, no human I know has blue hair either. Didn’t stop you.” The robot laughed again.

“I suppose so,” he said smiling. “After all, what kind of human would go out in your get-up? The shirt’s okay, but jeans and a scarf?” I blushed.

“The scarf was a gift from my mistress’ daughter,” I defended. I couldn’t deny he was better dressed than I was, with a light no-sleeved shirt and shorts on, but I was allowed memories, right?

“Of course, of course.” He paused, looking serious again. “As I said, it’s dangerous to go alone. We should stick together.” I was shocked.

“With I complete stranger?”

“It’s better than death, right?” He grabbed my hand and shook it. “I’m Aka. You?”

“Uh, Bleó,” I replied, a little shocked by his forwardness. Aka grinned at me, throwing his arm around my shoulders.

“Well, Bleó, this looks like the start of a beau~tiful friendship!”

I groaned.
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[1] Bleó’s name is Old English for, well, Blue.
[2] Aka’s name comes from the transliteration of the first kanji in the word “sekishoku” or red. Or I could say it comes from its alternate reading of “akairo”. It still means red. I’M SO CREATIVE, RIGHT?