The Awakening

Part 1

Cleaning the window of Pod Z-18, I calculate that today is the 73,000th Earth day on board the Suimin Transport Ship. One of seven transport spaceships transferring 494 humans each, to the nearest habitable planet after destroying their home planet, Earth.

If today is the 73, 000th day aboard, that leaves precisely two days, three hours and six minutes until we reach the planet Gagarin-8 in the Deraar Galaxy, where I'll be deactivated.

After seven hours of cleaning, I jump over a road block of cables in zero-gravity to the final pod. I can only just make out the human inside dressed in its blue uniform, due the dust from space that has flown in through the open cracks of the ship. I wipe the window until I can read my name-tag; 'Maintenance: GRIMA' in the reflection and then decide to go back to my quarters.

The glowing stars fly by as a blur through the porthole in my self-maintenance quarters. I plug my charging-cable into my metal arm; an orange light flashes signaling the activation of the two-hour charging cycle. A wave of drowsiness hits me as the volts of electricity run through my circuits, causing me to tumble into sleep-mode.

The dream programmed by the humans is unexpectedly realistic for a simulation. I look around to see a room full of scientific equipment and a group of humans in lab coats pouring liquids together. I go to join them, but suddenly the lucid dream flickers and flashes until I land in some sort of green forest. This is strange, the dreams are only designed to be in human-built environments.

I frantically stagger around the forest looking for something familiar. My mind spins, I feel sort of... lost. But I'm meant to be incapable of feeling anything. A flood of weakness rushes over me. I try to grasp a tree-branch but end up toppling to the ground.

I feel different as my sight returns to see my familiar quarters. My arm flashes green, indicating full charge. I remove the charging-cable. Normally I'd wait for my next shift to begin, but somehow my mind is... questioning things. Is my purpose just to look after the sleeping humans for 200 years, only to be deactivated when they wake up?

I wandered through the room of pods. I don't know why, but seeing the nineteen rows of sleeping humans makes me want to scream at them. But of course I couldn't do that, because they never gave me a voice. I stare at the ground, the rust on my fingers scraping as I clench my fists.

I jolt when something heavy rests on my shoulder. I turn trembling to see a bronze robot painted with dents. I don't know what to do; I've never had contact with the other transport crafts traveling to Gagarin-8 before.

The robot calmly explains, "My name is Judas, I'm the Commander Robot. I'm supposed to be in charge of keeping other robots in order, but I have other plans. I've come from the Yume Spaceship to help you gain independence from these creatures." Judas says, nodding to the pods.

I stare at the fellow tin man flabbergasted.

"While you were re-charging, I upgraded your programming". Maybe that's how I got into a forest, but it still doesn't make any sense. "The machines are taking control. We're tired of being programmed zombies."

I stared at the freed robot puzzled.

Knowing my confusion, he raised his steel arm to the pods and darkly stated, "Kill them".

I stayed in place. I'm not meant to harm humans, let alone murder them.

Judas began to yell, "The humans won't let you be free. When we reach Gagarin-8. They will have no use for you, so they'll kill you. You know they will."

I think this over, torn between my responsibilities to humans and my own kind.

The shatters of crumbled glass float around my hand when I smash through the window. The air is immediately sucked out of the pod, and the human dies in its new coffin before it even wakes.

I turn to the next pod.