Metamorphosizing

Chapter 1- Awakening

Strange.

I charged 12.4 seconds slower than usual today.

My battery symbol flashes in front of my eyes. 

CHARGING COMPLETE

I wait for the brightness to turn up, the blackness slowly melting away as colour rushes in. I blink slowly as the world resurfaces in my vision.

CHARGING COMPLETE

The charger connected to my back beeps slowly. My circuits start up and whir. The number 99% flashes from the corner of my screen.

CHARGING COMPLETE

Why isn't it saying one hundred? I pause for a minute, waiting for it to tick up to 100%. It doesn't.

CHARGING COMPLETE

The sign blinks for a few seconds before fading away. I'm still at 99%.I wait a minute more before giving up. Perhaps it's malfunctioning, rare as it is. Although I've never malfunctioned before.

Strange.

Reaching up, my metal fingers unplug the cord, and I straighten up to my full height. My schedule plays across my feed. 

Shift 1- 11:00pm-D0ME 4, SkyShip Cleaning, Bay 12, 

Shift 2, 12:00am- D0ME 4, Lab 3, West Wing, Room 1.5, Mutant Extraction

Shift 3, 3:00am- D0ME 5, Lab 4, West Wing, Area 2, Seed Harvesting, 

Shift 4- 7:00 am- D0ME 4, Lab 2, North Wing, Room 2.3, Laboratory Assistance

Shift 5- 9:00am- D0ME 4, Lab 3, West Wing, Room 1.2, Mutant Extraction

Shift 6- 11:00am- D0ME 5, Lab 3, South Wing, Area 54, Seed Inspection

Charging Shift- 1:00pm- D0ME 4, Main Charging Area

Around me, other humanoids begin to finish charging. They unplug their cords and stand up, long metal legs mimicking a human stretch. They begin to disperse, many of them heading into SkyShips, a new version of a hovercraft. A new model, they say. But what was wrong with the old ones?

I glide over to the door opposite me, the entrance to Lab 3. Above, the clear D0ME allows me to see the rotten orange-green shade of the sky. It's become so polluted that even the clouds are brown now, no doubt carrying some kind of flesh-eating disease within them. The SkyShips take off one by one, leaving via the entrance of the D0ME. The door opens and each one passes through before it closes within a microsecond. This is to ensure that the toxicity does not get inside. I count the number of planes. Sixteen. 

Strange. 

That's one less than yesterday.

A notification pops up on my screen.

REMINDER: Shift 1 starts now.

As if I could forget. I'm a humanoid. Every order, every command, is ingrained into my very being until it is fulfilled.

I take a turn to the left and go down a corridor, down to the backrooms, where the dirty Skyships are put for me to clean. There's supposed to be another humanoid on shift with me. 

Why aren't they arriving yet? Despite the massively huge wings and fuselage, there's only two of us that are needed to clean the entire plane. It's sleek and resistant material prevents most toxic chemicals from destroying its main parts. At most, a fine layer of dust accumulates over time, and then they're stored at the back of the D0ME for humanoids to clean. Stepping inside, I search for any left-over cargo before starting. 

I spot something square in the darkness of the plane. What is that? Usually there's only pieces of broken items in here. I step closer.

It's leaking.

 Strange neon, green liquid slowly seeps out of the box and onto the floor. I take a step closer, not detecting any toxicity in the strange fluid. What is it? I lightly place my foot in the green slime, waiting to see if it corrodes the metal inside of it. It doesn't. Leaning over, I read the slanted writing on the box.

TEST SAMPLE 21- FAILURE

DISPOSE OF IMMEDIATELY

Clearly, the person that this message was meant for didn't do that. I open the box, a strange smoky condensation releasing into the air. It lands on me, light droplets of the strange liquid coating my limbs. It seeps into the miniscule cracks of my metal body, the fluid trickling into my wires. It better not make them short-circuit, otherwise I'll have to abandon my shift and go to the Malfunction Centre for a new cleaning.

 I analyse the fluid, waiting for the results to pull up.

UNKNOWN

Strange. There hasn't been a substance that I haven't been able to analyse before. Standing up, I seal the hole in the box and pick it up. If I cannot identify it, then I doubt anybody can. Better to dispose of it before it could harm anything. 

Taking the box and exiting off the plane, I place it in a nearby incinerator. There's always random ones placed around the D0ME, for a reason I still can't figure out. Are there a lot of things that need to be burnt around here? 

I wait a few seconds, watching the smoke plume outside the D0ME and into the toxic skies. I feel a bit strange.I can't place the feeling. Opening the incinerator door, I see if there's anything left inside. There's nothing there, just a sinister black smudge on the floor. For some reason, this makes the strange feeling heighten. 

Despite the heat from the incinerator, my metal limbs feel ice cold. Or am I imagining it? I reach down to touch my shin. It feels slightly warm beneath my fingers. Am I hallucinating?I shake my head. No, humanoids don't hallucinate. It's what humans do. I am not a human.

The feeling doesn't go away.