Klunk

by Bill Bowler

Table of Contents, parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

part 5

The remains of the original colony structures were in ruin. We set up tents as temporary shelter while we went about restoring the abandoned dwellings, machine shops, and warehouses. We had brought with us basic supplies such as dehydrated food, seeds, equipment, tools, and an all-terrain vehicle. The Seeker would never fly again so we stripped her for scrap metal, spare parts, furniture, appliances, computers, com equipment, whatever we could make use of.

One of our first tasks was to erect a com tower next to the power generator. A week after arrival, with restoration of the colony in full swing, Robby contacted the android settlement. BOT Twelve renewed the invitation for us to visit their facilities. A delegation of Captain Pierson, Caspar, Robby and I set out in the ATV for the android base. I confess we had an ulterior motive for our visit: we wanted answers. The mystery of the colonists’ disappearance was constantly on our mind, and we feared the worst. Surely the androids could tell us something.

We drove northwest over rough roads, bouncing along through the forest, along the riverbank, and reached the android settlement in half a day. We emerged on a path cut through dense brush to behold a marvelous sight. The android facility was an extensive complex of shining metallic cubes, spheres, pyramids and towers, arranged concentrically and connected by a network of tubes and tunnels. The structures gleamed in the daylight, were perfectly maintained and highly polished. The walls were smooth and solid.

There were no windows anywhere. Slowly rotating scanning and communications devices were mounted externally on the roofs. There was little activity outside the enclosed structures. One large-capacity tunnel, marked Tunnel C, led to an adjacent launch site where several spacecraft, including the Gort, stood in open silos.

BOT Twelve and Areal met us at the base perimeter and led us through a doorway into the interior of one of the tunnels. We were greeted with a burst of activity. Dozens of androids and vehicles, large and small, moved past us in a steady flow of two-way traffic. As we proceeded further into the complex, we saw androids at work in mechanical repair shops, electronic supply depots, power plants, communications centers, warehouse storage. It was an anthill, an enclosed, fully automated android village.

BOT Twelve took us to his “quarters” which were no more than a spacious room with a recharge station and an array of maintenance tools and materials. There was no place to sit.

“What do you think?” asked BOT Twelve. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was fishing for compliments.

“Looks like heaven,” said Robby. We all stared at him. It was highly unusual for him to offer an opinion or engage in conversation.

“Yes, very impressive,” said Captain Pierson.

“Everything a bot’s little heart could desire,” said Caspar. “As if you would know.”

“Do you have accommodations for humans, as well?” asked Captain Pierson.

“There has been no need.”

“Until now,” said Areal. “Perhaps now things have changed. Maybe it’s time to make some additions.”

“Areal,” I said, “you and BOT Twelve look so much like each other. Are you related?”

“A matched set,” muttered Caspar.

Areal and BOT Twelve looked at each other in a surprisingly human way. Was it possible they were fond of each other?

“You might say we are brother and sister,” said Areal. “We were designed from the same template and manufactured in the same facility at the same time.”

“Let’s stop beating around the bush and get to the point,” said Caspar. “That’s not very friendly. I don’t care. Where do you androids come from? What are you doing here? What have you done with the colonists?”

“Caspar, please!” I said.

“He’s right on one point,” said Captain Pierson. “We need to know what happened.”

“Permission is required to access those files.”

“I may have a workaround,” said Robby. He turned to BOT Twelve. “Do you have an available port?”

“Well, I don’t know, I... I... I...” BOT Twelve started to loop.

“Connect to me,” said Areal. She opened an in-put. BOT Twelve restarted and regained homeostasis.

Robby plugged in to Areal and ran a hack program. Both androids stood motionless for several minutes while Robby cracked the password.

“F4cE2FaC3!”

Areal began to speak: “The colony was founded as an android exclusion zone, but the colonists had second thoughts. They realized the great benefit of mechanical assistance during the initial phase of colonization, clearing ground, construction, paving roads, and the like.

“They overcame their aversion to androids and brought BOT Twelve and me along. The decision was controversial and not publicized. We were prohibited from commingling with humans. They instructed us to build our own separate facilities, to stay away from the human population when not operating under their supervision. They planned to decommission us and re-establish the exclusion zone once the colony achieved self-sufficiency.”

“Not a bad plan,” said Caspar. “Lovely. It could work. You mean we could do the work for them. I understand what they were trying to do. So do I.”

“Then you were manufactured on Earth and came here with the original colonists?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Areal.

“What happened to them, for God’s sake?” asked Captain Pierson.

“They died from exposure.”

We stood dumbfounded.

BOT Twelve went on. “They froze to death.”

“It was terrible,” said Areal. “We were not prepared for winter. The change of season is abrupt. There was no warning and, when the temperature dropped, they suffered terribly. BOT Twelve and I did what we could, but eventually we also froze and were unable to help. The cold was too extreme.

“The colonists realized their days were numbered,” said BOT Twelve, “and took a drastic step. Against everything they believed, everything they had lived and sacrificed for, a software engineer working with a cyberneticist modified code to save human memories in android format.

“The program was installed and colonist memories copied and saved in Areal and me before the heat failed in the last heated room and the bitter cold froze everything and everyone. The program was buggy, but it worked. So great was their shame, they encrypted the software so no one would ever know what they had done, no one would know they had betrayed their deepest beliefs.”

“When summer returned,” said Areal, “BOT Twelve and I thawed out, regained consciousness, and the human memories flooded our drives. So, you see, we not only remember the colonists, we remember their memories.”

“Over time,” said BOT Twelve, “here at the base, Areal and I constructed shelter appropriate to the climate, and designed the machinery and equipment needed to replicate ourselves. That is the origin of the current android population on Alphane 3. But come with me. I want to show you something.”

Areal and BOT Twelve led us back out through the tunnel, through another set of doors, and across an inner plaza open to the sky. We climbed a path up a slope and arrived at a large grassy area with trees and a fountain. In the middle of the park stood a monument, a metallic sculpture of a human figure, larger than life, depicting the last colonist to perish, reaching up towards the sky. Inscribed on a plaque on the base of the statue were the names of the colonists and the dates of death, only weeks apart.

* * *

The time had come for us to leave the android base and return to our settlement. As we said goodbye to our hosts and boarded the ATV, Robby remained standing by the vehicle, looking down at the ground.

“What is it, Robby?” asked Pierson.

“Captain, requesting permission to stay behind.”

“Here?”

“Yes, sir.”

The Captain was nonplussed. “Well, I don’t know. What’s the reason?”

“I am experiencing rapid expansion of cognitive function from networking with multiple advanced AI.”

“Robby,” said Captain Pierson, “we need you with us. We’re already short-handed, and there is a great deal of work to do.”

“I understand,” said Robby, “but perhaps a replicate could be manufactured for your use... use... use...” Robby shut down and restarted.

“Captain,” I said, “we must respect his wishes and let him go.”

“Robot wishes?” said Caspar. “Haha. I wish you’d shut up.”

“We’ll muddle by without him, Captain.”

“I don’t know, Rector.”

“I have an idea,” said Areal. “Let Robby remain here, and I will return with you and take his place.”

“Well...”

“Captain,” I said, “it’s a win/win. Both androids benefit and neither community loses.”

“All right,” said Captain Pierson, “I’m willing to give it a try.”

“I’ll miss you, Robby,” said Caspar. “So will I.”

“A last word, Captain,” said BOT Twelve as we were boarding our ATV with Areal for the return trip to our camp. “It must already be clear but you must begin preparations for winter without delay. The temperature is about to change. It can drop overnight. There will be no warning and it will be soon. You must be properly sheltered. We are prepared to assist you in any way possible.”

“That won’t be necessary,” said Klunk. “Why not? Everything’s under control. Are you sure? We are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves. Tell me another one.”

“Thank you,” said Captain Pierson to BOT Twelve. “We’ll ask for help if we need it.”

The next day, the weather remained mild. BOT Twelve’s warnings seemed less dire and somehow unreal. We bathed in the river and sunned ourselves on the bank. Areal went to work reinforcing our walls and installing insulation, but the rest of us procrastinated. Winterizing our water lines and power generator was a huge job. We would get to it, but not this second. There seemed plenty of time.

* * *

A week later, the temperature dropped fifty degrees overnight. I lay in bed in my robe, shivering under a pile of covers. The moisture from my breath condensed in the air and froze my beard. The baseboard heating was cold to the touch. Frigid air blew in through the seams around my window. I was, at this point, very very sorry we had not heeded BOT Twelve’s warning.

The next day, the temperature dropped another hundred degrees and the first winter storm hit. It was a disaster we had brought upon ourselves. It was no one’s fault but our own.

Outside, the wind was howling, like some wild alien creature. I watched through my window with horror as the force of the wind toppled our communication tower. Snow began to fall. The coming of death could not have been more beautiful or terrifying to behold. The temperature was plummeting. The thin walls of our dwellings were battered by the wind, our meager heat leaked out through the cracks. I struggled to turn up the heat, but my fingers stung from the cold and were too stiff to turn the valve. Then the pipes burst.

Areal worked like a madwoman, racing from room to room at top speed, replacing pipes, insulating lines, repairing heaters, sealing cracks, her fingers a blur. When night came, we called to her to come inside, but she kept working. Our worst fear was realized. The lubrication froze in her lines and her joints seized. She was conscious, but immobilized outside Caspar’s dwelling, in the midst of trying to patch a crack in his wall.

We huddled together in one room, exhausted and freezing, trying in vain to keep each other warm with body heat, having given up all hope, when we saw a beam of light penetrate the swirling snow and heard the sound of an engine outside. Two figures in full protective all-weather gear entered the room. It was BOT Twelve and Robby!

They immediately set up portable battery-powered high-intensity heating units they had brought from the android base. Warmth spread through the room like a healing balm. They retrieved Areal from a snowbank, carried her in, thawed her out, and restarted her. While the heat was being gradually restored, they unloaded several large trunks that contained heavy-duty micro-weave cold-resistant outerwear.

“Thank God you’ve come!” I said to BOT Twelve.

“We grew alarmed when we lost contact.”

“We deduced you might be in trouble,” said Robby.

BOT Twelve and Robby winterized Areal. The three androids then did their best to seal our walls and keep the heat generators running, but it was a losing battle; too little, too late. The force of nature was too strong, and they could not make up now for our complete lack of preparation.

“I see no other choice,” said BOT Twelve.

“Neither do I,” said Robby.

“What is it?” asked Captain Pierson.

“You must relocate to our settlement,” said BOT Twelve. “Our base is fully weather-proofed. We can adapt living quarters for you. You will be warm and comfortable.”

“And among friends,” said Areal. “Please, Egon.”

God sees the truth, but waits. Our former contempt and distrust of the bots seemed ludicrous at this point, so much had they done for us. I was ready to turn over rectorship of the Temple to BOT Twelve. With skis on their vehicle, they ferried us through the forest to their complex. The frozen river and snow-covered trees and meadows sparkled and gleamed as Alpha Centauri A rose in the pink morning sky.

At the android base, our gracious hosts made us feel at home and treated us like honored guests, more than we deserved. Without hesitation, we accepted their invitation to stay with them permanently. With their help, we built homes alongside theirs, beautiful, modern, solid, permanent structures, connected directly to the android base tunnel system. And we labored, androids and humans together, to build the magnificent new Temple that now houses our library and archive.

* * *

On the third anniversary of our move to the android base, once the warm season returned, Caspar, Areal, BOT Twelve, Captain Pierson, Robby, Dearborn, Tanya — all of us together — went to the small park and laid a wreath at the monument to the original settlers.

The sun was setting, the sky was growing dark. We raised our eyes to the heavens, when a streak of light crossed the night sky. I interpreted this as an omen of God’s grace but, before it reached the horizon, the streak reversed direction. We realized it was not a shooting star, but a spacecraft, heading now in our direction. We rushed to the communications center and tried to make contact.

“The ship is from Earth,” BOT Twelve informed us.

Proceed to part 6...

Copyright © 2021 by Bill Bowler