Episode 5 - A Conversation about Time and Civilizations

"Sand, ruins, and memories, that's all that remained of the great buildings consumed by time." I said to POD 000 in front of me as we stood on the roof of a building buried in the sand, enough that only the roof stood out.

Devola, Popola, 11B, and I were in the area near the metal gate that blocked the path to the desert since Anemone wasted no time in giving me a job. She asked me to deliver parts to Jackass, which now worked on something close to the gate.

At least Anemone is paying me.

As for the other androids, each one busied themselves with something, 11B taught Devola how to use a sword, which surprised me when the twin pulled a Claymore out of nowhere.

The training consisted of fighting the machines in the area. I heard the sounds of cutting metal coming from below and saw machine parts flying up and then falling.

Popola stayed with Jackass, I do not know what they were doing, but the two were getting along well, judging by the giggles I heard

"You must be wondering what I mean by that. So look around and you will understand." I said, opening my arms while POD 001 recorded the surrounding area.

"Have you ever wondered what this place looked like before the sand took it over? I have, unfortunately, we can only speculate, after all; time is not our friend." I walked towards the terrace's door and kicked it open.

"But I can help you get an idea." I walked down the stairs and entered the building, going down the floors and seeing 11B and Devola fighting machines through a window.

"Imagine that you are a human being, not the modern one, but the nomadic one, who hunts his food and worries about his survival every day. You travel the world looking for a place where you can live for a while, adapting to the nature around you…" I said, entering an apartment.

"But there comes a time where you can't move around anymore, you can't find a new place to live, so you have to settle down. What do you do?" I posed the question to my viewers, but it is not as if someone could answer me right now.

"Simple! You explore the nature around you, finding what it has to offer and interfering with it. You learn to plant and domesticate animals through observation, trial, and error, getting food more easily, then the population of your tribe increases and stops being a tribe, becoming a complex society where everyone has their role. But time takes it all away." I said, looking at a framed picture in the apartment.

"Everything you built and conquered is forgotten! Your friends and family, everything, is taken away and the people of the future will not even know you existed! That is until they find the ruins of your civilization. But it's always been like that, hasn't it?" I said nostalgically, running my hand across a dining table and rubbing the dust between my fingers.

"This apartment, for example, someone lived here at some point. A family? Probably yes. Can you imagine what they were like? A family doesn't have to be made up of people related by blood, it can also be made up of people close to each other, but for the sake of the example, let's assume that the family that lived here was made up of a father, a mother, a son, and a daughter." I sat down on a chair in front of the dining table.

"What did they look like? The father could have blonde, black, brown, or red hair, he could be tall, short, fat, or skinny, and the same goes for the rest of the family. What did they do? Did the children go to school? Probably yes. In addition, their parents?"

"The mother could be a doctor, a police officer, or an engineer, the father could be an executive or a scientist, they could lead happy lives, or not, the family could be falling apart in the middle of a divorce. Nevertheless, how are we going to know? There is not much left, is there?" I stood up and looked out the living room window, watching the desert outside.

"All that's left are ruins, but ruins tell stories. I find myself looking at them and thinking about how this world was in the past. Papers will decay, but the constructions made by human beings remain, showing that there was a civilization there at some point."

"I am not saying this only because of the abandoned cities scattered around the world, vestiges of civilizations that existed even before this war started are still standing, the pyramids, the Coliseum in Rome, the Great Wall of China." I turned to the PODs.

"You know, I don't remember who said this, but I once heard a line that goes if your buildings outlasted your civilization, the construction was overpriced. Moreover, there is a certain meaning behind that."

"Why should I build something out of the best material if it will outlast me? Why should I build something that I will not see the end of? Well, for me the answer is to leave a legacy and to be remembered."

"Many civilizations have come and gone, but their great monuments still stand, fighting against time, unless something catastrophic happens. No great civilization thinks it will end."

"The Romans never imagined that the Roman Empire would fall, but this happened, even so they left a legacy, of the knowledge they acquired, their culture and history, and they are remembered until today thanks to everything they did." I sat on the old sofa in the living room.

"But don't get me wrong, I'm not glorifying the Roman Empire, because, despite all the wonderful things they did, there are also the horrible atrocities they committed, the wars, conquests, enslavement of other peoples."

"This doesn't just apply to the Roman Empire, other civilizations did it too, Egypt, Greece, and China, but we can't blame them, after all, those were the circumstances of the time."

"Wars and enslavement became repudiated as the centuries passed. I'm not saying they ended, but were diminishing, human beings were learning from the past."

"Where was I again? Oh, I remembered, about being remembered! You can be remembered for good things or bad things; you can be remembered for discovering a cure for a disease or for causing one of the greatest tragedies of humanity."

"In the end the choice is yours, but Humans tend not to think about the consequences of their actions, so I imagine most people don't think they'll go down in history because of their actions."

"But who am I to judge, my dear viewer? Try to make a new scientific discovery if you want, or not, you could detonate a nuclear bomb in the middle of a city instead."

"Who am I to stop you? However, I am not responsible for the consequences that come afterward. So we get into another question. Does it matter?" I stood up from the couch and walked down the hallway of the apartment until I found a room with a crib.

"I will say it again; look around you, there are only time-worn ruins. What is the use of building and revolutionizing if in the end everything will be destroyed and forgotten? Nobody will remember your name, your face, what you did."

"Can you tell me who ordered the construction of this building? No! We know the names of most art creators because they signed their works, but nobody signed this building! The only proof that someone ordered this building to be built is a stamp on a sheet of paper that fell apart a long time ago!"

I left the child's room and entered a room with a double bed, leaning against the doorframe as I surveyed the room.

"But it's not that bad, time can cause you to be forgotten, but you can still leave a legacy. Can anyone tell me the name of the person who invented Androids? I don't doubt that name is saved in some database, but that person ceased to be relevant a long time ago."

"His legacy continues on Earth. Despite the war and the millennia that have passed, androids are still here. The legacy humanity left on Earth before they were forced to go to the moon."

"This is a legacy that time has not yet consumed, the last gift that humans left before going to the moon! These gifts are you dear androids, you who are watching me; you are the legacy of humanity! How about you leave your legacy in this world? You might not be remembered for your name or face, but you might be remembered for something you did!"

"So how about leaving something positive for future generations? Something they can look back on and feel proud of being a part of, and inspire them to leave their legacy. Or not, you can try to turn this world into nuclear hell, the choice is yours." I left the room and walked out of the apartment.

"Thanks, everyone for watching me today, submit your questions to the PODs and we'll see you again in the next episode! POD cut the recording!" The light on the PODs went out indicating the end of the recording.

"Well, PODs, what did you think of today's episode?"

"Claim: It is an interesting subject, which is likely to have positive effects on android morale." POD 000 said.

"Question: Administrator Alan seems strangely inspired, is this due to some reason?" POD 001 asked.

"Not exactly, it was just something I wanted to get off my chest. The world is full of ruins and I wanted to talk about them. What the androids will do with that information, only time will tell. Let's go away, PODs." I said, walking out of the apartment.

"Affirmative." Both PODs responded, following me. Therefore, I walked up the stairs, returning to the roof of the building.

-XXXXXX-

"Why do you want to learn how to use a sword?" 11B asked, slicing open the belly of a biped.

"There is no reason; I just wanted to learn it." I replied, plunging my sword into a stubby head.

"I feel like you are not telling me the truth." 11B responded, kicking the medium biped toward an approaching group of machines.

"Is it that obvious?" I asked, cringing internally.

"Yes." 11B assured me while I swung my sword, ripping the machine head off and throwing it at a biped.

"Let's just say my sister and I fought people who used swords a long time ago, and it didn't end well for us." I replied, averting my gaze and feeling a pain in my chest when the memories came back.

"So you want to learn how to use a sword in case those people come back?" 11B asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, those people are long gone." I answered, shaking my head.

"Then why do you want to learn how to use a sword?"

"I want to learn it so the past will not repeat itself." I said, staring at my reflection in the sword.

"You want to protect your sister, don't you?" 11B asked, smiling slightly.

"Yes." I said, stepping aside, dodging the blow of a medium biped, cutting its arm off, and then its torso from the bottom up.

"I understand, I would give my life to protect 16D, but she would kill me if I told her that." 11B responded, swinging her sword in a circular slash, splitting a group of machines in half.

"HA! She seems like an interesting girl, I would like to meet her." I said, trusting my sword forward and piercing two stubbies, leaving their bodies hanging in my blade.

"You better watch out, she has a short temper and would be jealous to see me with you." 11B smiled.

"Tell her not to worry; I have my eyes on someone else." I whispered, feeling my cheeks heat up.

"You mean…"

I did not let 11B finish and slashed the biped approaching her, my sword passing inches from her face.

"You better be careful not to get distracted during a fight, you never know where an attack might come from." I said smiling sweetly.

"You… You're right, I better watch out." 11B stuttered nervously.

"I'm glad you understand; now let's get back to my training." I answered, resting my sword on my shoulder.

"S-sure I'll show you a new sword technique." 11B said, approaching another group of machines.

-XXXXXX-

"Do you know what you are doing?" I asked Jackass.

"Of course, I know! Who do you think I am?" Jackass responded, working on the bomb wires.

"I think you are an android who doesn't know what she's doing." I answered, smiling cheekily.

"Wait a minute and you'll see this gate blow up." Jackass replied, splicing two wires together.

"And why would you want to open a gate with a bomb? Doesn't this gate have some kind of mechanism to open it?" I asked confused.

"Yes, but where's the fun in that? Yorha's troops will come and go as they please once I open that gate, so why not do it with style?" Jackass asked, smiling from ear to ear.

"Your joy in blowing things up worries me." I replied, slowly stepping back.

"You should try it, it's a good way to have fun and relieve your anger." Jackass laughed.

"It's also a good way to blow someone up by accident." I said not amused.

"Don't worry, I just blew up machines, and the people I blew up never complained." Jackass shrugged without seeing the problem in her words.

"They did not complain probably because nothing remained of them to complain to you."

Jackass went silent for a few seconds, thinking about my words while swearing in a low tone.

"Changing the subject, would you like some explosives?!?" Jackass asked nervously.

"Thanks, but no, I'd rather not walk around carrying hazardous materials." I replied, waving my hands in negation.

"Come on! You never know when you will need an explosive, and besides, my materials aren't hazardous, I only sell quality products." Jackass said, giving me a thumbs up while blinking her visible eye.

"Hm… I don't know…" I said hesitantly, looking away.

"Think what you could do with my explosives, you could knock out big machines, you could blow holes in a wall if you needed to escape, you could help your friends over there." Jackass said, gesturing to where 11B and my sister were.

Damn it, she convinced me!

"Okay, what do you have for me?" I sighed.

"I'm glad you changed your mind. I have dynamite, C₄, Molotov cocktails, frag grenades, incendiary grenades, land mines, claymores, and more, so make your choice." Jackass responded, holding up a finger for each type of explosive listed.

"I will decide when we return to your shop."

"Fair enough, I recommend returning soon because the gate is about to explode!" Jackass yelled, running past me.

"What?!?" I screamed, looking at Jackass running, and then at the gate, where I saw a mass of wires and circuits flashing lights of different colors attached to it.

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

My eyes widened upon hearing that noise.

"Wait for me!" I yelled, running after Jackass.

-XXXXXX-

"Hey girls, what have I missed?!?" I screamed, stepping onto the terrace.

BOOM!

"HOLY SHIT!" I threw myself on the floor, watching the smoke in the distance.

"What the hell was that?!?" I screamed, dragging myself across the terrace and out of the building, where I saw 11B and Devola with their swords pointed toward where the explosion came from.

"What was that?!?" I asked both.

"Someone blew up the gate!" Devola replied.

"Yes, but who?" 11B asked right after.

We had our answer when two androids ran towards us, Popola and...

"So, a nice explosion, isn't it?" Jackass asked nervously while approaching us, catching her breath.

…Jackass.

Of course, it was Jackass! It had to be Jackass! I thought face palming myself.

"You are crazy!" Popola screamed, stopping beside us in the same situation as Jackass.

"And what's the fun in being a normal person?" Jackass shrugged.

"Claim: The android known as Jackass needs a systems overhaul." POD 000 said.

"Claim: The android known as Jackass needs to be disassembled and her parts recycled." POD 001 said.

"I didn't ask your opinion, you rust buckets." Jackass said angrily.

"I see you haven't lost your habit of blowing things up." I said to Jackass in a mixture of happiness and sarcasm.

"You know me, not much happens out here in the desert, so I need to entertain myself somehow." Jackass said with her hands on her hips and striking a pose.

"Do you know each other?" 11B asked.

"Yes, unfortunately." I sighed, looking at the ground and kicking some sand in disappointment.

"How?" Devola asked confused.

"Well…" I muttered, looking at the sky.

-XXXXXX-

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" I screamed, running across the desert with a bunch of machines pursuing me.

A simple job of delivering a package to an android ended up with the android not showing up at the meeting point, and machines chasing me.

I ran with the android package under my arm until I saw a rock formation ahead, climbing it when I approached.

Upon reaching the top and looking down, I saw that the machines could not climb and just stared at me in silence. I lay down on the rock, catching my breath, and looked at the sky, waiting for the machines to leave.

Ten minutes passed before I heard screams.

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!" A female voice shouted.

I heard something climbing the rocks, so I drew my thunder knife and approached the edge of the formation. Suddenly, an android appeared.

"Wait!" The android screamed afraid, protecting her face upon seeing me, so I lowered the knife.

"The machines forced you to come up here too?" The android asked, still shocked.

"Yes." I sighed, facing the machines below.

"It looks like we'll be here for a while, so how about introducing each other? My name is Jackass." The android smiled, offering a handshake.

"My name is Alan." I replied, smiling back and accepting the handshake.

-XXXXXX-

"That's how I met Jackass." I finished the retelling of the events.

"Why don't you ever tell us this kind of thing?" Popola asked annoyed, crossing her arms.

"Because I know I will get a lecture soon after. In the end, Jackass was the android I should deliver the package to." I answered, pointing at the android in question with my thumb.

"See? Everything ended well." Jackass nodded, heading towards the tent that served as a shop with Popola following her.

"Looks like we're done here, don't we?" 11B asked, looking around.

"Yeah, let's just wait for Popola to finish her business with Jackass and we can leave." I replied.

"I'd rather Popola not be around Jackass, she's a bad influence on my sister." Devola said, fixing Jackass's back.

"She's not that bad, a little crazy, but she's a good person." I put a reassuring hand on Devola's shoulder.

"I hope you're right. Hey, you want to see what 11B taught me." Devola asked expectantly.

"Of course I want!" I replied, making her smile with a blush.

A few minutes passed with Devola showing me new sword techniques until Popola returned, carrying a bag over her shoulder.

"I am done!" Popola exclaimed, waving at us.

"Well, I delivered the parts to Jackass and the gate is destroyed, we can leave now. I will report this to Anemone on the way back." I answered, and with everything done, we walked out of the desert.

-UNKNOWN-

1?: Well, POD 001 we apologize for what we will do.

2?: We need you to conduct a small experiment.

POD 001: What do you mean by that?

1&2?: That.

ERROR!

ERROR!

ERROR!

-XXXXXX-

"POD!" I screamed as POD 001 sparked and fumed, and then fell to the ground.

"POD?" I asked, approaching it. Suddenly, something jumped out of the sand and grabbed the POD, a small biped wearing a mask and cape.

I immediately grabbed the thunder knife and slashed at the machine, but it leaped back with my knife gashing the side of its head.

"Witness the birth!" The machine screamed in its robotic voice as it ran towards the exploded gate.

"Come, we need to retrieve the POD!" I called Devola, Popola, and 11B, not just, because I consider the POD my friend, but also because of the information stored in it, the information that Salieri warned me about.

Nodding, the girls and I ran after the machine, passing through the gate and entering the main area of the desert.

"There!" I pointed to the machine as it fled toward the buildings in the distance.

"Why did that thing take the POD?!?" 11B asked.

"I have no idea, but we need to get it back!"

We reached a large metal pipe running down a dune; we slid down the dune with our feet sliding across the sand until we reached an apartment complex. Strangely, not a single machine attacked us when we entered the complex.

"Where did he go?" Devola asked, looking around.

"There!" Popola pointed down an alley.

"Witness the birth!" The machine shouted, running into the alley.

We chased the machine, going from street to street until we reached a passage with skinless android bodies impaled in metal beams. We saw the machine entering a tunnel at the end of the passage.

"This could be a trap." I said to everyone, drawing my knife and looking around for machines.

"But we need to get the POD back, don't we?" 11B asked, reading her sword.

"11B will lead with POD 000 lighting the way, Devola will follow 11B, I will follow Devola, and Popola will follow me. Is this good for you girls?" I asked and everyone nodded.

"So let's go." I said.

We entered the tunnel with POD 000 light illuminating it, walking slowly and looking around in case this was an ambush.

"…The birth!" A voice screamed in the tunnel and we saw the machine making a turn ahead.

We reached the end of the tunnel and our eyes widened at what we saw, a huge hole made in the ruins of buildings. Looking down, we saw the machine running down a spiral ramp, so we followed it until we reached the bottom of the hole.

We saw that the machines acted strange when we got there. Were they trying to have sex? They imitated various sex positions while doing repetitive motions and screaming.

"LOVE!"

"MY LOVE!"

"TOGETHER FOREVER!"

We also saw a machine rocking a cradle.

"CHILD!"

"What are they doing?!?" 11B asked, baffled by the exhibition.

"The machines are trying to reproduce." I replied, trying to process what I was seeing.

"How is this possible?!?" 11B asked again.

"11B, you need to forget everything Yorha taught you about machines now that you've joined us. Machines have feelings, machines know how to think, machines know how to speak, and machines know how to live." I said seriously and 11B went silent at this revelation.

"Machines want to reproduce, but why?" Devola asked confused.

"What do they gain by imitating human reproduction?" Popola asked too, sharing the feeling.

"Claim: Runaway machine sighted." POD 000 said, pointing ahead.

The runaway machine was in the center of all this, holding POD 001 in its hands. The machine approached us, but it did not attack and placed the POD on the ground. Then, the machine backed away, raised its hands, and screamed.

"WITNESS THE BIRTH OF MY LEGACY!"

Immediately, all the machines stopped what they were doing and ran, thrashing around the place.

"WITNESS THE BIRTH OF MY LEGACY!"

"WITNESS THE BIRTH OF MY LEGACY!"

"WITNESS THE BIRTH OF MY LEGACY!"

All the machines screamed until they stopped like statues and fell silent.

"What the…" I did not have time to finish as all the machines climbed the metal beams in the hole and formed a cocoon in the middle of them. This sight paralyzed me. My breathing quickened and my heart raced frantically.

Then, I blinked and I was not in the hole anymore, the girls and the POD disappeared. I was alone in a cave with a big white sphere in front of me. It looked like an egg, or was it a seed?

I heard steps and looking aside, I saw myself, but wounded with bullet holes in the right arm, and glowing red eyes.

This me approached the egg and placed his hands on it, sinking as if touching the surface of a lake. Everything went silent when the other me sank into the egg until a deafening roar echoed through the cave.

"RRROOOAAARRR!"

No human could make that sound. Then, the egg cracked and apiece fell to the ground; I glimpsed something inside the egg, a single red eye staring at me.

"Alan!"

"Not again!"

"Alan!"

"I got rid of you!"

"Alan!"

"You no longer control me!"

"ALAN!"

The cave disappeared and I saw the girls and POD staring at me worriedly.

"Are you ok?" Devola asked.

"Warning: Administrator Alan's systems accelerated to dangerous levels."

"What will we do?" 11B asked.

"Suggestion: Try to calm Administrator Alan down."

"Alan, look at me!" Popola held the sides of my head.

"Popola?" I asked confused.

"Yes, it's me, focus on me and take a deep breath." Popola said softly. I did as she said, gradually calming down.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine." Popola said.

"Thank you Popola." I smiled at her.

"You're welcome." Popola replied, smiling back.

SPLAT!

Something wet hitting the ground snapped us out of our moment; it was a thin man, with a well-built physique and white hair. The man had no genitals and looked around confused until his eyes focused on us.

"What…" The man said with difficulty.

"Warning: Machine Life form Detected." POD 000 said.

He was a machine; I had never seen anything like it before! The machine stepped forward with shaky legs while the girls readied their weapons.

"Wait, do not attack!" I screamed, raising my hand while the machine recoiled, startled by my scream, so I approached it.

"Alan, wait!" Popola screamed, extending her hand toward me.

"Give me a minute, but get ready." I replied, approaching the machine.

"Hello, how are you?" I waved at the machine, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

"How… H-how am I?" The machine said, confused.

"Yes, are you in pain, tired, or confused? How are you?" I asked again.

"I… I do not know… One moment there was nothing… Then this…" The machine said, opening its arms.

"You have just been born, you are a child."

"I was born… Child…" The machine repeated my words, probably trying to discover their meaning.

"Yes, I propose we try something else. My name is Alan, and you?"

"Alan… Android?" The machine asked, looking at me closely. Suddenly, its head flew back and the machine grabbed its forehead in pain.

"Warning: Machine life form attempted to scan Administrator Alan, this unit stopped the scanning." POD 000 said.

"Nameless…" The machine continued.

"This is not good. How about I give you one?" I said offering a handshake while smiling.

The machine looked at me, confused by my gesture, but slowly extended its hand. Looking back, I saw the girls looking at me impressed; they must not believe what happened.

However, a section of the spiral ramp collapsed and two Yorha androids appeared before the machine could shake my hand.

"Alert: Machine Life form Detected." The male unit's POD said.

"What are you doing here? This place is dangerous!" The male android screamed.

"9S focus." The female android said seriously.

"Yes 2B!"

The two Yorha androids advanced towards the machine. Simultaneously, I felt Devola and Popola grabbing my shoulders and pulling me away.

"Wait, don't do it!" I shouted to the Yorha androids but they did not listen. Their PODs fired at the machine as the androids slashed at it with their swords.

"Let's get out of here!" Devola screamed. The twins dragged me towards the ramp and led me up with one big leap while 11B came along carrying POD 001.

I glimpsed the fight below as they dragged me ramp up; the machine jumped on one of the beams and faced me; however, I eventually left the hole, leaving the machine behind.

-UNKNOWN-

???: You crossed the line.

1?: What is the problem?

2?: Nobody got hurt.

???: I believe I was too kind to you. I will have to interfere less discreetly.

END OF CHAPTER