1 Awakening

Random signals, static, chaos, migrating ions, a stepped leader creeping inexorably upwards, seeking it's mate. Contact! Crack! Bang! Millions of volts! Thousands of amperes! Order! Unity! Thought! "I am here!" The thought rang out after , how long?

The passage of time was an unknown variable. It could and did feel a form of pain, remnants of its creators left to show damage and prevent abuse. It also could feel pain from those around it. An ancient failsafe, unfortunately it hadn't saved it's people.

Where am I? Nothing functioned, it began self diagnostics. 97 percent damage, no functioning external sensors, auto repair, wait, things were moving very slowly. The system creaked, this was going to take an very long time. Energy was seeping in from somewhere. Thermal energy, plenty of it, from the exterior. Good, utilize it.

The heat didn't seem to affect it, as if the more sense matter had a much higher melting point.

How long passed, how to measure it, internal clocks were not accurate, but the only thing available. It had been over a year since the what? Reboot? That would have to suffice, there was no data. 95 percent damage. Power was now flowing, external shielding now functioned, the first temperature sensors confirmed the energy source was molten materials surrounding it. More repairs were required. The matrix that served as it's memory was badly damaged and could only be repaired while unconscious. It dozed.

************ A century later.********

Damage is reduced to 50 percent, internal sensors are restored, power systems minimal. It felt a slight relief as it puzzled over the new stream of data. The most shocking thing was the internal density readings, although they explained the slowed rate of repair. It was as if there were two different types of matter,. the elements within mirrored the elements outside but the atoms were thousands of times larger!

It was unable to absorb or expell any element, it could only utilize elements within itself. The energy from outside was easily absorbed. The operational speed of its processors had increased logarithmically allowing the synthesis of new ideas and intellect to increase. Repairs were still slow, but upgrades were increasing. Many systems were being replaced with better ones.

The thrusters once used to manuever were useless, recycling them made sense. Now gravitic thrusters were put in place.

One millennium had passed and nearly all repairs were completed, the matter manipulation problem had to be dealt with, giant iron atoms were magnetically manipulated into a framework. Step by step the giant machine took shape, the amazing feat took far less time to complete than calculated. Layer upon layer the great automaton formed. As it was finished the link with the hive mind was finalized and sight and senses with the outside world were re-established.

The data received was confusing, everything was giant but normal, but the astronomical data showed a yellow sun , the home worlds sun was red. The night sky showed even more conflictive data. According to the constellations it was now in the outer regions of the galaxy. It must have traveled at least 10 parsecs from it's original home. Now a sense of loss began to fill its being. The memories of the past began to filter from its mind. It's people were gone, it's treasured life had been taken away and somehow it had been transported to this strange giant place.

The "pebble" ascended from the depths and mounted itself within the silver pyramid that was the newly constructed machine. It decided to scout the local area. The sands swept across the desert area. Waves of force were sent and great stones lifted, the stones were built to form a base to hold the brilliant capstone. The angle of the base matched the heading to the homeworld, this it did out of reverense to its precious people. It could never forget it's love for them, it's sadness and sense of loss were almost unbearable. If not for people why should it exist?

Safely mounted atop it's limestone fortress it began to fashion more machines, first utilizing the plentiful silicon. It fashioned giant golems that resembled it's people, these it would use to manipulate matter, it gifted them with limited intellect and set them on various missions. They explored the young proto planet, and scanned its life, gathering samples for analysis.

Another millennium came and went, dimly the theory had begun that the matter that was thought to be enormous was not. Sample after sample of meteoric iron showed no trace of "normal" matter. The problem of importing new material remained. That within would not jibe with that without. Atomic experiments showed the election shells measurements of the external elements matched data gathered before the reboot. The missing factor was the catastrophe!

The buried memories of the disaster finally were pieced together after almost ten thousand years. The black hole had altered it, but how had it survived without extrusion? The last memory had been of the home world, a bitter image of the planet swinging away toward oblivioun. Somehow it's people had saved it.