A faint clang.

Flesh against metal.

The binary numbers vanished like smoke in a breeze. I peered down into the tube. At first, all I saw was darkness. Then a pale form emerged from the shadows.

“Emma!” The volume of my voice surprised me. It echoed against metal walls. “Are you okay?”

Silence for 1.2 seconds. And then—

“Yes.” A voice from the shadows. Emma’s voice. “I’m all right.”

“And the medicine?”

A pause for 0.6 seconds.

It felt much longer.

Then Emma called up, “They had it! I got the medicine!”

I could hear excitement/relief in her voice, filling the small metal space.

As she climbed, Emma explained: The other humans were staying below. For now. They would vote on what to do next and decide together whether it was safe to leave their bunker, their home for the past thirty years.

Emma emerged from the hatch opening. Her eyes rose to the sky. The TransportDrone still hovered above us.

She peered up at the enormous metal X. “So, do you think your robot buddies will let us hitch a ride back to my bunker?”

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Now that my fellow robots had decided not to kill Emma, they were much more willing to help her.

The two bunkers were 48.6 kilometers apart. Which was even farther than the distance we had traveled from the solar farm. I would not have wanted to make the trip back on foot. Fortunately, we were able to fly the entire way in the TransportDrone.

PRES1DENT was on the craft with us, being held in a separate room by EnforcementBots. The Hive would decide what would happen to PRES1DENT next, what its punishment would be for going against the will of robotkind.

All around us, the DigitalDome displayed a view of the landscape far below. I watched as we flew over familiar terrain, our journey unspooling in reverse.

The forest that turned the world green.

The mountains where Ceeron told a knock-knock joke about a wooden shoe.

The mall where I died and was reborn.

The orchard where Emma sampled apples.

The TrainDepot where we tried/failed to drop Emma off.

Electronics Extravaganza where Emma spent the night.

A new sight drifted into view. The solar farm. It glimmered in the afternoon sun. I had spent nearly all of my waking life among these panels. But I had never seen them like this before. From so high up, the solar farm appeared oddly small. As if I could wrap my arms around it, hold it against me.

My memory drive replayed my first glimpse of the solar farm. For a split second, I had been convinced that it was the ocean.

Now it looked like a pond. Gleaming and blue and lovely.

And small.

A splash of blue, surrounded by a great big world.

Working in the solar farm was my purpose. But not my only purpose. Not anymore.

Perhaps someday I would see the real ocean.

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