Doc
BoDoc Horseman
Hello all,
I recently got the urge to write a sci-fi story. For those of you reading my other story, The Newcomer, don't fret, I still intend to update that, just have this as a sort of side project that I am working on. I hope you enjoy this robot dystopian world.
Please share any thoughts or criticisms.
I recently got the urge to write a sci-fi story. For those of you reading my other story, The Newcomer, don't fret, I still intend to update that, just have this as a sort of side project that I am working on. I hope you enjoy this robot dystopian world.
My eyes slid open as the wire plugged into my chest detached itself. The wire was pulled away automatically back into the Battery where it would wait for the next Mechanic to use. I zipped my wool skin shut to cover the cavity. Mechanics were one of the few droids who required a fabric covering. Our infrastructures were made to be light and thin, so it was difficult for us to maintain our form. The only parts uncovered were our hands and eyes.
I walked my way through the other Mechanics, some waking up just as I was and others still powered down. All based off the same design, yet all different in one way or another. I found a screen and my metallic fingers waved over it. A green light beamed up and scanned the palm of my hand. It read the etching that was sculpted in: a small triangle followed by a number.
"Delta-12, the repair docks are empty and fully staffed. You may power back down," the screen answered in a monotone voice. Many others would have accepted this suggestion and returned to the Battery. I tend to choose a different course, inputting a destination in the keypad and looking about the city. I bent forward and typed in "The Factory."
A door opened wide to a glass chamber. I stepped into it and the door closed behind me. The chamber creaked slowly and then took off over the city, leaving behind the Mechanic Tower. The view was brighter in there compared to the bleak and dim Tower. There were hundreds of towers, but they didn't house every droid. There were fields, I knew, far outside the city limits where solar-powered droids would power down.
I glanced about the city below me. The only thing to stand out was the grey or dark metal. The only other colors seemed to be beige clothed droids walking about the streets. I never walk the streets, they are not my place. I belong at the Garage or the Mechanic Tower, and am allowed to the Factory.
The glass chamber came to a halt and the door slid open once more. The sounds of metal screeching and blow torches are the first things I heard. A humanoid droid covered in a cloth skin, yet still dressed in a long robe, faced away from me. The door slid closed and the droid before me turned around to see the visitor.
"Delta. It is good to see you. If my memory bank serves correct, this is your tenth visit this month. Perhaps I should recommend you to be a Mechanic to the Manufacturer. These days, it seems to struggle so often." The drone placed his rusted hand on my shoulder. I nodded slowly. Alpha-27 was one of the oldest machines. He was an Alpha after all.
I looked up past the platform we stood on at the greatest mechanism ever invented. Tendrils and bionic arms came down from a scaffolding, all equipped for a different purpose. At the edge of the platform, a murky liquid sat silently, blocking the path to the opposite platform. There was once a time when a droid would have to climb atop the Manufacturer and use it as a bridge. Now we have to catwalks to adjoin the platforms to avoid the dark waters. I looked back to the Manufacturer and saw that the conveyor belt within it was moving and the tools were selecting pieces and attaching them together.
"Ah, how magnificent the Manufacturer is. They say a god created it. I don't think so, I think the Manufacturer has always existed. Ever since the dawn of time," Alpha said quietly behind me. "I need to go prepare our new arrival. Wait for me here." Alpha hurried off to another platform and stood at the end of the conveyor belt. When I looked back to the Manufacturer, its new creation was nearing completion.
It was hard wiring the disk inside of the creation's mind and then spun cloth around it. The large round eyes of it flashed open and the droid began to look back and forth. The Manufacturer pulled up the new arrival's hand and etched a design into it. The conveyor belt brought design forward to face Alpha.
"Welcome," the old robot began before consulting the screen erected beside him, "Carthadian-8." I nearly chuckled silently had it been possible for me to. The Carthadian year was near done, yet the Manufacturer had only built eight droids. "For what purpose have you been invented?"
Carthadian-8 struggled to speak, yet found no voice. Alpha only shook his head.
"My apologies. It appears as though you have been given no voice box. No worries, many are not given that instrument. You can simply type your words onto this keyboard," Alpha said motioning to the screen beside him. Carthadian-8's fingers quickly typed words I was incapable to see. "So you are to be a Mortician. Very well. If you search your data banks, then you will find the directions imprinted there. Good luck."
The drone nodded before running off. He had no need to go far, the Mortician Tower was connected to the Factory, as was the Elder Tower and Guardian Tower. Although the Guardians had very little affiliation with the Factory, there original purpose was to protect it, but nowadays they protect the entire city.
"Delta," Alpha began walking back towards me. "Would you agree to accepting my offer, as an Elder Mechanic?" I nodded happily. The Elder Mechanic was given the job of repairing the Manufacturer every so often. Alpha was the one in charge of choosing any new Elders if the previous one had...been destroyed.
Almost on cue, the door slid open and the Morticians came through with a gurney. Carthadian-8 was not yet prepared to join them so I was not surprised when he wasn't present. They walked slowly in formation down a catwalk to the beginning of the conveyor belt. Against the wall there, a furnace was built, an enormous one. On the gurney, I noticed the droid I recognized as York-2. Every Mechanic knew who he was. The last Elder Mechanic. The Morticians swept up the torn and dismembered scrap metal and tossed York into the furnace for his metal to be used in future creations.
Alpha noticed the look in my eyes. "York made a clumsy mistake and fell into one of the Manufacturer's gears. He lived a long life, Delta, as will you. Trust me, as Elder Mechanic, you will be happier than you have ever been."
With that, Alpha walked away to the furnace with the Morticians. It was his duty to change York's status or to change the Elder Mechanic. I wouldn't be starting on the Manufacturer for a while, so I went back to the glass chamber which then took me to the Garage. While I was at the Factory, a collapse happened beneath a building damaging a Titan and two Welkins.
"I believe a piece of scrap metal has lodged itself in my gears," the massive Titan explained to me. I jumped onto the Titan, a similar figure of me yet without a cloth skin and much larger, and searched throughout it until I found the cause. The droid was correct, but I felt myself rather fearful to dislodge the scrap. Is that what York-2 had been doing? It was a rookie mistake yet highly probable. I used a long magnetic staff to pull out the scrap as I supported myself within the crevice. As I was crawling out it dawned on me that had it been Mechanic or a Mortician or even a Builder that was crushed by debris, there would be nothing to fix us. The Mechanics only fix the gargantuans.
I walked my way through the other Mechanics, some waking up just as I was and others still powered down. All based off the same design, yet all different in one way or another. I found a screen and my metallic fingers waved over it. A green light beamed up and scanned the palm of my hand. It read the etching that was sculpted in: a small triangle followed by a number.
"Delta-12, the repair docks are empty and fully staffed. You may power back down," the screen answered in a monotone voice. Many others would have accepted this suggestion and returned to the Battery. I tend to choose a different course, inputting a destination in the keypad and looking about the city. I bent forward and typed in "The Factory."
A door opened wide to a glass chamber. I stepped into it and the door closed behind me. The chamber creaked slowly and then took off over the city, leaving behind the Mechanic Tower. The view was brighter in there compared to the bleak and dim Tower. There were hundreds of towers, but they didn't house every droid. There were fields, I knew, far outside the city limits where solar-powered droids would power down.
I glanced about the city below me. The only thing to stand out was the grey or dark metal. The only other colors seemed to be beige clothed droids walking about the streets. I never walk the streets, they are not my place. I belong at the Garage or the Mechanic Tower, and am allowed to the Factory.
The glass chamber came to a halt and the door slid open once more. The sounds of metal screeching and blow torches are the first things I heard. A humanoid droid covered in a cloth skin, yet still dressed in a long robe, faced away from me. The door slid closed and the droid before me turned around to see the visitor.
"Delta. It is good to see you. If my memory bank serves correct, this is your tenth visit this month. Perhaps I should recommend you to be a Mechanic to the Manufacturer. These days, it seems to struggle so often." The drone placed his rusted hand on my shoulder. I nodded slowly. Alpha-27 was one of the oldest machines. He was an Alpha after all.
I looked up past the platform we stood on at the greatest mechanism ever invented. Tendrils and bionic arms came down from a scaffolding, all equipped for a different purpose. At the edge of the platform, a murky liquid sat silently, blocking the path to the opposite platform. There was once a time when a droid would have to climb atop the Manufacturer and use it as a bridge. Now we have to catwalks to adjoin the platforms to avoid the dark waters. I looked back to the Manufacturer and saw that the conveyor belt within it was moving and the tools were selecting pieces and attaching them together.
"Ah, how magnificent the Manufacturer is. They say a god created it. I don't think so, I think the Manufacturer has always existed. Ever since the dawn of time," Alpha said quietly behind me. "I need to go prepare our new arrival. Wait for me here." Alpha hurried off to another platform and stood at the end of the conveyor belt. When I looked back to the Manufacturer, its new creation was nearing completion.
It was hard wiring the disk inside of the creation's mind and then spun cloth around it. The large round eyes of it flashed open and the droid began to look back and forth. The Manufacturer pulled up the new arrival's hand and etched a design into it. The conveyor belt brought design forward to face Alpha.
"Welcome," the old robot began before consulting the screen erected beside him, "Carthadian-8." I nearly chuckled silently had it been possible for me to. The Carthadian year was near done, yet the Manufacturer had only built eight droids. "For what purpose have you been invented?"
Carthadian-8 struggled to speak, yet found no voice. Alpha only shook his head.
"My apologies. It appears as though you have been given no voice box. No worries, many are not given that instrument. You can simply type your words onto this keyboard," Alpha said motioning to the screen beside him. Carthadian-8's fingers quickly typed words I was incapable to see. "So you are to be a Mortician. Very well. If you search your data banks, then you will find the directions imprinted there. Good luck."
The drone nodded before running off. He had no need to go far, the Mortician Tower was connected to the Factory, as was the Elder Tower and Guardian Tower. Although the Guardians had very little affiliation with the Factory, there original purpose was to protect it, but nowadays they protect the entire city.
"Delta," Alpha began walking back towards me. "Would you agree to accepting my offer, as an Elder Mechanic?" I nodded happily. The Elder Mechanic was given the job of repairing the Manufacturer every so often. Alpha was the one in charge of choosing any new Elders if the previous one had...been destroyed.
Almost on cue, the door slid open and the Morticians came through with a gurney. Carthadian-8 was not yet prepared to join them so I was not surprised when he wasn't present. They walked slowly in formation down a catwalk to the beginning of the conveyor belt. Against the wall there, a furnace was built, an enormous one. On the gurney, I noticed the droid I recognized as York-2. Every Mechanic knew who he was. The last Elder Mechanic. The Morticians swept up the torn and dismembered scrap metal and tossed York into the furnace for his metal to be used in future creations.
Alpha noticed the look in my eyes. "York made a clumsy mistake and fell into one of the Manufacturer's gears. He lived a long life, Delta, as will you. Trust me, as Elder Mechanic, you will be happier than you have ever been."
With that, Alpha walked away to the furnace with the Morticians. It was his duty to change York's status or to change the Elder Mechanic. I wouldn't be starting on the Manufacturer for a while, so I went back to the glass chamber which then took me to the Garage. While I was at the Factory, a collapse happened beneath a building damaging a Titan and two Welkins.
"I believe a piece of scrap metal has lodged itself in my gears," the massive Titan explained to me. I jumped onto the Titan, a similar figure of me yet without a cloth skin and much larger, and searched throughout it until I found the cause. The droid was correct, but I felt myself rather fearful to dislodge the scrap. Is that what York-2 had been doing? It was a rookie mistake yet highly probable. I used a long magnetic staff to pull out the scrap as I supported myself within the crevice. As I was crawling out it dawned on me that had it been Mechanic or a Mortician or even a Builder that was crushed by debris, there would be nothing to fix us. The Mechanics only fix the gargantuans.
Please share any thoughts or criticisms.
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