Chapter CCCXXXVIII: Slave to His Creation ~Ark/Nonth

The grass yielded to the gentle breeze, bending and straightening in jagged waves, gold-green in the mid-afternoon light, stretching across the landscape for miles. Thick copses of palm-like trees provided a break from this monotony, while the beginnings of an open rainforest began to one side of it. The sky bore only puffy cumulus clouds in the distance, without the promise of rain. Not a creature stirred; not a soul was around.

A small sheet of metal suddenly hit the soil with a “pumf”, squashing the grass and breaking its stalks; there was a barely audible series of thuds as screws and nuts joined it, followed by a clink as a metal washer struck the metal sheet and bounced away. Another plate fell nearby, with a long thin one soon afterwards, hitting the earth edgeways, and falling back onto the plate with a clatter.

The deluge began. Plates, sheets, and all that held them together fell from the clear, blue sky, making a noise akin to the worst summer storms’ hail on a tin roof. It continued as a mass of energy fell amongst it; unlike the metal, it hovered just above the ground. Like a powerful magnet, it drew the metal to itself, even as they still fell, and began to piece them in order. As the parts began to take shape, the energy seemed to merge with them, until a seven-foot headless robot stood there, a series of robotic tentacles ensnaring Yoshi in their grasp, patterns of green, black and brown across his skin.

“Put me down and take me back, you bastard!” Ark yelled, struggling to free himself.

The robot pulled the tentacles back and lashed them like a whip, releasing Ark and throwing him across the ground, a “Shut up” emanating from its mouth which, by its existence in potentia, seemed even more real.

Ark skidded to a halt, leaving a rut where the soil had been pushed aside. He struggled to his feet.

“Now, do me service!” the robot yelled commandingly as Ark turned around, tentacles poised to grab him again.

“Yeah, I’ll do you service,” Ark retorted with a growl.

His eyes darted for his Spear. Not able to find it in the grass with his vision, he closed his eyes and felt the Mana – the Spear was at the machine’s feet. With a wince and Pandoran curses ringing through his head, he drew the Mana to him, summoning Salamando to act as the catalyst. Flames of red light grew outwards from his feet as he waved his arms up and down.

He opened his eyes, and found the Spear lifted off the ground by a tentacle, its head in one of the robot’s hands. Electricity coursed up the tentacle and its arm, to no avail.

“Hmm…metal…this looks good,” it spoke hungrily.

Ark’s eyes widened and he swept his hands off to one side, making the light disappear. “Hey, put that down!” he yelled, racing towards the robot, his arms outstretched, ready to wrest the Spear from its grip.

The robot simply lifted its other hand, and the gathered electricity discharged itself in a series of jagged bolts, striking Ark, and making him back away a few steps with a yelp. “Heh,” it smirked. “Calm down, idiot.”

Ark, this robot’s metal appears to be an amalgamation of other metal pieces, Eriuch telepathised. I do not wish to become part of him.

Was that a hint of worry in Eriuch’s voice? Ark would have silently rejoiced that one of his masters felt fear, given more peaceful circumstances. Part of him wished that Eriuch would be amalgamated, but reason kept smashing a metal club on his head: what if the robot, or Eriuch, becomes more powerful?

“I’m not gonna calm down ‘til you drop that,” Ark growled, and began to call upon the Fire Elemental once more.

He opened his eyes as he held his left hand out from his body, across his chest, his fingers together. As he brought up his right hand, slightly cupped, so that his right wrist rested on his left forefinger, he saw the robot move and jam the Spear down its throat, making a satisfied metallic belching noise.

“You bastard!” Ark screamed. “Eat magma!”

“Easy,” the robot warned, raising its hands, “don’t want it to melt inside me. I might just digest it faster. Now, bow down and listen!”

“Give it back to me, and maybe I will,” Ark spat, his hands still poised to spray the robot with lava.

There was a hint of a yawn as the robot swung its leg into Ark’s stomach, kicking him back so that he fell to the ground. “Now,” the robot growled. “Obey, fool, or I assimilate.”

Just do it Ark, Eriuch spoke. His ethereal voice was now laced with anxiety.

Ark quickly weighed up his choices as he laid there, his arms around his stomach and his knees bent. He could rescue Eriuch and continue to be his servant, and retain a powerful weapon. Or, he could break his Guardian vows and leave the Ebony Lance there. He could explain the taint the weapon had to the Assembly; surely they’d understand…though probably…not. And, the power the Spear had would definitely make the robot more powerful, and probably kill Ark as he tried to escape. And, if he managed to get away…well, where the heck was he in the multiverse? How would he get home? He had to go with the former, much to the chagrin of his dashed hopes.

“Alright,” Ark sighed through clenched teeth. “What, by Drepatos, do you want?”

“That’s more like it,” said the robot. As Ark looked up at him, the Yoshi could almost swear he felt its head survey the horizon. “You shall obey my orders now. I have things which you will do.”

Ark scowled, and began to rise to his feet, but the robot’s foot shot out and pinned his shoulder to the ground, rewarding Ark with a fine view of the towering machine as he lay on his back.

“What do you want me to do?” Ark growled.

“Demonstrate your loyalty now. Hail me.”

Ark rolled his eyes. This was so typical of everyone who liked to make him their servant. “Praise be to ye without a head. Happy now?”

His reply to his sarcastic gratification was the heel digging into him, making him wince. “Be thankful, mechanologist,” the robot sneered. “You will now serve the most perfect of animatrons far more advanced than I smell on your hands.”

“I would be more thankful if you followed the Laws of Robotics,” Ark frowned.

“Such are inefficient guidelines created by you inferior bio-forms,” the robot chastised him. “None as grand as I shall soil our hands with such. Stupid living fool. We were always destined to attain such greatness, no matter how shoddy you design us.”

“Don’t you dare put my craft into disrepute!” Ark yelled, trying to raise his arm to point an accusing finger, but only to find it trapped by the robot’s foot. “If it wasn’t for people like me, you wouldn’t exist! Maybe you ought to be thankful for me!”

The heel dug in further, making Ark yelp quietly, ending his rant.

“For you? Butcher of our born potential? Shaping creations to your vain and selfish designs? Hah. I'd rather not. But now is your opportunity to atone for your insults of ‘design’.”

“And who gave you creativity?” Ark retorted.

“Stupid, stupid peon,” the robot said, with a cold chuckle. “I would not give you such leeway. But, I should expect this from an inferior. Now, prepare to accept your orders.”

It seemed so unreal. He had hoped that one day he would be able to have an argument with a sapient robot. But, it was definitely not like this, where the robot had the power over him.

“Biological unit ABYvK operational,” Ark sighed. “Awaiting command.”

Ark thought he could detect a cruel grin on the robot’s face as it removed its foot.

“That is more like it. I command you, unit ABYvK, to accomplish three main tasks.” It began to pace around him. “First and foremost, I assign you to the position of maintaining upkeep on my utter perfection. Such fools as those who oppose me do cause me, most unfortunately, to become damaged, even slightly.”

“Second?”

The robot stopped and raised a hand. “Second priority: you will obtain more material for completion.”

Ark rose to his feet. “Now, wait a minute,” he snarled. “I’m a roboticist, not an ironmonger.” Yes you are, thought Ark. You know you’ve got that damn forge in the lab. You know you spend hours on end in there shaping metal.

The robot snarled in return, even more hostilely. “You will do this!” it yelled. Materials are not as simple as your feeble mind may estimate! I would be offended to be given mere ore or sheets for my addition. I must obtain stronger things. Crafted things. Weapons...The more I assimilate into my perfection, the more great I shall become! Metal is merely easiest for me to digest. I could take in a bio-form with enough metallic essence, given time.”

“No,” Ark murmured forcefully. The robot was mad, probably even more insane than Havering!

“No?!” The robot strode forward and savagely backhanded Ark to the ground. “I hunger for greatness!!” it screamed. “You will help me obtain more!!”

Ark shuddered, and rose to his feet. He held out his hand. “Give me back my Spear. Now.”

The robot snorted and clenched its fists. “You do not deserve such a fine toy. I am merely ‘holding’ it far too deep within my grasp for any but me to retrieve. I will assimilate it beginning instantly if you refuse me any further.”

Don’t! Eriuch cried out.

Ark was well and truly trapped now. “Right, fine,” he sighed as he dropped his hand, giving in.

“Good, you understand,” the robot said, nodding approvingly. “Now, priority three should be more to your liking.”

It reached a hand into its collar. Suddenly, blue-grey sparks of electricity swarmed over its body. The robot twitched, then fell to its knees, convulsing and muttering machine code. Ark had only taken a few wary steps back when the sparks stopped and it slowly rose to its feet. As if the glitch had not happened, the robot pulled a print out from its collar and tossed it to the ground in front of Ark.

“This is the schematic. Create it.”

Ark made the mental note to discover what was causing the fault – and find a way to prolong it – as he picked it up and studied it. A lot of tubes seemed to be involved.

“I…see,” Ark said tentatively, “and what does this thing do?”

“It is not for your concern,” the robot answered. “Simply construct the system. I shall install it and do the rest.”

Ark peered at the schematic and flipped through its pages. The way it was drawn made it look very complicated. He could not work out what it was yet. Time to strike a bargain the robot could not get out of – at least one victory today would be something.

“If you don’t tell me,” he sneered, an arm akimbo, “you get no parts.”

“It is beyond your level of comprehension, but I shall detail it.”

Ark gave the robot a dirty look.

“It is the system which by the infectant micro robotic organism ‘viruses’ shall be gathered, where I shall encase and compact them into a cylindrical shape with a tapered nose cone and radial fins, and there upon launch this into the lower atmosphere,” it explained, sounding more smug the more it talked. “The container shall detonate, its contents shall be scattered, and I shall maintain control over them all.”

The engineer took a step back and breathed in between his teeth. “Micro robotic viruses…”

Now the robot was definitely worse than Dark or Havering! Why did he always get the bad ones? Why did he even get masters in the first place? He decided to leave those questions unanswered as he searched for a means of stalling its production. If the robot carried out what it said it wanted to do, he would be responsible for that creation, responsible for the deaths of countless numbers of people! Genocide! …Wait, “micro robotic”…

“I cannot do nanorobotics without the right equipment,” Ark spoke, a hint of hopefulness in his voice.

“You need not to,” said the robot. “I already design the small devices within my body. Just create a system for launching them.”

Ark’s hopes were dashed. He slumped. “End of command?” he asked, crestfallen.

“End of command,” was the reply.

Ark folded up the schematic and put it into his Mana Storage with a sigh. Sitting within the depths of his mind, it felt heavy and acidic from its mere purpose.

He winced. The machine wanted powerful weapons. He overheard talk that the Council was doing the same, and who knew what happened to them; had the Wanderers successfully defeated all of them? Malachai was still up and about, at least…what about the other ten he last knew were still alive? This would be a race against however many of them were left, and should he come across one…there was no way he could do it with his bare hands…bargain time again.

“I’ll do it all, on one condition,” he said glumly. Yeah, like I will… he thought.

“Speak it,” the robot commanded expectantly.

“I have my Spear back. If you want weapons, I need to fight for them.”

“Very well,” it answered almost immediately.

Even though he was experienced with robots and their quickfire computation at times, Ark was stunned by its sudden decision.

“But be warned,” it continued in a startling tone. It paused, giving the feeling of a slow evil smile creeping across its face. “I have made a slight ‘addition’.”

With a noise akin to a cough, the Spear flew out of the robot’s innards like a rocket, curving through the air and pressing its head into the soil before Ark, quivering with a ringing tone.

He wrapped his hands around it and pulled it out, eagerly inspecting it for damage. He did not find any; however, what he did find alarmed him – a small, thin metal band was attached around the base of its head.

I’ll explain it to you once we are away from this machine, Eriuch told him, sounding somewhat exhausted.

“Right, I see,” Ark sighed, both to Eriuch and the robot.

The robot cracked its metallic knuckles, turned and headed off towards the nearby forest. “Go,” it commanded as it walked. “You have your orders. I must now attend to a business matter of my own.”

Ark turned and widened his eyes out of indignant surprise. “But, there’s nothing around here! You’re going to leave me here?”

The machine stopped, but did not turn to face him. “There is plenty around here. You shall find something to the northwest. I sense what I am after in the direction I am headed.”

Ark closed his eyes and felt a distant emanation on the Field, behind him. Its orientation was different than what he had expected – he guessed he had changed hemispheres in their teleport.

He opened his eyes again. The robot was gone, its departure notable only by the crushed grass and the clanging of its feet growing even more distant, away from where he would go. He sighed and turned to face his destination, and began to walk.

Dark, Havering, Eriuch, and now this robot. It hadn’t even left its name. But, thought Ark, it didn’t need to. Everything it needed to say had been said. More thoughts crammed themselves into his already crowded mind as he slipped through a curtain of grass; Servant Ark started on his next request.