Microstory 2456: Bot Farm

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If you’ve been anywhere on this planet, you’ve probably run into an AI of some kind. Some of these are more intelligent and self-aware than others. Some look like humans, and some are very clearly mechanical. It just depends on their purpose, and the kind of feel they want to give the visitors. Well, all those AI bodies have to come from somewhere. I had the pleasure of getting a tour of a dome that we like to call Bot Farm. The official name is Synthetic Production Dome, but that’s a mouthful, so no one actually called it that. It’s 2500, so y’all already know, but there are different types of substrates. Some include a consciousness that was born to an organic body, while others were programmed, or primed for self-learning and growth. Some are purely mechanical—referred to as mechs—while others have some organic components. An “artificial” being that is purely organic is basically the Holy Grail of synthetic intelligence development, and something that researchers are still working on. It would be a quantum brain inside of a living being with no mechanical parts—designed from the start, but conceivably something that could have evolved naturally. Can you imagine? With today’s technology, we can only get kind of close. Most of the AIs on Castlebourne are skinned mechs, meaning they’re made of metals and metamaterials, but also have a dermal layer over them, so they look more like real humans. This isn’t to trick you, but as a way to step over to this side of the uncanny valley. There are very few stages in between full mech and skinned mech. We’re talking about very niche use cases, including some with organic eyes, ears, or tongues for sensory research. They also grow organs for medical research, though those don’t usually need a full body anyway, unless they’re testing some sort of mobility variable. There are also places where you can find mechs with certain other organic body parts that are used for...adult purposes. To each their own, I guess. I never saw a section that designed any of these types of bots. Most of these were skinned. I’ll tell ya, though, it was a tad bit eerie to see those ones being manufactured. While they were assembling the internal components, they most of the time looked no different than a car, or some other machine, but then they moved on to the skinning process. Seeing them look like half people was unnerving, and maybe horrific? This tour will be fascinating for some, but disturbing for others, even though again, it’s the year 2500, and we’re all used to synthetics by now. I asked about it, and they don’t have a tour for kids that would be a little less disquieting, so just know that if you sign your family up. There was one kid on my tour, who seemed fine. To be honest, maybe he was an adult in a child substrate. How should I know? It’s not illegal, it’s just a little weird in my book. So that’s it; that’s Bot Farm. Go see how they’re made.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: June 8, 2460

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It wasn’t until the next year that Angela came back. She appeared right in Mateo and Mateo’s cell, because there wasn’t any sort of teleportation suppressing technology. She removed her helmet and yawned, then sat down on the bench between them, but she didn’t say anything.

“Did you find it, the timonite?” Future!Mateo asked her finally.

“Nope. That’s why it took me so long. It’s not there. I looked through that rock and dust over and over again, and I’m telling you, it doesn’t exist. I felt like an unlucky contestant on The Amazing Race.”

“You’ve seen that show?” Past!Mateo asked.

“We had TV in the afterlife,” she answered. “We had it before you did.”

“How the hell did you get in here?” Underkeeper was just walking back in, having heard their conversation.

“Uh, I teleported?” Angela said, like it was obvious.

“We didn’t know that you could do that,” Underkeeper began. “Can you two do it as well?”

“Yeah,” Future!Mateo answered.

“So you could have escaped at any time?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t call that an escape. It’s more that we could have left,” Past!Mateo reasoned.

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Well, we can’t teleport to the stars,” Future!Mateo explained. “Where would we have gone? These cots are comfortable enough.” He gestured towards them.

Underkeeper persistently rubbed her knuckle against her cheek. “Oh.”

“She did call this a moon, though,” Past!Mateo reminded them all. “There must be a planet around here. Is it breathable?”

“It is,” Underkeeper admitted. “It once orbited the same host star as Violkomin, which is located at the aperture to the kasma. Hogarth has since moved us all to the other side of the universe. We’re as remote as you can get.”

“Wait.” Angela stands up too, even though she’s tired. “If this whole system is distant from others, why do you have to live on the moon? Why can’t you live on the planet instead?”

“This is where we were,” Underkeeper said. “Hogarth didn’t tell us that we couldn’t travel to the planet, but we do not have the resources to make the journey. This moon is composed almost exclusively of silicates. We have found very few metals here. This structure existed before we arrived. That’s not even the biggest issue, though. There’s no fuel. It is almost completely devoid of hydrogen, so we can’t build a fusion reactor. We have been subsisting on the same limited amount of water this entire time, recycling it over and over again. Trying to separate the elements through electrolysis could be a fatal waste, so we’ve not bothered to try.”

“Well, if you have suits, we can teleport you to the planet,” Past!Mateo offers.

“Matt,” Angela scolds.

“What? We’re not gonna help them?” Past!Mateo asked dismissively. “You can see how inhumane this is.”

“Would you really do this?” Underkeeper asked, hope in her eyes.

“Three steps. Get us our suits and PRUs,” Future!Mateo instructed. “Help us synthesize a helmet for my alternate self here. Put yourselves in suits. We’ll jump you all to the planet.”

“How many are there of you?” Angela asked.

“Five Maramon, including one child,” Underkeeper replied. “Four hybrids.”

“Nine total,” Future!Mateo added. “We each can usually only take two at a time. However, you are, umm...” He trailed off uncomfortably.

“Heavy?” Underkeeper guessed. “I am aware of teleportation mass limits. The hybrids are light, as is my nephew; it should even out rather nicely. Two trips wouldn’t be a problem for us, but perhaps for you.”

“With our respective suits, plus any belongings you would like to take with you, it could add up to more than two,” Angela calculated.

“But that shouldn’t be a problem,” Past!Mateo clarified. “To the planet and back again is, what, sixty jumps? Each round trip will maybe take a few minutes.”

Underkeeper went back to her people to discuss the offer, but it was taking too long, so the three humans just teleported out of their cell, found their suits, and started their preparations. Whether they had company or not, they would be leaving today. Past!Mateo kept the helmet since they were not equipped to synthesize a copy. Future!Mateo would be able to handle the vacuum for the minute or so long journey down to the planet. One of the hybrids caught them while they were here. Kalmana, right?” Future!Mateo asked.

“Balbira,” she corrected.

“Didya hear? It’s moving day.”

“This world,” Balbira began. “This is all the other hybrids and I have ever known. Lusia will be excited. Aclima will be indifferent. Kalmana will be suspicious. But they will all...be afraid. You have to understand that we were not created because the engineer was bored. He made us for a purpose. He knew that we would escape one day. Mother has been trying to raise us to subvert his expectations, but some of us have done better with this mandate than others. I, for one, lean more towards his wishes than hers. Lusia is obviously on the opposite end of the spectrum. The three of them have been fighting their true natures. It has not been healthy. If you take us down to that planet, we will finally have access to the resources that the Maramon have been yearning for so our purpose can be fulfilled.”

“I hardly think that Hogarth would let that happen,” Past!Mateo determined. “She left you here for a reason, because it was safe. She would have locked you up, or exiled you entirely, if she believed that you posed any threat.”

Balbira shook her head. “She is not a god, despite what you may assume since she built this universe. What I’m trying to tell you is that you cannot help us. If you do, I will come after you, and you will regret it. I will manage to convince the other new hybrids to fall in line. That’s my strength, which I have been resisting for years.”

“That’s your purpose,” Angela asked, “to attack us?”

“Or to attack all humans,” Past!Mateo figured.

“It’s more complicated than that,” Balbira replied. “The old hybrids had their own specific tasks, which nearly all of them ultimately turned their backs on. There are subroutines in our brains to prevent that from happening again. There will be no stopping us. Hogarth left us here out of mercy, but she doesn’t understand the risk. I’m hoping that you don’t suffer from the same delusion.”

Future!Mateo sighed, and stepped towards Balbira. “Not helping you despite our ability to do so will only serve to ensure that you become our enemies. I, for one, would rather do the right thing today, and hope for the best tomorrow.”

“Sometimes you have to ignore the consequences,” Angela supported, “even when you know what they are. What you end up doing to us may be bad, but we have to worry about what our own actions do to our souls. Death is better than becoming monsters.”

Balbira absorbed the decision. “Very well.” She switched gears with her demeanor. “Each one of us has personal belongings, and you have the suits. We’ll go one at a time, assuming they accept your offer, which they would be fools not to.” She left briskly.

The group unanimously agreed to the plan. They were leaving a lot behind on this world, but were taking enough with them to rebuild. All of the Maramon and all of the hybrids, were capable of surviving the vacuum of space for a brief period of time, but the child and the hybrids were at most risk, and they had suits, so they might as well use them. The three teleporters took them one at a time, as Balbira predicted. After Past!Mateo and Angela both left with the last of their charges, only one Maramon remained, who Future!Mateo was assigned. They were waiting for Angela to return with the shared helmet to make it easier on Future!Mateo. But there would be a delay regardless. “Then you must all three return, and take it together,” the Maramon genetic engineer suggested.

“Sir, you said this thing was over, like, 800 kilograms. That is well outside the mass limitation of all three of us combined. We cannot take it with us. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to start over with whatever this is when you get down to the planet. I assume you have the plans for it stored on a computing device?”

“That is out of the question,” the Maramon argued. This is an extremely complex design, which requires a very particular environment, and very particular materials. Building it again will take too long.”

“I thought that you people were immortal.”

“Different universe, different rules. We’ll live for a long time, but not forever.”

“What is it? What is so important?” Future!Mateo questioned.

The Maramon shut his trap defiantly.

Future!Mateo looked over it. “This looks like a personal pod...except it’s gigantic. There’s a lot more than is necessary. So either you don’t know how to miniaturize all the things that humans have been able to do, or it does more than the average pod does? Am I getting warmer?”

The Maramon crossed his arms, and refused to say more.

Why would he not just say what it was? Because it was something that Mateo would not approve of. He looked down over his shoulder, kind of in the direction of their destination planet. Then he looked back at the giant pod, and back again. “The hybrids. This is how you built them. It’s also a gestation pod, but one with a unique design to fit your needs. Yes, I can see why you would not want to part with that.”

“You can leave me here. I no longer require your help. Thank you very much.” The man would rather be stranded on an airless moon alone than give up his life’s work, and live with the only family he could hope to keep.

“All right.” Future!Mateo said, clapping his hands with finality. “I can see that you have become an unwilling participant.” He took the genetic engineer by the shoulders.” Here we go!” Despite protests, Future!Mateo teleported them both away.

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The Advancement of Mateo Matic: June 7, 2459

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Mateo and Angela suddenly appeared in the Third Rail version of Russia on August 16, 2398, standing next to a younger version of Mateo. He wouldn’t recognize his future self, even if he managed to look behind him in time. They were both in full IMS, their faces obscured by their helmet visors. He had just activated a big teleportation machine, hoping to transport him and a piece of timonite to Lebanon, Kansas without having to actually look for the mineral first. He needed this to save their friend, Trina McIver from being lost in time. The plan didn’t really work, though they did end up finding her anyway. The machine reached critical mass a second later, and took them away, along with two Russian soldiers who were trying to stop Past!Mateo. But they didn’t end up in Lebanon, and this fact was apparent immediately upon their arrival. The ground around them was gray, the sky was black, and the air didn’t exist. They were on a moon, or an asteroid, or something. A pinch of atmosphere managed to come with them to this place, but it did not last. The three men not wearing any special suits quickly begin to die. Future!Mateo couldn’t save them all, but he could save one.

Spacesuits in the past were traditionally slow and difficult to assemble. For many years, it was actually impossible for a wearer to accomplish the feat on their own. For emergencies, it was vital for an Integrated Multipurpose Suit to be designed to be put on quickly, without any snags, and without any help. For the most part, when the armor module was needed, the two inner modules were also needed. But it was technically possible for the armor module to function on its own when there was no other option. It was also the easiest to remove, and the fastest. Future!Mateo swiftly disconnected it, and opened it like a lid. He stepped out, and pushed his past self into it, letting it close up automatically. He then gave him the helmet for a complete seal. Past!Mateo could still be dying, though, because he had been exposed to the vacuum of outer space for too long, so Future!Mateo tapped on the arm interface to release a cocktail of exposure treatment drugs. This solved one problem, but created another, because of course, Future!Mateo was now the one at risk of dying. He could survive out here for a little bit, but not indefinitely. They needed to find shelter.

As Future!Mateo was looking around for somewhere to survive, Past!Mateo and Angela appeared to be talking to one other via radio. He had no idea what they were saying, though, so he just kept searching the horizon. Angela started to tap on her own arm interface. She pointed in one direction. Past!Mateo nodded. The both of them walked over to Future!Mateo, and took him by the arms. They teleported away, into a pressurized environment. Future!Mateo blinked, trying to recover. He would eventually, but he wouldn’t say no to his own shot of the treatment drugs. Angela knew this, so she removed her gauntlet, and placed it on his hand to administer the dermal flash. His health began to return to him, and he was able to speak. But before he could, Past!Mateo had something to say. “Did you think that you could survive better out there than I could?” he asked accusatorily.

“Indeed,” Future!Mateo responded. “My body has been upgraded again.”

Past!Mateo looked over at Angela, who nodded back, confirming that to be the truth. “Well...thank you, then. I appreciate your support. Now...report.”

Future!Mateo took a deep breath. “You need to return my suit, so I can go back out there, and hunt for the timonite in all that rubble.”

“No, I can look for it,” Past!Mateo insisted. “It’s my mission.”

“It’s mine too,” Future!Mateo explained.

“So we fail in the first timeline?” Past!Mateo guessed.

“Well, no. I’m closing my loop. I always wondered how we succeeded, though. Your memory will be erased before you go back with it.”

“You must not have had all of your memories erased, because you’re wearing these suits,” Past!Mateo reasoned. “You knew that we would end up here.”

“No, we just kind of wear them all the time now.”

“We would have brought an extra one if we had known that you would need it as well,” Angela clarified. “Buddy breathing doesn’t work in space.” She turned to Future!Mateo. “I’ll go look for the timonite. You stay here with your self to find out what this place is, where we are, and how to get back home.”

“Homes,” Past!Mateo corrected. “You two and I aren’t going to the same place.”

“No, we’re not.” Angela dropped her visor, and disappeared.

“Where are the others?” Past!Mateo questioned his future self.

“They’re fine. They have their own concerns to worry about. There’s no need to give you any details, but we move past this story arc, and into new ones. The parallel realities are just the beginning of our troubles. The way I see it, your life has barely started.”

“I see.” Past!Mateo examined the architecture of this airlock, as if he were knowledgeable enough to glean any information from it. He started walking towards the interior hatch, which was fully open. Lights turned on in reaction to his presence, though there appeared to be no people here. This facility, whatever it was, may have been abandoned. Or they were just out to lunch. He stopped while he was still on the threshold. “Have you noticed, the doorways are pretty high, as are the ceilings? This was made for tall people.”

“Or they just like extra space,” Future!Mateo countered.

“I dunno. This doesn’t feel quite human to me.”

“No, you’re right about that.”

“Yes, you are,” came another voice. A being was walking down the corridor, and she was definitely not human. She was a Maramon. She wasn’t, however, alone. Four human women were walking with her. “Aclima, Balbira, tie them up.”

“Oh, no thank you,” Future!Mateo said, like she was just offering him a second glass of water at a restaurant.

The Maramon looked like she was smirking, but it was hard to tell with her anatomy. “Kalmana,” she said simply.

One of the humans quickdrew a gun, and stunned them in the face. The suits could dissipate—and even channel—most energy blasts, but they couldn’t protect exposed areas. Still, they resisted the surge, and tried to stay awake. She had to fire once more. The lights went out.

The two Mateos woke up in a cell at around the same time. One of the women was sitting guard on the other side of the bars. She seemed nice, but honestly, so did the others. Hopefully they weren’t slaves to the Maramon. Mateo didn’t know enough about their culture to have any clue why they might be working together. “Hi. I’m Lusia.” She wasn’t bubbly, but professionally courteous.

“Hi, Lusia. This is Mateo. I’m Mateo.”

“I know.”

“Can I ask, why are you working with them?” Past!Mateo questioned.

“She is of my people,” she answered plainly.

“Is she? Do they treat you well?”

Lusia smiled. “We are hybrids. Half-human, half-Mar, but loyal to the latter.”

“To what end?” Future!Mateo asked. He had encountered her kind before, on a few occasions. He had gotten the feeling that those others were the only ones, so this was a new development.

“Our purpose has not yet been revealed to us. We are still training. Mother will explain all when we are ready to hear it. Until then, I’m here to watch you.”

“She’s not your mother, she’s just your creator,” Past!Mateo tried to argue.

“What’s the difference?”

“Lusia!” the Maramon’s voice shouted from another room. “Do not speak to them! Remain silent and steadfast!”

“Oh, no thank you!” Lusia yelled back. Now she was really smiling.

“Lusia!” the Maramon complained, holding the final vowel for several seconds.

“The young do not always do what they are told,” Lusia said to the Mateos. “She really is our mother, and not actually our creator. That was someone else. She’s the one who raised us, and cares for us. We do not call the man who engineered us our father. I just want to show you that I can defy her orders, and not be abused, or anything. I can’t imagine what horrors you imagine we experience in this world. But we’re doing okay.”

Future!Mateo stood up from his bunk, and approached the bars. He leaned back a few centimeters when he noticed her trying to hide her mild fear of him. “I do not have a problem with the Maramon. It seems only that they have a problem with us.”

Lusia widened her eyes to process the information. Then she shut them and nodded slightly.

“So we are in Ansutah,” Past!Mateo assumed.

“No,” Lusia replied, shaking her head. “This is Fort Underhill. June 7, 2459.”

“Really?” Future!Mateo asked, very surprised. “How did we wind up here?”

“No idea,” Lusia said. “Ukodenva ‘Underkeeper’ Unedisalk came here accidentally as well, with the rest of her cadet squad. Our genetic engineer was the son of the man who made the other hybrids. Yes, I noticed your sense of familiarity when I said that. I guess he wanted to follow in daddy’s footsteps.”

“Is Hogarth aware that you are here?”

“She found herself the unwilling commanding officer of the cadets, due to some odd laws that they were clinging onto from the Crossover,” Lusia began to explain. “Things reportedly went well for a time, but they fell apart eventually, and became hostile. A truce was later formed, which basically lets us do whatever we want, as long as we do not leave this moon. Hogarth could not stop us from being created.”

“Are there more than the four of you? Does he intend to make more?” Past!Mateo was more curious than he ought to be.

“Hopefully not.”

“What will become of us?” Future!Mateo asked her.

Underkeeper walked into the hock section. “That has yet to be decided. I’m advocating for you to keep your hands firmly attached to your necks, but I’ll be honest, your prospects are not looking good. The others are not as fond of humans as I am.” She looked upon Lusia lovingly. Perhaps she really was her mother.

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