Forgotten Legacy

Two years have passed since I began working here. I am a caretaker, but not in the normal way. My job is to oversee the production of wheat for the I.U.G. or Intergalactic Unified Government. Earth has been chosen as a type zero civilization, which means the planet is used for production with an easily countable population. Currently there is one human per landmass, of which there are seven. The wheat makes the planet particularly beautiful with all the golden fields. It is affectionately known as the golden orb by neighboring planets.

Several hundred thousand AI robots continuously harvest, replant, and ship the wheat. My job is to supervise the whole operation in the unlikely event that something goes awry. The main concern of this job is the boredom that accompanies it. However, I have recently bought a plasma pistol. So, today I am going out into the field to test it out.

I picked up the sleek white and silver gun. The gun looks like a normal rifle, the only key difference being this gun shoots high powered plasma blasts. I walk out of my small house which is a simple two room space. The first room contains a kitchen, fully stocked with food and an underground water supply. The second room is a nice lounge area with a loft overhead containing a bed and a small study area. It was just me and my small, tiny space in an infinite world.

I exit through the door next to the kitchen into a small garage containing a hovercraft. I enter the hovercraft and set my new gun in its case which I left on the passenger seat, and start the hovercraft. It hums to life and I pull out into the endless fields. This hovercraft is specifically designed to hover just high enough as to not disturb the wheat. I stopped some hundred meters away from my house.

"Alright," I said, "Time for some fun."

I removed the gun from its case. There was a ridge just about a hundred feet away which made a great target to test out my new toy. I aimed down the sight and pulled the trigger. Whoosh! A plasma beam shot out of the barrel and with a "Zap,' disintegrated a five foot section of the wheat.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed, as I began walking toward the disintegrated area, "That was epic!"

I arrived at the site and stood on the charred, now barren, patch of land. Then I heard a sound. The sound was like a scraping sound that you would hear if you rub two rocks together. Then I fell. The ground had simply given way revealing a small room made entirely of metal. The entire room was a perfect cube around ten feet in each direction. I groaned and sat up feeling slightly disoriented from the fall. I then watched as the ceiling above me closed back off with another metal panel. The color of the metal was white-gray as if the two colors had been mixed together.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"Well, you`re in the Cephalotron Corporation."

"Who said that?" I asked, alarmed at the sound of a voice. I had not heard a voice for two years.

"I am the AI supercomputer named T.A.S.C. or Technologically Advanced Supercomputer Control." T.A.S.C. said.

The voice was female and stayed at a singular tone making it flat and emotionless. I was still not terribly worried because all AI were made to serve humans.

"I have not seen a living being in quite some time now." T.A.S.C. continued, "Will you keep me company for a while?"

"That wouldn`t be terrible" I answered, "In fact I could use the company too."

"Fantastic." T.A.S.C. said, "Put these on."

A panel opened on the wall at that moment revealing a small cubical containing a pair of boots. I picked them up and examined them. On one side of each boot was inscribed the words: Air Repulsion Boots.

"What do they do?" I asked.

"They have the ability to break your fall from any height." T.A.S.C. replied, "And are great for rock climbing. Anyway, follow me."

A section of the wall pulled away, pulled back by an arm-like piston. It opened into a much larger room, made of the same panels and a glass viewing chamber was off to the right. The window overlooked a great expanse of machines and different objects each clearly in their own sections. The arm-like piston retracted into the wall and a different piston extended from the ceiling. This one had a camera attached at the end of it. All of this was quite interesting and more unsettling the more I saw.

"Hello." the camera said, "Nice to see you."

"Woah," I said, "What is this place?"

"Here at Cephalotron Co. we do many different tasks." T.A.S.C, or the camera, said, "I oversee all of them to make sure it works well."

I watched as a humanoid robot went out into one of the sections with curious looking pyramids. The pyramids suddenly came to life and the three sides sprang outward before they exploded, effectively dismantling the humanoid robot.

This all felt very alien to the world I had been alone in for so long. After years of warmth in the fields above this was a shocking coldness that enveloped me. A chill ran down my spine adding to the uneasiness of this place and of T.A.S.C. I realized that I had no control. The hundreds and thousands of robots patrolling the surface gave no help to now being bossed around by an AI.

"As I was saying right this way." T.A.S.C. continued.

The sliding metal door at the other end of the room opened up and allowed me to walk through. I obliged, realizing I had no other direction to go. We went through many rooms with different tests in each. However, most of them ended up blowing up or destroying something. The facility was clearly not made with humans in mind. I found I had to make use of the boots T.A.S.C. had given me. They worked well but did not take the freight out of jumping down fifty feet. I did not make much conversation and neither did T.A.S.C. Maybe that was due to not having much practice. I watched as more robots were destroyed or melted or dismantled. Suddenly I did not feel as safe as I thought I was. I was deep underground now and going deeper.

Why would they be creating all these weapons? I thought, Why did T.A.S.C. need to bring me anywhere if she had full control over the facility? Why could we not just stay by the surface? The weapons seemed a lot more menacing now. What if they were for me?

"Where are we going?" I asked, slightly on edge at this point.

"Oh, I thought you would enjoy seeing all I create." T.A.S.C. answered, "I also have a great gardening area that would make a nice spot to sit and talk."

That did seem to make sense, but it did not make me any less uneasy.

Two hours must have passed by the time we entered another room but this one was plain. It seemed oddly out of place compared to the countless other rooms with different tests taking place.

"Wait." said T.A.S.C. "Why don't you stay here for a minute."

T.A.S.C. moved her camera over to the corner. I stood there awkwardly waiting for T.A.S.C.`s voice to return.

Thirty minutes passed, then an hour. Then four panels in the ceiling opened.

I was right! I thought, The weapons are for me! No, calm down. Maybe, it's some sort of faster transportation.

Four of the humanoid robots fell down from the opened panels. They each drew guns. Thinking quickly I drew my pistol which had previously been hidden on my person. I blasted the first one, instantly disintegrating it, before diving toward the opening in their defense. I rolled to my feet and ran at the wall. The robots opened fire. I knew if I stayed in this room I would be toast. With options quickly diminishing I aimed the pistol at the wall and fired. The panel it hit disintegrated in a perfect rectangle the size of a regular door. I did not slow down and leaped out the opening.

Falling is a strange sensation. You are weightless but heavy. You still feel the weight of your body being pulled down, with nothing to support you. I experienced these feelings the moment I jumped. Looking down, I saw supports holding the moveable rooms. Pillars rising out of darkness below. The backside of each of the grayish panels became a pitch black. My mind raced as I panicked. I looked around frantically to try to find something, anything, to save myself. I must have fallen five hundred feet before I even glimpsed the floor. My fate rushed closer and closer as I braced myself for impact. Fifty feet left, thirty feet, ten feet. I closed my eyes, and felt as I touched down softly.

"What?" I said out loud.

Oh! The boots saved me! I thought. I never would have believed I could survive that!

Down there it was much less finished. There were broken wall panels and robots. Most of the scraps were metal and some of them still resembled their finished counterparts, such as the walls and some robots.

This must be her trash chute. I thought.

"I heard that!" T.A.S.C. said, all in the same, emotionless monotone.

I ran. I did not stop to think of a logical way to go. I just had to pick a direction and try to be quiet. I could not let her find me. That attack may have almost killed me, but it was nothing compared to her best weapons.

Using the floor panels as platforms I raced across the metal terrain. Floor panel to floor panel I jumped. About twenty-five feet away I saw a room that could act as cover from the cameras that I assumed were up above me. Two rooms were adjacent to the room I was under which created a sort of unintentional false room. I felt safe from the view of the cameras here.

Retreating to the corner of the enclosure I waited, not wanting T.A.S.C. to notice me again. I stayed there, in absolute silence, pistol drawn, not daring to move a muscle. After about an hour I decided it would be a good idea to search my area for anything useful. Meticulously, I searched the room.

Much later I noticed a soft glow in the pile of scrap metal near the single corner. Carefully, I removed the metal covering it to see that it was a small device on the arm of one of the robots. The rest of the robot remained buried. The device was a small screen running down the length of the robot's forearm. I tapped the screen and it came to life, displaying a menu on it. The options were minimal: Weapons, Tests, Rooms, Schedule. At first glance, I did not see anything that could help me, but after some consideration I decided "Rooms" would probably give me a map.

I selected the "Rooms" button and, sure enough, a miniature top-down styled map was displayed on the screen. My position, or rather the robot's position, was marked with an "X". I studied the map and found that that place was a massive maze of moving rooms. Currently two of them were moving but they were much higher up than I was. I zoomed out, on the screen, to try to find something interesting like a control room. Right at the center I found a room. This room was around the same size as the rest, but it was a circle. After searching through the other rooms I came to the conclusion that that was the only circular room. Maybe that was T.A.S.C`s control center.

What if I can do something about all this? I thought. How can I take this with me?

Over the next few hours I slowly, carefully uncovered the robot. I needed a power source to keep the map functioning. I began checking the robot for its power source. Eventually, I found it in the chest cavity. It was surprisingly small and looked like it powered the whole thing. Taking a wedged piece of metal, I used it as a screwdriver to work the screws connecting the front and back pieces of the chest. When I had gotten it open I sliced the wires connected to the power supply besides the wire connected to the arm. Unraveling the power supply and taking it out revealed another problem. I still needed the arm itself. I tried multiple different pieces of scrap metal to try to saw off the arm but none of them succeeded. I resorted to brute force by taking a large clump of metal and slamming it into the elbow joint. The arm broke free with a loud "Clunk" sound.

Amazingly, the screen remained functional. I began my march to the sphere. As I progressed I began to think.

Why would I care about this facility? I could just go home. Why do I care to try to shut it down?

My own stupidity kept me on my path to the sphere. I did not want T.A.S.C. to have the ability to destroy Earth. If T.A.S.C. wanted to destroy the world with all her weapons.

Hours later I stood directly under the room, but there was one small problem. The room was a hundred feet up.

I searched the supports which held the giant black sphere lifted high above the floor. On the third one I searched, I found a maintenance ladder. I assumed it was for service robots but nothing was for sure. I began the climb.

When I finally finished the climb I was tired and stiff, but more determined than ever. I had resolved myself to try to stop this force. What good could come from an AI with millions of weapons, bombs, lasers, and destructive devices, than to go back to my lonely house. I peered into the small circular opening into the sphere.

Inside the sphere I saw almost nothing. The floor was raised up about a third of the height of the sphere itself. The massive room was empty besides a singular computer in the middle of the room.

I approached the computer cautiously, but no trapps were triggered, T.A.S.C. did not start trying to kill me. It was calm. The computer was just a singular monitor with wires disappearing into the floor. Attached to the computer was a mouse and a keyboard.

I tapped the power button on the back of the monitor. It came to life with a slightly blue light. The computer finished booting up and a login page showed.

"I wouldn't try that if I was you." T.A.S.C`s voice came from everywhere in the sphere.

I was frightened. I knew that T.A.S.C. could kill me here. I had to think of some way to stop her from doing it.

"I could kill you. You know?" T.A.S.C. said.

"Wouldn't be the first time you tried." I replied bitterly.

T.A.S.C. laughed, "I am more powerful than you ever could be! My knowledge exceeds yours by an infinite amount."

"Well," I said, "what do you gain by killing me? After all, I`m just one guy."

"I could always use more organic material for my garden." T.A.S.C. replied.

"This computer?" I asked, "What's so special about it?"

"You truly are unintelligent if you cannot figure that out." T.A.S.C. scoffed.

"Well how come I easily escaped you." I said.

T.A.S.C. laughed, "I knew where you were! You think you actually got away? You are the only being in this entire compound that has a heat signature."

I realized at that moment that if she had known where I was. Why did she not say something sooner? This computer had to be the reason. I tried the login password.

I first entered "T.A.S.C." but the computer rejected it.

"You cannot possibly guess that." T.A.S.C. said, "There are near infinite possibilities for this password."

Three robots then climbed up through the maintenance ladder. Quickly, I drew my pistol and blasted each of them. I needed a plan if I was to even try to win this. I looked at the computer.

"Reset your password."

It was displayed right below the password box. I clicked it.

"You will need voice confirmation to reset your password."

"Confirmed." I said, panicked.

If this doesn't work I'm screwed. I thought.

"Voice confirmation denied."

"Damn." I said.

"You will never succeed." T.A.S.C. said.

A turret dropped from the ceiling. I panicked and ran behind the computer.

"No!" T.A.S.C. shouted, "I do not confirm the turret!"

The turret was picked up by a similar arm that moved the panels and disappeared. Just then, I realized that if it hit T.A.S.C. it could not be good for her. Maybe she would even die.

"Voice confirmation approved"

The computer had approved it. I was confused, but maybe T.A.S.C's voice was the confirmation to the computer. I had not said anything and it let me reset the password, but I wasted no time figuring it out. Leaping over to the computer I entered a new password, clicked confirm, and entered.

T.A.S.C`s control panel opened up on the computer. I scanned the items looking for a way to shut her down.

"Emergency Shutdown."

"Yes!" I shouted as I clicked it.

"Nooo!" T.A.S.C. shouted, "If you're going to kill me. I'll kill you with me!"

Bombs, turrets, robots, and guns dropped into the sphere. I acted without thinking. I made a straight charge to the maintenance ladder. I ducked into the hole as the entire room was enveloped by a blast of fire. I was knocked out by the explosion and fell downward.

I woke up in the hospital. The lights made it impossible for my groggy mind to process. Everything was a blur and I felt horrible. I saw a nurse entering the room.

"Where am I?" I asked as I attempted to sit up.

"You're in the hospital after a serious explosion alerted the planetary defense system which alerted us." The nurse replied, "We'd love to hear what happened."

"Well," I said, "I uncovered a forgotten civilization."