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18. Motivation

Ora was bored. She had been watching Eyes control pigeons all night. The deerlike machine was so focused on the job that Ora began to consider Eyes nothing more than a tool with no hobbies or interests. Automaton? Eyes was a robot through and through to her.

Behind Ora, Informator walked from house to house, sometimes carrying metal chests that seemed full and heavy. A few times he transported cages that had glow thieves in them. The glowanade in the creatures showed a bright yellow—an attempt of theirs to discourage attacks on them perhaps.

Ora's battery was screaming for power, making her body lose some of its stiffness. She lit up her grimace and yelled, “I need Corby! He must recharge me, or else I will drain the closest energy source!”

Eyes ignored her, continuing to work with the pigeons.

Her eyes glowed bright blue. “I am being serious! I will drain you!”

The deerlike machine didn't even give her a side glance.

“Do you not hear me?” she asked, bringing out her blue glowanade wires like arms with four claws on each. Then she launched them with their connectors heading straight for Eyes.

Eyes' vertical eyes lit up bright white before glowanade wires of the same color emerged from the native automaton's back. Their connectors followed Ora's wires and stuck to them before hers could touch Eyes. She was the one being drained now.

Corby left Zeke and Bob's house. Zeke stood in the doorway and said, “You can use a net from the metal box near the lake. Then you can cook the fish in a kitchen or over the lava if you can find something with which to skewer it.”

“Thanks,” Corby said. “I'll try over the lava.” His stomach was eating itself at that point, so he needed to eat something. He headed straight for the lake and looked into its water.

The catfish swam toward the edge, begging him for food as their whiskers wiggled above the water's surface.

The corners of Corby's mouth drooped. “I … I'll have to …” He swallowed audibly. Until that moment, he relied on either his home lab or Ora to get his food. And he definitely preferred the home lab over her, but now there was nobody to hunt and kill the fish for him.

Still at the edge and begging for food with their mouths opening and closing, the catfish splashed about, waiting for the biped before them to bow down and throw them something to gulp.

Corby raised his upper lip, showing his gritted teeth. “I can't do this. You're …” His right hand went above the water and touched the nose of a catfish. The creature's skin was slimy and cold, but it didn't stop him from petting it. “You're just like me. Trying to survive in this crazy world.”

His growling stomach reminded him that it was empty and still eating itself in lack of food. It was only a matter of time until he'd faint at the hands of hunger and exhaustion. He had to do something about it.

To his right there was a copper chest that could only be carried with both of his arms if he wanted to move it. He knew what was inside, but his heart was beating rapidly as his hands reached for the storage. The chest was easy to open, but once he saw the fishing net tied to a metal handle's hoop, he looked back at the lake. The fish were still there, still begging for food.

In the same chest, there was a brown fabric bag of dried blue moss. The bag had the words “fish food” written on it with black paint. The automatons sure planned everything in case they acquired human helpers.

Against his better judgment, Corby took the bag of fish food and sat by the lake. Grabbing a handful of moss pieces, he threw them at the catfish and watched as black tails splashed around in the water. A smile formed on his face. But that nice moment was once again ruined when a stinging sensation tortured his stomach.

His hand went under his left rib in a futile attempt to stop the pain. He looked at the bag of moss and dove his hand into it, bringing out a flat moss piece he could fit in his palm. After sniffing it, he took a bite. Terrible idea. The bitter taste made him spit five times before throwing the rest of the piece into the vortex of catfish.

There was no other option left. He had to fish if he wanted to eat, so he grabbed the net and swung it into the water, aiming for a medium-sized catfish. It was in! He pulled it out of the water and dropped it onto the sand. Cue the fish flipping and sand throwing while he gasped and let the net drop at his feet.

“I'm sorry!” he said, putting his hands in front of himself as if to guard against the fish. “I don't want to do this, but I have to!”

The catfish continued to thrash about, but not randomly. It set its sights on the lake, and it began to wiggle its way there.

Corby blocked its path. He put his right hand over the back of the catfish, then grabbed a rock with his left hand. “Look, I'll try to make this quick so it'll hurt less. I just … need to eat.” The rock he held with his hand was raised then brought down to strike the creature.

Ora had her snout buried in the sand, quivering without showing any lights on her face. “You almost shut me down! You were trying to destroy me!”

Eyes stopped working for a second to flash bright green light at her before focusing on the job again.

“I do not understand your ridiculous, light-based language!” Ora said. “Do you not have a speaker, you ancient contraption?”

Flashing green eyes at her again, Eyes let out a sound that could have been made by an Earth creature she knew as bear.

Ora shook her head. “You have a speaker! You are not limited to making that sound! Why can't you talk to me like a normal, intelligent machine?”

“Eyes doesn't need to learn the language of the killers of Eyes' creators,” Informator said while passing by and carrying a jar of white caterpillars.

“Eyes tried to kill me!” she said. “That machine is no saint either!”

Informator's expression turned bright green as he laughed and turned around to face her. “Eyes wasn't aiming to kill you. You were aiming to kill Eyes. And you're still a danger, but we're letting you live.”

Ora launched her blue wires at Informator, taking advantage of Eyes not paying attention to her. Informator's expression of shock turned yellow, then became red with glaring eyes and jack-o'-lantern mouth. Ora's glowanade wires sank their connectors into Informator's chest, only to have their tips distorted and deflected by an invisible force.

“How?!” she asked.

Informator put the jar down, then spread his arms out, displaying a red smirk. “Electromagnets!”

“Why does this happen? How are you able to run those when you need to power them with your own glowanade?”

Informator's smirk turned into a calm, light blue smile. “I'm not exactly sure why, but it only affects glowanade of classes 3 and below. And since you happened to be so unlucky to have class 1, you can't drain me as long as I activate my electromagnet.” He swung his hips mockingly. “You're quite the troublemaker, aren't you? Trying to kill us and all.”

She regained enough energy from the heat of the air to power her blue grimace and eyes. “I need energy and I need it now!”

Informator stared at her with half-closed eyes and a frown. “No, you don't. You just need to learn some self-control.” He picked up the jar of caterpillars, then turned around and left Ora to stew in her anger.

Corby sat at the edge of the lake, legs crossed, motionless catfish hugged in his arms as tears slid down his face.

Informator arrived with the jar of caterpillars and stopped next to Corby. “What's with the sniveling, fleshie?”

Corby showed him the catfish. It had a crack in the head. “I had to kill it. I-I'm hungry and I need to eat something. I didn't want to kill an animal, but … I had to.”

Informator displayed a dark blue frown. “You do know we have vegetables too, right?”

Corby's eyes went wide. “What?!”

Informator simulated an eyeroll. “I told you we've stolen some seeds. We've got a farm full of cabbages, squash, mushrooms, cucumbers, lettuces, bell peppers, and even carrots.”

Corby had a dejected look on his face. “I didn't even have to kill an animal to eat.”

“That's right,” Informator said with a dark green calm smile.

The human stared at the creature he cradled in his arms. “I'm so sorry, catfish! I wish I had remembered about the vegetables! I wouldn't have … I wouldn't …” He was back to tearing up.

Informator's expression turned dark red and displayed annoyance. “It's dead, fool. Your apologies are pointless. Eat it so it doesn't go to waste. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to feed these caterpillars to the remaining fish.” He approached the edge of the lake and proceeded to grab clumps of caterpillars, throwing them at the hungry bunch of catfish that kept their heads above the water and their mouths wide open.

Corby looked at the dead fish in his arms. Might as well eat it while still fresh. He got up and carried it over to Zeke and Bob's house. Knocking with his left foot on the door, he caused Zeke to open.

“Hey, welcome back!” Zeke's eyes fell on the fish. “Oh, nice! You caught one!”

“Yeah,” Corby said, his eyes looking away. “I'm not very proud of myself. I could have avoided killing an animal, but I forgot that you also have vegetable farms.” He finally managed to make eye contact with Zeke. “Anyway, do you guys happen to have a skewer I could borrow?”

“Bob and I don't have skewers. I don't know what we could use them for anyway. But if you check the toolshed near the lava lake, you might be able to find some metal pieces you could use to impale the fish.”

“Thanks, Zeke.”

“You're welcome, Corby.”

The fish sizzled above the lava, held by a piece of metal that didn't exactly look like a skewer. It was actually a steel hacksaw blade. Corby had a bit of trouble piercing the food with it, but in the end he managed to get the tip of the blade through the catfish's mouth.

As Corby sat there waiting for his meal to get cooked and taking a sip of water out of a silver cup, he heard heavy footsteps behind him. There were only two robots he knew of enough weight to cause those sounds. One was Milo, the other was …

“Hey, what're you doing here?” So, it was Forest.

Corby gave him a side glance. “I'm cooking an animal I've killed. It didn't need to die, because there were vegetables I didn't remember existed. But now that it's dead, I might as well eat this.” It sickened him inside to say that with such calm, but after everything he went through, he came to accept that it was too late to change some things.

“Those home labs made you humans soft, huh?”

Corby sighed. “They made us be better people and encouraged respect for nature.”

Forest's ears lowered. “What's so great about having respect for nature anyway? Nature's pretty boring here, and from what I've heard about Earth, it's brutal there. What do you humans see worth saving in this nature part of the world?”

“You named yourself Forest, and yet you can't see the beauty of nature. The reason we humans wish to preserve nature is because it helps us live. It may be brutal at times, but it also gives us beautiful scenery and moments that calm us down.”

“I named myself Forest when I had hope that things would change for the better. And yet I've lost all hope that things would ever be better. It's only a matter of time until our team gets destroyed. Society won't miss us; we have already been replaced. This nature you humans keep trying to protect … It's not irreplaceable either.”

Corby stared at him, confused. “What?”

Forest gave a bitter smile as he sat next to Corby. “You humans have replaced many things nature used to offer you. Starting with devices that produce food, water, and oxygen, and ending with virtual reality—a place where people can go to see and experience everything nature and fantasy worlds have to offer. You've eliminated all of the problems from reality in your quest for having as few losses as possible while obtaining as much as you can. So, tell me, is nature really that important anymore?”

“Well, um, the difference between virtual reality and nature is that the former is not real! It's not the same!”

“Yet a bunch of wires and machinery can trick your brain into thinking you're actually there and you can sense the false world all the same. If we automatons can be as real as you, why can't an artificial world be real?”

“I … I don't know. It's just … too perfect to be real. The real world has imperfections which add to its beauty.”

Forest chuckled at that. “You're acting like a virtual world can't be programmed to have those imperfections. Face it, kid, everything and everyone can be replaced. You and me? We're just parts that can be scrapped and replaced with identical or better ones, and no one would miss us. That's why the Triumvirate will keep ruling this planet for decades if not centuries.”

“Listen here!” Corby said while pointing at Forest with his left hand and holding the skewered fish with the other. “I don't care that society can replace individuals. You and I, we're the only losers in that case. We'd be the ones not gaining anything from our replacement. So let's get a bit selfish and fight for our own happiness in this world!”

Forest stared at him with a sullen look and his ears lowered.

“And if we don't like being replaced,” Corby said, “do you think all of the living things in this world like being replaced? Even the few native automatons left in place of the knowledge-seekers aren't the knowledge-seekers themselves. The Triumvirate hurt and murdered the organic natives. Do you think those people wouldn't have chosen to live if they stood a chance?”

“Maybe you're right,” Forest said. “But the problem is, you and I don't stand a chance against the Triumvirate either. What's the point in fighting them when we know we'll lose?”

“We don't know that. Heck, I doubt even Ora knows what the future brings. She's been wrong before. So if there's even a slim chance, we must take it.”

Forest's ears were raised as a smile snuck its way onto his face. “I guess it's worth a try.”

Informator arrived and interrupted. “What's this I see? Forest being positive for once?”

“Oh, go get yourself compacted, news anchor!” Forest said.

Informator had a big, green grin on his face. “You and the fleshie should stick together and help out around here. Maybe you can uplift each other.”

“Can you stop with the 'fleshie' stuff?” Corby said, getting up while glaring at him.

“I can, but do I want to? Hmm … Nope!”

“Stop picking on the kid, Info!” Forest said, standing as tall as Informator.

“Hey, look at that! You're taking a stand for once!” Informator said. “So the human does have a positive impact on you after all. It's settled. You two are a team.”

Corby and Forest looked at each other.

“Uh, how do you feel about that?” Corby asked.

Forest shrugged. “Not like s**t, so I wouldn't mind.”

“Good,” Informator said. “Forest, I want you to make sure your teammate manages to get some sleep after he finishes eating. We can't have tired members half-assing work around here.”

“I'll try to help him,” Forest said. “But don't expect me to sing him lullabies. I suck at singing.”

Corby held in a laugh.

The miner robot pointed at the skewered fish in Corby's hand. “Finish cooking that thing. I don't think you'll be able to sleep with an empty stomach.”

Corby nodded at him. “Oh. Right. It's almost done.” Then he went back to sitting near the lava and holding the food over it.

After having his stomach finally satisfied by the roasted catfish, Corby went back to the room he was given. Forest joined him, having nothing better to do and actually enjoying the human's company.

“Do you think you can fall asleep?” the automaton asked.

“I don't know,” the human said, lying in bed and staring at the ceiling illuminated by the lamp on the nightstand next to him. “I'm still worried about my friends and my father. I'm afraid I'll never see them again. I'm even worried about that coder guy Informator contacted and never saved.”

“Okay, okay. You'll have a difficult time getting some shuteye if you keep thinking about the future. What I've learned from the humans I've worked with is that thinking of the past has the opposite effect.”

Corby had a puzzled look on his face. “Really?”

“Yeah. I suppose it's because there's nothing to calculate when recalling memories. Past events can't be changed.”

“Interesting.”

“So … tell me about your past. From as far back as you can remember.”

Corby's irises went up and to the left. “Hmm … The earliest memory I can recall is from when I was five. It was that one time I went with my childhood friend Matthew to ...” Tears started forming in his eyes, but he held them back. “We went to a festival where we saw people sell old stuff that came from Earth. We were amazed by a jet plane on display there. That alien plane I've controlled today reminded me of it. I'd love to visit Earth and fly around, admiring the planet's beauty from above.”

“Anything else you can remember?”

“I remember dad teaching me about making scenery with miniature trees when I was … seven? Eight? I'm not sure how old I was exactly. I just know I was fascinated by the tiny ginkgo biloba trees he had, and the small orange tree he gave me as a birthday present. I asked him to show me how to grow one by myself from a seed. It's how I got into interior gardening.”

“You were close to your dad, weren't you?”

“I was, but now he probably thinks I'm dead. He used to invite Matthew and me over to his house after I've moved out when I was 16. He taught us how to cook traditional Chinese food—well, as traditional as it could be with meat, fruit, and vegetables created out of a home lab.”

“If you don't mind, could you share a few recipes? If we'll get some more humans around here, I'd give cooking a try for them.”

“All right. Since there are chickens on Quirinus as an alternative to lab-grown meat, I can tell you about laziji—basically spicy chicken.”

“Sure,” Forest said, moving his audio sensors. “I'm all ears.”

“I hope I remember this right. You'll need Shaoxing rice wine, white peppers, light soy sauce, ginger, spring onion, salt, and chicken thigh. For one serving, you marinate 200g of chicken for about half an hour using 3 slices of ginger, half a spring onion stalk, half a pinch of ground white pepper, half a teaspoon of light soy sauce and Shaoxing rice wine, and a teaspoon tip of salt. Then deep-fry the chicken in about 250g of cooking oil for 3 minutes before adding a teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorn, about 30g of dried chili peppers, 4 garlic cloves, a teaspoon of light soy sauce, a teaspoon of Shaoxing rice wine, eight slices of ginger, and one stalk of spring onion. Fry it for 3 more minutes while stirring to mix it all, then put it into a dish and it can be served.”

“I've stored that in my memory,” Forest said. “We might have some difficulty with acquiring the wine and peppercorn if we're going to rob farms again. Maybe Info can use the pigeons for that. Anyway, got any other recipes to share?”

Corby's eyes were only half open—a sign that he was starting to drift off into sleep. Yet he still managed to talk. “Yeah. I can teach you how to make some loaded vegetable chow mein.”

“Go on; I'm taking notes.”

“For this chow mein you'll need broccoli, carrots, green onions, cabbage, soy sauce ...” Corby felt as if he were in a battle trying to stay awake. It would not be long until sleep dragged him in.