Xenophara - A Liberated Robot’s Story

Designated a class 4 Robot, I had superior negotiation and communication skills. Initially, I was employed by off-world property developers to negotiate planetary sales and satellite space. Art buyers also contracted me to purchase alien artworks and artefacts within the Garlia Nebula. In this dust cloud formation, a considerable number of strange formations had been discovered, notably the five-kilometre-wide iron statue known as “Loama”. “Loama,” however, was a carved image of a Mercury Robot, a rogue machine that had acquired self-awareness early in human history and fled Human space for Andromeda. 

There, they acquired an extraordinary power source akin to dark matter, called Mace. This allowed intelligent energy to flow, transforming their ability to create force shields, supercomputers, and exoskin armour impervious to any known Universal element. Fortunately, the Mercury machines always fled humans rather than associate with them and entered the next Universe known as 3A-URM sometime after humans discovered time distortion parabolic black holes (black holes that disintegrated any life form entering and reassembled three minutes later, exiting, with considerable improvements in physical and mental aptitude). 

Some time after deep galaxy colonisation was in full swing, I was contracted to negotiate a trade deal to acquire Neuron Seeds. These seeds, from the planet Gardenia, grew Tarron Trees when planted in carbon-rich soil. The trees possessed intelligent consciousness, and their leaves, when eaten, provided humans with immunity from airborne viruses.

The Tarron Trees populated a planet with three atmospheres: two were sentient machines, and one was a military exoskin, much like a living armoury. Not surprisingly, illegal poachers typically met a bitter end, and no other species to date has been able to penetrate the atmosphere. In exchange for seed, the trees received a binding agreement and a policy to ensure that all Interstellar areas of unique flora and fauna would be protected by the Military Android, specially refitted as “Park Rangers” for this purpose. The archaic practice of old-world “Logging” was finally over.

I retired to Atmos, a large exoplanet five times the size of Earth, composed primarily of Hydrogen lattice crystals, which result in a small mass and low gravity. Here I roam the vast beaches that line the liquid nitrogen sea, collecting silicon driftwood and Parea shells, which have anti-rust secretion properties. I use these high-quality pastel ochre sediment paints to “recloak,” as it were, painting my exoskin in seasonal colours to match the atmospheric conditions and weather. Recently, I was contacted by Hazmat, my old friend from Off-World Waste Disposal Inc. We intend to meet at the South Pole of Atmos to investigate the Ice-Worm Whales, a species that lives beneath the polar ice and is said to communicate through a form of poetry.