(Read the first and second part by clicking above)
The rain eased but the pain increased. My bloodied body seeked nothing but his last destination . As I swam, the cold water pushed me ahead towards a destination unknown. Then it felt like heaven, the sands in my hand. It felt like I reached the place I seeked. I reached an unknown island and pushed myself on the sand with my face down. I tried to lift my face and saw a tin shade a few yards away.
I slowly slithered on the sand and reached the tin shade. There was no one there. I thought about them and wondered if they would come back for me. I had nothing left but the last few seconds to think about my father, the most valuable memories of my life. I was loosing my senses.
I looked into the heavens, it cracked open. I saw an extremely illuminating light coming down from the sky and it landed on water. I was about to sleep. I was falling into a trance. I saw few people coming out of water towards me and they were wearing an enclosed helmet on their head. And then it clicked again, the memories came back. As those people came to rescue me and fixed me I got lost in my memories.
As I entered the room I saw a man crying tremendously for something. He was down on his knees with his hands soaked in blood . I came closer to see something which rocked me to my core. Lying in the pool of blood I saw their ghostly faces, the wife and the little son.
I thought, “What evil he has done, killed his own family?”
But his dejected face wanted to say something else. “Father why are you crying”, someone interrupted.
I looked up to see a young man with a knife, soaked in blood. He was the elder son of the man. The father, full of rage, grabbed his elder son’s face with his hands and screamed-
“I trusted you, what you have done! I loved you so much but you killed my heart and soul”.
The son replied, “I just wanted your love. You loved them so much and hardly cared about me which made me jealous. And so I eliminated them. “
The son looked delusional . The father became furious but when he looked at his son and started crying
“ You sick, naive idiot! They were my life and now you have killed me rather than them. I am gonna kill you. “
He was totally engulfed with rage. Then he snatched the knife from his son and stabbed him many times. I was shocked to see that. Why the hell he did that? He had nothing to live for. The wrath of a vulnerable man finished everything beautiful in his life.
I came closer to the lifeless body of the elder son and observed something odd. There was no blood. Then I remembered, the son was Ali and of course we don’t have blood. We are machines, an AI powered humanoid robots.
My father always thought that his machine was perfect and it would not become corrupt with time like humans but he was wrong. The code was perfect but the time makes everything imperfect. It ages us, it grieves us, it corrupts us and finally kills us. And so Ali became corrupted with time. The loss of my creator’s family was beyond his capacity. He was broke, dejected and wanted to kill himself but he found a purpose. A second chance to achieve perfection in his invention. So he decided to create his third son. He longed for a family.
And so to achieve perfection, he built me, guided me, gave me his memories and his reflection. He also gave me his dreams. But to beat time from making me corrupt, he killed my clock. Every time I sleep, I loose memory of my past and start my day fresh. But my creator injected a code to keep the most valuable memories intact which I only remember for few minutes before I am about to sleep. It was a glitch, an imperfection to create perfection.
But the imperfections of humankind took a toll on planet earth. Man’s greed became his downfall. He induced global warming, burnt forests and did everything to destroy his home. So they were finally forced to find another home and they tried to built it on Mars. They started terraforming Mars and used every possible technology to make it quick but once again time beaten them. Just when the Mars started to become green with a patch of blue , the earth became red and the conditions were not enough for humans to live on Mars. So my father came to their rescue.
He knew that his generation may not survive but his invention may start the circle of life. He gave his technology to humanity. Many humanoid robots, powered by Artificial intelligence were created and sent to Mars. Their sole purpose was terraforming Mars and making it liveable for humans. My father fixed Ali and sent both of us to Mars. All of us were coded to stuck in a loop of time. We don’t remember our past after every sleep. We only had our most precious memories which we remember for few minutes before we slept.
But the code was deceived again and the machines started becoming corrupt following their loop for few times. But I was the exception. I was the only one who stayed uncorrupted in spite of living for 250 years on Mars. That glitch which helped me to remember my father and see his reflections, also helped me to achieve what he seeked. It game me conscience and every life I came across whether humans or machines developed compassion and empathy for every creation. But Ali was exception, his sins were terrible which needed even time’s assistance to become pure.
We don’t know what had happened to planet earth and the only humans I saw live in the orbit of the Mars. They occasionally come and help us in our endeavour to make Mars sustain life. They never spoke about earth. Maybe they told us but we are coded to keep only the most precious memories. For now, we are at the brink of creating life on Mars. We turned it from red to green and now from green to blue. Yes we made the oceans, a primordial soup to start life. We are the end and the beginning of the circle of life.
“Hey, wake up Akash! We fixed you and want to check you ”. I opened my eyes and saw humans looking at me, inside a closed room.
One of them asked, “Do you have your memories intact? “.
I replied, “Yes I have my precious memories. I hope you took care of my brother, Ali”.
They smiled and one of them replied, “You dubious machine! Do you still see your father’s reflection and hear his voice around you? “.
I was quite annoyed, “Yes I see and hear him but I want to know that my brother, Ali is safe. “.
Once again they smiled and the other one replied, “You think you are perfect. But perfection is nothing but a journey. You are pessimistic about time but the same time is trying to heal your wounds. You are not perfect just like Ali because my friend-“
He paused , “You are Ali. It is an evil part of you and your good code is trying to correct that glitch every time you wake up. So for now, time to sleep again. And yes thank you again for your work for Humankind”.
Then I heard an epiphany song and slept peacefully.
©2020 Piyush Singh
The Perceptions Square 