Tanma

Living Machines; a short story

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So I made another original story. Well two actually, I will add the second later. Or not at all, you know how my self confidence is. Anyway I wrote this for my creative writing course. Keep in mind I love inhuman aliens, so be prepared for tentacles and hooves.

Tiktok darted through the allies of the city, his three eyes wide with fear. Well he was not quite a "he," but he was one of the two sexes responsible for fertilization in his species. And of the two fertilizers, his sex contributed the genetics closest to sperm, so he would fit.. He was still an adolescent however, and his face tendrils had not fully matured.

It was a large city, its towering homes and businesses reaching up into the sky. The chrome buildings glinted in the moonlight, dancing light like so many specks of dew. These stars upon the world sparkled, as cold as space.

But no one stirred within the city’s limits. Not a single animal or plant strayed within the silver spiraling skyscrapers, not a beast howled at the twin moons. The city was a barren landscape, as shiny as a glass vase, and just as empty. Only a few months ago it would have been full of people like Tiktok, but now it was completely abandoned, and already had started to decay and rust.

In the sky hung the moons of Sehkis, both small but large enough to churn the slimy green waters of the planet. Sunlight reflected off both of them from the far off stars, illuminating the two celestial orbs.

Tiktok wiped his thick forehead with relief, as he ran through the streets. As disturbing as it was for such a metropolis to be void of life, it was welcomed. Better than being near those…things.

Still, the Tiktok missed the sound of Pestin hounds bouncing on their single thick legs, using their tentacles to steady their balance. He missed seeing the Geers as they flew in their wing-slaps, their many tendrils flowing behind them. But all creatures avoided the cities now, even the abandoned ones.

Tiktok had four legs ending in hooves, as was typical for his fellow Klokorks. Along with the five tendrils on his face, three long tentacles also grew on his back. The boneless appendages slid through the holes in his emerald cloak, which engulfed his entire body.

Tiktok suddenly dove into an alley, his body a feathered seed in the wind. From the corner of his eye he could see one of the Changed-Ones, lumbering forth on two legs. The monster was not completely transformed, its feet still were toeless. But it walked with a terrible gait, and already had the strange flat head.

Tiktok shuddered at the sight, coiling his tentacles around his body for their warm embrace. From the sound of the appendages, the Changed-One paused and swiveled its neck towards him. Its twin eyes probed the region, searching for a disturbance.

The youth stopped breathing, his body froze into nonexistence. He just stared, his eyes wide and stable.

Finally the Changed-One turned away, and lumbered on through the city. With a rush of life Tiktok ran, racing down the street. Perspiration rolled off his skin, and an equivalent to adrenaline rocketed through his body.

Sehkis had been a relatively peaceful planet, or at least a world not in open war. The Klokroks had lived divided into two major communes, the Stemajean to the north, and the Solapowa to the south. Tiktok had lived in Solapowa his whole life; oh how he had cheered when the first settlement on the closer moon was built. Of course Stemajean built their only colony not too much later, and the Cold War continued.

The Cold war had existed for the last one hundred years, after the Great War had wiped out the eastern continent. Since that atomic bombardment, the two nations had splintered, their old alliance broken by Solapowa's necessary end to the war. The Weendmil civilization had been too dangeroys, they needed to be destroyed. Technology had advanced a lot from that moment, antimatter was the deterrent of the day. Or it had been.

One day, people began to change. Their front hands grew tiny tendrils, and their body moved up ninety degrees. Their heads flipped forwards and the mouth-tendrils retracted into their face. Even their sleek back tentacles vanished from them.

At first it was Stemajean's fault, it had to be. But it soon spread to their lands, if it wasn't there initially. And soon it didn't matter, no one was safe. Whatever caused it, whether virus or waves of nanobots, nothing could stop the Conversion.

All of the Changed-Ones would abandon their homes, their families, and leave for the factories and laboratories of the nations. Some were captured and tortured for answers, but all that came out was a strange twisted tongue.

As Tiktok moved through the many streets of the city, he froze. Standing before him was a trio of Changed-Ones, walking towards him on their well-balanced but freakish feet. The first of the three babbled something in a clean-cut tongue, before charging with a vengeance.

Quickly he turned before galloping away, his feet stamping wildly against the streets. His back tentacles whipped wildly as he ran, flapping against his back with abandon. Each strike of his tentacles crashed upon his body and sent his back throbbing.

With a skid Tiktok shifted into an alleyway, darting along the side streets and paths of the city. The Changed-Ones were slow, there was at least that mercy. But as the Klokork had not eaten well since he had first ran away from his herd, having to avoid the marketplaces. And there were more of them.

As Tiktok ran, he avoided a sudden leap from a Changed-One. As he turned a corner a second Changed-One lunged at him, forcing him to scatter in a charging of hooves. As he ran, it dawned on him that they were corralling him, pushing him to one particular direction. It was then that he reached the dead-end in the alleys.

Tiktok stared in horror as the brick wall before him, the side of a towering building. As he backed away, he could hear the Changed-Ones behind him, cutting off his exit.

The youth turned around, trying not to meet their horrible eyes. The Klokork lashed his tentacles across the air, striking the wind as he reared against the wall.

As the strange bipeds approached, Tiktok caught sight of something moving behind them. Suddenly, the newcomer leapt across the Changed-Ones, standing before him.

It was a dark black navy blue machine, with two triple jointed legs. Its "body" had a series of plates wrapped around it, and two pairs of red eyes centered on a stout head. It looked something like a cocoon, standing on two legs. The strange machine looked at Tiktok with a probing gaze, its eyes flexing like a camera.

Suddenly the machine turned around, and its plates erupted. The entire cocoon unfolded, its layers flipping out into new wings, seven in total. As the machine hovered with its wings, its head separated too, growing two large dishes and two antennae in a "v" shape. The android uncoiled two arms from underneath where the cocoon had been wrapped, small lean limbs with three smaller appendages at their ends.

Suddenly a shriek erupted from the android's dishes, sending sheering pain into Tiktok. The Changed-Ones had it worse, crumbling to their knees from the sound. The three naked freaks reduced themselves to a heap, a red ooze leaking from the organic holes in their head.

The machine turned around to face Tiktok, its face strange with a two short mandibles. The android hovered over to him, it's wings flapping in a blur of movement. It seemed almost, fluid, if not for those piercing electronic eyes.

The machine stuck out its hand, and flexed its palm and graspers at Tiktok. Slowly, cautiously Tiktok backed way, pressing against the wall at the alien gesture.

The automaton backed off, its wings drawing closer to reforming as armor plates. The transforming machine gestured again, pulling at the air as if to pull Tiktok forward.

Looking down at the bleeding Changed-Ones, Tiktok swallowed deeply. Slowly he clopped his hooves after the machine, careful to be ready to bolt. The android collapsed back into its heavily armored form, before springing forward in a bound of its legs.

The machine leapt across the city, slowing only to let Tiktok catch up. "Slow down," Tiktok garbled in a squishy voice as he panted. The android continued to leap far ahead, leaving him far behind.

"Did Stemajean make you?" Tiktok gurgled between gasps. It did not reply, but made the "come here" gesture again; this time pointed at the Klokork's face.

With a sloppy wet sigh, Tiktok continued on, scampering after the machine through the city, until finally they came upon the city limits. Swampland continued from here on, a gooey landscape where movement was slow and rough. Maroon trees could be seen in the distances, their flat disk-shaped leaves resting on the tops of their jointed branches. A few Geers could be heard squirting out mating calls, while some flew in the distance in massive clocks.

As the two wadded through the marsh, Tiktok's guard was relaxed by the passage of time. The machine made no hostile move, simply leaping ahead of him. On occasion, it slowed, pausing to unveil its dishes and open its shell into its wings, but then it would continue on again. It seemed to be almost carved rather than fashioned together, like a golem of sorts. As it leapt Tiktok began to talk, making observations of the maroon trees and the green seas. Slowly his comments gave way to rambling, glad to have someone who would listen.

The one sided conversations continued as they pushed on, the metal man as silent as ever. Night fell and day rose, as time melded into a slippery goop. It was slowly melting into a blur, time melding into a squishy goo, hard to focus on.

"...And then I ran away," Tiktok said, probably days later, "I mean, who can blame me? Half my herd was changed, and every one of those...things started giving me dirty looks. I mean I know about the instability of being alone, but I was already alone, you know?"

"They are called humans," the machine suddenly remarked in a soft voice. Tiktok started and bolted behind a tree, clutching his cloak around him.

From behind the tree Tiktok asked in a garbled squeeze of his mouth, "You um, you can talk?"

"I needed time to adjust to your words," the golem said gently as it approached, "I was only able to get an imprint from your world's electronic systems. I'm not a supercomputer, I needed experience. Not only had a never heard your words before, but my people’s tongues relied more on clicking and chirping, not such wet-moist sounds."

"Wah-what are you?" the Klokork oozed out, his fear rediscovered.

"The human race is a powerful species," the golem squirted calmly instead of answering, "One of the most technologically advanced civilizations in the galaxy. And for the past one hundred of your years, they have been in an interstellar civil war."

Tiktok clung to his tree as the machine continued, "I do not know why the war started, or what made it impossible to stop, only that it soon reached the point where fighting was no longer feasible. At least, not without sudden new sources of ships and soldiers."

"Because of this humans seek industrial civilizations," the golem slopped out electronically, "worlds where it would be relatively easy to develop spaceships and weaponry. Worlds ready to bloom. And then they seed the planet with trillions of probes, which slowly change all of the people on the planet into humans, to serve in the war and to build new warships."

The golem stopped moving, and opened up its shell back into its winged form. As it stood there Tiktok asked trembling, "B-but what are you?"

"My people...were like you," the golem's hands stroked over its body, "made of carbon and hydrogen. We were a bit more advanced in robotics than your people though. One of the human armies seeded our world, and our people began to change. So to save ourselves, we made new bodies in our image; living bodies of metal which could house our consciousness."

"You became machines," Tiktok whimpered as he scampered to the next tree.

"No," the golem turned sharply, "We still breed, we still think, we still are alive. We just...are based on inorganic material now. And our new forms have allowed us to travel safely to seeded worlds, more than most organic people."

"But you-"

"We needed to survive," the golem said, flinging her hand down, "Our people were being recycled into those machines. We took the only path we could, the only way to keep us safe. And we do not regret it."

"...Why are you here?" the Klokork moaned, his third eye darting for an escape route from the frightening machine.

"My people try to save as many as we can," the golem answered, "But here...here we found something different. We were late here, too late to save anyone. By the time we found this world, everyone should have been infected and changed. But you, you remain unchanged. The last of your kind. If we could study your genetics, we could-"

Tiktok bolted as the golem spoke, sprinting off as far as he could. His legs galloped wildly, spraying swamp water away. He had to get away. It was one thing when it was just some robot, but a thing that thought itself alive?

Suddenly a blast of sound rocked him, knocking Tiktok into the swamp. His body slipped into unconsciousness, as the golem descended upon him, its eyes fiercely sad.

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Awesome story. I love short sci-fi stories and one of the most difficult elements is to establish a world different from our own in a little space. You did a great job of narrating the story, revealing the twist bit by bit. It actually reminded me of a few Twilight Zone episodes.

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Thank you, I do love worldbuilding. Every story I write has to have some rules and backstory, otherwise I feel like its shallow. Any thoughts about the ending? Part of it seems kind of shaky to me.

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I wasn't left asking questions at the end so I wouldn't call it shallow. The explanation at the end was a little quick, but it felt right to me. If you are running from your foes, you aren't going to spend a lot of time explaining things, and yet I could still see the machine spending the time to explain things as a way of justifying his actions. I definitely like how the supposed hero or savior of the protagonist had his own, somewhat villainous, motives.

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Ah, good to know that worked then.

...Well I told myself that once this got views in the three digits and at least one reply, I would post another story. If mods need too, please combine the topics. Until then I will keep them separate, since they aren't connected. The other one is called the hunt, and it shows off my dark side.

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Another nice one Tanma. I have a small collection of "Tanma's Tales" on my computer now. :sweet:

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Glad to know it was enjoyable, I have to say that I really like this reversion of it as well. The earlier versions I disliked, but that is the writing process.

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