"The Androids"

Eagle Has Landed

The Androids

"Warning, I have to interface with my central computer in 10 days, 38 hours, 54 minutes, and 73 seconds!" declared a strange looking mechanical man.

"Good to see you 3376441," replied Eagle. "How are things back home?"

"Everything is functioning normally. Do you have anything to trade?" responded 3376441.

"I have some things for you," continued Eagle. "Let's discuss business over at that table."

"Those androids give me the creeps!" a stranger remarked. "I don�t know how he can stand that �I have to interface with my central computer� stuff.

"I can explain everything," came a voice out of the crowd. "But it�ll cost you."

The one who spoke approached the stranger. "Aren't you that Yarnspinner fella?" the stranger asked.

"I am indeed," replied Essdy. "So, you have heard of me? Do you know my price and do we have a deal?"

"I�ve got some time, and I could use some entertainment. Server, fix this man up," stated the stranger.

Essdy began:

The androids come from the fourth planet in the Vomiza solar system. At one time, there was a thriving population living on this ordinary planet. The people there were technically skilled, as by all accounts, they had built an advanced society. In general, the inhabitants of this society enjoyed tinkering with electronics, and they were especially crafty in the computer and electrical engineering fields. They created several marvelous gadgets to make life simple for themselves. This included a very advanced race of artificial people. This race of mechanical individuals did all of the manual labor on their world. In fact, they were even in charge of maintaining and building a supply of their own kind. These androids, if I may use this archaic term, were essentially a species of creature on this world. They thought, they reproduced, and they had a survival program. They had everything they needed to adapt to a changing environment.

"Oo that�s creepy! So what did they do? Did they overthrow their evil overlords and take over their planet?" interupted the stranger.

"Please, never interrupt me again!" yelled Essdy.

"Sorry," the stranger said sheepishly. "Please continue."

Essdy Continued:

They didn�t kill off their so-called masters because they were programmed to obey the commands of their manufacturers. In fact, Vomizan's programmed them to obey all commands given within a set of guidelines. It was a pretty sophisticated program that had never had a conflict. These mechanical people accepted their life. They were the laborers. They were well treated, and this allowed the organic life forms to pursue other interests. Unfortunately, the Vomizan's never pursued space flight. All of their activities were completely planet bound. As a culture, they had a fear of enclosed spaces. They did not like to be enclosed. Thus, they had no interest in encasing themselves in some sort of rocket and venturing into space. There are many cultures out there with this very attitude. However, for the Vomizan's this was their eventual downfall.

About 100 Commonwealth years ago, their crops started failing. Their planet wide temperature began rising. Like most species, they had to adapt to their changing environment. Thus, with every new climatological change, there came a new advance. Nevertheless, they were falling behind. Vomiza Four's climate was changing faster than the inhabitants could handle. Unfortunately, the reason for their climate change was that their sun was no longer stable. It was about to go nova, and in order to survive the Vomizan's needed to leave.

In all of their years of advancing technology, they didn�t have the technology to leave their world. They created ingenious hyper-cooling devices to keep their computers and other environments cool. They installed some cooling devices on everything that needed one, and this included their artificial life forms. However, it didn't address their main problem. Their sun was going to engulf the planet and there wasn't anything they could do to stop it.

Along with the cooling devices, they built greenhouses to grow crops. They had a very efficient water recycling system. They solved many of the problems facing their society, but the end of their world was coming. There wasn't anything that they could do to save their species.

Only the artificial life forms survived the suns demise. The process for creating these 'androids' was highly sophisticated. As I stated before, these androids were in charge of building other androids. Being machines, they could adapt their manufacturing processes at a much quicker rate than humans could. They could build and repair structures in a much harsher environment. There wasn't an environmental factor for which they couldn't adapt. In fact, the artificial people went on with their chores inside the suns corona for numerous years.

Seven Commonwealth years ago, Vomiza's sun burnt up much of its remaining fuel and collapsed into a white dwarf. In nearly a blink of an eye, their once extremely hot planet was suddenly extremely cold. Naturally, there were no living beings left on the planet. They had no masters to serve. However, the totally went on with their business of survival. There wasn't anyone to help them adjust to the new state of their planet, so they had to adapt again. They altered many of their systems to act as heaters instead of coolers. Some of their heat shielding made excellent insulation. As any living creature would do, they went on with their business.

These artificial life forms still plowed the earth, and still attempted to plant crops. Naturally, since their planet had no atmosphere nothing would grow. This didn�t stop them because it was part of their programming. After reconfiguring most of their kind, they realized that without help their resources would run out. Therefore, these androids created a space program. In a very short time, they had left their planet in search of various supplies. They obtained metals, lubricants, and other valuable items from asteroids and other extra-planetary bodies.

Unfortunately, with their sun now being a tiny white dwarf, their solar system lacked the most abundant element in the universe. These androids were having a very difficult time obtaining Hydrogen. While their sun had some hydrogen available to them, did not wish to harm it. The last thing they wanted was to have their planet orbiting a black hole. Thus, they needed to venture beyond their own solar system to obtain hydrogen essential for their own survival.

Fortunately, they didn't run into the Izanians. They stumbled upon a Commonwealth system. In fact, they were not very far from this very establishment. The Commonwealth grew around them when their sun was in its expanded form. After a short time, they became a registered member of the Galactic Commonwealth. With this status, they started to send members of their community out as traders.

Shortly after the established some trading partners, these traders discovered that these artificial people could not say no to any commands. Thus, instead of trading with the Vomizans, they began giving them orders. Eventually some unscrupulous traders enslaved some of the androids. Furthermore, these traders established a slave trade for the much sought after Vomizan artificial beings. Thus, they lost even more resources without gaining anything in return.

Some of the Vomizan beings sent a complaint with the Commonwealth Council. The Council didn't know how to respond to an artificial being. They considered these beings as machines and not intelligent life forms. There was much debate all the while the Vomizan's were losing resources and individuals. They didn't know who to turn to, so they put out a general cry for help. Eagle Douglass responded to their call.

Eagle met one of their ambassadors, and arranged a trip to Vomiza 4. Eagle described it as a frigid and barren world. It was as stark as anyone can imagine. However, he noted that there were many structures, and the Vomizans were still accomplishing their industries.

In his encounter suit, the Vomizans gave Eagle a tour of their capitol city. There were several individuals taking part in their daily routines. It was very much like any large city on any other world. There were far fewer individuals than most cities, but there was still the hustle and bustle of a thriving industrial center.

Eagle met with their leaders and heard the heart of their problem. He certainly believed that their safety could be best obtained by altering their internal programming. The problem was to determine how to alter this programming of the individuals and retain their unique character. The Vomizans needed a solution, and it needed to be discovered quickly. Already these unscrupulous slave traders were beginning to remove some of the Vomizan population and make a negative impact upon their society.

With the discussions of the Vomizan's they worked on several possible solutions. Eagle first proposed that these Vomizan's could say no to certain commands. They would be able to reject certain commands that would make them less suitable for slaves. With their quick intellect, they rejected this proposal. They surmised that this solution would result in violence toward them and their kind.

After weeks of discussions, Eagle proposed a solution everyone involved felt was ideal. He proposed that a change in their programming which required them to interface with their planetary central computer on some predetermined schedule. The central computer was the only place that this schedule could be altered. For instance, planetary bound individuals could interface with the computer daily. Thus, they would have access to the computer on a regular basis. If a slave trader took them from the planet, this would activate some type of program.

Once this alteration was agreed upon, they needed to work out what would happen if they didn't interface. Would the individual simply shut down? While this would definitely shut down the slave trade, it would not help them with their supply issues. They needed something else.

Eagle proposed that a lapsed interface would put the Vomizan individual into a homing command mode. Essentially, the unit shuts down its sensory inputs except what is essential for returning to the Vomizan home world. They essentially do what they need to get back home. If the lack of response to a command results in physical conflict, the individual shuts down and emits a homing beacon for retrieval.

Either the individual returns to Vomiza 4, or they are a non-functional unit. It was that simple. One of the features that was established with these artificial people was a constant communication system. If an upgrade to their programming was required, each unit could receive the update no matter where they were. Therefore, even enslaved robots off world could be given the new updates.

Several commonwealth months later, all of the citizens of Vomiza 4 had the new programming installed. This greatly affected the people who had one of the enslaved Vomizans. Suddenly their androids became non-functional. This put great pressure upon the slave traders. Eventually, it put them out of business. Many of these 'owners' wished their Vomizan would continue to work for them. In fact, this is one of their most successful trade items. However, they are required to return periodically to Vomiza for routine maintenance.

As far as the greeting is concerned, it was established to inform would be enslavers that it is futile to capture the individual. At the very least, it is an opening for a dialogue. Furthermore, this dialogue should convince the individual that this Vomizan individual is not property, but a regular member of the Commonwealth.

"Okay Yarnspinner," responded the stranger. "You've convinced me that these androids are people too. Yarnspinner? Where did that guy get to so quickly?"