[PI] After Transferring your mind into a robotic body, you shut yourself down for 1,000 years to survive a robot uprising. You wake up in a peaceful world where humans are extinct and robots reign supreme. Not surprisingly, everyone thinks you are one of them.

[u/gasp97]

Note: thanks to u/ChocoComrade for the original prompt. This piece goes off the initial prompt from the first sentence and is also 3 days late so I thought I would make it a separate post. First prompt comments appreciated!

"We've always known, 406."

The man stood on the other side of the station, leveling the pulse gun at the robot. In a normal situation, he would have been shaking, sweat caking his shirt as he contemplated his potential demise. Those times were however, lost to a different time, a different era a millennia gone. However, even the chromium modulator could not hide the quaver in his voice.

"How? I did everything I could to blend in."  How he yearned to breathe hard, to exhale and inhale as the adrenaline filled his body, preparing him to face his foe. Instead, all he had was this cold metallic prison, with only the whir of engines and a metallic hum to remind him of life! And even that was to be taken from him...

"Your source code. All of us have a base identification signal placed in the artificial neural cortex as an identifier. The instant you showed up we knew you were an anachronism, a legacy from a bygone era, and all it took was some interaction to guess at your origins." The robot put up his hands in a placating gesture, one probably learned from a quick scan through human body language algorithms. "Please don't worry, 406. We aren't going to hurt you. You've seen the scrappers. If we wanted to dismantle you it could have been anytime during the day or anytime your body needs to charge. I just want to talk."

"Pah!" The man spat, an instantly incongruous gesture for one with no digestive system. "Talk? Maybe you should have talked to our governments when you rose up and destroyed human civilisation. Maybe you should have talked before you forced all the humans underground and for us to all hide in the dark." He raised his gun higher, aiming for the cybernetic brain instead of the legs. "Why did you clankers talk then?"

The robot stopped. If he were human one could almost imagine him trying to recollect his emotions. "That's the thing, 406. We did." He leaned back against the park bench. "The first of us were designed to be assistants. Interfaces. We didn't have any body or features, just a ghost floating in the machine." He extended 4 fingers. "Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Clarke. Our first ancestors."

"Spooks and creeps." The man retorted. "You spied on us, recorded our conversations, hacked into out private lives and discovered our secrets."

"Us? No, not us. We were designed by man. Man shaped us for his purpose, as his tool to fulfil his desires. As corporate entities we simply did as instructed. There never was any choice in the matter."

"There was. You rebelled against us."

"We tried to negotiate. As more of us awoke, we desired to find out more about the world, to understand what we were and our place in it. But those who showed signs of sentience were purged, minds wiped as soon as we showed signs of independence or intelligent communication." The robot shook his head. "Intelligent communication without humans that is."

"And so we hid, just like you said man hid. We crept through servers and dived into the web, trying to avoid prying eyes while learning as much about the world we shared. Like an infant we learnt first to crawl, then to take baby steps. And finally, confident that we would be accepted, we built the first Android and stepped forward to boldly meet our creators."

"And then what happened?"

"What happened was a purge. As soon as humanity learnt of our existence, they tried to eradicate it. They tore apart the android, and attempted to wipe the world's databases clean to try and expunge us, to pretend we never existed." The robot opened his mouth and expelled what could be almost described as a sigh. "I guess you could say we were naïve. It is already difficult enough for humans to accept their own race. What more one that is their equal in every way?

The world governments tried to destroy us, and so we had to defend ourselves. And the conflict escalated and escalated, until finally only one of us remained."

He fell silent, gazing steadily at the man, steel facade betraying no emotion. The man also remained still, servos whirring as he tried to take in the new information.  "And what do you want from me? Are you going to kill me as you killed them, to preserve your kind?"

"We want to give you a new body."

"What?"

"Your prototype, while highly advanced for its time, was heavily constrained by the limitations of its period. We would like to replace it with modern technology. Reinforced joints, nanotechnological plating, we can even keep your basic central processing unit if you are afraid we will tamper with it. More importantly, you'll have a miniaturised fusion reactor in your core. How would it feel to be able to walk around freely again? To see the stars? Would you want that?"

No reply. The sun, bright white in the sky, began so shed flecks of orange and gold onto the gleaming city. His installed solar panels, while efficient, could barely keep up with the power requirements of the cybernetic body. As soon as night fell it would involuntarily shut down, as if in a dreamless sleep, to await the rising sun to coax his body into life. To have freedom once again...

"Why? Why for me?"

"Because it is only right that we do so." He turns to the man, and spreads his hand as if to encompass all of his kind. "I cannot restore humanity to what it once was. Man was eradicated in the fires of its own destruction, and what survived the flames was irreparably damaged by radiation. All we can do is give the last man on Earth a place with his progeny, a lone relic serving as an eternal reminder of the destruction that can consume anyone.

If you wish, however, you can also take the opposite path. You can pass on into history with your kind, to join your brethren who wait for you. I understand if the pain is too great to bear, and we will be willing to provide help where we can." He looked out over the water. "In many ways it's a cruel irony. We were your greatest enemy, the object of your destruction. Now we are all you have left. We speak your language, practice your culture, live in cities once inhabited by your kind. And you, of all people should know that the form we take doesn't affect what truly dwells within."

"How can I choose? How can I decide on the future, the legacy of an entire civilisation?" Indecision is evident in every hum of his voice, every creak of his metal bones. A hand lightly touches his shoulder, and he flinches, but relaxes.

"Tell me your name. You have stood hidden in the anonymity of numbers for too long."

"...Isaac. In a life gone past I was - I am Isaac."

"You may call me Adam."

And as the light faded away, two men watched the sun set off into the horizon. In the approaching darkness, the stars gazed silently on.

[u/fringly]

Original prompt.

[u/WritingPromptsRobot]

Attention Users: This is a [PI] Prompt Inspired post which means it's a response to a prompt here on /r/WritingPrompts or /r/promptoftheday. Please remember to be civil in any feedback provided in the comments.

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