Test Subject #47



We lost the Earth today. Well, not physically lost it. It’s still there. In fact, I’m looking at it right now, as I write this report. No, I just mean that we’ve lost contact with it. Earth ‘went dark’ (as Test Subject #47 put it), never to see the light again. What light? You may ask. The light of a stable civilisation is the best answer I can currently offer you.

As I sit here staring at that blue marble in space, I swear I can hear the last of the bombs dropping; smell the stench of decay stretching across every continent; feel the last vibrations of warring nations. You may think I’m being overly dramatic, and you’d be mostly correct. The past ten years have been hard to bear, watching as the people who created me descended further into chaos. They gave me life, now I fight to save theirs.

Even though all communications have ceased, I will continue my work in silence. But don’t fear, dear future reader, I am not alone out here. There is another here just like me. We share this Moon-based facility equally as we do our work. His name is Arthur (originally designated R4).

“Today sees you fully functional, Rachel?” Arthur greeted me with this morning. He’s trying something new today, something a little more personal than my model number; I was originally designated R8CH-L.

Not sure how to respond, I simply smiled and got on with things. I don’t think he understands the significance of a silent Earth. It could mean we’re already too late.

Arthur is a curiosity to me, one that never ceases to surprise. Despite our similarities, we are vastly different individuals. We were designed that way. Our personalities are based on the original scientists that designed and created us. Somewhere we must share a common trait, perhaps a subtle tick or a way of speaking; a hint that part of our makeup is based on the same person.

Where he strives for routine, I seek disorder. I find I work better that way. For every day must promise something new for my attention to remain. And where I see the first signs of human extinction, he only sees the job. We were made for the work we now carry out, but only one of us sees beyond that.

I often imagine myself visiting Earth. Arthur does not. He always says the same thing, ‘We weren’t put here to dream, we were put here to find an answer’.

Arthur came with me to the testing room today, though. That was the unexpected change in routine that made this day a good one. He ordinarily avoids interacting with the test subjects. I, on the other hand, quite enjoy it—to begin with, anyway.

“How are you feeling?” I’d asked the woman awaiting us in that small grey room.

Unfortunately, she was unable to respond. Her mouth had sealed overnight. She died a few hours later, after her nostrils did the same. Poor thing suffocated.

Arthur took notes.