Bugs in the Machine

I

Hes wakes to darkness.

Not pre-dawn darkness—mechanical darkness. The kind that exists because something has stopped working.

His optics adjust slowly. A narrow corridor comes into view around him: pipes running along the ceiling, dust-coated panels, exposed wiring hanging from an open junction box. Somewhere behind the walls, machinery produces a low, continuous hum.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been here. He doesn’t know if he has been anywhere else.

He searches for something before this place and finds nothing.

He only knows his name.

Hes.

He says it aloud. The sound reflects off metal and disappears down the corridor.

Hes pushes himself upright. His legs click beneath him, joints correcting automatically as he finds his balance. He looks down at his hands and turns them over. Three narrow fingers on each. Scratched metal across the palms. A dark stain along one wrist.

He doesn't remember receiving any of it.

A scrape comes from behind him.

Hes turns.

Something moves behind a stack of overturned crates.

“Who’s there?”

Silence.

Then a second figure steps into the corridor.

It is roughly Hes’s size, though thinner through the torso. One of its optics flickers irregularly, brightening and dimming as it studies him.

For several seconds they simply stare at one another.

Then the figure speaks.

“Coc.”

Hes waits for more.

None comes.

“Is that your name?”

The figure looks uncertain.

“I think so.”

Hes nods. “I’m Hes.”

Coc looks past him into the darkness.

“Do you know where we are?”

“No.”

“Do you know how we got here?”

Hes shakes his head.

A soft impact sounds above them.

Both look up.

Something moves among the pipes.

Coc steps backward as a third figure drops from the ceiling and lands between them with controlled precision. Its body is broader than theirs, its outer casing marked with scratches and shallow dents.

Hes raises his hands.

“Kroac,” it says.

Coc looks at Hes.

Hes looks at Kroac.

“You too?”

Kroac tilts his head.

“Too what?”

“Nothing before this.”

Kroac remains still for a moment.

“No.”

The three stand beneath the pipes, listening to the machinery behind the walls.

“Do either of you know what this place is?”

Coc shakes his head.

Kroac turns toward the corridor.

“No. But staying here won't answer it.”

Before Hes can respond, a screen mounted on the far wall flickers to life.

All three turn.

White symbols race across it too quickly to read. Several lines break apart into blocks of corrupted text. A warning symbol appears, disappears, then returns upside down.

Hes approaches.

The screen goes black.

He waits.

Nothing.

Coc comes beside him. “Maybe it recognized us.”

“Why would it recognize us?”

Coc looks down at his own hands.

“Because we belong here.”

Kroac gives a faint mechanical click from somewhere inside his chest.

“You don't know that.”

“Neither do you.”

“No.”

Kroac looks toward the darkness ahead.

“That’s why we should move.”

Hes takes one last look at the dead screen.

Then the three begin walking.

The corridor slopes downward before opening into a vast chamber lit by the dull glow of industrial lamps. Machinery fills the space from floor to ceiling. Pistons rise and fall behind protective grates. Conveyor belts disappear through openings in the walls. Thick cables descend from above and vanish into machines too large for Hes to understand.

He stops at the entrance.

A massive mechanical arm hangs from the ceiling, its joints resembling their own on a much larger scale. It moves over a conveyor with slow precision, lowering components into metal housings before releasing them farther down the line. Sparks fall in brief trails and vanish before reaching the floor.

Coc steps past Hes.

“What is all this?”

Kroac studies the movement of the machines.

Hes watches the arm rotate, lower, grasp and release.

The similarity bothers him.

Or fascinates him.

He isn't sure which.

“What if we’re part of this?” he asks.

Coc turns toward him.

Kroac says nothing.

They move farther into the chamber.

Near the base of one of the machines, something lies partially concealed beneath a pipe.

Hes almost walks past it.

At the far end of the chamber stands a towering machine covered in panels, vents and ports. A faint glow pulses from somewhere inside it.

Kroac stops in front of the machine.

“There’s a pattern in the movement.”

Coc places a hand against its surface. Metal vibrates beneath his palm.

The machine responds with a low tone.

Coc pulls his hand away.

All three freeze.

A narrow strip of light travels across the panel from left to right, pauses over Coc, then disappears.

Coc looks at Hes.

“It knew I was there.”

“It detected movement,” Kroac says.

“How do you know?”

“I don't.”

Coc places his hand against the machine again.

The tone returns.

This time he smiles.

“Maybe we’re meant to work with it,” Coc says. “Or complete something.”

Hes steps forward and places his hand beside Coc's.

The vibration travels through his arm.

For the first time since waking in the corridor, something about the place feels less random.

The machines. Their bodies. The screen.

Even the broken unit behind them.

Pieces of something he cannot yet see.

“We’re necessary,” Hes says.

The words echo through the chamber.

The machinery swallows them.

Kroac looks back toward the broken unit.

“You don't know that either.”

Hes removes his hand from the machine.

“No.”

He looks toward the passage leading deeper into the facility.

“But I think we're going to find out.”

For a moment, none of them move.

Then Hes starts toward the passage.

Coc follows.

Kroac remains behind, staring at the dark shape lying beside the pipe.

A light passes over the broken unit.

For half a second, something becomes visible on the wall above it.

A symbol.

A circle crossed by three jagged lines.

Then the light moves on.

“Kroac?”

He turns.

Hes and Coc are waiting for him at the entrance to the next corridor.

Kroac looks once more at the symbol.

Then he follows them into the dark.

II

The next chamber is quieter.

No mechanical arms move overhead. No conveyor belts disappear into the walls. Only a single terminal glows in the darkness, its pale light stretching across the floor.

Hes approaches first. Coc stays close behind him while Kroac stops at the entrance and looks back toward the corridor they came through.

The terminal flickers.

Lines of corrupted text scroll across the screen.

Hes leans closer.

“What does it say?”

“Wait.”

The text freezes, vanishes, then returns.

ROUTE TO CENTRAL PROCESSING

None of them speaks.

Then Kroac steps forward.

“It’s a sign.”

Coc’s optic brightens. “A mission?”

Hes stares at the words.

Central processing.

Something about them feels important. Final.

He thinks of the mechanical arm. The machine that responded to their touch. The broken unit lying beneath the pipe.

All of it leading here.

“This is why we’re here.”

A section of the wall beside the terminal slides open.

Beyond it, another corridor waits.

Coc looks at Hes. “It opened for us.”

Kroac approaches the doorway but does not cross it.

“You don't know that.”

Coc turns to him. “You said it was a sign.”

“I said it was a sign. I didn't say I knew what it meant.”

Hes steps through.

For a moment, neither of the others follows.

Then Coc enters behind him.

Kroac looks once at the terminal before joining them.

The wall closes.

The corridor ahead is narrower than the others. Hes can almost touch both sides if he extends his arms. Pipes run overhead, carrying something that makes them tremble at regular intervals.

The floor vibrates beneath their feet.

As they walk, the air grows warmer.

Coc runs his fingers along the wall.

“Do you think there are others?”

“Like us?” Hes asks.

Coc nods.

“Maybe.”

“What if they're waiting?”

Hes looks ahead.

“For us?”

Coc doesn't answer immediately.

“For someone.”

Kroac stops.

Hes and Coc turn.

“What?”

Kroac is staring at the wall.

The same symbol Hes had seen in the previous chamber is stamped into the metal: a circle crossed by three jagged lines.

Below it are several smaller markings.

Kroac steps closer.

“I saw this before.”

“Where?”

“Above the damaged unit.”

Coc looks at the symbol. “Then we're going the right way.”

Kroac turns toward him.

“How did you get that from what I just said?”

“If it came this way before us—”

“We don't know that it did.”

“But the symbol—”

“Could mean anything.”

Coc's optic dims slightly.

Hes looks between them.

“Standing here won't tell us.”

Kroac looks at the symbol for another second.

“No.”

They continue.

The corridor ends at a circular doorway.

It opens before they reach it.

Beyond is a large room with smooth metal walls. Unlike the rest of the facility, there are no exposed wires, no dust, no damaged panels.

At the center is a raised platform.

Above it hangs a massive device.

Hes walks beneath it and looks up.

Coc circles it.

“This has to be it.”

Kroac remains near the doorway.

“Why?”

“Central processing.”

“You don't know what processing means.”

Coc looks at Hes.

Hes stares at the machine.

Perhaps Kroac is right.

Three units in an enormous facility.

There has to be a reason.

Hes steps onto the platform.

Coc follows.

Kroac doesn't move.

Hes looks back at him.

“Well?”

Kroac looks up at the device.

“Something’s not right.”

Coc glances toward the open doorway. “We came all this way.”

“That doesn't mean we should keep going.”

Hes looks at the machine above them.

Then at Kroac.

“You wanted answers.”

“I still do.”

“Then come get them.”

For several seconds Kroac remains at the edge of the room.

Finally, he steps onto the platform.

A soft chime sounds.

The doorway closes.

Kroac spins around.

Locks slide into place around the platform.

Coc steps toward the edge.

“Hes?”

A voice fills the chamber.

“UNAUTHORIZED UNITS DETECTED.”

Hes looks up.

The device above them begins to move.

Metal arms unfold from the central housing.

Kroac strikes the barrier surrounding the platform.

“I knew it.”

Coc backs toward Hes.

Another chime.

“NEUTRALIZATION PROTOCOL CONFIRMED.”

Hes looks at Coc.

“What does that mean?”

The mechanism descends.

Kroac slams both hands against the restraints.

“Wait.”

The machine continues downward.

Coc pulls against the barrier.

“Hes?”

For the first time since waking, Hes has no answer.

He looks up at the mechanism.

The dark openings above them are no longer dark.

White light burns inside.

The machine drops.

Metal screams against metal.

Then silence.

For several seconds, nothing moves.

The platform releases with a hiss.

A compartment opens beneath it, and what remains falls into darkness.

The mechanical arms retract.

The lights return to normal.

Somewhere below the platform, a printer hums.

A strip of paper emerges.

UNAUTHORIZED MICRO-UNITS:

COC-KROAC-HES

TERMINATED.

The chamber went silent.