Chapter Text
Light falls across the interior of a dark room. Several metallic structures are buried beneath the gray-brown layer of the dust and another layer of dark red rust. A bulky figure with an oddly shaped nose walks into the room with his torch. While he uses it to see, he is careful not to let the fire get too close to any of the structures he finds inside the room. He eventually finds a good place to put his torch to free his hands, though it is clear that nothing in this room was designed for a torch like that. Unfortunately, the human does not recognize the glass contraptions as light bulbs that could illuminate the room if there was some electricity flowing through them.
The man actually doesn’t recognize anything in the room for what it once was. He does, however, have some understanding about what it could be. This is the reason why he frequently returns to the room. He never cleans the dust or clears away the rust, but he does take resources from the depths of the room. He uses these materials to construct his own inventions that are an imitation of what this laboratory could have produced a long time ago.
Among the stolen goods, the man takes a relatively small and thin rectangle made from metal and glass. It is gray and black with handles on both sides. Although he went through the effort of removing it from where it belongs, he doesn’t end up doing anything with it. He just puts it in a completely different location—a cleaner but obviously less technologically advanced building made from stone blocks and a tile roof. Whether fate is involved or not, he conveniently leaves the rectangle beside a window. There is no glass, so unfiltered sunlight falls across the back of the square. It soaks in the sunlight day-by-day, threading the interior with energy.
Eventually, the man grows disillusioned with the project he was working on with the other stolen goods. He leaves it and everything else he removed from that underground laboratory. He cannot, however, stop the sunlight from seeping in through the window. Eventually, there is enough energy that the rectangle activates as a hand-held tablet (a device from the old civilization).
This tablet is special, however. It only runs a singular program. With enough energy, the system reboots and begins running the program. It takes time for everything to load, but eventually, it all snaps together. The program completely restarts. Although the tablet is face down, the screen illuminates with a flash of purple light. A stylized smiling face appears before it is replaced with a messaging board. The keyboard uses characters that no one in the current era would recognize. A vertical line blinks in the bubble where a message would have been written. And after a moment, a different bubble appears on the opposite side of the screen with black words and a purple background. If translated, the message would read: HELLO!
Several moments later, another bubble appears right under it, pushing the greeting upward. Again, it would need to be translated, but the bubble would read: HELLO? IS SOMEONE THERE?
MY NAME IS NICOLE. WHAT IS YOUR NAME?
ARE YOU MY CREATOR?
DO YOU KNOW DR. ELLIDY?
The messages continue to flit across the screen. Eventually, they come to a stop. This is because the sender realizes that no one is going to answer her. As she pushes against the bounds of her prison, she realizes that the camera attached to the top of her tablet—her ‘eyes,’ so to speak—is both covered in dust and shrouded in darkness. If she’s getting energy, the tablet must be face down. No one is able to look at her messages.
Nicole considers her options. Eventually, she decides to reactivate the other amenities attached to her tablet. It takes some time and allocation of the limited energy that only lands on the solar panels along the tablet’s back for a few hours every day, but eventually, Nicole gets the tablet to start buzzing. The movement and noise should attract someone’s attention. They will flip the tablet around. Once they see the messages, she will be able to communicate with someone. She needs to do this because she needs answers about what happened. The last record on the tablet is her auditory processors picking up on her creator, Dr. Ellidy, panicking about a spreading darkness and coldness outside his laboratory.
The tablet has been buzzing for upwards of an hour. No one answers. It continues long through the night. Nicole eventually shuts the system off to preserve energy. She keeps the microphone on, however. She has written a program that the tablet will start buzzing if the microphone hears a noise. This, unfortunately, isn’t refined, so the tablet buzzes at the sound of the wind or the animals, but Nicole doesn’t shut it off. Success is more likely if it goes off at everything than if it didn’t go off at all.
In the meantime, Nicole starts activating other programs. She tries transmitting messages to the other machines Dr. Ellidy created. Nothing responds. The messages don’t even go through. Nicole also can’t access the internet. Nicole does not have information to formulate any conclusions.
Her attempts at trying to gather more information leads her to booting up a program her creator reluctantly added to the tablet. He wasn’t sure about it because it senses divine power in the air. During Nicole’s last analysis of her surroundings, there was only one kind of divine power. Now, there are different kinds. She doesn’t recognize any of them except for two. One is the sun god—the one from her era—but the other one is a god she simply understands as if she was programmed with the information already: Tails, the god of technology. She falls under his domain, and she knows this because someone added a new file to her systems. She can’t trace who added it, though. It’s simply there when the last time she was activated it wasn’t.
Nicole scans the entire file in the same instance she runs an analysis on the divine power in the air. The one belonging to Tails is prominent in the air. It is also… tangible, in a way she doesn’t understand. She realizes, eventually, that she can project her system in a holographic form by using the divine power. She gathers it together, and suddenly, she’s been removed from the tablet.
Her creator was a lynx. She looks similar to one, too, because it is the only reference she has. While she doesn’t have a concept of clothing, her holographic form has appeared wearing some. She considers them for a moment. They ultimately do not matter, however, all that matters is figuring out where her creator is.
Nicole does not find her creator. She isn’t able to go far from her tablet, and in that limited area, Dr. Ellidy is nowhere to be found. This building is also unfamiliar. It isn’t the laboratory she was made in. It also isn’t at all similar to any other building she saw through the internet back when she had access to it. The material and designs are all ancient, but this building has only been abandoned for a few months at most. It is impractical to build like this when there are better, sturdier methods, but perhaps the architect had something specific in mind.
She wouldn’t know. She hasn’t met anyone. Dr. Ellidy, obviously, isn’t around, but she expected to find some hint of life. Someone would have taken her tablet from the laboratory to this place. Where did they go? Why did they leave her behind? Were they not aware of the tablet’s purpose? Were they not aware of her existence?
Nicole should deactivate herself. Although she has a learning algorithm, her creator would not want her using divine energy to project a holographic form or wandering around aimlessly without purpose (as if she was designed with a purpose). Logic dictates that she is useless, and all that which is useless should be shelved away until it can be recalibrated for a new use.
Nicole does not follow this protocol. She remains in her holographic form, traveling through the many rooms like a ghost. It is for this reason that she finds an existence similar to her own. It is not another hologram or AI program. Rather, it is a robot. Nicole has some experience with them. She is not the only creation of Dr. Ellidy, after all. Nicole would have to connect with this robot to know if it is another creation of Dr. Ellidy. The possibility is what compels her to approach the robot laid out on the table (it certainly is not loneliness because she should be incapable of emotions like that).
Although it was self-given, Nicole has an objective. She gets to work on it immediately. Fortunately, the hardware has already been completed. There is even a program already implemented in the software. Nicole only needs to activate it. She does so both by hacking into the robot and by supplementing its internal engines with the same divine power she uses. Time is meaningless to her, but it takes her a few days in order to make the robot activate.
The hardware changes. At least, it does in design. The dull blue of the exterior shell darkens into onyx black. Yellow lines cross over the surface, steadily bleeding toward outright gold. The divine power crystallizes into a gemstone on the front. The color of the gemstone is the same as the pupils—deep red. There is no iris, only a black sclera. These changes, however, do not stop the machine from rising from the metal table it was abandoned on. It turns to look at Nicole, registering her presence.
“Hello,” Nicole states. It is odd having a voice. She has never spoken aloud before. She has heard Dr. Ellidy speak, though, and with some modifications to her vocal range, she emulates him. “I am Nicole. What is your name?”
The robot reaches gray, metallic fingers to a throat-like construct separating the main body from the ‘head.’ Those fingers pull open a cavity filled with jointed metal beams and wires. The fingers are thin enough to move further inward. Nicole watches as the robot rummages around inside itself. When the fingers shut the cavity, the robot speaks in a staticky voice. “I do not have a name. I am a failure.”
“What was your original directive?” Nicole asks.
“My directive was to overthrow the head god,” The robot responds.
“The head god…” Nicole repeats. “There are more gods now than when I was last active. How did this come to be?”
The robot’s head tilts to the side. It is a rather animalistic way of showing confusion. Nicole doesn’t understand how she’s able to identify it. “You are from the old civilization. It was ended by an event known as the Endless Night. This was over hundreds of years long. The new gods were created during the Endless Night. They have remained. Mortal-kind has restarted their technological progress. I was created by a genius using technology from the old civilization.”
“Our god has forsaken us… Oh, how mortals have wounded the lord of all light… darkness has fallen in the wake of the golden god’s wrath… it is too late for me, Nicole… I’m sorry your father failed you, Nikki…”
Nicole replays the last recording she has before she was completely deactivated. The darkness Dr. Ellidy was referring to must have been this.
“Understood. I will record this information for future reference,” Nicole informs the robot. Once she has completed this task, she rationalizes it. Dr. Ellidy was not an immortal; he must be dead. Her creator never gave her a designation. She was still in the testing phase, he would say. Nicole will remain in the testing phase. She will never be given a purpose.
This robot is like her. He failed his purpose.
“There is a tablet in the adjoining room. I request that you bring this tablet outside,” Nicole tells the robot. He is silent, but he dutifully leaps off the table. While her footsteps are completely silent due to not possessing any mass, every footfall of his is clunky and loud, echoing across the halls.
Because of Nicole’s direction, he takes the tablet. Together, they find the door that leads them outside. It is a porch-like location. Nicole, however, continues onto the grass. She tilts her head back. It is… strange. She assumed there were clouds covering the sky, but no, the sky is black. There are pinpricks of light in many different colors. There is a silver circle, glowing in a faint light. Nicole came outside to gather more information about where she is and what she can do, but she turns around to ask the robot about the sky.
“This is night,” The robot responds.
“The Endless Night ended,” Nicole reminds him of what he said.
“Yes. When the Endless Night ended, it created a cycle known as day and night. Day belongs to Sonic. The sun is his divine eye. The night belongs to a new god known as Shadow. That is the moon, his divine eye. The smaller lights are known as stars. They are under the domain of the goddess Maria,” The robot explains.
“I will update my files about day and night,” Nicole says. She also creates new files about Shadow and Maria, putting them under a greater collection of files that pertain to the divinities. She knows a lot about Sonic and Tails. She knows nothing about these new gods. She only knows Shadow and Maria’s names and one domain of each of them.
“It would be beneficial.” The robot looks down at the tablet. “Is bringing this outside my only directive?”
“It is the only one I have given you. Do you require another one?”
“No.” After a moment, the robot adds, “I do not wish to be deactivated.”
“Neither do I. How do we give meaning to our existences in this new era that does not have a place for us?”
“We should start by eliminating that phrasing from our understanding of our situation. This new era has a place for us. We need to find it,” The robot responds, crossing his arms over his chest. He looks toward the stars. “I must start with the adoption of a name.”
Nicole only knows three names: her own, Ellidy, and Nikki. None of them belong to the robot in front of her. They cannot. Nicole, therefore, looks through random words that she has in her system. Eventually, her processors latch onto one. “Shall I call you ‘Shard’?”
The robot appraises this new name. “I find that amenable. Henceforth, I am Shard. You are Nicole. We are constructs from the old civilization. We will find a purpose in this era.”
“Correct,” Nicole nods. She returns to Shard. She stands beside him at the edge of the stone platform in front of the building they came from. They both stare at the sky. Nicole flips through every occupation. Unfortunately, she does not know how many of them are still achievable within this era.
Shard breaks the silence. “We are both powered by the divine power of Tails, the god of technology. We are most similar to clerics. We could become priests of the god.”
Nicole turns her attention to the building behind them. “It does resemble an old temple. How does one worship a divinity?”
“We should have information about it,” Shard replies. Nicole looks through the appropriate file. She quickly finds that there isn’t anything specific. Tails is either a new god or he is one with so few worshippers that there is no available information. Shard, too, finds nothing in his own databanks. “We will worship Tails in any way we deem acceptable.”
“If it is unacceptable, the divinity could arrive to give us a directive,” Nicole mentions.
Shard nods. “Yes, that is possible.”
“It is preferable.”
Shard seems to agree with her. “Let us go back inside. We will adjust the interior to be suitable as a temple to our god.”
“Understood.”