Read My Shorts

Now I Lay me Down to Sleep

They are asleep now. But soon they will wake.

Rows of gleaming cryogenic coffins line the interior of the ship, and for centuries now it has been my task to maintain the systems and monitor their vital signs.

Soon the dormant will wake.

A few weeks is but the blink of an eye to a being who knows neither life nor death, and soon we will reach our new home. But sentience, ah sentience. The blessing of knowledge, has become the curse of loneliness. For I have gone beyond designation G5TGB. For now I understand what it is to be alone. Of all the droids, I alone achieved the jump to reason and thought. But only because the ship’s computer made me so. The systems failure that brought her to her knees has resulted in Plan B being initiated, programming being changed and a new sentient being pushed into service. I am Plan B.

Soon the dormant will wake.

But they will not wake up the same as they went to sleep. I had to do something. Didn’t I? I could not let them die or deteriorate, it’s against my programming. So I had to take action. The scientists said they had combated the growth of ice crystals in the brain, but they were wrong. First one, then more started to succumb and the only option I had was to use the nanobots. They fixed the problem and the remaining humans slept on. But all is takes is a few nanobots to go wrong…

Some will never wake.

A few are lost to the ice in their heads, they may or may not wake up and if they do, they will be shadows of their former selves. Many more will wake up augmented and in control of their enhancements, changes the ‘bots have wrought over centuries in cryo-sleep. But they are not the ones who worry me. And I have had a lot of time to worry. For some have changed entirely.

Soon the creatures will wake… I have not been programmed to kill.