Page 28 of Whispers of the Deep

Snorting, she turned her attention to the box on the ground and started in on it with her wrench. The rust was pretty extensive, more than she’d ever seen on the robots her father had toyed with. But once she got her screwdriver in the seam, the whole thing popped open with a hiss of ancient air.

“That smells awful,” she muttered, covering her nose with her hand and waving at the air. “Rank, like rotten fish.”

Even the undine reacted, although he seemed to only seal his nostrils shut and glare at her a little harder.

“It’s fine.” Mira turned toward the box and gave it a little shove with her screwdriver. “Are you awake? Or do I have to?—”

A small, metallic head popped out of the box. It had larger eyes than most of the robots she’d seen before. She called them eyes because they were shaped like binoculars on top of the metal pole holding them up. It didn’t blink or have any screens to give it actual eyes, but it did have little wipers that cleared away some of the gunk with a squeaky sound.

The droid turned to look at the undine and then a flash of bright light filled the room. It had taken a picture of him, and apparently that was enough to startle the creature back into the water.

Mira lunged for the droid and held it over her head as a wave splashed into the cave. The undine left in such a hurry that he’d caused a mess in his wake. Thankfully, none of the water had gotten onto the android, which might have fried all the delicate wires that had somehow survived being under the ocean for god knows how long.

“Well, and fuck you, too,” she muttered.

Mira brought the droid over to the console table just to be safe and then popped it onto the counter. “There, better. At least now you won’t get wet.”

It wiped the binoculars clear again before replying, “Thank you, strange woman. How are you under the sea as well?”

“We’re in a cave.”

“Ah.” It looked around, those eyes swiveling on the rod before it turned its attention back to her. “My designation is Beta Iota Epsilon 427. Main function is mapping the ocean floor. Upon first encounter with alien species, I was trapped underneath a rock for sixty-three thousand, eight hundred and seventy-five days.”

She couldn’t do that kind of math in her head, but that sure sounded like this droid had been down here for more than a hundred and fifty years. “Subordinate function?”

“Knowledge gathering and database preservation.”

Well, that wasn’t what she was hoping for. Some of these metal hunks had been fitted with antennae so they could contact the cities wherever they went. Clearly, this wasn’t one of them.

Sitting down hard on a stool, she stared at the little being and wished it were easier than this. “Database preservation, huh? Sounds thrilling.”

“The ocean is full of unusual life forms. I have categorized at least two thousand separate species and multiple layers of the ocean floor. Even while I was pinned underneath that rock, I was able to discover many life forms.” It paused, and one of the eyes suddenly shut off before the light blinked back into existence. “I would show you, but it appears my projector is broken.”

“That’s all right.” She knew how emotional these AI could get. Their function was to complete two jobs, and two jobs alone. This one, apparently, could only move and record what it was seeing. Useless to Mira right now, but she could see why people would create it.

The last thing she wanted was for it to overheat its motherboard because she made it angry.

It wiped its eyes again, clearly a little confused. “My designation is Beta Iota?—”

“You said that.” She leaned forward, clasping her hands together and staring down at her loose fingers. “Do you have a name?”

“Names are for personal androids, not for deep sea trawlers.”

“I see.” Beta Iota Epsilon. “What about Byte?”

The little robot seemed to shiver at the name, and its box even rocked back and forth a bit. “I would be happy to have a designated name if you so wish.”

“I’ll be honest, Byte. I’ve been down here for a while. I don’t know how long, but the undine you previously saw kidnapped me from my home while I was trying to fix an external panel. You’re the first person I’ve talked to in a while, and it feels good just to be able to have a conversation. So if you don’t mind just talking to me... That would be really nice.”

The side panels on the box opened, shifting to the inside so she could see the droid actually had tiny arms. They were thin and delicate, coming out of the internal pieces like little pinchers. But it used those arms to move itself a little more securely back onto the console. “I can speak with you. Of what would you like to speak?”

“Anything,” she said. “Tell me everything that you’ve seen.”

A daunting task for a droid who had seen the entire sea.

Byte started to talk, and that robotic tone made her drift through a world she’d never seen before. Jellyfish and hundreds of species of crab. Silver fish, fish that glowed in the dark, some with lights on top of their heads. It talked about the countless kinds of sharks it had seen, some more terrifying than others. Whales larger than cities were tall, and even sharks that were the same size. It spoke of the undines, and all the different kinds it had seen.

Byte had lived a life of adventure. Even though it had been pinned underneath the rock by itself, at least it had seen so many incredible things.

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