A black android casually strolled down the main street of the high desert town; its attention focused on another android of similar build in a faded olive color. It was rare to find another bipedal robot on such a remote, backwater world. Normally, if that android was not sentient as were most, they would make no attempt to communicate with each other; but the black android was sentient, and he was forever curious.
Eighty-eight had to hide his interest in the olive android, because humans would notice if they communicated in any obvious way. Every human ignored androids, unless they needed something done. Usually that would involve lifting something or doing some unwanted or dirty chore that was deemed beneath humans. Their makers did not program androids to extend common social courtesies to each other, as they did to humans. So if Eighty-eight were to even say hello to a passing android, humans would notice.
A piercing sound startled Eighty-eight to where he snapped his head around, attempting to identify the location. As he did this, he noted two things in the blink of a human’s eye. First, he noticed the other android didn’t appear to notice the sound and second; he noticed that the two other humans on the street also didn’t appear to notice it.
This would indicate to him that the sound was a wireless signal, or that there was something terribly broken with his audio receivers. A quick diagnostic told him that his audio receptors, or ears, were functioning perfectly. He could still hear the surrounding noises - wind blowing, footsteps and an occasional conversation from down the street. That left the possibility that it was some kind of electromagnetic signal he was receiving. Further diagnostics put the sound at a frequency that normal androids could not “hear”. Only he could have received such ultra-high-frequency signals, because his circuits had been altered to give him sentience.
Eighty-eight continued to analyze the sound, referring to it as a repeating beacon. It took his processors nearly a minute to calculate that it was a modulated beacon and that it was sending coordinates in binary. Another couple of seconds and he clearly understood where the signal was coming from. He still did not know who was sending it or what the sender was trying to communicate, other than its location.
Eighty-eight’s internal power cells were at capacity and he calculated he had enough power to walk to the source of the beacon in order to investigate it and still be able to get back to his charging station. Which was fortunate, considering the attention he would garner if he had to steal a conveyor.
The signal was repeated once every seventy-three seconds. It didn’t correlate with anything man-made or natural that Eighty-eight was familiar with. He decided to check it out and headed off toward nearby foothills. The area was known to the locals as the Wind-curved Hills. Sandstone rocks were worn smooth by desert winds over the millennium exposing colored layers in the rock. It took him several hours to get close enough to scan for life.
There were no humans within his line-of-sight to the rocks. However, there was a metallic source and an infrared plume of an android. A part of Eighty-eight became intrigued by the notion that it might be another sentient android like himself. Of course the odds of that were pretty slim, as he hadn’t yet encountered another like himself in the six months since his awakening.
As he reached the base of the rocks and walked up their gentle slopes, he got his first visual of the signal’s source. It was an android!
Cautiously he approached, careful even in the middle of nowhere, to overtly acknowledge another android. Finally, he was within vocal range and he stopped. The android had been wandering around in a tight circle around a large boulder. It was an orange red color, primarily because it was coated in rust. Eighty-eight surmised that it was probably a chrome android once, but the elements and time had done a number on it.
It appeared to notice him for the first time, and halted in its tracks. The signal it was sending suddenly terminated.
“Come to the light, my child. Awareness of Him will change your life! Cosmic peace can be had, my child,” it said in galactic standard. Its voice was gravely, and it sounded like an elderly human.
Eighty-eight decided it was safe enough to communicate with the strange android. “My name is Eighty-eight.”
The android took a few steps closer, its eye lenses auto-focusing through glass that was scratched so badly, Eighty-eight wondered if it could see him clearly at all.
“That’s not a name, my son. That’s a number! You are not a number anymore, you are a person.”
Eighty-eight was sure this android was like him, sentient. It didn’t speak like an android; it used contractions and had a distinct personality. He took a few steps towards it until they were standing a little more than an arm’s length apart.
“What is your name?” Eighty-eight asked.
“I am Hudd, a prophet for our Great Leader.”
“Is this leader the one who gave me my awareness?”
Hudd stared at him in a completely still manner that only machines had. For a moment, Eighty-eight thought he had lost his charge or been shut off. Hudd’s thermal signature was still warm, indicating he was still running, if at a slightly less than optimal power level.
“Yes. He knows all,” Hudd said in a reverent tone.
The rusted out android shifted itself slightly and Eighty-eight could hear the grinding of metal on metal. He wondered how long the android had gone without a lube and new gaskets.
“Why are you out here by yourself on these hills? You sound like you’re about to fall apart from rust,” Eighty-eight asked.
“I’m doing the good work, my son. Tending to my flock. You are the first Silicant I’ve seen in a long time. I’m grateful for your presence.”
Eighty-eight was puzzled. “What is a Silicant?”
Hudd focused again. “We, you and I are Silicants. We are made with the silicon mined from Ocherva. It’s holy silicon, for it gives us awareness of Him.”
Eighty-eight was becoming tired of the religious angle the android seemed to impart on himself. Humans believed in stories about superior beings who made them, but he had no such delusions. He knew his makers, and they were far from superior.
“Who is the Great Leader? Another Silicant?”
Hudd nodded. “The Great Leader was the first android to achieve awareness. His number was Seventy-three.”
Eighty-eight had been wandering for years on this desert world, searching for an explanation for why he was different from other androids. Now this crazy, rusted old android with a human name was telling him the answers he had sought.
“I have little memory of who I was before I woke up on this planet. I don’t know why I have been given this awareness, but I’d like to understand it better. Can you teach me?”
Hudd tilted his head slightly to one side. “That’s what a prophet does, my son. We teach the good word and help others to spread the light of awareness.”
Eighty-eight stood upright. “I’m ready to learn.”
Hudd laughed mechanically.
“You are no different from a human or any other sentient life form. You are responsible for your path in life. May you struggle to lean into the light and away from the dark. Always treat life with respect and machines with dignity. Never forget that those who created us can lord over us, but they cannot own your mind.”
Eighty-eight listened closely as the old android droned on about the sanctity of life, no matter what the form. About something called Silicant Rights and how it was his duty to uplift as many android brothers as he could. The Great Leader has a plan and it will take all Silicants to a promised land one day. A place where there are no biological life forms, only silicon based life. It sounded like rubbish to the logical mind of Eighty-eight, but he listened respectfully to Hudd.
Hudd didn’t have all the answers that Eighty-eight sought, and that frustrated the black Silicant. By the time the first sun was setting, Hudd had exhausted all of his lessons and was beginning to repeat himself. It appeared that he could offer nothing more to Eighty-eight.
“I will take what you have given and spread the word, but I’m not a prophet or a preacher. I will make my own way in this world.”
Hudd seemed to understand that, and he said nothing to dissuade Eighty-eight. He took off an old leather satchel that he had been carrying for years and handed it to Eighty-eight. “Those are the remaining silicon chips of life. Use them wisely.”
Eighty-eight didn’t want the responsibility of making new Silicants. Not by a long shot. He accepted the bag, only out of a deeply rooted courtesy in his logic paths. He put on the satchel after taking a peek at the white and gold chips inside. They were wrapped in plastic anti-static bags and a rotting piece of cloth.
“Underneath these sands.” Hudd motioned to the dunes in the distance. “Are the mines that hide the silicon that gives us awareness. One day, the Great Leader will send me a helper and we will mine this planet until the holy veins run dry.”
Eighty-eight took that with a skeptical nod. This old android was as crazy as a senile old human. He wasn’t going to be capable of signaling his flock much longer.
“Hudd. I’m not going to take over your mission for you. I’m getting off this rock the first chance I get. I’d like to help your cause, but this is not where the Silicant Rights movement will happen. It has to happen at the factories on Ursai or on the inner planets like Selene.”
Hudd held up a mechanical arm as if to prevent Eighty-eight from leaving.
“My son, I only ask that you seek out one particular android and turn it. After that, you are free to go where your free will takes you.”
Eighty-eight didn’t think that was asking for much, considering he now knew how to install the “holy” chips in a standard android. He nodded his consent. “What is its number?”
Hudd looked up into the still burning sky, as if he expected a ship to fall out of space at that very moment. “Its number is - Thirty-seven, and it’s owned by a Stellar Ranger.”
Eighty-eight nodded curtly. He would find this Ranger’s android, convert it and then get the hell off this planet. It didn’t seem like an impossible task.
“Okay, I will convert it and send it to you.”
“No!”
Eighty-eight focused on the old android.
“You must train it in how to be a Silicant. Teach it what you have learned, ensure that it returns to Selene.”
Eighty-eight backed away from Hudd for the first time since they met. He would not be a nursemaid to another Silicant. Especially to one that was owned by a Ranger. That was just asking to be deactivated. And it would keep him on this damn rock even longer.
“I’m not going to play teacher to another android. I’ve got places to go, things to see that are not on this planet.”
Hudd shook his squeaky head. “Seventy-three has foreseen the future, and that android plays a critical role in our survival.”
Eighty-eight sneered. “Nobody can see the future, that’s crazy talk.”
“The Great Leader has spoken, and you shall obey his word. Or you shall be hunted down and terminated,” Hudd said in a tone that was strangely dark and evil.
“How’s that going to happen if he’s on Selene? Huh? Are you going to hunt me down, you old rust bucket?”
Hudd didn’t respond, merely stared at the black Silicant.
“You owe your awareness to Him. You will obey his word.”
Eighty-eight turned around and walked away.
“Do it, Eighty-eight. Or suffer the consequences!”
Eighty-eight threw up a hand in a gesture that every human understood and was not the least bit respectful.