"Dr. Nikolos, the ships are approaching, sir."
His nephew's mumble rang out over the lab speakers.
Ivo paused.
He stood up, setting down the Mobian roboticization blueprints he had been designing. Blue light from the precision equipment surrounding him reflected off of the bronze bands around his body. He leaned over the glass desk and clicked on the intercom. "Good." he said. "Make sure everything is ready."
"Of course, sir." His nephew mumbled back.
Ivo clenched his metal jaw, sending signals out to his list of Robians. He turned around, entered his personal elevator, and the bronze doors closed before him.
A few minutes later, Ivo stepped out of his hover pad onto the main floor of a closed arena. It looked like any other arena he had seen on earth, except this one had been plated with a bronze-gold floor and someone had set up arcs of curved tables that circled around the room. Around the perimeter of the room, Mobium extractors had been placed. There were at least fifty.
His brother, Julius, and his aunt already sat in two of the seats. Mobians still lingered around the edges of the arena, putting away cleaning supplies, their combot overseers standing nearby.
His nephew appeared from a side door of the arena, hurrying as fast as his little legs would carry him. He held a feather duster and a cloth in his small, grey hands.
"Oh, Uncle Ivo, what a marvelous day," his nephew, Colin murmured. He got to work at once, polishing the bronze fixtures on Ivo's metal body. At least, the parts that he could reach. "You must be terribly excited—"
"How far are the ships?" Ivo asked.
"Any time now—I saw at least thirty, sir."
"Thirty…" Ivo echoed.
At these words, the first hum of an air cruiser came into earshot. Everyone in the arena looked up.
The first air cruiser crossed over the wall of the arena, but the humming only grew louder. Then came a second. A third—five more—ten—
Ivo stared. His mustache twitched.
He shook Colin off. The teen darted away to sit with Aunt and Julius. Ivo continued to stare, watching as the cruisers landed on the peak of the arena walls. Human forms began to step out of the cruisers. Straight, tall, human forms.
Ivo's lips curved into a smile.
Combots at the top of the arena greeted and guided the men towards the elevators that would take them down to the ground level of the arena.
Ivo turned to the combot slave overseers, mentally directing them to get their charges in order. As the combots forced the Mobians to attention, Ivo strode to the nearest elevator as it descended to the ground.
The door opened. A male human in a suit and spectacles stepped out, briefcase in hand.
"Louie Montaine…you have arrived," Ivo said, approaching. "It has been too long."
The human smiled, laughing to himself. "Doctor…I did not recognize you. Your appearance has changed a little."
Ivo extended his metal and wire ribbed hand. The man extended his flesh and bone hand. They shook.
"For a new future, a new world, my doctor," Louie said.
"For a new future, a new world, first of my kaisers," Ivo said.
Elevators began to open around the arena. More humans began to trickle out, staring around themselves in awe.
Louie adjusted his glasses, looking at the Mobians. "Aah…and are those the aboriginal lab rats you spoke of? My subjects?" He chuckled. "I was not expecting such variety…"
"The very ones," Ivo said, stepping back towards the middle of the arena. "My subjects and now your subjects. Test subjects, that is."
All of a sudden, the massive double doors on the far end of the arena slammed open. Two combots came to attention on either side.
"The Robians of Planet Marto," they announced, their automated female voices perfectly in tune.
Behind the doors, stood a line of robots. They began to march in.
Louie and the other humans in the arena paused to stare. No one spoke.
The Robians strode in harmony, each one individual and unique, perfect metal replicas of the same species of the Mobian slaves standing at the back wall.
Ivo turned up his voice. "The immortal citizens of Robotropolis are here to greet you, their kaisers!"
All stood silent as the Robians fell into line. Thin sunlight glowed through the force field dome covering the arena and casting a hazy sheen over their metal bodies. Their blank, black eyes flickered.
Louie swore. "And each one was once a living mortal?"
"Yes." Ivo said. "Every single one"
They were still marching in, still coming.
"Remarkable," Louie murmured. "Eternal life has come to this planet."
Ivo glanced at the waiting slaves. They too stared at the Robians, their eyes blank. Resigned.
Ivo licked his lips.
The forest fire that spread the seeds for new birth. The pruning of a tree that released new buds. The cutting away of infection that made for new growth.
Life came through death, did it not?
Author's Note:
We are finally reaching the climax. O.O I can't believe I have been uploading this story for over two years. Wow. Just a couple more weeks of uploads. ;-) Of course, the saga itself will be far from over, but still.
Thank you so much for reading, friends!
~April/Constance
