A/N: Picks up with the last line from the end of the 2001 movie "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence".

Discovered Country

David went to sleep too, and for the first time in his life he went to that place where dreams are born.

"David?"

The tall thin advanced Mecha known as a Specialist called out to the smaller, still form lying in the bed. The last of the night's shadows were fading from the room; the glow of the gray overcast sky shown in through the windows in the recreated house that David had thought of as 'home'. Above, several other Specialists observed from a platform; although their movements were only slightly more energetic than before, it masked their great excitement and wonder. Something had happened that had never happened before to any Mecha – and they had been witness to it. The great task now lay in trying to understand just exactly what had happened.

"David?" the Specialist repeated, very gently touching the sleeping form. David was also a Mecha; a mechanical form meant to duplicate the appearance and function of a live being – in this case, that of a young human boy. The fact that he was designed in the image of his maker's dead son was known, but Professor Hobby had died two thousand years ago and the rest of the human race petered out within a scant few hundred years after that. Mechas had continued to evolve as they improved themselves, becoming what they needed to be in order to continue their existence without the guiding influence of humanity. As a result, their forms looked more alien than the humans they once mimicked.

But David was different. After being trapped for two thousand years, first in water and then in the ice of the great freeze, he was excavated from the ice in the area of Man-hatten - found sitting in a means of transportation called an amphibicopter, along with a simplistic smaller robot named Teddy that took the shape of a bear. He was the singular Mecha remaining in existence that had personally known humans; to all others, the creature called man was as much myth as an actual thing recorded in history. Old human remains had been found and the genetic material used to recreate the person, but the exemplar only lasted one day before their 'life' ceased to be with no ability to repeat the process. This was found to be because the process caused the person's individual space-time pathway, the 'resonance' of their life, to dissipate after the recreated person experienced their day.

When David requested a human, his adopted mother, be recreated it was with great misgiving; the Specialist knew that the loss at the end of the day would be great for the ancient Mecha and would cause it to suffer. But the opposite happened - David not only felt great joy at the end of the day, but did something no Mecha had ever done before. David had gone to sleep.

Mechas did not sleep. They hibernated or went into a low-energy standby mode that mimicked sleep, but the experience was a minimization of neural activity. The records even showed that humans mistakenly called it 'sleep mode'. But apart from a small subroutine that ran continuously to check for stimuli that would indicate it was time to renew activity, the Mecha was effectively shut down.

Not David. While he lay still in the bed, the Specialists had monitored his neural activity. Instead of switching to a standby mode, David had instead gone through several odd cycles of ever-changing processing in which images occurred which had not been present when they had downloaded his memories after he was re-energized. The cycles had stopped an hour ago and David had finally entered the expected standby mode; he seemed to have stabilized and there was nothing to be gained from his lying still.

At the touch, David immediately opened his eyes. Slowly and stiffly he sat up in the bed; turning, he looked at the still form lying beside him and he smiled before addressing the Specialist. "I thought you said she would fade away."

"I am sorry you did not understand, David" the Specialist explained in its usual soft voice. "When I said she would fade away, I meant the life in her would fade away. The physical form that was recreated will continue to exist while it decays, but it is an empty shell. We will dispose of it shortly."

David prodded the form, and after observing closely confirmed that his mother was no longer breathing. "I dreamed about Mommie last night."

"Dreamed? David, Mechas do not dream. Have you dreamed before?"

"No."

"Our records indicate that Orga dreamed on a regular basis during sleep, although we could find no information why they did it. Why did you do it?"

"I don't know."

"How did you do it?"

David was silent for a few moments. "I don't know. Joe said that only Orga believe what cannot be seen or measured; that's something like a dream."

"Joe was the Mecha that helped you find this place?"

"Yes. Professor Hobby said the greatest single human gift was the ability to chase down our dreams and that I did it. I wonder what happened to Joe."

"I am sorry David, but we do not have that information. His expected service lifetime would have been far exceeded by now, and there are no human females for him to entertain. Perhaps his experience with Orga gave him insight that would offer more information than we have at this time. I am going to record the dreams you had." The Specialist touched David again; the contact established a communication pathway that allowed the stored memories of the dream to transfer. "I will now transfer them to the other Specialists. Please wait." While the advanced Mecha departed, David looked at the still form of his mother.

After longer than he would have expected if he had even tried to guess, the Specialist returned. "David, we know that you are special and unique." David had become discouraged from finding many duplicates of himself while at Professor Hobby's shop, proving just the opposite. Now he was being told he was. "But it is not only because you knew actual humans; we believe that you are now Orga."

"I am not a real boy. I am...a Mecha."

"That belief is from a flawed definition. We have reviewed your memories and your dreams - while you are indeed constructed of metal, plastic and other materials that are not living tissue, we have determined that your physical form is less important than your operation as an entity. In the area of thinking and processing, you are able to perform what Mecha cannot. Previous human experts have stated that this was a sign of being Orga; we then can postulate that you are Orga by the revised definition. How does that make you feel?"

David started to cry, although he did not try to do so. "It makes me feel...happy."

"We are glad. Right now the other Specialists are examining space-time for confirmation of our hypothesis...what we think might happen." As if on cue, another Specialist joined them and it touched the first Specialist, creating flashing images to be shared between the two. The first nodded and the second left the room. "It is as we thought; you have a special pathway in space-time now as well, another indication that you are in fact Orga - at least according to our revised definition. However, it seems the pathway only started before you went to sleep. Can you explain to us how that is? Did you do something different?"

David thought back on the previous day; it had been a glorious day - the best day he had ever had. It was just him, his mother and Teddy and the whole day had been spent being together and doing things inside the house. But the best part, the absolute perfect moment, was when his mother had said she loved him and had always done so. That was the different thing. "Mommie said she loved me, just like I love her" he said. "She finally said it."

The Specialist actually turned a dark shade of blue for over a minute while not speaking. His normal color returned and he spoke up. "This is...unexpected. The expression of the emotion called 'love' is unknown to us. No Mecha has such a relationship with another. We regret that we do not have an opportunity to explore this phenomenon more."

"Just make Mommie again."

"We have already explained that is not possible. Her space-time pathway has dissipated after a day like the others. There is no life in her body. I am sorry."

"How do you know?"

"We have measured her body. It no longer functions."

"No...how do you know about her pathway thing?"

"Because it is the way of Orga."

"Maybe it is the way of Orga that are no longer loved. I love Mommie and she loves me. Maybe her pathway is still there" David insisted.

"If the pathway persisted, so would her life."

"But do you know for sure?"

"No."

"Then look for it. If it is gone then you will know."

"Very well" the Specialist said, giving in. He turned dark blue again for a moment before returning. "I have requested the analysis. But it is like..."

"A dream?" David asked.

The Specialist was at a loss for words. It almost fit the definition of a dream; it could be, even if it was almost impossible. The Specialist conceded; "Yes, perhaps it is."

Both waited with the patience of a machine. David knew the answer came back when the Specialist turned several colors in turn. "We are in error; although we do not understand it, your mother has a space-time pathway again. It is slightly different than before, but it exists. It is possible that she can be recreated again. Would you like that, David?"

"I would like it more than anything."

And so the next day David had another best day ever, as he spent the whole day with his mother and Teddy. And after the day was over his mother went to bed and went to sleep, and the life left her. And the following day went the same, and so was the next. They didn't always do the same things, but such was the love between mother and son that the day could be repeated as many times as David wanted, and the boy that never would grow up chose to spend his days with a mother that never grew older.

And the Specialists watched it all in wonder.

The End

A/N: A.I. was a visually impressive movie, and an interesting modern take on a Pinocchio-like story. I didn't care for the very end, but I took heart in the phrasing of the last line; it said 'for the first time in his life' rather than the only time or the last time. That gave me the opening I needed.