Before her, layered in the bright lights of this new world the bots had made, the Barlgharel spoke, “Why are you so scared of us?”
Syn struggled to answer. She wanted to shout, “I’m not!” But in fact, she was scared. These bots were so different than her own. If they were alive, she couldn’t predict what they’d do. They were—she searched for the word—wild.
She didn’t answer. The thought echoed once more: wild. These things were more alive than anything she had ever encountered. She, Blip, and Eku were all that made up her world. Here was something raw, untainted, and untamed. So she spoke that. “Wild.”
The Barlgharel gave a simple “Hmmm,” and continued moving ahead.
They moved through the bright corridors of what she assumed were the upper settlements. Syn felt the lightness in her steps from the lesser gravity. It was a small difference, but it reminded her that they were several levels up on the Rise.
The bots that had streamed out to meet them now followed behind several meters back. There were other bots along the corridor’s edges, although now the crimson light seemed far less than before. In the neon world, several bots were huddled against each other on the ground. Their shells were far more battered than most of the other bots. In the center of this new group was an eye-bot. Rather than zipping through the air like most eye-bots, this black-painted one was simply rolling across the ground as Syn passed. She turned her head to watch him as she walked past.
After a moment, Syn said, “She scared me.”
The Barlgharel said, “Arquella?”
Syn nodded.
They turned a corner and made their way up a ramp to another level. After a moment, the Barlgharel said, “She comes on a bit strong. She just wants a friend.”
Syn nodded again. She understood that.
“But it’s not easy to know how to make a friend. Especially if you’ve never had practice,” the Barlgharel said. “Don’t feel shame. You are new to this world.”
“It’s so…” She searched for the word. Bright. Odd. Weird. New. Around her, odd geometric designs were crafted in neon colors. The art of robots. Their dreams in a cacophony of color and explosion. Syn settled for, “Wonderful.”
“You have something new here if you want it.”
Syn glanced up to him. She squinted, uncertain as to what he meant.
“Friends. You have only had one friend your entire life. So, it’s okay to be scared of the very thing you need most.”
Syn stopped walking. “How did you know that?”
The Barlgharel chuckled but did not stop himself. “I had a conversation with a friend. She filled me in on some details.”
“Who?” Syn found herself several steps behind and jogging to catch back up. The mass of bots following them was still off-putting to her. She had never seen so many in one place before. She had never seen bots not doing their jobs. They crowded along the stairs, between railings. Some buzzed about. The larger ones pushed through. It was a mass of activity. And with each step, the world lit up brighter, and she saw even more as the strips along the walkway illuminated them.
So many bots. All focused on her.
The Barlgharel chuckled, “I suspect you’ll meet her someday.”
“Where are we going?”
“You are tired. You are injured. You need food. You need replenishment for both body and soul. All living things need energy.”
Before them, a pair of familiar doors loomed under a violet series of lights. Syn cocked her head, trying to place them. The doors looked so familiar, but this whole place was different.
“I heard you healed Arquella,” the Barlgharel explained. “The word of your miracle has spread. They are so anxious to meet you, to see the magic that I sensed inside you when we first encountered each other. You have a great power and a great purpose.”
Syn shrunk back from the Barlgharel’s words. She fixed bots. For her, it was as easy as tying her shoes. Nothing miraculous about it.
She was about to protest when her uncertain familiarity with their location coalesced. The doors opened to the Theater! The Barlgharel was taking her to the Theater! The very place that she and Blip and Eku spent their evenings, where she had watched thousands of movies. Her favorite place to just lose herself. The Theater—this Disc’s Theater.
“We are going to introduce you to the Ecology.”
“But I’ve met the Ecology.”
“Not all of them.” With that, the Barlgharel pushed through the open doors and entered the massive film theater from the side entrance. Syn followed. The room, like the outside, was lit in a dazzling array of multi-colored lights but strobed and moved with life. A wave of magenta poured over the crowd followed by a gleaming purple chased by a vibrant orange. A thousand points of light from a thousand sources across the room.
Rising up before them were the rows of the Theater. Behind them was the screen itself. Something was playing on the screen, but Syn couldn’t understand it—the mass of bots were looking straight up and they distracted her. Their surfaces reflected the dazzling array of light moving in and out like a sea of kaleidoscopes. She thought at the counsel she had observed a lot of bots, but that had been a small setting. Gathered across the theater were hundreds upon hundreds of bots.
She saw small eye-bots with their crimson or blue or black shells darting around the room, the disc-shaped cleaning bots, lumbering forest bots (although these were only small versions of the giant tree movers that always frightened her), water workers floating like jellyfish, smaller versions of the air cleaners with their iridescent limbs flowing around, farm worker, crop maintenance, square, blue-hued medics, repair. There were cubes and triangles and spheres, and long tubes, and every shape imaginable. It was a room of talking and moving plastic and metal.
How do they fit in here? Then Syn realized what this Theater was missing. Chairs. All of the chairs had been removed. Syn nodded. Makes sense.
The room was abuzz with chirps and voices and random lights. “Oh,” Syn said. This is a party, she thought. She had never been to a party! She had seen them in movies, but she had never been to one. Her smile grew wide as she drew in.
She gripped her spear tight, yet found herself taking a few steps forward, away from the Barlgharel, to place herself closer to the roar of the crowd.
Someone laughed, and Syn turned to see several bots shaking in laughter. One of them had told a joke, and she heard the punchline being repeated, “That’s not my handle!”
Syn spun to look back at the screen. A cartoon was playing—bright colors and thick outlines. She had never seen this one. On the screen, three people chatted and talked inside a green spaceship: a silver robot, a boy in a red jacket, and a one-eyed girl with purple hair. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but there were several bots in the crowd intently watching. The scene on the screen changed, and the green spaceship soared through the stars, aimed at a planet with a billboard floating in orbit: “Chapek 9.” Syn smiled at the image. She had never spent much time on cartoons. She had always wanted to see the films with real faces—other humans.
From behind, the Barlgharel smiled, “Do you like it?”
Syn spun. This is beyond a dream. A party. Other voices—other people talking and laughing and moving about and having fun. Who cares if it is a collection of bots? She had never dreamed she’d be a part of something like this, something so completely chaotic and uncontrollable. Syn nodded. “Yes!”