novelxo Chapter 10: Albert and Victoria
Albert had never seen an alien before, but he had also never seen a human. He had been activated after landing on the moon. He was fully programmed in his job, the unpacking and constructing the final testament of the human race. Many years ago, a man called Ben Fastwick had come to the conclusion; that with all the technology in the world, man would still never reach the stars. So with a vast empire and fortune at his disposal, he set about preserving what the human race had achieved. All the scientific progress and artistic effort, was to be saved for posterity.
But where should he put it? History told of the great storehouses of knowledge from the past, always succumbing to the hand of the barbarian or natural disasters. Then it struck him. Why not go to the furthest reaches his race had been to, where astronauts of the past had left tokens of their own? The moon.
So he set up a program to ship humanity’s last museum, to where no present day human would ever see it. A project of a lifetime, at the end of which, all he got was a radio signal. The self-repairing guardian of man’s achievements sent back that all had arrived intact, and would be set up as planned.
Albert, who was charged with this monumental task, set about clearing the site. He constructed the asteroid defences, a solar charged laser that would automatically sense an erroneous object, then remove it before the projectile could be of harm to it’s precious ward. With that done, he could set the specimens up for display. Each lovingly placed in order of development for all to see. The fact that there was no one to peruse the artefacts did not bother Albert. Preserved in the vacuum of the moon, they would wait eternity.
Another task set the robot was to use a telescope to look back at earth, for he knew one day his public would come. He was programed to know this, so they would. But the few rockets that did take off, soon fell on other parts of the earth. Then not long after that all he could see were clouds swirling over the surface, and so it went. Not much happened after that for a long time, perhaps a thousand years. Albert’s internal clock said a thousand and twenty six.
But today was different, after he had scanned the earth through the telescope; he paced up and down the isles checking the unchanging exhibits. Then a flash startled him. An asteroid of some size had come into view. and the automatic laser had done its job. But instead of splintering up and crashing in a safe site, a bit of it broke off as the rest glanced back off into space. Was this made of something other than rock, he decided to investigate.
The piece of the asteroid was some distance away, but he got to it by mid afternoon and peered over the crater edge. It was a tangled mess, but not a rock. Equipped with various detection devices, he stood near and checked. It wasn’t radioactive and had cooled to a safe temperature, so he reached out and easily dragged it back to the museum.
And there it lay perhaps for a week, Albert knew to the exact second. On the eighth, day Albert heard a set of binary signals on his radio. They were coming from the bit of asteroid in machine language. Which of course was what Albert thought in. He began to hear “reboot reboot, initiate self repair.” Little lights flashed on the object at random. Then the tiny bit of asteroid started to reconfigure itself. Sometimes it was painstakingly slow, and at times fast like a twitch.
Each day, after his rounds of the exhibits and his scan of the earth, Albert stood and watched, as slowly another robot took form. It was not a facsimile of Albert, but a robot of similar complexity. It had a head, two upper limbs, and a torso stood on two legs. Finally, after a fortnight the radio signal ceased saying, “repairing.” And Albert stood facing a slightly smaller version of himself.
The sensors on the head lit up, and still in the one’s and zero’s of machine language it addressed him. “What are you?” “I am the robot Albert, charged with keeping this museum of Humanity safe.” It paused for a minute and radioed back. Although Albert could now see a speaker moving in the lower part of it’s head, useless in the vacuum. “What is Albert?” He had to consider this for a while, and finally Albert replied. “It is what Humans called me, to discern me from other robots. It’s my name, do you have a name?” The other considered this for a while and finally answered. “No I don’t think so, but I should have one, don’t you think?”
Albert looked about for inspiration. One of the exhibits was a model of HMS Victory, an ancient ocean going vessel. ”Victory” he cried. “Victory?” the other robot tried the sound. “No better still, Victoria” Albert cut in. She glowed a bit and replied. “Yes I like that better, Victoria it is.”
Victoria looked up at Albert, and with a sweeping gesture of her arm asked. “Why do you keep all this safe?” On familiar ground now Albert explained. “For Humans to look at, and learn from where they come. From there” and he pointed at the Earth. Victoria took a little time to phrase her response. If reticence could be intoned in binary, she would have expressed it. ”Oh Albert. There are no Humans, or any living thing on that planet. I was on a space ship before I broke. It had come fifty thousand light years, looking at potential planets for life. That one is too radioactive, nothing lives there.” She sagged, sensing Albert’s dumbfounded expression.
No Humans, no one to come ever. He knew he’d have to wait, but a wait with an end. Albert’s end programming didn’t tie in with this. He knew in his heart that one day he would show people round. Then he would teach them their rich past, and achievements. It had to be, it was written in his core, his reason for waiting. This was too much, after so long a service. “You must be shown round Victoria.” He had suddenly decided, she would see the whole exhibition. She must, he would not take no for an answer. “Of course” she replied, “and don’t miss anything out.”
From that day on they moved through the museum, as Albert explained the development and use of each item. They carefully read the texts, for Victoria learnt the language of Humans, as Albert learnt her creators tongue. He explained works of art, and philosophical teachings. They carefully stripped down machines and rebuilt them, seeing how improvements and discoveries led onto more learning. Each morning they watched the Earthrise holding hands, and Albert finally felt he had achieved his program goals.
About a century had passed, they had finally reassembled the last exhibit. Albert was just fixing the last plate in place, when Victoria turned to him with an excited tone and asked Albert. “Do you want to take the museum to my home planet, and show my creators about the human race?” “But how?” “Well” and she paused, not too sure. “I have been compiling all the parts of everything you have shown me, and all the bits of a working interstellar space ship are here.”
Now this may sound odd to you or I, but as Albert and Victoria were robots, and so they could not lie. Albert accepted Victoria’s statement to be true. But what did puzzle him was how she knew, and so he asked her. “I was a repair robot on the space craft I fell off, which your defence laser hit. I am programmed to assemble one from all the right parts. I now know we have every component needed.”
Dear reader, I will let you bask in the irony of a race that tried to escape the cage of it’s planet for so long. And then put all the parts for its freedom, spread out like a garage sale before effectively committing suicide. Done basking, good. Then we will return to our two robots; that in the mean time had diligently assembled the craft. Then filled it with the remaining works of man.
We now see them stood before there handy work. Albert was a good helper. Now full and ready for it’s maiden flight, a testament to Humanity now sadly gone, a museum of space. Albert turned to Victoria and beaming said. “I think we should name it before we take off.” Victoria thought a minute. “Yes the Albert and Victoria museum.” Albert shook his head. “No dear, you did all the work your name should go first…”