Rock On

How do you explain nonexistence to an artificial child?

A super-nova's heat had no effect on its poly-alloy skin. The weight of the world, a popular metaphor no longer symbolic, was no problem for the remarkably small synthetic body. This creature was the most devastating, powerful, invulnerable being in existence. It had the potential to destroy worlds and coalesce new solar systems into existence.

Binty, this artificial child, sitting in the middle of a field, crying lubricant tears over a shattered stone, was the greatest invention of Dr Eeveet.

Tri had a hard time believing it.

He knelt down, still too tall to comfortably interact with the little thing. His acute fingertips surrounded the pieces of mineral being held up with a trembling palm.

Binty spoke like a toddler. There was no way to tell if the voice was male of female.

"My killed it."

Drops rolled down its spherical head. The previously fixed smile was bent in an unnatural frown.

"No, Binty. It wasn't alive. You only changed it."

The child pulled the rock to its chest, hugging it tight.

"Him was live. My killed it. My sorry, him. My sorry."

Tri didn't quite understand. His was an analytical mind. He didn’t put meaning where none existed. He saw things as they were. He saw a cybernetic child bawling over nothing.

"Rocks are little pieces of sand and other inorganic matter. You did not kill it. You only made it... more."

Binty's round, luminous eyes searched through nothing in particular.

"Him still live?"

Tri's head bowed. He let a jet of steam from the exhaust ports in his neck. There was nothing he could say to explain the concept of nonexistence to something stuck in this level of maturity.

"Yes. It is still alive. There are more of them now... they're children, like you."

He tapped the middle of Binty's face with his claw. It was a gentle movement, though he could have sent a full attack at it with no adverse effects. They were made out of the same material, Binty was simply more dense.

The group of spheres and coils that made the child's systems bounced high in the air, releasing a slightly manic giggle.

It landed, standing, in the same spot. It held the rock pieces in both hands and swirled them around. It danced with his new friends.

Tri sent a small fraction of his consciousness to the internal clock. It was getting late. They were still on the run.

"Binty. We must leave here. Would you like to bring them along?"

The child juggled the stones.

"Bring them along? No. Them wanna fly. Them wanna make more!"

Before Tri could ask, Binty threw the shattered pieces in the air. Its eyes became brighter. That strangely familiar vibration shuddered through existence, the same sensation Tri had picked up when Binty had defended itself against Aliat's forces. This time, thankfully, it was on a much smaller scale. 

The rocks exploded. They fell down on the spinning, laughing child.

Tri watched the little weapon play in the shimmering specks it surely thought were its new friends. He could recognize happiness. There were even times he wished he could feel it. This was one such occasion.

Binty’s spring-like arms extending and it began to spin quicker. The particles swirled, following the airflow and became a funnel cloud. They glinted in the setting sun, a tower of ghostly glass.

“My make them many! My make them many, Tri-tri!”