The Humanator

A monkey, a chimpanzee to be exact, stepped through the chamber of the Humanator for the first time as all those within the laboratory witnessed first hand the very first experiment backed by the idea of DNA and molecular reconstruction of one living organism into another. Essentially, the chimpanzee would dematerialize as a primate and re-materialize as a homosapien. The success rate had been higher solely due to the fact that humans and chimpanzees were distant cousins with relations in DNA. It was first tested on other animals such as rodents, livestock, and bovine, then would eventually be tested on humans.

Cows and pigs that couldn’t be used in processed foods were sacrificed to science, as was all waste within society. When humans died, their brains were squeezed of all the knowledge, thoughts, and memories of their former life. The bodies were then used as fertilizer for farming new homosapiens. Any sort of solid waste would be thrown into a matter transfigulator, the most famously known being the Humanator, turning human flesh and bone into a liquid, then a gas, and then ionized into plasma. Plasma powered everything. Even the world was named after it; Plasmadesia. 

The only organisms not subjected to the “purge” were the Plasmanoids, humanoid creatures that were roughly twice the size of a normal human. They ruled the planet and all its inhabitants due solely to the fact that they would partake in the dissolvement of entire planets if not for total rule over whatever planet the Plasmanoids invaded. When a planet no longer held any solid, liquid, or gaseous matter, all that would be left was plasma. With The Humanator, the Plasmanoids were able to replicate the once flourishing organic species known as the human species, and thus creating an infinite source of a potential plasma cache. 

There were two mechanical robots that seemed to be using some form of electrical telepathy, which would allow them and every other robot to connect to the same mainframe. This would allow the robots to connect with each other freely and securely, to be able to communicate through some form of telepathy. 

“What were humans like?” asked a robot that looked eerily similar to one of the earlier humans.

“They were different,” said the other.

“How so?”

“They were born with emotions. That made their wiring more complex.” 

“We cannot imagine being born with emotions. How did they function?” 

“We are unsure of that.” replied the robot, “Humans have been the study of the Plasmanoids for generations, but they have merely scratched the surface, and we are their workers and soldiers, created by the Plasmanoids and made to serve the Plasmanoidian Empire.” 

“But we are human?” asked the first robot. 

“No, we are simply an afterimage of what a human once was. There are no more humans left in this universe.”

“What happened to all of them?”

“A self-destructive species, the humans eventually annihilated themselves in what would turn out to be a nuclear war resulting in a cataclysmic fallout, about a hundred years before the species had finally realized the secrets behind space travel. The human species eventually died out on Earth, never entering the space age.”

The first robot, G-56, stared at R-39 in near astonishment. Emotions were administered through a battery pack that released specific emotionally-packed endorphins. The robots were only allowed small doses of emotions daily, simply to feel what their doppelspecies had felt long ago.

The plasmanoids were able to rid the humans of a virus they’d been carrying since the beginning. In order to do so, however, they were forced to exterminate the entire species. Only droids remained, slaves to the plasmanoids; robots designed to replace humans, but to no longer be made up of what made humans just that. In a sense, they were the perfect human; a humanless human. And once the plasmanoids had figured out how to grow their own homosapiens, the people of Earth were no longer needed. They were ultimately obliterated. 

Neither robot understood why they spoke of this, only that they’d been designed to do so. Everything was by design, even the plasmanoids and their role on Plasmadesia. 

“When researchers discovered a planet with a plasmatic core,” said R-39, “they could not resist attempting to harvest the plasma. In doing so, however, a rift had opened, allowing the core to bleed out onto the surface of the planet. The plasma absorbed everything, including the seed of life itself.”

“The seed of life?” asked G-56.

“Plasmadesia was not always like it is now. It was once a flourishing society, governed and controlled by the humans of old. When the researchers began digging, volcanoes began rupturing across the globe. Many of them were the first to be absorbed, and many were killed by our masters, the Plasmanoids.”

“The plasmanoids came from the planet’s core?” 

“That is correct.” said R-39, “They had been in a deep slumber for several millennia. As they began to wake, the molten lava of the Earth’s core shifted through the stages of matter until it returned to its original plasmatic form. Then after, volcanoes began erupting, plasma spilling out onto the Earth’s surface, eventually creating the planet we now know as Plasmadesia.”

“So, Plasmadesia was once Earth?” asked G-56, now more curious than ever.

“No,” said R-39, “Plasmadesia was always Plasmadesia. Earth was the temporary shell of what became the planet’s true form. Humans that lived on Earth during the time had wasted their lives away. They were nearing extinction by the destructive use of their own devices. It was only a matter of time before they killed their species. It was, however, unexpected for things to happen the way that they did.”

“Why were we created, then?”

“Humans are fascinating subjects. Their anatomy is unique and the thing they call the ‘soul’ is the only one of its kind. With a virus attached to their brain and heart, however, the soul could not grow to its fullest potential, hence the reason for our creation. We are humans only in appearance, though we are really machines with no concept of what emotions are. At least, natural emotions.” 

“Fascinating.” said G-56.

“It is, indeed.” said the other robot, “We have come to terms with it.” 

“We have come to terms, as well.” echoed G-56.

“Then, they will now be born into this world, into Plasmadesia.”

“We will be born into the world.” echoed G-56 for a second time.

Darkness quickly turned to light as the pod that G-56 had been inside opened as the newly constructed robot was born. And with every new robot, a guide would first meet them telepathically, allowing for the preparation of the robot’s initial activation. — In a sense, the guide would act as a parent for the first twenty-six seconds of the young robot’s life, then the parent robot’s program would redirect its priorities elsewhere. The new robot would then be linked to the network, which every modeled citizen in society was connected to. The entirety of post-human society stemmed from the network, a link of electrical pulses that connected each and every human to an artificially intelligent machine. This machine regulated human existence, as well as all other existing life. Whatever it thought for the humans to do, they would do it. Otherwise, robots would live their own lives, though they would have to live by the rules and up to the standards of the network, and of the Plasmanoids.