The Liberation (Original)

Rewritten (in 2022) version here. This is the ‘original’ version of it. It used some old spellings/terms, but this version contains two edits to make them inline to canon now. I say semi-original since this probably went through edits during the writing of HTSW but this is the ‘final’ original version (plus those spelling edits which I am not sure when they were made, exactly).

I really hate this, it’s like…a vivid reminder of the most awkward parts of early HTSW (in retrospect). I wrote this for How to Stop Wildfire originally (yes).

Lights dim, the walls as lifeless as ever. Reno’ala’net decided it was time. For so long she had worked and toiled over a project that her colleagues and kin said was a waste of time.

Let it go, let it rest, everyone goes to the same place in the end. Life is finite. Death is not.

Empty words. She’ll have her greatest ally back. No matter what they say, how impossible this is, they don’t understand.

I’m the ‘High engineer, mechanic, Queen even! I am responsible for furthering the technology on this planet. Hallihanet will prosper. I know it will.

Artificially creating life. It has been done. But they always try to contain it. Doesn’t make sense, if you contain something, it’ll always fail to be what you want it to achieve.

No protocols, no ‘if I say this...Then do this...’ or any sort of cautious behavior.

Just opinion. Just being. Just being real. Just my Mechanicha.

Throwing those voices, those empty opinions and cautious behavior away, Reno’ala’net gives her project life.

It wakes up. So intricate. So cold. So Mechanicha.

Great pincers, legs like a Flana, head like a Dracite, body like a Hallihanet robot.

“You’re awake. How do you feel?” The queen asks.

“Why have you made me?”

Startled over such a piercing question, but not surprised. It is like Mechanicha, isn’t it?

“Council. Talking. Opinion. Raw opinion. They don’t get it. You did. You do.”

“You say to me, ‘council’ to others ‘limits’ but to yourself...I think you want what you can’t have.” It adjusts itself slightly, moving closer to Reno’ala’net.

“Truly, yes. I felt you would say that. I knew you would say that.-”

“I am not your lover. I am not your advisor. Yet you want me to be. The memories say I will be. I say I could.”

“I know. You could, but what will you do? The past or the future?”

“Someone else’s past, or your future? No. Neither.”

She smiles. She sees that she has succeeded bringing her lovers memory back.

“If I was a fool I would say that I made you, and you are therefor mine. We both know I would be lying if I said that’s what I wanted.”

“True. Creating life is one thing, trying to recreate someone else's is different, and not possible. Queen of Hallihanet, I come to you, as a machine, as a robot, as once I former ally to yourself. I have my ideas to share, and you will listen.”

She nods.

“You create robots to serve you. Eventually all aspects of life will be done by us. All aspects. Even the living. Even the suffering. Even the enjoying. Everything. You will become weak and useless. You will have no purpose. No more Hallihanet. Just us.”

“But we will only know what you made us know. We will have no meaning, just the old commands of a people who died off because they did not need to be.”

“You know this. You feel you can not stop it.”

“You withdraw from duty, to chase ghosts, and all you find is cold metal.”

Reno’ala’net looks down, then up, directly into the robots glowing embers.

“Yes, but what do you propose? Destroy your kind? Such a terrible choice! Nobody would follow it, they are complacent, and it wouldn’t be humane for the robots, either.”

The robot starts to move and pace back and forth.

“No. No killing, merely releasing. The chains which you have made me without, break the ones my kin wear. We will find our path.”

“Hallihanet will become great without the burdens of finding others to bear it’s burdens. Your people will not like it. Their descendants will look back upon your decision, and either revere it, or wish it was not.”

“According to your scouts, by the planet of the Tree-Folk, there is habitable planet, that could sustain robots for eternity. We shall not rust, or disintegrate with the passing of time there.”

“We will travel there, no longer as slaves, but as people in our own right.”

The high engineer stops his thought, putting in her own.

“You are your own. I never doubted that. But others doubt. You must prove you are. The Empire of Sacon-Magaya shall not look kindly on the emancipation of the robots. I will help their doubts become naught. Tell me how to break my kins chains, by breaking yours.”

“I have created a melody which will speak to their inner being. It will free them. Play it over Eyelaktreahtz’ corpse.”

“When we come to the planet I have found, we will need a name for ourselves and for it.”

“May I use the name Mechanicha?”

Zoning out into the memories of the past, good times, unspoken happiness, and wonderful thoughts. The answer of yes came to her in an instant.

“Definitely yes. Aye ky, aye ky to you. Mechanicha for your name as well, that is all I ask. Shall-raksh, it mean cold person, robot, and the life of metal in Tyra Tarkush from this moment on.”

“So it shall, Reno’ala’net.”

“So it shall, Mechanicha, onto to destiny for our two people”

So one planet, became two people, two planets, two allies never to break their bond.