[ WP ] A group of adventurers discover a robot who 's been awake but immobile for hundreds of years .

`` CONTACT!'' 
 
 Jake gave the final nod to Ariel who pushed the button. A heavy but muted thunder sound came from the deep as the ground rattled beneath their feet; the beams holding up the earth around them creaked. Everyone covered their faces as the dust cloud made its way up to them. 
 
 After everything settled down Jake put Hyder and Bop on cleanup. The Gargantuan Twins was once their circus name. Together they would bend rifle barrels with their bare hands, use rope to pull a baby elephant up to the top of the tent, and parade around with eight women from the audience, two on each arm. Moving rock was easy. 
 
 Ariel, with her goggles still on, walked over to Jake looking at one of her electronic doohickeys. 
 
 `` The rock content is more radioactive the deeper we get. This does n't make sense. Isotopes should be nowhere near this region. ``, she said. 
 
 `` Well, is it dangerous? ``, Jake asked. 
 
 ``... not yet.'' 
 
 Jake smiled. `` Well if your piss starts glowing let me know.'' 
 
 Bop came running up. 
 
 `` Boss, you got ta see dis. I sweard' on Christe and Mama I ai n't never seen nufin like it. ``, he said. 
 
 `` What is it? ``, Jake asked. 
 
 `` I dunno. Its got numbers.'' 
 
 `` Numbers? ``, Ariel said. 
 
 `` I dunno. You look.'' 
 
 Jake walked over to the blast area where Hyder and Bop were cleaning. Bop was behind them and Hyder kept a good distance from the metal shrapnel that the rock face exposed. It looked like they had blasted into the side of a bank vault or something, except there was n't supposed to be any structure for miles. After clearing more of the debris what was inside of their vault was finally exposed. 
 
 `` Ho-lee shit'', Ariel whispered. 
 
 Jake studied it in silence for a minute. He stood in awe of what looked like the largest and most sophisticated circuit board in the world. What looked like million of miles of tiny wires wove together in uniform. Tens of thousands of tiny pieces most of them numbered, some blinking, littered the dark gray board. 
 
 `` What do you think it is? ``, he asked. 
 
 `` I do n't know. But I think its the source of radiation. ``, Ariel replied. 
 
 `` Look at this.'' Ariel moved in front of what looked like a screen above a large rectangle. Ariel's hand slowly extended with an intuition of someone who could quickly figure out the latest new gadget. She pressed the rectangle and it slowly opened out to a keyboard. The screen flickered on to a command prompt. 
 
 The screen printed out in a language Ariel could n't identify from any known language. And she knew most of them. It appeared to be some kind of list with five selections. She smiled, she knew what it was. The fifth selection was recognizable at the bottom: 
 
 HUMAN - Western English 
 
 She used the arrow keys and hit what looked like would be the Enter key and the keyboards keys all transformed their makers from unknown squiggles to what a standard keyboard layout would be for, well, a human. 
 
 `` Do you know what you're doing? ``, Jake asked. 
 
 `` No'', she replied without looking away. 
 
 The screen appeared to think for a second and then: 
 
 BEYUS: RIGHT LEG COMMAND SYSTEM 
 
 ( TYPE? FOR HELP ) 
 
 Ariel's smile was big now. `` I'm gon na need some time with this. ``, she said. 
 
 `` uhhh, Boss'', Hyder said from far back. 
 
 Jake turned around. 
 
 `` Can we jus scrap it or sumphin? Me and Bop do it real quick for ya. An then we get back ta findin' what we was looking for in the first place.'' 
 
 `` We do n't even know what it is yet, give us a minute'', Jake said. He turned to Ariel. 
 
 `` How much time do you need?'' 
 
 `` An hour. ``, she said. 
 
 `` You have thirty minutes. Find out what it is and, more importantly, if it's worth anything. I'm going up to smoke.'' 
 
 When Jake finally made his way back down to Ariel she was sitting on a rock she had moved over and was still furiously typing on the keyboard. 
 
 `` So, what is this thing? I was thinking about it, this might be an abandoned shelter for the leaders of District Halo back when they were in power.'' 
 
 `` No'', Ariel said. `` This is a robot.'' 
 
 `` A robot?'' Jake looked over her shoulder. She was going too fast to make out what she was doing. 
 
 `` Yes, and from what I can tell it's big. Like, really big.'' 
 
 `` Big enough to pull out? ``, Bop asked. 
 
 `` No, Bop. This is too big even for the Gargantuan Twins. It looks like it is approximately five hundred meters tall. It was buried here a very long time ago.'' 
 
 `` By who? ``, Jake asked. 
 
 `` I'm not sure yet. But it is amazingly sophisticated. Definitely not built by humans. And.. oh wow a maintenance mode.'' In maintenance mode came up another menu: 
 
 BEYUS: MAINTENANCE MENU - SELECT AN OPTION 
 
 1. MAINTENANCE TESTS 
 2. BIOFIBER INTEGRITY STATISTICS 
 3. REBOOT 
 4. SEE THE CARE TAKER 
 
 Ariel thought for a second and scrolled down to number four and hit enter. Then underneath the menu it said: 
 
 DISPATCHING CARRIER 
 
 Bop saw it first, his eyes got big. He knew this thing was n't good at all. Mama told him to run when he saw evil and this was it. But he just froze and watched it. A small black hole floated out from the other side of the machine. It was maybe the size of a quarter and it was the blackest thing he'd ever seen. Jake and Ariel were still watching the screen and did n't see it. 
 
 `` uuuhh, b-b-boss? ``, Bop said. 
 
 `` Yea Bop'', Jake said without turning around. 
 
 `` b-b-b-boss you need to..'' 
 
 In a fraction of a second the black hole expanded to about six feet wide and let out a piercing scream like a witch burning. It sucked in everything around it. Bop went first, then Hyder just after him. Jake grabbed Ariel's wrist as he hung on to something inside the machine. It was too powerful he could n't hold on for much longer. 
 
 `` Well, this sucks. ``, thought Jack. The last thing he saw before losing his grip and going into the black was the computer screen. 
 
 BEYUS COMMAND SYSTEM SESSION HAS ENDED. SAY'HI' TO THE CARE TAKER FOR ME. 
 
 
 

