Light

Chapter 3

It was the first time “time” held any meaning for them.

That was because each “day” no longer only marked another cycle of activity and resting. Every single “day” also meant that the robot in Sector z-b23 changed in a different way, so watching this sector became the entirety of the Venus robots’ exploration activities.

The young robot girl was indeed in the situation that the system had initially predicted, unable to leave the cabin. Her everyday activities would occur in the cabin, around the “Sun”. The “Sun” gradually grew beneath the young robot girl’s care. At that moment, it was already on its eighth flower. The young robot girl placed this sunflower at the center of the cabin, the corner of her mouth arcing up slightly.

The video was sent to the processors of every Venus robot via the shared system. It was unknown which one gave the feedback of “warmth”, however, No.3’s sensors did not display any changes in temperature, so No.1 continued its recording responsibilities, and uploaded a malfunction report.

Cultivating the “Suns” required an extremely large amount of the young robot girl’s energy. After successfully cultivating a “Sun”, she needed to enter into a dormant state for a period of time to replenish energy. There was a bit of difference between the dormant state of the young robot girl and the Venus robots. Perhaps it was due to the nature of her cabin, the young robot girl’s dormant state only stopped her actions towards the “Suns”, but kept the sensors and surveillance equipment running. Compared to the Venus robots, who lowered their energy consumption to 10% or even lower during dormant mode, the young robot girl’s energy consumption remained as high as 60% when she was in hibernation. 60 units of energy would be used up for every 100 units generated. However, the young robot girl always started preparing the next “Sun” when her energy level reached the bare minimum 90% required for movement. Since her entire system always teetered on the edge of the minimum, she ran the constant possibility of collapse.

Yet, at least at this moment, the young robot girl still operated properly.

The modelling results of Venus’s computer system showed that the existences of the “Sun” were not able to provide any aid for the young robot girl’s self-circulation system. At least the data from the energy sensors showed that the young robot girl’s action of continuously cultivating the “Sun” would only accelerate the consumption of the energy generated from self-circulation. Or, it could be that the Venus system was unable to understand the benefits of cultivating the “Sun” for now. For them, a meaningless action like this that caused the entire self-circulation system to be constantly faced with the possibility of collapse was, without a doubt, a “virus”. However, the young robot girl’s operation didn’t show any signs of a virus. When she was cultivating sunflower number 5 and 6, the system of the young robot girl started running once again just when she was about to go into eternal slumber. Did this mean that the “Sun” itself was a part of the young robot girl’s circulation system? Did this “Sun” help the young robot girl self-circulate under those conditions? Then, could it help the Venus robots relax the environmental restraints for self-circulation so that they could escape their half-operational state, or operate completely on that planet?

Yet, the shared system did not decrease the amount of assessed risks due to these possibilities, since the Venus robots’ equipment and surroundings had determined that they were utterly unable to draw near that planet. The only way of acquiring knowledge was through observing and gathering data, as well as the information recorded in No.1’s library program.

No.1 brought up a series of objects and knowledge related to the “Sun” and “sunflower”. This information had always existed within No.1’s system, but this seemed to be the first time it was conducting the operation of “reading”. Most of the information was from the time the Sun was at the peak of its glory A lot of the things were extremely foreign for them as they’d been produced in the “last era”. However, it was fortunate that the library program had some information displaying their job or theory behind their growth, allowing the Venus robots to search for a possible substitute on this planet.

No.3 took off a signal transmitter to use as a base material, The information circuit within would be able to replace the electrical system drawn on the design blueprint. This way, they could tackle the easiest object to create that was the most related to the “Sun”/ ”sunflower”. Even though the association level was merely 6, and could only be said to be something of the same era as the “Sun” / “sunflower”, it was still something. Yet, there were rarely situations in which the two of them appeared together. A more important point was that this survival signal transmitter was the least used device ever since it had been produced.

Without a fellow receiving device, the signal transmitter never worked again after the Earth was destroyed.

The first object was completed on the fourth day. It was a square box with all sorts of knobs on it. According to the system, this thing was apparently called a “radio”. It was a type of machine that could use electricity to transform electromagnetic waves and could receive frequencies from radio stations. It was used very often between the 20th and 21st century. The information also showed that the most listened program was “music”. Although the Venus robots did not really understand what “radio station” and “music” were, they still flipped one of the switches of the “radio” on. It was supposed to play “music”, but the only thing that greeted them was silence. In the end, No.1 found a “music” folder from his system, then chose one of the songs before inputting it into this square box.

This time, there was “music”.

Even though there was no path of communication using “sound” between the Venus robots, the sensors on No.3 showed that this square box caused the signals to fluctuate just like the useless program No.2 ran every morning.

Thus, a “radio” without a radio station, that could only loop one song, was born on this lonely planet. It could only “sing” towards three robots that could only “listen” by watching fluctuations on the sensors and receiving the lyrics that was uploaded from No.1.

There is a house built out of stone

Wooden floors, walls and window sills...

Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust...

This is a place where I don't feel alone

This is a place where I feel at home...

Cause, I built a home

for you

for me

Until it disappeared

from me

from you

And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust...

Out in the garden where we planted the seeds

There is a tree as old as me

Branches were sewn by the color of green

Ground had arose and passed its knees

By the cracks of the skin I climbed to the top

I climbed the tree to see the world

When the gusts came around to blow me down

I held on as tightly as you held onto me

I held on as tightly as you held onto me......

Cause, I built a home

for you

for me

Until it disappeared

from me

from you

And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust......

“Listening” to “music” and trying to invent other items related to the “Sun” / “sunflower” also became one of the important missions during the daily exploration. Of course, surveying the young robot girl was still the most important one. She continued to repeat the cycle of sleep – preparing the “Sun” – get the “Sun” to bloom – sleep. The video of her on the scene showed that she already awakened from the slumbering period of the ninth “Sun” and was preparing the tenth “Sun”.

Compared to the young robot girl’s success in cultivating the “Suns”, the Venus robot did not successfully make anything aside from the first “radio”. Although the system indicated that the success rate of making the items was lower than acceptable, No.2 and No.3 still tried enthusiastically every day. Even No.1 silently allowed this meaningless and energy-consuming action.

The consumption of energy would not affect their self-circulation system. As long as they promptly entered the dormant program whilst over this planet, the self-circulation system running at half optimization would be able to provide enough energy for their actions. In comparison to their previous detection and exploration activities, the active time for No.2 and No.3 even lengthened a little.

However, it was different for the young robot girl. Recently, the energy consumption that was required for letting the “Suns’ bloom caused the time spent by the young girl in an active mode to gradually lengthen, threatening the already fragile balance that kept the young robot girl’s self-circulation system from nearing collapse. It had already risen to an hour from the initially detected four to five minutes. The increasing number of “Suns” had caused the young robot girl’s energy consumption during her dormant state to increase as well. The Venus robot’s shared system showed that it was extremely possible for the energy consumption needed to cause the next “Sun to bloom” would cause the young robot girl’s self-circulation system to permanently cease to run.