The first forest. Sci-Story. Tell a Story to Me

This is my entry for the Tell a Story to Me contest

I actually thought of this story a long time ago. Its origin is in one of my first short stories posted on Steemit. Of course, I had never written it down.

At first, I thought of giving it the title "The Last Forest", but actually it is not the last but rather the first to be reborn on a desolate planet.

^{Image from Johannes Plenio at Pixabay}

The little girl lurked hidden beneath the tall ears of grass in a small meadow that bordered the last forest on the planet. Silently she watched the subtle but mechanical movements of a being who was the closest thing to a mother to her. The android's body was similar to hers, it had arms and legs, two eyes similar but more artificial, capable of seeing a larger spectrum than she could reach. They could see both in the darkest night and on the brightest day. But at this moment they were executing a particular task, an opportune moment that the child would not waste.

Stealthily, she approached cautiously, unnoticed by the android. She bit her lower lip to contain a small nervous laugh, which struggled to reveal her presence. She took impulse and at the right moment, jumped like a feline to catch its prey. But her efforts to surprise her were in vain. Her little body fell directly into the arms of Gaia-3155, whose approach sensors had detected her long before.

She laughs loudly as she feels the little tickling of the android's fingers on her belly. She loved to be rocked in the arms of the IA; she closed her eyes and clung to it.

"I can never surprise you," said little Alba.

"Someday you will, I'm sure," she smiled back. She was used to hearing its metallic voice.

"Why can't I be like you? You are faster than antelopes, stronger than rhinoceroses. You never get tired and you always know everything."

"That's not true, at this moment I don't know what you're thinking," Gaia-3155 played with her nose gently and carefully placed her on the ground.

"What are you doing?" asked Alba curiously.

"I'm about to move this litter of fox cub to a safer area, the integrity of this burrow puts them in danger, want to help?

Alba nodded happily

Gaia took a pair of cubs in each arm, while Alba struggled to keep her cub in her arms, it did not stop licking the girl's face. The little girl's laughter delighted the android. Both went to another place 50 meters away. Alba was accustomed to walking all over the area from birth since she was adopted by the android.

After making sure mama fox knew about the change of burrow, Gaia took Alba for a swim in the creek. The girl took off her suit, it had been made by Gaia and was cool enough for the summer. While she was splashing in the river, the android looked for roots with which it would make a soapy cream to wash her whole body. When her bath was finished, Alba came out of the river cold dead. The android turned its arm into a cannon and emitted a warm blast of air to help her dry.

The night was beginning to fall when they returned to the living place it had built as a home to raise Alba.

Lying on her bed of straw, Alba liked to feel the synthetic body of the android by her side. This emitted a vibration and a heat that regulated to simulate the temperature of 36 Celsius degrees of humans.

"Can you tell me, again, the story of how we met?"

"Of course, my dear." It would normally have said "affirmative," but its contact with this tiny being had made it change its mechanical nature, making it more human.

"Once upon a time there was an android who worked all the time sowing seeds and fertilizing the soil. Her task was to bring life back to a dying world. Day and night, she collected the waste and magically turned it into part of the same planet. It took a long time for the first seedling to be born. Happy with her work, she continued to populate an entire area with many trees so that the animals had a place to live. Turning the planet into a paradise full of wildlife as it used to be. Then, the first trills and chirps of the little birds appeared".

Gaia imitated the sounds of birds.

"Then came the monkeys," the android imitated the primate screams.

Alba laughed.

"The sheep, baaah," it bleated.

"The wild boars", it emitted a snore in the form of a grunt.

Alba laughed again

"and many other little animals filled the forest with their roars, howls, shrieks, grunts, squawks, and squeaks."

"But that android was lonely. Even though the animals understood that she was not a threat to them, they began to walk around her without fear of her. But the android wanted someone to play with. That's when she asked the first star of the night to grant her the wish to have a friend.

The girl listened attentively, struggling to keep her eyes open.

"The next day, to the android's surprise, a small creature had arrived in her earthly paradise. It was very tiny, but it gave her the best gift she could receive, her laughter. Her laughter filled the cold central processing unit of the android with joy and warmth. It was then that she realized that she now had a friend and a heart to love her.

A small chuckle escaped from the little girl's lips before she fell completely asleep.

Gaia wrapped the little one up and carefully got out of bed to avoid waking her.

The android knew that the truth was a little more different than she told it.

"Two thousand years ago, the Earth was a very beautiful and rich planet, replete with animal and vegetable life in all its extension. But then a species appeared and decided to be the dominant species, and made use of all the resources that the planet generously gave away. However, not content with this they began to create machines to adapt their environment to their pleasure, polluting the air, the waters and the ground; extinguishing in their way many other species, doing much damage to the planet. Many beings of this species were very greedy, avarice, selfishness filled their hearts, creating an apathetic society that ignored the damage caused to other beings of their own species and those of other species that reigned on the planet. They wanted the power to dominate all others, it was then when they decided to fight each other to achieve that goal. They decided to build powerful weapons to subdue their fellow people. Finally, a great war began between all of them. The conflict got out of their hands, eradicating all existence on the planet. Thousands of bombs descended from the sky destroying everything in their path.

There was a group of them, anticipating the events, that decided to create a series of automated beings, with their own intelligence, programmed to repair the damage caused to the planet. Another group, foreseeing the worst, had saved enough seeds to repopulate the Earth again.

The world had suffered a lot, a radioactive cloud covered the skies, making it difficult for them to breathe. All perished in the hope of finding the right place to renew life. Many years passed before we found the area that met the conditions necessary to sustain existence. That's when I was born. My main goal was to sow the seeds and protect the environment. Eventually, their species became extinct (or so we thought), but our mission did not end until this forest could survive on its own.

Years passed and animal species began to repopulate the forest. Creating the ecosystem that it is now.

One day like any other, she was degrading a pile of junk (machines that once were transport vehicles) with the help of nanomachines. The tiny robots pulverized the material to degrade it to its minimum expression and thus return it to the planet.

Their approach sensors were activated and caught their attention. On the other side of the river was an unknown species. She immediately went to them. She extended her left arm and did a quick scan on the organisms. Her species database was activated and she began a search. A red alert flooded her screen. They were human beings. The most dangerous species on the planet. The cause of the destruction of the world.

Their defense system was activated and their right arm hollowed out forming a cannon that began to light up and warm up at the same time. The crying of the human pup stopped the android. She didn't really know if it was a glitch in the system, but somehow she managed to overcome the destruction routines of the imminent threat in front of her and finally gave up her extermination order and her arm returned to normality.

The adult human was female and was extremely exhausted, her vital signs were very weak products of starvation. Her emaciated face indicated that she had not eaten for days, the small pup extended her small arms towards the android, tears covered her small face and a mouth without teeth kept on screaming".

"Save her, please, I beg you," were the last words uttered by the adult.

The android took the baby in her arms and cooed her to sleep. Then she took the opportunity to bury the adult's body so that the other automatons would not find it.

Alba was the name given to the little girl. From its Latin origin, it meant "sunrise". The sun was barely rising when she first met her.

With time Alba grew rapidly, she became accustomed to eating only vegetables: roots, bulbs, legumes, and fruits made up her daily diet. Sometimes Gaia would surprise Alba with yummy honeycombs. However, like a mother, Gaia was careful to supply the necessary nutrients to maintain the correct development of Alba's body.

She soon reached the height of the android, although she was still young.

Like Gaia, Alba used to examine the boundaries of the forest to see if any animal was in trouble. She always carried in her ear a communicator that allowed her to call the android at any time, in case she had a problem.

For Alba, the whole forest was her home and she knew it as her own hand. One day, however, she came across a species that her mind had forgotten many years ago.

Alba was stunned to see another human being. She did not know if it was to see him for the first time or to see him kill an animal. She knew that predators fed on small prey. But she never needed to kill a living thing to survive.

He was a boy, a little younger than her. He wore animal skins over discolored and worn-out clothing by the weather and conditions of a hostile environment. The clothing covered both his legs and his arms. He carried a bag on one side and an improvised spear made of some metallic material, with which he had killed the little rabbit. His hair was long, gathered in the shape of a tail behind his head. His eyes were green, reflecting a smile of having achieved what he wished.

He had a particular odor that aroused her curiosity and something else.

The boy greeted with a gesture and asked

"What tribe do you belong to?"

Alba recognized the language, it was one of those she had learned from Gaia.

"We live about 20 kilometers south of here. You better come with me, this area is not safe. The androids could come and exterminate us."

The last sentence confused Alba. But she didn't have time to ask. The boy had already disappeared.

It was not difficult to find him. Alba had learned to track animals and it was not difficult to follow the smell of the human being, now that she already knew it.

Cautiously, without being noticed, she arrived at the place of the boy's camp. There were about 15 more humans. Some of them older than others. However, he was struck by some children who ran happily as they spotted the older boy. They were happy and relieved by his presence, which was received effusively.

They were not hostile beings. Although they were accustomed to eating animal flesh. She decided to learn more about them. It was a primitive tribe, they lived in tents to camp around a central fire. She hid her communicator in a pocket.

The members of the tribe became nervous when they saw the girl arrive. But they changed their attitude as they heard the words of the boy she had followed.

The younger ones surrounded her curiously, a little girl approached her and asked what material her clothes were made of, while she appreciated their softness with her fingers. A woman made a sound and the children met her near the fire. Then the boy called her to accompany them.

Alba sat next to them. They offered her a piece of dried meat, from a previously hunted animal. She shook her head; Alba hid her expression of disgust and her desire to vomit.

The older man explained that they were a tribe of nomads. They never stayed in one place because of the danger to be found by androids. They stayed away from the wooded areas to avoid being discovered.

She could not believe the words she heard. She herself had been saved by one of the androids. How could that be possible? She did not know of the existence of more androids.

Then they showed her the head of one of the androids they had managed to eliminate.

"Damn robots," said the boy spitting.

Alba fled in terror at her discovery. The boy tried to follow her, but she was very fast. They soon lost sight of her and gave up their pursuit.

Her eyes filled with tears as she ran as fast as she could. She did not stop until she reached the meadow that was familiar to her. She fell on her face, exhausted, screaming in pain as she scraped her arms and knees in the fall.

"Alba! Alba, wake up! What are you doing on the floor?" asked Gaia-3155.

For a moment she seemed like she had dreamt it all, but as she tried to get up, the scrapes brought more intense pain to her mind.

Tears came from her eyes again.

"You have deceived me all over this time," she shouted furiously away from the android.

Gaia understood what she meant and kept silent.

"We are the species that destroyed the planet! Aren't we?"

"You are right," replied Gaia.

"But I've never stopped loving you and I can assure you I've never killed any of your kind."

The android sat on the ground next to her. It embraced its knees and looked up at the sky.

"I never wanted to lie to you. But my neural network forced me to hide the truth from you."

"You are the best thing that has ever happened to me in my entire existence. You are free to go wherever you want, if you wish, you can live with your own kind. I will not stop you."

The android lowered its head as it said the last sentence. It knew that, like all living organisms, she had to live with her own kind, get a companion and reproduce.

Alba understood that the android could not cry, but somehow she felt the sadness of it. However, her mind could not assimilate all that had been revealed to her so far.

Suddenly the android stood up and its arm hollowed out into a cannon, which began to emit a beam of light and heat. Its eyes turned red and a familiar metallic voice shouted

"Run!"

For a moment she thought that the android was going to attack her, she had never seen Gaia behave in this way. Paralyzed by panic, she didn't know what to do.

Again she heard it shout to her

"Get out of here. Now!"

The android lifted its cannon and rested it on its left arm. Three other androids similar to Gaia landed in front of her. The earth shook at the weight of the androids.

"Desist your hostility 3155. A sighting of humans in the vicinity has been detected."

Gaia came between the paralyzed Alba and the 3 new androids.

Alba covered her ears before the roar of the shots from Gaia's cannon. It had managed to destroy two of the androids quickly, but the third responded to the fire immediately by destroying its left arm and throwing it away. Gaia could have dodged the shot but its conviction to protect Alba was above its own existence.

The remaining android approached the human and pointed its cannon at her. Tears ran down Alba's cheeks, everything had happened so quickly that she was still paralyzed.

The android turned back automatically, bringing to her mind that moment when she tried to surprise Gaia a long time ago. It had caught an improvised and familiar spear in its hand. The android looked at the spear and dropped it. The boy was surprised at the speed of the android. He had never fought against one of them, alone. Humans usually hid or fled. But it was too late for him to do so.

The android aimed its cannon at the boy, but it fell to pieces as it was hit by Gaia's cannon.

Alba ran toward Gaia and knelt down to her.

"I am so sorry," Alba repeated over and over again towards the android. As her tears fell on it

Gaia was badly wounded, its left arm had been destroyed and internal fluids ran from its body staining the ground.

Alba didn't stop hugging her. She was her mother.

"Don't worry about me, my daughter," was the first time it had called her that.

Gaia looked at the boy who was stood still nervous and confused by what had happened.

Alba clung to the android, screaming even louder.

"You must go, soon other androids will come to replace those who came"

The boy opened his eyes, scared when he heard the news. Panic took hold of him and he pulled the girl by force. She was fighting and kicking to get back together with Gaia. She struggled to get out of the boy's arms as she could and clung tightly to the android's torso again, as she did as a child. She felt a small knock on the back of her neck and fell unconscious.

"Put her to safety, please, I beg you"

The boy nodded and took Alba in his arms and ran as far as he could.

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