Baby Combat Bots — the last children of Humankind!
BATTLEVERSE STORIES #1
At the beginning of the third millennium, mankind was already inhabiting the nearest neighboring planets in its system and creating colonies on the planets of several neighboring stars. The total population was approaching 15 billion. The latest scientific advances, the fashion for a healthy lifestyle have increased the average life expectancy of people up to 115 years. Robots helped in all spheres of human life: from the simplest and most primitive — factory loaders, drivers and recorders, to complex and self-learning systems with artificial intelligence — teachers, nannies, nurses and doctors. Some even made robotic friends, and, of course, sexual partners. From married couples who, for one reason or another, could not have children, requests came to manufacturers to create robotic children.
Everything went on as usual, until one day all people faced a terrible and invisible enemy — a deadly virus. The original source of the disease was not reliably established, because outbreaks of the disease began in all corners of the known universe: both on Earth — the cradle of humankind, and in other large colonies, and even at the most remote resource bases and space stations.
Humanity was on the brink of destruction. Through the joint efforts of scientists, it was possible to develop a vaccine, but, alas, it was experimentally found that its use leads to complete infertility. The choice was tough, but it was made.
The surviving handful of people have completely lost their ability to reproduce. The last hope of the entire race was the “Robot in the Universe” project, developed by a group of young initiative scientists led by Dr. Vlado. According to this project, all production facilities, except for the minimum necessary for survival, were converted to the production of the latest models of robots and the construction of space vehicles. The best computers analyzed all the information gathered at the moment about the stars that could be visited by robotic scouts without compromising such complex technical devices.
The program for all robots going to the unknown expanses of the universe was the same: to return to humanity the ability to reproduce, be it some new technology or unknown matter. They had to come back with anything that could solve the problem. After visiting each of the planets, each robot was eagerly awaited by people with eyes full of hope, but something went wrong …
Years passed, but none of these most modern “thinking mechanisms” returned. The resources of earthlings began to come to an end and all previously created robots went into space.
As it turned out, among them, it was the robotic children who possessed the most modern AI. Yes, it was more of a gesture of despair, but humans had to try everything in their power to keep their race alive!
23 years later, one of the returned shuttles landed at the planet’s largest spaceport, a ladder descended, and a baby bot slowly left the ship, still clutching a rubber baby duck in one of the manipulators …
To be continued…
