Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 14 - A Sense Of The Real
The first ever sky design on the Qblock, was previewed on the famous old Sumitomo network's Itchako cloud and weather system. The Itchako Clouds were a glorious set of twenty-kilometre-high, pink funnels, assembled from, flat mushroom type, cumulonimbus clouds.
The system designer, Sen-Itchako>01 had engineered it so that the funnels had a constant downward corkscrew of rain, spiralling tightly down and around their fluffy layers.
This gave the effect of multiple corkscrew rainbows, surrounding the beautiful pink funnels, as the falling water caused them to pulse gently. Every evening, at exactly the same time before sunset, subtle changes in air pressure would send the bottoms of the cloud funnels upwards, on an hour-long journey.
The cloud's definitive cone shape would keep its form as it travelled through the troposphere; as if being pulled inside out by an invisible giant somewhere above.
Finally, as the sun was preparing to duck behind the horizon, the process would be over, leaving a set of giant inverted cones, floating in the sky like grand celestial upside down ice-cream cones.
As the bottom of the twisters made their journey upwards, so too would the rain. Until finally at the top of its assent, the water would gather in an upward spinning water spout, before showering out in a great umbrella shape, drenching and delighting the people below in equal measure.
K-Rox was sat under a jutting overhang that covered the soft-coloured seating that had been placed in the upper north square of the popular floating gardens. From where he was sitting, through the transparent floors, he glimpsed the stepped, lower tiers of the gardens, peeking through a light, leafy canopy, decorated with plants and shrubs that seemed to be made up of a million different shades of pink.
As he watched the bottom of the Itchako cloud funnels rise up slowly through the atmosphere, he contemplated on how long it had been since he had come to a network with such low reality settings, he had almost forgotten how enjoyable it was to experience life beyond the usual boundaries of the laws of nature.
He watched the languid Itchako residents and visitors go about their daily lives, he idly scanned the rapidly filling gardens, noticing that he was in the minority as far as the human basic shape was concerned.
His interest was taken by a creature that had the head of an animal he didn’t recognise, the body of a snake, attached to which there were four white-feathered wings, which didn’t seem large enough to carry the weight of the creature.
K-Rox was fascinated with its head, he zoomed in and took an internal picture and uploaded it to his NPlants and ran a search using the local web, he was curious as to whether the creature was taken from a real animal or not.
The ping came back almost immediately; K-Rox saw that the creature closely resembled something called a lion, a large predatory mammal that had died out around a hundred and fifty years earlier.
K-Rox was snapped out of his contemplation by a ping request to open up an empLink communication, K-Rox turned to his left and glanced up in time to see a tall, cloaked, human basic figure, ten metres above his head, gliding silently down towards him.
K-Rox accepted the ping and stood to greet the figure as he touched gently down in front of him.
“Salutations K-Rox_7892_AlphaOne, I am pleased to make your acquaintance at last!”
It had been a long time since K-Rox had heard his entire name like that, and if it wasn’t for aZorl’s glowing green eyes, then it would have been his formal introduction that alerted K-Rox to the fact that he was talking to a fully-machine-sentient, non-organic human.
K-Rox returned aZorl’s greetings ping along the empLink channel that had opened between them.
“Good to meet you too aZorl . .”
K-Rox looked aZorl up and down, he was wearing a dark green, almost black, full length hooded robe. The garment was streaked from hood to tail with faintly glowing hieroglyphics, as K-Rox examined them closer he saw that the text moved and danced ever so subtly in time with the natural flowing movements of the robe.
aZorl's hawkish face was framed by the large cowl of the robe, and supported sharp cheekbones and a small, defined mouth, his skin was a few shades darker than his cloak, and was filigreed with fine silver lines, resembling the traces on an ancient circuit board.
The bot's movements seemed impossibly smooth as if he had been encased in an invisible cylinder of oil, each movement kinetically connected to the last, each one gliding sublimely into the next.
K-Rox remained partially transfixed as he watched aZorl remove his hood and sit down opposite him in one fluid action.
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 13 - The Search For Truth
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 12 - Empires
Original artwork by @nekromarinist
Original words by Cryptogee
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This was another good read @cryptogee. You seem to dwell on certain issues that touch on real world situations.
For instance, the dependence on technology is increasing every day. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
The possibility of artificial intelligence becoming aware also means they will certainly have an agenda and like all creations who have become aware of their self and their mind, will not be satisfied with their lot and as a result will want more; a silent revolution of the bots perhaps led to the Great Confusion?
I love your style of writing. The descriptive element is really good.
Not quite, I don't want to give anything away! Thanks for your kind words; your attention is much appreciated :-)
Cg
do you think to make this story a book in the current period?
You are making great progress!
congratulations my dear friend
Yes, it will be a book, or rather collection of books, thank you! :-)
Cg
This story about K-Rok K rox is very interesting. I read it drifted into the story. Make me curious to keep reading and follow this story to the end. Great story friend.
Yeah, oil is to the robot what food is to us Humans, and the oil lubrication to to keep the metal smooth moving, is the equivalent to Humans' physiotherapist!
The robots in your story surely adaped well to the rain! Bearing in mind that most technology right now is rather prone to any kind of dampness, we can assume that the inner wiring of robots will be reinforced in some way to become impervious to it! :)
True, although don't forget, that the chapter above happens in a virtual environment on the quantum blockchain.
Cg
I know! :)