EXXOS
Trapped in the shadow cloud with the insane Shana Rei, Exxos endured a hell that was worse than the greatest torment the Klikiss race had ever devised for them.
The error was his. The failure … the devastation. He and his counterparts had designed those immense new battleships with shielding, armor, and weaponry that should have been invincible, and the Shana Rei had constructed those battleships exactly according to the plans the robots provided. Exxos had never expected the far-superior power of the new sun bombs, nor for the Solar Navy to waste such weapons against the black robots.
Even with their expanded warships, their enhanced armor, and increased weaponry, the black robots had not stood a chance.
It was extermination plain and simple, more ruthless than Exxos had ever expected. The Ildirans intended to annihilate every single black robot, just as the robots themselves meant to wipe out the Ildirans and humans. In one space battle, the Solar Navy had succeeded in making the black robots extinct. Only three remained.
Three.
Once, the oppressed black robots had annihilated the entire Klikiss race. Later, millions of them had been reactivated before and during the Elemental War. Exxos and his thousand companions had gone to ground, hibernating in the ice moon on Dhula, and when they reawakened, Exxos led their resurgence. A thousand robots, working together to build new plans—all of which had failed.
Of those original millions, only a thousand had escaped … and of that thousand—because of the Shana Rei, because of the Ildirans, and because of the humans—now only three remained.
Exxos experienced total despair.
He had convinced the creatures of darkness that his robots could help them achieve their goal, but the Shana Rei seemed unconcerned with the extermination of the robot army. No conceivable plan would allow him to achieve victory with only three robots. Exxos had lost everything.
His two surviving companions were identical to him and fell into the same despair. With their three minds interlinked, the intensity of the loss seemed even greater. They did not have the secret processing power to continue developing the weapon to destroy the Shana Rei. They had nothing!
The shadow cloud reemerged at the Onthos home system, hanging above the gigantic ebony sphere that enclosed the star. They would again draw upon the already-existing hex plates to replenish material their huge ships had lost in the sun-bomb explosions.
Shana Rei inkblots appeared before Exxos, pulsing with electric darkness and each anchored with a single staring eye. He was sure the creatures had come to torment him, perhaps to tear apart the last three remaining robots.
At least then it would be finished.
“My robots could have helped you achieve the extermination of all intelligent life,” Exxos said, forcing himself to sound defiant. “We could have eased your pain. But that is no longer possible.”
The Shana Rei stared with a piercing, singular gaze. “Why is it no longer possible?”
“We have no more robots,” said another Exxos beside him. “You need us to implement the plan.”
Exxos said, “We could have guided you, destroyed all life for you. But we can do nothing with only three robots.”
The shadows pulsed in silence—not taunting, but considering. “Then you must have more black robots.”
“There are no more robots!” Exxos said. “We have all been destroyed.”
The staring inkblots pulsed and pondered again. “Then you need more robots. We have studied your physical plan. We can manifest others precisely like you, identical down to the atoms in your metallic lattices.”
Exxos and his two counterparts buzzed startled questions back and forth. Previously, Klikiss robots had all been irreplaceable individuals, a unique set of experiences and histories. But as the Shana Rei destroyed random robot victims, and as casualties mounted in their battle engagements, Exxos had imposed his own will and made all of his comrades share the same mental database, to synchronize their minds with his personality as the model.
The Shana Rei had manifested material to construct complex battleships according to an established blueprint. Why was it not possible for them to rebuild a much more complicated Klikiss robot?
“You can reproduce us?” Exxos asked.
“We can copy you. Exactly as you are.” The Shana Rei seemed to indicate the enormous black sphere around the Onthos star. “You are small things, and we have infinite material.”
“Kuivahr is destroyed. We must do the same thing to other planets,” said a second inkblot.
“And others.”
“Then, yes!” Exxos cried. “I need more robots, many more. Restore our numbers.”
The Shana Rei answered without pondering. More and more sections of the gigantic black shell dropped away, dissolved, reshaped. Dark matter became real matter, atoms reassembled into new structures, infinitely detailed based upon all the knowledge the shadows had acquired from so many torturous dismantlings of robot victims.
Robots appeared, black angular specks against the vastness, a myriad of identical forms that built into a swarm that seemed as populous as the stars in a galaxy. More robots, and yet more.
All of the new robots activated simultaneously, and crimson optical sensors gleamed like a sky full of sparks.
“Will a million more robots suffice?” the Shana Rei asked.
A million more. And all of them would be Exxos.
“Yes, that will be sufficient.”