Epilogue
August 2026
Part 1
A shadow was creeping unhurriedly along the inky-black ocean floor.
At first glance it resembled a large, flat crab, but it moved with only six legs and towed a rope from its abdomen, spider-like. Its whole body was encased underneath a pressure-resistant layer of metal, painted a dull gray.
«FASTER». That was the name of the trans-Pacific undersea fiber-optic cable connecting Japan and the US. That metal crab was really a deep-sea operations maintenance robot that hadn’t seen a single assignment since its deployment at the undersea maintenance terminal three years prior, and had remained dormant ever since. But today, it received a startup command at last. The crab swivelled its joints (clogged with almost congealed grease) and departed the safety of its dwelling.
But the crab had no idea that the command had not been delivered by its supervisor’s company at all. Obeying the unofficial order of uncertain origin, it hauled the segment of replacement cable for FASTER, continuing northwards in a straight line.
A periodically broadcasted artificial tone was calling out to the crab. Every minute it would pause, establish the tone’s position using onboard sonar, then proceed.
And on and on, the process repeated.
At last, when the crab was sure that it had arrived at its indicated destination, it illuminated the lamp installed at its front.
At the center of the white halo was—
A silver humanoid machine, lying on its side at the bottom of the sea.
Its simple aluminum alloy chassis had been ruthlessly peppered with holes. Wires, poking out from various orifices, were scorched through; the middle of its left limb was shattered; its head looked half-crushed by the overwhelming pressure.
Its right hand was slightly raised and clutched within it was another fresh length of undersea fiber-optic cable, just like the crab’s, ready to be laid. The cable stretched directly above them and dissolved into the darkness, making it unclear where it was connected to.
The crab gazed at the fellow robot for a beat.
But — of course, feeling neither fear, nor any strong emotion for that matter — it obeyed its orders and extended a manipulator, securing it to the end of the fresh length in the humanoid robot’s right fist.
The crab then used its other manipulator to draw out the tip of the far-reaching undersea cable, which it had been laying on the ocean floor until reaching this spot, from the cord reel built into its abdomen.
Then, it joined the two cables’ connectors in front of it, tightly as one.
And thus, all commands it had been given were complete.
It was as though the crab couldn’t care less where the cable in the humanoid robot’s grip led to.
Rotating its massive body by scuffling each of its six legs in order, the metal crab set off, back in the direction of the undersea maintenance terminal, in pursuit of a return to its lengthy hibernation.
The wreckage of the humanoid body was left abandoned behind it, utterly woebegone.
Its right hand was still clasped snugly around the firmly insulated fiber-optic cable.
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