I died. I know I died. so why can I see? and why does everything look like its shrouded in dust? I rub my eyes, and everything is a bit clearer, why cant I blink? I can feel everything, like normal, but I can't blink.

I sit up and immediately notice there is only metal around me. I look to my left and see a shiny piece of metal. I look into it, and see only two large cameras looking back at me, and what looks like a computer board exposed to the elements. I raise my hand and touch the top of my head, and the thing in the reflection does too, I feel a sharp pain in my head, as a spark flairs up on the reflection. I look down, and realize the mechanical thing in front of me, is me.

I must have reincarnated as a robot! And now, I officially freak out.

After a while, I calmed down, and started looking at my new body. pneumatic pistons replaced where my muscles would have been, my lungs were now two compressed air tanks, since it was pneumatics, the air pressure was released into the open air, but it did so through a small electric generator located where a human heart should be, my stomach, and intestines were replaced with a distribution block, Solenoids, and the conveyance lines for all my pneumatics. and when I turned my back to the surface I could see myself in, there were electrical lines going through my spine, and attached to sensors on the various parts of my body. I still felt as though I had skin enclosing all these parts, and when my hand passed close to where my old body was, I could feel it. the sensors were attached to my pistons, and a few focal points around the body, such as the annoying 'funny bone' and 'big toe' but also there were small ones attached to the conveyance lines, when I pulled one out I got a small red warning in the corner of my vision that there wasn't enough pressure in my upper left leg.

I guess they are pressure sensors. I tried to stand up, but immediately got a warning that my gyrostabilizers had been disconnected. I looked at the reflection and noticed there were two orbs directly behind the cameras I was seeing though, and the wires leading into them were cut cleanly. I found a sharp piece of metal, stripped the wires for one of them and twisted the matching colors together. The message that a stabilizer was found came up, and I was able to stand, shaky, but stand.

I looked around and saw nothing but junk around me, and as I looked, I noticed other bodies similar to mine, with one huge problem: none of them were moving, and all of them looked more rusted than I did. The place looked like it had once been a thriving city, in a few places there were remnants of two and three story buildings with stone exteriors.

I came up to what looked like it had once been a town square, and in its center stood a metal fountain, but instead of water, mineral oil flowed. I put my hand in it, and it was easier to move, so I just jumped in, soaked for a few seconds, and then got out, knowing from some of the computers I had built that mineral oil would not effect any electronics, other than making the wires hard with continued exposure.

I started looking around and seeing what I could find. As the sun came down to touch the horizon, I saw movement in a building directly ahead of me, hoping it was another survivor, I walked straight to it, at almost a jog.

When I got there, three women and two men were looking at me with frightened looks on their faces. one of them started to talk, but I couldn't hear him. so I signed to him by pointing at the side of my head with one hand, moving the other in a talking motion, and shaking my head back and forth.

One of the women must have understood it because she started talking quickly to the man who was trying to talk to me. The youngest one, just barely to old to be called a girl walked over to a sand pile and started drawing lines in the sand, I recognized them as a language. I looked at the lines, and a message came up saying I learned a language: Written Common, when I looked back at the lines, it was a question,

'can you not hear?'

I shrugged and lifted my hands to say 'I don't know' the girl looked at me funny, so I wiped away her sand words, and began to write my own.

'I woke up shortly after dawn, I don't know where I am at, or what's going on.'

when she read my words, I'm assuming aloud, the other women started to panic, and the men looked really worried, so I quickly wiped the words away and wrote again.

'Why do your friends look scared?'

The girl looked up at me with a look on her face that I interpreted as 'you really don't know?' but then she started to write in the sand again.

'You are sentient????' she wrote with four question marks.

I nodded, and the group seemed to freak out, so I backed away from them, and the girl, trying to say 'I don't want to harm anyone.' it seemed to calm them down.

The girl waved me closer, and started writing again.

'There hasn't been a sentient one of your kind in nearly six centuries.' she looked at me, and when she knew I had read it, she wiped it away, and started again. 'This city was the last fortress of the Andronis, it fell when a bomb went off.' again she looked at me and waited to continue. 'My name is Angela. What are you called?'

I looked at her straight in the eyes when I had read it, and then sagged my head, and shook my head no. I then wrote next to her question. 'I have no memory of my name, I only have a few memories before I died. I know I died.' what I didn't tell her was that I was a human woman when I died.

The whole group looked at me with an astonished look, and then one of the men approached me. He waved his hand in front of me to get my attention, then got down with Angela and I, erased our words, and started to write.

'May I ask a few questions, that would normally be rude to ask one of your kind?' like Angela, he started writing again, once he knew I had read it, and before I could answer. 'do you know what classification you had before your death? worker, scout?' I shook my head no, and he continued. 'I am an archeologist, and have studied your kind, I think I can give you a voice, do you mind if I try?' I leaned my head at this, and he started writing again. 'my studies show that normally your kind would self repair, but you don't appear to know how.' I shook my head and pointed at the orb next to my camera, then extended my thumb and pointed at my chest with it.

I could tell the man was laughing, as was Angela. she started writing this time. 'what is that part for? all the ones we have taken apart just have a little thing in them that spins?' I motioned for them to give me one, and then wrote in the sand.

'can you hand me one you have taken apart, and about a yard's worth of string?'

'How long is a yard's worth?' the man wrote. I extended my arm, and then pointed with my other hand to the fingertips, and then to the bolt between my cameras where my nose would normally be, then wrote.

'About that long, its not exact though.' Angela seemed to laugh, at least it appeared in her eyes that she was honestly happy. The eldest of the women approached me with a cardboard bobbin with a yellow thread on it, I stretched out as far as I needed, then wrote in the sand.

'I only need it for a demonstration, I don't need to cut it.' the man came back with one of the gyros, and I wrapped the string around the center shaft. I pointed to the girl, and then motioned for her to hold her hand out with only her index finger extended. I grabbed the wound string, then pulled it as fast as I could, which seemed slower than I thought it would be. I then set it on her hand horizontally, and let it go, so it seemed to float in midair beside her hand, then I wrote again. 'because they are spinning constantly, they can tell me the angle my head is at, in relation to the ground. without this, I cant walk upright.' everyone seemed to be enthralled by the little device defying gravity that it took a few minutes for the man to read my words.

he smiled, and pulled a small wire out of his pack, I immediately recognized it as a very sensitive microphone. he held it up, and then wrote 'can you tell me what this is for?' I nodded, and wiped away his words.

'may I have it, and then tell you?' he handed it to me. I took it in one hand, and detached one of my cameras, to look at my motherboard behind them. I saw where I needed to attach it, and then placed it. it was a bit disorientating to see the top of my head, and the group at the same time, but now at least I could hear.

as I was finishing up, I noticed that every minor movement I was hearing the pneumatics fire through the little generator in my chest, and I was constantly hearing the ticking of the solenoids in my lower chest moving the different pistons to make my body move.

"what is it doing Papa?" I see Angela's mouth move along with the words, and a new message pops up, Language Mastered: Common.

"I don't care what its doing as long as it doesn't kill us." the younger of the two women said.

I wrote 'I won't kill you, nor will I try. please don't say those things about me.' all the people stopped and looked at me now. and I started writing again. 'what you just gave me allows me to hear, its a microphone, it works partially like your ears.' when the man read it he started tearing up.

"I have made two advancements into the Andronic Culture today that nobody has figured out since the fall." I felt myself smiling at the man's comment.

'I would be happy to help as much as I can, however I would have two conditions.'

he read the statement, and then motioned for me to continue.

'First, I need a protective cover for my frame, there are parts here that are sensitive, and imperative to my survival, as well as could hurt your kind if they break just the wrong way.' the man and Angela read along.

"I think I can help with that part, Papa." I looked at her and nodded to her, as a show of gratitude.

'Second, I would need an agreement from anyone I would work with that they would not attempt, in any way, to disassemble me.'

"Wow, even a self-preservation instinct." the man said as he nodded his agreement to the condition.

I wanted to groan, and when I felt myself doing it, I heard one, but it didn't look like it came from anyone.

"There Papa, what was that sound it made?"

I pointed at myself 'That sound was me?'

"Yes." Angela replied. I thought about it for a few seconds.

'I am going to try something, please don't be frightened

.' the two nodded.

"Hello?" I heard a melodious, feminine voice fill the room. "Well, I guess I can talk."

Angela jumped up and wrapped her arms around my neck, I patted her back, hoping it was gently.

"Would you mind if we gave you a name?" The Eldest woman said. I nodded to her, and everyone in the room looked at the man who hadn't spoken since I could hear. but when he opened his mouth, a full sounding voice came out of the skinny man's body, I didn't think a voice like that could come from him. [A/N: Think John Rys-Davis voice out of Tom Hanks in Forest Gump]

"Then, Would you honor our family, and carry the name of the daughter we lost at her birth?"

"What was her name?"

"Ayla." he said.

"Hello, everyone. Sorry, for the late introduction, I am Ayla." at this, everyone seemed to smile and laugh. The man I had been talking to, spoke again.

"Well Ayla, I don't know if your kind sleeps, but we do, and its well past our bed-time."

"Sir, I don't know if I sleep or not. I do know that I need to find some mineral oil soon, as my generator isn't working as well as it was earlier. I know where some is at, but I have no way to carry any with me."

"Here Ayla." Angela handed me a container that looked like it was about 4 liters in size, the marks on the side was 1/3.78

"A Gallon container, nice." I said. I then made to walk out of the dimly lit room, I then stopped, grabbed the large piece of metal that looked like it was a door, and picked it up. I looked it over it and found two places where it was slightly raised from the surface, and saw the same thing on the door jam. I picked up the piece of metal that went into the slots. "block this door with that piece of metal in these slots. if its me returning, I will knock twice, once then three times."

they all nodded at the precaution, although I have no idea why I thought it was needed. I pulled the door into the hole, and held it in place until I heard the metal slide into the slot, then left to go to the fountain.

it was an eventful day. and I'm glad its almost over.

______________________________________________________________________________

'Do you think she will survive?'

'She better, the only thing we took from her was the memories of any names or nicknames.'

'True, she must still have a lot of luck left to have found that archeologist and his family.'

'I wonder if we should introduce ourselves to her?'

'If we do, we will need to wait a while.'

'Why do you say that?'

'We gave her the ability to gain perfect mastery over everything having only seen or heard it one time. what will she do when she realizes that?'

'I could only hope that she survives to bring back the race we let get killed off.'

'True, we should not have let that bomb work.'

'No, Elaina, we should have never let it be discovered that it could work, the race we created could be killed over and over and over again, with only a single one of those things.'

'Should we give Ayla the ability to shield herself from it?'

'Already gave her the knowledge, when she sees the material she can use to do it, she will know how to use it.'

'Oh, Elisha, you are a cunning one.'