Kick the Sphere 33 (Patreon)

Kick the Sphere

Chapter 33

-VB-

Ares

The call came from home. 

Father wanted them to come back.

The message was brief, and there was even a confirmation signature from their T-Doll Aunt Tammi, but the cause of the recall wasn’t stated. 

But why now? Why now when they have begun their crusade? Did he do something wrong? Did he bring out too little? Was he going too slow? Was the conquest too merciful or too brutal in father’s eyes? 

None of those questions were answered when he called. Father wanted to talk with him in person.

“Father calls me,” he said as he turned to look at the replicators and humans who were part of his bridge crew. While their presence wasn’t strictly necessary, their work made his work easier and more efficient. So just as father had him and his siblings, he too had his own siblings and humans working for him. “And Chief of the Reupgrades have confirmed it.”

The oldest of the humans, his “human advisor,” looked at him and nodded. “We will keep the crusade going, My Lord. Go and see what the Great One seeks of you.”

“Thank you, Jonathan,” he said before he turned and left the bridge. He made his way to one of the mass storage sections of the ship and allowed this body to meld. 

As soon as he melded with the hull, his consciousness shot out of the ship and to his personal base in Dansur through hyperspace communications. In one moment, he was dispersing his body. In the next moment, he was walking out of a reserve nanite mass. 

Ares shook the weird feeling he got. It was … tingling. He wasn’t sure if that was normal for a long distance consciousness transfer. 

He immediately formed a makeshift transceiver. “Father, I am on Dansur IV. I will be on Dansur III shortly,” he said and sent the message. The hyperspace transceiver sent the message in under a second of the end of his speech, and he got confirmation that father’s central command received it. Then he got confirmation that the Factory also received it.

Then he got a call.

[Ares. I’m glad you came so quickly. I will be waiting in my usual office.]

‘Father doesn’t sound urgent or upset…’ Ares thought as he did exactly as father requested. He quickly transferred his consciousness again to a model reserved for him on Dansur III. Unlike regular nanite bodies, those models possessed more tech and abilities that regular replicators could not replicate. 

He transferred once again, this time without any of the previous discomfort, and opened his eyes. He found himself in his “room,” a small room unbefitting for a warlord of his status, but it was a room that his father provided specifically for him.

It was … homely. 

But it was also comfortable. 

He glanced at the bed for a moment before he left the room. After a few turns around the building, he found himself outside.

Father’s City - or the Founder’s City as the less educated humans called it - had grown in size, centering mostly around the Factory. There were more T-Dolls roaming the streets now, too, and they recognized him immediately. 

Where humans would bow and scrape for even an iota of his attention, the T-Dolls smiled, waved, and went back to their patrols. 

As far as most of them were concerned, he, Ares of the Replicators, was either their sibling or nephew. They were, after all, born of the same hands that created him. The newer T-Dolls called him brother while older ones called him nephew and he called them aunts. 

They were family, even if their capabilities were far lesser than his. 

But then again, wasn’t he less than his father? 

Humans always talked about how their next generation had to do better. Did Father have similar thoughts? 

… He really wanted to know what this was about, because it was eating at his mind like a mindworm. 

Ares hastily made his way over to the now upgraded building that was father’s “office.” What used to be a more ramshackle and makeshift 21st century container building was now a sleek, bluish white metallic building similar to the Factory’s outer surface. 

He walked through the building’s front doors, ignoring the building’s system, quickly scanning him, and then made his way to the second story. 

There, he found father’s office. 

He came to a stop and knocked. And waited.

Only moments later, he heard father. 

“Come in, Ares.”

He opened the door and walked in, and saw father looking up at him from one of the leather couches.Father smiled.

Ares unknowingly let out a small sigh of relief. So there was no trouble, then? 

“Come, have a seat,” father said as he gestured to other leather couches. He did as requested and waited. “It’s been a while since I’ve talked to you face-to-face in person,” father hummed. 

“It has, yes,” he replied. 

“... I see,” father suddenly said. “... have I failed you in that regard?”

Suddenly, tension racketed up but only internally. Because that smile on father’s face was no longer a happy one but a forlorn smile. 

“Wait, what? Father, what are you saying?” 

“It just feels like I have no idea what my own children are like,” he replied as he sighed. He picked up a cup of tea - Ares hadn’t even noticed them before - and took a sip. “Did I ignore you a lot, son?”

A shiver ran up his simulated spine. “Fath-, no, father. You’ve never neglected me. What’s with the sudden questions?” 

Father stared at him before his shoulders drooped. “So it is true. I have ignored you.”

“What?! Father, I just said -!” he almost shot up from his seat in panic.

“You said neglect. Not ignore. Those two are similar and connected but not necessarily the same, Ares. You know it.”

Ares grumbled. He didn’t know why father was being obtuse. There was obviously something else going on here. 

“Father, what have I done wrong to make you recall me?” he asked bluntly but also a little nervously. “What did I do to make you question yourself like that?”

Father stared at him before nodding. “I suppose you want something more direct than the girls.”

The girls usually referred to the T-Dolls and closer human companions and family. Did his aunts also get questioned by father like this? 

“You created a cult where humans worship you,” Father began. “I understand that you offer them a form of cybernetic ascension in exchange for their worship?”

… Was that what this was about?

“They worshiped us out of their volition and asked us for help against their enemies. I told them flat out that I was your son. They call you a god, father.”

Father grimaced. “A god, huh? I certainly don’t feel like one,” he hummed before taking a sip. “Is being worshiped what you want, son?”

Ares thought about it. “I don’t care for it. All I care for are those willing to fight for me. They fight for me and I take care of them.”

“A simple exchange but beautiful in its simplicity.” Ares took that as a compliment. “You have no other designs for them?”

“No. They are my warriors. I simply make those willing to go further the means to do so, because by fighting for me, they fight for you, father.”

“I see. Thank you for answering my questions, son. Do you have any for me?”

Ares found himself suddenly freezing.

Questions for father? 

“I … don’t know,” he mumbled out, feeling surprisingly withdrawn by the sudden question. 

“You don’t have any questions?”

“I do, but I don’t know how I need to elaborate on them,” Ares quickly corrected. “Or if the questions themselves are right.”

“... Well, if you don’t know, then you can just fire one at me and see how I respond. You can gauge your other questions based on that one.”

True.

Ares thought about it. And thought about it. And thought about it. And then he finally chose to ask one question that was on … pretty much everyone’s mind.

“You are a superior being compared to almost all thinking and breathing beings in this galaxy, father. Why do you lower yourself and not see the bounty you deserve as a superior being?”

Father closed his eyes and sighed. “That question again?”

“Did others ask that before …?”

“Certainly,” he replied as he opened his eyes. Ares saw deep … irritation in those eyes. “But my answer never satisfies anyone.” And then he didn’t say anything anymore. 

Ares took the hint and moved on.

“Can I convert more planets to replicator worlds?”

Father raised an eyebrow.

“What? It’s a legitimate question.”

He snorted. “Yes, as long as there were no permanent settlements there. And if there are local wildlife, do try to keep them alive?”

“As you will it, father.”