Code Lightfall and the Robot King by Daniel H. Wilson Page A

rolled out, looking the same as ever. He waved to his dear ‘friends’ and began to paint a happy face on the ground. In the sky, streaks of flame appeared in the atmosphere. Then thousands of atmospheric entry pods roared into view, rapid-launching parachutes carrying hundreds of thousands of identical Charlies—each with a paintbrush and a passion for drawing happy faces. Mekhos was overwhelmed in minutes.”
    Gary stretched his long arms, joints creaking like an old swing set.
    â€œCharlie’s invasion started the Great Garbage Wars, which lasted over a century. Eventually, King John Lightfall and his Exo-Spheric Battle Savants tracked down the original Charlie.”
    â€œWait,” interrupted Code. “My grandpa has only been gone for a year. How did he spend a hundred years fighting a crazy robot?”
    â€œMekhos is an experimental world,” replied Gary. “Time goes faster here. The ancient ones set up the experiment so that a hundred years of our time was only a hundred days in their time.”
    Gary continued. “In the final hours of the final battle, King Lightfall captured Charlie and trapped him inside a stasis box. Mekhos was saved—”
    â€œI knew my grandpa was a good guy,” said Code.
    Gary shook his head. “But not before Charlie was able to strike one last time. Before King Lightfall could close the box, Charlie used an alien weapon to resculpt the continent of Mekhos into the shape of an enormous, eternally grinning … happy face.”
    Gary chuckled in the firelight. Peep tittered, amused. Code sat silently, soaking up the story.
    â€œSo let me get this straight,” said Code. “Charlie nearly destroyed Mekhos. He blasted your continent into the shape of a happy face. He blew up thousands of robots.”
    â€œYeah,” said Gary. “He’s my hero!”
    â€œHow, exactly, does that make him a hero?” asked Code.
    â€œCharlie did what he was programmed to do, completely and without hesitation,” replied Gary. “He showed that you don’t have to be big to do big things. Charlie made a lot out of a little!”
    Peep agreed, violently nodding her tiny head up and down. Gary laughed and threw another flare on the fire. For his part, Code watched his two new friends closely, shaking his head in puzzled amazement.

8
Toparian Wyldes
    The Great Disassembly:
T–Minus Three Days
    The next morning, sunlight filtered through the trees and Code opened his eyes to find every shade of green imaginable. Looking around, he realized that in the dark of night they had set up camp in a beautiful garden that seemed to go on for miles. The plants here seemed almost real. Gently waving bushes formed vivid green walls. Prickly bridges made of tightly packed shrubs crossed overhead in twisting spirals. Moss-covered statues of robots, machines, and animals dotted the gardenscape. Even the grass was tight-growing and spongy, like a trampoline.
    Everything smelled like wet grass and dirt and metal.
    Code smiled to himself. Finally, a nice quiet place without any heart-stopping danger. Then he noticed Gary standing nearby, peeking over a towering bush.
    â€œGood morning, Gary,” said Code, yawning.
    Gary thunderously dropped to all fours and peered into Code’s face. He rubbed his shiny head with one hand and muttered to himself in a panic. “Oh, Code! Thank goodness you’ve come back to life. I was sure that you were deactivated. I almost buried you!”
    And indeed, Code noticed that he was lying next to a hole about the size of a boy. “I was sleeping , Gary,” said Code, warily eyeing the freshly dug grave. “Humans go to sleep every day and stay asleep for about eight hours.”
    â€œWhat? You’re telling me that humans fall on the ground and go completely limp and unconscious and helpless for eight solid hours every single day? But why? That’s just