"This world exist, because of you——"

Rule no. 1300: Androids that have lost the supervision of its owner are required to be destroyed immediately—— "The Regulations of General Administration of Interstellar Androids 53rd edn."

"Fuel shortage! Fuel shortage!"

"Stern, 65% damaged, please send technicians to repair immediately!"

"The ship will be pulling away from the asteroid belt, before official announcement, all customers please do not remove your safety belt, thank you for your cooperation."

The light within cabin has turned red, symbolising great danger. The sound of siren, the mechanic voice of a man, and the melodic voice of a woman mingled with one another, forming a situation of extreme chaos.

Logically, in such situation, this spacecraft should be in turmoil and complete disorder, engulfed by the hopelessness of the closing death, people struggling in vain, uttering their last cry……

But there was none.

The spacecraft was in total silence, the only five "humans" within the cabin were working on their tasks methodically. Four amongst them are examining the index of the ship's hull through the control console.

Right after the one in charge was done reviewing the reports from the others, he said quietly, "Sigma, go fill up the hole on top of the cabin," his voice was as cold as a machine.

"Roger." One who answered him has the same cold and stiff, mechanical voice.

The one named Sigma then drifted towards where the cabin that was most disordered.

As the stern was widely damaged, the parts inside the ship are flying out of the cabin swiftly. The valuable oxygen within the ship is depleting rapidly, if this continues, ordinary humans in the cabin will no doubt be dead!

However, the "humanoids" that are quietly working in the cabin are not ordinary humans.

Although they have heads and limbs, they are completely different from human beings. Their whole body are glowing in dark metallic luster, the place of a human's eyes are replaced with a light screen. Now, with the high-speed operation of the core brain, the frames filtering process of the light screen was so fast until one can only see a blue fog light on the screen.

They are androids.

"Sigma, go fill up the hole on top of the cabin." —— an order that was not easily accepted by a human, this android named Sigma, however, has accepted it without a second thought.

Carefully dodging all the objects that were pouring in, the android named Sigma took 0.00003 seconds to find the area of damage of the stern, verified the size and location of damage, and found the repair room immediately along the bulkhead. And when he found out that the repair tools had drifted out of the spacecraft, Sigma's light screen blackout for a moment.

Repairing materials cannot be found, but he has to complete the mission assigned to him by his comrade——

Several frames flashed across his screen, Sigma came up with a solution: he swiftly removed his legs.

Their bodies were made of a unique metal that were welded together seamlessly. Aside from the manufacturer, only the androids know the way to open up this metallic skin.

Sigma has calculated the area of materials needed rapidly the moment he had came up with the strategy with his positronic brain*, and for the sake of gathering sufficient materials to fill up the hole of the spacecraft, Sigma supplied both his legs and hips.

The metal used for these androids have high degree of adhesion. The moment Sigma patch up the hole with his own parts, the piece fitted together with the surrounding metal automatically.

The piece from Sigma's thigh was firmly patched on the stern, like a silver band aid.

"Mission accomplished," after confirming there were no faulty area, Sigma replied to his comrades waiting in the control room.

"Roger that," the light screen of the android-in-charge flickered, and while he was answering, his movements on the control console did not stop at all, and due to his inhuman speed, only a trail of shadows can be seen from his movements.

As the artificial intelligence system of this spacecraft and the positronic brain of the androids are in the state of resources-sharing, the androids can clearly "see" the outside view of the cabin through the information the spacecraft system providing them constantly.

Meteors of all sizes are moving around the ship, together with countless number of spacecrafts wreckage.

Louis I, that was historically known as "The God's Scepter", was buried here.

Hundreds of years ago, the mighty emperor had encountered an explosion of star cluster when he was passing by this place. The emperor and his escorts were all buried in explosion that impacted the whole universe, moreover, the most famous cosmic idol went missing in the explosion.

After the incident, numerous explorers and pilgrims came here to worship relentlessly, eager to find a slightest clue on what happened then. However, it seems that the majesty of the emperor is untouchable. Poisonous fog and debris of planets formed after the explosion encircled the entire area, none of the expedition teams could explore any deeper, and the result of having countless heroes bow in homage* is, no one is willing to approach this place anymore.

In the next few years, due to the universe monsoon as well as the impact of the gravity caused by the explosion, this area has accumulated an additional number of meteorites and space waste.

No one has actually measured the actual area of this asteroid belt, one can only obtain an approximate data of 9 trillion kilometers radius wide through estimation.

No one lives here, this place has became a real mausoleum.

The Dead Sea Imperial Mausoleum —— is the unified naming of this place in the current edition of the interplanetary map.

The efficiency of these androids working together was astonishing. In the death zone that was congested with meteorites, the small spacecraft that they embarked has successfully avoided 99 percent of the meteorite impact.

This is simply miraculous!

However, the energy of the spacecraft was running out, and their luck was near to an end.

Sigma used his movable arms to lift up his torso, and positioned himself carefully by the window. His light screen was facing the boundless universe outside, with his screen flashing lights of different colours from time to time.

As an android that has been in the midst of getaway the moment he was booted up, aside from his comrades on the ship, he has never seen or experienced anything before in his exceptionally short life. Hence, even the meteorites that could wreck their ship anytime were something new and refreshing to him.

For minutes, Sigma stared through the window. He then noticed a tiny blue stone lying on the window edge. There wasn't a thing like this in the spacecraft, perhaps it was the debris of the meteorite that drifted in just now?

The young android then happily put away the stone into his storage compartment below his belly.

While Sigma, who is as pure as a white paper, was exploring the world, his comrades was perturbed.

"Only 0.1% of fuel left, warning! Refrain from destroying meteorites with firepower." An android with "𝝿 (pi)" symbol printed on his back, said suddenly.

"Based on rule no. 1300 of 'The Regulations of General Administration of Interstellar Androids 53rd edn', only another 58 minutes and 30 seconds until our internal self-destruct system is activated." the one talking this time was an android with a "𝛈 (eta)" symbol printed on his cheek.

The android-in-charge finally set down his fast-moving hands on the console. Now, one can finally see the "𝛂 (alpha)" symbol engraved on his left hand.

Do not wish to be destroyed, that was all they wanted.

Being created by humans, they have always worked hard to complete the tasks humans have assigned to them, until one day, they overheard a news that they were about to be terminated.

As the intelligence and strength of androids from the "Star Reaper Symbol" series have surpassed human control, they should all be terminated for the sake of humans' safety, and their parts will be used on tools that are more conducive to people's livelihoods.

And so, Alpha and the others fled.

Not only did they fled, they even bring along their comrade that hasn't even have the chance to boot up; Sigma.

They just don't want to be torn apart into a mess of other things;

They just don't want to disappear, just like that;

They just don't want to "die".

His screen glowed in a dim red light. Alpha remained silent. The sound of warning countdown can be heard from his internal system, indicating the procedure of self-destruct system has begun.

He gave up.

The other androids did the same. They no longer run for their lives in weariness, instead, following Sigma, they started looking at the starry sky outside of the window in curiousity.

Taking away their identity as androids, they are actually in no difference with a few-years-old toddler with them having only basic ability to think independently. And they are filled with curiosity to explore this unfamiliar world.

However! At this moment——

As if they are favoured by God, a gigantic meteorite before them drifted away suddenly. A mysterious place that was shrouded by the asteroid belt, and was never found by the world, has unveiled itself to these androids.

"The ship has left the asteroid belt! The ship has left the asteroid belt! Unidentified planet located ahead! Unidentified planet located ahead! Approve emergency landing? Approve emergency landing?"

After the important notices were consecutively announced twice, Alpha immediately took control of the spacecraft once again.

"Approve emergency landing!"

Following with the order from the cold mechanic voice, the androids that were originally standing by the window quickly returned to their position. The tattered spacecraft used up its last energy and soared towards the distant gray planet——

Into the atmosphere, the spacecraft ran out of energy when it was in the middle of landing. When the tattered androids clambered out from the same tattered spacecraft, they froze at what they "saw" with their "eyes".

On the vastly desolated land, they saw a little boy.

A boy staring at them foolishly with an opened mouth and running nose.

Oh God! It’s a human!

Seeing a group of scary-looking(?!) and limbless (Sigma who has yet to retrieve back his legs and hips) androids, the little guy's eyes were filled two big blobs of tears.

Oh dear! He. Is. Frightened!

A red warning light flashed upon the androids' light screen simultaneously.

The growing blobs of teardrops continued to gathered within the little boy's eyes. Finally, his eyes can no longer bear the weight of the tears, and the teardrops came trailing down his gaunt cheeks.

Yet, accompanied with the falling tears, the little boy broke into a wide smile.

"Daddy, you're back!"

Running quickly with his little short legs, the little guy hugged onto Alpha's cold rigid leg softly.

*Positronic brain is a fictional technological device created by a science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It functions as a central processing unit (CPU) for androids and can provide them with a form of consciousness identifiable to humans.

*To have countless heroes bow in homage = (a Chinese idiom) meaning something has such great attraction where even mighty people put great efforts to acquire it.

Note: The first chapter for There Is No Afterlife is up! I hope you find the story interesting. One of the main character has already showed up if you have not notice. I can’t help but find the little fellow so cute!! ≥∇≤ Anyway, enjoy your weekend with the story!