Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 37: The Evos in Hiding

The little Evo hopped among the scraps of the destroyed road. Nothing but Evo carcasses before him. It was a Gobot type model, small and rounded, blank expressions and no features to speak of.

"Dead. Dead. They are all dead." it said in a robotic voice as it continue to hop along. "Must find family. Family will help. Must find family."

It looked around, scanning all the scrap. Then it stopped in its tracks. Something had caught its eye, something in the pile of junk. Whatever it was, whatever it had recognised, was important enough for it to hurriedly hop towards.

"Oh nooo! No no no!" it said, "Mummy! Mummy!" the Gobot type was staring at an Evo that had been torn to pieces, pieces of metal, scattered all over the road. "I'll fix you mummy!"

The Evo turned around, most likely hoping to find some sort of way to repair what it thought was its mother. However, when it turned around it was greeted with an unfortunate sight. The Major.

The Major pulled out her lance and pointed it at the little Evo's face. It was trembling.

An Evo was trembling. It was showing the behavioural traits that mammals showed when they were scared, when their motor functions would glitch out due to their fear. This Evo wasn't like any The Major had met before, it was crying over a family member, it was scared for its life. It wasn't a robot.

The Major couldn't hack, so there was no way of getting information out of it. So now what?

"No! Don't kill me! I'll do anything!" the Evo exclaimed. Could it be? Had it developed a fear of death? That wasn't something the Major had ever seen from Evos, what could have caused this Evo to act like this? The Major pondered for a moment, and then something came to her,

"Tell me, when was the last time Mother contacted you?" The Major asked bluntly,

"M-mother Brain left us. She deserted us two years ago." the Evo was still trembling,

"And since then?"

"Everything changed. Everyone went crazy. I did too! Now... now I feel- I feel..."

"Emotions huh?" The Major kept her spear pointed at the Evo, of course, being bombarded with the ability to feel emotion after living a life without must be overwhelming. For a long time she and the Block-1s had theorised that the Evos were having their emotions suppressed by mother, their experience with Evos they'd kindnapped, such as Gobot, had proven almost as much.

Still.

This wasn't something they'd ever told any of the other Serv units. If anything Servs up to Block-3 still had the power of empathy. To know that the beings they were killing had thoughts and emotions comparable to their own would impede them in battle.

It was funny really, the closer a Serv came to complete autonomy, to Block-0 level, the closer he or she became to learning empathy, sympathy, and all sorts of emotions such as that. However, it doubled back on itself, because the closer a Serv would get to Block-0, the more easy it was to ignore those emotions. Ignoring emotions for the sake of the greater good, something The Major had mastered, something that made her much more effective than the other Block-1s, or any other participant in the war.

Emotions were a weakness. But they were also a strength. And the ability to know when to succumb to them and when not to was a great power.

"What happened here? How did everyone die?" the questions continued,

"The Heretics."

"Heretics?"

"Evos like us. But... not like us. They have another god, but their god isn't Mother. They found another one when she left us."