Blood Milk Water

Working in the university was a privilege granted to droids who’d excelled at the game “animal, vegetable, mineral”. Identifying ancient archaic puzzles guaranteed the advancement toward life re-creation. Each time connections were made, the data-bank of living matter was upgraded to help us understand how to sustain life and pinpoint the reasons behind global extinction. As androids, the concept of flesh and fluid had become abhorrent, especially to those who had succeeded in tasks of empathy and ethics.

The apprentice socio-historic-archaeologists jostled into the department. We’d been chosen for our extraordinary “out of the box” neural connectivity, akin to the creative curiosity of left brain thinking. Our individual uniqueness was valued and as cogs within the singularity, we assumed that our projects would be uploaded to the hive mind.

However, at this stage, as sparks of individual genius were sought, we were on our own. Each of us isolated from the main frame. Each of us with personality anomalies that formed fascinatingly unique, synaptic firing sequences. Out in the wider robot community disagreements pointed to hardware malfunction. Whilst each of us had learned to stay quiet for fear of being re-wired and down graded. In the university we secretly knew that our pathways were evolving precariously close to sentience.

We arranged ourselves in a semi-circle. Fragile, the blue based model teetered upon the cabinet. Our professor hovered forward to examine the label. A faint whirring was followed by a stream of data. Alpha-numeric codes, dancing with cyber significance, appeared between the work bench and the class of droids. The craftwork steadied as networked information poured into our receptors. We no longer used the artisanal skill of reading. Instant automated communication had been perfected.

Blood Milk Water

Today’s artefact had the title, Medicinal Miracles. The receptacles were hollowed plastic, their toxicity screamed poison. Suspended above them on thin threads were cotton clouds. Analysing the evidence before us, we prepared to form conclusions. Storage and strategic use of the liquids: blood, milk, water.

Blood: transfusions conducted through plastic tubing and stored in plastic containers may have been contaminating agents. Use of recycled cotton plant fibres, applied to low level abrasions seen in human and veterinary surgery were presumed to be key in the spread of disease, despite their use in antiseptic, healing swabs. Antibacterial poultices contributed to superbugs and lowered immune systems across species.

Milk: a highly mineral rich substance, removed from mammals and stored in cylindrical or cuboid plastics for general consumption. Bacterium, immune to pasteurization became incorporated into the food chain, via pure or mixed lactic-hormonal formulas that had fomented illness and disease.

Water: needed to sustain life especially during gestation and lactation, where animal and plant specimens relied upon the water cycle for pasture, nourishment and hydration. Rainfall ended with the failure of evaporation. Hydrogen compounds suffered atomic breakdown contributing to chemical smog, environmental impurities and global warming.

Our report included the letters on the underside of each model. Stored alongside 29 similar relics: J.C. Jonas Form 3B.