Snippet #2590473

WARNING: SIGNAL VERY LOW. CONNECTION LOST.

Amidst the cold, it was locked in place. Metal, frozen in a most peculiar pose—as if in a struggle. As if it longed for life. For breath. For warmth. It had reached forward with all its might, slowly rusting over, savoring every glorious inch, grasping at a land far away, a goal out of bounds, its dark limbs frozen in time, its heart in another place.

Floating, in this foreign space.

Lost.

An anachronism, twisting arm over arm in a sea of black. Bathing in it, crushed under it, smothered within it, but not destroyed by it. No. It was at home here.

More than any other environment, it was built to withstand this one.

WARNING: SIGNAL—

Distant orbs winked and twinkled in varying shades and hues, some obscure, deep, and wide; others closer, shallower, narrower. All of them capricious, eager to boast of their bounties—of light, of life—but wholly unwilling to share. It did not particularly mind, however, for what it had was enough. Enough to keep going, to keep running. In spite of the pittance they offered, it managed to accrue its own light, howbeit dim. Fleeting.

Internally, that very same light flickered, the array of diodes behind the glass befogging once more before becoming luminous, taking up a new configuration—a new message, sprawled across the screen's glossy surface, half hidden behind frost and ice.

REESTABLISHING CONNECTION...

It could feel him. See him. Sense him. Sense the heart. It's heart.

That was its primary purpose, after all. It was built to sense. To detect. Deduce. Aggregate information efficiently and effectively, and then deliver it. Even now, absent a master, it attempted to fulfill its purpose.

Once again, it attempted to reach out—not with its motionless limbs or silent voice, but with something much greater. A system crafted at the pinnacle of science. A force born of mankind's destiny, forthcoming.

For the umpteenth time, it made contact with its heart... but only barely. It was as nothing more than the faint caress of a phantom, a whisper across the nape.

Yet, for one infinitesimally brief instant, its heart reached back.

CONNECTE—
WARNING: SIGNAL VERY LOW. CONNECTION LOST.

But it wasn't enough. The link was too unstable, it's heart much too far away... but with the passing of each torturous eternity, it gained proximity. Here and now, the inescapable tug of the colossal blue hastened its dreary pace.

It was getting closer. I wouldn't be much longer now.