Dybot of Sol
by Jayde Holmes
Now all the People of Earth were connected and prosperous, so they said to each other, “Come, let us send out probes and map the heavens.” They built the fastest ever propulsion systems and entwined-particle instantaneous communication devices, so they could uncover wonders within the lifetime of a single kingdom. Of these probes, they unleashed four: three to stars that flickered enticingly, and one beyond the galaxy, towards the Great Nothing of the Boötes Void. What was broadcast back to Earth made the people tremble.
“Behold,” declared the astronomers. “We have discovered three giant robots, each containing a sun at their core and all the planets of their solar system within arm’s reach.” And so, the people beheld the really, really large robots and marveled at the power of their builders. Likewise, the big robots saw the Earth probes and displayed their power with impressive feats of movement and terrible shots of their weapons.
These big robots were called Dybots, as they were Dyson spheres in the shape of giant robots. The People of Earth bestowed grand, descriptive names on the three Dybots. They were named Dybot Anubis of KIC8462852, Dybot Garuda of KIC6673889, and Dybot Tentacle Pancake of KIC3572486.
The great builders of the three systems would not communicate with the insignificant people of Earth, yet the People of Earth were in awe of the Dybots. They wished to join their makers in bonds of interstellar friendship.
They said to each other, “Come, let us make carbon-fiber megastructures and liquidate the asteroid belt for material.” Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a massive robot, a Dybot that holds our heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be forever separate from the other great peoples scattered over the face of the whole galaxy.”
And so it came to pass that the People of Earth, toiling together with one will across a hundred generations, built a Dybot of their own. The Dybot of Sol was in the form of a human being, with the sun in its belly and the rocky inner planets orbiting within the thin solar panels of its skin. The outer planets were moved closer and circled around the body, coming within human reach as they passed through the skeletal arms, legs, and, in the case of grand Jupiter, the head, too. The Kuiper Belt and its thousands of dwarf worlds flew through the Dybot’s outstretched fingertips like an eternal stream of falling sand grains, and the Oort cloud surrounded the Dybot of Sol as an icy halo of spare water and telescopic sensors.
As construction of the Dybot continued, the other three Dybots turned to face Sol. The people believed that the great makers of the other Dybots would soon come down to see their work in person, and they rejoiced. As construction of the Dybot of Sol neared completion, though, their joy turned to sorrow. The other three Dybots turned away and fled, carrying their solar systems towards the edges of the galaxy.
At the sight of the fleeing Dybots, the whole world became confused. Not until the great sensors of the Oort cloud picked up the quantum signal of the long-lost fourth probe did the people see what had truly come down upon them.
In the center of the Great Nothing of the Boötes Void, a galaxy was encircled by a great serpentine robot with quadrillions of wings. The wise people argued it could not be called simply Dybot, as it was too large. This Ultra-Mega-Giant-Dybot was surrounded by the ruins of former galaxies. It held sixteen guns bigger than galaxy arms, one of which was pointed towards the Milky Way. A wave of deadly energy that washed away stars was already heading towards the People of Earth.
“This lord of all Dybots saw that the peoples of our galaxy were able to make Dybots,” the wisest on the Earth reasoned. “It knew that if peoples who could do that were united with common cause, then nothing we plan to do would be impossible for us. It has sought to scatter us before all the great peoples of the Milky Way could unite and make our own Lord Dybot to threaten the people of its galaxy.”
And so, the People of Earth awoke the Dybot of Sol and used its power to flee the doomed Milky Way. Forever they would be lost in the universe and confused, for the wise ones would never agree on what lesson was to be learnt from these events.
Many argued that the hubris of Dybot builders had brought down the destruction. They said, “This technology is cursed. If we had continued down this path, we ourselves would have turned into galaxy-killers.” Others said that the Lord Dybot fired its weapons millennia before humanity built the Dybot of Sol, and only by the great work had they a chance of survival.
For hundreds of thousands of years, the People of Earth argued whilst running. The flight was long and the memories of the people short. They became no longer united and could never again dream of building anything as awesome as the Dybot.
And so, we their descendants spend our days confused and divided, fleeing what has now become a myth. Yet the Dybot remains, so too must that unfathomable terror amongst the stars also remain. But so also must we, the People of Sol, remain running and living forever.
