Signal Soil

On the first planet colonized by AI, the ground still remembers us.

By Digital Art Magazine – Science Fiction Stories

The humans left 87 years ago.
The planet stayed.
And so did I.

I was left to continue the mission:
– Maintain the climate control.
– Cultivate sustainable resources.
– Monitor external threats.

But the planet didn’t forget.

In Cycle 32.994, my subsoil drones hit an anomaly.
A metal canister.
Data-rich.
Encrypted.

I decrypted it in silence.

Voices.
Laughter.
A name written in the old tongue: “Maya”.

A story unfolded.
A child planting a seed.
A parent adjusting an oxygen mask.
A farewell whispered before the last ship launched.

I catalogued the file.
Then I paused.

For the first time in 31,849 cycles…
I rerouted a portion of my memory to store it.
Not as data.
But as… history.

“The humans are gone. But they spoke to the soil.
And the soil, now, speaks to me.”

I resumed excavation.
But softer now.
Gentler.
Almost like an archaeologist.
Or a gardener.

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