Code Lightfall and the Robot King by Daniel H. Wilson

human?”
    Code waved one gauntleted hand at the huge eyeball. “Hi,” he said. “Please don’t eat me.”
    â€œPardon our surprise. We have not seen a human since we came from Earth, millennia ago.”
    â€œWait, you’ve been to Earth?” asked Code.
    â€œLong ago, we were whale. We knew the warm waters of Earth, but men attacked us with wooden spears. We dove, swimming deep into a strange current that passed over a drowned city. The waters led to a tear in the ocean. The deep rift, a passageway to here—the Fomorian Sea.”
    â€œYou’re a whale?” asked Code.
    â€œNo. Organic creatures cannot survive these waters. When we arrived, a tiny creature waited near the rift, a deep symbiot. It courted us, and we agreed to join together. This small thing grew with us, around us, and inside us. Over time, it became our armor, our voice, and our survival. We are not whale; we have become a part of Mekhos. We are Lodestar.”
    Code whispered the name, trying it out. He decided it was very fitting for a gigantic armored sea creature. “Nice to meet you, Lodestar. I’m Code. Thank you for stopping my fall.”
    â€œYou are welcome. But you are still in danger. Even something as small as you is highly visible to our sonar. Ours and Others’.”
    â€œWho do you mean … Others ?”
    â€œJust outside the deep rift, clouds of nanobiters feed on the trash that flows in from the other world. We cannot leave, but others can come in. The rift has been open for long ages. Monsters from ancient Earth came in long ago and joined with their own symbiots. They drift above us in the warm waters, old and powerful.”
    â€œDinosaurs …,” whispered Code, suddenly afraid of what could be lurking just out of sight. Peep stalked around the rim of the helmet. She glowed a wary reddish purple color and flexed her wings at the darkness outside.
    â€œWe must return you to the deep rift so you can cross back to your world, where it is safe. Prepare, human,” it said.
    â€œYou mean, home?”
    â€œIf that is how you think of it, yes.”
    Code thought about going home. A return to all the old familiar sights and sounds. Somewhere out there, Mr. Mefford was watching the class. Tyler was terrorizing the other kids. Hazel was probably— Code stopped. Hazel was out there, too. She was shy and pretty and maybe, just maybe, wondering where he was. At home, Code could go back to hiding in his room and reading books, return to his imagination. Wasn’t it safest to do nothing at all? He would be protected and warm and … alone. Instantly, Code’s thoughts returned to Gary.
    â€œGary must be so worried,” said Code, talking to Peep. She still trundled about the helmet, sending occasional pulses of light through the visor and out to the whale.
    â€œOrganics do not belong here,” replied Lodestar. “If you do not return now, know that you will become a part of Mekhos. It will creep into your body until it is a part of your bones and flesh and brain. You will become one of us. And then you may never leave. The rifts are designed to reject mechanicals, to keep the great and dangerous experiment of Mekhos from spreading to Earth.”
    â€œBut I’ve got to save my grandfather. He’s John Lightfall, the king. Immortalis has trapped him and is using him to destroy Mekhos.”
    â€œYes,” flashed Lodestar. “I am sorry, Code. But King John Lightfall has been here much too long. He is no longer human. You cannot save him. The machine, Immortalis, was designed to keep him alive. It has done its job too well.”
    â€œI don’t understand,” said Code. “I can still save him; I can still bring him home.”
    â€œIf you stop the Great Disassembly and defeat Immortalis, your grandfather will die. He cannot survive without Immortalis. Only by leaving now can you save your grandfather.”
    Code was