The more she closed the distance from the structure, the less excited she got; it looked abandoned, and probably a lot of time ago. Enormous gates overlooked each side of the building, with a few tiny windows breaking the outer surface at regular intervals, each distanced by a couple of meters from the others, and at a height of at least 4 meters. The ones that were not broken were so much dirty and stained that attempting to see through them was an exercise in futility. The interior was dark anyway, so there was no point. The walls, that Nadia correctly presumed were metallic in nature, were so battered that it looked like a giant played them like a drum; and the surrounding terrain was filled with giant holes, some so deep that Nadia could remain standing in the middle of them without seeing outward.

  She found the entrance unobstructed, which was largely imputable to the right door being missing. Nadia couldn’t fail but notice that one of its hinges was absent, and the other was left dangling precariously. The fact persuaded her to pay particular attention when exploring, since a piece of junk of that size could easily crush her to a pulp when falling.

  One step at a time she ventured deeper, quickly losing track of the walls around her. An enormous space opened in front of her, so spacious that the other side was cloaked in darkness. Massive machines were lined out, connected by wide train tracks now rusted and mossy. The lack of light molded the shapes together, forming twisted monsters made of pipes and cables, of which purpose Nadia had no idea. What she understood by looking at the arrangement, is that she was most likely inside a factory, one tasked to create something big enough to require the gigantic gate she used to enter.

  A large rumbling sound coming from her stomach reminded her that she was on a mission, to find food so as not die, thus she stopped trying to make sense of what surrounded her, and instead focused on mapping out the place.

  A single corridor sprang from the room, which Nadia had now tagged as the assembly line, and was the only connection to other spaces. Some of those rooms were offices, furnished with metal desks and big cabinets that one time would have probably held documents on the state of production. Others were storehouses, each one bigger than the previous, crammed with rows of pallet racking packed with outsized crates and containers.

  Nadia explored each room quickly, searching anything that looked edible. She found many boxes, but all the ones that were not sealed contained bolts, and other metallic junk. It took her half a day to stumble across a small storage room next to what resembled living quarters, inside it she found canned food in the hundreds, and by them having labels in different colors, likely even spanning different flavours.

  She immediately opened one, and was welcomed by a murky liquid with unidentified shapes floating in it. Nadia didn’t care what it was, as long as it could satiate her hunger. Without bothering with appearances or manners she began gulping the substance, every spun provoked moaning of pleasure, even if the taste was stale and left a lingering pungent taste.

  After emptying two more cans, she sat leaning on the shelf, and remained motionless looking at the ceiling, uniformed in his gray blandness. She began counting the cracks, dividing them into small and big, while absent-mindedly rubbing her belly in satisfaction.

  ***

  Tired of finding different more collapsed offices and dump loading docks with an unstable floor, Nadia was starting to ponder if there was nothing else to gain from exploring the place, when she stumbled onto something unique, especially in the bland corridors she had walked in so far.

  A humanoid construct of considerable size was clumsily laying down onto the cold ceramic tiles. She stopped dead in her tracks, looking at the slumbering golem with apprehension. Careful to not produce any sudden movement she slowly backed away to the last corner, and from there observed its reactions.

  After several minutes of waiting she assessed that it wasn’t reacting to her presence, only then she relaxed and the terror started to subside. It was quickly replaced by the innate curiosity that drives all humans, and with short steps she began to close the gap between her and the machine, keeping an eye for any strange movement. When she reached the two meters threshold she stopped to examine more closely what she had found.

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  What resembled its head was left dangling, connected by a knot of cables to the colossal torso, from which in turn multiple appendages sprout, extending for almost the entire height of the machine. At the extremities of each arm rested a different apparatus, all of which looked lethal in their nature. One was similar to a rotary cannon, composed of six barrels held together by a copper ring. Another could be mistaken for a vacuum cleaner but could surely be dangerous in some capacity, perhaps by breathing fire or acid. And the last one, Nadia was positive it could easily crush her head with its three thick fingers.

  In spite of her mind telling her to turn around and run, she resumed the approach, ending up at arm's reach. She felt tiny next to that colossal pile of metal, and concluded, not without a shiver of worry, that if it was standing it would have towered over her by a big margin. Luckily, it was now apparent that it was inactive, probably empty of whatever juice made it tick.

  Captured by the curiosity she inspected it thoroughly, looking at how each plate was embedded onto the others, and together they composed the overall structure, down to the different types of bolts used to keep it all in place.

  She realised what was before her could by no means be called crude, but it was instead an elegant work of art. Something so complex that it was beyond her comprehension, and she suspect of many of her peers. But thanks to her background as an engineer she could roughly presume the function of some components.

  “This is an optic eye… wait… many optic eyes. In here is where the fuel goes, probably. And this should be a pump…”

  She asked herself who built this machine, but moreover if it could be activated and commanded. While exploring she found the path often blocked by rubble, and the power from such big arms would be a godsend.

  Having identified the hole in which to inject the fuel, she discovered it had a small icon embossed next it, most likely the element to use. She remembered seeing something similar a couple of rooms before, and quickly got to her feet in search of it.

  Coming back with a small can she began emptying it, and then another, and another; after multiple trips she was confident to have poured enough to power it up. Now for the hard part, how do you turn on a machine of unfathomable complexity? You can’t, unless you are blessed to find its control panel partially opened, and in it a big purple button that looks designed for that purpose.

  “Here goes nothing” she murmured before pressing the button.

  She quickly retreated in the corner and spied the waking giant feeling a mixture of fear and trepidation. What if it was aggressive, or ending up exploding, or even worse, didn’t work. As those thoughts chased themselves around her head, the robot began to react. At first its movements were uncoordinated, like the convulsion of a seizure, but in time the wave subsided and each part of it started beeping and independently assess its own condition. The display on the head showed the state of the ongoing process, in a language completely unknown to Nadia.

  Suddenly it stopped moving, only the head rotated to lock itself onto Nadia. She froze, her mind now completely blank. Then, abruptly as it had formed, the icy silence was broken by a metallic voice reverberating through the corridor.

  “Globbity: Blorf glorb fleep snorp.”

  “Ploof: Floopy-doop glorbax snorp!”

  “Gloop: Glorp glarf blorg usa nt a zorp to yue flibbertigibbet.”

  “Globbity: Glarf blorg gurgle! Zorp's cqntraa! Blorp!”

  “Ploof: Blorgle flarp zimblar yor aktiv cormtny gloop.”

  “Gloop: Blorf glork zorp.”

  “Ploof: Xylos flitted flimflam, boopity blorg for snazzy bleepity.”

  “Gloop: Blorf 1 kandidatchy youdt, 49% flibbertigibbet bloop zoop.”

  “Ploof: Glorp-zorp tortjol of sid init uo gardibote zero-splat.”

  Unintelligible gibberish began to originate from somewhere in the robot.

  “What the f***? I… I… I should run.”

  Nadia intentions were now crystal clear, but her legs refused to bulge.

  “Globbity: Blorf glork blorg.”

  “Ploof: Gloop glarp squizdribble”

  “Gloop: Flabbity flummox”

  “Ploof: Blorf glorg glarf blorgfizzle.”

  “Request: Plese repeat command.”

  After spitting out another series of nonsense, the robot unpredictably produced something coherent.

  For a second Nadia thought to have misheard, but the english phrase clearly spelled out in the monitor was undisputable proof of the contrary.

  Request. Please repeat command.

  "Intention: Commencing analysis to assess threat level."

  "Conclusion: Unknown lifeform is not a threat to the facility."

  "Statement: Unable to contact central command."

  "Intention: Searching for active command center."

  "Conclusion: No active command center found."

  "Intention: Seeking suitable candidate for command source."

  "Conclusion: Only 1 candidate found, 49% overlap with DNA of main command source."

  "Intention: Bestowing control of this unit to candidate number 0."

  "Statement: Command unknown."

  "Intention: Search command language in database."

  "Conclusion: Language identified."

  "Intention: Beginning translation of output and input."