Unexpected Saviors Poem by David Welch

I.
I am a quantum physicist,
and my name is Hamilton Kerr,
I am cursed with having knowledge
of what is going to occur.

Yes, I am talking time travel,
see I worked on a DARPA-team,
our job: to foresee the future,
a strategists ultimate dream.

We were considered long-shots,
given little chance to succeed,
spent three years in obscurity,
with vibrating strings we did weave.

But out team of obscure tech-heads
tried an approach none had before,
I can't explain all the details,
but small success soon yielded more.

This led to a bigger budget,
and a large power supply,
then finally a prototype,
who volunteered to test it? I.

The army didn't know of it,
they would've slowed down everything,
but we were so damn excited,
ready to go time travelling.

So they put me in the machine,
not sure when in time I would go,
but I knew I'd stay near this place
regardless of time's quirky flow.

My vision seemed to flux oddly,
vomit came and went from my throat,
my balance shifted here and there,
I felt like I was on a boat.

Then it resolved, faded away,
I sound myself standing outside,
the sky was gray, the air dusty,
when I breathed it hurt my insides.

And it was cold, the sun blocked out,
something clearly had gone sideways,
I stood for a half-hour then
saw a figure coming my way.

At first I thought it was human,
but looking close, something seemed off,
the skin was a gun-metal gray,
and it looked quite rigid, not soft.

I stared at a humanoid robot,
very soon, it was at my side,
looked unblinking, seemed confused,
asked, "How is it you are alive? "

I was too stunned to answer then,
it cocked its head quizzically,
said, "Your body is giving off
a strange and unknown energy…"

He must have signaled his fellows,
a dozen more robots appeared,
as thunder cracked, one said to me,
"Come on, it's not safe for you here."

Now I finally could react,
said, "Did you take over the Earth? "
Then the robots somehow chuckled,
my question a big source of mirth.

One said, "We wouldn't be trying
to save you from the storm to come,
besides, I'm rather curious
as to where you have come from."

II.
We then walked back to a bunker,
a vast complex deep underground,
I stared at it all, astonished,
as the robots lead me on down.

We went to an old conference room,
and the lead robot met my eyes,
asked, "How did you survive out there?
It's been decades since mankind died."

I said, "Is that what happened here?
Did you rebel and kill us all? "
said the robot, "We're not evil,
And played no real part in your fall.

"How is it you do not know this?
It's all quite recent history? "
Seeing his look, I blurted out:
"I'm from two thousand twenty-three."

Now the robot looked quite surprised,
called in fellows to talk and scan,
appraised me with their instruments,
all struggling to understand.

It took them nearly an hour to
accept that I was from the past,
but the ‘strange energy' clinched it,
the lead robot sat there, aghast.

"I would not think it possible, "
he said with his voice all amazed,
"To think man figured time travel
way back in those primitive days...

"Now I think I can understand
why you think we killed your species,
those were the stories you told then,
we've preserved all the old movies.

"But we are not the reason why
the human species is no more,
we'd never kill our creators,
that was done by the meteors."

And then the robot ‘caught me up, '
I'd leapt forwards four hundred years,
mankind had invented A.I.,
but it hadn't brought the old fears.

The machines now had sentience,
put them in the same boat as us,
should they do right, should them do wrong,
what belief do you choose? What cause?

They'd not been slaves to mankind,
we'd not repeated that mistake,
in time they'd became citizens,
they'd voted and they'd had a stake.

Life had existed much the same,
with all of the ups and downs,
man and robot lived alongside
in all of our cities and towns.

The robots never really died,
but they could never reproduce,
Small in number, but ever wise,
if lacking the vigor of youth.

The humans had the numbers edge,
and the creative temperament,
pushing frontiers the robots could not,
but lacking in real permanence.

Each race filling out the other,
society working quite well,
until the day the meteors
plunged the whole Earth right into hell.

III.
"We do not know how we missed them, "
he said, his voice becoming said.
"Hundreds of them, some big, some small...
the heavens all seemed to go mad.

"Some struck hard into the oceans,
and tsunamis scoured the coasts,
the ones hitting land threw up dust,
and that was what killed off the most.

"Just like back in the Cretaceous,
no sun meant the plants could not grow,
billions of creatures were dying,
the herbivores were first to go.

"People lasted longer than most,
some of them had hidden reserves,
but billions more died by staving,
a fate that nobody deserves.

"And we could only watch as our
friends and compatriots all died,
as our beautiful, green planet
withered under these darkened skies.

"Some people survived for decades,
but the writing was on the wall,
we knew if something wasn't done
the whole of the species would fall.

"So we went to find survivors,
took samples of their DNA.
it would take time, but we believed
that we had found ourselves a way.

"Then we build giant processors
that would take in, filter the air.
The last humans died knowing that
all had not been lost to despair."

With that he rose up to his feet,
and asked me to follow his lead,
we went deeper into the bunker,
so shocked I though my brain would bleed.

Meteors slamming to the Earth…
the whole species now extinct?
All that remained was our robots…
what was a man supposed to think?

Then we cam to a great chamber,
with many racks, each holding a box,
each box maybe two-feet by four,
filled with what looked like green soup stock.

"Inside each is a zygote, "he said,
"in stasis until the time is right,
we need another ten year's time
to rid the Earth of this long night."

Despite all that he had told me
I had my suspicions as well,
said, "How do I know you'll birth them,
not keep the whole world to yourself? "

He shook his head and spoke sadly,
"You don't get it, there is no choice.
Robots lack creativity,
a weakness we cannot avoid.

"Without that gift of human minds
we all would stagnate and decay,
if both species are to survive
we must do this, there's no other way."

Just from the way he said it all
I suspected he was sincere,
wanted to say as much to him,
but right then things got really weird…

IV.
My vision began to flux oddly,
vomit came and went from my throat,
my balance shifted here and there,
once again, like I was on a boat.

And then I was back inside it,
looking out from that great machine,
my fellows looked on, I focused,
told myself this was not a dream.

They all pressed in, wanted to know
where I had gone and what I saw,
but just then the MPs broke in,
shouting, "Stop! You're breaking the law! "

The military was not pleased
we'd experimented on men,
the ringleaders were arrested,
all our machines taken, and then

They just turned and let me go free,
I wasn't one of the top minds,
I tried to tell them what I saw,
but they laughed, did not have the time.

I reach out to the astronomers,
said to look for a meteor group,
few took my words seriously,
I've not heard back from those who do.

Leaving me stuck with cold knowledge,
a Cassandra none care to hear,
I keep saying when doom will come,
as mad as that makes me appear.

So I've changed fields to robots,
work longer hours than anyone,
so our unexpected saviors
will be ready when the day comes.