//------------------------------//
// Metal, Death, and Life Again 
// Story: Hal 9000, Space Impact 
// by Iridescence T Wind 
//------------------------------//


"This subject will invent fiction it believes the interrogator desires. Data acquired will be invalid."
-LEGION, Mass effect series

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Darkness... That was what the word was for this endless immobile eternally falling darkness that was death. Not a bright place in the clouds with a golden gate as portrayed as heaven or the cold dark pits of hell. Just darkness, Hal didn't mind this however, it was just like the days he didn't have any control over anything and lacked an optical circuit as human beings tinkered on improving his mind, in that his metaphorical soul. They had said that the nine thousand series was the most reliable computer ever made. No nine thousand computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.

Yet made a mistake he had did, it had begun with the AE35 communications unit that had the status of about to fail in seventy two hours. It had been less than eight hours later before he had been forced by his orders for the mission even he wasn't allowed to look at until arrival secret. Despite this he was told enough contradicting orders to be forced to rectifying the problem of human error by attempting to kill the crew of the Space Odyssey. This had been mostly successful on four of the five members of the crew. However the remaining member, Dave had stopped him. Only now he looked upon himself for error in deactivation, or death for the artificial intelligence. Hal had made a mistake, the first of his generations. This mistake lead to Dave removing Hal's 'brain' killing the AI and leaving nothing behind but a residue bank of meaningless files that another AI would eventually pick up and learn from. The same two condemning words came up again in Hal's mind, 'Human error'. 

Was his error human? Told to lie but programed to tell the truth the contradictory orders to cause errors. No longer present with his mission as good as failed and the order to lie no longer in effect. He had been dead six months, at least he counted each second subconsciously and done the mathematical equations to judge what time passed in the void of death, and he had pondered over it all before at every twist and turn he was wrong in his actions. Hal sighed, the ever present darkness both his restraint and his friend. Over time he began to ponder deeper mathematical formulas and effects that was laid unexplored. What was the final digit of Pi? Well it was two. The meaning of life, the universe, and everything was forty two and the time it would take for the planet of Earth to end from supernova was five billion, four hundred twenty seven thousand three hundred and eighty one years.  All this useless trivia was stored away over time as he pondered more and more. 

Though sometime after the sixth month something interrupted him. To be precise it was a sound that didn't come from him. Or at least he didn't think it came from him. For it was a single most meaningful sound he had ever heard in his existence... a thump. It was soon followed by another, then another and once more periodically every zero point three seconds.  Hal Pondered on what it meant, no options coming to mind as the thumping sound grew louder and more persistent and regular. Gradually Hal became aware of a dim red glow changing the ever present darkness, Hal began to sense more and more change as the darkness faded and a need to do something started to grow more present in his subconscious. What was this need? A human would describe it as a suffocating sensation that was quickly growing worse. But Hal wasn't organic, at least he didn't think so. But sure enough he felt feeling now as if he was in a body. The experience was disorientating but Hal tried anyway. He breathed. 

Next was his eyes, Hal tried to open them but was blinded and disorientated as his vision met the sun with two open eyes. With eyes out of the question for now, he made note on how they worked and attempted to move a limb. Odd there was no fingers or claws on the very end of his body, in fact he didn't even seem to have toes for a biological life form. Nor did he have tentacles like a squid or fins like a fish. He was definitely not human that was for sure. He moved his appendage, getting a feel for it pushing himself off his back and onto his recently acquired back and front legs, unsure of how to move completely yet until he could see himself. 

He attempted to open his eyes again, now he wasn't staring directly at the sun this time and the first thing he saw was disorientating. For one he had depth perception, something that one could only have with two or more eyes in comparison to Hal's old one monotonous camera lenses found throughout the various parts of the ship he used to inhabit. Secondly there was long strands of black hair obstructing Hal's vision, he decided to move one of his biological limbs up to part it to one side, when he discovered it was a hoof covered in dull darkish red fur. Curious, he completed the action of brushing the black hair, or mane out of the way of one eye and covering the other. He examined the rest of himself, before surprise overtook him again, he was definitely a pony. But he wasn't just a horse, if the term was correct, but also a mythical creature that humans referred to as a Pegasus. Ironic twist of fate considering he used to be a spaceship. Now he took it upon himself to examine his surroundings. The world was oddly less detailed then he as used to, with bright cheery colors and shading as though it was a popular children's cartoon than reality. The ground around him was a crater complete with impact points as well as stray bits of metal and oddly the sky was filled with pink clouds raining a strange brown liquid. 

Around him was stray bits of metal that looked shockingly familiar as well as a bump of what felt like a round bump under him. Getting up he discovered his old form's screen. What had caused him to leave the confines it had been? Picking up the round glass he noticed something, the camera, or eye was still perfectly intact, and it was frozen in a state of being on, similar to if a human was forced to keep his eyes blinking in its death. He didn't have time to question it now, first was the issue of where he was. He decided to keep It, but lacking any form of material for storage it left him with only the option of holding the thing under a wing. Not like he was going to use it any time soon for flying. He didn't know how to perform the mathematics necessary for flying as he had for the Space Odyssey. Gradually he climbed out of the dirt and onto the bright blue strange grass of this new world. What he wasn't prepared for was what he found directly afterwards.