Unknown

Lost in his thoughts, his ears focused on the electric humming that was occasionally interrupted by the clickity-clackity sounds of a keyboard coming from the other room. He wondered if the humming was from a machine or just the sound of silence. Only he and one other "person" were using that keyboard, which was relatively loud. "I haven't heard the sound of crickets in forever. I wonder if they even exist," he thought, frowning as he stared at his dim computer screen.

These screens were specifically built with a paper texture using advanced technology that people like him didn't create—robots like the loud keyboard guy did, who also happened to be his boss. Discrimination in this world wasn’t based on gender or sex anymore but on the percentage of machine in you. Every human was at least 30% machine; if you were 40%, you got assigned to labour jobs, but if you were 90%, you might head the company. It didn’t make sense, but these rules were created by their human predecessors, complete humans who hadn't existed for a decade now.

Machines ran things but also ensured human needs were properly met, and one of their inventions was the paper screen, developed to reduce the burden on human eyes.

His thoughts were interrupted by a flash on the screen: "Unknown Life Form Detected," and the humming was replaced by the loud blaring of the emergency alarm. He quickly looked behind to find his 80% robot boss waiting for him to accompany him to check the marked location, almost as if he was scared to do it alone. Both of them picked up the ‘life form containment and elimination kit’ and headed towards the area. The boss was faster as he had wheels for feet but was considerate enough to keep looking back and waiting for his slightly more human employee to catch up. Or who knows, maybe his metallic claws were actually useless, and he was a timid little machine inside. The 50% human had mixed feelings about this out-of-the-ordinary operation. He was excited to see the “unknown life form,” which he probably would recognize, but also a little fearful of its size, which he wasn’t so sure about.

Ever since this new era of turning humans into humanoids started, the rest of the creatures on earth found separate places to live. Even domestic animals like cats and dogs and common insects disappeared from the main city and factory areas. It was almost as if they didn’t welcome this drastic change to earth’s creations. The robots also left them alone, so their identification system could only recognize humanoids, humans, robots, other machines, and some foliage; anything else that had DNA was an “unknown life form.”

They finally reached the location marked on their trackers. There was a huge circle of red light on the floor where this creature was supposedly detected. The boss gestured for his counterpart to check out the red light area while he turned the alarm off. The 50% human slowly walked towards the light to see what this life form was, but as soon as the robot turned the alarm off, he could hear it, clearly. His frown quickly turned into a smile as nostalgia hit him like a truck. The unknown life form was, in fact, a known, loved, and comforting sound to him. It was a tiny cricket, and it sounded so much better than the "Earth sounds" recordings his other humanoid counterparts played.