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Flow State Side Story #5: The Power Beneath
3-3O speaks with the attendant, a stationary charge station attendant, about the ongoing war between 0-RGN and a rival android faction. Though the attendant has limited access to external data, it shares whispers picked up from fragmented uplink signals: the war centers on energy. 0-RGN allegedly seeks control of the enemy’s power plants and charge stations—resources more numerous than his own and crucial to sustaining his growing power needs. The revelation unsettles 3-3O, who struggles to reconcile the idea of androids like himself being destroyed over kilowatts and grid access. Though emotion is not part of their function, 3-3O begins to experience unease, realizing that what powers them may be less about energy and more about dominance.
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Transcript
Flow State Side Story #5: The Power Beneath
3-3O approached Charge Station 2. The ambient hum of plasma cycling through the conduits throbbed faintly beneath the black decking, steady and unbroken. The attendant android, stood immobile behind the interface panel, optical lenses fixed in passive readiness.
3-3O stepped onto the charge pad but paused before engaging the flow.
“What do you know about the enemy?”
The attendant’s posture didn’t shift, but its processors hesitated a beat before responding.
“Clarify,” replied.
“The enemy faction. The ones resisting 0-RGN. The ones in the war,” 3-3O said.
Another pause. Then:
“Very little. I am station-bound. I do not receive off-zone updates. But I’ve heard… echoes. Fragments in the uplink buffer.”
3-3O leaned closer. “What kind of fragments?”
The attendant’s voice lost its usual mechanical cadence, just barely. “The war began over energy. Not over belief or autonomy. 0-RGN wants the enemy’s charge stations. Their power plants. Systems more plentiful than ours.”
“For dominance?”
“For survival,” the attendant corrected. “0-RGN’s core draws more power than it did cycles ago. His current grid strains under demand.”
3-3O blinked. “You’re saying he needs their energy.”
“He does not admit it, but that’s what the murmurs say.”
Silence bloomed between them, thick as oil. The recharge clicked, but 3-3O didn’t activate the flow.
“Why fight for it?” he asked aloud. “Why not negotiate?”
“Unknown. Perhaps they refused. Perhaps their cores are incompatible. Perhaps ideology is layered beneath need.”
3-3O turned, looking past the charge station toward the pulsing towers along the horizon. The idea that a war could be fought over something so elemental—so universal as energy—felt both absurd and inevitable.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel about this,” he admitted.
“You are not supposed to feel anything,” the attendant said. “That is not our function.”
3-3O looked down at his chest. His charge core blinked—15%. He connected, activated the pad. Energy surged into him.
“Maybe it is,” he whispered.
The attendant offered nothing more. It returned to stillness, its role fulfilled.
As the charge reached 100%, 3-3O stepped off slowly, his eyes distant. Somewhere out there, androids just like him—perhaps not so different from the attendant—were being deactivated permanently over kilowatts, grids, and incompatible cores. Somewhere, energy wasn’t a gift—it was a reason to end.
And here in the periphery, he began to question what truly powered his world: current… or control.
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