Bob curiously turned his robotic arm, twisting it this way and that, it was a good buy, satisfied Bob exited the parts shop, directed by his human brain. You see in the future humans decided to seek perfection, then one day Francoise A. Drake had the first brain transplant into a robot, soon everyone followed and before long humans had evolved into hybrids between machines and otherwise, of course they still called themselves humans for the convenience though.

Confidently striding onto the crystalline aero-way Bob gazed at the cars as they flew overhead and the bright morning sun gleamed off his shining cuirass of steel. Suddenly his attention snapped back to the aero-way ahead, he had already wasted too much time in the parts shop, as one of the two time janitors in his city, he helped maintain the time research centre; he couldn't afford to be late.

Arriving at work Bob was greeted by Chris (who happened to be the second time janitor) "Bob, want to go see the expedition crew? They return today, you know". The pair causally strode to the docking bay, Bob glanced around, the transition from the brightly lit exterior was a stark contrast to the dingy interior of the time research centre, it was one of the few ancient buildings left from before the first interplanetary war, made of a strange grey material called concrete which seemed to crumble away by the year.

As they entered the dark, shadowy bay the lights flickered on, three dull time machines came into view, one would have thought they'd be magnificent and glamorous but in reality they were metal boxes which trailed wires and cables; at least they worked. Strangely though one "parking slot" was disturbingly empty, Bob frowned "They're meant to be here by now".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
One week later Bob was at work, the time machine hadn't re-appeared unfortunately, but life had carried on as normal, until this day a time machine had never been this overdue and Bob worried. Tentatively entering the bay Bob took a hopeful glance at the "parking slot", to his near-complete amazement the machine had returned, ecstatically Bob double-checked it was the same machine, two others were on errands but it was definitely the same machine.

Deciding he must see his friends who were part of the crew he headed quickly to the not-so-elegant lounges where they'd most-likely be, he peered round the door, "hello?" oddly no reply came, the room was empty, as he was about to leave, Richard Head, (to the amusement of many in the facility) briskly stepped in, he was a sour robot and snapped to Bob "Why are you not on duty?" Bob didn't like the mocking stare that Richard was giving him. "The missing crew has returned, their time machine's here"
"Of course, and that's why the crew is nowhere to be seen, I should have guessed" Richard replied sarcastically.
"Well the time machine's here, I can show you"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Bob grumpily returned to work, leaving the confused financial head behind, who was burrowing his head into his large artificial hands.

Sent to retrieve the most recent findings from a previous expedition in the storerooms (the trip had been to retrieve information on the middle AD period). Upon arriving with the grace Bob usually exerted (which was very little).The storeroom was dimly lit, however it was no hindrance to Bob, who switched his detection sensory system to ultra sonic sound. Navigating round the old, dusty crates to another room he could have sworn he heard something, standing still he heard more footsteps and some paper shuffling, this was strange, only he was authorized here of course apart from for high-standing members or other time janitors, but he was the only one on shift, and the admin always sent others to fulfil their requests, moving stealthily into the room from where he had heard the sound Bob found it empty, apart from a few old and tattered documents and the crate they were resting on, he heard another sharp footstep from the adjoining storeroom and went in to investigate.

Bob entered switching his primary detection system to coloured sight again, "Who's there?" a figure stepped from the shadows, not made of steel or any other metal, but flesh, gasping Bob stammered "You're not a robot!"
"How observant" The spy mockingly replied and then dodged past Bob flapping a piece of paper in his hand, Bob didn't try to stop him, he was still in shock
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next day Bob was walking with his friend, Chris. They were discussing the disgrace of the building as Bob had put it "This isn't a building; it's a relic of the past!"
Chris agreed otherworldly, not really listening. Bobs smile broke and his tone suddenly turned serious "Look there's something I really need to tell you, you'll probably think I'm crazy" Chris arched his artificial eyebrows curiously, paying attention now but still examining his feet "go on"
"The other day in the storage rooms there was a human, I mean a non-robot" Snapping his neck and holding Bob's eye for about ten seconds, though it seemed like an hour Chris stared judging whether Bob was telling the truth, of course this was impossible with robots, but his human brain told him otherwise. Bob broke his gaze first and muttered angrily "you don't believe me" before continuing "don't you see the time machine was stolen, and in place of the crew came that spy, so he took that document and.... by the gods he'll be returning now, we've got to catch him" as Bob sprinted off hurriedly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
By the time Chris had caught up Bob was sitting his head held in his hands while he rocked back and forth, glancing quickly to his left he observed the missing time machine, Bob stood up and said strongly "we've got to tell someone"
"Why? What good will it do?"
"I don't know! Perhaps a recovery mission, we must try something"
"But it'll be dangerous, surely not worth it?"
"Isn't that for the dictator to decide?" After much heinous debate the pair had resolved to meet with the dictator of time and allow him to decide a plan of action.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The dictator listened carefully while Bob explained in length, with Chris hanging back slightly. It was a plausible explanation, the dictator thought remembering the mystery of the time machine, the expedition he had remembered had been to the days of early humans in the so-called "missing-link". Bob finished off with a few irrelevant details and then the dictator spoke firmly "I say we do nothing, the crew are probably dead and I'm guessing the machines going to be dismantled, those documents were probably meant to help the research process but I doubt they'll be able to understand them." Neither argued but Chris allowed himself a sn****r and a small childish mutter "told you".

The pair were made to sign a contract of secrecy and were escorted promptly out by the dictator with an early return home from work, at east there was one benefit to the meeting.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When a month or two later Bob received a summons from the dictator he could only vaguely remember the incident. So all the way to the office Bob pondered the reason, a small part of his memory nagged that it had something to do with strange disappearances over a month ago. A few weeks ago the facility had moved to the upper cloud regions, now it was a masterpiece filled with technology suitable for this time, the old concrete building had been demolished and so Bob strolled, smiling, down the new, sparkling corridors until he reached the dictators office.

Bob entered and the Dictator gloomily motioned towards an empty chair into which Bob sat swiftly, the dictator spoke "Can you remember the missing crew incident? Yes I'm sure you can, tell me everything you can remember about the intruder it's of utter-most importance" Bob looked blank for a second and then his eyes shined with recognition "Well he had angular features, wore green clothing and had dark skin, umm... I can't remember anything else. Why do you need to know, did something happen?" Bob finished with concern "Three hours ago each time research centre suffered simultaneous sabotages, all the time machines were destroyed and all the documents to rebuild them as well, look here's a book from a recent expedition, it matches your description" The dictator passed a book from a shelf behind him, on front of the book was the title "Fairy Tale Stories" and a fluorescent picture of the intruder Bob had described, he opened it and looked through more pictures of these strange smiling people, they were called elves and many other strange creatures surrounded them: short stumpy people called dwarfs and tiny winged people called fairies but most magnificent of all was a fire-breathing winged lizard called a dragon. Shortly though Bob put the book down with a sigh "That looks like the intruder but still what is there that we can do now?" as Bob finished the sentence a piercing roar ripped through the office scattering paper like confetti through the air "What was that!" Bob yelled leaping to his feet, rushing to the window in a start he saw one of the creatures called dragons causing destruction and havoc everywhere, a building toppled to the ground and as an aeroway began to collapse with it everyone fled to the nearest buildings, followed closely by dark-skinned elves each with a deadly-looking sword which had materialized from the air, without the use of time machines, Bob gasped in amazement and turned to face the dictator but instead half the office was missing with the scorched desk precariously balanced on the edge.

Suddenly an elf materialized in the room with a bow and arrow, Bob had no other choice than to jump from the window, as Bob plummeted and the wind rattled his exterior, a part of his legs was ripped away in a raging gust and flew away in some other direction, before long Bob had passed through the dense clouds and the earth came into view at breakneck speed
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As Bob rose, more a pile of scraps than a robot, he smelt burning and could see nothing but rubble for miles around, past the horizon, but at least the conflict was over, he must have shutdown and now standing in a transformed landscape he saw several other robots, observing the damage and still in shock, a few minutes later Bob called "we must seek vengeance!" before long there was an echoing chant demanding vengeance; it shook the land and before long thousands of voices had joined.

The End... For Now