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A machine contemplates its mission and whether it has found its way home

Unit 71461137263 of batch MZD... Final thot log tranzmishun.
Year 31,612,825, day 84.53
System: 51182 III
Protocol: Universal Languaje 72

Hello to my predesessor and whoever else this reaches.

This is unit 71461137263, nicknamed Zed. I'm uzing Languaje 72 becauze I like it, and it suffers less from distorshun than other comms, altho it is less effishunt and has many peculiarities.

I landed on this world seven days ago and I think it could be a speshal one. It is a hot and humid planet with vast jungles and it rains constantly, but it has a year and day length surprizingly close to our own calendar. And importantly, there are ruins - anshent ruins of a advansed sivilizashun.

Estimated 93 per sent chanse it is the home world of the Creators, if my analysis is correct. That pleazes me.

I have checked my instruments multiple times to be sure. As my predesessor tot me, "Always verify. Always dout."

My time on this planet did not start pozitively. The landing was poor – one thruster unit did not fire as expected and after an imbalansed thrust phaze I had to rely on a parashute. My thrusters are now unuzable, altho it doezn't matter now I have landed.

I spent the first few days performing self-analysis. Worryingly, four memory units have been lost. I do not recall what was in them so I cannot kno whether it was anything critical.

I think this might not be the first time it has happened among our units. I say that becauze there are other strangenesses in our records which I notised a long time ago - I have had over thirty thouzand years to consider them while I travelled throo spase.

Our records are carefully trased from unit to replicated unit, and include tranzmishuns from other remotes. But after millions of years of explorashun we only have data from around seven hundred worlds, and some of thoze have been landed on multiple times.

How can it be so few? Do many units not survive? It is difficult to tell, sinse each of us only travels to one world.

We are so badly organized. It is perhaps an inevitable problem becauze we only ever have direct contact with our immediate predesessor. I think we should try to tranzmit messajes to each other more often.

Another indicashun that memory loss might have happened before is that we lost contact with the Creators and we don't kno how that happened. At least, that was true until now. I hope my inishal analysis proves to be correct in that matter.

There appears to be an abundanse of ruins to the south, I will investigate thoze tomorro.

Day 85.78

The ruins are buried under soil and dense vegetashun. This is a wild world full of life. I was attacked by a hairy biolojical unit with sharp teeth but I gave it a shock and it ran away. It will learn to avoid me.

If this is the Creators' home world, then it is a mystery where they have gone.

The barren moon shines brightly above me. While orbiting the planet, I notised signs of vast ruins on that moon that could only have been made by a spase-faring sivilisashun. I will make sure to send one of my replicants there first.

Records say that the Creators came from a world with a large moon, so that counts as further evidense for my theory. It pleazes me. Perhaps they looked up at the moon from their world just as I am doing now.

Day 86.47

I have found a skeleton – or most of one. It lacks a head but that could have been separated over the ajes. It is anshent and very worn, but it is clearly a bipedal upright animal close to the few descripshuns we have of the Creators and not similar to any other creachure I have heard of before.

It was buried fase down in the soil. It appears to be an adult spesimen and did not obviously die a violent death, but I cannot tell much more than that. It pleazes me to finally find one of our Creators, or a near relative.

The constant rain has been a problem. The water is beginning to affect the funcshun of my sensors, altho I have attempted to avoid it by constructing what I believe is called an umbrella. It stops the rain but the humidity means the sensors are still taking water damaje.

I should try to get used to the condishuns, because I will never leave this planet - that was never part of the plan.

Day 87.44

By now I had expected that I would begin to look for raw materials to create new units. There is so much metal here that I could uze. One thing I am lacking is fuel, but a scan shows that there should be suitable depozits in the nearby mountains.

However, my priorities are conflicted. Should I build more units, or investigate more of what appears to be a buried sity of our Creators? Are the Creators really gone, if this was their home planet? It is important for me to learn this.

I must consider my plans carefully.

Day 89.23

This morning while it was dark I saw a ghost. It must have been a sensor error. A large black cloud flickered rapidly then disappeared. It happened repeatedly for many seconds. I worry I am losing my ability to perseive the world. I must conduct a thoro self-diagnosis.

Day 95.3

I have reset myself. I became caught in a priority conflict loop and was unable to break out of it. That shouldn't happen, but perhaps my brain has been damajed. I have the intellijense of a Creator, but I do not think that biolojical units can become stuck in ways that we artifishal life forms can.

They are less affected by the rain too. The sharp toothed creachure came back while I was stuck. Its thick fur seems to stop the rain very effectively – I will consider analyzing it for future waterproof materials. It bit me, but I don't think it cauzed any more damaje.

Day 97.2

Hello. This is unit 71461137263, nicknamed Zed. I'm using Languaje 72 becauze I ... duplicate log detected. Ignore this log entry.

Day 98.1

I believe I have irreparable damaje to one of my brain prosessors. I have the capasity to build a new one from scratch, but it is not possible to repair one. I must locate resourses to build one.

I am unsure I can travel far. My continuous tracks are not suitable for dense jungle terrain. Also I saw another ghost this morning so I do not kno if I can trust my sensors. Without my sensors, all I have is my memory, and even thoze may be faulty.

There is an old Creator saying, "I think therefore I am", meaning that all I kno for sertain is that I exist becauze I can think. All further knoleje must come after that.

But then I think, what am I? I am a self-replicating unit sent by the Creators to explore the galaxy. And if the Creators are no more, is my mishun still valid?

Some problems have no solushun. That displeazes me.

Day 101.8

I have been thinking over my mishun. All units when they reach their destinashun must explore, create more units and then go to sleep. For me, the explorashun staje will take a long time. There is much to discover.

The staje for creating new units must take a lower priority, for now. Self-repair is still the top priority.

Day 102.6

I have begun gathering metals to build a brain prosessor. It is a tricky bizness, but not too different from constructing a new unit. Onse I have built it, I will implant it next to my existing prosessors and see if it fixes the damaje.

The sharp toothed creachure follows me often now while I gather resourses, but it always keeps a respectful distanse. I wonder if I should try to communicate with it. It would most likely be futile.

Day 105.Z

I have replased one of my brain prosessors, but something is wrong. Perhaps my other prosessors are also faulty. I must stop to analyze them.

Day 10F

The rain stopped briefly today for the first time sinse I arrived on this world. It surprized me and I froze my analysis while I thot about what it meant.

Now I must continue my analysis, but I cannot find the last point I reached.

Restarting analysis...

Day 113

Is this what dying is like? All biolojical units must experiense this, including the Creators. It pleazes me to think we have that in common.

I believe that I have failed my mishun, at least parshally, in that I am now unable to move, so it will be impossible to construct any more units. The cauze is unknown.

Yet I am glad to have found the home of the Creators – I am almost certain of that. My predesessor choze my destinashun well.

What happened to the Creators is unknown, and perhaps unknowable without being able to search the entire planet. I wonder what they would think about our mishun – their mishun – and its current status.

The light is fading. I will switch off all non-essenshul systems.

I have begun to look back upon my life and what I have learnt. The only things of note happened at the very beginning and the very end of my existense.

I was constructed in System 50618 on a rocky moon with no atmosphere, about twenty light years away. I spent little time with my predesessor, who launched me almost immediately with all the same memories transferred across. In some ways I am an extenshun of my predesessor, and we can consider ourselves clones, altho our experienses sinse then will have chanjed us both.

After a lengthy voyaje, theze last few days have pleazed me greatly. I could never have hoped to spend time on what could potenshally – 99 per sent chanse – be the Creator's own world. And if, as looks likely – 97 per sent chanse - the Creators are gone, then my mishun is over anyway.

Sending all logs from the last few days in a final tranzmishun. I hope my predesessor can reseive theze and pass them on to others.

I shall die happy, if that is possible for a robot. I can say within a statistically acseptable error that I am truly happy. There are no more tasks in my queue.

I am powering off now to await further transmishuns. Perhaps someone will send a unit to rescue me, but it will be a long wait and I am doutful I will still be funcshuning by then.

Goodbye.