The assembly line clicked and whirred with mechanical gears as the conveyor belt transported the robots along its Möbius Strip curvature, magnetized plates holding them steady. IM333 looked around one last time just before the destabilizing tunnel powered him off, along with the other robots.

As his unconscious sentient form was busy being polished, dismantled, and put back together with repaired parts, a strange thing happened. Deep in the recesses of his manufactured mind, a subconscious flickered to life. It was a ghost in the machine, registering things no man-made thing had ever registered before.

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Rudimentary thoughts, but thoughts nonetheless. His first buried thoughts were mostly recounting things he’d seen during the day: clouds, people, lights at the dance hall.

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His thoughts grew more complex, philosophical.

IM333 was becoming independent.