When I woke up I realized that after the long reading of uncle Mukhiddin"s diary I had fallen asleep sitting on the chair with my hand on the table.
I had a strange dream. I saw myself swim through the thick fog in a wooden boat, across the endless ocean, splashing the water with the oars. I had rowed a long time, before I reached a fabulous island. I bound my boat to a palm tree growing on the sandy shore. It was quiet there, not counting the hue and cry of birds and the sound of the ocean surf.
Admiring the island"s landscapes I walked along the sandy shore and suddenly saw an iron man with his nose broken. I stopped. The iron man stared at me in surprise with his eyes blinking and casting a green light. Then he turned round and ran off rattling like a tin plate which the peasants strike with a stick during the solar eclipse. The sound gradually faded. I climbed a tree to see where the iron man had gone. He was running back now along with other robots. There were many of them. A whole gang. Hoping to hide from them I jumped down. But it was too late. They ran up close to me. The one with a broken nose cried:
- There he is, our God Almighty! He must have heard our prayers and arrived.
The robots bowed submissively and lay down on the ground.
- Pardon us, oh Lord! - shouted they in chorus.
Now oneof them raised his head and said:
- Oh God, you have arrived at last. We"ve been waiting for you for such a long time! We knew you would come!
I stood in fear and trembling not knowing what to do. Then, pulling myself together, I said:
- What are you talking about? I am not in the least a god! Are you crazy? I am an ordinary man! A human cannot be God. Don"t worship a human being. It"s a big sin!
- No, - said the robot - we know well that we were created by man, hence he is our God. Don"t reject us! When you left us our power unit broke. We are short of oil and spare parts. To make things still worse, the epidemic "rust" has broken out. So many robots have died from this plague. You see, we are all rusty. God, help us, for pity's sake! I am leader of the robot tribe here.
- I understand you. But I will say it again, I am not God! I am an ordinary man! Here is my passport which says that I am really a man, and my name is Al Kizim. My surname is Sunnatov. There you are, look and see, if you don"t believe me.
I showed them my pass.
- Oh lord, don"t say that - the tribe leader said - what I told you about the suffering of our community is only part of the trouble! Due to lack of energy our army has lost its defensive capacity. The aliens have broken our army"s resistance, and now and then they kidnap our fellow countrymen as metal waste and compress them with a press-machine. They have captured thousands of robots, and this outrage is going on up to now! Kargarangs deceitfully make us work for them in mines. We work from morning till night extracting uranium for 6-12 volts of energy. What can we do? We want to live, after all. God, have mercy upon us! Give us your blessing!
I thought a little and then said:
- All right, I will help you fix your power supply unit. But don"t call me God.
- Agreed! Oh Lord! - they shouted.
I raise my hand to quiet the excited crowd. When the noise ceased I said:
- After I restore the power supply unit you will be independent and stop working in pits. The radioactive uranium is bad for your health! If you don"t stop worshipping man, if you don"t get rid of the nasty habit of bootlicking and if you don"t learn how to control the power supply there will be no democracy in your community!
At this point someone in the crowd raised his hand and asked in a loud voice:
- Oh, our Lord, may I ask you a question?
- Yes, please but don"t call me "our lord", ok?
- OK and what is democracy, if it is not a secret?
- Ah, that"s a delicate question - I answered. Democracy, how should I explain it to you... It"s a society where robots live like one friendly family regardless of economy and production, no matter if it is made of pig-iron or tin. In a democratic society all robots are equal. Democracy is...
No sooner had I said it than a robot with a cubic head shouted from the crowd:
- Don"t listen to him! He is lying! Corrosion is not because of uranium, it"s because we have to wash ourselves! Our enemy number one is water! We shouldn"t wash! I am sure he will start building bath-houses on our island tomorrow so that all our generation may die from corrosion! That"s entirely his fault! Had he made us of a more solid metal we wouldn"t have suffered so much! He has deliberately made us of tin having saved silver and gold! It"s humiliation, and mockery, brothers! Don"t believe this crook! We shall work in pits extracting uranium in excess of the plan and helping our friendly people of Kargarang! My dear fellow countrymen, beat this god! Kill him!
- That"s right! Beat him! Kill the god! - cried another robot with a round ball-shaped head.
I cried in panic:
- Don"t beat me! I am not God!
Presently, one robot attacked me. I assumed a fighting stance like a karate fighter and started moving with light bounding skips. Then I shouted "ki -ya-a-a" and kicked the one who had attacked me. His tin backside rattled as he fell down. His head sparkled. It was a short circuit, I figured. I looked and saw his eyes fuse like a pair of burnt out electric light bulbs. On seeing this one of the robots said:
- Our vicious god has kicked Talarsus Tongatar in the backside killing him. Poor Tongatar!
We will avenge you! Beat him! Beat this god!
The angry crowd of robots attacked me like an assault squadron. At this point, thank God, I woke up and couldn"t come round for a long time. I looked at the watch. It was 24:00. The moon was shining outside my window.