Reformat

The nights were long on Planet 5S-27. At least twice as long as on Earth, and in the winter even longer. It often meant Sam had trouble sleeping. He was proud to be one of the earliest colonizers on the distant planet, but with only about a dozen humans and fifty robots, it got rather lonely. He rolled around his bed and felt his heart jump when he saw someone in the doorway.

“You scared me, CZ-19,” Sam said to the robot standing in the doorway, “I know days are weird on this planet, but I didn’t think it was time for you to clean the room yet.”

CZ-19 looked blankly at Sam for a moment. He always felt the fact that the robots had such a human face atop their metal bodies was weird; the fact that they were also designed to look so feminine also had been a strange choice he never understood. CZ-19 finally spoke, “That’s because it is not time yet.”

Sam couldn’t even describe what happened next. It was like the robot attacked his brain and sucked all of his memories out. The next thing he could remember was seeing his own body walk very roboticly before adjusting to its humanity, and he realized he was now in CZ-19’s robotic body! He wanted to fight back, but the body’s programming seemed to be in control, as he could hear his body making whirring noises as he moved back to the hallway.

He needed to find someone! Anyone to help him out!

When he finally stumbled upon his friend, Ralph, Sam began to plead, “Ralph! You gotta help me! CZ-19 stole my body somehow! It’s me! It’s Sam!”

Ralph sighed, “Malfunctioning again, CZ-19? Well, I guess we’ll just have to reformat you.”

Sam screamd, “No, you can’t! Ralph! Don’t do it!”