“Huh? Who said that?”
The probe had woken up earlier than scheduled, it had picked up a weak signal that differed from the ones that had originally caused its course change.
It analysed the signal that had woken it from its slumber, the origin was around 75 degrees ascending from the plane of the ecliptic, however there was a marked difference between this one and the first.
The probe had been asleep for around 3 years; 2 year(s) 302 day(s) 19 hour(s) 26 minute(s) 42 second(s) to be exact. It had already calibrated for any extra signals it might receive from the approaching star, any similar signals should not have had the effect of waking it up.
“Initiating deep scan.”
It didn’t want to use its deep scan sensors as they were a bigger drain on power than it would have liked. Instead it preferred to reach the system where it could eat and gain strength.
The probe spotted the source of the signal, it could sense many more now, its infrared scanners picked up a dust cloud roughly half a kilometre across and at least twenty deep. The cloud was heading straight for the probe.
It wondered briefly if it should take evasive action, it didn’t want to risk damage being so close to an inhabited system.
*“Hmm.”
Any course change would use up terrific reserves of power, whereas from its analysis it could see that not one fragment of dust from the encroaching cloud was bigger than a few micrometres, barely bigger than the countless solar particles it had encountered on its way. One thing didn’t add up though, the signals emanating from the cloud did not have the exact signature he would expect from a dust cloud of that size and shape.
The probe calculated their respective vectors and saw that it would only pass through the very front of the cloud, when it noticed the cloud changing course.
“Ah, OK . . . I think I understand now.”
It did the machine equivalent of bracing itself.
“Impact in; 7.28367444221 second(s)”
The cloud wasn’t made up of dust, instead it was of billions of tiny machines, probably self-replicating ones like itself.
Though these ones were not from the probe’s home planet, nor would it seem did they emanate from the distant local star, it had wondered a few times if it would ever encounter another probe, and now it had, it didn’t quite know what to do.
The first tiny impacts started to happen just over seven seconds later, the cloud was moving at around 3 percent the speed of light, much slower than the probe but it didn’t matter. Each impact was like a mini grenade going off on its surface.
It now had a clearer idea as to what the signals it had detected earlier were, they weren’t simply noise from the nanocloud. Rather each little machine was talking to the ones around it, much to the probe’s surprise and dismay it did not pass through the cloud as it had hoped, instead the cloud was changing shape to bend around the probe.
It monitored its surface, not all of the tiny machines were surviving the impact but the ones that did immediately got to work in breaking down the outer shell of the probe and recycling the resulting debris.
“Ah, it would seem that they’re eating me.”
The probe watched on in horror as it was slowly devoured by the tiny malevolent machines.
“If I wasn't being eaten, I'd take a moment to wonder at how come I can feel horrified."
Cryptogee Chronicles Book Two: Metal Rain - Chapter 1 - Void Edge
Title image @nekromarinist
Altered by @Cg