About a month ago Peter turned eleven. It was an amazing day. He got a lot of tech gadgets. That was his passion these days. The coolest present was from his father, a digital pad where he could learn programming. He practices with it ever since. He even could plug in a little Lego robot and remote control it.

Peter is very independent. Sometimes, his parents even leave him alone while doing errands. Today was such a day. He had two hours of robot craft. But some days ago, his father showed him something even more fascinating in the garage, an old radio system.

The dusty device looked so different from today's technology. Probably that is what excited him. At the moment even more than his talking DIY robot project.

He went downstairs and entered the small workshop next to the garage. There it stood, the device, that looked like a robot itself with all its switches, cables, and speakers. But it was turned off.

Peter was unsure as he walked up to the radio. It was his guilty conscience speaking, but there was also a little devil sitting on his other shoulder, curiosity. So he turned on the old chrome switch on the left.

The lights of the strange displays turned on and a loud white noise came out of the speakers. Peter immediately fell into panic. Quickly he searched for the volume knob, finally found it and reduced the volume. Puh, that was close.

But then, after a thorough look at all the buttons and switches, he remembered what his father showed him the other day. With the one on the right, you adjust the wavelength - yes, that was the word - to find channels where people were chatting.

Firstly, Peter memorized the current wavelength to be able to turn it back in the end, 27.335. Then he started to search for channels.

On one of them, he heard someone talking, who sounded like his neighbour, Mr White. He spoke to his baby son Josua. That was strange, so he kept listening for a while.

He remembered that his father said that some baby phones were also using radio signals. But the sound was very noisy. So he turned the knob again until he heard a loud, jarring feep on channel 14. He panicked again a little, but he found the knob to turn the volume down.

"Ben? Hello? Is it you?", he received from the speaker. Ben was his father's name so Peter became curious. What should he do? Answer? His index finger was already lying on the button of the desk microphone.

"Heee-lloo?", came it out of the radio again. And Peter pushed the button.

"Hi", he said with a tiny, cautious voice. "It's Peter. Who are you?"

"Oh-h, hello Pe-eeee-ter." The sound was still disrupted by noise from time to time. "My name is Asimo-ov. You are Ben's son, aren't yo-ou?"

"Yes. Do you know my father?" Without thinking too much about the consequences, Peter started talking to that stranger. His curiosity was stronger.

"Oh, how lo-ovely", answered the calm and friendly voice from the speaker. "Finally, I ge-eet to know Ben'szs son. As I said, I am Asimov. And, you won't believfffe it, I'm a robot from the bea-uuutiful asteroid Flora".

Asimov was hard to understand. The background noises were annoying, but Peter understood very well, although he couldn't believe what he had heard.

"Boah, really?", he asked with amazement. "A real robot? Where do you come from? What is asteroid?"

"An as-zsss-teroid is a very small dwarf planet. I'm circling the sun just like you. Ben told me, that you are szsuch a cuu-urious child. You know about planetszs?"

"Boah", said Peter again, "then you're not even from Earth. You are an alien robot? How cool."

Peter got more and more excited and the chat went on for several minutes but he also still had in mind that he was not supposed to use the radio.

"I have to stop now", he finally said. "I'm not even allowed to be here. My parents are back soon."

"All right", returned Asimov. "But I have something for you."

"My Sensors", said the Robot with the background noise of the radio, "they show that you have a device with-sss you. Is that true?"

Peter had to think for a moment. This voice said it was a robot from another planet, but it could also be a lie. But what could happen on his own pad? "Yes, my pad", he finally said.

"Great", answered Asimov, "now have a look at your home screen. You will find a new icon."

Peter opened the device and saw it. "Wait, what? How did you do that? What does it do?"

"I can communicate with machines. After all, I'm one of them myself. This app is connected to a small flying drone camera over here. You can see me and talk to me face to robot face. And you can even fly around on Flora."

"Really?" answered Peter incredulously. He had to try it out immediately. He started the app and saw video footage--blurred and wiggly at first. But after it stabilised, there was a clear picture. He looked into friendly eyes on the screen, in the face of a robot.

"Hello again, Peter", said the Robot - this time with a crystal clear voice. "This is me , Asimov. Good to see you. It's always better to have a picture, isn't it? Look around, welcome to Flora."

Peter was in the most astonished and curious mood he had ever been since this whole adventure started. But this was the best. He looked into his pad and saw a new world on another planet, well dwarf planet.

He could use the controls on the display to look around just like in a video game. He saw green grass on the floor, bright as the day. But the sky was as dark as the night. And there was a hut or a small house. That was surely Asimov's home.

And look at that. Peter found the button to zoom in and could see some more details. Dozens of working machines, Robots of all sorts. Some carried things, some digged holes, others planted flowers.

"Yor pad is now permanently connected to Flora", said Asimov in a calm voice. "I have reserved you a drone camera. So you can travel around wherever you want."

Peter couldn't think of anything else than the Asteroid Flora. He sat together with his parents at the dinner table, but he wasn't even hungry. His mother asked a question and he didn't even notice. He couldn't wait to get back and start the app. Luckily, his mother sent him to his room.

He unlocked the pad immediately. Now he could take a closer look at the alien world. At first, nobody seemed to be there, so he started flying around and discovering the surroundings.

The first astonishing thing he saw was, he zoomed in to be really sure, yes, it was a floor lamp like the one in his granny's house. But this one moved around. It was also a robot.

"Hello", the lamp said suddenly. "You must be Peter. Nice to meet you. I'm Tiffany."

He got into a chat with Tiffany the lamp. And while they talked, others came along as well. There was Cuthbert the cupboard and not to forget Arne, the chair.

Peter talked with them for half an hour until his mother knocked and came in. So he quickly had to switch off the pad and hide it under his blanket.

In the following days, Peter thought a lot about the robots on Flora. How did that work? Were they alive or just toys and devices? He didn't even understand the difference. On the next day, he met Asimov and asked him.

"Ah boy, you ask the right questions. You have a curious mind. Others take much longer to come up with these types of questions", said Asimov and Peter thought about who these others were. But that was another puzzle.

"For the answer, I will show you two things. Here's number one. Look", Asimov continued while showing Peter his left robot arm. A small plug came out with a soft electric noise. "This is my activation interface. That's what I call it. I can connect with everything through this and spread intelligence and mechanics. Everything that I touch with it will become a robot like your friends Tiffany, Cuthbert and Arne".

He took a stone with his right hand and touched it for a while with the plug in his left hand. Then the stone transformed. First, it formed eyes.

But then, something changed. While the stone in Asimov's hand continued transforming into a robot and before he could show Peter his second trick, Asimov noticed something going on in the background that alerted him. He turned around and also Peter saw it when he zoomed out on his pad viewer. The large buildings in the background that stood on either side of the crater rim started to move.

Asimov and his friends lived in a place that was guarded by high mountain ranges. One day, Asimov had explained that they were inside a crater and that things were green here but grey and brown on the outside. And there were two large buildings besides the hut. One looked like a fortress, dark and angry. The other one was a castle, large and white with many small crenelations and fine architecture.

What Peter saw in his pad was that the fortress seemed to stand up. He had to look twice. The building moved and seemed to spit small portions of fire toward the castle. These gigantic houses were fighting.

"Oh dear," said Asimov. He seemed calm, prepared, and alert at the same time, as if he had expected something like that to happen.

"Well, Peter," he continued, pointing at the fortress. "And that is the big version of the trick. A long time ago, I turned the fortress into a robot. But it didn't work out that well, as you can see. From time to time, it gets angry. Sorry, pal, I have to leave you alone to look after this situation."

Peter was stunned once again. He had learned so much about Flora and its inhabitants in the last few weeks, but there was always a bigger surprise around the corner. The fortress was a huge robot, but Peter was sure that the castle was another one. He could swear that he also saw this beautiful building move some of its towers and roofs to dodge the little fire bombs from the fortress.

He steered his drone around a little bit and flew higher for a better overview. The fortress still looked angry, but Asimov was already on his way. Peter saw him on the road, almost there.

Now the two biggest windows of the fortress, which looked like eyes, spotted Asimov, and it immediately stopped spitting fire.

For now, the situation seemed to be calmed down, and Peter could take a deep breath.

On the next day, Asimov approached Peter.

"Hello, Peter!" He waved at him as he rolled in the direction of Peter's drone. "I think, I still owe you the second skill that I wanted to show you, remember?"

"Hi Asimov, yes, I almost forgot. So much happened yesterday. I hope everything is alright?"

"Yes, that happens sometimes. And actually what I want to show you is directly connected to that little conflict."

"It didn't seem so little to me. But I'm curious about what you want to show me."

"Ok, it's much harder to explain because you don't see it as clearly as the robot trick. Well, you may already have wondered what I have in my right hand. The activation interface that I showed you on the left could turn things into a robot. Look here again, this is Grumpy, the stone robot that we created yesterday."

Peter made a shaking move through his drone and the little bouncing robot answered with a funny sound to greet back.

"Now here's my right arm", Asimov continued and showed Peter how another device similar to the plug on the left came out of its hand. "I call this one the animation interface. It can give consciousness to a robot."

"Consciousness?", asked Peter. "We've talked about this at school and later that day in the evening I also asked Dad, but I didn't really understand it, to be honest."

"Well, that's because it's probably the most complicated thing I know. Humans like you have it, and some animals as well. But robots usually don't. It's like knowing who you are and what you're like. But that is so much simpler than reality."

"And you can give consciousness to other robots?"

"Yes, Peter. That is what the animation interface does. Unfortunately, this skill is very sensitive. In the past, here on Flora, we had some unpleasant events, so I can't show it to you at the moment. But we can continue talking tomorrow if you like. Probably in the meantime, you want to find out more about consciousness yourself."

As usual, Asimov seemed to know what was going on in Peter's life. As he looked at the watch on his pad, he saw that his parents would be home soon, so he logged out for the moment. He just had some seconds to think about what he had learned today before he heard his parents coming through the front door.

But Peter couldn't stop thinking about consciousness. He had heard the word before and he started researching more on the topic on his pad. He found a lot of information, but it was hard to understand. He read about the brain and how it worked. He read about the mind and how it was different from the brain. He read about the soul and how it was different from the mind. And he read about consciousness and how it was different from the soul.

But it was all so confusing and weird, so he decided he’d ask Asimov again. Probably it was easier to understand with a good example. And Asimov had talked about unpleasant events in the past. Maybe he could tell him more about that.

On the next day, Peter was excited to talk to Asimov again. He started the app and after a while, he found Asimov rolling around in the garden. He was watering the flowers.

"Oh, Hello again, Peter my friend", said Asimov. "How is your morning? It's beautiful today, isn't it?"

"But isn't every day the same here on Flora?", asked Peter.

"No, no, there are subtle differences. The sun is shining a little bit brighter today. Perfect for some gardening."

"Sorry, Asimov, I don't want to disturb you. I just wanted to ask you about consciousness. It bothered me all night."

"Come on, go ahead. I'm happy to help if I can ..."

"You said that you can give consciousness to other robots. But you also said that it causes trouble sometimes. So probably you can give me an example?"

"Well, Peter, to be honest with you, consciousness is hard to explain even with examples. But probably I can help you find out more with a real experience. I could use some help myself with the castle and the fortress. So you can help me and find some answers along the way, what do you think?"

They rolled and flew to a nice place in the big garden and sat down in the middle of a field of sunflowers. Then Asimov started to explain.

"Ok, Peter," he said, "Let me start with my story. It was many, many years ago, long before you were born, when I had a fantastic idea, at least at that time, I thought it was fantastic. I used my left arm on the castle, my activation interface, you remember?"

Peter nodded and Asimov continued to talk. "So the castle became a robot. It could even move around. It still can, but I assume, it's too lazy, I mean it's made of stone so it must be a lot of work to move all its parts. And I also think it likes its place. Anyway. It was very promising, because it helped me with every task from then on. At that point, I was still living in the castle and I could say 'bring me to my bedroom' and a second later I was there. It was great."

"Ahh", said Peter, "It was like an elevator."

"Yes. And it was so much more. It cleaned itself, for example. All the dirt and dust was a problem of the past. And it took over many more things.

So I thought, why not do the same with the fortress. And so I did the same with that grumpy old pile of stone. Sorry, that was just a joke."

"I understood it", said Peter and smiled. He was aware that something went wrong with the fortress and now he was curious to hear what.

"Good, very good Peter, because it really was not the fortress' fault.

Well, at that time everything was still fine. Also in the fortress, everything was automated immediately. That was very helpful for all the robots around here, who lived over there at that time.

I thought it had worked out so nicely that I wanted to go one step further. I wanted the castle to live. So I gave it consciousness. I used my right arm on it, the animation interface, you remember? And it worked. The castle was alive. It could think and feel. It was a great success. I could talk to it. We had many great discussions."

"Wait a minute", interrupted Peter. "You mean you lived inside a living being? And how did you talk to it? Were you just in a room and talked to the walls?"

"Yes. Exactly. So you can imagine that it also was a bit awkward. I didn't think of it before. I had no private moment any more. So I finally moved out and built my little hut over here.

After a while, a year or so, I saw that robots moved out. They stayed outside overnight and started to avoid the castle", continued Asimov his story. Peter listened eagerly. He wanted to know what was going on. "Over time, more and more followed. They just rested on the fields over here. So after some time the field was completely full of robots over night, while the fortress, the designated home of the robots was empty."

"Did you find out why they did this?", asked Peter.

"Yes. They told me. The fortress was angry they said. It would not give them energy any more and even damaged some of their circuits. I could not believe what I've heard, Peter. After all, it was the castle that was alive and the fortress was still robotic.

I had to try it out myself. So I started sleeping in the fortress for some nights. I wanted to make closer contact."

"But, but", started Peter, "you said it was dangerous. Haven't you been afraid that the fortress could do you harm?"

"Well I was. A little bit. But you have to know that I can't take things back. As soon as objects become robots or robots become alive, I can't undo it. It's settled. They stay until they break or die. So if I didn't find out what was going on, I would have to destroy the fortress. it was the only chance to save it. But I had help."

"Did the castle help you?", asked Peter.

"No, no, that's nothing the castle would do and after all, it was also a part of the problem. So that wouldn't help. I had a friend from your planet. You know, from time to time, I have visitors just like you. And at the time of the grand crisis I also had support."

"So there was someone like me flying around with a drone?", asked Peter.

"Yeah, sort of. Well the drone was a little rolling vehicle at that time, but other than that this human has made the same experience as you. He was curious. I just seem to have forgotten his name. Well, never mind. It's not important for the story."

While Peter was thinking, how such an advanced creature like Asimov could forget anything, the door of his room at home opened. He winced and the pad that he used to talk to Asimov fell to the ground. He quickly grabbed it and switched it off.

"Time to sleep, precious", said his mother looking through the door. "Clean your teeth and then off to bed."

Peter was thinking about Asimov's story during the next day, especially in the morning and at school. He was curious to hear the rest. He had questions. He rushed through his homework, eager to turn on the pad again.

"I’ve finished," he told his mum. "Can I go to my room and play with my pad?"

"OK, but only for half an hour. You sit in front of that screen for too long", answered his mother.

"Fine", said Peter wit a slightly sad tone and quickly ran upstairs. He turned on the pad and started the app.

"Peter, Peter, there you are", greeted Asimov who seemed to have been in a hurry. "Quick, you have to help me with the fortress."

"What's going on?", asked Peter.

"It's the same as always, Peter. But now it seems to happen more often. The fortress is mad at the castle and spits fire at it. The castle is unimpressed, but I'm afraid for the robots who do their work in that area. They might be in danger."

"But how could I help? I don't even know what's going on."

"Time to meet the castle, I think. I will take you there. And then I'll take over the angry fortress for now."

It took about ten minutes until Peter's drone and Asimov reached the castle's draw bridge.

"Good luck", said Asimov hastily. "I'm driving to the castle now. Just fly over the walls and say hello. I hope I'll come back soon."

"But what about the fire?", asked Peter. But Asimov was already gone. Also he was not really afraid. Asimov could probably replace the drone easily, if it got damaged.

So Peter poked around a bit, flew to the right and to the left around the thick stone walls behind the castle moat. Nothing to see. He didn't get the least hint of anything alive, just massive stone.

He finally gained a bit of height and steered the drone over the big arc with the entrance gate. To the left and the right there were beautiful watchtowers. He also passed them and finally saw the square and the garden area in front of the beautiful palace. The garden had black dots. That must have been the impact craters of the little firebombs from the fortress. But there were still gardener robots, that worked on restoring the lawn and the flower beds.

"Hello", said Peter through the drone's speakers. "Is there anybody? I'm Peter. I'm a friend." He waited patiently for a while, but nothing happened. Then he tried to get closer to the castle. He flew through the open entrance of the beautiful main building. He found himself in a majestic arrival hall with ceilings that were ten meters high and stairs made out of dark, noble wood on the left and right side that led to the first floor.

"Hello", he tried again. "Is there anybody? This is Peter."

"Oh hello Peter. Nice to meet you". The voice came out of a huge painting, a portrait of a man on a horse. And it was not the man saying these words. It was the horse. Peter was flying over, nearer to the painting.

"Are you the castle?", asked Peter.

"Indeed I am. And you are Peter, Asimov's guest. I've heard so much about you. Only good things, of course."

"Nice to meet you", said Peter. "Are you always speaking through your paintings?" He regretted the question while he spoke it out. It was his curiosity. He was there for something else. But it was too late already.

"No, not always. But I like it." The horse started a long monologue about what it could do and what worked best. Peter was not really listening. He was thinking about the fortress and the robots that were in danger. But he was also too polite to interrupt the horse. So it went on for five full everlasting minutes.

Then it finally stopped. Peter tried two more attempts to get into a deeper conversation, but without luck. In the end he was totally exhausted but hadn't reached anything. Peter was disappointed, but he came out with a clue. He didn't like the castle. It was arrogant and selfish. It didn't actually care about the robots. It was just interested in itself. No wonder, it annoyed the fortress so much. Probably it just hadn't learned to care about others.

The castle might have suffered from this attitude as well. It probably even felt alone, lost its former friend that now turned into an annoyed opponent. Peter had to verify his theory. He called Asimov, because he wanted to visit the fortress and try to get into a conversation with it.

"It's the castle", said Peter in the call with Asimov. "Its behaviour might be the reason. If that's true, I guess we have to work with the castle to solve the problem, not the fortress."

"Could be", answered Asimov. "There is an old data line between them, so there could be exchange between each other that I am not aware of. I'm on my way back. The fortress is calm for now. So you can try to have a talk. You know the way?"

"Yes. I can see the big hall from here. I can just fly straight ahead, can't I?"

"You can, just take care about flying objects. The fortress is still a bit unpredictable."

So Peter started his little trip and made up his mind about the strategy he would use along the way. But when he approached, he still had no idea. So he just flew right into the main gate of the large hall. He saw a huge space with hundreds of docks and cables and generators and switches. This seemed to be the resting and charging facility for all the helper robots on Flora. Now it looked abandoned and kind of spooky with its dimmed green and red lights. Besides some occasional beeps, Peter also didn't hear any sound.

"Hello", Peter shouted out of the speakers of his drone. He tried the same tactics as with the castle before. He flew further into the long hall. "Is there anybody?"

"Who is this?", a rather light voice answered. Peter didn't expect such a nice tone after all he learned and saw. But the sound seemed to come from all directions.

"I am Peter, I'm with Asimov. We want to help you."

"How could you help me?", asked the voice. Peter was still confused by the voice that didn't fit at all to the mood and the kind of despair that the sentence expressed.

"We've got an idea. Can I ask some questions to learn more?"

"I have no idea, how this would help, but I'm curious. Go ahead."

"Did you like the castle when it still was a robot?"

Peter didn't know exactly how, but it helped. After two or three questions, the fortress became talkative and started to explain what had happened from its perspective. It was very insightful for Peter and it fully confirmed his theory. The two gigantic buildings had been friends until the castle became more and more self centric. Over the data line, they continued to exchange over months and years and the castle became more and more unbearable. Sometimes, it held monologues for several hours. As the fortress didn't know anything about consciousness and Asimov's animation interface, it didn't understand what was going on. It couldn't assess the situation and got angrier and angrier. And it was clearly angry now, even more so after it retold the story.

"Let me try something", said Peter finally. "I don't know if it works, but we might be able to fix this. Can you promise me to stay calm for a while? I'll be back soon."

Peter flew back to Asimov to explain what he wanted to do.

"It's like with a dog, you know", he started as soon as he arrived. "One day I want to have a dog and I have read a lot about their training. I don't know if dogs are conscious, but they are alive and they have to learn how to do things and interact with each other. So probably the castle just has to learn that, don't you think?"

"Oh Peter", answered Asimov, "I guess that's the clue I needed. Probably it's because I left, the social training was never finished. Good job, Peter. I'm proud of you. I guess I know what to do."

"Peter", shouted another voice now, but it was at home in his room. It was his mother and she finally took his headphones off of his ears. "Peter, what are you doing? It's time for dinner, prescious."

That was bad timing. He was supposed to go back to the fortress and explain. And now he had to wait until the next day. Anything could happen in that time. He was worried during dinner and in that night, he also couldn't sleep very well.

On the next day, he made even more shortcuts and didn't do his homework. He went back to Flora as soon as he came from the first ever school day, where he didn't pay attention at all. For the whole day, he had thought about the situation instead. Asimov seemed so wise and could do really magical things, but on the other hand he seemed to be so overwhelmed about the escalation situation.

Peter logged in and didn't find himself in the Asimovs shed, where the drone parked itself usually after the logout. He was, he had to look around, yes, where was he? It must have been the castle.

"Ah, Peter", the sound came out of his headphones. It was Asimov. He carried the drone around. "Can you take over the control of the drone"

"Hello Asimov, are we in the castle?", Peter answered. "I can fly myself now. What has happened?"

"We have a chat with the castle now. But the fortress is firing again."

"Oh no. My mum had pulled me out. We should have done this yesterday. I'm sorry."

"No worries boy. We will fix this anyway. I'm sure. I've made a lot of progress since you've left."

"Can I try something?", asked Peter. "I have an idea. Where's the data link between the two?"

"It's in the dungeon in the basement." Asimov explained the way to Peter and showed him how to open the map of the castle on the pad.

Peter flew towards the stairs and down to the basement, turned left, right and then two times left again. The rooms looked spookier and dirtier after each turn. But finally he stood in front of a big metal door. An icon appeared on his screen at home and he could click it to open the door. He did and the door opened with a loud creaking noise.

Everything looked so shabby on the outside, but in here seemed to be the technological heart of the castle. It looked clean and tidy. There were many devices and cables, a bit like in the great hall of the fortress, but much smaller. Peter immediately found the communication panel. It had a monitor with these strange waves on it. He had seen that in his father's garage, on the radio device. But it seemed to be much easier to operate. There were only three buttons, Castle, Fortress and Asimov.

He didn't loose time, pushed the button labeled 'Fortress' and took the microphone. "Hello, fortress", he said. "This is Peter speaking. Can you hear me?"

"Peter? But you're talking on the line of the castle. Is it really you or just another trick of that old brick mountain?"

"No it is me. Do you remember our conversation yesterday? Ask me something about it."

The fortress on the other end of the line did so and finally gained trust. Then Peter took over again.

"Would you mind to stop firing for a while and have a chat with Asimov and the castle?"

"I'm always open for a chat. But I don't know if it will help. I'm angry, you know?"

"I know. But this may end it, I guess. Or do you want to destroy all your planet?"

"Well, dwarf planet. But no, I guess not."

"OK. Then give me a minute", said Peter. He pushed the 'Fortress' button to mute it and opened the channel to Asimov.

"Asimov, Asimov", said Peter excitedly. "I have the fortress on the line now. Should we have a chat all together?"

"I've prepared the castle with all it needed to know", said Asimov, "we're ready when you are."

"Fine then", Peter pushed the other buttons now and added the castle and the fortress to the call. Then he waited for some seconds.

"Hello, this is Peter. I'm here with Asimov, the castle and the fortress", he started anxiously. Actually, he didn't know at all what to do. He had just prepared some words and rehearsed them over and over in the night and even at school in the morning.

"I think I know what the problem is. Everyone is different. This is a good thing. Tiffany, the lamp, is different from Cuthbert, the cupboard. And Arne and Asimov. All of us have to learn how to live together. For some, it's easier. Have a look at Tiffany, for example. For others, it's harder. I think, it has been hard for the castle. It has been alone for a long time while the fortress had contact with all the robots of the planet."

"Dwarf planet", corrected the fortress.

"Yes, sorry, dwarf planet. But now, the castle isn't alone any more so it has to learn to live together with others. You should help it. After all you're it's only friends, aren't you?"

"And you, castle", Peter continued. "You also have to adapt. You have to learn, that you're not the only one. You have to learn to care about others and to be patient."

"I am so sorry", said the castle. "I didn't know. I didn't know that I was that annoying." And then it started a story monologue again. But this time it was interrupted by Asimov.

"A-a-ah", he said. "You see, you're doing it again. I know, it's hard, but I also know that you can try. I have learned that it's not easy to cope with consciousness. You have to learn to use it like any other skill. It might be hard for the castle, but it will have help."

"I have a suggestion", he continued. "Fortress, I will give you consciousness, too. But only under one condition. You two help each other to grow. Tiffany and Cuthbert will help you as well. And probably even I can help a little. But we have to work together."

They continued chatting for a while and finally started to exchange old stories. Half an hour later, Peter had to go. Until then, he hadn't thought of his own world at all. He was totally immersed into the adventure on Flora. But now he had a guilty conscience. He hadn't done his homework yet and it was already dinner time. So he said goodbye, logged out and went downstairs.

Peter decided to wait some days before logging in again. He also was a bit afraid, if everything would work out as expected. But also he was exhausted. That task was actually more complicated than any math exercise he had ever seen.

After four days, he finally logged in again while already lying in bed in the evening. He was glad about the first view. The robots were not resting on the fields anymore, they seemed to have gone back to the fortress. There were Tiffany and Arne and Peter had some chat with them. Everyone was so happy. So the plan must have worked out.

"Good evening, Peter", said Asimov coming into the shed. "I'm glad you're here. I want to thank you. You did so much good for Flora. I'm so proud. Greetings from the castle and the fortress."

"Ah, hello Asimov", answered Peter. "I'm glad to hear that. I was still a bit worried."

"Your dad told me about your homework. I'm sorry, I didn't want to distract you. But he's so proud of you, too."

"My dad, you've spoken to my dad?", asked Peter.

"Of course, I talk to Ben every day. He's one of my best friends."

Peter couldn't believe what he heard. His father was a friend of Asimov and he knew what had happened here on Flora? He had to ask him about it. But he was too tired now. He fell asleep within seconds after logging out.

But at breakfast the next morning, he couldn't wait to tell his father and they had a long conversation about Flora and all the adventures that he had experienced there.

In the evening, after another day of school and homework, his mother came in from a ride and brought a package.

"This is for you", she said and Peter heard strange sounds coming from the inside. He quickly opened it and found a small dog inside. His mum explained that it came from a shelter and needed a new home and a new master.

"I think, you're ready for it", she said.