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"Into Thy Hands" is a 7500-word story by Lester Del Rey, about a three robots that try to rebuild civilization after a war. The story was first published in the August, 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.

Plot

On the eve of a war that will destroy civilization, scientist Simon Ames builds three concrete domes, and places a robot in each of them, each with its own set of knowledge--one with a knowledge of humanities, one with a knowledge of science, and a third robot. After the war, the human race is all but destroyed, and eventually the robots emerge from their domes and begin searching. The third robot eventually learns that mankind is extinct; he learns some biology and begins creating a new race of human beings. The science robot awakes and views a film about Genesis; he mistakenly believes that he must be an actor in the story, maybe Adam or God. He searches for Eve, and eventually finds a human, who misreads his model number, “SA-IO” as “Say-ten” or Satan. The human then knocks him out. He is rescued by the other robot; a female robot with knowledge of the humanities, but mechanically ignorant. Together they prepare to restore civilization to the remnants of the human race.

Additional Notes

This story has been reprinted in, among other places, Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 7 (1945).