Home sweet home [Me + invited]

[Below Par]

There was no reply.

Just yet another uninvited shift.

Then a new scene in the docking bay. The Odin, now parked, was being eyed by the ball who was currently sporting a silver chrome appearance, probably in an effort to show off to it's new audience, Machine was holding a spike attached to a cable which, in turn, was connected to a cylindrical object. This, to clear up confusion, is the silicon soul Silver . . . acquired . . . not so long ago. This chain of things was finally connected to a computer console who's rather large readout screen currently read 'awaiting data'

"Good evening! For my first trick . . . this!"

Upon saying 'this!' Machine rather purposely and forcefully plunged the spike into the back of his own neck.

"Yowch! Yeah. That felt exactly like . . . sticking a spike between two vertebrae of my spinal column. Not much of a warm up act, I admit, but wait for the main event! My glamourous assistant here will be interfacing with your ship in a deliberate attempt to trigger all the little naughty hidden things we don't want for the ship that I'll, hopefully, be building for you. With the aid of the core I'm now plugged into I'll see what I can see and the video release will be available on sale at that computer terminal over there.

Easy enough . . . well . . . almost. Here's the twist. There had to be one . . . build the suspense! Give 'em a show! In this case I failed to mention how little chance there is of this happening and it not frying my brain when we talked before. Signs look good though. You're not wearing black robes and I see no agricultural equipment nearby so who knows? Maybe I get a free pass? In any case, should this go wrong, the forcefield generator under your chair can handle anything that can go boom and there's a shuttle safe in bay 2."

With a flourish and a bow Machine said to the now seated Silver

"If it does all go to hell though. . . you were magnificent company. Lie and make up something about me. Make it a good one."

He looks over to the chrome ball which has developed a plethora of spider-leg-like appendages, using some of them to balance, and poising the rest all around the Odin which, by now, looks rather small in comparison. Machine says to his psychotic sidekick

"Hit it."

At which point many things happened rather quickly.

The 'legs' speared into the Odin at various points and, at a nano-molecular level, the drone set off any and all security devices it could find. As is only has a pseudo-personality it can only be described as pseudo-insane and deliberately overloaded other systems it could find and destabilise too. It likes making things explode. What ya gonna do?

Machine, over the tortured screaming of the silicone soul, took in all the detail he could with the spinal implant relaying the information to the computer. The console then formatted the raw data and built three dimensional models, recordings and notations based on the incoming information in tiny fractions of tiny fractions of a second.

The various intentional and unintentional explosions happened. The results of this were unseen as a cloud of thick black smoke blocked all view and the only untainted air in the room at that point was around the seated figure.

The environmental sensors activated extractor fans to clear the smoke. The bay now was different. A pile of bits lay in one corner that used to be the Odin. The ball, minus appendages but still with a silver chrome finish, was cheerfully bouncing up and down on the head of the deathly still figure lying face down on the floor in it's own friendly attempt to wake him.

The computer at the far wall had changed only in it's readout.

'download complete'.

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