Tails of the Future 2.0

[The Union of Tinis]

IMPORTANT

This is a 100% out of character/out of canon thread. Aka, what happens here is not to be taken as fact in any other thread. The events you describe here in can either be multi-post exchanges, or one off stories. It doesn't matter. But they must all be taking place in the future. This is a speculative fiction of what might come to pass. It is not what will come to pass. Enjoy!

This thread is open to all.

[The Union of Tinis]

"Nif, what are you doing up there?"

The squirrel on the ledge above shrugged. He didn't plan on coming down for a good while yet. He looked down as his beau and grinned. "I'm watching."

"Watching what?"

He pointed to the sky.

"The sky? Why are you watching the sky?"

Nif chuckled. "Why not? Its beautiful. The stars twinkling. The wanderers passing over head. The falling stars. The moon."

"I've seen them all before," said Lin.

"Come up here," he said pulling his tail over his lap so he could make way. "I'll show you why I'm watching tonight."

"Fine," she said. She inspected the twists of metal an concrete. She quickly figured a path up and began to scamper, pawing and clawing on the damaged wall until she was on the ledge with Nif. "See, you happy?"

The other squirrel nodded with a smile. "Certainly am," he said as he put an arm around her. "Look up there, over that bit over there."

Lin followed his outstretched arm to the horizon. In the night were many shadow, including a leaning spire in the distance. Her gaze followed its broken and hole filled form up a bit and above. Then she was staring at nothing.

"I don't see anything there. A few stars I guess."

Nif chuckled. "You gotta wait. It should happen soon."

"What should happen soon? You expecting a ghost to appear or something?"

Nif turned his head to her and gave her a sniff. "Maybe. Just keep watching," he said as he turned to look back at the spire.

They waited a few minutes. Lin then said, "I'm getting bored."

"Just a little longer."

Not more than half a minute after, a light came over the horizon from the right, heading towards a spot near where Nif had pointed. The light was growing brighter. And then right above the spire where Nif had pointed it grew in brightness to such a point that their surroundings were illuminated as if by day light. For a brief moment they could see the miles and miles of twisted broken structures, buildings, cars, buses, trains, and other things, the remains of a city from a long past era. Then the light faded, and in its place were a bunch of smaller ones, falling seemingly through the distant sky towards the horizon.

"Wow..." muttered Lin. "That was... amazing. What... what was that?"

Nif chuckled and gave his beau a lick on the cheek. "I don't know. Well, it was one of the wanderers. Don't think it will be any more."

Lin shook her head. "I don't understand. Why, I mean, how did you know it was going to do that?"

"I didn't. Exactly. I did the work asked of me by Master Sco and found that at this time at that point that the wanderer would be the nearest it has ever been, and that if my idea was right it should begin to fall to Earth then. I guess it did. I guess that's what falling is like for them. You burn and explode. That's... actually kind of sad."

"Yes, it is. I hope he's alright. If he still is alive that is. Or maybe... do you think that's where they come from? They get close and then become little wanderers?"

Nif shook his head. "I don't think so. They looked like falling stars. Let's go. I should tell Master Sco that my predictions were right. I hope he was watching."

Lin nodded. "And Master Iz is probably worried where I am. I kind of left the motor running when I left."

The couple climbed down from the ledge and were soon on the broken concrete below. As they headed home they passed a number of former structures, including one that had a sign at the bottom that said in a language that they'd be lucky to read, "Tinis National Museum of Arx".

[Nova25]

OOC : (this message will be deleted after an answer)

...So, from what I ''think'' I understood... In this thread we make ''short'' stories/rp, something like 1 single Post, or a few... and other can follow on what you said or just make their own separate post ...based on a possible/fictional/hypothetical future of our imagination ?

Is it this ? ...seems slightly odd, but interesting.

[aatuylva]

There isn't much that goes by that the world doesn't notice.
Stones hold secrets, the water of life has been circulating and circulating since its formation, telling stories and adding new pages. The mother world fed its children, and they took and took, but there was one child that was grateful.
She, instead, sought to give back, improving herself and her surrounds, if slowly. She even took children under her branches, sheltering them, teaching them, but she was not the only one.
She had a brother, to the north, who wanted to expand their minds.
There was the other, within, like a cancer, but while he was festering he was not spreading, and she was content with that.

There came a day when a child was born that all three took notice of.
His name was Sihda, and he could, in a way, hear them.

This opportunity could not be lost.

Children. Fearful. We can help this one.

Risk is too great. Consequences outweigh potential gains.

The seefing enjoys -my/our- conversations.

There was much arguing, as they all sought, eventually, to use this one to lead the children under the trees, to lead them to enlightenment, or to revelation, or to decadence. It is perhaps a sad and a happy thing that poor Sihda listened to all three of them, frustrating them as he combined their ideals, like many others did, trying to tame the children under the trees.

The good daughter of the mother world, content with this little bit, went to her original dreams once more, speaking and teaching those who could listen.

The brother, he was furious, taking his chosen children, and he sought to make them independent of either of his siblings.

The darkbeast below, he simply laughed. The mutterings and mewlings of those creatures around him, even of the daughter and the brother, amused him greatly.

Then Sihda had a son.

All three sought to take him then, to infest the mind, although the good daughter saw it differently.
They underestimated Sihda, the long-lived one, and he fought them.

The daughter, her name now, the name she took, from the name they called her, thousands of years before, Aatumrrcho, she was shocked.

She had never dealt with a rebellious child that could talk back before.

The brother, eons older, who remembered the days before water, when the mother world (though it was not his mother world) was naught but molten rock and fire, he scoffed, for he had seen it all before. The young ones, the short ones, they all defied. In the end they were dust, and he found new students. He, he was called Tsuvkagshtchtn, He who watches the Hearts of Stars.

The darkbeast, this one, had many names, more so than the many names of the good daughter Aatumrrcho and her brother, he laughed and laughed, for he knew a feast was coming, as their precious children betrayed them in their ignorance. He delighted in the defiance, knowing the son would join him in due time.

S'fhsl'shrrl.

They all watched, occasionally changing things, but there was not much else they could do, as they watched this child grow up, raised amongst the descendants of Aatumrrcho's and the darkbeast's children.

The darkbeast especially glowed at this. His molten, dark, and twisted hearts beating with glee.

But this son of Sihda, he proved to be like his father, striking his own path.

There were wars, there were peaces, but in the end, it is but an eyeblink.

The three of them, oft times while resting, would wake to worlds much changed.

Two of them would also find out, and be angry, that the darkbeast had tried to escape. Such destruction he would cause, if not for his collar.

The brother, he delighted in the technologies that were being built, opting to reveal himself to a select few on the outside.

The good daughter, she was afraid, for she tasted dreadfire, dreadfire so powerful that it would kill the mother world.
She hated it, but she asked of the darkbeast what was to happen.

Child child lost child. All is lost all is fire. All shall die and lovely dark, all shall die and feed.

Even Tsuvkagshtchtn, in his wisdom, did not dispute this.
For he saw a Cataclysm. One that would burn away the surface of the world.

The three of them, they spoke, they spoke until the son of Sihda was forced to listen to them.
They planted in him desires to expand, to explore, to move.
Had to move. Had to leave.

The seas, they called to him, always had, but with this prodding, he turned, for the first time, upward, upward to the stars.

Many more years passed. The children were, along with others' children, building great ships to cross the long dark.
Her children did not have great power, or intelligence, but with diligence they turned some of the bodies of that void into ships.
The children took pieces of her, and placed them inside these ships.

The darkbeast, he laughed, and he seduced them with thoughts of power, power like the metal children had, power like the star men had, and her children, they did delight in this power.

They built more ships, some found the brother, and they built a ship for him, some took with them essences of the darkbeast, though he was already everywhere, he knew, because of children who knew not what they were doing.
And eventually, the daughter, dear Aatumrrcho, she too, was taken, into the dark.

Though she was not whole, she was. Interesting, this feeling.
They rode the waves of stars, feeding off of chaos and blood in the water, but they took great care of their mother.

Many eons had passed since then.

It was no good, in the end.

With her mother gone, eventually she died. They tried and tried, and though her trees were healthy and green, though they clumped together in their rockships, it was of no use.

All of her brothers and sisters were gone.

She did not let her body die, no, her children needed that.
But they no longer needed her.

It is then, that the Son of Sihda finally wept, in his long life, nary a tear, but now, he wept.

Tsuvkagshtchtn, he too, eventually died.
His crystals, his form, degrading, even in space.

He told his children he had lived too long, seeing stars die, seeing galaxies die and be born. He too, left them his body, to help them, keep them from being lost as they had access to his knowledge.

The darkbeast, however, did not die.
It fed.
It hungered.
It grew.

It grew into all of the easy places, the slippery places.
Into the cracks and crannies.
Into the realms that did not collar him.

He grew, and the children he stole from his younger siblings did feed him.
He changed them, he did. Had been changing them since they came to the jungle.

Great beasts, they had become. Great immortal beasts.

But there was one who would not succumb.

The Son of Sihda would not join him.

Eons passed, stars died, galaxies died.

Everything died.

Long before, a race of beings who loved Aatumrrcho very much, they built a great computer.
Maybe they thought to bring her back?

They built this thing, and the darkbeast, he laughed.

It is said that those that still live hear his laughing every time they close their eyes.

He fed.
He feasted.
He lived.

And they had taken his collar off.

He grew and he grew, but he was lonely.

He sought the Son of Sihda, and he found him...

Mihka sat in the warmaster's chair, the chair in the command center of his great worldship, around the last star of the universe.

It was a sickly red, dying, soon dead.
Like everything else.

There were two ships alongside him, one, a shining gold, holding the Ninth Son, another chosen son, like him.
The other, a ship belonging to the Teacher, a being perhaps as old as the darkbeast.

Mihka son of Sihda, he had been on those ships.
The Ninth Son, he was surrounded by his family, but they, they had decided to go into the long dream.
The ship had been that way for a long time, it's automatics bringing it here to feed off of the dying sun's energy.
The spirit-mind of the ship, like him, was so very tired.
So very alone.

The other, the Teacher, he had a Plan. He was going to use his power to turn the darkbeast inward, to start the process over again.
Another big bang, he said.

What was the point?
All life, if it was worth anything, would just be dead by the time they all found it.
Everything worth knowing was known.
Everything worth doing was done.

He looked at the creature at his feet.
It was dead.
Once, it's race had been sapient.
But, with immortality, they sought simpler lives, in order to cope.
They became pets.

All dead now.

Everything was dead.

The darkbeast, it pleaded, it cried.

Come with me Son of Sihda, feast forever on all of time, come with me, dance with me!

"No."

The Son of Sihda piloted his ship towards the sun.
Now was the time.
The curse was ended.

The Teacher watched, understanding, but despising his decision.

He watched as the Son of Sihda and the spirit-mind killed themselves in the last star of creation.

The Teacher had to leave, to prepare, and he left the darkbeast.

The darkbeast discovered, that even with all of his desires sated, that eons of dark and void could even drive him mad, he, who had survived creation's end several times before.

When the Teacher returned, he found the body, and could use it to further his Plan, but the mind...

For, in the trillions of years that had followed, the darkbeast, he, too, had found a way to kill himself, in a way.

The Teacher sighed, looking around. He said, perhaps to himself, perhaps to a higher power:

"Well, that was a total bloody loss. Let's try this again, shall we?"

[drlhyper]

"...And so, 1000 Years later, the dream of the Socialist Extropian Party is finally fulfilled. Private property does not exists anymore; advanced technology provides all needs; we can now make all of our dreams true, and in fact, even challenge the so-called 'death' in an even ground."

- Last Dictator (and political leader as well) in power of Centraliza, minutes before the State was formally disbanded.

[miokalia]

The beginning of the war was marked by the tremendous shockwave of a hundred-thousand neutron bombs.

Earth fell to the Pudrians. Governor-Militant "VIII" of the Anean Empire was barely pulled from the surface before the barrage of the Welhan Protocol ended life on Earth.

But this is where it began.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------


"Every telephase on Earth has gone dead", Knowledge reported to the singleton on Corona Beta V. The two serpentine robots made their way across the sun-baked dunes to the site of one of the telephase points.
Where there was once a lively flutter of dark clouds, the patterns of which correlated to the ongoing conversation between them and various places on Earth, there was now clear silence.
It was the first time the Singleton had ever seen it this way.

"The last words of the Aatumrrcho telephase were:

"Dreadfire"

Sir.", Knowledge added.


The Singleton slumped, his many tiny actuators in his tail stopped for a moment.

"Then Earth is gone.

And so peace, comes to an end here."


-------------------------------------------------------


For a hundred years, the Pudrians expanded into the Milky Way, and the same story happened for most planets.

The Pudrians would arrive, followed by the Aneans, often followed by the complete annihilation of the planet.
The Pudrians however, were still successful enough that they were steadily gaining planets even as they left a wake of lifeless worlds behind them.
Hundreds of different organic species were obliterated.

While the exotic entities looked on in horror and anger.
And fear. Since they knew at this rate, it was only a matter of time before the Pudrians would bring the war to the last, least hospitable corners of the galaxy, where dark matter prevailed.

Fueled in the cauldron of anger, from a Nachtan colony on the now desert-like, red planet Earth, an individual arose.
A Nachtan whose heart was filled with pure blackness and vengeance.
He had seen how his own people, in vain, had tried to recover the 'information' of the people who once inhabited Earth, and the knowledge that nothing had been done to stop that destruction and data loss perturbed him to no end.

The Pudrians had just landed in the Triangulum Galaxy, to spread their filthy disease. The Aneans right on their tail, to complete the erasure.


----------------------------------------------------------------------

1000 years later:

The robotic drone, surrounded by a black cloud of it's Nachtan operator surveyed the project.
"Singleton Sifus", said one of the other units, "We have engaged the Anean fleet"

The largest military project in the history of the collection of energy, inorganic and exotic species that comprised The Immanence.

"Then it begins. Activate the probes."

He spoke to his compatriots through the system.

"For too long have we stood by and watched the Pudrian Disease infect this universe with it's useless, nonsentient filth. And for too long have we allowed the last organic civilization to ineffectively chase them, together leaving a trail of annihilation in their path.

Tonight, we bring the light of the Singularity to one of the components in this cosmic demolition. We bring an abrupt end to the wayward Anean crusade.
As all 40 trillion of them become energy beings just like us.
It is the only way to end the Pudrian disease.
By starving it to death.

Tomorrow, 40 trillion Aneans will wake up, and never realize what has happened. They will go about their lives as normal.
10 trillion Anean soldiers and officers will awaken to find that the Pudrians no longer exist. They will return to their homes as heroes.

They will return to their homes, as hylopathic operators of organic drones, similar to us.
This will be the end of war. The Universe will know no more violence or destruction. Our peace will prevail!

For it is us who must immanentize this Eschaton!"

[The Union of Tinis]

"Wake up Mizik," chimed the stale voice. "Wake up."

Mizik's paw rubbed itchy ear as he yawned. "What… wha…" he said.

"The time is five thirty a.m. Your morning wake up call is active. You have three new messages."

"Oh, uh, yes. Computer, lights."

Mizik yawned again and squinted as the lights came on slowly. The apartment he was in wasn't his usual one. No, that had been raided two nights ago. It was a safe house. He didn't quite yet remember where, but it would all come back to him. His tail curled about and ended up on his stomach, gently tapping as he stirred.

"Uh, read messages."

"Message one."

The computer's voice gave way to the voice of a very excited female, probably a fox of some sort given the accent. "Bertrand Klaus Nichtobarium! You may already be a winner! You're name has appeared on the list for…"

"Next!" yelled Mizik. He hated junk mail.

"Message two," said the computer.

"Remember, six sharp. Usual spot. Bring your pack," said a distorted voice. Intentionally disguised it was.

Mizik's eyes popped open. It was time. He sat up and began looking for his cloths. As he spotted his blue jumpsuit the computer went on. "Message three."

"Mizzy, Ket's in trouble." The voice was of Orff, their engineer. "She didn't get back to her place and she wasn't at her other places. I think someone nabbed her. Be careful."

The cat was no longer drowsy. The dual revelations had him dressed very quickly and out the door. He did remember his backpack, but that bit of the second message wasn't the important part. It was a keyword to verify that the message was what it was supposed to be.

He was almost to the elevator when he heard something. There were people in the stairwell just off the hall from the elevator. His eyes narrowed. He looked to his left and knocked on the door there. He hoped someone was home.

"Whoaa," said the raccoon inside. Her eyes were blood shot and there was a green substance dripping from her nose when she opened the door. Mizik had lucked out. She hadn't slept in weeks and thus didn't really realize that his rushing past her and closing the door was not a hallucination. The drugs hadn't helped with that of course. Mizik pushed the deadbolt and left for the bed room.

The raccoon followed him. "You real? Because if you are, then you really shouldn't be trying to open that."

Mizik's claws extended and he poked them behind the edge of the window mechanism. At this height the windows were not meant to be open, but he didn't have time to worry about safety.

The window popped open and suddenly both of them needed to pop their ears badly. Mizik couldn't hear very well, but he could hear the sirens going off. He wasn't sure if this window had a security trip or if it was the cops starting their patrol. He crawled out.

The ledge a few feet down from the window was of course very narrow. He turned back to the half dressed raccoon. "Hey you, I need you to come out the window with me and watch for, um, spiders." He motioned for her to join him.

"Spinder. Sponders? Oh, spiders! I don't like spiders," she said as she acted to comply with his request all the same. He had lucked out doubly. The cops knocked on the door.

"Open up or we will enter!"

"Now," said Mizik. "Just stand here and watch. I'm going to search for the hat of friendship for you. I'll be right back." Mizik then began to edge along the building towards the nearest corner.

The raccoon lady stood there on the edge until the cops pulled her back in. She had been enjoying the sights of the ultra city. The endless towers between Alt and S. Nu, all under a perfect black sky.

-----

"You're late," said Orff.

"Only by thirty five seconds," kidded Mizik. It was more like three minutes. "Had to loose some police units over in Parg sector. Now, any word from Ket?"

Orff shook his head. "No. Kan, Nah, Za, and Agi are already here." Rul had already been picked up last week by the authorities.

Mizik nodded. "Well, I'm ready as ever."

Orff, a very very tall meerkat lead Mizik into the main chamber. They were deep underground in a seemingly abandoned complex of some sort. Tunnels ran everywhere. But there was something very important about this place. It was the exact center.

For years they had worked in secret. Building the machine before them. It seemed like a bad mash up between computers and a gyroscope. But it was perfect. Mizik came up to the others who were at the control bank before it.

Pushing a few buttons he said, "Well hello to you too."

"Uh yeah," said Za. "We're kind of busy here. Our window is almost here and well, we need to be ready."

"You have trouble?" asked Agi.

Mizik nodded. "They sept my safe house right after I had left. Needed to make sure they didn't follow. I hope you understand."

"I always do. Ripples are up past two percent."

Mizik grinned. He meshed the digits of his paws and cracked his knuckles. "Well, three of us made it. Who wants to be lead?"

"I will," said Orff.

"I call second," said Kan. A very delicious looking grey stripped kitten in Mizik's eyes she was.

"I'll be third," said Nah. Fitting.

"Well then take your spots!"

Orff went up to the machine and climbed inside, followed by Kan and Nah. They were all trained for this by only one was necessary. Well, one of them being successful was necessary. Orff climbed inside a harness in the middle of the device a few minutes later. It included a helmet. Once on, several spikes were soon drilled into the meerkat's skull and he fell unconscious.

"Activating Orff now," said Mizik.

Orff's eyes snapped open. "Test sequence, one two three. Test. Test complete. Test phrase activation for subject Orff. It was you who broke my collection platter. Test phrase complete. Test math. Test math complete. Returning basic control now. And that my friends is never something I'll get used to."

Mizik laughed. "You volunteered."

"We just hit five percent," said Za.

"Wow, that's moving fast."

Kan and Nah had taken up spots to either side of Orff in similar harnesses, minus the helmet. If Orff failed it would pop off and they could use it for themselves. Not the most sanitary thing, but with seconds to switch, and redundant connections likely to disrupt the processes, it was necessary.

"Everyone ready?"

"Yes," came several voices.

Mizik nodded. "Activating program Freedom now."

The strange device came to life and began to spin its various rings. Mizik and Za began to furiously manipulate the controls, getting everything up to speed. Agi stood off a ways and was watching. Only two were needed at the controls at this point, and she was not the best at them.

"Up to speed in three, two, one," said Mizik, his eyes wide with excitement. The room began to shake. That was normal and had happened in the testing.

"Orff, you will be ready to begin in twenty seconds," said Za. "Ripples are rising to ten percent."

"Ten?" said Agi. "They've never been ten before! I'll, go check the cameras."

Mizik chuckled. "Its just anticipating. How's the pucons and compay?"

"Static reflect flux is increasing to optimal levels," said Za.

Agi was at another console looking at something. She seemed worried. "Well you can certainly see the variances in the field. The light reflecting off Matabia Central is waving about like crazy!"

"Orff, you can begin in three, two, one."

Orff closed his eyes.The shaking stopped. The entire device was enveloped in an almost perfectly reflective bubble. Only the faintest ghosts hinted at the contents. The cancellation field was there. It began to slowly expand.

"Holy smokey mountain, it works!" yelled Agi right before she was shot.

"Crap," said Za, ducking below the console. Bullets ricocheted around the chamber.

Mizik was similarly hiding in short order. "Damn it! Of all the times," he said as more bullets bounced around the chamber.

"Fire at that thing!" yelled someone. The gun fire began to target the cancellation field and the device within. The bullets flew through the field easily and several struck the operators. The field began to fade. Mizik poked his head up and looked towards the field. Orff seemed limp. Mizik hit the eject control. The helmet popped off. He was back down before he could figure if someone had grabbed it.

There was rushing of boots towards their spot.

As guns appeared before Mizik and Za's muzzles, they put their paws in the air.

"Grand thinkers," said the voice of the person who yelled. Around a corner he came into view. "Grand thinkers and your toys. Grand thinkers like you out to cause more trouble. Grand thinkers here to end paradise."

Mizik's face was soon being closed by a much more terrible visage. "Now you're little experiment will come to an end. Some of you will be removed here as was your friend over there. Others will go to trial and confess your crimes. Any volunteers for the easy out?"

Za growled.

"Oh, we have a volunteer. Shoot that one," said the leader of the Containment Police while pointing towards Za.

Mizik soon had blood on his fur from his friend.

"Now, you are code name Mizik? I was amused by your selection of them. But now I'm going to give you your finality of instructions kitty. You will be," the police leader's eye darted up.

The field about the machine, which had been weakening was again strong.

"Drat, alright, destroy that thing!" came the order.

All the paramilitaries took their sights off Mizik and began shooting at the machine. However, the field was much less permeable this time. Many of the bullets bounced right back at full velocity at those that fired them. In quick order half the police were down.

"Idiots! Cease fire," said the leader. "You!" He pointed his gun at Mizik. "Turn it off, now."

"If its bouncing bullets, its not a cancellation field any more. Its switch to Pattern Defense System mode. I couldn't turn it off if I wanted to. Those inside might not be able to, remember?"

"Bah, very well." The leader motioned to the police. "Take him and call for pick up of the rest here. You and you watch this thing and make sure it stays a bubble while we work."

----

Hours later, after Mizik had been pulled off to an interrogation room, the guards remained.

"So, uh," said one of them. "Think its… you know…"

"Yes, it's safe," said Ket right before she shot the other guard. She pulled her helmet off and went to the controls. A robotic arm at the top of the room came to life and moved a radioactive sample above the big seemingly impenetrable bubble, and then dropped it there.

A few minutes later the bubble began semi transparent again. It was again in cancellation mode.

Ket went to the controls and inspected them. Perturbations were at fifteen percent still.

"You can do it," she whispered.

The radioactive sample had emitted boson particles, which had been let through the mini-PDS bubble. And the resulting radiation had been picked up by the device and told the user that it was safe again.

Ket could see a bloody Nah had the helmet on. The other two were dead. Nah was wounded. Nad began to do the work and the cancellation field expanded quickly. It left the room and passed through rock and tunnel. To the basements and streets and buildings and shops and canyon like spaces between the towers.

"Come in K3-832 come in!"

That was the call sign of the trooper Ket had opted to replace on her way out of the police compound. It had been blind luck that she selected someone from the team that raided this place. She had made sure to fire at things that wouldn't be damaged on her way in. And had to hold back the pain as her friends were killed. But it was worth it. They had to do this.

The cancellation field expanded ever more quickly. Finally it impacted on the exterior bubble. The impenetrable field of the Pattern Defense System of Tinis. The barrier that had been up for centuries for them, and who knows how long for the outside world. The cancellation field began to ripple in tune with the barrier. In moments they'd be in synch. In moments they'd again see the sun.

Nah completed his work. The pattern was decoded, and the reality discontinuity was smoothed over. The entire place shook violently. Tremors over the entire ensnared nation signaled its liberation. Rocks, long divorced from their nearest neighbors began to mesh again.

Nah soon fell asleep never to awake again. Ket rushed to the camera monitor. The camera was perched on the highest tower in the mega city and was still pointed at Matabia Central. Ket was a little worried when above the city there was still darkness. No blue sky.

"Must still be night," she mumbled. She panned the camera around. "The city lights made viewing of stars impossible. But a view of the moon might be possible if it was out. Or a bright satellite. Or a planet. A comet. Anything. She flung the camera wildly about.

The camera passed by something bright. She turned the camera back towards it. It was indeed very bright.

----

The air outside was quickly thinning. It wouldn't be impossible to breath, but it would be difficult for most beyond street level. As the trapped, heavily recycled air from the almost perfect system that had existed inside the bubble, mingled with the thin atmosphere outside, hundreds of millions of people began to realize that the once perfectly reflecting black sky was gone. And that the sun was out. A tiny star, near the end of its ability to burn anything. Those on the edges of Tinis saw for the first time in their entire lives the world beyond the barrier. A black and barren landscape, burned by the fires of the sun in ages past and left to cool for at least a few million years in the dim light of the ember of the former life giver above. Some even spotted the moon, a body no longer reflective as it was in days of old. Scars of civilizations were visible on its surface, as were impacts and even the flows of molten rock.

A few tried to listen for broadcasts from beyond. There were none.

Some of the underground rejoiced. Others lamented.

But soon, everyone would suffer.

Time inside the PDS:
Interior: 439 years
Exterior: 6,193,401,399 years

[miokalia]

Andertol waved the pistol around in the air as Qualt sat across from him.

It was hard to tell but Qualt was actually somewhat concerned that the allosaurus would actually shoot himself. This was the first time Andertol had ever threatened such and had a gun and a suicide note prepared. This was disconcerting.

"What do you want?", Qualt said.

Andertol sat down in the chair after standing in it for the last couple minutes.
He said, "I want to know what you did to me. And why I have been able to hear every god damn thing you Malych say over teletext. It's not like I've got a metal plate in my head. And I'm not like Lucille Ball who had piezoelectric teeth. So how about illuminating this mystery for me, Assface."

"I didn't do anything to you.", Qualt said flatly.

Andertol responded initially by pointing his gun at Qualt. It took him a second to realize that doing such didn't have the kind of threat-value intended since Qualt could probably be fine if shot at point-blank range and he knew it.
So he turned it back at him and put the gun to his head and said, "Mmmman! I'm going to fucking do it."

"Not that way you're not", Qualt said, "You're not the type who would shoot their head off. No. What you'll do, is you'll go back home and then take every pill you can find and die foaming at the mouth, sprawled out on the floor."

"Then what am I supposed to do with myself? My limbic system is too small to deal with this shit. It is insufficient. I should just put myself down!", Andertol yelled as he once again stuffed the gun into his mouth.

Qualt was finally starting to get upset.
This wasn't his fault, but he did know what happened to Andertol.

Andertol's father had a brief sexual relationship with a Malych prior to marrying Andertol's mother. By brief sexual relationship: Several months of weekly orgies involving several different Malych and other furry creatures. Those encounters resulted in a large amount of Malych corebud material ending up in him. Since these were Malych in an environment outside the country, their reproductive systems were running in integration mode. That is: in so many words: fertile.
The probability of corebud material sneaking into and mimicking the processes of biological fertilization is very very very slim. However, as often demonstrated in the land of KZ to the north of Miokalia: it is indeed possible.

Andertol was conceived in a completely normal fashion, and was completely biologically anatomically typical for his species.
The remnant Malych corebud material which became involved in his conception did not get involved with his physical development.

Instead, it transferred a large amount of data into the fetal allosaurid's brain.


So back to the situation at hand:
Andertol once again didn't shoot himself in the brainstem.

Qualt finally said,
"You're not... I don't know how to explain this to you.

In KZ, they would probably lump you in with the Integrofurs."

Andertol replied, "I've had x-rays before, there's no Malych parts inside me. You're not making sense."

Qualt finally saw the opportunity and grabbed Andertol by the head. The confusion failed to cause him to drop the gun, but he was momentarily stunned.
"It's in your head, Hiyike. It's software. Your brain is running a piece of the software that makes us run, and it's a part of you. It can't be separated."

"Then it's making me miserable and I want it OUT", Andertol said, waving the pistol around some more.

"Are you even listening to me? You can't get it out. It's part of you. I don't know why it is, but it is there. It's the reason why you could get along with us so well, and it's the reason why you have such a hard time with other organic creatures. It's the reason why you understand our teletext language without even thinking about it and it's the reason why you probably ended up becoming mates with one of us.", scolded Qualt.

"Well then shoot me and dispose of the abomination", growled Andertol.

Qualt grabbed the gun out of Andertol's claws. They fought over it for a bit, knocking a few things off the desk and then finally Qualt threw him across the room with a hydraulic push.
Then threw the gun through the window, setting off the security alarm.

For some unknown reason, the fire sprinklers also turned on.

Andertol just sat on the floor, disappointed that he wasn't bleeding.

Qualt then said, "Now you know. You can drink feeling great now."

The security team, which consisted of several light grey Malych raptors entered the office and looked on in total confusion. Qualt wasn't known to thrash people in his office.

Andertol overheard the Teletext command that Qualt gave them:
"Get this disturbed person back home."


-------------


Andertol awoke.
He immediately tasted the odd taste in his mouth and knew that he must have been given sedatives. He saw Itka on the other end of the bedroom.
Her constantly blank stare with her red eyes. He used to never understand why he'd find that comforting. But now it seemed obvious.

"Itka", he said, "I just found out that I'm always going to be weird. I already knew that I was never going to be happy."

"Qualt told me", she said.

"Oh, so there is consensus now regarding my anhedonia then?", he said.

"I didn't know. I mean it doesn't really change anything but. I didn't know.", she said, "I don't know how to approach this. I assume you can understand that. You're being so emotionally intense is like you're speaking another language I don't understand."

For once, Andertol finally actually felt what it was like to be on the other side of most of his interactions with his species.
And he hated it.

"I'm sorry I broke the window in Qualt's office.", he said.

Itka then approached him and said, "You didn't break the window. Qualt did."


-----

[miokalia]

After reluctantly taking some time away from work, Andertol finally approached Qualt at the office again.
"I need a favor, and if you deny me it, then I'm going to pay the Aneans to do it... and they will"

"I'm listening", said Qualt.

"I want to get off the planet for a bit.", he said, "I need a priority slot on NCAB, and the Diplomatic Shuttle."

"I'm not letting you have the UH140. That's much too big to justify you taking it for a couple weeks.", said Qualt, "But if you really tell me what's going on I'm going to get you the OBS-71...

Stop looking at me like that. I can't tell if those are puppy-dog eyes or if you're planning to do something horrible and/or kinky to me."

Andertol tried to shake off the expression. He said, "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware I was doing that."

"I haven't seen you stare like that in a while. Are you sure you're ready to be back here for a bit at least until you go where-ever the hell it is you're going?", asked Qualt.

"Qualt", Andertol started, "I'm an inferior dinosaur. I've always been the odd-one-out or the last to get something. The fact I'm even in this post is sheer luck. The fact I've ever had any job is sheer luck. A week ago I was going to put a bullet in my head, or, as you said, probably overdose on over-the-counter drugs.
Because after years and years of this, I know it will never get better for me. This is it right here.
And because of that knowledge: I am unable to enjoy it."

"Can I stop you", Qualt interrupted, "This whole dynamic is the reason why you're here and why you're still here. It's because I know I can count on you to occasionally beat the politicians around without any regard for your reputation."

"I don't enjoy this though. There was a time I did. But now: there is nothing.
And now, I feel like the reason why I'm still around is because I'm a circus sideshow or some kind of sick experiment for you guys.", said Andertol, "I need to change some things in order to rectify that."

"Where are you going?", asked Qualt.

"Astroiyka, Planet Corona Beta VII", said Andertol, "I need to talk to something with more perspective than I have."

"They're not any smarter than you and I really", said Qualt, "They're just extremely resourceful"

"No, it's because they're not bound by the same expectations and preconceived notions that we are here. They're removed from it. Everything is out of context.
I will get a straight answer from them. And they just might be willing to help me with a solution.", said Andertol.

"Stay in touch", said Qualt, "Be careful, don't go off and get yourself turned into something."


-------


The OBS-71 was a small aircraft. Just under the size of 737. It was the delta-wing aircraft he had remembered hearing about the development of quite a while ago. It was intended for use with the Axial drive right from the start. The prototype was built in top secret. Specifically: in top secret in someone’s backyard in a subdivision which served as a decoy.
Although around 1999 or so, the project was revealed to the public by the company which was sponsoring it. In an attempt to fast-track it’s implementation so they could bring about the “interplanetary economy of the future”.
Instead, Oborham-Berkloy filed for Type E-16 Bankruptcy protection because of the short civil war that unexpectedly erupted in the Digasdans, where the majority of their operations were located.
The aircraft is now produced by the aerospace arm of Natit Industries, which is, oddly enough, owned by a Calie equity group.

Andertol was nervous. He paced around the small aisle in the middle of the craft several times while Itka stared at him blankly. Finally she said,
“You do realize there are going to be other people on this plane too in about 5 minutes? You can’t pace around for that whole time.”

Andertol snorted,
“They’re all diplomats, I’m sure they can deal with it.”

At that point, a tall human with red hair and formal military dress entered the cabin. He looked at Andertol from foot to head and sighed disappointingly.
“I just want this to be over with. I’d already be there if we went through Astrapolis.”, he complained.
Andertol returned the favor by saying,
“Uh. This flight is going to Corona. You sure you got the right gate?”

The human glared at him for a moment and then said,
“I’m on a business trip on behalf of The Imperator.”

Before Andertol could find another way to provoke the man, Itka stepped in and in a friendly tone said, “We’re just going to Astroiyka, and to be honest, we’re probably going to do some sight-seeing, where are you headed?”

“I’m going to a organic alcove nearby. Although I think someone made an error when they translated the name from Kohtohkhan”, the man glared at Andertol when he said that last part, as if accusing Andertol himself of it, “It’s called “Hooker Heaven”.”

Andertol laughed and Itka would have smiled, she said,
“No that is the name of it. They’re very strange people there from what I hear. I mean, you have to be kinda nuts to live in a small city surrounded entirely on all sides by robots.”

“I see”, the man said, somewhat unamused.

A bouncy Tinisian entered the cabin next. She opened and closed every compartment inside the cabin as she excitedly bounced through the aisle. This made Andertol sit down and suddenly become very quiet. Her enthusiasm seemed to ramp his depression up again.

“Oh my god this is so exciting!”, she exclaimed after she opened and closed the bathroom door.

Itka, who was very thoroughly in interpersonal-mode to compensate for Andertol’s misanthropy, said,
“Where are you going to?”

“SPACE”, she exclaimed, then she more calmly added, “Krarkira. I hear it’s always winter there.”

Andertol hit his head against the seat in front of him with disgust at her bubbly excitement.

“Where are you from?”, Itka continued the pleasant conversation.

“Tinis. I’m actually on business. I’m going to discuss a deal with a supplier in Krarkira.”, she said.

“Ice?”, Andertol said sideways. He couldn’t explain why he was so irritated by this bubbly person.

“Industrial Diamonds, actually”, she replied, “I guess you could sort of call that “ice”.”

After some odd silence, everyone got settled and the captain came on the PA system,

“This is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard REAC flight CB7-15. We will be departing Crossroads-Greyfields as soon as we are given clearance from Traffic Control.
We will be traveling about 200 miles east, then entering axial transit by way of several terrestrial hooks and a recurrant rainbow vein hook, which means it should be very smooth sailing. Then in about 20 hours we will be exiting transit at an attitude of 270 degrees according to astrometrics, which means that our exit from axial will be a bit rough.
We will then be flying about 600 miles into Astroiyka Transit Cluster – West.
From there you can board a P-Tram inbound or connect to another flight if those are your plans.
I’d like to introduce you to the crew: your pilot is Leshcletske, your stewards are Mariam and Retdan, your axial engineers are Pete and Ka and I’m your captain, Micah.”

“I would totally be there by now if I had gone through Astrapolis”, said the man in the front.

“Oh shut up.”, Andertol barked, “If you really were that important, then IX would have let you use your own shuttle to get there. This isn’t that bad now is it?”



The man glared at Andertol.
The stewardess, Ka was standing nearby, holding a small Styrofoam box containing the passenger’s requested meal.
He had ordered an “Imperial Salad”, which was basically a piece of steak.
Ka had no idea if it was polite or not to interrupt him with the salad. She was used to different clientele and didn’t want to offend this guy.
“A. Um.”, she said, “And for you the… Imperial Salad”
The man didn’t seem bothered by any of it.
But Andertol selected Ka as his next target.
“And YOU.”, he pointed at her, causing her to step back a bit.
“You are an immature, cowardly, feathered rat!”, he yelled.
Ka ran to the back of the cabin and slammed the curtain shut.
He then turned to the bouncy Tinisian and said,
“And you are a f*cking meth-head.”

She was unamused and let out a perturbed sigh and said,
“What’s your problem?”

Mariam came out from the back of the cabin, after talking with the upset Ka.
She was a Puma, probably of Calie decent and she pushed Andertol back down into his seat before saying anything.
Then she smiled at everyone else and said to Andertol,
“We have to spend 20 hours together and I don’t want to have to sedate you.”

“Please do”, said Andertol, “20 more hours to go. I want to be sedated.”

Mariam then went back to the rear of the cabin, shaking her head while Andertol cackled and shouted the lyrics to that song by the Ramones, badly out-of-tune,
“Twenty-twenty-twenty more hours to gooooo! I wanna be sedated!”

He then turned to Itka and said, “No seriously I need a sleep aid or something.”


-----


Andertol finally apologized to Ka about 4 hours into the flight.

"So what's your name, asshole", asked the Haromian

Andertol forgot that these weren't close government people that knew him.

"What's yours?", Andertol growled back.

"Fine then, I'll be the bigger man here. I'm Ambassador Clayton.", he said, "Now why the hell are you here other than to make our trip unpleasant?"

"I'm Sudo to the Apparateur, Andertol.", the allosaurus responded.

"Who?", said the Haromian, "You're from Cal aren't you?"

"Sure, why not.... No.", Andertol said while staring a hole through the back of the bouncy Tinisian's head, "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to savor the experience of shadenfreud before my meeting since I may not be able to again."

"What?", the Haromian asked, "Come again?"

Andertol then said, "I'm sorry I just have to get all the asshole out of my system before an upcoming meeting. If I don't..."
Andertol paused for dramatic emphasis:
"I might turn inside-out and blow up. Viscera and blood everywhere.
Livers strewn about."

The Haromian looked at him with a blank expression and said, "You have more than one liver?"

"No", Andertol said, "But I don't know about her" He pointed to the Tinisian, "She might have more than one liver"

"Please tell me you're taking a different flight back.", said the Haromian.

[miokalia]

The captain was right, they did come out of axial facing an unpleasent direction. A brief negative 5gs followed by almost 8 seconds of weightlessness.

The bouncy Tinisian fox came out of her seat. She didn't get the seat-belt on in time and was now drifting into the aisle. After the initial surprise, she shrieked. The plane would be coming out of it's turn and inverting soon, and that would probably send her shooting off towards the front or back of the cabin.
Andertol unbuckled his seat belt and pushed off towards her. Grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back into her seat. She promptly put the seat belt on.
The Haromian made a thumbs up, he didn't want to open his mouth due to the unexpected weightlessness wanting to bring up the last meal.
Andertol swallowed his near vomit while pulling himself back into his seat. Barely getting it fastened before gravity came back, pulling towards the rear of the cabin.
Soon it leveled out and through the windows, the Coronan landscape was visible with the ground and sky occupying their correct relative locations.


-------


Upon deboarding, the Fox followed Andertol and Itka for a bit,
"Hey. Thank you for that." she said, "I hope you find whatever it is that you need. And I hope you learn how to express empathy. Because it's definately in there somewhere."

Itka sighed, "Well that disaster ended well."

They stood in the middle of a fairly average looking terminal. It was designed to appeal to visitors and was styled in a fairly inoffensive and bland way.
Itka and Andertol stood near some windows that provided a view of the yellowish-orange sky of late afternoon.
"You've never been here either", Andertol asked.

"No. It's as foreign to me as it is to you.", she said.

"You know, I was just going to come here and see if I could have that piece of MZA6 code removed from my mind... I figured given the interrogation techniques they quietly demonstrated during the Galactic Federation war. Maybe they could use that technology to take that thing out of my head.

But if it weren't for that thing in my head, I wouldn't have been able to buckle that Fox back in. I wouldn't have been able to overcome the fear during the g-inversion. It's like an area of animal instinct was overwritten with your code. Qualt's right. I can't separate myself from it."

"Well I'm glad that you've figured your self out. It just kinda sucks that we're here already.", said Itka, "But I'm hardly angry. I like seeing new places. We should probably come up with a plan now, don't you think?"

"Itka", Andertol's eyes went into an odd stare, similar to the one that creeped-out Qualt before, "I think I know what I have to do..."

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

"We need to find a taxi.", Andertol said.

The sun, a red circle in the sky here, finally came out from some haze and filled the lobby with an odd orange glow.

"No, what's really going on. You're acting weird.", said Itka.

"I think something happened over the last few months. I've always been able to hear your teletext. But now I'm also hearing other things. Carrier signals.
A month ago, I collapsed near the capitol, remember? It was that seizure.

They put me on drugs and I started babbling incoherently and crying for someone by the name of "Kay".
In my hallucination, all that "Kay" person said was "Your loop is supressed. Device not found."
Itka, that "Kay" person I saw. That was K24 attempting to load in response to the re-uptake inhibitor medication. It thought it was system-attack, but couldn't find a place to load because it was in a meat-brain."

Itka said, "You need to get some sleep. I know you have a hunk of Malych code in your head, but you couldn't also have the K24 part of it.
What did it look like?"

"It was red. But warm. Shaped like Qualt except with a sphere in the middle which couldn't be readily defined. It seemed to talk to me through both.
If you touch the sphere: you see a rapid sequence of beautiful things that I went so quickly I couldn't figure them out.
What?"

Itka was a bit surprised and hushed him. "Okay, I believe you. Nobody ever talks about the sphere part though."

"Why not? It was so pretty.", said Andertol.

"It's uh. It's a very private and embarassing Malych thing.", she said.


That evening at the hotel, Andertol snuck off. Leaving a note that said he was going to "get lost for a bit".

Itka didn't know that was the last time she would see the Allosaurus she knew.


-------

[miokalia]

Back home, Qualt was having to contend with a rowdy upper house senate that wanted to ram preposterous amounts of legislation through in Andertol's absence.
The conservatives saw it as the opportunity of a life time. No longer did they have to pretend to be "new pragmatists". They could be ideologically pure without having to worry about the dirty allosaurid rat acting out.
Qualt insisted that he would veto every item, but that would only work until the great rhetoric machine started up, after years or dormancy, and turned the people against the Protectorate and the Apparateur.
Andertol's departure was ill-timed.
A slew of legislation was now on the table. Things which Andertol would have placed into a food-processor and forced the authors and sponsors to drink in a theatrical but dead-serious manner.
Things like:
The privatization of the entire college system
The abolishment of the healthcare system to be followed by the abolishment of health insurance *
The establishment of a universal 15% sales tax *
Changing the road tax system so it is based on usage rather than value *
Protecting politician positions from automation and malychification.

And et cetera.

(* See GOP policy.)

This was something that did happen every once in a while anyway. If Andertol were sick or something. But usually he would come into work ANYWAY and make a concerted effort to maximize everyone's exposure to his ailment and then use his trusty blender to turn the documents into a fine mulch, which he would combine with paper-mache mix so he could create a nice mortar to stop up the offending orifice of his body, be it his rear or his nostrils.
Now there was an assumption that Andertol was burned-out and didn't care anymore.

Qualt had to call in an air-strike (not literally) and got several of the CTL-Pool Apparatchiks from the Ops Reservation to come in and force a mandatory recess of the Legislatures.
A dick-move, perhaps, but necessary to keep the legislature in check.


------


Itka was not so easily blindsided. She only "slept" because Andertol did, and she really did find his trust that she wouldn't do things to him while asleep to be extremely endearing.
So she followed him out of the hotel, some bizarre mechanical-deconstructivist thing which looked like the resultant mess of a huge pirate ship made of tungsten and aluminum falling half a mile and crashing into the ground.
She followed him into Astroiyka proper. A big grey circuit-board of a city. Primarily a legacy structure since the Immanence took over. Now everyone was just software running in the atoms that constituted the place. The only thing going on was the transit of materials which are just easier to move than they are to reappropriate from existing materials where they're needed.
He was headed up a huge, 16-lane highway-like structure. 16 large grooves cut into the ferroconcrete ground with tracks at the bottom. Moving towards the large reddish-brown dome up the hill. The glitzy little augmented reality application that Itka got for the trip told her it was the Old City. Dating back to pre-Malych era. It was a place which was built with physical bodies in mind, and therefore: there were going to be drones there. Robots that could act as terminals so that Andertol could directly, casually talk to the Coronans.


Andertol thought about maybe trying to see if he could climb onto one of the passing vehicles that whizzed along the tramway. But he had second thoughts. They seemed to move very fast and getting off of it might be a dicey situation. Plus it wasn't like he knew where they went.
But the dome, he knew about. In there was a primary interface for the Coronans to other species. That was his Emerald City where he could be enabled to rectify his issues.
It wasn't necessarily that hard to get to. Then again, it was an interface so they probably didn't want to alienate others.

Upon arrival, Andertol was a bit chargrinned to find that there was a jetbus that ran from the hotel district to the dome for tourists.
He looked around and saw a gaggle of glowy Aluezians, some vacationing Aneans and a couple of inept Miokalian raptors being stereotypical and taking pictures of every square inch of everything they saw, in particular: the door handles, toilets, vending machines and the drones that ran the place.

He didn't know what to ask these drones though. And he didn't want to be the crazy-guy who ruined the others' trip by being an ass. So he snuck off down one of the tubular hallways. The plan was to get lost, and then hopefully talk to something bigger.
After going through a byzantine system of hallways, increasingly narrow and important-looking, he came upon a door. Oddly enough, it was a pretty average-looking door. No special sliding or iris effects, as he might expect in this weird place.

He opened it, on the other side was complete blackness.
As he stepped-in, he felt himself fall a little bit, as if in an elevator. Then the room lit up.
He was still standing, and the room appeared to be some kind of fairly mild, airy corporate-like office atrium. Complete with a receptionist's desk in the center and potted plants and the sound of a babbling waterfall artificially piped-in by PA system.
The Secretary shocked him a bit. But she didn't seem to care about his being there.

For an instant he saw that image again, just a quick flash in his mind.
The image of the dragon with the sphere in the middle of it. "Kay".

A second later, when the be-spectacled fox secretary looked at him, he somehow already knew her name.
"Gladis?"

"Yes? How can I help you?", she said in a pleasant but detached tone.

"Like the GlaDos in Portal. Oh my god really?", Andertol said.

"What?", Gladis asked, "My name has an "I" in it. Learn to read please."

"I'm sorry", Andertol backed-down and got sheepish, "I was hoping I might be able to find somebody to talk to about a pretty weird problem."

Gladis stared at Andertol for a moment and then said,
"This is the part where I ask you if you're looking for the meaning of life."

"Well, I guess that could include my particular issue, but it's a bit too general.", Andertol said.

"You really are an odd case. Something like what happened to you would never have happened under our auspice.
Go to room 102.", said the fox.

"Where?", asked Andertol.

"Just go down any hallway, it will show up.", she replied slightly irritatedly, then handed him a brightly colored plastic card with a number 12 on it.

As he started walking towards the hall, the fox called after him, "Also, you're wife called. She wants you to pick up a quart of milk after you discover the meaning of life."

"Huh what?", Andertol asked in total confusion.
Then the receptionist started laughing and said, "Every time. Don't worry it's a joke."

Andertol still didn't get it. It must have been code.

The hallways did their magic. He vaguely remembered the Ryvuuli of Aatu mentioning seeing this phenomena before. It's like the hallways of the structure run on an operating system. The architectural equivalent of a GUI in computer technology.

Room 102 was behind another unimpressive door. This was a large viewing hall with a walkway running down the middle.
Below, the floor was either poorly lit or not visible. Ahead was a large screen.

Suddenly white text in Kohtohkhan font appeared on the screen and a oddly enthusiastic and condescending voice came on and said,
"Hi Hiyike"


Andertol looked around and then made an odd expression and then said,
"Really. This is more theatrical than the Malych I'm used to."

"This is Corona Beta.
Now how about I tell you about a great new product from Dolbarco Electronics called UVW!", it boomed.

"Uh.... how about not. I mostly just came here because I need to talk to someone.
You see I've got a problem..."

"With UVW, you can solve any problem. You just input the problem using these Hollerith-style punch cards, then insert them into the box. The machine solves the problem in seconds. It's that easy!"

"Um...."

The screen then popped an equasion: 456 + 109 = X on the screen then said,
"Solve for X!"

"Hey. What. 5. 65... "

"GREAT JOB!" the screen boomed, "Now this time. Use the Hollerith-style punch card to interact!"

"What?"

About two boxes worth of old-style punch-cards rained down on Andertol, at first fluttering down, then followed by a small deluge of Hollerith cards.
Andertol yelped in surprise.

"Quickly now! f(x) 34x^2-115x^3+(-189x^2)+14-x^5+604x GRAPH THIS EQUASION."

"What?" Andertol shouted while Hollerith cards continued to rain down on him.

"Hair!", the screen shouted, and soon bits of hair began raining down on Andertol.

"I must be in the wrong room!" Andertol declared, trying to get the thing to stop. "I was looking for someone to talk to!"

Then a scene from the Argument sketch from Monty Python played,
"I came in here looking for an argument! This is just abuse!"
"Oh Oh, you want room 12 B."

Andertol was now just confused.
"Help!"

The screen went blank and then a white-feathered raptor in a lab-coat appeared.
"May I assist you?", she said.

"Uh yeah. I was looking for someone to talk to. Instead I got these old-timey punchcards thrown at me, a huge unsimplified quadratic equasion and... hair..."

"First, let's start with how to hook up the UVW to your television set.", she replied,
"You simply take this cable and plug it into the back of the system."

"Oh no", Andertol moaned, "Listen."

"It is as simple as..."

"Listen to me!!!", Andertol shouted, "I own a computer. It doesn't need punch cards. I don't need a punch card tabulator."

"Even if you don't use the UVW Hollerith-style punch cards, then you should still take the cable and plug it in to the back of the system."

Andertol then felt an odd sensation in the back of his neck. And found a cable in his claws.

"Just plug it in and we can begin", she said in a pleasant and neutral tone.

Andertol reached around and felt a connector now on the back of his neck.
Against his better judgement, he decided to follow the help avatar's instructions.

The whole room went black. Just him and the screen now.

The Raptor then said, in her inoffensive parlance and tone, "Good. Now nevermind the Dolbarco Electronics UVW Hollerith-style punch card problem solving machine.
I can see that you are already using MZA6-Adaptive Build 1976-ke. On...."
She then looked Andertol up and down and continued, "Some kind of weird biological meat computer"

"Hey", Andertol said in protest, followed by sudden wonder at the affirmation of what he was told by Qualt, which caused him to say, "So that's me."

"Quite indeed.", she said in her soft-science stare, "Your loop is based on a Malych kernal."

"Loop is the same things as a soul, just to verify.", Andertol asked.

The help avatar looked a bit disappointed and said, "Yes it is. We try not to use the term 'soul' because it is deprecated. We prefer to use technical terms such as "loop" to describe the structure and existence of one's consciousness."

"I'm sorry. It's a cultural thing.", Andertol said, "Cultural thing you absorb from other...cultures... and things..."

"I'll go ahead and leave you with PHIL again.", said the raptor.

"Wait", Andertol said in a slight panic, "The wall person? The screen thing?"

"Yes.", the Raptor said happily.

"NO", Andertol shouted, "Don't leave me ALONE with him!"

The screen then went black and the original voice came back.
"Hi Hiyike!"

"Oh god", Andertol said.

"No. Not God.", Phil said.

"Please. Don't do that thing with the cards and the hair again. Please!", Andertol implored the wall.

"Oh no. We're done with that phase. Now that you're plugged-in, you have completed the first voluntary step in your goal."

"What's going on", Andertol said nervously.

"We're going to fix you as you have indicated.", said Andertol.

"You're not going to format my brain are you??!", Andertol freaked out, he wasn't sure what he wanted yet and was worried the system may have come to a forgone conclusion.

Phil chuckled, much to Andertol's unease. Then said, "Oh no. We're just to put you into a proper drone, as specified by your MZA6 metadata."

Andertol began,
"What? I don't even know what that is. I wanted to talk about this first. I didn't want to just mmmmpphh!!!!"
He was lifted up into the air a bit, his back arched and he shrieked as weird cold chill threw him into an involuntary stretch. He expected any minute to feel unimaginable pain. That's the assumption at least, that a impending transformation would involve tremendous pain.
The anticipation made seconds seem like hours as he hung there in the dark emptiness, waiting for something completely unknown to happen to him.

Then he felt totally numb.

Phil, in his always salesmanlike voice boomed, "Now count to three"

Andertol said, "What!". Then covered his mouth as the voice that came out was completely crackled and out of tune. Then another shock hit him. The claws he used to cover his mouth were not his own.
Warmth returned to his body. Which felt slightly irritated all over.
"Uh... One.... Two"
He looked around and just saw neon green, white and pink abstract swirls.
"Three....", he finished.

He was definately still floating, and soon the swirls gave way to darkness again.
"Now what is your favorite color?", Phil boomed.

"Uh.... I... um blue. No green. Um I... don't really have just one. Do I have to have just one? What's going on?"

"System passed!", announced Phil happily.

Suddenly a whole serpentine bundle of cables slithered around and forcefully connected into him.
For a moment he heard a loud shriek, probably his own. Followed by a rapidly flashing light.
This went on for a few seconds. When it was finished, he could swear his brain was smoking and it was coming out of his ears and nostrils. But soon the throbbing headache gave way to normalcy.

He looked down and saw the metal floor of the walkway he was on when he first arrived. The room had returned.

Then he fell, much to his dismay, to the floor.
His legs moved on their own and went into place to brace for a landing. He saw that they resembled Itka's somewhat.

He hit the ground comfortably. Which slight hiss of the cylinders in his shins.
The irritation was gone now. He felt... normal. Indescribably normal.

At first, he was filled with dread. What had he done? His insanity had driven him to get himself assimilated by the Coronans.
But upon inspection, he found that he was definately an Earth Malych. It was a hard to see anything clearly, because his focus kept shifting between the two sets of eyes. And his movements were staccato and extremely mechanical. Nothing like Itka's.
"What?" Andertol started to say something, but still wasn't sure what to ask.

"Problem rectified!" Phil announced.

"Am I?", Andertol started to ask something again.

"Yes sir. You are no longer made of meat.
You are an individual component in a vast system. Your mind consists of two main components, MZA6, which is your individual mind and K24, which is the collective subconscious instinct system of your species. Both have always been a part of you, so the transition was fairly easy."

"I don't know what to do...", Andertol started. But then Phil interupted,

"OF COURSE YOU DON'T. NONE OF THEM EVER DO!
That's the secret. There is no secret. The meaning of life is to create a meaning for life. That's it. It's not acquisition of some UVW Magic super system, it's not to reproduce, contrary to what the meatbags say. It's nothing. It is a blank slate. You must create meaning or you will never, ever truly find it.
Now SHOO!"

With that, Andertol shot backwards through the hallways and walls as if he were invisible.
He came to a stop against an enormous cushion, then fell down to the floor. His feet doing that bracing thing again on their own.
He landed in a black room with a single door.

It was the room he started in. The entire thing was virtual.
All of it was representational.
He did a quick body-check, he was still a Malych. That part seemed to be lasting.

He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.

Itka had followed him here, that manipulative building they were in had placed the door in such a way that it brought it right to her.

She didn't recognize him at first, he was still an allosaurid, albeit also very much a robot.

She asked, "Have you seen an orange dinosaur, organic dinosaur around? Is kinda hard to approach and is probably upset."

Andertol said, "Itka."
His voice was identical to the way it was when he was made of meat.

The iris projections in her eye panels went wide as she realized what had happened.