By David C. Daoust
The hold of the massive Rover was empty but for the small holobot, Hamlin, who, moments before, had discovered the mound of glittering particles that filled the dormant junkbot. There were thousands of them– mystery particles, nanites maybe? Hamlin knew most nanites were much smaller, often used to invade existing machinery— to repair it. He could feel the tiny things, like a buzz, as they attempted to interface with him.
Hamlin did not truly understand what was going on with the particles. Once they linked with him, however, he gained some insight. These particles were in a class all by themselves; clearly made to take up space, to take form. Not only could they link together to create complex shapes, they could project a solid-light cell to help fill it all out.
They felt like an extra limb, like an appendage he could control. He inched them about, stiffly, in the mound. As more answered to his will, he found they moved more freely.
As he concentrated, they began to swirl within the bucket. The abandoned heart-shaped bot-form, that rested on the mound, sunk a little as the particles all linked together and rose up in a column. He willed them to twist around like a snake. This caused the image of a snake to appear in his mind– suddenly the column took on the appearance of that snake, complete with a snake-head and scale-covered body which tapered all the way down to a tail that suddenly rattled as Hamlin willed it so.
The Wayward Aspirant began shifting the particles around in unusual patterns and designs. Anything he pictured in his mind- the particles would try to mimic. His thoughts were all made real before him. He twisted them into little models of people he knew, those he met on his current quest, even one of his more respectable Aspirant-form. The models were only a few inches in height, they fell and crashed into the next form as quickly as his mind would go from image to image.
Hamlin noticed, at times, they would glow and flicker as more of the particles joined the mass he was controlling. At first he was not sure why. Until it dawned on him that they actually glowed when they flew! Once Hamlin realized the particles could fly— the whole mass hovered high above the rest of the mound, each glowing in turn. He brought the swarm around in a great arch that flowed into a figure eight, then turned the whole thing into a miniature roller coaster, racing and flipping throughout the hold.
Ultimately, they were little more than interesting new toys to the Wayward Aspirant.
In fact, once he felt the entire hold suddenly lurch and the vehicle begin to move, he willed them all back into the junkbot. The particles flopped down like a bucket of sand being dumped back into a sandbox.
Hamlin found himself much more interested in what was going on up above, in the helm.
Abandoning the hold, and the new toy within, he headed back up the stairs.
As an afterthought Hamlin glanced back– with a thought the mass of particles suddenly took on the shape of one of his hands and pulled the lid back down over the junkbot. Leaving it, pretty much, the way he found it.
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