By David C. Daoust
Ferguson was getting used to having the small solid-light being perched upon his dome. The fact the holo-bot, Hamlin, had never asked permission to ride around on top of him, and had just continued to do so since their escape from the First Wave saboteurs that had stolen the Ark-Device, was probably something the now limited Ark had a say in– but simply never did. He understood the holo-bots diminutive form, having to race to keep up, might be counterproductive. Ultimately, it was not that different from having billions of humans crawling through his innards for centuries on end. In fact, in that light, it was much easier to forgive.
As an Ark, albeit limited, Ferguson had the ability to be in multiple locations at once. He -now- carried Hamlin through the corridors of the rover, though, minutes before, he was leading his wave of Battle Drones back to the very same rover, along with the girl-bot Margo, who had, somehow, invaded his systems… Margo had insisted on playing along. The next game, he declared, was ‘capture the flag’. The flag, of course, was any kind of communication device that may be aboard that abandoned freighter the First Wave youths were planning to scout. Ferguson felt he could remove the problem of those saboteurs finding him all over again by simply stealing any such device, hopefully damaging it, in yet another drone wave assault. Be like ‘oops’ when it came to light that it was him and Margo all along. Those plans got dashed to the wayside when the shadow blotted out the skies above with the arrival of the massive starship.
Margo and Ferguson hid in the desert.
While Hamlin and Ferguson rushed to the family room.
Hamlin insisted that he would be able to take care of the seemingly comatose bots. Ferguson could only puzzle how exactly the small holo-bot would manage such a feat… considering the obvious limitations of such a small form.
No sooner had they hovered into the family room, than Hamlin hopped down onto the back of the couch where Margo’s body lie, still sleeping, despite Ferguson discussing the Drone Waves next course of action with Margo’s ‘disembodied sentience’, back in that shadowy ridge in the desert.
“The buzz is different, it’s not her,” Hamlin said aloud as he stopped to sense his surroundings. “She’s not using these Particles anymore.”
Ferguson did not sense or feel anything. Arks simply do not experience the ‘buzz’ bots do when they are in proximity of a strange bot. Ultimately, the Arks did not even know about the strange feedback that bots experience. Ferguson could only look at the small being quizzically as Hamlin seemed to search around some more.
“Where is the bunny?” Hamlin asked.
“Maybe with the children?” Ferguson guessed. Though also knew that if Margo was not present in that form, then neither was the bunny— considering the bunny’s sentience was also with Ferguson’s drone wave.
Hamlin merely gestured to the form sleeping on the couch, to Fergusons surprise, it began to glow. Seconds later it hovered up off the couch. Hamlin smiled back at him, gestured again and the girl-form broke apart, dissolved into a grouping of glowing particles— all form lost. The particles spun about the room; Hamlin, clearly, just showing off at this point.
“I think I have an idea,” Hamlin stated as the glowing particles began to take form.
Ferguson, however, was distracted with the sudden arrival of Twin Crown’s very own dragon…
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