Chapter One
It had been one week since Motherboard's near-fatal encounter with Abaddon and one week since her transfer into the Control Central supercomputer. The various tasks of being a supercomputer were beginning to feel more natural to her and she was beginning to feel a bit more confident in her abilities than she'd ever been. Granted, there were still some things to adjust to. Richard had begun the process of installing her new portal setup into her systems and it felt a bit strange to undergo mechanical work. Not to mention the entire view of Cyberspace she now had in her position, which she didn't think she'd ever get used to. However, she wasn't the only one who had to adjust...
At 6:00 a.m., Motherboard drifted out of sleep mode and booted up. She saw that Richard was already up and about his tasks as chief technician.
"Good morning Richard," she said, smiling warmly.
Richard glanced over and noticed that she was fully booted up. "Ah, Motherboard, good morning to you too. I trust you slept well?" he inquired.
"Indeed I have. When one happens to be a computer, that is pretty much all one can do in sleep mode," she said wryly.
Richard snorted in response. "I expect you didn't dream of electric sheep last night then."
"Definitely not. How is Marbles, by the way? Is he adjusting well to his new position?" Motherboard asked.
"He's performing rather well! I must admit, I've never seen such enthusiasm in an assistant in a long time. Nor have I seen such attention to detail. In fact, if he continues to perform this well, I may end up choosing him as my sucessor when I retire," Richard said thoughtfully.
"I certainly don't doubt he'll be up to the task, but I am a little concerned that he'll end up worrying too much about me," she said.
"I think you've got enough on your plate at the moment, Motherboard. You've managed to take care of him all these years, so I think you should trust him to take care of you when the time comes," he said.
Motherboard smiled. "I know he will, Richard. Speaking of which, can you fetch him for me? I'd like to continue having my portal setup installed if you don't mind."
"Of course Motherboard." he replied, briskly walking out of the room to do so.