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We were in that little pod for less than ten nanos, but it only took me that long to realize that this little experiment was not going to work.
There were three pods. We'd need thirty-two if this contraption ever dreamed of working. I wish I could speak to Bob directly. It seemed like we understood each other so well before, but I suppose I didn't want to translate such complex ideas as "This is not going to work because you have a race of keytools living in your body".
As predicted, all the machine created was a cloud of noxious smoke.
Bob stumbled out of the chamber disappointed and gagging. He took in a lungful of real air and rolled his eyes. "Well that didn't work."
You think flyboy?
"I guess its back to the drawing board."
Dern straight.
…
Do I miss Turbo or Copeland?
On that note I recalled the rest of my followers on the lower decks. I went down with the unhappy news.
"It didn't work."
"Well that's obvious." Gibson said.
"But we'll try again." I assured him. "We can't expect to succeed on the first try."
"So much for holding on to hope."
I was trying my best to put on a positive face and didn't really feel like taking his sass. Instead of promptly telling him off, I changed the subject and looked to Grace. "How's Copeland?"
The place saddened and I knew I'd made a mistake. I was trying to raise morale around here and nothing gets a crowd unhappy faster than reminding them that a loved one was dying.
"He hasn't changed." Grace replied. "He's still processing, but not by much."
"We'll be out of here in time to help him." I assured her. "What he needs is a recharge and his guardian back. That will fix everything."
"It'll fix me." Kink said with enthusiasm. "I could use a recharge so bad right now, I can't remember the last time I was able to perform a system scan!"
"That's because you're inside someone else's body, hun." DeNure said.
"Wow! I'd totally forgotten about that!"
I groaned again to myself and made to leave. "I'm going to go check on our next attempt. The rest of you, just persevere as best you can."