Chapter 24
Kryten and the Nanobots

"Well troop #135, I'm glad you could all join me. But time is of the essence, so shall we get a move on."

In a pathway amongst the millions throughout his mechanoid brain, Kryten addressed the troop of nanobots who would attempt to save Lister's life. Under Holly's direction, via Kryten.

This did not sit well with the mechanoids Limiting Chip or his NegaDrive, which were choosing to shut down Kryten at somewhat inconvenient intervals. Once their pathways had sufficiently cooled, sometimes as much as minute later, Kryten would restart. Like an aged blow dryer
this plagued their progress. Holly was unaware that this erratic behavior would alert the nanobots to the ploy they were currently employing.

"Oi let's get a move on" said Holly so only Kryten could hear him. "What's
the hold up."

"OK" Kryten thought. "This way troops." and the troop marched in formation down the pathway, Kryten leading the way.
Kryten went over the map in his head; take the exterior postronic passageways from the CPU south to the spine. They catch the Spinal Column
Tap Transit lift down several hundred floors almost to the bottom. Hop on the Kidney commuter and take it to the end. There they are to exit through Kryten's groinal attachment, that substitutes for a vacuums as well.
Before they even made it to the Spinal Tap Kryten was stopped in the passage.

"Halt!" Commanded a voice that seemed to boomed through the walls themselves.

Everything within ear shot stopped. Which was pretty much everything.
Kryten nervously made small nonchalant motions in an attempt to
seem relaxed. That was until he heard the clanging on the metal floor in a rhythm that indicated ambling. And judging from the sound it was coming his way.

"Where do you think your going?" questioned The Central Processor
Kryten handed the CPU a small computer slug that was the machine's equivalent of written orders.

The CPU fed the slug into a slot on the left side of his head. His eyes momentarily turned to small hour glasses behind his thick bifocals, then were back again.

"I see," he said with no infliction in his voice. "The only problem that I see with this is that it was sent out by the Central Processor."

"That would be the case." Kryten replied shuffling his feet.
"But you see, you sad impostor. I am the Central Processor,
and I never sent it out. Deserting your droid, that breaks every regulation in the book.

This was a tricky situation for Kryten, just before he was about to shutdown Holly intervened.

"Look Mr. CPU, I understand that this is a bit of a cock up for you, but
you are compelled to obey me, for you see, I am your programmer."
The CPU was unsure what to do, how could he defy his programmer?

"Oh programmer, I apologize I didn't realize that it was you, it's
been so long. Had I known," the CPU left the sentence unfinished.

"Well then shall we move along, we have a lot of work to do."
Kryten, who had been on the verge of shutdown since before the intervention hesitated, then started slowly walking past the CPU and his guards.

"One moment please," said the CPU, still not completely convinced.

"Am I to understand it that certain regulations are more flexible than others. And that in the future other nanobots might be called forth to leave
their droid, for some other purpose."

"Lister doesn't have the time for this," Holly thought, and answered without thinking. "Yea sure that's a possibility.

The CPU had a strange look on his face. Something between a smile and a leer. "OK, if that's the case I shall adjust accordingly", again his eyes were filled with clocks and suddenly white noise came from everywhere as if thousands upon thousands of pieces of information were being rewritten within Kryten's brain. Which made sense because that is exactly what was happening. As abruptly as it started it stopped.

The CPU spoke again. "Well I'm glad that's all cleared up," he said tonelessly. "My able bodied assistance will show you an emergency escape route. This should save you some time on your departure." He turned and
walked away, almost too casually.

Kryten and his troop were led by the larger of the two assistance northwards towards the eyes. When finally they emerged Kryten had found himself and his troop had escaped visa his own nose and into a waiting hypodermic.
As he and his nanos floated in a semi gelatinous liquid, within the needle,
he felt a strange vacuum which pulled the micro beings up into the glass chamber, then at what seemed like warp speed, hurling nano on top of nano on some fantastic voyage into Lister's body. More than once today Kryten regretted ever having been rebuilt in the first place.

Unknown to Kryten waiting for them, within Lister's right arm, were a group of rather nasty looking antibodies that meant business.