"How many do you have in stock?" Hacker hollered in the direction of the backroom as the proprietor of the electronics store left him to dig around in the back.
"About fifty in all, including what's back here."
"I'll take all of them. As long as you can get someone to handle the shipping. And don't try to get me to pay extra." Hacker wadded up a fistfull of snelfus from his wallet and shoved them at the elderly borg with a gesture that resembled a punch to the gut.
The familiar tinge of static bounced off his hand as he brushed his fingers over one of the digital screens. He'd spent his whole life behind monitors like this. Shackled in the tiger's cage. Yet through his fear of her, he'd come to admire the beast. It was her power he longed to make his own.
An image appeared, first on the screen that lay in his fingers. Then, one by one across all the rest in the store. The visage of a woman with hair that waved like the peaks and valleys of populating code. The sight of her created a lump in Hacker's through that was impossible to swallow
Mother, mother, mother. Wherever his gaze turned in the room, her's was there, peering back at him.
"—here to announce the formation of an official Cyber Council. One which will take the interest of every cybercitizen to heart and create a new era of peace in our cyberuniverse."
"And who would want that?" The borg tut-tutted as if mocking a child. "Why, what would they put in the papers?"
He let out a deep and throaty chuckle, leaning in closer once he saw something in the woman's eyes flicker. She could see him like she could see through every monitor in Cyberspace. And with so many of her eyes turned to him at once, Hacker had no doubt about being at the forefront of the Cyber ruler's attention
"Hulloo, Motherboard?" he said, waving his fingers in her face. "Did you miss me?"
Subtle were the signs of a deity in silent panic. Unable to allow the emotions lying below the surface show on her face. Hacker could see fractures in her tranquil expression ripple across her face like droplets of pollutant seeping into a crystal lake.
"Your wayward son is about to make a comeback. And he's planning quite the grand entrance."