The machine skittered toward its destination, careful to avoid its compatriots as they all set out to fulfill their personal tasks. Some were performing maintenance on the old parts of the structure, others were delivering supplies to the guards and traders. But this one was different: it had an audience with the master.

With speed that would make even a fighter jet jealous, it crossed halls that few humans would ever lay eyes on, evading skull like drones that were busy checking the structure for cracks. It climbed up walls that even ants would find impossible to scale, all in the name of meeting the master.

Finally, after a short while, it reached it's destination: an oval shaped roomed centered around a hologram emitter. Nearby, the master was seated, wearing hir strange helmet. In hir hand was a book: though it could not see the majority of the cover, it could make out some of the title: F*** O* Mach**ius.

Though the machine was not one that would normally examine its surroundings beyond noting what obstacles may exist to its routines, it noticed that there was some damage to the emitter in the center to the room. The source was not a concern, only that the machine was damaged. Though the damages were recent, more so were the signs of repair; clearly, the master had exerted some of hir power to fix it. This was unacceptable: maintenance should have already been working on fixing the damage. The machine immediately sent a request for several of its compatriots outfitted for repair to begin fixing the mess.

With that issue settled, the machine approached its master, who had finally noticed its prescence. Sighing in relief, the master extended an arm toward the machine, which responded by opening a compartment in its back and offering a cylindrical container to its master. The master responded by opening the top of the cylinder and taking a sip. A moment later, a satisfied sigh escaped the master's lips.

Good, the tea had been made just right.

It's purpose fulfilled, the machine retreated back to its origin, where, already, other fluids were being prepared: some for consumption, others for maintenance, others still for construction. The master usually preferred to have some time alone to enjoy a good drink, though they never tried anything alcoholic. Ostensibly, it was to avoid dulling hir senses, but the machine, with its limited freedom, assumed the real reason was that the master really just didn't want to end up drunk.

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R.O.B. sighed. The tea was just right: not to hot, not to cold, and with just the right amount of sweetness. Perfect for help calming down after the strange incident a few hours before.

After drinking a fourth of the mug, the being put it down and began to turn its thoughts toward the strange events a few hours prior. Clearly, that machine was not made by any faction in the Spore universe, not even the Darkspore. Someone else had made it. Perhaps she could consult STEVE about it later.

Though, in truth, he was also rather annoyed at STEVE as well, for the little saucer itself was an unforeseen development: traditionally, only one Random Omnipotent Being monitored a commander at a time, and his presence infringed on her monopoly of Commander Flameal15k. She would have to arrange a time to chat with the Space-Time Entity of Vacuum Energy, preferably soon.

For now, though, the otherworldly ROB decided to turn his attention back toward his plaything. It was unlikely that he would remain in his home universe for long, and when he moved, she would need to know how to act. After all, causing misery to Commanders was both a tradition and hobby among Random Omnipotent Beings.

Turning toward the partially repaired holo-emitter, the otherworldly ROB flicked his hand, signifying it to reactivate and focus on the commander. Despite it's damaged state, it complied. The damages had been repaired, but only partially: omnipotence should not be wasted on such trivialities, and any ways, the maintenance drones would fix it eventually.

The minute the image came into focus, ROB noticed that his plaything was examining a blueprint for some kind of scanner... which had attached itself to the dimension gate.

Odd.

Odder still was that the scanner's design had come from the artifact that had messed with the both of them earlier. Clearly, there were more to the situation than meets the eye.

But, for now, ROB was content to wait and see what happened. As the scanner would not finish for an hour, the omnipotent being turned its attention back to its book.

"So that's how he died", it thought.

An hour later, the structure had finished and the commander was preparing for a jump. This pleased ROB: soon it would be able to mess with its plaything to its heart's content.

Only, something happened with the portal: the scanner began, well scanning, for energy signatures. This would not be surprising, if not for the fact it was scanning alternate universes.

What was this machine's purpose? To put the one who built it on a path that only the scanner's makers knew? If so, then they had just made a powerful enemy, for ROB would not allow them to interfere with its fun.

Eventually, the scanner seemed to find what it was looking for, and entered some coordinates into the portal's computer. Soon, the portal locked onto them and opened its gate there. The commander went through, along with his army.

On the other side, they faced an army of creatures and machines. They're Darkspore, realized ROB, who had made a point of examining as many universes as possible before sending hir pet out to play. After all, knowing what universes they could send the commander to also meant knowing which ones would screw with him the most.

Then the commander found a crogenitor machine, which, based on hir examination of his thoughts, had clued him into the universe he was in. After that, he began searching for something.

Probably the Crogenitor ship, they thought. That's where his only possible allies in this universe are.

The fact that the images that followed only confirmed this made ROB crack a devious smile, though given the face mask it was wearing, this was hard to tell.

Though ROB could not understand why his slave (really, it was true) was boarding the ship in his human body, she could not care less. In truth, she did want to see what the last crogenitor looked like, for she had not payed attention to the appearance of these precursor aliens.

Consequently, he was just as surprised as his slave to discover that the cryo-pod that contained the last crogenitor was empty. Though she was able to control it better, the truth was that she was just as angry and stunned as her pet that this search had been for naught.

But all this went away when the commander began to follow a path that the ship itself highlighted for him. Curious, he watched as the commander meandered his way to the genetic hero creation room and found himself before a terminal, with a chair placed in front of the terminal. ROB assumed it was because someone wanted the commander to read something on the terminal.

Consequently, she was just as surprised as her slave was when it restrained him and knocked him out with a tranquilizer, which somehow also put the commander chasis into standby mode.

Although the omnipotent beings face was obscured, one needed only to look its hands, which were slowly balling up into fists, to understand exactly how angry it felt at having its plans interrupted-no, not interrupted, derailed.

So, it thought, someone wants to mess with my plans? Someone wants to troll my slave. Well then, I guess I need to show them who's in charge around here.

Though, unfortunately, since I know not who did so, my only course of action at the moment is to help my pet.

Oh well. I can just troll him some more later.

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AN: Well, the second interlude is done.

So, for clarification:

The book ROB was reading was Fall of Macharius, the final part of The Macharian Crusade from Warhammer 40000. The skull like drones were servo skulls.

The reason ROB is referred to at times with masculine, feminine and gender-neutral pronouns is to once again show just how alien ROB is meant to be at the moment.

Read and Review (it's the only way this story will get better). This is Flameal15k, signing off!