1.15: Commander gerbs
Far away from 9-Theta and Batch Productopia, somewhere else, at least three-finities from the Industrial Section of the vast Multiverse was Jarboria, the First City. Jarboria was a realm of technical innovation, and the mice, rats, gerbils, and hamsters who lived there had long ago unlocked the secrets of meaning and existence.
The rodents of Jarboria lived in isolation, as all mice do, and they rarely ever left the security of the vast city. When they did leave, they would have to act as normal rodents, which was exceptionally dangerous in all of the realms and times of the Infinityverse. The very existence of Jarboria was a secret held only by the most powerful of gods, and even they were fearful of the power of the Jarborians’ technological creations.
When Commander Gerbs crashed into the ceiling of Batch Productopia, he remembered the great city of Jarboria, but he remembered very little else.
His antenna, which connected his robotic conscience with the hive mind of Jarboria, must have been damaged when he fell through the ceiling of Batch Productopia, and into the Magical Production Supply. Gerbs remembered Jarboria, but not much else, except floating out of the hole and gazing at Mag’s face (see 1.4).
After he fled the crash sight, he viewed the Factory-city of Batch Productopia. His scanners showed that The Lower Production Floor was the least populated area in the factory city, and the best place to conduct a reboot. He was damaged, and he would need repairs. He found an isolated area in an upper rack and commenced.
A voice within his robot brain chimed, “reboot countdown activated, ten, reboot countdown activated, nine, reboot countdown activated, eight,… At one, the robotic gerbil’s mission played on his internal visors. It was fuzzy.
The image Gerbs saw was that of a uniformed mouse general, and behind the general sat several Jarborian science officers, monitoring sensors and instruments.
“You have acteek-vated this reboot command due to catastrophic damage, and possible loss of memory.
Your conneek-ction to the hive is via a quantum eek-tanglement eek-ntenna. It should reek-ach you no matter where you may wander. If that conneek-ction is damaged, you may eek-perience a sudden memory loss.
Your armor will self replicate reek-placement parts, and you will be fully repaired. It is imperative for you to avoid further damage at this time.
If you are reek-cieving this message due to memory loss, rest assured your memory download will begin eek-mmediately, and may take several days to process. In that time, find a hole to hide in, and try not to creek-ate any unwanted attention.
Your mission is that you have been seleek-cted to represent all of Jarboria Commander! You will journey wher-eek no mouse or rat has gone before, maybe even touch the hand of creek-ation itself.
You must find the singularity known as the Dark Orb. That is the only way to save Jarboria from the coming eek-pocalypse. The deek-tails will be downloaded once your eek-ntenna is reek-paired.
Jarboia is counting on you Commander.”
Commander Gerbs sat upon the dusty shelf and tried to remember. Like a good mouse, he sat still and quiet for hours. Then he heard the crashing noise of the gremlin contraption, several racks away. He peeked out of the burrow he had created and between the piles of scrap and dust. He magnified his vision, and there several racks away, he saw Mag and the other children fighting for their lives.