ATHINKOBATOR ACTIVATES

The story begins when Cosmo and Bronte complete a test run inside Athinkobator's Techtronic Simulator Conversion Capsules. They have successfully transformed into their alter egos, Omsoc and Etnorb. Their schedule now required them to do some training in the transgalactic simulator. The session was brief as they had already devoted considerable time to this training during the past few weeks. Because of their important rank within the astronaut programme and because they have to be on a constant level of preparedness for any emergency, they have to maintain their piloting expertise at optimum levels. The simulator is directly linked to all Athinkobator functions and can therefore replicate any condition that astronauts could face at any given time and in any quadrant of space. Its visual displays are given in real time and encompass all three dimensions so as to provide an absolutely correct spatial differential that places the pilot in a true-to-life experience. Omsoc and Etnorb decided that a bit of relaxation would be a good thing, and so they decided to start a game of advanced three-dimensional holographic Minecraft with Athinkobator. It's at that moment that a strange hissing sound is heard coming from Athinkobator's main power source. Thinking that it was probably just a minor malfunction and that Athinkobator's self-diagnostic repair functions would locate and repair the problem, they ignored the sound at first and continued with their game. "I don't think it's anything to be worried about" said Omsoc. "I agree" replied Etnorb, "We'll check later to see what's causing the strange sound."

It wasn't long before the hissing sounds started again—Omsoc suddenly became concerned when the noise grew louder. The main screen on Athinkobator's panel became fuzzy. He turned to Etnorb and, with some urgency in his voice, said, "I think we had better check this out. There might be something technically wrong with Athinkobator's linear circuitry."

Athinkobator was able to understand voice commands, so Omsoc located the Language Universal Translator (LUT) switch on Athinkobator's control panel and switched it to Voice Recognition processing mode. The LUT is capable of recognizing and translating any language no matter how obscure. To process any translation, the meaning of a text in the original (source) language is fully restored in the target language by the LUT. It interprets and analyzes all the elements in the text and knows how each word influences another. The LUT software always produces quality translations of any alien language. It is equipped with the latest rule-based machine translation technology algorithms. It relies on countless built-in linguistic rules and billions of bilingual dictionaries for each alien language pair. Etnorb took a position at the controls and spoke clearly into Athinkobator's supersensitive voice receiver, "Athinkobator, conduct self-diagnostic of all technical, bionic, and main computer functions, and report."

It only took an instant from when Etnorb's command was received to when the report was given. Athinkobator was equipped with the latest central processing unit (CPU), which was capable of performing billions of tasks at the same time, and so it only took a matter of milliseconds for Athinkobator to acknowledge Etnorb's command and for it to then conduct a thorough diagnostic check of all its functions. "The report is ready for your analysis," came the computerized voice from Athinkobator. The report showed all of Athinkobator's systems functioning perfectly, but as Etnorb and Omsoc watched the graphic display of complicated algorithms or processes on one of the screens, they noticed that there was a glitch in one of the readings. "Athinkobator has conducted a step-by-step problem-solving procedure, as expected," said Etnorb. Athinkobator had done this through a specially established, recursive computational procedure designed to enable it to solve a problem in a finite number of steps. "But, there must be something that Athinkobator could have missed," replied Omsoc. It took the trained eyes of the two super space cadets to notice the cause of the disturbing anomaly. It was in one of the peripheral communication systems located on an observatory on top of Mount Everest. Etnorb directed Athinkobator to focus on the nature of the anomaly and to diagnose further. This time, Etnorb requested that the report be given verbally by Athinkobator so that a finite comparison could be made with the written report already provided. Before Athinkobator could respond to the order given to it by Etnorb, its main screen filled with a host of hieroglyphic images that made absolutely no sense to either Etnorb or to Omsoc. At the same time, Athinkobator issued a warning that something, from an unknown source, was trying to communicate with them. It could offer no information as to the identity or the nature of this communication. "Warning: Intruder Alert!" Athinkobator issued this message with an urgency in its voice not heard of before by either Omsoc or Etnorb. It shook them from head to toe and their faces became as white as those of a corpse. They both knew that this was something that was quite out of the ordinary and that it demanded their immediate attention.

ALIEN X-MANKANE

In that instant, a massive energy beam came straight out of Athinkobator's three-dimensional, 302-inch 3.25:1 display ratio screen. It was so intense and of such proportions that it completely filled the room in which they were standing.

Omsoc and Etnorb became transfixed by this blast of energy and found themselves unable to move. They then noticed that something very strange was starting to form inside the beam. As the object began to take shape, it became clear to Omsoc and Etnorb that it was beyond any reality that they had previously encountered. The apparition became fully formed within the beam of energy in the shape of a hologram. It had a body that looked like rough stone and was shaped like a long macaroni noodle. There were six spindly tentacle-like around its body, and it had a face that resembled a computer chip. They had never seen anything like this.

Etnorb turned to Omsoc, saying, "Do you think that Athinkobator is combining its sophisticated computer matrix with its bionic components with the objective of making living matter and computer hardware into a singularity?" Omsoc couldn't believe what Etnorb was saying, much less understand it all. "I read something about this kind of thing in a science book at the school library some years ago, but, I thought then that it was just science fiction and something that could only happen in the distant future. When I mentioned it to one of the teachers, I was told that my mind was twisted and that I should concentrate more on books about singing."

"I can't see why Athinkobator would do that without first receiving some instruction to do so from one of us," said Etnorb. "Even though it has advanced learning capabilities, it should not extrapolate any of its developments into any form of reality without receiving our clearance."

Omsoc and Etnorb stared at the creature for quite some time. Neither of them spoke. The creature also looked at them, perhaps trying to establish who was uglier between Omsoc and Etnorb. After what seemed an eternity, the creature spoke in a language that was very foreign to...