Factory Reset

Chapter Ten: Sleep Mates

Axel was in heaven.

Before him was something that was so advanced, so brilliant, so amazing that it most likely shouldn't exist. He had no idea what even kept B-64 running, much less being able to function at all.

Axel, having researched a metric ton of miscellaneous subjects during the summer on his phone due to not being able to get many paid games, was in scientific heaven. He couldn't tell what was better, that something like B-64 existed, or that whatever he was, it was possible to do.

B-64 had placed himself on the scratched table as the group crowded around him. Axel took the lead, beginning to look around him with a sort of methodic pacing that was akin to the scientists at The Foundation, "What are you made off?"

B-64 knew the answer to that, but he did not know how to spell it in a language that they understood. He guessed that the closest translation would be Horonmenten, but he wasn't sure precisely. What he did put down was "Protogen Steel.".

He knew that familiar look from the doctors and researchers on Axel's face, but this time he had actually asked for his permission, so B-64 did something that he normally wouldn't have done in the presence of other species, he exposed his chest cavity.

He never really cared to learn about anatomy, so all the organs inside him he barely remembered the names of, and he couldn't quite pinpoint why they could function, but then again, he could barely remember anything. Marissa acted a bit queasy as she saw the organs, but stayed calm enough to observe them with Axel, who seemed excessively intrigued.

"What's that?" Mason asked, pointing to a small metallic disk right beside B-64's... Well, they weren't sure what it was, it certainly didn't look like any organ they had ever seen. Axel muttered a small I don't know.

B-64 knew what it was. His Boson Generator. The thing that allowed him to escape the Foundation, though again, his memory of doing anything there was but a fading memory. He felt somewhat foolish, but he doubted it was his fault.

B-64 let loose his dagger once more, calmly writing into the soft wood while they peered inside him, "Boson Generator." From the looks of the planet, they weren't advanced enough to know what Boson's were. Granted, neither did B-64 know much about the source that powered his existence, but that was for his own planet's scientists to decide.

Marissa peered closer to his visor, tilting her head. She observed the many tiny pixels, the graphite material shifting as he noticed her staring. She looked away quickly, as if afraid that he had caught her doing something that could be seen as offensive.

"Boson Generator huh... What is that?" Axel asked again, peering inside of B-64 at all angles. B-64 shrugged his shoulders, not fully knowing himself. He probably should've paid more attention when he was first let out of his birthing tube, but that's besides the point and way far behind him now.

All that B-64 really knew about Boson Energy was that it powered his conscience and kept his blood-pumping, which he then also scratched into the wooden table. After Axel was done observing his insides, B-64 closed his chest cavity with a light push.

It took nearly three hours of grueling work for Mason and Marissa, but it felt like twenty minutes to Axel. He found that within the visor was a synthetic tongue, complete with it's own saliva, though B-64 had no stomach, so he couldn't see the need for saliva to break down the food.

The synthetic tongue was completely black and looked as soft as velvet. The visor, when split open to reveal the mouth, showed that it is not completely uniform, and that it could be smooth as butter, or as jagged as a rocky mountain side. The way the visor split open, that is.