Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-25344655-20141102040650/@comment-67.22.249.68-20141207055152

Arienna smiled at him. "A green place, in Forodwaith? Next you'll tell me there are white places in Mordor. Now, let's set off and see if he's gotten himself frozen."

The three of them trekked through the icy chills of Forodwaith, wearing warm woolens to protect from the cold. Eventually, Galim sensed Eureka's presence somewhere nearby. The powerful presence from earlier had dropped off his radar entirely. Upon reaching the place Eureka should have been, they found he wasn't there, and a large scar-like crater was ripping through the snow.

It was Arienna who first noticed the glittering point jutting from the snow. It was Eureka's spear! They got to work, and eventually dug out the frost-covered body of Eureka. He had several large gashes in his metallic side. His purple eye was closed, and his orange eye had gone dark.

"What could have done this?"

Suddenly, a tinny, mechanical voice emanated from Eureka's shattered form. "Nearby life forms detected. Initiating emergency procedure."

Eureka's orange eye suddenly lit into a dull blue, and a shimmering image of Eureka was projected, hovering slightly above his body. This Eureka was shorter, and had no black skin. Though they had no way to know this, this was Eureka as he had been at creation.

"Greetings, lifeform. If you are reading this, the E.U.R.E.K.A. model public defense and labor android has suffered critical systems failure. If the situation is not rectified in approximately 13 hours 17 minutes, E.U.R.E.K.A. will suffer total systems failure. In other words, death. I will guide you through the process."

A previously unseen hatch opened in Eureka's chest. Inside was a complex of pipes, tanks and generators. "Inside the chest cavity, you should see a complex miniaturized nuclear reactor core. Check the reactor for any openings, even the tiniest scratch, as any opening will result in massive amounts of harmful radiation coming out, killing many and rendering the surroundings uninhabitable."

"Uh, Arienna, I think you should be the one to go searching around in his chest."

"Why me?"

"Well, neither of us are comfortable with this, and you're the one who's spent so long considering his body from all angles. Now you can take a look at the inside!"

"Well, I can't argue with that."

She leaned down and peered hard at the complex in his chest. "No, not a scratch."

The holographic projection spoke again. "Excellent. Now you must allow for the release of the self-repairing nanites. Under ordinary circumstances, these would have been activated by themselves. However, the monstrous surge of electricity that coursed through E.U.R.E.K.A. resulting in the critical systems failure shut down many pathways. The nanites must be activated and released manually. A hatch will be opened in the inner thigh. You must flip the switch. It is on an isolated circuit, and therefore was unaffected by the surge."

Arienna watched as a hatch slowly opened. There, amongst a jumble of circuitry, was a small switch. She flipped it, then stumbled back as a horde of ant-sized robots poured out of the opening. They all scuttled toward the wounds and gashes and, slowly (very very slowly) but surely, they reconnected wires and sealed gashes.

All previously open hatches slammed shut. The hologram spoke again. "Thank you. E.U.R.E.K.A.'s artificial intelligence would now like to speak to you.

The hologram turned orange. "Hey, guys!" It was Eureka. "Boy, am I glad to see you! Listen, I know what happened, I know who did it, and I know how to stop him. But there's one issue: you can't remember any of what just happened. Some of the stuff you just saw was technology you aren't supposed to know about yet. And I DEFINITELY don't want Arienna to remember rooting through my broken, helpless body. So, I regret to say, I will have to mind-wipe all of you, and thank Eru for the fact that you didn't open the hatch in my codpiece."

"No, wait!"

FLASH!

When the three woke up, they were lying in the snow, and a fully repaired Eureka stood above them.

"Thank Eru I found you guys! The strange creature who tried to attack me hit you three from behind. I have no idea what it was, but I think I know how to subdue it. Come on, get up, I'll need your help."