Charm a Relic

Chapter Thirteen: Sam's Stealthy Flight

Sam managed to sleep for a few hours but was awakened by Rufus snoring. He looked over to Toido and it seemed Reegan was trying to help him with something. He could not go back to sleep.

"How's it goin Toido?" Sam asked after walking up behind them.

"Oh you're awake. It's not going very well I. . .I'm afraid Toido is experiencing some difficulty," Reegan told Sam.

"Is something the matter?" Sam asked.

"Well his Central Processing Unit can only handle so many operations at once and he tells me he was never good at multitasking like this. . . . and he doesn't really like being cooped up in this place underground," Reegan explained.

"His kind is used to spending night hours with other Protolians where there would be endless discussions. This silence makes it very difficult for him to concentrate on his task!" Reegan explained further.

"You miss your friends Toido?" Sam asked Toido and Toido nodded.

"However that's only the half of it you see this operation requires stealth which is in itself difficult to maintain at the same time as performing mapping operations and distance calculations!" Reegan explained to Sam.

"Toido is currently operating thousands of nanobots in stealth mode and there are areas of this facility with heightened security and very advanced detection methods. He cannot yet make sense of the data being accumulated."

Sam continued to listen to Reegan and then Toido jumped up from his sitting position. Toido pointed to Reegan's bag with the cartoon cat figure on it.

"Oh I get it! He thinks you could help us with this! You could control one of Toido's nanobots remotely! Gather data from a human perspective, this would free up his Central Processing Unit for well, err, processing!" Reegan stated and Sam nodded but seemed a bit confused now at what Reegan was saying.

"There is a headset of Protolian goggles in that bag Toido is pointing at. They wont fit my big head unfortunately!" Reegan said. Sam felt embarrassed as he reached and picked up this bag but he found the headset quickly. "If you would please put the headset on and hit the on button. Toido will patch you in to control one of the nanobots remotely."

Sam did as Reegan explained. 

"First we need you to check out the night sky. There is a nanobot waiting under the air vent hold on," Toido handed Sam the ability to sync with the nanobot and see through its camera. Sam did not expect what happened next because it felt to him like he was there standing in the hall under the air vent. He looked down and could see a transparent representation of his body through the nanobot and headset's computers which were meant to help him navigate.

"It feels like I'm a ghost now," Sam said and laughed.

"Yes it might seem like that but you will still have to avoid the detection systems. OK Toido please navigate Sam outside first and then hand him the controls," Reegan said. 

Suddenly Sam flew up in the wall up into the air vent through the maze of the ventilation system that the creature in rags must have escaped through earlier. The Nanobot accelerated quickly but he was accustomed to the speed because to him it felt like he was flying on his hover bike only without a bike this time. Sam had exited an external air vent and was flying up towards the sky.

"Whoa I'm outside now!" Sam yelled. "Just need to get you high enough to map the stars," Reegan replied and Sam perceived an acceleration taking place as he was boosted towards the stratosphere.