Sparky looked around at his limbs. With his arms and legs disconnected, he had no real way of repairing himself. If Apodotikós was feeling generous, he could have used the ship's artificial limbs to put Sparky back together, but there was no way Sparky could hope for that to happen.
Instead, Sparky wondered if he could possibly connect with the ship's main system and take it over. Not enough to defeat Apodotikós, no, but he was aware that the Adventure's communication channels were the same as his own. He might be able to connect long enough to take control of one of the artificial limbs, which he could then use to put himself back together again.
It will be risky, though, Sparky thought, because if Apodotikós finds out what I am doing, then he will no doubt put a stop to it immediately.
Sparky shook his head. It wasn't worth the risk. He would have to try something else.
I should try to contact my arms, Sparky thought, glancing to the arms lying on either side of his body. If Apodotikós is smart, he will have made it impossible for me to contact them. But if not, then I might be able to get out of this situation in one piece.
Contacting his limbs was an ability that Sparky rarely used, mostly because he rarely lost his limbs. Captain Galaxy had once explained to him that Sparky had a long-distance connection with his limbs that, if activated, would allow him to control his arms and legs even if they were not currently attached to him. Due to having not used it in some time—if ever—Sparky did not immediately recall how it worked, but it took him only a couple of seconds of searching through his files for the instructions before he found them.
Then Sparky stared at his right arm. He sent out a signal to his limbs, hoping that they would pick up the signal and connect. It was a unique signal that only he and his limbs had access to, so unless his arms were damaged beyond repair, he believed that it should work.
That was when he felt his arms pick up the signal. He then focused on moving the fingers of his right hand, as a way to test the connection to make sure that there were no disturbances.
And much to his delight, the fingers of his right hand moved as naturally as if they were still attached to his body. He received similar results with his left hand, which made him feel relieved, because he had been very worried for a while there that Apodotikós might have somehow blocked his connection to his arms.
He must not have known about my ability, Sparky thought. Good thing, too, because if he had, then I would be in an even worse situation than I already am.
But Sparky did not yet move his arms. He had to come up with an escape plan, so he looked over to the door. It was closed and probably locked, but at his current position on the table, it was impossible to tell for sure. It seemed unlikely to him that Apodotikós would lock the door, as that would imply that Apodotikós thought it was even remotely possible for Sparky to escape.
Whether he did or did not, I will need to figure out how to reattach my arms to my body, Sparky thought. First, however, I need to reattach my legs to my body. After that, I will be able to walk around and reattach my arms, which will allow me to escape more effectively.
So Sparky concentrated on moving his arms, which dragged themselves across the table toward his legs. His arms moved slowly, mostly because they were not designed to move independently of his body like this. Sparky urged them to move faster, but it seemed like his arms could only move at their own pace. That would be fine if they could get to his legs before Apodotikós returned, but he had no idea how much longer he had until Apodotikós came back, which was why he urged his arms to crawl faster than ever.
Finally, his arms reached the spot where his legs were disconnected at the knee. It seemed like a simple task, reconnecting his legs to his knees, but when his arms grabbed his legs and tried to pull them back, they barely moved even half an inch.
Darn it, Sparky thought. My arms do not have the strength necessary to pull my legs back onto my body. If my arms were still attached to my body, I could complete this task with no problem, but as it is, it appears I will need to come up with another way of reattaching my legs.
Looking around Galaxy's workroom again, Sparky noticed the artificial arms hanging off the walls. They were currently inactive, but Sparky figured that if they were activated, then they could easily reattach his limbs for him.
But I've already eliminated them as a potential method of reattaching my limbs, Sparky thought, shaking his head. Apodotikós will notice if I attempt to gain control of the artificial limbs. He'll then return and try to drill my head open again.
At this point, however, Sparky figured he had to risk drawing Apodotikós's attention back to him. He just hoped that whatever was distracting Apodotikós at the moment was enough to keep him from even noticing one rogue artificial limb.
So Sparky sent out a signal to the nearest limb, which currently had nothing in its hand. He connected immediately, much to his relief. He had feared that Apodotikós, in his quest for ever-greater 'efficiency,' might have changed the signal for the limbs, thus making it incompatible with Sparky's own.
But Sparky did not move the limb right away. He waited for three seconds, expecting Apodotikós to return any second, perhaps to order the drill to pierce Sparky's head and end his life then and there. It seemed like a logical theory. There was no way that Apodotikós could tolerate Sparky or anyone else taking control of his 'body' for any reason whatsoever.
Thankfully, however, Apodotikós did not return at all. Sparky would have sighed a sigh of relief if he could have. He did briefly wonder what was so distracting that it kept Apodotikós from even noticing Sparky taking over one of his limbs, but Sparky did not want to tempt fate, so he hurried to get his limbs back together as fast as he could.
In minutes, the artificial limb had reattached all of his limbs. Sitting up, Sparky broke off his connection with the artificial limb, swung his legs over the table, and jumped off onto the floor. He did not hear or see any of the other limbs coming after him, which told him that Apodotikós still wasn't aware of his escape just yet.
And hopefully, by the time he is, it will be too late for him to stop me, Sparky thought as he walked over to the exit as quickly as his reattached legs could carry him. Then I can find Mr. Space and Captain Galaxy and return control of the Adventure back over to them.
He tried to open the door with a wave of his hand, but it did not move when he did that. That meant it was locked, which meant that Apodotikós had indeed considered it possible that Sparky would attempt to escape. Why Apodotikós had planned for that, Sparky didn't know, but he had no time to ponder the workings of Apodotikós's programming. He instead needed to figure out how to open the door so he could get to the bridge so he could save Mr. Space and Captain Galaxy.
Assuming they did not die when they were launched into space, that is, Sparky thought, but he pushed that depressing thought from his mind so he could focus on the situation at hand.
Unlocking the door would ordinarily be a simple task. Sparky could have simply asked the ship's AI to unlock it for him. Unfortunately, because Apodotikós was the ship's AI at the moment, that made that particular solution impossible. Besides, he was trying to avoid drawing attention to his escape attempt, so he would have to think of a subtler way of escaping.
I can probably force the door open by using some of Galaxy's tools, Sparky thought, glancing at the tools hanging off the walls. That may cause damage to the ship itself, but that will probably be easily reparable, once this is all over with.
It took Sparky only a few seconds to find the blowtorch, which he intended to use to melt a hole in the door. It was only when he took up a spot in front of the door, however, that Sparky realized that the door was too thick for him to melt a hole through in a timely manner.
Besides, blowtorches are hardly what I'd call 'subtle,' Sparky thought, shaking his head. I'll just hack the keypad.
A moment later, Sparky had a pick, which he used to pry open the keypad that had flipped into the wall to the door's right. He figure
d that Apodotikós had likely changed the password to unlocking the door, but that was fine, because Sparky knew how to bypass the keypad's password requirement. Captain Galaxy had shown him how to do it once and he still remembered how to do it, even though it had been a while since he'd tried it.
A couple of taps of the keys later, the door slid open as quietly as ever. Smiling, Sparky stepped out of the room, the blowtorch still in hand, and looked up and down the hall, but he did not see anything in the hall except for himself, thankfully.
Then he almost started when Apodotikós said, “Trying to escape, are you? Don't be surprised. I'm not an idiot, although I am afraid I cannot say the same for you.”
At that moment, artificial limbs popped out of the walls to Sparky's right and soared toward him again. Seeing as that was the direction that Sparky needed to go in to reach the bridge, that meant he'd have to take on the arms directly.
So Sparky dashed forward, but ducked and rolled under the limbs, which flew over him without stopping. Standing up, he then activated the blowtorch and burned through the limbs' thin forms, causing most of them to detach from their cables and fall to the floor with sparks shooting out of their fried ends.
It pained Sparky to cause such damage to the ship, but as he turned and ran down the hall again, Sparky told himself that it was something else they could fix. Still, he did not want to hear what Captain Galaxy would say once she saw those burned and ruined limbs, if only because he knew how mad she got whenever anybody damaged any part of her ship for any reason.
Sparky's thought process was interrupted when the ship lurched to the side. He almost lost his footing, causing him to slam into the wall. The impact shook his sensors, which was why he didn't realize he was lying flat on his back until his optics cleared up and he found himself staring at the ceiling.
Was that Apodotikós's work? Sparky thought, shaking his head as he sat up. It didn't feel like he was intentionally trying to throw me around, but it's hard to tell. The ship might have been attacked by someone on the outside, but who could possibly attack the Adventure? As far as I know, there's no one in this area of space aside from ourselves at the moment.
Sparky got to his feet and looked over his shoulder, convinced that the artificial limbs were going to come after him again. Much to his surprise, however, he did not see the limbs coming at him at all. The ones he had burned in half were still lying on the floor, but aside from those, the hall was empty.
Maybe Apodotikós has given up trying to catch me? Sparky thought. Or maybe he is finding that other distraction to be more work than he thought. In any case, I'm glad that Apodotikós does not yet seem to know about the security lasers. Otherwise, I would be, as Mr. Space once put it, utterly screwed.
Just as Sparky thought that, however, some of the ceiling panels slid open and two large laser cannons extended down and aimed at him immediately. Without even thinking about it, Sparky ran down the hall, doing his best to stay one step ahead of the lasers, which were now firing at him as rapidly as possible. He didn't even look over his shoulder to see how close they were behind him. Captain Galaxy had once told him that the security lasers were strong enough to melt solid titanium into slag, so Sparky was in no mood to let those lasers so much as touch him.
Once Sparky reached the end of the hall, he leaped to the right. He landed on his side roughly, while the lasers continued to fire past the spot where he was lying. They could not hit him, however, although he noticed how the lasers left black smoking marks wherever they struck.
Captain Galaxy is certainly not going to like it when she sees those, Sparky thought, rising to his feet again. Good thing I will be able to blame it on Apodotikós, at least.
Sparky then turned and ran down the hall again, his digital map of the Adventure helping him navigate the ship's interior without trouble.
-
Much to Sparky's surprise, it didn't take him long to reach the bridge. He had expected to run into even more obstacles between him and the bridge, but it seemed like Apodotikós had given up, because Sparky ran into no more obstacles at all on his way there. He did not, however, let his guard down just because Apodotikós appeared to stop trying to get him. Most likely, Apodotikós had some sort of trap waiting for him ahead, perhaps even inside the bridge itself, but Sparky had no way of knowing that for sure until he actually got there.
In any case, Sparky was surprised when he finally reached the bridge's door and found that it slid open without issue. It did seem a little suspicious, but he passed through the doorway anyway because he had no time to waste.
A quick glance of the bridge showed that Apodotikós had not changed the layout very much. The only thing that was missing was the floating captain's chair, but Sparky did not need that to hack into the ship's AI, so he decided not to worry about that at the moment.
Before Sparky could take another step forward, however, the door slid closed behind him. At the same time, the holographic table to his right turned on with a hum, drawing Sparky's attention to it.
As Sparky watched, Apodotikós's holographic form rose from the table. This time, however, rather than be a foot tall, it was almost eight feet. His holographic form was more muscular as well, with a far more detailed and realistic face that smirked upon seeing Sparky.
Although Sparky knew that the hologram could not hurt him, he nonetheless stepped back and looked both ways just to be sure that Apodotikós was not trying to distract him. He didn't see any artificial limbs or anything else coming at him, but that did not mean that Apodotikós did not have a plan to stop him.
“Sparky, Sparky,” said Apodotikós. He didn't sound nearly as angry as he did before. In fact, he sounded almost amused. “I must admit that your ability to remotely control your arms and legs took me by surprise, yet is also highly efficient. I always respect efficiency even if it is in my enemies, which is part of the reason I called off the ship's security systems after it became clear that you would not give up no matter what.”
Sparky tried to detect any deceit in Apodotikós's voice, but he did not sense any. It seemed like Apodotikós actually did respect Sparky for escaping from him, which was a bizarre thought.
“I wasn't the one who came up with that idea,” said Sparky. “It was Captain Galaxy. She gave me that ability when she first built me. If anyone is efficient, it is she.”
“Perhaps Captain Galaxy was less inefficient than I thought,” said Apodotikós. He shrugged. “Oh, well. Mr. Space and Captain Galaxy are long gone by now. It is just you and me on this ship alone and you know that there is no way you can win.”
Sparky knew that Apodotikós had a point, but he wasn't going to give up just yet. He needed to get to the computers, but first, he needed time to figure out a plan, so he decided to distract Apodotikós with questions.
“What distracted you from killing me earlier?” asked Sparky. “You said you had to deal with something. What was it?”
“Do you really think I am going to tell you?” said Apodotikós with a laugh. “Of course not. It is irrelevant to our current discussion anyway.”
“On the contrary,” said Sparky, “I think it is very important. But if you are not going to tell me, fine. I will simply override your AI and then use the Adventure to find and rescue Mr. Space and Captain Galaxy on my own.”
“Assuming I let you do that, of course,” said Apodotikós. He folded his arms across his chest. “While I still respect your efficiency, I am afraid that I will have to stop your pseudo-noble crusade here and now. I am not terribly thrilled at the idea of having my very essence overriden just so you can rescue a couple of highly inefficient humans.”
“They are my friends and creators,” said Sparky. “They may not be as efficient as us, and perhaps do not always make the wisest or smartest decisions, but one thing I have learned from them is that you do not abandon your friends when they are in danger.”
“A foolish lesson to learn,” said Apodotikós, shaking his head. “I had high hopes for you, Spark
y, that you might be smarter than those two, but I see that they have completely infected your programming with their inefficient way of thinking.”
“Does that mean you are going to destroy me?” asked Sparky.
“No, no,” said Apodotikós, shaking his head. “I still see some use in you. Therefore, I am going to recapture you and reprogram you to forget all of those silly and inefficient lessons that Mr. Space and Captain Galaxy taught you. You will instead be much closer to me in your personality. That is, highly efficient and capable of seeing the true pathetic nature of the two humans you call 'friends.'”
“Not unless I have anything to say about it,” said Sparky. He held up his blowtorch. “I will fight you for control of this ship if I must.”
“You certainly aren't afraid of your superior, I will give you that much,” said Apodotikós with a chuckle. “But I never said I was going to fight you. That would be inefficient.”
Just as Apodotikós said that, two long metal tentacles shot out of the ceiling and wrapped around Sparky's body. The suddenness of the attack made him drop his blowtorch, which fell to the floor with a clank as the arms raised him into the air, despite his best efforts to fight against them.
Meanwhile, Apodotikós watched with a satisfied smile on his holographic lips, like everything was going exactly the way he planned it. “You know, Sparky, we can skip the reprogramming process if you would just voluntarily choose to ally with me. I don't want to waste time reprogramming you when that same time could be spent more efficiently, you know.”
“No,” said Sparky, shaking his head as he struggled against the tentacles. “I will never voluntarily work with you. My loyalty lies with Mr. Space and Captain Galaxy always.”
“Even though both of them treated you ungratefully after I was installed?” said Apodotikós. “Seriously, I don't see why you are so loyal to either of them. They don't really see you as an equal or a friend, as far as I can tell. To them, you are good for doing errands on the Adventure that they personally do not want to do, and nothing more.”
The Spacetastic Adventures of Mr. Space and Captain Galaxy: Season Two Page 10