Epilogue, continued.

[mend_and_defend]

Once inside, Bob is transferred from the stretcher to the scanner bed, and a long series of examinations begins. The Guardian's energy levels have stabilized, for now at least, but he's completely unresponsive. The deep scans reveal that his code is badly corrupted; it's a wonder he's still processing at all. Something will have to be done, and

Comments

[twiceahero]

Oracle absently starts to wave the offer away, but then straightens suddenly. She pulls up another vid-window which has a number series counting up.

0.000003452

She turns to Dot, "This is going to take too long. To do here I mean. My brain's not used to operating at this speed, and I probably don't have more than another microsecond, maybe two, before I start to desynchronize." A hand runs through her hair, "I can keep working on this from the Bar, but there's no way I can stay here until we finish going over the code."

Oracle looks down and her voice softens, "I'm sorry."

[command_dot_com]

"That's alright Oracle," Dot smiles tiredly at least they have someone higher up on the user-level of things helping out. "I'll try and visit the bar later, to check up on how you're doing. Thank you for helping us."

[l33t_mouse]

Mouse gives Oracle a brief pat on the shoulder. "It's all right, darlin'. I c'n copy the code to a portable workstation an' bring it to ya," she says. "'Course we can't do any recompilin' from that, but it'll be fine for debuggin'." Mouse would like to retain Oracle's assistance if she can. The User obviously knows her business, and the more competent help Mouse can get, the better.