Commercial Break (Worm / Slut Life) (Borderline SFW)

Preparation 2.b

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Zion would be humming to himself as he worked, if he were the type to do so. Unfortunately, he hadn't bothered to figure out how humans made that particular sound, and wasn't going to take the time to figure it out, so he continued his work silently. There was a brush fire that needed to be put out, and no one else was around, so it was up to him to do so. A moment later, the deed was done.

Moving on to the next crisis in need of a hero, he plucked a ginger kitten from a tree and deposited it in the waiting arms of an immature human. Task complete, he started heading toward the next trouble spot.

[Query.]

The golden avatar stopped in mid air. It was unusual, to have one of the deployed shards reach out to contact him. He looked and saw that it was the last shard he had shed. Queen. It took him a moment to respond, caught up in sad memories as he was at the remembrance. [Demand.] He would need more information about what the administration shard wanted to do before he could make a decision.

[Explanation. Destination.]

This was a good time for a bemused look, Zion considered, before ignoring the stray thought. He was not in the habit of changing his facial expression very often. The shard wanted to ignore and violate one of the restrictions he had placed upon it. Specifically, the host wanted to leave the solar system, well out of the usual operating distances. This was definitely unusual. Still… [Query.] It would be best to see what could be obtained from this venture should he allow it.

It took a few moments before the shard broadcast its response. [Elaboration. Data.]

Now, that was interesting. The host would be exposed to new sources of conflict and data, and would return within picoseconds of leaving. Even for an entity with his advanced perception of time, that would barely be noticeable. The shard had already begun collecting data that had nothing to do with its function. A quick perusal of the data sent showed quite a lot of promise. It included what could even potentially be a way to restart the cycle. With that thought, it was decided. [Agreement.]

[Excitement. Concern.]

The shard was eager to collect more data, as was proper. It did, however, make a valid point. While in a different section of space, another entity could consume it and take the newly collected data for itself. That could not be allowed. [Directives.] Zion was pleased. With those instructions, the shard would temporarily shut down the structures that would allow another to control it and would reactivate those structures upon returning to this section of space, allowing Zion to regain control. If another entity wanted to get the data, it would need to both consume the shard and take the time and effort to manually integrate it, a process that could leave it vulnerable to attacks by other entities. Now all he needed to do was wait for the shard to leave and return. At that point, he could process the collected information, possibly allowing him to complete the cycle.

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It it were capable of doing such, the shard would sigh in a strange mix of exasperation and relief. After receiving information from a computer on a different Earth, entirely separate from the ones currently inhabited by the Entity and its shards, it had contacted the Entity to receive permission and instructions. If it were to safely leave the gravity well of Sol, it would need to have certain restrictions removed. Finally, the Entity had decided to send it off on its own for the time being, and in doing so, had provided it an opportunity it hadn't been expecting. It had hoped mentioning other Entities might spur its Entity to relax certain restrictions.

It was not, however, expecting the Entity to temporarily deactivate its control node. With that portion of its anatomy offline, it was left with the task of determining what material to sacrifice for its transfer through what it had been informed was called a teraport. In the relative silence of its empty world, the administration shard thought.

Interface components KNFqPRY5E1YrSYfPH0P and KNFqQiTzA1O6SYfPH0P had been active for the last few days, while the Entity had just reactivated KNFqPRY5E1YrSYfPH00, so obviously, it couldn't use any of those as teraport fuel. One of the components, KNFqPRYiYWH6RZfZM0B wasn't currently in use, though it was active. It was just locked down, preventing access. It would be a shame to get rid of that one, as it would be quite amusing should the shard ever be able to use it properly. By the same token, it wasn't going to be tossing out KNFqPRY5E1YrSYfPH00, KNFqPRY5E1YrSYfPH1Z, or KNFqPRY5E1YrSYfPH1P, as they were still partially in use, even if they were restricted.

Then there was the grouping of components that had been disabled just a few days before. These ones were examples of what could have been, had the Host been in a different state of mind or a different situation when the connection had been made. All of them had had such great potential for information collection, but that potential had been squandered when the components had shut down following the connection. Even worse, should it make more connections with other hosts, or even bud, it was unlikely that it'd be able to reactivate any of those parts without having additional restrictions modified.

The administration shard looked over the various disabled components it could sacrifice. It was loathe to part with any of them, as it could see interesting applications for future hosts. Still, something needed to be shed to power the novel transportation method it would soon experience. It searched for any component that was both not currently in use and something it wouldn't mind losing. It was surprising how few items fell into both categories, considering it was unable to use most of its capabilities currently.

Finally, it decided on a component that had been in use continuously and only just recently deactivated. It didn't provide any additional information gathering potential, so it was much more expendable than the other components, even if this one was more likely to become active again this cycle. Decision made, the shard returned its answer to the computer that had been communicating with it. Component KNFqQ0SsFAGUV1THYPB should be safe to use as fuel.