***Unknown at this time…but apparently we have just witnessed a simulated supernova event…a star erupting in catastrophic collapse…possibly a re-created event from the historical records of the Old Ones…that’s what this place seems to be…I do have good correlation with patterns in my core memory which match this sequence…now the sim seems to be shifting…new patterns…***
Doc was right and Winger shook his head, to make sure he wasn’t dreaming all this. He wanted to pinch himself but the hypersuit repelled his own hand.
Now, the planet of bots seemed to be breaking up right under their feet. Great chasms and cavities developed in the field of waving plants, and the chasms soon became canyons. The light of the supernova faded rapidly and the ground beneath his feet fell away to nothing and before he realized it, he was drifting in open interstellar space and the planet and the fields and the light were gone.
In time, he came to realize they were inside a great swarm, a vast nomadic collection of nanobotic structures and mechanisms, drifting through space. They were enveloped in the swarm which was only slightly denser than the starfield itself. He saw nothing he could recognize…no Big Dipper, no Orion, the constellations were all wrong.
“Doc…” he whispered…”Doc…you there?”
***I’m here, Johnny. I am not sure where here is. But structural integrity is maintained. All effectors are safed. Propulsors operable. This simulation is taking us somewhere else, it would seem***
In fact, the very same thought had occurred to Winger. “Doc, you know what this is? It’s not just a sim. This is a story. It’s a story or a narrative of what happened to the Old Ones. It has to be.”