When we saw it, we knew it was the legs of the operation.
It was a rainy Saturday morning when the space probe landed on the roof of the Pono Public Library. Mandy’s knitting guild peeked out of their meeting room to see the commotion, needles at ready. There wasn’t a fighter among them, but in these tough times, the ladies, gentlemen, and genderqueers knew anything was possible.
They heard a ratta-tat-tat on the roof, and then the strange, cybernetic creature crawled in through the book drop, giving a thumbs up, as if to let everyone know it was okay. Despite the gesture, Mandy was not reassured. A narrow beam of purple light shot from one of the cyber-spider’s many eyes, passing over the books and landing on the computer bank in the middle of the floor. As it scurried over to the computer, the humans hiding under the tables screeched and ran for the book stacks. (Not that libraries had very impressive stacks these days.) The spider-bot tapped on the monitor, then the keyboard. A beam of light pierced the ceiling and the computer exploded. The spider-bot jumped back in surprise, but gave a thumbs up to let everyone know it was okay.
“Suspect apprehended. Your world is now safe,” it said in a synthesized, not-at-all-calming tone.
“You just blew a hole in the library!” Mandy exclaimed, stalking out of the meeting room to confront the spider-bot. “Do you know how hard it is to get funding to maintain these facilities!”
“You are armed,” the spider-bot observed.
“These are knitting needles,” Mandy grouched. “Do you know what that means?”
The spider-bot gave a thumbs up, then lifted two of its legs. Metal boots folded back to reveal delicate, pink-knit booties. “I am programmed to knit and fight crime.”
“And do property damage, too,” Mandy pointed out.
“I am programmed to repair,” the spider-bot said. Leaping to the ceiling, it quickly spun a web to cover the hole in the ceiling. Then, using a bluish beam from one of its side-eyes, it scanned over the web, creating a solid, metal structure, that would probably hold up better than the original ceiling.
“What about the computer!” Mandy hollered. But it was too late. The probe took off and the spider-bot was gone.
~FIN~
Special thanks to today’s contributing artist, Timmy McDrawerson.
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