Professor Hoker took a step back as the hydraulic door hissed open. "Let
me introduce you to..." he paused for effect as a six-foot tall metal
machine glided through, a pepper-pot shaped body topped with a domed
head, from which a single electronic eye swept the room intently. "The
Dedicated Anti-Lifeform Electro-plasmic Killotron!"
Flight's jaw dropped. "Oh my god!" He swallowed hard. "I am so sorry."
Hoker was taken ever-so-slightly aback. "Pardon?"
"I honestly didn't realise
it was a prototype robot killing machine," Flight confessed with the
air of a guilty schoolchild, "I thought it was some new kind of portable
lavatory. I mean, I was really quite desperate - you know, touching
cloth almost. I saw it was following me around back there and saw the
little button on the front..."
"What? You're not even supposed to be able to see the maintenance hatch button!"
"Well, it was the obvious place for one - I pressed it and the lid just
sort of popped open. So, you know, needs must when the Devil drives and
all that. I just..."
The professor stood in stunned silence as the
Dedicated Anti-Lifeform Electroplasmic Killotron stumbled forward in a
way only something that hovered two inches above the floor could
stumble. "If it's any help I did happen to lose one of my best ties."
"Oh dear," Marcus frowned, "the bottle-green Paisley?"
"I'd just finished when I realised there was no paper."
