sounds different.
moment, he thought he heard Copernicus' voice coming from Napoleon's speaker. "—unclear, say again—" The voice sped up to a chirp, then a squeal, interrupted twice by blasts of staccato noise that might have been static, or harsh, compressed voices. Abruptly, the sound cut off. Napoleon remained frozen.
/// Is he—? Should we—? ///
/I don't know. Wait—/
Napoleon suddenly began swiveling his head, scanning the landscape, up and down in all directions. A small indicator light was flickering at the base of his sensor array; he was transmitting signals.
"Napoleon!" Bandicut barked. "Answer me! What's happened?"
Napoleon's sensors swung to peer at him. "John Bandicut, the danger is imminent! We must act quickly. I am searching for Copernicus, but he is not answering!"
"The message, Nappy! The message!" Bandicut reached out to the robot, then drew his hands back. /Wait, Charlie! Not yet. He's acting too weird. It could leak over./
/// But you can deal with it!
It's just like your datanet back home. ///
/My datanet back home didn't have fucking boojums in it trying to kill people./
/// No, but what is the boojum
but a complex operation in a fancy datanet? ///
/It damn near killed us!/
/// But you gotta take chances.
You said that, right? ///
Napoleon was rasping and clicking, and having trouble speaking. "Must go—now—shadow-people—"
"Damn it, Nappy, are you hit with the boojum? Talk to me!"
"Negative, negative, negative—the shadow-people—" Napoleon clicked helplessly, his upper sensors still swinging.
"Kr'deekin' hell." /Okay, Charlie—do it!/ Bandicut slapped his hands onto the robot's body and shut his eyes, willing himself to see what the quarx was seeing. He reeled with a rush of dizziness; he saw a racing expanse of black and white dots.
/// This is bewildering. . . ///
He gulped back nausea.
/// Wait, there's the message. ///
/Did it get him?/ Bandicut whispered in fear.
/// No. . . ///
/Then what—?/
/// Mokin' foke— ///
/What?/
/// He's just confused, that's all.
Too much input; he needs help. . .
Ah. ///
/Explain!/
/// He's not infected.
He's struggling with ambiguity—
torn between concern for Copernicus
and t