Albey’s taptak whistled and vibrated, startling him out of a particularly pleasant dream of finding a buttered carota steak on his doorstep.
“Huzza, whasat? Gimme a sec I’m almost done !”
Groaning, Albey felt around with a free paw to find his glasses.
He gripped the taptak and held it to his ear.
“This’d better be good.”
He flinched when a voice blared through the receiver.
“AL-BEEE!! What is up, man? Did we catch you sleeping? Be hon-“
There was a brief pause followed by the crackle of movement then a voice came back on the line.
“Sorry about that, Albey.” Flop said, grabbing the tak and glaring at Breck who raised his paws defensively.
”I don’t want to bother you more than I have to, but I need your help. Someone snapped the wheel off of a jumper and it’s too heavy for me to budge. Do you have anything that might help?
Albey groaned and stretched. While speaking he’d wandered out of his bedroom. He shuffled down a hallway, around a corner and emerged in a room fronted by glass panels facing the streets of Habiun and filled with the warmth of the afternoon sun.
He waddled behind a long black work bench covered with the scuffs and scorings of regular use. Above his right shoulder, a faded blue and red sign said Albey’s Down & Outs- mechanized repair and retrieval.
Over his left shoulder, a screen showed the slow crawl of an hourly news feed. The walls on either side of him glinted slightly as the sun entering the space fell on various metal devices, pieces of metal, and various tools associated with metalcraft and repair.
He pushed a button and a computer display screen flipped up from the surface of the bench and awakened. His plump black digits flashed rapidly in front of him, shuffling through screens and information.
“Yeah I think I’ve got something that can do the job, but let’s not make a habit out of this okay? Tell me where you are and I’ll send clack & track to grab the jumper.”
Flop gave him a rough idea of where they were and Albey grunted his approval.
“Appreciate it, Albey.” Flop said as he broke the connection.
Albey moved his paws until he found the screen he wanted.
He mashed down two sets of buttons at once and then stepped away from the screen. It flipped and folded back into the bench.
The wall behind him split in both directions, revealing an inner chamber humming, clanking and whirring with a teeming host of cogs, wheels, and machinery of all kinds.
From the depths of the living machinery two objects emerged and rolled out into the main chamber. One was a large smooth sided rectangular device zooming forward on thick treds. A smaller similarly shaped machine rolled up and over the side of the larger one.
As the first machine continued moving, the second one slid over the top of it, finally stopping at its center. It tilted upwards until it was standing on one side, and as it did so the two objects melded seamlessly into each other. The newly formed machine rumbled outside beeping rhythmically.
It rotated left and continued on picking up speed as it flew through the center of the town and out into the untamed wilderness.