Big guy and rusty the boy robot #31: 010

Big guy and rusty the boy robot is the property of dark horse comics and whoever makes the TV series.

It is a bright beautiful day outside. Not a sound is heard. Suddenly a huge explosion shatters the peace and silence. Big guy jr. hits the ground and stays there. Pieces are missing and sparking. Inside Diana is fighting the controls.

"Damn. Systems are going down. It's not looking good." Diana says.

Another blast hits big guy jr. from some unknown source. A huge chunk is blown off. An alarm goes off.

"Warning core overload."

"Crap the core is going critical!" Diana yells.

"Get out of there. We will have to abandon Quark and go underground." Thorton yells over the communicator.

Diana hits a button and she jumps out the open back of big guy Jr. She rushes for the doorway.

"Core overload."

Everything goes white as the core explodes. Diana wakes up in a cold sweat.

"Man what a nightmare." Diana says.

Diana gets in some civilian clothing and leaves her quarters. Quark is still in nighttime mode even though it's early morning.

"Doesn't anybody get up early around here?" Diana wonders.

Diana sees a light in Slate's office.

"Of course. I don't think she ever sleeps." Diana.

Diana decides to go and say hi. When she enters she sees Slate hard at work at her computer. She doesn't seem to notice Diana. Diana clears her throat but nothing happens.

"Hey the legion is attacking." Diana says.

"That's nice." Slate says absentmindedly.

"Rusty is going critical." Diana says.

"In a minute." Slate says.

Diana walks up and thumps Slate on the head. That finally gets her attention.

"Oh Lt. Masterson." Slate says.

"Forget that Lt. stuff. Just call me Diana." Diana says smiling.

Slate smiles.

"Sorry I was just working on a program to enhance Rusty's emotional grid." Slate says.

"What are you hoping to do?" Diana asks.

"Well his grid really isn't made for development past a certain level. After seeing Rusty active for this long, I think he can take going to the next level." Slate says.

Diana yawns.

"Whatever. I leave that stuff up to you smart people." Diana says.

"If she was so smart she wouldn't be wasting her time trying to get a robot to grow up." A female voice says.

The two turn to see Jenny in the doorway.

"Hey where's your sitting post?" Diana asks.

"He's sleeping. Tried to wake him up but sometimes..." Jenny responds.

Diana leaves to take a shower and get ready for the day. By the time she gets out just about everybody is up and around. Including Jenny's 'post'.

"So you finally got him up huh?" Diana asks.

Donovan snorts.

"Little crap tried to suffocate me." Donovan responds.

Meanwhile at the nearby communications center a signal from space is received. A scientist comes to life to get the signal.

"Computer give a location on the source of the signal." A scientist says.

A map comes up. The scientist drops his cup when he sees where it's coming from.

"Sir it's coming from the upper atmosphere. It appears to be a small ship up there." The same scientist says to another man.

"What does it say?" The other man asks.

The scientist punches some buttons and a loud sound comes over the speakers.

"What the hell is that?" The man says covering his ears.

"I don't know. It sounds familiar. There's a visual part to it also." The scientist responds

He brings up a picture on the screen. It consists of 0's and 1's. Specifically it says 010.

"Sir the ship is sending it again on a loop every 5 minutes. I think it's waiting for a response." The scientist says.

"What the hell do we say?" The man asks.

"Perhaps it's testing our capability to communicate. Maybe if we send it back to them." The scientist responds.

"Do it." The man says.

The scientist pushes some buttons and the signal is duplicated and sent back.

"Sir I am reading a massive power reading coming from the ship!" The scientist yells.

Suddenly a huge beam of energy comes down and strikes the communication center. After it clears there is no sign of it ever being there. Meanwhile on the USS Darkhorse an alert goes off.

"Sir detecting a large energy reading coming from a ship in the upper atmosphere. It appears to be a weapon." A communications officer says.

Meanwhile in the pit Mack is working on big guy Jr. A dark haired woman walks up to him.

"Hello my name is Jessie and I have come to be part of the pit crew." The woman says.

Mack stands up and looks at her critically. He wipes his hand on a rag and shakes her hand.

"Just one? I need more than that since we lost Dwayne also." Mack says.

Another smaller woman comes in looking around in awe. She has red hair and is very petite.

"Wow this place is amazing." The girl says.

"Oh no. What is she doing here?" Mack asks.

"Hey unc." The girl says.

"She is my assistant." Jessie says.

"You have got to be kidding." Mack says.

"I didn't know you had such a cool job here unc." The girl says.

"Okay let's get a few things straight Melissa. If you are going to work with me then there's going to be some rules." Mack says frowning.

"Oh rules. You were always so stuffy with me." Melissa says.

Mack shakes his head. Suddenly the big guy signal goes off. Shortly there after Diana arrives in a jet and she gets ready to enter big guy Jr.

"What's the situation?" Diana asks.

"There's a spaceship in the upper atmosphere. It attacked and destroyed a communications center. It happened shortly after a signal was received at quarks. We want you to go up there and find out its intention. If it even breathes wrong then you destroy it." Thorton says.

Diana gets inside big guy jr. and takes off on deck. Meanwhile a portal opens up in the ship and a large armored robot falls down and hits the ground.

"Update. The ship released some kind of robot. Deal with that first." Donovan says over the radio.

"Aye sir." Diana says.

"Any updates on Rusty. Is he going to be able to help me?" Diana asks.

Dr. Slate comes on the screen.

"I have him down while I install the new program. If you really need him then I can force a restart but I'd rather not." Dr. Slate responds.

"Okay. But be ready just in case." Diana says.

Diana frowns.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Diana says.

Diana finally finds the robot.

"Hey this isn't far from quarks." Diana thinks.

Diana lands the bgy-12 and turns towards the robot.

"Okay state your intentions." Big guy jr. says.

"We have given you a chance to answer our signal. You have failed the test showing you are not worthy to be on this planet." The robot says in responds.

"Okay." Diana says.

"I'll have to warn you that we don't take kindly to alien's that think they are better than us." Big guy jr. says.

Suddenly the other robot opens up his chest and a big gun appears.

"Oh so it's gun showing time huh?" Big guy jr. asks.

Big guy jr. opens up its chest to reveal it's primary weapon.

"Bet mine is bigger than yours." Diana says smiling.

But her smile is stopped when the gun fires off and hits big guy jr. head on. The blast sends big guy jr. flying back a couple of feet. Diana frowns at the readout.

"Damn that had a punch to it. Computer find a weak spot." Diana says.

But the computer can't find one.

"Oh for the love of." Diana says.

She pushes a button and the main weapon fires unlocked. It hits the other robot in the chest but doesn't even faze that.

"Okay this isn't..." Diana says.

Another blast hits the big guy Jr. Alarms go off inside.

"This isn't good." Diana says.

Suddenly the left part of big guy jr. blows off. Big guy jr. hits the ground and stays there. Pieces are missing and sparking. Inside Diana is fighting the controls.

"Damn. Systems are going down. It's not looking good." Diana says.

Another blast hits big guy jr. from some unknown source. A huge chunk is blown off. An alarm goes off.

"Warning core overload."

"Crap the core is going critical!" Diana yells.

"Get out of there. We will have to abandon Quark and go underground." Thorton yells over the communicator.

Diana hits a button and she jumps out the open back of big guy Jr. She rushes for the doorway.

"Core overload."

Everything goes white as the core explodes. Diana wakes up in a cold sweat.

"What a nightmare." Diana says.

Diana looks around.

"Whoa déjà vu." Diana says.

Diana gets in some civilian clothing and leaves her quarters. Quark is still in nighttime mode even though it's early morning.

"Doesn't anybody get up early around here?" Diana wonders.

Diana sees a light in Slate's office.

"Of course. I don't think she ever sleeps." Diana.

Diana decides to go and say hi. When she enters she sees Slate hard at work at her computer. She doesn't seem to notice Diana. Diana clears her throat but nothing happens.

"What's going on here? Why does everything feel like it's already happened before?" Diana wonders.

She steps forward and whacks Dr. Slate in the head.

"Oh Lt. Masterson." Slate says.

"Forget that Lt. stuff. Just call me Diana." Diana says smiling.

Slate smiles.

"Sorry I was just..." Dr. Slate starts to say.

"Working on a program to enhance Rusty's emotional grid." Diana finishes.

Slate looks at her funny.

"How did you know that?" Slate asks.

Diana looks confused.

"I don't know. I have been getting a feeling of déjà vu all since I woke up." Diana responds.

Later at the communication's center...

"Do it." The man says.

The scientist pushes some buttons and the signal is duplicated and sent back.

"Sir I am reading a massive power reading coming from the ship!" The scientist yells.

Suddenly a huge beam of energy comes down and strikes the communication center. After it clears there is no sign of it ever being there. Meanwhile on the USS Darkhorse an alert goes off. Later on Diana is in big guy jr. talking about what is going on.

"Sir can you upload the copy of the signal that was received at quarks." Diana asks.

"How do you know about that? I was just about to tell you that." Thorton asks.

Diana shakes her head.

"I don't know. Can you?" Diana asks.

Thorton pushes a button and a loud signal is emitted over big guy jr.'s speakers. Diana covers her ears.

"That kind of sounds like a computer signal." Diana says.

The numbers appear on screen.

"That's binary code. 6 I believe." Diana says.

Diana finally finds the robot.

"Hey this isn't far from quarks." Diana thinks.

Diana lands the bgy-12 and turns towards the robot.

"Okay state your intentions." Big guy jr. says.

"We have given you a chance to answer our signal. You have failed the test showing you are not worthy to be on this planet." The robot says in responds.

"6." Diana says.

"That is the correct answer but it's too late. If you were intelligent enough then everybody would know the answer." The robot says.

"Wait. They just got it mixed up. Please." Diana says.

But the robot doesn't answer and opens up it's chest to reveal the weapon.

"Oh crap." Diana says.

Big guy jr. hits the ground and stays there. Pieces are missing and sparking. Inside Diana is fighting the controls.

"Damn. Systems are going down. It's not looking good." Diana says.

Another blast hits big guy jr. from some unknown source. A huge chunk is blown off. An alarm goes off.

"Warning core overload."

"Crap the core is going critical!" Diana yells.

"Get out of there. We will have to abandon Quark and go underground." Thorton yells over the communicator.

Diana hits a button and she jumps out the open back of big guy Jr. She rushes for the doorway.

"Core overload."

Everything goes white as the core explodes. Diana wakes up in a cold sweat.

"What a nightmare." Diana says.

She looks around.

"No it isn't a nightmare. I must be in some kind of time loop caused by the overload." Diana says.

Diana gets up and runs into the communication part.

"Put me on with the scientists at the nearby communications center." Diana says.

The officer does as she says and the same scientist as before comes up.

"Listen to me. I know this sounds strange but you are going to receive a signal from space with computer code. You must answer it right." Diana says.

"How do you know this?" A man says next to the scientist.

"You wouldn't believe me. Please trust me. The future is at stake." Diana says.

The man sighs.

"Okay. So what do we do?" The man asks.

"The answer is six. You will receive a signal in binary code. Send the number 6 back." Diana responds.

"Okay. We'll get back to you if it goes well." The man says.

The signal goes dead and Diana sits back to wait.

Meanwhile at the nearby communications center a signal from space is received. A scientist comes to life to get the signal.

"Computer give a location on the source of the signal." A scientist says.

A map comes up. The scientist drops his cup when he sees where it's coming from.

"Sir it's coming from the upper atmosphere. It appears to be a small ship up there." The same scientist says to another man.

"What does it say?" The other man asks.

The scientist punches some buttons and a loud sound comes over the speakers.

"What the hell is that?" The man says covering his ears.

"I don't know. It sounds familiar. There's a visual part to it also." The scientist responds

He brings up a picture on the screen. It consists of 0's and 1's. Specifically it says 010.

"Well I'll be damned. She was telling the truth." The man says.

"Should we do what she said?" The scientist asks.

The man nods. The scientist sends the number 6 back. Nothing happens at first then another signal is received.

"It's different this time. The computer says it contains terabytes of data." The scientist says.

Something on the tracking screen changes.

"Sir the ship is leaving and heading back into space." The scientist says.

"It worked." Diana says soon after in the communications.

"I don't know how you knew in advance but thank you." The man says.

Later on the USS Darkhorse Mack is looking over big guy Jr.

"Hey unc what does this do?" Melissa asks.

Mack yelps when he sees that Melissa has a laser gun in her hand.

"Drop that." Mack says.

Melissa accidentally shoots it off and it fries a computer terminal.

"I said it before and I'll say it again. This is not going to work." Mack says shaking his head.

The end.