ET- Control Panel

  Micron entered the turnip, lengths of wire draped over his outstretched arms. The robot followed behind him, bearing the first of many loads of electronic apparatus which the Jumpum trees had been concealing in their roots.

  “Not new,” said Micron, “but perfectly adequate.” He lifted the modular pieces, examining each one carefully and admiring its construction. “Built by my wing, microscopic detail. This single unit—” He held a small box up. “—has two million parts. Here’s the main computer, fits in the palm of your hand. Here’s the—”

  “Can you fit it into our design?” asked E.T. nervously.

  “I’m a Techno. You ask us, we make it happen. You’ve got a nice little shell here. It will stand stress?”

  “It is rated above the best alloys,” said the robot, as a length of tape clicked from his chin slot, bearing his latest stress measurements of the turnip.

  Micron tore it off, looked at it. “This will do fine.”

  A semicircle of computerized units—the assembled command module—wrapped itself around Micron and the robot, who sat before the many controls, pressing buttons. “Give me fore . . . aft . . . trim,” said Micron.

  The robot pressed, as instructed, his display board lighting up. “All functional.”

  The transparent sphere within the turnip was now a double lattice, of vines and wires, all of it coated by the membrane of Rasoor Oob. Micron pressed one of the buttons on his console, and the mouth of a Fusion Bloom was exposed in the wall of the turnip, a metallic shield dropping away. At once the flower of Dagon Sabad that faced it stirred and spat a tongue of serpentine power into the waiting mouth of the Fusion Bloom.

  “Number One firing,” said the robot, as the Fusion Bloom roared, plasma streaming through the wall of the turnip, into the outside air.

- E.T. The Book of the Green Planet, chapter 20