Before Todd can show us how unpleasant he felt about my smart remark, what would amuse me, he stops.

Our unwanted guest is blocking the passage of the waiterbot that arrived with our order.

The impatient bot is beeping behind Todd's legs. Asking for free passage. Some lights are blinking in the panel in front of the machine. A message "Please step aside" keeps popping in a 12 inches video screen above a series of buttons on its surface. The chrome-colored bot with a Galaxian logo painted in his back has the same height as Todd's knee. It has a conical body. Rounded all around both edges, giving a cute aspect to the small computerized servant. Our five silver bottles of ice creams are resting in a polished tray. The tray is covered by a semispheric and transparent plexiglass lid on top of that body.

Todd grunts, but moves away.

Not even a moron like him would be stupid to create any kind of scene. That would make the always alert security bots to step into action.

Free from the nuisance, believe me, I know how that bot feel. The small servant moved forward, pulled by three half foot wheels. Wheels that are attached to a thin cylindrical foot long leg. The leg holds the tiny body and tilts every time the bot moves.

Hei told us that those bots are very well balanced. They possess a gyroscope on top of their legs to help an inner program calculate how the leg will incline. That way they are always in perfect equilibrium. Also, the angle of the tray adjusts to that inclination.

I bet Hei saw a lot of those bots being mounted in one of his father's facilities.

Todd is still close, he decided to wait for the bot to finish its deliver; instead of arguing with us. He tells his bunch to wait for him outside the place, saying that he will finish something before going to them. They nod and leave the Galaxian.

I knew Todd won't want to face me again in front of his band, he never won an argument with me until today. Of course, that will not stop him to try.

When the waiterbot touches the corner of our table, the text in the screen changes to:

"Awaiting payment".

It is a sign that we need to complete our order in the Galaxian net home, using our smart lens. Only after that, the bot will deposit our bottles in the moveable treadmill at the top of the table.

I make the eyeball movement pattern that is set as my personal password. In front of my eyes, the main panel of my ocular com device flashes and a screen lightens, out of nowhere. A few movements of my eyeballs later, the Galaxian site appears. To me, it is like it was projected two feet away from my left eye. When I focus my vision in a part of the projection, internal sensors in the lens translate that movement of my eyes. It becomes the movement of a cursor, in front of my face. That way I can navigate the Vella Net.

However, there is no projection outside.

Only the owner can see the image projected by his own smart lens.

The others must be doing the same since everyone is being silent at the same time. Probably, concentrated in the same process of closing orders. And telling the waiterbot what position they occupy in the table. That way, the machine can start delivering the ice cream bottles in the right order.

"Thanks for your preference. Enjoy your order" appears on the screen.

The cover of the tray opens. A telescopic and flexible arm begins putting the bottles in the treadmill over the table.

I was right about my assumption.

When the last bottle touches the surface of the table the tread activates. Each bottle slides and stops in front of the person that ordered it or was assigned to receive that ice cream.

Having completed his job the small bot spins one hundred and eighty degrees. It moves to the other side of the counter. Disappearing from our view.

Todd does not wait till I savor my ice cream to push my buttons again:

"You got some nerve freak, but I doubt you would be so bold outside where security can't protect you."

"So I hit a nerve TD? Great deal." I answer ironically.

"Cut the macho crap Todd, you are dying of envy. I bet you are amazed that I was brave enough to get suspended by a single mag cable 30 feet from the ground. Go ahead, admit it. That is a thing that you would never have the guts to perform."

"Hah, you have no idea who is Todd Davison, I can challenge you in a mag race anytime, freak. And I can win against you with an arm tied to one of my legs."

I smirk:

"Aren't we feeling overconfident this afternoon?"

I sip my ice cream and add:

"Or is the great TD saying this because my mag cables are locked inside the EVO institute? Because he knows that I can't accept the challenge? "I just love provoking him.

He leans towards me with both hands in his waist. If he bites my hook, Todd can be of some use after all.

"So what? I have a spare one, wanna try your luck spider girl?", he sounds challenging.

That is going very well, let's see if he bites the hook now.

"I don't trust you. What will make me sure that you didn't tamper your spare cable to win? With my own, I would challenge you in no time. But wait, you gave me a wonderful idea! Won't you lend me your own cable so I can retrieve mine before they send it to molecule recycling?"

Everyone stopped swallowing their refreshments and looked at me.

"You gotta be kidding", said Belle with her eyes wide open." She could not believe what she heard. 

"Are you saying that you want to break in the EVO institute to get your cables back? Did we hear it right? Are you insane?"

Hei is the one less surprised by my idea in the group. He is also the one that knows me for a long time to be that surprised.

"You don't seem to have decided to do that right now, Lau. Can I assume you were thinking about inviting us to this little adventure for some time?" he already knows the answer. But asks anyway.

"Why not?", I grim back at him, "I have been thinking about that all day. Those cables are very important to me as you know it. And TD here will lend me the only thing that I needed to make my plan work. Right TD bear?"

"You are crazy, definitely crazy", says Hei.

Sue looks to me as if agreeing with him, but at the same time she is finding it amusing.

Todd is looking up as if he is examining the possibilities:

"I like the idea of breaking into the EVO Institute, freak, but I want to go too."

So it seems Todd got excited by the idea of invasion. That is perfect!

"I must be crazy because I need all of you to make it work. And that includes you TD bear. You are all part of a perfect plan devised by the sharp mind of Lauren Ellis. Let's take our Ices and put everything to work." I say triumphantly.

Then I make my request:

"Allan, can I borrow your gravy pellet gun too, right?"

"You know we can all be expelled, don't you, Lau?" Cuts Belle.

I am very excited to let her change our moods.

"No one will get expelled. Come on guys, those cables were made by my dad and they are all that I have from him. Please, I need your help and it will be fun."

They change looks between each other, and that is the sign I needed to know that they will back me up, again.

If those teachers that wrote my Evo profile could see me now. They would say they were right about everything they told about me.

Time to set things up, so I add:

"Trust me, no one will ever know about that invasion or that we got my cables back."

Now I have a good reason to smile.

___

Lauren is quite the troublemaker...well this is our episode, if you liked it click in that lovely button, comment, share with your friends. Space Caravels is only begining.