Think tank

Doctor Klein "THOUGHT I HEARD THE PACIFICATION FIELD KICK IN. ALL RIGHT, SHHH. NOBODY. MOVE. I'LL HANDLE THIS... BE WARNED, INTRUDER! YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF THE MIGHTY THINK TANK OF BIG MT, THE COLLECTIVE GENIUSES OF... WE... ...BY OPPENHEIMER, WHICH ONE OF YOU SELF-PROFESSED GENIUSES HAS BEEN ADJUSTING MY VOLUME KNOB? WHO WAS IT?! WAS IT YOU, 8?"
Doctor 8 "@@[#-!!!!-#]@@!"
Doctor Klein "OH, "DR. O," WAS IT? LIKELY STORY, O COULDN'T SPARK TWO NEURONS IF THEY WERE IN A LATTICE OF BIOMED GEL."
Doctor 0 " *What? Me? Breaking news, Klein, it wasn't me - all right?! I am the robotical engineer, 8 is soundwaves, that's his "specialty."* *You always do this, you always demean me in front of guests! And it's not "O," all right, it's...!* "
Doctor Klein "ENOUGH! EITHER OF YOU DO IT AGAIN, IT'LL BE THE LAST TIME. NOW... NOW...  ...GREAT. NOW I FORGOT WHAT I WAS SAYING... WHAT WAS I TALKING ABOUT?"
Rhodane "I... was at a theater, then... I was here. What is this place?"
Doctor Klein "DID... DID IT JUST SAY SOMETHING? ANYONE CATCH THAT? BOROUS, YOU WORK WITH ANIMALS, TRANSLATE."
Doctor Borous " -It's a LOBOTOMITE. Here! In the DOME!- "
Doctor Klein "OH, AS IF THIS SITUATION COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE, NOW WE'VE GOT LOBOTOMITES. DALA, GET THE SPRAY BEFORE IT EXCRETES ALL OVER EVERYTHING."
Rhodane "Lobotomite?"
Doctor Dala "Dr. Klein... if my hypothesis is correct, this Lobotomite is the repository of the brain we sent the signal to - the skinvelope once containing it. If so, it's proof that there may indeed be something beyond the Crater. Just look at it... the way it blinks. It's like a big hairless teddy bear."
Doctor Klein "I KNOW WHAT IT IS, DALA, I WANT TO KNOW WHY IT'S DOWN HERE. WITH ITS... ITS LIMBS ALL OVER EVERYTHING. AND... ARE THOSE... PENISES I SEE WRIGGLING ON ITS FEET? DISGUSTING."
Doctor Dala "I believe those are toes, Dr. Klein. Little teddy bear toes. Penises are much larger than those tiny extremities... Eh, not that I would know."
Doctor 0 " *I don't recall the human penis ever being that large.* "
Doctor Dala "It depends on one's own frame of reference, Doctor O. Look at its little nose with its two orifices for ingesting oxygen."
Doctor Klein "NOSES? BY THE GREAT STATIC, THESE LOBOTOMITES CONFOUND ME WITH THEIR SHEER NUMBER OF USELESS EXTREMITIES."
Rhodane waves her hands and nods.
Doctor Klein "WHAT... WHAT IS IT DOING? DID WE INSTITUTE ELECTROSHOCK? OR IS IT EXCRETING?"
Doctor Borous "-Dr. Klein, WAIT! I... I don't believe those gestures were random. Random AT ALL.- -It's been following our conversation! The Lobotomite... understands us!- "
Doctor Dala "I agree with Borous' histrionic findings. This little Lobotomite is unusually attentive for something whose brain has been extracted."
Doctor Klein "NONSENSE. LOBOTOMITES CAN'T COMPREHEND US."
Doctor 8 "@@[=$+<_..*]@@?"
Doctor 0 " *8, have you been in the Mentats again? If we slow down our auro-processo-receptors to understand this excretion, we'll all be rendered ignorant!* "
Doctor Klein "ALL OF YOU, POWER DOWN, SHUT UP, AND LET ME PROVE ONCE AND FOR ALL HOW WRONG YOU ALL ARE. AS USUAL. LOBOTOMITE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? CAN YOU SPEAK?"
Rhodane "Yes. I'm guessing that crashed satellite was yours?"
Doctor Klein "THOSE WERE WORDS, WEREN'T THEY? IN THE FORM OF QUESTIONS. IT'S ASKING ME QUESTIONS. IS THIS SOME KIND OF TRICK?"
Doctor Borous" -Our efforts have turned against us! In playing GOD, we created a MONSTER!-"
Doctor Dala "Perhaps as we were ruthlessly lobotimizing it with our cutters, we filled this skinevelope with... awareness. A teddy bear with new stuffing."
Doctor 0 " *Wait. If what you're theorizing is this Lobotomite understands us... can reason with us...* "
Doctor Klein "THEN THIS MAY BE JUST THE ANSWER WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. AT LAST, A CHANCE TO..."
Doctor 8 "@@[#-!!!!-#]@@!"
Doctor Borous "-Dr. Klein! A TRANSMISSION from the FORBIDDEN Zone! Coming right at US!- "
Doctor Klein "IT CAN ONLY BE... "
The big screen starts flickering and reveals another brainbot.
Doctor Mobius "If it isn't my old colleagues, the mighty "Think Tank" of Big MT. Big fools, all of you. It is I, Dr. Mobius, transmitting from my dome-shaped... dome in the Forbidden Zone. A zone... that is, yes... forbidden to you. Even now, my deadly Robo-Scorpions swarm across Big MT with their pincers and pointy laser tails. Soon, all Science will be mine. Even the technologies sealed in the Big MT research centers cannot save you. So cower in your "Think Tank." Wait, for the end. That's all. Goodbye."
The screen turns dark.
Doctor Klein "MOBIUS. ALWAYS THE SAME BROADCAST. HE'S CLEARLY MAD, DRIVEN INSANE BY HIS FLAWED AND IMPRECISE KINDERGARTEN-LEVEL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY."
Doctor O "*What are we going to do? There's no way we can breach the Forbidden Zone. There's those robot scorpions everywhere!* "
Doctor Borous " -The FORBIDDEN ZONE, where no brain has EVER entered! Nor ever RETURNED.- "
Doctor Dala " Except Dr. Mobius. And the technologies that could save us, they are out of our reach. "
Doctor Klein "AND DR. MOBIUS MOCKS US. DID YOU SEE HIS CRACKED MONITOR? HE'S CLEARLY LET HIMSELF GO."
Doctor 8 "@@[=$+<_*]@@? = @@[=$+<_*]@@? @@[<*$(^=$)#]@@!"
Doctor O " *What? Ask the Lobotomite for help? 8, I think you need the fluid levels in your logic-assist-pumps checked.* "
Doctor Dala "If this Lobotomite responded, Dr. Klein, then it is clearly intelligent, perhaps even displays heretofore unknown levels of helpfulness. "
Doctor Borous "-But what of its brain? We scooped that out! We don't even know where we left it! And for putting it back in... none of us have the knowledge!- "
Doctor Dala "Yes, but it's still aware and responsive. Look at it... it's regarding us even now, with its big teddy bear eyes. If we ask it politely and leave the part about the unnecessary ruthless lobotimizing out, it might be favorably disposed to us."
Rhodane "You removed my brain?"