"So, you're really just a robot, then? Not a bunch of nanobots?"
"As I said, the nanobots are how we take over lifeforms. Our minds are encased within our artificial bodies, which look much like how you see me now. But, our minds can move to other places, like the nanobots. And with the nanobots help, we can move to animal lifeforms."
"So, where is your real body now?"
"On the ship, in hibernation."
"Can you get out of hibernation?"
"If I leave your body and enter my own. Yes, I would come out of hibernation."
"Tell me about your master," Jon said.
"He is a great man, but he expects to have things that he can never have. Like the stone, as you call it."
Jon wondered what was keeping this master from having the stone. But he was also wondering another thing. "Is it not really a stone?" he asked 749.
"No. It's a device that was created. It only seems like magic to you because it is so advanced. I'm sure that you know it has limitations, like not being able to reverse previous wishes. That is a safeguard in the programming of the device to prevent temporal paradoxes in the space-time continuum."
749 could see that Jon wasn't quite following. "A temporal paradox could likely destroy the universe. So, it would be bad."
"Oh." Jon hadn't thought that reversing a wish would cause the end of the world, but after thinking about it, it made sense.
"Is there anything else you'd like to know? Because it's no use stalling me."
"I'm not stalling you."
"Good. Because it doesn't matter. Since you've been taken over, it has only been a few seconds."
"How is that possible?" Jon asked. To Jon, it seemed like at least 10 minutes.
"We're in your mind. Anything's possible."
Jon looked back at the monitor. He saw Sarah holding the stone and Karyn standing a few feet away, looking at her. The picture on the monitor was frozen, or nearly so.
He decided that he had gotten enough information out of 749. Jon had to do something.
