General Pike took another bite of the savory pastry. “I’m happy you tamed the Terminator T-7000,” he said, talking around the food. “That’s some smart hacking.”
“Thanks,” said Jobe, preening in his white lab coat.
Pike plucked another cheesy pastry. “But I’m disappointed we don’t know more about its military potential.”
“Sorry, sir. We do know it cooks that terrific Pastizzi.”
Pike stopped chewing. “It cooks? How?”
“We don’t know.”
“Show me.”
Jobe turned to the very large, naked, muscular man. “T-7000. More Pastizi, please.”
It crouched down on one knee and blue light globe surrounded it. Then it disappeared.
At Malta, in an alley in the city of Mdina, a man walked happily along with a fresh plate of Pastizzi. A globe of blue light appeared before him. It faded, revealing a naked giant of a man.
The T-7000 stood and said, “Your Pastizzi. Give it to me.”
_______________________________________
Written for What Pegman Saw: https://whatpegmansaw.com/2018/04/14/what-pegman-saw-mdina-malta/
Author’s Notes:
Pastizzi is a popular Maltese snack food. Here’s a link to many more Maltese dishes:
EagleAye
Momus News 
Being a sucker for both terminator stories AND pasta, I loved this story.
LikeLike
Hehe. I figured it would be a winning combination. Thanks Karen! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL. I just watched the original Terminator movie again last night. Of course, it’s in Terminator 2 that the “request” reaches its full meme potential: “I need your boots, your clothes, and your Pastizzi.”
LikeLike
Ah, that first one is so good, it’s worth ongoing looks. I always loved the way the hulking Terminator made “requests.” A good laugh every time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the memes they generate. Schwarzenegger put one such on Facebook during the Christmas season: “I want your clothes, your boots, and your reindeer.”
LikeLike
Haha! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, that’s one way to get authentic cuisine! I’m reading a great book on world building right now that keeps pushing the reader to take the idea to the next step, think about how this new idea would change the way people act and think. So of course now I’m imagining a low-tech world where one day, weird metallic people start popping up out of nowhere demanding your food. It starts happening all the time, all over the country. People are panicking, but it’s not an invasion. Just … food snatching. Of the best food, no less. Can you imagine how people would react to that? What new ways of protecting food they might develop? Funny idea…
LikeLike
Most interesting. I’m working on a longer piece right now (long novella/short novel) and I’m stewing a lot over how much world-building to include. I like considering technology influences society and changes it. In this world medical nanotechnology is free for all, so bodysculpting can get outrageous. Anyway, I’ve imagined an unusual system of government but haven’t included it because (based on what I’m reading from this facebook group) people would become bored with too much infodumps. Infodumps don’t bother me. I expect authors to expain the world they’ve imagined, but not everyone is me. I do want this to be saleable. *sigh*
LikeLiked by 2 people
Nobody really enjoys long info dumps but everyone likes knowing the cool details of your world. There’s definitely a skill to imparting the information without it feeling like a dump, and it starts with that great old “show don’t tell” advice. I keep an eye out when I read for people who do it well, and try to learn from them. Slowly making progress, I’d like to think… Good luck finding the balance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My brother has a great phrase when I inexpertly use dialogue to try and cover too much information “Monolithic slabs of dialogue” is what he calls it…
Personally, like you, I rather like infodumps if they’re pertinent and interesting, but I think it’s a minority taste!
LikeLiked by 1 person
For some reason we’re watching T2 again and it’s suddenly spaghetti night. Now I know why! Great stuff.
LikeLike
Haha. That sounds like synchronicity. You’re the second person watching a Terminator movie tonight. Hmmm… 😉 Thanks JH!
LikeLike
Hee hee! One way of getting great pasta! Have to ask – did the reprogrammed Terminator also volunteer to masquerade as a well-known baroque composer? You know, ‘I’ll be Baaaach’.
LikeLiked by 1 person
*Grooaan* At least with him around they’d never spend too much money on food and go baroque. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aaaaaaargh! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did I hit your battleship? 😉
LikeLike
He could have at least gone to the nearest bakery, instead of just taking the guy’s pastizzi. Not very smart thinking on his part – he could have bought back a greater selection and really made a name for himself 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know, he’s a Terminator after all. He doesn’t think about things like variety and selection. T-7000s weren’t known for their marketing prowess. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice humour, EagleAye. You raised a smile as usual. But it’s also interesting as a comment on recent advances in AI. Neural networks trained on big data are very popular now, but people are increasingly realising that they don’t know how the AI does what it does, and they’re beginning to think that’s probably important! Your story highlights that admirably!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, as AIs become more and more powerful, we’ll have some powerful dilemmas on our hands. The more power we give them the more useful, but also the more dangerous. AIs will be a Damocles Sword. Thanks Penny!
LikeLike
Ha! Can’t get more authentic than that! Love this!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hehe. Maltese food straight from Malta. I’d be loving that. 😉 Thanks Kelley!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah ha…, your imagination is wilder then I remembered. Great story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! My imagination does peak on some days. 😉 Thanks Kelvin! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hah! Cheater! Definitely a fun one, Eric. Hmmm… just so happens I’m making pasta tonight… Coinkidink?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! You know other folks were having pasta and also watching Terminator movies. That’s a whole sequence of coinkidinks. I thought there was something weird about this strange crystal sitting on my desk… 😉 Thanks Dale!
LikeLiked by 1 person
In that case, I’ll take one, too…but, only if there’s a video camera involved…I’ve just got to see the look on the poor Maltese person’s face! 🙂 ~Jelli on the lam
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh I would like to see that too. Astonishment and terror all rolled up into one look. 😉 Thanks much!
LikeLiked by 1 person