After several days of silently living with the older bear his routine revealed that the retired man was going to be using this new pipe often enough there was little hope to run the timer out on the settings. Jeff's curiosity to see what life as a pipe was was feeling like his last mistake, and on day 5 he was resting in the man's hand, warmed with hash, thinking of changes he should have made to his settings for this form. When he shouted it in the form of a command, the Chronivac returned a message:
Changes cannot be made by user until role is completed.
Jeff shouted to the void, demanding someone be allowed to help him, and the machine voice continued.
Request Local Manual Override of role?
A light of hope was found. 'Yes!' he shouted in his head. The pipe was lifted back to the bear's mouth, and the sensation of being smoked clouded his mind as he listened.
Manual Override process has beuin. Please allow time for process to be shipped.
Jeff had no idea what that meant, but he was hopeful that meant something could be resolved. He shouted more ideas, but always got the same previous message. He resolved himself to simply enjoy the calm life until a change became possible.
Two days later, while the man returned from a trip into town with a box. "Seems strange getting something from this Chron-something. How do they even know who I am?" Jeff was shocked, but he was stuck on the rack as the man opened up a handheld version of the Chronivac, with instructions on how to use it and an explanation that he was now in ownership of Jeff's license of the device. "What is all this? Must be some tech helper from the family. Well, not much else to do but read up on this thing. No way I can understand these strange commands otherwise." He took the book and set it on the porch table before collecting his favorite pipe. Jeff was frantic, knowing the timer had one hour left due to the long trip, but he was stuffed full and carried outside. "Hate forgetting my pipe at home. But a long smoke tonight will fix that." He settled down, lighting up to take a good puff before opening to the first page.