The Scientist walked onto the bridge of his spaceship. "I have installed a new computer that features a brand new AI interface." Explained The Scientist. "This will, hopefully, avoid the problems with the accuracy that we, that is you..." He said, pointing at the research navigator "...have been having in finding the places I want to visit."
"After last week..." The Scientist continued while walking about the navigator, "...where I said I wanted to head to a planet with deposits of silicon, and somehow, I don't know how you managed it... somehow we ended up at a planet of nymphomaniacs."
The navigator looked up sheepishly "Well I... it's... only an extra letter... I don't like to question why you want to find these places..."
"Other employer's may be been less forgiving of your mistake. I won't say that I wasn't pleasantly surprised and it did prove a nice stop over... but it wasn't terribly useful for what I wanted." said The Scientist looking into the middle distance.

The research navigator looked over at the large, black box in the corner of the control room. "So, er, how does it work?"
"You talk to it" sighed The Scientist. "Computer?"
"Hi there!" exclaimed the computer in an overly joyful tone.
"Yes, er, hi... Take us to a planet rich in silicon deposits" Said The Scientist.
"I'd be delighted!" replied the computer "There are an estimated 2.63 million planetoids within this sector, with a silicon content in the upper 5% of the Poisson distribution with an accuracy of 0.000342..."
"Just get Norma to plot a course through fold-space to the coordinates of a planet on that list" Interrupted The Scientist.
"here we go, guys...!" Said the computer.

After a short while the computer reported "and here we are guys!"
"Show us on screen, will you computer" Said The Scientist.
"Absolutely!" Replied the computer, and the main screen activated to show blackness.
"Computer..."
"Hi There!"
"...hi... Where is everything?" Asked The Scientist. "Why can't I see any stars? Or the planet? Where are we?"
"We appear to be in a cave, guys. Do you like caves? This sure is a nice cave..." Replied the computer.
The Scientist pinched the bridge of his nose "Why are we in a cave?"
"Well you said you wanted to travel to the coordinates of one of the planets on the list, and you seemed interested in the silicon deposits... this is as near as I could get this ship to the silicon deposits. Hey, would you guys like to hear a song about caves, I know two that are specifically about caves?" Said the computer.
"What? er no, thank you computer." Said The Scientist absent mindedly. He shrugged, "Well, while we're here, might as well take a look around I suppose."
...

Stood at the hatch, The Scientist was arguing with the computer. "Open the door, computer"
"Now it's cold outside, I want you all wrapped up nice are warm or I'm not letting you out" Replied the computer.
"Computer..."
"Hi There!"
"...hi... look, I'm perfectly capable of dealing with my own temperature requirement, myself. I'm also immortal; I could freeze to death and then walk back out there the smash my previous body with a hammer, within the hour. Open the bloody door" Said The Scientist.
"I won't be responsible for you catching cold and then bringing us all down..." Started the computer.
"Computer..."
"...Hi There!"
"...hi... how would you like me to go into your main memory banks, with a chain-axe, and give you a reprogramming you won't forget?"

There was a pause.

"OK..." Said The Scientist "...get the axe."

The hatch opened.

"I see this is a relationship we're all going to have to work on." Said the computer to their retreating backs.

"I see there is a circuit board that I'm going to have to work on" Thought The Scientist.

The Scientist, one of his bodyguards, and a Kroot that carried the title "chief biological analyst", left the ship and explored the cave. There wasn't much to be found in the immediate surroundings of the ship and so they moved towards what was considered (by The Scientist) as the exit of the cave. Something watched them from the shadows and decided to follow them while it was in a "turquoise" mood.

Upon reaching the cave mouth, the party was met with a view over the trees of a beautiful sunset of a distant blue giant star. The temperature was falling rapidly and the breath of The Scientist and the Kroot was becoming visible.
"No threats detected" Stated the bodyguard as a gentle breeze caught the edge of it's short black dress.
"Good good. Smell anything interesting, Chief?" Said The Scientist.
"Many small animals have passed this way and something larger has been here recently. Blood has been spilled." Replied the Kroot.
The Scientist pulled his lab-coat around him against the cold and the party moved on into the jungle. They were followed by the being that watched them, who's mood had lightened somewhat upon reaching the fresh air.

A short while later, following a narrow path through the undergrowth, the party stopped at the sound of something moving just ahead. The rustling and snorting of a large creature came ever nearer. The bodyguard moved in front of The Scientist raising it's right arm, palm open and forwards, in a warding gesture towards the sound. The kroot readied it's rifle and The Scientist studied a plant just next to him. "I don't think I've ever seen one of these in the flesh" Said The Scientist.

Just then a huge boar-like creature came crashing though the foliage, 5ft at the shoulder, with long brown fur over it's body, but not on the underside where it was replaced with tough skin, jagged tusks extended a foot from a wide, dripping jaw and wild, red eyes stared at the party. With a loud snort, it charged them.

The right hand of the bodyguard dropped down on a hinge and the forearm opened up to reveal a gun barrel that extended forward, it's left eye opened up to reveal a complex targeting array of optics, it said "Aggressive movement detected, taking action" and the gun fired with an ear-splitting boom. A hole large enough to crawl into opened up in the boar and it fell to the ground dead, blood pouring from the hole.
"Aggressive moment ceased, standing down" the bodyguard said in a plain female voice, it's arm returning to normal. Before the sound of the gun finished reverberating around the trees, the Kroot was upon the body of the boar and "studied" it closely. After a short while chewing, it said "It's a new species, but not different enough for further research."
"Good job people, let's carry on then" Replied The Scientist.
Watching this, the observer's mood became bluer. It continued to follow the party anyway.

After travelling much further, The Scientist looking at the many new and interesting things, the Kroot eating a few more things, and the bodyguard killing a few things that acted in varying degrees of "aggressive" ways, they came to a clearing. The sky was dark now, and the air was frigid. The Scientist led the way across the clearing when he heard a strange noise behind him. He turned to see that both the Kroot and the bodyguard had arrows though their heads. The Kroot had fallen to the ground, while the bodyguard stood alert to danger, arm outstretched. While The Scientist watched, 3 more arrows embedded themselves in the bodyguard. It still did not move until a fourth hit it's shoulder and it then started firing indiscriminately into the foliage, cutting down trees and plants. Finally, a number of small beings emerged from the trees, riding all manner of animals from boars and wolves larger than the earlier boar, to small cat-like creatures barely large enough to carry the tribal-gear-bedecked passengers.

The bodyguard killed 2 of the approaching aggressors before they had stuck enough spears into it's body to have finally hit enough important parts to stop it's actions. As the bodyguard fell over backwards it turned it's head towards The Scientist and said "I'm sorry sir, I have failed you, would you like me to self-destruct?".
The Scientist looked down at the bodyguard, which now had a great deal more potential shrapnel than normal, and said "No, it's alright Dorothy. You can just upload to the mainframe and shut down. I'll repair you later."
The bodyguard twitched as the tribal riders surrounded them and said "I... Th-thank you... sir... I.. O... OK... I-I-I... I Lo... lo... you... S-sir..." and it became still.

The Scientist looked up at the riders and said "Right, well it's a pleasure to meet you chaps. How can we help one another?"
...

The Scientist looked at the simple huts that made up the small village inhabited by these tribal folk as he was carried past them tied to a pole. They had been kind enough to leave his eyes uncovered, but had gagged him when he had asked too many questions. He was afforded a much better view when they stuck the pole into a hole in the ground and started to pile wood around him. He decided it was time to start discussion and spat out the gag.

"Ick? Nak? Lag, Fen? Mal? T'Pau? Lo? ...er... How?" One of the tribesmen, the one with the biggest head-dress, looked up. "Ah Ha, you understood that, right..." The Scientist continued to estimate the dialect of the people "...I have... no, come... come in pieces... no... pterodactyl... no, peace... Yes, Peace. I come in peace." and looked up at the tribesman in a friendly way.
The man stepped forward and raised his hands, the rest of the men stopped and stood aside.
"Me Chief. Me rule this land. You cause much pain to my land. Me not happy. Make my people sick. Not get better." Said the Chief, talking slowly and deliberately as if talking to an idiot.
"I see..." Said The Scientist "...I can help your prolapse... no, people... people. I know many things."

"Are you a Wizzard?" Asked the Chief.
"No, much better. I'm The Scientist." Said The Scientist.
"Ahh, you will want to talk to Eric, our shaman." Said the Chief.
"Ok then." said The Scientist and stood up, the ropes falling away from his hands and feet. There was an intake of breath from the tribe and one man stepped forward and knelt in front of the Chief, who went to reach for his axe. The Scientist stopped him before he could decapitate the man for failing to tie the knots correctly, and explained his deep understandings in knots, ropes and the ways of escapology. The Chief was greatly pleased with this knowledge and sent the tribesman away to whip himself until he learnt these new things. The Scientist was led off to meet Eric the Shaman.

Entering the mud-brick hut, through a hanging tall-grass curtain, The Scientist could smell an array of herbs, potions, a wood fire and the unmistakeable scent of death. He looked around at the interior of the hut, a space roughly 30ft by 20ft, filled with tables and shelves of varying heights between the knee and chest. The Tribesmen were no taller than 4ft at the most and the higher shelves had small steps or ladders attached to the legs that were embedded into the muddy ground.

In the centre of the hut was a large fire, the smoke pouring out a small hole in the roof above it, The Scientist could feel the heat from where he stood at the door in the middle of the long side of the hut. He stepped forward and a small man appeared from behind a shelf unit stacked with pieces of paper that appeared to have been made from pressed plant matter. The small man wore a long, pale coat that looked like a primitive version of the lab coat that The Scientist wore. The man himself could have been a miniature version of The Scientist in looks, but not in mannerisms, he was definitely a tribesman. He looked up "Come come, sit by the fire. I hear you are a being of science, like myself." He said in a gruff voice.
"I am indeed, I am The Scientist." Replied The Scientist.
"I hope that we can learn a great deal from each other." Said the man.
"That's what I have been...smiling... no, sailing... no... er... saying" Said The Scientist.
"They don't listen to science, the fools. They like what I do, but they don't want to learn." Said the man sadly.
The being that had been following The Scientist crept into the hut and hid in the shade.

After a short while discussing the various experiments that the Shaman was working on, often involving the use of mud, there was a weak cough from one corner of the hut and The Scientist looked round. The Shaman got up and shuffled over to a table on which lay what must have been a child of the tribe.
"It is an affliction of our people, this wasting disease. The old and the young. They become still and slow to react. This child does not have long left." Explained the shaman.
The Scientist looked down on the withered body of the small child and thought back to an experiment he had conducted with children in his labs...

Excerpts from SN-6743. Experiments on the increase of entropy of a small sealed room:
A sealed room, filled with many and varied items (stored neatly), by itself, does very little. Left for long enough, some of the materials will degrade in one way or another and that can be taken as a baseline increase in entropy for this series of experiments. There were, on occasion, small bursts of disorder. Such as when a wooden box had degraded to the extent that it could no longer contain it's contents and the falling items produced much damage in the close vicinity as well as a great deal of sound, transferring that stored energy throughout the room. However, in general, the progress was minimal and small.

The addition of an explosive device into the sealed room will, once detonated, greatly increase the disorder in the room through the force of the shockwave and the ensuing conflagration.
However, once the fire has burnt out, the system returns to a level of entropy increase similar to that of the control test. If the fire is sustained and complete enough, the bacteria that would attack many materials are also consumed and the progress of entropy after this is almost non-existent. This shows that all life cannot be destroyed if progress is to be made.

The addition of a child to an identical room does increase the rate of change of entropy.
Nevertheless, the child is a very inefficient randomizer. Failing to grind his belongings to a powder of independent molecules, he has preserved islands of untouched order everywhere. In fact, it is only because of this failure that the state of his room can be called disorderly.

Disorder is not the absence of all order but rather the clash of uncoordinated orders.
After studying this sealed system for some time, it is apparent that the child moves these islands of order about the space and the relative balance between order and disorder fluctuates periodically. The entropy, however, continues to increase.

This is at odds with the explosive experiment. Where the explosive creates a rapid increase in disorder, the child creates a high level of disorder over a long time period. But, whereas the explosive ceases it's influence on disorder after only a short time, the child will continue to affect the entropy of the system for many days without reversing the trend. The child will occasionally break something and therefore create more pieces in the system, like the explosive, and given enough time may reach a comparable level of disorder and will then continue to increase the entropy.

This is why life must be left to continue, but must be encouraged to avoid large islands of order and negative entropy. Civilisation and all it "creates" is driving the Universe into an oblivion of order. The entropy MUST increase!

Perhaps a combination of these approaches would yield interesting results...
...

Snapping out of his reverie, The Scientist looked closer at the child and eventually said "I know what it wrong. You are loosing the fight against order."
"What can we do to combat this?" asked the shaman.
"Create disorder, move it and things around, break things into smaller things, do not push back the jungle, work in harmony with it... and give this child a concoction of these plants..." The Scientist drew up a list of plant extracts that would create a powerful potion that would save the child's life... and go on to cure the whole tribe of 12 unknown diseases and increase the growth of their minds and bodies, leading to the tribesman becoming a space-faring population that would wage a terrible war of the local planetary systems in many centuries time.

In thanks, the shaman created a potion that the tribe used for "spiritual" occasions. The whole tribe took part in a celebration ritual and welcomed The Scientist as a honorary tribesman. A cup made of mud was passed around and everyone took turns to drink the potion. Immediately upon drinking The Scientist felt the chemicals getting to work on his mind and body; He could feel himself relaxing and a wave of happiness swept over him. As he looked about the circle of tribesmen, he could see big smiles and laughter and some men were laying down in the mud, The Scientist thought that this was a good idea and lay down himself. The bonfire in the centre of the circle took on a blue tinge and became small dancing figures that The Scientist watched for while.

Next thing he knew, he was alone in the depths of the jungle, it was dark but he could see everything around him. He walked through the foliage until he reached a clearing. In the middle was a giant, floating head. It turned to look at him and smiled "What is your name?" boomed the giant head.
"I am The Scientist" replied The Scientist.
"Incorrect. What is your quest?" said the head.
"I seek balance of order and chaos and the perpetual increase of entropy." Said The Scientist.
"Incorrect. What is your favourite colour?" said the head.
In the back of his mind a quiet voice said "blue". The Scientist ignored it "Blue" he said.
"Incorrect. Application denied. Funding revoked." Said the giant head.
"What? No. No you can't do that. I'm doing important work. I've been published in many high-impact journals..." said The Scientist in a panicked tone.
The Scientist reached out to the giant head, tripped and fell to his knees, then continued to crawl towards the head, but then fell again onto his front. When he looked up again, the head was gone. He got to his feet and mumbling to himself, continued to walk further across the clearing.

Further along, The Scientist came to a glass door, standing by itself in the clearing. He could walk all around the door, but looking through the glass he could see a large, clean laboratory filled with all manner of equipment. He reached out to open the door, but a sign lit up saying "DENIED". He pushed against the door, but it did not budge. The Scientist turned around to find himself in a corridor lined with similar doors. The jungle had gone. He made his way along the corridor, trying door after door and always being denied. He began running down the corridor, kicking and screaming at the doors. He could see other people inside the labs, ignoring him and doing "bad" science. The Scientist tried to point out their errors, but they could not hear him.

At the end of the corridor he saw a wooden-panelled door. He ran to it and fell through it as it opened when he reached it. The Scientist found himself in an office opposite a large desk covered in paper. Behind the desk was a large leather chair facing away from the door and towards a fireplace. A voice came from the chair "After an internal review, I'm afraid I'm going to have to cancel your contract."
"No. I'm doing glorious work, and doing so well. I'm near to making some conclusions" Said The Scientist.
"Haven't you seen the latest paper? It disproves all that you have been working on. You are worthless and no one will work with you any more" Said the voice.
"They are wrong, I can prove it. I just need more time. They are not following the proper protocols. Their data is too noisy to prove anything. I just need to run some more experiments." pleaded The Scientist.
The chair turned around to reveal a black hole that sucked The Scientist and the contents of the room into it and as he fell, he could see all manner of lab equipment floating around him, just out of reach.

One small flask of white powder floated just near enough for him to grasp and as soon as he touched it, the fluffy powder turned into a brown oil and he cast it aside. A blue bottle floated alongside him. Inside was blue liquid that sloshed about as the bottle moved. The Scientist reached out and as soon as he touched the bottle he felt it pull him upwards and carried him towards a bright, blue light. As he reached the light he awoke, back at the village. The tribesmen were stood around him. The Scientist looked up at them as all looked blue. He blinked a couple of times, but the colour remained. The Shaman leant over him and said "It appears as if the blue one has taken a liking to you, do not be alarmed".

The Scientist sat up and the blue seemed to drain away to the floor as if a transparent cloth had be pulled from his face. He looked down upon the super-intelligent shade of the colour blue and knew that it had saved him from some kind of introspective research funding hell and he thanked it. The super-intelligent shade of the colour blue moved about The Scientist's legs as a cat would have if the cat was a patch of colour and not an animal.

The Scientist returned to his ship in the cave, the super-intelligent shade of the colour blue joined him and they left the planet and the tribesmen behind.

He returned the following week to recover the bodyguard in order to repair it.