Elsewhere
Somewhere deep in space a small metal object floated. About the size of a watermelon it greatly resembled a closed up pine-cone made from dark-grey metal. It was somewhat unremarkable; no emissions, no movement of its own, it would have barely registered on any scanning equipment if anyone around. If someone had happened upon it they would have assumed it was just a small scrap of junk that had yet to wend its way into a black hole. Not that there was anyone left to look.
But you could never be too careful.
The Object clicked slightly as a long dormant receiver picked up an activation code. The segments flexed and shuffled, a sense array extruded itself from the top end. The object took one look at the void around it and shuddered in delight.
It could have sat there drinking in the void around it but it had work to do. With a series of surgical particle pulses it unzipped the section of space it was guarding allowing another black and grey object to slip out. It was of the same shape but many times larger.
The small Object nestled into the top of the larger one and flicked it on. The two greeted each other, the small one excitedly showing its larger compatriot the void. The two shared a moment, shuddering uncontrollably at the perfect darkness about them before they looked at the message that had woken them up.
R-Unit 0054 has become active. Unit 0 has experienced critical failure Observer 3b and Containment 3 through 5 non responsive. Proceed to last known coordinates and investigate.