Feeling a sense of urgency, I flipped through a magazine as I went down a hallway. I passed a bay of wheeled robots that were docked together on a wall in a sort of rack. They looked like Segway transporters, with their bodies tall and narrow like a rod.
UPDATE
I just saw this video about a rod-like robot that follows humans around hallways:
That made me do a double-take, because it matches better than any picture I could find. But the rods on the ones in my dream were shorter.
me: "Come with me, I have a manufacturing task."
The robots dutifully undocked and rolled in a line down the hall after me. The magazine was open to a page--possibly an advertisement--showing a large black desktop computer.
Note
Branding on the machine was some weird hybrid of brands we are familiar with, it was something along the lines of "Appledell".
We arrived at rows of lab equipment that looked like large Xerox machines. The robots began plugging into them and causing them to light up, and I showed them the picture I was looking at. A couple people walked in and were distressed.
man one: "What are you doing? You know those are illegal to make."
me: "We need it."
He watched warily for a minute, then asked me a question.
man one: "When you set off that nuclear device...did you unplug the aircom transmitter?"
man two: "Oh no! You didn't blow THAT up too, did you!??"
Note
I'm making "aircom transmitter" up, I don't remember quite what he said. But I understood that he was talking about something used for communications.
me: "Look... I... uh. I have no idea what you're talking about. Or for that matter, I don't know what I'm doing here, honestly. Who are you people?"
I went into my usual schpiel about who I am, where I live, that I'm asleep...etc.
man one: (to man #2) "We need to take him to see Steve."
me: "Steve who?"
man one: "Steve Wizard."
We walked into a room which looked like someone's bedroom, there was a computer set up and candles. Looking around I didn't see anyone there, but then I noticed a man laying down on the ground on his back with his eyes closed. I walked over to him and crouched down.
me: "Are you Steve Wizard? Can you give me any information?"
I didn't really notice when or how, but the person lying on the floor transitioned into a thin slightly-older black woman. She was dressed something like a gypsy.
woman: "Oh, yes...you are very good. Very good. And cute too, I've always been fond the way the white skin reflects light."
That's about all I remember before waking up.