Voyage of the RoboCat

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Previously, on the Adventures of Mech'alor the Nekomancer...

The Galactic Alliance traveled to the industrial world of Mechis III, investigating reports of a violent droid uprising amid the droid foundries and manufacturing facilities. They discovered remnants of the Clockwork Rebellion, which had begun killing the human population and seizing control of the planet for themselves.

While searching for survivors, Kaili Talith discovers a Human Replica Droid fashioned in the likeness of a Cathar cub. Unaware that the droid is the work of Archangel Research, Kaili takes the droid as a companion. Even now, the two depart Mechis III bound for Alliance space...

The astromech gave a warbling chirp.

Sitting on the floor, the cat-eared boy had a variety of parts arrayed on the deck around him. The front panels of the astromech's coverings were open, as the youngling's small hands reached inside of the droid's innards. "Uh huh," the cub uttered, acknowledging the commentary in droidspeak. The astromech was complaining about inconsistent power loads. Pulling off a cover, and pressing against some wiring to expose a part for visual inspection, the Cathar cub's amber eyes peered through the opening into the droid's anatomy.

"Here's your problem," the boy-bot reported, taking a second look before pushing himself far enough away so that he could look the other droid in the sensor. "I think someone used a refurbished after-market part for your motivator."

A short bleep and flat bloop.

"Well, I didn't do it," the cub quipped in response, before scooting forward on his knees to reach into the droid again. "Maybe..." the boy began, his vocabulator going off-line for a moment, as his visual scanners and the DUM-series droid brain began demanding additional processor allocation. He was mapping the mechanical connections and then attempting to extrapolate possible alternative configurations.

"I might be able to switch you to a 19-pin configuration. I don't know that it'll help if your motivator's just going bad though," the cat-eared droid supplied finally, before reaching back in to work on the droid.

When his human was around, being idle was part of his programming. But, Scary Creator Lady Kay and the human crew required rest, which was when the Cathar-like droid had set out to be productive. He'd found the ship's droid corral and helped with a variety of maintenance tasks throughout the ship's 'night.' Now, as the chronometer approached the crew's 'day' cycle, the small maintenance droid was trying to identify a power fault in one of the ship's astromech droids.

It was at least useful work. Now that he belonged to Scary Creator Lady Kay, he really wasn't sure what he was going to be doing.

[member="Kaili Talith"]​

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="BB-4001A"]

It was an unexpected turn of events for her; the act of suddenly taking a small droid into her care on a planet which was in the process of being seized by corrupted AI. No doubt it was the only thing Kaili could think of doing at the end of the long road, but it was certainly not what she had expected when she first set her foot on said road. Something about BeeBee made her care for him, and with the way things had gone on Mechis she had felt it natural to act upon it. It just wasn’t fair having a child lose their parent like that.

Still, Beebee seemed alright with it. The benefits of having your emotions be a set of algorithms rather than the product of pheromones and metaphysical connections between one another. In many ways Kaili envied it, but she knew better than wishing herself to be a droid. She was a nutjob at times, but she wasn’t that crazy. There were some limits as to what her aspirations and motivations would allow her to do and think.

Sitting atop of a crate Kaili was happy to just watch the young Cathar work with the droid that it had found. Her hands cupped a small thermos flask of tea. A content smile grew wider for each sip that she took until finally the contents within were all gone and she put it away. Alliance personnel came and picked it up and Kaili in turn stood up from the crate and walked over to Beebee and his friend.

“He helped Corporal Tennin with flight raids during the Mechis rebellion.” Kaili grunted as she took a seat on the floor. “They did a few runs until eventually they took a bad hit and had to pull out or risk getting shot down.”

“That’s what his memory banks say at least.” Kaili smiled wide before looking at the Cathar cub again. She knew that he was a droid, but she had to ask. It was just the right thing to do.

“... How are you doing, Beebee? With Mechis, and Doctor Hobbes…”

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Scary Creator Lady Kay was awake.

The human (?) woman was imbibing a water-based infusion of theobromides derived from plant matter, and served at 80 degrees centigrade. The precise function of such a tisane escaped his processors. The mineral and nutrient composition of the resulting intinction were negligible, and pollution introduced aluminum and other undesirable components to the particulate matter from which the beverage was distilled.

Thus, its consumption seemed contradictory to proper maintenance.

In like fashion, the woman's behavior exhibited the strange characteristics of being contrary to his understanding of human norms. Such as, accessing the astromechs memory banks as though by some wireless data connection.

Was she a cyborg? Did she have access to some kind of WiFi data networking device?

"Well, he's complaining about irregular power loads," the cat-droid remarked, allocating a small percentage of processor bandwidth to maintaining conversation with Scary Creator Lady Kay even as he continued the manual task of working on the droid. "But his power supply checks out."

The question was one that merited some further analysis, so he paused for a moment in order to allocate additional resources to formulating a response. In so doing, he may well have appeared to reflect upon it, before he looked up at the woman. "I am operating at optimal efficiency levels," the droid responded, though he anticipated that the response would not serve as an answer to her question.

"I am unsure how to describe the absence of Doctor Hobbes, but I find that mechanical tasks allow me to allocate resources such that the issue is not present in active memory."

[member="Kaili Talith"]​

 

[Kaili Talith]

Not so much Wireless Data as much as a natural born affinity for technomancy, or Mechu Deru as most preferred to call it. It was the one thing Kaili had ever really practiced throughout her rather short existence, and the interception and interpretation of data in particular. She had no interest in tying metal and inanimate objects to her will, all she wanted to do was create and learn. It was without a doubt the greatest influence on her views over droid rights and the cornerstone of why she was so fascinated by Beebee. She hadn’t ‘read’ him yet and she had no intentions to. It was similar to what she would like to imagine mentalists felt when they found an individual that was fascinating beyond their belief.

There was nothing to gain by outright ripping the knowledge of their feats and history. You wanted the person to tell you all about themselves with their own words so that you could create a more personal connection to them. At least that was what Kaili felt when she was around the little Cathar cub. She didn’t want to know everything about him, he would tell her when he was ready to let that happen on his own volition.

… Or if she outright asked him, but she had no intentions to do that either.

She was also well aware that she was giving him perhaps too great of a benefit of a doubt on his personality and who he was, but that was a chance she was willing to take. And that was of course not mentioning, again, the fact that he was so very immensely the cutest thing she had ever seen in her life.

“Sounds like a nifty function.” Kaili frowned. The fact that the droid work to, in a quite literal sense, keep his mind off of things reminded her of when she had done the very same thing after the crash all those years ago. It was the easiest way to take the mind off of the guilt, but she wouldn’t really expect a droid to go through such lines of thought. In the end he was a creation made out of data and algorithms. Kaili tried to remind herself of that but found herself failing.

“Maybe a wire is loose.” She sighed. “I know that’s what I tended to mess up the most when I created Henry.”

“I didn’t bring him with me to Mechis though. Didn’t want to risk anything.” And right now she also wished she had something to show him off to Beebee with but came up empty handed. “Depending on where you want to go I guess you’ll meet him sooner or later.”

“... Is there anywhere special you want to go? Are there anymore people you know of that you might want to seek out, or someone who was close to Doctor Hobbes?”

[member="BB-4001A"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The cat-eared boy sat back.

Tucking the multitool so that it was pressing against the side of his cheek, he seemed to reflect on the suggestion about a loose wire. A problem with the cabling hadn't been an option he had fully explored. Perhaps he would need to trace the connections and connectivity.

As he mulled over the task, the Scary Creator Lady Kay spoke about creating a droid. Henry. So, she wasn't just a Scary Creator Lady... she was a Scary Creator Lady Maker.

...so, when protocol droids said 'thank the Maker'... were they thanking her?

The philosophical musings of an unemployed philosopher cat-droid.

"No," the boy answered simply, lowering the multitool and sitting back so that he could look up at the Scary Creator Lady Maker. "I was manufactured on Corellia, but activated on Mechis III. I am not familiar with any other planetary destinations."

What would the classical droid philosopher have said? I am merely a droid, and not really knowledgeable about such things. "And you, Mistress," the droid asked, turning the question back on the lady. "Is there any destination that you would like to visit?"

[member="Kaili Talith"]​

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="BB-4001A"]

Corellia. The one planet Kaili had wished that she could go to but never had the heart to.

“My girlfriend is from there.” She smiled nonetheless. “Corellia, I mean.”

“And I personally wouldn’t mind going home, I guess.” Kaili shrugged. “It’s been a long day, or week, or something. Let’s you see where I grew up, which I guess is fair since I got to see where you were… Activated? I guess?”

“But first we need to get my ship. It’s not with me yet, but this ship is taking us to where we need to go for that.” And they weren’t all that far from where they needed to go either. They had already been in transit for a while now. “See, I built my own ship.” Kaili wasn’t one to brag, but that was usually what people did with children, right? “I studied at the Levantine Astronautical Academy when I was even younger than I already am, and well, I decided to major in the design of ships as well as navigation. It’s pretty funny that it served me just as well in design of droids as it did in the process of creating an entire ship.”

“It’s all a scale question, really.”

“Do you know anything like that? Did your creator grant you any kind of skill or knowledge in a craft?”