Beach Planet

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Scott's probably around here somewhere, trying to recover from James.

The water's pretty nice.

Perfect place to dump slavers.

Hewitt laughed. "Oh I think the mammal wants a fight." He stared the kid down, rising up to his really not very impressive full height. He was pretty dang tiny, even with his tendrils fully extended. "Is it worth getting hurt over? I'm told this stick is... quite solid, your skull however, it seems is quite the opposite."

The kid stared. He hadn't expected threats, omg. "Your robot won't let you hurt me," he pointed out. "Three Laws, right?"

"Well that all depends on whether it seems you are attacking ME does it not?" Hewitt countered, though damn, the kid had him there. Stupid three laws, he kept forgetting about those. Thankfully he did remember it was important random idiots didn't know these androids didn't have them anymore, everyone kept talking about it and looking stern after all.
"And what would the onlookers think? A young mammal arguably in the prime of his life, launching an assault on a poor twice retired Aketi." He made a tutting sound. "I'm just an old man enjoying a stroll. How could I possibly defend myself against a strong... meat creature such as yourself" He looked pleased with himself. Yes, he did look frail and old, he was a spindly plant person resting his weight heavily on a cane. What WOULD the authorities think?

"I wasn't going to attack you, I was only telling your robot that he's being racist," the teen said. "And you're being racist too."

"Could have fooled me," Ethan muttered. "And who's racist? You're the one calling me robot."

The teen glared at Ethan, then looked at Hewitt again, "Rude people, causing a disturbance in Terran space."

"Rude? you're the one interupting a private conversation. Run along little mammal." Hewitt made shooing motions.

"Damned antihumanists, guess the police still need to work on making you guys leave," the boy said. But he ran off.

Ethan watched him go, shaking his head. "See what I mean about kids? They're a nuisance."

Hewitt scoffed. "That was a large child then. Perhaps it's just mammals in general." He shook his head, slightly disappointed he didn't get to beat some sense into the dumb kid's soft head.

"He was almost an adult, but not quite," Ethan said. "At that age it's the hormones that make them dumb and emotional, not so much ignorance. Although they're usually ignorant too at that age." Yeah, he wasn't a big fan of young Terrans.
He started walking again, keeping some more space between himself and Hewitt this time. The guy's enthusiasm about pretending to be his owner had been a little weird. Not as creepy as mirror Shane had been, but still enough to make him cautious.

Hewitt kept on walking, if he noticed Ethan's sudden wierdness he certainly didn't care. They came upon a park, sheltered from the wind but still lovely and sunny. Hewitt found a bench to sit on and closed his eyes, looking content.

Ethan sat down on the same bench as Hewitt, although he put quite a bit of space between the two of them. He relaxed though, enjoying the sun. He didn't mind sitting here for a while and enjoying the day.

"real sunlight, by all reason it shouldn't feel different but it does." Hewitt mused. He looked pretty contented.

"Maybe it's the radiation. Or the other plants," Ethan said. "It is nice, whatever makes it so different."

"perhaps it's simply psychosomatic. The blue sky, the breeze through your leaves, the warmth of the sunlight. If the ocean weren't so close it would be ideal." The professor settled back to soak up the sunlight.

"Must be it," Ethan agreed. He looked up at the cloudless blue sky, watching a tiny racing shuttle speed overhead. "They say that sea air smells nice and it adds to the experience, but without that, the only thing it does is make machinery wear out faster." He sighed. "Do you have beaches on your homeworld, or is it one of those planets where the water doesn't really collect in oceans?"

"Ahh yes, salt air is terrible for mechanics." Hewitt agreed. He shrugged. "My home world has far higher humidity, a lot of rivers and a great deal of jungle or swamp. It's pleasantly warm, the air is moist and full of insects. The sing in the trees, it's quite soothing really. Engine noise is not quite the same for lulling one to sleep but it's close enough." He chuckled, thinking fondly of his home. "We've spent a great deal of time in ensuring our technology can operate in high humidity and temperatures, some of the metals other races use are terribly prone to corrosion in such an environment. And we couldn't have that now could we?" He snickered

Ethan nodded. "Not a great environment for tech, but I guess you'd learn to work with it. I suppose your space stations must be pretty damp too, since you sort of need that to survive? Must be fun to keep them fuctioning." He imagined all the viewing windows of the space station fogged up and useless, and snickered.

Hewitt chuckled. "Ahh yes, a problem for the engineers that one. They seem to work fairly well, sometimes we need to adjust the environmentals slightly so it's not uncomfortable for us, but better for the machinery."

"Sounds like a time consuming and difficult job. Guess it's necessary though, for plant people to be comfortable," Ethan said. "Us androids don't have to worry about dampness messing up our systems, our skin does a good job protecting us. The problem is that over time, harsh weather makes our skin discolor and crack, and then we look ugly as fuck. Assuming you don't think we're ugly to begin with, of course." His mouth quirked into a smile.

"you look like a terran." Hewitt shrugged. "Our host drones project an image to look like us. Supposedly market research suggests people engage better with things that look more like themselves. "

"Yes, in theory this is supposed to make everyone more comfortable." Ethan snorted, "It doesn't always seem to work in practice, but I guess it'd be even worse if we looked more like robots." He shook his head. "Host drones make more sense. They can look like whatever species you want, and have their hive mind thing instead of individual brains. Seems like a more economical option, although they can't really lift as much weight, and I assume they don't do well in water."

Hewitt shook his head. "No, I don't believe the projector would do so well in water. They're very fragile, precise things those lenses. Still, Amity took a bullet and getting trampled and could be put back together, mostly. Looks like those inner workings are quite well protected." He waved a hand dismissively. "Of course Host Drones make more sense, Terran androids are a novelty, an attempt to do something just to prove they could. You're not at all efficient or economical and yet they keep making more because terrans want inefficient robot servants who look just like them. I'd suggest there's a degree of pathology involved in that but i'm not a therapist either. " He tutted "Utterly inefficient though, you get your robot set up just the way you want and then something goes wrong, you can't just upload those preferences into a new body, you have to start again from scratch with a whole new machine. And the neurosis and ability to feel trauma. Why would you want a traumatized robot? It's the sort of thing only Terrans could come up with, honestly, it's ridiculous."

"Well some of them like traumatized robots," Ethan said dryly. "Someday there will be lots of research on why we're designed this way I'm sure, but for now all we know is that it's dumb."

"research by whom? I doubt the terrans will ever want to admit to anything. No, they'd sooner pretend it was a defect, when it's quite clearly an intentional design choice. " His gaze wandered across the shops that lined the square they were in. Terrans, such a strange species.

"You may be right. I guess they probably would rather not admit what they'd done, that'd make them look bad," Ethan agreed. "I'm sure other species would be happy to dissect their actions though."

There were a lot of very touristy shops around the square, including novelty bakeries, gift shops, shops full of quaint art of the beach, shops with endless racks of 'beach planet' T-shirts and hoodies, and bars. Most of the streets were sparkling and bright, but some of the side streets heading away from the beach were less pretty and tourist-y.

Hewitt eyed the tacky shirts and amused himself with images of the various members of Vestia's crew being forced to wear them out of politeness should they be presented with them as a gift.

"What do you think, shall we see what lies beneath the pristine exterior of this tourist town? In my experience, the veneer is usually very thin and easy to peel away. " And oh he'd been to a LOT of touristy crappy places. The tourguides always ushed them away from the seedy underbelly, and more the shame too, you didn't really get to see a place till you go to see the squalid shithole underneath the glitz and glamor.

"Sure, might as well. Let's try and avoid being mugged though," Ethan said, getting up. "Who knows what sort of people hide on the outskirts of a place like this."

"What are muggers going to do? Shoot me?" Hewitt scoffed. He rose slowly, leaning on his cane.