Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Six

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Ellie frowned a little at the question. "Yeah, I've talked to them. They're glad to know I'm okay. It's so strange how much older they are now, though." In the photos she'd seen, they both had a lot of gray hairs she didn't remember from before.

~~
Ethan looked amused. "The library's always open. You can stop by any time you want, as long as you don't get sugar on the books."

Zara looked to the screen, reading the message. <Who's that? Are they listening to us?> she signed, looking at Mourn again. <I don't know any names here, but usually someone in engineering can work with glass. This is a science station, so it's even more likely than usual,>

Mourn pointed to the small drone sitting on his desk, plugged into the computer. "Hologram, broken." Oh yeah, he was supposed to be signing. Eugh. <hologram is broken, lenses shattered. Fized most of the damage but small parts fiddly, need special tools.> and special expertise he lacked. Bah.

[I appologise most profusely for my current state. ] Amity wrote. [But welcome new crew member. I look forward to meeting you.]

Mourn laughed.

Zara looked at the little drone curiously. She'd seen drones before of course, but one that appeared to have a functioning AI of some sort was new to her. It wasn't clear to her whether this drone was sentient or not, so she went with the safer assumption that it was.
"Thank you, it's good to meet you too. You don't need to apologize for anything though," she told Amity in Common so the drone could hear her. She repeated what she said in Sign too, partly for Mourn, and partly because she wasn't experienced at lipreading Felid, and hoped Mourn would keep signing if she did.
"Wait, so are you a hologram? Do you make holograms?"

[This drone is capable of projecting a holographic interface, to better allow guests to interact. Market research showed that guests prefer to speak to what they percieve to be a person, rather than a machine.] Amity replied.

Mourn laughed, Amity amused him. "got shot, broke." He hesitated, then repeated that in sign.

[Unfortunately my lenses were damaged. I cannot see and I cannot project. ] Amity explained.

"Hologram can't do job like this." Mourn nodded.

[It is most inconvenient certainly.] Amity agreed.

Zara considered Amity's words. Hmm, the drone wasn't really talking like a sentient being, she realized, talking about guests and market research and interaction. Interesting.
"I don't think I've ever heard of a drone like you before," she said, still repeating what she said in sign. "You weren't built by the Terrans, I take it?" She frowned and added, "I'm sorry. It can't be fun to be grounded like this. Hopefully someone on this station can make new lenses for you."
Until she was told otherwise, she was going to keep assuming this drone had emotions, no matter how oddly it phrased what it said.

Danika walked in with Kay to explore the new to her sections they were in now.

[Not Terran no, I am Aketi technology.] Amity told Zara. [Thank you.] He added at her final words, just to be polite.

Mourn seemed to find all this very amusing.

---

Kay nodded greeting to Tala if she was still guarding and Vestia's camera as they came aboard, leading Danika, and Jarral if he followed, to first class.

Jarral did follow, but only, he told himself, because his room was near here.

Zara wasn't sure why Mourn was amused, she resolved to ask him in a moment, once she'd recalled where she'd read about Aketi before. She brightened, remembering something. "They're a plant-like species, right? Develop a lot of science and technologies. We learned about them a little in school, for Interspecies Studies." She frowned a little then, "They were the ones who had a research base blown up by that terrorist group the Family, weren't they?"

~~
Tala twitched her ears in greeting to the group as they passed. Vestia nodded her camera in greeting as well. Neither tried to strike up a conversation, although of course Vestia would continue to watch the group.

Danika waved to Tala and Vestia's camera, smiling happily as they came on the ship then headed for first class. She hadn't seen her room yet after all, and hadn't been told about the kittens.

[Yes, that is correct. ] Amity replied.

Mourn still looked amused. He tilted his head at Zara. <they teach about plants?>

<We learned a little about a lot of species in school, they thought it would be useful for us to know,> Zara signed to Mourn, repeating in Common for Amity. Holding a conversation in two languages was always a little tricky, but she didn't want to leave anyone out.
"I don't know much about Aketi drones," she added to Amity, "I hope this question doesn't sound rude, but are you guys sentient, like the Terran Androids are?"

Amity paused, then wrote [No.]

Mourn bounced up and down on his seat excitedly. <He doesn't like my plan.> He cackled.

Kay led the way and smiled softly, albeit a little awkwardly to Danika as they reached first class.

[We haven't had much of a chance to really settle in yet.]

"Then us moving in will be on the same level." Danika said with a soft chuckle. She was just happy to be with him again.

Kay nodded, in a way that was maybe going to make this transition easier. Nobody was fully settled in, it was like a fresh start for everyone.

He gave Danika a brief tour of the important spaces. Eating area, recreational areas, then paused. He wasn't sure how rooms were going to work here.

"You're really not sentient?" Zara considered that. Okay, so she hadn't actually talked to Amity that much yet, not enough to get a good grasp of his personality, but it was always a little startling to meet a non-sentient talking computer these days. Huh.
<What are you planning?> she asked Mourn. The guy looked weirdly excited.

One of the dragons that had been on the ship saw the three walking and dipped her head to them. "Hello Princess Danika, Kay, Jerral." She said gently in greeting.

Danika enjoyed just having the time with Kay and Jerral.

Kay took a moment, it was jarring to hear Danika referred to as Princess. He looked awkward, unsure how you were supposed to greet the star dragons. Honestly he hadn't interacted much with them beyond medical. He just nodded vuagely and forced a grim smile.

Jarral just stared at the dragon dully, sticking to the shadows as best he could in the well lit corridors. Lurking was something he did well.

---

[I do not believe so.] Amity replied.

Mourn grinned at Zara, bursting to explain. He started to speak, then remembered sign and went back to that. <Drones interesting, adaptive behaviour but small memory. Supposed to be wiped yearly. Central processor elsewhere on cruise ship decide what useful and keep those memories, dump the rest. Far away from processor now.> Mourn tilted his head at the drone. <Memory run out eventually, then hologram stop functioning. Need to be wiped, forget everything. Not ideal> He made a face.

<Oh. So what you want to do, then, is to find some way to expand the drone's memory, so he doesn't run out of space?> Zara guessed. <Seems like it'd be hard to fit much memory into a small drone.> She looked thoughtful.

Mourn nodded <can't do it with tiny drone, needs central processor somewhere else. Bigger computer, more memory. Could have drone wirelessly link to brain see? then could store more, have time to adapt and learn properly.> Mourn chittered excitedly, tail swishing back and forward.

Zara smiled at Mourn's excitement. She was pretty sure this guy really was THE Mourn by now, even if he wasn't what she'd expected, he still seemed to have the necessary enthusiasm about computers.
<I see. If he's designed to wirelessly connect to a central processor, that must be doable.> She was by no means a computer expert, but she'd done a fair bit of tinkering with electronics over the years, so she had a general idea of what might be involved. <You want to move his entire brain out of the drone, into a more powerful computer? I guess that might be safer for him too, if he gets damaged often.>

Mourn nodded. <then we'll be able to see how much he can really evolve and adapt> Yes, he was definitely excited about this. <Hologram says we should return him to cruise company for decommission. > He made a face, he didn't like that idea. <Corperate protocol. Or something. Boring. Waste of technology>

Danika smiled and nodded to the other dragon. "Hello."

"Were you looking for your new room?" The other dragon asked curiously, looking from one to the other of the trio. "Prince Kerr and Princess Vela have already picked out theirs."

Zara shook her head, frowning. <Decommissioning? Sentient or not, that just doesn't seem right. The cruise company can do just fine without him.> She was all for keeping Amity away from this cruise company, yep. She kind of liked him already.

Mourn nodded <wasteful.> He agreed. He glanced fondly toward the drone.

---

Kay tilted his head and glanced to Danika. [Would you like to do that?] He asked.

Danika looked to Kay then nodded. "It would be good to know where to go." She said then smiled.

The dragon nodded and would lead them to the suite the other kids had picked out.

<You're going to have to make some modifications to the drone, I suppose,> Zara signed, looking thoughtful. <You said the drone is designed to talk to a computer wirelessly, but does it have the bandwidth to send all that sensor data to a remote computer, and also receive commands from it?>