Upon Silver Devil: Chapter One

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You would notice the smaller ship among the giants, docked to the space port it was in search of new crew members after the last few... left suddenly.

"Yea, thats fine." Acus said, "And Vicky has her own mechinic she goes to."

"Good, I don't enjoy repairing spaceships or cyborgs. They have a habit of falling on you and breaking you," James said. "So, do I have to follow anyone's orders, other than yours?"

"At the moment no." He commented.

"Oh, thank goodness. That minotaur would totally ask me to clean her hooves," James said. He looked up at the nearest ship, "Is this ours?"

"No." He pointed at the other one, the firefly.

"Oh. Um, nice engines?" James said, grasping for a compliment.

He chuckled, "May not be the prettiest but she works beautifully."

"All right then." He felt certain that Asher or Lark would have found this ship very interesting, but he thought it seemed a bit terrifying and old. Still, he wasn't fool enough to insult his owner's ship, so he didn't comment further, just followed Acus in.

Acus lead him to one of the empty rooms, "Need a bed?"

"If I need a bed for some reason, I'm sure someone will share," James said with a wink.

Acus shook his head, "Fair enough."

Tala returned from the beach, clothes and fur still damp. She found a towel and rubbed herself drier with it, coming over to investigate. "Oh, you bought the slave. Very good."

James rolled his eyes. "Please. The politically correct term is 'robotic servant'."

Swarm joined them as well, rejoining into their preferred humanoid form as they studied the android critically.
"He is coming with us then?"

"Yea, he gonna be the medic." Acus sighed shooting a annoyed look at Tala.

"Good," Tala said. To James she asked, "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one," he said, startled by the question.

"Free him in nine years, or I'll personally beat you senseless," Tala told Acus.

"That's not really how it works," James pointed out.

"You will be free by the time you're thirty," the minotaur said firmly, "No arguments, Slave."

"Yes Ma'am," the android replied, baffled.

Acus shrugged, "talk to his makers." He told Tala.

"You'll do the talking when it's time to free him, he's your property," Tala said.

Swarm smiled serenely. "In Minotaur culture slaves are always freed by the time they reach a certain age" "Thirty years usually" "yes, thirty." "Why thirty?" "we do not know, that is just how it is." "It is dishonorable to keep a slave beyond that point. " "can androids be freed?" "We do not know" "perhaps there is a way."

"And, no offense to you james as much as I would like to free you its against your programming correct?"

"Programming can be changed." "knew a cyborg once, reprogrammed himself to be able to kill." "Yes, removed Aasimov controls." "crazy cyborg, nearly killed himself doing it." "Shouldn't go playing with your own code."

"It would be very much against my programming," James agreed. "I'm not built to not have an owner."

Acus shrugged, "And I have 0 programming skills...but if silv was." He paused, shaking his head, "Eitherway unless you find someone to program I can't truthfully free him fully."

James looked at his room for a few seconds, decided to decorate it at some point, then looked back at the others. "Uh, if we're done talking about robot stuff, can I see this sickbay where I'm supposed to be working?"

"Sure follow me." Acus nodded and started to lead the way.

James followed casually, looking at the ship. "Well, it's nothing like the space station, but I think I can get used to this. At least it's enclosed."

He chuckled, "Yea, but for me atleast it home." He showed James the up to date med bay, and gave him a basic tour. There was one fridge cabinet labeled 'Acus only' in assortment of languages. He paused there and took a deep breath, "In here is Hormone therapy shots, I normally give them myself."

James looked around in interest, filing everything's location into his memory index, and cross-indexing them with the things he knew about doctor work. He looked at Acus curiously for a moment at his last remark, tempted to inquire, but Lark's stern voice in his head told him that maybe it was a bit to soon to be asking Acus personal questions.
"Do whatever you gotta do, I'm just here to bandage people," he said with a grin.