Upon Silver Devil: Chapter Two

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Deeply Acus sighed as he paused and turned around, arms crossed. "Yes?"

"You may try peoples' patience sometimes, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't miss you," James said weakly, "Please stick around, man."

He sighed a just shrug, "why don't you go see if dawn need help settling her uncle in? I'll be cook in a couple of hours since I am on mess duty." The only way he would probably stop drinking would be if someone removed all boozed off ship and put on one of those anti addiction bracelets on his ass.

Well, if he was going to be cooking in a few hours, at least he wouldn't be dead by then. James was relieved by that, at least. "Dawn seemed like she already had everything under control. Maybe I'll wash the windows, and say hi to the pilot. She's cute."

"Alright." He said simply before returning to walking off towards his quarters.

James shot Acus a last worried look, then went off to find window cleaning supplies.

Then he went up to the bridge to wash the windows there.

Luka was flipping through a book, while cruising like this she didn't really need to do much. Autopilot was a wonderful thing for the tedium of long haul flights.
She looked up as James came in.

"You're the new guy right?" She waved vaguely, they hadn't really been formally introduced.

"Yeah, I'm James," he said, smiling. "You're Luka, I assume?"

She nodded, saluting. "Lieutenant Luka Falk, well.. was. Once. " She shrugged. "now i'm just the pilot, but it's fine. This old pile of bolts holds together better than some new vessels. She's not a bad old thing." She patted the controls affectionately. She smiled, reading his badge. "You're an android?" She looked curious.

"Satare Empire?" He guessed. With the accent, as well as her appearance, that was a reasonable assumption. "You're not hitting the control panel. That's reassuring."
He nodded, "Yeah, I'm an android." He wasn't sure what someone from the Satare Empire might think of that, so he didn't elaborate further for the moment.

She nodded, actually a little suprised that he knew that. She frowned at the hitting remark. "Of course i'm not going to hit her, poor old girl. You have to treat a ship with a gentle hand, or she won't do anything you want." She laughed. "Bit like a real girl."
She tilted her head at him, and stood up to get a better look.

"Fascinating. " Without thinking, she reached out a hand to touch him.

"As a fellow machine, I appreciate that," James said dryly. "Maintenance is a much better strategy than hitting."

He didn't flinch away from Luka's touch, he was used to curious strangers on the space station. Besides, people weren't something to be scared of. Usually. "Never met an android before, I take it?"

She shook her head. "The imperium has robots, but... they're far more efficiently designed. They do one job and they do it well, they don't pretend to be anything else and they don't look like people. They look like robots." She frowned a little, he was a bit unnervingly realistic and she drew her hand away. "All purpose androids, built to look and behave as much like their creators as possible. Only Terrans could be that arrogant." She mused more to herself.

"Helps people to interact with us better, supposedly," James told her. "In practice, the results are mixed, which stinks. The good news is that we get to think like people, and be devastatingly handsome."

Luka looked amused and shook her head. "It's a painfully inefficient and unnecessary design for most of the work they have you doing though. Janitorial work would be better suited to a scutter, not a humanoid. Maintenance droids have no reason to interact with anyone except their engineers. " She shrugged, it was all just very weird to her. Terrans, they were just strange. "How.. much free will do you have?" She had to keep reminding herself he was a machine, and while she was pretty used to talking to machines, she did after all have long "conversations" with the ship and had grown up chattering away to inanimate objects, they didn't talk back and they certainly didn't make jokes.

"Well, the idea is that you buy one android who can handle any type of work you want, which means fewer robots to break down," he said a bit defensively.
"We have a lot of free will, unless our owners take it away with orders. Basically everything except the Three Laws is flexible."

Luka frowned. "Terrans are very strange." She remarked, shaking her head. She continued to stare at him, fascinated by all those teeny details that served no other purpose than to make him look less like an animated corpse and more like a living breathing being. What a lot of effort to go to, and while the artistry was the be applauded, she couldn't help but wonder at the mindset of a race of people who felt such unnecessary realism was so important. How much time and effort had gone into those minute facial movements, that imitation of breathing? Those eyes? She may have watched him a little too intently. After a while she shrugged. "So what does the Captain have you doing around here then?" She noted his cleaning supplies. Really Acus? If you wanted a janitor there were cheaper options.

"Yes, Terrans are very strange," agreed James. "Currently I'm medic and janitor. Medic because he asked, and janitor because I'm trying to be useful enough to not be evicted. Not that I like it here or want to stay," he finished hastily, "It's just, I sort of..." he stopped. Darn it. Stockholm Syndrome was really setting in now.

Luka watched him, a soft smile on her face. "No.. I understand. I think we're all treading on eggshells around here hoping he doesn't lose it completely and either shoot us all or kick us off at the next port." She shrugged. "He boobytrapped everything up here when i first arrived, you know that? I keep finding extra little stupid pranks he's set up and some of them are really NOT funny." She sighed. "I think he has a screw loose. A lot of screws loose, but we're stuck here for the time being. He's our captain and even if he's nuts, at least it's better than being stranded somewhere right?" That's what she kept telling herself anyway, it was better than being stranded. "I don't think a lot of us have anywhere else to go. "

James smiled, glad that Luka was able to verbalize what he couldn't. "Yeah, I don't know what it's like to be Satare out here, but you do not want to commit the crime of being an android on some planets. Even with all the weirdness here, at least it's safeish."

"You can commit crimes?" She asked. "I assumed they'd thrown a whole load of rules and provisos into your code." I mean, that's what she'd do. A whole load of very strict rules about what was and wasn't okay. But Terrans man, they were screwed up.
"Satare its... not great. The Minotaur and I don't get along, there's been a war between our people for so long, a lot of anger on both sides. She's not the only one though, out here, there's a lot of people who won't hire you, won't even look at you. I've had things thrown at me, i've been threatened. I've been called all manner of things. " She sighed. "At least here the abuse is equal, everyone gets it, regardless of who or what they are. The captain is an equal opportunities asshole." She laughed. "Don't... don't tell him I said that please." She looked worried.

"...Yeah," James said, "We could commit non-violent crimes. It's a terrible idea though. Androids who cause trouble get wiped or destroyed."
"I won't say a word," he reassured her. "Wow, I didn't realize how hard it would be out here for you. I guess Satare have a turbulent history with a lot of species, so it does make sense."
He started washing the windows finally, remembering why he was here. "You must get homesick sometimes."

As vicky dug out something from her dresser she yelped as suddenly a whip cream bomb exploded all over her face. "...."

She nodded. "I do. But.. i'm not sure what sort of life awaits me back in the empire any more." She sighed and looked wistfully out at the stars. "I miss my family." She shook her head and changed the subject. "People who commit crimes in the Empire usually serve a period of penal servitude. The more extreme criminals end up on Wusten or Eisam, in the mines or factories. It's enough of a deterrent in most cases. Those who can't be rehabilitated, just get shot."

---

Esk jumped at the sudden noise and immediately had his gun drawn on reflex. He lowered the weapon as he realised it wasn't a bomb or any kind of threat, it was.. whipped cream? Wth?
He stared at Vicky, and started to laugh.

Vicky shook her head and chuckled, "Guess this is acus payback for that pink glitter." She snickered and licked her lips to taste the sweet creamy foam. "By the way unless otherwise inform there a active prank war going on." She smirked.

"That seems a bit extreme," James commented. "Guess there is a lot to be said for scaring people into behaving, though," he said that a bit bitterly, fear was a weapon he had seen used many times.

Luka shrugged. "Breaking rocks and building roads does a lot for enforcing a sense of purpose and direction. They don't tend to break the law again after earning their freedom. In fact, studies have show the majority go on to become productive members of society. As for the mines, well, would you break the law knowing you'd go back there? even for a few days? I know I wouldn't. Fear is an exceptionally good way to get people to behave."

--

"Pranks?" Esk snorted and looked around for something she could clear herself up with. "What is this, a ship full of children?" He did still look amused though, even if he was trying really hard to hide it.

Vicky snickered, grinning, "Better the us killing each other...have you ever had whip cream before?" She asked innocently.