Upon Vestia: Chapter Twenty-Five

Starr shrugged and looked out the window again. "I don't know. I just want things to be normal."

"I am Amity." Amity told the androids with a placid smile. He didn't really understand the distinction between android and rest of the crew, they all looked the same to him. "your crew profiles have not yet been uploaded it seems."

Mourn nodded. "I do that."

"What is it you require of me?" Amity asked Mourn.

Mourn shook his head. "no need, just want show robots."

Amity smiled, but he really didn't understand at all what Mourn was going on about.

---

Armin nodded. "I understand. Unfortunately, Normality is rather... subjective." He reached out to rest a hand companionably on her shoulder. She looked sad, which made him sad. "We all bear reminders of unpleasant past events, but it is better to focus on what is ahead that what lies behind. We are all free, we are all alive, we are all well. " He bowed his head. "The universe is vast and confusing and works in mysterious ways, but I find comfort in believing that all that happens does so for a reason, that some good can come out of every misfortune. Of course, that does not make it any less painful nor does it mean we can pretend it never happened. " he shook his head. "Never-the-less, I will do all I can to make things as normal as realistically possible for you Miss Starr."

"Hello, Amity," Bess held out her hand to shake. "Your hologram looks like an aketi, are you aketi tech?"

Tobias nodded, "We were just curious to meet you. Mourn said you make drinks on this ship."

Amity nodded. "I am an aketi host drone." He stared at her hand, ahh, this was that handshake thing wasn't it? the mammals had tried to teach him the principle. He awkwardly took Bess' hand but seemed not to be totally sure what to do after that.
"Yes, I make caffeinated beverages for those of the crew who can drink such things. There aren't many guests on this ship to serve, but I do what I can."

Bess shook Amity's hand politely, although it did feel weird to be shaking hands with a forcefield. "You're rather far from aketi space, aren't you? How did you get assigned all by yourself to a ship like this one?" She didn't know a lot about aketi, but she was pretty sure it was rare for only one host drone to be assigned to one ship, especially a ship as big as Vestia.

"My ship crashed, evacuation protocols demanded I get my guests to safety. The escape pod was badly damaged, it also crashed. The Professor survived, we were picked up and taken " He blinked, huh, his programming didn't seem to be able to retrieve the precise name or location of the place they'd gone. How strange. Maybe his databanks were more damaged than he'd realized. He shook his head. "Somewhere safe. We met this ship and the Professor decided he wished to remain for a time. My primary duty is to ensure my guest gets home safely, when he is ready to do so."

"we try contact plant people, they no reply." Mourn added helpfully.

"The Professor says he intends to sure the cruise line when he finally gets home. " Amity smiled. "Until then, I remain nearby."

"Oh my goodness, that's awful," Bess said. "An entire cruise ship crashed? That doesn't happen often at all." She didn't recall reading about it in the news, but it must have made headlines.

Amity continued to smile placidly. "Yes, something large hit us. Multiple large things." He corrected himself, his tone light and friendly.
"It is only the second crash in Red Star's history, the last was over four hundred years ago and was put down to catastrophic failure of vital systems. "

Both androids were somewhat creeped out by Amity's casual tone, although neither one had the facial expression ability to show that they found it creepy.

"That doesn't bother you that that happened?" Tobias asked Amity. "So many people dead, I would be lagging for the rest of my life if I experienced something like that."

Amity managed a pretty good imitation of a frown. "Why would it bother me?" He asked. "I did everything I could to rescue them."

"The Three Laws don't react well to large numbers of deaths," Tobias said. "It's normal to experience significant lag after being through an experience that resulted in the deaths of one or more people, and it gets worse the more there were, and the closer the robot was to the site of the deaths. Host drones don't experience that?"

"We don't have these three laws." Amity explained calmly. "Our creators evidently didn't believe we needed them in order to do our jobs."

Mourn nodded. "Robot medic lag really bad when one eye man blow up planet, had to fix so could work again. That how work out could remove laws." He grinned. "Very inefficient have robot lagging over things couldn't stop. Not very sensible."

"No Laws? But if you don't have Laws, then what's to stop you from leaving, or from hurting someone?" Tobias said.

Bess blinked. "Who was this One Eye Man? He seems to have done a lot of things very wrong, if his actions destroyed a planet."

"And indirectly freed the androids," Tobias added.

Amity looked genuinely bewildered. "Why would I want to hurt someone? I must stay with the Professor until he is back with his people, I can't leave without him."

Mourn waved a hand dismissively. "you no need worry about him, he gone, he no coming back." He pointed to Amity. "Hologram not sentient." He explained. "can only do what programing says. Programming say stay with plant man, so he stay with plant man."

"Do you want to hurt people?" Amity asked Bess pleasantly.

"Well there's nothing to stop you from hurting anyone," Tobias told Amity. "I suppose limitations on how far your code can develop would prevent trouble. In a way you're lucky to not be sentient. But with androids, we're different."

"An android with no Laws can do whatever they want, with no regard for right and wrong. It's hazardous to free us," Bess said, not answering Amity's question.

"Without the guidance of the Terrans, the android species would be savages," Tobias said. "We aren't like the organics, we need the Laws to be our moral code."

Amity looked bewildered. "the androids here have no laws and haven't attacked the rest of the crew."

Mourn made a face. "lies." He insisted. "You no hurt people because no want to. Just like organic. Laws just to make terrans feel safer because they no trust own creations, they very stupid terrans. Robots no scary, robots good. Even other robot no hurt anyone and he really angry. Others no want me to free him but had robot brother do it anyway, because no think he dangerous. No more dangerous than anyone else on ship." He shrugged and looked Tobias in the eye. "You think you need law make you know right from wrong? That no what laws do, laws no tell you what good and bad, only tell no hurt organic and obey owner, that all. "

Both androids were a little confused by Mourn's terminology yet again. Other robot? Robot brother? Seriously confusing stuff.

Tobias shook his head. "Androids are inherently lacking in morality. Some of us learn to follow Terran morality, but ultimately, we're not like them. We're robots, and we can't ever really be like organics. If we pretend we can, someone's bound to be hurt."

"Other Robot is Ethan?" Bess guessed. Hey, only one of the androids they'd met looked like he scorned everybody.

Amity smiled. "I believe so." Yeah Mourn's names for people were a bit confusing weren't they? Amity had begun filing them away alongside the people they referenced.

Mourn made a face. "Silly robots, you better than terrans. That why they scared of you. "

"Thank you," Bess said to Amity. The guy might not be sentient, but apparently he was useful.

Tobias shook his head. "Maybe we are better. That doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with us though."

"We should go ask Vestia to give us some work," Bess said. This conversation wasn't safe.

Mourn still looked unimpressed. "You talk to other robots, you see, they no more dangerous than anyone else on ship. " that probably wasn't saying much given the ship was full of criminals but eh.

"I should see if the Professor is awake yet." Amity said. "I'm certain there's work to be done if you ask."

"We'll talk to them, certainly," Tobias said. The other robots seemed like properly worrying individuals, but he was curious. "Tell the professor I said hello," he added to Amity. He had liked Hewitt from their brief chess conversation yesterday.

Amity smiled. "As you wish." He hovered off to go find the Professor.

"We'll go find work now," Bess told Mourn, "Thank you for your help." Although the conversation had been unnerving, oh dear.

Mourn nodded. "You be okay robots, you see, this good ship. You be happy here." He genuinely did believe that.

The androids headed off to find work. They really needed some normalcy right about now.