Terra - Ottawantreal

First topic message reminder :

A huge North American city, built in a mishmash of styles from many eras of architecture. the spaceport is bustling and filled with cruise ships, racing yachts, and transport craft. It's full of shops, clubs, gardens, and tourist attractions.

The weather is currently cool but sunny.

Helen nodded then smiled "It would be wonderful to wear Vavare fabric again." She said then frowned a little "I hope he isn't getting sick or anything."

"That vavare fabric is great stuff, isn't it?" James said. He frowned, "Yeah, if he got sick, I'm not sure how you'd treat him. Vavare biology is weird."

"Yeah, it is" Helen said then nodded "If he is, maybe Sawna could help, if it's something we can't find another way to help him."

"Yeah, between her and the medics, I'm sure someone will help him if he needs help. Maybe he's just not into seeing Terra though," James said. He looked down the street, "Hey, there's the shop." It was nicer than Scott's shop on the beach planet, it had fresh paint and a big glass window, and a sign that said [Androids and Repairs - Terran United Authorized Dealer]

Helen nodded and looked to the shop. "It looks nice enough." She said softly as they headed to it

Inside, the shop was spacious and bright, mostly undecorated except for a few potted succulents on the counter. There were boxed android parts on shelves around the room.
Some androids were sitting near the back, reading magazines, and one was at the front, dusting the windowsills. They all looked up as the newcomers came in.

A woman behind the desk, presumably the shop owner, looked up and smiled at Helen. "Hello, how can I help you today?"

"Hello" Helen greeted as she looked around the shop then at the woman at the counter. "We were hoping you have the supplies here to fix James' shoulder, we patched it up, but it can't hold up to much stress right now and we want him as healthy as he can be." She said and glanced to the other androids to see what series they were if she could tell. Yeah, the idea of buying more did cross her mind.

It wasn't possible to tell much about the androids by looking at them, they looked pleasantly average, just like Asher and James did. The main difference was that their badges said [Terran United Android], indicating they were made by that manufacturer.

"We might," the woman said, standing and coming around the counter to take a closer look at James and his badge. "You're a 'Tech android, huh?"

"Right on the first try." James tapped his badge significantly.

"Which size are you?" She squinted at him, "You look five-ten to me."

James nodded. "Right again."

"And which shoulder?"

"My right. Your left. Whatever." James grinned.

The shop owner nodded, then gestured to some chairs and a table. "Okay, I might be able to help. Have a seat, both of you. I'll take a look. Mei, can you get the adhesive solvent?"

"Yes ma'am," the android who was apparently called Mei said. She headed off into the back room.

James took off his shirt, trying a flirtatious eyebrow wiggle at the shopkeeper and Helen.

The shopkeeper rolled her eyes, then looked to Helen. "I can't guarantee I can fix him. If I can't, I'll reattach his skin for you at no cost."

Helen moved to take a seat, chuckling at James' flirtatious behavior. "Right, thank you." She said and pulled out her tablet to send messages to Mourn (he is the owner right?) and Asher so they would know what they were up to. "If you can't, you can't. We have to head to Mars for another android on our ship."

(I'm not entirely sure, but I think James might have been transferred to Rigel after Acus left. Owner files are hard to remember, man!)

Asher texted back a [Good luck, and don't let James harass the repairs people. :) ]

Mei came over with the solvent, and the saleswoman got to work dissolving the glue that held the skin of James's shoulder in place. Before long, she had it off, and could get a good look at the damage, pushing the wires aside after putting on insulated gloves in case there were any dangerous damaged wires in there.

"What did you do?" she said, impressed.

"A minotaur punched me in the shoulder. I think he was being friendly, but he kind of underestimated his own strength," James said. "I was going to challenge him to an arm wrestling contest, but my owner made me back down after that. Then I went on a Sunday gallop with my owner, he wanted to explore the countryside at one of our stops, and my saddle came loose and I plummeted to the ground, and wrecked it again. That was also how I scarred up my hand. Impressive, huh?" He held up the hand he'd damaged in the holodeck.
He liked telling a dramatized version of his adventures, okay?

The woman shook her head, she found that all hard to believe. "Go and get  a shoulder joint piece, 5'10" male, 'Tech," she ordered one of her androids.

He went off to get it.

"This is going to be a bit pricey to fix. I mean at least it's not something like a central signal relay or a cranial sensor array, but it's going to be a few hundred credits," she told Helen.

(Oh, yeah, than she sent the message to Rigel, not Mourn, lol)
Helen sent the info on and nodded at the return message, trying not to laugh at James' version of events. "He said to go for it, but he wants figures." She said to the woman then looked to James. "I rather like your retelling of events, you add more flair to it, like a writer."

The women quoted some numbers to Helen. Looked like the operation and the replacement parts should be around four hundred credits. "Is he all right with that?" The woman asked.

James grinned. "Well who wants to hear the plain version, when mine is just better?"

Helen nodded and sent the message, getting the credits sent to her to pay for the service for him. "Yeah, he sent it to me so I can pay for it." She said to the woman then chuckled at James' words "Yeah, yours is better."

James looked pleased with himself.

"All right, then let's get started." The woman called over another android to help her, and started working to remove James's arm, disconnecting each wire and unbolting each bolt.

Once the arm was off and set on the table, she and the android started removing the damaged components, setting them aside on a cloth, and then started connecting new, undamaged pieces.

James watched all this curiously, completely unconcerned by the sight of his arm completely removed. Hey, he and Mourn had done this plenty of times by now.

Gradually the damaged parts were all replaced. Then the android and the saleswoman got to work reattaching the arm, wiring and bolting everything back in, and having James run a full dexterity check before they glued his skin back on.

All this took quite a while.

Helen played on her tablet, watching sometimes. She didn't mind the long time it took. It would take time to get things fixed.

Finally James's arm was fully sealed up again, and was working like new.

James got up and put his shirt back on. "Thanks, guys. It's going to be great to be able to lift things again," he said happily.

"No problem, glad to help," Mei said, smiling at him before going to take the tools, damaged parts, and supplies away.

The saleswoman looked to Helen. "All right, looks like you're good to go once we complete the credit transfer. If your android starts experiencing problems again, bring him in within two weeks, and I'll try to troubleshoot the problem."

"I am not sure how long we will be stopped here, but I will pass that on. Thank you" Helen said as she got up and stretched then moved to pay. "You don't have any six series or seven series for sale do you? The people on our ship love their individual personalities."

The saleswoman shook her head. "I'm only authorized to sell Terran United androids, the manufacturers are very finicky and they don't like to have people selling androids from their competitors." She looked over at her androids, were were finishing up putting things away. "Terran United androids are excellent quality though. They all develop their own personalities, just like 'Tech ones do, and are just as intelligent, and they have all the same basic functionalities. Terran United doesn't have the same level of brand recognition, but I'm sure your ship's passengers would be perfectly happy with any of these." She was a salesperson, of course she was going to make a sales pitch.

Helen looked over to James to see what he thought of that. "You think Asher would like that?" She asked then chuckled at herself and sent the question to Asher

"Yeah, let's buy 'em," James said. He wanted to add that yes, these guys were sentient, but bit back those words just in time.

Asher didn't reply immediately, maybe he was busy right now.

Helen chuckled and nodded, looking over to the group. "How much would that be?" She asked curiously.

"They're each thirty-two thousand," the saleswoman said, pointing to Mei and another female android. "Those two are twenty-eight thousand." She pointed to the two males. "All four are Version Fours, all under twenty-fine years old. Any one of them will be a great purchase."

"I knew it! This is discrimination!" James complained. "The girls do get a higher price!"

Some of the androids looked amused.

"So which of them would you like to buy?" The saleswoman asked.

"We do need to staff more of the ship, now that we have more passengers, so how much for all four of them together?" Helen asked, hoping for a discount. It would be interesting to see just how much the code differed, if it did. Of course she might have to make some jewels to sell to afford it anyway, but that was simple enough.

"All four of them?" The saleswoman looked startled.

The androids looked nervous. What sort of place could want all four of them? That was weird.

"You'll love it," James told them. "All us androids get treated great. They give us a good allowance, and if anyone treats us like crap, the captain yells at them." He smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, we so want all four. Can we have a discount?"

The androids looked slightly reassured by that.

"Umm," the saleswoman pondered that. "We could discount the group to a hundred-and-ten thousand?" Her voice squeaked a bit. That was a lot of money, omg.

Helen tilted her head at that, checking her account then nodding "That sounds good" She said then looked to James and smiled again "Is there anything we need like that dissolvant or glue or skin while we are here?" She asked, sending a request to Vestia for the funds she needed to meet that amount with what she had. She had relatively half and could get more, but she didn't want them sold to another if she went to sell gems or metals. She did add that she would pay Vestia back for this.

A message from Asher finally arrived on Helen's tablet. [Sorry for delay! Go ahead if Vestia says it's okay :) ]

A few seconds later a message came in from Vestia, [Seriously? More robots? Okay, I'm sending the money.] And a money transfer followed soon after.

"We'll be getting that stuff on Mars mostly, but we might need some parts for these guys. Their skin comes in different colors than ours cause the manufacturers are jerks," James said. "Hand skin at least is absolutely necessary." If these guys were workaholics like Asher anyway.

The saleswoman looked to Helen, "We do have skin for most of these guys if you want it."

Helen chuckled as she read the messages and nodded "Yeah, definitely need the skin, and the money for the androids has been transferred, so we can go through with the sale." She said then looked over to the androids and smiled "Our passenger list keeps growing, and we can't just watch over everyone all the time. We have a lot of jobs to pick from, like helping with the janitor duties, or making sure they are comfortable and happy, helping with medical if you are trained or want to learn that. That's pretty much all I can think of off the top of my head, but we can talk to the other staff and the captain and see where you fit in best based on what you like and don't like."