Skeletons in the Machine

Posted on Sun Oct 2nd, 2022 @ 10:20pm by Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper

1,997 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Song Of Silver Wings
Location: Daedalus
Timeline: Before Launch?

Flight Ops wasn't all glamorous moments in the spotlight, fancy manoeuvres and punchlines, no matter what some of the hotshots would tell you at the Academy. Which was fine, Fox had done more than his fair share of long runs in very dark places and flight hours notched up on battered old hulls that should have been retired decades ago. He did like to check his station though, however shoestring to beautifully presented that console ended up being.

In this case, he'd taken a moment to fully appreciate the tactile and visual beauty of the pristine panels and perfectly presented helm on the Daedalus' equally beautiful new bridge. Fox was caught up in that Christmas morning moment of wonder when something oddly unique caught the corner of his eye.

It was a... skeleton? A robotic skeleton? Definitely someone had probably thought of a cat when they'd created it, but it was a whole bunch of body parts, skin and fur short of being comfortable to look at. The thing hopped up on the flight console and took its own sweet time wandering along the outer edge while Fox watched its progress in a confused silence.

"Hey, fella," he eventually addressed it. "You sposed to be in here?"

The robotic skeleton kept up its wander for a couple more seconds before it stopped and slowly turned its head toward Fox. Instead of eyes, it had what looked like infrared sensors that seemed to stare deep into Fox's soul. "I am authorized to access most of the ship's systems," it said. The voice sounded like a robot speaking through a tin can, with a slight hint of demonic possession. An appendage that looked like a tail gently swayed to keep the robot balancing on the console.

He wasn't proud of it, but there was a reflex reaction of inventive cursing as those eyes held his own, and Fox backed off a little quicker than he'd like. Give him a live opponent and he'd given 'em hell, but this tech upgrade on a Lovecraftian nightmare needed to saunter straight into the recycling units and stay there. "Don't need your help, thanks," he told it, words tripping over each other. "Systems all good here. Go away now. Bye!"

Its head tilted slightly to one side. "Initiating scan to correlate with personnel file... greetings, Lieutenant Junior Grade Jasper, Fox. I do not understand your query 'go-away-now', can you please rephrase?"

Fox had once dated a woman who owned two hairless cats - that fortnight had taken a downward turn when, half-asleep on the sofa, he'd found one of the nude little buggers padding its pudgy little naked paws into his face. But it had ended when he'd woken up at 2am to find the other one curled about his head, junk resting on Fox's right ear. Since then, he'd not been especially fond of cats, but this was a new twist to the mix.

As if he'd had a bug fly down his shirt, Fox did an uncomfortable little shake of his upper body, then tried to pull it together. "Exit. Leave. Fuck off?" He suggested, happy to keep going if the thing didn't wander off and disturb someone else.

The robotic thing-of-nightmares flicked its tail. "I can certainly leave, Lieutenant Junior Grade Jasper, Fox. Let me know if I can be of any assistance in the future." It turned its head to look over the edge of the station and did what looked like four unsteady wobbles before turning its head back to Fox. "My proximity subroutine is uncalibrated. May I borrow an object to calibrate, Lieutenant Junior Grade Jasper, Fox?"

"Uh, no?" Fox told it as he backed away a little further and studied the mechanical critter a little more closely. "You saying you want me to throw something at you?" He asked, looking around for something heavy he didn't need.

At the back of the bridge, a hiss signalled the lift doors opening, and Aarix practically ran out of the lift and looked around. He'd admire the bridge later, currently he was looking for an escape artist of a robot. Spotting it on the helm, he said "aha, there you are! How many times have I told you to stay in Engineering, at least until we get you external plating?" Seeing that there was what looked like a somewhat uncomfortable person sitting at the station, Aarix gave the man a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that, Myn likes to explore."

The robotic creature supposedly named Myn looked up at the new voice, its tail doing a swirl. "Greetings Lieutenant Commander Teral, Aarix! I have made the acquaintance of Lieutenant Junior Grade Jasper, Fox! He requested that I 'go-away-now', which is a synonym for exit, leave, and fuck off. I am attempting to do so but my proximity subroutine is uncalibrated."

"Myn, huh?" Asked Fox, giving the engineer a dark frown. "So we're naming these scary-ass little cat-mechs too..." He pulled off one shoe and lobbed it at the skeletal attempt at a feline. "That close enough for ya?!" he asked it, more than happy to walk around in his socks if that helped rid him of this thing.

Myn let the shoe hit it square in the face, the impact enough to push it over the edge of the console. Its tail made a futile effort to regain balance by swinging around. "Balance compromised, attempting to compensate." Like a cat, it righted itself in the air, but its legs completely gave once it hit the ground, the result of uncalibrated sensors. Its legs snapped out of their sockets and clattered to the ground next to Myn's now legless body. Myn looked up toward Aarix. "My legs have been disconnected. I can no longer comply with Lieutenant Junior Grade Jasper, Fox's request for me to leave. Assistance is required."

Few things surprised Aarix, but a shoe being thrown at his creation ended up surprising him more than Myn escaping Engineering. "It's incomplete," Aarix explained, walking around the console to see the damage. "It still needs work and it will get an exterior to make it less jarring. I do apologize for it interrupting your work, Lieutenant." He knelt down to pick up Myn's legs, ignoring the repeated "assistance is required" pleas from the robot.

Fox already had his other shoe off and in his hand as he stood up to check where the damn thing had fallen, though he was more concerned about it getting back up again than for anything like the critter's personal safety. He let out an involuntary chuckle at the 'my legs have been disconnected' line and shifted round to retrieve his fallen footwear while giving 'Myn' a suitably wide berth.

"Incomplete?" Fox returned with mild derision as he scooted back behind the helm console. "It's like a nightmare woke up and decided it wanted to be a cat! What the hell does it want in here anyway? I'm more than capable of checking nav and flight without it, thank you very much." Politeness masked his unsettled mood, but Fox looked to Teral for clarity while casting continuous looks back over helm to check the robot's position hadn't changed. "Uh, Commander," he added, a little awkwardly, while internally cursing himself. That underlying sense of inexplicable fear wasn't helping any, but Fox was trying to claw his way back to emotional stability.

Aarix gave the officer a slight smile. "These are drones intended to assist the crew with all sorts of duties. Myn here is a prototype, specifically an engineering drone. I suspect it was just wandering this time, but that shouldn't happen in the future. They will be programmed for specific tasks and will be told to stay in certain areas unless given explicit instruction. I assure you that this is not the final product and it will look much less like it walked out of a nightmare." After collecting the legs, Aarix turned to Myn's body and picked it up, nesting the body under his arm.

"Lieutenant Commander Teral, Aarix, I see you have picked up my legs," Myn said, turning its head in an awkward way to look up at Aarix. "Due to uncalibrated proximity subroutine, the connectors in my body have been damaged. I recommend more durable connectors."

A gentle sigh escaped Aarix. "It's like listening to a doctor self-diagnose," he joked. Looking down at Myn, he added, "don't worry, you'll get new legs and a freshly calibrated subroutine." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Myn's tail flick happily, a response he programmed in case the audio didn't work.

From the relative safety of his station, Fox regarded this whole process warily. There were plenty of buzz word warning signs in the Lt Cmdr's reassuring little speech - 'prototype', 'shouldn't happen', 'explicit permission' and the old favourite 'I assure you'. Head canted in a homage to doubtful, Fox listened and winced as the cat-thing's head twisted unnaturally and 'Myn' spoke to his creator. Weird. Just... yeah. Weird.

"Huh, maybe if that doctor had wandered out of the depths of hell disguised as a legless cat demon," Fox returned, the slight upturn of his mouth implying he really was trying to deal with this unwanted turn of events with humour but still struggled with an underlying phobia. "Maybe legs aren't such a great option for a mech," he noted, but even he knew they were already way past major design changes at this point. "But... can you calibrate its new routines the hell away from me?" Short pause. "Please." Slightly longer pause. "Sir."

"Well, I tried making it fly, but that was disastrous," Aarix replied, unaware of what others may have picked up on as nervousness from the other man. He did look over at Fox at his question, the subtle unease in his expression enough for anyone to notice. "Oh yeah, of course. Everything I need is in engineering, and the last thing I want to do is be in your way. Sorry again for the intrusion." With that, Aarix walked past the console to head for the lift, his mind already working through the problems he saw with Myn.

For a moment, Fox contemplated the option of flying cats and felt that chill take a wander down his spine. "Okay," he managed, a slow response as the pilot forced himself back to some kind of normal. "Good. Er, thanks." Teral didn't seem too fazed by his reactions so far, or the lack of overt respect he seemed to be handing out. "No problem..." Fox felt that discomfort begin to fade as the feline problem was walked out towards the lift. Then he stood up, console temporarily forgotten. "You're definitely not gonna make them fly, right?" He called after Aarix.

Aarix paused at the turbolift doors and turned his head back toward Fox. "Not unless you want one that does," he said with a little smile. It wasn't quite devious, rather it held an air of excitement behind the idea of making a cat fly. He'd have to get past all the issues he had last time first, though.

"I'm good if you don't," Fox returned. "In fact, be happy to spend some drinking time talking you out of it," he offered by way of a friendly olive branch.

A brief huff of air through Aarix's nose signalled his chuckle. "I'll take you up on that sometime." Entering the lift, he told the computer to go to engineering. It was a tad stereotypical to refer to engineering as his second home, but it was one of the few places he truly felt comfortable.

As the turbolift doors began to close, Myn looked back at Fox with a jerky movement of its head. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Junior Grade Jasper, Fox. I hope we meet again soon." The last thing seen from Myn before the doors shut completely was a flick of the tail, a sign of contentment.

 

RSS Feed