Do Flesh-machines Dream Of Fleshy Sheep

Posted on 20 Mar 2015 @ 6:58pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Unit Cu-47 "Copper" & Lieutenant Asahi Kita
Edited on on 20 Mar 2015 @ 9:58pm

1,416 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Atlas Main Engineering
Timeline: MD -03 & MD -01 1000

[ON]

Somewhere deep within the belly of USS Atlas, in a cross section of Junction 47 -- a section he spent enough downtime in that perhaps it was his favourite section? -- exocomp unit CU-47 spooled up its main boridium cells, sending power to its main systems framework. Once a week for the last three months, Copper (as everyone called him), would spool up his axionic chip network to run through diagnostics and to check in with the ship's computer to review logs. First he patched into the computer mainframe via his data link. A moment later a 'boop' sound echoed in the small space as the unit recorded an error and logged it. His crew manifest didn't match with the current one in the ship's database, so it was uncertain who to report the error to.

When the info had synced and Copper was up-to-date on the ship's condition, current position and velocity, he activated his anti-grav module and thrusters to zoom down the Jefferies tube towards Main Engineering. His left appendage blinked a green light as his proximity scan had completed. Knowing where everyone was, he was able to safely increase the speed that he travelled knowing he wouldn't collide with anyone or anything. Within a minute, Copper had arrived at his destination.

Within the current chaos of the Engineering Department, it was a wonder Copper hadn't run into a frantically scrambling engineer. Indeed, the department itself had gone from the normal, placidity to a madhouse, with every which yellow-shirt that had any experience manning stations and bringing the ship up to snuff. At the center was the Atlas' red-faced Chief of Engineering, a tall Andorian who seemed more flustered with the much tinier, yellow-shirted human standing next to him.

"Sir, we went over these four times-"

"Well, the warpcore's overheating and one of the nacelles reported multiple malfunctions. Either your diagnostic is being run incorrectly, which I know isn't something you can deal with at this current point in time, or there's something else going on. I don't want to step on your feet and run your department for you, so just get it fixed, Lieutenant." The shorter engineer handed the Andorian a PADD, sighing, ignoring the evil glare he was receiving from the Atlas' Chief.

The unit flew above the heads of the chaotic mass of flesh-machines below. They ignored him whether because they were used to him or too wrapped up in their work, it was uncertain. He beeped, in a sequence that sounded oddly happy when he spotted the Andorian. Coming to rest just behind his head, he remained hovering. He hadn't been activated or summoned, and this was one of the reasons he was underused. Some engineers on the Atlas felt it unsettling that Copper acted so independently. When he wasn't immediately noticed, he patched into the PADD the Chief was holding -- he could network with almost any tool connected to the ship's resources -- and cleared the screen, displaying the text. 'Error reported. Unit CU-47 can repair. Confirm?'

It was the shorter engineer who noticed him first. Pushing past the Andorian, nearly standing on his tiptoes to get a better look at the robot. "Is that an exocomp, Lieutenant?"

"Oh that's just our CU-47 unit, sir." After a cursory glance at his screen to view the message, the Andorian shook his head. "That's alright, Copper. We should be almost finished-Uh, Lieutenant Kita, Sir?"

"Hey! Heeeeey!" The shorter engineer had taken to hopping up and down in an attempt to reach Copper's viewfinder, seemingly ignoring the mad scramble around him. "Hey! Hey!-Copper!-My Name's-Asahi!"

The unit beeped in alarm and he backed up a bit and scanned down the agitated flesh-machine with a flash of colour and was satisfied when the threat level was determined as negligible. Lowering himself more level with the thing called Asahi, Copper flashed a sequence of colours at him in greeting. He repeated the text on the Andorian's PADD. 'Error reported. Unit CU-47 can repair. Confirm?'

"Ah!" Asahi threw his hands up in the air at the display of colors, nearly restraining himself from hugging the exocomp in front of him. "Is he communicating? Is Copper a he?" He glanced back at the Andorian, who frowned at the PADD and clicked the 'Dismiss' button.

"Er... Sir, I dunno."

"You don't? Why not?" Before the Andorian engineer responded, Asahi had whirled around on the exocomp again. "Do you have a gender designation? Do you prefer Copper or CU-47? You're the first exocomp I've ever seen! This is exciting!"

A little startled by even more sudden movement, Copper had reversed thrusters a little when Asahi whirled back at him. Flesh-machines had a habit of physically handling, shoving, and carrying Copper without permission, and over the years the unit had become quite proficient at dodging and evading. A short holographic 2D clip projected out just a few inches in front of Copper's front display face, showing a quick vid-clip of a Chinese Kung Fu master doing a flying round house kick before the image disappeared. He beeped and his small appendages moved about before slowly coming a bit closer to Asahi.

After all these years, Copper still struggled to recognize emotions very well. An elevated heart rate, perspiration, increased respiratory rates; all seemed to correlate to widely different kinds of humanoid emotions. Though, after hearing the context of his words, Copper rationalized that Asahi was just excitable. Like the Chief's Pomeranian. Copper flashed an image of a white flag flapping on a small stick briefly as apology. He then flashed the text, 'Gender designation, male. Name, Copper. Exocomp, yes. You are excited that I fix things?'

Staring wide-eyed at the exocomp's reactions, Asahi managed to calm himself enough to nod. "I'm super excited you fix things, and even more excited that you can communicate... this is so cool! Why didn't I see you around before-Hey! Lieutenant!" Asahi glanced back at the Andorian, who seemed more flustered with the child-like behavior of his 'superior' than anything else. "Why haven't I seen Copper wandering about?"

"Sir, because he's... he upsets some of the other engineers, so we have CU-47 do minor repairs."

"Why? He can do so much more!" Asahi was clearly not pleased with that answer, frowning and facing Copper once more. "Copper's communicating in all sorts of ways, he can totally connect with your staff... he's gotta be super helpful... This won't do at all-Copper, I don't think your potential is being maximized. How much does the Lieutenant here assign for you to do in a day?"

Copper simply displayed his work logs. It scrolled through many different basic repairs and diagnostics, usually things that were repetitive or unexciting that could be passed off to him from others. But curiously there were also a great deal of self-created things on the list that didn't look like they were logged in from any other officer. Things like program installations, network infrastructure repair, general cleaning and upkeep, and preventative maintenance on consoles, units and even tools in almost every department. One particular work order even showed a repair done to a squeaky Captain's chair on the bridge that no one but Copper had created, and logged.

Squinting both to keep up and purely because he felt it necessary, Asahi was surprised to find the logs so in-depth. After a momentary pause, he frowned at the logs, then took a step back to frown at Copper. "They don't use you to your fullest... do they?"

**[Days later]**

"And then Asahi had you transferred? That's how you ended up on the Galileo? That's so neat!" K'os asked enthusiastically. He was sitting at a small workstation, reading Copper's tale as the unit typed it out. He looked down at the small machine that was currently studying the dog that Asahi had given to K'os. They were on the floor, nose to 'nose'.

The unit flashed a green light at the Engineer's Mate to indicate he was correct.

"Well, it's very different here on the Galileo. I think you'll find a place to fit in." K'os reached down and scratched the dogs ear as he spoke to Copper.

OFF

Lieutenant Asahi Kita
Chief Engineering Officer / Acting Executive Officer
USS Galileo / USS Atlas

&

PO1 Copper
Damage Control Specialist
USS Galileo
(PNPC by Ben (K'os)

&

Brief appearance by,

PO3 K'os Beaumont
Eningeer's Mate
USS Galileo

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