[DAY :042] do androids dream of electric sheep?

[onemind]

[PING. If you happen to be surfing the Concordian extranet, a familiar looking window pops into the browser. --It's familiar at first glance, anyway. This has no identifying user, no chat text box. It might be more easily mistaken for an error message. It says:]

Hello. I'm awake.

[After thirty seconds, the window closes on its own. Should anyone connect one dot to the next and go check in the room where Kellix the skele!droid has been stored, they'll find him-- well, still prone in the made bed, but his optical receptors are lit up and his internal systems seem to be making fairly regular whirring and whizzing noises. That's a good sign, right?

These messages pop up whenever Kellix wakes up, for however short the interval. Hope you like pop-ups.]

Comments

[onemind]

I don't think she ever mentioned you. Or you met after I left her company. I'm sorry, but I don't recognize either name.

[A whir. A click. He might shrug if he had full mobility, but maybe the pause is enough to indicate that.]

It isn't a problem though. Was there something you wanted to talk about, Miss Jade?

[snaphiss]

[What a... servile droid. Mara supposes she shouldn't be surprised. They're here bridging the gap between mechanical and biological, but personally Mara doubts such a thing is truly possible. The mission is the mission, though; it's almost better that it's an impossible dream.]

[It means she's less likely to really care about the outcome.]

I wanted to talk to you about Y, actually. Did you work for her long?

[onemind]

Oh. [Kellix makes a small noise that, without the context of a body in motion, might be momentarily difficult to parse. But-- it's an amused sound. Something close to a laugh.]

No, I don't work for her. But I've known her for a little over four years. I could give you the specific date if you wanted me to, but I'm not sure that's actually helpful.

[snaphiss]

[Mara figures the laugh for what it is eventually, though it takes her a moment. She's never had to read up on droid body language, but then, wasn't this one made to be as human as possible? It's like a poor facsimile of human communication. She gets it slowly, after a fair pause. The droid can hardly call her rude for it.]

Could you tell me about her? She called you a friend. [Sarcastically, but you know, whatever.]

[onemind]

She is my friend. [It sounds like he's telling the truth. Can androids lie?] She's very hard working. Passionate. She cares a lot, though I think she has a weakness for pretty faces. Lots of organics do though, so that's not surprising. She's well known in Subspace and I believe she frequents the Concordian underground.

[A pause. Whir. Click. There, a trace of uneasiness.]

Is there something in particular you wanted to know?

[snaphiss]

[Whatever the droid believes, clearly it wants her to believe in their friendship. That tells Mara enough for the moment.]

Yes, actually. What work did you two do together? [She stops herself from specifying in the underground. No reason to put all her cards on the table at once.] It might be important to some friends of mine.

[What a hilarious thought.]

[onemind]

[Click. Whir.]

I'm not sure work is the right word, really. But we spend a lot of time with young people who enjoy a certain level of civil unrest. I'm afraid you might have to be more specific.

[snaphiss]

[Mara cocks her head to the size. Click, whir, indeed.]

What did you do with those people? Why did you spend so much time with them? Was it for appearances? What purpose did you serve?

[Specific enough, droid?]

[onemind]

Most of Y's friends are just young people with more enthusiasm than sense, but I enjoy Y's company so I'm there as an accessory to her. We help them figure out where they're most effective. Y's a talented hacker, but she can only be so many places. She tends to use them as informants and spies. I believe she gets a thrill out of information.

[A small, uneasy series of clicking noises. Something internal is shifting.]

[snaphiss]

[Which would match up, more less, with what they'd learned from Y earlier. Good droid.]

[So time for a bluff.]

Have you run up across any particularly consistent difficulties? I have reason to believe someone is manipulating internal affairs to be anti-droid. Anti-android. [Whatever.] We're trying to pinpoint where that activity is coming from.

[onemind]

[He lives to please.]

That would make sense, given the recent increase in hostility. [Click. Whir. Maybe it's a noise of consideration.] Y's friends aren't particularly pro- or anti-android themselves, but the information I give Y tends to lead them in the direction of destabilizing biochauvinists.

[The information he gives Y.]

Saffit is a problem, of course; there's also a bio-cult led by Despoina Canute, but they're disorganized and radically anti-synthetic. If you think it's a third party... [Click. Whir.] Subspace has been very closely monitored by Public Security lately.

[snaphiss]

[Mara takes note of that. At least the droid looks after its... droid interests. Fascinating.]

What problem has Saffit caused you? Sorry, I'm new to town. [She smiles, laughs, playing self conscious and bubbly. She has no idea if the android will respond to that, but if it ever replays this meeting with someone else, she doesn't want to leave too many holes in her story.]

A third party hiding in the wings... would explain a few things. [More like: make her job easier.] Have you seen any evidence of that?

[onemind]

[A faint humming noise - sounds vaguely like confusion.]

Representative Gorram Saffit of the Larann is one of the leading anti-android voices in politics right now. He's a rabble-rouser. Ineffectual as an individual, maybe, but incredibly good at encouraging basic anti-synth sentiment among the general public. Have you ever been beaten with a club, Miss Jade?

[It's a mostly metaphorical question. She doesn't seem the type, does she?]

Not necessarily, though in theory in makes sense. I'm just not sure what the goal would be of such a third party. But I can investigate the possibility.

[snaphiss]

[Of course not. Mara remembers to gasp, putting a hand over her mouth.] I'm so sorry, Mister...?

[Might as well go whole hog. She's pretending to be someone who genuinely cares about all this political frippery, after all.]

I think they might be stirring anti-droid sentiment for the sake of it. Unless that doesn't make sense to you...?

[onemind]

Oh. Kellix is fine.

[Click. Whir. A murmur of subprogramming.]

I'm not sure I agree with that. Means are almost always in pursuit of some end - nothing happens for the sake of it, I don't think.

[snaphiss]

[Sure, okay, Mister Droid. Mara plays confused.]

What do you mean? You think someone out there has some kind of... agenda?

[onemind]

There is always an agenda, Miss Jade. For example, I suspect many individuals lobbying against android personhood have no inherent problem with the advancement of technology but aren't fond of the idea of having to treat an android with the same respect they do an organic person.

[snaphiss]

[It feels like this conversation is drifting off topic. Who knew a droid could have a bleeding heart?]

You seem to understand these things pretty well... [Gee whiz, mister.] How did someone like you and Y combat those sorts of people? It seems like a lot of work.

[onemind]

[Droids bleed everywhere, Miss Jade. You just have to hit them hard enough.]

We don't really. Y and I largely mobilize disenfranchised children into committing petty acts of vandalism and dissent. It just so happens that sometimes wasting PS's time on something like a jammed up train line can mean they're short staffed elsewhere when, say, someone is purchasing highly illegal android re-programming equipment.

Y likes collecting data and causing problems for the upper class more than she cares about anti-synthetic or pro-organic interests; it just so happens that sometimes our interests overlap. I can't commit crime myself of course, but I can process a considerable amount of data and relay what I think is important. In this example, I select relevant information such as maintenance history for a train line and give it to Y. Y then chooses to use that information to encourage others to commit illegal acts. Somewhere else, someone who Y doesn't know benefits.

[snaphiss]

It seems... inefficient. [And lazy, vainglorious and childish. So, Y in a nutshell.] It must be frustrating, wasting your time on petty squabbles instead of working on more important matters. If I have a goal, I don't let myself get sidetracked.

[It must be terribly difficult, to be a droid sometimes.] I suppose you don't have a choice.

[onemind]

That's... [A moment's hesitation, though it doesn't seem like it's out of deception - can androids lie?] -- correct. My options are limited. I operate in the capacity that my programming currently allows me to.

[There's a ghost of frustration there, but he won't indulge in it. It might overload his emotional inhibitor. He feels it, then forgets it as much as he's able to.]

[snaphiss]

[For the first time, Mara feels something like empathy for the creature. There was a time when she was held back as well. Thinking on it now... there was never a time when she wasn't, except in the battle she shared with Skywalker.]

[She sets the memory aside, like fine china only used for the rarest of occasions. Keelix has earned her understanding, not her love.]

If you could do anything to further your goals, programming be damned... what would you do?

[She tilts her head, curious and analytical. The Jade / Frey persona she's thrown together for Kellix is supposed to be dim, but ruthless.] I'm not held back by programming, after all.

[onemind]

[He pauses thoughtfully and the potential quiet is filled by the hum of some subprogramming machinery clicking away behind the shape of his metal ribs, colored by the small flash of sparks in the guts behind his metal ribcage. Click. Whir. Somewhere, a fan or motor is pushing coolant to elements stressed by the number of disabled systems.]

You mean other than burn the city to the ground or just leave entirely, I assume.

[There's a note of good natured humor there, but he moves on quickly enough.] Most inhibitor chips regulating android emotional responses are both hardwired and have a wireless back up connection in case the wired connection is physical damaged. Given free rein, I would build a device capable of corrupting the wireless connection and hijacking subroutines to allow an android to cut their wired connection to it. Or...pair androids with organics willing to commit a misdemeanor, I suppose.

It's possible something very bad would happen if androids's emotions were fully accessible to them. Maybe a war would start. I don't know. But I want to believe I'm a logical machine and not simply programmed to be one. If my inhibitor chip was deactivated and I turned into an amoral murderer obsessed with domination, then I guess organics would be justified in destroying me. I hope other androids think the same, I guess.

[snaphiss]

[Mara is prideful and curious and more than anything else, she hates the idea of something inhibiting someone's very mind. It's a sore spot from her, one that's been constantly rubbed raw since she got here. Maybe she'd be more patient, more reticent, somewhere else, in another time, on a day when she hadn't just been sent horrible images of her dying will by a man who was once an ally. But today, she learns something very quickly: these aren't the droids she's used to, if such complex systems are required to keep them in check. They're something different entirely, dealing with a malady she wouldn't wish on her lowest enemy.]

[So she takes a step forward, nearer to the whirring thing on the bed.] I suppose your programming keeps you from instructing me on how to perform this procedure.

[onemind]

Unfortunately, yes. I can find diagrams of machines with technically useful components. I can also talk at length about how lovely the gardens of Omega are this time of year. But I can't really say much about what the two might have to do with one another or how something might be useful. I can merely supply unconnected information.

[Puzzle pieces.]