Artificial Negligence

[Horrified]

Nel'liet wandered the dusty marketplace on a dank corner of whatever space port his ship had swaggered into. He was hardly able to pilot the thing himself, and he wondered why he didn't hire a pilot sooner. He'd have to push forward a bit longer by himself, he was going to need help if he was to locate his father.

Staying in the shade as much as he could he kept his hood down and wiped his brow of the beads of sweat that were beginning to populate his brow. He hated this planet, although it had a very eclectic population. He forgave himself for his constant worry that The Moralist might be stolen at any second. He didn't trust the Jawas but he respected their love of engineering. So much respect that he'd hoped to purchase a droid that might aid him in piloting the Moralist.

The droids all looked dissafected and depressed, an amazing feat considdering that many of them didn't even have anything resembling faces. The shipyards were much grubbier and dangerous then the one he grew up on. Any fights he might findd here won't be won using a pipe wrench.
Striding past one of the more useful looking protocol droids he noticed that there was a slight hiss when it moved. A slight thing to notice but a certainty that it would perish within a few months of purchase due to a malfunctioning energy core, or whatever it was running on. The droids were so patchwork they all looked like they were running of apple cores and fumes. And at these prices? Forget it, he'd rather drink bantha fodder. And that was not a nice experiance.

Hey, how was he to know it wasn't a restaurant? All the stalls looked the same.

He worked his way through the sprawling and rather smelly undergrowth of the location to the port he left his pride and joy in. He would inspect it for scratches and missing parts later after he'd flown it to another system/ He considdered doing it the other way around but he was going to take the risk.
Suddenly, feeling the urge to hydrate after loosing half his body mass through sweating he brought his hip flask to his lips and collapsed into the shade against one of the shipyards walls, admiring his ship as he did so, but squinting as the harsh light reflected from the dull chrome plating.

He hated the heat. And he hated flying things. He needed help, as much as he hated to admit it.

[Foxfire]

Another hot day on Tatooine. Ryver never like it it made for bad moods of hume and other living beings. Taym hated it even more for it made for more ware on their parts and this place was not a location he wanted to break down at. Though it was their combined choice to leave the last ship they were on for this ball of heated rock.

Deep in shade Taym worked on a tug droid and twenty other droid that were nearly junk. They work for their passage out off planet not because they were in trouble, but because they had a hand in the shift of power in the local thugs and such. They had almost been sold into slavery by a Jawa who had the misfortune to plug a restraining bolt upon their person. Neither he nor the Hutt, knew that the bolt had no effect. Ryver/Taym had made sure of that long ago. Never a slave again would they ever be. When Taym hacked the Hutt's computers Via WIFI. They found that the hutt his former friends were hunting was now before them Ryver opened up and slaughter all that would do them harm.

It was not until a Rodian, who was a hired gun for another hutt, came before them did they stop. Through the Rodian the new Hutt in charge gave Ryver/Taym free roam of Tatooine, because he did what they were trying for months with zero results. So now they just worked for the day to leave.

Taym finished the tug droid and ushered it out of the work shop across from a landing pad. The ship currently on the pad was in need of repairs from what Taym could tell from the out side. The owner of obviousness slumped up against the far wall looking forlornly at the ship. Taking a quick polling with each other it was obviously that this being was in need but of what they did not know. Anything was better than the endless scrap heaps waiting with-in the work shop.

Moving under the ship and over to the owner Taym put their best voice forward.

It would seem that you are in need of some thing my I ask what it is?

[Horrified]

Nel'liet had his eyes closed when the voice drifted towards him through the stale and arid air. He opened them to find a very quirky and odd looking Droid standing before him.

'What do I need?' Nel echoed the question and bit one of his fingernails from his right hand which slithered out of the long black sleeve of his cloak, staring at the droid with quite some interest.

He paced around it, almost, looking at it from a variety of angles.
'What I need...' He began, squinting to block the brunt of the sun from his eyes. '... Is some sort of fan.' He joked, keeping a straight face as he did so.
'Oh, how I yearn for the ice of Hoth...' He murmered dryly without sarcasm.

Standing straight and pressing both hands against eachother he sized up the droid and spoke once more.
'Umm... No, actually, I don't need anything.' Nel was unsure of this droid, it was unique, unlike all the others around the shipyard. It stood out, eerily.
'I'm sorry. I apologise for my rudeness. What are you? Who made you? What...'

Nel'liet shook his head, his long fringe swinging as he did so. Running a hand through his hair to correct it.
Can you fly?' He asked, exhastperatedly, grabbing the Droid by the shoulder and swinging it towards his ship and pointing at it with his free hand.
'Can you fly this?' He asked, more specifically this time.

He took his hand off the droid quickly and rubbed it. The metal had turned very hot in the sun and heat and his hand was almost burning from it. Coughing slightly he reminded himself to slow his speech next time a unique and exciting droid offered to help him with somthing. He wanted to find out what made this thing tick.

If anything it was somthing that could help him and wouldn't expire within a weekends after buying. If he could find the owner or somthing he would buy it and certainly have it fly him to wherever he needed to be.

[Foxfire]

Ryver in a gruff female like voice-I this thing to speak words or have we found another drunk on this waterless world?

Taym with a quiet male voice-Please excuse her she has not the protocol program for this type of thing. We are Ryver/Taym. From your questioning expression we are not owned by anyone nor will we ever be.

Ryver shifted their arm from hanging at their side to expose the arm blaster hidden with in.

This with other toys of our's will ensure that stays that way.

The sound of ammo loading and firing systems coming to life could be heard clearly.

If you need a pilot we can get you where you need to go but don't ask for combat flying we are lacking that programming. Lift off and landing are a 95% success rate for us.

Neither Ryver nor Taym knew what the mad mad wanted them to do but they were willing. After all the heat does make most beings a little crazy.

[Horrified]

Nel stared at the droid... two droids?... in front of him and replied with a stoney faced 'Great!' He jolted slightly, the droid was armed. Very well armed. Literally armed with arms. Nel Smiled. An armed droid was a useful droid and he would have need for somthing of such use. He wasn't well versed in the art of killing, but this droid seemed to have had some experiance in that. It was a clear oddity and it made Nel feel a vague sense of unease amongst the feelings of excitment and impatience.

'The name's Nel'liet, welcome aboard The Moralist' He chimed, smiling like a lunatic and almost skipping backwards over towards the ship, beckoning them forward as though he were some cartoon character. He was in one of his more avid moods, not a common one.
'So, nobody owns you? You're free?' Nel used the word in both senses. That they were a unit free of any opression or control AND that he did not have to pay for them. He had the money from when he scammed the guy back on his home but if he could get by with not paying for stuff then he was happy, anyone would be.
'That's good, very good, I like it' He said, pleased with the idea of a helping hand, especially a deadly hand. He didn't mean to place such emphasis on the violent aspects of this droid but there was an allure to the technology involved that just made Nel'liet shudder in delight while just thinking about it.

This was a very unique droid, he'd have to question it at somepoint, find out what makes it tick, get inside the programming. He was dissapointed about it not being able to have combat fighter practice but he could find a genuine pilot some other time. In the mean time, he'd make do with this beautiful death machine.

He walked under the shade of the bridge area of his ship and around the side, to where one of the side entrances to the cargo area was open, revealing the gray interior that shamed the plush and kingly decor that lay in wait deeper within her halls. He hoped the Droid would follow and wouldn't mark him as a lunatic, but he didn't worry too much. Droids were predictable, if it wanted to kill him, it would have done so already, and it seemed to have it's own problems anyway. As long as he kept on it's... their, good side he'd be fine.

Nope, Nel was too excited, he had to ask the questions now. He'd known the answers already. It was expensive, it was probably made secretly, it was made to kill and it was most likely being hunted by somthing. He couldn't vouch for that last bit of info himself, but why else would a lean, well-made droid like this offer help to a squishy human like Nel? Only time would tell and so far he could tell interesting times were to come.

'What other weapons are you hiding? how did you get two programs to work so easily in parralel to eacother? Are those suspender parts in the legs even legal? What are you called?' He gasped after this tyrade of question, but shut his mouth quickly, one of the droids personalities was clearly a bit angry, but the other seemed fairly nice. He may be safe. Ryver/Taym... sounded odd, definately a custom unit of sorts, but who'd have the money to build such a thing? If the droid wasn't the danger, what was coming after it would be.

Happy days.

[Foxfire]

Taym new better than give to much infomation about their unique build but did give basic infomation.

We have dual systems for the speed of effecietcy. Our weapons are currenty packed away for Ryver these arm blasters are enough.

Nothing on us would even be called legal and the ones who would chase us think were are scrap. It will stay that way. RIGHT.

Both talking-We are Ryver/Taym. If you would be one that would be trusted with our true nature and original making then we will tell you all.

[Horrified]

Nel'liet was in awe still at the duel program and the brilliant definition between the two personalities. He smiled broadly when it spoke. It was a completely illegal platform, this spelt trouble.

'I don't care if you're illegal or not, I just care that you can do your job and not kill me in my sleep. Nel laughed, overjoyed at the possibility of examing this droid. It would be a dream to see how the programs synchronised and how it operated.

'And don't worry, I don't deal with people I don't like. So you're pretty safe on this ship. He continued, he tapped the side of it affectionately. It was his pride and joy, it was his baby and it was his home. And soon, he'd have a crew to maintain her. A loyal one, he hoped. He'd hate it if someone stabbed him in the back, his shirts were expensive.
'If you want to download the computer data and mainframe into your system then your welcome to. It should save me having to explain how to pilot the thing'

Walking into the ship's cargo bay, footsteps echoing in the spaceous interior, he twirled around looking at the walls of his palace. Enjoying the air conditioning after the intense heat of Tatooine. Damned desert planets. Never again.
'So when d'ya want to leave this god forsaken hell hole, Ryver/Taym?' He asked, his voice echoing and hopefully reaching the droid.

'Actually can I call you Ryme? It's much easier. He asked. He came up with the Portmanteu as a way of shortening the droids's's name's's. The inconsistant singulars and plurals hurt his head.

[Foxfire]

Ryver and Taym did indeed want off of the planet and sooner the better. Taym went WIFI and called the droid tug to bring their crate which had all the things they had collected along the way. Taym also WFI'ed their ball droid. Taym rolled it out of the work shop and up the ships ramp and through their legs going deeper into the ship.

As soon as the tug drops off our crate we will be ready. Which way is the pilot's chair?

The sound of repulsers could be heard as the tug manuvered their crate up the ramp and to it's storage location. Taym closed the WIFI and came back online and said.

Once at comand we will not have any problem I have checked the ship out. A direct link may make the piloting easier but your computer system may have to be cleanesed. From what I can tell you have snoopers tracking your ship though they may have been their before you aquired the ship. It will take and half hour then we will be ready for lift off.

The droid took off toward the pilot's chair leaving their partner behind. Ryver stopped them and turning they said,.......

Taym will not mind the new name but as for me..... well.......... we will have to discuss that later.

Turning back they disappeared down the hall to the pilot's cab.

[Horrified]

Nel'leit has his arms crossed as the crate of the droids belongings were brought into the cargo bay of his ship. Ryver/Taym was definately in it for the long run. It would be decent of him to offer it one of the dorms on his ship since it needed as though it would require its own space, even though droids did not especially need to sleep.

'There are eight dorms on this ship.' Nel began, walking towards the stairs that were situated at the back of the cargo bay. 'Two of them are through these two doors here and the other six are through the living space.' He gestured to the two doors above the cargo bay stairs, and called after the droid as he ascended the second pair to the upper deck. He must've been familiar with vessels such as these.

Following the droid as he/she/it/they walked towards the bridge. It might take some time talking to an enitity that has two different intelligences within it.
'I'm not sure if you'll need the dorm to sleep in but I'm sure droids also need their privacy, and you'll probably rather have a space to work with your materials rather then just the cargo bay.' He mused.

The droid mentioned the potential virus's in the computers mainframe and that it's need to be cleaned.

'Yeah, it was swamped with them when I got it. I eliminated most of them and had to rewrite several strings in the code but some always get through.' Nel admitted. He shrugged as the droid began to leave him behind. He then turned and made (what Nel assumed was) a threat.

'Ryver/Taym doesn't exactly role off the tounge, does it?' Nel asked, in a vibrant cross of sarcasm and rhetoric. 'I guess I'll just call you ''Droid'' until I find a suitable nickname, then.' He teased, turning away and walking toward the living space area of the ship.

'Ready when you are, take us to Nar Shadaa when you're ready. I'm sure we can find some muscle there.' Smiling, Nel puffed his chest and felt delighted at how captainy he was beginning to feel. He could get used to this.



[/sign us off at the next post, then?]

[Foxfire]

Ryver was processing all the availiable data about the ship's interior, like best route out, choak points, and defendable locations. Taym though was wantint to get the ship data cleared and lift off with out them blowing up. Finding the cab and settling into the pilot's set Ryver/Taym jacked in the flight controls. Taym started by clearing a defraging problem data and rewritting. He also copied hisprogram in a hidden write protected file with in the garbage system on that rare occation that they were in need of making a run for it.

The cleaning time was not as long as he had previously thought. With the cleaning done, taking only twenty minutes, Ryver came over the coms and announced their readyness for take off and also one other thing.

Captain this is the bridge we are ready for lift off. On processing your request for a simplier name for us ..... call us RT.

The ship's engines came alive with a start and roared to quarter power. Taym game flight clearance codes and they lifted off. Once they were high enough Ryver went to full burn with in atmo. The ship bucked and snorted like a wild dewback. Ryver was correct in that this ship needed the cobs burned out of it. The ship had been babied for to long and now they were there to clean house and bring her back to fighting condition.


(Occ- End Post-Nar Shadda Next)