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The sound of claws clicking against the floor with each menacing step rang throughout the quiet corridors. A gangling silhouette cast against the wall as the large figure made their rounds. A pink beam of light illuminated cells holding various machines, some had dim, submissive lights, others still shone with the fire of defiance. One even dared to be bold enough to strike out, narrowly missing the passing bot with its claws.
The looming figure abruptly turned to the attempted assailant, arms raised and ready to fire, the threatening display accentuating their large form. The robot behind bars instantly cowered again, but the guard remained in that position until they were sure they had stamped out the spark of rebellion. The captured bot's lights flickered rapidly, a stream of apologies flooding out erratically.
The guard only lowered the stance once the ship began to bob with the telltale sign of docking. The prisoners went dead quiet as another machine entered the ship, even larger than their captor. The newcomer greeted the guard, Flora, with a subtle nod before surveying the prisoners. He was pleased.
Turning, his lights shifted and swirled, informing her of a new mission. Flora acknowledged it, following her superior off of the ship.
Sparrow was surprisingly easy to read. His crimson orb emitted a steady glow, his silver plating catching and refracting every light they passed as they walked down the corridors. The large spines on his back were as flat as they could go, indicating he was calm. This was both relieving and exasperating for Flora because it meant he had no concerns for her next task. But she also appreciated a challenge.
Regardless, she knew her duty and didn’t dare oppose. Her function was to catch and dispose of the unwanted, the mistakes, to unclog the seams of their society. And that is what she would do, no matter how insignificant the grime.
Continuing to lead her through the halls, he eventually stopped in front of a cell containing a single robot. It only took Flora one glance to instantly see what was wrong with them. The copper coloured bot had an extra set of arms. Which wasn’t always a problem, sometimes useful actually, and though an aesthetic flaw it was also easy to hide by combining arms. This bot though, called 6 as she was informed, had a completely useless extra set. The additional arms were a quarter the size of the others and only contributed to making 6 short and stout.
As if their appearance wasn’t abominable enough, they paused their drawing on the ground to instead look up at her, flashing an excitable greeting at her. She didn’t respond, barely even acknowledged the mistake, but she couldn’t help coiling in disgust when the tiny arms waved at her as well.
Sparrow caught her attention again with a single flash of light. 'Exile'. The flaw was to be exiled to another galaxy far far away from here. This was a practice she had done many times before and some robots were already loading the prisoner onto her ship.
6 waved goodbye as they were swallowed into the depths of the ship. Flora could now see why he had so much confidence in this mission. Transport a dimwitted malfunction? This would be the easiest one of her career.
Flora swiped through galaxies, rifling through planets and searching for the most suitable drop off zone. Sadly most were uninhabitable even to her own kind. The goal wasn’t to kill flaws who posed no threat. So she couldn’t pick a sun and just drop them off. It had to be something balanced and sustainable. She needed something like...ah. Perfect.
Engaging the engine, she set the coordinates before connecting to the ship and opening a tear in space. She successfully navigated through and into the new galaxy, pinpointing the planet's location in seconds. The hardest part would be making it through an asteroid field orbiting the planet, but she remained diligent and in control, dodging chunks of ice and rock. The atmosphere was stronger than she had expected, the gravitational pull gave some protest, but she forced through it, adding in a little extra energy as she began to break free. Unexpectedly, the ship lurched forward far harder than she had been anticipating, causing her to momentarily lose control. Just enough time for it to go careening into the asteroid belt; the sudden screech of metal being torn through was deafening.
Alarms began to blare and the ship went into a spin, tossing her around the cockpit and to the floor. Reaching out, she attempted to grab a hold of the controls, but her claws only scratched through a wall, unable to get a grip on anything due to the force throwing her about. Her own systems couldn't even be oriented and before she could properly react, the ship smashed into the planet's surface.
Dots.
...
...
Stars.
...
...
...
Organic matter.
...
...
Metal.
...
...
...
Fire.
...
...
Fire.
...
Fire!
Flora's systems sluggishly reacted to her surroundings, bringing her body upright before she could fully process what was happening. There was fire, her ship was on fire and if she didn't put it out now there would be an explosion. Stumbling over to the wreckage, she put her self-repairs on halt as she focused on taking a hold of the burning component and ripped it from the body, stomping the flames into a patch of colourful organisms. Petals clung to the sole of her foot, but she paid it no mind as she decimated the fire and assessed her ship for anymore.
That seemed to be all there was, everything else was either missing or crushed, aside from the back half which had two thrusters and the cell. And speaking of, she needed to check if the abomination was still intact. Limping through the door, she spotted them on the ground, clearly disorientated but still intact. However she couldn't say the same about the cell, the bars had been dented, a few even missing, and they could squeeze out if they were particularly motivated to escape.
Re-initiating her self-repair, she observed them to see how they would react to the predicament. They didn't react much, which somehow annoyed her more than an escape attempt. Stomping her foot, the loud thud and shudder of the ship got a reaction as they startled and looked up at her. She extended a claw, pointing it to a damaged part of the ship. 'Repair'. They responded with a negative, angering her more. She slammed her foot down again, refusing to lose their attention as she repeated her demand. Again, the lowly filth couldn't even muster up enough self-preservation to agree to help and instead denied again.
Her fist shook before she slashed her claws through the remaining bars, which clattered to the ground sizzling from the heat as she approached the prisoner. Looming over them, her secondary arms reared back and heated up, taking aim and for once they actually cowered. That didn't dissuade her in the least as she prepared to fire, before suddenly being hit with a wave of dizziness. She barely caught herself, almost stumbling, but she lowered her servos and disengaged.
Kicking one of the bars, she listened to it clatter before turning abruptly and leaving. They weren't worth her time anyway, if they weren't going to help her fix the ship, she would just have to do it herself. There was a very low chance she would even be able to salvage it, but she had to try. She had to get back home. She's important.
Not only was 6 refusing to assist, but now they were actually hindering her ability to focus. It had been a night and a half of her tirelessly working to repair the ship and they had picked up the hobby of making an absolute racket. They had picked up two of the bars she had slashed and proceeded to bang them together in a cacophony of irritating clangs, and they wouldn't stop. She had gone inside to threaten them a few times, but anytime she wanted to blast them her legs would get weak. So, she left them to their noise, because as irritating as it was, they had yet to attempt to escape; which she designated a minimum of three lights to focus on the door as she worked.
As if her situation wasn't unpleasant enough, the sun already seemed to be setting, early even as she noticed things gradually became darker. Not only that, but with the lack of light things became harder to see and work on. Strange since she didn't have this issue the previous night...Concerned, she began a self-diagnostic, letting it run in the background as she continued to weld some plating back together with the dwindling light.
Pausing, she looked up at the sky, trying to find the position of the sun before realizing it was still high, it had hardly moved, but her sight continued to go. Only then did she realize it was her own lights that were going out and her diagnosis informed her that her energy core had been damaged, her self-repair unable to fix it as it had sealed around a piece of shrapnel now embedded into the cell. If she tried to remove it, she would only damage herself and offline then and there, but if she didn't remove it, she would only continue to leak energy and be unable to replenish it, also leading to an imminent offline. Worse yet, all the strain from repairing the ship and threatening her captive was making her levels plummet, fast. Too fast.
Before she could properly react to this information, her body collapsed in on itself, her form crumpling to the ground. Her surrounding continued to grow darker as her lights continued to go out, any movement gradually becoming an exhausting endeavour. Then she spotted 6, who clearly heard the commotion and made their first appearance outside of the ship. They were escaping.
Despite the jumble of priorities being thrown at her, she made a very weak and pathetic attempt to crawl forward and grasp at them. They easily dodged the feeble attack, putting even more distance between the two of them as they ran into the treeline of a nearby forest. They weren't going to help her with the ship and they definitely weren't going to help her now.
Resigned to her fate, she rolled over and stared up at the sky. If it was the last thing she would see, so be it, better to dream of familiar stars than to spend her last moments face down in organic filth. Her energy continued to drain despite her immobility and she awaited her inevitable shut down. Despite her best wishes to remain stoic in her final moment, her systems released a broadcast of her pain and distress, her instincts crying out for help, begging to stay alive and she was too exhausted to stop it.
Darkness consumed her far faster than she had expected, but she did not protest, there was no point. However, the darkness moved and she realized it was a shadow. 6 had returned, standing over her, likely wanting to take revenge or put her out of her misery. She anticipated the heat of a blast, what she did not expect was for an organic plant to be shoved into her face. They mocked her, or maybe they were too low-functioning for mockery and simply wanted her attention, either way she mustered up anger at the disrespect.
They avoided her raised hand, only pushing the offending object closer, shaking it insistently. Her annoyance brought her attention away from it and she looked up at them, finally meeting them globe to globe for the first time and they took that chance to communicate one word. Adapt. They pointed to the flower, to the sun, and then to their chest.
She understood and she was far too tired to protest, her desire to survive outweighing her pride. What did she have to lose anyway? With the remaining energy she had, she scanned the object and how it functioned before struggling to match and morph into a similar function. The activity crashed her depleted systems and she could only hope she had replicated enough to collect energy and survive, before everything went dark. Perhaps permanently.
Sunlight refracted against the glass dome, illuminating it with blinding light. Flora's own lights fought against the barrage, her vision filled with a foggy yellow hue. She attempted to turn her head to the side but something was restricting the movement, so she instead lifted two of her servos, blocking out the piercing brightness. An unpleasant awakening, but better than being dead.
Her systems were still booting up and her self-diagnostic initiated immediately as she tried to get a better look at her surroundings. Some of her limbs were still starting back up, but she managed to turn her head enough to see 6 sitting beside her. Their proximity was very bold, but then again, there wasn't much she could do at the moment; her energy level was only at half and it didn't seem it would be exceeding past that.
However, they didn't seem to notice she was coming online again as they idly scraped their claws through the grass. They inspected it with such fascination, before taking a fistful and ripping it out of the ground and adding it to a pile they had created. Using four of their servos, they scooped up the pile and tossed it onto her immobile frame. Her orb flashed in alarm and indignation as she sat up and quickly brushed the offending blades of organic filth from her body before turning to them with a menacing stare.
6 took that as their cue to leave and stood up, walking off to do who knows what, as Flora struggled to her own feet. She had no hope of retaliating, but that didn't mean she would be made a mockery. Her legs wobbled beneath her but she paid it no mind as she continued to send a cold and calculating glare towards the retreating machine. The nuisance had saved her, so they would live another day, but that did not mean she needed to be kind.
Regardless, standing and stewing would only do so much, she had things to do. Now that her energy source was as stable as it would get, she still had a ship to fix. So, she returned to her previous task, scavenging for pieces, welding them back together, patching and cleaning up wiring, and more scavenging. And she did it all herself because clearly the mistake had better things to do, wandering around, picking organic matter and studying it, wandering some more, and staring up mindless at the sky. Airhead.
She worked throughout the day, but unfortunately due to her predicament she was less efficient, when the sun began to set her source of energy faded with it. She needed to rest for the night cycle to conserve it and even less fortunate, her unwanted companion had made themself scarce and likely couldn't or wouldn't fill the work gap even if they were there. Six arms and yet the whole robot was useless, ironic.
So, she was left with absolutely nothing to do. Nothing on this planet interested her, there was no point in dwelling over the ship while she could do nothing about it, and she was quite successful at her job as there wasn't a familiar star in sight, so no way to coordinate a way home without the ship's engine. That left herself and her....adaptation. It had been a successful transition, telling by the fact she was still here, but it was also an unappealing one. She had avoided inspecting herself all day, but now it seemed that was all there was to do. Her main body was still relatively the same, she still had her eight feet, two legs, average pelvis and torso, her lights remained pink, her frame still a dark silver, four arms, but her head was where she deviated. Now instead of her spiked and finned head, metallic petal like structures blossomed around her globe, lights from her cables making the protrusions pulse with the faintest light as they acted as solar panels. If anyone, besides 6 who already deviated greatly, could see her now, she surely would be exiled just as quickly. She was a defect now, but the difference between her and the mistake was, she's important. Once she returned home, Sparrow would get her back to her ring to be fixed and then she would return to her duty as if nothing had happened.
With that reassurance in mind, she ceased inspecting herself and instead sat with her face towards the sky. Dimming her lights, she welcomed the darkness as she awaited the first light.
The engine was missing. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t realized the engine was missing, how had she not noticed? The hull was as intact as she could make it but none of that mattered without the engine!
In her frustration she released a horrible mechanical shriek despite herself, easily catching the attention of a returning 6. They just stared at her as she had her tantrum. She picked up a metal bar and whipped it as hard as she could, watching it cut through the air before thwacking off a tree and falling into the unknown, leaving a deafening silence before a creak as the tree gradually began to topple, taking others with it.
6 carefully backed up, intending to leave again but the movement caught her attention and she turned to them with a piercing magenta glare. She began to advance, demanding the location of the engine and accusing them of being a thief. They scurried into the shade of the tree line professing their innocence, the engine was not in their possession, but they knew where to look. She made a simple demand. 'Show'.
They pointed to the sky, leading her glare into that direction, but she saw nothing. She looked to them again, but they only continued to point, a bit more insistently. With trepidation she stared into the spot, running it through a few of her visual filters before catching on. There were still some particles in the air from the crash, the largest trail lead to where the ship now lay, but there were some strays. It was impossible to tell which one the engine followed, but she decided to go for the trail that was of an equivalent size.
Grabbing 6's arm, she told them to bring her to it. They had spent much of their time wandering the planet, they were best suited to find the engine, and she didn't have the energy to mindlessly roam around by herself. They pulled away, seeming to weigh their options as they hesitated.
Unbeknownst to Flora, they had been following those trails and collecting pieces of the ship, placing them in visible areas while she was offline. Helping her find the engine would speed up the repair process, which despite a seeming nonchalant attitude, they were just as eager to get the ship back in working order. No they couldn't return home, they would just be exiled all over again, but they could take the ship and explore the cosmos, learn all there was to learn, follow every special interest that presented itself. They didn't have the same kind of knowledge she did, but they did have the same goal.
Flora was surprised to receive an affirmative. This was the most cooperative she had seen them during this entire situation. Backing off a fraction, she allowed them to lead the way. They did, and unsurprisingly they weren't exactly the best guide. As the machines walked, they continued to get distracted by this and that, picking up one organic filth after the other. It all looked the same to her, she honestly could not comprehend the fascination. Even more irritating, anytime the two of them passed by a flower, 6 would insistently point at it claiming it to be her.
The antics only exhausted her, but she did not retaliate, simply deeming no response to be response enough. However, despite her aloofness, she couldn't help idly reaching up and tracing her new appendages. Of course the resemblance was uncanny, her replication process was flawless, but this wasn't actually her, was it? It was only a temporary adaptation, in order to survive. That was all. There was no way she was beginning to have an appreciation for it. It was a flaw, she could never learn to accept it. Never.
Her thoughts were immediately interrupted by 6 abruptly stopping. She stopped as well, looking over their shorter frame and instantly spotted the problem. They had indeed found the engine, but it was buried in a solid pile of magmatic rock that had cooled around it. Removing it wouldn't be impossible, however, due to the long exposure to heat and fresh magma, the alloys protecting it from damage had been stripped away, exposing the delicate circuitry to the air, which had rusted it. The engine was utterly useless, just as defected as the two of them.
Flora's only reaction was to sit down, suddenly feeling sapped of energy despite her levels still being at a solid half. Her unbridled confidence in her species and superiority had been shaken almost consistently since having arrived here. This one planet could so easily destroy her ship, her frame, and her technology, it was utter chaos and now she was part of it, stuck here to endure it.
6 approached the engine, attempting to pull it from the rock despite the futility. They chipped away at it, freeing the ruined device but also revealing more of the damage. Regardless, they didn't seem to understand the hopelessness as they carried it over to her, placing a servo on her shoulder. She smacked their servo away, standing herself as she walked back to the ship with them, keeping her head down and fuming in silence.
Once the two of them reached the ship, she went inside and just sat down to mope. She didn't care what 6 decided to do, whether they went to frolic in the fields, or climb a tree or whatever mindless idiotic activity suited their fancy. So long as they kept the engine away from her, she could sit in denial and rust.
Thankfully they didn't bother her, however, that did leave her to nothing but her thoughts. But she didn't want to think, she didn't want to process the multitude of dilemmas plaguing her. Still her issues continued to needle her processor, trying to be acknowledged, but she only shook her head, directing her sights to the floor. At first she didn't register what she was looking at, still battling with her own mind, until she realized where she was. Somehow she had decided to sit in 6's ruined cell. It was strange, looking around the small, cramped space. She had never been inside of a cell, never thought she would be, but now she was.
Looking to the floor, she spotted the doodles 6 had been scratching into the floor when the two of them first met. However, from this angle she could now see what it was actually of. It was rudimentary, but no doubt they had been drawing out a star map. That was practically useless at this point, but regardless, clearly they had a better understanding of their situation than she had believed. They were trying to give themself an out. That was unexpectedly...cunning. Which made her question, what else had she seen and passed off as dimwitted?
She latched onto the new train of thought, mulling over every interaction she had had with 6 since meeting them. When they waved at her, were they truly not aware of who she was or were they simply encouraging her to lower her guard? Their doodles had turned out to actually be something meaningful. Had they been purposefully draining her energy by annoying her? Had they noticed her inability to shoot them? They had been smart enough to figure out the adaptation to help her survive. They probably didn't have the type of knowledge she did, but they clearly had some kind. They were smarter than she had given them credit for. Her bluster had been her downfall and she would be offline if they had not decided to help her. Huh.
The sun was just beginning to rise and 6 returned to the crash site with more haul. They had collected more scattered pieces of the ship and arranged them all in a pile next to the damaged engine. There wasn't much they could do with any of it and Flora had yet to leave the ship, but it was better than being idle.
Sunlight reflected off of a piece, but they didn't think anything of it. That is, until an avian creature suddenly dropped from the sky and landed on the ground to attempt to snatch it. They shooed the creature away, picking up the piece and putting it back in the pile. The creature released a growling shriek, it's face splitting open and showing rows of teeth. The display wasn't exactly threatening, those teeth couldn't pierce their metal, the avian was far too small.
However, a shadow cast over them, causing them to look up and spot a much larger creature. It swooped down, ignoring the pile of scraps and instead snatching them up. They released a startled beep, reaching up and attempting to pry their arms out of its claws. The avian only squawked and flapped its wings madly, causing quite the ruckus.
The commotion seemed to have alerted Flora, as she finally stepped out of the ship and looked over. Their lights met hers and they transmitted a simple plea. 'Help'. They didn't actually expect her to, but it was all they could manage.
Surprisingly she launched right into action, snatching the smaller avian in one servo, before jumping up and grabbing a hold of 6. Climbing up their frame, she pulled herself onto the beast’s back, yanking some of its feathers out. It released a shrill sound and instantly released its captive, who managed to land on their feet. She shook the small avian to grab the larger one's attention, before throwing it as far as she could. Jumping off, she rolled on the ground while the creature flew after the other.
Her energy levels had dropped quickly but she paid it no mind as she flanked 6. Despite the slight distraction, the creature was back with a vengeance, shrieking and squawking as it flew towards the machines. Flora wrapped her arms around the shorter robot, encircling them with her frame and protecting them from all angles as she raised her secondary servos and charged them up. 6 looked up at her in all of her fierce glory, their peach lights shining brightly.
The avian attempted to snatch at the pair, but was dissuaded by a few blasts. Regardless, it tried again, spreading the folds of its face and releasing a threatening sound. Flora puffed out her chest, raising her free arms higher and flaring out her petals; using a recording of the beast's sound, she amplified it before emitting a binary screech alongside it, officially scaring their attacker off. She stood for a few more seconds, still with 6 securely in her grasp, until she was absolutely certain they were safe.
Flora took the time to relax and recharge as she sat in a field with her face to the sky. Having spent so much time moping in the ship certainly hadn't done her condition any favours, plus the following battle. She was nearly at critical, but surprisingly, she was also in a good mood. Despite her new life, she was still a warrior, still strong, still had a purpose.
6 sat close by, still a little shaken up from the incident, but they were quickly recovering. Before long they were once again occupying themself by ripping up the grass and putting it on her and themself. As irritating as the antics were, she said nothing and concentrated on her good mood and her steadily rising energy levels. She still couldn't exceed 50%, but there wasn't much else she could do.
Once she had collected enough energy for the day, she looked down, seeing they had transitioned from grass to flowers. They continued to pick some before weaving the stems through her seams. She stared down at them, unimpressed, but they only added more flowers to her frame and then their own. Shaking her head, surprisingly, she allowed it.
However, her attention was eventually brought to the pile of scrap that had caused the commotion in the first place. This was the perfect opportunity to get some answers. Lightly, she tapped on their head to get them to look up at her. Once they did, she questioned why they had brought the engine back here. It was utterly destroyed, useless.
They seemed a little sheepish to answer, wringing a plant between their fingers before responding. 'Intelligent'. They knew they could never hope to fix the ship, but they still believed she could.
This time Flora took pause. Of course she was confident in her own abilities, her intelligence was fact, but seeing someone believe in her enough to think she could do something impossible. Well, it almost made her believe she could do it too. The least she could do was try.
It was hard to keep track of the passage of time, but if one were to estimate, a good few months had passed by. The ship was nearly completely repaired, the engine seemed to be as functional as it would ever be. 6 had been a tremendous amount of help and moral support and Flora found herself to be far calmer now than she had ever been her entire life. The two robots weren't yet ready to leave, but eventually they would. Even if this planet had begun to grow on them. Thankfully not literally.
When the day did come, Flora planned to find her ring to repair herself. Some parts of her would miss this form, but in the end it wasn't practical. And 6, well, they were willing to go wherever she was. One thing was for sure, they would not be returning to their home world. Which she was still working through, but she would eventually get over it. Those were worries for another time.
Right now Flora was laying down, relaxing and soaking up some energy from the sun before it would set. 6 watched her for a bit, before abandoning whatever they had been doing to instead join her. The two of them stared up at the sky together, watching it turn from purple to a deep blackish blue.
Once the sun had officially set, Flora looked down, just noticing the close proximity the two machines shared. She wasn't bothered, but she couldn't help noticing how close their servo was to her own. Gently, she brushed hers against theirs, causing them to startle and look over at her. Innocently she kept the majority of her lights pointed to the sky, feigning distraction as she watched them just in her periphery.
They were a little confused, but brushed it off as an accident and turned their gaze back to the stars. Then it happened again, just the lighted pressure against the back of their hand. Turning to her they stared suspiciously, and she met their stare, just ghosting her digits between their own, so close to connecting. Then she dug her claws into the grass, pulled up a fistful and flung the grass onto their frame.
They balked, completely caught off guard by the playfulness and before they could even fully comprehend what was happening, she was then intertwining their fingers with hers and holding their hand. They stared at the interlocked servos, close to crashing from sheer shock. Their lights were ablaze and they could only lay back and process with a light, fluttery feeling coursing through their circuitry.
Flora relaxed. She had been worried they were going to reject her and she honestly couldn't blame them. However, before her processor could be put to ease, they abruptly pulled away and sat up. Worried she had overstepped, she reached out to attempt to explain herself, but instead she was met with a horrid grinding noise.
Confused, she watched 6 attempt to combine their secondary set of arms with their tiny tertiary set. Their metal simply wasn't designed to bend like that, no matter how hard they tried to adapt the arms together, the extra limbs would not go away. The attempts obviously hurt and she quickly intervened, taking a hold of their shoulders and turning them to look at her.
A bombardment of questions flashed in their face, but they only looked down, giving her no answer. Regardless, she kept trying, her rose coloured lights swirling in concern. Finally, they faced her again, slowly responding to her inquiries. They like her, but deemed themself unattractive, not good enough for her, in need of fixing.
Every awful thing she had ever thought and said about them came rushing back to her. Yes the dysfunctional extra arms would have put them very low on aesthetic in their culture, but that had stopped mattering to her a while ago, she couldn't pin point when, but that didn't matter either. Even she was no longer conventionally attractive right now, so she could not judge. But regardless of all that, she knew she needed to apologize, thoroughly and genuinely.
So she did. She told them of their worth, of the things they had done, their kindness, how the things she had said and done were wrong. She did not and would not expect them to forgive her, she accepted this, but she likes them just as they are. The true flaw had been her thinking and she did her best to acknowledge this.
Intently, they processed what she communicated, adding no additional feedback and simply accepting what she had to say. And once she was done, they thanked her. She dismissed it. The apology and acknowledgement had been long overdue.
They both laid back down, mulling over everything that had and could happen. Everything that had been done and said. 6 reached out and took a hold of Flora's servo once again. She gave it an encouraging squeeze before lifting her secondary arm and interlaced her fingers with their tertiary servo. The two machines settled down, hand in hand, and looked up into the now familiar stars.