Meeting the Droid

Posted on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 @ 1:40am by Bomoor Thort & Thane & Berry & Kip Hoddai & Sev Rezer & G2-O7

1,628 words; about a 8 minute read

Chapter: Chapter I: Web of Fate
Location: Starboard Engine Room, Red Raptor
Timeline: After "The Path Ahead"

The Hyperdrive Generator glowed faintly, providing a dim blue light that partially illuminated the engine room. G2-O7 performed his routine check of the system, the compartment at the front of his orb-like chassis opened to reveal an interface arm, which extended towards the panel on the Hyperdrive.

"Weep. Boop," chimed G2. As usual, he detected no abnormalities within the system. He disconnected from the machine and lowered his legs slightly before turning to leave the room and carry on his system checks as he was programmed to do in the service of the crew of the Red Raptor. It would be untrue to say that he little droid hadn't noticed the change in crew, he just didn't care. From what he had seen of his last masters since his memory wipe, crew members were stupid and relied on G2-O7 to look after the ship. The only intelligent conversation he got was from the ship's computer.

G2-O7 was from an advanced line of astromech droids - all "G" model droids featured the fully-rotatable chassis and were often referred to as "Globe Droids" or "Orb Droids" because of it. It was a particularly useful feature for droids on small ships where welding and interface needed to be performed in tight spots. The manoeuvrability of the droid's body improved on where the bulkiness of previous models had caused difficulty. Newer lines of G-Droids had been produced and the original Red-Raptor captain had managed to pick up G2-O7 at a heavily reduced price. Ever since then, the droid had never left the ship and the memory wipes made sure that G2 never knew anywhere else.

The droid rolled up to the engine room door and went to activate the wall panel to open it. But before he did so, the door slid open to reveal the towering structure of an Ithorian, "Oh..." he murmured, "You're in here. I was looking for somewhere I wouldn't be disturbed..."

G2 rolled his chassis from side to side, "Whoon. Bwoop," he replied before sliding backwards to allow the crew member in. Bomoor continued into the room and sat down on the hard floor by the hyperdrive. The room's lights came on as an organic was detected in the room by the computer.
"Hmmph," moaned Bomoor, "Little droid, could you dim those lights again? I quite liked it how it was."

The droid complied and connected with the wall panel, dimming the lighting to their minimum, "Fweep?" he questioned.

"Much better," the Ithorian replied, settling down, "So what is your designation, droid? I'm not too knowledgeable about your kind but a name would be useful."

G2 detached from the panel and rolled up to his new master, "Dweedoop-Woonbewoop," he gave his designation in Droidspeak.

Bomoor chucked, "I'm afraid I don't speak your machine language. Do you have it printed anywhere?"

The droid flipped open his front panel once again and rolled an inch more towards Bomoor, indicating he should look. Bomoor opened it further and noticed an engraving upon the inside. It read: 'Model: G2-O7 Astromech' and then a long serial number.

"G2-O7, eh?" Bomoor noted, "Well, keep up the good work G2. Now I need some peace and quiet for just a little while so you run along and do your job, hmm?"

A door? A door! Berry ran toward it and burst inside. "Ehhh?" she exclaimed at the sudden darkness. Creepy..."Oh!" She smiled in surprise. "Hi, Bomoomy. What're you doing in here?" Her eyes widened even more at the sight of something cute and small. "Another droid?!"

The Ithorian let out a heavy sigh. He was never going to be able to meditate quietly on this ship, "This is the same droid you met earlier, Bería. There's only one on the ship."

G2 turned his chassis towards the newcomer, "Whoooon," he murmured at the sight of the excitable girl.

Berry waved, eyes glowing. "So cute! Wanna play?"

G2 made some strange blips that almost sounded hesitant.

Berry's smile was now a little confused. "What's he saying?"

Since Berry was clearly not going anywhere, Bomoor realised he might as well engage with her curiosity, "All droids speak the machine language - some call it Droidspeak. I cannot understand it, however. Very few non-machines do. Some droids can speak other languages. Certain protocol droids can communicate in thousands of different tongues and dialects but I'm afraid it's beyond this little one's capacity. He probably understands quite a few though."

The droid whirred and attempted to nod with his body.

Berry giggled excitedly at the motion of the droid. Droidspeak, huh? "Beep beep?" she attempted to say to Little Guy.

G2 chortled electronically, then whirred to the wall panel to resume its work.

The Near Human smiled amusedly up at Tall Guy. "So are you playing with him, too?"

"Playing with him?" Bomoor questioned, "No, I just ran into him. Apparently he is called G2-O7 - he is the ship's astromech droid. He can talk to the ship and fix it."

The droid gave an affirming, "Whoop!"

He had decided to delay leaving for a moment to observe these crew members so he ran another diagnostic on the engine, keeping an eye on the pair as he did so. It was rare that he got a notice on the ship.

"G2?" Kip asked, coming to find the Droid, "Can you help me with the fresher? Its not dehydrating clothing like it should and I'm not the best with domestic equipment."

The droid whistled in surprise at the newest crewmember to address him. This was quite the record—until his next memory wipe, of course. He swiveled his head at the horned being and blipped as he withdrew his arm from the wall panel, then turned and slowly ran across the floor and out the door toward the fresher, quietly chirping to himself the whole way. No wonder the Devaronian had such trouble , the freshers were the moodiest of the whole bunch on the ship, besides the overtaxed engines, anyway.

Bomoor found himself finally alone in the dim room with only the hum of the engines, which was not too bothering as it was a consistent low drone somewhat repressed by the ship's noise cancellation. He chucked to himself, "Thank you Kip. That takes care of Bería for a while."

He settled down with his legs crossed, hoping to clear his mind and meditate.
"I know," Kip called from the next area just as the door shut. "They are cranky and they wouldn't listen to me," Kip spoke to G2 as he followed the little droid.

Berry gasped, eyes widening as she followed them. "How do you know what he's saying??" she immediately asked. She had tried with all her might to use her water-magic to understand the Little Guy.

"I listened," he fingered his large pointed red right ear with his claw-tipped index finger, "and I learned. As I've heard it, some people with the force can understand any language, even Driodspeak but that doesn't make any sense, since Droids don't have the Force. So, its more likely the Force let's them intuit the meaning behind the sounds," he told her and shrugged. "Me, I learned it. I work with Droids; like born-life, they can be great friends if you let them."

"That's cute", came the voice of Sev Rezer, irony tinging his voice. "Droids work for you, not with you. Try working with a Basilisk, instead of making him work for you. Death is certain." He watched Kip. "You're full of talents, aren't you, Flamewalker?"

Just behind him was Thane, who had in fact come along to speak with Berry, but had overheard Kip's previous comment. "Rezer's right; they're all chummy and helpful until they're programmed to maim and kill you. Sure, the droid is infallible, but the people who make the droids?" The Jedi shook his head. "Not so much. There's a reason why they are given frequent memory wipes." He gave an indifferent glare to the G2 unit.

G2 whirred and shook his body. The threat of a memory wipe made him fearful. He'd be used to it by now if he ever remembered having it done before. He looked to Kip, hoping he would carry on to the fresher so he could get away from the concerning crew member.

Berry pouted slightly, crossing her arms at Thrane. "Stop being such a meany butt. They are what you make of them." She grinned at G2, speaking in a stupid voice reserved for pets and cute things. "You can't really hurt us, can you? Can you, Little Guy?"

The droid whistled and chirped in relief, shaking his chassis back and forth, "Whirp. Boop?" he questioned Kip, hoping they could move on. This corridor blockage was beginning to upset him.

"He'd prefer if we didn't block up the corridor," Kip informed them, "since his job is maintenance and there appears to be some trash in the way." He didn't focus of Rezer when he said it but the implication was there. He did turn to Berry though, "Droid are a lot like regular people except that with people you have to figure out what they want and manipulate them into doing what you want. With a Droid you just change their programming. Droids are easier to redeem," he added with a glance at both Thane and Sev.

G2 looked back as Thane ushered Berry along the corridor and Rezer slipped inside one of the rooms. This new group was very different to his last crew. But did that make him feel anything? "Dwoon. Blip." he chortled to himself before rolling on to tend to Kip's needs in the refresher.

RSS Feed