Leena paused as she looked at the broadwave. This was not someone in her usual contact list. Tapping a finger against her chin, she leaned back in her chair, spinning to set a sspanner down. She fully intended to let what was obviously a wrong number –or worse yet, a sales scam – languish in the ether of a messaging system she intentionally did not set up.
Yet something about it ate at the corners of her mind. With each successive chirp of the device, her wounded lekku twitched in time. She wheeled around in the chair, pretending that childlike actions could distract her for a moment before it finally had eaten at her long enough. “Damn it.”
Stopping the seat abruptly by dropping a boot to the carpet, she leaned forward. “This curiosity of yours is going to get you killed one of these days, girl.” She flicked a few buttons on the console in front of her, then hovered her hand over the accept button. “And then what will you tell the boss?” She laughed at the thought, then opened the channel.
“Yes?” Her normal voice collided with the one modulated by the device she activated prior, clouding her actual sound in case it was someone unsavory on the other end of the voice-comm.
A KX droid. Leena tilted her head, lekku dangling as she considered. It had been a couple months since she saw one of those. The old data backup that she had installed in it wasn’t keen on the chassis, aso she had to make adjustments. …And more adjustments. To the point of eventually changing out the chassis and selling the old one for parts. She had wondered for a moment if she should have done more than just restored the initial programming, but had put it out of her mind. He rfriend was in the architect chassis now. Digital immortality, writ large. Sometimes it worked well, sometimes…. Leena shuddered, then wondered aloud.
“Is the KX a recent acquisition?” She corrected herself quickly. “I am very familiar with the model.” She tapped her fingers on the console, debating for a moment. Ultimately curiosity won out. She had to know for sure. “I take it you’re familiar with the Shame Corner, then? I can meet you there, if you like.”
“Not terribly recent, no. If I may be perfectly honest, I do not recall exactly when Steven came into my employ. He was quite ‘young’ at the time, as much as the term can apply to his people. I have…shall we say an extensive estate, and it is sometimes difficult to keep track of when things came my way or people joined my retinue. I can say that he was fairly recently reactivated, as I did not need his services for quite an amount of time and under the circumstances he felt it best to enter a state of dormancy until he could once more be useful. It was unfortunate to lose his companionship for that time, but I had to respect his choice,” Alex glanced across the room as Steven had finished sorting the holorecordings and was now standing, clearly waiting for something. As their eyes met, Steven bowed slightly.
“With your permission, sir, I have finished my current tasks but do have some items of my wardrobe which could use my attention. By your leave?” Alex smiled and nodded.
“Yes, of course, Steven. I think that will be all for today. Attend to your business, and take the rest of the day for your leisure. I was considering indulging in some darts later, if you had the desire to join,” Alex turned back to the broadwave as the lanky droid shuffled out of the room. “Shame Corner, yes. I can certainly make my way there shortly. Thank you so much for being willing to hear me out on this.”
“Hello there! I hope I am not interrupting anything,” Alex called out in his jovial, casual drawl. He was comfortably reclined on the plush sofa arranged in the sitting room area of his ship’s-quarters-turned-penthouse-apartment. “My name is Alex Draconis and I came by your contact information through a reference at the Shame Corner. I have some…concerns regarding my droid companion, and am given to understand you have some expertise in the area.”
Across the room, Steven was reorganizing Alex’s collection of holorecordings on the shelves. It was the third time he had done so this week and while Alex repeatedly insisted it was not at all necessary, Steven kept coming up with better ideas for how to arrange them which he felt compelled to implement. It had become more than a little worrisome, to be honest.
“Steven is an old KX model which I was able to restore to functionality, but I fear I may have made some error when installing the butler and valet protocols. He seems…neurotic? If that can even make sense? More importantly, I do not know that he is happy, and he resolutely refuses to answer when I ask him about it. Would you perhaps be able and willing to give him a once over and see if I somehow karked it up?”
She nodded before remembering that the comm was audio only. “Sure thing.” She watched as the diode faded, the connection closed. She took a deep sigh, then another. “Well, Hexy, let’s get my tools together.”
Hekate’s optical sensors dimmed for a moment before flashing brightly again. “Did I hear you properly?” Their voice was a chorus, three feminine voices instead of one. Leena had spent untold numbers of hours trying to sort that little quirk out, but it was beond even her considerable skill. It was probably tied to… well, that didn’t bear thinking about. “Is that the one with the good caf?”
Leena nodded again, setting her consoles into standby. She rarely, if ever turned them off. The subruitines that constantly ran for her were too important, and her ability to remote access her override archive from the field was entirely too useful in contrast with the limited power draw. “Yeah. And everything else that they have going on down there.” She tilted her head, her lekku slipping from her shoulder as she activated the comm in her wrist. “Captain, I’ll be needing the shuttle, if the boss isn’t using it.”
Blackwind’s melodic accent filtered through the air after a moment, above the deep rumble of the Fallen Spear’s engines. “No issues that I can see. He’s asked me to take him to Kuroshin. Jumping in an hour, so unless you want to wait until we get there…”
“No, I’ll be out before then.” She shook her head, sliding a slicer’s pad into her pack. “Wrong side of the Galaxy for where I’m headed, anyway.” She paused, chewing her lip as she considered. “Did he say how long?”
“You know how he is.” Blackwind chuckled. “Never says two words when one will do. I imagine for a few days, at any rate. I’ll ping you if we’re on th emove before you get back.”
“Thanks, Cap.” She shifted her weight, shouldering the pack. “We’re headed into cultist space.”
Blackwind’s laugh hid a little bit of anxiety. “Good luck with that.”
Leena smiled as she headed for the hangar.
Alex eased back the lever to bring the Herald of Entropy out of hyperspace, the blur of starlines condensing back into individual pinpricks in the dark fabric of space. The station - a glorified rest stop more than anything - came into view as he pivoted the ship toward it. He had only been here a couple times so far, having just recently set up around this section of the galaxy, but he already got the impression that it was a common and frequent meeting place for business, personal meetings, and just in general a sort of “hang out” for the sector.
“This is the Herald of Entropy requesting docking clearance,” Steven spoke into the comms unit from the co-pilot’s seat. While the droid was not particularly talented at piloting - in fact, his lanky build made it difficult for him to even deal with most of the controls - he was still more than capable of handling most of the monitoring and administrative tasks of the exercise and so Alex let him at it. It appeased Steven’s constant drive to be of some use, which was both a boon and a curse for Alex. The clearance code transmitted and the ship was issued instructions to dock at bay 4, toward which Alex began adjusting course.
“Thank you, Steven. We should be landing shortly now. Retrieve me something ‘business casual’ if you would, and likewise for yourself. No need to go full bore on this one, though there should be no need for armament.”
“Of course, sir, I will find something appropriate to the environs,” Steven unfolded himself from the seat and hunch-walked out of the just-too-small-for-him cockpit toward the rear of the ship where his quarters were.
The trip was uneventful. Two hyperspace jumps and a terrifyingly laborious docking process were the norm, at least when coming from Sadow space. The little puff of climate controlled air that blasted in between port control and the station proper always seemed more refreshing in memory than it did in the moment. The air seethed across her head, vibrating her goggles for a moment, whooshing past ea cones and wobbled her lekku in ways that she wasn’t sure about. Either it felt nice or disconcerting, and it was never clear exactly which it was. Hekate followed her, in as much silence as they could manage when they weren’t on a mission. Tittering excitedly to themselves about good caf, the wind tossed their hood back, the broad weave of the cloth catching the light in eays that showed the subtle purple pattern beneath the black.
Leena paused for a second, mind idly spinning, wondering if that was why she had gotten the attention of the boss all those years ago. Chance, fate, all of that seemed an inadequate explanation for the hard turn that her life had taken. Not that she wasn’t grateful, or that she wanted to suggest that it was something as simple as a color that made the man do…well, the things that he did. Perhaps the gods just associated the color with him, and she was just there for the ride. Satisfied with that less than apt conclusion, she moved forward, into the station.
“Now where did we say that we were going to meet…” She ambled forward, eyes darting across the floor as she raised herself up on the balls of her feet, trying to see over rows of merchandise.
“We could always watch the floor from the cafe.” Hekate offered, optical sensors turning slightly with the bright flash. “And the bonus is that caf. Hell, maybe he’s already in there.”
Leena nodded slowly, relaxing her calves and cracking her neck. “That’s not a bad idea.”
Alex strode into the entryway of the Shame Corner, Steven following close behind him. It was nearly impossible to miss them. While Alex didn’t stand out a great deal, clad in a blue velvet smoking jacket accented with a goldenrod ascot over a white shirt and matching blue velvet pants, Steven was - as usual - a curious sight. The tall, lanky KX droid would draw attention even in most normal circumstances - it was part of their design as security droids to be noticeable - but Steven really stood out in these circumstances, having chose to adorn himself with a neatly tailored black silk longcoat with beautiful silver brocade work along the lapels. He may as well have attached flashing lights and a siren to himself for how much attention it would draw.
A brief pause of consideration for fudge - not today…okay, maybe on the way out - and Alex began looking about for the person he was supposed to be meeting. It was only after a few minutes of scanning the assorted patrons of the station that Alex realized a fundamental flaw. He had never seen Leena before, only spoken with her, and hadn’t gotten any sort of physical description when he was initially given her information. A stupid oversight, to be sure, but now he was paying the price for it as he had no idea who or what to even be looking for.
As Hekate talked to the greeter, Leena turned, distracted by the holos that showed off whatever the daily special was. Some sort of pureed or mashed root vegetable with a gravy-soaked patty of…something she couldn’t identify. Brow furrowed, she tried to determine if it was some sort of meat or pre-formed vegetable before it was breaded and fried when her eyes drifted away.
There it was. The KX droid stood a full head and shoulders above even the taller folks on the station at the moment, garbed in rather fanciful dress. That tracked with what the man had said about it being vaguely neurotic, although perhaps not. Some folks took great interest in dressing up, even if she didn’t much care for it herself. Leena tapped on Hekate’s shoulder, getting their attention. “I think we’ve found our party.”
Hekate turned, pushing their hood back and looking in the direction Leena was. “Well, that is a KX.” Their voice seemed to echo as much as harmonize as they continued. “Odds are pretty good that’s who we are here for.”
Leena nodded. The brotherhood had found ways of using older model plans and resucitating product lines for their cultists. Perhaps the KX made their cut? Even if so, she hadn’t seen many of them in brotherhood space, so it seemed likely. She took a few steps in their direction, and paused in a wider area between rows of merchandise. It as good to make sure that they saw her, as opposed to possibly surprising them. Experience taught her that. Hekate nearly bumped into her as she stopped, then grunted out what could almost be an apologetically surprised sound. Leena pursed her lips in response, waiting as they got closer. “Best behavior, Hexy.”
“Aren’t I always?” The gears on their face squeaking ever so gently as what passed for their mouth twisted in an approximation of a smile.
Leena dipped her head a degree as they grew close enough for casual speech, careful enough to keep her eyes on the man and his calet. “Alex Draconis, I presume?”
It took a moment longer than one would typically expect for Alex to respond to someone calling to him by name. An observant party would notice the briefest hint of consideration and thought pass his eyes before a tiny, near-imperceptible shake of the head as he turned toward the Twi’lek that had approached him.
“I do indeed have the pleasure of being him,” a casual grin formed on his features as he drawled his response. “You must be Leena, then,” a small bow before gesturing behind him toward his companion, “and this as I am sure you have surmised is my majordomo, Steven.”
Steven looked to Leena, his face - as always - completely expressionless and wholly impassive in the way only a droid could be. A slight tilt of his head toward her was the best he managed as far as any particular indication of his feeling.
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Leena. I’m given to understand that Master Alex would like you to review my programming, since he lacks the expertise to easily identify any oddities,” the prim, clipped tones of his brisk accent were rather atypical for one of his make and it was unclear if it was due to the programming package Alex had installed or if that was just how Steven in particular had been built.
“I told you to knock it off with that ‘Master’ shit, Steven. You know it gives people the wrong impression of me. Besides which you are my employee, not my property!”
“Yes, sir, Master Alex. My apologies,” as Steven responded, Alex turned back to Leena with an exasperated expression on his face, eyes slightly widened in frustration.
Leena repressed a slight smile. The man treated his droids well. Entirely too many in the universe thought of them as mechanical slaves, less than the sum of their chips. It was good that there were still some out in the Brotherhood, nominally full of backstabbing Sith and treacherous mercenaries, that thought otherwise. She nodded at the pair, gesturing at her robed metallic compatriot. “This is Hekate, an apprentice to the Lord of the Krath.” She paused as Hekate gave a slight bow in recognition of the two of them before she continued. “Checking on your programming won’t take too long, Steven. If there’s a bug in there, we’ll find and fix it. Anything above and beyond that we can discuss, okay?”
She watched for the response from the KX and adjusted the backpack on her shoulder, then raised a brow. “But first, let’s find someplace to work, yeah? The cafe over there has surprisingly good caf…”
“Stunningly good, actually.” Hekate confirmed, their head turning to look at each of them in turn.
“But you’re-” the confusion evident in Steven’s voice was far and away the most emotion he had shown since the conversation began. His head tilted nearly forty-five degrees as his eyes began to flash, and one hand was held up with the pointer finger extended.
“Leave it well enough, Steven. People are allowed their preferences, no matter the circumstance,” Alex strode toward the indicated cafe after giving a pointed stare at his valet. “The Krath, you say? Now there is something I have not heard mentioned in quite some time. I can only imagine they are somewhat more legitimate nowadays, rather than being sort of an awkward cult half based on loosely translated Sith writings and the other half on the personality of that Keto weirdo?” He paused for a second, realizing he had just let himself run off at the mouth a bit.
“…Apologies if I gave offense there. Sometimes the memory takes hold and the mouth starts running without the convenient filter of propriety intervening.” A slight bow toward Hekate combined with the apology. “I am sure by now, given how long it has been, the Krath are a greatly historied and well-respected order of their own right.”
Hekate’s head dipped a touch, returning the gesture of respect. “Certainly, the origins of the Krath had some…” There was a pregnant pause as they searched for the appropriate word. “…Eccentricities. That said, the Krath in the Brotherhood follows a far more pragmatic path, thanks in part to the work of my master.” Hekate staopped, considering for a moment as they adjusted their robes. “No doubt, some of the old stereotypes of the old masters remains.” They waves a metallic hand, dismissing the notion.
“Less pink, more royal purple.” Leena noodded, before her mind chased down that old rabbit trail again, feeling the man’s eyes upon her violet skin, the accents of her clothes, of Hekate’s robes. “Not me. I just do the nuts and bolts and codes. Can’t say that I hate the aesthetic, though.” She shook her head a degree, forcing herself back to the task at hand. Reaching into her pack, she produced a small slicer’s spike. Activating her datapad, she made sure that the two were linked, then handed the spike to the man. “I’ll let you do the honors…” Once inserted, she whould be able to remotely access the droid’s firmware, the software, all of the protocols installed, all of the things that made Steven who they were. And from there, well… There was no limit.
“Even an ancient and mystical order needs someone to keep the lights on and the conservators running, eh?” Alex laughed as he took the slicer’s spike from her. Holding it up, he turned to address Steven.
“Just making sure one last time, friend, that you are okay with this? Sort of the point of no return here, to some extent, no?” In response Steven turned to face Alex, staring him eye-to-eye, and nodded.
“I believe this will result in the best outcome for both of us, sir. You can be certain that you did not make any critical mistakes in restoring me, and I can be certain that I’m truly doing my best at my duties. Assuming Miss Leena is trustworthy and capable as she seems to be, I should come out of this at least no worse off than I went into it,” and thus saying, Steven exposed his dataport to Alex, who inserted the spike.
It took a few moments for the link to establish, the progress mapping out on the datapad in front of her eyes. Leena watched as the droid seemed to fuss with its cuffs a little bit. It was unusual to see a droid wear clothing, but not unheard of. She gave a short glance at Hekate as they adjusted their robes. Not at all unheard of.
Tapping a few of the administrative options on her pad, she watched as the final details loaded in. She hummed gently as the lines of code flashed past her eyes. “It’s actually a pretty clean install, to be honest.” She paused, checking subruitine interfaces, then continuing. “But I can see why you say that there’s a bit of stress.” She pinched the screen to get a better view of what she was looking at, then spun it around to show the gentleman.
“See, here’s your valet protocols.” She gestured with a tattooed finger, the swirls wrapped around it and joining the rest of the pattern at her palm. “It’s been overlaid on the base programming…” She paused for a second, chewing her lipa s she saught a way to explain it better. “Like a facade….or a mask. Underneath that mask, the original protocols can seem a little bit stifled, and may mess with your mind a bit. I bet it feels rather pent-up sometimes, Steven?”
She looked up at the KX, careful not to touch the droid. She knew all too well how quickly her touch could alter things. And without permission, well, that was not something she was going to subject anyone to. She waited for Alex to take the pad, then puleld a thin pair of gloves out of her croped jacket’s pocket, pulling them over thin fingers. Convinced that the man was caught up, she continued, answering the unasked question.
“As to how to resolve it, we have a few options. The cheap and sleazy option would be to just do a fresh reinstall. But that would still cause conflicts unless we do a full memory wipe.” Leena grimaced for half a second at the thought, then moved on. “Or I can put a regenerative protocol in play, so that the conflicts have a clear hierarchy. Kinda hard on the processors, but still, not a terrible option…”
She paused, chewing her lip as she thought for a moment again, debating how involved she wanted to get.
“Better yet, I can rewrite the core protocols entirely so that there’s no conflicts between subruitines….because there wouldn’t be any subruitines. New operating protocol that includes both Gentleman and Veteran elements. I’d want to keep the memory intact for that, so that it feels more natural for you.” She looked back up at the KX, then turned to Alex. “It would take a day to tailor the code into the memory and make it seem seamless, but it’s abslutely doable. Pretty hard on the power banks in the process, so we may want to replace those while I’m in there.” She realized that she had crossed her arms somewhere in the conversation, so she eased her muscles and let them hang.
“Whaddya think?”
“I understand that it is more complicated and difficult, but that last option certainly sounds the most appealing. I cannot imagine it was too difficult for you to figure out from looking at his code, but Steven acting as my majordomo is a recent change following his reactivation. In a…,” Alex’s brow furrowed a bit in consideration, “probably easiest to say ‘past life’ when my primary occupation was a bit more rough-and-tumble, he was rather a comrade in arms. If that aspect and those memories can be maintained while still resolving the obvious disquiet he is currently enduring, then that is the best possible outcome.”
Alex pulled out his own datapad and checked through it. As he scrolled down the list of supplies he had on his ship, he nodded to himself.
“It looks like during one of our supply orders, Steven purchased some maintenance and repair parts for himself. If I am reading this correctly, it looks like I have a spare set of power banks for him.” He held out the datapad for Leena to inspect, showing a manifest of a rather impressive and extensive list of replacement and upgrade parts for a KX model. “As I trust him with the affairs of my estate, he has carte blanche to purchase what he believes is beneficial to have on-hand. If any of this equipment could provide benefit to the process, by all means…”
For his part, Steven had taken to adjusting the coasters on the table so they were at perfect perpendicular angles to the table’s edge.
Leena nodded slowly at the man, then tilted her head to look at Steven. “Well, like I said, it’d take about a day to tailor the code.” She tapped the datapad a few quick spots. “…And I just downloaded the base files, so I can get started.” She looked around for a moment before leaning back in the booth, her free hand bringing her lekku up over her shoulders so that she didn’t put pressure on them. Wincing slightly as she handled the left one, she gingerly drew her hand back and focused on the datapad. “The Caf is great here, so I’ll start working right away. Might head to my ship to finish up, when they get tired of looking at me.” She chuckled, eyes darting to the waitstaff as they flitted about the diner.
Hekate’s optical sensors glared for a moment. “Did you want me to go get us some snacks for the way home?” Their head turned to look into the rest of the waystation. “I hear that they have some sort of confection that they are famous for…”
“Kinda surprised you aren’t staying for caf.” She smiled at Hekate.
“Oh, I absolutely am. I meant after.” They beamed, flipping a mug that was already on the table and raising it at their waitress.
Leena kinda chuckled, then turned to Alex and Steven. “Don’t feel like you have to sit here, if you don’t want to. This kind of work is not terribly exciting to watch.”
“Now see, you say that,” once again a casual smile found rest on Alex’s face as he tilted his head to get a slightly better view of the datapad, “but I daresay that is because this kind of thing is fairly commonplace to you. Perhaps not the specific circumstance, as you did say that the path we are treading is a more complicated and tricky one, but the basic concept of working with droid programming is part of your ‘bread and butter’ as it were so of course to you it is unlikely to be exciting.”
His eyes darted across the information being displayed across the screen, though whether any of it truly meant anything to him was anyone’s guess. Regardless it was clear he was locked in, raptly interested in - if nothing else - there being something happening.
“To me, who is mostly ignorant in the ways of droid programming, I find it frankly fascinating! It begs to contemplate, on some level, what it may mean to possess ‘sapience’ or ‘intelligence.’ If it is possible for a mind to be built of raw code and result in a being no less complex or unique than what comes out of…well,” he sort of swirled one hand generally about the vicinity of his own head, “this mess, what sort of implication might that have on the concept of the self? And is there the possibility that we, ourselves, are also composed of just some sort of code we have yet to be able to see or identify or understand?” His eyes had gone slightly wide at this point, sparkling, and his nostrils were slightly flared as he rambled on. As he finished, he blinked hard once, quickly, then leaned back a bit in his seat regaining some composure.
“But I digress, and do not wish to distract you from your work. Perhaps I will also enjoy a refreshment,” he flipped a mug over and signaled to the waitress to bring a teapot, “and observe and absorb what I can…”
Leena felt his excitement from across the booth. She smiled quietly. It was good that he cared for the droid in such a way. It was fairly unusual in her experience, with most people treating the droids as disposable commodities, servants, slaves. She shuddered at the reminder, her free hand inadvertantly stroking her left lekku as her other hand tapped away. Blinking, she realized what she was doing, and let the hand drop to the datapad.
Sapience, Sentience, a soul, all of those complex and borderline religious arguments and implications swirled like the ink ont he back of her hand. She knew all too well the difference, the fine line between awareness and Awareness. How they would trip over that line with too long a touch, too brief an exposure if she wasn’t guarding herself, hiding her own nature. It was almost irresponsible, she felt. To bring them around in such a way, like birthing a child in a world toxic to them, knowing full well that you wouldn’t be around but for a brief moment of their lives. She felt it was more sin than blessing, although Hekate would certainly argue that differently than Forge would. At least Forge wasn’t confused about it, and that made it all the more easier for her. Where would Steven fall in that spectrum, should she release her mask?
No. She dismissed the thought as her smallest finger hit the carriage return key twice. The touchscreen didn’t give the tactile feedback that she would have preferred to punctuate that dismissal, but all the same. Here, in Brotherhood space, where all that most anyone knew of her was that she was one of the Lion’s Nephilim, she could not falter, could not show what she had learned at his side in the years since. Their endless conflict and politick would swallow her up, draw her into things that she had hated. She would be too valuable a piece for the game of kings and kingmakers to leave unattended. So no. Not here. They could never know.
A deep sigh, another sip of hot caf, sweetened with grey powder and sharpness dulled by something like dairy. She smacked her lips as the code compiled, subruitines extracting into a new architecture. She had used this stack before, with Forge. Generally calm and cool, the consummate Valet, but with the undercurrent necessary for violence when politeness failed. Fingers flew in the new file as the work continued, her mind clamping down into the work.
Hot steam rose from the mug of tea, freshly poured, as Alex leaned back a bit in his seat. He had been trying to watch Leena’s work to the best of his ability, but it had quickly become apparent that what was being done was well beyond his rudimentary understanding of programming. He was by no means completely dense when it came to the discipline, but once you moved past the very basics of running a program - maybe at most adjusting a variable or two - he was well out of his depth. What the twi’lek was doing right now may as well have been sorcery, for all that he was able to follow it.
Glancing over at his companion, Steven seemed to be undisturbed by the events occurring. Then again, Alex wasn’t entirely convinced Steven would react strongly if a bomb went off in the next booth over. There was a certain unbreakable stoicism the droid had always displayed that Alex had never been clear on whether it was part of his personality or his bodyguard programming. Either way, it was a trait Alex had relied on time and time again in tense situations…but now was quite a hindrance in trying to see what change, if any, was happening to his friend as the code was altered.
“I believe,” Alex drained his tea with one long pull, “that I will return to my ship for now. The level you are working at is well above my head and there are likely other tasks I can put my effort toward.” The pacing of his speech was faster now than it had been before, though clearly not in an excited manner. “Steven, do behave yourself in my absence, would you?” The gentle chuckle seemed a bit strained as he stood. “Miss Leena, please reach out when you have reached a stopping point. Steven has the comms frequency for the Herald. We can discuss whatever recompense is necessary for your time, whether that be monetary, favors in trade, or simply future consideration in friendship,” Alex bowed slightly toward her and then Hekate, in effort to excuse himself.
Recompense. The word riled in her mind, it’s own subruitine as she coded new ones into Steven’s eventual mind. It hadn’t really occurred to her, if she was being honest. Her needs were always seen to by her… her mind stalled on the thought. She could see him clearly as if he were right there. He always felt right there, but their dynamic was always too many things, and none individually so much as to eclipse any other. Mentor, Master, Friend, Patron? All of them fit, and none of them. Regardless, she wanted for prize little. Perhaps a few more contacts to procure rare bits of ancient tech that she could repurpose for modern times, but even that seemed mostly handled by their excursions.
She half smiled as Alex raised himself from the table. The hard work was almost done, the compiling and installation would take the significant portion of her time now. She could probably automate all of that with of help from a remote spike, but she hadn’t tried that before. “The Herald?” She murmured, her mind flashing back to the time before. Context clues hit her quickly, telling her that it was the name of his ship and not a reference to the position on the Council, but not before Alex paused, seeming to notice.
“The Herald of Entropy, my ship. Not the Council position…have not had much opportunity to meet or work with any of them as of yet. The name is a reminder that all things eventually find their inevitable end,” a sharp stop and a genuine smile returned to his face and a small twinkle to his eye. “Well…most things, anyway.” And with that somewhat cryptic comment and another small bow, Alex made his exit from the diner and began heading toward the docking bays. As he passed the magazine rack, something caught his eye and he could not help but sate his curiosity.
“PlayHutt? That…cannot possibly be what it seems to be…”