Star Trek Sim/ Star Trek RPG
USS Eagle, NCC 2185
LTjg Richards, ASEC & Bob, BOT
JOINT LOGS
LTjg Richards' quarters is an untypical (I hope) messy room with an unmade
bed and clothes on the floor. There's little in the way of decoration other
than some form of punching bag for hitting. It is patched sometimes she'd
kick the stuff into one corner or another. Fortunately or unfortunately for
her, she did not yet have a crewmember for a roommate.
Title: Bot Wait There's More!
Setting: USS Eagle
Location: LTjg Richards' quarters
A small, mobile, mechanical device pilfered, er, I mean taken by LTjg Richards
from the anomaly from a mining ship named Red Dwarf, here after referred
to as "Bob", is in HIS quarters ;o), hiding.
Leah Richards stalks into her room hoping a certain miscreant robot has returned
as ordered. She scans the floor, or rather what little bits of floor could
be seen between dirty clothes strewn on the floor. I might have to clean
some of this up ... later. "Bob?"
Bob senses Leah has returned, but is not sure of her "mood". He doesn't need
to run a subroutine to recall previous angry carbon-based life forms. Even
after three million years without one around he remembers that some of them
had terribly illogical periods where they yell and break things. A couple
of times, still fresh in his RAM, it was he who was broken. He timidly peeps
out, hoping not to be spotted.
Despite being very annoyed and in a rush, Leah forces herself to sound calm.
"Bob. We can 'talk' now, OK? Come out." She keeps an eye on the laundry piles,
expecting one or another to move and give away the robot's position.
Success! One moved! "There you are. OK, let's start over, Bob."
Bob appears droopy and dejected, if bots can affect such an appearance. The
seriousness of that is tainted with the stained sock from the laundry pile
on his "head", the upper assembly that consisted of a claw like appendage
and a very tiny place for a bot brain. He looks comical and sad instead.
Noticing the little robot's 'mood' she adds "I'm not going to yell. Yet.
What were you doing out?" After all, Bob was supposed to stay in the room-at
least that's what Leah thought they'd agreed to.
Bob moves closer to her and away and repeats. ((A new game for Eagle- bot
charades!))
Not understanding Bob's actions, she ignores them. "Just messing with the
turbolift?" Guessing this would be a long conversation, she sits on the floor
beside the bot to rest her recently wounded ankle.
Bob shakes his claw sideways as if to imitate the Human gesture of "no".
((http://usseagle.topcities.com/characterportraitreddwarfscutterbobno.html
))
Afraid that he might have done something worse she hurriedly asks. "Messing
with something else?"
Bob repeats motion of coming closer and going away.
She groans. This 'conversation' was getting no where and fast! "OK, OK. The
charades aren't gonna work. Let's try something else..."
Bob tilts his upper assembly to produce the effect of looking quizzically
at the Human.
Leah considers the wreck of a room and a light bulb of inspiration pops into
mind. "How 'bout the computer Bob - think you could tell me on that?"
Bob shakes his claw up and down. (( http://usseagle.topcities.com/characterportraitreddwarfscutterbobyes.html
))
Leah goes to the computer, calling the robot along, "Comin'?"
Bob comes, gets to key pad in a very odd, clever, and seemingly practiced
way.
She sits behind the counsel a bit amazed and rather wary about his practiced
ease at getting to the computer. "What else have you been up to?" Not wanting
to let on about her misgivings she carefully asks, "You done this before,
bud?"
Bob shakes his claw sideways in an unconvincingly manner to say "no".
She boots up the computer and frowns at the screen. The settings look different.
She reexamines them - someone had definitely changed them. " ... what have
you been up to, Bob?" Clearly it's time for a new password ... and maybe
some boobytraps.
Careful to maintain the false calm she keeps her eyes on the robot and asks,
"Well. What have you been doing?"
Bob scurries about the keypad and brings up schematics. They seem to be for
small mobile machines. As the screen scrolls, exterior views for different
small robots appear.
She watches the screen with a growing sense of confusion ... and alarm. "What's
all this about, Bob?"
Bob tentatively approaches her gray uniform sleeve and grabs it gently with
his claw and tugs.
She turns to Bob "What?"
Bob lets go of the quilted sleeve and appears to point towards a closet.
She looks toward the closet, that feeling of dread sinking in. "Is there
something I should know about...?"
Bob shakes his claw like head emphatically in the "yes" direction. ((http://usseagle.topcities.com/characterportraitreddwarfscutterbobyes.html
))He scurries down with practiced motions towards the deck, hits the deck
hard and follows, looking a little wobbly from the tumble.
"Great." Leah goes to her closet and carefully looks in.
Felling very foolish, she gently brushed the few clean uniforms aside and
called, "Hello?"
"Yikes! " She stumbled back from the flurry of mini-bots in surprise. "Bob!
What the heck?! ... Are these yours?"
Bob replies affirmatively.(( http://usseagle.topcities.com/characterportraitreddwarfscutterbobyes.html
))
The sinking dread has mutated into despair. "... I'm in sooo much trouble."
After all, one robot was (or should have been) easy to hide ... but this
many is going to be noticed by someone.
Leah takes a deep breath and focuses on the immediate problem-the turbolift
episode. "OK. What do these have to do with the turbolift?"
She studies the little robots, waiting for Bob to answer.
Bob comes to her and goes away again and repeats.
Of course, he would answer with nonsense! "That doesn't mean anything, Bob!"
Finally losing her cool she adds "AND get them out of the closet! How many
ARE there, anyway?!"
Bob tries to pantomime a count but that is hard with only two parts of a
claw and an even smaller brain...but it looks like a lot.
She ignores Bob's failed attempt at counting and took stock herself. It was
hard with them all moving at once. Worse yet ... some of those bits were
rather familiar. "Type it. Or write it or something!" Reading was a pain
in the rear, but it would be easier than trying to figure out how many times
Bob clicked his claw.
Bob makes a high pitched noise.
"What?!" she exclaims
The robotlits spilled out into the swamp of clothes. I'll clean up soon!
This time I mean it!
Not all the pieces were recognizable ... and many of them certainly hadn't
come out the junk heap that was her room. "Bob ... where did the ooh... pieces
for them come from?"
Bob points to the computer.
She follows his directions back to the computer, watching her step to avoid
the mini bots. "OK, what?"
Bob goes up the odd way he must to get to the computer, and begins typing
with one claw piece.
As the list scrolls down she whistles. He'd been a very busy bot. Worse yet
he'd more or less attacked the ship form the inside out. Almost unconsciously
she mutters "... You took stuff from my ship..." her fingers curled into
fists on their own. No one attacked her ship without paying for it dearly.
She glances down at the bots again, noting a certain hypospray in use on
one of them. That almost made her laugh.
On the other hand, Bob was her only friend on the ship. And not speaking
English, maybe he'd somehow misunderstood the law. "Bob. You can't just take
things! None of this stuff was yours-or mine!" She cursed.
Bob figures out that a fist is bad, shuts down comp info quickly, and dashes
off the desk. He makes another noise, unlikely to be heard by Humans and
the baby-bots scatter. Bob, himself, looks sad and dejected. It had taken
quite a bit of work for him to have done all this. He repeats an odd motion
he made earlier, hoping this time the Human can figure it out. He didn't
understand why these creatures had such a hard time communicating. Perhaps
that is why they were so angry and had all those things called wars...
These charades are getting old. "What?"
Bob moves towards another good hiding spot, out of the way.
Thinking he was about to go into hiding, as all the other botlits had, she
was quick to apologize. It didn't seem like he'd meant any harm, after all.
"No -Bob, I'm not gonna hurt you. Or them. But- do you have any idea how
much trouble I could be in?"
Bob shakes "head" sadly to communicate a "no". After living for three millennia
on the mining ship, taking whatever he wanted, it hadn't occurred to him
there'd be any difficulties with doing that for the next three millennia.
Bob makes one audible noise like a scream then another noise not detectable
to Humans and the little bot-lettes come out.
"They could take you - all of you away. And throw me off the ship." The latter
being the WORST nightmare ever.
Bob makes another noise and the mini-bots hide again.
Bob goes over to your boot and rubs "face" on it like cat as if to say I
like you a lot and don't be mad.
"... is this all of them?", Leah asks?
Bob appears to shrug. He wasn't about to tell her the whole truth even if
his micro bot brain had counted them. He just started making and making until
he thought he had enough.
" ... you don't know? Great. that's just ... great." She ignored his attempt
at placating her. This was not turning into a very good day at all.
Bob makes the odd motion again.
She watches him more closely "... what does that mean, Bob?"
Bob goes towards the spot he pointed before and comes back and repeats as
he did before.
Understanding dawns and she follows him to the spot, vaguely wondering how
people had gotten along without universal translators - one for mime would
sure come in handy!
Bob repeats the odd motion and goes towards yet another pile of old laundry.
Again he makes a sound outside the range of Human hearing.
What's behind door number three...?
Bob shakes his upper assembly "yes", even though he didn't understand the
phrase.
"Shall I dig?" She knelt between several other piles and carefully removed
the top layer of clothing from the pile, afraid a pile of even small bots
would erupt in her face. Part of a larger, Bob sized bot appeared instead.
Oh no! "... You made ... big bots too?" The idea of a dozen full sized Bob's
running loose is NOT a good one.
Bob repeats odd motion.
Fortunately it's just one big bot. It looked to be in a pretty bad condition.
" ... Friend of yours?"
Bob shakes head "no".
"Wife?" she asks.
Bob shakes head "yes", emphatically. (( http://usseagle.topcities.com/characterportraitreddwarfscutterbobyes.html
)) Like Bob, she appears to have more than a screw lose.
Oh goody... "Well, hi 'Mrs. Bob'." It would be rude to yell without first
being introduced.
Mrs. Bob waves feebly with her claw.
To Bob she adds cautiously, "She's pretty... quiet." The two bots are all
but identical twins as far as she can tell. At least they act different so
I can tell 'em apart...
Bob makes a different odd motion and points to a damaged looking power pack.
She follows Bob's directions again and noticed the damaged power pack.
Bob tilts his "head" quizzically as if to ask for help.
"OK.... is this why you were messing with the turbolift?" She didn't touch
the pack, thinking that might frighten or upset Mrs. Bob or her brood.
Bob shakes head "yes", emphatically.
"You should have told me all of this before, Bob!" Leah pointed out, exasperated.
Bob looks dejected, scurries to the computer, shows her schedule. Data appears
on screen: how much time Leah spends in her quarters, how much time she plays
with him ;o) and how much she had other duties or things to do. Bob had thought
that after coming to a ship with living beings he'd have some interactions
and be able to help out as he was programmed for.
"Look - I'm no engineer. I can't help you much..." She left Mrs. Bob and
followed him back to the computer. She scowled at the schedule. Being a workaholic
hadn't helped his situation any. "Fine. I'm a bad roomie... sorry." Obviously
this had to be made up for. "I might know someone who can help you..."
Bob shakes head quizzically.
Thinking out loud, "Well ... the Captain would be best ... if he's doing
better." He already knew that Bob was onboard, maybe she could pass the Mrs.off
as him. Then again the Captain was currently blind and laid up in Sickbay.
"Or I'll have to find an engineer for you." The thought of Hanson came to
mind. He might be a little ... odd, but he should be easy to intimidate into
keeping quiet. Anyway, it didn't seem like he had too many 'friends' to spill
to...
Emphatically, "yes" replies Bob. He makes another noise, not likely to be
heard by Humans.
Many, many, Bot-lettes appear and rub their "faces" on the Human's boots.
Ruefully she answers. "Yeah. Easy to say... doing it is tougher." She glanced
around at all the botlets and sighed "Oh, boy..."
Bot-lettes continue to rub adoringly on her boots.
Then she remembers one teeny weeny but important fact. She was still on duty.
"Crud! I'll look into it from the bridge, Bob, OK? Just keep everyone in
here today- all right?"
Bob shakes his claw head emphatically to indicate "yes"
"Good." Leah was in a bit of a rush. "Then... see y'all again soon. HERE.
Right?" She realized hoping Bob would end his sneaky ways just because she
told him too would be foolish ... but there wasn't time to weld the door
shut.
Bob, of course, figures that she means everyone but him... ;o)
"OK." She carefully made her way around and over the bots toward the door,
almost slipping in laundry more than once. I'll clean up in here too ...
someday.
Bob makes a motion.
She glanced back at Bob in time to catch his gesture. "Huh?"
Bob attempts to be helpful and picks up socks.
"I'll do it! Sheesh." The robot was starting to remind her of her mother-
yet another reason she shouldn't have gotten involved with him in the first
place!
Bob looks quizzically. Bob acts confused, going to and fro with socks, not
sure where to put them
"Bob. Seriously just leave it. Take care of your family, all right? I'll
be back soon." She left the room, trying to figure out how to get out of
this one. Bob had certainly set things up to get very messy.
Bob drops socks, kersplatt, where he was and goes back to his progeny. He
is happy to have remained assembled and is proud Poppa bot. Bob calls them
and nestles in a pile with bot-lettes and the Mrs.
Fortunately, Leah reflects, they don't need flea collars or shots. But getting
'em neutered MIGHT be a good idea...
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