Uncomfortable Partnership [Navvi]

[Oscar Leonhardt]

Oscar had been nothing but unreadable during the demonstration of the Navvi project. He had sat there, growing stonier by the minute, his insides tightening into knots as the destructive force of the android was displayed. It was stupid, all of it. From deciding to put that much power into one weapon to equipping that weapon with an AI mechanism. It was like asking to make movies like “I, Robot” a reality and Oscar could already see an army of metal men (an women maybe?) marching against the human race to take it down and create a new chapter of history for the world of men.

It was with goosebumps and a strong sense of responsibility that Oscar agreed to take the new weapon out on a mission. He was curious to see just how well it performed in practice and just how far it had STARTED REBELLING since there was something prophetic about movies and he was sure it was going to happen sooner or later. The scientists had made Navvi so durable and self-sufficient that Oscar was working hard on thinking up ways it could be destroyed, two of the more likely solutions (if they would even work) being to dump it in a volcano or maybe a pool of acid. As active volcanos and acid tanks were hard to come by, Oscar remained painfully weary of Navvi’s existence when he met with the android to start their quest. What happened to the good old days when incredibly powerful weapons were brainless?

Man and robot were supposed to investigate some rumored mutant activity in the food district. Although Oscar had greeted the android before they had gotten into the car that he drove to the site, he hadn’t spoken a word to it since. Throughout the drive he half expected it to suddenly grab hold of the wheel and steer them into the nearest hard object, impact that would surely kill Oscar and allow the robot its freedom. The operator did have an overactive imagination.

When the car screeched to a stop as they had reached the destination and he was still alive, he entertained some relief. “We should get out of the car and follow the road. Come after me,” he told Navvi, reminding himself he needed to give it precise orders to work with. Outside, the sun was bright over Endonia and the food district was bustling with life. People were coming out of and going into the line of restaurants and fast food joints that spread slightly uphill on either side of two boulevards with a three lane street to separate them. Oscar pressed the button on the little device on his keychain and the car piped into a lock.

He started down the right boulevard they were currently on. “Could you do a scan as we walk? See if there’s any mutant activity or presence in the area? Please.” Oscar didn’t know if that was actually within Navvi’s capabilities, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask and be polite about it.


((Hope this works and sorry it took so long to post!))

[Navvi]

The paranoia surrounding Navvi's existence, specifically the paranoia that encompassed the idea of a machine uprising or robot rebellion lead by Navvi, was one that technically wasn't founded on any hard evidence. It was all based on movies, comics, books, or video games, all works of fiction. However, it was the exact kind of fiction that nerds indulged in, and it should come as no surprise that the people who worked on Navvi were all huge nerds or massive geeks. They were well aware of the fear and did as much as they could circumvent even the slightest possibility of it.

Unfortunately, despite all their efforts to keep Navvi from going all Skynet and Matrix on them, they knew that there still existed a possibility because the deepest parts of Navvi's programming was either inaccessible by any of their means or completely incomprehensible to them and their computers. So the risk of Navvi violating the First Law was still there until they cracked it. But if predictions could be made given Navvi's past behavior, there existed little to no risk.

They of course tried to convey this to Oscar before he took their project out into the field for a full mission run. It didn't seemed to have worked if the man's behavior in the car was any indicator. Navvi, of course, did not/could not care at all as it sat in the passenger's seat like a fancy-looking mannequin.

Navvi did as it was instructed, when it was instructed, without hesitation and to a tee. In line with its position as partner to Oscar, Navvi remained by the man's side, perhaps a little too closely depending on the operator's sense of personal space. Along with that, Navvi's strange-ness was evident based on its permanent half-lidded thousand-yard stare straight ahead.

"Apologies, sir. This one has no such 'scanning' capability at the moment. However, this one can perform a facial recognition check on all nearby persons against the Department's database of known non-human individuals. Run the check, sir?"

[Oscar Leonhardt]

Oscar didn’t actively display his thoughts for anyone to consider, he knew better than to be so vocal about it with people who weren’t exactly his confidents. Whatever default reassurance he was offered was taken with prophetic terror. Weren’t the scientists always reassuring the first victim on the list of the product’s reliability and safety? Of course, all of this remained within the privacy of his mind and half of him was relaxed. Since there was only one of Navvi right now the probability that android revolution would engulf the world of men wasn’t that proximate. He was aware of his paranoid thinking as well but c’mon, someone had to be lucid if and when it happened. No great cinephile would lower their guard readily and one of Oscar’s passions in life was watching movies.

The streets were so crowded there was no way Oscar could keep track of all of the people passing them in any reasonable manner. When Navvi offered to perform the facial recognition check, it was as good as anything he could bring to the situation. “Run the check, yes.” The lead they were following had been impressively vague and could very well be nothing. This whole day was more of a “take Navvi out for a try” than any mission he tended to deal with lately. Since Oscar had come back from his years long career as an international squad leader operative, the missions he was given were desperate danger situations, with mutants gone out of control and causing havoc as well as inside investigations, where defective or suspected members of the DNCS were targeted.

Regardless, he kept just as sharp during this, what he thought to be, routine check, not knowing that some hundred feet down the street, in a coffee shop “especially reserved” for three people, those three people, all mutants, were plotting to rob a nearby bank. The establishment in question was a dingy, dim lit little place with smoky windows that allowed for a darker, more intimate atmosphere inside even if the brightest daylight filtered in through them.

Of the three, only one of them was known to the DNCS and his scarred and tattooed face forced a shudder on even the oldest and most experienced operatives. “Armed” with telepathic abilities that had sent full grown men to the psych ward in states of permanent dementia, he had been encountered but never apprehended, for no one who had tried had come out of the experience quite the same. His tattoo was the head of a staring snake with golden eyes on his forehead, with its body running down his temple down to his jaw and around his neck until it ended on his shoulder. The last person who had braved attacking him on a moment’s notice (because the man, whatever his name, never lingered around in the same spot to give the chance of being surprised with a plan that made use of information about his location) had given him the biggest scar on his face – an ugly thing that made the corner of his left eye sag a little where the flesh had been torn and went all the way down to his chin.

This very man was looking out the window, his hood a little drawn back from his face, when Navvi and Oscar passed the little coffee shop and Oscar was momentarily fixed on someone he had seen down the road in the opposite direction.

[Navvi]

"Commencing check, sir."

Immediately, Navvi's eyes changed from their usual corpse-like stillness to a pair of twitching orbs the likes of which seemed more appropriate to pinball wizards or high-speed mathematicians. Its eyes never stayed on the same person walking down the street for more than a second or two, perhaps a third second longer if Navvi was waiting for their face to enter a more favorable position, as it took facial measurements and compared the data against the database that was available in its archives. If that wasn't quite unsettling enough on its own, Navvi head was also slowly rotating from side to side and back again to get the widest possible angle.

So far no one was pinging on Navvi's "scan". Everyone was just an unknown civilian just going about their lives, but Navvi still stored their facial recognition data in case they turned out to be a Non-Human target at a later date. The operators back at the Department could decide later whether or not Navvi should hang on to the data or just dump it. So Navvi just kept pace with Oscar, silently doing its best surveillance camera impression.

"Sir."

Navvi tugged on Oscar's sleeve like a little lost child after something finally did ping on Navvi's visual radar. The moment its scan ID'd the man in the coffee shop, Navvi turned to face Oscar instead of continuing to stare at the man in the shop.

"Non-Human person identified with two possible accomplices. Store front behind you. Awaiting next course of action."

[Oscar Leonhardt]

The person Oscar had spotted became of no consequence when Navvi tugged on his sleeve. Possibly three mutants? Well. It appeared Navvi would be put to practice after all. The operations general became acutely aware of the pistols in their holders under his coat.

They had stopped in front of the shop and the tattooed man had narrowed his eyes in their direction before trying to invade Navvi’s “mind” and become privy to his thoughts, memories and whatever else made him tick. He was mindful enough to draw the hood down over his figure again. The other two he was with noted their boss had stopped responding to the conversation and their gazes followed his to the pair of stationary “people” outside.

“Anything on the known mutant’s file?” Oscar was asking Navvi at the same time the dangerous mutant was telepathically recoiling from the unfamiliar “consciousness” he had approached. Whatever the thing outside was, it wasn’t human, and his invasive powers didn’t exactly work in this case. “We walk inside. Ask them to surrender peacefully. They won’t. So we attempt to apprehend them while harming them as little as possible. Protect me. Don’t kill suspects unless one of us is in mortal dan- AHH!” Oscar was cut off from continuing his instructions because the telepath had switched his target. Oscar hadn't waited for Navvi to answer him before he decided to share a quick few words, and good thing he didn't, for they would be the only ones he got to say if something's wasn't done about the elusive mutant.

The operator’s hands were on his head and he looked in pain, his eyes shut powerfully. The people that passed them by on the street were staring, starting to give them a wide berth. Inside the little coffee shop, the mutants were still calmly in their seats, gazes averted, one of them actually enjoying porridge. Although he wasn’t looking at them, the golden-eyed tattooed guy of around thirty had told his accomplices to be on their toes and had already figured (from invading Oscar’s mind) who they were working for.

Oscar had dealt with telepaths before, but never one as apt as this one. A battle of consciousnesses was happening in his mind and his was exceptionally human so he was quickly losing ground. Whenever he tried to find a loopwhole in assaults and order Navvi to attack, the very thought was torn to pieces before it could be made vocal. This was the main reason the scarred man was rarely concerned with who discovered him but was now experiencing some anxiety due to the strange non-human presence that was Navvi.

[Navvi]

If the telepath had expected to get anything out of Navvi, he was going to be disappointed or surprised. The kind of feedback he would be getting would be akin to trying to use his powers on a rock or the chair he was sitting on or a person who enjoys watching those "Housewives Of" shows. No reaction and nothing to sift through. However, strangely enough, if the man was observant enough, there was some kind of strangeness to the static he was getting back. In an analogy, it was like that hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck feeling one gets when you feel like you're being watched.

"The current file notes that the man..."

Navvi actually started to recite some of facts and figures that the digital file contained, including any past encounters the man had with the DNCS and some of the man's identifying features, as if they could not have just looked into the window and seen the kind of face that was looking back. It was a very hard face to forget. The android didn't get much out since Oscar almost immediately started spitting out orders and Navvi wasn't one to talk while others were talking.

When Oscar started curling up in pain, Navvi was still nodding in agreement at the orders he had managed to give before his thoughts were being torn apart. All in all, Navvi didn't look all that concerned for its boss nor did it seem to show any kind of urgency concerning the matter. It simply looked at Oscar, then back at the hooded man.

Then, in a move that would probably have to be bugged-out of Navvi's system later, Navvi went to the nearby door of the coffee shop and attempted to enter like there was nothing happened. Whether it was locked or not, Navvi turned the handle and opened the door to face the three men, still looking like it was just looking for a cup of mocha.

"Sirs, please cease harming this one's associate and come along peacefully. If you do not comply, this one may resort to using force. You have ten seconds to comply. Ten... Nine..."

[Oscar Leonhardt]

The man’s noticeable and unforgettable face was obscured by a hood again as he was gazing away from the window and browsed through Oscar’s thoughts. The operator was noticing, between short moments of lucidity, that Navvi was too calm and still beside him as his mind was being picked apart. So much for relying on new technology and expecting not to attract attention by being “the new face in town.” Because Oscar had mostly been assigned to international missions for the entirety of his career in the DNCS until now he didn’t think someone could have easily picked him out as someone who worked for the government. Today, for the supposed investigation, he had come dressed normally. It wouldn’t do to prance around in uniform for such occasions and yet here he was, perhaps having made his last mistake when it came to telepaths.

Navvi’s actions were entirely too slow for the pain he was experiencing. Oscar was panicking, already feeling as if he’d been stripped of an important memory. Still, he couldn’t shape any words to encourage the android to hasten his approach on the mutants. By sheer will, however, he dragged one of his pistols from its holster and shot it straight through the front window right as Navvi had started the countdown.

The mutants inside bared Navvi no immediate heed, but one of them did look puzzled by the odd display. However, when the boss, the telepath, said “Duck!” they all scrambled from their seats and onto the floor, Oscar’s bullet hitting no one but sending a wave of fright through the people outside, walking on the street.

The moment it took for the telepath to mutter something to his associates and roll out of potential harm’s way allowed Oscar a brief reprieve from the mental assault. He couldn’t say when he had gotten to his knees. It took a moment to remember the android’s name. “Navvi! Knock out the registered mutant!” It was a hasty order and the moment his words ended, the mental assault began again. The three mutants in the shop were discarding pretenses and readying for confrontation. One of them could spit corrosive poison and had a forked tongue, some light scales behind his ear and down his neck, while the third possessed speed that far surpassed any man and some cars.

[Navvi]

ED-209 Navvi continued was about halfway through its countdown to physical force when Oscar's bullet screamed through the glass panel, sending shards and bit of glass flying everywhere and sending the offending Non-Humans to the ground. Navvi, of course, remained standing with little shards of glass peppering its hair. It was just following standard operating procedure, adjusted for a robot. In theory, Navvi would just stand there and countdown until the target fled a certain distance, surrendered, or posed a serious threat to other people. In this case, it was Oscar's harried order that cut the countdown short.

"--Prepare to be detained."

Without a second of hesitation after that statement, Navvi began stepping toward the one psychic implaccably, ignoring the other two. After a few steps, that sentiment would change. A hiss on its right side and the next thing Navvi would find was that its right arm was beginning to sizzle and pop. The reptile impersonater had hocked one on Navvi and now a significant portion of Navvi's arm was in danger of falling off. This distracted the robot enough to make it pause, giving the Speedster an opportunity to deliver a high speed kick.

Navvi was sent hurtling backwards into a table, crashing through it and causing its right arm to fully fall off. Out of sight, Navvi's severed arm dissolved into a grey mass before dissipating completely. They laughed when Navvi just layed there for a second, confident in their quick victory.

"... You have been identified as Non-Humans. Prepare to be detailed as well."

They stopped when Navvi spoke up again, surprised that a corpse could talk. Instead it rose like so many zombies and looked them straight in the eye. Their actions and abilities had been noted and Navvi was making the necessary adjustments. Its remaining hand touched the ground and a crater began to form below and around Navvi as it absorbed the matter of the floor into its body, regrowing its arm in the process as well.

The Speedster made another rush at Navvi, attempting to punch Navvi in the face. Unfortunately he would find Navvi's mass and density greatly increased. In layman's terms, Navvi was no longer as punch-able and now his hand was broken. As he screamed in pain, Navvi made a hand chop at the man's throat and neck, knocking him out.

The Reptile hocked another one out of panic, which was caught in Navvi's hand. The acid-coated hand and fingers were immediately detached and regrown as the android walked closer. Reptile panicked at the sight and started spitting like a combination smoker/sprinkler only to miss or have Navvi sacrifice its hand to block the attack. As soon as Navvi got within arm's length, it gripped the Spitter by the neck and slammed his head into the table, putting him out of commission. All that was left was the Psychic.

[Oscar Leonhardt]

While Navvi was fighting the tattooed mutant’s associates, said mutant was determined to have an impact today while slowly backing away from the shockingly powerful android. As such, while his team-mates were down, so too was Oscar, if in a different way. Inside the coffee shop, the hooded mutant had begun running from Navvi, glancing back should he need to dodge anything thrown at him and heading for the back entrance into the establishment. He planned on jumping straight onto his powerful engined motorbike, for once forced to flee from capture by unforeseen circumstances – the appearance within government forces of an unidentifiable weapon.

The people running the coffee shop were huddled together behind the counter, praying that the fight wouldn’t come their way. Outside, Oscar was staring blankly at the rough pavement, gun rested on the sidewalk next to him. A deep and unnatural sense of loss enveloped him and he wouldn’t then realize that the telepath had stripped him of defining memories of his sister to such a degree that he wouldn’t know to recognize her as that. Along with them went various childhood moments and anything else associated directly with her at the time, even a word she’d taught him one day as they were having dinner.

Another thing Oscar couldn’t remember was what he was doing here today. Assaulted by a splitting headache and feeling emotionally unbalanced without knowing why, he got up from the ground and returned the gun to its holder. His mind was latent in its responses to anything. The shattered glass, the panicking people on the street and their eyes poised on him in fear, question and accusation wasn’t something he knew how to respond to. Regardless, he recognized the potential danger, returned the gun to his hand and pressed his back against the wall of the coffee shop. He felt like he was going to be sick and some form of inner panic was building in him quite irrationally.

He had lost something very important and he couldn’t tell what.

[Navvi]

The Psychic ran right past Navvi, the android's grey eyes following him as he past through the coffee shop without Navvi in pursuit, at least initially. Looking back at Oscar, it saw that the agent was finally back on his feet and his gun was back in his hand. The man was pressed up against the wall in a suitable covered position should the Psychic have had a more conventional method of attack. Aside from the panicked look on his face, Oscar seemed to be okay enough for Navvi to leave him alone.

"Commencing pursuit of suspect, sir."

Navvi turned in the direction that the Psychic had fled and calmly walked after him at a brisk pace. Passing the innocent patrons behind the counter, Navvi faced them on its way out, pausing briefly.

"Please, remain hidden until the suspect is apprehended. The man outside is an officer you can trust."

That was Navvi's form of reassurance before it pushed open the door and into the back alley behind the shop to the sound of an engine revving. Not too far to Navvi's side, the Psychic was starting up a motorbike. He looked back at his persuer, smiled as he revved the engine again, then the wheels squealed as the man started off in an attempt at escape.

Instead of giving into a foot chase, because Navvi wasn't exactly designed with speed in mind, it planted its foot in the concrete started siphoning material into its body. Immediately, its arm came up, palm out, and shot out towards the speeding motorbike. Looking back, the Psychic saw a silvery tendril baring down on him.

His attempt at acceleration failed and the tendril made contact with his back, quickling engulfing his entire torso in a silver metal "vest" that yanked him clean off the bike. The vehicle sped and swerved awhile longer before smashing into a dumpster, leaving the man to slam into the concrete, trapped in Navvi's hold while it reeled him back in like a fresh catch at the lake. As much as the man struggled, Navvi would not let go and no mental assault would help his situation.

"Please cease your struggling. Further violence would rather be avoided."

[Oscar Leonhardt]

When Navvi informed Oscar that it was “commencing pursuit of the suspect” his first impulse was to ask “What?” But it came after a moment of confusion and the android was already gone. Still rather disoriented by the sudden memory loss and unknown aspect of the situation, Oscar looked after Navvi, having to dig for a moment within his fractured memory to remember who or what Navvi was. Mercifully, that collection of recollections was untouched but what the heck was he doing out of the DNCS with him? The memory of having planned this mission came to him in stages but why were they already out and why couldn’t he remember how they had gotten here?

All of his questions had only one possible answer. Something must have happened to him and he couldn’t worry about it now. The frightened shop owners inside gave Navvi a sight of their terrified eyes, shrinking on the spot as reaction to anything or anyone approaching them before they started to consider his words. Navvi resumed pursuit, and seeing that they had an opening, they rushed up and around the counter, running from the store they had been held hostage in for the last few hours. They saw Oscar and his pistol and remained hesitantly by his side. “S-sir, what were those things?” They huddled against each other. One of them looked like she shook more than her male colleague. “I kept hearing this v-voice in my mind and I couldn’t t-think most of the t-time.”

Oh fuck. It sounded like a telepath and Oscar hated those, but the idea did offer a suggestion to his own condition. He looked through the window and pointed at the downed pair. “Were those troublemakers too?” The shop owners nodded in unison. He touched on of them on the arm. “Stay here, okay? Everything will be alright.” Or so he hoped. The situation suggested that all of the operation rested in the hands of the android he had no trust for. By the looks of the unconscious duo on the ground and the general mess in the coffee shop, the android was exceeding his expectations. Oscar past the threshold and kneeled by the first of the knocked out mutants, his gun back in its holder and a set of handcuffs coming to replace it. In his other hand he had a communication device akin to a bulky phone. He used it to contact central and ask for proper “transport cells” to be sent to their location.

While Navvi dealt with the psychic, Oscar cuffed the downed men and injected doses of sedative every operator carried around into exposed necks. The last thing he needed was for one of them to awaken and cause more trouble. On Navvi’s side, the psychic ceased his struggle when he noticed the futility the android informed him about. His eyes were daggers and he muttered under his breath. “You’ll be sorry for this.” And he wasn’t necessarily talking to Navvi, but his captors at large. He couldn’t be contained for long, not with a power like his and he would make sure to cause a lot of harm.

Reinforcements would come eventually to pick up the mutants, the general public would be told they were very dangerous, new age weapons wielding terrorists, the psychic didn’t intend to struggle anymore so long as he was threatened by the android’s grasp (and Navvi’s superiors would insist he carry the mutant personally in the military truck equipped with various forms of holding cells that came to pick the mutants up) and Oscar would spend the whole trip wondering why on earth he felt like something in his life had gone drastically wrong.

Back at central, after the mutant was simply execute for being a threat that couldn’t be contained (much to his surprise, for he had expected to be granted some sort of imprisonment instead), Oscar sought out Navvi again. While most of the DNCS present at the time of the dangerous mutant’s apprehension and condemnation celebrated the end of that threat and congratulated Oscar at every stop for a great catch and left him no choice but to thank them while expressing that it was in no small measure Navvi’s triumph, Oscar came to where the android was.

He paused before it. “You performed well on the mission,” he told the sophisticated machine, meaning it as a compliment and not quite sure how to continue the started conversation. His eyes shifted to the side and one of his hands came to rub the back of his neck with some discomfort. “What happened during the mission, Navvi? I mean. I don’t remember how we got there or anything else before you told me you were pursuing someone.” The tall man looked right and left, uncertain why he desired his words shared with the android to remain confidential. “Also, thank you. For having my back.” Even if Navvi was just doing what it was programmed to do, Oscar felt compelled by persistent forces to treat it with some respect.


((Sorry I’m such a fail at this thread. I moved the action a little away from the arrest moment because I didn’t know what else to do with it. If you don’t like it and want it changed, tell me what you’d prefer instead. Also let me know if I assumed anything I shouldn't have.))

[Navvi]

Although the Psychic never told anyone, not that he had any real chances or desire to do so, he had seen something that could possibly have been a little disturbing, had he been in the right frame of mind. While being dragged back to the coffee shop where his comrades were being cuffed by Oscar, and after he had issued his vague threat to Navvi and the world as a whole, Navvi actually looked at the man dragging behind it. Its face looked normal, straight and unemotive, for a moment before a sinister glint passed through its eyes and a tiny grin formed. The look disappeared by the time they arrived back at the coffee shop.

The rest of the operation, the wrap-up, went by according to protocol. The transport vehicles showed up eventually with extra men and the proper equipment to find Oscar keeping an eye on the two sedated Non-Humans and Navvi still keeping a silver cocoon around the Psychic, periodically giving him a squeeze if he seemed to be getting out of hand.

The ride back in one of the transports seemed kind of awkward, if Navvi could have felt that kind of sensation. The containment cell for individual Non-Humans was small enough as it was. Having Navvi hold onto the Psychic while being transported made sure that neither of them had much room to move in there, though Navvi could not have cared less and spent the entire ride staring at the man without blinking a single time.

Navvi held onto the Psychic for nearly the entire time up until the man's execution. They felt that, given that they were back at the department, there was plenty of manpower, firepower, and equipment to keep the man subdued without Navvi's aid. The robot was immediately dismissed back to the R&D lab to stand in its containment room, hooked up to several data mining machines via very large cables coming out the back of its neck. It was there that Oscar arrived to congratulate his "partner". Navvi's reaction was to be expected. Emotionless. Technical.

"This one performed within the expected parameters as ordered by the user. Nothing exceptional, sir."

Navvi looked away from Oscar for a moment before continuing. Seeming to try and recount the event in its own head before telling Oscar.

"You and this one were assigned to seek out the whereabouts of a Non-Human fugitive in a public space. The individual was located in the coffee shop along with two others, whom revealed themselves to be Non-Humans as well.

This was proceeded to apprehend the three while you were incapaciated via unseen methods. Signs point to a psychic assault from the Non-Human being executed currently. This one believes you were conscious for the remainder of the operation."

It blinked once before replying further, seeming surprised.

"No thanks are necessary, sir."

[Oscar Leonhardt]

The information provided by Navvi was short and to the point. Oscar had figured as much from the details that he became aware of later. Still, he couldn’t help but feel that something was missing. His eyes narrowed in concentration, gaze facing away from the android. There was something beyond his reach that was very important, a gaping hole that needed to be filled, and Navvi’s words did nothing to feed it understanding. Oscar sighed, closed his eyes, and let it go. Whatever it was that he was feeling, this unnatural sense of loss and missing details, was probably due to the trauma of the psychic’s mental intrusion. Given his mutant file, Oscar was quite lucky to be sitting here today.

The android dismissed his thanks and Oscar could almost swear the flash of surprise passed through its features, creeping him out, but he gave it no mind – not more than usual, anyway. People really needed to make robots look like something else, instead of giving them such a distinctly human appearance. If God had created man in His image, clearly man was exhibiting the same desire to create something of his likeness in turn.

“Very well, that will be all, Navvi.” Oscar nodded his head to the android and seemed poised to leave. Conversing with machinery wasn’t going to become his hobby. It was unnerving enough to have to do it while working. In any case, he suffered quite a lack of knowing what to say. As such, the day had ended and he would have to do something about the strange feeling it had left him with.