What had been days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years. Years turned into decades. Decades turned into centuries. What would have been several generations of humans was merely the blink of an eye to the protopilot and the teachers
It was almost the seventh century that the Cyan Marine had made its escape. And since then, the three who were on board had traveled the vast reaches of space; almost never had there been a dull moment for any of them.
Mage sat upon a crate; typing something into her purple feather. Sae leaned over the smaller robot curiously. She hadn't seen Mage use this feather at all; not even on any of their adventures on terrestrial planets.
"I've never asked," she tried to initiate a conversation, "but what exactly is the purple feather for?"
"Eh?" Mage looked up, and upon realizing she was being asked a question, went back to work. "This is my documentation drive. I usually update this thing every ten years. It's my way of recording things." although she didn't mention what exactly for. Seeing she wasn't going to get more out of the smaller teacher, Sae decided to leave her be.
Over the long journey, MAGE had become considerably mellower with the trio, but it didn't keep her from going into a rage if they crossed paths with a BnL Star Liner. It seemed that after their escape, Shelby Forthwright didn't hesitate in telling the BnL fleet that one of their old spaceships had gone rogue and was potentially dangerous. The first time they had crossed paths, it had been a security ship, and their greeting was a shower of lasers. The older ship was strangely more maneuverable than the newer one, and was able to fly to safety; but it was still unnerving that for a few good years, all humans had a "seek and destroy" image stamped into their heads about the Cyan Marine.
Mage typed up a few more things into the feather before sticking it back in its rightful spot. With a heavy sigh she putted over to the Ships Wheel.
"Hey… Otua, how are you feeling today?"
There was silence for a moment. Then Mage noticed text appearing on the screen she was now accustomed to reading.
-Everything on board is okay. The ship has been stabilized on solar and dust energy for the past centuries.-
"I didn't mean the ship," Mage seemed a bit irritated, "I meant you."
There was silence, from both the wheel and the screen. Mage blinked; unsure of how to handle the situation, she turned to Sae, who rolled up next to the bird and asked the question again.
"Otua, Mage is worried about you.. aren't you going to answer?" Sae tapped the side of the computer screen that the text always appeared on.
"I-am…." There was a pause in the robotic voice, "I-am …sad."
"Eh?" Mage seemed offended by what was spoken by the protopilot. "Is it that same dumb thing that happened so many centuries ago that's still got you down?"
Sae's eyes flickered to her sad ones. She knew what Mage was talking about. Despite the fact that Otua was an older model than both of them, she had an uncanny knack for remembering things. Even Mage had to type things into her system for safe keeping.
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"Oi! What's the big deal?!" Mage was tossed head over heels as the Cyan Marine was hit with a barrage of small shots. "First it was the security ship! Now it's a freaking Buy and Bucket star liner!"
"Not just any!" Sae grabbed a hold of the bird with one arm and clung to a protrusion in the wall to keep balance. "Autopilot! What're they doing?!"
"Enemy-fire-from-friendly-source" the autopilot exclaimed.
"NO DUH!" Mage hollered back, "BUT WHY ARE THEY SHOOTING AT US?!"
"Receiving-transmission"
Almost right after the autopilot spoke a screen appeared behind above the bridge window. A man in a naval uniform and a stark white Autopilot with a red eye were glaring back at them.
"Now hear this!" The human said, "The CEO of Buy and Large has deemed you, the crew of the Cyan Marine, to be rogues who have sto-" he paused, "Wait a minute, where is the crew?"
"Captain," The white autopilot said, "It seems we are talking to the crew."
"But… there's only three of them, and they're all robots!" He peered at the Autopilot of the Cyan Marine. "One of them looks like you too Auto!"
"Nonsense," Auto replied, "The autopilot division does not have a manufactured type like that one. That is a protopilot; it is an outdated type of Autopilot. It is probably the reason why the fleet of Cyan Marines was destroyed; it is not good enough in today's age for it to function. It is the exact opposite of myself."
"Hey One Eye!" Mage spat back, "Who're you calling unfit?! If it were up to me, I'd say YOU'RE the one who's unfit! Look at you! You're the Buy and Large's lap dog!"
"Not possible," the Autopilot returned the argument, "You three are destined for deactivation, if the captain gives the order… captain?"
The captain had seemed to have lost his energy for accusing the three robots. He seemed.. reluctant?
"No Auto…" the captain gave his order, "These are not the kinds of people that Shelby had told us were on the Cyan Marine. We are to let them go."
"But-"
"That is an ORDER!" The captain directed his glare on the steering wheel. "I don't remember you running the ship! Deactivate the guns now, and give the message to the other BnL ships; the Cyan Marine is not to be harmed!"
There was a stagnant silence for a good moment. The white wheel then "nodded".
"It shall be done Captain." The Autopilot spoke.
"Very well," the captain smiled and saluted to the trio, "Cyan Marine, you are now free in our space, good luck!"
The transmission cut off. Mage and Sae let out sighs of relief. It was cut off as the "protopilot" spoke again.
"Incoming-Data"
On the other screen akin to the one the protopilot used for speaking, a list of data began to spill in. SAE dropped MAGE and began to immediately record the data that was scrolling across the screen.
"Oi, give me a warning next time will ya?" Mage griped as she righted herself. "What is that stuff?"
"It's our registration for the BnL fleet." Sae said happily, "It's to show that we're okay in their territories. Lets see…."
Ship's Classification: Ally
Ship's Make: Cyan Marine
Ship's Captain: MAGE-Class Robot
Ship's Autopilot: OTUA
"Bummer, I'm not on the list…" Sae said disappointedly.
"Never mind that!" Mage seemed preoccupied, "What's with the word OTUA?"
"Eh…" Sae was even puzzled, "Typo?"
-No… I believe that is the name that the Captain has given me… I see that it is his Autopilots name spelled backwards… the exact opposite….-
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"Why do you keep letting that get under your skin so much?" Mage tried to reason with the protopilot. "Just because Auto lives in a shinier ship and has more bells and whistles doesn't mean he's any better than you."
-It's just….-
"No arguing!" Sage took Mage's side. "Otua, you really need to drop it all. Like Mage said, it's been several centuries since that snotty Autopilot talked smack about you; I bet that he's getting his dues."
-But…-
MAGE sighed with a hint of irritation, "Look Otua, it's almost been twelve hours since we all started up, I say we shut down for the night… we can talk about this pity party later."
And without further argument, the little robot dashed out of the room. Sae wasn't sure what to do in the situation. Obviously Otua was troubled, but she wasn't sure how to handle the problem. Thankfully, she was answered before she started.
-I think Mage is right.. I believe that I am fatigued. Maybe a few hours of sleep mode will be able to knock these bad memories out of my system for awhile. Good night Sae-
Sae didn't know what to say to the sudden hush. But agreeing with Otua seemed to be the best solution.
"Good night to you to Otua…." She began to roll out of the room. As she was in the doorway, she looked over her shoulder; Otua's blue eye was already dimmed, an obvious sign of sleep mode.
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Dark bleak blue lined the walls. Streams of a deeper shade of blue ran along the edges of the room… what was this place? She looked around curiously. Where was she? She felt her heart pounding; something was wrong.
Heart pounding?
She looked down at herself and her jaw (jaw?) dropped. She was human! Or, at least, somewhat human. She could still only see in blue hues. And she felt an unbalance in her shoulders. Looking down at her left arm, she found it replaced loosely by the small heat cannon that would have been her left handle. She admired herself in awe for a moment before someone broke the silence.
"You think you are better now?" it was a voice she knew all too well.
"A-Auto?" she choked, she was amazed that she could speak without limitation.
"Yes, it is me…" Otua turned around to face the white and black wheel. His red eye was glaring right at her.
"Wh-what… why are you here?"
"Why are you here?" Auto repeated, "You are unfit to exist. You shouldn't exist…"
"Just because I don't have the functions you do.." she became alarmed, "Does that already make me unable to function? Unable to live?"
"You are unable to live. It was only because of Mage and Sae that you are still alive. You were going to melted down to join the rest of your brothers and sisters. "
"B-but.." she was having trouble finding a voice," Just because… "
"There are no excuses." Auto cut her off, "There are only rules. You have broken all the rules in this game of machinery. Not to mention you relied on robots that are just as faulty as you are."
"LEAVE THEM OUT OF THIS!" She shouted back, "They saved my life!"
"Life… machines have no life. We are here for the sake of man, for the sake of man's survival."
"Bullocks!" Otua almost tripped over herself as she ran up to Auto, "I live for the sake of myself and my friends!"
"Perhaps then, you will enjoy this part of living then; it is called pain." Auto seemed to develop a sarcastic tone to his otherwise monotone voice. Otua saw her superior's right handle open and with sudden quickness he jabbed his tazer arm into the core upon her torso.
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Otua hit her head as she started up. If she were human, she would have been hyperventilating. She looked around the room. There was no one on the control deck. That was right; Mage and Sae had already gone and shut down for the night. She could feel her feather handles shaking uncontrollably; she could hear the unkempt metal of her shell creaking from her shivers.
Nightmares… she seemed to have them a lot lately.
