Joel sensed someone standing really close to him and sensed something uncomfortably close to his face. He opened one blue eye to see Crow's golden face staring at him, his beak just millimeters from Joel's nose. "Gah!" He sat upright with a start. "Crow! What're you doing?"

"Watching you... what's the word Gypsy used... uh... 'Sleep'! I'm watching you sleep. You're weird."

"I'm weird?!"

"Yeah, who uses a pad of paper as a pillow?"

Joel had fallen asleep on the desk of the bridge. The sketchpad left smudges of graphite on the side of his face. Using his sleeve he wiped at his face. "How long have I been asleep?"

"I dunno."

"How long were you watching me?" He rubbed his tired eyes as he spoke.

"About six hours."

"Six hours? Why were you watching me sleep anyway?"

"You were making strange sounds and it looked like you were moving but you weren't moving. I don't get it."

"That's called 'breathing' Crow, all humans and all multicelled organisms for that matter, breathe."

"Oh."

"You're not going to make a creepy habit out of watching me sleep, are you?"

"I don't know. Depends on how bored I get I guess." Crow looked at the smeared image on the sketchpad. "What's that?"

Joel was now fully awake thanks to Crow. "That's the next robot." He used the pencil's eraser to clean up the smudged image and held it up for Crow to see.

"ANOTHER one? Three isn't enough?" He stared at the odd image briefly.

"Well, Gypsy is busy taking care of the ship's main functions..." He looked around the bridge. "Where is she by the way?"

"In the control room. She said something about keeping the oxygen flowing, or not flowing, I wasn't paying attention..."

Joel chose the optimistic outlook and continued. "As I was saying, Gypsy is busy taking care of the ship, Cambot is chronicling everything that happens up here and you... Well..."

"Well what?"

"Well, I'm not sure what you can do that the others can't. But I don't want you to feel left out or to get lonely."

"Lonely? Why would I get lonely when you're around?"

"Sometimes I may want to be alone, not that I don't already enjoy your company, but sometimes humans want to be left alone. Strictly a human thing!"

"So this new robot is going to be my friend?"

"OUR friend." Joel corrected.

"Right!" Crow replied coldly. "Like I could ever put up with another robot."

"We'll see about that." Joel voice had a note of humor as he picked up the gumball machine that had been sitting idle with the rest of the collected pieces.

Dr. Forrester returned to the bowels of Deep 13 wearing a fake handlebar mustache and a purple lab coat. After peeling the faux facial hair from his real facial hair, he casually took off the ironically ostentatious coat and through it across the lab. "Larry?" His lackey and cohort in the elaborate experiment was nowhere to be seen. "Larry! Show me your face!"

There was a loud crash from the vault hoarding the bad movie library, followed by a squealed utterance of 'Ow!'

"Larry?" Dr. Forrester slowly opened the slightly ajar vault door. "Is that you?"

Inside the vault, laying on the ground, wrapped in an ever expanding sea of loose film strip was Larry. He looked up at his superior through his crooked and fractured glasses. "I tripped."

"How many times?" He crossed his arms in defiant disappointment.

"Two."

"On purpose?"

"No!" He defended brazenly. "I mean..." He calmed his tone. "No."

"Good." He looked down at the strewn about mess. "You can clean this up later. For now we must make contact with Joel."

"Why? It isn't time for the experiment to begin yet!"

"No, and that's precisely why we must make contact."

"Huh?"

"The control readings Larry, the control."

"Oh, right."

Dr. Forrester made his way over the intricately designed control panel that allowed for transmissions, contact and general communication with the orbiting Satellite of Love. "Come in Joel! Where's my perky little space monkey?"

Back aboard the Satellite of Love Joel was busily connecting the wires to the proper computer boards that had been programmed and installed inside the newest robots body.

Above the bizarre doorway that lead into the theater, one of the three warning lights began flashing red. He didn't notice anything was amiss until Cambot started chirping at him.

"Cambot?" He looked up from the nearly completed robot. "What's wrong?"

Using his whole had Cambot motioned for Joel to look over his shoulder at the flashing light.

"What is that? Is someone trying to make contact?"

Cambot nodded quickly then switched on the live feed showing Dr. Forrester and Larry eagerly awaiting Joel's acknowledgement.

"Joel!" Dr. Forrester feigned his excitement upon seeing Joel's tried face. "There you are!"

"I thought you said I had five days before the experiments began! It's only been three days, what's going on?"

"Oh don't you worry your little head. Speaking of which, I would change that band aid if I were you, wouldn't want you to get an infection now would we?"

Joel absentmindedly began playing with the old band aid over his eye. "Can I help you guys with something or what?"

"Ah, yes." Dr. Forrester quickly shoved a clipboard with a blank medical chart mixed full of cliché and unusual questions, and a red pen into Larry's hands. "This is just a formality, but seeing as it's for science I need you to answer honestly."

"Just out of curiosity, what if I don't cooperate?"

"Then as I explained to you before I will turn off the oxygen or electrocute you."

"If I'm dead then how will you proceed with the experiment?"

Dr. Forrester was visibly rattled by such a logical question. Turning away from the camera he pondered a devious lie. "Then I guess I'll have to go with 'Plan B'."

"'Plan B'?"

"Yes. I'll simply irradiate the world's water supply and contaminate it with a mind control serum. Unfortunately many of the test subjects died after suffering... unfortunate... 'side effects'."

"Oh." Joel was certain that Dr. Forrester was lying, but he didn't want to take the chance and let billions of innocent people get hurt. "Well then, ask me the first question."

"Excellent! Larry, make a note of Joel's cooperation."

"Right." Larry scribbled something on the clipboard.

"Now," Dr. Forrester was ready to proceed with the questions. "Question 1: What is your full name?"

"Joel Robinson."

"No middle name?"

"What's my middle name got to do with the experiment?"

Dr. Forrester looked over his shoulder at Larry, who just shrugged in response. "Fair enough. Okay then... Question 2: How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-eight."

"Question 3: How tall are you?"

"Uh... Just under six feet, I think. And before you ask, I have no idea what my exact weight is."

"Skipping Question 4, Question 5: What is your blood type?"

"I have no idea."

"Question 6: Are you pregnant?"

"What? No! Shouldn't that be obvious!"

"Question 7: Have you ever been preg..." He cleared his throat. "Moving on, Question 8: When was the last time you were abducted by aliens?"

"Uh... I don't recall."

"That's not a good sign. Larry, make a note of it."

Larry silently did as he was instructed.

"Question 9: Have you ever had a compulsion to strip down to your 'skivvies' and howl at the moon?"

"No." The questions were starting to annoy Joel and it carried over in his voice.

"Final question for the day, Question 10: Do you now or have you ever had delusions of grandeur associated by late night vigilantism?"

"Not since I was nine."

"Alright 'boobie', this is all I need. For now. Go back to... whatever it is you're doing to pass the time."

Larry cleared his throat and gave Dr. Forrester a look that screamed 'Don't forget!'

"Oh, one last thing. Before the experiment in two days time, I would like you to present me with an example of your daily activity or hobbies while isolated. It could prove useful to identifying the truly worst film of all time."

"Yeah, sure. I guess I can do that."

"And I DON'T want to see those robots! I want to something NEW. Got it?"

"I got it! Geez!"

"Right. Ta-ta for now!" He pressed a button on the control panel effectively severing contact with Joel and the Satellite of Love.

Crow walked onto the bridge and looked up at Joel. A ginormous wad of bubble gum was lodged in Crow's beak. "Who was that dickweed?"

"That was Dr. Forrester. And where did you learn that word?"

Crow smacked the gum a couple times before answering. "I've always known it, I guess I learned it from you!"

"Oops. Oh well." He looked down at Crow. "You know, when I said you could have the bubble gum from the machine I didn't mean you could eat it all at once!"

"Well I did."

"Did you share any with Gypsy?"

"She didn't want any."

"Crow? Are you lying to me?"

"No..." There was deception in his tone.

"If you are lying to me and I find out, I'm going to have to punish you." Joel spoke in a 'dad-voice', a talent he didn't know he had.

"Maybe?" Crow changed his answer.

Joel just sighed and resumed his work on the fourth robot. "Please don't lie to me again Crow. I don't appreciate it."

"Sorry Joel." Crow replied sincerely.

Picking up the industrial epoxy, which Gypsy had to synthesize earlier in the day while also creating other drawn and designed pieces from Joel's sketchpad, Joel attached the white lampshade the bottom of a metal barrel like base that would act as a body. Insulation foam was attached the bottom of the lampshade and six blackened plastic, oblong shaped weights were placed at equal paces around the lampshade to help keep it balanced. A powerful motor and fan blade like contraption, one of the many electric components Joe had tinkered with the night before, was installed inside the lampshade and connected the computer memory boards inside the barrel body.

"What's that for?" Crow had been observing curiously, but still denying any potential friendship with the new robot.

"I couldn't come up with a plausible leg design for him, so I installed a mechanism that will allow him to hover instead."

"What about his arms?"

"Well, since he was the last to be built I sort of ran out of parts that could be used as working arms."

"No arms?"

"He'll have arms, but they'll only have an aesthetic function, nothing practical."

"Like a tattoo?"

"Something like that!" Joel laughed a little.

With the body now completed Joel was able to easily attach two plastic molds, formerly light fixtures from the game room, to the upper part of the body. The 'shoulders' were in place, but needed the arms. Taking two small black plastic tubes Joel attached small white dummy hands, provided of course by Gypsy, and then attached the complete arms to the shoulders.

"Looks okay, I guess." Crow commented coyly. "Too bad his arms are kind of lame!"

"Yeah, I think I'll redesign them soon. The black tubing is just so 'blah'!"

"That all well and good, but where's his HEAD?!"

"Take it easy! I was about to install the wires and attach it." True to his word Joel took the gumball machine and threaded the wires from the body through a longer, wider black tube that would act as expandable neck, and secured the head to the end of the tube. Carefully Joel tucked the tube down into the body until the head was resting ideally just above the shoulders.

"Is he done?"

"Almost." The once mountainous pile of collected scraps was now only a few bits of plastic, spare bolts and batteries. Securing a high powered battery pack to a plastic support with two heat exhaust ports, the final piece of the robots design was finally in place on the finished design.

"Now?"

"Color." Joel grabbed the remaining can of spray paint, which was a candy apple red. "Stand back please."

Crow obeyed and smacked on his gum in the process before finally swallowing the whole wad. He gagged a little before adding. "That was a bad idea..."

With precise, careful motion Joel sprayed the robots body and the exterior casing of the gumball machine a vivid shade of red. "There. Cambot, do you have a good shot?"

Cambot nodded.

Joel laid the robot down on the desk, careful not to touch or smudge the drying paint and flipped on the power switch. He sat the robot back upright as the red robot started moving his head back and forth. Though he didn't have eyes like Crow or even Gypsy, he seemed to be able to see perfectly well. "Hello?" His voice sounded uncharacteristically deep for someone, or better yet, something so small.

"Hi!" Joel responded happily. He leaned down and whispered to Crow, "When I redesign his arms I'll change his voice, too."

"Good idea."

The red robot repeated himself "Hello? Who are you? Can you understand me?"

"Oh, sorry!" Joel apologized. "I'm Joel, I created you. This is Crow,"

"Hi." Crow responded quickly.

"And that's Cambot," Joel pointed at the recording robot.

Cambot nodded as his only means to acknowledge his new friend.

"And Gypsy's around here somewhere." Joel continued. "Welcome to the Satellite of Love, my new friend. I'm going to call you... Servo!"

"Servo?" Crow looked up at Joel. "What's that stand for?"

"Nothing. I just like the way it sounds."

Servo chimed in. "That's a descent name, but I want something more robust! More manly! More... me..."

"Okay," Joel was really regretting giving the robots freewill at the point. "what did you have in mind?"

"Tom." He said proudly "I am TOM Servo! I like it!"

Joel just grinned at the absurdity his two latest robots seemed to share. "Alright, Tom Servo it is."

"Hey!" Crow interrupted. "How come Servo got to pick his name and I didn't?"

Joel put his hand on Crow's net. "Do you want to change your name?"

"No, I like Crow. But I'm adding a last name!"

"What's that?"

"Robot! Crow The Robot. Crow T. Robot for sure!"

"Uh, uh huh..." Joel didn't think that was as original as Tom, but didn't say anything.

Servo looked at his two new companions with his invisible eyes. "Great! Now that we have that matter settled... what's the Satellite of Love?"

"Oh, well, it's not a long story, but it is weird." Joel replied sincerely.

"Sounds good to me. I like weird!"

Just the Gypsy appeared on the bridge to report to Joel on the satellite's condition. "Everything is running..." She noticed Tom. "Oh my! You're new!"

"Hey, how's it going honey?"

Gypsy just stared, as only she could, at the unfamiliar red addition to the crew.

Joel gave Tom a funny look. "Let me guess, that particular phrase was already in your databank."

"Yeah. So?"

"So that means I programmed it. You learned it from me!"

"And?"

"And this whole experience has been an interesting reflection of my own personality and sense of humor."

Crow asked a very intriguing question."Is that why I know a bunch of random catchphrases, characters and trivial details about television shows, movies and songs that I've never even seen or heard?"

"Yeah," Joel admitted, blushing a little. "I wanted to fill you guys in on Earth's pop culture. It'll be easier for you to fit in if we ever escape the satellite and get back to Earth." Joel fell silent for a moment as the prospect of returning to Earth weighed on him.

Crow looked around uncomfortably as an awkward silence overtook the bridge. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No, of course not. We want to get back to Earth!"

"Then stop moping!"

"Right." Joel snapped back to reality and returned his attention to Tom Servo. "Anyway, Tom, let me fill you in on what's been going on and what is going to happen..."

Crow interrupted before Joel even began. "Hold on a second, can we have lunch first? I'm starving!"

...to be continued...