Riah yelled in terror as two turians suddenly came flying out of Varlus' front door, one of them sporting a large bloody wound on his face. The two turians, which she identified as belonging to the 12th Floor Rippers gang by their face-markings, got to their feet and ran off, the injured one stumbling and bleeding along the floor as he did.
"SHOPLIFTERS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!"
Riah jumped at the powerful booming voice, her head swiveling to turn at a giant mechanical monstrosity that loomed in Varlus' doorway. Her entire body went on edge at the sight of it and she quickly darted away as she heard it plod back into the store. Her heart yammered in her chest as she noticed other people had been shocked by the machine's appearance and its violent removal of two would-be shoplifters. A few of them muttered amongst themselves and gossiped about it while somewhere down the street she noticed someone already spraying the ground with water and cleaning up the bloody trail the Ripper had left. She leaned against a wall as she tried to calm herself down, robots had always scared her, a deep racial fear that had been burned into her, and seeing a giant robot so suddenly and act so violent had really rattled her. She hung her head and pulled her hood and fists over her eyes as she regained control of her breathing.
"See Varlus' new toy?"
Riah turned to look at Old Vally, the very old run-down asari that ran the equally old and equally run-down clothing store that sat next to Varlu's. She laughed at Riah's nod, the huge gap in her teeth visible. Riah sometimes found the old asari humorous but right now couldn't quite deal with her, she turned and peered through one of the windows of Varlus' shop, the machine standing near Varlus' counter and swilling its head from side to side.
"That's first blood!" she laughed, "First time it's cut someone. Before that it's been scaring some of the local troublemakers straight, those two Rippers were the first idiots to actually try something."
Riah hummed, "Did you see what happened?"
"No," Old Vally responded, "But I heard it. You ever seen a chainsaw? I think it has one of those, I heard it rev up; I think that's what gave that Ripper his little shave."
"Sure…" Riah remembered the Ripper she saw run away, her memory gave her the impression that he'd received more than a "little shave", one of his jaw flanges was probably completely removed. "Is it safe though? Has it attacked any normal shoppers?"
"No dearie," she asari assured her, "It's scared away a few customers from its look, but it hasn't hurt anyone that didn't deserve it. Unless it hates quarians, you should be fine."
Riah didn't tell her that some companies were known to program their security drones with species-profiling programs. In all likelihood the machine in there would automatically tag her as a shoplifter. If it were up to her she'd just turn around and head back home and message Varlus after a few days and ask how many innocent customers his robot mauled before stepping foot inside his store. But it wasn't up to her; her mother had sent her to pick up an expansion device for their refrigerator, something that needed to be done today if they wanted to preserve some of their foodstuffs. She sighed, felt her heart rate finally calm down and realized she had settled down after the initial fright. She looked into the store, saw Varlus waddling around and struggling to reach some of his own stock on the shelves and noticed a distinct lack of violence from his robotic servant. It was probably safe.
Riah ducked beneath the store's window when the machine inside turned to directly turn at her.
It'd taken her several minutes after that for Riah to muster up her courage to enter her favorite electronics, hardware and eight-hand junk store. She'd nearly jumped out of her suit when the machine turned to look at her and spoke in a deep rumble.
"SHOPLIFTERS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED."
Riah felt the shelves nearly break as she immediately backed into them, attempting to put as much distance between herself and the thing as possible and failing. It stood there, its glowing eyes trained on her as she imagined that her ancestors had met their ends just like she was about to, with her neck crushed beneath a machine heel. She silently muttered a plea to her ancestor, asking if they'd be so kind as to let her enjoy the afterlife even after abandoning the Migrant Fleet. She clenched her eyes shut and awaited what would most likely be a death that could be described as a terrible joke.
Did you hear the one about the quarian shoplifter who was killed by the robot security guard?
"Riah!" Varlus wheezed and causing her to jump slightly, "My most valued customer!" He wheezed out a short laugh, his laughter sounding like a dying engine, "Say hello to my new muscle, Fist! Fist," he said as he gently patted the machine on its club like arm, "say hello to Riah."
The machine stood silently.
"HELLO RIAH. SHOPLIFTERS WILL NOT BE TOELRATED."
Varlus wheezed in laughter.
"Enough of that! Riah, you're here for your computer chip right?" He turned and began to waddle back to his desk while Riah suffered a bout of panic, her fingers clutching the shelves behind her as her heart once again hammered away in her chest. She darted over behind Varlus, silently thanking the ancestors for making her suit take care of the result of all her bodily functions.
"Keelah! What is that thing Varlus!" she hissed at an appropriate distance away from the menace, "Where did you get it? Is it safe?" A terrifying thought suddenly struck her. "It's not alive is it?!"
"What?!" Varlus yelled, startling Riah even more. "No!" he sucked in more air than usual, "No it's not an..." he looked around his store before responding in a whisper, "It's not an AI. And keep your voice down, I don't need people overhearing a quarian rant about an AI on station. It'll be bad for business. The top floors would come down on me hard if they even suspected… No, it's not what you suspect it is. It's just a regular old security drone. I know this for sure."
"How?" Riah asked, trying to keep her eyes on both Varlus and the thing in the store.
"Because I put in the CPU myself, an old ERCS security drone like the ones the top floors use. It's nothing more than a simple, slightly modified security mech brain in there."
"Slightly modified?" Riah prodded.
Varlus pointed a finger at the machine, Riah followed his finger and saw the wicked looking chainsaw that ran along the left arm of the machine which occasionally revved up and sputtered out black smoke.
"ERCS mechs don't have those built-in as standard. Had to change the programming a bit to let it use it effectively. If you want to know more, you could ask Santi, he built it-"
"He what!" Riah snapped, "The boy built this thing? How?"
"Ask him. He came in here a few days after you brought him, asked me if he could buy old junk. Built it out of scraps. But enough of that, let's talk money. You're here for your graphics chip, the faster I get it in your hands the faster I get paid."
Riah hummed in agreement, "Yes, give me my baby! Oh, and I need an expansion device for a model 2002 Chitan Appliances refridgerator."
The small volus had already jumped off of his chair and waddled into his back room, though he still continued their conversation through shouts. "What's the matter, fridge out?"
"Yes Varlus," Riah yelled back, "The old garbage you call a working appliance you sold to my mother is already broken. Are you surprised your junk breaks down?"
"Ha." She heard him wheeze, "Can't work your quarian magic and patch it up together by yourselves?"
"Quarian salvage magic can't beat volus greed. I know all about planned obsolescence Varlus. Do you have the part or not?"
"You wound me," another wheeze accompanied by the sounds of equipment lockers opening. "Yes, I have one. Oh, it's on the top shelf. This'll take a while."
Riah snorted, the mental image of the short volus going off and finding a step ladder to reach the top shelf running through her mind. As she stood there alone with the machine her fear give way to curiosity and she took a moment to better examine the thing.
The machine was huge, taller than a krogan and looked as if it out massed one by a wide margin. A few pipes ran from the front of its chest all the way to its back, bursts of smoke blasting out as its chest rumbled and sputtered, and occasional blue flashes of misaligned kinetic barriers flaring up from somewhere inside the torso. It had oddly proportioned limbs; wiry upper arms and legs ending in oversized lower limbs, huge clawed hands that could probably crush a krogan's head in a single grip. Its head was a small tiny dome with flashlight eyes that stuck out at odd angles, a piece of hardware she recognized from old security drones that used to be used in asteroid prospecting. It was armored with pieces she recognized as doors from air-cars, old security guard armor, or salvaged airlock doors. She couldn't tell what Varlus was talking about; it seemed like what she'd expect someone would armor a salvaged security drone with. She had to admit that she was quite impressed considering the boy's complete lack of technical knowledge. How a moron who couldn't fix a simple omni-tool problem could build this terrifying machine was a secret she didn't care to figure out since that would require interaction with the two humans.
"By the way," the junkseller walked back into the storefront, his hands full with Riah's two purchases. "How about I take 100 credits off of your graphics chip if you do me a favor?"
She found the woman, Katja, at her house talking to her mother and watching some show programming. The woman had told her that her "son" was next door in their own house and given her the keys to enter. Riah thought it was mighty foolish of the woman to give her access to her living unit so easily, but didn't mention that for two simple reasons. Firstly was that she owed them access to her home given all the time she spent in Riah's, and secondly because of what she planned to do next.
She'd walked across the hall, used their key code and walked into their living unit for the first time. She immediately noticed the lack of possessions in the apartment. Only a couch, blankets and pillows strewn all over it, a shelf with a few items and a single drawing stood in the living room. Other than that, it looked as if the humans owned next to nothing; this didn't surprise Riah since she'd heard that humans were some of the poorest people in space, only out impoverished by some of the other species on their homeworld. She did notice all the painting along the walls, which looked like some sort of graffiti.
"Hello?"
Santi looked up from whatever he was doing on the ground, startled by her voice. Riah stood at the entrance to his room or workshop or shrine, she couldn't exactly figure out what it was that she was looking at. She saw a simple bed over in a corner with a heater hanging over it; she saw several parts from several different types of machines scattered around the floor and shelves and table; she saw several tools, welders, saws, micro-fabbers, computers, hammers, wrenches, spanners; she saw a metal skeleton suspended by heavy chains that hung from a wall; she saw several candles and the same smeared paint all over the walls that spelled out things in a language she couldn't read. Santi stood up from his spot, a tool falling out of his lap as he did so and clanking loudly on the floor.
"What are you doing here?"
Riah just glared at him, tossing the item Varlus had given to her to deliver in his direction. He barely managed to catch it, giving her an inquiring look in response.
"I was at Varlus'." She shrugged. "You built that thing he's got?"
She glanced over at the other drone, stuff dripping from its mouth.
"Yeah. What about it?" he responded. She had to hand it to the human, ever since that day on the elevator he was much less willing to put up with her. They both disliked each other and made that very clear whenever their respective guardians weren't watching.
"I was just wondering how you built it." She said, examining the thing more closely. "And how much it cost you to make one."
Santi shrugged. "Your mom lent me around 1,000," Riah's eyebrows shot up in surprise and wondered just how angry her ancestors were with her mother throwing out that type of money to strangers, "I bought lots of pieces from Varlus."
"Are they AIs?" Riah asked, somewhat sure of the answer. Varlus knew his computer programming, and if he said it was old ERCS tech then it was at best a limited form of VI. She just wanted to confirm with the boy.
"These aren't AIs," Santi responded immediately, going back to his work and turning away from her.
"Mmmh," Riah hummed, "That's what you say."
"It's the truth," he shot back, "Not what I say. I just took an old chip from some old security robots Varlus had laying around and tweaked it a bit. Now what are you doing here? I doubt you brought me this part out of the kindness of your heart, so what do you want?"
Riah smiled underneath her mask. "I want in. This business you've got going, building drones out of junk and selling them off for profit, I want in."
Santi gave her a long flat stare. "Why would I do that?"
"Have you forgotten the hospitality my mother has shown you and yours?" she asked.
"No, I haven't. And I've already repaid that hospitality in full. When Varlus bought my first golem he paid me enough that I was able to repay your mother for everything she's given us."
Riah honestly had no response to that, she genuinely didn't know the humans had done such a thing. Still, she pushed on, "Ok, fine. But I can help you. You paid 1,000 for junk from Varlus? I guarantee you could get you more parts for the same amount of money from quarians. Most of us are hoarders, keeping and reusing old pieces of junk on the hope that we'll fix them again. Like the Migrant Fleet. You offer them anything for their junk and they'll take that offer because its better than they'll get anywhere else. Do you follow?"
Santi at least looked like he was concidering her words.
"But you can't ask them can you?" she said as she walked over to him, "You're a human, an unknown. They don't trust you. But what if you had a quarian on the inside… perhaps the daughter of a well-known member of our little community working on your side? Well, you'd suddenly find your potential suppliers much more agreeable to working with you, wouldn't you?"
"Or, you can stay here, alone, trying to buy junk pieces from people who will always overcharge you and thereby cut into your profits and turn down my help. Or, we go into this as partners, and I help you tap into a huge source of resources, you get to make more of these "golems" of yours and make more money. And then we share… 30 70." She purposefully went with a low number, she knew she had no reason to be greedy; according to Santi the sale of the first robot was enough to pay back her mother for the initial 1k plus the costs of all the previous help they'd been given. Even 10% of that was more than her mother earned in a month."
Santi sat there with a contemplative look on his face.
"You sure?" he asked, as Riah nodded. "You could get me cheaper parts?"
"The cheapest. I guarantee us suit rats have got trash lying around that you'd love. Think of the money you'd make," she went on, "Think of all the things you could afford, of all the presents you could buy your mother." She went to the bait, hoping Santi was just the sort of loser who could be manipulated through his mother.
It seemed as if he was.
"Alright," he said hesitantly, "you'll set up a meeting with a quarian, someone you think will be willing to sell some scrap to us. If it goes well, then yeah, you're in. Deal?"
"Of course," Riah said, hopefully not sounding too eager. "I can get that ready in a few hours . You won't regret this."
"Fine," Santi said before turning and going back to work on his other drone.
Riah smiled and nearly skipped on the way back to her home, her mother and Katja asking her what got her in such a good mood.
Riah didn't respond as she jumped into her bed, opening her omni-tool and looking through her contact list. There were a few things on this miserable station that made her happy. One was money, and the other was taking advantage of fools.
And now she'd found a way to get both.