Mr. Exocomp

Posted on 29 May 2015 @ 7:27pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Petty Officer 1st Class Unit Cu-47 "Copper"

2,488 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Atlas - Main Engineering
Timeline: MD -01 - 1420 hrs

[ON]

Cooper zipped along the floor, speeding around consoles and flesh-machines; constantly using his proximity scans to plot his course and velocity. He was on an important task, one in which the flesh-machines seemed all but oblivious to. One flesh-machine changed direction suddenly and Copper instantly reconfigured his course by activating his anti-grav module and going over the Petty Officer's head, startling him and making him cry out in surprise.

Undeterred, Copper resumed his course along the floor of Main Engineering stopping a few meters from the entrance, where another green coloured flesh-machine had just entered. He replicated a thin metal 'arm' with a tiny clamp and extended it out to pluck a tissue someone must have inadvertently dropped on the floor. Copper blinked red lights suddenly at the closeness of the vacuumbot that had detected the same piece of garbage. For the third time today, Copper found himself in a standoff with the non-sentient machine bot. The little, nearly flat machine inched closer but stopped when Copper moved the same distance. Finally the vacuumbot took off straight for the tissue. Copper zoomed forward with his anti-grav module engaged while also projecting an image on his mini holo-display of a dog barking.

The vacuumbot spun around and took off in a different direction allowing Copper to pluck the tissue up off the floor. He opened a small receptacle on the side of his hull dropping the tissue inside before de-replicating the 'arm tool'. Copper was about to turn and leave when he came face-to-feet with a flesh-machine. A quick scan revealed it to be 'Unit Rear Admiral Lihra Saalm'.

As Lirha had strolled into the Sovereign-class' large engineering bay, she wasn't quite sure what she'd just witnessed transpiring on the floor in front of her. It'd taken her a few moments to notice the cleaning bot on the ground attempting to recover a piece of tissue paper, but then suddenly, what appeared to be an exocomp had arrived and essentially chased off the smaller robot. The rear admiral had never personally seen an exocomp before and had only read of their recent inclusion into the UFP, and she was now quite fascinated to actually see one in action.

"Well, hello there," she said to the the small machine with a pleasant smile, not quite sure how to introduce herself or what to call it.

Copper beeped in greeting and reversed a little away from Lihra. He'd recognized her designation from his database and wondered briefly if he were in trouble for scaring off unit alpha-two. The Chief always seemed particularly less than pleased with him for it. As if he felt the need to defend his actions he activated his anti-grav module to raise himself higher. He then activated his holo-display and typed the words, "Copper maintains Engineer. This is Copper's function. Unit alpha-two maintains corridors. Unit alpha-two is in Engineering. That is an error."

"Oh...I see." Lirha hadn't realized the exocomp was so territorial, but she really couldn't blame him. Her. It. Wait, had it called itself 'Copper'? "I suppose I would feel the same way if someone from sickbay charged into the bridge and started pressing buttons," she mused. "Do you have a name? Are you 'Copper'?" Given the color of his outer casing, it seemed appropriate.

The unit turned to reveal stickers on the outside of his hull. Next to the Vulcan Science Academy sticker was a sticker that read, 'PO1 Copper'. Turning back to Lirha he scanned her down. Her vitals showed her to be calm so he flashed the text, "Does Unit Lirha Saalm have a malfunction to submit?"

Thoughtfully, Lirha pondered the question but it soon led to a plethora of different thought processes. "Well...I suppose that depends on what you consider a 'malfunction'," she began, now readjusting her body to lean against the wall in a comfortable position. "I think Humans and others malfunction all the time, but some of them are not as serious malfunctions as others. For example, my wife not coming home on time in the evening is a malfunction...and it makes me upset. But then sometimes everyone is late for their duty shifts and obligations from time to time, I suppose..." she began to ramble.

"Copper is never late. All internal chronometer components are operational. Maybe the machine called, 'wife' has a malfunctioning timepiece." He typed the words out as a helpful suggestion. His review of the work orders didn't come up with anything, so maybe it hadn't been logged yet.

Lirha sighed and rubbed her cheek. "Yes, 'wife' does malfunction sometimes. You see, she is from an independent colony called Nix, which is lawless and not a member of the United Federation of Planets. And so...she grew up under hard circumstances. A gang culture, of sorts, and never had the chance to develop herself in a nurturing environment during her youth. So now...she is very beautiful but sometimes I feel like we cannot connect at times because of her perspective. And she is beautiful...bright red hair, soft skin, a curvy body with a welcoming voice..."

Copper beeped in a complicated titter then blinked the green and yellow lights in a seemingly random fashion. It was quite an insightful message for a machine that didn't understand emotion or attachment. At least it might have been insightful had Lirha had any idea what Copper had just said to her. He had no clue how red hair and curvy bodies had anything to do with, well anything in Copper's world, but he had extrapolated the meaning of her words after running it through his database. Filtered the meanings down until one root cause was defined. The process only took fractions of a second longer than what the computer would have done.

Copper replicated a PADD that balanced on the top of his frame. It contained hundreds of articles, textbooks, counseling manuals, and vidclips all related to communication breakdowns in relationships and how to reconnect with loved ones.

"Oh," replied Lirha with a bit of surprise as the took the offered PADD and began to look through it. It was quite complex, containing a variety of interpersonal species protocols of a private nature, and she was very surprised that the exocomp had been able to seemingly diagnose her verbal cues. "Well, I suppose a PADD would be the most prudent solution, yes? But sometimes...I feel as if there is more to it than just literature. For example, while one may write about the fornication habits of one species and their personal interactions with another species -- or several --, each species' individuals' needs and wants are different. So, it is not possible to write a document for all of the situations which might arise, because they are all different...," she began to ramble on again, this time leaning comfortably against a nearby engineering console while beginning to tell the exocomp her entire life story so he could relate.

And relate he could not do. As powerful as his processor was or how much information was stored in his database, he simply had no idea how to respond when a direct quantifiable problem wasn't presented. He couldn't relate to anything emotional. Certainly he knew the definitions of a wide range of emotions such as happy, sad, and angry etc. but how did one differentiate complicated emotions like hate. Without knowing how anger feels, how does one differentiate between the 'hate' a flesh-machine feels for fish soup, versus the 'hate' one feels for a Jem'Hadar soldier? He listened to her words, highlighting things he knew, searching for a problem he could fix. Without anything describable like, 'I have a broken replicator' he flashed lights at her, but decided to perform a systems diagnostic while the flesh-machine continued on telling him all about herself.


Thirty-seven Minutes Later...

"...And that was when my mother decided to settle us on Earth," Lirha said, bringing an end to her lengthy stories and experiences of inter-species relations. "It was quite a shock at first, you know. Being around so many Humans on their homeworld. Not that I had not visited Earth before on various trade stops, but for a young Orion girl like myself, it was a bit intimidating. And I suppose it was only fitting that I ended up marrying a Human...do you agree?"

Copper had been performing various diagnostics on subroutines, and his neural network while she spoke. Even after all this time with flesh-machines he still just couldn't figure out the complexities of conversation. He had no idea how to converse. He had opinions sure, but they usually related to thing like the best way to regulate intact monitors. In the amount of time that she had been talking, he had accumulated six work orders. While he wasn't becoming anxious, he was becoming quite aware of the work to do. He suddenly realized that the flesh-machine had asked him a question. He thought about it, but had no idea how to respond.

After another moment he flashed on his screen the words, "Fitting is something suitable under the circumstances; right or proper. Copper does not understand 'proper'. Why is it fitting when it is but a concurrence of circumstances without apparent causal connection?"

Lirha looked down at her PADD then blinked at the small machine-person. Her mind whirled while she tried to make sense of his question, but for the life of her, she couldn't produce an answer. "Well... I... I do not know. Sometimes it just is," she shrugged. "Proper is similar to right. They are both a form of correctness, I suppose...." She felt a bit flustered now and absentmindedly began to twirl a lock of dark hair around her finger.

Copper noted the rise in perspiration and heart rate then appended it to his extensive record of his interaction with Lirha. "Understood. Unit Lirha Saalm means emotional stimuli. What is proper is related to a flesh-machine's emotional state at time of the situation."

That spun him into a logic loop and he beeped loudly. If deeming a situation or occurrence as proper or right depended on emotional stimuli, then how was Copper, who didn't experience emotion like flesh-machines did, to determine what should be considered 'right' or 'proper'? He had driven off the vacuumbot earlier because he felt that it was his duty to maintain engineering and the ship. Did he do this out of a sense of what he thought was the proper thing to do? Did he do it out of a complicated sense of pride? Perhaps he misinterpreted his role on the ship.

"Yes, exactly!" chimed Lirha with a bit of enthusiasm, happy that the exocomp had understood her convoluted explanation. "Think of it as an intangible, one of the aspects of biology that cannot really be measured but which holds much weight in interpersonal relationships." She paused to stroke her green chin in thought for a brief moment while looking at the unit's blinking lights. "You and your fellow kind do have relationships, yes?" she thoughtfully wondered.

Copper seemed to misunderstand her question or perhaps he did understand and this truly was the extent of relationships, but Copper ended up typing, "Many exocomps have the same function. Exocomps work together on complicated tasks. Exocomps form networks to increase processing speed and to share sensor data. It is logical to seek out an exocomp with a larger database, and to network. It spreads knowledge."

Lirha pursed her lips in thought while she read her PADD and the words which were being displayed. "Well...do you ever 'network' with other exocomps for anything other than work? Maybe say, recreation or companionship or leisure activities?" What did exocomps do during their free time, she began to wonder.

Copper thought about that for a few nanoseconds longer than usual. He flashed a sequence of lights then displayed the text. "This unit cannot express the answer to that inquiry in the way that a flesh-machine will understand, but Copper will try. Recreation is derived from enjoyment. Exocomps do not experience pleasure. Exocomps actions have purpose; a function. Leisure time is spent running diagnostics. Improving functions and subsystems. Sharing data with other exocomps." Copper stopped typing words and waited a brief moment as he considered his next thought process. "Lately, this unit has been experiencing actions that is hard to process and has been listed as an error twelve times. It has no function or purpose. Perhaps this is what Unit Lirha Saalm is asking about?"

Was it? Lirha had no idea, but it sounded like it could be related. "Perhaps," she answered in a light voice. "When you share data...what kind of data do you share? Are all exocomps networked or just the ones aboard a certain starship?" she curiously asked.

"Everything. All data accumulated since first becoming operational. Exocomps form networks that vary in size. This Unit is part of a twenty-two unit network, spread across four space-computers."

"Oh...and do you have...sexual encounters? How do you procreate?" Lirha knew the answer right when her question left her lips, and face-palmed herself in semi-embarrassment. "What I mean is, do you have romantic relationships? Perhaps over networks?"

It was good she clarified her question, as Copper was just in the process of downloading lessons on biological reproduction. He cancelled his download just in time. "Negative." He typed in answer to her question. It wasn't surprising to him that she had such questions. Many flesh-machines anthropomorphized exocomps. Unlike androids, or holograms human behaviours were programmed. Exocomps came to their sentience on their own and in their own unique way.

"Hmm..." Lirha pursed her lips and remain silent. She felt a bit sad that the exocomp would never know the pleasures of sex, and the idea of an existence entirely devoid of romanticism was very frightening to the Orion. "I suppose to each their own," she then mused. A quick glance at her PADD revealed she had lost track of time and had been talking to Copper for quite some time now, and it was probably best that she left the little machine to his own devices for a bit.

"Well, Mister Copper, it was a pleasure to talk to you. I do not want to keep you from your repairs any further and I must resume my duties as well."

Copper flashed a sequence of lights, which were possibly a form of parting remark before he turned to carry on with his duties. He had recorded his interaction with the Unit Lirha Saalm. A most curious encounter so far. She had given him things to ponder over in the wee hours of the night when others were sleeping.

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Atlas

Petty Officer 1st Class Unit CU-47 "Copper"
Damage Control Specialist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Beaumont]

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