...on a desert world of the outer fringe a service tank-bot goes around polishing equipment and making solitaire drills in fueling and service, he mutters to him self in a local version of standard-human speech...
- 35 years since last stop, only talking to my self, I wish I had some company, how could the refit a diplomatic droids mind-chip in a tank-service one, I was designed to talk, not mutter to my self, damned humans....
Oh, What is that on the horizon? a ship, oh it isn´t true it is about to land here, my dreams have become true...
The ship lands dust is sent all over the place in a dry fog lit by the three blazing suns..
...a lone human steps out side...
She says: Hello Full tank, please!
- (Tank-bot) Hello Sir! I am service bot 223322232gh series b, well my mind is, my body is a re-mod off a GhB-X2-pr series 2156, how nice to meet you Sir, I think I am going nutty here talking to my self...
- Oh I see! I am a lady not a sir, but you can call me Belle!
- Oh I beg your pardon, Sir Lady-belle, I am set here to service all federation ships for free and others at a small fee, you wanted a full tank, Can I help you with something else? perhaps polishing, I have great polish kits provided by The Snike Company... do you want a full system check I do that to totally free....
- Well you could help me with a thing, I am kind of on a quest to find a tiny green-tinted sentient No-Dachi master, he is very wise and I want to join his sect to be taught in ancient wise ways...
- Oh Madame-sir-Belle! you must mean Frog-face, he lives quite close, but he isn´t tiny, I would not say tiny, he dwarves me by at least 2 meter, and I usually say to my self that I am not tiny, He, He!
- Oh Swell, thats is really groovy, My master has sent me to study with him on the planet Dough...
- Ma´am-Sir, Honored Mr Belle... you just turn in to the tractor-way beam outside of here and get of at coordinate 3x G5!
- Cool, so how long will the refill get?
- Oh, Lord-Madame, Sir Mr Belle, it depends on how long you want it to take, I can do it slow, really slow if you like, fast too, really fast if you like, but I prefer slow since my Axial-hydro-joins are kind of old and makes a strange noise when I move to fast... I would go to a doc-bot if there only was one here, so I have to do all repairs my self here, after the manuals here, they are really old, but still, I am not high priority our here on the ring of the rim...
- Ok, Quite fast will do...
- Ok, Shall Be Governor Belle... so what shall I do after the tanking? did you want a full service? I could do some extras for you even though my programming forbids it, but being here all by my self, I have taught my self how to bypass them...
- Thank You Bot, but I am really in a hurry, some of my friend are kept in a prison on a mechanical Moon called OmniCrome!
- Sir, Madame, I mean Lord Belle, I can cook you food, I have watched that human Child chef, someone left some magnetic tapes with her here, I would like to try out my cooking skills on a real human...
- Erhm, Thanks but As I said, I am in a hurry is my tank full yet?
- Yes, yes, madame, Yes it is Sir, but I see that that deflector shield on the starboard side looks really broken, would you mind me taking a look at it?
- Nah, I will take care of the technical stuff when I reach civilized parts of the galaxy again...
- But sir, made, Lord, it can be dangerous, what if a micro-meteor should hit you in an angel right next to that shield and both the backups would be faulty, then it would be a 0,00,23% chance of getting you system damaged...
- I can live with that risk, it is not exactly Russian roulette is it?
- But, Siir, You Cannot leave, eeh, Madame, I just got a space-weather that a swarm of black holes are comming this way, you gotta stay here tonight and tomorrow it will safe again...
- Ha, That is weird, I just loaded down a scan of the entire system there isn´t even a 1 mm sized black-hole in this sector of the galaxy...Bye Bye and thanx for your service...
- But Belle, Sir you cannot leave, I feel so alone, I love you, can´t you stay...
Belle hurries to her cockpit and blasts away she is almost certain that she saw a tear in his optical sensor, she thought to her self, weird, that model wasn´t designed for crying!
