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“That’s…wait how much is...” Senjen briefly froze up. That was a lot of money, more than enough to tempt nearly anyone. It wasn’t as impressive as it sounded once he checked it against the exchange rate to his homeworld’s currency, but it was still quite a lot. He had an idea of how he could hide the data he was transporting, and he nearly jumped on the offer right then and there, but going through her offer a few times in his head, he realized something unsettling. The reason she said an OS image would not work was because the scan needed his personality matrix...because it used the personality matrix to function. The inner functioning of the personality matrix was not completely understood, even by the Utaysi themselves. It was very difficult to modify non-destructively, much like an organic brain. Even if the scan was just reading data and not modifying it, the idea of a program breaching through and interacting with it directly was frankly terrifying.

“Sorry, this is a lot...that is a lot...it’s just...scanning my frame’s OS is one thing. That’s like doing a scan of one of your neural implants. Invasive, but safe. But you said the scan touches the personality matrix? Uses it, even? That’s more like brain surgery. Well, not quite, but...you get the idea. You’re offering a lot, but I don’t know if you understand how terrifying that is. Or...maybe you do, and that’s why the number is so high.” This time, Senjen forgot to inhibit his body’s reactions. Even as a mechanical being, Utaysi frames had plenty of parts on their outer shell that could actuate purely for non-verbal expression, similarly to their organic progenitors. He was nervous, indecisive, and it showed.

Senjen lowered his head somewhat. “I...I can’t do it. If it were just my frame, I’d agree in a metaphorical heartbeat, but having a scan poking around in my ‘brain’ is just too much. I’m sorry, I wish you luck, but I have to decline.”
Senjen felt like it was quite a secret for the Human to share, provided it was even true, of course. He knew Light wanted to leave; he had said as much before, and honestly, Senjen agreed. He was getting that same, uncomfortable feeling from the Human as he had from the Utaysi. There was no way he could agree to this scan, not when he was carrying this data. Or at least...he could not agree to this specific scan. He understood software well enough to understand what she was asking for. Whether not what she was asking for was actually what she wanted was still up in the air, but he knew how to satisfy the letter of her request without risking anything himself. At the very least, she would not have any excuses to refuse without giving away any other motives.

“Look, I know you said you’re not too familiar with Utaysi. and I know we look like machines...I mean, we are, but out minds aren’t like the AI you’re accustomed to. We’re basically like a lightly-modified version of an organic mind, so like pretty much any organic, I still care about my privacy.” Senjen began. It was perfectly reasonable for a person not to want a stranger going through their personal files, even without anything to hide, and he made it clear that he was just like any other person. Now, he just had to offer that perfectly-reasonable alternative he had thought of.

Honestly, Senjen was getting more and more nervous for every moment that passed talking to this Human. Whether or not she was really Naval Intelligence for...some navy, she still had armed guards nearby with an expensive ship and pricey gear. That was enough to know that he should be taking this seriously. He was more and more thankful every moment that he had the overrides to force his body to stay calm. He continued, deliberately keeping up this friendly attitude the woman was projecting. “But...I can still help you, actually. All I’d have to do is make an image of my OS and load it up on a virtual machine on a removable drive. You could run that and scan it. A perfect copy of my software architecture on Utaysi hardware that you can use to calibrate, so you can get everything you’re wanting. It would just take a few minutes for me to make the copy.” Senjen offered. It was a plan that would satisfy all of the Human’s stated goals, and he could not think of a way she could refuse without admitting they were just excuses.
“Well it’s not like I was trying to carry on a conversation with them. I got a random message out of nowhere, asked who they were, and they answered back with a sob story and an offer. Then I refused. I didn’t do anything to start trouble. That’s really the long and short of it.” Senjen answered to Light. He honestly felt he had handled it about as well as he could have, even once the Human approached. It made sense that they had been monitoring the Utaysi’s communications; he thought he had noticed some attention from her during their short exchange, and he supposed it made sense she would follow through.

Light was acting frightened, but Senjen didn’t yet think there was any reason to panic. He had given the right answer, so he doubted he needed to worry. He turned back towards the Human and lightly shrugged his shoulders. “Probably just looking for sympathy, I imagine. The reason you haven’t met many Utaysi is because there’s not too many of us out here. I guess he expected...solidarity, or something, but his attitude was suspicious. Didn’t trust it. And I really wasn’t looking to interfere with your business.”
“Easy there, just a joke.” Senjen replied simply to Light, though it was the response from this captive that had the most of his attention. His attention...and now his skepticism. Perhaps he was just being paranoid, or maybe it was just because of how much trouble they had already been dealing with, but something about this did not sit right with him. Lelund’s attitude had shifted quick from the first message that had grabbed his attention, which did not do much for their credibility.

“I would expect you would care a lot more about your supposed impending ‘torture’ than a few files. No offense, but I’ve already been the target of two attempted scams since I got here, and I haven’t even left the hangar yet. Going to have to decline. I smell a lie somewhere here, and I don’t aim to fall for it.” Senjen answered.

Light had hardly taken any more time than Senjen had in getting back from the food merchant, evidently empty-handed. He did feel some fascination in the dietary habits of organics. One thing that was common across a wide variety of alien cultures was how much of a focus they put on cuisine. It made sense with their instincts, and how much their nutrition was tied to their overall health and well-being. Yet, there was usually so much passion and enjoyment tied up in it as well. For Utaysi, energy was energy, and there wasn’t much difference to them on how they obtained it. Their progenitors would have had those same instincts as other organics, but that was one of the few changes Marae Ano made to their minds when she created them. She had aimed to make as few alterations as possible to their minds from the original organic template, but bio-fueled machines would not have been possible considering the apocalypse they had to survive through. Leaving them with the instinct for hungers they could not sate for millennia would have simply been cruel.

Senjen acknowledged Light with a small wave. “Yeah, we should probably get going. That Utaysi over there tried to convince me to take on a data delivery on their behalf. Something felt off about it, so I refused. Still...you think maybe I should pass on their information to the Utaysi embassy about it, or something? In case something is going on there that’s not above board?”
Senjen probably should not have expected Light to know the answer, though his guess was not actually unreasonable. Granted, he also did not seem too concerned about them. With the way he was acting at the moment, he seemed more concerned with his stomach, really. Tilting his head towards Light, he quickly looked him over. With how translucent his species was, he could see what he was fairly certain was his stomach, in fact. He wondered, for a moment, if one could tell at a glance how long it had been since he had eaten?

It was at that point that Senjen received a private message, and given its content, he did not even need to look to guess by whom. In fact, he made a point not to look, nor give any other visible signs of acknowledgment towards the captives. He had seen enough spy movies; he was pretty sure he could be discreet about this.

Firstly, Senjen messaged back in response to Light. “Well I am, in fact, still a robot, so eating is not something I do. Battery is fully charged, though. You can feel free to have as much as you want. I don’t mind waiting around a minute.”

Next, Senjen gave a reply to the anonymous sender of the private message, who he guessed was the Utaysi. “Whoever is messaging me, who are you, and what actually is it that is going on?”
Getting the mob to back off was exactly what Senjen had been trying to do. It was the point of intimidating them: to protect the ship and avoid unnecessary trouble. Still, he had to make an effort to avoid acting surprised about the fact it actually worked. He was clever, in his own humble opinion, but he couldn’t let anyone else know he had been anything less than confident about it. He was supposed to be a professional, after all. This was his job; obviously the mob left without trouble, because that was what his client was paying him for.

Senjen had everything he needed on him, mostly secured in storage compartments in his frame. Dropping down and moving on all-fours, he walked right alongside Light at what was, for him, a leisurely pace. Part of him wondered how fast a QV could actually move out of water, in their gel suits. In truth, he still was not entirely sure he understood how they worked. Those suits alone were probably what made the QV feel the most “alien” to him, out of any of the sapient species out there.

In any case, even just looking around the hangar bay gave a sense of just how much was probably going on in this station. That mob hadn’t even been the only bit of trouble in this room, which might have explained why they thought they might get away with what they had been trying. There was a proper QV ship on one of the other landing pads, which was even stranger than he had imagined to look at up close. Then there was a crowd around another, very expensive-looking ship just across the way. They looked to have prisoners for some reason, even a Utaysi, much to his surprise. Korit had a huge population of locals and visitors alike, so seeing some of his own people was not unusual, but he had not expected to see one in the same hangar bay. Especially not in that kind of a predicament.

“What do you think all that is about, with that expensive ship over there?” Senjen asked Light on a private channel. “Looks to be a crowd, and I’m a bit curious why they have those people locked up. Is that something weird about Korit I should know about?”
’Okay, so being nice didn’t dissuade them, and now there’s more of them.’ Senjen’s thoughts raced as he quickly glanced around the area. He was pretty sure he knew how he could get himself away if the situation went too far sideways, so...he could at least try. ’Yeah, okay, I can try. Intimidate. I prepared for this, just...thought it would be against some thugs or something. Not some random, desperate-looking people. Don’t want to just open up threatening them…’

Senjen stood up much closer to his full height. A Utaysi’s normal posture had them rather hunched over, so while up on his hind legs, he towered over the crowd, which helped for getting a good sight on who might be dangerous. His mind may not have been much like what the organics thought of as a normal AI, but his body was very much still a machine. Even if it wasn’t a combat model, he still had strength and durability. A normal Human had little to no ways to actually harm him unarmed, so the Humans he saw were probably not much of a threat. The Tindrel...maybe. Still, he just had to make them feel that the risk wasn’t worth it. Probably.

He broadcast on an open channel to each of them. “I’ll, uh, have to turn down that offer, sorry. If you look hard enough on this massive station, you’ll probably find a captain poor or bored enough to transport you all for whatever you can pay or trade for. Without trouble, without risk.” Okay, good start. He wasn’t instigating or escalating. He was being reasonable. But now he needed to make them feel they were taking a big risk right now.

“Look, I don’t have anything against any of you, but it’s my job to keep this ship safe. And I will, if I have to. It’s my client’s property, and we have the right to protect it.” He wasn’t being firm enough, he felt; he needed to put something in there to make them worry. That feeling of nothingness on his frame did give him one idea, now that he thought about it. “You all really don’t want to fight over this, trust me. Especially not right here. I mean, I would think you organics would put a bit more respect to how hostile it is out here to you.” This was good, he was onto something here. “Those pressure suits are nice and form-fitting, but I mean, I don’t see any of you wearing anything especially...durable.” If they were just refugees or something, then they probably weren’t wearing combat gear, or suits rated well-enough for hazardous mining or industrial work. Those were expensive, and would probably sell for enough to just buy passage off-world. “Do you know what happens when you all get an open wound exposed to space? Your bodies, they’re naturally pressurized to...whatever one atmosphere is on your homeworld. If you get a cut in your skin or a break in your shell out here, then all those organs and entrails inside, they just get pushed out the hole into space. It’s...horrifying even just to think about. One cut, one little cut, that’s all it would take, for nearly each and every one of you.”

Senjen gave an exaggerated motion of shrugging. “Nothing I have to worry about, of course, but I think you all should at least consider it before doing anything, uh...aggressive, out here.”

’Yeah, that was good.’ Senjen thought to himself, proudly.
The more this Tekeri spoke, the less Senjen was willing to trust any answer he gave. A Utaysi personality matrix was essentially their “mind”: a programming construct that contained all of their thought processes. Most Utaysi frames contained a secondary computer with expanded functions they could use, similar to how organics would sometimes install neural implants, but the personality matrix could not be modified by any normal means. This Tekeri did not seem to understand that, and that called into question the reliability of anything else he claimed. Senjen was genuinely interested in the possibility of finding some alien upgrades, but he felt he needed to find someone more reputable for that conversation.

Senjen was in the midst of trying to find some excuse to get away when Light came to his rescue, albeit unintentionally. Whatever it was the Tindrel were doing seemed to have his client upset, but he would rather deal with that at the moment. “Ah, hold on, I need to handle this.” He remarked to the Tekeri.

Carrying around some crates would have been easy enough for Senjen, but before he could even walk away, there was yet another bit of commotion that found its way onto their landing pad. There was a small group of people that seemed to be taking an interest in them, or their ship. There were different species among them, and there was little else that really stood out about them, except that they looked a bit...rough from his perspective. What they all had in common was the fact that they all seemed to want to leave Korit.

Senjen did not take any sort of aggressive posture towards them. They seemed to be troubled, so he lowered his head a bit and tried to be calm, disarming, especially with how on-edge the customs officials looked to be. He figured it would be better for everyone to try to avoid escalation. “I’m sorry, we’re not heading off-world anytime soon. But hey, this is a really big station. If you can pay like you say, then I’m sure you’ll be able to find a pilot willing to make a bit of extra money.”
So far, so good. They were through the inspection phase, and now they just needed to get their cargo situated and get to the drop-off for the data. Easy. Senjen was prepared for this. He had done his research on the Korit, practiced what he would say when questioned, watched some movies...he could do this.

It was not long before the Tekeri started making offers to them. Offers for their cargo, offers to sell them things; he was pretty sure he had heard of this. In big cities, scammers would try whatever they could to get money out of anyone who looked like a tourist, but this wasn’t one of the cities. This was a space station, and he was a customs official, so he probably wasn’t an outright scammer. If Senjen remembered right, the forums he visited mentioned some dock workers had deals on the side with some vendors or businesses to get a commission on sales they had pushed their way. So...that meant the Tekeri probably could get them what he was claiming, but that didn’t mean they were the best deals. They were just what the Tekeri would get paid for.

Senjen had a feeling the Tekeri was not going to just give up with the sales pitches, so maybe he could just give the bait a nibble? He could keep some small talk going, since Light clearly did not want to, and maybe learn a bit in the process? He had to admit, there were some questions he was curious about. “You know, I did read that Utaysi could find alien hardware on Korit. It’s pretty tempting, I won’t lie. It’s honestly a bit embarrassing that the organics out here are ahead of us in robotics, but well...I guess we are pretty fresh off our home planet, all things considered. I heard they managed to code a software interface to be able to install a Utaysi personality matrix in a completely alien software environment. I’m, uh, not in the market for a fully body replacement now, though. How reliable are the software interfaces for individual upgrades with a Utaysi operating system?”
At first, Senjen had just occupied himself dealing with their cargo. There were plenty of crates to get out into the loading zone, and between the two of them, he was the one more suited to manual labor. Or at least...he assumed so. Senjen had been reading up as much as possible on the QV, Korit, and pretty much anything else he could think of when he decided to take the plunge and head out into space. Still, it felt like he had only scratched the surface. These gel suits the QV used were such a strange way to get around, but he supposed it made much more sense than normal environment suits for an aquatic species. He was only guessing, granted, but just by watching Light, it looked like the suit let him swim around in a way that would feel natural for him. That was something he could understand, at least. Utaysi were software; they could inhabit frames constructed in any imaginable configuration, if they wanted. But, when it came to day-to-day life, most Utaysi still wanted a body that was familiar to their ingrained instincts. Senjen himself was not so strict on that matter, but he still understood it.

In any case, Senjen was quick to get the cargo ready for unloading. The cargo hold doubled as an airlock on this ship, and it took just a few moments to depressurize before opening. He obviously had no need for a suit to step into the vacuum of space, and the sensation of it was quite unlike anything else. His frame’s outer plating was equipped to experience sensations, to feel through similar microsensors as an organic’s surface receptors, but unlike him, it was dangerous for them to expose their skin to pure nothingness. Senjen had spent most of his life so far on his homeworld, so walking out into a vacuum was still new to him. He was not sure he would be able to put into words what it was like to feel absolutely nothing, all over. The feeling of air was so easy to ignore, until it was gone.

Senjen was starting to feel nervous, though luckily it was easy for him to avoid showing it. He couldn’t stop the natural reactions in his mind, but it was as easy as changing a setting to prevent his body from acting on them. He could be as stoic as he needed to be. He had done enough research ahead of time to know what he should expect in this process, in theory. Now he just needed to act natural.

A customs declaration, standard procedure, nothing unusual. Senjen accepted the incoming request, which brought up a prompt in the corner of his field of view. As was “encouraged” by the docking authority, he had already prepared the customs declaration ahead of time, so it was just a matter of attaching the file and confirming payment for the docking fee. It contained their statement on the reason for their visit, any goods for import and their destination, their point of origin, identification, and declarations of certain possessions like the sidearm Senjen carried in his frame.

The Tekeri was quick to skim through the most important bullet points of their documentation. Efficiency was what mattered to business on Korit, so customs was trained to know what to look for, and what to leave for inspection later down the line to get their cargo moving quickly. From Senjen’s understanding, Korit customs were particularly efficient, especially since they had much less they had to care about. Still, the Tekeri did have something to say as he reached the end of the document, directing his attention to Light, rather than Senjen. “Armed synthetics require separate declaration and registration with the port authority, there’s a form you need to-”

The Tekeri was suddenly cut off, leaving them with empty comms and the dead silence of space. The Human nearby carried a scanner, and she had already been going over Senjen and Light with it as they spoke. She and the Tekeri looked to one another, likely speaking in a private channel, before the Tekeri turned back and approved their customs declaration. “Apologies, Utaysi are still uncommon travelers. Your declaration is in order, I just need you to confirm you understand and accept this agreement on the rules and regulations of weapon possession on the station.”

Another prompt appeared for Senjen, this time linking to a verbose agreement written as obtusely as possible in legalese, to which he just scrolled through to accept. No one ever read those things.

Now they just needed to wait for the Human to scan their cargo to make sure it matched the declaration, and answer any other questions they might have about it. Unless Light had any surprises he did not know about, they would mostly just find some trade goods, most prominent of which were canisters of a particular enzyme produced by some extremophile bacteria on an undeveloped world. It was heavily restricted in most systems due to its potential use in the production of some rather potent drugs, but not on Korit. Here, it was legally treated as any other import, and made for a good decoy for any attention.

Unfortunately, the decoy cargo belonged to their employer, so they would not see a bit of the profit from its sale. Their money would come from delivering the data, and for that, Senjen felt he understood why he had been hired. Simple robots were property that might be inspected, but plenty of worlds like Korit were eager to start doing business with the galaxy’s newest arrivals. It was not nearly so acceptable to try to root through a person’s mind, so he was afforded more privacy in his own head, as long as they did not give them a reason to do anything more.
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