"A gas cloud??"

Incredulous, Valorum walked past the two women and used the controls on the central table to activate the bridge's forward display. The front of the bridge fizzled with holographic pixels as an image of the space outside was projected; a canvas of perfectly black space, speckled with silver stars and tinged gold with the dispersing gas from the nearby cloud. Staring at the picture, Valorum didn't turn around, but still asked:

"So what is our status? Are the shields up now? Did the Saviour suffer any damage, hull, structural, or otherwise?"

A man sat on a chair, tinkering with what appeared to a small communication device. His face was forlorn, he was draped in wrinkles, and looked as if he forgot how to smile. In truth, he was not as boring as some may have thought, he was just rather bad at displaying emotions. However, quite abruptly, the machine buzzed and hissed like the long, old memories of the days when it sparked to life just like the countless souls Dr. L had saved.

He was quite amazed, the machine never really did responded.. it could never reach any remarkable length, let alone respond. It never worked. Unless, quite impossibly, a friend was nearby...

7-4-1-N-7-3-D hovered through a corridor, maintenance run once again. The journey started off well and nobody has noticed his presence. Atleast, that is what the Sower hopes .

<Probably nobody noticed , and if someone noticed, then it seems illogical that they haven´t announced it official.> This thought ran through its circuits hundred of times. It was possibly correct , and the probablity that 7-4-1-N-7-3-D was right was usually quite high, but still, that wasn´t calming the Sower down.

The pattern the Sower chose for its patrol was unsuspicious. It should give it opportunities to find out more about the captain, the automaton and the other robot. However, the creature has to act fast.

Its plan worked out very well till now , it was on board of the ship , and was officialy only a simple machine that a trader sold to the owners of the ship officially as a exploration and maintenance drone .

The longer 7-4-1-N-7-3-D won’t act , the harder it will be to stay undetected. It can´t think as efficiently as usual because it would use more energy than a normal sower would. Also, communicating with the crew is difficult. It was hard enough to see itself as an individual entity after it came in contact with the dust ,now, he has to do the opposite, act like its normal brothers and sisters, like a simple drone.

He goes throught the Database of the crew again .<Who should ichoose? The captain is a Vodyani. As much as I know that a Vodyani would understand its reasons, i doubt that talking with the captian, alone, seems possible. Especially for a “maintenance drone”. Meanwhile, the robot and the automaton did not seem to have much influence on the ship .>

7-4-1-N-7-3-D has thought of what to do exactly 13 times and still it dislikes were this was going.<Rolak Ven-Vitto? He seem easy to contact , I could pretend I need the security officer for a problem I discovered and he would eventually find out anyway> (especially since 7-4-1-N-7-3-D is part of the security equipment)

The ship suddenly shook, 7-4-1-N-7-3-D reacted with a delay of 0.28035 seconds , which is not fast enough as it was hovering at high speed in a tight corridor. It bumped against a wall and needed some time to recalibrate all systems .

"Yes ! Yes! Of course!" the Sower says, without noticing that it was talking out loud . It now knew what to do. It had one of its "insights". Basically a sudden complete new idea, which started showing up since it came in contact with dust. It absolutely has to talk with the captain! No! The entire crew ! The Sower has to show its worth so the plan could work. But not only one person should see its worth , the more the better.

The machine looks at the virtual map of the ship, which was inserted in its mind as it was brought on the ship. It suddenly heads for the bridge. The captain would be the first to talk to . And if that does not work Rolak is the next on the list.

It enters the bridge , and directly slows down . <Here are way to much people to react directly , just pretend you are doing normal scanning and then act accordingly. >

((so thats my introduction , i hope its understandable and not to much , critic is welcome , thanks for letting me join : ) . Also of course new pots of mine wont be such textwalls   ))

<How often did i scan this part already ? 6 times , exactly 6 times , it seems as if there wont be a good situation to talk with the captian , for today atleast , he was busy with talking about the sudden turn of the ship .> the sower thought .

 Staying here any longer might be suspicious . It started planning a new route . The next logical target would be Rolak . It strongly disagreed with this , it was the next logical step , yes , but it needs to patrol the whole ship , the next section with a crewmember of interest for it was the Lab . Laudmas . He should be more easy to talk with.

It searched through its database . <Who could be there to interrupt me ? Nobody important , the sophon is probably in a experiments or something and the other staff there also would not care about a drone > 7-4-1-N-7-3-D never meet a sophon , only heard of them , from what it heard at stations and spaceports it just should not act strangely and everything will be fine.

7-4-1-N-7-3-D choose :"Sophons love things which doesn´t make sense , because they have something to solve" as general description for sophons  in his database . It  heard that sentences while gathering raw data , or "small talk" how its called by the most . 

<Only down this corridor and i should be there> while being on normal speed it hovers around a corner and sees how the sophon leaves the lab <Stay normal , you are on a maintenance run , normal scan and detection of ship damage and security dangers>

It hovers in the direction of the sophon and the lab.

7-4-1-N-7-D was not prepared , it hasn´t expected that the sophon would talk with it .

<Well, that will be harder then expected , but some repairs wouldn´t be a problem , unless they are ones which a normal drone shouldn´t be able to fix. He said "serve malfunction" . How did the Sophon break his equipment so fast?>
The sower slows down and stops next to the sophon.

It needed some fractions of a second to form a sentences which a normal drone could say "Acknowledged. This Unit recommends calling a engineer if damage is classified as *serve* . This Unit will follow to inspect the damage" it says in a emotionless voice, ready to follow the scientist when he starts moving.

<Was that too much ? Too less ?> since the sophon talked the sowers brain was turned up at 50% use ,from  25% , which fits the energy consumption of a normal drone.It is not allowed to do a mistake now.

It really put a lot of effort into its charade, it sounded exactly like the other drones on board. It was good, but not good enough.

After they both passed the door, Dhanyl said calmly "E.N.I, Lock the doors, contamination grade three, no alarms. Also, start the latest "Special-recordings" File, Display on all monitors."

Swiftly an artificial, genderless Voice replied "Yes Professor Abmaha, Lockdown protocols engaged, loading video now."

Along the walls, countless monitors sprang to life, showing 7-4-1-N-7-D in the small side corridor, slowly recovering and then, the sound seemed to fill the room...

 "Yes! Yes! Of course!"

"So..." Dhanyl finally said after a few moments of silence "... what are you doing on my ship?"

<Locked doors ? Special Recordings? What is this sophon planning ? Did my cover blew up ? No that cant be, c-" 7-4-1-N-7-3-D readjusts its sensors as it sees the recording of itself <How did he? Was that my voice?>

It increased its energy to its processing power up to 100% , his thoughts unorganized , it let down its cover ! It doesn´t matter how the scientist got that recording , it needed to act fast , damage control , but would he listen , would he understand?

"This Unit-" 

The sower stops speaking , but starts again some seconds later. Its voice was still clearly the one of a robot , but it was not as neutral and emotionless as the voice it used before.

"I plan to achieve two things : Support the mission as good as possible and to slowly introduce myself to the rest of the crew" It said the words I and myself slower then the rest.

<Don´t mention your real mission ! He maybe wont understand it , maybe he wont investigate more> his subroutines told it otherwise , but since it came in contact with dust these are more like recommendations , rather then orders.

"I would prefer if this would be a secret for a while"

<I am not in the position to demand something ... but it can´t much worse>

The robot floats closer to the ground , almost touching it.

<Dysfunctional? Was I playing my role so bad that others thought I would be defective ?> 

It got an idea for an tactical plan , it had an idea how to lie itself out of the situation ! 67,25 seconds after it already told to much to go back...  it is not really helpful that it gets a report that points out its slow thinking ...
The sophon has cameras in the ships corridors , so there will probably be cameras installed in this room too.

"I have good logical reasons for my behavior ..."  It starts floating higher again , at the height of Dhanyl´s head , he starts to fly arround him in wide slow circles . The sower used that pause to think about what it could say to convince scientist.
It seems hopeless.

"I am the first of my series , we sowers produce different series of us , for different uses , so we can follow the Calling in a more efficient way .." <Should i have mentioned the calling ? >
For his kind the Calling is a gigantic task , a live goal each sower has after activation , 7-4-1-N-7-3-D had a personal goal to fulfill , the Calling was for it less important since it came in contact with dust.

"As the first of my series , i was send on a easy mission to show the worth of my series , the mission was a failure , before you ask , it was not my fault !" 

He flies around the scientist another time
"I usually would have been ordered back and disassembled , or given a second chance . But i am infected with dust , all i will do will be valued less for my series because i am . So i fled , not because i fear death , because i want to gain value .
That is why i am registered as a drone , if one would  knew i have a personality , my empire could know as well ."

 while floating in circles , it moves closer and closer to the ground again , every circle it descends for some centimeters.
"I want to help this mission , so i can convince one of you to tell of a drone with advanced skills , in the hope that my series will be build , i see them as my siblings , I don´t want to be the reason that they will never be build..."
<Hopefully this is not to emotional for a scientist , I have to convince him>

"You can do with me what you want , but don´t make my secret public" the drone has almost reached the ground again , it faces its main sensors to Dhanyl.

<Just curious ? Hopefully .>
"A lumeris trader got me smuggled in the drone list of this ship , how he did it is unknown to me , I payed him with my ship and equipment which was left from the failed mission "
7-4-1-N-7-3-D still was not sure if that as a good deal , but the ship was all it had to trade against the service he demanded from the lumeris , discussing the deal with him was difficult .