A simple "Order confirmed" was the only notable action of the machine. Otherwise it simply seemed frozen from one moment to the other, howering in place. One metal arm was extended to interface with a crates touch scream, not quite there and now also stopped in motion. The machine wouldnt even need to note the gun to know that this isnt a good situation.

"How can it help you?"

The sower was wheighting his options. Without the faintest idea of what this cunning human wanted it didnt make sence to atack him directly, but this man did follow him through a considerable amount of systems. It made sure that its pneumatic piston was selected for the still hidden multi-tool arm. 

Mantovani retained a focused, unblinking gaze towards the machine.

Now he was close enough, he could scan for any recogniseable faction signatures.

Unfortunatly it would take time. However robots tended to babble like social addicts when you ask the right questions.

“What is your purpose here on this ship, where were you manufactured and, if it can apply, who employed you?”

The drone, saved as 7-4-1-N-7-3-D in the database, was obviously of sower origin, no marker or logo showed that, rather than the build of the machine. Another group could have made it look like a sower though. The metal hull of the machine was smooth and seemed to be sturdy as the number of dents and scratches are minimal.

"This Units purpose on this ship is to assist in the maintenance of systems during transit and to assist exploration efforts planet-side. It can be used in other laborious tasks if requested so! It has been added to this expedition as an additional appliance. "


The machines answer was surprisingly short, either it felt like specific information was not requested, or it couldnt/wouldnt share it. Then it asked in return:
"That information wasn't classified in any way, why was it asked?"

Mantovani said nothing and continued scanning.

He looked at his bracet, which was closer in size to a watch or a strap than any minor piece of jewlery. A small display read the following

detected signatures:

horatio- negative

imperial- negative

scanning in process...

Mantovani relaxed a little. At least he wasnt being hunted by any particularily large organisations. Maybe he wasnt in such danger after a-

detected signatures:

lumeris-potential

Mantovani froze. Refocusing his gaze on the sower drone.

“you are being questioned due to ‘suspect’ behaviour.”

"In case of abnormal behavior, it should receive a proper checkup, none of such has been requested till now. Please relay your concerns to personnel capable of requesting a checkup. An unscheduled checkup can interfere with important tasks"


The sower started to interface with the crates again, ignoring Mantovani on the outside, while struggling on the inside questioning if there is anything it can do but keeping its charade and what was going on. Why would the human care for a random drone, for this one in particular, so much that they follow it onto an expedition into uncharted space? 

“Do not worry, i am currently working in IT onboard this vessel. This will only take a moment.”

Mantovani walked a few steps closer. He needed more time to scan.

‘Detected signatures’

lumeris- potential, continuing search

Outer rim trading association- negative

C’estine raiders- negative

automaton-negative

sower- positive

“well then, can you please state the reason you frequently fled from my vecinity? It does not appear to be something a regular drone would do.”

After a long pause, Valorum abruptly asks Ylona:

"What is the effective range on all of the Saviour's armaments?"

She shrugged. "Depends on what you are trying to hit. If you're trying to hit that moon, we can do that from anywhere in the system. Kinetic bullets will take a few centuries to get there, and the energy beams will be defocussed and just a light show. If you want to hit anything on the moon, or, say a Riftborn currently doing a hyperbolic fly-by, you'd need to aim a bit better. And then it's a question for our weapons expert. I can only recite the manual at you."

"Even proper trained crew should do their work regarding to schedule. Is it an emergency?"

The sower seemed to mostly ignore the man now, continuing to float from one crate to the other, comparing its manifest with the ships. Convincing itself to do that was easier than convincing itself to do nothing despite this odd human being a not fully clear threat. It took a while before it figured out an answer that could fit a drone of lower computational power, as it pretends.

"Avoiding? Negatory, avoidance can only occur if a meeting was predicted. No schedule to encounter you have been uploaded to this units database. It is simply following its duties. This Unit wasn't designed for proper social interaction with crewmembers, possibly insulting behavior is not done on purpose."

"The lack of easily read power systems in the approach path makes it rather difficult to say what's safe and not on that satellite."

Alice chose her words carefully as to not offend their pilot.   She didn't question Ylona's skills but if anyone knew the Saviour's capabilities it was her engineer thanks to the gifts the Dust had granted the woman.   Approaching such an unknown target was risky.

"I would not advise shooting at it either, Captain.  It has been dormant but that's the sort of thing that could evoke a hostile response from whatever armaments it has."

"Lasers it is, then. Light may well be all we need."

Turning his attention to his Chief Engineer, Valorum probes:

"Even a diffused projectile, sister? Could a laser weakened by distance still provoke a hostile response?"

"Well that all depends on their systems.   It mostly ignored the probe so I'd be surprised if we got much of a response from a low powered beam."  Alice stated,  "Though if you truly want to know everything there is about this installation you'll find a way to get me to the surface."

"If you just want to send on-off blinky signals with a flashlight", Ylona guessed what this discussion was about, "We might as well just use the main comms array to hail them on radio. It probably needs less energy than out laser banks, too."

"I want to discern the range and intensity of this phenomenon before sending any of my crew down there. Firing a depleted laser could accomplish that better than sending any signal, but..."

The Captain trails off, momentarily deep in thought before asking Skeler:

"Did you happen to record the internal status of this probe between launch and when it lost power on the moon, sister? Preferably along with a visual feed?"

That the conversation had moved past him would normally not bother λ. He would be quite happy to wait in place for days until he recieved an answer. Or someone finally pushed him out of the way. Typically, it was the second option. However, λ's mind was so preoccupied on his research that it was sharpening his response time into something almost normal for this universe. 

"Pardon-me-Chief-Custodian-Valorum. If my assistance is not required, will I be dismissed? I have... responsibilities to attend to."

Looking up to the hesitant Riftborn, Valorum gestures and replies:

"Very well then; you are dismissed."

Turning back to Skeler, he continues:

"If you were recording the status of your probe's battery, it should show when its estimated time of operation began to shorten. If it was measuring the distance to the moon as well, then we'll have an approximate range of the phenomenon that we can test."