Downtime 1: Six test tubes and a centifuge

Corva had firmly established themselves in one corner of the lab on the third level of the satellite. It was kept meticiously organised, but there was usually at least one experiment going on. Corva had looted the supply cupboard, but it seems that wasn't enough for their needs: stacks of various multimeat products sat in the lab, waiting to be broken down.

Today, Corva was struggling to drag one of the labs centifuges back from the workshop to their working area. These were usually not that difficult to move, being around the size of a small microwave, but Corva appeared to have made some modifications to this one. It somewhat resembled a modern art sculpture of a cello, and was being annoyingly awkward to move
So focused on navigating it around one of the lab counters was Corva that they likely would not have noticed someone else entering the room.

Lester walked in with a plate of food--Corva hadn't made it to the kitchen--and saw the agent struggling with equipment. He put the food down and moved over to begin to help. "Woop, there we go." Lester wasn't very strong, but with two of them, moving the weird cellowave would be easy work.

"Thank you" Replied Corva, leading him over to their bit of the lab and placing the device on the table. Now that Lester was close up, he noticed that the "neck" of the device was some kind of incubation area, linked into the output for the centrifuge. On the other side, Corva had created a fairly simple distillation system. Someone as experienced with organic culture systems as Lester could clear see this was essentially some kind of easy to automate incubation system, although nothing was growing in it yet. Corva moved away and busied themselves at the computer terminal, preparing to plug various parts in, before they realised he was still standing there. "May I be of further assistance?" they asked quietly.

"I brought you some food." He gestured to the plate of stir fry he had left sitting on the counter. "I'm sure you're getting enough nutrition, but it seemed like a nice thing to do." He smiled a bit, disarmingly, and leaned back away from the experiment. "I can assure you it's all edible.. So, what are you gonna grow?" He seemed relaxed and interested.

Corva blinked before ducking down a rooting through a cupboard built into the lab shelf. When they rose, they were holding a transparent plastic dome which they put over the top of the food to avoid contamination of the lab. "I have organised sufficient nutrition, yes. Additional food is not required. But. Thank you." Sharing food, in the underwater base with limited resources, had always been a big thing, and while Corva knew that their new locale was not nearly so understocked, it still felt strange to receive this from someone they had only just met.

After a moment they realised that Lester had asked an additional question, and after another moment they replied. "Algae. I am growing algae samples."

Working at Mulymeat, of course, meant that Lester had no such romantic notions about sharing food. Food was what they did, and part of his life as long as anything else had been. "Oo, what kind?" Lester, a scientist, peered closer, looking over the incubation tanks. "We use a fair few types of algae for synthesising chemicals, as well as a base of our Green Teas line."

Corva paused, but they knew they were bad at lying. "Misatond Rodskellig. I do not know what the classification would be in the latin system. I am testing chemical stresses."

Lester raised his eyebrow. He was an observant man and would have noticed any lying, so using undersea speak made sense. Despite his science prowess, however, he wasn't sure which is was. He cracked a crooked smile. "Can't say I understand which type that is." He moved away so he was no longer sticking his face into Corva's experiment. "And are you doing this for.. fun?"

Corva paused. "It is a particularly versatile species. I would be unwise to miss this oppotunity to further my current research on it." They were obviously covering something up, and failing miserably. One hand had grabbed onto a test tube of a reddish substance, which was very similar to the red patterns visible on Corva's hand. It did not take a mind as sharp as Lester's to determine the link.

Lester's eyes flicked from Corva's hand to the sample, from the sample to the hand, and then back to Corva's face. It was subtle, but his gaze was pointed as it met their eyes. "Nothing dangerous, right?" He tilted his head a little; he didn't sound overly concerned, but definitely interested. "Nothing infectious or something that would hurt the space station?"

Corva understood the meaning of the glance instantly. "No. While it is fast growing, it has too high a metabolism requirement for it to grow uncontrollably." They glanced at the test tube in their hands, and placed it into the first slot in the incubation area of the device. "I appreciate the food."

Lester looked thoughtful, not quite making eye contact. "You know, all agents eat a lot. It's the cybernetics..." He looked over to the covered food he had made. "And I quite look cooking for people. It's a family tradition... I'll probably make a few meals a day. You're more than welcome to have some. Encouraged to. Maybe even teach me some, er, Aldiek recipes." He trailed off again, trying to find the right words... "But this algae, it's.. useful to you?"

Corva seemed to be even more confused by this offer of food. "I...it is an important factor, yes." They swallowed, and wondered if they should suggest he talks to Lazard. "I....I appreciate the offer of food. I may join you at some point."

They turned to the equipment. "Could you please pass me the dish marked SP1?" They gestured to a stack of petri dishes nearby.

Lester turned to identify the dishes before selecting the correct one. Once found, he passed it over to Corva with a nod. "Here you go..." He seemed to enjoy helping. For all his height and curls and dour attitude on missions, he was content to be an assistant. Maybe he was bored. "..Say, what to you think about killing robots?"

From the contents of the dishes, it appeared that Corva had done quite a bit of initial work in breaking down multimeat products (judging from the various wrappers carefully laid out and labelled, a network of tight english handwriting with occasional slips into what Lester assumed was the Aldiek alphabet.

Corva took the dish with a nod and carefully the contents into a slot in the input end of the equipment. They plugged a cable into their computer and began to type into a plain text terminal they had open. For a moment it appeared that they were ignoring Lester, before they replied. "It was more difficult than expected. Certainly more difficult than when I have fired at organic targets. I am unclear why." Another pause. "I think, while there might be major differences, the systematic situations of ourselves, that is, Aldiek, and the DLA are closer than the myself and you. Perhaps this is why."

"Yes, I.. know what you mean. For me, more than that, they seem somehow dangerous and pathetic." He shrugged a shoulder, and tried to imagine organic targets. He shook his head. "...I expected it to feel like shooting a mobile Smork slime or food repackagers, but it didn't."

"Perhaps it would be like shooting an independent anti-Corporate fighter?" asked Corva as they added more code, fingers moving as fast as expected for a Computers and AI 9 character. "They possess clear and understandable goals, and are willing to risk death for them intellectually. Or at least they are able to appear to be."

Another pause. Talking to Corva was rather like watching a buffering video. "They were more difficult to shoot than most agents or UIG individuals I have encountered. There are possible exceptions."

Lester nodded. He couldn't help but smile slightly. "I have to admit, I was always a sucker for a hero story. A last stand, people with principles and impossible odds.." He shook his head. "But terrorists are different... Though they seem so helpless, and they care about one another. I always forget robots can do that, do that and mean that."

Lester's eyes watched as Corva worked, but seemed to be looking past their work. He folded his arms and pet his moustache. "I don't really feel bad for shooting agents. They're.. less helpless. Hard to kill. It seems to be kind of heart breaking in the robots, though. That talking head..." He shook his head again.

Corva gave a slight shrug as bits of the machinery began to whirr. "Terrorism is defined by its relation to power and the method it uses. It is not as if their actions are substantially different to those of the Corporations, particularly not in regards to Agents. The fact that the existing power structures have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo is what stops the world from returning to the Corporate Wars. I do not regard them as much different from Agents in terms of methodology and ideas, and I regard them to be even less different that the members of the United International Governments. They are all Leke-Sarranax, after all."

Lester raised an eyebrow. He was having his own internal war, but "Leke-Sarranax, am I saying that right? What does it mean?" He shook his head, smiling a little. Corva seemed so young and from somewhere so far away, and here they were, in space, conducting science experiments in their free time. Maybe the pressures of being under so much water had made them.. less inclined to explore the social world.

Corva moved their hand in a slightly odd gesture. "It's...Sarranax means an Archon, like I said before...Leke...you could translate it to food or toys? I suspect the second would be closer here."

A Sarran, as it happens, was a predator which moves in and damages an ecosystem, an important word for Aldiek aquaculture. -Ax was a negative superlaterative, similar to adding "the absolute worst" but with less comic effect, while Leke was the lowest grade feed Aldiek produced, often recycled from failed algae forms.

At that, Lester couldn't help but laugh. More of a gentle chuckle than a bark. "That seems fair. I don't know if I would agree that being a.. Corporate tool or shill makes it easier to kill someone... At least for me." The Inspector continued to eye Corva, not warily but.. with some interest.

"I see." Said Corva simply, before frowning and adjusting a screw in the apparatus. "Could you pass me the specimen tube marked MR4?"

If the conversation continued, Corva didn't trust themselves to not imply that they would be willing to kill Lester as well, and at this point the agent seemed to be a potential ally in this place. Or at least, he didn't give them away.

They'd probably tell Amp that to her face, but that wasn't the same thing.

Lester looked for a moment before passing over the aforementioned sample. Poor Corva didn't realize that Lester had already figured out how little Corva seemed to regard his life. It wasn't personal; it was business. The corporations had made that clear. "What kind of stress will you put the algae under?"

"Nutrient deficiency and replacement." Said Corva, removing a second sample tube of the algae and sliding it into position, before placing the sample into a slot at the other end.