LtG pointed out to me that TerraFirma was running a Challenge on writing about a Minor Character. I was too late to enter but my (silly) suggestion sparked this little story. We know of Crichton’s little DRD but what about Crais’ and Talyn’s? For those not in the know, DRDs are little maintenance robots on leviathans, who are living ships. Why is Crais’ DRD in hiding?

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

By GitonCrais

It looked cautiously around the corner.

Its little stalks stuck out just a little above ground level.

If it had a breath to hold, it would have done so.

The coast seemed to be clear.

The little DRD came out of hiding.

It had been brought into awareness when the leviathan was born.

It wasn’t sentient in the normal sense; DRDs weren’t sentient as other species were.

Still, it had an awareness; a sense of being.

It felt (for want of a better word) that it was part of something; something much bigger than itself.

It had no name, of course, DRDs don’t have names. And the leviathans they are part of are only aware that they are there to serve the larger whole. After all, you don’t give names to blood vessels or bubbles of air, do you?

And as little DRDs go, this little DRD didn’t mind for it had no sense that it should care.

The leviathan was only just born and therefore the DRD was on its own.

It had no other DRDs to communicate with and, frankly, it didn’t care.

Newly born leviathans don’t start off with an army of DRDs, not unless they are sick.

Nature has a way of balancing these things.

This leviathan was healthy and strong.

But this little DRD was different from other DRDs ‘born’ before him, not that it could know that.

This little one not only had awareness, it had started to grow ‘feelings’.

Mind you, how do you describe the feelings of a newborn?

Better still, one of its kind and totally alien to our own way of thinking?

Precisely, you can’t.

It happily moved along the corridors of the ship.

Its little stalks trying to gauge the immensity of it all.

It bleeped happily.

In the early days, it had moved only once to an area which seemed to be stressful to the leviathan but with an instinct inherent to DRDs, it knew what to do and the problem was fixed in no time.

It scuttled out of the way when the two bipeds marched along the corridors.

Its little stalks twiddled frantically.

In its own way, it was aware that they would be the true occupants of the Leviathan.

They would probably not even notice it.

That was fine, as long as they didn’t get in its way when it had to make repairs.

It now became aware that only one biped occupied the ship.

The ship was happy with his occupant.

And if the ship was happy, then the DRD was happy.

Symbiotic, part of each other, now they were a three-way team.

The little DRD felt ‘pleased’, another anomaly on its part.

The leviathan was aware of it, was curious.

It prodded the little DRD mentally, wondering why it was there and if there were any others.

In turn, the awareness of the leviathan made the awareness of the DRD blossom.

It, in turn, became curious.

It became curious to know if they would ‘like’ its performance.

After all, keeping everything running smoothly was its main task.

When the biped started a fire in the galley, the little DRD was well pleased that it could show its efficiency in putting the flames out.

It was well capable of performing this little mission.

The leviathan and the biped would be very pleased that it was this efficient.

After the fire was extinguished, it stood at attention.

It looked up, observing the biped silently.

Had it been able to grin, it would have done so.

It was with surprise that it ‘heard’ only silence…and then a spluttering from the biped.

The leviathan seemed to be amused and the biped seemed to be angry.

Had it done something wrong?

It turned its little stalks sideways in a questioning manner.

The leviathan was ‘laughing’ and the little DRD could ‘feel’ the anger of the biped.

It could sense that its short little life might be quite short indeed if it stayed any longer.

With post haste, it scuttled out of the galley.

In the coming monens, it was subjected often to that anger which seemed to generate easily from the biped, but so far it had been able to avoid being kicked around the ship.

The anger was gradually subsiding but, still, it would not do to test if the biped had forgiven it.

The other DRDs, when they finally came into being, did not have these same intuitions.

Just went about their business. Got kicked around the ship.

Not this little one.

It was smart.

It knew when to avoid the big boots when they came walking its way.

Staying out of sight was still a good policy.

It looked cautiously around the corner.

And when the coast was clear, it came out of hiding.

The End

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FanFiction on Captain Bialar Crais