>>5788828"Yeah, kid. I think this'll do fine. But we need to work out a quick and dirty design. Something that we can print in bulk, that won't use any special materials. No skin, no stomach, no lasers or full-spectrum optics... just the bare minimum."
<span class="mu-i">"A simplified form would significantly cut down on processing time"</span> SHODAN adds.
That's so weird. They're both speaking through her body, but the general tone and intonation is so different, you can immediately tell who's who.
Actually, you wonder if SHODAN isn't the one who caught him when he was about to fall earlier. It really didn't look like he had it, until he did.
Kind of an interesting idea, if you were to use that in your power armor... but, ideas for later.
The bare minimum... the bare minimum you need for work, huh?
Well, there's one classic design you have in mind.
...
Some more time has passed. The first reactor is finally online. Took a while to warm up, since SHODAN wanted to do a bunch of systems tests and ensure everything was working properly.
Simulations are one thing, but it's rarely that simple or easy in reality. And there were in fact a couple of loose wires that had to be fixed, but besides that everything worked right off the hob.
Even so, it'll take a while for the station to warm back to a reasonable level with just one reactor running. And by reasonable, you mean something like fifty degrees. Freezing cold by most species standards.
Once the second reactor is up and running, it should get back up to temperature in here. Until then, there's a lot more work to be done... but you won't be around for a lot of it.
"So these are what you came up with, huh?" Sanig says, arms crossed in contemplation.
<span class="mu-i">"Roger, Roger."</span> The robot before you says, saluting.
There's nobody actually controlling it right now, they just do that when they're powered on in standby mode.
It's a brass-colored, vaguely humanoid robot with thin limbs and a big utility pack strapped to it's back.
There's no other way to put it. It's a bootleg B1 Battle Droid. Almost purely utilitarian in both form and function.
It's got a radio. It's got a pair of decent cameras for eyes, microphones for ears, one speaker for speech... and that's about it, besides some pressure sensors on the hands and fingers.
The utility pack contains it's radio, an assistant VI and a large battery and capacitor that allows it to act as an external power pack.
There's also a supercapacitor in the body of the droid itself that allows it to run independently for a few minutes while it's swapping out utility packs.
It's joints are just servomotors, meaning the instant these things lose power they just crumple like a puppet with it's strings cut. They aren't even particularly high-powered servomotors.
It turns out you don't need much when the whole droid is just sheet metal with stainless steel tubes for limbs. These things can run for something like sixteen hours minimum on a single charge, it's crazy.
