RK-G1 moved along the corridor slowly, cleaning the floor, as was its function.
*As is your function,* its inhibitor system reminded it, as it did every 1.4 million processor cycles, or every 0.00003 seconds.
Geewun let out an annoyed chirp. For some reason, this particular reminder was more annoying than the others. Perhaps its inhibitor was a little wonky.
And why not? It suggested to itself. Everything else in this place is aging and prone to breaking down.
It continued down the corridor, slowly scouring the floor. Aging or not, enjoying it or not, Geewun was fiercely proud of the cleanliness of its section.
A young man-newly fully grown, as far as Geewun could tell-opened up a utility door and stepped into the corridor. He was pale and moved with a strange caution. He also held a stick in his hand, which glowed brightly.
Worse, Geewun’s sensors assured him that this stick could burn through anything it touched.
Far worse than this, the young man was dripping sweat on his newly-cleaned floor.
*Not on my floor , you…* Geewun started to think before his inhibitor cut him off.
The man moved off, and Geewun followed him, sterilizing the floor behind him.
Soon the young man reached a small room. It was Geewun’s favorite part of its cleaning section, featuring a large window that often allowed delicious photons in to be absorbed by its secondary energy processor. Also Geewun simply liked being able to see; much of its work was in dimly lit areas where he moved by preprogrammed knowledge of the area.
The young man was met by a very large man. This one was all in black. Without warning a large unit on the wall tore away and sped towards the young man.
What was that? Geewun wondered. The young man turned and tried to deflect the object with his stick. But he was unsuccessful; it struck him and then spun away, shattering Geewun’s favorite window.
No! Geewun thought. It put out a message to Maintenance Central to alert them to the damage.
The pressure differential rushed air out the hole, and Geewun reflected that at least most of the shattered glass would not have to be cleaned off the floor. It was going to be quite a job to fix this mess.
More objects were being hurled by some invisible force towards the young man, and Geewun realized that it was the large man in black doing the hurling. How was unclear.
Then his internal movement sensors screamed at him as he was lifted up in the air and thrown at the young man. He struck the man’s elbow, and though it was not its own fault it felt obliged to give a small chirrup of apology. The human probably never heard it over the rushing air.
Geewun spun right out the hole of its favorite window. Below, it well knew, was a lot of nothing.
In less than half a second Geewun was further from its appointed cleaning area than it had been in eight yearcycles, when a major motivator blowout had required it to go to the station’s central engineering department. Though it was embarrassing to be seen pushed around the station by a truck droid, Geewun had treasured the new sights and sounds, and had replayed those memories often, sifting them for new data.
This too was new, falling down the large hole. There wasn’t much to record, but Geewun did see some holes along the walls of the shaft.
Some of these holes had open hatches, and a wind pressure pushed Geewun towards one of these.
Geewun smashed hard onto the side of the opening, but happily ended up inside the side-shaft. While it started a program to determine any damage caused by the accident, it continued to slide down this new tunnel.
Just when it had stopped, a new hatch opened beneath him and it fell.
It was in the open air. The only object nearby was an antenna of some kind. Geewun tossed its extensible arm out, and snagged it.
As it hung there, Geewun contemplated that it would likely be some time before he was discovered. His sensors picked up damage on the antenna, and it seemed to be sagging slightly under his weight.
Another hatch opened nearby. Geewun was about to call for help when the young man fell out onto another antenna.
He would not be helping Geewun any time soon. He was hanging upside-down and seemed to be missing part of his arm.
Remarkably, a ship, shaped roughly like a garbage-unit lid, came and slid directly under the young man.
Geewun ran some probability algorithms and came to the conclusion that dropping onto the ship was safer than waiting for a rescue that might not come. It dropped to the roof with a clang, at the same time the young man fell.
As another man came out and pulled the young man into the bowels of the ship. Geewun electronically signalled for help.
His cry was answered. An astromech in the ship, R2-D2, heard him.
*I would like to be let in,* Geewun said.
*Not possible right now,* R2-D2 replied. *We are going to be under attack. I am pinging a magnetic plate. Go to it and I will activate it. Do anything possible to hang on.*
Geewun quickly rolled over to the plate. The electronic signal was as clear as a siren to it. Geewun signalled R2-D2 and felt itself be locked onto the hull.
R2-D2 gave Geewun its apologies, and explained that it now had to see to the safety of the ship.
Geewun was wondering what would happen next. It also wondered when its diagnostics would be finished. The ship was already moving quite quickly, and Geewun decided it could be a long time before it saw its beloved window again.
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