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"Hmm. Let's see. During dinner, he was very polite, but distant. He kept looking all over the ship. He was a very curious person..."

Hendrik was busy pondering when Pieter spoke up: "I could get a read on his position, if I could get access to his watch. They should be standard issue for all crew members. I'd need the captain's authorisation to do so, however."

Hendrik decided that might be the best idea, but still told Pieter: "I think that's our most efficient route. But I really wish you'd stop speaking out of turn. You're an illegal prototype, you know, and now you've announced your presence to the world."

"What? Your watch talks? Do they all do that?" Gunther asked, then continued before waiting for an answer. "I just left mine in my room. Never really needed one before. So should we turn around and ask the Captain about the watch or just keep on walking in circles with our thumbs up our asses and hope we bump into him?"

"We're not too far away from the captain yet. We should turn around. And leave your watch for now. You can get it later."

Hendrik ignored the comment about the watch on purpose. He would need to explain it to the captain eventually, but not just now...

The footsteps grew softer and eventually faded. It did not know whose they were but it knew that it couldn't stay in this corridor. Its attention turned to the human underneath it. "Close your eyes. Count to 50." It lifted its staff off of Anderson's neck and scurried away. It doubted that the human would wait more than 5 seconds before running to tell his friends. It needed to move quickly. At this point, everyone would know it was here. Best to get ahead of things, so it made its way to the bridge....

"Illicit watches are against regulations, but I do believe that yours could be accounted for in the personal mementos exemption, provided that it can't harm any crew member. And I do believe that it would be logical to return to the bridge an run a ship-wide scan for crewman Anderson."  Tomalek said, and began moving off to the bridge with  Hendrik and Gunther, before hearing footsteps behind them...

Anderson closed his eyes and listened as the robot's footsteps grew softer. After about thirty seconds, he looked down at his wrist and sent a message to all the main crew members and the captain, "I'm making my way to the bridge. Sorry for the delay." He thought it best not to mention the robot for now, as he let slip that the person in charge would be at the bridge, he expected the robot to head towards there. For now, he would honor his word and keep its existence a secret. After all, he didn't want to be on its bad side... at least until he studied it more. He slowly rose and made his way to the bridge.

Stealth was out the window, so there was no point in being subtle anymore. It quickly made it's way towards the bridge, but it made a careless mistake, it neglected to scan ahead for lifeforms. It rounded the corner and smack dab into 3 people,  some slovenly dressed human, it guessed he was some kind of merc judging by how he carried himself, another human in a uniform and a Vulcan. They turned and looked at it,HKR could not accurately describe the look on their faces. Seeing no other options, it raised its staff into a fighting stance. It was a skilled killer, that much it knew, but with a non functional left arm,  a damaged left leg and damaged face, it was..... It could not describe what it felt right then. Fear? It quickly turned its attention to the 3 immediate threats in front of it....

Completely ignorant of the chaos going on aboard the ship, Zerick was busy getting the ship's engines ready for flight, and after some system diagnosis, he got his engineering team working on it. Satisfied that his team can get it done without him, he left to go back to his room and review the ship's systems.

A stunned silence filled the corridor where the strange entity was now facing the three officers.

Pieter spoke up: "Hendrik, it is an AI. One much more advanced than I am."

Hendrik would have given anything to shut Pieter up, but he programmed Pieter to run diagnostics on all potential AIs it encountered.

Hendrik took the entity in quickly. Damaged face, damaged leg, and non-functional left arm. It was thus weakened, but Hendrik knew from personal experience that most illegal AIs had extreme protocols to ensure the survival of each unit. If he had to make an analogy, he would compare the entity to an injured lion. Weakened, certainly, but much more aggressive, and consequently much more dangerous than usual.

Hendrik would try to subdue the entity if it came to that, but he knew that even with one arm, the entity would still be much more powerful with its hydraulic arms and legs. It would be a hairy fight that Hendrik would well end up losing.

"Everyone stay calm," Hendrik bade everyone, but his own heart was beating in his throat. "AI, do you have anything to do with our missing officer?"

Commander Tomalek turned around right as the half-broken robot was rounding the corner, and activated his wrist communicator.  "Tomalek to Security.  Intruder Alert." 

While Hendrik tried to reason with the robot, Tomalek glanced over at Gunther, and he surmised that the the mercenary clearly intended to blast the android into oblivion.  Probably not the best course of action with what seems to be a military-grade weapons system, even if it's not functioning completely properly, Tomalek thought. 

"You do not appear to be any sort of android assigned to this vessel.  I ask that you please state your designation and your purpose on this vessel so this situation does not become... unpleasant for any of us."  Tomalek said to the robot, hoping that it wasn't damaged to the point that it had become entirely irrational. 

The alert suddenly appeared on the screen in the bridge.

"What the bloody 'ell is going on?" Alexsandr checked the ships sensor array and saw 4 dots in the hallway near the Bridge.

Other crew members asked to accompany him, but he denied and went alone. He quickly walked towards to the area of conflict.

Anderson walked toward the bridge and saw the robot confronting Hendrik, Commander Tomalek, and the mercenary. He caught up to the group and said, "Sorry for the delay. I was stalled by this robot... or AI."

Zerick heard some people talking and what seemed like a hostile situation. Curious, he followed the sound until he came upon them and saw the half-functional robot.

"May I ask what's going on here?"

OOC: Sorry I was late to this, I finally got home from my mini-vacation. I should be more active now

IC: Fern Hun sighed as he entered the ship... "Out of all of the times in my life, this is when I'm late..."

He wandered on, wondering where all of his crew members could possibly be.

Aíne Hiwat after checking on the medical safety of the suspended animation walks in seemingly to ask a question. And finds all the chaos going on.

So an officer is missing? What is going on? He walks right past the robot not knowing it to be anything more then a service droid.