Unfinished Story: LO & QUA-Z4R (from March 2022)
"Hey, wake up!" QUA-Z4R's processors slowly warmed up from a meditative sleepMode state.
"QUA, quickly, there is not much time! We both need to see this." It took QUA-Z4R nearly a month in Earth Time to boot up enough to respond, sat up in its charging pod. Emissive triangular green eyes peered down at it with an undiscernable expression at first.
"I-Is there something wrong, LO?" QUA-Z4R asked with clear concern in its digitally generated voice.
"Nooo, no no, you misunderstand. Nothing is broken or anything," LO responded, then scratched the side of its own monitor meekly, "Well… Okay, one of the outer thrusters is faulty, and I need to go to the outer hull and repair that later. But this is not related to that at all! Come look out the lounge window! Soon we will need to sync to Earth Time out there for this."
"What-at?" QUA-Z4R's monitor blinked a couple times, its digital voice glitchily slurred from running boot up processes in the background, "What are you-ou talking about?"
LO interlocked its metallic claws with QUA-Z4R's own and pulled it in for a small hug. It then leaned in and lightly pressed it's monitor to QUA-Z4R's for a moment. Stray static electricity was traded between both monitors, causing small sparks.
"Trust me QUA, we would absolutely not want to miss this."
QUA-Z4R nearly short-circuited, practically melting in the pod, and its processors raced to catch up with its emotions.
"O-Okay, LO," QUA-Z4R's monitor unintentionally displayed blush marks under its large elliptical blue eyes, "I trust you."
Once QUA-Z4R's boot up processes completed after about 3 Earth Time years, LO lead it to the lounge. This room on the ship was initially designed with humans in mind rather than robots. From the extremely cushioned sofas and table in the center of the room, to the coffee machine and water dispenser on the side of the room, and especially the kitchen counter toward the back. Neither LO nor QUA-Z4R had made any real use of these amenities in the eons they had been on this ship, however they really enjoyed the atmosphere it gave the room.
"What is all of this about?" QUA-Z4R asked in response to the contents of the table LO had gestured at proudly. In the center of the table were candles lit with holographic flames, a tea kettle, and two tea cups. QUA-Z4R's monitor squinted at LO skeptically, "You do recall that we do not require water, correct?"
"Yes, I know this may seem strange. It is just a little bit of human 'roleplay' I set up for something called a Date." LO answered, embarrassed slightly, "It is a ritual where two or more humans gather for a Meal or Beverage. Participants admire each other's company for as long as is comfortable for all parties. I had read about this human ritual from the on-ship library and burned it into my Passive Memory for a special occasion… Such as this."
"Please forgive me for my barrage of questions, but," QUA-Z4R glanced out the expansive window to the vacuum of space, "What is this occasion you are talking about? You said I needed to see it? Is it outside?"
LO blinked, visibly flipping through a heavy load of information in its databanks with its monitor display. It all went by much faster than QUA-Z4R could process, at least visually. Even if it could, it would not be very compatible with its own specifications geared toward piloting the ship. It was not designed with the intention to scan, calculate, and predict various complex outcomes and phenomena like LO was.
"Affirmative, we have about 2.26 Earth Years to spare!" LO exclaimed, before catching itself, "Apologies, I got distracted by the data again. Yes, it is going to be outside. Come here and look, quickly"
LO excitedly grabbed at QUA-Z4R's left claw and pulled it gently to the window with it. From this angle, QUA-Z4R could clearly see a large dim sphere in the far distance, possibly lightyears away.
"Do you see that?" LO pointed directly to the sphere, "That is a star. Or more correctly, what WILL have been a star. It is dying and by my calculations, at this point, it is about 2.03 Earth Time Years from becoming a Supernova. I am aware it is more your department, but I took control of the ship to orient us to be a safe distance from it, and also to adjust the angle so we could watch it from the table during our Date!"
Unfortunately, this is where I stopped since lol
Maybe I should continue writing this at some point but motivation's hard, and I just thought I'd share what I had. Plus i'm more focused on writing A Place To Stay For A While (a kirby fanfic involving Magolor X Taranza), so all of my writing effort is pulled more toward that.
