Restore Specs' reputation

It was unlikely that you'd be able to find much else to use, and if 6T9's condition was time critical, then you had to act now. After considering what you'd learned, perhaps you could convince Specs to do something he never had the chance to do previously: Fix and save a sentient machine, and restore his reputation in the process. Hopefully this would work.

Mustering the courage to confront him one more time, you tried to ease your way into the conversation, "Thank you for allowing me to tour your shop. It was very enlightening." All you got was a grumble. "You appear to be an expert in your knowledge of these machines. You must take great pride in your work." you continued.

At this point Specs retorted, "Is there a point to this?" Specs asked.

"From the Starpoint's database, it appears that you are Specs, and you've written or contributed toward a vast number of technical manuals," you replied.

"That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. The crew stopped calling me that a while back, and I recommend you should too. Best to leave it forgotten."

"Because of this?" you daringly reached back toward the robot on the shelf.

"Stop!" he commanded before you reached it. After a lengthy silence he finally added, "Yes, because of that, or rather the prototype. I assume that your search turned up information about SPR-1 and what it did. That unit on the shelf was to be its successor, SPR-2, but I abandoned working on it after the incident."

"Not only did you abandon that, but it seems you stopped writing as well. What I want to know is why. Did they blame you for what SPR-1 did, or did you simply blame yourself?" you challenged.

The boldness of your inquiry seemed to catch him off-guard. "What!?" he began, seeming more agitated than before, but then he fell silent before composing himself. "Does it matter? My design omitted sufficient redundancy for a key safety protocol. I had no idea their tests would..." he halted again, this time seeming both angry and sad. "The details aren't important. It was my fault."

"What if you had a chance to do it again?" you asked.

"Are you daft? I can't change what SPR-1 did. Don't tell me you're from one of those species that thinks time travel is possible, because it isn't. You can slow it down or speed it up with respect to a frame of reference, but it can never be reversed."

"I wasn't talking about the robot," you stated. "I'm talking about you and your writing. It seems to be something you were very good at, and took pride in doing, and it was probably something you enjoyed. If your reputation has been tarnished by what happened, you may have an opportunity to restore it."

Specs seemed perplexed by your offer. "I don't know what you're getting at, but I'm listening."

"When SPR-1 was taken from you, you lost a sentient machine that you cherished. It's extremely tragic that researchers died as a result of a design flaw, but it's also unfortunate that you never had a chance fix that flaw before a sentient machine was destroyed," you asserted. "However, you now have an opportunity to save a another sentient machine," you suggested and pointed toward 6T9. "You said it's hard to repair that much damage, but you didn't say it was impossible. Has anyone managed to repair a sentient machine that was in this condition? Has a procedure even been written for it? Who better than you could write such a manual?"

For several seconds, Specs remained silent, but eventually his expression softened, and he acquiesced, "You've got spunk. There may be lab procedures for repairing sentient machines, but there definitely aren't any field manuals to cover it. The damage may not be impossible to fix, but hard to repair will likely be an understatement."