Robotic(COUGH Second hand)

"Whelp that was a bust".

Blackfire walked out of a store in a huff. The prices they were asking for was way out of line. What, were their clients made of money? Ugh if she wasn't in such states, she'd burn the shop to the ground out of annoyance.

"So much for buying help." she muttered, quickly picking up her pace as she walked through the station's halls.

Much like during the days of sail and water, long distance space voyages usually saw a loss of crew. From attacks or just accidents; it wasn't uncommon even in technologically advanced civs for the crew to change numbers from point A to point B. Even if it wasn't an outright loss of life but rather long term injuries. Ships could find new hands to hire on at ports or way-stations like the one they were parked at.

But the prices were way too high for a new crew member. And she wasn't going to just press gang someone. For a number of reasons.

"Cant trust them with the little tyke...," she muttered as she remembered some of the... more out there aliens.

The little girl would have nightmares at the sight of some of them, mainly the bug ones and possibly the slime ones. No, she needed something close to human and trustworthy around kids/spawn, and the ship.

"And Zac...".

She remembered how in the catalog presented to her there were a couple 'pleasure crew' listed. Oh SURE they weren't actually listed as such, but everyone knew those green bitches could sleep with anything with a pulse. So hiring something organic was going to be a little risky. Which is why she tossed that idea into the bin after the first recruiting center.

Rather she'd spent her time looking at robotic help as those tended to be obedient and well..., replaceable. But the prices there were just as bad, if not more so than living ones. The selection was great; from repair bots to nannies style ones, but she just didn't have the money for it.

The ONLY thing that was in her price range was at a less than... reputable place.

Regardless of tech or standing; once a port reached a certain population level, you could always find pleasure centers. Whores and pimps, strip clubs and lap dances, and 'travel companions'. Flesh, carapace, slime, or metal fashioned to be enjoyed. Blackfire didn't judge how people got off; only that what she liked was the 'better' way.

And EVEN THOSE types of hires were outside of her price range. Her funds were rather empty after her last act before being torn away to be here. She was in the process of going back home to restock when..., no use thinking about it now. The point was she was so broke she couldn't hire even a streetwalker as a live in servant; regardless of what they were made out of.

"Not that I'd trust Zac with them anyway...." she grumbled.

The thought of one of those tramps ooggling Zac drove her... not mad? Annoyed? Bothered? And the reverse was true; she really didn't like the thought of Zac going off to have fun with any hired help she might have brought in. After all, he was married already; perhaps he broke up because he wasn't faithful....

"WAIT why do I CARE if he gets any..." she thought, her eyes flaring with energy for just a second.

POINT was, in her mind, she needed to hire someone cheap enough to be in her price range, compatible with Layla, and loyal enough to not seduce Zac along with attracting his wandering attention. All in all, she could maybe get 2 of those but not all of them. Not unless she got creative.

"....first thing first, should see about making some money." Blackfire thought, ducking into a small office.

Stations this large usually had security. Either from whatever nation it operated under, private security groups, or simply a couple strong burly mechanics to rough up any trouble makers. Really just depended on the size and visitor count. But they couldn't be everywhere, which is why there was a 'problem solver' office like this.

These tended to be for tasks deemed too small or possibly too violent. Such as finding a lost pet, getting back some goods, checking out what that noise on level 19 was and so on. The two lax sitting aliens behind the counter ignored her as she walked over to the display board. Her eyes scanned over the different job displays, marking the task and the reward...., well now here was one.

"Deal with a tech theft group.... hmmm."

Seemed like there was a group of thugs pilfering electronics and robotics, turning around to sell them on the station's black-market. After rewriting them of of course to wipe ownership along with rewriting programs and other things. And the price for going after them was.... rather substantial. Not enough for an actual hired hand but well..., she always knew how to spin something to her own ends.

"Okay. For my sanity. Go over it one more time."

"I found help."

"By paying for it with money you got from beating the tar out of smugglers."

"They were bad people. After all isn't that what 'heroes' like my sister do? Honestly, your daughter would like hearing that I'm being a good person." she put on a pouty tone.

"She would if you actually took them all in but you made a deal with the last one for freedom?"

"In exchange for his assistance in getting this working. I mean, raising a daughter is a lot of work, I thought you could use some more help."

"The help you got is a SEX BOT!!!" he hissed, trying not to raise his voice.

Blackfire shrugged as she cracked the bright pink box open. A few parts spilled out as she got to work putting things where they should go, and ripping out other parts from the doll like figure. Zac shook his head as he processed all this again. Blackfire had come back with a large colorful box, looking like the kind you'd put an action figure in or one of those collectible figurines. Only this one had a completely blank, featureless metal humanoid.

After dealing with the gang in the bowls of the station, Blackfire made a deal with one of the last egg heads that was still standing. In exchange to letting him escape jail and more importantly, her wrath, he was to supply her with something from the gang's supplies. She wanted an AI chip from a maid style of helper android. One that could interface with a vastly different model.

“I told you, pet, all I have to do is replace the base program with what I picked up. And we should be good. Do you not trust me?” she asked as she ripped out the chip from the machine.

“More worried about your ‘friend’ being trust worthy.” Zac said as he moved some of the packing out of the way.

“I double checked the work. It’s not the most in depth set up but should be enough for our needs.” She said as started to go back to work.

It looked weird to him, considering it was supposed to be high tech. Just an oversized doll, sort of like a manikin... no lower than that. Like one of those wooden pose-able dolls he saw back in art class way back in middle school. Zac couldn’t even tell if it was supposed to be male or female. He just watched as Blackfire continued her work. It was kinda surprising to see her use her laser ability as a make shift soldering gun.

“So… how do yo…”

“When you’re **** to stand on your own for long periods of time, or manage a lot of different factions with their own interests; you tend to pick up a couple tricks.” Blackfire explained, cutting him off.

“My sister, kind and thoughtful as she is naïve, never had to deal with such things. I suppose not having my powers naturally made it easier for me to lean on anything I could learn for an edge against her.”

“… oddly pragmatic for a villainess space ruler.” He noted.

“I’m a woman with many talents, most of which were not by choice. Anyway..,” she slammed the panel closed and fiddled with a remote, “It’s all set. I just need you to shake its hand.”

“Me?” He put a hand his chest with an eyebrow raised, “Why me, this is your toy.”

“I figured I would allow you the right to form the baseline.” She replied with a smile, “Just think of someone that Layla would trust.”

Trust…, it would have to be Nora. Nora was one of the maids his wife went through and was still in her employment. At least the last time he checked. Kinda woman, little younger than him, Came from a very traditional family with a history of house work roles. Maids, butlers, master of the house; that sort of thing. He found it weird that such families still existed, but Nora was a pretty nice person. Layla loved spending time with her, as she was one of the few people that seemed to understand the little girl rather than control her.

He wasn’t sure what Blackfire meant by 'baseline', but when he grabbed the figure’s hand, he had Nora on his mind.

A jolt ripped through his hand and up his arm, making him jump back. The metal figure before him seemed to suffering from the same thing, only more so as it began to jerk and twitch, the smooth surface starting to ripple. He watched as the metal started to change into a more organic look. The smoothness replaced by bumps and ripples that would be akin to muscles.

Features started to emerge. A nose, ears, eyes, hands and fingers, average bust but heart shaped butt; little shorter than him too. Long platinum blond hair erupted from its head. The eyes blinked open, showing off shining blue eyes as the figure moved it's arms an legs a bit. It looked at him before giving a small curtsy.

“Good day to you [Primary User: search] Zac. This unit is primed and ready to partake in your assignments. Would you like to see additional features or would you like to skip to the bedrooooooooo…..” the light in her eyes faded as she bent over.

“Forgot a few lines. One moment.” Blackfire grunted she put the remote away and opened up the back panel.

“Okay…, what just happened!” Zac hissed out. Honestly he wanted to freak out just a bit, but he didn’t wish to alert Layla about what was going on.

“The model I got uses a sort of form changing metal mold. Basically it takes the appearance of what you’re thinking of at the time, and molds it’s body to match it as closely as it can. The really expensive ones are able to change shape at will but this one is locked to this form.”

“Lemme guess, to get her to change shape we’d have to pay for it?”

“Refills.”

“The more things change huh?” He asked with a hand to his face, “Thought you got this jail broken. Shouldn’t be able to shift?”

“Only for its mental functions, not physical ones. Now be a dear and do the same thing with this, only clothes this time.”

Blackfire handed him a a few sheets of metal. Zac grabbed one and it formed into a rather old fashioned maid outfit; black and white in color, with a long flowing skirt. He repeated this process with two more sheets before setting the others aside. It seemed that just making sure his skin didn’t touch it would work. He'd keep those others for later, just in case.

“Rather plain, but I suppose fitting." Blackfire said as she looked up, closing the panel once more, "Alright toss it here, I’ll get her presentable and you get Layla.”

“Fine… but if she says something weird…”

She cut him off with a wave, shoo'ing him off to the task. He rolled his eyes before leaving, giving a small huff.

“Why am I even doing this? All this for a man and his daughter? Really now, am I going soft?” Blackfire thought as she turned the machine back on.

One quick dressing later, and Zac had come back carrying Layla on his shoulders. Blackfire wasn’t sure if he was being nice or his daughter had him wrapped around her finger.

“Hey Blackfire!” She gave a small wave, sounding much better than the last time Blackfire had heard her, “Dad said you wanted me to meet someone!”

“Something like that. My I present your new sitter.” Blackfire said motioning to the machine next to her.

“Good day lady Layla.” the machine gave a small curtsy, “This unit is fully ready to see to your needs. It occurs to this unit that it should be about lunch time now. What would you like to eat for lunch?”

“…. This is weird…, she looks like Miss Nora.” Layla said after Zac set her down on a chair, “Can she make mac and cheese like she can though?”

“Reference search, Macaroni and Cheese. Confirmed.” The robot said before moving off and getting cook ware out, “This unit is capable of that request.”

"Blackfire figured if you had a sitter that looked famliar you'd be more okay with it." Zac explained as he took his own seat.

"Well... kinda weird but... I guess it's okay. Kinda used to different sitters though...., 'this unit' though..." Layla hummed in thought, "Can we name her something else?"

“Oh please… do you name those little cleaning disk robots…., don’t answer that.” Blackfire quickly added when she saw a small grin on Zac’s face.

“Well calling her Nora would be the easiest thing…, but feels weird. And if Blackfire doesn’t have a name, maybe you can think of one?” Zac asked his daughter.

“Hmmm Estrella means Star in Spanish…, and we are in space…” the little tyke said as she kicked her legs.

“Wait how do you know… huh?” The two adults looked at each other as they had both started the same sentence.

“Maid number… five I think. Miss Rodriguez.” Came the answer. Though she kept her head down, not making eye contact.

“Oh, right, remember her.” Zac muttered as he brought a hand to his head.

“I am not naming the help so close to my sister.”

“Excuse me.”

The trio turned to the voice as a plate of warm gooey Mac and cheese was placed in front of Layla who quickly dug in. The robot made another curtsy motion as before standing at ease.

“If it helps with the name,” she slid up her sleeve to show off a brand on her arm, “My series ID is C4-R3. Perhaps that could be of some assistance.”

“Hmmm…, Carm?” Zac said with a snap of his fingers.

Layla nodded, unable to talk with her mouth full. Blackfire just shrugged while the robot gave a quick bow.

“If That is what you wish, this unit will go by Carm until further instructions.”

“Well…, That taken car e of, I’m gonna head back and get some info on the station.” Blackfire said, spinning on her heels and starting to leave.

“You didn’t…. just…. Be care… ow.” Zac started before something drew his attention.

Lays had poked his side with the spoon, and had the biggest eyes as she gestured after Blackfire. She wasn't going to let up on having a 'super mom' huh? Well..., he had nothing else to do, more so if Layla was actually going to be okay with Carm now. He wasn’t going to hear the end of it unless he did something… anything.

“I’m gonna regret this.”

“Hey, Blackfire.” The woman stopped and turned her head to look back, “Look, since you got a… ‘sitter’ for Layla now, perhaps I can come along now. If you…want me around.”

“Is this some attempt at asking me out on a date?” She asked, tapping a foot.

“Call it…” he tried to ignore Layla’s bouncing in her seat, “Team building. We should at the very least get along for the trip. Besides you can take it as a chance to teach me things you deem are worthy for me to know."

".....Hmmm. I suppose so. ...., Well, get suited up. Let's see how you handle yourself then human." Blackfire said with a bit of a grin.

Well now it was time to test the human, if he was more than willing to jump into the fire. Cupid had set him up with her for SOME reason after all, he should be able to handle himself after all. It was just a matter of seeing where to throw him into..., without getting him outright killed or left bitter towards her. Station like this, had several places to go for...., something rough, something wild, something sexy and depraved, something cozy and romantic....

"WHERE IS THAT COMING FROM!?!?!" Blackfire screamed internally as she got out a space suit for the human.