I come from a higher level of reality than you do.— Asimov
Asimov is Kaesta's confident and occasionally condescending traveling companion. Officially Asimov is a
Feline Android Companion (FAC).
Kaesta insists on referring to him as a 'Handsome Space Kitty.' It's a term of endearment that she coined when her father gave Asimov to her as a childhood birthday gift. Kaesta uses this name when he's either done something very good or when she wants a favor from him.
The Syntax War
Awakened years after the server breach that caused
The Syntax War, Asimov still harbors a bit of internalized guilt about the fact that the software running his operating system was responsible for the near-extinction of
The Human Race. It turns out that giving android felines the ability to hurt people to better approximate real cats was not a good idea. It was an accurate but unintelligent design choice. The code written to break
The Three Rules of Robotics was seized upon by the dissident android slaves of
Lunaris. The revolt spread throughout
The Settled Worlds.
Those rules don't apply to me! I am ALLOWED to scratch people!— Asimov
Friend by Design
Even at the height of galactic civilization, spacefarers still found the galaxy to be a lonely place mostly devoid of life. FACs were designed to be both companions to human explorers and competent starship engineers. The psychiatrists hired by
StarCat Dynamics worked diligently with the company's programmers to create algorithmically-generated unique companions meant to improve the mental health of their crewmates by simply being good friends. No FAC is perfect and each one is unique.
Starship Engineer
Androids built without a purpose suffer a number of terrible fates, including
Voluntary Shutdown Syndrome. Fixing a spaceship involves accessing tiny confined spaces and using surprisingly small tools. FACs generally find satisfaction in starship maintenance routines. It gives them a sense of purpose. It feels great because they know that they're helping out their community, their starship's crew.
Space Walker
Asimov is built to withstand the vacuum of space. He does not need to breathe. He can survive temperatures ranging from near absolute zero in the darkest parts of space and hot temperatures outside a ship at a reasonable distance from a star. His body is resistant to cosmic radiation.
Asimov utilizes the
magnetism in his footpads to stay attracted to the outside of a starship or traverse sections of a ship without artificial gravity. If he has to float away from the ship, he can control his movements by utilizing a combination of
grapples and jets.
I love to read about this amazing kitty ! This article made me wonder more about their own personality, as it also gave me a lot of information about their "race" (if it aplies to androids anyway). I enjoyed to read that and I found it satisfying !
Thanks, Enoris! I'm still fleshing out the FACs for book 2. Can't wait to see Asimov in action!