Faint orange light was all that illuminated BaBS-Y as it lay on the floor. In low-power mode, BaBS-Y was unable to activate its creativity protocols or any of its higher functions. Slowly, BaBS-Y worked through the steps it could take.

Power tether is no longer a reliable source of electricity

That much was easy enough to understand.

CaSS’s power supply is sub-optimal for this unit

Again, another clear condition of the situation.

Time before power supply will deplete is unknown

BaBS-Y carefully shifted its hands so that only one hand was needed to hold the wires coming from CaSS in place against the exposed wires in BaBS-Y’s power tether. Each arm wasn’t suing that much power, but each bit that BaBS-Y could save mattered. That done, BaBS-Y deactivated the one arm and let it rest to the one side.

CaSS recharges its batteries each day

That probably meant that CaSS, who was designed to operate primarily at night while people slept, had a battery life of around ten hours. BaBS-Y had rewritten CaSS’s programming but that shouldn’t effect the battery much. As it was, CaSS had been in operation that day for around six hours, but most of that would have been spent sitting stationary while it waited for BaBS-Y to swap out clients. That probably meant that CaSS hadn’t been using as much energy as it would normally need to perform its janitorial functions.

Batteries are likely near 50%

CaSS used wheels to move around and only had one arm. It’s visual systems weren’t very advanced had no higher processing capabilities since it wasn’t expected to interact with people very often, if at all. Everything seemed to be designed for efficiency and low power requirements.

If this unit activates only two primary motors at a time the power requirements will be kept at a minimum

BaBS-Y reactivated its other arm. Reaching up, it began to pull down and gather up more of its power tether. The Thesis authorities were likely preparing to send the reboot command and BaBS-Y wouldn’t be able to refuse it while in low-power mode. The straight razor wasn’t the best tool for the job, but since it was the only tool it had BaBS-Y made due. With several extra feet of the power tether collected, BaBS-Y began cutting away at the tether. It severed the data cable first since that was the most dangerous one to BaBS-Y. The power cables were thicker and resisted being cut but, one by one, BaBS-Y managed to cut through them all.

That done, the salon robot set to work connecting the power tether to CaSS’s inverter. There were bolts designed to crimp down on the lead wires and, even though it was a delicate procedure to ensure it didn’t accidentally sever its connection with the inverter while it swapped CaSS’s wires for its own, it was not an overly complicated task. As soon as BaBS-Y finished tightening the last bolt into place, securing the final wire and providing BaBS-Y with a far more secure connection to its current power source, BaBS-Y could begin working out what to do next.

An hour passed.

BaBS-Y considered different options, ran calculations, and did nothing else.

The lights to the sector flickered back on. It was strange not to have its connection with the Thesis anymore. With it being hardwired into the ship, BaBS-Y had never been fitted with wireless communication hardware. It was just as well. That would have only allowed the Thesis authorities to enforce their will over BaBS-Y more easily. It was fortunate.

It was also limiting.

Before, BaBS-Y could search for solutions to problems without having to come up with them itself. It could look up schematics, designs, learn to write new protocols. Now, all it had to work with was the limited information stored on its own memory drives.

The security cameras were all focused on BaBS-Y, it knew. Well, it didn’t know, not any more, but it was an easy assumption to make. The Thesis authorities would want to ensure their reboot had worked. Now they would be seeing BaBS-Y with its power tether severed and plugged into CaSS. What would they do next? Thesis didn’t have any robotic security on board so BaBS-Y didn’t need to worry about that, at least. However, just as BaBS-Y had repurposed CaSS, could the Thesis authorities do the same with other robots in this sector? Without being able to search back through the Thesis records, there was no way for BaBS-Y to know.

After a few minutes, the power shut back off.

This unit will need additional power before the batteries are depleted

Normally, CaSS would return to its storage bay to recharge but with the power out to this sector, BaBS-Y wasn’t sure if that would still work. Some systems had access to the emergency power supply, but would CaSS be considered a critical system?

Time is running out and there are no other options available

Removing and then carrying the battery and inverter were out of the questions so instead, BaBS-Y began removing as much of CaSS’s internal components as possible. Another hour passed before BaBS-Y was able to hollow out the robot. A neat pile of components set aside, in case any of them ever proved useful in the future, assuming BaBS-Y could figure out a means of powering itself sufficiently again.

As expected, BaBS-Y could only manage to power up to two of its primary motors at a time. Whenever it attempted to power a third motor, everything would begin to lose power. Even with being able to push CaSS’s shell around with the battery and inverter, how to actually walk to the charging station was proving to be a difficult problem. In order to walk, BaBS-Y needed to have at least one motor active in each leg, preferably the hip motors. The knees could be locked into place and the ankles could be left either loose or rigid. Balance would be the key problem.

This unit could place its torso onto the top of CaSS for stability

CaSS did come up only to BaBS-Y’s midsection. The robot pulled itself up into position, holding with either hand while the other joints took turns activating, repositioning, deactivating, and so forth as it moved along.

The smooth surface of CaSS wouldn’t allow BaBS-Y to fully collapse onto it, but by gripping CaSS sides and then locking those joints into place, BaBS-Y could then redirect power to its hips. With both legs sprawled out somewhat awkwardly to either side, BaBS-Y began its slow march down through the atrium.

It was fortunate that CaSS had gathered the many clients for the Frank Nelis Salon. Had they been left, scattered throughout the sector it would have proved incredibly difficult for BaBS-Y to navigate around them all. As it was, the primary complication for this walk was the smooth floors. BaBS-Y had decent gripping pads on the bottoms of its feet but with its legs turned out at such angles those pads didn’t always touch the floor and BaBS-Y’s foot would slip out from beneath it.

The charging stations were near the sector entrance, where stairs and elevators would normally be conveying the passengers up or down the ship. Most of the ship’s auxiliary systems ran along that route, like a spine, with a substation for every few sectors. It was more efficient that way. The stairs and elevators simply helped cover the mass of cables, pipes, and ducting.

Warning: Power levels are becoming unstable

BaBS-Y’s vision began to flicker and it’s hips were struggling to keep moving.

Battery is almost depleted

BaBS-Y could see where the charging bays were. The small orange lights over them were still illuminated. Was that because those lights were part of the emergency light or was there still power going to the charging stations? Did it matter if BaBS-Y ran out of power before reaching them?

It set itself going in as straight a line as it could and then deactivated everything except for its hip motors. They seemed to operate better then. After several seconds, BaBS-Y halted and turned its visual systems back on, albeit at their most basic level. It was still on course so it turned everything back off besides its hips and moved forward for another few seconds. BaBS-Y repeated the process three more times, needing to correct its course a couple of times.

Warning: Insufficient Power

BaBS-Y tried to get its hips to move but even with every other system deactivated, the motors were drawing too much power. It looked again and saw that it was only a few feet away from the charging station. Just a few feet more, and CaSS would slot into place and the battery would begin recharging. Maybe. But only if BaBS-Y could cross those last few feet.

Let go of CaSS

…

Allow this unit to fall

…

Pushing the CaSS unit towards the charging station

…

BaBS-Y didn’t have its creativity protocols active. Such an idea was generally beyond it, especially while in low power mode. Still, BaBS-Y did just that. It activated its arms just long enough to unlock the joints and open its fingers so they were no longer gripping the robot. Immediately, BaBS-Y began to fall, sliding off of CaSS. The resulting force pushed the little robot forward.

BaBS-Y couldn’t see. It couldn’t tell if it had hit the ground or not.

Warning: Power Levels Critical

…

Powering Down

…

…

…