June 5, 2393

Sy awoke just before she was hurled out of bed by the force of the turbulence. The mini transport module was flung around violently by the gale force winds, and she cursed Mitz silently as she rose painfully to her feet.

"Mitz!" she bellowed as she staggered to the control panel at the front of the craft. "Mitz! Get your tin butt in here, now!"

The craft jumped and bucked, throwing her to the floor again. She cracked her head hard on the control seat as she went down. More curses, this time not so silent, were directed at Mitz as she struggled to her feet once more.

"I am apologetic, Sylver!" Mitz whirred as he finally glided into the tiny control room. "I am a pathetic piece of metal, as you say! I am apologetic!"

Mitz quickly made his way over to the control panel, a probe already disengaged from his small round metal body so that he could plug into the computer terminal. A whistling sound sang through the tiny space as he brought the craft back under control, stabilizing their flight through the rough winds with the mindless mathematical ability that was inherent in models of his kind.

"What took you so long? I thought I told you not to leave the control panel for any reason while I was sleeping! Can't you follow a simple order anymore, or must I have you reprogrammed?"

"My humblest, deepest, most contrite apologies, Sylver. I was below..."

"Below consorting with the data interpreter, I imagine! Must I have it reprogrammed, then, so that you will be able to stay on task?" Sy knew that she would never send either model to the 'Scramble Shop', as they called it, but Mitz didn't. He hadn't quite mastered the art of sarcasm - yet. She knew that the longer he was with her, the more he integrated her own personality into his program, so it should only be a matter of time before he caught on to her sarcasm.

She sighed and shook her head. When she'd first purchased him, this new model that was so 'owner friendly' that it could incorporate the actions and responses of a human counterpart into its program, she had thought that he would be a great robotic droid to have around. She had been able to imagine all sorts of things that he could do, all of the time and effort that would be saved. How could she have imagined at the time what Mitz would be like? How could she have known that he would take into account her own flaunting of authority, and not obey her simple commands? But he was almost a person himself now, so much so that she knew she could never have him reprogrammed.

"No! You must not! I grovel at your feet, Sylver!" Mitz lowered his altitude until he almost touched the floor, his sensor lights turning from green to a dark worried purple. "I will perform at acceptable levels in the future if you do not."

"Oh, knock it off. Just make sure you don't leave your position again when I have ordered you not to! It's fortunate that we only hit turbulence. We could have run into the surface, you know!" Sy tried to frown at the small robotic machine hovering in front of her, but found it hard to do. Not that he would care if she did, anyway, he had not assimilated the ability to read body language yet, either.