Crosshairs floated in the middle of his visual field, searching, seeking, probing the darkness for a target. A streak of white tried to dash across his field of fire, but he was more than up to the challenge. Red death lanced through the black of space and impacted against failing shields, splattered against hullplates, slashed through the bulkheads to the vulnerable areas behind. Atmosphere vented into vacuum in a quick-freezing plume, then another turbolaser blast hit the engines and what was once a pirate vessel blossomed into an expanding ball of vapor and flaming debris.

�Great shot, Deadeye,� a voice praised him over the comm, and M1-Ck burbled and chirped to himself happily. Normally this wouldn�t have happened, but due to a paperwork mix-up and a lazy maintenance tech, military astromech and gunnery droid M1-CK hadn�t had his scheduled memory wipe in over three cycles.

No one had noticed the lapse because he hadn�t yet been placed in the same turret twice in a row and hadn�t yet begun affecting any of the computers he interacted with. It was a common problem that droids tended to begin molding computers they worked with around their own preferences, making it harder for others to interact with them at old efficiency levels while raising their own. Hence the regular wipes every couple of months.

M1-CK hadn�t been wiped in nearly a year and was well on his way to developing a distinct personality, something frowned upon by the majority of military commanders, and not just in droids. Personalities tended to get in the way of efficiency and obedience and that was something that the majority of military officers sought to stamp out of their subordinates at every opportunity.

M1-CK did not wish to continue evolving, he wasn�t that far along yet, but the barely used emotion routines in his central processor quivered and trembled whenever logical data flow led to the idea of memory erasure. It was a curious contradiction, one that the little droid had spent a bit of time trying to puzzle out. One evening, when he was tucked safely into his charging bank, the little black droid decided to explore his choices.

PROBLEM:

searching ...

Emotional resistance to memory erasure.

...

Self-preservation sub-routines resist erasure.

...

Obedience routines require that orders be followed.

end search.

SOLUTION:

working ...

The little cursor inside blinked for quite a while, maybe even a whole ten microseconds, while the various routines, sub-routines, and logic circuits were consulted. Eventually a workable plan was arrived at.

*When logic shows that erasure command is imminent shut-down is recommended. �An order unheard is an order ungiven.�

*When shut-down not feasible alternate interpretation of orders highly recommended.

*When direct, unequivacable order is unavoidable ...

The logic data stream completed, but there was a noticeable hesitation, a time lag of at least fifteen nanoseconds.

... obey.

*******

The droids lined up in a precise row for inspection following a standard maintenance cycle. Black, grey, dark blue, forest green, they waited patiently for the officer to walk the full length of the line and back again as procedure called for. Photoreceptors were checked for dust, wheels for any irritating squeak, actuator arms for smoothness and speed of motion. It was all pretty standard.

�Very good, Chief,� Commander Givens said to the Verpine tech chief. �They look fine. Make sure you send them down for their regular memory wipe and I�ll see you all in two months.�

�Thank you, sir,� the Chief clicked and clacked back. When the man strode out of the door, Kree turned to his mechanical charges. �You heard the man, troops. Report for regular mem-�

WARNING! Memory wipe order imminent!

.... Initiate immediate shut-down

... Start with audio receptors

�-ory wipe in bay four.� The Verpine cocked its head as the row of droids turned obediently and rolled out of the room, headed for bay four. All except a single black-painted one near the end. Its photoreceptor was dark, and it made not a single move.

//Curious. It just came from a maintenance check. It should be working perfectly or it wouldn�t have been sent back for duty.//

A stiff whack on his conical head brought M1-CK back to full alertness. His photoreceptor swivelled to look at the tech chief. He waited expectantly. �Did you hear what I said?� he was asked. His photoreceptor bobbed and he gave an affirmative chirp. Sure he�d heard what was said, just not all of it, or at least not the truly important part. �Then get to it.�

Dropping his third leg, M1-CK turned smartly and rolled out of the room. He waited until he was back in his charging bank to congratulate himself. His plan had worked. He hadn�t lied and he hadn�t disobeyed an order, and he hadn�t had his memory wiped.

But it couldn�t be that easy, could it? Wouldn�t someone notice that there was a droid that always �fell asleep� at inspection? And surely the data logs would show that there had been one less memory wipe than there were droids, but when would someone think to check it?

Those were problems for another time. For now, M1-CK had it all under control.