Ohara knocked on the door, gesturing to Dr Elune, "Hey, I have a question."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"You invested in this station, yet most of it is sealed off. I hear even life support is down on the other side of these doors."

"Well, yeah. I needed a station... Didn't mean I needed the actual space to move around."

"Yeah, but that got me thinking... There are little ships like mine, that would easilly float out in the middle of nowhere. Why some place so big?"

Dr Elune grinned slyly, "There are a few reasons, actually."

"Oh? Do tell."

"First, and most obvious: A nice private town to myself, with close enough access to a haven to get what I want."

"Yeah, but..."

"Ahem! Number two." Dr Elune frowned at Ohara pointedly until they shrugged and listened, "Manufacturing. I like testing my ideas, and that can take a lot of facilities. That isn't something you can take on a lil ship, and the amount of space I need varies."

"... Fair enough."

"And, number three. In case you forgot, this place used to be a mining station..."

Ohara blinked as he waited for Dr Elune to continue, then chuckled, "Free ore?"

"Better: Excess ore. I sell some, now and then. I also have a stockpile in those abandoned wings, maintaned remotely through drones."

Walking away from the sealed door, they continued on their way to the lab, "Well, you certainly thought this place through better than I did then. I guess I took the interstellar mining boom for granted... You went ahead and took the whole darn thing!"

Smirking at his bad joke, Dr Elune wandered into the lab with a sigh, "I do miss the Havens though, the lure of all those bustling retailers.... Internet so good the very moon seems to pulse with the signal."

As they wandered over to the testing area, they noticed how earilly quiet the lab was, and they both peeked in to see what was going on. And there they saw a crowd of technitians, gaping in awe as they beheld a simple chess match.

A chess match between Norman and a completely cybernetic body, connected to the terminals with a few cables.

Heart and mind racing as they tried to process this rationally, Dr Elune calmed themself down as they glanced around the room. Nobody seemed afraid... A little creeped out, a little unsettled, and very shocked... But there was no fear. This was a good sign.

Ohara shook himself, and walked over to silently watch the match as well, keeping a close eye on how the finished AHOR body performed. Dr Elune stood a step bhind him, and was quickly enthralled by how... Natural it seemed.

Ignoring their appearance, the android was reacting perfectly. Leaning slightly, twitching gently in preperation to move, before rethinking and tapping it' fingers in thought. Each cybernetic muscle flexing smoothly without issue, the synthetic skin molding around them perfectly. Of a masculine design, it looked rather close to Norman himself, as that was the blueprint they had been using. The only oddities were the cable ports, and the dull grey of the silicone skin, without any tinting and recolouring to look natural.

After making another move, Norman looked up and jumped slightly, grinning as he waved, "Ah, our two lead geniuses have arrived. Alex here finished off the newer specs... And went a step further with a full body. I decided to put that to good use."

"Well, I guess it is now safe to say the project is a success then, isn't it? The only thing left is feedback, and avoiding rejection."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Yeah, uh, I'm not volunteering for that. Two perfectly fine biological arms for me."

With a round of chuckling from the onlookers, Alex moved a peice into place, "And, checkmate. You shouldn't have let me take time to think, Norman."

"Gah, no fair. Also, still creepy. Did you have to give the body my face, and my voice?"

"... Yes, sir."

A few more chuckles as the crowd began to dispers, Alex got up to shake Ohara's hand, "Good evening, doctor. Appologies if I startled you."

"No, no. I, uh... Wasn't expecting AHOR to be done so soon. Plus, so far it had always been... Connected to Norman. I was just caught off guard."

"Yes, sir."

Turning to Dr Elune, Ohara shakily smiled, "... We did it, then. Here we have a fully functioning Android body, which can be seemlessly integrated with a person... Once we refine the actual integration, of course."

Nodding, Dr Elune simply watched quietly, lost for words as they stared at Alex. The first android, in the proper sense of the term... Even the tech back during the war was crude, or straight up mechanical, no sense of human form. And they wouldn't be able to show anyone any time soon.

With a sigh, they patted Alex on the arm, "Good job with the final build, Alex. Now, we need to move on to biological tests. I'm thinking cloned tissue samples, for rejection testing?"

"Yeah, sounds about right. You want to dive right in?"

Chuckling, Dr Elune shook their head, "Not a chance. I have done my part... Tech meeting medicine is why I brought you on. You have full access to the facilities... Should you want to continue this here."

"... Well, these past few weeks have been interesting. And hey, with the manufacturing facilities you mentioned, with your dedicated station controller here, things will go a whole lot smoother."

"Good point. I wasn't expecting this level of success for another few months."

Wandering of with a grin, Ohara disappeared off where the other technitians were, getting in to the next phase right away.

"... That went well."

"Yeah. You'd have thought at least someone would have been going for the pitchforks."

"Well, when Alex came out looking like that, it was a shock to everyone. Turns out, Laura was in on it... To a degree. She took credit, and said that Alex had been running simulations and mass testing on her directive."

Alex sat in the corner, getting into a good position to power down, "Which was mostly true..."

"Shush, you. And careful... You were far too convincing there."

"Yes, doctor. I realise my... Mannerisms were a little to fluid."

"A little? You passed as a grey human for a moment there. I'm thrilled, don't get me wrong... But a live demonstration was a bit.... Early."

Nodding, Alex powered down the AHOR body as Norman groaned, "Either way, I'm beat. You guys have been making me run around like mad, with all this testing. Can't beleive you made me climb to the observatory with an arm harness on."

"The stairs aren't that bad, drama queen. Go rest..." Smiling, Dr Elune sat in the middle quietly, staring at the ceiling in thought.

Alex connected over Dr Elune's hidden little earpeice, slightly sheepish, "Will everything be fine?"

"Yeah... If we are ready to proceed, then there is no point keeping the tech a secret because of a little anxiety. What we have now is enough to move on with, anyway."

After a bit, the doctor stood up with a nervous chuckle, "Let's just hope nobody wants you to keep testing AHOR."