Thesa shook her head, "No, that's fine with me, please lead the way."
"And it became Human, in most ways that mattered." // OxO // OPEN
The man nodded. "Right. This way, then." he replied, still leading them down the hallways.
She went silent as they continued along, lost in the maze of hallways that she had no hope of figuring out.
The man eventually stopped in front of a closed door, knocking and waiting for it to be opened.
Thesa didn't realize she was holding her breath as he knocked on the closed door, nervous as to what she would say to Alexei when they finally met.
The door was opened after a moment by someone who was obviously an Android, with black eyes and a blank expression. "Right this way."
They followed the android.
She let her breath out in a hidden but disappointed sigh that they still had further to go. What was the point of a door if they had to walk further? Thesa wanted to know that as much as anyone else.
They were led over to a separate room, a study, by the look of it, where an older man was seated behind a desk. When he looked up, it was Alexei, though his face was wrinkle-lined and old. He smiled when he spotted them, waving a hand to dismiss the human that had accompanied them.
Thesa offered a tiny but gentle smile at the man, sure within a second, it was Alexei. She wanted to say something but knew it would most likely end with her stumbling over words and so she kept her mouth shut.
Alexei looked at Zev for a long moment, then over at her. He stood up after a moment, circling the desk to examine Zev a little closer, then finally looked at her again. "So you found him." he said. There was no hint of judgement in his voice, just simple fact.
"Yes I did.. sir," She said, adding on the last word in a last-minute decision. Thesa shifted on her feet, glancing between Zev and Alexei every few minutes to see if either of them was going to do any more than look at each other, "My ship crashed into the one he was on, and I brought him on board."
Zev nodded slightly. "After we did repairs on her ship, in any case."
Alexei nodded. He seemed to still be examining the android with his eyes, not reaching out to examine him yet. "I see." he finally looked at Thesa again.
She once again offered a tiny smile to Alexei, though stayed quiet. It felt like she was interrupting something, even if she knew she wasn't. She had been the one to being Zev back anyway.
Alexei coughed softly, covering it in his elbow. "I am sorry, I am being rude, aren't I." he said, and held out his hand for a handshake. "You know who I am. And you are Thesa…? I'm sorry, I have forgotten your last name."
"Veritias, Thesa Veritias, nice to meet you, sir." She said, shaking his hand gently, "I don't usually mention my last name, so no worries." Her smile seemed to grow slightly now that she hadn't messed up talking to him so far and she seemed to want to say more, even as she stopped talking.
Alexei nodded a little bit. "Of course, of course." He replied with a pleasant smile. He still had his hair, surprisingly, and wasn't yet balding, though his hair was greying. "Now, what was it you wanted, in return for finding him?"
Thesa shrugged, trying to think of what she had originally asked for in return for finding Zev. "I don't remember exactly, but parts..for my ship, and if there was any way at all, do you think I could try my hand at helping design something? I've loved engineering since a kid, and this is the only time I think I would be able to do anything with it."
Alexei thought for a moment. "Of course. What make or model is your ship?" he asked, going to his holopod and powering it on, opening up a search bar.
"It's hand-built, not in any database..It does very faintly resemble a TX-30 model though, note the faintly." She was normally very proud that she had built her ship entirely on her own, but in times like these, it was embarrassing since there was nothing like it on the records. No one normally could get her parts to repair it.
Alexei raised an eyebrow a little bit. "Intriguing. I would love to see it, if that is alright with you?" his voice carried traces of an Earth accent, where he had been born and raised. "Now, as for designing something…what exactly would you like to help with? Because the Shokov company makes a lot of different things."
Thesa nodded, a hint of a proud smile now on her face, "I don't mind showing it to you. As for the designing..I was thinking maybe one of you android models? Maybe something similar to Zev?" She looked over at her friend, who ha been unnaturally silent even for him.
Zev had indeed been quiet, letting the two of them talk together without interruption.
Alexei blinked at that, thinking. "Something like Zev would be…quite difficult. I worked on his plans for years before I got any good results. He wasn't the first of his type, just the only one that worked the way I wanted it to. The others I scrapped. Their parts were reused for other things. But… It is a possibility."
She shrugged, "A possibility is enough, I don't have to work with anything major, I just want to try my hand at it." Thesa didn't really mind what she would work with, though the idea of trying to build an android similar to Zev was something she wanted to try.
Alexei nodded. "Of course." he looked over at Zev again. "Is your hardware still functioning? Software?"
"Software functions at optimum levels. Hardware is…in need of repairs. My left wrist is damaged." Zev replied.
Thesa listened, staying silent as Alexei turned to talk to Zev. She hoped the inventor wouldn't think his wrist had been damaged by her, and she was ready to explain that it had been damaged when she had originally met Zev the first time.
Alexei frowned. "Ah. How did that happen?" he gestured to them that they could sit down, grabbing a few tools and coming over to Zev.
Zev held out the arm so that Alexei could work. "I landed on it incorrectly and something snapped."
When Alexei mentioned that they could sit down, Thesa happily did, relaxing in the chair immediately as she watched Zev and Alexei work on his arm.
Alexei nodded, and peeled open Zev's skin, gently examining the exposed joint.
"How long did it take for you to have this ship built?" She asked, watching him work as well as admiring the room they were in.
"Four years, give or take." Alexei replied. "It did not help that i was always asking for new additions because I thought of things I wanted to add, yes?" he gave a soft laugh, still working on the joint. He undid the joint, removing Zev's hand and setting it aside.