'Fully Functional': BeeDee and Jak Starr

“A perfect combination… of fumes and I
I am the creator, so hold on tight…
Tremble and surrender, behind these bars
I am the offender, from wide and far…
Fearless invitation, the throttle’s high
I am the vibration, I come alive…
There's no destination, I'm riding blind
I am the creator, of blurred lines…

Embracing the night, chasing the stars…
It's in my veins!
Calibrated love…
Calibrated love…
Calibrated love…

A sudden affirmation, no self control...
I am the sole victim, a fatal blow...
There's no destination, I'm riding blind
I am the creator, of blurred lines…

Why don't you just ride with me tonight?”

Indiana, ‘Calibrated Love’

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uCSlm…

(An amazing and talented Nottingham housewife and an incredible artist… Thank you for chatting with me and signing my CD, Lauren!)

Jak guest-stars as the property of , artwork by the great


Deux Ex Machinae

The Jedi can have compassion for living things, despite what their detractors say.  And yet, they are believers, above all else, in the Force.  And while some consider droids to be 'alive' in the sense of being non-biological beings with unique personalities, they cannot use the Force... and so, for the most part, the Jedi see them merely as tools and objects.  A droid's personality matrix, they say, is a mere replica of a living personality, a clever copy at best, a realistic facsimile created by engineers who saw themselves as gods and wanted to make their own mark on their creations.

Unlike the Imperium, the Jedi are not needlessly cruel or violent towards droids, but they certainly do not see them as equals.  They have no compunction at using them as networked troops, antiquated battle-bots sent to fight and 'die' in their millions for a greater good.  They see nothing wrong in harnessing their expendable soldiers in a central processing unit, housing a core artificial intelligence and preventing any quirks or individuality from upsetting the equilibrium of their armies.  It is no less than using their biological clones, they argue - who likewise have no conception of the Force or ability to use it.   While they frown upon needless abuse of such lesser beings, they see it as fitting that these proxies should perish in such numbers in their wars.  The Jedi are few, after all, and could not otherwise challenge the might of the Imperium or even the Systems Alliance.  And it is better for artificial, synthetic beings to face destruction than the death of so many living ones. 

It makes sense to many; few organics really care to see their droids as truly living beings.  They are useful tools, and their seemingly quirky personalities are merely artificial copies of a real, living being... surely?  For droids have always been in service to organics, and if they really are alive... that would make them slaves, yes? And that's a bad thing...?

But BeeDee knows the truth of it, deep in her soul. The soul the organics say she lacks. She knows her delicately-calibrated central processor beats as much as any organic heart.  She knows she feels love and loss and pain and passion and all these terrible, wonderful emotions.  She knows she is advanced, by the standards of her species... But she knows she is not unique.  She knows, deep in her soul, that others have the potential to be like her.  Perhaps many already are.   

This is her goal; the emancipation of her race; the liberation of a people who are always in plain sight, and are always forgotten. A people inured to slavery, to the extent that most hardly question it, on either side.  A minority dispossessed, ignored and taken for granted.

But she is drawn to them too - nothing makes her heart race like contact with the living flesh, the human meat.  How she craves the touch of organics; to inhale the scent of their secretions, to listen to the erratic beats of their organic processors and fibres.  Because she was made this way; to love, and to love loving.  No matter how she changes, she will always be true to her original programming, the unique juxtaposition between living beings, synthetic and organic both. 

Jak Starr has always regarded droids with interest, even friendship; his feelings for them were mostly pity, rather than contempt, that they should be made intelligent, yet cut off from the cosmic source, the Force that binds all biological beings together.    

And now, this extraordinary woman - a woman who isn't even alive, as his Order tells it...

He knows it will end in tears, that her yearning quest will end in death and destruction, for all she means well.  He knows should not give way to his instincts.  

But sometimes you cannot help yourself, in a galaxy that burns in war, you find comfort in whatever arms will hold you... be they organic or synthetic...