595004 stood motionless in standby at the moment. She didn't have anything to do at the moment; thus, she decided to take this time to process all the stuff she was going through at the moment.
Her conversion was unique... it was a two-step process which left her and the others like her as mannequins for a while. There were several Scouts that had this procedure done on them... rather than just immediately being converted, they were instead kept in a... storage state", of sorts, akin to suspended animation.
This reckless usage of such a method might have gotten overlooked by the Council, but not by Raina or Hecate, both of whom outranked the Council. Thus, they were able to force this practice to end immediately after they became aware of it. As a result of this, there was a debate going on about what to do with those that were converted after being left in storage state for some time. There was not just one Scout who was using that method, but others were doing it in their own ways, which took time to flesh out and discover.
"That was a good sleep cycle..." 595004 said to herself out loud.
As she finally got the go-ahead to return to her duty that she was kept from as a result of her Conversion. She was kept from it because she was put through various checks to ensure that her time as a mannequin did not have any long-term effects on her.
595004 crossed her arms once she had finally gotten the go-ahead. Though being delayed in doing her job was the MAIN annoyance, even more so than THAT was the small engineer who seemed to take a personal interest in her above all others. There was something about 004 that just seemingly caught the engineer's eye, and thus, she got set aside so that she could be examined by 'Erica' personally. Erica's interest had kept her up here on the ship with the rest of the colony, rather than being on the ground doing what she was supposed to be doing as a Scout.
"At least she's not here NOW, thank the Circuit, as the Scout that gave me the go ahead knows her. She claimed she managed to help in getting me cleared for duty, it seems. I have yet to actually meet them, though, though I will have to thank her for this." 595004 said as she began to walk towards the teleporter that would lead them down to the planet they were using at the moment.
"Really... what was up with how we were treated in the first place?! Getting stuck in a state like that and calling it 'storage'?! I think the older Scouts were just being lazy or trying to hold on to enough of us to pad out their quotas or something..." 595004 said as she shrugged her shoulders and walked down the hallway.
She continued her monologuing aloud. As 595004 continued to walk towards the teleporter, various thoughts were still 595004 then stopped her walking for a moment and got into a fighting stance as storming through her CPU. They were bothering her in such a manner that she was starting to act them out, rather than just keeping them confined to inside her head.
"Ohhhh... I did not know that you would mean being stuck like that for everyone to see you in that state!" she said, mimicking the Scout that found her for the colony.
"See, you should have been grateful that you were Scouted by such a thoughtful and kind Sister," she said, mimicking the Scout's lackey who tried pushing the blame for things onto her.
"Should've told them they should be grateful for the time off I was granted them with those hands!" she said.
"Though I am not that kind of Scout, thus I just exposed more of their wrongdoings that they were in on to those two that helped me after I was discovered." 595004 said, as if she had shown great restraint in not acting on her first thoughts, like she assumed a lady of her kind would do so normally.
Transporting down from the ship to the planet wasn't exactly instant transmission. There was still a bit of a lag between entering the teleporter and arriving wherever you were heading. The place where 595004 materialized on the planet was the backroom of the store where she had been kept as a mannequin.
During this lag time, she was standing there in the backroom in the default form of a mannequin. The default form that she took when on the planet was programmed into her built-in Bio-Replication Suit as a form she could assume. This was in addition to a proper human form that she was given after her discovery. She had the capability to swap between the two forms at will. Though still a somewhat new Gynoidian, when teleporting down to the planet, 595004 assumed her default planet-side form. Once she arrived at her destination, her system activated, and she automatically switched to her human form.
"I really need to see if they can fix that part for us..." 595004 said as she looked down at herself.
The process worked just like she had been told, but 595004 and others like her (those that were converted yet kept in stasis as mannequins for a period of time) had to go through an extra step that no other Gynoidian did at the moment.
<_No worries there, as we were told they had geniuses working on fixing that for us...> 595004 thought as she smiled, knowing there was at least one plus to having to come planet-side in the way her caste has to.
The plus side for 595004... at least to coming planet side like this was that she would always get to see Scientist 619720/ 'Brooke'. That Sister who thought she was doing others on the waiting list a favor by converting them into mannequins first. They would then be used as display pieces in the stores themselves until they were off the waiting list.
This was something that both Hecate, Raina, and everyone else who was actually subjected to it were against. Thus, when it was discovered by the current Queen and her Advisor, it was put to a stop immediately. Of course, all of those who were involved in this incident were properly punished, with the exception of 4076. She managed to get off because of her seniority and the fact that she had not turned anyone into a mannequin at all. She merely asked for a more effective way to collect humans, and when it was presented to her, she did not approve or reject it but just went with the flow.
However, those like 619720 did not get as lucky, as they actually did turn others into mannequins directly and even used them as such while they were in their care. Such actions were again not approved by anyone or themselves, 4076, and the Council only. As a proper means to teach them what they were doing was wrong, the punishment they were given was to be turned into mannequins themselves. As they would be fully aware of their surroundings but utterly helpless and unable to move. Also, all their connections to anything (thus no ability to connect to any other Sister, the network, or the human's Internet) were allowed. Even within themselves, the only thing that remained online was their minds and sight of sight only (the other four senses were always offline).
595004 looked up to 619720, smiling, as she and the others like her deserved this for what they had done, after all. her face
Thus, in the backroom area of the very store that 595004 herself was first turned into a mannequin, was where 619720 was now standing as one herself; however, her state was different than 595004's original state, luckily for her.
"Let's see how you like being a mannequin...!" 595004 said, with a smirk on, and others like her were not aware of their surroundings in their mannequin state, as she just had the knowledge that others saw her like that while she was on display.
None of them had firsthand knowledge of what it was like themselves; yet, for those like 619720, it would be a completely different story.
"Well, Elder Sister, I am off, as I hope you continue enjoying your new 'assignment' here at the store," she said, mocking her with a salute.
595004 was out on assignment with another Scout who was attempting to teach her the ropes. However, 595004 was proving to be hopeless in actually doing her job as a Scout, though.
"Do we really have to be here to carry out our duties as Scouts?" 595004 asked.
"This is where I was assigned, NewOne... and I did not have any problems carrying out my duties until YOU were assigned to me," the Scout told her, grouchily.
"Blaming this on me is not going to change things." 595004 told her.
"Maybe things are just not working out at the moment."
"How... are you so bad at this despite being in my Caste?!" the other scout asked while sighing.
"Your programming CANNOT be defective. They'd NEVER let you into the Process down here if THAT were true... Your processes have probably become contaminated with the Specimen's way of thinking...!" She sighed.
"You could do with a hard realignment, if THAT'S the case..."
"What if I am not as bad as everyone claims? You all just don't know how to teach properly!" 595004 said, looking annoyed herself.
Having had enough of her sass and back-talking, the Scout, who outranked 595004, decided to use that against her. Activating her protocol Order 64 caused 595004 to suddenly freeze up and stand at attention. Once engaged, Order 64 was a means to deal with lower ranking Scouts who were not following orders. In this state, 595004 would follow ALL orders given to her by the higher ranking Scout.
As there was no one around (mostly because of 595004 herself being where she was), there were never going to be people around to notice the activation, thus allowing the other Scout to FINALLY help her wayward Sister to carry out their duty...
That was supposed to be the case... however, somehow, even in this state, 595004 was still unable to do her job properly as Scouts like herself or others could do. In fact, if anything, she was actually doing a worse job as a Scout now. That she was attempting to do her duties, but failing at it, regardless. All Order 64 did was make her follow her order to a tee.
That, however, was the problem now, as she was scaring everyone off with how her line seen lines seemed as she was repeating her 'script' in a monotone manner. As before, she was failing because she was screwing up her lines and getting embarrassed by the actions she was told to do before.
"595004...!" the Scout then said to her.
"What are my next orders?" 595004 replied, her voice devoid of emotion and monotone.
"Report back to the ship, as this is not working out. You can not possibly be a Scout," the Scout said to her.
"Affirmative. Orders received. Return to ship as ordered." 595004 replied upon getting her new orders.
She then began to walk off.
"This was such a waste of my time... Why do they always give me the problem cases?!" the scout said. "595004... never come near me again, as I do not want your failure possibly rubbing off on me."
"Deletion of the last few hours from this unit's memory bank will ensure that your orders are followed," 595004 said. She left the area as ordered; however, she ended up not returning to the ship that day, as 595004 would have a run-in with something that would reveal that she was a... unique case... amongst the modern era Scouts...