“We are now entering the atmosphere. Next stop: Embassy Row flight deck.” A feminine voice sang in the orbit to surface saucer shuttle, while a strobbing light and radio message conveyed the same.
A human woman huddled her children close, in preparation for their departure. She looked askew at all odd shapes of the fellow robot passengers.
“Some of your Mercurial researchers are on the dark side at this altitude” Brunji the Venusian tour guide strobbed.
“Oh, what do they study?” Pasne the operations inspector and investment manager from Mercury flickered in return. Having been sent to investigate the cause of suboptimal surplus, he was willing to engage in some small talk.
“I’m not sure, they say it’s easier to think in the cryosphere. They migrate in shifts, so perhaps they are simply homesick.” Brunji shrugged almost breaking their light communication.
Pasne tensed, it was a rude gesture, but he is in their planetary fold now, so he cranked his sterling heat-pumps to relax. “Yes, superconductors work best at night.” he finally replied as the connection remained stable. “Needed a lot of reworking of my internals to make it Venus worthy, since I didn’t want to soul jump into one of the worker models.”
Brunji watched the cranking crankiness, appearing concerned “There will be a lot more audio on the surface. I hope you’ve trained your neural nets appropriately.”
Before Pasne could reply, “We have arrived at Embassy Row, all biologicals without special accomodation are advised to depart.” lights shone down onto the woman and her children, with the aisle floor near them lighting up to show the exit. Robots cleared the way.
Pasne noticed a couple Greys walking down the aisle towards the exit as well. “What are they doing in these sulphuric acid clouds anyways?”
“First they came to research the cloud micro-biology, now they help with ore refinement using their biological microbes. The Greys are helping them develop heat and sulfuric acid tolerant humanoid hybrids.” Brunji explained, as the saucer’s doors closed and the downward descent continued.
“Next stop: Cleopatra, Ovda Regio, Aphrodite Terra” the announcer sang. As the heat and pressure rose in the cabin, could hear the dinging of metal shells expanding, the clicking and whirring of motors grew louder. A few returning Venusians could be heard chirping to each other.
“We have a special musical treat for you on the surface.” Brunji flickered, sending a happy face and some music note glyphs as well.
While there were no windows in the saucer-craft, there were cameras, with videofeeds available for passengers. Pasne was plugged in, and now he could finally see something more interesting than swirling clouds, there were balloon cargo carriers cruising on the currents, and a bird like robot hominids soared in the thick atmosphere, reminiscent of the Reptilian Draco’s, or perhaps the Christian Angels. “I wouldn’t want it to interfere with our process review plans.” Pasne answered.
“Relax, you Mercurians and your plans, always rushing ahead. Consider it portfolio diversification, live a little, enjoy the moment.” Brunji nudged.
Pasne muttered by flickering his light in a sub communicative fashion. The reason he was here, is that his family wanted to make sure their long term investments were bearing fruit promptly. “The night terminator approaches.”
“It’s okay, the night-life is just as good, maybe better. Unlike Mercury, there is no thermal fluctuation, just gets darker, and louder.” Brunji extended a thin arm around him and hugged him close.
With the onset of oxytocin algorithms, Pasne softned his silicate muscles. That’s right he is here to observe their culture, consider how it influences their work ethic. He glanced at this internal chronometer, a few hours till nightfall.
“Last stop: Cleopatra. Fall in love with our planet of music.” The announcer flickered and chirped. Robot people walked, rolled, crawled, and floated out the exit. Pasne rolled out on his treads.