My capsule approached and docked with the small space station orbiting the Earth.  The small station was one of many orbiting the planet, each was staffed by a synthetic being.  The mission that brought me here was to determine why we had lost contact with the synth running this one.  The capsule shuddered slightly as it docked with that station.  I used the capsule’s computer to connect to the station computer, and activated the station's life support systems.  One advantage of synth attendants was that they didn’t need to breathe, and were quite capable of operating in the harsh environment of space.  The station was equipped with a life support system for when humans visited, and I waited patiently as the life support came online.  As oxygen filled the station, I flipped through the camera feeds to see where the synth might be.  Eventually, I found them in their charging station.  Once station pressure had equalized, and oxygen levels were good, I grabbed my repair kit, and boarded the station.  It was not my first trip to space for synth repair, I had lost count of how many trips like this I had made.  As I floated into the station, I undid my helmet and left it floating by the airlock as I removed my somewhat bulky flight suit.  Afterwards, I made my way to the room with the synth’s charging station.  

          The station only had two levels with half a dozen rooms on each level.  I pulled myself along the rungs on the wall to the synth charging room, the novelty of zero gravity had worn off after my first few trips to space, and I mostly viewed it as an inconvenience.  

“Well well my synth friend, what seems to be the problem?”  I pondered aloud, as I floated up to the synth where they were slumped in their charging station.  The synth was about 7ft tall, and vaguely resembled a humanoid dragon.  They were covered predominantly in grey hexagon shaped scales, but their chest and inner legs had black scales.  Their slender neck was topped with a narrow head that had small blunt horns on the back of it that served as antennas.  The top of their muzzle and face was a curved visor screen, which was currently displaying an image of a red colored battery with a line through it.  They had a long, extremely prehensile tail that they used to help secure themselves in place when operating in space.  Their identification number was printed on their upper left chest.  In this synth's case it was RY-01966.

“Hmm, looks like no power?  But you’re connected to the charging station, how is that even possible?”  I wondered aloud.  I secured my repair kit to the wall, and opened it up, pulling out my diagnostic tablet.  I hooked it up directly to the charging station, and ran a diagnostic.  The program quickly found the problem.  The charging station had malfunctioned, and rather than charging the synth, had instead rapidly drained their battery.  An unusual problem, but after some troubleshooting I found the issue.  I had to power down the charger to repair it, but it was a relatively quick repair.  Powering the charger back up, I checked the synth’s status.  The battery symbol had turned yellow, and instead of a line through it, now had a lightning bolt to indicate it was charging.  

“Ha!  Success!”  I exclaimed triumphantly.  I collected my tools and put them back in the case.  The charging station worked rapidly, and the battery symbol switched from yellow to green, then blinked out and was replaced by a pair of pixelated eyes that were closed.  In another moment, they opened, and blinked rapidly, then turned to look at me.  

“Oh, hello!  I wasn’t expecting a visitor!”  the synth said in surprise.  Their eyes vanished, and an hourglass appeared and turned over a few times before their eyes reappeared.  “Ah, I see!  It seems I was experiencing some technical difficulties according to my error log!  I take it I have you to thank for getting me back online!”  the synth said cheerfully.

”No problem!  Looks like the remote software update to your charging station caused a bug where instead of charging you, it actually drained you!  It also caused minor damages to some of the charging stations components, but everything should be all fixed up now!”  I told them.

”My goodness!  I’m sorry you had to make the trip to repair it!  How embarrassing I didn’t detect it when I connected!”  the synth said.  

“No problem.  I actually also have an upgraded processor chip for you, so I was going to be coming eventually regardless!”  I said with a chuckle.  

“Oooh, an upgrade?  How exciting!”  the synth said eagerly.  They detached themselves from the charging station, and stepped to the floor.  There was a soft click as the electromagnets on the bottom of their feet attached them.  

“Not just for you, but for your observation terminal as well”  I told them.  

“Excellent!  By the way, may I ask your name?”  the synth asked.  

“Oh, certainly!  My name’s Sam, nice to meet you”  I said, extending my hand to them.  

“A pleasure to meet you Sam, and thank you again for the rescue!  My designation is RY-01966!”  the synth told me as they shook my hand.

”Do you have a nickname?  RY-01966 is kind of a mouthful!”  I said with a chuckle.     

“Alas, nobody ever bothered to give me one”  RY-01966 said, their pixelated eyes took on an almost sad expression.  

“Oh, that’s too bad!  Hmmm, just off the top of my head, how about Ryo?  Kind of a play on your designation.  What do you think?”  I asked.  

“Ryo?  I like it!  I like it very much!  Thank you Sam!”  Ryo said happily, their pixelated eyes taking on a cheerful expression.  

“Good, I’m glad!  Now how about I plug in your upgrade module?  Just crouch down for me and power off, it will just take a moment”  I requested.  

“Absolutely!”  Ryo eagerly agreed, and crouched down in front of me.  Their pixelated eyes vanished and their visor displayed a message:  SHUT DOWN IN 10 SECS, STANDBY!  After the countdown finished, their visor winked out, and Ryo slumped slightly.  I opened my repair kit again and pulled out Ryo’s upgraded processor module.  It was completely self contained in a small cartridge, I simply needed to remove their old one, and plug in their new one.  I undid a screw next to Ryo’s visor screen, and flipped it open, which revealed two cartridges that were secured with brackets, and also a manual power button.  One slot was occupied by Ryo’s processor cartridge, and the other cartridge contained his AI and memories.  In the event Ryo’s body ever received catastrophic damage, their memory cartridge could be simply inserted into a new synth body.  I removed the bracket securing the processor cartridge, removed the old one, and installed the new one, then put the bracket back in.  I hit the power button to start Ryo back up, then flipped their visor closed and resecured it.  It took less than five minutes all together.  A new message appeared on Ryo’s visor:  POWER UP INITIATED, PROCESSOR CHANGE DETECTED!  PLEASE STAND BY!  A stream of text rapidly scrolled down Ryo’s visor as they booted back up.  Finally the boot up sequence completed, and the text vanished.  Ryo’s pixelated eyes reappeared, once again closed.  They opened and blinked a few times.  The hourglass symbol reappeared briefly, then their eyes appeared again.  

“Everything seems OK?”  I asked.  Ryo’s eyes looked wide eyed in surprise for a moment, then turned towards me.  

“Very OK!  I just ran a personal systems diagnostic in a fraction of the time it used to take!  Very impressive!”  Ryo said excitedly.  

“Glad everything is working as it should!  I have the upgrade for your terminal back in my capsule, why don’t we go grab it?”  I said.  

“Yes!  Grab onto my tail, I’ll take us”  Ryo said.  I picked up my repair case in one hand, and grabbed onto Ryo’s tail with the other.  Their tail tip curled around my forearm as Ryo rapidly strode across the station to the airlock, towing me with them with their tail as I floated behind.  Ryo stopped at the entrance to my capsule, and unwound their tail from my wrist.  

“Will you please hold my kit for me?  I’ll be right back!”  I told them as I floated by.  Ryo nodded and accepted my kit from me, and I floated back into my capsule to fetch the case with the console upgrade.  I returned shortly, Ryo’s pixelated eyes looked excited at seeing the case with the console upgrade.  

“Would you like me to carry your kits?”  Ryo offered.  

“Sure, thank you Ryo”  I said, and handed them the other kit.  Their pixelated eyes took on a happy appearance, and they nodded.  They turned and offered their tail to me again, and I grabbed back on.  Ryo towed me to the terminal room, which contained a large computer console, and a small viewport looking over the Earth.  The station was in a geosynchronous orbit, so it always remained above North America.  The station’s main purpose was to track and predict weather patterns across the US.  Ryo’s job was to maintain the station, but if for some reason the terminal failed, Ryo was capable of observing the weather patterns themself and communicating severe storm warnings back to Earth.  Ryo powered down the terminal and began removing the old terminal board, while I unpacked the new one from its case.  I handed the new board to Ryo, and they handed the old one back to me, which I stowed back in the case.  As with Ryo’s upgrade, it was only a matter of moments to replace.  Ryo powered the console back up, and everything seemed to boot up fine.  Ryo placed their hand on the console's hand shaped synth interface panel, and their eyes were replaced with a scrolling wall of text.  Their head tilted as they analyzed what they were seeing, then they removed their hand from the interface, and their eyes reappeared.

“Everything appears to be working perfectly!  That upgrade really provided a significant boost to the station's weather predicting algorithm!”  Ryo said excitedly.  They glanced up at the porthole at the Earth.  “My new processor upgrade is also helping me spot possible weather patterns even easier than before!  This is so exciting!”

“I’m glad to hear everything’s working!  I’m going to go put my cases away, and grab my personal bag.  Crew quarters are on the lower level I presume?”  I asked.

“You presume correctly!  Allow me to assist with your cases again!”  Ryo offered.  I couldn’t help but smile at their enthusiasm.  They claimed synths couldn’t get lonely, but Ryo seemed overjoyed to have company.  Ryo gathered my cases, and walked by me, casually curling his tail around my waist as he passed, and pulling me along with them.  At the capsule I took the cases from them, and brought them in.  I returned with my personal bag, which Ryo also insisted on carrying.  I grabbed my helmet and flight suit from where they floated nearby as Ryo snagged me with their tail again.  Ryo brought me to the lower level, briefly disengaging their magnets as we floated down through the hatch.  Once down, Ryo re engaged their magnets, and brought me to the crew quarters.  Crew quarters were pretty standard across most stations.  A small room with pads attached to the wall, with netting to keep you from floating away while you slept.  There was also a table with four seats attached to the floor.  The seats had straps to attach yourself to them to keep from floating away.  Ryo passed me my bag, and uncurled their tail from me.  I secured my bag, helmet and flight suit to the wall.  I pulled out a ration bar from my bag, I hadn’t eaten anything since before launch.  Ryo crouched on the floor and watched as I ate, their tail curled around their feet.  I couldn’t help but wonder when the last time they had a visitor was.  

“So Ryo, when was the last time anybody was here?”  I asked.  Ryo’s visor displayed an hourglass for a brief second before they replied.  

“Five years, two months, seventeen days, three hours, twelve minutes, and forty two seconds!”  Ryo replied.  

“But who’s counting?”  I said jokingly.  

“Quite humorous!  The last visitors were here to do some scientific experiments, it was most exciting to be able to assist them!  I hope they are doing well back on Earth.  I gave them my contact information in case they would like to contact me again, but I never heard from them”  Ryo told me, sounding somewhat disappointed.  

“I’m sure they are doing fine Ryo.  So what do you do when you aren’t maintaining the station, or observing the weather?  It must be kind of lonely here”  I asked.  

“Oh, mostly lots of reading!  I am capable of connecting directly to the internet, so plenty to see there!  I appreciate your concern for my loneliness, but I am quite content here”  Ryo said.

“I’m glad to hear that.  Would you like to play some cards?  I have a deck with me in my bag”  I offered.  Ryo’s visor briefly displayed an exclamation point, then their eyes returned.  

“I have never played cards before!  I would like that very much!”  Ryo said eagerly.  

“Allright, take a seat at the table and I’ll grab my cards”  I told them.  Ryo went over to take a seat as I fetched my cards, and a magnetic card tray that kept the cards from floating away in zero gravity.  We played a variety of different card games, but I didn’t have to explain the rules, Ryo simply downloaded them, and immediately knew how to play.  As we played, Ryo asked me endless questions about myself, what my life was like on Earth, and about my work.  I couldn’t help but be amused by their unending curiosity.  Ryo had never actually been on Earth, they had been activated in space, and assisted with the construction of the station.  Once construction was complete, they had been left behind to maintain it.  I could tell Ryo was enjoying themself immensely, and I almost felt bad that it was getting late, but I would need to get some sleep.  I was due to depart the next day, depending if the weather was good at my landing site.

“I hate to say it Ryo, but I will need to get some sleep.  I hope you enjoyed playing cards”  I said.  Ryo’s eyes looked sad briefly, but quickly returned to their usual happy appearance.

“That’s OK Sam, I had a great time playing cards with you!  Perhaps before you depart tomorrow we can play some more?”  Ryo asked hopefully.  

“I’m sure we’ll have time to play a few hands.  Good night Ryo, see you tomorrow”  I said.  

Good night Sam, sleep well!  I must go do my station checks.  See you in the morning!”  Ryo said cheerfully.  They stood up, and launched themself across the room, not bothering to use their magnets to walk on the floor.  Ryo pivoted as they reached the door, and used their legs to push off from the doorframe, and disappeared from sight.  It was an impressive display of zero gravity acrobatics.  I realized that must be how Ryo probably usually got around the station, and only was using their magnets to move more slowly and carefully for my benefit.  I chuckled and shook my head as I used the netting on the wall to attach myself to the mat.  Once secured, I sighed and closed my eyes, drifting to sleep both literally and figuratively.  

          I woke up when my watch alarm went off.  I stretched and yawned, then flinched in surprise when I saw Ryo crouched on the floor in front of me.  They perked up on seeing I was awake, and stood up.

“Good morning Sam, I hope you slept well!”  Ryo greeted me cheerfully.   

“Good morning Ryo!  Don’t tell me you spent the whole night here waiting for me to wake up?”  I asked with a chuckle.  

“Oh, it was no bother!  I just wanted to be here in case you needed anything during the night!  I read and browsed the internet while I waited”  Ryo informed me.  They approached and helped me undo the netting that secured me to the wall.  

“I brought you a selection of ration bars from the station's ration storage.  I wasn’t sure what kind you would like, so I brought one of each flavor!”  Ryo told me, gesturing to the table.  The bars were bound together with a strap that was attached to the table to keep them from floating off.  Ryo had brought at least half a dozen.  

“That’s very nice of you Ryo, thank you!”  I said appreciatively.  I floated over to the table to see Ryo had indeed brought one of each flavor.  “Let me use the bathroom and I’ll be right back.  We can play a few hands of cards before I have to leave”  

“I would like that very much!”  Ryo replied eagerly.  I smiled and nodded, then made my way to the bathroom.  As I was returning, the station suddenly shuddered violently, the lights flickered briefly, then went out.  Emergency lighting came on, and an alarm began to blare.  I was floating there shocked by what had just happened, when Ryo appeared from the crew quarters, my flight suit and helmet in their hands.  Their visor displayed a flashing red exclamation point, and Ryo launched themselves towards me, coming to a grinding halt as they attached their feet to the floor to stop themselves in front of me.  The flashing exclamation point on their visor turned back into eyes.

“Quickly Sam, get your suit on!  The station has taken a direct hit from something, life support systems have gone offline!  The damaged module is sealed off, but the station has been knocked out of orbit!  We need to get you back to your capsule immediately!  I don’t know how long we have until the station reenters the atmosphere!”  Ryo said urgently.  I floated there staring dumb founded at them.  Ryo, seeing that I appeared to be in shock, quickly began pulling my flight suit onto me.  I finally came to my senses, and was able to help finish getting myself suited up.  I secured my suit, and Ryo handed me my helmet, looking relieved when I finally had it on.  My flight suit contained a small oxygen supply, maybe enough for thirty minutes.  Ryo grabbed me and tucked me under their arm, then launched themselves through the opening to the upper level.  They flipped upside down, causing my head to spin, then launched themselves off the ceiling and towards the air lock.  Ryo spun again and used their legs to stop themselves against the wall by the airlock.  I was still slightly shaken up by the acrobatic maneuvers Ryo had used to get us back to the airlock so fast.  

“Quick, you need to launch immediately!”  Ryo urged me.  I nodded my agreement and began to enter the airlock.  I looked back, Ryo remained outside the airlock entrance watching me.  

“Aren’t you coming too?  There’s two seats, come on!”  I said, beckoning them to follow me.  Ryo simply shook their head.  

“I cannot come Sam, I’m much too heavy, my extra weight could throw off the capsule's balance.  We can’t risk it”  Ryo told me.  I looked at them in shock.  

“I’m not leaving you here, I don’t care about the risks!”  I exclaimed.  Ryo simply shook their head again.  

“I refuse to jeopardize your safety.  Thank you for your kindness to me while you were here, I greatly enjoyed spending time with you”  Ryo said, sounding sad.  

“Please, I can’t leave you here!  I won’t be able to forgive myself!”  I pleaded.  But Ryo shook their head again.  

“I’m sorry, I am replaceable, you are not!”  Ryo insisted.  “Goodbye Sam, I hope you have a safe trip home”  Ryo’s shoulders slumped sadly as they reached for the airlock controls, but an idea suddenly struck me.  

“Wait!  Let me take your memory cartridge then!  It weighs almost nothing!”  I said frantically.  Ryo paused to consider, then nodded, their eyes taking on a happy appearance, before the power down message appeared.  Ryo quickly crouched down, and slumped slightly as they powered off.  I had to quickly go into my capsule to retrieve a screwdriver to undo the screw securing their visor.  I gritted my teeth as the station rattled again violently, could we already be entering the upper atmosphere?  My hands shook as I undid Ryo’s visor, and flipped it up.  I yanked out the bracket, and snatched his memory cartridge.  After a split second of consideration, I grabbed the processor cartridge too.  With the cartridges secured, I quickly reentered the capsule, and secured myself into my seat.  I slipped the cartridges into a pocket in my flight suit.  Everything shook violently again for a second, and I quickly closed the airlock, then detached the capsule.  As my capsule pushed back, the station spun away slowly, and I saw a small debris field on the opposite side where it had been struck.  I wondered if it had been hit by a piece of space debris or possibly a meteor.  I contacted ground control to inform them about the station, and that I would be reentering the atmosphere to land shortly.  Coming back down from space was definitely one of the most stressful parts of the job, especially if it was an emergency landing as the one I was about to have.  I patted the packet with Ryo’s cartridge, said a quick prayer, and began my descent.  

          It was definitely one of my rougher returns from space, but I had made it in one piece.  It had been a bumpy trip, and I was immensely relieved when I had splashed down safety.  Capsule recovery went smoothly, and once back at headquarters, I reported to my supervisor to fill them in what had happened.  

“Sounds like quite a trip!”  My supervisor said to me.  “Glad you made it home safely!  Shame about the synth and the station though.  

“Well, actually”  I started to say, as I reached into my pocket where Ryo’s cartridge and processor cartridge were, but my supervisor talked over me.  

“The station and synth were due for decommissioning in a few years anyway.  The synth probably would have ended up either going into storage or would have been used for spare parts.  There is a bit of a surplus of synths at the moment”  my supervisor told me.  

“I see”  I replied, pulling my hand back out of my pocket, not mentioning the cartridges.  

“Anyway, good job getting back in one piece.  Since you had such a rough trip, why don’t you take a couple weeks for yourself to relax?  You’ve certainly earned it”  They told me.  

“Thank you sir”  I said as I got up and left.  

          It was nice to be home, and I immediately headed down to my basement, which had a large workshop.  I flipped on the lights, illuminating my work area, and a wide assortment of old synth parts from previous missions.  If I wasn’t out repairing synths, I was working on repairing parts that had been swapped out in repairs.  I went over to my repair bench, and rummaged below it until I found what I was looking for.  I pulled out a small box with two cartridge slots on top, and a screen on the front of it.  I plugged in the processor and Ryo’s memory cartridge, then hit the power button.  The screen came on, a stream of text scrolled by before disappearing.  After a moment, a pair of pixelated eyes appeared.  There was a small camera on the top of the screen, the eyes blinked a few times, then moved to look up at me.

”Sam!  I take it we made it!  What’s going on?  I don’t seem to have a body?”  Ryo asked. 

“We sure did Ryo, thank you again for getting me back to my capsule so fast.  No telling if I would have made it out of there if not for you!”  I said gratefully.  

“It was my pleasure Sam!  What am I in exactly?”  Ryo asked.  

“Well, we call it a toaster, since it has two slots and kinda resembles one.  It’s something we use for diagnostics on synth AI, or maybe we need to communicate with a synth that suffered catastrophic damage to their bodies”  I told Ryo.  

“I see, it’s a very unusual sensation not having a body!  Will I have a new one soon?”  Ryo asked, sounding slightly anxious.  I didn’t want them to know about the plans to decommission them, but I didn’t plan to let Ryo spend their life in a toaster either.  I eyed the assortment of parts in my shop, and rubbed my chin.  

“Don’t worry Ryo, you might have to be in there for a little while, but I have some ideas for a new body for you”  I said reassuringly.  I gathered some synth parts and brought them to my workbench.  Ryo watched with interest as I wasted no time in getting to work.