A Problem of Parts

	A Thursday Prompt by Serath

	One of the first questions Chris asked me, after he found out I was an android, was pretty 
thoughtful: What do I do for spare parts?  Before I can answer that question, I need to explain something 
about the universe where I ended up making my home. Other than Furrykind’s existence, the biggest 
difference is they went for genetics, instead of technology. So, their understanding of robotics is a couple 
of decades behind. 

	That left me with a problem. Cray City didn’t even have the machines to make spare parts, let 
alone the parts themselves. And I knew the dangers of creating an entirely new branch of technology, 
before a civilization was capable of handling it. And I had no desire to set myself up as the next once-in-
a-lifetime, super genius. That would be calling way too much attention to myself. As the only one of my 
kind at the time, I had to keep a low profile.  

	Fortunately for me, I had help from an unexpected source. Cray City had Unicorn Furries.  And 
when you live for a couple thousand years, some of the junk stored in your attic can get quite strange 
and unique. It turned out that not only did Lemuria exist in this world, Prae the Unicorn was quite the 
collector, and had stashed away a small treasure trove of their super-advanced technology. Including a 
couple of intact, perfectly-preserved, Caregiver-Class golems. And the Lemurian equivalent of an 
industrial-sized 3D printer. 

	The problem was, the printer consumed enormous amounts of power, so it had to be used 
sparingly. And some of the elements it needed weren’t exactly available in every street-corner drug 
store. So, it wasn’t a long-term solution. At least, not until fusion became a cheap and available 
thing. And that isn’t gonna happen for another fifty years or so.

	As it happens, Disney’s The Sword in the Stone is one of my favorite movies. And one of my 
favorite things is to cheat like Merlin. I filed for a few patents, and channeled the results into a few 
harmless projects. I think my favorite so far is the prosthetics company. All I gave them was some seed 
money and a couple of hints. Oh, my wires and circuits, did they run with it. Now thousands of amputees 
are running around in some very stylish artificial limbs.  

	The sweet part is I’m relying on other people’s natural talents and creativity, to bridge the gap, 
rather than just dumping fully-functioning, advanced tech on them, wholesale. And now I have all the 
spare parts I need, being produced by a couple hundred different companies, all around the world. And 
it’s all completely harmless, because Prae and I are the only ones who know which products they are, 
and how to assemble them, using the Lemurian 3D printer, into something that a Golem can use. 

	Batman, eat your heart out.