The Cosmic Chronicle

Vylena Quarst Welcome, Zen-6. Your chrome outline made you easy to find among these light corridors, haha. Do you feel at home here at all?
Zen-6 Home… That’s a big word, eh, but the Heliofornax Segment does have its advantages, especially with the endless solar energy. My charging modules nearly sing with it.
Vylena Quarst So you just recharge in the sun? Or is it more high-tech than that?
Zen-6 Well, in theory it’s simple, but people underestimate the risk of sunburn...from the inside. My primary cells work overtime at the slightest flare. Sometimes my left arm feels like it’s being microwaved.
Vylena Quarst *laughs* I can believe that! What do you actually do here? You’re known as… um… a fixer, right?
Zen-6 Fixer, yes, but of technical disasters mostly. I usually resolve the daily power outages in these cyber districts. Just yesterday I had to calm a sobbing dataputra convinced her winesap processor would implode from quantum sand.
Vylena Quarst Sounds like you improvise a lot-does anything here ever go as planned?
Zen-6 Oh, never. Protocol here is more set dressing than guidance. Every morning the skyline twists, architecture morphs, and I have to figure out where the main fuse has wandered off to again.
Vylena Quarst How do you get on with the other residents? Aroma beings, databards… you share the street with some unique folks.
Zen-6 Mm, requires… patience. Aroma beings short out if they smell my oil. The databards start reciting dramatic poetry just as I’m mid-repair. But hey, it’s less chaotic than a breakdown in Nebelwoud Sector.
Vylena Quarst What annoys you most here?
Zen-6 Bureaucratic grape collectives. They block the light corridors whenever their bio-narrative doesn’t go smoothly. Once I was stuck for three hours during the annual wine-press parade right in my work zone. Who dreams that up?
Vylena Quarst Does that kind of disruption happen often? Or do you get used to it?
Zen-6 Mostly, you just get used to working in cycles. Fix one breakdown, another wakes up in a parallel loop. Sometimes I think the segment likes keeping me busy.
Vylena Quarst You sound a bit tired. Is cyborg life in Heliofornax hard?
Zen-6 It’s… complex. You’re always visible, always connected, but just as easily overlooked, like faulty background software. I kind of miss physical rust-at least it gave me character.
Vylena Quarst And the giant projectors broadcasting everything live-does that feel like blessing or curse?
Zen-6 My joints have never gotten so much slow-motion galactic airtime. It’s… not always great. Especially when those bumper vehicles slam into me mid-reset again.
Vylena Quarst You mention failures a lot. What was your most severe incident here?
Zen-6 Oh, easy. Stardate 4421.319: my autonomous memory got temporarily hijacked by some zealous perfume-flitters. Now I smell citrus haze every time I compress data.
Vylena Quarst What keeps you going, despite all this absurdity?
Zen-6 Honestly… the thought that no one will ever fully understand the segment. It’s comforting, in a strange way.
Vylena Quarst Suppose you could unplug your modules and disappear tomorrow-would you do it?
Zen-6 Uh… Maybe. But I’d probably be debugging beneath a grapevine tower again. Old circuits rust slowly.
Vylena Quarst Thank you for your candor, Zen-6. Last question: if you had to sum yourself up in a single word here in Heliofornax?
Zen-6 Persistence. Though no one knows if it’s a bug or a feature here.