Woodstock followed Stivr'wynn, Beaut and the new hydra Taerih around with a bit of worry. Zulda was also somewhat concerned - they were apt to destroy her greenery while they were tromping around. When the single headed hatchling started getting little 'buds' on her shoulders, Woodstock asked Inga what it meant.

"Of course," several of her many heads replied, "she is growing her adult heads. She will have a good number of them. Are you worried?"

"No, no," she said distractedly, and even Inga knew she was lying.

"What about General Madness' hydra? He has begun growing his own batch of new heads. I remember mine coming in, it was itchy..."

"Well it's okay to be itchy, it's not okay to suddenly develop homicidal urges," Woodstock said. "And since both of them are a bit... touched... I think we need to keep a close eye on them. All of them."

So they did, though while there were indeed some mishaps, it was no greater than any other time in Caledrus. But while they were still docked at Star City and near the Abstract Destiny where these odd hatchings were taking place, Woodstock made a foray into the space station to get supplies, and maybe some advice.

What she found was something far more useful. The cyborbot shop. Since she didn't trust the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as far as she could throw it (let's face it, no one did), Woodstock decided that a different set of droids could help out much better than their current methods.

Woodstock entered and asked to see the proprietor, and the Mantismorph Archemedes came to greet her. She understood all the clicks and ticks and hypersonic noises that he made as language, that Babel fish implant was obviously of use here. "I need to get something... that will follow, report and return to me, without being all that worried about what it's doing."

Archemedes attempted to get the canine units ready but Woodstock shook her head, "no, I think something much less lifelike. One of those maybe," she pointed at the spherical assistant that hovered nearby, "but maybe in green." She listed off a number of sensors and emergency items which the 'bot needed, all of which would easily fit on board its cargo chamber and be manipulated by its servo arms. When it came time to decide what level of AI it should carry, she examined the options. "A class-B, please. I don't want something so self-sufficient that it thinks it can do the job of handling these ... people... by itself, no wandering off." As an afterthought, "nor something that'll be driven bat-shit mad by the subjects either... It'll have to be able to second-guess Stivr' but not let him lead it on a wild chase."

Essentially, a spybot which would report regularly to Woodstock's security detail, not be particularly invisible to anyone (why would it need to be?) that wouldn't slack off on the job. There was really no way that she could successfully make Archemedes understand *why* the need for such a thing, but he seemed more than happy to comply. Once finished, the 'bot would hover around slightly behind Stivr'wynn and his quarry.

***

Which oddly enough, proved to be a great idea. Because now? Every time that Stivr'wynn would start talking to 'himself' he'd actually have a camera there watching him to do it. And more than that: it could broadcast.

The show was a hit, of course, when they started broadcasting on the Caledrus. At any given time of day, at any public video unit, a password could be entered to view the current goings on with Stivr', Beaut and Taerih. Whether they be stalking through the hallways on their way to a meeting (an outing) with Axarr and her own troupe, crashing through the jungle-like gardens, or even off-world exploring a place for the first time. The viewership came and went consistantly, enough to actually provide some income to the large outpost ship, by selling off timeshares to galactic broadcasting units...