The darkness pressed against the ship with only the flickering light on his hand fighting against it. The light was more for the comfort of only human inhabitant than it was for him; his eyes had been created to see into the neverending darkness with the same visibility when they were near a star, just like those of every other one like him on this ship. The ship itself was something of an older sibling to him, if you wanted to look at it in human terms — he couldn't really say that he enjoyed considering it in human terms. It would be rather strange to be riding within your older sibling, after all.

Grimmauld Place was the oldest creation, created only when the desire to leave had gripped his creator with a ferocity that Sirius believed he saw every time his creator got in the mood to create something else. He had been created next, when loneliness had become the next enemy, and companionship was the most pressing desire he felt. It had been a long while afterwards that the desire to create had revived itself; with no more pressing needs, there were only wants left to fulfil and a sense of caution that required attending to.

Sirius took pride in the fact that the creator believed him to be the perfect companion, since he had never created another companion android since. The rest of them had specific jobs to do, but none of them had a personality AI module, none of them had emotions: the creator had made no other attempt at it, and had never updated his interface either. In fact, his creator hadn't so much as taken him apart unless it was because Sirius had done something stupid and damaged his body again. His creator could never be upset with him for long, and often felt sorry for his damaged body even if Sirius felt no pain, only inconvenience, at the dented material.

Today was one of those days. Callista hadn't even been able to distract him with the smell of fresh food they had bought from the last satellite module they had docked at only three days ago. The supplies would last them for another two months: they were fresher now than they would ever be, but the desire that Sirius knew all too well overshadowed even the desire to eat.

Orion, his creator, hadn't even offered a hint on what he had been creating, and Sirius was eager to see the result. So far, Sirius could tell that it was the most human-looking of his creator's works yet, and that revelation had caused a niggling feeling of worry to creep up on him. The android was notably male, and only slightly shorter than he was, but the details were always important.

When the amber eyes of his creator's newest android opened, Sirius felt a strange spark of something that fit the description of fear. Those eyes held emotion and intelligence, just like he did, except they were more pronounced than his modules had ever allowed. His creator had clearly been planning this for some time, and Sirius could barely believe that he hadn't noticed.

He was being replaced, and the excited note in his creator's eyes as he attempted to introduce the two sounded like it came from somewhere further than the reaches of his improved hearing — hearing that was probably bested by this new android.

Sirius wondered if this was how the other creations would have felt, when they saw him, if they all had emotion AIs too.

…oOo…

In a ship as large as Grimmauld Place, with the construction android continuously working on expanding, it was easy to avoid the newest android when Orion didn't force them into the same job with some pointless task or the other. Sirius wondered if their—his, the creator would always be his first—had noticed the discord between them and attempted to force them to work together to fix it.

It did seem like something he would do, but Sirius didn't even know what the function of this new android was, only that the annoying machine seemed to make it his mission to seek him out at every possible moment. Grimmauld Place had never seemed more like a cage than it did now, and Sirius almost wished that they were planning to dock soon just so he could escape the confined space.

Sirius knew his creator was beginning to get annoyed with his disappearing acts. It seemed the new android hadn't been built with all the functions he had been designed with, making Sirius feel rather smug. The pile of metal was more useless than it had originally let on — but that also meant that the android had a far more specific purpose than him, and with the personality and emotion AI, Sirius could only guess what kind of job that was. One of his, no doubt.

Remus. Sirius had overheard the new android's name from one of the other menial androids, and he scoffed. The android had to be common then, to be named 'Moon' and not after one of the stars and constellations like the rest of them were. Moons were pretty, Sirius supposed, but they never outshone their planet; Sirius would make sure this moon never outshone him.

"Why do you hate me so much?"

Sirius startled at the sound. It was calm and soothing, and Sirius found his anger at the sight of the other android dissipating at the look on his face. After always trying to treat even the non-emotion AI androids as if they had feelings themselves, Sirius realised he had done the exact opposite to the only other one on the ship that would actually get hurt by his behaviour. The guilt started growing at that realisation, and he hadn't even had a single conversation with this Remus android before he wrote him off with his suspicions.

"I'm sorry. It's not your fault. I-I—" Sirius fumbled for some excuse that didn't make him sound like the horrid AI he felt like in that moment. "I don't hate you. I just… I thought you were replacing me, okay? Me! The creator's oldest companion!"

Remus' upset expression melded into something that looked like curiosity. "Didn't he explain everything to you? My purpose isn't to replace you. I'm supposed to be your companion after Orion dies. He's really old you know! Humans don't really live all too long. Orion said all of this while you were in the room when I first woke up…."

Embarrassment flooded him. He had been making Remus' job more difficult than it had to be by being an—what was that word again?—angsty AI, walking around in a cloud of despair.

In an attempt to cover up his obvious mistake, Sirius bounded up to Remus and dragged him out of the door in a random direction. If Remus was meant to be his companion until they both fell apart, then they would have to get to know each other better!

And he would have to convince his companion that he wasn't a sulky and moody android that forgot to pay attention to important things!

(Even if he really was…)

Written for

Wizarding D&D: constellation

Bad Movie Tuesdays Challenge: [Star Trek: Insurrection] Android!AU