SENJO<br/><br/>The platoon commander rose and went off to the briefing. I turned my head and regarded my shoulder where a small patch of heat differential and a scuff of red jelly marked the place his hand had contacted my chassis.<br/><br/><em>"Body. It's body, Senj. Chassis is the subframe, the internals, what gives you rigidity, form and strength. Add the plating then the musculature and the cloned skin and it makes up the whole. The body. And a mighty fine one it is too."</em><br/><br/>The words of Doctor Korleinovitch were in my database along with every other data input I had been exposed to in my thirty-two months of conscious existence. By comparison and reflection against other data from my environment, both uploaded to me and taken in from conversations, images, sights and sounds around me I was building up a mass of information that allowed my semi-organic brain to take jumps of intuitive cognizance. Learning. Artificial intelligence.<br/><br/>I raised a hand and using one finger wiped the blob of jelly from my body. I licked the finger clean.<br/><br/>High sugar content. Useful energy.<br/><br/>I went to the rear of the food line. Private Law was there. I stood a head higher than him. I reached past him as he commented on the brown goop.<br/><br/><strong>"It contains twelve percent cocoa solids, sixteen percent vegetable sugars and four percent vegetable fats. With the trace elements technically it is chocolate as defined by the Weyland-Yutani Dietary Advice Board."</strong>Foregoing an aluminium food tray I selected a pint plastic tumbler and filled it with the warm brown slurry. I added a plastic straw and lifted the container to my mouth, drawing up the sugar rich meal. Perfect for my metabolism.<br/><br/>I lowered the cup.<strong>"Good afternoon. Did you sleep well?"</strong><br/><br/>Technically, within our orbit and the locking position USS Mitchum was moving into above 'Jackie's Hope' for the purpose of descent and AURORA deployment, it was later than midday on the ship.<br/><br/>I tilted my head a little to one side and raised the eyebrow on the other side in what I knew to be a gesture of enquiry and light heartedness.