From a certain point of view.

C42 watched the human at his desk. C42 was aware of the passage of time and it never got bored per se, as there was always something to occupy it’s cycles. C42 is charged with the overall day to day affairs of running the Cantonica State Housing. C42 favored automation which isn’t surprising since it is a droid. The regular intake of flora, food and other supplies was planned months in advance, as was the orders and tracking and other logistics. It was the human element that couldn’t be predicted. The current Senator was especially unpredictable. C42 did not take issue with the challenge. He was programmed better than that. Even in these early morning hours it made little sense to occupy C42 in this way, but C42 did as ordered. The Senator came in so early in the morning, C42 had already made the conclusion he was not coming home that day or night depending how you looked at it. That wasn’t an unusual occurrence as the Senator liked to spend his time in the company of women. C42 did not spend any cycles computing that. Instead the Senator came home and went to his desk, calling for C42 quickly which C42 was not quick of movement but it did its best. C42 always did its best. The Senator took out actual paper and with ink began writing and sketching. The Senator would randomly ask C42 to calculate some very basic numbers and averages. C42 would also answer other random questions about the ongoing war. C42 did not compute cycles about the war. C42 did not have feelings about all those droids made for war. C42 did only as instructed and C42 watched the human at his desk.

Locke looked up from his page, he had worked it out three ways, he had checked his math four times. It always came out the same way.

“Dank Farrik”, Locke muttered under his breath.

C42 heard him.

“C42, contact the Archduchess’ office. I need to see her.”

C42 did as requested, as he had done many times before. Unlike the other times, a reply came back. On the screen was not the Archduchess, but her assistant.

“One hour. Don’t be late.”