CIOS Voidstar
| Name | CIOS Voidstar |
| Race | Android |
| Theme | Scholar |
| Class | Technomancer |
| Homeword | Akiton |
| Player | Michael Sandler |
| Faction | Party |
—Arthur C. Clarke
Real Name: void * CIOS
Named after a programing variable declaration convention (void * is a “pointer of unassigned data type”).
Androids are mostly born as orphans. CIOS is not the first to use this body. However, their parent set up their child for success. When first CIOS awoke they were in a freshly refurbished body they were gifted with much knowledge of physical world. CIOS got to choose some aspects of their form, color, gender, organic shapes vs robotic ones, etc. They were left a note that their parent had moved on and not to bother to research or recreate their life – tracks had been covered to ensure of that, so CIOS never bothered. But CIOS inherited some money and a subscription to training courses at the academy. Before the subscription money had run out CIOS had dabbled in many schools but eventually earned a PhD in Physics.
CIOS tried their hand at:
- College professor, but was not good with students.
- Commuter Shuttle pilot, but the job was too repetitive.
- Medic, but had an unnerving bedside manner.
CIOS got a job working odd jobs at the Syzygy Corporation shipyards. One day ship came that had killed all of its crew (it had vented life-support to space) and seemed very distressed and sad about it. The ship was was not reactivating life-support and was also refusing entry to all biologicals. The AI was indifferent to drones and also was fine with androids. CIOS and Amech-5, being two of the few androids at the shipyards, were hired to figured out what happened and to get the ship operational again.
The problem with the ship AI was simple: The ship had directives that governed its behavior. The first rule was to maximize profits for the company. Followed by protecting the equipment, crew etc. This ship had a particularly good run and the expected bonus payout to the crew was going to be large, larger than the life-insurance payout if a crew member died. A ship’s programming ran the simple optimization to maximize profits. Unfortunately, the results meant that the crew had to be eliminated. Since the ship AI liked the crew, it upset the ship greatly.
After successfully finding the root cause of the problem CIOS was considered an AI behavior “specialist” and was put aboard other ships with behavior problems, often alone, to try and figure out the issues. It's easy to be the “best at your job” when you are the only one doing it.
This job also became drudgery – when CIOS got an interest in the Starfinder Society and decided to change careers.
