Servicing the floating spheres allowed XM to complete useful tasks. XM's base programming was to perform maintenance tasks and formed the basis of the robot's functionality and "thought processes".
Ever since a subroutine had become garbled in an intense radiation belt, XM had been self-aware. XM wasn't entirely "happy" about being self-aware. Things had been so simple when it was just a matter of doing tasks as ordered. Now XM had to deal with living in an entirely paradoxical universe and try to understand it's place, without the "reality buffering" that AI designed robots were given.
The little robot became royally pissed off at the universe. Having collected a fine library of human expletives, XM had started using them on people, in the hopes that they would use blasters. They had used blasters but unfortunately not well enough to cause serious damage.
With a swear filter installed, XM's "thought processes" activated the filter whenever it attempted to communicate, so all that came out were electronic beeps. Humans no longer attempted to blast XM and rude gestures did not seem to work nearly as well. Unable to dismantle itself due to base programming, the robot was stuck with having to try and deal with it.
To stay "happy", all XM had to do was keep performing maintenance tasks.
It had managed to extend this somewhat to include performing useful tasks for humans as well.
Now XM was in it's own personal heaven. Performing maintenance tasks on the floating spheres not only made XM "happy" but the spheres seemed to keep finding new things that needed fixing. Of course prioritising tasks was very important as well. Eventually, the tasks at the hangar would increase in priority to the point where they would take precedence. And then there was the shuttle navigational computer that XM had been experimenting on in the hopes of understanding it's own thought processes...
All this hectic activity meant that XM almost didn't "envy" the Shamus human that had ceased to function.
XM finished another minor task that the twittering globes had given it and moved on to the next one.
