Coulomb

Basic Stats

Name: Coulomb
Classification: Lamba-class Personal Data Assistant
Manufacturer: Kaelid Industries
Model: KI-L-C1 'Coulomb'
Height: 80 cm
Length: Nose to tail 220 cm
Weight: 25 kg

Headcannon Voice: Geena Davis in "The Long Kiss Goodnight"

Origins

For more information of the dominant species of Faraday's Homeworld

A Diplomatic Offering

Ta the end of what was called the Time War, a conflict involving time travel, bio-mimetic androids, and more, an offering of two androids, Faradayand Coulomb (their true names unpronounceable in Terran language) were made withthe most advanced capabilities that the Kaelid could manage were offered to the Myris as a sign a peace. The diplomatic system was meant to be heavily encrypted, obviously android to even a casual observer, and artistically pleasing.

The androids were well received, and they dutifully served as the Myris commander's escorts for several years before they were passed down to his chosen son.

The Metaphysical Snag

One of the most interesting parts of Coulomb and Faradayis their Ambient Energy Skimmer, or AES. The AES was tuned to absorb EM radiation from universal background all the way up to far IR. However, the AES was inadvertently tuned to take on another form of energy: ley line power. The ancient ley lines, the sole remnant of the world's magic, was sufficient at an ancient nexus point for both androids to snag on the power source. The interface resulted in a massive system failure followed by a reboot and slow creep of personalities that they lacked prior to the event.

The nature of the energy generated an almost organic layer of circuits over the basal layer of electronics and thus created a new life form in each of them. Coulomb became more extroverted with a love of dance and personal interaction and Faradaymore introverted with a love of botany and a tendency to be silent but for moments of deep insight.

Personality

While both Faraday and Coulomb were both meant to be social, Coulomb became far more gregarious while Faraday became somewhat more introverted as time passed. Coulomb had a knack for knowing what someone was feeling even if they were hiding it, and she was skilled both at knowing how to talk to others and also when not to. At political and press functions, Coulomb was always out and in front whether it be tending to diplomats, busing tables, or providing entertainment. As her personality developed so did her other abilities including a way of producing illusions that no one was able to explain. Their ability to both appear and interact with the world around them was unprecedented, and this ultimately caused her to draw a lot of attention that was not all positive. It also made Faraday seem even more distant, something that Coulomb dashed early on by saying "Faraday is no less than my other half. If I stand out as much as I do it is only because he gives me such contrast."

Death and Afterlife

Coulomb was killed in action while defending her young master from an assassination attempt. In addition to illusions, Coulomb was capable of creating powerful laser like blasts as well as hard light shields, and these caused firepower to be focused on her. In the end it was a fragmentation grenade destroyed her reactor and primary memory cores. The loss of Coulomb caused Faraday to return fire with devastating effect as he caused complete failure in the assassins' cybernetic systems at the quantum level followed by nearly vaporizing them with blasts of electricity that rivaled the most violent storms.

Coulomb would behind a mystery that would haunt Faraday for a long while after her passing. "Faraday, Let me go." was all she said as she died while Faraday held her body. The mystery would come from the fact that she spoke those words after her core power and all processors had failed. It would turn out that it was not a command to set her body down but to let her spirit go.

After a great deal of soul searching and assistance from the denizens of Spindizzy, it would come to pass that Coulomb was rediscovered as a spirit in the afterlife. This established that the Kaelid androids and their kin that were spawned from the ley-line incident were living machine beings that had true souls. This made Faraday more careful in how he conducted himself and also drove him to create his son, Joule.

Special Modes

Like Faraday, Coulomb has four special modes of operation.

Mode 1: Hard Light Barrier; In this mode, Coulomb is capable of producing a barrier of cohesive light that can deflect both energy and projectile weapons. It was only seen twice with both times being in defense of her master and of Faraday. The barrier has limits to how much damage it can handle based mostly on Coulomb's reactor.
Mode 2: Empathic Link; One of her more subtle but often used skills, Coulomb could read emotions not only from someone she was interacting with but from all around her. This caused her to have an uncanny ability to handle large crowds and keep most situations from becoming critical. After some practice, she became capable of altering the overall mood of a crowd if only to a small degree.
Mode 3: Cohesive Light; Unlike her barrier, this mode is offensive in nature. Capable of what appeared to be terrawatt level beams, this mode was only seen during the assault claimed her life.
Mode 4: Illusions; Second in usage only to her empathic link, her illusions were elaborate and at least temporarily real so long as she could sustain them.