Cleaning Bots

Stabby the Robovac is a long standing tradition originating from human culture somewhere in the early 21st century when robot vacuum cleaners first started to reach mass adoption in some human societies. While not universal throughout Starfleet, the tradition is common enough that most people will encounter at least one cleaning bot named Stabby during their career. The tradition is also followed in civilian places such as homes, businesses, transport ships, and the occasional public space.

Traditions

• A cleaning bot is given eyes, often googly.
• A cleaning bot is given a name. Stabby is common, but if there are more than one in a given location, they will often each be given a unique name.
• A cleaning bot will be given a knife. While the die hards will insist it must be a real knife, toys, stickers, and holographics have been used where one is unable to use a real knife.
• A cleaning bot will achieve the rank of the highest person it has winged. If with a live blade, it will need to have drawn blood, but bumping into or making contact with the toy blade can be sufficient in situations where a live blade is not used. More advanced holographic blades will keep track of when contact would have been made if tangible, and count that as a successful hit.

Known Units on USS Joshua Norton

• On the bridge, there are two units. Amelia has named them Hades and Ceberus. The former has holographic googly eyes, the latter has holographic dog ears. Neither have the traditional knife, holographic or otherwise, but Cerberus will bark and growl if it bumps into someone.
• In the mess, the two cleaning bots for the main area are named Bummer and Lazarus. The one up in the Captain's diningroom/briefing room is named Karl.
• In the Captain's quarters, the cleaning bot is named Stabby. It has both the holographic knife and holographic googly eyes.
• In Cecilia Abbott's quarters, the bot is named Veronica (often called Ronnie for short).