Zeb

Zebulun Deschevres, better known as Zeb, is a car salesman, mathematician, and trumpet player from Montreal.

Early Life
In 1979, Quebecois and Israeli scientists Pierre Deschevres and Amira Mendel got married at Cape Cod. For three years they tried to conceive, but discovered that Dr. Mendel was infertile.

In 1983, Deschevres was stationed in the White Canyon Research Facility in Nevada in the cybernetics branch. He was one of 28 scientists working on PinocchioTech, which aimed to create sentient androids who believed they were human. Instead of investing in expensive biotechnology to make the structure of the android seem genuinely human, the team at White Canyon used illusory techniques such as holograms and sensograms to give the illusion of real human skin. The androids were capable of digestion and protein synthesis and were waterproof. While infant-like at birth, they had the mechanical ability to develop similarly to a real human, and had humanlike neural networks.

In 1987, it was announced that the PinocchioTech project was being shut down. Impulsively, Deschevres stole an incubating prototype and brough it to his home in Montreal. The prototype finished incubating a couple months later and Zeb was born.

Zeb was able to integrate fully into human life with no malfunctions. In preschool, he met his lifelong friends Tommy and Soda Steve.

Life and Career
Zeb graduated from McGill University with a PhD in mathematics and statistics in 2015. Despite this important credential, he chose to become a car salesman at a Chevrolet dealership, which he was content in doing. He also co-founded a jazz trio with Tommy and Soda Steve where he played trumpet.

In 2029, Pierre Deschevres was tried for theft of government property in the United States. Zeb was tracked down and brought in as an exhibit for the court case. Deschevres was sentenced to ten years in prison. Zeb was deeply affected by the revelation of his inhumanity and the imprisonment of his father. After the sentencing, Zeb was sent to the White Canyon Research Facility where he was imprisoned in a holding cell. However, Zeb took legal action against the research facility which led to the famous Deschevres v. White Canyon case concerning the ethical treatment of synthetic organisms. The case ultimately led to the White Canyon Research Facility being shut down.

In 2043, Zeb was granted a free immigration pass to BrosunWorld due to his association with Tommy, who was the nephew of Brosonian Emperor Chuck Brosun. While living on BrosunWorld, Zeb moved onto spacecraft sales which Chevrolet had been dabbling in for the past two decades. Zeb survived both Soda Steve and Tommy, as mortality had not been considered when PinocchioTech was designed. At this point, however, Zeb had had some malfunctions repaired on his mechanical structure that would have become fatal had he not addressed them. Despite his advanced age, Zeb still had the physique of a 40 year old Variant 1 Human male.

In 2074, Zeb was hired as a mathematician by Clara Brosun, an offer which Zeb could not refuse as it was one of the highest honours in Brosonia. At this point, Clara was an interplanetarily respected astronomer. In 2096, Zeb moved to Clarasant with his employer, who would periodically repair him when he had malfunctions. After the collapse of Brosonia in 2121, Zeb moved to Dembomoon with Clara.

Later Life and Death
By the time of Clara's death, Zeb had begun to exhibit signs of code rot, which is similar to dementia in humans. Despite the death of his employer, he continued to maintain the observatory on Dembomoon, which was otherwise abandoned. Tourists would occasionally come to visit the observatory, and would occasionally see Zeb working on something in the building. He refused to talk to tourists who tried to interact with them, and would often tell them to leave, although he never used violence to force them out of the observatory. Zeb was found unresponsive by tourists in 2144, although it was unclear how long it had been since he had ceased functioning.