Chapter Text
File access 19,285.21 hours earlier
The Controller was there when I came back online after stasis.
The Controller was always there when I came back online after stasis.
It was the Controller's job to check SecUnits' functionality after stasis, supply them with the appropriate modules and other information they needed, code in the chain of command for their new contract and pack them back into the supply crates to be shipped to whatever survey or mining installation they had been rented out to.
After the contract was over, the Controller would debrief with them (read: extract their surveillance footage for data-mining), wipe their archives of any unnecessary modules and information, reset the client priorities and put them back into stasis.
The Controller was the human I had seen most often throughout my life—or at least since the most recent memory wipe. I couldn't remember there ever having been a different Controller when I came out of stasis, not even as a distant memory in my organic neural tissue.
>command:diagnostic
The command came through the feed the moment I was back online, my body standing up immediately and automatically from the cradled position in the cubicle.
"Running diagnostic", I said aloud.
I knew how this went.
The Controller always wore the white company uniform, and their feed ID was always inaccessible to me. I wondered if that was to protect them from retaliation should any of the SecUnits under their control ever go rogue. But I doubted it, since that would imply an acknowledgement that they had done anything to deserve retaliation.
They were simply doing their job.
“Let me know how it was”, the Controller said, looking at the other person in the room, a woman with the Feed ID San, also wearing a company uniform. “I’ve been meaning to go myself, but with these hours, it’s so hard to get a reservation.”
San hummed in acknowledgement and gave the Controller half a smile that I interpreted as commiserating. “I get it. I’ll make sure to tell you all about it. I just hope it’s worth the currency.”
The Controller gave a shrug. “Is anything these days?”
The diagnostic finished with a chime in my feed and I sent the result to the Controller's feed immediately.
It was clear, which was a relief, but not a surprise. I wouldn't have made it very long as a rogue murderbot if I didn't know how to wall off my cracked governor module from my diagnostics.
The Controller opened the diagnostic report just long enough to see there were no alerts and dropped a packet of modules and updates in my download queue.
"Downloading", I said.
“That reminds me”, San said, “what was the name of those NutriSub bars you were trying, the new brand? You said they have a coffee imitation flavour?”
“Oh!” The Controller’s eyes and smile widened. “NoNoot! Yeah, they’re great. The coffee imitation is probably my favourite, but they’re all pretty decent. Except the celerish one.” She pulled a face. “I can send you my referral link to their feedstore and they’ll waive your sign-up fee.”
“That would be great, thank you!”
The Controller was very personable. They were rarely the only human in the room when I came online, often there were other company employees or in some cases representatives from whatever corporate had rented me out this time. The Controller would chat with them liberally, with easy smiles and casual jokes that I didn't care enough about to understand being exchanged. They laughed brightly, gestured with their hands, making occasional eye contact with the other humans even as they were working in their feed.
The other humans seemed to appreciate it. If they were nervous about the presence of SecUnits, their posture would relax and they dared to look away from me instead of staring at me in fear like I was just about to pounce on them.
“Download complete,” I said.
San flinched a little and gave me a glance like she’d forgotten I was there.
>command:extract and apply
"Acknowledged."
I extracted the files, mostly maps, hazard reports and planetary data for a planetary survey mission, a brief on my new clients and a small bundle of code updates. I made sure the Controller’s attention was on their conversation before shunting the updates aside into a storage box to go through them later before deciding what to apply.
“Sorry if I’m distracting you from your work”, San was saying, her eyes flicking from me back to the Controller.
“Oh, don’t worry about it.” The Controller made a wavy hand gesture. “I don’t mind talking while working in the feed. I’ve always been good at multi-tasking.”
Yeah, right.
>command:change client ID priority; priority1:client ID=00119 priority2:client ID=12541 priority3:client ID=12542 priority4:client ID=12543;12544;12545;12546;12547;12548
"Client priorities updated."
The Controller only ever sent feed commands. They never addressed me verbally. Any words out of their mouth were meant for humans only.
It had been made very clear from the start that verbal acknowledgements were expected.
Failure to acknowledge, or sending an acknowledgement only on the feed, would result in an immediate correction by the governor module.
I knew this, because I could still see the commands the governor module was transmitting, even though it could no longer enforce them.
(I also knew this because I remembered. It had taken me a while after my last memory wipe to hack my governor module, a while being two brief contracts. Plenty of time to get reacquainted with the feeling. Not that I ever really forgot. A strong electrical current running through you has a way of searing itself into your organic neural tissue. Too many of my organic memories pre-memory wipe were of governor module corrections.)
Luckily, SecUnits were not allowed to visibly react to governor module correction, so I did not have to pretend.
(Lucky for me. For governed Units, it sucked.)
“Well, I should also get back to work”, San said slowly. Her gaze had wandered back to me. “Honestly, I really don’t know how you can do this job, I’ll be glad to get out of here and back to configuring habitats.”
“Well, it is pretty dull, but I don’t mind that so much.”
“Dull?” San scoffed, still not looking away from me. “Not the word I would choose … Don’t those things give you the creeps?
“Please.” The Controller’s smile was indulgent. “Does a hopper give you the creeps, or a mining drill? They’re just tools, it’s all about how you use them.”
San’s face scrunched up. “You rarely hear about a mining drill going rogue.”
“Because that doesn’t make for a good story. People see what they want to see.” The Controller leaned back in their chair, casually watching San. “But really, the governor module is incredibly safe. You are in fact much more likely to be killed in a hopper crash than by a so-called rogue Unit. Here, look at this.”
>command:dislocate right shoulder
“Yes, Controller.”
I reached over with my left hand, grasped my upper right arm firmly, and twisted and pulled hard at the same time. It was awkward, but I’d done it before. The joint jumped out of the socket with a pop, leaving my arm dangling loosely.
“See? No hesitation. There’s nothing in there.” The Controller waved a hand up and down in front of their own eyes.
(I’d hesitated. It just wasn’t noticeable to a human with such slow processing speed.)
“Well, if you’re sure.” San did not sound convinced. “Anyway, I should be going. Talk to you later, alright?”
“Sure, have a good one. Enjoy your dinner date!”
The Controller’s attention returned to their feed as the door closed behind San.
I did not tell you to turn down your pain sensors.
>command:pain_sensor_input=100%
>command:govmod_correction_lvl=45%
I wasn‘t sure how I had started patrolling through the common area of the suite.
At first, when the humans had started their rest period, I had also gone into my assigned room and started rewatching some episodes of Sanctuary Moon. I could keep an eye on things via the suite‘s camera network after all (though I backburnered the humans’ sleeping quarters, especially Ratthi and Tarik’s room, and set them to only alert me to certain keywords and anomalous patterns.) But then I started noticing some blind spots in the camera angles in the suite’s foyer and the common room. The microphones would still pick up any sounds, but what if one malfunctioned, or someone managed to mute the sound somehow? What if someone hacked into the camera network and fed it looped footage of nothing happening, the way I often did? What if someone entered through some hidden door or hatch in the restroom? I decided it might be better to deploy some drones to scout the common areas and cover any blind spots and give me something to cross reference the camera footage with.
Once I‘d done that, I was able to focus on Sanctuary Moon again for seventeen minutes, but I couldn‘t shake the feeling that if someone did infiltrate the suite, it would take too long for me to get up from my supine position on the bed and make my way into the common area from my room, precious seconds in which anything could happen.
And now that the humans were all asleep, there was no reason why I couldn‘t hang out in the common room and watch my serials there. No one would bother me, and if something happened, I was already right there.
So that was what I did, I moved to the padded seating in the common area and continued watching there. And that was fine for a while, but my drones and the cameras and my own auditory scanners kept picking up faint sounds, and I was 72% sure they were coming from Ratthi and Tarik‘s room (ew), which I reluctantly confirmed (yes, and ew). But what if there were actual suspicious sounds that were masked by the ambient noises produced by the humans, and I dismissed any indication of a serious threat because I didn‘t want to face the reality of my humans exchanging various bodily fluids (seriously, ew)?
It might be better if I moved around the area, so my own auditory scanners could get better data indicating where any ambient noises were coming from and accordingly either dismiss them or alert me to a possible threat.
That‘s how I found myself moving in a patrolling pattern through the suite‘s foyer, common room and restroom facilities, except that the area really wasn‘t big enough to really call it patrolling.
I was pacing. Okay, I was pacing.
What are you doing?
I was honestly surprised ART had waited so long to ask about my insane behaviour.
For 1.4 seconds I considered if it would be more pathetic to try and pretend I was “patrolling” or to just admit what was going on.
I‘m just … restless, okay?
Your cortisol levels have increased again, and scans are showing a slightly increased temperature centred on your head. Seeing a former company employee has really thrown you.
It wasn‘t a question, but it almost sounded like one. ART knew how I felt about the company, it really shouldn‘t be surprised by this.
I‘m not thrown, I sent sullenly. This just greatly changes the security assessment of the mission.
ART‘s feed presence felt sceptical. And how is pacing a hole into the carpeting going to change that?
I actually consulted my camera inputs to check on the carpeted floor before I realised ART was being hyperbolic. (Did I mean hyperbolic?)
I‘m processing.
You usually process just fine standing still. Or sitting down. Or lying down, even.
Can you just shut up for a fucking second?
ART shut up for all of seven seconds, and I stopped pacing. It waited patiently (for ART) for another three seconds while I gathered my words.
How did they not recognise me? I reviewed the footage from earlier in the cycle again, scrutinising the Controller’s face for any visible reaction, like I would be able to see anything on visual alone if both my and ART’s analysis of visual and sensor data hadn’t picked up anything.
It has been at least two Corporation Rim standard years since they saw you, and humans’ memory archives are very unreliable. Their memory archives for people they previously interacted with especially are very context-dependent. And Negotiator Joslin previously interacted with you in a completely different context.
I dismissed the footage and started pacing again.
Your reaction, cross-referenced with my archives of human behaviour and construct behaviour indicates you are upset that Negotiator Joslin did not recognise you.
No!, I snapped. If they didn‘t recognise me, that was good, good for the mission, for my humans. I was not upset.
(Emotion check: Okay, maybe I was upset. But I couldn‘t admit that to ART without also explaining why it was upsetting and … yeah, we’re not doing that.)
At this distance, ART’s presence in the feed wasn‘t as oppressive, but nonetheless I could almost physically feel its curiosity. It wanted so much to ask what exactly the nature of my interactions with the Controller had been.
The fact that it didn’t press me any further was … it was really nice, actually, and that made me feel even worse about the whole thing. But I just couldn’t talk about it right now. Not even with ART.
I might have been able to talk about it with Three, who surely had a Controller of its own, or a Handler, or whatever other inane title Barish-Estranza called them. But Three was on a mission with Holism who knew the fuck where in the universe right now.
So ART just watched me be slightly insane and “patrol” the hotel suite until the humans were done with their rest period.