Chapter Text
RK900 sat beside Gavin Reed's hospital bed, LED silently glowing yellow as he stared at the monitor displaying his partner's vital signs. Rather than watch his chest weakly rise and fall, he watched the numbers dance on the vital signs monitor. Heart rate. Blood pressure. Oxygen saturation. Data. He could rely on data.
Gavin's face was far too peaceful like this, deathlike under the effects of the drugs meant to keep him asleep so his body would start to heal after surgery. He had none of his usual fire like this, none of his hyperactive energy; he was just...still.
How had he miscalculated this outcome? What data did he miss?
He reconstructed the sequence of events again.
>BEGIN RECONSTRUCTION
>DATETIME Mon Jul 25 16:56:51 EDT 2039
He and Gavin were in pursuit of the suspects in Case DPD-5873-1215-4602, colloquially named the Thirium Pump Impalers by the local media. Seven dead androids had turned up so far, each found with a single stab wound in the thirium pump and left to bleed out wherever they were. The DPD was determined there would not be an eighth victim.
The first six crime scenes were too clean; the victims were always stabbed from behind, faces eternally contorted in confusion and terror when the bodies were discovered. With the seventh, however, there were signs of a struggle, leaving enough DNA and thirium traces to identify the human and android they were now chasing through an abandoned auto parts warehouse on the outskirts of Detroit.
The pair of suspects ended up running into a room with a dead end; Gavin managed to tackle the human and they began to trade blows, with the detective landing a solid right hook on his opponent's face, momentarily dazing him. The android suspect, perhaps sensing impending capture, turned to prepare to fight with what looked to be the murder weapon; a long blade covered in traces of thirium. Nine put himself into a fighting stance; his unarmed combat programming was more than enough to handle a single opponent, weapon or no.
"The fuck is that--"
At Gavin's voice, Nine turned his head slightly, too late to intercept the disc that had been thrown at him. It struck the base of his spine, releasing a high-energy electromagnetic pulse that shocked its way through his entire system.
>CRITICAL SYSTEM FEEDBACK DETECTED
/RESTARTING...
/TIME REMAINING BEFORE RESTART COMPLETE -00:00:30
The pulse rendered Nine's body motionless, frozen in place where he stood. His optical unit and audio processor were offline during the restart, though he was still aware. He could still process information. This is how they committed the murders, he concluded. The human crippled the victims with the electromagnetic pulse, and as their systems restarted, the android stabbed them through the thirium pump.
/TIME REMAINING BEFORE RESTART COMPLETE -00:00:18
He began preconstructing the most likely outcome of the current situation based on the data he had. Every time, it ended with him impaled through the thirium pump with the blade; his body would lose critical amounts of thirium before help could arrive, and he would shut down. There was no action he could take in this state; he could only stand around as he waited for his execution.
/TIME REMAINING BEFORE RESTART COMPLETE -00:00:03
Nine felt the sensation of the blade begin to enter his chest cavity, but it unexpectedly landed two inches away from his thirium pump before stopping. He experienced three milliseconds of relief before a flood of readings and alerts began to appear in his HUD, causing a static-laced chill to course through him.
>FOREIGN SUBSTANCE ALERT
/Classification: BLOOD
/DNA Analysis: REED, Gavin
/Sample date: <1 minute
>RESTART COMPLETE
/All systems online
His optical unit came back online first as he looked down; the tip of the bloodied blade was in him, but only after first traveling through Gavin's body; for some foolish reason he had placed himself between Nine and the fatal strike. He watched a small amount of blue leak from his shallow cut, mingling with the red on the blade's metallic surface. This had not been an outcome in any of his preconstructions.
"Oh. FUCK. OFF," Gavin rasped through a mouthful of blood, firing two rounds into the android. The android staggered backwards as his motor functions began to shut down, the blade sliding out of Gavin's torso along with him. Gavin spat out the blood and pressed a hand to his new chest wound. He stared at the crimson coating his hand blankly before the adrenaline wore off and he sank forward to his knees. Nine rushed to grab him by the shoulders to prevent him from falling too fast. Still holding him, Nine sat on the dirty warehouse floor and cradled Gavin against him as he called dispatch for an ambulance.
"Gavin!" He placed his hand on top of Gavin's slick one, trying to apply more pressure. The blood's heat seeped into his fingers. "I've called for medical assistance." Distantly he noted the human suspect was unconscious and handcuffed several feet away, but the thought was pushed aside by the feeling of blood from Gavin's exit wound starting soak his lap.
Through the pain, Gavin struggled to breathe in quick, shallow breaths as he brought his free hand to the location of Nine's thirium pump, fingers brushing over the new cut. "You're...okay," he gasped, the sound wet with the fluid filling his lungs.
Nine simply nodded, overwhelmed with readings of his partner's life signs. He felt his fingers involuntarily clench. "Gavin, why the fuck did you--"
Gavin tried to focus on Nine's face with glassy eyes, but failed as he lost his grip on consciousness, head lolling back while his eyes slid closed.
"GAVIN!"
>END RECONSTRUCTION
A knock in the doorway caught Nine's attention and he turned his face to the sound.
"Officer Miller."
"Sorry to bug you, Nine, Fowler wants you back at the precinct to interrogate the remaining suspect."
Nine looked back down at Gavin, who still had not regained consciousness. The interrogation was important in closing the case, but something else inside screamed at him to not leave his partner. "I will remain here...I wish to use my maintenance leave for repairs."
Officer Miller looked him over. "I thought you weren't damaged?"
Without taking his eyes off Gavin, he snapped off the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand and held them up. Thirium dribbled out of the parts and down his arm. "I have damaged biocomponents #8323r and #8324p. This hospital has an android wing with the replacements I will need."
"Holy shit, it was just a question! I get it; you wanna keep Reed company. I'll let Fowler know. Connor can probably handle it for you anyway."
Once Officer Miller's footsteps disappeared down the hallway, Nine returned to his thoughts. In the hours Gavin was in surgery, he had re-run the preconstruction again and again. Even out of hundreds of preconstructed scenarios, Gavin was hurt only 1% of the time. It was the least likely outcome, yet he was sitting in a hospital room next to his critically injured partner's bed. How had he miscalculated this preconstruction? He had never been wrong before today.
Nine's LED continued to cycle yellow as he began to reconstruct other events involving Gavin Reed for analysis. Data, he required more data.