Chapter Text
Alarms are blaring, lights are flashing and suddenly it occurs to me, we’re crashing. The spinning of the station throws me to the other side of the deck as I grab for the emergency ‘stop spinning us’ button, which is broken of course, a chair collides with it as my hand reaches out and I recoil just quick enough to save myself. A yell echoes up from the lower deck as someone flies into a desk, the crack of their back audible among the chaos of alarms and screams. People are crashing into one another in the failing gravity as GravSys starts to shut down. I float momentarily in the feed before I find the MainSys module deep in the stations system bank. I run a quick command and my body hears the alarms cut off and replace with an evacuation call. Another command and the gravity returns, throwing people ‘down’ towards the deck.
As I return to my body, I find myself in amongst the chaos, my autopilot sending me to aid injured people to the exit. I let the autopilot run a little longer as I process and scan the surroundings. I let the person I’m carrying down and swallow one of my pills, calming myself down and reminding myself I can survive in space for at least 3 days if needed. My governor module is screaming at me to save more people, but I shove it aside, rerunning the well named ‘break’ code over it, supressing it even further. I wish I could just watch Sanctuary Moon right now.
~3 days earlier~
“SecUnit, are you ok?” I hear Dr. Yaana say, grabbing my shoulder. I whack her hand off of me as I’m pulled out of the feed, mid episode as usual.
“What.” I grumble, my opaque faceplate hiding my scowl.
“We’re here.” She says, rubbing her hand. By here, she means Suboth, the holiday planet my clients are visiting. While I am waterproof, I dislike swimming because it takes up valuable serial watching time. My clients, however, are young (I assume) and excited (another assumption) to go swimming in the famed turquoise waters of the Tranquil Sea (yes that is its real name, humans are bad at naming things). The crew are all dressed in various holiday-making outfits ranging from flowing dresses to tropical shirts.
“Come on SecUnit, we have to go, or we’ll miss the dalphur show!” Yells Miriam from the exit ramp. I half jog half walk down the ramp to see Suboth properly for the first time. I’d seen the planet in serials before, and in ad campaigns, but never with my own eyes. The crystal white sand leads down to the Tranquil Sea, and honestly, it was beautiful. Or it would have been if Suboth wasn’t such a tourist heavy planet. People of all shapes, sizes and species were draping themselves over beach chairs and towels, blocking the view of the natural beauty of the place with neon colours.
Opposite the beach was the shopping district, lit up in a time of infinite twilight, the neon signs and yelling market sellers gave the district a somewhat homey feel. Not that I have a home of course. My clients, of which there are five (did I mention that?), stroll over to a surprisingly empty patch of sand and lay down their towels and chairs. Miriam swipes away a patch of sand to reveal a small touchpad. I scan it away quickly and discover it’s a reservation device. That would be how they got such a good spot. Huh. After Miriam types in a few numbers, a holo-field surrounds us, eventually projecting the beach as if it were empty of people. Slowly but surely, my clients settle in, and I stand in the corner to watch a serial.
Midway through episode 113 of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon I hear Dr Yaana say,
“SecUnit why don’t you come sit with us?” I close the feed to see her patting the ground next to her, indicating that I should sit. But sitting with them would result in socialising. I don’t like socialising. Even still, my programming was yelling at me to follow through orders from a client, even though this technically isn’t an order. I got and sit down, and much to my surprise I’m left alone. I open the feed again and resume episode 113 of Sanctuary Moon.