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Getting SecUnit to go out was one thing but finding it when it didn’t want to be found was another thing entirely. It had a habit of finding little hole in the walls (literally) and folding up inside whenever it got too overwhelmed by humans, which seemed to happen about every other day, or immediately after coming into contact with anyone who hadn’t been a member of the survey team.
SecUnit hadn’t been in its room when Ratthi had gotten back from visiting one of his friends for the first time since before the survey trip, so he went looking. He didn’t think it would’ve gone far. It seemed hesitant to leave the area surrounding the hotel and the connected administration complex. He’d checked the hotel linen storage room, the janitor’s closets in the administration building, and all the little nooks and crannies near their suite, but he had a feeling he was looking in the wrong places. Those were the kind of places a human would think to hide.
So he had started looking in the weird places next, and that was how he had found himself in a seldom used maintenance access, staring at a row of slim maintenance lockers where the techs were supposed to keep their airtight suits for working in parts of the station with low air quality.
Stars, he hoped SecUnit wasn’t in a locker.
Still… all of the lockers were securely shut, except for one, the door of which was just slightly open, as if it couldn’t be properly latched shut from the inside. He rapped the back of his knuckles gently on the locker door, and said, “SecUnit, are you in there?”
No response.
He thought about it for a moment, and then he opened the locker door. There was SecUnit, all right. The locker was barely large enough for it to fit inside. Its shoulders were too broad for it to face forward, so it had squeezed its body in sideways. It had hunched its shoulders a bit, its hair just skimming the top of the locker.
SecUnit said, “You could’ve talked to me on the feed.”
Ratthi scoffed. “I asked you where you were on the feed, and you didn’t reply! So I went looking.”
SecUnit didn’t say anything, but Ratthi could see it had quirked its lips in the way that Ratthi knew meant it wasn’t actually upset with him. Ratthi asked it, “Will you come out? My neck’s getting stiff just looking at you in there.”
He held out a hand to SecUnit. SecUnit’s eyes were closed, but Ratthi thought it was likely that there was a drone hidden somewhere nearby that SecUnit was watching him through. After a moment, SecUnit’s arm reached out of the locker, and it took Ratthi’s hand, holding it gently to steady itself as it squeezed out of the locker.
Once it was out, SecUnit stuffed its hands in its pants pockets, and looked off to the side. “So what is it?” It asked.
Ratthi said, “I was hoping you would come to the station mall with me.”
Ratthi was expecting further questions, but instead SecUnit made a kind of quizzical expression, pinching its lips and raising an eyebrow. Ratthi thought that maybe SecUnit thought he was asking for it to watch out for him, which he wasn’t, but SecUnit’s easy assumption of the protector role made Ratthi feel warm in his chest.
Ratthi said, “So, I got completely lost looking for you in here. I’m assuming you know the way out?”
They went to the station mall. When they arrived, Ratthi made a beeline for his favorite shops, most of which stocked handmade garments brought to the station from various planets in the Preservation Alliance.
Ratthi ran his hands over soft, colorful fabrics with vibrant prints and made easy conversation with the proprietors, while SecUnit loomed behind him, hands still tucked into its pants pockets. Occasionally, Ratthi would hear the low buzz of one of its tiny drones zipping by. SecUnit made what might seem to be a well-practiced “intimidating face”, which it made by tightening its jaw and pressing its lips thin while furrowing its eyebrows. Ratthi didn’t think it was actively trying to look intimidating—that was just what SecUnit’s face did. Regardless, it had the (likely desired) effect of making all the shopkeepers shy away, so they all just talked to Ratthi and ducked their eyes away from SecUnit.
At the third shop, Ratthi became enamored with a lemon-yellow scarf that was patterned with thin diagonal cerulean blue stripes spaced randomly down its length. It was hemmed with soft blue pom poms hanging from braided yellow thread.
Ratthi tried it on, draping it around his neck. He couldn’t help tangling his fingers in the frilly pom poms where they rested on his chest. He smiled brightly towards SecUnit’s drone, spotting it hovering over the rack, and said, “What do you think, SecUnit?”
He glanced at SecUnit and it narrowed its eyes, seeming puzzled. After a pause, it said, “It’s very yellow.”
Ratthi beamed. “Thank you, SecUnit,” he said. He ran a finger down the scarf, feeling the soft, downy fabric. Then he turned to face the counter, and said to the shopkeeper, “What do you think, Yawa?”
Yawa, the elderly proprietor who remembered Ratthi from his many other visits smiled, the dark skin around her eyes crinkling. “I think you look very dashing, Ratthi. The blue really brings out your eyes.”
Ratthi looked in the mirror on the countertop, adjusted the way the scarf sat on his shoulders. “You think?” He said.
“Certainly,” Yawa replied, nodding sagely.
Ratthi pursed his lips. He had a lot of other scarves but… this one was unique, after all. “You drive a hard bargain, Yawa,” he joked, quirking his lips. “I’ll take it.”
After working out a trade with Yawa, Ratthi and SecUnit exited her shop and strolled through the mall a bit more, passing by storefronts that sold tech, shoes, and food imported from outside the Preservation Alliance.
One of the shops on the right caught Ratthi’s eye. He pointed towards it, and said to SecUnit, “Let’s check that one out.”
SecUnit nodded, and trailed behind Ratthi as Ratthi bee-lined inside. Once they stopped inside, Ratthi couldn’t help but shoot SecUnit a sideways glance, wanting to see its reaction. SecUnit looked confused. It said, “These clothes don’t seem to match your... style.”
“We’re not here for me,” Ratthi said, turning away from SecUnit so it wouldn’t feel pressured, and instead looking over the racks of well made, but subdued and minimal clothing on offer. “We’re shopping here for you.”
SecUnit didn’t say anything. Its mouth had made that thin line again, and its brow seemed a little bit more furrowed than usual. It had frozen in place.
Ratthi felt a little worried that maybe he had pushed too far. He said, “It’s okay if you don’t want to, SecUnit. We can go back to the hotel if you want. But I noticed that you didn’t bring a single change of clothes with you from TranRollinHyfa. I thought you might want to have something else.”
After a moment, SecUnit said evenly, “I don’t need more than one set.”
“You don’t have to need something to own it,” Ratthi told it. “You can have something just because it’s nice! And a couple changes of clothing is hardly decadent. Just take a look, for me?”
SecUnit still seemed skeptical, but after a moment it stepped forward and started to card through one of the displays. The shop attendant walked closer, and opened her mouth to greet them, but Ratthi caught her eye and brought a finger to his lips, shushing her, and then jerking his shoulder towards SecUnit. She looked confused for a second but then nodded, and leaned against the counter, ready to answer questions, but not intruding. Ratthi hissed out a sigh of relief. If she had tried to talk to them, he had a feeling SecUnit would’ve abandoned all interest in shopping in order to plot its escape.
SecUnit drifted away from the first rack to a second one, which had a variety of jackets. Its hands ghosted over the different hangers, before it pulled one off the rack. It was a leather jacket, not black, but gunmetal in color with just the right amount of shine. The zippers were chunky and looked well made, and it had lots of pockets, some closed with snapping buttons and others with zippers, on the inside and the outside.
“Oh!” Ratthi gushed, clapping his hands together. “SecUnit, you have got to try that on! It’s so cool!”
SecUnit held it up to the light, eyes narrowing a bit, and said, “Okay.” It took the jacket off the hanger, which Ratti plucked from its hands, and then shrugged it on. SecUnit rolled its shoulders, and the jacket settled onto it, the leather supple and easily melding to fit SecUnit's shoulders. It was, by some stroke of luck, a perfect fit.
Ratthi grinned, fighting to restrain his reaction. SecUnit just looked right wearing a leather jacket, like it was meant to wear one. He said, “SecUnit, you look badass.”
One of SecUnit’s drones was hovering in front of it, at a far enough distance that SecUnit probably had a decent view of itself. It pensively adjusted the jacket, smiling a little at Ratthi’s compliment. Then, its fingers caught on the pricetag. It frowned as it read it. “It’s expensive,” it said, sounding resigned.
Oh, there was no way Ratthi was letting SecUnit get out of owning a badass leather jacket because it was expensive. Ratthi scoffed. “I’ll buy it for you,” he said, and turned to grin at the shop attendant.
SecUnit’s hand suddenly grabbed Ratthi’s shoulder, and Ratthi couldn’t help but flinch before he turned back to look at it. SecUnit said, struggling to get the sentence out, “No… I’ve got… from the Corporation Rim.”
Ratthi rolled his eyes. “I know you’ve got money, SecUnit,” he said, “But, I have plenty of credits to redeem from my pay for the survey trip, and I want to get it for you.”
SecUnit seemed uncertain. “Why?” it finally asked.
“Because that’s what friends are for,” Ratthi said, the answer coming easily.
SecUnit softened, its eyes wide, and its other hand gripped the jacket tighter. Ratthi reached out and adjusted the collar a little, looking up at SecUnit. One of those rare smiles was gracing its face again, so Ratthi looked away hurriedly, not wanting to ruin it. He turned away and hailed the attendant so he could arrange the purchase.
He couldn’t wait to see everyone else’s faces when they saw SecUnit in its new jacket.