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I was walking the perimeter near the vehicle depot when One pinged me. For the last 6 weeks, this contract had been quiet. The humans got along well enough. Most of the aggressive language and posturing seemed to be the playful banter and bluffing of an inside joke. Some of the humans partook in sparing. I hadn’t been warned beforehand, unfortunately, and I may have ended up injuring a contracted client (ow.) I don’t think these humans were accustomed to having to deal with SecUnits micromanaging their interactions. Most of the humans, anyways. Dr Smith definitely did, but usually he kept his distance unless to save me or One from awkward attempts at conversation with Captain Waters.
(I’m still not sure why she seems to think I’d want to take part in mealtimes. I don’t eat (also listening to and watching humans eat is gross.) One managed to warp the offer into a request for security during those hours and would regularly stand guard at the cafeteria entrance. I don’t think that’s what Captain Waters was suggesting, but she didn’t say anything to One after Dr Smith spoke with her.)
One|> Query: Location?
I acknowledged the ping and sent my coordinates automatically, stopping just past the open garage door of the depot. Both crawlers sat parked inside in the shade. So far, we hadn’t used either of them for any exploration. Most humans wanted to travel by foot to the small rock formations just south of the camp. It wasn’t a far walk and they said something about exercise.
One|> Assistance requested at target location.
One forwarded a set of coordinates to me. I acknowledged and began to make my way over. (There was no indication of a high priority to One’s request, so I didn’t hurry. It could have used required instead of requested which would have set the priority a smidge higher than where it currently sat. I probably would have run in that case. As I said before, this contract had been pretty quiet so far. If it was going to be this quiet for the whole contract, I’d consider myself lucky.) There was some sense of anxiety coming from One through the feed. I’m not sure if I misunderstood whatever One was dealing with at the time, since this wasn’t an emotion I normally felt from it.
I made it to an open clearing between the cafeteria building and some of the smaller sleeping quarters. One stood in front of a group of humans facing my direction. One of the other weird things about this contract was that, although we had our SecUnit armor shipped along with us, we mostly were instructed to wear the cloth uniforms unless otherwise told. Which meant, One stood in front of me in its grey short sleeved shirt – Ordinary Innovations, Corp logo on the chest - and dark blue cargo pants. Its expression looked a mix of anxiousness and fear.
“There it is!” A human (who I will appoint as Human #1) behind One called out before stepping forward. His arm was in a sling. This was the human I had injured earlier. Hyper-extension of the elbow when I had pulled him into an arm lock. Threat Assessment ticked up ever so slightly. Something about his expression. Was he mad about what had happened? I was only following orders (that have now been adjusted to allow the odd sparing.) It wasn’t personal.
“My assistance was requested at this location by One.” I said, turning my head slightly to address the human. This wasn’t necessary by any means for me. The small scouting drones I had under my control gave me a good view of the human’s face and his companions. Humans had a thing about eye contact or directional speaking and being rude. “How may I assist?”
Human #1 made a small smirk, his eyes glancing down at his arm in the sling, and I felt a rush of adrenaline. My jaw tightened ever so slightly. Oh, so this was personal. I sent a query to One who didn’t respond. Its expression had defaulted to SecUnit neutral as it awaited further instructions. It had throttled the feed between us so I could no longer feel anything from it.
“Well, since you were so eager to join in on our sparring last week, I figured you and One here could show us a little entertainment.” Human #1 said, looking back up at me. I hesitated, unsure how to respond.
“Please...clarify your request.” My buffer replied in its soft, polite tone. My mind was reeling. Surely, he wasn’t suggesting One and I spar. There was no reason for it. It was a waste of our energy, time and the contract’s resources to repair us. I had heard rumors of the types of clients that did things like this but, I guess, I had been lucky enough to not have experienced it up until now.
“Why don’t you fight Michael. Show us what you can really do. We even have cubicles, so you don’t have to hold back.” Human #1 said in a cheery tone I was starting to find annoying. The way he said One’s nickname felt derogatory. I felt my performance reliability dip by half a percentage point.
Umm, how about fuck no? I didn’t want to hurt One. Especially not inflicting enough damage to cause an involuntary shutdown. One was...well, One wasn’t my friend. SecUnits didn’t have friends. But it was my partner. My right hand. It was practically a part of me. We’ve been on contracts together for over seventy thousand hours and I’ve never been told to intentionally inflict damage to it before.
“That would impact the-.” Human #1 held up a hand and I fell silent.
“I don’t care about whatever little schedule you and it worked out. I still have no idea why Cap thought we needed SecUnits in the first place. This place is boring as fuck and since you won’t see any action, we may as well get something out of you.” One must have tried this tactic before calling me over. Human #1 sounded like he had said something similar before and was now annoyed at repeating it.
“Captain Waters requested prefabricated buildings and equipment for this contract. At a certain price point, Ordinary Innovations requires- “
“Shut up!”
I moved one of my drones to focus on One. Just beneath the SecUnit neutral expression, I could see the same...something from before. Maybe it also had reservations about this. (It should have reservations about this.) I could see perspiration forming on its brow. My sensors picked up a temperature elevation.
“I’m not sure why I’m arguing with you.” Human #1 said to himself, angry. His brow furrowed as he turned his gaze back to me. “You will do what I say.”
I flinched as the Governor Module delivered a low-grade shock, much like an unpleasantly strong static discharge down through my spine. The tips of my fingers tingled momentarily as the nerve endings lit up. I wasn’t arguing. Was I? This wasn’t even a command...was it? I felt a thick blanket of dread fall on my shoulders.
“I... I apologize.” My buffer supplied in a not at all shaky tone. My one drone input showed One begin to make its way towards me, its built-in energy weapons locking in and out of deployment.
I took an involuntary step backwards, conflicted by the sight of One moving aggressively towards me. The first punch I avoided narrowly, batting away One’s closed fist from my jaw with my opposite hand. I blocked a second and third, dodged a knee and managed to firmly push it by the shoulders to create distance. One stumbled back, looking as mildly shocked as I felt. I didn’t want to do this. If I had a stomach (thank the stars I didn’t) I can’t say for sure that I’d be holding down any contents. The level of stress I felt was high enough to trigger a performance reliability alert. I dismissed it, leaping back as One dove in to try to tackle me. Maybe I could drag this out long enough for Human #1 to get bored. A drone input showed he had returned to the small group that had been standing behind One. It looked as if they were…taking bets? What the fuck?
I suppose I spent a little too much attention on that drone input because the next thing I knew, One had managed to sweep my legs out from under me, and before I could scramble away to my feet, it jumped on me. One straddled my waist as I twisted to crawl away, throwing a rather heavy blow to my shoulder closest to it, knocking me flat on my back again. The initial shock from the hit gave One a narrow window of opportunity to land two solid punches to my head, the first of which snapped my skull backwards to collide with the dusty ground. My performance reliability dipped by two percent as bright spots danced in front of my vision. I managed to get my hands up to protect my face, grabbing its wrists and bucking with my hips to unseat it and flip us over so that I was now on top. I felt something trickle down my cheek. I paused as I saw another flash of that something cross One’s face.
In that brief pause, One had widened the feed connection between us again (or maybe, had lost control over its careful throttling of said connection) and I felt a paralyzing wave of fear and mistrust crash over me. One had experienced this before. Not with me, but maybe on one of the other contracts it had been placed on without me. I don’t think I’ve ever been subjected to a memory wipe. I know One had, at least a few times in the past. After those individual contracts. The disorienting first few days of initializing alongside it again stuck out in my mind. How it had clung to me in the feed, fearful and confused. Feeling it knew who I was at one point, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t access memories to verify the feeling. I had learned to send small clips of our less eventful contracts (omitting confidential client data) to it during those days. Yes, you know me, I’d try to say. We’ve worked together for thousands of hours. You’re safe. It seemed to help lessen the anxiety One felt.
Coming back to my senses, I realized the humans were yelling. Apparently, they were upset we had stopped mauling each other (I didn’t think the pause was more than a few seconds at most.) On one of my drone inputs, I saw Human #2 had thrown up their hands, a look of exasperation on their face.
“What are you doing, Two? Fucking hit it!” They called out to me with a sneer.
I didn’t move. I didn’t want to hurt One. Couldn’t they see how terrified it was? The Governor Module sent a strong shock through my body, causing me to seize up, arching backward with a loud choked gasp. For a moment, I was confused as to why. Oh, hesitation. Disobedience.
“Shoot it, Two!”
The in-built energy weapon of my right arm automatically deployed at the command. One clapped a hand over it, trying to force it back into its locked position. I grit my teeth and fire, taking out One’s hand and a good part of my forearm in a bright, hot flash and searing pain. Some part of me was acting on its own, trying to avoid admonishment. The humans watching cheered in excitement.
Fluids painted One’s chest and face from the mangled remains of its hand. I dialed my pain sensors down as the throbbing began traveling up my arm. The feelings of fear, pain, anxiety and anger all flooded our shared feed, distracting me again momentarily. I wasn’t sure which one of us these emotions were coming from. More shouting as I felt One’s left arm break from my grip to collide repeatedly with the side of my torso. I felt something snap, and it became painful to breathe. An alert notified me of cracked ribs. With my right energy weapon borked from the close quarters discharge, I secured it before reaching out to grip One’s throat, clamping down hard and squeezing. This wouldn’t necessarily kill One (I think), but it would cut off the circulation to the organic parts in its head and maybe cause it to have a shutdown (I don’t really know...I’ve never fought another SecUnit before.)
One rammed its mangled hand into my other side repeatedly, reopening the sealed veins and fluid lines to leak all over my grey Ordinary Innovations shirt. Its other hand desperately pushed at my face. I didn’t want to hurt it. I didn’t want this. I hope One understood that. In the feed I pinged it, allowing all the emotions I was currently fighting with to bleed through.
Query: Status? I asked as One made a choking sound with its mouth. Its hand faltered briefly before nails dug into my skin.
One |> Reply: Performance Reliability is 78.5% Query: Status?
I felt One’s good hand move from my now scratched face to tear though my company shirt, ripping synthetic flesh as it became more and more panicked, forgoing trying to push me away.
I said, Reply: Performance Reliability is at 67.2...66.8%
The glitching sound of energy weapons deploying and firing registered 0.03 seconds after my body shuddered from repeated impacts to my chest. That’s not good. Or maybe, it was good in that this would all be over soon. My performance reliability took a nosedive. My body shuddered again as One fired off another round of energy blasts. My grip on its throat loosened, and I felt myself falling over. Just before my visual inputs cut out, I saw One climb on top of me, repeatedly hitting my torso. I couldn’t feel anything at this point, at least. The way One was looking at me did something to my organics that I wasn’t quite ready to unpack right now.
[ Performance reliability catastrophic drop.]
[Emergency shutdown initiated. Restart.]
The next several minutes I had a hard time making sense of things. Whatever One had done to my torso had seriously damaged some important inorganics. Enough to loop restarts, disorienting me. The first time I restarted, inputs came rushing back with such an intensity I had another involuntary reboot. Pain from the scorched holes in my chest. Pain from One’s hand rummaging through a gaping wound, fucking with something organic. The sound of my own glitched voice struggling to make a noise. The too warm, dry atmosphere. The hard, slippery ground beneath my body which was continuously leaking as One reopened the automatically sealing wounds. One’s expression. Teeth bared, eyes red. Its face was so close.
[Emergency shutdown initiated. Restart.]
My...third, fourth reboot? My audio inputs came in first. One’s shaky breathing, my own struggled gasps, and a voice.
“What the fuck is going on here?”
It took a moment for my mind to register specifics. Female. Annoyed or angry and surprised. Shocked. There weren’t many women on this contract. It had to be either Captain Waters or her assistant. The sound of footsteps rushing towards us.
“Michael, stop!” A second voice. Male. Dr Smith. Huh. Interesting I recognized that voice first. My connection to the shared feed with One came back online and I was instantly hit with wave after wave of emotions. Anger. Disgust. Sorrow. Pain. I felt One reach out to me in the feed, brushing against me carefully, as if afraid to cause any further harm. When I didn’t pull away, I felt it sort of drape itself over me in the feed. One requested a diagnostic that I freely provided, becoming aware of the sensation of gravity pulling at my body. Another set of hands on me.
Visual inputs from my actual eyes came next. One was kneeling beside me, holding me upright against its chest. Dr Smith was physically assessing damage (I’m not sure why. Taking me to a cubicle would fix all the damage done) his expression grim. I could hear the female voice angrily talking to the humans that had not dispersed but decided to analyze that later once inside a cubicle for repairs. Dr Smith must have seen something in me because he asked, “what’s your status, Two?”
“Performance reliability is at 40%...It is recommended to take this unit to a cubicle for repairs.” My buffer replied. My voice still sounded glitchy, like I was hovering just above another shutdown, which, yeah. It sure felt like it. Dr Smith nodded.
“Can you get it to a cubicle on your own, Michael?” He asked softly.
“Yes, Dr Smith.” One replied instantly, carefully lifting me up. As it turned to walk away, Dr Smith stopped it with a hand on its shoulder.
“It’s not your fault.” He said softly. The emotions I felt in the feed didn’t show on One’s face which remained professionally SecUnit neutral. I felt my own organics have a response to that.
“Thank you, Dr Smith.” It replied, waiting for him to release its shoulder before continuing towards our security building.
Once inside, One stripped me of my tattered clothes and helped me into my cubicle. It remained beside me as the cubicle cycled up and started to initiate a recharge cycle for my sake. (I ignored the prompt for now.) I saw the estimated eight-hour repair time pop up and that SecSys marked me as “Off Duty” for that time. One’s presence remained heavy in the feed, though its physical contact with me was gentle. Its hand held mine lightly. I truly hoped it knew what had happened wasn’t its fault or mine. That I knew it didn’t want to hurt me, just like I didn’t want to hurt it. We were a team. A team that had been together for a long time. Hurting One was like hurting myself (except that I actually cared about One.) Humans were fickle creatures. I thought about the angry female voice and pulled up the recording. It had been Captain Waters. Okay. The client files said Dr Smith and the Captain had a sort of open relationship with one another so it would make sense for them to be together. Whatever. I’d deal with this in eight hours when I had more processing power to use.
To One I said, Initiating recharge and repair cycle. ETR 8:06:47.
One shifted, releasing my hand and pinged in acknowledgement.