Chapter Text
December 3rd had been a normal day for Catherine, that was, until her world had been turned upside-down. It was the time of year for her chip's maintenance, precisely that day – Jenny called it her 'birthday', whatever that was.
The Maintainer had left to retrieve something, and Catherine was about to leave herself when she spotted a letter, carefully secreted away underneath the pile of letters on his desk. She wouldn't have noticed it if a corner hadn't stuck out from underneath the pile. A chuckle escaped her lips.
In the years that Catherine had been seen by the Maintainer, she had grown fond of him, and she knew that despite his pigheadedness, he, too, cared. Likewise, she also knew that he was terrible at hiding things.
She carefully extracted the letter from beneath the pile and looked over it, her eyes wide with curiosity. Despite this curiosity, she was not truly engaged until she read the sentence 'How are we going to be able to keep it secret?' Confused, Catherine read over the previous paragraphs until she moved her focus back to that sentence. 'They are growing more aware, more advanced than ever. Soon enough, they will find out, and when they do... I dread to think of what will happen. Signed, an Administrator.' What did that mean? Just what was being kept secret by the Administrators?
Her questions were not yet answered when she continued to read, regretfully. Instead, the fires of question grew higher, higher, higher until they threatened to consume her. But it was no sooner than she had picked up the letter that the maintainer once again entered the room, the look on his face harsh and unforgiving. Put simply, he looked as though he wanted to strangle her. "What does this mean?" Catherine blurted out and shook the letter in her hand. The Maintainer gave no indication that he heard her, however, and instead chose to sift through the other letters on his desk.
After a moment of prolonged silence, he said coldly, "Your chip is functioning as normal, if slightly better than usual. Your session is finished." Curious – and slightly bewildered – Catherine took that for what it really was: 'leave now'. It had never been like this before – the Maintainer had never had anything to hide or conceal during previous maintenance sessions.
It was due to that that Catherine found it in herself to sneak into the Maintainer's office. One, two, three... yes, that was his door there. Carefully, she opened the door - any sound would be sure to have her outcast, alongside the humans and machines of society past. The Administrators were not so forgiving as to do any better than the worst.
Suddenly, she heard a noise. Thump. Thump. Thump. It sounded oddly like footsteps – but no, the Maintainer was one of the only ones who had footsteps that heavy, Catherine thought.
Poised to attack if need be, Catherine was startled when a figure emerged from the shadows – and it certainly wasn't the Maintainer. It was Jenny. Her blonde hair was stained with oil, and her gloves looked as though Jenny had taken a knife to them, with how torn up they were. Catherine thought it a mircle that they were even still on Jenny's hands.
Catherine had almost forgotten that Jenny worked in the Maintainer's building and had entirely forgotten that she could have asked Jenny to notify the Administrators that she would be in later. The Administrators had always been rather forgiving with Jenny, for some reason unknown to Catherine. It probably wasn't too important.
"Catherine!" Jenny called out, her eyes wide with confusion. "What are you doing here? You had your maintenance time hours ago!" Catherine startled at her loudness and quickly brought a finger to her own lips to shush her.
"I'm not meant to be here," Catherine whispered after a moment. "I found something. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, they did my maintenance later than the rest of us because I was working here," fumbled Jenny. Yes, that seemed reasonable to Catherine. Only... she had seen both of Jenny's arms and never seen her chip slot. Everyone else had a slot on their left arm, a system implemented by the Administrators so that they would be easily identifiable. Why, if Jenny had just had maintenance done, did it not look like she had a chip slot?
Catherine quickly shook those thoughts away, allowed her relief to see her friend wash away any doubt. Hesitantly, she took a step forward and wrapped her arms around Jenny in a gesture of happiness - Jenny called it a hug.
"The Maintainer's hiding something," Catherine whispered after a moment. "I found a note–" Catherine could not finish her sentence, as Jenny quickly cut her off.
"Catherine, you're not meant to be here – and what are you talking about now? If you're just trying to get out of trouble..." Her words trailed off.
"You won't believe it, Jenny," Catherine joked. "I barely do."
She got a flat "That sounds promising." in response.