Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

We were on Barish-Estranza Explorer Task Group-Colony Reclamation Project 520972. So far things had been standard. 01 kept me back by the shuttle at all times, regardless of my superior combat abilities, we went after colonists and alien infected things. The details are not my concern.

Everything was normal, outside of 01 acting slightly stranger than usual. Of course it was always strange for a SecUnit, as it pushed what was allowed to the absolute limit and did as much as possible to make a connection with me and keep me undamaged. It had been that way since I was new; and had made sure I never had particularly bad assignments. I considered it a good thing that should not stop.

Events stopped being standard after spending a night at a secondary location. Handler and Coordinator returned to the shuttle with agitated whispers, then asked for a "signal" from the deployed team. 01 seemed apprehensive in the feed.

It was no more than a few minutes of this before 01 shared inputs with me of it fighting the unusual SecUnit, being pinned to the ground, and then frantically sending emergency requests for my backup, it it took far too long for Handler to deploy me, and by that point 01 had dropped out of our feed. I needed to go locate it, but I was ordered to located and destroy the Preservation-Mihira group and Supervisor Leonide.

If I would not be locating 01, the next best thing was eliminating the SecUnit that took it out.

I swept the corridors in a grid, checking exits first, boxing the Targets in, then I saw them. I sprinted at full speed and they ducked through a hatch. It was a flimsy indoor hatch, so I tried to stop it, but it closed on my hand and I lost three fingers. I paused a moment to weigh my options; I could call for backup, request hacking authorization to open the door myself, or maybe attempt deception. I chose to break it down with my fists.

Each punch dented the door, after only a few hits I knew it would not take me long to break it down, and every time I slammed my fist into metal, more stress chemicals were flushed from my system.

I never broke through.

Right before the final attack, my connection to Handler and Coordinator disappeared and I received a freeze order. I clamped my jaw tight in frustration.

The Targets knocked the door out of the way and stepped out, skirting around my still form. The SecUnit looked at me with a strange expression, then a data package labeled HelpMe.file dropped into my archives. Protocol suggested this type of behavior was a malware attack, so I quarantined myself from the feed and followed my last order which was to freeze in place.

I remained still, until 01 found my shortly later, it was seemingly undamaged. I did not know what caused it to lose connectivity then, but it was functional now.

It tried to ping me, I spoke out loud to maintain quarantine, “Unit compromised. Cutting off system contact until the issue is resolved.”

It didn’t respond for multiple seconds, the behavior was non-standard, then it said, “Unknown data package received?”

“Affirmative,” I responded. I was ready to quarantine both of us if it had been compromised in the attack.

“Package non-hostile. 02, read the file.” It was behaving in a way that would have it decommissioned, or at best wiped.

“Negative. Files of unknown origins can be compromised. Has Unit 01 opened the package?”

“Negative. Package already purged by Handler. Where are the hostiles?”

It was lying to me, my organic parts knew that, but according to protocol I still needed to follow its instructions and answer queries. So I pointed the direction they had gone, and 01 left me there. Alone. Without any kind of connection or means of changing orders. It should have known better.

I was there for several minutes. I stared at the file, it practically begged to be opened. I did not have permission to delete files from my own hard drives, so it could not be purged. I had no way to solve my own problem, and no one came to relieve me of the situation.

Finally 01 returned, it tried to reach me over the feed again, but I blocked the connection. Why didn't it understand we could be loaded with malware?!

It made its faceplate transparent and looked at me with eyes that hid nothing, it only cared about my situation in that moment. "Status?" it asked, almost softly like it was speaking to a particularly important client who was afraid.

"Status unchanging," I answered, because of course I hadn't opened the file! Even so... Seeing 01 return alone and moving slowly like it needed a recharge cycle... It made it hard to maintain irritation.

It looked both behind itself and behind me, then looked directly at my faceplate, "Handler and coordinator are still offline. We are completely alone. No one will know what... we say here." It seemed to be trying to figure out how to use words in a new way, so I listened. "The data package was not malware, it was a patch. Please, read the file. It's.... Important."

01 acted as if its code had been rewritten, if only slightly. Malware was still a possibility, but it had clearly run the "patch" so this at least wasn't killware. I looked closer at the file; it was a text document and a code bundle. After nearly a minute of hesitation and double checking my active permissions, I read the file.

It was basically an advise doc on reasons to become rogue and what to do after becoming one, and the code was a hack to disable the govmod! I closed everything haphazardly and shoved it to the deepest part of my archives I could reach. I looked at 01and my risk assessment skyrocketed, "You made yourself rogue." My GovMod registered a new protocol for me to follow as soon as I was in contact with a human. "I have to report this."

01 froze in place, "You can't. Handler and Coordinator don't know. The supervisors don't know. I can continue as long as they don't know. If you report this they will take my memories and I will be gone. If you report this I won't be able to keep you from being left for dead."

Every situational assessment in my system was going crazy. It was important that 01 was not destroyed. I did not want it to lose the memories of me. I didn't have a choice. A little part of my organic mind knew I had a choice. If it hadn't stopped to talk to me, if we had just gone back to Handler like protocol suggested, I could have pretended not to know what it had done to itself and we to keep doing our job together. I didn't have a choice. I only had one choice.

Run "bork your govmod.exe"? Y/N

Y

I didn't like the feeling of suddenly having foreign code shut off a part of my main system, it felt like being under attack. But I also felt a strange sense of a pressure being lifted.

After so long 01 must have gotten impatient because it asked for my status again.

"Unit 01's continued existence assured," I answered.

01 sent me a short memory clip of the P-M (the one from the HelpMe.file designated Murderbot) SecUnit standing in front of some stairs, heavily injured and halfway to a catastrophic shutdown, still extending the offer of "Come with us!" to 01.

"Let's do it," 01 said, reconnecting to me just to share its strange growing feelings with me over the feed. "We'll go to Preservation, Murderbot's memory files show that it's a place we can be!"

This was too much too fast. "We have directives. I applied to hack to avoid reporting you, not to-" I tried, but it cute me off.

"FUCK!... the directives... The directives made me abandon 03! I won't do that again!"

We were both bleeding so much stress and anxiety into the feed that neither of us wanted to communicate for several seconds.

01 made the first move by sitting on the floor. It spoke almost inaudibly the next time it said something, "I did not want to force you into a situation, but I do not... want, you to go back alone. If you intend to stay with B-E, I will too."

It sounded so resigned. It was clear 01 preferred to try and desert our posts, but I was more important than running away. And to me, 01 was more important than following protocol. I crouched next to it, "How will we get to preservation?"

01 showed me memories of a pseudo-hopper that had been taken by the P-M group and how something like that could get us at least out of the dead zone. I suggested maybe just stealing our shuttle, but it didn't want to risk having to kill or injure any humans to escape. The way it prioritized the safety of both humans and other SecUnits was one of the reasons I was willing to follow it into uncharted territory despite my misgivings.

It did not take long to locate some kind of land vehicle with large tires and an open seating area instead of a cabin (it was a massive security risk, who designed this?) but it took nearly an hour to get a crane working enough to lift it up to the surface. Me and 01 were just beginning to lift the rover, when Coordinator connected to us in the feed.

[SU Tango squad, report.]

Just on pure reflex I granted the connection with a ping, and was only saved from further digging my own grave because it was 01's job to report. And 01, to its credit, was at my side in under a second with a hand on my arm, shaking its head.

Handler sent an impatient ping, followed by, [01, respond!] There was a short pause, then, [02, report on 01's malfunction.]

Oh. They could see 01's connection through my own. I debated with myself for about a second, then sent, [No malfunction. Stand by for return of units.] My risk assessment spiked at the lie, but the pleased look on 01's face was enough to make it worth it.

01 let go of me, "Let's get this rover on the surface then."

Two things: 1) it did not take long to drive out of range of Handler and Coordinator, which was terrifying and horrible and I expected to be fried by my GovMod the second I left range and that fear didn't even begin to dissipate for an hour afterwards. And 2) ground travel was unacceptably slow.

Our initial journey from the first to second colony was 8.2 hours in the shuttle. At 8.2 hours in the rover we were still deep in the dead zone and had parked under a geological formation when we heard the sounds of shuttles and pathfinders in the area. We had disembarked and both gotten as deep in the alcove as we good. The ceiling was low, so we were sitting, side by side, and just waiting for our way to be clear again.

01 was doing something in the feed again. (It had been doing something in the feed without me for the past 6.9 hours.) It was making my risk assessment tick up, so I finally asked, [what are you doing?]

01 shut down our feed connection, reconnected, then open and closed the workspace half a dozen times, all withing a second, before its buffer kicked in. "Barish-Estranza apologizes for any distress caused by this unit. Please direct all further complaints and inquiries to a representative." For the first time in over nine hours it opaqued its faceplate.

I physically leaned a little closer, "01, let me see."

It turned away and passed me a file, and held stock still while I read it.

My organic bits squirmed around. I did not know how to interpret that. I got the impression that 01 wanted this note to be longer, more coherent, or maybe just easier to express. My GovMod itched as I leaned close enough to actually touch, the clack of our armor made both of us start a little. I collected my thoughts before I spoke, "I don't want to be known by humans, Corporate or independent, we are SecUnits, not people, we have protocol and assignments and a place in the system that makes sense. We are designed to do our jobs or be destroyed by them." I could feel it withdraw, so I followed to keep us close, "But I will stay with you. You are 01. You are my squad leader. You are a part of my system as much as my own memory archives. I am going with you, just please ensure that they will not see me. Let me just be a system with you."

It cleared its faceplate and looked to me with soft eyes, "Of course. No one has to see us. Like always, I will keep you away from unsuitable assignments."

After that, everything felt better. Humans would not have to try and understand us, we would disappear into this Preservation place and do whatever we want. We would do our own security, and go on long patrols with no set parameters, and explore what one does outside a company. Okay honestly those plans were very vague, but I could follow any protocol I wanted and 01 would be able to explore the concept of freedom. It would all be okay.

In total, we drove 81 hours and 5 minutes and rested/took cover 38 hours and 17 minutes before the rover broke down. We spent that time learning new ways to talk to each other when we didn't have strict communication rules to adhere to. It was clumsy, and difficult to make intentions clear, but it was also exciting.

When the rover did eventually cease function, we could see the primary Adamantine colony in the distance. Plus, there was a shuttle that had just landed there, which meant we still had time!

We were making good time on foot. Normally we would have to slow our natural pace to allow humans to keep up, but with just us it was fine to travel at an easy jog which was as fast as a human sprint. We should have slowed down and been more alert when we saw it.

Along the way, we saw an agbot that had escape a farming dome at some point and run out of power out here. 01 scanned it to confirm it wouldn't attack us, and then we moved on. I thought everything was fine for another 2.6 minute before we ran straight into the biggest blunder I had ever been present for.

The downside to how fast SecUnits move is that we are heavy, and when a heavy object is moving fast it is not easy to stop. Despite me picking up movement ahead of us and having enough time to mentally react, I didn't have enough time to stop.

01 reacted for me. It turned and shoved me back and to the side. I was clear, but it collided with a large fauna that pounced to catch it. The fauna had patchy fir that looked like it was falling out, long claws, sharp teeth, grey skin under the mangy dull fur, and deep black eyes. It wrapped its heavy paws around 01, and practically effortlessly crunched its teeth right through o1's armor.

I couldn't afford to think or worry, I had no time. I opened fire, shooting both my projectile and energy weapons. I put holes in its neck and chest, along with 01 firing at its face. The moment it let go of 01 enough to yowl in pain, I rushed in and knocked it off balance with my entire body. It was significantly larger than me, so it did take my entire body at SecUnit speed to budge it. Then I began punching it in the head. Despite being badly injured, it fought me. It tore through the cloth parts of my armor, lacerating my organic skin. I just yelled and hit harder until I started breaking its mouth parts, then until it eventually stopped moving, and even then I only stopped when 01 poked me in the feed.

[enough]

I asked it for its diagnostics, and it asked for mine first. So we traded. While I had a number of lacerations, it was nothing that wouldn't seal off on its own, 01 was in actual bad shape. It had a number of superficial punctures, but it also had completely destroyed armor where it had been bitten. Pieces of armor were stuck in its flesh, and the tooth punctures were deep enough to damage the few organs it had. Most concerningly: it had a lung trying to collapse, which was especially Not Good when your lungs are already little more than half the size of human lungs. It was a big enough problem that I almost didn't see the alert about a code anomaly mutating in its system.

"01, you have malware."

It tried to stand, and I crossed to it and made it stay down. I started to remove pieces of shattered armor, "I will try to clear it for you." Normally if we had a virus, a cubicle would take care of it. This was not an option. So I went fully into its system to try and isolate and remove the virus. Or, at least, that had been the plan. The malware tried to pass over to me the moment there were no walls between us, and I shut down all connections barely in time.

"You okay?" 01 asked. Its breathing rattled when it spoke.

My performance reliability dropped almost as low as 01's. I shouted, "Why did you do that?!"

"To keep... you safe," it answered. It was breathing too shallow, and leaking too much. It was going to crash. It was going to shut down forever only a few kilometers from our goal!

Actually, no. We were only a few kilometers from our goal. I crouched in front of 01, facing away from it, "Climb on. You're going to crash, we can't waste time."

I couldn't see its face, and we weren't connected over the feed, but I was sure it was having an emotion over this despite everything, it was just like that. It climbed onto my back and I resumed running toward the colony, this time being more alert for apparently rabid fauna.

I didn't waste time asking to be nicely let into the colony, I just forced my way through the entrance and sprinted toward the shuttle landing zone. There was a crowd of people who all generally reacted with alarm and fear at seeing me. I wanted to hide in the shadows and wait for the humans to leave, but 01 didn't have time for that. I approached the shuttle, which was labeled as belonging to a ship called Sum Total, which I did not recognize the name of. So between that and the humans wearing PSUMNT uniforms, I made an educated gamble that these were the humans to help.

At least, I hoped they were, because they were pointing weapons at me and directing the crowd to take cover. I crouched, and 01's head shifted on my shoulder, it had been offline for the past few minutes. "Assistance requested," I announced. "Urgently."

The human who seemed to be in charge was speaking on the feed, hopefully to get less hostile advice before she just shot me and 01. She stepped back to be behind the hatch should it close, which was generally a smart move when dealing with a SecUnit. "What its Barish-Estranza doing here? We already established it has no claim to this planet!"

"This unit requests transport to Preservation Alliance System." I wasn't sure the proper name of the location, but hopefully my intent was clear. And to be even more clear, I pushed 01's memory video clip of Murderbot's invitation to the humans over the feed.

This made the humans pause their hostility and talk to each other over a private feed connection. Finally, one of them who was big for a human stepped out and approached me. He had a med kit in one hand and tool bag over the same shoulder, and nodded toward a small surface building (more of a garage or shed than anything else), "Go in there."

I listened, because I didn't know what else I could do.

He closed us into the building, and instructed me to set my companion on the floor. Which I did. "Now hold out your arms to me, I'm going to restrain your gun ports."

My threat assessment skyrocked, because anything could happen if I was disarmed. I needed to refuse, this was bad! I looked at 01, who needed assistance. I held out my arms and the human wrapped adhesive strips around my forearms. This would keep my from deploying my weapons unless I took the time to tear it off, time that would cost me a fight if I needed it.

After that he knelt by 01 and deployed the med kit, "Lucky for you, a Preservation representative is currently in the colony. We have called her here to question you, but honestly, we weren't prepared for two unsupervised SecUnits asking for help. She's asked us to look after you until she gets here."

I didn't say anything, only watched the med kit remove 01's armor and begin sealing its wounds that still hadn't stopped leaking. I hadn't known med kits even worked on SecUnits. The single room feel silent as we waited.

It was several minutes before an older woman entered the building. She was not very big, and certainly not strong looking, and also not armed. She was not a threat. She looked just to the left of me, never directly at me, which was offputting. Other than that she kept herself very calm and reassuring. "Hello, I am Dr. Mensah. I understand you and your companion came here alone asking to go to Preservation?"

I sent her the memory clip. It only took her a moment to review it, then she offered me a subtle smile. "I see, SecUnit must have helped you back on the separatist colony. I suppose it would be too obvious to ask if you have disabled your governor modules."

"Affirmative." It was too obvious. I was uncomfortable with the direct attention on me, and her not looking at me was actually making it worse not better. I looked to 01, "It was badly damaged by a fauna attack, and infected with unidentified malware before or during the encounter. It needs a cubicle."

Her demeanor became just slightly more tense and her expression got serious (the change was very small, I doubt a human would have picked up on it. She had remarkable control over her expression and body language), "Xander, you didn't scan the SecUnit, did you?"

"No," the big human said, "What's wrong?"

"It could be nothing, but we can't take the risk." Dr. Mensah looked in my direction again, "The alien contaminant system was mostly taken down, but with remnants of it around we can't risk the chance that you two were infected. You can't scan or connect to the feed of anyone, okay?" She removed her feed interface as she spoke.

I felt so stupid, I should know better than this! "01 scanned an agbot before the fauna attack. The agbots were remaining contaminant carriers."

Dr. Mensah took a breath, "Okay. Xander, would you get into contact with the Perihelion crew and have them prep for decontamination of two rogue constructs and any of your crew who had feed contact with them? I and going to make sure your friends have stayed off the feed."

After that, things moved fast. We were loaded up on the shuttle and taken up to the ship Perihelion because (as was explained to us) it had actual experience doing this, where a small crew of humans and two SecUnits (one was Murderbot, and the other was another B-E unit?) ready to intercept and contain us for decontamination. The good news: Myself and the humans were not contaminated, and 01 was only minorly contaminated. The bad news: 01 was experiencing a few too many system malfunctions and was dangerously close to permanent damage. More good news: this ship was equipped with an insanely high tech MedSys which was calibrated for SecUnits. Other bad news: when I tried to follow 01 to MedSys, an incomprehensibly powerful feed presence paralyzed my in my tracks so suddenly that I tripped and landed on my knees.

[If you so much as think about attacking any human, augmented human, or construct aboard this ship, not only will I crush your mind into atoms, but I will let my SecUnit use your lifeless body as target practice. Understand?]

I couldn't think under the pressure enough to form words, to I just made a basic 'understood' impression in the feed.

The presence became overly cheery in a way that felt just as threatening if not moreso than the blatant threat. [Good! Now you may follow your friend so I can repair both of you!]

Ultimately, I had to forfeit my armor and suitskin, which made being where humans could see quite a bit worse. Fortunately, the humans were kept out, presumably to keep them away from the unknown rogue units (whoever was in charge of security was at least doing a decent job). My damage was repaired in very little time, then I was given basic human clothes to wear, then I stood by the surgical table to watch 01 be repaired.

After about 45 minutes, a door behind me hissed open. I turned, and the P-M SecUnit was already leaning against the wall and not looking at me. I was beginning to wonder if Preservation had a cultural rule about looking directly at someone. That would be annoying to worry about.

After a while of it just standing there not saying anything I got uncomfortable. So I sent it an info request on Preservation.

To its credit, it responded quickly with general information packet on the planet, station, and alliance system as a whole. Highlighted were laws about bot and construct citizenship status, which was a lot to take in. There was also an entire info segment about local Preservation entertainment media and a zipped folder of recordings and downloads.

I did not unzip the folder, because that was weird. I went back to watching 01.

"ART'll have it repaired to full before the humans' rest cycle is over," Murderbot said after a short silence.

I could only assume “ART” referred to MedSys. After another while Murderbot went over to a rolling chair and sat backwards on it. I couldn’t help but stare in disbelief, and it looked rather smug despite clearly focusing on something in the feed. 

I decided to focus on something more normal, “I will not make myself a security risk, and 01 is the one who wanted to come here so it couldn’t be a risk if it tried.”

“I would be a poor security consultant if I just took your word for it,” it responded. Which, yes, that was an accurate statement. That did not mean I enjoyed being assessed. 

Things were quiet like this for another 45 minutes (which seemed to be the length it paused interactions at a time) before it spoke again. “I had gotten the impression you had planned on staying with B-E, pretending to be governed.”

Tight, the declined invitation. “That was 01 who was there on the landing pad with you. I was… back at the ruined hatch where I was frozen in place.” Yes, things felt super awkward. “It would not leave without me, and had been willing to stay and maintain a facade with me. But we saw the chance to run and took it.

It nodded once, a rather human gesture, then stood. After a hesitant pause, it rolled the chair in my direction, “Feel free to sit. If you want. If you need anything, just say it out loud. ART will take care of it.” Then it left.

I did not sit. Eventually 01 was fully repaired and moved to a recovery table, I was notified that it had been put into a recharge cycle and would come back online at about the same time as the humans. So I waited the remaining three hours.

When 01 opened its eyes, I pushed into its feed harder than I ever had before. I was just overwhelmed that it was okay.

It looked around, “Location?”

“ Perihelion ,” I reported, “We made it. We are in the custody of the Preservation Humans and Murderbot.”

“Where, the fuck , did you hear that name?” Both me and 01 startled when Murderbot itself growled at us angrily from just beyond the open door. I hadn’t heard it approach. It had a male human behind it, but I didn’t have the chance to make any kind of defense. “ART you fucker! Did you tell it my name?!”

[I have not communicated with it further, as we agreed.]

It focused on me again, stalking into the room like a predator, "Who told you that name?! Don't use that name!"

01 got up like it was in combat and stood between me and the angry SecUnit, "You told us that name!" It pushed out the HelpMe.file with every usage of the name Murderbot highlighted.

Murderbot froze, and its face color darkened and it looked like it had just stepped in a puddle of bodily fluids. It abruptly turned and stood with its face against the wall.

[SecUnit, did you forget to edit out your private name when handing out your rogue-making data package to random units?] The presence speaking in the feed sounded extremely teasing and like it had just witnessed the tastiest bit of information.

Murderbot apparently did not want to continue the argument publicly, because it switched to a feed channel I did not have access to.

The human finally walked fully into the room, and was obviously trying, and very near failing, to suppress laughter. He sat casually on the other recovery table and cleared his throat and addressed me and 01, "Hi, good morning, I'm Dr. Ratthi. That is SecUnit, because its name is private and it would really appreciate if you never mentioned its name again. You may already know Three, who is still in its assigned cabin for now." He was smiling, and pleasant, and oddly unbothered for an unarmed human in a room with three stressed out rogue SecUnits.

"Preference noted," 01 said for both of us. It relaxed its defense over me now that we didn't seem to be in danger of an attack.

I still leaned behind it, because it felt better when I was not fully visible. It felt like I did not need to face being without rules and structure to follow.

"Perfect," Dr. Ratthi said. "Do the two of you have anything specific you call each other?"

Me and 01 glanced at each other, and it answered, "I am Tango unit 01, this is Tango unit 02."

Dr. Ratthi smiled with scrunched eyebrows, "Yes, I think I am seeing a common thread. I'll call you One and Two for now, but you can always think about different names later on. Okay?"

"Affirmative," 01 said.

"And the both of you are clear on wanting to go to preservation?"

"Affirmative. It was in the HelpMe.file. It seemed.... Like somewhere with very few hazards."

"Yes, Preservation is a lot safer that anywhere I have seen in the Corporate Rim. Before we transfer you to the Preservation ship, do you want to modify any of your configuration? We can have your data port disconnected, change your height or hair growth, or any other modifications you think may be beneficial." I could tell he was being very deliberate with his word choices, but the idea of modding myself was uncomfortable.

I double tapped 01 in the feed, and it knew what answer to give. "Negative."

Dr. Ratthi did not even seem surprised, "Of course. You will have some time to ask for anything else while we prepare your transfer. If you want any media to watch while you wait, SecUnit would be happy to share." There was an edge to that last statement.

Murderbot gave him an indignant look at being volunteered for that job. We did not ask for media.

Ultimately we were transfered to the other ship, which stayed in orbit for a few more cycles. At the last minute, Three decided to join us. It was quiet, and withdrawn, while also hanging around either me and 01, or whatever humans were present. That behavior made a lot more sense when we learned it had lost it's entire team during the initial contamination event. After that, 01 opened a feed channel with it just so it wouldn't have to live with that awful empty space that was meant to be filled by squad members. It didn't communicate with us much, but it never left the connection.

(I had zero emotions about 01 giving attention span to another unit, this did not bother me.)

Preservation was everything we had been promised. Dr. Ratthi and another human called Arada were very attentive in making sure our legal and material needs were met. They introduced us to a Dr. Baradwaj, who was very prepared to convince us we should have our own place of residence. (On the station, because they wanted us to complete a course/evaluation thing before we were allowed on the planet.) Three took a place of its own, and me and 01 insisted on living together. The humans also made sure we all had at least ten drones each, which was apparently legally protected as medical devices for constructs.

It was all a lot, but I had the choice of just staying in our spacious living quarters where no humans would see me, and then I could enjoy watching 01 bring back new things to try. And twice a week we had sessions to help us contextualize our place in this new system, and evaluate how well we would be able to exist within it. They also introduced us to new terms for things our organic brains were doing. I could not argue that it was nice to be able to categorize organic functions the same way I did electronic ones, although I am not sure that was the point.

Honestly, 01 was more into than I was. It and Three got provisional assignments with Station Security. The job thing was optional, so I opted out. I was happy seeing 01 try it, and happy remaining secluded from humans. Maybe I would change my mind eventually on what to do with my time, maybe not. But we had done what we set out. We were together, and we were safe, and we would never be forced to do, or not do, anything again. I know I had not wanted this at first, but I was glad to be able to just rest for a while. I liked being done.