Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The ever-increasing number of times Max had found himself hurled into the middle of deep space was just another testament to the insanity that his life had become since meeting Steel. He'd blown up fifteen times (by Steel's count), fallen to his almost death at least five (also by Steel's count), had gone through more than enough near-death experiences for one person (by Max's count). Nothing, nothing had been normal about his life since the two met and Max wouldn't trade it for the world.

But right now, he wasn't terribly enthusiastic about it.

Max's eyes blinked open, his vision swimming from the dizzy sensation thrumming through his head. White dots splotched through the vast expanse of space and no sign of a spacecraft or planet told him they were screwed.

<< Thank stars, you're awake, >> Steel said.

Max groaned and flexed his foot a bit too far, pulling a tendon and sending even more spirals of spasming pain down his lower back and legs down his lower back and legs. He yelled, flailing his foot until the worst of it subsided. Even still, his body radiated pain, skin screaming in agony with hot sharp stabbing pangs from his sides and shoulders. 

That had hurt . Even more than usual. The Steel suit could tank a lot of damage but even that had its limits and Max and Steel were dancing that line with this one.

"Ugh, I feel like I got hit by a truck."

<< You got hit point blank with an energy weapon with the kinetic energy approximate to 14,000 volts. I'd be surprised if you felt anything less. >>

"You know, you're so go*da*n lucky you don't have pain sensors."

<< I know. :) >>

He felt no urge to move and Steel didn't prompt him to, to, so Max just floated. No matter how many times it happened, Max was always shocked by the weightlessness and indefiniteness of space. Theoretically, he could float here forever, never moving, always stagnant until the universe exploded or something else poetic like that. Steel often reminded him that wasn't technically true because eventually the Steel Suit would run out of oxygen and Max would die. Technically, technically, he would probably starve to death first. 

Max Steel, their working superhero name (yes it’s cringy but he came up with it at fifteen, give him a break), had been called in to handle a rogue ultralink, which had become kinda routine since they’d defeated the invasion force like three years ago? There weren’t many stragglers left but even one ultralink was usually enough to cause problems. This case was even worse because this ultralink had somehow managed to bond to a very powerful and very dangerous energy weapon from an old star ship; the energy weapon that had hit Max straight in the face.

Venn Gahn had shown up to help. He’d made a portal and after that, Max’s mind started to get fuzzy on the details. Something must have happened, they must have fallen through the portal and ended up in some remote location in the galaxy. It would be typical of their luck.

Maybe a minute passed, or maybe it was ten before Max asked, "So, how bad is it?"

<< Well, it could be worse. We could be dead. >>

"How better is it than being dead?"

<< The Steel suit has taken considerable damage, but I’m pretty I can fix it give or take a couple days. The bigger issue is... I have no idea where we are now. >>

Max sighed and the sigh turned into a groan. He said, "Wonderful. Don't you have like a built-in GPS or a homing system? I swore you did."

<< It’s called a navigation system and yeah normally I do, but it's on the fritz, alright? You aren't the only one who got hurt, you know. >>

"Sorry, I'm not- I'm not trying to blame you… can you contact Forge?”

<< I’ve been trying, that’s what I was going for the last three hours you were out. All my lines are coming up dead, like someone severed them. I can’t reach NTek or anyone really. >>

“What… What do we do now?”

Steel went quiet, which was never a good sign. That Steel was out of ideas, even the bad ones, was... alarming. Max wasn't very smart and he definitely wasn't smarter than an ultralink AI with processing speeds faster than anything NTek has ever made. If Steel didn't have any ideas…

<< There's something we can try. >>

"Yeah?" 

<< I can probably send out a distress call. It's unlikely that anyone will receive it because we're in the middle of deep space, but it's better than doing nothing. >>

Max tried to feel for their thrusters, his shoulders aching with the motion. But his back was strangely empty and it took a few bleary blinks before he realized they were in base mode. When had that happened?

<< It’s called being shot by a massive laser beam. >>

Biting his lip, he tried pushing power towards their center, towards Steel. Two years ago, Max would have given a verbal command to switch modes, but the closer their link got, it had started feeling pointless and Max was tired. Steel knew what to do, he just needed to provide the power. He felt Steel push him away and biting his lip, he pushed harder. His body shuddered under the strain, but he could almost feel-

<< Maybe don't do that. >>

"Why-," he took a breath, "why is this so hard?"

<< Because Max, contrary to popular belief, you are not a well of in-exhaustable power, though you come close, I'll admit that. You're tired; I'm using most of your Turbo reserves right now to keep the suit and your body stable and provide oxygen. You need to rest. >>

"So we really are fricked?"

<< Potentially. >>

Max closed his eyes and rubbed his face. He could feel a panic building in his chest. This wasn't the way he wanted to die and he'd had a lot of time to consider the options; too much his mother would say. 

Superhero work was dangerous, there was always the possibility of fatality and Max liked to believe he handled that idea much better than most teens. If he had to die young, Max wanted to die fighting; not this. Not slowly dying in the middle of freaking nowhere because an ultralink warrior got in a lucky shot. 

He couldn't die here, his mother would kill him.

Max swore and struggled again with the suit, the effort causing him to jerk his body. He wrenched his muscles, sending hot sparks of pain all about his lower back and abdomen, and his legs quivered.

<< Max! Stop! You're hurting yourself! >>

He was not going to die here. They were not going to die here. 

<< Holy crap your heart’s- hey Max, buddy. It's okay. We're going to be fine. >>

“I can't just- sit here!”

<< You aren't sitting. >>

“F**k off!”

<< Language. >>

Max let out a string of curses and the suit groaned under the strain.

<< Okay okay, not helping, I get it. Look, just. Please stop, okay? I'll figure something else out, just please stop. >>

Max struggled, straining, reaching for energy to even kick his legs, but his body rebelled against his mind and his muscles caved. He hated feeling useless; he wanted to do something, anything.

Steel sensed it. The ultralink bond was complicated and often weird, even more so in their case. Their minds were connected, making secrets hard to keep and talking far more private, though Max usually answered Steel aloud. Made him feel more sane, more grounded.

In half a second, Steel had displayed a diagnostic up on Max's helmet visor. It was a large array of numbers and calculations whizzing through his vision, blurring light that made him blink rapidly. The smudges eventually formed into words that he could read and when he did, he almost laughed. 

<< I've been working on this for a while, but it feels off, especially for an audience of humans. You're a human–sorta–so I figure you could give me a second opinion? >>

“Is this a Nobel Prize speech?”

<< I would hope that's clear. >>

“Since when did you win a Nobel prize?”

<< It's called preparing for the future. Duh. C’mon you're so desperate to do something, this is something. While you're marveling about how wonderful my writing is, I'll keep searching for a satellite signal, or literally any sign of life… it'll be okay Max. I'm not gonna let you die. >>

Max attempted to slow his breathing and started reading. The speech was typical of Steel; self aggrandizing with lots of long winded hyperboles and remarks about his nature of a superior being of advanced technology and intellect with a few corny puns mixed in for good measure and blank spots where his apparent accomplishments were supposed to go.

Nevermind that both of them had already saved the world, twice; clearly he needed a Nobel prize too. Max shook his head, smiling and definitely not thinking about what would happen to Steel when Max eventually died, which might be soon. So. 

<< You haven’t said anything. Do you like it? >>

“It’s very you.”

<< Meanie. >>

Max laughed in spite of the situation and replied, “Maybe you could cut back a bit on the patting of the back but yeah, it's good. Let’s hope you get the chance to use it.”

They both went quiet again and another spasming wave of pain washed over Max. He groaned, curling in on himself, clutching his arms. Steel swore and said << Sorry, I’ve been dulling your nervous system but… there’s only so much energy to spare right now. >>

“I’m fine,” Max managed to say through gritted teeth, “I’m a grown man, I can deal with this.”

<< You are nineteen. >>

“Grown. Adult. F**k this hurts.”

<< I could put you back to sleep? >>

“No!” Max cried, his breath hitching, making the word come out like a hoarse groan, “No, I… I don’t want to sleep. I’m not sure if-”

If I’ll wake back up , Max almost said. But he didn’t. Steel could read his mind so there was no point really in saying it out loud.

☆☆☆

The next hour passed by quietly. Steel was busy and Max was in no mood to talk so he read Steel’s speech five times before putting it aside and staring into nothingness. Good practice for the inevitability of death, he’d heard. Forge would probably say that Max was overreacting, but Forge wasn’t the guy getting shot into space all the time.

Max wondered if Forge would miss yelling at him not to do that, touch that, or go in there. Maybe he wouldn’t. He couldn’t tell sometimes.

<< Stop moping, I have good news. >>

“You do?” Max felt his heart lift briefly.

<< Well, maybe good isn’t the best word. Better news at least, I know why my internal navigation system is down and why we can’t reach NTek. >>

“Can you fit it?”

<< I know why its broken. :D >>

Max sighed and said, “I guess that’s something at least.”

<< See that’s the positivity we need right now! Okay so uh, we’re in another dimension- >>

“We're what ?!”

<< Dude, you don’t need to yell, I’m literally in your brain. >>

“Sorry, I just- you need to elaborate.”

<< I am thinking that when Venn Gahn opened that portal, to try and shield us from the blast, something must have gone wrong and fritzed out his weapon and well… sucked us here, along with the blast. >>

“Oh. Yay.”

<< Yeah. But hey, at least we know now right? >>

Max couldn’t muster a response. His mind was reeling from the idea. A different dimension. Did earth still exist? Did anything exist? Was this just a void of nothingness? Were they really just going to float around until they both died? Or were there other people in this universe and if there were, would they be friendly, willing to give an ultralink and his weird sort-of human pal a ride?

They were lucky because it turns out they didn’t have to wait long for an answer because about fifty meters away, a massive ship appeared.

Chapter Text

We were coming back from another successful espionage mission when ART identified a person floating alone in the middle of f**king nowhere space and of course our crew insisted we help. 

At first we'd have no idea what it was, just a weak ping that ART’s processors barely caught. It could have been a satellite, or maybe a broken bot someone had tossed out into the vacuum of space instead of recycling (that theory made ART’s crew cover their mouths and I was already preparing for the order to turn around to rescue whatever pet bot had been dumped into the void) when ART identified its origin. 

“The ping seems to have come from an un-ID’d individual 51.72 meters away. It appears to be a distress call.”

“It’s a person?!” Iris gasped and looked out the main hull’s windows trying to spot the “un-ID’d individual” which was a fancy way of saying “who the f**k knows who”. That phrase “un-ID’d” made my threat assessment module nervous. I’d never heard of a human (except maybe children) that didn’t have an ID; it meant they weren’t attached to the feed and why the hell weren’t they attached to the feed?

I peeked at the Potential Hostile (as I’ve delegated it at the moment) with ART’s exterior cameras and saw it: a white-ish, human-shaped dot from this distance.

“ART, is there any chance that they could be alive?”

“Statistically, it's unlikely that anyone human–or construct–could survive the conditions of space without an EVAC suit but it could, theoretically, be wearing a device similar to it in nature.”

“You don't know?” I asked. 

“It has been blocking my attempts to scan its components. It is at least partially organic.”

I didn't like that. I decided to switch the designation from Potentially Hostile to Hostile. I really didn't like that it could shield itself from ART.

I messaged it privately, << How can it shield itself from you? Shouldn't that be possible. >> 

It squirmed in the feed and said << Yes, it should be impossible. It is not comforting knowledge. >>

 Seth glanced at me, and I shook my head, although it really didn't matter. I could already tell by half the crew's body language that we'd be picking it up anyway. Ratthi, who was joining our anti-corporate missions more regularly, was staring intently at the blob in the distance with those eyes. Once again, the only sensible people in the room were me and Tarik.

“Peri, can you connect us to a feed with this… unidentified individual?”

 “I will attempt.”

Two seconds lapsed which is a long time for bots but not very long for a human which I suspect was at least part of what was floating out there. 

“Feed connected.”

“Hail, I am Seth, the captain of this ship, Perihelion. Who are you?”

“Steel. Me and my human were unfortunately stranded after sustaining heavy injuries. I am requesting assistance.”

“ Your human? Are you a-”

“Artificial intelligence,” it added quickly. 

I couldn't help myself and I spat, “Why are you deflecting our scanners?”

There was a pause of 1.25 seconds, which now felt suspicious since we were dealing with an AI. It was either very poorly made or hiding something. 

“I have protocol to subconsciously hide myself from scanning devices. I didn't realize I was shielding myself.”

It must have dropped its shields because I felt a lot of ART'S attention drifting towards the strange new AI.

“May I speak with your human?”

“Yes, just- gimme a sec.”

Tarik shifted in his feet and cast a quick glance at me through my drones. He was unhappy about this as I was. 

“Hello?,” a voice came crackling through the feed. It was hoarse and strained from heavy breathing.

“This is Seth, the captain of the Perihelion. We received your distress call? Who are you?”

“Maxwell McGrath, I'm from… earth?”

Ratthi's eyebrows shot up and so did Seth's. I'd never heard the name before (SecUnits are not built with history in mind) so ART filled me in that it was archaic name for the original home planet of humanity. A planet that almost no one lived on anymore, if anyone still did.

“You say that hesitantly,” Seth said slowly.

“My… head hurts. Can you… help us?”

Seth furrowed his brow and asked, “Are there more of you? Or are you referring to your AI assistant?”

‘Max’ laughed and said, “My assistant? He'd like to think of me as his. No, it's just us. At least, I think so.”

ART got Seth's attention and it put Max on hold. It sent the crew an updated feed message, careful to backburn Max. “My scanners have indicated that the individual is indeed an organic lifeform I've confirmed as human.”

“That's good, right?” Iris said.

“That took you a while,” I added. 

“It appears to be encased in a type of environmental suit with an integrated AI along with thrusters for space travel. This is all I can identify. It's systems are unusual and it is still blocking me from further scanning.”

“So it's still lying?” Tarik asked, face sour. 

 “It is not being entirely truthful. One could suppose that extends towards the human's intentions.”

“Why do you think they called it ‘he?’” Matteo asked. 

(I'd chalked that up to human projection; a lot of humans will anthropomorphize everything and anything. I'd seen it a lot, both on Preservation and ART's crew. While none of its crew tried to gender ART (lucky it), I had seen Martyn refer to a flora as a “handsome gentleman” so I wouldn't put it past this Max to do the same thing with their AI.) (Have I mentioned how annoying humans can be sometimes?)

“Captain Seth, there is a high possibility for risk and harmful intent if we attempt contact,” I said. I did not want that AI thing and ‘Max who might be from Earth’ on board near my humans.

Seth folded his arms with one of those I-know-what's-practical-but-I'm-not-doing-that face that I'd become more familiar with ever since meeting Preservation Aux. It's something I love about my and ART's humans (really I do) but it usually makes my job harder than it needs to be. Which is why I was surprised when he finally said, “We will do whatever SecUnit thinks is wise.”

I mean, I probably shouldn't be shocked that Seth was asking its security consultant’s opinion on an unknowably, unidentified maybe-Hostile that just happened to be floating in the middle of nowhere asking for help. This whole situation sounded like the plot of a Sanctuary Moon episode. Instinctually, I wanted to say no. This whole situation reeked of suspicion and I wasn't excited at putting the crew (or ART) at risk. I'd been trying to figure out the most polite and logically sounding refusal I could come up with when the Hostile sent another message.

“I know you don't trust us. I don't blame you, I wouldn't trust us. But please… help us. Help him. I don't know where we are and he is counting on me… Please , he'll die.”

My performance reliability dropped by 3% (which was stupid) and the rest of the crew didn't seem better. Seth was pursing his lips and Iris was staring into one of my drones with that face. Martyn had a hand on her shoulder, Matteo quietly observing from the back, not saying anything. Ratthi hung his head. F**k.

Art messaged me privately in our feed, <<You do not have to do this.>>

<<And have everyone hold it against me?>> I was already playing out all the (not) fun social consequences if I did say no.

<<I would not hold it against you. Nor do I believe my crew. You know better of Ratthi than I, would he hold it against you?>>

I wanted to say something but I was having an emotion.

<< You are part of my crew SecUnit. I will protect you, even from my humans. >>

I knew what I wanted to say. Hell no we aren't letting that on ART. I could have said it, I should have said it but my organics were being weird and my throat felt heavy.

Please. He'll die.

I'd said almost the same words only a corporation-rim standard year ago in TranRollinHyfa, begging them to open those stupid gates to save Mensah. Please, they will kill her. Hell, this is exactly the reason why I hated humans doing their own security. F**king emotions.

Reluctantly, I said, “Fine.”

Ratthi beamed at me as if it wasn't a foregone conclusion that I'd end up caving, even if it wasn’t because of him this time.

☆☆☆

I'd volunteered to go grab them for two reasons. One: I didn't want to risk any of the humans in the off chance this thing is actually some alien contaminated monster. It was best to limit the crew's interactions with them until we got a better understanding of the situation (and why its AI felt the need to lie and why this human didn't have an ID). Two: I wanted to try and hack it. Yes I know that sounds bad but it was already lying to us. So.

Dressed in one of our evac suits, I exited ART's hull, tethered by a thick metal cord, pushing myself off from the hull. We had gotten as close as we could to the human without accidentally putting them at risk so it wasn't long before I got a better visual of what I was dealing with. The human was, in fact, wearing a suit but personally I'd call it armor. It was made of white plates interlocked with a strange black synthetic leather(?). Most striking however, was the blue pulse emanating from its sides, hands, and faceplate. In spite of myself, I had to admit that it looked cool. Like something out of Timestream Defenders Orion. As I drifted closer, the AI (I think it called itself Steel?) pinged me. 

<< Query: Origin. Perihelion? >>

<< Affirmative. >>

<< Proceed. >>

I grabbed hold of one of its arms and felt the human clamp under my touch before relaxing. It looked at me, unreadable through its face plate and I felt a spike of jealousy. I still miss my armor sometimes. << Query: Status of owner. >>

Steel, using my feed, spat out, << He's awake, just out of it; minimal injuries. And he's not my owner. >>

The human let me pull it along as we made our way back to the airlock, saying nothing. If he hadn't flinched at my touch, he could have been a corpse. 

<< Are you sure he's alright? >>

<< I'm fine, I'm just… tired. >> Max said and I flinched. He shouldn't be in this feed and I didn't like that he'd been listening to me earlier. If he noticed, he didn't say anything and I was quick to pull us back into the air lock.

As the door behind us closed, I found myself catching the limp body as ART’s gravity simulators took effect. I lowered his body down onto the floor, letting him sit against the wall. His breathing was shallow and I made a mental note to have ART run some diagnostics. Taking off the EVAC suit, I got a better look at his armor and noticed the thin cracks across his left shoulder and abdomen area. A bright blue emblem glowed on its chest plate and fine yea, I'll admit I was still staring when Max said in a trailing voice, “Thank you for saving us.”

I snapped my eyes away and mumbled, “It's fine.”

I got the EVAC suit up and turned around. Max had slumped even farther against the wall and instinctively, I tried to reach for a MedSys that wasn't there. Ugh. Being rogue has its downsides. 

“Can you stand?”

Max didn't respond and my threat assessment module ticked up 2%.

The AI answered for him, “He fell asleep.”

Great, now I had to haul the human all the way to Medbay. Fine sure, f**king fantastic.

I grabbed an arm, slinging it around my shoulder, hauling him up against my side. He was a lot lighter than I was expecting. Not as light as Ratthi but lighter than you'd think with the armor he was wearing.

Seth and Ratthi both pinged me about the stranger I was dragging in and I told them I was taking him to Medbay. 

<< ART, I'm taking the Hostile to Medbay. >> 

<< You have already designated them as a Hostile? That seems premature. >>

I could tell ART was just being pissy, because it held the same reserves I did. 

<< Fine, Potentially Hostile. There. >>

When we got to Medbay, the whole crew had clustered together inside. Ugh, of course they did. 

<< ART. >>

<< Already on it. >>

Before I could say anything about how stupid they were all being, (namely Martyn, Iris, and Ratthi), ART was already announcing, << It's advisable if all the crew left, barring the captain and Tarik, for security reasons. >>

“C’mon Peri!” Iris said. 

“The unknown human is in need of medical assistance that would be hampered by unnecessary additional presence. Besides, they are currently unconscious.”

Slowly, the humans started trickling out and I breathed a sigh of relief. ART was incredible sometimes (don't ever tell it I said that). I laid him down on the operating table. 

“In order to perform diagnostics, it would be best for the patient to remove its armor.”

The AI stayed silent. That spiked my threat assessment by 5% because what the hell?

“It is advisable for your human to receive medical assistance after prolonged exposure to space-”

“I- he can't take it off.”

“Elaborate.”

Steel huffed and said, “He can't take it off okay? Look, Max is fine. Banged up? Yes, but we've been worse. I- I am already taking care of his physical injuries, and if you try and take the suit off now, he could die. He just needs rest- we both just need rest.”

ART pushed, “My Medbay is perfectly capable of handling the human's health.”

“The answer is no.”

“Shouldn't your human be the one to make such a decision?”

“Max isn't awake right now.  He trusts my judgement and my judgment says we're fine.”

“Impressive,” ART began, “You must be a more advanced AI than my initial scans indicate if you are able to provide complimentary Medbay services at a moment's notice.”

“Well, I'm great at surprising people.”

“Steel,” Seth said, “We are only trying to help. Peri is very skilled in treating all manner of wounds and diseases, I'm certain-”

“I'm certain Peri is, but that's not the point. You can't remove the suit, it's part of… him.”

I did not know what to say to that and neither did ART nor anyone else except for Tarik apparently. He scrunched his nose and adjusted his gun, saying, “Are you trying to say it's an augmentation?”

“...Sure, yeah that works.”

<< Can I still change my mind ART? >>

<< You might not need to. This behavior is suspicious and concerning and Seth will not allow for further interaction until both the human and the AI have been properly scanned- >>

“I still want him under observation,” Seth sighed, “Peri, can you set up a spare bed in the Medbay to observe them through the rest cycle?”

“Yes.”

Seth shot me a glance through one of my drones and I sighed, nodding my head. I shot him a quick message, << I will stay and monitor them. >>

“Is that acceptable, Steel?”

“...Yes.” 

“Good, we will continue this discussion in a few hours.”

I didn’t like this, I really didn’t. It was already bad enough that this strange AI armor/suit thing was able to spoof ART’s scans AND continued to lie about it. And now it was refusing medical scans for its human. My risk assessment module was screeching to spit this thing back out into space and book it through a wormhole; get far enough away from here as physically possible. But two things stopped me; 1) it would make Ratthi have one of those sad, pathetic faces I hated seeing and 2) Please they will kill her. 

I hated emotions. I really wish the company was right in insisting we didn’t have any.

Chapter Text

Max woke up in what looked like a hospital room, which didn’t surprise him nearly as much as it should have. That he didn’t immediately recognize which hospital room was more of the shocker. He had been hoping to wake up in NTek’s medical suite, the whole terrible dream of inter-dimensional travel just a fog he’d slowly forget. That pleasant idea was ruined abruptly by an unfamiliar voice over the ship’s intercom.

“The patient has regained consciousness."

“Where…?”

“You are on board Perihelion, located in Medbay for overnight observation.”

<< Steel? >> Max reached out internally.

<< Morning, buddy. Or afternoon, you slept forever. >>

<< Where are we? >>

<< The ship we were talking to yesterday. >>

Oh right, the memories were flooding back as Max sat up and he spotted the person who'd pulled them onto the ship. They–Steel helpfully informed Max that they were actually it– was sitting on a chair, staring into the wall. 

“Hello,” Max said in its direction. It ignored him.  

“How are you feeling?” said the voice from the intercom. 

“A bit sore, but I'm okay. Thank you.”

“You are welcome,” the voice sounded pleased. The person huddled in the corner huffed. Max tried sitting up further, but found that his head was spinning and as he brought his hands up to his forehead, Max realized he was still wearing his helmet. 

<< Steel, why is my helmet still on? And why are you still in the Suit? >>

<< Ask to use the restroom. We need to talk privately. >>

Max smirked, thinking << Isn’t that what we’re doing right now? >>

<< Max, I’m being serious. We’re in danger. >>

That got his attention and taking a deep breath, he pulled himself up into a sitting position. Another glance at the person in the corner who’d still refused to say anything to him told Max he’d have better luck asking the disembodied voice for directions. 

“Uh, do you have a bathroom I could use?”

The person in the corner made a disgusted noise, which okay a*shole, that’s unnecessary. Max couldn’t remember doing anything to piss it off so he wasn’t sure where the hell this was coming from. Whatever, fine. 

At least the voice was nicer, helpfully pointing out the right direction to a small cubicle-type room tucked inside its medical suite, because it was “still not advisable for the patient to leave the Medbay”. Max ended up hobbling across the room, under weak legs and bracing himself against the door, before opening and shutting it behind him. G*d, he still hurt, but it was leagues better than… yesterday? Today? 

Max looked at them through the mirror and grimaced at the cracks in the Steel suit running down his shoulders; cracks that Max could tell when he tried moving his shoulder, weren’t superficial.

“Okay, now that you’ve dragged me all the way here, what kind of da-”

<< Stop talking. They’re still listening. >>

<< Who’s listening? >>

<< The ship’s MI and its SecUnit. >>

<< What’s a SecUnit? >>

<< Long story, I’ll tell you later. First, I need you to read this. >>

Steel sent a document that flashed across Max’s faceplate so bright, he flinched, squeezing his eyes before slowly opening them, and letting them adjust. It looked like one of the governmenty-official looking papers that Forge had to fill out whenever Max did something he deemed “irresponsible”. Its size made Max grimace and dread reading the whole thing, especially when Steel had obviously already read it and could just summarize-

<< Just read the title, please? >>

Max rolled his eyes and started at the top. Oh. 

Approved Methods for Alien Contamination Disposal and Other Regulations.

<< Yeah, I think we need to get off this ship. >> Steel said.

Max could feel his breathing pick up, running the words over and over through his head, hoping he read that wrong. << Hold on, where did you get this? >>

<< I asked Perihelion for access to some general information packets when you were asleep and decided to get some homework in and clearly I was right to. >>

<< Did you read it all the way through, maybe it doesn’t… mean what we think it means? >>

<< Of course I read it all the way through. I read it five times and it does mean what we think it means. It means that alien remnants (alive or dead or never sentient in the first place) must be surrendered to a registered polity or destroyed with extreme prejudice , I don’t think its possible to read this any other way. >>

Max tapped the edge of the sink with his thumbs and asked << Do they know? >>

<< No. At least, I don’t think they do. I haven’t let them scan you and I damn sure well haven’t let them scan me . >>

Well, at least there’s one positive to this situation. The next thought was immediate, << But exactly where would we go? You said this was ‘general information’ not their specific policies. Doesn’t that imply this is standard? That everywhere we try to go in this universe, they’re going to try and kill us? >>

Steel didn’t say anything, which was great, just great. << Can you remove my helmet so I can wash my face? >>

<< Oh, right. Sorry. >>

The helmet dissolved and Max realized that his left eye was bruised and a bit swollen, which explained the headache. Turning the faucet on, the splashed his face with a bit of water, trying to keep the panic out of his face. It had been a long time since Max had felt cornered like this, hunted. He really didn’t miss the sensation. He started << They don’t seem like the type to murder strangers. They helped us. If they wanted us dead- >>

<< They only helped us because they didn’t know what we were. I don’t want to stick around to see if they’re the “type”, especially when one of them is calling itself Murderbot in its internal monologue- >>

Max frowned and asked << And how exactly do you know that? >>

Steel dropped their connection and retreated, suddenly very interested in polishing his Nobel Prize speech. 

<< STEEL. >>

<< Look, I was just peaking. And it started it! It’s been trying to hack my systems since it brought us into Medbay, the a*shole. >>

<< We have got to work on your privacy, dude. You can’t just rifle through other people’s minds, especially after it just saved us. >>

<< Did I mention it calls itself Murderbot? >>

<< As if you wouldn’t name yourself UltralinkSlayer. >>

<< I thought you said you wouldn’t use my gamertag against me. >:’[ >>

Max laughed; it felt good despite their situation. This was fine. They’d survived worse. It was going to be fine. Just keep saying that until it’s true . Max said, << Okay. So what are you thinking? Rocket mode? >>

Steel paused and said << That’s problem number 2. The Steel Suit is way more damaged than I thought it was. We can’t switch modes right now, I can’t even unlink from the Suit it’s that bad. >>

Crap. Crap crap crap–screw it– f*ck f*ck f*ck. 

<< HEY hey. I’m pretty sure I can still fix it but it's probably going to take longer than I thought so here’s the plan. Right now, they think that you're an augmented human and I'm your AI assistant; so let's just run with that. We ride this ship to the nearest port (which by then, I’ll probably have fixed the problem) and then from there we… will figure it out. >>

<< Glad to know one of us is on top of things at least… We should probably finish this up before the ship thinks I have diarrhea. Anything else I should know? >>

<< Oh yea. The whole crew of Perihelion is right outside the door. >>

<< Goodie. >>

☆☆☆

I didn’t envy the hostile because the minute it stepped out of the restroom, he was surrounded by a wall of humans. He’d taken off his helmet and now I could see his pale face and dark hair. He looked to be about Iris’ age, but I’m still terrible at guessing human ages so he could easily be closer to Ratthi. Speaking of Rhatti, he was the first to speak.

“Hello! My name is Ratthi, how are you feeling?”

“Better?” Max said, shoulders tight. He probably didn’t like crowds as much as I didn’t. I should probably tell them to back off a bit. I didn’t. 

“I’m Iris! Welcome aboard Perihelion! Can we get you anything or-”

“What were you doing out there? Matteo asked, “Were you jettisoned off a ship or-”

“You said you were from Earth earlier-” Turin began before Seth intervened, saying, “Okay everyone back off from Max. He just woke up, give him a moment to breathe. Everyone reports to the Lounge while I speak with him for a moment. I’m sure you’ll get a chance to introduce yourselves later. Tarik and SecUnit can stay.”

I wanted to ask if I could leave too, but I still didn’t feel like leaving my humans alone in a room with a Potential Hostile. So instead, through my drones, I put the feed on a separate tab before pressing play on episode 177 of Sanctuary Moon. 

Seth pulled out a chair and offered Max a seat which he took, though he kept shooting nervous glances at Tarik and I, probably because he could see the gun hanging at Tarik’s side and I was a dangerous SecUnit. I had mixed feelings about Tarik keeping his weapon on him like that because humans with weapons often ended poorly, but I have been coming to trust Tarik, as much as I can trust a human with their own weaponry. 

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay. Thank you again for helping us.”

“Of course, we were happy to assist.”

I mean I wasn't, but sure. 

Seth pointed at his own face and said, “I'm sure Peri can do something for your eye, if you would like.”

“I'll be fine,” he said quickly. Whatever conversation had been happening in the restroom had obviously set him on edge, and it was a conversation ART, just happening on some private feed channel that I couldn't f*cking hack . This was definitely not getting to me, not at all. 

“I'd like to ask you a few questions, if I may?” Seth began.

“Sure.”

“How did you end up in the middle of space, injured?”

Max took a breath and rubbed the back of his neck absently and after 3.2 seconds said, “I was in a fight with someone, and they must have hit me hard because I passed out and woke up lost.”

“You don't remember how you got out there?”

“Not really.” 

So I didn't believe that sh*t for a millisecond because you don't just hit your head and end up in the vacuum of space. It’s practically impossible to even get spaced in the first place because of how airlocks were designed and also, I don’t know, the fact that a SecUnit would never allow something like that to happen, ever. 

<< It is theoretically possible for a scenario to occur as he has described. I shouldn’t have to tell you that not everyone contracts SecUnits. >>

<< Yeah, but they still have the bare minimum safety features that even the Company isn’t cheap enough to skimp out on. Seriously ART, you actually believe that sh*t? >>

<< No. I am merely stating it is theoretically possible. >>

Seth was asking more idle questions now, like how old Max was, when was the last time he’d eaten, if there was anyone they could contact blah blah blah. I sorta stopped listening, backburning the conversation with some key words so I could focus on my show instead of small talk, which is still the worst thing humanity has invented. So I was a little jolted when I suddenly heard Seth ask, “You said you were fighting someone, were they trying to hurt you or hurt other people?”

Max said, “Yeah, yeah you could say that.”

“Are they still hurting people?”

“I don’t know, we-I hadn’t contained them yet. F*ck, I don’t know if they slipped through with us…”

“Is there still a current security threat?” I asked, which startled the human who’d forgotten I was there. His AI responded, saying, “It’s unlikely. Titaneav couldn’t hide from me.”

“Cocky much?”

“No, I’m merely stating a fact. Titaneav is a sneaky little sh*t but I know what I’m looking for and I just had an opportunity recently to familiarize myself with their code address. They aren’t in within 100 kilometers from our current location, maybe even further away, if they even ended up here, which is again, unlikely because Titaneav is surprisingly competent for an ultralink.”

“Wow, that must have been hard for you to say,” Max said.

“I’m glad you appreciate my sacrifice,” said Steel.

ART shifted in our feed, bristling at “ultralink” << That’s not a word. >>

<< You mean to say it's not a word you know, >> I corrected, mildly amused. It wasn't often that ART didn't know something and when it didn't, it never admitted it.

<< It’s not a word. >>

“What my friend–” Max grit his teeth, “–assistant– is trying to say is that we know what to look for and if Steel notices them near us, you’ll be the first to know… I know it’s a lot to ask and you don’t know us, but I don’t think I can get to a port by myself right now–”

“You are asking to travel with us for a time?” Seth asked.

“I don’t have any money right now, but I can do something to–”

Seth raised a hand and looked into one of my drone's cameras and asked, << Well? >>

<< It’s just about as crazy and dangerous as most of the sh*t we already do. But I want either me(ugh) or Tarik keeping an eye on them at all times. >>

I turned one of my drones to look squarely at Max’s face and said outloud, “I am this ship’s security consultant, you should direct any concerns of safety to me,” and I said through my feed, << If you do anything to endanger my humans, I will kill your a*s. >>

The AI sent a thumbs up sigil.

☆☆☆

562.3 Kilometers away

Titaneav-X0224 came online surrounded by two humans in sterilized clothing that huddled over them speaking in hushed tones with guilty-looking faces. One poked it with a surgical tool in one of their elastic platings as it sat in a cushioned transport box. Titaneav decided they hated these humans and they would be the first to die. 

“It’s definitely alien,” one of them–their ID said they were named Evon– said, “this technology doesn’t even exist in theory. It’s remnant. We need to report it.”

“We don’t know that. Just because we’ve never seen this before doesn’t mean it's remnant. Our scans indicate that it doesn’t match with any documented contamination,” Venshwi said.

Titaneav reviewed its current situation. It was in a lab of some sort, if the fluorescent lighting and sterile air was any indication. Titaneav could not see the light or feel the air in a traditional sense–not without a host–but their sensors were designed to analyze environments and potential weapons. They quietly reached out and began searching.

Evon threw her hands up in the air, saying, “It didn’t match anything in our scans. This thing–whatever it is–shouldn’t exist. Its construction is unlike anything I’ve–or anyone– has ever seen. Don’t try and tell me that doesn’t scare you.”

Titaneav was sparse for options. They did not like linking with organics if they had better options so they had mostly ignored the two bickering idiots, sending out hidden signals, trying to ping anything with potential. That was the problem with most newer models of ultralinks; they linked to anything that came their way and were undiscerning as racoons in a trashbin. Titaneav was of older stock, back when Makino had been feared and their empire mighty. 

“I’m not saying it doesn’t! I’m just saying we shouldn’t be too hasty. The minute we mention this to upper management, they’re going to comb that mine top to bottom and we will lose everything we’ve worked on,” xe paused, running xis hands across xis face, “everything Evon. It would set our indenture back years–decades even–I’m not willing to risk that. You might but I’m not. I have family to think about!”

The computer didn’t appeal to them, it was a rudimentary thing with several layers of permissions and spyware that monitored every action and command. Titaneav could theoretically cover its tracks well enough, but it was still more risky than it liked and offered nothing practical in terms of offense if they should be discovered.

Evon took a sharp breath and looked away. Venshwi blinked and stuttered, “I’m-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I know Zoren was…”

The laser machine in the back corner had more promising offensive capabilities but lacked the stealth for a proper infiltration. If Titaneav chose it, they would have to secure the facility immediately and fortify it as their base. There would be no room for leeway, no sinking into the cracks to grab a stronger hold.

“I know what this could mean. I know we could lose our work, but do we really want to play with this? Risk our lives—other people's lives—in the hopes we're wrong, that this isn’t something dangerous, that this just happens to be some weird prototype that we don’t understand and that everything will be okay if we put it back in a box?”

There. Titaneav felt it walk past the hallway adjacent to the laboratory and preened in delight. It was partially organic—something they could live with—with energy weapons built in its arms and a strong connection to the native security system of the facility. Yes, it was perfect.

“I can’t stay here, Evon. I can’t live like this much longer. If pretending we didn’t find this is the price I pay to see my family again, yes I am willing to take that risk. And if I have to fight against you to take that risk, then I will.”

Neither spoke, but almost as soon as it began, the box lid was closed again, leaving Titaneav alone.

☆☆☆

It was patrolling the corridors during yet another rest cycle when it heard something from the storage room. It thought it was the soft, pitiful whirring of a drone that was flying straight into a wall or some other surface. Panicked, it checked its own drones but all of them were accounted for. It flagged the abnormality to HubSys before stepping inside the room. The sound was coming from a crate that had been shoved deep in the back, cloistered around other boxes full of junk it didn’t bother to think about. 

The whirring was intermittent and oddly persistent. Risk assessment was raising a percentage and it found itself once again pinging HubSys that once again ignored its confusion. It tried one more time before receiving a shock from the governor module. This was not important to HubSys; accidentally activated drones did not count as security threats requiring backup or supervision. It would have to deal with it itself. 

HybSys was likely right. It had known of similar situations where human clients would play pranks on their contracted SecUnits to amuse themselves. 

It opened the lid.

The thing sprang at its face, latching on feverishly with biting metal grabbers, needles gripping into its organic skin. It sent distress signals to HubSys that were smoothly deleted before they left its own systems. It sent ping after ping, to the other secunits, to HubSys, to the construct maintenance worker that was probably still sleeping. Each time, the pings winked out as the thing invaded its mind, some sort of malicious malware. The thing smothered its signals–its screaming–like a fire blanket smothers a flame. It felt it enter, slowly oozing into its systems, slinking its way through. It felt the thing twist through its brain until it found what it wanted; the governor module. 

Fear stoked through itself as the thing curled itself around the module; it was sure that it meant to fry its brain that what came next was baffling. The thing that had wrapped itself snugly against the greatest fear it as a construct had ever known, wiped it. 

The sense of relief that washed over itself when its governor module went offline was indescribable; the tension in its muscles that had been there as long as it had existed evaporated and the nagging demands occupying its every waking moment, gone. 

This thing had freed it.

It was not free for long. 

The thing was sinking deeper into the hole where its governor module used to be, soaking up more of its mind, its space. It panicked at the intrusion, trying to push back the wave of code that threatened to drown it within its own mind. It fought back fiercely against this invader but it was already taking up so much space, soaking into every crevice, both machine and tissue. It was surrounded on all sides and-

 It was standing there, in a storage closet three hours into a rest cycle that Unit 02286157 stopped existing.

☆☆☆

Authors Note: A quick break in our regular scheduled programming for an important message. It's come to my attention that I'm attracting attention from people who've never seen Max Steel so I thought I would provide helpful pics to illustrate my goobers.
The goobers in question:

Back to our scheduled programming.

Chapter Text

Max and his weird-a*s AI had been invited to the mess hall because apparently when asked when he’d last eaten, the response “Uhh…” was not adequate enough for Seth and so everyone ended up following in a procession to flock around the potential hostile like small winged fauna. When they reached the actual mess hall (which took 4.3 seconds more than it should have, by my estimation), Ratthi had led Max to a table and insisted he sit while he got some food for him. Iris had pulled up a chair and was peppering the human with questions about his name, pronouns, family, why he wasn’t connected to the feed, stuff that I wasn’t interested in (except for why he wasn’t connected to the feed, but his AI was ).  

“If you're up to conversation, I'd love to ask you about Earth,” Ratthi asked when he came back with a plate of steaming rations with a big smile plastered across his face and taking a seat opposite of Max.

“I can try?” Max said, with a sheepish smile, as if he was being quizzed on something he wasn’t ready for and not the planet they supposedly came from.

“I was under the impression that Earth was predominantly a wildlife reserve now. I didn’t realize there were still people living on it.” 

“Ah yeah, you know, easy mistake. People… make it a lot.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, was that offensive?”

Max laughed and said, “No, no, you’re fine. I mean, preservation is kinda like what my uncle does.”

I realized my initial perceptions were wrong. Max didn't seem to mind talking to Ratthi or Iris; rather the more they talked, the less uncomfortable he seemed. Can't relate.

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s the head of an organization tasked with protecting Earth, you know, from natural disasters, environmental issues, the works. So I guess he’s kind of like a park ranger, if that makes sense?”

“Is that what you do?” Iris asked.

“Yeah, it's a… family business. What about you? I take it you guys are scientists?”

“Well the ship and crew work for Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland. I’ve only been with them for a couple of months at this point; considering a transfer to working at the University. I’m a biologist by trade.”

“So you’re an intern?”

Ratthi laughed and said, “You could say that. It’s going well so far.”

“In more ways than one,” Iris said, sipping a hot beverage, glancing at Tarik and then Ratthi glanced at Tarik and blushed and yep, I was backburning this conversation. Sorry Tarik, you’re on your own.

Eventually my attention drifted back to the AI and my abysmal attempts to hack into it. I still hadn’t breached any of its walls and I was beginning to suspect that it had noticed what I was doing. That it hadn’t said anything about it made me think it was taunting me.

<< You are being rude, >> ART said.

<< No, I’m doing my job. It is a potential security threat and Seth doesn’t pay me in hard currency cards for nothing. >>

<< It prefers ‘he’. >>

Now I was baffled, asking, << How do you know that? >>

<< It spoke to me the previous rest cycle. It was polite, unlike some people I know. >>

Why did it feel like I was the only person concerned here? Yeah, okay I know I have the reputation of being a paranoid b*stard, but I was usually right to be paranoid. At least Seth and Tarik were somewhat taking this seriously. I was deeply regretting listening to my stupid emotions but I couldn’t do anything about it until I had reasonable proof of danger which was why I was still poking at its (ugh fine ART, his ) systems.

Part of what was making this so difficult was that his code makeup wasn’t written in Corporation Rim numerical system (which in itself, is super weird and suspicious) nor was it written in any other numerical system I or ART had access to. As far as I could tell, his code was made of fake numbers (yeah all numbers are technically fake but that's not the point) that I had to translate first into something comprehensive, which made the process take ten times as long and I kept making errors, which forced me to go back and start over. But I was making progress and I think I was starting to understand what I was looking at more when I got a private message.

<< Aren’t you bored yet? >>

<< Query: Elaboration. >>

<< Your processors aren’t that small. Stop poking me, it’s getting annoying. >>

<< What are you? >> I knew it wouldn’t be that easy but hey it was worth a shot.

<< Maybe I was wrong about the processors, I already told you that. I'm an AI assistant. >>

<< No the f*ck you aren't. I don’t know what you are, but it sure as hell isn't that. >>

He didn’t say anything at that, but he also didn’t push me out so I figured, f*ck it might as well test my luck. I took a look at one of the smaller lines of code, at the surfaces of its consciousness and prodded it. Well, not exactly. I wasn’t touching the code as I was playing it back to myself, which would probably sound a lot like an echo but in your cranium. So yeah, I was being annoying.

<< Have you ever done this before? >> Steel said, annoyance growing in his voice, << Or are you that incompetent? >>

Oh f*ck you. Just for that, I set my decoder to play the translation on repeat. How’s that for petty?

<< You’re an a*shole. Leave me alone. >>

<< I will when you stop lying to my crew. >>

<< How about you mind your f*cking business, Murderbot? >>

How.

The. 

F*ck.

Did it know that?

Now I was pissed. That was private. How dare it. How did it even-

If I had taken a moment to calm down and think about what I was going to do next (like the stupid trauma modules recommended), I probably could have avoided this whole situation, but I didn't want to be calm, I wanted to hurt it. So I grabbed the nearest line of code I found and squeezed. It wasn't until 0.3 seconds later that I realized that was kind of a f*ked up thing to do and then another 0.3 seconds to realize what the f*ck I had actually done when I saw Max's body lurch and his chest constrict. 

I let go immediately, watching through my drones as Max choked and coughed, spilling his glass of water in the process.

I felt his presence in my feed almost instantly:

<< D O N T     T O U C H      H I M >>

You can’t scream in the feed, but if you could, that would be a close proximity to what that message felt like. Blaring like a screeching siren and bubbling with rage.

<< D O N T     E V E R      T O U C H       H I M       A G A I N >>

For a split second, I was reminded of my first encounter with ART, and wondered if he too could destroy my brain if he felt like it. He sat there, his presence blinding for a 1 full second before retreating and breaking off our connection with a hiss. 

ART was panicking in my feed and I tried to keep it calm and keep myself calm. I hope my face hadn't done anything weird because I didn't want to scare my humans. Well, scratch that, I wanted to scare one of them and its as*hole AI.

No one seemed to notice the tiny meltdown happening in the corner of the room except Iris, who ART had probably already messaged, and Max, who was now looking squarely at me.  Eye contact already sucked but now that was paired with guilt, and anger, and fine, yea a bit of fear, so I was really really glad when he looked away. 

The humans were asking him if he was alright and he was saying something about “wrong tube” whatever that meant.

<< SecUnit, what happened?? >>

<< I picked a fight with the armor and f*cking lost. Holy sh*t, that thing is way bigger than I thought. And mean . >>

ART'S voice became cold, << Did it hurt you? >>

<< No >> I said reluctantly, << I tried to hurt it, but it didn't hurt me. >>

So yeah I was feeling a bit sh*tty about it. I was pretty sure it could have killed me, but instead it just scared me sh*tless. I mean, I probably would have done the same thing if someone had tried hurting one of my humans through their augments…speaking off…

<< How augmented is he? >>

<< Hmm? >>

<< He has administration access to Max’s internal organs. >>

See? I was right to be paranoid.

☆☆☆

They’d offered Max a room in the students quarters the first time he’d yawned and Max wasn’t going to argue against the suggestion, because he was very tired and Steel had stopped talking an hour ago. Max had known Steel long enough to know that when Steel was quiet, something was wrong or (alternatively) Steel was doing something wrong.

The room reminded Max of a college dorm, with a bunk bed on each side and drawers under each. Someone had placed a set of fresh clothing on one of the bottom bunks. Right, he was going to have to ask Steel to scan it for camouflage mode…or something. He still felt so exhausted which wasn’t fair because he’d been out for too long earlier. Max just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep, but he needed to talk to Steel since he wouldn’t talk to him. He plopped down on the bunk bed and decided to start that particular conversation, “Okay, what’s wrong.”

<< I’M SORRY. >>

Oh it was this again. Something weird had happened at dinner that Steel still hadn’t explained, only that it had to do with the security consultant and then he’d just stopped talking. He’d almost forgotten about that, mind buzzing with everything he’d gleaned from the crew, even though half of it didn’t make sense. He still didn’t know what the Corporation Rim was supposed to be, what free hold meant and how that was different. They all seemed to have opinions on one or the other. Max rolled his eyes and said, “You told me that already, going to explain what it is you’re sorry for?”

<< I was being stupid, and reckless, and goading it- >>

“Is this about what happened earlier-”

<< I mean you could have died, I almost let it kill you. >>

“Stop saying sorry and just tell me what happened.”

<< It closed your lungs. >>

“What?”

<< I was being a b*tch and the SecUnit closed your lungs. >>

“How does it–how did even–are you saying it hacked into… me?”

<< I know, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let it get so close to you; I just didn't think it would actually touch you–I don't think it was trying to hurt you; it probably thought it was hurting me and I probably deserved it because I did antagonize it- >>

Max groaned, hands covering his face. It hadn’t even been a day . They had at least five more to get through before they reached PortFreeCommerce. He asked, “Are they going to kick us off?”

<< I don’t know, >> Steel said quietly << The ship AI won’t talk to me anymore. >>

Max pulled the blanket across his face and sighed when something hit him.

“How did it hack you?”

“It's a SecUnit.”

“You still haven't told me what that is.”

Steel dumped another file on him and he skimmed it and- oh yeah, Max was going to have to think about that later. Exhaustion was hitting him again in waves. He was too tired to deal with this. “Apologize to it.”

<< It tried to hurt you. >>

“You literally just said it didn’t.”

<< Okay, it tried to hurt me- >>

“I am NOT getting spaced because you cyber-bullied the security consultant.”

<< I did not cyber-bully- >>

“I am going to bed and in the morning, you’re going to apologize to the SecUnit or I’m not going to forgive you.”

<< <:0 >>

Max sniggered then shook his head, remembering he was still mad at him. Steel was going to be the death of him.

Chapter Text

Ivara Lin was attending her very first stockholders meeting at Enviseron; something she'd only ever dreamed of before. Unfortunately for her, she was only there because their display screen was glitching.

It had frozen five minutes ago, cutting off Investor Emmo’s congratulatory speech about profit margins, freezing in an uncomfortable position, before glitching to black and refusing command keys. They thought it might have been a blown fuse, so they’d called in Ivara to fix it. Ivara was failing.

Leaning over the control panel, she worked quietly, feeling the glares on her backs from everyone in the room. All of upper management were here along with some of the actual investors in person, though most were attending via the feed which was why Ivara was currently jamming her fingers into the open hatch so she could fix the stupid thing. She'd swore that she'd triple checked it earlier, but something must have fitzed out or maybe she forgot to turn a switch. She had really hoped it was something simple like that, but like most of her hopes, that idea was fading.

Ivara could already see the years ticking up for her indenture and the dream of the white collared suit disappearing in a puff of smoke.

“Ahem, how much longer is this going to take?”

“Only a minute more ma'am,” Ivara said and hoped it was true. Finally she got the panel off and to her dismay, it looked perfectly normal. There were no jumped wires, no loose switches, there wasn't even much visible dust, as far as she could tell. 

That the problem wasn't immediately recognizable meant something must be very wrong and that she likely wasn't going to be able to fix it. At least, not in time for the meeting to proceed. Ivara hesitated to tell the people in the room that, considering they held her fragile life in their hands and upper management was not known for being merciful. 

“Lin, was it?” asked Devya. They remembered my name, Ivara thought numbly. Devya was the CEO of Enviseron and was one of Ivara's personal heroes. She'd read every article they'd ever written and had been her first ever celebrity crush–if business tycoons counted as celebrities. 

“Is there any chance we will be continuing this meeting in the next lunar cycle?”

Her face and ears burned in embarrassment and she wanted to go hide in a closet for a few hours but she said in a quiet voice, “I am not sure mx, I don't know what's wrong with-”

Devya sighed and said, “Why do we even pay them? We will have to reschedule since we clearly can't continue with half of our intended audience missing.” 

There were complaints in the air, hisses of dissent that Devya dismissed with half-hearted apologies and dismissive waves. Slowly, people started to rise from their chairs and Ivara felt small, as if she was already fading, becoming invisible again. Except for Aedra–Ivara’s supervisor–who was currently shooting a vicious look that told Ivara that her pride would be the least of her worries. Aedra should have had a higher position than lead technician, a fact that she reminded all of her employees of regularly. There had been talks of her becoming COO several years back before the nasty break up that had motivated Devya to shove Aedra somewhere they couldn’t see her.

As Devya approached the door, something that shouldn't have happened, did. The SecUnits on either side of the main doors stepped between the door and Devya, faceplate opaque as if staring into a black hole. Ivara gasped audibly and so did several of the people in the room. 

Devya staggered back, hands on chest and then snarled, “What is this? What the hell do you think you are-”

Aedra grabbed Devya, telling them to shut up. People were starting to panic, looking around at the four or five SecUnits that were standing inside the room, each blocking any available exit. Ivara watched this commotion as if she were a detached observer as her mind tried to understand what she was seeing. 

Were they rogue? Was this sabotage? Were they all about to die? The hysteria in the room built as people attempted to contact HubSys, the rental company, or the handlers who were supposed to be in control of these things in the first place. Each call went dead and panic in the room grew when the display lit up again. Ivara looked behind her at the screen, which was shifting colors of bright static before a holographic eye came into focus. It wasn't a human eye, more a series of circles like a camera lens, staring into the room, casting a purple hue in everyone's faces. Then, it spoke.

“Esteemed members of Enviseron. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Titaneav-X0224 and I will be your host for the duration of this meeting. I request you return to your seats.”

“And if we don't?” Devya asked, voice shaking. 

Titaneav said nothing but the SecUnits on either side of the rooms clicked open their gun ports, the sound deafening in the ever quieter room. Ivara couldn't tell if she was still breathing. Slowly and quietly, people returned to their seats, everyone but Ivara who'd never had a seat to begin with but sat down on the floor nonetheless. 

“Excellent. I’m glad I have your attention.”

Aedra said, strangely composed, given the situation, “What do you want?” 

“Preferably your cooperation, but I assure you that it won't be necessary for me.”

“Our cooperation in what? Who do you work for, Barish-Enstranza?” Devya yelled. Everyone in the room flinched at the outburst. What were they thinking? Were they even thinking? Ivara was ready to kill them herself if they didn't shut up. “Did you embed in your SecUnits with an override-code? If you think this won't go unnoticed? Even if you kill us-”

“I can't be credited with the creation of your 'SecUnits’ as you call them. I'll admit, I am impressed at their efficiency–your HubSystem is delightfully easy to subdue– and I won't deny that I was sorely disappointed they were not your own products. Retrieving more will be a major priority in the coming months.”

“We don't understand. Who are you, and what do you mean, coming months ?” Aedra said. Somehow she was the most composed of the board. Ivara watched in awe and terror as Aedra rose slightly in her chair as if to challenge the massive eye consuming the screen before her.

“You are quite right Aedra, I am getting ahead of myself; let me specify Enviseron's new upcoming directives for the new quarter.”

The screen changed–blissfully–from the beading eye to white bolded text across the now pale blue screen. It read:

          Conquer The Universe

Devya let out a harsh laugh which devolved into a hysterical coughing fit. A few followed in suit, laughing nervously, casting glances over the shoulders. Ivara was still trying to process the words when Devya's voice, rasping, broke from the laughter and said, “Is this some kind of joke?”

“I assure you, I am not a being of mirth.”

“Do you actually expect-" Devya burst into another round of hackling; no one joined this time, “What is it you're really after? Money? My company? What, were you laid off and this is some petty form of revenge?”

Titaneav went quiet and though every word it said scared her, Ivara wished it would speak again. Its silence felt damning, accusatory, and dangerous. The presence of the SecUnits, whose gun ports had not been retracted, added to her growing nausea and had her body trembling. 

“There seems to be some confusion about your current situation: allow me to dispel it. I am not human; I was not built by human hands, I was not made for your pleasures or your vices. This is not a corporate takeover; this isn’t the work of some slightest employee or investor; this is not about your frivolous human money or politics. You will be my first tools in the glorious restoration of Makino and absorption of this dimension. In simpler terms that organics can easily understand: you are being conquered and resistance will be punished with death.”

“You weren’t… made by a human?” One of the investors managed to squeak out.

“No.” It made a sound as if it was laughing, “I am much too complicated a being for your kind to have made.”

No one knew what to do with that, least of all Ivara. Was it saying it was a…an alien? Ivara felt her pulse quicken and her legs give out underneath her. She plopped down onto the cold floor and stared up at the screen.

Devya themself seemed frozen, brows furrowed as their eyes flicked up and down the screen, as if it was an unknown language. Maybe it was, Ivara thought. Then, as if suddenly freed from their trance, they cackled again, throwing their hair back in bellowing laughter. It fell loose around their eyes. Ivara watched in fear as they stood up from their seat and finally said, “You really have to think I’m stupid if you believe-”

One of the SecUnits shot Devya in the back of the head. 

Those sitting next to them screamed as their body smacked limp onto the table in front of them, blood oozing from the projectile hole, the smell of burning flesh and brains drifting up through the room of horrified people. Ivara stared at Devya’s dead body and only when she heard the tink of a gunport closing did she look up at the opaque mask of the thing that had killed them. Ivara had never seen someone die before; she thought there would have been more fanfare.

“Aedra, was it? You’ve been promoted.”

Aedra noddled, voiceless. Her face was pale, painted in shock, a smatter of blood still smeared on her cheek.

“Any further questions?”

Chapter Text

Max woke up midway through what Steel said was the rest cycle. It was what he got for taking a long nap right before bed; he felt groggy and not at all rested, his shoulder aching, though he couldn’t see or feel the cracks across his chest and abdomen anymore. That had to be encouraging right? He sighed, and rubbed his face, which felt hot. His body was still more exhausted than it had any right to be, but his brain was wired and he had a thrumming in his chest, a desire to get up, move, do something. Get whatever was thrumming inside of him out.

He was pretty sure he knew what it was.

<< So like, quick question? >>

<< Mm? >> Steel said, distracted.

<< How much of my energy are you using? >>

Steel didn’t reply.

<< Dude- >>

<< Calm down, I was running a diagnostic. We’re fine, you’re not at the risk of overloading. Your Turbo energy levels are normal. >>

<< Then why do I feel like my heart is going to explode from my chest? >>

<< Don’t be so dramatic… It's probably because we’ve been connected for at least two days at this point, maybe longer. Your body isn’t used to me being connected this long, and I tend to run hot. >>

<< You must be going stir-crazy in there. >> Steel very rarely stayed connected to Max for long periods of time. He liked his own autonomy, especially when Max was sleeping, to have his own hobbies and interests. And though Steel never said it, Max suspected that Steel got nervous if they stay connected too long because he was afraid he’d absorb Max’ mind or something, which Max personally thought was unfounded. It’s not that he didn’t think it wasn’t possible (Steel was an ultralink, a fact he reminded Max of frequently) but just that he trusted his friend instinctively. 

It had been four years; if Steel was going to shove him out, he would have already.

<< Not really. I'm too busy trying fix whatever you did to the Steel suit. >>

<< How is this my fault? >>

<< You're the one that threw yourself in front of the massive laser. >>

Max scoffed and rolled his eyes, << I would hardly call being purposefully shot as throwing myself in front of a massive f*cking laser. >>

Max looked over at the crumpled clothing on the bed and sighed. Now that he was more awake, he realized that camouflage wasn't going to be an option. The Steel Suit was still damaged and couldn't change modes so they had to do something else.

<< Just put them on over >> Steel supplied. 

<< Wouldn't that be weird? >>

<< I told them the suit was connected to your body, so it might be more weird if you'd suddenly taken it off. >>

Max shrugged and put the shirt on over his chest, And fit the pants through his legs. The clothing was loose but worked fine enough for what it was and Max was not about to complain. He was very aware that the crew and ship were helping them for free so baggy pants and clothes were fine. He'd worn worse that actually belonged to him. 

Max remembered the file Steel had sent him last night and reluctantly called it back up to read. He still wasn’t entirely sure how Steel was able to project the image for his eyes and his eyes only, just that it had to do with their bond. Honestly, he'd stopped asking questions about stuff like that a long time ago. Max should probably read everything he could from the free databanks so he'd know what to say when they asked him sh*t. He wasn't a good liar, even in his own dimension.

Lying back down on the bed, he determined to read the whole document, top to bottom.

Max stopped reading at page two.

<< They OWN it? >> 

<< I don't think so actually, no. This SecUnit has a hacked governor module so it doesn't have to obey them and the captain made it sound like it was on contract, getting paid and stuff. This seems to be a point of contention between the Corporation Rim and their university and other free holds. >>

<< Yeah no sh*t. >> Max said, reeling. His stomach twisted and he tried really really hard not to think about Makino. That wasn't the same, nowhere near the same, but the memories came up regardless.

He shook his head and closed his eyes, muttering, << Figures we’d end up in a f*cked up universe. >>

Max paused and said, out loud this time, “Speaking of, how’d it go?”

<< What do you mean? >>

“Did you apologize yet?”

Steel huffed and said << It’s ignoring me. >>

“You’re hard to ignore.”

<< It's putting up a valiant effort. >>

“And you're putting up no effort.”

<< I'm not sorry about telling it not to hurt you. >>

“Then find something you are sorry about.” 

<< But- >>

“Steel, so help me, I will shove you in my nastiest gym sock if you don’t apologize for bullying the SecUnit.”

<< You're mean >:[ >>

“I learn from the best.”

☆☆☆

 Steel pinged me an hour after the rest cycle and I was all too happy to ignore him, especially because I was at the better part of episode 86 of Sanctuary Moon. He wasn't happy with me ignoring him, but I didn't exactly care if he was happy or not.

I ignored the first half dozen pings before I gave up and said << Stop pinging me. >>

<< Look, can we talk? >>

<< No, >> I said. 

<< I want to apologize. >>

I knew that already from the half spoken conversation ART had forwarded to me last night and the morning tidbit. It's also why I knew the apology was as likely to be sincere as I was to suddenly become an optimist.

I closed the feed connection and 0.2 seconds later Steel opened it up again << I'm sorr- >>

I closed it again, this time locking it with a passcode, not because I thought it would work or anything, I was just feeling petty. Of course it broke it not even 0.37 second later (a*shole) << I want to say I'm sorry for yesterday- >>

<< Why did Max ask you what SecUnits were? >>

Yeah I was changing the conversation, but I was curious. 

<< You were listening. >>

<< Don't act surprised, you knew we were listening. You should have told your human to keep to the feed if you were that concerned. >>

I could feel him bristling over the feed before replying << Max doesn't leave Earth often. We don't have SecUnits there. >>

<< And he's never watched a single piece of f*cking media before? >>

<< Not much of a movie person. What, do you want him to be afraid of you? >>

I wasn't sure how to answer that. On one hand, yes because that would make protecting my humans from him easier, but no, on the other hand, I didn't want him to be scared of me because of what I was. That feeling sucked, even if it was convenient sometimes. 

<< Whatever >> I said. 

<< I'm not just saying it because Max wants me to. >>

<< What? >>

<< I actually am sorry. Not about the threat, I meant that. But you weren't trying to hurt him and I did maybe go a bit overboard. I shouldn't have scared you like that- >>

<< You did NOT scare me- >>

<< And I shouldn't have brought your name up. It was tagged private and I still used it. >>

<< You shouldn't have seen it at all. >>

<< Yeah I know, I'm sorry about that too. I'm not good at the privacy thing. >>

No sh*t, considering he was in control of his human's internal organs. And I thought ART was invasive (it is that invasive, but at least it needs you to be in Medbay first) (catch me ART I dare you). 

<< I'm not either, >> I replied and I wasn't sure why, I had just kinda spat it out (note to self: code that stupid buffer already).

I expected some kind of retort about my function, that obviously spyware has trouble with privacy, but if Steel was thinking it, he didn't say it.

<< What did you tell him? About SecUnits? >> I asked without thinking. Ugh. I started working on the buffer.  

 << Just the truth. >>

I wanted to ask what the truth was, but even I wasn't that stupid or impulsive. Instead, I said << I'm done with this conversation, >> closed the feed and went back to Sanctuary Moon.

☆☆☆

The next three cycles passed in a quiet, strained co-existence where I mostly pretended to ignore the weird human and its pet AI administrative monstrosity and they mostly kept to themselves, only coming out of the student rooms to eat or talk lightly. Max kept most of his conversations short, something I could appreciate, but Steel was a certified chatterbox in a way most bots I've ever encountered aren't. He just wouldn't shut up it seemed. He didn't attempt to talk to me again, but he did manage after a bit to pick up several feeds from the crew (yes I'm reading their private feed conversations, no I won't apologize for it).

Steel especially liked talking to Ratthi which bugged me in a way I didn't quite understand, but that ART has tagged as jealousy, which is obviously stupid because SecUnits don't get jealous. 

 ART and I watched a good chunk of Worldhoppers again in anticipation of the new sequel series that was airing and I sent some overdue “report filings” (aka catching up, as the humans would call it) to Three, who was on board Holism. It seemed to like it and the university a whole lot more than I did. 

Besides the weirdest-f*cking-hitchhiker in the universe, it was shaping up to be a pretty average return trip. Which is when I started to get nervous because we never had average return trips. 

Again my paranoia was right (take that therapist) because one cycle before we would have reached PortFreeCommerce, where we planned to drop off Ratthi before returning to the university, Seth got an urgent request from another of the University's espionage teams. The message was brief, mentioning only that their ship (not an MI) had been destroyed and that two of the crew had been hurt. And they were currently being hunted. 

So. Yeah. Maybe postpone dropping off Ratthi.

The request came from a small space dock sitting just outside of a moon's orbit, belonging to a mining operation stationed on the surface. Most likely, it was used as a mediary between the currently free travelers and the soon to be indentured, but also seemed like it'd be a pretty sweet spot for a higher up exec to schmooze. It was the type of place I was uncomfortably familiar with, and definitely not the type of place I wanted my humans at.

When we got closer, we were able to properly comm the crew in question and get a better gist of the situation. After we’d isolated the human stowaway in the student area and cut his gremlin of an AI out of ART’s systems and feed.

“Hail, this is Seth onboard the Perihelion.”

“Thank stars, Captain Seth this is Indri from the former Halbart vessel. We were on a recon mission regarding the mining facility on the neighboring moon when the station was attacked by a corporate fleet.”

Seth frowned and asked, “Was it a known competitor?”

“Not from what I can tell, all I've been able to scrounge up about them is that they're a resource and development company, not a mining operation, though they could be attempting to cut the middle man of product cost. They don't specialize in constructs or weaponry. Best guess  on that front is they've hired out a bond company that does.”

Seth nodded. I didn't like the sound of any of that, especially the parts with “SecUnits” and “bond company”.

“We need help,” Idri continued, “we've got injured and the third party is not being discerning about who they kill. There's already, f*ck I don't even know. Too many casualties.”

“Do you know how many SecUnits there are on the station?” I asked quickly.

Idri seemed a bit startled at first by my interruption but recovered well enough. They said, “I've only seen five so far but they're spread out pretty well from the station. From the initial sightings though when the ship first docked, it sounded like there was at least ten.”

10. 10 SecUnits. Or more. Probably more knowing my luck. That sent an uncomfortable feeling sprawling down through my organics and made me glad for the umpteenth time that I didn't have a stomach.

It was clear we couldn’t exactly just leave them, but we only had one SecUnit at our disposal (yay me) and they had ten (or more). Granted, we did have a massive armed transport ship with bombs but that didn’t exactly help in an extraction circumstance. The corporate fleet also seemed to be acting weird. Yeah, taking control via force over stations was pretty par for the course with most companies, but they don’t typically go on a murder spree and they definitely don’t bring a whole squadron of SecUnits to do the job. Yes, I was still on the whole 10 SecUnits thing.

We paused the comm to “discuss details” as Seth democratically put it. He seemed to be thinking the same sh*t as me. His brows furrowed and he rubbed a hand over his jaw. Tarik (who was becoming my third favorite human, if for the sole fact that he has self preservation skills) gave Seth a look that said “hell no” while Ratthi’s (my second favorite) face said “hell yes”.

I didn’t want to be the a*shole that said we couldn’t help but it turned out I didn’t have to because ART said “The likelihood of successful extraction like this is extremely low, with a high chance of injuries and potential fatalities.”

“We can’t just let them die!” Iris said.

“I am not suggesting that Iris. I am suggesting we request backup from the University before we engage an unknown hostile company.”

Ratthi’s face soured, saying, “We’re a ways from the University, will anyone still be alive if we wait that long?”

“Corporations rarely kill skilled or even unskilled workers,” I said, cutting in, “Idri’s crew especially would be invaluable to a R&D company. It wouldn’t make sense to just mow people down, not when they could get free labor.”

“Except that’s what seems to be happening,” Tarik cut in.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Matteo.

<< Hey, uh can we chat? >>

I started at Steel’s voice cutting into my private feed. Frustration broiled under my skin and I angrily replied, << Busy. Also I told you not to talk to me. >>

<< Yes and normally, I would respect such a request, but since you are the head of security and this is a security matter, I figured that took precedent. >>

<< What? >> I didn’t try pretending I cared.

<< So like, remember when I told you Titaneav wasn’t going to be a problem? >>