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"Uhm, why is it looking at me like that?"
"Like what?"
"It is smiling. Or… is it? Don't tell me you don't see it."
The senior technician sighed; it had been a hard couple of sleepless nights and double shifts, and she was at the end of her rope, which had only become shorter with every solar cycle.
"It's fine, it's just- organic memory," she said. She wasn't actually sure. That was above her pay grade, but it doesn't matter what she or the newbie she is forced to babysit believed, as long as they make quota for the cycle.
"From the cloning?"
"Sure."
Two more hours until lunch break.
"So… what now?"
Finally, he is focusing. The sooner they finish, the sooner they can pick up that inevitable second shift.
She looked up from the control panel. The newbie stood before the construct—Security Unit, like the batch before this one and the one before that. Sometimes, when there is an overflow, they send up some CombatUnits. Now those were some impressive constructs.
Now that she was looking at it, the newbie was right, it was really smiling down at him. It even tilted its head to the side as it was observing the person in front of it. Creepy, but not that alarming in itself.
"Ping the Unit and request a system check."
"Okay," he said, but barely took his eyes off the construct. "I swear it is smiling."
She wondered what menu was in the printer today.
"All systems are optimal," the newbie said, reading through the handheld at a painfully slow pace.
"Unit, confirm," she prompted.
"Uhm, Unit, please confirm."
She sighed. "Don't say please, it's equipment, it doesn't care. Do you thank the printer every time you use it?"
At that, the construct turned to look at her with its creepy, way too human-looking eyes, and she swore it had a confused expression—and that's why they put helmets on these fuckers.
"No, but-"
"Just continue, for fuck's sake."
"Unit, confirm," the newbie repeated.
The Unit thankfully turned back to him. "All systems are optimal, performance reliability at 89%."
The newbie gave her a look.
"That's normal," she shrugged. "A recharge cycle fixes it right up."
"Oh, okay."
The Unit was back to smiling.
"Uhm, it's doing it again."
Why does it have to be her?
"These new constructs have some quirks. Don't get tripped up, newbie."
"Okay, uhm. Threat assessment."
"Threat assessment at 40%."
"Uhm–"
"Continue," she made sure to put extra frustration into her tone.
"...Unit, Client info."
The construct answers immediately. "No current client information, this Unit has not been assigned to a client."
"Distance limit."
"Not applicable, this Unit is currently on company grounds. Distance limit is set to null. This Unit has not been assigned to a client."
"So far it seems good," the newbie said, uncertainly.
The construct fucking beamed with pride.
She could feel her hackles rise.
"Move to testing the Governor Module," she ordered.
"Are you sure, this says–"
"It shouldn't be smiling, give it a 20%."
The newbie bit his lip, but he hunched over his handheld and then pressed the screen. The construct stood up straight—straighter—it shuddered then looked down at the newbie as if he had betrayed it somehow.
Much better.
"If we are here, give it a 40% test as well."
The newbie glanced at her. "It seems to work just fine."
"It's our job to test all of these Units. If you want to do a shoddy job, that’s on your credit, but not on mine, you can screw around when you aren't my trainee," she said, glaring at him. "Do as I say. "
To his credit, the newbie did. The construct twitched again, and now it had a truly pathetic expression.
She had to take her pleasure wherever she could.
"Continue with the testing, newbie."