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Uzi had spotted the ship on the long-range sensors she had hooked up to her computer three days ago. A JCJenson civilian hauler parked in a decaying orbit around Copper 9, lights on and moving, which meant crew still aboard, which meant humans still aboard. She'd spent those three days wearing N down about it. In contrast, V had taken roughly four seconds to decide she was in. N had taken longer only because whenever humans were mentioned he got that weird look, stammering. N worried in a way about humans that she couldn't understand, because the phrase sneak onto a ship full of the species that built us as disposable labor didn't land as fun for him the way it landed for her.
But he'd said yes, eventually. He always did. He loved doing anything.
Cyn had said she'd catch up and Uzi hadn't argued. The alternative was Cyn folded into their landing pod for the transit, and that was a specific kind of horror she didn't even want to imagine. The pod was N's domain, too - pilot seat, nav console. Cyn in that space would cause chaos that he would get nervous about and a nervous N would ending up getting shaken as if they were salt. Better to let Cyn arrive on her own terms. She always did anyway.
The spaceship they were now heading to was called the HWSS Atlas, which was, all things considered, a boring name. Uzi had pulled the information from the broadcast beacon during approach. JCJenson Interstellar Transit Authority, Civilian Class IV, crew complement of two hundred and forty, passenger capacity of eight hundred. A ship ferrying personnel and their families from one corporate outpost to the next. This confirmed two things: Humans were alive and well - because of course they were, as vermin tended to be - and they knew Copper 9 existed, still. Didn't approach closer, which wasn't much of a surprise, either.
Their pod had locked to an auxiliary maintenance port on the hauler's lower ring, which was meant for drone servicing shuttles, which their pod technically qualified as. N had landed it clean, matched the magnetic clamp frequency on his second try, and the seal had hissed pressurized before Uzi could close her laptop.
The maintenance corridor they'd entered through gave way to a residential access junction. Warm off-white panels with red accent strips at waist height. A potted plant sat in a recessed alcove beside a water fountain and Uzi stared at it. It was real, and green, and alive, and she'd never seen a living plant before that she could touch with her own fingers.
Far off, they could hear people. Distant and probably a few hallways away, maybe above them, through the vents. Uzi's hand trailed along the wall as they walked. The panel was smooth under her fingers and the air was warm around her.
"This is so weird," she said under her breath.
N walked beside her with his shoulders slightly raised. He kept glancing at the closed doors as they passed. This hallway wasn't part of the residential district, but an entryway to one. Still, his attention hung on each for several seconds to then travel to the next as if he was expecting them to open any moment.
"It smells like…" N started, and then stopped. The eyes on his visor were hollow ovals, eyebrows drawn together.
"Like what?" Uzi asked.
"I don't know. Like… before? Like the manor. Kind of." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Just… so… human."
V walked behind them both, her footfall silent where theirs tapped and clicked against the composite flooring. She hadn't said anything since they'd left the pod.
A human came out of one of the doors ten feet ahead of them in a JCJenson maintenance jumpsuit, holding a tablet in one hand, and when he looked up, he pointed at them with the other like he'd found stowaways. Which, yeah. Fair.
"Who do you belong to?" It sounded like he had just found a stray dog without a collar. His eyes kept moving between the three of them. "And - okay, hold on - why do you all have hair?"
N's hand came up in a little wave. "Hi! We're, um-"
"Maintenance units," V supplied, arms crossed.
"Maintenance units don't have hair. Drones don't have hair!" The guy took a step back, thumb hovering over his tablet screen. "I'm calling this in. You're not tagged to this vessel. There was nothing in the manifest when the auxiliary port pinged, and there's no-"
Boots on the floor, brisk and confident, coming from around the bend behind the human. Relaxed, but fast - someone who'd been here the whole time and was only now bothering to make herself known.
A person rounded the corner in full kit. The tinted helmet caught the overhead lights and threw them back as a solid black mirror. Rainbow sticker, smiley sticker, white JCJenson cap with the black bow perched on the upper back and two ribbons trailing down to her neck. Silver bodysuit under the cropped white jacket, silver pants, strapped boots clicking with each step. The name tag on her chest.
JCJENSON, TESSA, CERTIFIED TECHNICIAN.
"Oi!" She pointed at the human. Whole arm extended and finger out. "Hands off my bots, yeah?"
The guy turned and saw the helmet. Frowned, looked down, saw the name tag and the JCJenson branding on the cap. His tablet hand dropped to his side.
"Ma'am- I- They weren't tagged on the-"
"Course they weren't tagged, I just got here." She closed the distance between them, her boots marking steady thuds on the floor. Tessa's voice was bright and unbothered with the Australian lilt. "What, you think I'm gonna pre-file manifests for a routine maintenance check? On my units? You reckon I've got that kind of free time?"
"They have-" He gestured vaguely at his own head. "They have hair, though, that's not standard issue for any line I've-"
Cyn stopped walking and the helmet tilted. The black visor faced him head-on and reflected his confusion back at him.
"They're my personal units," she said, the casual warmth dropping into something with more danger. "Custom configured by me. For my work, after my tastes. Are you-" She took one more step forward and the guy took one back. "-questioning my professional decisions, mate?"
"No! No, I- No, I wasn't- I just-"
"Because if you've got notes on how I configure my equipment, I'd love to hear them." She spread her hands wide, palms up, elbows out. "Go on. Tell me how you'd do it. I'm all ears. Let's have the whole thing, from the top, with your qualifications attached."
"I don't- I wasn't questioning you- ma'am, I'm sorry, I'm just corridor security. I didn't realize there was a certified tech-"
"Righty-o." And the warm was back. She clapped her gloved hands together once and the sound cracked in the sterile air. "Then we're sorted. Off you go. I've got a full diagnostic queue for all floors and you're holding me up looking at me like I need to explain my schedule to a corridor bloke." She flicked her wrist at him.
He stood there, puzzled. Stared at his own reflection.
"Go on, then. Git. Before I recall why I'm the one with clearance codes and you're the one checking hallways at-" she tilted the helmet, performing a glance at a watch she wasn't wearing "-oh-four-hundred."
He turned and shuffled away in the fastest setting that was short of a run. The tablet was pressed to his chest like an anchor.
"You lot." The Australian lilt stayed in place but the pitch shifted - still Tessa's voice, still the persona, but aimed at them now with the specific warmth she only held for things she considered hers. She put her hands on her hips and helmet tilted like she was surveying damage. "Can't leave you alone for five bloody minutes."
"In our defense," N started, "we were polite and I thought-"
"What? That politeness would carry you through the ship? Reckoned you'd get at least to the cargo ring before someone spotted the three modified drones in human clothes?"
"Hey," N said. "I like this coat, it's-"
"A statement, love. One I made." She turned the helmet toward V. "And you. Combat posture in a civilian corridor, V, really? Just screams we belong here."
V's arms uncrossed a fraction. "He wanted to call someone."
"And now he's probably calling his therapist. Handled." Cyn swept one hand out in a grand gesture encompassing all three of them. "This is why I said I'd catch up. You'd end up in the trash chute. You should know what that feels like, ey?"
N flinched. Cyn responded in a little 'heh' and left it at that.
Uzi had watched the exchange and let relief wash over her. It was stupid, she knew it was. Knew she didn't need rescuing from one confused corridor worker. V could have killed the guy in the time it took him to finish a sentence and then they could've run back to the pod. But she also knew that she had wanted to explore the ship, that it hadn't just been about the guy and that this could go wrong a million ways, and that they had Cyn. They had Cyn and Cyn could be anything and she could walk into a room on a ship and overpower it with just an attitude.
She walked the few steps between them and wrapped her arms around Cyn's midsection. The silver bodysuit was cool against her visor, the jacket fabric stiff, the body underneath running warm because Cyn kept Tessa's flesh in the perfect human temperature. Uzi's face pressed into Cyn's sternum. She was short enough that the hug ended up around Cyn's ribcage.
"Aww," Tessa's voice answered her. For a moment, Cyn's hands settled on Uzi's shoulders, but then she moved. Bent her knees, got her hands under Uzi's arms, and lifted and Uzi came off the floor like she weighed nothing, which to Cyn she basically did. Suddenly the world rotated. One full spin with Uzi's boots leaving the ground entirely, the ceiling lights flashing past overhead as Cyn turned them both in a circle.
"Put me down-" Despite her best efforts she was laughing, the sound pulled out of her against her will, her legs kicking at nothing. "I'm not a- stop-"
Cyn set her down and her hands squeezed Uzi's shoulders once before letting go. The helmet tilted downward deliberately, because she knew the effect it created, and Uzi saw herself grinning back at herself.
"Right." Cyn straightened, clapped her hands together again. "We're doing this or what? Before another human comes around and V rips them in thirds."
"I wasn't going to do that!" V's hands slapped against the metal of her hips. "I'm not stupid!"
"V, babe, reckon that's arse-backwards. You fold quicker than a camping chair. I know, I've done it. Multiple times." She sounded more amused the more pissed V looked. "And I'd rather keep this ship in one piece for at least another hour so the purple one can poke at whatever she wants to poke at." With that she looked down at Uzi. "What are we looking for?"
"Engine room." Uzi's voice came out steadier than she expected. "Navigation system. Whatever they got. I'm really curious about how their FTL works! I wanna see how sci-fi-y it is and-"
"A shopping list. Love it." Cyn started walking. "Engine room's four levels down. The layout's standard for this class. I couldn't help but check."
"When did you check?" N fell into step beside her. "You just got here."
"N." She reached up without breaking stride and batted the side of his head. A light swat, affectionate. "I checked when Uzi first spotted the thing. Scanned the whole ship and some. You don't like surprises, do you?"
"That's…" N blinked down at her, processed and then scratched the side of his head. "Actually really reassuring?"
Cyn answered with a thumbs up.
N fell back and walked next to Uzi, giving her a smile and she punched him in the arm and he hissed, rubbed the spot, and she laughed. Ahead of them, Cyn walked through a human ship like she knew it inside out. Which she probably did. Because somewhere under the suit and the JCJenson cap, there was something that could crack this ship open at the molecular level if it wanted to, and instead it was doing a bit.
Uzi watched the black bow on the back of Cyn's cap bob with each step and wondered about the fact that if this were a video game, Cyn would be the overpowered party member and she was on Uzi's team now.
And that was, in her own words, freakin' cool.