Chapter Text
We‘d just made it through the security barrier on the public docks of LeverHaven station when my Threat Assessment spiked so hard that the hum of my inbuilt energy-weapons‘ deployment sequence ran through me before I even realised it.
ART, who had previously only been monitoring our beginning mission from the background, slammed into my feed in full force and sent me the machine language equivalent of WTF? and I hastily aborted the sequence.
It didn‘t seem like any of the humans had noticed. Thank fuck for their terrible attention to detail.
Hostile engaging. Abort mission. I sent it on instinct, even though I knew it was much too late for that.
What‘s going on? I could feel ART poking through my sensor data, trying to figure out what had made my threat assessment spike. Its tone was urgent, but calm. It wasn‘t sure yet if there was a legitimate threat or I was just having a Moment again.
The answer was probably a solid "both".
I had fucked up.
I had scanned and reviewed the feed IDs for the BasLever delegation waiting for us as soon as I had access to the station feed, and Threat Assessment hadn‘t alerted on any of them.
But I couldn‘t deploy my intel drones on a corporate station, and none of the station cameras had a good view of the delegation waiting among the crowd of humans past the security barrier, so I hadn‘t actually seen their faces until we were only a few meters away, way too late to veer off, or hide, or run.
All of my organic parts told me to run.
Most of my inorganic parts also told me to run.
Feed ID: Negotiator Joslin
Gender: fem-neutral
The Controller wasn’t wearing the company uniform but a variation of this station‘s standard business attire, their sleek dark ponytail longer than the last time I‘d seen them. They were chatting amiably with their colleagues, because of course they were. They hadn‘t looked at me yet, but some of their colleagues had definitely seen our group, seen me.
It was a matter of seconds.
I shoved the feed ID at ART.
The negotiator?, it asked.
She used to be with the company. She‘ll identify me as a SecUnit.
There was a .5 second pause as ART processed this and probably tried to come up with a plan more practical than what my processors had spat out, which more or less amounted to DUCK.
It did come up with something more practical, namely sending into the team feed: SecUnit has informed me one of the BasLever negotiators used to work for the company. We may be about to be compromised. Which at least would let the humans know why things were about to go to shit.
And they were about to go to shit, because our delegation, officially from the Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland, though Pin-Lee and Ratthi were with us, had now reached the delegation from BasLever, who interrupted their informal conversations and straightened up to formally greet us.
The team feed was a mess of panicked exclamations after ART’s announcement and some of the humans exchanged worried glances, but they too knew it was too late to do anything about it.
The Controller turned away from their colleague and towards us, taking in our group. I was torn between the urge to hide behind my humans so the Controller wouldn‘t notice me and shoving my humans behind me so they wouldn‘t get hurt in the shitshow that was undoubtedly about to unfold.
And then the Controller‘s eyes passed right over my face and settled on Pin-Lee, who was heading up the group and labelled as Lead Negotiator for the duration of this mission.
Their smile was wide and bright. "Pin-Lee, esteemed delegation of the Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland. My name is Joslin, and in the name of BasLever I welcome you to LeverHaven."
(I didn‘t know if the corporation had taken its stupid name from the station where it had its headquarters, or if the station was named after the stupid corporation that resided on it, and even if I wasn‘t trying to keep myself from going into an involuntary shutdown right now, I wouldn‘t care enough to try and find out.)
I was glad I was running my move-like-a-human code in background, because I‘m sure otherwise I would have been completely frozen as the Controller briefly introduced the members of their delegation and Pin-Lee returned the pleasantries. Thankfully she was, well, Pin-Lee, and able to think fast (for a human). She hesitated only briefly, probably not noticeable for other humans, before launching into our own introductions.
My performance reliability had dropped three percent and my systems were giving me an alert about increased cortisol levels by the time she said, "and this is Eden, our Security Supervisor."
(Yes, Security Consultant Eden had received an impromptu promotion in order to make me sound more important.)
I managed to nod, not looking at the Controller but keeping my gaze directed vaguely at the entire group.
Pin-Lee had been smart enough not to leave me for last and moved on quickly to introduce Tarik and Ratthi, the Controller‘s eyes following her gestures.
I ran a facial expression and body language analysis on the Controller, searching for any signs of recognition. It came out at a laughable 8% probability.
I sent it to ART along with my parameters and a query to double check my result.
After a few seconds it send me its own results, almost identical.
She didn‘t recognise you, ART said, its voice reassuring, almost soft in my feed. You‘re sure she‘s seen you before?
She worked in the deployment center, I repeated. I wasn‘t sure I could go into more detail right now without having a Moment, even if I wanted to, which I didn’t.
You‘ve changed a lot since those days. And your move-like-a-human code is also much improved.
She must be pretending not to know me, so they can prepare and bring enough firepower to take me down before the next meeting.
There was a pause. ART managed to make even silence sound sarcastic. She must be a really good actor if she can fool both of our analyses.
I know she knows me, I insisted.
There was another pause, more considering this time.
Pin-Lee had finished introducing everyone and her and the Controller were now going through the formalised small talk of giving and receiving mutual thanks for the reception and the journey respectively, assuring mutual anticipation of fruitful negotiations and expressing and receiving wishes for our delegation to rest and refresh after the long travel.
You‘re sure this is the same person?, ART said eventually.
It pissed me off enough that I queried my archive for files I would have under no other circumstances reviewed voluntarily, and sent ART a screencap of the Controller in their company uniform, carefully scrubbed of all metadata.
Biometrics are a match, ART admitted.
Yeah, no shit, asshole.
And the ID matches? Perhaps she is part of an identical sibling set.
This time it was me who hesitated, long enough that ART did the feed equivalent of raising an eyebrow at me.
Her feed ID was always blacked out, I admitted reluctantly. I never knew her name.
I could feel ART‘s condescension over the feed before it even said anything and my irritation spiked. I fucking know it‘s her, okay? Stop trying to make me second-guess myself.
I‘m just trying to understand your reasoning, ART said. It appears I am missing some information.
I hate it when it comes at me with the logical research transport voice.
It‘s … I almost said it‘s private, but that have been giving away too much.
I can‘t discuss this right now, I sent instead, shoving it back to the background distance where it should have been all along to monitor our mission.
Fuck, that was a mistake. Now it definitely knew something was wrong, but I didn‘t care—couldn’t care just now. The two groups of humans were moving now, the PSUMNT delegation being directed towards the hotel that would serve as our accommodations during the stay, with more platitudes being exchanged along the way, and I had to focus on seeming at least somewhat calm and normal and human.
As a Security Supervisor I probably had some leeway to be quiet and watchful, but I would still be expected to at least not be openly rude to the BasLever delegation.
I made sure to always keep a few humans between me and the Controller as we moved across the station floor. I tried to focus on doing my actual job, too, keeping an eye on the station security feed for any alerts, scanning the camera feeds for (other) potential hostiles, already cozying up to the hotel’s maintenance and security feeds as we approached so I could get access to their cameras as well and find out the level of surveillance we would have to expect in our quarters. But 40% of my attention stayed on the Controller at all time, whether I wanted to or not, hyperaware of every movement they made in my periphery, of their cheery voice, grating in my ears as they chatted with Pin-Lee and Iris.
The walk across the public docks and into the station proper only took 3.4 minutes though subjectively it felt at least ten times as long. Our hotel was just past the entrance to the station mall, so there was no need for an awkward pipe transit ride.
Plans were made for the first negotiation to begin early in the next cycle at the BasLever headquarters, and the two delegations parted at the entrance to the hotel with more platitudes and stock phrases.
I’d kept my analysis running in background but it still insisted there was no indication the Controller had recognised me.
I entered the hotel with my humans once the BasLever delegation was out of visual range, and kept tracking their progress through the station via the cameras, but there was no sudden change in their demeanor, no handwaving or excitement.
While Iris was procuring our room keys, I received feed messages from Ratthi and Pin-Lee asking if I was okay. ART had put the results of our recognition probability analysis into the team feed to various expressions of relief, but I could still see the humans glancing at me with apprehension as we waited.
I ignored them and made myself at home in HotelSecSys, checking to see if there were any flags on our group in their system and cutting out the cameras in our suite of rooms from their system like they had never been there, but keeping them on a closed circuit so I could still access them myself to keep an eye on my humans.
I don’t know what my face was doing and didn’t care to check, but whatever it was, it seemed to discourage them from trying to talk to me, or even each other, at least out loud. Ratthi and Tarik were definitely talking on the feed, but whatever it was, I was sure I didn’t want to hear it right now. Or possibly ever.
The team remained tense and silent until we had reached out suite and I had given it a (probably excessively thorough) sweep for any hostiles, signs of tampering or concealed surveillance devices. Only once I gave the all clear did the group move from the suite foyer into the large common room.
"Okay, what the fuck?", Pin-Lee said immediately, turning on her heels to glare at everyone. "How did we miss this? What happened? Didn’t we have a whole background check on BasLever before we even considered this deal? How did we not know they have a former company employee in a management position?"
Negotiator Joslin is listed as affiliated with BasLever for the past two CR standard years. There is no previous affiliation or employment history available on public records or feed profiles, ART sent on the team feed. It was docked close enough that I could give it access to my audio and visual inputs and the suite’s camera network.
"Shit." Pin-lee sighed and pinched at the bridge of her nose, probably to keep from glaring at me next. "SecUnit … did you actually read the mission brief before we got here?"
Okay, ouch. I mean, I could see why she would think this, but I did not actually half-ass my job most of the time, not anymore, not with so much on the line.
"Of course I fucking did."
"And you did not think to give us a head’s up or anything …?"
"Pin-Lee", Ratthi cut in, but his voice was soft. "Ease off. This must be hard for it."
"I didn’t know." I didn’t want to talk about this. My performance reliability had dipped another point. I wanted to turn and stare at the wall, even though none of the humans were actually looking at me.
Pin-Lee made a disbelieving noise. "You didn’t know. Until two seconds before contact, until …" She paused, her forehead wrinkling. "You didn’t know until you saw her face."
My organic parts felt all twisty and messed up. I resisted the urge to dial down my pain sensors. It wouldn’t have helped anyway. "The … Their feed ID was always blocked from me. And it’s not like anyone introduces themselves to a SecUnit."
There was an awkward 3.2 second pause as the humans digested this.
Then Pin-Lee let out a string of curses and sighed. "Fucking corporates. I fucking hate corporates." She sounded more resigned than angry now.
You and me both, Pin-Lee.
"Alright, how much trouble are we in here?", Iris said, sounding more matter-of-fact. "Peri, you said they didn’t actually recognise SecUnit, correct?"
Analysis suggests a less than 10% probability SecUnit was identified. However, this does not indicate likelihood of identification upon further contact.
She looked in my general direction. "You think they’ll realise you’re a SecUnit if you join the negotiations?"
"Probability is high", I said. Risk assessment was fluctuating somewhere in the lower seventies.
Iris chewed on her lips. "Perhaps then it would be best if SecUnit sat out the negotiations?" She looked around at the others, then towards me again. "You could still monitor us from here and intervene if anything goes wrong."
Risk assessment liked the odds of that even less. "No", I said. "You’re not going in without security."
"We’d still have Tarik with us", Ratthi pointed out.
Tarik, who, unlike me, wouldn’t be able to bring any weapons, and in spite of all his security expertise still had a squishy human body.
I gave Ratthi a look and he raised his hands in surrender.
I’m running a risk-benefit analysis, ART said. The risk of a violent escalation during the negotiation is higher if SecUnit is present. Before I could call it a traitor, it added: However, the risk of a violent escalation resulting in serious injury or death is higher if SecUnit isn’t present.
That settled things as far as I was concerned.
"I‘m not letting you go into that negotiation alone", I told the humans. "Especially not now. If they did recognise me and are bringing fire power to the negotiation to take me out, but I‘m not there …"
Well, chances were someone would be on the receiving end of that fire power. Humans with guns (or humans with SecUnits with guns) tended to be disappointed when they didn‘t get to use them. I‘d rather it was me who got shot than any of my humans.
Keeping them safe during the negotiation was the whole reason I‘d come on this mission in the first place. (Well, the whole reason I‘d actually come aboard the station and been given a role for the negotiation team, rather than staying on ART. The rest of the reason I‘d joined the mission … we will deal with that part when we get to it.)
"If they didn‘t recognise it, or aren‘t certain, SecUnit not being there for the negotiation would make them more suspicious", Seth admitted. His eyes glazed over for a moment as he reviewed the risk-benefit analysis ART had put up in the team feed. Finally, he nodded. "I think, given the data we currently have, we have to operate under the assumption that SecUnit was indeed not identified. Any objections?"
There weren’t any forthcoming, but before I could feel too much relief, Seth turned towards me.
"SecUnit, what can we do to make this easier for you? Since the BasLever people have already seen you, trying to change your appearance more now would just be suspicious, but is there anything else we can do to lower the risk of recognition?"
Have I mentioned that I didn’t want to talk about this? The team’s expectation almost froze me in place. (At some point maybe I would stop being surprised when humans actually asked my opinion in security matters.)
"I … my voice", I finally said. "They’ll recognise my voice."
Seth nodded and exchanged glances with Iris and Pin-Lee. "That shouldn’t be a problem, right? You’re not a negotiator, we can say you’re just there to observe and consult in any security matters. No need for you to speak."
Great. I love not speaking to humans.
"Anything else?"
I would definitely make a few adjustments to my move-like-a-human code, add some more reactions appropriate to a negotiation setting, but there was nothing the humans could do to help with that. There was one more thing, though.
"Look at me." I said reluctantly, then grimaced when several of the humans’ eyes turned to me immediately. "Not now. When we’re at BasLever I mean. Don’t avoid looking at me. Just … look at me as much as you would anyone else on the team."
"We’ll try", Pin-Lee said. "I think we’ve gotten kinda used to not doing that by now." She looked around at the others and most of them nodded. Ratthi looked unhappy.
Will you be okay?, he sent me privately in the feed. If you don’t want to face that person again, we’d all understand. We could come up with some excuse, I’m sure it would be fine.
I’m not letting you go into that negotiation alone, I repeated, in a tone I hoped brooked no argument.
You don’t have to force yourself, he went on anyway, argumenting. We’d be fine, it’s not like they’re that dangerous.
They’re corporates.
You know what I mean. It’s just a contract negotiation, not a hostage situation or anything.
I didn’t dignify that with an answer. To a corporate, they were practically the same thing.