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I eyed Sofi warily.
She was standing in the middle of her room and I didn't see any sign of teapots with invisible liquids. The table was shoved into a corner and on it was Captain Clock, its back open from more mechanical repairs of dubious expertise. Threat assessment ticked up from its 10% baseline to a 10.5%.
Sofi was - wearing was a generous word for it - drowning in a white jacket she pilfered from one of the adult’s closet. She held in her little hand a large pad of paper and a pen. (Mensah, Farai and Tano had conflicting policies on what to do when Sofi got her hands on a writing implement with pigment that did not wipe off easily. I decided to ignore that issue, for now. )
This was probably a very bad idea. But Sofi had shown me her tattoo stickers, and hers hadn't washed off after three days. Any parts she checked off her list were going to be rebranded. Sofi would sticker my logos. On the inside too. I mean, obviously she couldn’t reach all of them. But having a rainbow unicorn over my power core logo for a few days seemed like a nice change. And a fuck you to my company. I might even make some photos.
"Come in, patient zero," Sofi said it solemnly, her face uncharacteristically like Mensah's when she was being serious about a sad topic. "MedSystem has informed me of your ill health. We have the latest advance-ments in... in..." She struggled for a moment and then sent me a message on the feed. What are you?
A construct, I sent her an edited and abridged summary from my user manual that didn't mention the murdery parts. Sofi responded with a selection of sparkly hearts as acknowledgement.
"- in construct surgery."
“Dr. Rumuz,” I started, and paused as Sofi changed her feed ID to match. It seemed my hastily made-up name passed Sofi’s rigorous standards (this time). I continued following the script I adapted from an amalgamation of MedCenter Argala episodes: “Thank you for seeing me.”
"You're welcome. I am an expert in construct medicine, and I can tell you have a chronic case of sticker-itus. That is when you have permanent stickers that cause you physical or psychological distress." She was clearly quoting something for that last part. She placed a page of sparkly unicorn stickers on the desk. "I would like to propose a sticker replacement surgery which will instead leave you with acute sticker-itus."
I had observed the older children telling the younger ones not to stare at my logos because I was sensitive about them. That wasn't inaccurate. I looked at the page on the desk that was labelled "cute unicorn stickers". They were also temporary, instead of you know, chronic.
"Is that a pun?" I asked.
Her serious face slipped and she grinned. "It's a good one, right?"
ART said it was important to give growing humans positive reinforcement through smiling (no), physical contact (absolutely not) and communication (ugh). I said, "Yes. It was very funny."
(ART also said I shouldn't inform small humans about the benefits of my organic side. Such as that we don't get itises. itisi? Human illnesses.)
Sofi beamed harder at me. If this was one of her shows, there would be poorly drawn sparkle sigils around her. I edited some on top of my recording to show to Mensah, Farai and Tano later.
"Would the patient please lay down on the examination table?" She gestured at the floor.
"Oh." I scooted down onto the floor with more enthusiasm than was probably warranted. Examination tables with humans hovering over me was too much like a company check-up for me to stay calm. But the floor was different. It's where I usually ended up during missions. And bleeding out on the floor with humans hovering over me and fussing were actually some of my favourite memories.
I laid down and closed my eyes. I didn't think Sofi had noticed that the pattern of colour on my irises made the company logo. There's a reason I don't like eye contact, okay? Anyway, her putting a sticker in my eyes was not going to work, so I just concealed those.
"I'm preparing the first treatment location." Sofi explained, washing the back of my hand. She seemed to be waiting for me to reply.
"Ok." I said.
She held my hand in her tiny ones, one supporting my palm and another holding a folded up towel. With the towel, she softly rubbed at the synthetic skin on the back of my hand. Rhythmically, back and forth. Back and forth. My risk assessment decreased slightly and I melted a little into the floor.
I am not normally a fan of being grabbed by humans. And small humans are often sticky and less pleasant to be grabbed at by than adults for that reason. This was different because Sofi had asked first and was not sticky.
Also being cared for when you aren't even injured is weird, but in a good way.
I watched though my drones as she selected a sticker and placed it over the logo on the back of my hand. The feel of it sticking to my skin was mildly unpleasant, like when something dries onto your skin and makes it feel tight and not flexible. It did completely cover the logo, which I appreciated. It was nice to look at my hand and not be instantly reminded of the company.
The sticker glimmered in the light when I twisted my hand. It caught attention in a way I didn't think I minded, directing humans away from my face and to my hands.
Sofi had let go of my hand and was holding the two of hers together in an expression very similar to Farai, "What do you think? Do you like it? Is it helping?"
"Um. Yes. Dr. Rumuz. It is helping a lot." I wasn't used to Doctors asking if something helped. It was nice to be talked to like a person, like a patient. I had to scan MedCentre Argala for another appropriate response. "Thank you for your care."
Her face was small and round compared to bigger humans. She's softer looking and when she smiled down at me and her cheeks changed shape - without the many wrinkles that Mensah and Farai have. (I'd asked Overse once and she said that wrinkles developed from overuse of specific facial expressions, and that if I kept pulling weird faces without a cubicle, that mine would get stuck that way. It explained why Gurathin looked like how he did too.)
"Oh! I almost forgot! We have to kiss it better too. That's the only way for wounds to heal." Sofi leaned over and kissed it. Me. I melted a little more. Between the logo cover up and being treated as a person for non-essential medical treatment, I would figuratively end up as part of the floor.
Sofi scanned through her selection of stickers. "Where do you want a sparkly spaceship treatment?"
The spaceship was rounded with an oversized crew compartment. It looked nothing like ART, but still. I knew where to put it.
“One moment,” I said as I pushed myself up to sit next to Sofi. I pulled my poncho and shirt off and started prying at the access panel under my synthetic skin. Only then did it occur to me to ask Sofi whether she would be comfortable with what I’d already started doing.
I froze. "Um."
I didn't know how to ask this. Sofi was watching me with wide curious eyes. I missed ART for a moment, it was good with children and would know what I should do. It would say something like, you need to communicate with them, children need words and to hear from you.
Imaginary ART was just as unhelpful as real ART. "I... need to open my access panel. To access the... wound." (It was hard to call my logos that, as they didn't fit the definition of wounds, but I didn't want to ruin Sofi's game.) She sent me multiple affirmative hand signals.
I was having a bit of trouble opening the panel. SecUnits aren't exactly expected to work on ourselves, and while I do have a greater range of motion than a human, it was hard to get any leverage at this angle.
Sofi could see what I was trying to do. "Do you need help?" She asked.
"Yes" I admitted. When she found the edge of the panel a warning popped up in my feed. Sofi isn't augmented and her interface device is not connected to the feed, so she didn't notice. But I got it loud and clear. "Warning: Work by anyone other than a licensed [company] technician will void this SecUnit's warranty"
I didn't pass the warning on to Sofi.
I had voided my own warranty years ago when I hacked my govmod. Even if I hadn’t, I wouldn't care, I was never going back to the company for maintenance anyway.
She carefully opened the back panel, and then the one underneath it.
"I am going to sterilize the operation site now, this may sting, please hold still." She warned as she started rubbing a cloth on the logo to get the dust off.
"Yes, doctor, I will." I assured her.
My drones detect motion at the door. Mensah was looking into the room to see what we were doing.
I agreed to this. I sent to her before she could say anything. Sofi hadn't 't noticed her yet. She took the big rocket ship sticker and carefully placed it over the logo on my power core. I watched with my drones.
I liked the way it looked. No one else would be able to see it, but I would know it is there.
Sofi was still looking down at the sticker. I noticed she had been stationary for over ten seconds, which is very long time for such a small human. I also hadn't recieved a reply from Dr. Mensah, which was starting to worry me.
I don't want to explain anything more though. Then finally Sofi declared loudly, "There! All better."
She hesitated over me. "A perfect operation, don't you agree?"
"Yes, doctor. I feel better than new." I answered, surprised to find I meant it. Sofi nodded to herself and started to carefully close the access panels. Then Mensah finally replied to my message with a positive hand-gesture sigil and started to move away. She paused and then after a moment, sent me: Your systems just sent me an automated warning. I'm going to ignore that."
Oh. Oops. I might have to explain that later. Or maybe not. Mensah was very good about me not explaining things. So I just had to figure out if I felt bad enough that I would explain to her anyway.
Sofi ended up voiding my warranty with her repairs 37 times.
ART was less good about me not explaining things when it was giving me a tune up a few months later.
The stickers on my hands and legs had worn off before I left Preservation, but the one on my power core was still there.
What is this? It asked.
You know I don't like my logos, I had something done about them last time I visited Mensah.
Was it done by a child? ART is generally fond of children but I don't think it appreciated me getting a child to fix a problem it hadn't been able to solve.
Sofi is quite a skilled technician for her age.
ART was quiet for about two seconds. PSUMNT is restructuring their construct technician training program. By the time she's old enough to apply, it might be worth her time.
I wondered if ART was going to try and recruit all of Mensah's children to PSUMNT. It wasn't a bad idea, I would be able to keep an eye on them.
Leave the sticker there please, it isn't interfering with anything. I told ART.
Is there any significance to the fact that it's a space ship? ART asked.
No, it's just the only one that was the right size. I lied. (I think ART could tell that I was lying.)
