Chapter Text
Stepping off the transport and into Preservation’s station was the second weirdest experience of my life, the first being woken up and suddenly not having a governor module anymore. This strange little polity’s been all over the newsfeeds in practically every system, Corporate or otherwise, for the last several months due to its deciding to allow constructs to get refugee status. It’s also been the talk of the University, since it just allied with Mihara and New Tideland.
I don’t know why I felt the need to come here. I’ve been doing just fine pretending to be an augmented human for 104,908 hours, but for some reason or another I took my ridiculous amount of unused vacation time (Vacations were the one thing I couldn’t get used to) and found myself standing in the middle of the busy port like a fucking moron. I'd never done this before. If I traveled, it was usually work related.
Alright. What do humans do when they travel somewhere? Find the hotel first, take a break, then buy food and explore. I found my way to a hotel using the feedmap and checked in with no issues, although the fact it was free made me do a double-take at the poor clerk and I think I scared zer a little. Oops. Being much bigger than average humans really sucks sometimes.
Due to the room being free I expected it to be really shitty, but holy shit I was fucking wrong. This looked like the high-class rooms that rich clients in the CR would stay in, complete with a very fluffy bed and fancy shower. There were even feedtags with cute animated instructions on how to use all the appliances. It was clean and smelled nice, like some kind of flower. What the hell?
I sat down on the bed (yes it was as fluffy and soft as it looked) and found myself debating. Humans always need to get food, and I’m still pretending to be an augmented human (I didn’t design the module that can send false data to most scanners for fun) but did I have to do that here? Would it be okay to just.. Not? I mean, it's not like I’m going to walk around with my a short sleeved shirt with my gun ports showing, but fuck I hate pretending to eat and do all the other human maintenance things. Especially working at their pace. I could get so much done if I didn’t have to hide.
You know what? Fuck it, this debate can wait for later, I want to explore the station and see what else is here. I shoved up from the bed and made my way back towards the station mall, exploring the various shops and tourist attractions they had set up out there. It was a really odd setup, at least to me, where instead of taking hard currency cards, it was a trade and barter system. Basically if you wanted to ‘buy’ something of significant value, you’d have to trade something like your skills or data.
I must’ve been standing around for a long time, because someone said, “Having trouble?”
I turned around to see a short human with brown skin and black hair smiling up at me, his hands in his pockets. His feed said his name was Dr. Ratthi.
“Oh, um, yeah. It’s a lot.” I responded, smiling back at him.
“First time?” He asked, and I nodded. That seemed to make him excited. “Ooo! I can show you around, if you’re alright with that. I’ve been told I make an excellent tour guide.”
Ratthi’s expression was so damn bright and shiny that I almost switched to my sun filters. “Sure, that sounds great.”
For the next hour I let Ratthi lead me around the station, showing me the various shops and then the entertainment area, which had multiple bars and performance/media showing rooms. He talked his head off the entire time, but I didn’t mind at all. I’ve never met a human that radiated this level of ‘friend’ before, and you could just tell he didn’t have a mean atom in his whole existence.
I was curious about him, so when the tour of the entertainment area ended I asked, “What do you do for work?”
“Oh! I’m a biologist.” Ratthi’s smile still hadn’t faded. “I mostly go on planetary surveys, you know to see if our polity should buy a share in it? My last one was absolutely crazy, though. That’s where I met SecUnit.”
“Oh?” It was really hard not to flinch at the mention of a name I used to be addressed by (most clients called both Combat SecUnit and SecUnits either ‘SecUnit’ or ‘Unit’)
“Yeah. It’s a really long story, did you hear about the GrayCris stuff?” His smile had faded a little bit now.
“Yes.”
I wasn’t even lying. If I hadn’t heard about the GrayCris event, I wouldn’t be here. I read up on everything having to do with the rogue SecUnit that got granted refugee status, I mean how could I not? It was the first time a Unit was mentioned in the news without it being the center of a high-casualty event.
Ratthi looked relieved. “Cool, guess I don’t have to explain then. Onto our next thing!”
After he showed me the Station’s security area and the administration’s office (I have no idea why he felt the need to show a visitor that, but part of me thinks he just wanted to talk more) he said he was going to get coffee and offered for me to join him. I agreed, because he was a friendly human and while drinking anything sucked major balls, I was having a good time.
We sat down at this really cozy little cafe with lots of plants, and the human worker happily greeted us. They took Ratthis order first, which honestly could barely be considered coffee. (Probably 40% sugar, 55% milk, and 5% actual coffee) Then they turned to me, and I just said the same thing because its easier than dragging my files on human beverages out of archives. Ratthi had a very puzzled look on his face, and he stared at me in a way that made me uncomfortable.
“What?” I asked, wondering if he knew his coffee choice was frowned upon by the coffee community. (Some humans get HEATED about coffee (Seth and Iris, I am looking directly at you), for whatever stupid reason. It all tastes like shit regardless of how you ‘extract the bean’)
“I thought constructs couldn’t eat or drink?”
The sheer shock of what he just said made my entire brain, mechanical and organic, crash so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. It must’ve shown on my face too, because he waved his hands like he was apologizing.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to make you think you had to do human social things.” Yeah he definitely had the wrong idea of why I felt like I’d been struck by lightning. He kept rambling on for a few seconds until I finally pulled my stupid brain back together.
“How?” I asked.
He looked even more confused. “How what?”
“How did you know?” I looked around and the cafe was empty. The person working was in the back. “How did you know I was a Combat SecUnit?”
“I, uh.. Wait, you’re not here for refuge?” Ratthi looked as dumbfounded as I felt.
I lowered my voice. “I’ve been rogue for 11.7 corporate standard years. I’ve been pretending to be an augmented human the entire time, even went to university and everything. You’re the first person to ever figure it out.”
He shifted awkwardly in his seat, looking at the wall. “Oh. Well.. As for how.. You reminded me of SecUnit, when you were looking around the station mall. You had the same expression it did when it went to the station mall for the first time.” He laughed lightly. “SecUnit would be so proud of me for actually noticing something for once.”
I don't know why, but I wasn't terrified that Ratthi knew my biggest secret. Instead, I smiled and narrowed my eyes at him. “Ah, you’re that client. Got it.”
“Hey!” He gasped in mock offense, “‘That’ client?”
“The happy-go-lucky type that almost willingly walks into the mouth of hostile fauna?” I said, and he burst out laughing.
“Yeah, that’s me.” The bright expression was back again. “The terminal optimist. Anyway, you said you went to university, right? What’d you major in?”
“Physics and engineering. I design wormhole generators and transport drives. Teach sometimes, on the side.”
Ratthi’s face went all soft and weird (I still suck at some expression’s meanings) just as the cafe person came over with the drinks. We both said thank you and he looked down at the drink in front of me.
“So.. you gonna drink that or can I have it?”