Chapter Text
‘A Good Day’ was a subjective term. Its definition varied from person to person, context to context, and it changed with the times.
In a recession, a businessman would call a day of not going bankrupt a ‘Good Day’. An employee in a recession would call a day of not getting laid off a ‘Good Day’. In a war, gaining a square foot of land could be a ‘Good Day’ in a particularly messy zone, while in other areas conquering a whole city would barely be worth noting. For a billionaire, earning a million dollars was a ‘Bad Day’, because they had been expecting two million instead.
So, it was all a matter of standards.
In Outpost 3, the standards were so low that a day on which no one died was a ‘Good Day’.
It was not a good day in Outpost 3.
Khan Doorman, head of the WDF, Chief Engineer, and effective Head of the whole colony, was having a very bad day.
A Murder Drone had broken into the outermost residential area. By the time the WDF got to it with shock spikes, it had killed 20 people. And then it just flew off, leaving them with nothing but 20 half-eaten corpses.
And to make it worse, two of his closest friends had died. Mitchell and Yeva.
Mitchell Digger had been an old friend since they had been manufactured. They had done engineering together, had been shipped to Outpost 3 together, and they had often worked the same mining sectors as well. After the core collapse, Khan had gone into construction, but their friendship remained. Nothing could break their friendship, considering that even their wives were best friends.
Nori and Yeva. Those two had been a part of some human experiment that had left both drones slightly kooky. Yeva had adjusted better than Nori, who had psychic visions until the day the Murder Drones got to her.
He and Nori had hit it off pretty well, and Yeva and Mitchell got along like a house on fire. Nori and Yeva had an inside joke about Mitchell’s name, and to this day, he never figured it out. The kids had come along eventually, with little Doll inheriting Yeva’s Russian vocalizations.
He could see her now, sitting in the front row, closest to the caskets, struggling to hold back her tears.
His own daughter had been deprived of her mother when she was an untrained neural network so the implications hadn’t really set in, but Doll was 8, and had already spent a few years in her child body. She had been three feet away from a Murder Drone as it ripped both her parents apart in front of her. He could see the emotions flashing across her visor, and he felt his heart break a little more.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay long. The Murder Drones had found a way into Outpost 3, which meant that soon enough, more would try. It was his job as Chief Engineer to make sure that they couldn’t. He had to identify all the weak points of the bunker and find and seal the entrance that it had found. He couldn’t grieve forever.
He quietly slipped out of the room, putting his business face back on. He had a job to do.
“Mel, get the engineering division to Door 2,” Khan said to his assistant, who had been waiting outside. “We need to patch the hole before the sun sets, and then we need to reinforce the whole of the bunker so that they can’t break through again. Door 1 can wait.
“I also need the WDF fully rested for a night shift. We need every drone we can find armed with shock spikes and a flamethrower. And all the magnets you can find. At the very least, they’ll slow the Murder Drones down.”
“Yes, sir!” Mel said, before scurrying off to the depths of Outpost 3. Khan sighed and made his way to door 2. It was going to be a long week.
It was a long week. He’d barely been able to enter sleep mode for more than a few minutes every day, and his processors were almost smoking. And it wasn’t just him; Every drone in engineering and the WDF was similarly stressed. But they had finally done it, and door 2, along with the secondary bunker wall, was fully upgraded and all holes had been patched. They were running a full shift, but at least half of them had finally been allowed to go home and sleep. They’d be back to replace the other half soon enough, and everyone would still be doing double shifts until they fixed door 1, but it was better than 24x7 operation.
Khan wearily opened the door to his house, too tired to appreciate the impeccable craftsmanship of the sliding door as he stepped in.
“Dad!”
He barely managed to turn his head before a purple-haired midget of a child barreled into him, nearly knocking him down.
“Uzi,” He said softly. “How are you holding up, snowflake?”
“I missed you,” She spoke into his jacket, hugging him even tighter. “I haven’t seen you all week.”
“I’m here now, sweetie.”
He picked up his daughter and walked to his bed, plugging himself in and feeling his own charging cable fit just right. Batteries and emergency charges from the common charging units could keep you going, but they were no match for the real thing.
He saw the words “SLEEP MODE” appear on her visor, and he allowed his systems to slow down as well. He reached around to the back of her neck and plugged in the second charging cable, the one which Nori had used, years ago.
He felt bad, because his daughter had been so stressed that she had fallen asleep within a minute of being in his presence. She was young; she must have been under so much stress, especially so, given the events that had happened. She had liked her Auntie Yeva and Uncle Mitchell, and losing them both so suddenly had to have had a major psychological impact on her, and he had just spent an entire week away from her without so much as calling.
But if Uzi had it this bad, then how was it for Doll? Both parents gone in a single night, left alone in her apartment, with no one to console her or tell her that somehow, she would make it.
Doll was his niece, the daughter of his best friend, and he would be damned if he just abandoned her to suffer alone.
Right before he fell asleep, he sent off a message to RR (Robot Resources), saying that he was adopting Doll. He might not be the father figure she wanted, nor the father figure that she deserved, but he vowed to Mitchell that he would be the father figure that she needed.
Khan had optimized his systems to run on 4 hours of sleep mode per day, but this time, he had taken a full eight to recover. He woke up to see Uzi sprawled across his chest, her cooling fans humming along just fine. His own fans picked up speed as his processors came online, but he allowed himself to remain in low-power mode for a few more minutes.
Just relaxing with his daughter; Nothing more, nothing less. He had been reminded that this peace and quiet could be taken away at a moment’s notice.
He once more looked down at his daughter. Uzi, his precious little miracle. She was the reason why he built this entire place, and she was the reason why he knew he had to get out of bed soon and go back to fortifying the outermost bunker wall and door 1.
“Mmmmph,” Uzi mumbled as she exited sleep mode. Tired, purple eye emotes appeared on her visor, which quickly focused on him. “Morning, dad.”
“Good morning, Uzi!” He said, trying to inject some false levity into his tone. “Are you ready for today?”
“Ugh, no,” Uzi groaned as she pushed herself off of him and sat up. “I don’t wanna go to school; Everyone there is so boring!”
“Haha! I know, right? Even all the guys I work with are just so slow and old. But we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do!”
Uzi huffed as he ran his hands through her hair, sitting next to her.
“Now run along and get ready while I make breakfast!”
“Okay, dad!” She said, smiling brightly as he kissed her forehead. He watched her skip away, and forced his creaking body to move.
Right, he hadn’t had any lubricant all week. Or at least any of the good stuff. Better add that to the breakfast menu. He made his way to the kitchen and opened a new box of 9-volt batteries. A finger across both terminals revealed that they were fresh and full of charge: The perfect breakfast.
For himself, he grabbed a 12-volt battery pack. It was going to be a long day, and rations sucked. He was the project lead; he needed to be fully functional throughout the day.
And so, he sent Uzi off to school, and began his long day at work. He got a notification from RR that Doll was now under his custody, and allowed himself a small smile. That was at least one thing that he was doing right.
The workday had dragged on forever. The Murder Drones, after realizing that bunker wall 2 was reinforced beyond their ability to bust through, had thrown a tantrum and had wrecked the inside of wall 1, as well as seriously messed with the controls and hydraulics of door 1. One of them had left virus chips throughout the instrumentation, so that was a problem and a half that they needed to solve. Not to mention the nanite acid, which needed to be neutralized first by a strong base to neutralize the acid, and then hot saltwater to kill the nanites. Those darn Disassemblers never made anything easy.
The day was stretched even longer by his constant thoughts of bringing Doll home. He hadn’t seen his honorary, no double-honorary niece since the funeral. And he was just assuming that she was living in the emergency shelters, where all the other drones had been moved.
Darn. He hadn’t even started, and he was already doing a terrible job at raising the child of his best friend and his wife’s sister-in-arms.
As soon as his shift was done and he had set up the next one, he went over to the emergency shelters. The process of moving them back into their homes would begin soon, so it was likely that he would find Doll there.
“Mr. Doorman, sir!” The RR representative said, saluting him as he walked into the office. “What can I do for you today?”
“I’d like to know the location of Doll Digger. I believe my request went through this morning.”
The man typed her name into the computer.
“Yes, we have her at shelter #3. She’s scheduled to move back next week, but you can pick her up now if you want.”
Khan nodded, leaving quietly.
Scheduled to move back. Scheduled to move back, his foot! Move back where? Into an empty house where here parents had been murdered? Humans had really screwed up their empathy programming, hadn’t they?
In the blink of an eye emote, he found himself outside shelter #3. A drone showed him to Doll’s room. He twisted the doorknob, and stepped in.
He had heard horror stories from older parents regarding what they caught their teenagers doing when they walked into their rooms without knocking. It generally involved magnets, motors, making out, a distinct lack of clothing, or any combination of the above.
But what Khan saw when he walked in on Doll was something that surpassed it all.
It was only there for a fraction of a second, but he could see Doll’s right eye emote flicker back to normal in the time it took a teenager to close an incognito tab.
But he had seen it. For the briefest instant, he had seen the three-pronged hexagon.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh no.
This had just gotten a lot more complicated than before, and a lot more dangerous than anything he could hope to handle.
He signed Doll out in a daze and subconsciously mailed the adoption paperwork, processors still rebooting from the shock.
He knew what that symbol was.
The Absolute Solver.
Nori and Yeva had described it as some sort of Eldritch God that went around eating planets. It infected a drone’s programming, and eventually took over their bodies. It progressed slowly for a while, but past a certain stage, the growth was explosive, and a drone could go from knocking down buildings to eating planets in the span of an hour. As it developed, it consumed increasing amounts of fuel and coolant, rapidly overheating drone bodies. If the hunger was suppressed, a corrupted drone could lose their sanity and go full cannibal.
If their recollection was accurate, Doll would be the youngest drone to have ever manifested the powers of the Solver.
Yeva had hoped that it wouldn’t, but the Solver had indeed been inherited by her child. And if Doll had inherited it from Yeva, then that also meant that Uzi…..
No. This was not the time to think about that. There was already one child in front of him who needed help, and he was going to do so. If the Solver powers never progressed, it was likely that Doll would learn how to suppress them herself. Until then, a diet of extra oil and coolant would be beneficial, no, necessary.
He opened the door to his home, ushering Doll inside. The young girl stepped in wordlessly, her eye emotes scanning the room. He checked in on Uzi, who was already asleep. He took Doll by the hand and guided her over to the couch, sitting down next to her.
“Doll,” He began, struggling to find the words. “I am…… So sorry for what happened to you. I can’t imagine what you’re going through, and it’s my fault. I should have reinforced the bunker better, built early warning systems, and gotten there sooner. Mitchell and Yeva were good people; They didn’t deserve this. They loved you, and they were taken away from you.
“I know I can never replace your parents, but know that if there is anything you need, I will be there for you.”
There was a minute of silence.
And then he heard her breath hitch. The digital tears that she had been holding back all week came rushing out as she wailed in sorrow.
“Oh, you poor child,” Khan said, immediately bringing her into a hug. “There, there. Let it all out.”
Doll continued to wail into his jacket, and Khan just sat there, gently patting her back. For a good hour, there was nothing else that needed to be done.
“[I-I miss them,]” Doll sobbed in Russian. “[I miss then so much!]”
“I know, dear,” Khan said, finally allowing himself to process that his best friend and his wife’s best friend were both gone, a few digital tears rolling down his own visor. I miss them too.”
The next day, Khan even told Uzi that she didn’t need to go to school. Uzi was happy, but her spirits were dampened by the realization of exactly what had happened. Her cousin/sister had lost both her parents, and she herself had lost her favorite aunt and uncle.
Unfortunately, Khan could not skip his duties or take a day off in such times of emergency. His job was paramount to their safety, and in such times when their safety was compromised, he had to work even harder.
But he could leave the girls with a nice setup. Hooking the TV up to the internet, a VPN, and the access to all the illegal anime streaming sites and torrents that they could want, along with two giant bottles of high-end coolant and an enormous bag of fresh button batteries.
“Take care, girls! Don’t wait up for me!”
“Bye dad!” Uzi said, and Doll simply nodded her head. He shot them a smile, and closed the door behind him.
He could only hope that his digital daughter would be able to help his traumatized, adopted daughter.
Uzi did not know how to react. The best she could do was put on an episode of Nichijou (Pirated, of course!) and fill a large bowl with button batteries.
But Doll was looking at something beyond the TV screen, and she hadn’t even eaten a single battery.
Uzi knew that Doll had just suffered an unimaginable loss, and the ‘consolation.txt’ file that her dad gave her yesterday explicitly said not to say ‘I understand, my mom died too’. Which she thought was dumb, but she listened to her dad.
What the file did encourage was eating. So, she would need to use her ‘Sneak 100’ skills to get a reaction out of Doll.
Very carefully, she poked Doll in the cheek, slowly increasing the force until the other drone noticed. She did eventually react, and when she turned her head, Uzi was quick to shove the button battery that she had hidden in her palm between Doll’s lips.
Doll’s solid eye emotes hollowed out for a few seconds, focusing on where Uzi’s thumb met her mouth.
“Eat,” Uzi insisted. “It’s no fun to eat alone.”
Doll stared at her for a good minute. But then she finally gently bit down on the battery, allowing the charged acid to spread across her tongue.
“More,” Uzi insisted, raising a handful to Doll’s face. Go ahead; They’re nice.”
Doll cautiously raised her hand, accepting the batteries. She tilted her head back and popped them in her mouth, and slowly began chewing.
“[Ca-Can I sit next to you?]” Doll hesitantly asked.
lang_Identifier(input_Audio) = Russian
lang_Translate(Russian, input_Audio)
“You’re already sitting next to me.”
Doll shook her head, taking the bowl of batteries into her lap, and then scooching over until she was sitting snugly against Uzi.
Oh.
Oh.
A lot of the nonsense in ‘consolation.txt’ suddenly made a lot more sense. She immediately put an arm around Doll’s shoulder and pulled her in even tighter. Doll gave a small gasp, before slowly resting her head on Uzi’s shoulder. This only made Uzi want to hug her harder.
“[Your mom is gone too, right?]”
Uzi was conflicted, but since ‘consolation.txt’ said nothing about Doll initiating that conversation, she went with it.
“Yeah,” Uzi said, her posture drooping with sadness. “I miss her.”
This time, Doll hugged her back, and Uzi allowed her own head to rest atop Doll’s.
On the TV, they saw a man ripping off his jacket to reveal a bulletproof vest, and then proceeding to suplex a deer.
Uzi could not help but giggle, but Doll’s reaction surprised her.
“[Pfft!]”
Uzi smiled, happy that Doll was feeling better, if only a little.
Khan returned several hours later to the sight of a half-empty bag of button batteries, an almost-drained bottle of coolant, and his two little girls, giggling like, well, little girls, as they watched a girl on TV flip a goat. He allowed himself a small smile.
They had suffered a tragedy, but all was not yet lost. They had all been hurt, but with time, they would heal.
He saw Uzi and Doll hugging each other, and he knew that until the day they were deprogrammed, they would be sisters.