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They’re in a stand off in one of the empty corridors of the planet surface dock.
Ratthi and SecUnit had been split from the others by an unexpected ag-bot, the scale of its attack damaging their route to reunite and they had been forced to make a detour. SecUnit had suspected it was an ambush, and it was right of course.
It’s still his fault they got caught.
Ratthi had stumbled when some of the floor gave way to the planetary surface beneath it. When SecUnit had turned to provide aid, one of the gray people had started shooting at it, splitting its attention just enough that another was able to get up close and personal with Ratthi and a gun. SecUnit stopped as soon as it realised, then staggered from a couple of more shots until the gray person who was shooting at it also realised that Ratthi had gotten them captured. (Or maybe they just wanted to take another few shots at SecUnit, it was hard to tell with the way they grinned.)
Amena had been right when she labelled them the gray people. Nothing with the word gray in it had been good for them, and the two gray people who had caught that proved it right.
Perihelion is in his feed, linked to him and SecUnit, providing updates on the ETA of their rescue team. Ratthi can’t respond, not without obvious subvocalisation to the person wrapped around his body. So SecUnit’s response is a clipped, short: We’re fine. Ratthi is a hostage. Hurry the shit up.
The muzzle of the gun digs into the side of his mouth, pressing flesh up against his teeth.
Ratthi keeps his breathing shallow and his body relaxed. No sudden movements, just the way SecUnit has drilled into him over and over. He resists the urge to lean away from the gun, even as his eyes begin to water.
Across from the two gray people holding him hostage stands SecUnit, its face locked in an expression of furious rage even as it watches them all carefully. He knows how much SecUnit hates hostage situations, how they remind it of when it was helpless and unable to act in the company, tries to apologise for getting them caught around the gun shoving into the side of his mouth. “Sorry SecUnit.”
SecUnit doesn’t acknowledge his attempt.
“I’m going to rip you to shreds then blow your head off.” It states it flatly, none of the rage on its face making it into its voice. It leans forward slightly, balancing on its feet in a way that demonstrates how ready it is to proceed with a demonstration when it gets an opportunity.
“Shut up.” The one holding Ratthi adjusts its grip and shakes him, shoves the gun into skin harder and cuts the insides of his mouth against his teeth. He tries to swallow the bitter copper down discreetly but SecUnit’s eyes are watching him in a way that says it knows.
The one who had been shooting SecUnit moves next to Ratthi. They glance at the one holding him, smiling with those sharp jagged teeth so common among the gray people. “Weapons don’t speak.”
“It thinks it’s a person.” The one holding him laughs, the movement shaking him and Ratthi feels so helpless.
“It is a person!” He bites it out angrily, takes the sharp punishment of the gun into the side of his face as worth it. He’s probably covered in lots of circular bruises now.
Don’t provoke them. Perihelion, at the same time as SecUnit sends: For fuck’s sake Ratthi, don’t piss them off.
Ratthi wishes he could subvocalise back that it is a person and it’s important to push back against anyone saying otherwise. (Privately he holds a fear that SecUnit doesn’t truly believe it is a person. That every time someone says something like this to it, it internalises it a little bit more and loses the progress it has made.)
He keeps his mouth firmly shut and glowers at the floor instead.
The one holding him is gloating. “See how easy it was, how easy it is to control you? You’re our weapon now. All we need is this one pathetic babbling creature.” They shake Ratthi again, rattling his brains and it makes him a little nauseous.
The other one steps closer, looking at Ratthi with cold eyes. “This is a very good looking creature. Good genetics, pleasing to the eye.” They run a hand down his shirt. “Would make things less boring.” Ratthi twists away from their grasp but the hands chase him.
SecUnit makes a snarling noises and takes an angry step towards them, just as the one holding Ratthi pulls the gun from his cheek to slam the barrel into the side of his head. It hurts, he can feel it digging in and making him bleed.
The gray person sounds pleased. “Stop.”
SecUnit stops moving instantly.
The other one follows up in a mocking voice. “It still thinks it gets to make choices.”
SecUnit is struggling with itself and Ratthi hates that he can see the moment it shuts off the part of it that makes it more alive. Its posture straightens into a position he hasn’t seen since it investigated the DeltFall sabotage, its face falls flat and blank. Lets itself become an object again just to protect Ratthi who got them caught in this trap.
“Please, don’t hurt him.” SecUnit says it quietly, its eyes flicking to him then away.
“We only need this creature alive to control you.” The hands are moving over Ratthi’s chest again, making his skin crawl. He tries to imitate SecUnit and holds himself almost painfully still. “A bit of hurt makes things interesting.”
Rescue team is on ground, ETA from your location is 27 minutes. Perihelion informs them. SecUnit tags it with an acknowledgement.
Ratthi can do this, he can distract them until rescue arrives. He can hold himself back from cringing away, even as his eyes start to water again, his face twists in fear and he wishes he could make it as blank as SecUnit’s.
He is surprised, but not surprised, when the other gray person brings their second gun around to trace it down his chest and towards his waist. Digs it into him in a way that he can’t help but move backwards from in discomfort.
“Why is everything so boring?” They jab him with the gun again and he can’t help the flinch back.
“Please stop.” SecUnit says it flatly, just as quiet as before.
The one holding his arm tightens their grip. “Oh, the weapon is begging?”
“That’s interesting, the weapon begs.”
“Maybe it wants to take the creature’s place?” SecUnit’s face twitches for a moment, its shoulders hunching up, and then, like a wave, it settles back into its default blankness.
“Please stop.” It repeats the request placidly and they both turn a fraction away from their exploration of Ratthi to look at it consideringly.
“Weapons can’t want things.” The one holding Ratthi observes.
“I haven’t played with a weapon before.” The one next to him pulls their gun away from where it had dipped into his pants to turn fully towards SecUnit.
SecUnit? Ratthi? Explain what is going on. Perihelion is listening in. Do not provoke them. ETA from your location is 26 minutes.
SecUnit doesn’t respond with an acknowledgement and looks directly back at them.
The gray person pressing a gun into his face leans in and fake-whispers into Ratthi’s ear. “What do you think? Should we have some fun with you? Or with your weapon? It’s your choice.”
“What?” His brain is moving sluggishly as he tries to put the question into some order that makes sense.
Pick me. SecUnit says over the group feed.
No, don’t pick SecUnit. Perihelion must be alarmed as its message comes instantly after SecUnit’s, without its usual delay. Don’t provoke them.
They lean in so close their lips touch his ear. “Your weapon or you?”
Ratthi is panicking as he tries to force his brain to think faster. Did they really mean what he thought that they meant? Did they want him to offer up SecUnit? As if it wasn’t a person and his friend?
SecUnit switched its gaze to him when his breathing quickened, the blankness of its face twisting into its own anxiety that mirrors his. Ratthi, pick me. Please.
Don’t do that. Perihelion demands. SecUnit, let me in. I can help.
SecUnit goes offline in their shared feed and reconnects to Ratthi through their private connection. Please don’t make me watch. Please. Pick me.
His brain is finally catching up to the situation. He doesn’t have the processors or machine intelligence that SecUnit has, but he has heard enough from its interviews with Bharadwaj to put it together. To remember that SecUnit’s time with the company mostly involved standing around unable to do anything as people got hurt. That it hacked itself so that it couldn’t hurt anyone, and how much it had hurt to discover that even after it gained its freedom it still had to stand around and watch. How it is begging him over the feed to pick him and he has a choice here: to protect SecUnit by ignoring it, or to protect SecUnit by listening to it.
As soon as SecUnit went offline in their feed, Perihelion pivoted instantly to Ratthi to send him multiple messages. All were variations of the same theme: Don’t let it hurt itself. ETA is 25 minutes away. It doesn’t need to hurt itself. Tell it to let me in, I can help. Don’t let SecUnit sacrifice itself.
Ratthi hopes he chooses the right answer.
Cold is rushing over his skin and the ends of his fingers start to tingle as he tries to take a stabilising breath. His heart is pounding so hard as he makes himself say “SecUnit.” out loud.
What are you doing? Perihelion is not pleased and Ratthi winces.
The one uncomfortably close to his ear chuckles, “Hear that? Even this creature knows you’re not a person.” They twist the gun into the side of his head again as he chances a look at SecUnit to assess its reaction.
”That’s not true.” He protests instantly.
SecUnit’s face has returned to its passive neutral expression. It stops begging him over the feed. Is Ratthi imagining that it seems more relaxed, that it seems pleased that he nominated it? Or is it shutting down, giving up when he didn’t advocate for it? Resigned to being an object? SecUnit could be so fragile sometimes and it wouldn't be the first time he's guessed wrong in their interactions. It would be the worst if he has.
Perihelion’s messages are flashing across his feed faster than he can read, contributing to the quickly growing headache from being rattled around too many times.
The other one steps forward and gestures with their own gun. “Weapon, on your knees, here.”
Did the relaxed look on SecUnit’s face disappear or was he imagining that it ever existed?
It relocates so quickly from where it was standing to land on its knees in front of the gray person that he doesn’t see it move. The one holding onto Ratthi flinches at its speed and they all hear the gun click into ready-fire against his skull.
Nobody moves.
SecUnit is still, blank and pliant in front of them.
The one in Ratthi’s ear laughs loudly, nervously, their breath hitting the side of his face and he winces away. “Eager.” They comment.
“Suck me off.” The other gray person is smiling, their unnaturally sharp teeth bared as they opened their pants just enough to reveal themselves.
The knot of nausea in Ratthi’s stomach tightens as SecUnit leans forward and complies. It’s careful and slow as it takes the person's genitals into its mouth in one smooth motion.
(Ratthi notes in an empty part of his brain that it is practised and efficient, without any of the clumsy uncertain movements that SecUnit usually makes when it performs a new behaviour.)
(He remembers how he caught it repetitively sitting in their common area, the way it spent cycles getting that natural looking movement.)
(There’s nothing clumsy about the way it’s moving its head.)
I thought you were its friend. Perihelion slows down its messages enough for him to read them again.
It’s not wrong. He shouldn’t be watching this. He shouldn’t be watching his friend’s mouth working over gray flesh. He shouldn’t be seeing how expertly it can sink down. He should be closing his eyes and turning away. It wouldn't want him to see this.
I thought you saw it as a person. Perihelion is relentless as it sends its messages. Ratthi blinks furiously, prevents the image in front of him from blurring into indistinctness.
“It’s good at this.” They have wrapped a hand around SecUnit’s head to tug at its hair and Ratthi sees it shudder for a moment, its face drawing into a snarl, then smooths out again as it regains its focus. He wishes he could turn his ears off the way SecUnit could.
I don’t understand why you chose it.
He’s shaking in the gray person’s grasp. He worries that he has made the wrong decision. That he has assumed too much and should have ignored SecUnit’s begging. Would it really have hurt SecUnit less to let them continue with him? SecUnit can get carried away by its self-destructive tendencies and while he’s never really stopped it, he’s never had the chance before. What if this was part of that, it was hurting itself again and he was just being selfish and protecting himself? Should he have argued harder? Tried to subvocalise on the feed more? Would it really hurt SecUnit more if Ratthi was the one on his knees?
The gray person has brought down their hand with the gun to also tighten against SecUnit’s head, their small thrusts tapering off as they clenched around it and then, with a sigh, pulled out. They pat SecUnit’s slightly flushed face. “That’s a good weapon.”
Ratthi struggles to hold back the growl he wants to make at their patronising tone. “You belong to us now.”
I’m going to tear them apart and then I’m going to tear you apart. Perihelion's newest message is huge and nearly obscures the sight of SecUnit’s blank face as it sits back on its knees and stares up past them. It doesn’t seem to be aware of where it is. Nobody has told it to get up and so it hasn’t gotten up.
Ratthi has ruined it, he’s made the wrong choice and he’s killing his friend.
The gray person holding him finally releases the pressure of the barrel against his head to gesture as SecUnit. Their voice is malicious as they complain. “That’s not fair, I’m bored, it’s my turn with the-”
They don’t get to finish their sentence. As soon as the gun is off his head, SecUnit lurches forward to grab onto the one in front of it and uses it to both pull itself up and launch itself forwards. It shoves into the one holding onto Ratthi’s arm, ripping them apart then slams them into the floor. Ratthi hears more than he sees as SecUnit demolishes their head with its fists.
Then he is being yanked backwards and behind SecUnit, hears the sound of the gun and the thudding impacts from projectiles but doesn’t feel any pain except for his rattled about headache. SecUnit is already moving again to grab the head of the gray person. “Want to see what else I’m good at?”
The remaining gray person’s face is moving into rage at SecUnit, they're trying to shoot it in the chest and it doesn't flinch from the impacts the way Ratthi does. Then SecUnit’s arm gun activates, there’s a messy explosion, and the headless body drops to the floor.
During the chaos SecUnit had reactivated that code that lets it show the kind of person it is. It’s breathing hard and keeping its face turned away from Ratthi. He wants to reach out. They had been progressing to small, light touches of friendship between them and he’s not sure if he should do that now. Or if he would ever be allowed to touch it again.
Perihelion is alternating between telling Ratthi what’s going to happen to him as soon as he’s back on the ship and inviting SecUnit back to the group feed. None of its messages hurt as much as potentially destroying the thing that had been between him and SecUnit.
He rubs at his face and chances a tentative, “SecUnit? Are you okay? I’m sorry that-”
“I’m fine.” SecUnit cuts him off in such a classic SecUnit fashion he has to give a slightly hysterical laugh.
I’m fine. It connects to the feed and tags Perihelion. Don’t hurt Ratthi.
“I’m sorry SecUnit.” Ratthi tries his apology again, he doesn’t know how to explain his confused thoughts about reducing harm to SecUnit but he’s determined to try. “I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
He finishes his apology lamely, knowing as he says it out loud that it falls short.
You did hurt it. Perihelion sends more messages with priority flags. You chose for them to treat it like a ComfortUnit. My rescue was 25 minutes away.
He winces back. He’s misjudged this so badly, he should have ignored SecUnit’s begging, he should have been the one on his knees. Ratthi apologises again, “I’m really sorry SecUnit, you know I don’t think of you that way right? I know you’re not a weapon or a- or a ComfortUnit. I thought that you wanted me to...”
He trails off. It’s the only way he knows to try and, maybe not fix this, but ease the hurt he’s caused. But it feels so much like he’s making excuses. I thought you'd prefer it if you were hurt instead of me? How selfish could he get.
“I’m not hurt.” SecUnit finally turns to face his direction. There’s a wrinkle between its brows from where it looks over his shoulder. “I didn’t like it, but I’m not hurt.”
Perihelion stops messaging their group feed.
“Still, I understand if you don’t want me to- that is- once we’re back on the ship I can stay away. You don’t have to be around me.” Ratthi stumbles through giving SecUnit an out to no longer have to be around him.
“Watching them hurt you would have hurt more.” It lays out the concerns that were driving Ratthi’s decisions so plainly, as if it really were that simple. As if he hadn’t come to the selfish conclusion that SecUnit would prefer to be treated like an object over seeing Ratthi do something he does for fun on a regular basis.
SecUnit is looking directly at him, trying to make eye contact as Ratthi looks everywhere but at its face. “You’re my favourite human friend.”
He gives up and makes eye contact with it. Scans it for any sign of hidden resentment or hurt, but all he can find is an upward twist to its mouth that floods him with so much relief.
“Oh.” He did choose right.
I won’t tear you apart. Perihelion tells him.
That’s also a relief.