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I.
Hearing Ratthi say “get behind me” felt wrong on some deep level. Sure, I was leaking (a lot), and my weapons were currently offline (two lucky shots by the hostiles), but still, this was not the way it should be.
I was built to take fire and hits. He was very much not.
“No.”
“You can’t even lift your arms to fire!”
That was true, but it wasn’t the point.
“You are not going to hit them either,” I said. He had terrible aim, and, also, I didn’t want him to try. There were reasons.
My head was hurting. My feed was offline. But I knew that this was not a good idea.
“They might not shoot me as quickly as they would shoot you you,” he said.
They would. They had been shooting at both of us. I said so.
“Three is almost here,” I said. It was truly a matter of seeing who got here first: the hostiles or Three. ”Anyway, I can take more hits.”
“Doesn’t mean that you should,” he said, and he sounded angry. “I’m not going to use you as a shield.”
He’d found a very stupid time to be stupid. Hostiles killing both of us was by far the worse outcome than them only killing me. And my body could actually be used as a shield with some degree of success.
So he was being stupid.
This was about to devolve into a very dumb argument at a very bad time, but the one to walk through the door was, in fact, Three, and I could shutdown.
Not just because I didn’t want the conversation to continue.
II.
Gurathin was sipping the caffeinated beverage, even though it was late. I was relaxed enough to let it slide, though if he failed to fall asleep early, I was going to send him a series of articles about humans and sleep and neurochemicals and feel smug about it.
We were sitting at the Preservation station café, which had a pleasant smell of vanilla and also old, rare media available for perusing. It was weird to have to hold the media, and it was not as engaging, but it had some novelty value.
I was absorbed in it and didn’t notice the people until someone in my periphery whispered: “Can’t believe the SecUnit thing is fucking true. So irresponsible.”
“Even these hicks should know better.”
Gurathin also heard it and left his beverage on the table. He had gone a little red in the face.
“It’s pretending to be a person, too,” said the other one.
I didn’t want to look and see if the people speaking were from Preservation and who they were. I also didn’t want to be here anymore.
Gurathin was getting up from his seat. I pinged him an ?, and he replied that he has things to say.
“You should sit down,” I said. “Indah might arrest you for making a disturbance.”
“She should arrest them first.”
“Sit down,” I said. I was tired and didn’t care. “Please.”
He listened to me, which was good. The people left. I turned back to the media.
III.
“Take it off and give it to me,” said the human with the gun. “Put it on the floor and scoot it over, don’t come closer.”
If it was just the two of us, I would take the chance and disarm him, but Arada was standing a little to the side, already in her envirosuit, and I couldn’t risk it. I removed my helmet, slowly, put it on the floor, and rolled it over to the passenger who had decided not to wait and see if there were no envirosuits available. Arada shuffled closer to me, and I pulled her to stand behind me before the man got any other ideas.
Still aiming at us, he picked the helmet up and settled it over his envirosuit. The alarm had stopped blaring, but the evacuation commands were still sounding.
“Move back,” he said. “I am not getting on an escape pod with a SecUnit.”
“It hasn’t done anything to you!” said Arada. “We should be evacuating and not… this!”
“Well, I am not giving it the chance. Move back, or I’ll shoot.”
“Arada, you need to get on the escape pod,” I said. The risk of decompression was more significant.
“With this guy? No. And I’m not leaving you.”
I wasn’t wild about the idea of her in an enclosed space with the gun-wielding passenger, but I was even less wild about her staying on a ship that might explode at any time.
“We’re getting out together or not at all,” she said, which was noble and very like my humans and also very stupid. “There are other escape pods, come on.”
The guy kicked the faulty helmet he had originally put on, which had set off this whole incident, and got through the airlock doors.
I was about to pick Arada up and sprint away to the other airlocks, when the door opened again, the alert switched off, and a pleasant voice announced that the crisis had been averted.
I intercepted the guy before he could start waving his gun around again. He looked at me with furious eyes.
“That was unnecessary,” I said. “There were extra helmets.”
“I wasn’t getting in an escape pod with a freaking SecUnit,” he said. “Fuck you.”
Arada was vibrating with anger behind me, as I hauled the guy to ship security.
“I can’t believe it!” said Arada as we returned to our quarters. She was still shaking with rage.
“I can,” said I.
IV.
“Just relax,” said Bharadwaj, like she didn’t know me. “Ease into the warmth.”
This had been her idea, for sure, but I had gone along with it. I had never spent so long submerged (90%) in water unless I was fighting an underwater hostile. There were no hostiles here, and the pools of water were shallow and warm.
Very warm.
My inorganics weren’t convinced but my organics were having a good time. Maybe too good of a time. If I relaxed too much… well, that felt weird.
We were in the middle of Preservation, in a recreational facility, and Bharadwaj had no personal enemies who were likely to firebomb the place just because we were here and relaxing.
“I like spending time with you when we’re not in danger,” said Bharadwaj. She had fully sank into the water and looked contented like Mensah’s feline fauna stretching out in the sun. “Thank you for joining me, SecUnit.”
I could tell she was about to say something sappy, and I was starting to feel relaxed beyond the arbitrary point where it felt safe.
So I got out of the water and told her I’d wait outside.
I felt even weirder as soon as I did that, but I hated the idea of going back. So I sat outside and, in a few minutes, she came to join me, and we went to another part of the facility to find something else to do.
I wanted to apologize to her, but I wasn’t sure what for.
V.
“Why the fuck didn’t you call me?” said Pin-Lee. They were mad. Quite mad. At me.
I rolled my eyes.
“I was resolving the situation.”
“Like hell you were, asshole! You were about to be charged.”
That was probably true, but I wasn’t conceding.
“I can handle myself.”
“Of course you can, you think I don’t fucking know that? But do you have a law degree?”
“...”
“Watching the solicitor on Sanctuary Moon doesn’t count!”
“I could have gotten out of trouble on my own,” I said.
“But I got you out of trouble easier. Lucky your ship told me what was going on!”
“You didn’t have to come,” I said.
“I really, really did.”
Saying they didn’t felt childish, so I stayed silent.
“I don’t mind coming to help,” said Pin-Lee. “You know that, right?”
I knew.
I did.
I still hadn't pinged them.
+1
We were pinned in place: the hostiles were still lurking outside. They were alien remnant-infected people, acting like predatory fauna. The remnants had made them believe in strange things and see gods walking near them, which we discovered a little too late. Or I hoped it had been alien remnants, Dr. Mensah didn’t seem so sure. At first, they appeared to be a normal colony, if one with a strangely set-up Harvest ritual in the middle of the city.
We’d been invited to the ceremony, and then the details of our participation in the ritual had become clear, and then it got ugly.
Hiding in the barn was a temporary solution, and they were looking for us with what looked like torches and farm equipment. They had only a few guns, but there were a lot of them, and they didn’t seem to care much for their own well-being. Maybe they were taking stimulants, or the alien remnants were doing their thing.
“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to distract them. They move as a mob, so while they’re following me, you’ll get clear and reach the shuttle.”
It was a solid plan. So it took me by surprise when Dr. Mensah placed herself between me and the barn door. The other members of PresAux followed suit.
“This is not an acceptable plan,” said Bharadwaj.
“It’s the one with the best chances of success,” I said. “I’m your security consultant.”
“Yeah, and also our friend. We’re not going to run while you get ritually sacrificed in the town square,” said Arada. “We need another plan.”
“It’s objectively the best plan,” I said. Why were they being difficult. “I can hold them off the longest.”
That elicited more protests. They were being so difficult. But I didn’t feel as annoyed as I should have been.
I suppose I didn’t quite want to die on a planet in a ritual sacrifice out of horror media. And they didn’t want me to, either. They wanted to help.
“Let’s think about it together,” said Ratthi.
“Get over it now, maybe,” said Gurathin. “They’re bound to double-back.”
Dr. Mensah stood between me and the door until I backed down. I could have done whatever I wanted, of course, they wouldn’t have been able to stop me.
But I wanted them to be right and that there would be another way for us to leave together. So I let myself be convinced.