In her many years as a kill-witch for the Massachusetts coven, Brynn had seen her fair share of messes. But in all those years of terror and violence nothing had prepared her for what awaited as she and SD-22 entered the medical bay. Injured crew and tourists drifted aimlessly around the cramped hospital, a few stopping to gawk at the towering security droid squeezing past them, but most simply stared through the new arrivals. They passed a small silver robot who was standing guard by the door, and SD-22 let out a low beep of surprise, looking curiously at it over their shoulder as they walked by. Brynn recognized it as an EDURON Model-4, which Eclipse station had advertised as “state of the art security droids” on their website. She snorted dismissively. It was shorter than her, with a featureless silver dome for a head and thin wiry limbs sprouting from its smooth torso, each made from a single three foot cable of synthmuscle. The noodle-like limb was unintimidating, but each cord of synthmuscle was stronger than a person’s arm and almost infinitely flexible. The droid had delicate human-like hands at the end of the cable, with thick wristbands undoubtedly concealing taser-prongs. It was sleek and refined, a far cry from the walking piece of crude machinery that was SD-22. For restraining an unruly drunk it would do, but against an enraged vampire she doubted it’d be any more useful than the potted plants littering the station.
Dozens of injured men and women were laid out on cots and being attended to by a single ivory nursebot who zipped from patient to patient on the twin wheels it had for feet. Each of its four spindly arms moved in a blur, wrapping bandages, stitching wounds, and injecting each of its patients with a yellow syringe before moving onto their next charge. “What is that?” SD-22 asked, looking to the doctor.
“A cocktail of antibacterials that's been blessed by the station Chaplain,” the dark-skinned doctor said, gesturing towards a robed man administering rites to a motionless crewmember beside them. “It should help fight off a vampiric infection.” Well It’s nothing compared to Massachusetts alchemy, Brynn thought as the doctor led them through the meday, wishing she had brought some of her coven’s brewing equipment with her. But they tried their best.
“Actually, I was referring to the nursebot. I don’t recognize them. Where is NC-16?” SD-22 asked, a question mark appearing on its face as it cocked its television-like head. It was almost cute, were it not attached to a seven foot tall mass of bloodstained synthmuscle and steel.
“Oh NC-16? That old thing broke down a couple yea-” Onyeka stopped with a wince, his voice catching in his throat as he looked back at SD-22. The giant robot was frozen, the question mark illuminating the doctor’s face even in the harsh hospital light as he grasped for words. “Esdee, I imagine you’re going to have some more questions and I owe you answers, but this isn’t the time or place to be having this conversation. Let's get you and Brann-”
“Brynn,” the witch corrected with a glare. Scientists, she growled to herself. They’re all the same.
“Let’s get you and Brynn patched up and find some privacy first.”
“Doctor.” SD-22 said, its voice a hollow beep. “What year is it?’
“2189,” Onyeka replied, looking to the floor as he shied his eyes away from the robot. “It’s been seven years since your last activation.”
“I see.” said SD-22. Brynn blinked. Seven Years?
“Doctor,” SD-22 asked again. “The Captain. Is he..?”
Onyeka nodded. “Alive. Him and a few station heads are holed up in the bridge, last I heard at least.”
SD-22’s shoulders slumped, the tension in their servos relaxing. “I have an additional query Doctor,” said SD-22, the question mark morphing into a cartoon jpg of Dracula as they spoke. “Vampires. Really?”
Onyeka nodded with a half smile. “Yes, really. The world is a good deal bigger than most think. Now rest, I have work to do.” SD-22 nodded, and its screen went blank. Brynn narrowed her eyes at the doctor. In her experience, scientists and their like usually fell into some sort of panic when their “rational world” was broken down, yet this one had already designed an anti-vampire serum and was talking about them with the same familiarity one uses for the flu. Interesting. The nursebot careened around another survivor, barreling towards her with bandages at the ready as Onyeka arrived at the maintenance closet. “I’m not sure if we have the supplies to repair you,” he said, rummaging through the cluttered mess and pulling out a thick rubber charging cable with a grunt of effort. “But, we can at least get you charged up,” he said, reaching for the maintenance panel on the robots side, but SD-22 flinched away from his hand. “I’m not going to turn you off Esdee,” Onyeka placated, and SD-22 nodded slowly, allowing the doctor to unscrew the panel and clamp the cable over the magnetic power port in its side.
“Hello patient #345!” interrupted an artificial voice from behind her, and Brynn let out a startled shout as the nursebot roughly “escorted” her to an empty cot, shoving her through the crowd of patients and nurses in its rush. She looked back at SD-22, who slid its ponderous bulk down the wall into a seat between the cot of a writhing patient and storage closet as it let its head hang between its knees, the tight confines of its charging area forcing SD-22 to cram into the small space. Brynn couldn’t help but notice how lost the robot looked as she sat on the side of the cot and the nursebot wrapped bandages around the bite-wound in her shoulder with mechanical precision. It finished after a few seconds, jamming a needle of the yellow anti-vampire concoction into her arm. “You have been treated,” the nursebot beeped. “Have a nice day.” Without another word it zoomed off to the patient by SD-22 who moaned as a few flesh and blood nurses struggled to hold them down.
“Nice bedside manner,” muttered Brynn, to no-one in particular. She rubbed her wound absentmindedly, incanting the words to a healing spell under her breath. The ambient magical energy of the death-filled hospital had little to offer, but luckily there was still some healing energy left in the various medical equipment. She reached out with her third eye, gathering what little energy she could and weaving it into her spell. The memories of the three vampires cutting their way through the crowd of tourists huddled together in the cargo hold were still fresh, and spikes of pain shot from the bandaged bite in her in the shoulder. She had arrived at the space-hotel two days ago on on orders from her coven's leader, Elder Myka. Myka, ever the paranoid crone, suspected that House Vitas, a vampire cabal and rival of their coven, was making moves in orbit and sent Brynn to investigate. She had been promised an easy assignment to a floating hotel and casino and instead, she had been met with a full scale infestation.
Another bolt of pain lanced through her shoulder, cutting through her train of thought and she snarled with frustration. The magic in her blood had made her tough, but she was still human. Without it she would have bled out long before she made it to the medbay, even with SD-22’s help. Speaking of...she thought, reaching out to snatch Dr. Onyeka’s wrist as he passed by. “Hey.” she said, and the wild-haired doctor looked back at her, unamused. She nodded in the direction of SD-22, who was still crammed into the corner by the closet and sitting motionless with a blank screen. “Mind telling me what kind of robot that is?” she whispered.
The Doctor blanched, stumbling over his words for a response. “SD-22’s a security droid, It’s in the na-”
Brynn snorted. “You know, before I came onboard this station, I did a little bit of research. Your website brags about your ‘State of the Art’ Model 4.0 EDURON security.” She waved her hand about five feet above the floor, and then gestured at the Model-4, who stood watch at the medbay door like a statue. “You know, the little grey guys about this tall, all nice and non-threatening-like?” She pointed at SD-22 again. “That one is seven feet tall and looks like the love child between a gorilla and an assembly line.”
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Onyeka sighed. “Miss Brynn, it may not look like-”
“It looks military grade is what it looks like,” interrupted Brynn. “So you can imagine my utter confusion when I see a space-hotel overrun by the undead staffed by a death-bot and a doctor who seems to know a lot about vampires for a man of science.”
The doctor stared at her for a moment, narrowing his eyes. “You have been asking a lot of questions for someone who hasn’t offered an explanation of why a ranking witch is on my station, or if you even are who you say you are. SD-22 I can trust. You? I am not so sure.” Bynn sneered and rolled up her sleeves in response, revealing a network of ragged skars and black tattoos wrapping her arm like brambles.
“My covenmark.” She said, flexing her wrist. “If that and barbecuing a vampire doesn’t do it for you...”
“Fine.” Onyeka said, scowling. “SD-22 has the base brain of a security droid, but it's one that we bought second hand with no robot attached. It was cheaper than just buying a security droid, so Captain Raja and I built our own using whatever we had on hand.” He looked back at SD-22, who was playing cartoons on his television screen much to the delight of the steadily growing gaggle of children who had gathered around him. SD-22 towered over them even while sitting, looming over the room like a pile of industrial equipment haphazardly stacked in the corner. “We upgraded them constantly, adding new features or programs, or even just improving their chassis with our leftover synthmuscle.” He leaned back, a soft smile spreading across his face. “From the cocktail of semi-sentient programs in its circuits and our constant tinkering, SD-22...Grew. I began to spend a great deal of time with the droid, and-”
“Then left him in the closet for seven years.” finished Brynn, tightening her grip around the doctor’s arm.
“It happened when Millenium bought the station,” Onyeka said, his voice barely above a whisper as he shot a furtive glance at SD-22 over his shoulder.
“Millenium Inn? That’s the company that owns your hotel right?” Brynn knew the answer, but Millenium Inn had ties with House Vitas. Those connections had been the reason for her trip to this hellhole in the first place, and there were too many unknowns to tip her hand this early. Besides
Onyeka gave her a bemused stare. “They own the station. This was back when we were nothing but a rinky-dink mining outpost, so when men in tailored suits handed us a check for a hundred million we didn’t make much of a fuss. Now,” he said, extricating his wrist from Brynn’s grip. “The contract did come with a few caveats and requirements. Most were reasonable,” he said glancing back at SD-22 again. “All except the security clause. Millenium has a contract with Eduron, who at the time wanted to show off their shiny new Model-4s. So,” He took a deep breath and sighed. “We fridged Esdee. It was against contract to have them work security and SD-22’s an expensive robot to maintain. It just wasn’t sustainable, especially with all of the construction we had to finance, so Captain Raja carted their charging coffin into the cargo bay and left it there.” Onyeka shifted his feet as the patient beside SD-22 convulsed with another ragged scream, his voice run raw. “I had always planned on buying Esdee from Raja when I got the chance. It's just that” Brynn held up her hand to sush the doctor. The patient was still tossing and turning, but under the commotion she could faintly hear the sound of a heart monitor flatlining. He’s been turned, she realized, and the patient seized a nurses throat, lurching from their pained writhing into unnaturally smooth motion in an instant. The blonde patient snarled, revealing gleaming fangs. Brynn opened her third eye, desperately gathering whatever scraps of magic were left in the room, but the sheer amount of death and pain around her made the magic dangerous and unpredictable and she struggled to shape it. The vampire roared, tightening his grip around the nurse who beat at his arm with her fists until the medical droid stabbed it’s syringe into the newly-turned vampire’s eye. It howled and clutched its bleeding face, releasing the nurse who fell onto the ground. She crawled backwards, gasping for breath as the nursebot spun on its waist, swinging its scalpel like a guillotine at the vampire's throat, but the newly-born bloodsucker lashed out with a kick and its foot crashed into the nursebot's head, sending it reeling backwards. The medical droid let out a distressed wail as it fell head over heels under a crowd of doctors and survivors who desperately clawed over each other to escape. Onyeka fumbled with his shotgun as the Model-4, taser-prong extended from it’s wrist, sprang over an unconscious patient and lunged at the vampire who caught the droid by it’s forearm.
“You...Are...Being...Detained” the Model-4 said in its synthesized voice, which Brynn could barely hear over the vampire’s frenzied snarls. Synthmuscle whined as they struggled, straining against each other until the vampire bashed its forehead into the silver ball the droid had for a face. The impact stunned it for a moment and the vampire seized the opportunity to snap the droid's forearm off its elbow.
The taser prong fizzled out and the vampire swiveled, lunging at the children between its bed and the closet only to be met with a wall of synthmuscle and steel. SD-22 had surged from their cramped seat to shield the children with its body, his face glowing pure red as the layers of synthmuscle wrapping their metal frame hummed to life. The vampire screeched, throwing a vicious punch at the robot but SD-22’s thick metal arm swung up to meet it, shattering bone as the two limbs collided. The monster howled and the robot swung its counterpunch, pistoning a metal fist into the vampire’s face. The blow shattered the vampire’s gaunt cheek and drove it back down onto the medical table, nearly destroying the flimsy bed with an almighty CLANG as flesh impacted into steel. It struggled to stand, but SD-22 dug their metal fingers into the writhing vampire’s throat, holding it steady as they drove a final blow through its ribcage to annihilate the newly-turneds heart. The vampire fell limp and SD-22 pulled their fist from its ruined chest with a wet squelch. Brynn winced, and SD-22 turned back to the children, blood dripping from his massive metal fist. They stared up at him, mouths agape.
“Oh no.”
There was a moment of stunned silence before a small boy in a green shirt with a tragic bowl cut began to wail. “MOMMY!" he cried, and the rest of the children started to sob and scream behind him. SD-22 wiped the blood from its hands frantically as the nurse pulled herself to her feet and tossed a blanket over the vampire’s ruined corpse. More Cartoons flickered onto SD-22's screen as they futilely tried to soothe the children, but they only cried harder with each attempt. Mercifully, a few adults shepherded the crying kids away from the bloodbath as the robot unsuccessfully attempted a knock-knock joke routine. Brynn smirked sadly. Some of the adults looked like the children’s parents. Others didn’t.
“Perhaps the panacea needs an improvement,” muttered Onyeka, snapping Brynn’s attention away from the children. He was crouched on the ground, examining a fallen vial of neon-yellow anti-vampire treatment. “Witches of your discipline are said to be excellent alchemists. I could use your assistance.”
She squinted at him. “We’re gonna talk about how you know so much about magic,” she said and he stood, staring ahead at SD-22
“Well, in any case SD-22 prevented it from becoming a true disaster.” he said, ignoring her comment as he turned back to her. “So now you see my dilemma. I have to tell SD-22 why we left it in a closet for seven years, but do you want to be the one who breaks that news?”
Brynn narrowed her eyes. “Your cowardice doesn’t buy you any sympathy, Doctor. He deserves to know.”
“And they will,” said Onyeka. “Just not when dozens of men, women, and children are depending on you two for survival.” Brynn’s eyes widened. “Approximately twenty minutes ago the vampires cut the oxygen pipes to the medbay. We have about four hours of reserves left, and while we can open the doors to let air in...” he said, letting the statement trail off into a question.
“Vampires will get in.”
“Exactly. Now there are backup oxygen pipes made exactly for this reason.” he said as he tried to type something on one of the many touch screens embedded in the wall. He pressed enter but it flashed red with an angry beep and he sighed, running his hands through his frizzy hair as he turned back to her. “But we’re still locked out of station access, ever since the vamps took the station mainframe yesterday. It’ll have to be done manually.” Onyeka smiled grimly. “Now get some rest. You and Esdee have to head back out, and soon.”