Evan Mortice knew women—he’d go so far as to say he understood them rather well; he just chose not to listen to them. On any given day, he’d say what he always said about the female sex when they weren’t horizontal, and desperately trying to be his next mistress.

Women were crazy.

That was it. That was all. Big mystery solved.

And the moment he put that theory into practice, life became easier.

Caleb, or whatever this meathead’d been called, didn’t have that fine wisdom.

Evan Mortice watched from the wall, amazed at this woman about to break down into possibly ugly cries while the man strong enough to carry two grown people couldn’t figure out that she was about to lose it.

What’s stranger, was that Hal—the cyborg—had. And not just a little. Evan’d taken the approach of Hal to the near-frantic woman to be something of a glitch. But the moment the machine parts segmented down the middle and slid to the side, he knew, something weird was going on here with these people.

In this superior lighting, Evan was surprised to find there was more to Hal than met the eye. For one, whoever Hal had been, he was a muscular guy. He was also brave as hell because a hysterical woman was a dangerous, unpredictable beast.

But Jenny shut right up as soon as he took hold. The way she clung to him spoke of familiarity.

Evan watched them, waiting for Caleb to posture and get loud. Nothing. He said nothing, did nothing, and it wasn’t like the cyborg hadn’t been waiting.

In fact, now, free from the metal except for the right side of his body, Hal stared at Caleb. More than once, he nodded down to the shivering woman in his arms.

Caleb didn’t so much as flinch.

Hal abandoned that effort and instead wrapped his metal arm around Jenny who stepped closer.

It took forever for Hal to pry her off. By the time she sat on a chair, the big guy running the metal index finger along her brow, emitting a red light, she clung to his flesh and blood left hand like it was the last speck of coke to a crackhead.

“Keep this up, bro,” Evan warned Caleb who watched the distant couple, “and you’re about to get a full view of your wife getting fucked by a tinman.”

Caleb’s brown eyes slid to a stop, squinting at him.

Evan took insult. “Just trying to help.”

He’d meant it as a joke but what he witnessed brought that into question. While this huge doctor, the only actual person there, spent time dabbing Jenny’s head, going so far as to slip out of her grip in order to press his good hand against her face, neck and back, examining her, the two other injured, near dead, docs were handled by the little creepy drones.

It might have been custom but the way Caleb coughed said otherwise. “Doctor Haller, could you see to Booker and Honn?”

But Hal’s crew-cut head jarhead didn’t move as he continued his slow examination and answered, “You check them, can’t you Mr. Cawel? I’m sure you can more than read some dials.”

After a long pause, Caleb obeyed the order and stomped off.

Evan scoffed. The cyborg’s attention to detail with regards to Jenny made him worry about himself—doubtful he’d receive as much care. He regained some feeling into his fingers, all nine of them, but not much.

It was when he looked down at his white lab coat—Jenny’s white lab coat, that he saw something strange. He had to squint at the name badge to make it out. Jen…Jhenai…Haller?

Like a puppet pulled by a string, Evan picked his head up and regarded Jenny and the bot once more.

Who the hell was she married to?

It would be useless to ask them so Evan considered his options. “Hey, medic,” he whispered. “Online medic or whatever!”

Something slid down the wall though he couldn’t see it fully.

The mannequin face, looking strangely more human, came to a stop beside him. To his surprise, it whispered in turn, “How may I help you?”

Evan had to think long and hard about how to formulate his question. “What can you tell me about the people in this room?”

“I can tell you anything that is unclassified.”

“Classified?” Evan tried to look at it but turning his head was a struggle. “Could Milo see things that were classified?”

“Only the warden can see things that are classified.”

“Oh.” Evan needed to figure out who was in charge in this very room. As of now, he was unsure. “Tell me the occupation of everyone in here.”

The thing whispered, “Two doctors, one surgeon, one engineer, one harvester, and one war criminal.”

“War criminal?” Evan was intrigued but paused and sighed. “Who’s the war criminal? Me?”

“Correct.”

He groaned but paused. “Wait—what’s a harvester?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“A harvester prepares soon-to-be wasted bodies for organ donations in the field.”

Evan scanned the people then set his sights on Jenny. “What about prisoners? Can I get what they’re charged with?”

The dummy’s head rotated. “Prisoner one-four-six was convicted of felony theft for fitting the new medical prototype for a human host, rendering it useless without that specific host’s selection.

Evan was intrigued. “For…?”

“Please wait while I check if you’re authorized to have this information.”

With a scoff, Evan shook his head. “This place is useless. Even the computers don’t work.”

“That is not true. I’ll have you know, we are state-of-the-art. It is not every day we deal with a war-criminal’s authorization—”

“Spare me. Never mind.”

“I can see your impatience but if you’d only wait a moment—”

“It’s fine. You can go.”

The computer’s voice became hurried. It sounded more like an eager-to-please servant than a machine. “The reason for her crime was for her main husband. Upon his death, the secondary husband’s status was activated and due to the popularity and dedicated service of Harvester Cawel, she was spared from execution.”

Evan took the information in. He was looking at…a trio?

“So…they…they live together?”

After a brief pause, the dummy answered, “Ah, I’ve been given this question enough to know the clearest response. No. They are not involved. With life-expectancy being so unsure, everyone has at least two spouses, the maximum being three. Prisoner one-four-six had only one spouse, however, until her husband forced her to marry a second. Because he could not be taken out of the tech, he declared himself as deceased and Harvester Cawel assumed his role.”

Now when Evan looked between them all, his thoughts raced. He could use this weird love triangle.

“Is…is this an acceptable answer?” the dummy medic asked.

Evan tried to turn and look at it but couldn’t. He remembered what the thing had said. “You’ve given this info out before?”

“Yes.”

“To Milo Atkins?”

“Yes.” After a pause, it said, “But each time, he’d become enraged and inconsolable, eventually returning to cryo-sleep.”

“Stand up,” Hal instructed Jenny. “I want to make sure I’ve got everything.”

Caleb, though examining the people laid up in the hospital bed, glanced over to Jenny and the cyborg more than once. That was probably why he missed the first beep. The second one got his attention and he looked down at the man in bed then ran over to the woman next.

Hal told Jenny, “I want you out of these and into some proper protocol clothes.”

“Um, doctor…” Caleb began.

“And some weighed boots,” Hal continued. “It’ll take a minute to put in the order.”

“Doctor!”

The woman in bed vanished then appeared again. Evan blinked to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

Her body vibrated violently by the time the cyborg stopped making kissy face and turned to investigate the source of Caleb’s panic.

A dome slid over the woman’s bed and Hal came to a stop before it. “Her powers are activating. Get me that portable dampener. We’ve gotta slow her down before she maxes out.”

“But isn’t this her body trying to save her?” Caleb argued.

“Save her how? By making it impossible for her to live on this side?” Hal stomped past the bed, heading to a metal box by the door. “Service medic,” he called, “Open this entire facility and standby for a possible high speed individual’s death.”

A face appeared beside Evan yet again. “Understood.”

Evan bit back a scream; he’d never get used to that.

“Rerouting other medical bots to this facility for safety measures,” the dummy medic said.

“Belay that,” Hal grumbled, stomping back to the bed with the metal box. As he walked, it started to unfold and by the time he arrived, it looked like two metal gloves.

Evan wondered if that was some sort of defibrillator.

“We could do with the super-healing,” Hal said to himself.

Caleb, at first appalled, waited.

The woman vanished again and Hal slammed his hands down.

Both gauntlets made a bang sound.

In a flash, the body reappeared and the woman took a deep breath.

Caleb waited, eyes scanning the dome above the bed, before he let out a sigh. “Stable.” He wasted no time in complaining. “But that was dangerous. And we lost an entire portable dampener because of it. That’s not protocol.” His eyes drifted past the cyborg to Jenny who watched them, fear and worry painted on her pretty face. “How many more lives are going to be put in danger for you two?”

Jenny flinched. Hal was less than appreciative.

“What’d you just say?”

Caleb wasn’t all that tall. But he stood strong, challenging that machine. Evan thought perhaps the dummy could take him.

“It would have been easier to let Barron take care of these two. Nai’s got eight years. It would have ignored her. You could have done so many things differently. And that goes for when the explosion went off. Why weren’t there any precautions? There should have been a small army of medic bots beside her. I hadn’t been aware of the updates but you had, sir. So—”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“You do if you’re glitching!” Dead silence followed until Caleb filled it. “You do if you have me risking my damn powers by holding them when a medic bot could have done the very same…sir.”

Hal’s metal hand rested at his side, but his flesh one sported a fist.

Evan was more than curious to watch this brawl unfold. Two men fighting for the same woman was always sure to end with a stupid hold my beer moment. Either this dumb soldier getting his neck snapped by a medic bot in a twisted act of hilarious irony, or this medic cyborg getting decommissioned for trying to get into another man’s wife’s pants. Either way, it was sure to be a sight to behold.

Jenny just had to stand, unball Hal’s fist, and ruin it.

Caleb’s jaw flexed when the couple came in contact with one another.

Caleb said, “You’ve only given her eight hours. That was two hours ago. What we need to do is get her back to her cell before she’s considered a fugitive. Or are you too glitched out to acknowledge that?”

Hal offered no response.

And Caleb wasn’t finished. “And as I won’t be seeing her for who knows how long, I’d like to request my right to some privacy with her, sir.” He gritted his teeth. “Or are you going to interfere with that?”

The standoff was getting good but stopped.

Hal slipped from Jenny’s grip and walked away. With each step, the metal returned on his torso, then chest, then finally his head yet again.

He reached Evan as a machine once more.

“Personally,” Evan offered, “I was rooting for you. She’s obviously got a thing for tech. Who’s to blame you? Unless, of course, you no longer have a junk to perform the task. But that’s cool.” Evan found himself looking around. “Sure you’ve got a 3D printer here or something. Just get yourself some truck nuts and a bit of imagination and you know—”

Something caught him by the throat and squeezed.

Hal’s expression remained hidden behind the helmet, but the virtual medic turned to face him.

“Medic Haller, what is the meaning of this?”

Nothing happened for some time until Hal finally released his hold and said, “Just…checking his pulse.”

Evan took insult. That was now three people looking to off him. “Fuck you, robot.”

“How’d you like to walk out of here?” Hal asked.

Evan wasn’t buying this sudden tonal change, but he was more than interested.

“That could all happen if you just help us understand your former employee.”

But Evan’s eyes settled on the drones hovering toward them.

Hal said, “And we can do this with your comfort in mind, of course.”

Evan asked him, “What do you want to know? Milo’s not that complex.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Hal hesitated then said, “I was given this assignment two months ago. Jhenai appeared here by mistake—”

“Nothing’s by mistake with Milo, idiot,” Evan explained. The way the thing got quiet made him laugh. “You don’t get it, do you? Milo’s not going to help you.”

“History books—”

“Well, history books don’t know shit. Milo’s not the good guy. Milo’s the mad scientist.”