TO agonized on their way back down to their living quarters on how and when they should tell DH. Sometimes they asked themself If they should tell DH, but they pushed that question out of their head. They had promised Avery that they would.
They intended to keep their promise.
Besides...a part of TO knew that this couldn’t continue. DH would figure it out eventually. Trapped in such a small place together, spending all day every day together? Was there even a chance that TO could hide what they were feeling from the one person who knew them best?
No… No DH would find out eventually; would be better to tell them. At least the question of when they should tell them had a tentative answer; once they were far away enough from the training center that they couldn’t see it. Maybe that even meant waiting until they passed through the wormhole. They weren’t sure how long that would take. Still, that gave them time to figure out how to answer the how of the situation.
TO played through different scenarios in their head as they headed back down to the main living area. Well, they could just tell DH that they loved them, right? No. No that wouldn’t work, they already did that often! There was every chance that if they just told DH that they loved them, that DH would assume it was just the normal, very platonic love they had already expressed.
They imagined being in the weapons room; the lights dimmed and a sea of stars before them. They imagined that they were sitting next to DH on the floor, their backs against the pillar in the center. They’d reach out and take DH’s hand. ‘DH?’ they’d say tentatively. DH would probably hum in response. ‘I love you.’ DH would probably turn to them, smile, ‘I know; I love you too!’ Their face would be so innocent and oblivious…
No. TO would have to make it obvious. If they were going to tell them then they had to make it as obvious as possible. DH hadn’t picked up on their obvious distraction and the inadvertent hints they were dropping so often, so TO knew that had to be blunt… right?
They skimmed back in their daydream until they were sitting on the floor once more in the weapons room, tentatively holding DH’s hand. ‘I love you. Romantically. You know what I mean?’
Maybe that would work, but it seemed so awkward! They could imagine themself fumbling over their words and getting nervous and over explaining everything. Why couldn’t this be easy!?
The imagined just leaning over, their hand over DH’s. They imagined leaning forward and kissing the side of DH’s face; just where the ear met cheek. And then-
They stopped themself as they realized they already had their hand up to their ear right where they imagined kissing DH. They flushed and pulled their hand away as though they were doing something wrong. They couldn’t do that! Just kiss DH like that? What if they were wrong and they just made DH uncomfortable!
Even if they were right, what if that made DH uncomfortable? The thought pulled TO back to reality as the door opened to their living quarters.
A lot had been done to their small living area in the time that TO had been gone to the other floors. There was a blanket hung up between the section where beds were and the rest of the area, making things seem more cramped than before. Cupboards that were set in the wall were opened and now showing empty shelves in most places. Though the shelves over the medical bed were empty, the bed itself was holding a collection of boxes that had half their contents removed and spread about. TO went over and picked up one of the packages that were there.
Medication; painkillers Similar to what TO had been given before. There were also bandages, antibiotics, and minor surgical tools. The sudden idea that they might have to treat themself or DH if they got hurt was worrisome. They of course had learned some basic first aid in their preparation, but what if something more serious happened? What if one of them got hurt and the other had to do some kind of operation?
-Blood. Bones cracking. The smell of disinfectant.-
TO had some surgical experience, and DH had some medical experience. Anything they did know the computers could diagnose, providing treatment instruction. Still...
“Sorry,” DH said from the console. They were sitting in the main chair with several screens up around them. “I was doing inventory on our medical supplies when a program I was running here finished, and I had to deal with this.” they turned around and looked at TO, their eyes wide with excitement, “Did you know that when we got our new assignments, our chips were unlocked!? Did you even know they had been locked in the first place?! I can do so much more programming with this now!”
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DH was so excited and their eyes were so bright; it made TO’s chest swell, “I’m glad!” They managed to squeak out. They turned around as they remembered the plotting they had been thinking of only a moment ago, “I... I’ll finish counting this if you like; I’m done my work.”
“Thank you!” DH said as they turned back to their work, “Honestly, You were gone for a while and I was starting to worry, but the system tracks our location here on the ship and displays vital signs. Your heart rate went up a little a few times, but it was nothing that was particularly worrying.
“Wait... you can tell what my heart rate is?” TO asked, panic filling their voice. Thankfully, DH was so engrossed in what they were doing at the computer that they didn’t seem to notice.
“Yup! The computer is connected to the chips in our hands. Did you know the chips also track vital signs?” Anyway, part of the list of things I had to do here was making sure the chips were functional. I did that a little while ago, but that’s not the important thing!” They turned around once more to face much calmer TO now. It still made TO’s heart swell to see their eyes wide and their ears twitching with excitement. “Come and see what I did!”
TO walked up behind DH, who leaned back from the screen so that TO could see. TO had also been placed in programming for a period but they hadn’t enjoyed it as DH had and hadn’t kept up with it either. They recognized some of the basic scripts that were written out, but that was all.”
“I don’t know what I’m looking at.” TO finally admitted.
“Alright! SO!” DH spun around in the chair, reclining comfortably and looking very pleased with themself. “You know how the chips record what we say, right?”
“I do.” TO said carefully, “Along with location tracking and vitals. Still, we should not be saying that though-“
DH waved a dismissive hand at TO, “Don’t worry about that right now.” they said, “Look, ok. So, the chips DO record what we say. I’ve learned that the recordings aren’t stored in the chips though, they’re saved to a local server on the ship. We’re not under strict observation right now, so nobody will listen to the recordings unless a keyword is said.”
“And we don’t know all the keywords.”
“You’re right! We don’t! Even if - for example- managed to dig into the systems and find the entire list of keywords that are needed, there’s a chance that it might be too long to be of use to us.” They grinned, their smile spreading across their face as their ears twitched happily, “But consider this; they didn’t have time to listen to every word spoken by just trainees. What makes you think they can listen in to every word spoken by every synth across the galaxy? What makes you think that the main servers can even manage all that data, or that it can be properly processed before becoming irrelevant!”
“I’m sure King Decon would have access to a server large enough-“
“Probably!” DH said, getting more and more excited, “But even if He did, sending every word said by or around a synth to a central server for processing would be VERY inefficient. It makes much more sense if the central computer in the individual ships which were synced to the chips did all the hard word; recording the conversations, scanning for keywords, and then sending flagged conversations on to be analyzed!”
TO was a little confused, “...Is this hypothetical, or-“
“It’s not Hypothetical.” DH said with a low chuckle, “That is exactly what happened! It’s a clever system and saves a lot of time and work.”
“I see.”
“But if someone were to manage to get into the system files, trick the computers into giving them access, and THEN did something so simple as to change the name of the file holding all the keywords to something entirely unrelated… Well, that would mess up the software that checks the conversations.”
“... Are you saying you’re thinking of doing this or-“
DH sighed, “I did it.” They said, “I already did it. I found the files, I poked around, and I changed the data. This ship can’t flag keywords because it no longer knows what the keywords are! Our conversations are still recording and saved… for a whole 40 hours. After that, it gets purged to save space. That means-“ They held up their hand and pointed at their chip, “No more worrying about being listened in on. No more talking softly and trying to hear each other over loud music.” They beamed, “It’s like this whole ship; no, the whole galaxy so long as we’re linked to this ship, is as secure as the observation bay had been!’
TO stared at DH for a moment as they took in what they had said and what they had done. They weren’t being recorded. They could say that they wanted! They could talk about GiDi, they could talk about C12….
They could tell DH that they loved them, and they wouldn’t have to worry about being overheard and getting into trouble.
“...You’re brilliant.” TO said softly, “You really are. I wouldn’t have thought of doing anything like that!”
DH gave a little laugh, their ears flushing blue as they did, “Well, it’s only thanks to you! You got me thinking about solving problems the easy way, AND it’s only because of you that I got into programming! If you hadn’t encouraged me and given me tips on learning it better, then I never would have gotten this good.” They looked away, their ears still flushed blue from the praise, but now they started to twitch with worry.
“... It’s fine that I did this though, right?” they asked softly, “I mean… There’s nothing wrong with what we say. We work better for King Decon when we’re left by ourselves. That’s what matters, right? All the rest is just…” They shook their head, “I know..” Their ears sunk down, “Look, I know we’re strange, obviously, I know we’re good at what we do, but I also know that higher-ups don’t understand us. They make things harder for us. Maybe it’s wrong to think I know better than the Officers, but I know us better than they do. I know we’ll do better and work better without worrying about being recorded.” They turned around in their chair, putting their back to TO “Honestly… I did most of this without thinking if I should at first. I… I didn’t do a bad thing, did I?”
TO leaned on the back of DH’s chair. They wanted to gently stroke their ears to calm them but settled on scratching the back of their neck instead. “C12 told us about all this and told us how to avoid being recorded in the first place. They were chosen to be a retiree, right? They were one of our superiors. This-“ They gestured to the computer, “Is just a more effective, far more clever way of tricking the recordings; it’s nothing we haven’t done before.”
DH l looked back, an almost shy smile on their face.
“Thanks.” They said softly.
TO nodded, their ears flushing as they stood upright, “Alright!” They said, “Show me how to use this console. I’m sure I’ll need to manage all this at some point…”