Everyone who came into contact with him called Vince a ‘solid’ guy, reliable, but distant. He’d go to work, go home, and some nights he’d drink with his coworkers. He never made small talk beyond the weather, his health, and some odd sports game he watched.
Oddly, when TO mentioned at the end of the interviews that they were investigating him for colluding with the insurgency, the tone of his former coworkers changed.
“Well, you know, it’s always the quiet ones.”
“You know, he did seem too normal.”
“Always thought there was something odd about him. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.”
There was a mate, but the interview with her led to even less information. Of course, she had just found out that her mate was dead, and that he had been working with insurgents, so her head probably wasn’t where it needed to be.
TO knew that if DH had died, they’d not be able to answer many questions about anything. They left their contact information with her and asked her to get in touch if anything came to mind. That wasn’t really the procedure they should have followed. What they should have done. Ideally, was to take her in and question her in person on their ship. She seemed so shocked and heartbroken that TO couldn’t imagine that she had anything to do with it, and didn’t know if they could bring themself to interrogate someone who had just lost their mate.
It seemed like it was the end of their investigation. Vince helped the insurgents, but they didn’t know why. The insurgents were dead, so they didn’t need to track them down.
Were the insurgents dead, though? The lab had gotten back to them about their question and said that chitin dissolves faster than bone. Much faster, according to the lab. If that was the case, then why didn’t they find any bones?
And if the insurgents weren’t dead, where did they go?
“DAMNIT!” DH, sitting at the other desk behind TO, slammed their fist down on the table. “JOE MOMMA”
“What?” TO’s exhausted, and their mind didn’t have the energy to spend on trying to figure out what DH meant.
“Joe Momma!” DH said again, “That hacker who fiddled with that bot that attacked us.” They pulled up a long string of programming that TO couldn’t really understand. “This is their style! It’s them. The hacker who messed with the bot is the same one who messed with the AI.” They turned around, the chair swiveling with them as they moved, “And do you know how they did it, how they hacked into the systems here?”
“Would I understand if you explained it?”
“Probably not, so I’ll give you the basics! They used maintenance bots! A maintenance bot coming into the facility had a program attached to its identification. When they got ID’d, the program hid itself in the system and waited., TO, this happened months ago; well before we got here. We were still in training!”
TO sighed and rested their hand on their face. “That just confirms that ‘Joe’ Is working with the insurgency; which we already knew.” They said,
“And that they’ve been planning this for a while!”
“And that.” TO said, rubbing at their head. The medication that DH gave them earlier was wearing off, and they were feeling awful again. With a few gestures, they started shutting everything down.
“We’re done?” DH asked.
“I’m done. You?”
“I could spend weeks going through this programming.” DH said, “But I don’t know that it would bring us anything more than we already have.” They turned and gestured at their own screens to shut things down. “I made copies of everything, and sent them to our ship. I can look over this whenever I want.”
Before TO could respond, the screen lit up again with a door alert, showing the name and information of a facility employee; one they had never seen before. The name read Vass, and the position he held was simply, “Jr. Guard.”
The automated system spoke for them, “State the purpose of your visit.”
Vass’ voice came back, shaky and unsure, “Uh… I think I might have information for the synths? If that’s alright?”
TO sighed, stood up, and activated their armor. DH did the same, and they opened the door.
Vass was a short, scrawny person, with four legs, two arms, and a tail that they had wrapped around their own torso, its tip in their hands as they fidgeted. They looked about with big, bulbous black eyes, which darted from DH to TO and back.
“Thank you for coming. We appreciate your cooperation. Could you tell us what you know?” TO was very careful, choosing overly polite and friendly language so that the suit would hopefully not make the translation so harsh; The poor civilian looked like they might faint or flee if they snapped at him.
Their efforts worked. While Vess’ tail stayed wrapped around their midsection, it loosened slightly. He nodded and bowed slightly.
“I don’t know if it’s anything of importance…” They said, “I mean, I didn’t know Vince really, and I wouldn’t have come at all, but some others said you were asking about any odd behavior at all-”
“That’s right.” TO said, though apparently that was harsh enough to make the helmet snap at them. Vess jumped and took a step back. “You were right to come to us with any information; again, I thank you for your cooperation. Please, tell me what you know?”
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Vess nodded again, “Right. Well,it was a few weeks ago? I was still in training. Well, I mean, I am still in training, but I'm actually working now, and not just learning. So, I was in training, and I was told to get snacks for the guard on video duty. You know, I'm still in training, so I get sent around to do all the little jobs.”
TO wanted to tell him to get to the point, but they were sure that doing so would make them jump again.
“Anyway, I went to the break room. Now, it wasn’t break time; we have designated break times to make sure we’re never short on guards, but this wasn’t anyone’s break time so nobody should have been in the break room, and when I went in at first, there wasn’t. The snacks were in the storage closet, so I went in, but Vince was in there and he wasn’t getting snacks, which I thought was weird! He was pacing and on his communicator. The closet is big, so he had plenty of room to pace, and he didn’t even notice me at first.”
“And… taking calls in the closet is not normal. I assume?”
“Not for Vince.” they said, “Sometimes, people sneak in to get a snack, and they take calls in there, because there are no cameras in there, right?”
This was true. TO had seen multiple guards go in and out of that closet, and never paid it much attention since it was obviously for food storage.
“I think whoever it called contacted them first because he was saying things like ‘Don’t call me here.’ And stuff, right? Like, he was angry, but then they said something and he got all afraid. He was quiet for a while, then said ‘And then you’ll leave me alone.’ He didn’t say anything else then because he saw me there and kinda froze.”
“And what did he say to you?” TO asked.
“Well... He said to the people on the communicator that he had to go. I apologized and all, I said I was going to leave, but he stopped me. I thought he’d be angry, but he just said that, uh.” He glanced around, “I promised I wouldn’t say anything… But you’re synths, so I should tell you. Just don’t tell his mate, please?”
This was a matter of planetary security, with escaped insurgents, and this civilian didn’t want them to tell Vince’s mate? What was wrong with civilians?
“We have no interest in sharing information with her.” TO said, “What did he say?”
“He… He said that he ended up being, you know, Intimate? With a sex-droid in the red-light area of the entertainment district.” He looked aside. “I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that, you know, but people think there is? I mean, I don’t have an issue with them, but it’s kinda… well, if it got out, his mate would be angry with him, he said, and it would also be like, You know,It’d be a joke. People would cause him all kinds of problems. I’m not saying he might have lost his job, but it’d be very hard for him to continue it, you know?”
“So this person on the communicator had evidence?”
“Video, apparently.” Vess said, “From the bot's point of view, it would have been uh… explicit stuff.”
“Why would he tell the likes of you?” DH said, the sharp snap to the translation making Vess jump
“Use softer language.” TO said through their communication, “You're snapping at him by just talking normally.” They switched back to speaking to Vess, “Please, tell me why he told you this.”
Vess eyed DH, and backed away a little, “I... I asked the same thing. I 'm nobody!” They gave a bitter laugh, “But they said it was worrying them. Nobody knew, they couldn’t tell anyone... And I walked in on them, so I guess maybe they just wanted someone to talk to?” They laughed, “I felt all good, you know? Like, I’m the confidante of the big strong Officer… some confidante I ended up being.”
“You might have helped more than you know.” TO said. “Do you have anything else you want to tell us?”
“No, Honored synths.” They said, “That’s all. I.. may I go now?” They gave a nervous laugh, “Honestly, I'm really nervous here.”
“Yes, you can go.” TO said. Vess immediately backed up, bowed, and ran off. The door closed behind them.
“Do we need to record that?” DH asked.
“No.” TO said, “I took video of the footage.” Their head still hurt, and they were feeling sick again, but in a way they also felt better. Something made sense now, and that set their mind at ease. “Let’s go home, and we’ll finish the report there. I have to add more information since some of this now makes sense.”
DH nodded, “Right, because that bot that got the recording of Vince might well have been hacked by this Joe Mamma.”
“Exactly.” TO said, “And that’s what made sense. They got the video, and used that to get Vince to comply, and took him with them on their escape to keep him from stopping them, or from talking afterwards.” they huffed, “Though... Letting dangerous insurgents go free for the sake of his reputation… it seems a bit much, doesn’t it?”
“What do you expect?” DH said, “They’re civilians.”
“Right.” TO said. They had a feeling there was more to it than just that. When they looked at it from a different angle, though, it made sense. Vass said that their mate would be angry. Maybe they were trying to keep the information from getting out to the public not to save their reputation, but to protect their mate and their relationship with them.
To TO, that made much more sense.
======
The situation report to Ark-1 was brief. Twenty-three insurgents escaped with the help of the officer of the facility, who seemed to have been acting under blackmail. Following the escape path that the insurgents took, the insurgents and the officer died after getting caught in the water purification.
They didn’t know if they should send the information about the bones. If there was any other way, the insurgents could have escaped, then they’d be more concerned, but there were other reasons why they might not have found bones; even the lab said so, but they had gone into details about the process of water purification, and TO didn’t want to read that.
The insurgents didn’t have anywhere else to go, and there was nowhere to hide. The only viable solution was that equipment room, but that had been so crowded that twenty-three people wouldn’t have fit in there, and there were no other ways out.
Nowhere else to go. They had to have died. It didn’t feel right to them! There had to be something more; this just seemed so anticlimactic!
Still, that seemed to be the case. They weren’t in a show; they were in the real world, where civilians were short-sighted and did stupid things.
They sent the report and lay down on the bed. Their eyes hurt, and they still felt sick. At least they had taken a nice, hot shower. DH let them use the shower first since they felt so bad and only wanted to get their work done and sleep.
They turned over, and wrapped themself first in their wings, then in a blanket. DH would finish their shower soon. Then, they’d cuddle up next to TO and they’d sleep until morning. They’d have one last visit with Lendulin, then later in the afternoon they’d be travelling to Thalassa.
TO was just dozing off, ignoring the pain, when their communicator went off with an incoming call. They groaned, and almost turned it off, but that’s what caused them to miss all the mess with the escape. They checked their chip, expecting a message from Avery, looking for carefully coded hints about their date, or from Lendulin looking for “all the details, please!”
It was Ark-1.