Three loud synth voices shouting in a mixture of Galactic Common and synth speak were as unintelligible as the frantic yowling of angry cats. Still, the eyes narrowed to slits, the ears flush against their skulls, and the flash of reflected light off exposed fangs told Vik and Tham that the three Chilacians did not appreciate the cautionary measures.
“Y-you realize DH might be dead if we hadn’t, right?” Tham said, backing away as he held his good hand before him, “That Kei might have taken them away and reported to Gyrini?”
“You realize that if you had told us what you had done to our chips, Kei wouldn’t have tried anything in the first place!” TO snarled, taking a step forward. They pointed back towards Avery, “What if that pipe had hit Avery? We’re strong, but a metal pipe to the head could still easily kill us!”
“Yeah. Well, that happened fast!” Tham said, taking another step back. This time, they subtly tried to place a nearby chair between them and TO. “And I didn’t want to trigger it on all of you!”
“How did you trigger it?” TO snapped, “What did you do?”
Tham’s gaze flicked between the three, then they reached into their sling and pulled out a small remote. It had only one button on it.
“... Vik made this.” He said. “It’s a panic button, and since I have a sling, I hid it in there. But, because it’s a panic button, it worked on all of you at once. Vik could have activated it on Kei alone.”
“Vik!” DH, who had followed TO closely either to support them or hold them back if need be, turned to shout at Vik but to everyone’s surprise the small rodent was gone from his seat.
“Where did he go!?” DH hissed at Tham.
“Honestly, he probably went to hide.” Tham said, “You’re a hundred times his size and weight, and could probably eat him in one bite.”
“Eat him?” DH’s ears dropped in a mixture of revulsion and horror, “You think I’d eat him?”
“Oh, they wouldn’t have to worry about that.” TO huffed, “They have a panic button to turn us off if they feel like it!”
“It saved DH’s life!” Tham said. “It protected us all! What if Kei had gotten away!” he slipped the remote back into his sling, “If you’re going to be angry at anyone, be angry at Kei!”
“Oh, I am.” Avery said, their voice filled with quiet, shaking rage. “And I can also be angry at the people who put an off switch in my brain.”
“Why didn’t you tell us!” TO asked, trying to keep their voice under control now, trying to dampen the fiery rage in their head. Tham was still backing away, and a part of TO worried they’d push the button again.
“Look, we said we took precautions, didn’t we!” Tham said, “TO, you didn’t even want Kei to go out with us, right? Well, you were right! And if we hadn’t taken those precautions-”
“But why didn’t you tell us!” TO said, “I thought we were fine!”
Another pace back, this time Tham shrugged and looked away, “It… I guess we’ve been so busy, it didn't occur to us…?”
“The reason is obvious.” Avery hissed, “They don’t trust you.”
“Didn’t.” TO said with just a glance at Avery. “They didn’t trust us. And I understand that, but-”
“But if they trusted you now, shouldn’t they have told you?” Avery said.
They should have. At this point, TO thought that the insurgents, that Tham trusted them! Their eyes flicked to Tham’s sling, the reminder of the injury that made them basically helpless while TO dealt with the special agent.
No, not ‘dealt with’. While TO killed the special agent. The blood, the bones, the death. How many people had died that day? TO had done their best not to think about it, and as they had kept so busy since then they had been mostly successful. The odd time that memory crept into their head, they soothed themself by thinking of the children they had brought into the underground, and by how friendly Tham had been later that day, and since. At least now, they thought, the insurgents trusted them. Now they wouldn’t be worried that TO and DH would turn on them. Clearly, that wasn’t the case.
“Is that really why?” TO asked, though they knew any venom they could throw into their voice had seeped away, and that while they wanted to keep their ears pinned back, they had now dipped. “Is it because you still didn’t trust us?”
“... I’m sorry.” Tham said, their voice quieter than TO had heard it before. “We were going to… and you can understand why we did it, right?” they glanced at TO, catching their gaze for just a second before looking away. “You wouldn’t have objected to us doing it to Kei, right?”
“That’s different.” TO said. “Kei… Kei was a normal synth. We-”
“You four all passed that test thing that Flit told us about.” Tham said. “You were all proper synths who finished your training. Natural brains or no, from what I know that training involved a good bit of brainwashing, and I promise there’s plenty of people who agree with what Decon is doing without having their frontal lobes fucked. Synths, and others.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I killed someone to keep you safe.” TO hissed, “I killed a civilian. I killed several civilians, all of whom were doing nothing other than their jobs.”
“Their jobs involved-”
“They were doing what they thought was right.” TO snapped, “Just like you were when you pushed that security guard into the water cleaning system. He was only doing his job too, you realize.”
Tham flinched. “But we had to-”
“And despite that, despite what I did to keep you safe, to keep your sister safe, to keep the civilians underground safe, you still didn’t trust me enough to tell me about this off-switch you all put in our heads.” They took another step forward, “Why.”
Tham didn’t answer right away. They looked at the table, the floor, at Vik’s computer as though the small creature might have reappeared. They looked everywhere but at the three synths, the three Chilacians.
“Tham.” TO took another step forward, “I want an answer.”
“Well… We’ve only known you for a few days.” Tham said, “Besides, you’re smart. You’re really smart from what I know. And I know you all can’t lie, but clearly Kei has proven you all can be very careful with your words.”
“DH and I have been doing nothing but helping since you let us out of that room.” TO said.
“And Kei was helping too.”
Oh.
TO wasn’t sure if the realization of what Tham was saying made them angry or sad, but it hurt either way. TO took a step away from the Nagarajin. “You thought I was acting.” They said, “You thought I was faking. That I was biding my time, waiting for an opportunity.”
Tham shrugged, “Well… You clearly don’t agree with us, with what we’re doing…”
“I might not have at first.” TO said, “But I assure you, I had issues with how things were being run on this planet beforehand, and I’ve learned plenty to assure me of King Decon’s duplicity. But even if that were not the case, I would never do anything to hurt GiDi. If GiDi is here, and working with you, I’d help you. I’d protect you and Pearla for no other reason than Pearla being GiDi’s mate, and that makes the two of you practically family.”
“They would be considered our family.” Avery said, “By Chilacian standards anyway. Blood or no, they’d be considered family.”
“Right.” DH said, “Just like Avery is our family.”
“Well, how are we supposed to know that?” Tham said, finally looking at TO again, “You’re synths. I like you, TO. You’re a hard worker, you’re clever, and you’ve saved my ass and my sister’s life. But you’re still a synth. How am I supposed to know how deep that brainwashing went?”
TO took another breath, a long, calming one. This argument was going in circles, and they knew if they kept up at it, they’d get angry at Tham. If they got into a big enough argument, maybe Tham would press that off switch just to end it.
“Do the others know about this?” TO asked, “Pearla, GiDi… Flit and Snout?”
The way Tham looked away filled TO with a sliver of relief. Yes, Tham had also deceived the rest of their family, but at least Flit, Snout, GiDi, and Pearla hadn’t kept this from them. Though, it made them wonder if the others had the same off switch in their chips. TO turned without another word. “Come on.” They said to DH and Avery, “We’re going.”
“Where are you going?” Tham said, “TO, you can’t-”
“Don’t worry.” TO hissed, “We’re not leaving the underground, so you won’t have to shut us down again.” They glanced back and were happy enough to see a flicker of guilt across Tham’s face. Their ears pinned back as they turned away.
“We’re going to tell Flit and Snout.” TO said, “Just in case you did the same thing to them.”
“We didn’t!” Tham said, but this time DH turned around, their ears back and down.
“You and Vik hid this from us.” DH said, “How can we trust a thing you say now?” They took TO’s hand, and stormed ahead, taking Avery by the arm as they went. “Come on.” They snapped, “Let’s go.”
There was a certain shaking to DH’s voice, and while their ears mostly screamed their anger, TO could see that tilt down, that certain sadness that hid beneath the ocean of anger like an undercurrent. TO realized that while it hurt enough that Tham had hidden this from them, that Tham didn’t trust them, Vik’s distrust of DH probably hurt their partner much more than Tham’s hurt TO. DH and Vik had hobbies and passions in common, spent lots of time together, and they had become fast friends. This likely hurt DH much deeper than it hurt TO.
TO squeezed DH’s hand, and let their partner lead them to Flit and Snout.