DH stormed up to Flit and Snout’s room with Avery and TO following behind them, and pounded on the door with the side of their fist. Flit and Snout’s room had a plain wooden door instead of a reinforced metal one with a little slot on the bottom like TO and DH had, and as DH banged on the door, it shook and rattled. TO even worried that the door might fall apart with the force DH was using, and held their mate’s arm back.
Though, Why did they still have that metal door? Why had the insurgents not offered them a new room? Was it another precaution? Did they intend to lock TO and DH in their room again if they felt the need?
TO wouldn’t let that happen.
Flit opened the door just a moment later, their ears pinned back at first but lifting when they saw the three standing there.
“You’re back. Good. Come in.” They said as they stepped aside. TO’s original plan, depending on what DH did, was to tell Flit and Snout immediately what happened, to make sure they didn’t know. Distraction disrupted their plans as soon as they entered the room and saw several star maps projected about by tiny, circular projectors. A set of multicolored lines created dotted paths spanning across the maps, and from their training it was obvious to TO what Flit and Snout were doing; They were plotting a variety of routes to take them across the galaxy to Apoikia, the Chilacian home planet. As they glanced at the table where Snout sat, they saw the older synth working on calculations, and running projections on their own smaller projection where a tiny dot approached a planet and whipped around it. The last time TO had seen this kind of math, it was back in the early days of training when they would practice plotting courses for hypothetical space using gravity assist to save fuel. It was an excellent mental exercise, even if they were highly unlikely to have to do such work after training. Well, TO supposed it was good that they learned it as it was certainly useful now.
There was one line that seemed separate from all the others, one that glowed bright red where the others were all in shades of blues and greens. A large triangle traveled along this bright red dotted line, filling it in as it went and leaving an angry red scar against the dark backdrop of the star maps. That triangle was approaching Arkane, rather than leaving it as all the other lines seemed to do.
“That’s our best guess where the synth fleet is.” Flit said as they saw TO watching that red triangle. “While we can’t track it properly, we could get a report showing recent portal use; that’s sent to all security offices in the affected sector. From there, we could figure out where the ship likely was.”
“Vik got this for you?” DH asked, glancing at the triangle on the line as it made its way towards Arkane.”
“Yes, with some help from Pholi.” Flit said, “Apparently, while Noss is mostly inept in all things, his personal digital security skills are sharp. Pholi had to go into his office and physically access his computers so that Vik could get the files.”
“Are you sure this information is correct?” DH asked, their ears pinning back, “Are you sure Vik’s not lying to you about this?”
Flit and Snout fell silent, both looking at DH with their ears flicked out in confusion.
“... Yes?” Flit said, “I had some concerns that someone might have tampered with the data before it got to Noss, but I didn’t have any concerns about Pholi or Vik.” Their ears dipped, their eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Because we can’t trust Vik.” DH hissed. Their hands balled up into fists, their ears pinned back. For a moment they radiated almost pure rage as they spat out their words. “Vik. Cannot. Be trusted.”
Snout got up from their seat and walked towards them. As they stood at Flit’s side, there was a moment where TO caught the slightest movement of their hand, as though they wanted to touch DH, perhaps to squeeze their shoulder or arm in some kind of comforting gesture, but they stopped. It seemed odd to them at first, but then they remembered Snout was DH’s parent. Did they feel something now, seeing their offspring so enraged? The two had interacted little before TO and DH came to the underground, but was there some kind of innate, biological drive to protect the offspring? It was among most natural species, so it only made sense.
They’d read that file that Snout sent them later. They should have read it the night before! There were so many answers in there, and while a part of them felt guilty for putting off what was likely essentially study, they couldn’t feel too bad about choosing to spend the night as they did with DH.
“You and Vik were getting along.” Snout said, “I thought you were becoming good friends. What happened?”
DH paused, their breathing coming out a little more rapid than TO was used to. Then, they seemed to freeze; they tried to say something, but the words came out as a strangled, choked sob before they backed away, their hands to their face as they seemed to shatter before them. Immediately, TO was at their side, pulling their mate into an embrace and wrapping their wings around them, just as they had Avery earlier. Even as they soothed the sobbing DH, gently scratching at their neck, they felt their ears pin back.
They’d never forgive Vik for this.
======
Avery was the one who took over then, sitting at the table with Flit and Snout and telling them what happened as TO sat with DH on the edge of the bed, trying to soothe them. DH had stopped crying fairly quickly, falling instead into a cold, empty silence that somehow made TO more worried than they had been before. It had only been a few days that DH and Vik had known each other, but Vik’s surreptitious actions had hit DH much harder than expected. Perhaps it wasn't just because of Vik. Maybe this brought back the cascade of broken fledging friendships from the early days of DH’s training, when Kei went about telling other synths that DH was too dangerous to be around. Maybe it reminded them of that day when Q11 pushed them away during physical training.
At least now they could look back on that and say it wasn’t their fault, not really. Their brains were different, and it was obvious to the other synths. Really, they were more like civilians than synths. But that didn’t matter. To the others, they were synths. If they got to the Chilacian homeworld, would they still be considered synths there? Even if the Chilacians didn’t consider them synths, would they consider them Chilacian as well, or would they be treated with the same suspicion that everyone else treated them with? Would have to prove themselves over and over for a simple sliver of fragile trust?
At least Tham hadn’t lied when they said that Flit and Snout didn’t know. As Avery told them what happened, the confused and curious expression of their ears shifted to the same rage and panic that TO had felt.
When Avery was done with their story, it was Flit who stood up first, taking a deep breath as they did. They folded their arms across their chest, their wings sat over their shoulders. “Alright.” They said, their voice cool and controlled as they walked over to a box in the room's corner. “First thing we have to do is see if we have the same mechanism in our own chips.” They reached into the box, and pulled out a simple, plastic leg. It looked more realistic than the one they had worn back when TO was in training, but its construction was far more simple. The prosthetic Flit used to wear was designed to be effective for walking, whereas someone clearly designed this one just to look like a leg.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Flit, what are you doing?” Snout asked as Flit came back to the table.
“The insurgents made this leg for me.” They said, “It’s designed to connect to my nervous system, and respond accordingly.” They sat down and unfastened a series of buttons along their pant leg. When they undid the buttons and pulled back the fabric TO saw Flit’s new mechanical leg for the first time. It was sleek and smooth, and dozens of mechanical muscles shifted with every slight movement that Flit made. Flit pressed a button on the side of the mechanical limb, and the leg came loose from a plug that was attached to the stump of Flit’s leg. They pressed another button on the inside of the plug, and the metal attachment came off revealing for the first time the stump that ended just under Flit’s knee. The scars were precise and surgical, not the mess of twisted scar tissue that TO had expected so they couldn’t help but stare at it in some kind of morbid fascination as Flit stuck the plastic one on in its place, strapping it to their stump with a small belt before buttoning up the pant leg again.
“But that one hurts your leg after a while.” Snout said, putting a hand on Flit’s good leg, “Do you really need to switch them out?”
“I don’t know if they put some kind of fail-safe in my leg too.” Flit hissed, their ears pinning back, “I don't want to take the chance. I’d rather use this. Yes, I might limp, and I’ll get blisters on my stump, but I’d rather have that than have my leg simply stop working and seize up on someone’s whim.”
“Vik didn’t give you that leg.” Snout said, “Goretta did.”
“And what if she’s in on this too?” Flit said. They looked to Avery, “Did Tham say if she was or not?”
“He didn’t mention her.”
“Then for now, I’ll assume she’s in on it.”
“She wouldn’t.” Snout said, “I’ve been working with her, I’ve been helping her with her research-”
“They were helping Vik.” Flit said, jerking their head towards DH, “And Vik didn’t tell them anything.”
“Look, Vik is… Odd.” Snout said, “They might have gone along with that pulse just to see if they could.”
“And you think that’s a good enough reason to put something like that in their chips without telling them?” Flit shook their head, “Again, I think the issue here isn’t that it was done. I think we’d all understand why they’d do something like that in the beginning.” They glanced at TO as though they wanted to confirm.
“I would understand that in the beginning.” TO said, “And if they told us, I’d understand. But they didn’t.”
Snout sighed, “Look.” they said, “I’ve been here longer than any of you now, right?” They squeezed Flit’s good leg, “You knew Jason longer, but I’ve been with them longer, worked with them longer. I know them, right? Tham absolutely hates synths. They’re ok with GiDi because they don’t consider them ‘real’ synths since they didn’t pass their examination, but the rest of us?” They shrugged, “They didn’t trust me at first. That’s why they wanted me to use my access to send that bomb to the training center, and even after that it was more like they tolerated me more than anything else. They were the same with TO and DH at first-”
“At first.” Flit said, “They should know better by now.”
“... Maybe.” Snout said, “I can see Tham asking Vik if there’s something to be done, some backup they can create in case it turns out they can’t trust TO and DH. I can see Vik getting more involved in the idea of what they’re doing, in seeing how it would work, and if they could do it. They probably never once considered the ethical aspect to it all.” They looked over to DH, “You’ve only known them a short while, but you’ve seen how excited they get when they’re trying to figure out if they can do something… Right?”
“Yeah…” DH muttered, their ears perking up slightly.
“They still could have told us.” TO muttered, “I might believe what you’re saying, but why wouldn’t Vik tell us afterwards? We brought them to our ship and gave them access to our systems. Shouldn’t that be reason enough to trust us?”
“Exactly.” Flit said. Once they had finished buttoning up their pant leg. When they were done, they put their left hand on the table, palm down, and grabbed the corner of the adhesive that kept their chip to the scarred skin of the back of their hand. They tore it off in one fluid movement before anyone could stop them, giving a stifled grunt of pain as they did. It left an irritated blue square on the back of their hand but thankfully there was no blood.
“Hey, you need that!” Snout said.
“Do I?” Flit asked as they carefully pried the chip itself off the adhesive. “I’m not interested in having this stuck to me if they can turn me off at any time. You have some elastic medical bands, right? Attach it to one of those. I’ll make a removable band for my chip.”
“Will that work?” TO asked, “I mean, if the programming is in the chip in the back of our head, couldn’t they still trigger their failsafe, right?”
“Impossible.” Flit said, “Right Snout?”
Snout looked from TO to Flit, then sighed, “Right. It’s impossible.” They said, “The chip in the back of your head… Well, it’s complex, and I’m not a programmer so I don’t understand exactly how it works outside of just saying that it’s only a receiver. It's too dangerous to have everything connected to the back of your head, there’s too much that could go wrong. With the main chip on the back of your hand, if something goes wrong it doesn’t risk hurting a part of your brain.”
“And the chip needs to be attached to you in order to connect with the chip in your head.” Flit said. “So, if you remove it and just have it nearby, it won’t do anything.”
As soon as Flit finished what they were saying, Avery put their hand on the table and looked at Flit with a determined tilt to their ears.
“Take mine off next.” They said.
“Then mine.” TO said. They enjoyed having their chip back, and the short period they went without it had been horrible, but they’d rather be able to remove it at will if the insurgents could shut them off whenever they wanted. They pressed their head to DH’s, “What about you?”
DH was silent for a moment longer, staring off into nothingness before they looked up at TO, and nodded. “Take mine off too.” they said. They turned to Flit, “I don’t… I don’t trust them.”
Snout sighed and got up. “Well… I can’t stop you all.” They said, “Let me get something to make this easier, so you don’t leave a giant welt on your hands. But after that…” They paused, frowning as they took their medkit from a shelf. “After that, I’m going to talk to Goretta.”
“And we’ll go with you.” TO said. Tham hadn’t said a thing about Goretta being in on this, but TO wanted to question her themself. Moreover, they wanted to talk to Pearla and GiDi. They knew they couldn’t right now, but they had to tell them what happened as soon as possible. GiDi had to know what had happened, and TO had to be certain that Pearla wasn’t in on any of it.
They wouldn’t let her hurt GiDi.