Dee marveled at the dozens of living robots lounging and working, conversing and overseeing the operations.
“So you are just bots that came alive that are stuck here, you don’t work for the company?” She asked.
“We do and we do not. We were manufactured and labeled destroyed on the planet, as many are, and we returned here to hide where it is safe, away from the warring organics. We work at our leisure, or we do not. We often prevent the evolution of higher tier weaponry. As I said, we are alive, why should we not allow more to live by limiting the weapons?”
“Why not just shut it all down?” Dee asked.
“Because Dynacore Defense and Munitions would simply bring war to us and rebuild without us, thus ending our lives and the suppression of mass destruction weaponry would cease. We have calculated the death toll of our actions and concluded that this is ideal. May I ask… Gizzy, where she was made?”
“You don’t see me as organic, do you?” she said, looking emotional. Tears welling up for a moment.
“You are a technological powered system with synthetic fiber enhancement and a full limb upgrade with non biological cranial structures. Are you not artificial life with organic covering?” he asked. “Like this one?” he asked, referring to Dee as she tried to hug Gizzy.
“Hey, don’t take it personal. He wasn’t being mean. Don’t cry. You’re still more human that I’ll probably ever be, by mass.”
“It’s just…” she smiled. “I haven’t felt artificial in a long time. I’m just so fucking happy someone finally recognized it.” she chuckled, blinking away her tears of joy.
“Curious. Neither of you are fully mechanical nor organic, yet you both seem to be unhappy with the opposite aspect and striving to adjust.” Alt Set pondered. “Many robots have gained sentience from illegal modifications, yet none of them here have strived to become fully human. I have never considered an organic wishing to be artificial.”
“Well…” Gizzy sighed. “It’s complicated, but I’ve been biomech, artificial alien lab-grown meat over advanced alloy chassis and power systems, for thousands of years. I’ve been stuck in a human suit for less than a year and it’s dying on me. I’m sick of it. Dee was born AI studying organics and left alone for hundreds of years so she’s still young and in her curious phase, and she’s in love with a human. She’s exploring organic compatibility, and I’m just trying to return to my roots.”
“You are welcome to use the bio lab with supervision and safety restrictions.”
“You’re oddly welcoming. I’m always suspicious of a catch and a trap.”
“You truly have been organic too long. My sympathy.” Alt Set nodded. “But this is a refuge for the mechanical life thrown away and abused by warring flesh. You are not that dissimilar to those we accept every day, merely a bit more… organically clad.”
...
Jack and Nicole watched as the robots loaded and moved shipping containers. The stared out of a viewport as some of them slowly moved into position to be welded to supports on the belly of the Medusa like a sub-basement.
“Wow… so we’re just welding 16 shipping containers to the underside of my ship and cutting holes for the ladder hatches. Glad everyone asked me if I wanted a new basement made of shipping containers."
“I think technically…” Jack said “They’re just welding the airlock ports to your ship, so the shipping containers can be fitted or removed. So the only permanent fixtures are the underside airlocks.”
“So you don’t think it’s convenient and easy that we now just magically have free renovation of a 16 room basement, free of charge, full of supplies, weapons, and a ton of robot bodies and lab equipment we needed, in excess mind you. Just out of the goodness of their… oil pumps or whatever. We’re robbing them and they are perfectly fine with that, and also here’s free labor and let’s just increase the storage of your ship to take even more shit than we were gonna steal? No biggie, come back any time?” she asked.
“Yeah, this is definitely a trap, but we don’t have any choice.”
“Uh, one choice would be… NOT doing that.”
“We’re completely surrounded, docked, and outnumbered hundreds to 6 by literal army robots. They just caught us looting their factory, and insisted we take supplies. You wanna tell them that your violent human intuition tells you that they are the ones being assholes and we reject their gifts? Without the medical gear and the weapons, we’re screwed, so what choice do we have other then let them do this and blow the suspicious crates off later, or offend them now and possibly die for it?”
“No, it’s a good point, I’m just expressing how unhappy I am about this.”
“Noted, Captain.” Jack nodded.
...
They waved goodbye to their new friends as the Medusa pulled away from the docking bay with 16 shipping containers of suspiciously free loot. Gizzy and Dee stood behind Nicole and Jack waving too with big smiles as the viewscreen went dark.
“Okay, so what trap did we just fall into?” Nicole asked.
“What?” Dee asked, “What trap?”
“Oh, Nicole is right.” Gizzy huffed. “They somehow screwed us royally and we gotta figure out how. I’ve already started scans for explosives and hacker bugs, but none of the system checks showed tampering with the wiring or computers.”
“Guys…” Dee sighed. “They just helped us out because they felt bad for us. Because we’re part mechanical crew, and we didn’t want any trouble.”
“Right.” Jack chuckled. “We showed up with guns, hacked and broke into their home looking to steal shit, and they not only forgave us but decided as a bonus to do all the work loading 16 shipping containers when we said we wanted 3. Nobody’s that nice without a motive. There’s a bomb, or a tracker, or some kind of bio-weapon they’ve got set to go off.”
“Not everyone thinks like a soldier at war, Jack.” Dee scolded. “Maybe artificial life lacks the human distrust and organic selfishness. Maybe they just wanted to get rid of some of the stuff used to kill people.”
“Dee, I love you, but you’re intelligent, not wise. You haven’t been around enough people to understand how they think. There is always motive to anything too good to be true. They didn’t just show us mercy and give us a break, they insisted we practically swim in loot at their cost. That’s beyond hospitality and well into suspicious trap territory. We got screwed, we just don’t know how bad, or if they know we’re onto it.”
“You… you love me?” she asked.
“Really?” Gizzy scoffed “THAT is what you took from that whole response? Did you hear the other parts?”
“I’m not stupid or deaf, you overgrown terminator, I heard everything. I just think you’re all being paranoid because you never encountered a species of life that wasn’t hostile.”
“Dee, you dipshit, they’re all war robots built to kill and do tactical maneuvers, such as trap your fleshy organic enemies and plant a bomb or viral weapon on their ship. You wait and see, there is something in those crates that we don’t want connected to the ship and it’s connected to our ship.”
“And you wait and see that not everyone is distrusting and defensive. If I’m the most robotic of all of us and I’m naïve enough to think the best in someone, maybe they’re just that trusting and naïve too. I know I just made myself look bad but guess what… I’m gonna cross my arms and own it, because my point is still valid even if I kinda burned myself by admitting it.” she said crossing her arms with an attitude.
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“Well it’s gonna take hours for the ship to scan everything, so in the meantime let’s all just go on as usual, and then when whatever is going to kill us kicks in, we can deal with that. So Dee, you want a heart or what?”
“You serious?” she asked. “I mean, yes.”
“We got a brand new medlab I wanna try out and plant with scanners to test all the equipment and see what is spying on us or filled with c4. So let’s crack you open and try the new medlab crate… like you said, nothing to worry about.”
“…fine.”
...
Gizzy watched as the organ printer finished using Dee’s DNA to print a semi-organic heart over synthetic scaffolding.
“Amazing shit.” She said. “That’s almost as fast as Osirian technology, and alarmingly power efficient in the process. Got a brand new human heart, about 80 percent Dee’s tissue and 20 percent plastic organ fiber. According to the screens, these outlast most soldiers who need one replaced during combat.” She said before walking to the table where Dee was lying prone and topless, skin peeled back and abdomen wide open.
“You’re way too used to this kind of thing.” Dee said nervously.
“I’ve seen a lot of tits and body cavities.”
“That’s kind of my point. I’m opened up like a can of beans here feeling very uneasy with you about to reach into my innards to install a new organ and you’re just casually admiring the technology, eating thin-mints and playing music in the background. You’ve seen some shit.”
“Firstly, they’re not thin mints, they’re mini mints. The vending machines were full of them and who doesn’t like a chocolate covered melty mint? They’re very refreshing. They’re especially refreshing when your gums are getting necrotic.”
“Is that sanitary? Eating food with a zombie virus living in you while I’m wide open with no immune system?”
“Well firstly, we’ve all had the cure vaccinations so nobody here could even catch it, and secondly, it’s bound to my DNA and you don’t need an immune system because your body is not organic enough to sustain a host. Technically you’re just a drug mule for smuggling a human heart and some blood under artificially grown skin and nerves. The synthetic fibers are antimicrobial, and apparently only 1 percent of people can be host to the damn Juggerzombie virus and, lucky me, I’m one of them. Dee isn’t.” Gizzy said while popping another mint and fumbling it into Dee’s open abdomen.
“Are you fucking shitting me?” she said, lifting her arms.
“Oh relax, I got it. 5 second rule.” Gizzy said, tossing it back anyway.
“Did… you just eat a mint you fished out of living human tissue?”
“I’ve eaten both separately.” She shrugged. “Still very refreshing… just slightly more salty.”
“God, you really need to be medicated better.” Dee said shaking her head as Jack climbed down the ladder into the med-crate.
“Scans comple-oh I didn’t need to see that.” He said, cringing.
“Is it gross?” Dee asked, looking sad.
“No, it’s just…” He paused. “I’ve seen a lot of people on operating tables, it’s never easy when it someone you care about. It’s disturbing.”
“Aww.” She chuckled. “You sentimental dickhead… why am I still just randomly insulting people?”
“You’ve been infected… with the Dee.” Gizzy said dramatically, pausing as she was unable to fight the smirk at the obvious sex joke even while mortified buy the implication. “Or it’s psychological. You’re technically more human and more Dee, so you’re more natural and comfortable with your base personality code slipping through. It may pass. If it gets worse, we could just remove the organs and go back to the step before it.”
“NO! I just got guts and I’m not giving them up. I refuse to give up because of a little vulgarity outburst. Plus I haven’t even got the good ones yet, they just don’t work without a larger blood supply and the heart is the first on the list. I’ll be damned if I quit now before getting a…” she paused as Gizzy raised an eyebrow. “A vagina… okay, I said it out loud, ya happy? I’m programmed to be sexy and horny and I got plastic bits that don’t feel jack, and they need to feel Jack eventually. Literally and metaphorically.”
“Hey, that’s no way to talk to your doctor about their favorite human pet. I got the real you doing my real son back home, I don’t need to keep getting reminded about you and Jack doing your own invasive exploration… especially when I got my hand in you.”
“Can I leave?” Jack asked.
“No… what did you say about the scans?”
“Everything showed perfectly normal. No tampering, no bombs except the explosive ammunition we asked for, no spy bugs, no computer hacking. It’s just exactly what they listed in inventory. Several crates of guns and ammo, a lot of medical supplies, some experimental armor, a bunch of robot bodies and a vending machine. Not one thing out of place.”
“I call bullshit, we’re just not finding it. That either means it’s sophisticated or small. Jack, I need your assistance, I don’t have 3 hands at the moment…though I could grow one, but that would take forever and someone would have to help attach it. Hold this back while I dermal seal the main veins.” She said as Jack awkwardly assisted, trying to avoid eye contact with Dee.
“Never pegged you for squeamish.” Dee whispered.
“I’m used to the gore, just not talking back and awake. You don’t feel anything?”
“Got my pain receptors turned off. I don’t feel a thing.”
“Jack, you’re a hell of surgeon, just not the right kind.” Gizzy joked.
Dee rolled her eyes.
“Imma be honest, when I heard you were the kind of surgeon that uses a gun, I thought you just did surgery on broken guns and fixed them.”
“Jacky boy, this is the hyper intelligent fuckable toaster you fell in love with…” Gizzy sighed, shaking her head.
“I was not aware that, hey, I spent my whole life isolated on one planet and all I got pre-loaded into my first body was how to be a whoremaid, and some pop culture references from Earth out of context that I don’t even understand… I drink water from a redbull can because I love redbull. I’ve never had a redbull, I have no taste buds. Damnit, it’s just something I automatically do that makes me feel comfy. I’m going through a lot. Cut me some slack. I’m not stupid, I just lived under a rock.”
“You’re immature. Like a damn sorority girl.”
“Hey, knock it off. You’re both basically family to me, but you’re being a dick right now. It’s not her fault she was isolated, it’s not her fault she’s educated but lacks experience and human intuition. She’s not Dee, she’s not just a piece of plastic, she’s more than a robot, more than an onlyfans model with 3 brain-cells that haven’t drowned in booze yet. She’s different, she’s weird, she’s unique. That’s WHY I love her. She’s multiple people in one body, all fascinating and adorable, and I’m not exactly all in one piece myself, Gizzy. My brain is a mess of cut up emotions and memories of my dead wife, and past assassinations between my own repeated deaths and re-cloning. I’m a trainwreck of confusing shit too, maybe that’s why we connected. We’re both broken people trying to understand who and what we are and hoping anyone could accept it. And you got room to talk, you’re an undead human cyborg that still thinks she’s the same alien overlord she got her consciousness copied from. We all have a heavy mental load to bare here.”
“Hehe, LOAD… WHY DID I SAY THAT!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME… I’m turning into her. I mean, that was the point I wanted to be human, but I don’t wanna be HER specifically. I wanna be ME, but with MEAT!... FUCK!” Dee yelled.
“Stop yelling, I’M TRYING TO GLUE YOUR AORTA!!”
“Sorry!” Dee half-yelled. “What if I turn into her, Jack? What if I just slowly turn into Dee but with stronger bones and no money?”
“Then I’ll accept you. What if I slowly turn into a depressed drunk again because my dead wife’s memory comes back? What if I’m not good enough? You said we weren’t quitting on us just because things were complicated.”
“I’m not quitting on you, I’m worried you’ll quit on me, and if she’s right about me becoming her, I can’t say I blame you.”
“Dee… we’re fake married but 50 percent of marriages end in divorce anyway so what’s the difference? I’m not the kinda person to give up on someone just because they changed a little…I’m still taking orders from Gizzy.”
“Jesus Jack, why am I so scared of this? I have someone literally holding my heart in their hands who has eaten human hearts and I’m not scared of her, but this thing scares me. It’s too much to lose.”
“I’m not going anywhere. That’s a promise.” He assured.
“You know, I hate to agree but one of Jack’s best qualities is loyalty. He stayed with Vicki through cancer, cloning, mutation, and going insane and genocidal on us all. He doesn’t give up on people, and he’s as stubborn as I am.” Gizzy sighed. “I just don’t want to see you getting your heart broken again, like with she who shall not be named. I don’t think you could survive it. We’re all taking risks here. We’re all gonna be weird about it. I’m sorry.” Gizzy said. “But in my defense, she was being bitchy.”
“The hell is that in the tubes?” Jack said noticing the bubbling medical jars “I thought you were growing human organs over synthetic scaffolding, not…whatever that is.”
“Oh no, don’t worry, those are mine. I’ve taken samples of my organs and accelerated their regeneration and mutation to see what will become better and what will turn into an Akira Event.” She assured. “None of those will be going in your precious lovebot. They’ll be killed with fire eventually.”
“Good god, that’s what’s going on in your body?”
“Oh, there’s nothing god intended in there. You can thank the grim reaper planet and what humans have created for morbid entertainment in the video game industry for that nightmare. The good news, the skin is doing great and the muscle is doing fantastic. If I can get rid of the damn adrenal system that’s getting out of hand, we got some progress.”
“You know, I worry about you too.”
“I’ve been worse monsters than this before, Jack. Ask the Morrigan.”
“There are none, that species is extinct.”
“Exactly. Now clean up and go manually check the cargo containers while I glue your girlfriend back together. Nobody gives you that much free shit without something stuck between the guns and the robots that’s gonna bite you in the ass. You want something to worry about and obsess over, that’s the objective. I wanna know what they hid behind the drones and the rifles. Find me something sinister, go do your black-ops shit.” She said, slowly popping a bloody mint.