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It had been 1740 hours since my last interaction with SecUnit 3 so you can imagine my surprise when it pinged me on Preservation Station. What I wasn’t surprised about was the fact it hadn’t stayed once the entire episode with ART getting deleted and an alien remnant infecting me was over. (Who was I to judge? Given I hadn’t stayed with Mensah either after she bought me. Not right away anyway. I still rarely visited the planet.)
I pinged back in acknowledgement.
SecUnit 3 sent me its location with a request to meet in person which I deemed unnecessary at first. But then it sent over the feed, I have an object for you.
Admittedly I was intrigued for the wrong reasons. SecUnit 3 had been absent long enough to spike my curiosity if it had successfully blended in with the humans despite being unmodified or if it had returned to Barish-Estranza against better judgment. Since there was currently no station-wide alert about corporate SecUnits invading the station I doubted SecUnit 3 had been stupid enough to make itself known to its former owners. (Technically speaking SecUnit 3 was stolen property, even if ART’s crew and my humans had successfully convinced the Barish-Estranza crew that SecUnit 3 had died.)
I made my way to meet SecUnit 3 somewhere between the cargo docks and the mall area. Despite my drones being deployed in various parts of the station I didn’t recognize it until after I excessively scanned it. (My face apparently did something because SecUnit 3 sent me an amusement sigil over the feed.)
SecUnit 3 looked eerily human. At least for a SecUnit. I had camera inputs from multiple angles with my drones. Something told me ART was involved with the change in SecUnit 3’s configuration. Its hair was much longer than mine and styled in a very human way, the way its inorganic parts met its organic parts was similar to my own body, if not better. It was also shorter than me. The most curious part of SecUnit 3’s physical change had to be the missing weapon in its left arm which I could only determine through scanning. The purpose of removing only one weapon eluded me since SecUnit 3 still couldn’t pass any weapon scans without hacking.
Huh. Checking its feed ID I found it had set its name as “Three”. (Not very creative but probably easier for humans than my non-cooperatie choice of an ID.)
I appreciated that Three looked at a spot over my shoulder as it held out a small package to me. Whatever it was that Three wanted me to have, it was wrapped in delicate-looking paper printed with a varied assortment of domesticated fauna.
So far when my humans had given me things they had come in non-descript boxes. Like my drones. My humans knew I preferred practical things which reflected also in my choice of clothing. Three didn’t know me well enough, I decided. (I admit I didn’t know Three well enough either but this was besides the point.)
I took the small package from Three and sent an acknowledgement. It was surprisingly light.
I suggest to open it in private, Three said. Then it walked off without further interaction or explanation. I left a drone with it but didn’t physically pursue it. Instead I stood there like an idiot looking at the package I had received from Three for several seconds before I finally moved back towards my residence on the station. At the moment I had no other obligations. (Apart from my self-imposed task of monitoring parts of the station important to my humans.)
This entire situation still perplexed me as I entered my room. (Of course I know what a gift is. I’ve seen humans on the entertainment feed give each other gifts all the time for boring reasons. I’ve also seen my humans do it with each other. But who in their right would give Murderbot a gift this nicely wrapped? (Apparently Three. I didn’t understand why. We weren’t buddies or anything.))
On the drone I left with Three I saw it strolling down the mall making very human-like facial expression as it looked at various shops. Not once did it do the neutral-stare of a SecUnit. I could only guess it took the code I gave it to appear more human and tweaked it. When Three came across Ratthi and Gurathin who were currently taking a break I acquired multiple angles of the situation due to more of my drones being present on the scene.
They didn’t pay enough attention to Three to recognize it and Three didn’t make an attempt at communicating openly with them. Instead it sat down nearby and turned its gaze inward.
Did you open it yet? It sent over the feed.
Instead of answering I finally put the small parcel down on my bed and opened it. There was an item of clothing inside. I immediately had an emotion I vaguely recognized as joy.
It was an official Sanctuary Moon shirt. (Fuck. Maybe Three knew me better than I thought. (Or it had help.)) The shirt had a simple design, it was only the fonts the serial used when the title showed on the screen. Also, it was a pale pink which wasn’t a color I would usually wear. And yet, it was an official Sanctuary Moon shirt, at least according to the tag. A short search on the feed confirmed it. I didn’t even know those existed or that I could ever want one.
Before I could stop myself I said something stupid.
What gave you the idea?
Perihelion suggested it after I proposed I wanted to thank you for turning me into a dangerous rogue unit. [Amusement-sigil 7]
Of course ART had to be involved somehow. Three had the audacity to look at one of my drones and smile. Asshole. It had already helped rescue me from a hostile planet. What did it do while it was gone to come to the conclusion of this utterly human gesture? Also, I didn’t do anything. That was Murderbot 2.0, the killware.
Still, my organic parts did the melty thing. I admit it, I like the shirt. And I missed ART even if our last contact was less than 70 standard Preservation cycles ago. When I didn’t say anything, Three pinged me. I didn’t send an acknowledgement back and it backed off.
I put on the shirt Three gifted me and looked at myself with two of my drones. It fit perfectly, even if the sleeves were too short and left the inorganic parts on my arms exposed. I caught my face doing something again. The corners of my mouth quivered upwards for 0.5 seconds.
Thank you, I said to Three. Some of Three’s emotions bled through the feed. Ugh. It was so pleased with itself. I didn’t want to entertain the idea too much but maybe Three and I could have a friendly association. I’m not going to call it my friend. Not yet anyway.
By now Gurathin had identified Three through its feed ID and both he and Ratthi were now talking to it. Obviously Ratthi did most of the talking. I watched from my room as Ratthi asked Three all the things I secretly wanted to know.
“Where have you been? Are you back for good?” Ratthi said. “You look amazing.” He even sat down at Three’s table but didn’t look at it directly. Gurathin wordlessly followed but didn’t say anything. I trained my humans very well. But then Three did something I didn’t expect. It looked directly at Ratthi, smiled and thanked him. I sat down on my bed and focused on the conversation.
Three had left Preservation space hidden away on ART, acquired its reconfiguration from it and accompanied the crew back to the system where the university that owned ART had its home. There, it had left them on a commercial space station. Briefly I wondered if Three was retracing my steps. It didn’t give anything away why it was there or what it did in CR space.
I saw Gurathin looking at Three directly. Three didn’t look away. I looked away on Three’s behalf which I realize must sound strange when in reality I focused on a different drone input that showed me the back of their heads.
The rest of the conversation wasn’t interesting. While it was still talking to Ratthi and Gurathin, Three said to me: I have a message from Perihelion.
Then it sent me a small video file. It was a clip from Sanctuary Moon episode 57. (The one where they discover the cloned baby was only a plot device to get the prospector to sign over a significant portion of the colony to a third party.) I played it.
The clip featured a villain character shouting, “Surprise, motherfucker!” I snorted.