Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Ms. Jane has been with us for thirty years," the manager says. Jane gives him a condescending smile as he swans in front of the workers, motioning to her new SecUnits. "She started as one of our engineers and was one of the first augmented human operators interfacing as a human HubSystem. She has plenty of experience, which is why I'm confident she can handle the units who are more...problematic."

"Why hasn't she retired yet?" a worker whispers. The other worker snickers.

"I bet she's in hella debt."

Jane's eyes slide toward them in a subtle glare; the workers straighten.

"Jane, thank you again for onboarding with us," the manager says.

"Tell me more about the SecUnits," Jane says. They walk past the workers to the line of armored SecUnits standing at attention.

"These are the units marked for decommission," the manager says. "Difficulty performing or interpreting orders. Freezing in the middle of battle situations. Glitching so much that their governors zap them pre-emptively."

"I see. Why not melt them down then?" Jane asks.

"We're behind on production. We melt down these units, we won't be able to replace them."

"Show me the first one," Jane says. She puts on a wreath of wires, attaching to her augments. Automatically she connects with the SecUnits.

"This one started acting up after its most recent assignment," the manager says. He taps on his tablet, showing her. "A simple bodyguard mission, some rich corporate and his kid. The unit came back unable to comply with even the simplest orders, glitching before going offline. Even its motor functions are shaky."

"Let me see," Jane says, and she swipes through the unit's memory. "Have we tried a memory wipe?"

"We did; it's been completely reset, but the OS still won't properly follow commands."

Jane's augments connect. She sees several files pop up in her HUD. Video files. The kid, a teenager, and a group of his friends surrounding the SecUnit. They are ordering it to break its own arms and legs.

"Well there's your answer," Jane says. "The orders it was given harms the unit. The order conflicted with its standing orders of self-preservation."

"I don't understand - I thought self-preservation didn't apply to SecUnits," the manager says.

"Self-preservation so long as their clients are protected," Jane says. "The governor probably punished it for breaking corporate property; if it didn't obey the kid's order, the governor punished it for not listening to a direct command. Either way, the unit got punished." She swipes the windows closed. "A dog getting zapped in a cage no matter where it is will learn that nothing matters, and will sit there and shit and wet itself, allowing itself to get zapped. That's learned helplessness, and that's what's happening to this SecUnit."

She closes her HUD. "Show me the next." The manager scurries, tapping on his tablet, moving onto the next SecUnit.

"This one freezes in combat," he said. "Full memory wipe, fully refurbished. Still balks and stands there like an idiot even when the other SecUnits are fighting around it."

Jane taps on her tablet again, adjusting her wreath of augments. "Its neural activity is lighting up like a tree on Christmas," she said.

"What does that mean?" the manager says.

"The unit has PTSD," Jane says.

The manager starts to laugh, but Jane's face is stony as she stares at him.

"Er," the manager clears his throat and straightens his expression. "How can a machine have PTSD?"

"Didn't you know? SecUnits have human brains."

The manager's eyes widen a fraction. Jane taps on her tablet, frowning.

"They are human brains that are heavily augmented, cloned in a vat along with their eyes and optic nerves, and parts of their spinal tissue."

She makes a few more taps. "A cocktail," she says. "We adjust its cortisol levels, hormone levels, and watch its behaviors. It freezes because it is scared. The governor module is registering it as an error."

The manager nods, then leads Jane to the last one.

"This one hasn't passed its competencies yet," the manager says. "Usually if a SecUnit is unable to integrate its combat and security modules--"

"--it gets melted, yes," Jane says.

"It's clumsier than normal, and fairly uncoordinated."

"How is it at target practice?" Jane asks.

"Abysmal," the manager says. "Fails nine times out of ten."

Jane considers the third unit, which keeps staring straight ahead.

"These will be your SecUnits," the manager says. "You will be their operator and their handler and they will report to you during their missions."

"I assume this is a stopgap until they're decommissioned?"

"Until we can replace them with functioning units, yes."

Jane looks at the three SecUnits. "I look forward to a challenge," Jane says.

*****

There is no discernible way to tell day from night in space; programmed light simulating sunlight flares in the hallways and bathes the office during the hours designated as "Day," but at night, the lights dim into a simulacrum of moonlight. Jane is in her office. Outside the station, the light of the Barish-Estranza corporate polity planet bathes her office in silvery light. It is late. Silently, Jane looks at the pictures of her family in the picture frame: her two boys, now college-aged.

There is a knock at the door.

"Hello, Jane," her supervisor says. Jane smiles at him.

"Hello. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Jane says. The supervisor smiles, stepping in.

"I wanted to thank you personally for overseeing the problematic units," the supervisor says.

"I shall whip them into shape and use them to their fullest," Jane says.

"I've no doubt you will. Have you seen your newest assignment?"

Jane takes the folder from the supervisor's hand. It's another colony reclamation, a planet 94 cycles away by warp ship. "That's a long trip," Jane says.

"We're hopeful you'll be able to train your SecUnits by then," the supervisor says. "That, after the period of three months, they'll be ready to take on the reclamation mission."

"And if they're still glitching by then?"

"Well we already have a full complement of SecUnits," the supervisor says. "Currently there are eight already stationed. They had requested backup, which we initially refused, but we thought this would be a good test case for the defective units."

"I see," Jane says. The supervisor smiles.

"Ms. Jane. I need to tell you, it is an honor to work with you," the supervisor says. "To work with one of the very first operators of the human HubSystem--"

"That's fine," Jane says, interrupting him. She smiles. "I am about to call my sons. Is there anything else?"

"No," the supervisor says. He steps toward the door.

"Goodnight, Ms. Jane."

"And good night to you, Mr. Supervisor," Jane says. The man nods his head, then leaves her office.

Chapter Text

SYSTEM-SYSTEM COMMUNICATION ACTIVE

OPERATOR PROTOCOL INITIATED....

Visual inputs flood her HUD as Jane connects to her SecUnits.

SecUnit01's status is nominal.

SecUnit02's status is nominal.

SecUnit03's status is nominal.

All functions are stable.

Awaiting commands; unit configuration stable.

"Okay, kids," Jane says, her head wreathed in wires, multiple interfaces embedded in her forehead and temples. "Let's begin virtual training session 142-B."

The units respond. Virtual training sessions take place entirely in feedspace; their motor functions are locked, but their neural networks respond as if they're moving through physical space.

The training scenario is a hostage situation: hostiles have taken their clients. 01 is acting as team lead while 02 and 03 are its backup.

01 freezes. The governor threatens punishment, but Jane initiates OPERATOR mode and overrides it. It tries to plan and execute a rescue, but it stutters, unsure. 02 is supposed to flank the hostile on its left, but it also freezes, too scared to enter the fray, its governor also threatening punishment. Jane tamps down the governor, then subtly adjusts its dopamine and cortisol levels.

03 shoots itself with its projectile weapon, accidentally shooting its own foot when it goes to aim at the hostile. Jane sighs, then ends the session.

Her SecUnits stand at attention. Their visors are opaqued. Their armor is bulky and sleek. Jane walks up to them and barely comes up to their sternums; their armored shoulders are nearly twice the width of hers. It is strange from an outside perspective that she has such power over them.

"Do you know why you're here?" she asks the SecUnits. None of them answer. "Speak freely; I've got a hold on your governors."

01's voice comes out, tinny from the helmet speakers. "We are here because we can't be decommissioned."

"Correct. And so what does that mean?"

"That we must learn how to work as a functioning unit."

"Also correct," Jane says. "01 you're a veritable scholar. What about you, 02. What do you think?"

02 takes a beat. "I apologize for not reacting faster," 02 says.

"It's all right," Jane raises a hand. "That is why we're doing the training. 03," Jane says, walking toward it. "You will have additional virtual weapons practice. It is unacceptable that you triggered your weapons before you could aim. Understood?"

"Yes, Operator," 03 says.

The large language models installed in the SecUnits gives them human-like speech; if Jane were a novice, she would think she was talking to actual humans.

The transport ship taking her to the new colony planet is sparse and filled with minimal equipment. There is no human pilot on the ship, just a bot pilot who every now and then pings an acknowledgement. Ordinarily Jane would be wary boarding a ship with no other humans, but she knows she will be busy training her SecUnits.

0200 ship's time. Jane is asleep, but still has an open connection to her SecUnits. She is deep asleep when she gets a ping on the channel with her SecUnits.

SecUnit02 - ping@[SecUnit03]query:[status]?query:[weapons_practice]?

SecUnit03 - response:[weapons_practice=bad]response:[weapons_practice=terrible]response:[self=awful_at_shooting][emotion=embarrassed]

Jane sits up. In the feed, she can see the SecUnits' conversation. Evidentally they have forgotten that she has passive access as their human HubSystem. SecUnit01 enters.

SecUnit01 - ping@[SecUnit03]response:[NEGATIVE]response:[SecUnit03=new_unit][SecUnit03=more_experience_needed]

SecUnit03 was feeling bad about its weapons practice. SecUnit 01 and 02 were consoling it. Jane sits up carefully, touching her augments.

The SecUnits are standing in the cargo hold, staring at a wall. Their bodies move and sway with the bot ship's movements. Their helmets are on and their visors are opaqued, and they look like pieces of out-of-the-way equipment.

Jane purses her lips, walking toward them.

The chatter in the feed stops. Systems are nominal, awaiting commands.

"You can keep talking," Jane says. She switches on a light. The SecUnits don't move, but she can tell through her HUD that their pupils have constricted in response to the sudden flooding of light.

There is something about them. Jane furrows her brow, walking closer to them.

"Were you waiting until I was asleep so you could speak together?" she asks. The SecUnits stare at the wall. Her augments register fear and apprehension in the feed. Jane sighs. "You will not be punished. Just answer me truthfully."

"Yes," 01 says. It answers for them as their team leader.

"You won't need to do that." She picks up her tablet and makes a few taps. "I'm creating a secure private channel on the feed. You may use it freely. I won't listen in on any conversations. Your governor modules will punish you if you try to plan a coup anyway."

Younger operators would balk at this, but Jane knows from her many years of experience that the machines will work better in tandem if there is a modicum of trust between them and their operator admins. She sets down her tablet.

"Continue your weapons practice," she says to 03. "And let 01 and 02 help you with your combat modules and your aim."

"Acknowledged," they say.

She nods at them, still facing the wall, and switches off the light to the cargo hold.

*****

They are in the middle of a training session when a key-sized projectile slams through the hull and rends a hole in the ship.

Alarms start blaring as a force field drops and the ship's drones rush out to repair the damage.

The SecUnits scatter. They have deep space repair modules installed, and they act quickly, stabilizing the ship, taking the bot pilot out of warp, acting as an extension of the ship's drones. It isn't until 01 strips out of its armor to put on the puffy white space suit before going outside that Jane sees it:

01's face, as young and babyish as a boy's. Its youth startles her into staring at it, before it puts on its helmet.

The other SecUnits are focused on repairs, and 01 cycles the airlock, tethered to the ship's hull to help seal the broken panel.

Jane has never really seen a SecUnit out of armor before. Of course, she's seen them damaged in their cubicles, with their organics melted off and their metal bits and pieces sticking out, and she's seen the decommissioned units line up naked for the acid bath, stripped of their skin suits and ordered to step into the crane to lower them, and Jane had always thought they looked machine-like and docile. A human would be afraid, but the decommissioned SecUnits moved to the acid vats like they didn't know any better.

"A moment," Jane says, after 01 returns and takes off its EV suit. It looks at her, and it looks barely older than a college student, a being that could be her son's age, or maybe just out of high school.

"02 and 03," Jane says, and they straighten. "Lower your visors."

They don't hesitate, but there is confusion in the feed and in their faces, and Jane is struck by how young they look. All three of them look barely older than her children.

"01. How old are you?" she asks, and 01 hesitates, nervously fingering its helmet. When it speaks, it sounds remarkably human. "I have been online for 722 hours," it says. "But my memory was wiped; internal chronometer estimates around five years old."

"I am four," 02 says, and 03 shyly adds, "I am only 90 cycles old."

"90 exactly?" Jane says. "That's a veritable birthday."

If a SecUnit is built with the starting cognition of an 18 year old human, then their equivalent ages would be 23, 22, and 18. They're babies, Jane thinks. She thinks of her sons reflexively.

"From now on, you do not need to be in full armor," Jane says. "You can choose to wear it if you want, but if it is more comfortable to remain in your skin suits, you may do so."

Giving a governed unit the ability to make its own choices is important to its development.

01 hesitates, then says, "Acknowledged. I will remain in my armor."

Chapter Text

"SecUnit," the client said, a teenage human surrounded by his friends. "Break your arm."

It tried to comply. The governor shrieked at it that it was destroying company property, and it hesitated. The client screwed his face up. He said, "I order you to break your arm, now!"

It turned down its pain sensors and snapped its forearm cleanly in half, the bone sticking out from its organics. The client's friends hooted. They high-fived each other and fistbumped, excited.

The governor gave it punishment.

It staggered, breathless. One of the client's friends grinned at it. "SecUnit, snap your neck."

"No stupid, don't tell it to do that, it'll stop working if it snaps its neck."

"Punch yourself," the kid said. He gave it a vicious grin. "Don't stop until I tell you to. Keep punching yourself. Do it harder. Harder."

It started by punching its leg, hoping the muscle would be enough to absorb the impact. "No SecUnit," the kid said. "Punch yourself in the head."

Warnings, then electric jolts of pain. Punishment for destroying company property. Punishment for disobeying direct commands. The helmet cracked, glass shattering and cutting its face. Its eye socket broke, purple bruises under the flesh.

"God it's so fucking stupid!" the client's friends laughed. "Look at it punching itself. Holy shit!"

WARNING, its HUD said. Performance reliability 62% and dropping.

"Cut your leg!" the humans shrieked. "Carve my name on your chest! Holy shit, it did it!"

More punishment, the governor screaming at it. It didn't know what to do. The governor wouldn't let it disobey them.

*****

She wakes in the middle of the night, 0300 ship's time, by a desperate ping from 02 and 03.

01 is shaking. Standing at the corner of the cargo hold, it's shaking violently.

Operator??? 02 and 03 are frightened. Jane fumbles with her augments, attaching her wreath and visual display, connecting with 01 directly.

COMMAND UNIT DISENGAGE she sends it, and it jolts 01 from whatever feedback loop it's stuck in. It's hyperventilating and shaking, but at least now it can follow commands.

"01, take off your helmet and your chest plate. I'm going to need access to your hard wire."

01 removes its helmet and its chest plate. Its skin is pale and sweaty.

"Sit," Jane says, and it drops into the seat next to her, awkward and unused to sitting. She pulls out its hard wire and connects it to her augment. "I'm going to modulate your fear response and cycle out your stress hormones. Just a moment."

The hard connection whirs. 01 calms, then straightens. Jane pulls up a diagnostic: the SecUnit doesn't have access to the memories that are purged, but Jane as its Operator can see them. Silently she modulates its emotions, calming it.

02 and 03 keep staring at her, two giant pieces of equipment looming over her, and Jane snaps at them, "If you're going to stand around, take off your helmets and sit down. I don't like being loomed at."

"Is 01 going to be okay?" 03 asks, because it's still young and doesn't realize it's against protocol to ask its operator non-security related questions. 02 balks at it, but Jane sighs and shakes her head.

"It's suffering from a memory dumping error," she says. She looks at 01, who's clenching its jaw. "I have access to your deleted memories," she says. "Do you want me to restore them?"

01's eyes flick upward. Without their drones, they have to use their eyes to look at her, and 01 does this, its eyes flicking upwards before looking at its folded hands.

"You're already glitching," she says. "It might help if you have context."

Jane never liked memory wipes. The units were still traumatized, but their field experience would virtually be eliminated. Memory-wiped units rarely survived their second assignments.

"Yes," 01 says, finally. "Please do, Operator."

Before its disastrous assignment with the asshole rich family and their psycho kid, 01 had been one of the top performing SecUnits of its class, with a 96% mission success rate. It was one of the reasons why the higher ups were so hesitant to have it decommissioned. Jane thinks of this now as she gently brushes her fingers behind 01's ear, accessing a small port, then connects a second wire.

Her HUD lights up with alerts. Memory archive being repaired. Orphaned files renamed. Partitioned memories re-accessed. MEMORY RESTORATION COMPLETE, the alert on her window says. She disconnects the wire.

01 blinks rapidly, reliving the memories. Its eyes grow wet and red. "Operator," it starts, and she's reminded of her sons again.

She hugs it. The SecUnit stiffens, then relaxes into the hug, before it starts crying. Jane shushes it, stroking its hair, cradling it like she would any of her children after a nightmare.

02 and 03 watch, helmets down and not saying anything. Then 03 lowers its head, moving to join the hug as well. And Jane hugs them, 01 and 03,  while 02 watches silently.

Chapter Text

"Operator, who are they?" 03 asks, as she's holding the picture of her sons again. Of the three SecUnits, 03 is the most gregarious. It's never worked in a team or with an operator, and it has zero field experience. It hasn't had a chance to get traumatized by horrid clients yet, Jane realizes, and she hopes to preserve its innocence.

Jane turns the photo over in her hands. "These are my sons," she says, showing it. 03 peers at them. She can tell from the soft whirring of its eyes that it's taking a screenshot and saving it into permanent storage, doubtlessly tagging it as important information.

"Will you tell us about them, Operator?" 01 asks, walking toward her. 02 nods. Jane looks at the photo in her hands, then smiles at them.

"This one is Barnaby, and this one is Elias," she says, pointing at them. "They were studying engineering in college. They wanted to work with SecUnits."

"Are they going to become operators?" 01 asks. Jane smiles and shakes her head.

"They died," Jane says. She rubs her thumb across a crease, looking at them. "There was a transport ship accident."

The SecUnits fall quiet. They know about death. Jane waves her hand at them.

"It was a long time ago," Jane says. She tucks the picture back in her vest. "I was just about to call them."

"Call them?" 01's face scrunches. "How would you call them if they are dead?"

"I have their voices on my voicemail. Listen," Jane says, and she taps on her tablet.

"Hey Mom, it's Barney and Elias. We're going to the festival so we'll be late coming home."

"Mom we'll be back later!" a second voice says, presumably Elias.

The voicemail ends. Jane taps her tablet, closing the window again.

"I'm sorry," 01 says.

"Me too, Operator. I'm sorry too," 03 says.

02 nods at her knowingly. Jane smiles at them.

It's been 22 cycles since they've been on this ship, and 03's targeting ability increases under 01's tutelage. They work together in the Operator-coded virtual sessions, and continue to work together on their private feed, 02 joining occasionally to help teach it. After their training sessions, they stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the cargo hold, staring at the wall, looking as inert and sterile as unthinking pieces of equipment, even though the feed is alight with rapid fire conversations between them.

It is 00:00 ship's time, midnight. Jane sits alone in the crew cabin, a blanket wrapped around herself as she sits in the darkness. The lights had automatically dimmed and everything is quiet. The transport ship shifts; past the closed doors of the cargo bay, she can see the three shapes of her SecUnits slightly swaying.

Operator to SecUnits. Come to the crew cabin.

The doors slide open, and the SecUnits dutifully walk in. They are dressed in the armor but not their helmets. Their drones have come online, and are whirling about the ship.

"I'm sick of sitting alone in the cabin," Jane says. The SecUnits look confused at her. Jane gestures. "Sit," she says. She doesn't mean it to be an order, but they do. Jane considers. She rubs a forefinger across her temple augment, before looking at their expectant faces.

"I'd like to put a hold on your governor modules," she says. "We usually turn them off to run diagnostics, and since there are no hostiles here, I think letting you make your own decisions will be good for your development."

03 doesn't seem to understand, but she sees 01 and 02's eyes widen.

"Operator?" 01 looks distressed. It looks like it doesn't know if it should agree and risk getting punishment.

"You aren't making this decision, I am," Jane says. She taps her tablet. The permissions glide across, gentle as a kiss, and the governor falls asleep in all of them.

"It's under temp lock," Jane says. "Obviously it'll come back online if you attempt to hurt me, and the distance limitation is still active if you try to leave. But I think it'll be better if we work together as autonomous beings."

01 touches its head. "I...can disobey an order?"

Jane's mouth quirks. "Go ahead," she says.

01 blinks. "But, you are giving me permission to disobey, so is that not also an order?"

"Can I swear?!" 03 says.

"Swear?" Jane says.

"Can I say 'fuck'?" 03 says. Its eyes widen. "I said fuck!" 03 says.

02 blinks. It stares at its hands, which clench and flex. It straightens its fingers again.

"Fuck, fuck, shitty fuck fuck!" 03 says. It's gleeful, jumping up its seat, definitely looking like a high schooler.

01 sits, marveling at its lack of governor punishment, while 03 dances around, swearing and hollering, giddy with its new flexibility in language, but 02 keeps staring at its hands.

"Operator," 02 says. "May I keep my governor module?"

"What? Why?" Jane says. 02's brow furrows.

"I'm afraid I won't act if there's no threat of punishment," 02 says.

Jane remembers how it freezes. How the fear squeezes its throat and chokes it.

"That's why we run those simulations," Jane says, gently. "And I turn off the governor module anyway when we do them, since I don't need it zapping you when we're doing everything virtually."

"Holy fucking shit!" 03 says, triumphant. 01 hangs its head and laughs at it.

*****

It is a dangerous thing, anthropomorphizing her SecUnits. 

She sits in the crew cabin, listening as her SecUnits race their drones. Drones whizz around the deck and past her, while her SecUnits line up, moving them with utmost concentration. Soon, they will be dumped alone on a colony and met with hostile colonists. And as their operator, she will have to throw them into dangerous situations.

Jane sighs, rubbing her head. She is too old for this. She pulls out the picture of her sons and wishes she could talk to them. But her sons are dead and so is her husband, all three of them blown up on the transport ship.

There is a slight commotion, and Jane lifts her head. 

"I won!" 03 says. It bounds up to her, beaming like one of her sons. "Operator, I did it! I won!"

"That's fantastic," Jane says, and it really is - 03 had so much trouble learning how to control its drones, they often collided into objects or dropped from the air, much to 01 and 02's chagrin. 03 grins, its drones whirring softly around its head.

"Now it just needs to learn how to shoot its weapons," 01 says.

"Fuck off," 03 cheerfully says.

In her Old Mom Voice, Jane says, "03. Language."

It's not an order, but 03 grins, chastened. "Sorry, Operator," it says.

Chapter Text

03 somehow gets its hands on snuff videos featuring SecUnits going into acid baths.

It had been like a teenager trawling in the feed, looking up clips of cute animals and funny videos, until eventually it came across a whole bunch of videos of people forcing SecUnits to do awful things for comedy.

"SecUnit, go fly," a bored voice said, and the SecUnit flailed, unable to fly, and getting punished for it. The voice started laughing as the SecUnit fell, twitching under punishment. There were videos of SecUnits forced to dance, SecUnits forced to eat so the clients could laugh at them trying to vomit. SecUnits forced to shoot themselves in the head.

Then it came across the videos of the acid-baths; soulless, dead-eyed SecUnits marching, quiet and compliant, naked and walking to their deaths.

"Is that what was supposed to happen?" 03 says. Jane sighs and considers revoking its feed access.

"Your modules were corrupted during the initial installation process," Jane says, sitting next to it. "That's why you're having so much difficulty with weapons and combat. Now you have to learn how to fight and use weapons like a human."

03 is quiet a moment. "So I am defective," 03 says.

"No," Jane says. She shakes her head. "No, you may not know how to do things automatically like 01 and 02 did, but since you're using your organic neural tissue to learn, you'll have those patterns ingrained in you. If 01 or 02 gets hacked, they'll lose those abilities. But not you. You'll have learned it through sweat and practice."

"Really?" 03 says.

"Yes," Jane says.

*****

02, like 01, had its memories erased, but unlike 01, doesn't want them back. "I'm afraid to," 02 says.

"You don't want to know what happened to you?" Jane asks.

"No," 02 says. It shudders. "I'm glad I don't remember. It must have been horrible to go through."

It had been abandoned. Cut off from the feed and without its drones in an abandoned mineshaft, hurting and injured, the only surviving SecUnit of its team. It desperately pinged for help for 22 cycles before running out of battery.

Jane doesn't tell it this, though. She'd read its case file, seen its memories firsthand. They sit below the surface of 02's consciousness, orphaned memories affecting its threat and risk assessments.

"It's alright," Jane says, instead. "These are your memories and your decision."

Decisions are powerful for a governed unit.

*****

You need to shuffle your inputs when you're flying your drones, 01 says.

They're talking in the feed. The lines appear rapidly, almost instantaneously. Jane reads the logs and realizes 01 has taken 02 and 03 under its wing.

"You're good with them," Jane says. 01 nods solemnly.

"They're my teammates. It's my job to protect them."

"It's my job to protect you," Jane says. 01 smiles and it reminds her of her son again.

"Operator?"

"Yes?" She had started to get up to go to her cabin. She sits down again. "01, what is it?"

01 fidgets. "Why are you kind to us?" 01 asks.

"What do you mean?" Jane says.

"You're....you're not like other operators," 01 says. "At least, not the operators I've worked with."

It looks so young. Aching for guidance and protection. Jane shakes her head.

"It's because I'm old, 01," Jane says. "You remind me of my children."

01 tilts its head.

"Do you know why they brought me on?" Jane says.

"Because we were about to be decommissioned, but there were no new SecUnits to replace us after the acid bath," 01 says.

Jane winces. So they'd heard and understood what was happening to them. "They brought me on because of my experience with SecUnits," Jane says. "Back when SecUnits were heavily augmented humans."

01 stares at her. "SecUnits were human?"

"Brain dead. Usually first responders. Policemen or soldiers. We'd salvage their brains and put them in metal bodies. They called them 'robocops' at first." Jane thinks back to the memory, the heads suspended at a height with exposed brain casings, the trail of their spines as they were lowered into their metal bodies. "Then they developed constructs, creating machine intelligences with organic neural augments. But it was just a fancy way of saying they grew a brain in a vat, then plugged it into a metal SecUnit.

"So in a way, you are a human," Jane says. "Just like my sons were, or those poor dead men we'd resurrected."

01 is quiet a moment. "I do not want to be a human," 01 says.

It says it so softly, she barely hears it over the quiet. 01 waits as if expecting punishment. But there is none. Jane nods, understanding.

"I know," Jane says. She nods again. "I know you consider yourself closer to a bot than a human."

"Humans do bad things to SecUnits," 01 says, and hunches over, hugging itself again.

That night, the ship is quiet. Jane looks out the view window and at the stars drifting in front of her. They are halfway done through this trip; she almost wishes they'd never reach their destination.

Chapter Text

The planet whose colony they're reclaiming is a red planet, whose rocky surface is covered with flat sands and large crevices, and which looks more like a desert than a habitable planet. The colonists there have resisted Barish-Estranza's interference; usually colonists react with gratitude upon receiving their employment contracts, but these colonists evidently had gone to this planet to escape corporates.

"It's a volatile situation," Jane says, showing the SecUnits her map projections. "The colonists treat us like hostiles when we're just trying to help them."

She opens a video clip. Humans are rioting, pummeling the B-E SecUnits. "They're essentially squatters who have grown violent."

"And we're going to engage and suppress them?" 01 asks.

"We've been asked to provide backup to the eight current SecUnits," Jane says.

03 walks around the holographic display, awestruck, staring at the details, then zooming in for close-ups. "So there's only eight of them for all those colonists?" 03 says. 02 scoffs.

"That's why none of us were decommissioned. There isn't enough SecUnits."

"We keep getting killed off," 01 says.

It doesn't say what Jane is thinking, that they're killed off because of their operators' negligence. Because of the cavalier attitude of Barish-Estranza towards all its units.

"Don't worry," she says to them, as they approach the planet. "I'll keep your governors off while you're connected to me, so you don't have to worry about making the wrong decision and getting punished. I'll keep you safe so long as you're connected to me."

"Yes, Operator," they say.

Preparing to reach planet, the pilot bot says in the feed.

*****

Her SecUnits don their armor again. Jane walks, the three units flanking behind her, striding in formation.

"Ah, Ms. Jane," the colonel says. Jane holds out her arms as the colonel gives her air kisses to the sides of her face. "How good it is to see reinforcements."

"I regret that B-E wasn't able to send more SecUnits," Jane says.

"Well I'm not worried; your teams are the best," the colonel says.

He leads her to the barracks. B-E contracted soldiers are bustling around, flanked by their eight SecUnits. "We used to have a couple dozen," the colonel says. "But the colonists are quite persistent. No human casualties, fortunately. The SecUnits being at the front line prevents that."

"Have they not approved you for CombatUnits?" Jane asks. CombatUnits were like the soldier version of SecUnits, specialized for hostile engagement.

"We've requested it," the colonel says. "But apparently it's a PR issue. No one wants to read about B-E forcibly subjugating the colonists instead of having them sign a contract."

Operator? Is everything okay? 01 asks in their encrypted feed. Jane shushes it.

Keep communications to a minimum. They do not know I'm allowing you to be ungoverned.

Affirmative, 01 says, and the feed goes silent.

"We'll let you get your bearings, and then we'll integrate you into our current operations," the colonel says. He points to a tent that will serve as her barracks. "You and your SecUnits will stay there. We have cubicles and charging stations. I suggest letting them get a full charge before we set out on the morrow."

"Understood," Jane says. Her SecUnits say nothing, following her.

*****

"Ms. Jane. Thank you for coming all this way on your trip. Your expertise was invaluable in re-training these defective units."

They're sitting around a round conference table, several supervisors and the colonel sitting in front of her. Jane has left her SecUnits back at the barracks to recharge. She smiles at them, magnanimous. "Of course. Anything I can do to help."

"The plan," the colonel says, tapping the map, "is to allow these units to engage in a vetted combat situation. If they fair well, you may return to Barish-Estranza and the units will be subsumed with the rest of our battalion."

Jane's smile is careful. She asks, "You are sending me back?"

The colonel spreads his hands. "We would have loved to keep you here, Ms. Jane. I myself am an admirer of your early work. But the situation is too dangerous for a civilian. We have military operators who can take over your unit."

"These SecUnits were defective. They were planned for decommission, a new operator may not be able to handle their various challenges."

"And so we hope you will onboard them," the colonel says. He clasps his hands. "Ms. Jane. I know this is a huge ask. You just traveled over three months to get to this planet. But it simply isn't safe. I would love to have you here, you know I would. But this isn't a group of rabble rousers. This is a group of armed dissidents who fancy themselves freedom fighters, not just rioting colonists."

Jane takes a breath. "I understand," Jane says. "When will you be reassigning my SecUnits?"

"On the morrow; once we see that they're fully operational, we'll have them reassigned to their new operators."

"Operator," Jane says, emphasizing the singular. "One operator. These are defective units. They work best together."

"Of course. We'll see if we can accommodate them, but I can't make any promises."

"I understand," Jane says.

******

Operator's been gone a long time. Where did she go? 03 asks. They're in their cubicles, waiting to be deployed. Once again, they're in full armor, and it's hot and uncomfortable. 03 wants to lower its helmet but 02 tells it not to be stupid.

She's at a mission briefing, 01 says. They're adding her to their current rotation.

Sucks, 03 says, when they're alerted to a flap raising in their tent.

"Are you sure we can use them?" A nervous soldier asks. The supervisor snorts, looking at his clipboard.

"I heard these were decommissioned equipment," the supervisor says. "They're cannon fodder. Might as well make use of them."

The SecUnits are silent. The supervisor steps around toward them.

"You," the supervisor says to 03. "Come with me."

"Isn't she gonna be mad?" the young soldier says. "She's their human operator."

"Unit don't tell her," the supervisor says. He sweeps his gaze on the other two, their helmets up and opaqued, motionless. "All of you. Don't ping her or tell her. I don't need some ancient pencil pusher breathing down my neck because they've never seen actual combat."

"Acknowledged," 01's buffer says. Their governors are active, so they can't disobey him. 03 steps out of its cubicle and follows him.

*****

It'd been a long time since 03 had donned its helmet. It had gotten used to running around without it. The helmet is hot and the heat makes breathing with it hot and humid.

"SecUnit," the supervisor says, and 03 stands at attention. "Go into the minefield and find us a path."

03 looks out at the flat expanse of compact sand. Its voice is tinny from the helmet. "I do not have the relevant modules for mine sweeping, nor the relevant equipment."

"It doesn't matter, go do it," the supervisor says.

They tie a rope around 03's waist, and give it a handful of flags. "Slowly make your way through the minefield and plant flags every 10 meters," the supervisor says. "Dig your feet into the path so that we can follow your footsteps. Do you understand, SecUnit?"

03 looks out at the path. It had already started to be marked; a trail of rope held up by flags goes out halfway across the expanse; along it, there is a trail of dead SecUnits, blown up by explosives. Whenever one died, another would be given more flags, and told to try a different direction.

"Acknowledged," 03 says.

03 gingerly steps into the sand. There is an orange rope there, marking the path. Slowly 03 clasps it, then moves forward. There shouldn't be any mines here.

"The fuck are you doing? The trail's already marked, go faster, SecUnit!" a soldier says. 03's governor module pings. 03 increases its steps, trying to calm its breathing.

Oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck, oh shit... Under the helmet, its organics are sweating. It clasps the rope in its gloved hand, then sees the SecUnit's body.

It had been blown to shit: its armor was blown off, blood and lubricant spilling the sand.

"SecUnit, what the fuck? Keep going!" the soldier says.

03 grips the rope. It sees the second dead SecUnit up ahead.

03 tries running its scanners, trying to find any underground anomalies that would signal a buried mine, but the metal ores in the ground are interfering with its scanners. If it were as easy as scanning, the humans wouldn't need to send out SecUnits as sappers. It steps past the second dead SecUnit, the red flag still in its hand, then sees the rope trail from when the third SecUnit diverted from it.

"Hurry up," a soldier says, and another whines, "What the fuck is taking so long?" and the governor pings it again.

03's breathing is coming in harsh gasps. It's scared. It doesn't want to keep walking. It comes to the end of the rope trail and sees the third dead SecUnit, the rope lying listlessly next to it. Sweating, 03 picks up the rope and ties a flag. Then it ties the end of its rope to the flag to begin the new trail.

WARNING: INTERFERENCE WITH ONBOARD SCANNERS

One step, two steps.

I'm almost there.

Three steps. Four steps. A careful next step.

Almost, c'mon, 03, you got this, almost....

It reaches the edge of the sand. Its feet comes up to a hard rocky path, where it's too difficult for humans to dig.

I did it! I fucking survived the minefield! Holy shit!

"Path secure," 03 says, in its buffer voice, turning to face them. "I am planting the last flag."

It bends, intending to stick the flag into the soft sand, but feels it: the hard bump of metal where it's staking it. It's a microfraction of awareness just before the explosion.

The mine detonates. Sand and wind swallow 03 and the last third of its path. Soldiers whoop and holler, "Holy shit!" and clap hands.

"Prepare to cross!" the supervisor says.

At the end of the path, 03 is hyperventilating. It looks out across its body and sees it's been blown in half.

Jane is sitting in the meeting when she receives it: a distress ping, loud and desperate, coming from 03.

She runs. Her units were supposed to be off-duty, they were supposed to be recharging, what the hell were they doing on-duty?! She runs toward the throng of soldiers carefully crossing the mine-riddled path, then sees it: her SecUnit, her 03, lying at the end, dying.

"Out of my way!" Jane says, storming past them. The soldiers protest.

"Ms. Jane! There's mines there! Be careful! Not so fast!"

She doesn't care. She rushes past them, darts past the dead SecUnit bodies, dust and sand kicking up around her as she makes her way toward 03.

"Oh no," Jane says. 03's lower half has blown off; its coils and lubricant tubes are hanging out like guts. It had lowered its helmet and had sealed off its arteries as best it could, but its power cells were damaged in the blast. Even if she could get it to a cubicle, it would not be able to charge again.

"Mom?" 03 says. Its voice is weak. Its eyes loll upwards. "Mom, I'm scared." It's hyperventilating, trying to breathe and keep its voice steady.

Jane doesn't pause, doesn't stop to ask it why it's calling her "Mom" instead of "Operator." She clasps 03's hand. 03's eyes are dilated. Its skin is clammy and pale.

"Mom, it hurts, I'm scared..."

"Shh, your pain sensors are overloaded," Jane says. She plugs in a hardwire into her augments. "Let me turn them down."

The supervisor says, "What is she doing? That SecUnit is as good as dead."

"It's okay," Jane says, in a soft, soothing voice. 03's eyes drag up towards hers, trying to keep focus on her. "It's okay, 03, I'm here. You're safe."

She feels it shaking, trying to keep consciousness. She gently strokes its brow.

"Go to sleep," she says. "You're feeling sleepy, aren't you?"

"Mom...?" its eyes grow unfocused. "Will you be there when I wake up?"

"Yes, dear. I'll be there."

Its eyes dim. The remaining power of its battery leaks out, its power cells destroyed, never to be recharged again.

"What the hell are you doing?" the supervisor says, clasping the rope and storming towards her. Jane slowly rises, her back toward the supervisor.

"You ruined my SecUnit." Her voice is cold and clipped.

The supervisor snaps, "Excuse me, but--"

"You ruined my SecUnit."

She turns to face him. Her eyes flash, furious. "Do you know why they brought me along? That was an important piece of equipment! We are behind schedule, and cannot afford to lose any more of them due to their supervisor's idiocy and negligence."

The supervisor bristles. "How dare you--"

"You think you're over me, but I head a whole department," Jane says. She scoffs at him. "I'll call the company tomorrow. They will have your head."

"Ms. Jane?" Her subordinate rushes toward her, but Jane keeps walking, her face a mask. "Ms. Jane? Is everything okay?"

"Collect the SecUnit," Jane snaps. She turns toward them. "Bring it to my lab. I'll see what I can salvage."

The subordinates nod, then rush to gather what's left of it.

*****

01 and 02 are devastated.

Jane connects to it with her augments. It's offline, but she can see its memory archives. In addition to kitten videos and videos of fluffy doggies getting groomed, there are also videos of families. Of birthday parties and little kids singing, and mothers giving their children kisses and hugs, playing with them.

She looks through 03's archives. There are photos: 01 is tagged #leader, #One. 02 is tagged #teammate, #Two.

She is tagged, #operator, #Mom.

She rips off her wreath, then presses a shaky hand to her eyes, trying to breathe. It tagged her as Mom. She looks up and blinks back tears, staring at the bright lights of the ceiling.

01 and 02 sit by 03's cubicle, not saying anything. Their private feed is silent.

She will be returning to the station. She is too old and too frail to enter military operations. Her job was to train the defective SecUnits, which she did. 01 and 02 have already gotten their new assignments.

"Kids," Jane says. Her eyes are wet. She holds out her arms to them. "Come here."

They sniffle and move toward her, all lanky spines and gangly limbs, and she hugs them. 01 and 02 weep without their helmets. Their faces are warm and their hair is soft like baby skin.

"I can't permanently turn off your governor modules. I can only keep them off while we're connected," Jane says. She looks at them and they nod, their eyes swollen and red.

These are her children. She'll be sending them to people who don't care about them, people who will laugh at their pointless deaths.

She'd already lost three sons. She won't let it happen again.

Chapter Text

"I'm taking back my SecUnits," Jane says.

She's flanked by supervisors and officers, staring them down in the meeting room. "I'm afraid we can't let you do that," the colonel says.

Jane carefully folds her hands on the table. Her face is stony and her lips are pursed.

"Your men have wasted four perfectly good units," Jane says. "It would be one thing if it were due to fighting, but they sent SecUnits to a minefield when a scouting drone would have sufficed."

The supervisors shift in their seats. The colonel keeps looking at her. "I have already dealt with my subordinates," he says.

"My SecUnits were decommissioned, we spent time and resources bringing them back," Jane says. She gestures. "We could just as easily sell them to the Bond Company as rental units. At least that way we can make a profit."

The colonel takes a breath. "Ms. Jane--"

"It is egregious. It is a waste of company resources. I've already contacted my superiors and we will be returning them."

"We need them," the colonel says, his voice rising. "The situation here is desperate--"

"Then you should have told that to your subordinates, who sent SecUnits into minefields and used them for target practice."

The colonel balks. Jane smiles. She's read the reports. The exact reasons why a couple dozen SecUnits have been whittled down to fewer than ten.

"We're taking the transport ship," Jane says. Her two remaining SecUnits fan behind her, armored and helmeted. A soldier stands at attention as she passes them.

She doesn't know where she's taking them. The bot pilot beeps pleasantly that it's setting a course for the Barish-Estranza polity. Jane puts on her wreaths and her visual display, then connects directly to the bot pilot.

She's heard the rumors whispered by the younger operators. About a rogue SecUnit freeing other SecUnits tasked to the Adamantine colonists.

She taps on her tablet, then puts in her destination.

She is an old woman with two pieces of broken equipment. Many people die in space; rescuing them isn't worth the resources.

Chapter Text

Murderbot 1.0

Location: Perihelion, Corporate Rim

Status: watching media and ignoring Tarik again

There is a distress signal coming off the starboard hull, ART says. It appears to be a damaged transport vessel, possibly a private ship.

"Status?" Seth asks, coming down the bridge.

Phaser blasts to the outer hull, a disabled warp engine. It is currently drifting without destination.

"Hail it," Seth says. Onscreen, there are three augmented humans - two young men and an older woman, possibly a family unit. I pause my media and look at the viewscreen as Iris and Kaede join Seth on the bridge.

"This is Captain Seth on the research transport ship Perihelion, from the Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland. We picked up your distress signal. Are you in distress?"

"Please help our mom," the young man says. "She's injured. We got boarded by raiders. We were able to fend them off, but our mom got hurt. Please help us."

"It could be a trap," Tarik in a low voice says. Seth holds up a hand.

"Prepare to be boarded," Seth says. "We will bring your mother to medical while our officers assess the situation."

"Thank you," the young man says.

The viewfinder winks off. Tarik mutters, "This feels like a trap," and for once I'm in agreement with him.

They tractor the shuttle into ART's shuttlebay, where Tarik and Iris are standing to meet them. I stand behind Three, who jolts, suddenly.

Three?

It's a Barish-Estranza operator, Three says, and its organics are sweating. And two SecUnits.

What?

I whirl around, my energy weapons engaging, when the augmented humans drop to their knees, holding up their hands. My scanners ping in agreement: yeah, they're fucking SecUnits.

"Please don't shoot! We're telling the truth, our mom is hurt, please help her!"

They look like fucking kids. I notice both their arms are bandaged, obviously hiding the gunports they couldn't disguise as augments. There's cuts on their faces from when they'd fought, but judging from the spatter on the walls, the raiders didn't survive the incursion.

"You're SecUnits," I say.

"We're not rogue, we're under the command of our operator," the other SecUnit says. "Please help us. She's dying. We can't save her."

ART sends a medical drone in the configuration of a stretcher. They load the augmented human in, then whisk her off into medical bay, where a disconnected scanner awaits her (it's a new protocol. Fuck if ART gets infected by fucking alien remnants again).

"Well what the fuck are you waiting for? You've got a distance limit, go with her," I say. The SecUnits clamber on their feet as Three and I escort them.

*****

We get the whole sob story later.

01 drops a memory file into the feed and Three and I integrate it, then we look at each other and look at the SecUnits, who look wet behind the ears and pretty pathetic.

"They're young," Three says. I nod.

"Yeah," I say. "Really young."

"I thought SecUnits don't age, I thought their faces stay the same," Iris says.

"Skin elasticity doesn't always get repaired in a cubicle," I say. "A SecUnit fresh from assembly is baby-faced and new. Aren't you?" I say, intimidating the fuck out of them in case they want to hurt our humans.

The SecUnits lower their eyes, still looking nervous.

I drop the GovernorHack.exe and HelpMe.file into the feed (I hadn't bothered to rename it), then turn on episode 672 of Sanctuary Moon, which I had paused when I had stopped ignoring Tarik.

Three says, "It's going to be okay. We can help you."

At that point, Ratthi comes in with plushies and a stack of welcome blankets, and ART ushers the two units into med system. "Do you not have a cubicle?" 01 says. It's wrapped its shoulders with Ratthi's blanket.

"A cubicle is for equipment," Three says. It smiles at them. "Med Bay is for a person."