Synth

The armor was a mixed blessing for TO. They hated how it pushed their ears in, how it clung to their body and covered their wings in that strange particle armor. They hated how, when they flew in their armor, they couldn’t feel the air rushing past them. It would be so nice to fly again, to remove not only the armor covering their wings but the entire suit and feel the wind against them. They missed the way their wings sliced through the air, the way the wind rushed past their ears and over their face.

However, the Armor protected them from so many of the things they hated. Wearing their armor, TO could be certain that bugs couldn’t touch them no matter how tiny. Should they get into an engagement with an unfriendly person, not only would the armor offer them protection from injury, but it would also offer a comfortable barrier between any potential blood spilled.

And in this particular case, their armor would protect them from some of the foulest substances in the galaxy.

TO approached a ragged hole in one of the many sprawling tunnels, a small spider-bot walking behind them. This bot was much like the larger spider-bot they had taken to escape the Indebted center, but of course it was much smaller, standing up only to TO’s waist. It had some basic tools attached, but primarily it had a small latch on the bottom, which could be used to carry things as the bot crawled over rocks and debris.

“You’re sure the bot won’t break from this drop?” TO asked as they looked down the hole. It was dark enough that their helmet adjusted to provide more details of what waited for them; the concrete walls of the sewage system, old pipes redesigned to work with the modern city, and the awful, unspeakable sludge that flowed through it.

“Positive.” Vik said through TOs’ helmet. “This thing can take a hundred foot drop, and can walk along any rough surface. You’re basically there to open doors for it or I’d be happy enough to send it on its own!”

TO sighed, their ears flicking down against their helmet. “I wish you could send it on i’s own.” They said as they took a breath and dropped down the hole.

Their armor protected them from any of the sludge that might have touched them and their helmet filtered out the worse of the stench. Well, the worst of it, but not all of it. TO could still smell enough of the unspeakable foulness, and along with the view of the not-entirely liquid sludge that rose to their knees, it was enough to make them retch.

“You alright?” Vik asked. Behind them, the small bot jumped down, landing in the sludge and struggling as it got its thin legs to the wall. “You’re not gonna vomit at you?”

“No.” TO said, working hard to breathe through the retching. If they were going to vomit, they’d have to take off their helmet, and they didn’t want to do that here. If they had to smell the full force of this muck without their helmet on, they thought they’d never stop vomiting.

“Alright. Well, take your time,” Vik said as the bot finally made its way to the wall. It pulled itself free from the muck and waited for TO. “I mean, not too much, I’m sure you don’t want to be in there too long, and I bet you’ll want to have time later for a bath or something before you call it a night.”

TO nodded as they continued to breathe. A few moments passed, and they thankfully felt their stomach settle. “Alright…” they said, slowly standing upright, “Alright. I’m ok. I’m fine.”

“You sure? I can probably find someone else to help here.”

“Really?”

Vik was silent for a few minutes, “…Maybe.” They said, “Though… to be honest, it’d only be you, DH, and Avery with armor to protect you.”

TO sighed, stood up, and started down the tunnel. DH was far too busy with medical issues to deal with this, and Avery was so focused on packing up the last of the food that they wouldn’t have time. “How far is it until we get to the exit?” They asked.

“Ten minutes, maybe.” Vik said. “the bot can manage by walking on the walls, so it can keep a decent pace. So long as you keep up“

“I’ll be there in seven.” TO said, walking through the muck at double the speed they normally would have. They heard Vik chuckle in their ear; A soft sound with a strange chittering noise under it.

“I’d say you could fly from the exit to a cleaner passage once you got the medication, but if you get spotted-“

“I wouldn’t want to leave the medication on its own, anyway.” TO said. The only reason they were here was because they had promised Avery that they’d make sure Kei could be on the ship safely. The only way they could think of to make that happen was to keep them in a medically induced coma for the duration of the flight, and they needed specific medication for that. While they had some on hand, they didn’t have enough to keep Kei under for the entire trip, so they had to get more.

A few fake documents and an ‘urgent’ order from a local medical supplier got a crate of the medication they needed sent to the warehouse Vik used for smuggling supplies into the underground. TO just had to go there, sneak into the shipping vehicle from the secret passage in the floor, grab the crate, and let the bot carry it. It was relatively easy when compared to all the other stuff they had to do, but they still didn’t want to leave a whole crate of essential medication with a bot. What if something happened, or the bot got lost?

No, TO would escort the bot and the medication to Avery to ensure that it got there safely.

“That’s probably best.” Vik said, “Honestly, with our luck that thing would breakdown, or I’d lose my remote access and control, and that would be a lot of waste.” There was another beat of silence before Vik spoke again. “How long do you think the blockade will last?”

Since learning of the potential extermination of life on Arkane, they had relegated the blockade to a minor inconvenience in their mind. “Well, if Decon does attack-“

“If he doesn’t.” Vik said, “If he decides not to kill everyone, how long will the blockade last?”

TO hadn’t thought of that. It was unlike them to overlook such a consideration, but so much had been happening that potential situations like that wasn’t important.

“… Well, if it were me…” TO said, thinking through the situation as they spoke, “I’d probably insist on a lockdown even while I’m investigating, either until I had proof of the insurgents being dead or gone.” They sighed, “Much like I did at the holding centre, but that didn’t work.”

“We had three synths helping with that plan.” Vik said, “Two of which are older and more experienced than you.”

*And smarter* TO added that last bit themself, but didn’t say it. It still bothered them that Flit beat them in that game so easily earlier.

“So, if we gave them proof that we were gone from Arkane, would they lift the blockade?” Vik asked.

“If we gave them solid proof?” TO muttered as they tried not to feel the way the bottom of the tunnel seemed to give way under their feet as they disturbed years of accumulated gunk. “Unsure. I don’t know what we could do to give them that proof. The ‘leaders’ of the insurgency were already captured, dealt with.”

“But, without doing that, can we just-” There was a moment of distortion as Vik sighed into his mic, “I don’t know. Can we tell them we’ve left after we’ve gotten away? I mean, they’ll see us leave anyway, and even if they tried to follow us-“

“If they tried, Civilian ships can’t keep up with synth ships.”

“And I bet I could keep them from tracking us,” Vik said. “Would they lift the blockade, then?”

“No.” TO said after several moments of thought, “No, I don’t think they would.”

“Why not?”

“If Gyrini told you that she was leaving, that the authorities weren’t hunting the insurgency anymore, and it was safe for you all to come out of hiding, would you?”

“Ah,” another sigh, “Yeah. I’d think it’s a trap.”

“Exactly.” To said, “I don’t know what we could say to get them to lift the blockade.”

“What about, ‘Hey, these synths think that Decon is going to kill everyone here, so yeah, we’re out?’ Would that work?”

“Maybe if they believed it.” TO said, “But by that point, it’ll be synths taking over control and-“

They froze, stopped, and stared at a portion of the wall where some of the old stone had crumbled away. They had been absolutely certain that they saw something flicker past, and catch the dim light which glowed from the spider-bot that followed.

they switched to thermal visioning, thinking at first maybe they were just mistaken, and confused since they hadn’t been wearing their helmet recently, and perhaps one of the stats that hung in their peripheral vision, the endless series of temperatures, news announcements, gas levels and personal readings had made them think something was there in the tunnels with them.

As soon as they turned on their thermal vision, it picked up a tiny, dull spot of heat behind the wall, hurrying away from TO.

They gave chase.

“TO? what is it?” Vik said as the spider-bot picked up its own pace on the wall next to them.

“There’s something in the wall.” TO said as they followed the hot spot. A moment later, it seemed to turn away from the tunnel, and the spot faded away, leaving no hint of what it was, or where it had gone.

“I didn’t see anything,” Vik said, “And the camera on this bot is pretty good.”

TO sighed as they switched to a few different through their helm for any hint of whatever it was. Nothing showed up.

“I saw something in a hole in the wall a little way back.” They said, “And when I switched to thermal imaging, I saw a heat source.”

“One of the bigger bugs, maybe?” Vik said, “Or a rodent. Thankfully, we don’t have too many of them here on Arkane; Half of the feral ones are bigger than I am.”

“What if it wasn’t feral?” TO muttered as they checked their thermal imaging once more.

“What do you mean?”

“When we left the Indebeted center, there was one person that got away-“

“Outis, right?” Vik asked, “The one who told Gyrini about you?”

“Yes.” TO said, “Lendulin arranged it so they’d be with us in the tunnels when we escaped, but-“

“But they got away after half blinding Mira. Yeah, I heard.” Vik said. “But they went into the water purification system, yeah?”

“They did-“

“Then they’re likely dead.” Vik said.

“I don’t know about that.” TO muttered as they finally turned off the special sensors and went back to a plain view from their helmet, “They’re small, and they can get into pretty much any little crack-“

“The water purification system is designed to filter every tiny thing out of the water before cycling it back into the main water supplies. Even when Tham escaped from the holding center, by the time that water had filtered though everything, it was clean enough to go back into-“

“Please don’t finish that sentence.” TO said, feeling the blood drain from them as they remembered how red the water had turned on their screen.

“Sorry,” Vik said, “But, I just mean that Outis likely didn’t escape, and even if they did.. well, they’d be stupid to try anything, right? You’re ten times their size.”

“They could report us.” TO said, “If they know where we are, they could tell the authorities.”

“And that’d be just as stupid. Since then, they’d be put back in the Indebeted center.” The spider-bot walked ahead of TO, its light illuminating the way. “If they are alive, their best option is to lay low and keep quiet. Besides, we’re gone tomorrow, so unless they have a plan to fuck us over in a single night, I think we’re ok.”

TO didn’t like it. They wanted to know what it was they had seen, and know what had become of Outis. Having them still potentially out there, knowing that TO was a synth, and knowing so much about them made TO uneasy. Still, there wasn’t much they could do about it now. They couldn’t go and test the water in the purification system, and they couldn’t go through the walls and chase down whatever it was that they had seen. Even if they could do those things, they didn’t have the time.

They sighed and continued on to retrieve the drugs.