Synth

There were select few places on the ship that had not been converted into communal living spaces, most of which were either too dangerous to be used, or which they needed for some other purpose. The only exception was their emergency ship, which would in truth be relatively useless in a catastrophic failure of their ship but which could be used for shorter expeditions which might take them only hours away from the main ship.

On this day, it had another use as an impromptu meeting room for TO, DH, and GiDi. The back loading door was large enough that DH could easily maneuver TO inside with the chair, though that left little room for them after that. The back door wouldn’t lock while the ship was docked, but nobody else on the ship had any reason to come down there looking for them. It wasn’t as though they were doing anything private this time, but they still didn’t want to be interrupted. Another benefit to using the emergency room which TO hadn’t considered beforehand was that with the main lights off, the view of space from the main windshield reminded them of time they once spent together on the observation deck back in training. TO hoped that maybe the view would make things go more smoothly.

DH seemed to take no notice of the view. “Alright.” They said, their voice still sharp despite how their ears had relaxed, “You wanted to talk, so talk.”

GiDi sighed and leaned against the wall, slumping to the floor in an exhausted manner. “You’ll listen?” They said, looking at DH with an ear quirked up, “I mean… you’ll actually listen to me? And try to understand?”

DH stayed silent for a moment longer, but finally sighed and sat down atop a nearby crate. “Yeah.” They said, “I’ll try. But I think we’re both more upset that you never told us. You had plenty of opportunity!.” Their ears pinned back again, “Do you know how… how awful it was to feel my body just give out like that?” They shuddered. “I didn’t know the same thing happened to Kei. They had the multi-gun to my head, and then suddenly my body just stopped responding and I didn’t know why!” Their wings tightened around them, their ears sinking down, “I had no idea…. Do you even know what I thought-“

“I do.” GiDi whispered, “And I would have told you if I could.” they looked away, “I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. not then.”

“Just.. tell us what you wanted to tell us,” TO said, trying to keep their voice even, and trying to keep their own anger from pinning their ears too much. The latter was easier than they thought it would be, as GiDi looked so sad and tired in this moment that it was nearly impossible to be angry with them. Still, there was that hit of rage, that awful feeling of betrayal. GiDi could have told them any time. Why didn’t they?

GiDi nodded slowly, “Right.” They said, “Well... here’s what happened.”

======

“I promise this isn’t necessary!” GiDi said, resting their head in their hands, their elbows resting on the table. “They’re my friends, my family. They won’t hurt us.” earlier, their words had been sharper towards what Pearla playfully referred to as GiDi’s ‘brother-in-law’ Tham, but they had been arguing on and off for days, and the most recent argument had drawn on for hours. GiDi was tired and just wanted this to be over now.

“They won’t hurt you” Tham said, though their tone lacked a lot of the sting it held earlier. GiDi supposed that he too was worn down by how long they had been fighting about this. “You’re a synth.”

“I am not.” GiDi hissed, “I’m Chilacian.”

“You were a synth.” Tham said, “We’re ‘insurgents’ so they’ll want to deal with us. They’ll see you as a synth, so you’ll be safe.”

“Maybe.” Vik said from where he worked at his computer, typing away at their tiny keyboard, “Or maybe they’ll see GiDi as a traitor and decide to try to kill them. I mean, you saw that one synth getting ready to shoot GiDi.”

“They’d never hurt me.” GiDi snapped, “They’re my family, Vik! They wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.”

Tham sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Look.” He said, his voice much softer than it was before, “Ok, you were never a normal synth, right? I mean, you didn’t even pass that loyalty test thing they put you through.” He sighed, “Those two did.”

“Only because TO knew it was a test.” GiDi said. “TO’s smart like that, and they told me afterwards that they knew it was a test.” They looked aside, “If they thought it wasn’t a test, they’d never have shot DH.” their ears flicked down a bit, and they looked away from Tham. They hated how that was the thing that confirmed for them that TO knew it was a test early on. Of course, it was harder to take offense to that these days. If they had to choose between saving Pearla, or saving TO or DH...

“You don’t know that,” Tham said, “That’s just what TO told you.”

“They didn’t lie,” GiDi said. “I would have seen it in their ears-“

“They didn’t outright lie, but you all can tell half truths without it being a lie, right?” Tham leaned in, “Somehow, if you tell A truth, it doesn’t trigger your ear thing.”

Another sigh from GiDi. That was true, and Tham had pointed out that TO could have realized at any time that it was a simulation. They could have realized as soon as they woke up in that awful blank space where the Commander and their overseers waited to discuss their performance that none of it was real. GiDi was certain that wasn’t the case, but apparently their unwavering belief in TO and DH didn’t account for much.

“Look, GiDi.” Tham said as he leaned forward in his chair, “I know you care about them… but we have to keep other people in mind, and-“

“We already got them away from King Douchenozzle.” Vik said, frowning, “Have I used that one before?” his ears flicked back in concentration, his small tail flicking despite the fact that their typing never paused, “King Dookie, Perhaps?” He shook their head, “I’ll work on that. Point is, we got them away from him. We’re going to send them to the Chilacians and hopefully seeing a whole civilization of happy, thriving Chilacians will be enough to convince them.” he sighed, “I’m even reprogramming their chips here! We’re already spending a lot of time and energy on this!”

“And we’ve taken way too many risks.” Tham said, groaning as he rested his head in his hands, “Pholi and Goretta are gonna be pissed.”

“Pholi likes TO and DH.” GiDi said, “And Goretta already said she wished she had more brain scans. That we got Kei here should make her happy-“

“Kei… that’s, uh, your other friend?” Vik asked.

“No, that’s Avery. Kei is…” they trailed off. According to DH had once been 55H70. It didn’t surprise GiDi that they had picked literally one of the most common names in this part of the galaxy. The name ‘Kei’ was so common that had fallen out of style and was becoming more and more rare now simply because nobody called their offspring that anymore. How many times had Kei told TO over and over that DH and GiDi were going to be repurposed? How many potential friends had they pulled away from DH. And of course, it was Kei who had reported TO to their overseer the day that TO drew their claws in the showers despite the fact that they never attacked?

According to DH, Kei was also the one who reported them both to Ark-1.

“Kei is just someone we knew in training.” GiDi said. It was too much to get into right now.

“And they’re ‘normal’ synths.” Vik said, “With a brain altered the way a ‘normal’ synth’ would be. They’re right, Tham; Goretta is going to be thrilled with that.”

“She wouldn’t be so thrilled if they had shot GiDi.” Tham muttered. “And I know Pearla wouldn’t-“

“Pearla encouraged me to get them.” GiDi hissed, “Because she knows how important they are to me.”

“Hey, you think I didn’t!?” Tham snapped back, his tail lashing against the floor, “I was there with you to get the lot of ‘em, right?”

“Yes, you were,” GiDi said as their ears relaxed a little.

“I also did most of the planning in Thalassa.” Tham crossed his arms, raising himself up a little on his tail so that he nearly matched GiDi’s height. It was something he did a lot when they first met.

“To be fair, you were more interested in getting the indebted out.” Vik said. “Pearla did more to get DH out of there since she’s the one who gave them those tickets in the first place.”

Tham shot Vik a withering glare which went wholly unnoticed as he lowered himself down again. Despite the situation, GiDi couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Vik, whose side are you on here?” Tham said.

“I’m not on a side,” Vik said as he continued his work. “I’m just stating fact. The fact is that getting DH here was a stroke of luck. The attempts to get TO and the others here were risky, but we did it. There are some benefits to be had, but that doesn’t mean we push our luck!”

“You can’t just keep them isolated until we send them off!” GiDi said again, once more circling back to the core of the issue, “It’s not right, it’s not fair, they don’t deserve it, and it’s not necessary! They’d never do anything to hurt me.”

Vik’s hands slowed on their keyboard, “Well... I do believe that,” he said.

“Thank you.” GiDi said, sighing in relief.

“And I think they’d only want to help you.” Vik continued, “Unfortunately, if they’re loyal to Decon, then helping you might mean getting you away from us and bringing you back to the synths. They might even be encouraged to harm the rest of us if they feel we’ve hurt you. You know, by corrupting you or something like that.”

GiDi sighed again, once more resting their head in their hands. This was going nowhere, and they were getting tired of arguing.

“In the end, we just can’t take the chance.” Tham said. “Now, TO and DH are in a room together. We were going to put Kei and Avery together, but you said not to, so we didn’t.” He leaned back in his chair again. “They’re all safe, and we’re safe. Unless you want me following them around with a gun pointed at them at all times, I don’t think there’s a way we make sure everyone stays safe.”

“Even that wouldn’t be a great idea.” Vik said, “They’d probably behave for a while to throw you off and all, but the moment you lowered the gun they could attack then. Nah, you’d need an off switch or something.” he shrugged, “I mean, that’s what I’d do.”

“And you’re certain that the device you made back when we rescued them, the thing that knocked them all out-“

“I already told you, it takes too much setup, it’s not portable, and it’s too delicate. For a one-shot solution it was fine, but it’s not fine as a long-term thing.”

“Shame though.” Tham said, “If we could just turn ‘em off if they act up, I’d almost be ok with letting them out.”

“...Maybe... Maybe we could?” GiDi said, frowning as they tried to think of a solution, “I mean, maybe a dart gun or-“

“Same issue with the guns there.” Vik said.

“Well, what about using one of your drones?” GiDi said, “You could have them follow TO and DH-“

“That’d be hard to hide from them.” Vik said. “Even if I used the smallest I have, they’d notice it. Your hearing is something else.”

“Yeah, and I’ve seen what you can do.” Tham said, “If you’re right and they’re both stronger than you, I don’t think it’ll be much issue for them to take out a couple of drones.”

GiDi gave an irritated huff and flopped back in their chair. “Well, what about an auto-injector or something?” They snapped, “You could put in on their chip and give their chips back to them!”

Vik’s typing slowed. “That... isn’t a bad idea.” Vik said, “I mean, it’s impossible to execute, to be honest. These chips are powerful, and they deal with most of the processing of the whole neural setup you got going on here... but they’re thin. Putting that kind of device in them would be impossible to hide. Even if we could hide it, an injection in the hand wouldn’t be particularly effective.”

“Then why did you say it wasn’t a bad idea?” GiDi growled as their ears warmed.

“Well, the Idea is good, even if your execution isn’t. There is some tech that would let us make that kind of setup work.” Vik brought up another screen and began furiously typing once more. “Goretta slipped me some interesting information about an experimental medical thingy that would knock ‘em out in an instant. I’m pretty sure I could alter their chips to work with the system they set up.” He looked over at Tham. “Would that be fine for you?"

Tham huffed and looked aside. “I suppose,” he said, “So long as I can trigger it.”

“I should be able to make a few remotes for it.” Vik said, “So, yeah, give me a bit and I can get this sorted out.”

“That’s great!” GiDi said as they sat upright, “And... If they don’t know, and they act fine and don’t try anything, then that should be proof enough that we can trust them, right?”

Tham huffed again, “Only if you promise not to tell them about it.” He said, “Otherwise they’re just behaving until they can get away with it.”

“Yeah, that would be a bad idea.” Vik said, “Best to not tell them for now.”

“That won’t matter.” GiDi said, “They won’t do anything that’ll make you trigger it, so they’ll never even know it’s there.” They paused as a thought came to them. “Wait...Is it dangerous? Will it hurt?”

“Well, it shouldn’t matter if we never have to trigger it, right?” Tham said as the slightest smirk lifting the corner of his lips. It was an odd gesture to GiDi, and when they first came to Arkane, they thought it was the same as a smile. One day when they were out in the city with Pearla, their wings hidden under a mass of fabric, they had misinterpreted this facial gesture as one of true happiness from a black market vendor, and Pearla had taken them aside and told them the difference.

Vik shrugged. “Honestly, it won’t hurt them any more or less than your original idea.” He continued typing away. “It is, essentially, an off switch. It’s meant to be used for surgery as a drug-free alternative to anesthesia, but there was some issue with controlling its effective time. Well, so long as we don’t intend to cut them open while they’re out, shouldn’t be an issue.” They quickly glanced up at GiDi. “Aside from that, I suppose there’s the same issues anyone would have if they were suddenly knocked out. If they’re on top of the flight of stairs, they’re going to fall down, you know?”

GiDi nodded. “And, actually putting it in their chip won’t cause any problems?”

“Nope.”

GiDi turned to Tham, “And if we do this, you’re ok with them leaving the room?”

Tham gave an irritated sigh as his tail flicked behind him. “Yeah, I guess.” He muttered, “Just make sure I have a trigger for this thing, and don’t tell anyone else! They can’t know, and the more people who know, the more likely they are to find out.”

“I’ll make one for each of us,” Vik said. “Between the three of us, I think we can monitor them just fine and deal with anything that comes up.”

A breath of relief left GiDi, their ears finally relaxing as they realized that the hours or arguing were over. More importantly, they realized that perhaps within hours their family would be allowed out of their room, and out of isolation! The two halves of their family would meet, and they’d be free to just be themselves without the constant worry over being corrected or repurposed, or being worried about silly things like training scores or examinations.

They couldn’t wait.