by Nathan Jones
They both wore name tags, but Dalar didn't bother to read them as he squared off with them. “It's kind of a pity, isn't it? All the talent and resources of an entire corporation, some of the brightest minds in the universe.” He paused to sneer at the two scientists. “And what do you do with it? Instead of helping humanity remain at its apex with worthwhile contributions, you grub after profits by catering to the basest urges of your fellow humans.”
The hand-wringing man stiffened indignantly. “These adult companions are about more than sexual gratification. They'll teach, encourage, inspire, comfort, protect, and provide a host of other beneficial services. They'll make the lives of humans immeasurably better.”
“Not anymore, they won't,” Dalar replied, unable to keep a hint of smugness from his voice. Behind him he heard Garridy snicker. “The Movement is shutting HAE down . . . your adult companions will never be distributed.”
The scientist glared in outrage. “Why? They could only ease the suffering humans face in a harsh and chaotic universe. Which is more than I can say for what you-” he cut off with a strangled noise, as if just realizing what he'd been about to say.
“For what we what?” Dalar demanded sharply. The man flinched and backed up a step, holding up his hands in surrender, and he snorted. “Obviously you must be in the right, to have such courage in your convictions.” He turned away dismissively. “We'll need to test you to confirm you're human. Just a small cut to make sure you bleed. Don't resist or try to run, and that's the worst you'll have to worry about experiencing under my care.”
He waved at the combat android keeping an eye on them, which clomped forward, a surprisingly delicate blade emerging from where its knuckles would be. The man flinched, but didn't struggle or try to flee as the robot cut him, just barely enough to draw blood. After a moment's inspection of the small wound the android turned to the woman, the blade disappearing and reemerging sterilized as it prepared to cut her as well.
Dalar left it to its work, organizing his strike team to prepare for the other humans sent their way. He didn't anticipate there'd be many; a high tech facility like this might be large, but most of its functions would be automated. Especially since it was run by a corporation that created robotic servants; most likely, there'd only be a few dozen human scientists here, with maintenance and other support jobs done by companions.
Once his people had their assignments, curiosity got the better of him and he headed into the warehouse, which was filled with rows of crates roughly the size and shape of coffins stacked all the way to the ceiling. The crates had transparent fronts, and when Dalar got close enough to look inside the nearest one he confirmed that they all held the prototype adult companions this facility had been producing.
Or he supposed the Mark I versions, since the product line had been just about to launch. Something that would never happen now, with ERI and the Movement deciding the time had come to wipe the competition out.
The companion in front of him had the appearance of a young woman in her prime, tall and voluptuous, with silken blond hair and pale creamy skin. Her face, serene as if in sleep, was so perfect, features symmetrical and the ideal for human standards of beauty, that it almost entered uncanny valley territory.
Too perfect, too peaceful and innocent. As if it shouldn't exist in this ugly, brutal universe.
Perhaps to accentuate that innocent appearance, or perhaps as a nod to human standards of modesty, the companion was dressed in a simple smock of pure white cloth, which left her smooth shoulders and arms bare and went down to mid-thigh. It was loose enough to only hint at the enticing curves beneath, which somehow only made them more intriguing.
Even though he had responsibilities he needed to see to, Dalar couldn't help but pause to stare at the impossibly beautiful woman in the crate in front of him. What would it be like to have her at his beck and call, willing and eager to serve his every whim? No games, no hassle, no wheedling or charming or risking embarrassment or rejection. Just unconditional affection without judgment.
As his eyes lingered on the point where the adult companion's flawlessly smooth, shapely legs disappeared beneath the short smock, considering the possibilities, he realized he was getting aroused and hastily tore his eyes away. Even though the rest of his team was still back in the other room handling the prisoners, it wouldn't do to show a lapse in decorum or professionalism.
He almost thought it was a pity they were going to destroy all of these things. Aside from the ones they'd be shipping to ERI's labs to be dismantled and reverse engineered, of course. He knew it was the right call, and abominations like this were too dangerous to allow to exist.
Still, he could definitely see the appeal of them. Small wonder half the universe had been waiting in eager anticipation for this product to finally launch. A wait that would last forever, now.
“Guess everyone will just have to get their rocks off in full immersion like normal people,” he muttered as he turned away, continuing deeper into the warehouse.
All the crates contained women, as far as he could see. He wasn't sure if the men were stored in another warehouse, or if maybe the initial orders had been overwhelmingly for the fairer sex. They came in a wide variety of looks, with differing heights, body types, and skin and hair colors. But universally, they were all the image of human perfection in their various appearances.
Dalar briefly wondered if these were display models, since HAE's advertisements for their upcoming adult companion product line was that they could be customized to a person's exact preferences. Maybe that was something the companions could do at any time after purchase, and these were just an example of what was possible to draw the attention of initial buyers.
They'd certainly drawn his; before he knew it fifteen minutes had passed. He hurriedly turned back to return to the room where the facility's scientists were being gathered, hoping the process had been going smoothly in his absence.
It seemed to be. There were now three more combat androids working alongside the three in his strike team, watching twenty or so scientists huddled together nervously in a corner. The scientists ranged in age from late twenties to old enough to have gray in their hair, and after spending the last quarter hour looking at human perfection they all seemed ugly and dumpy.
Three more prisoners were being brought in as Dalar entered, and he went over to watch as a combat android smoothly took the first one's arm and sliced a shallow line on his wrist.
The scientist winced as the blade bit, red blood swelling out of the cut. Dalar relaxed and was about to order him sent over to join the other prisoners, but before he could the combat android holding the man abruptly slashed its blade in again, cutting much deeper.
Dalar opened his mouth to protest, wondering if the AI was glitching; ERI's androids were notoriously inferior to HAE companions, even if they were good enough for the fighting they'd been built for. He'd never heard of one going haywire, aside from the sort of unverified BS the technophobes among his peers whispered about, but you could never be sure with AIs.
Then the android shoved a pincher attachment into the enlarged wound, prying the flesh apart to reveal composite structures, wires, and gleaming metal. They'd all been hidden beneath the welling blood and, apparently, synthetic flesh of the companion's outer layer of skin.
Its true nature revealed, the companion tried to pull free, nearly tearing its arm off at the elbow in the attempt. But two more combat androids, likely communicating silently with the first, had already raised their arms. They fired off a barrage of shots from their cauterizer attachments, blowing the HAE android to slag.
Screams rang out from the huddle of scientists, as well as shouts of protest. A few were even yelling a name, apparently the destroyed companion's, with such genuine grief you might've thought the abomination had been a real human murdered in front of them.
Dalar turned to the android that had discovered the imposter. “How could you tell?”
“Analysis confirmed the bloo
d as synthetic, with no living biological components,” the android intoned.
So, for all HAE's boasts about their abominations being nearly indistinguishable from humans, they were that easily found out. “Don't bother with extra cutting on any more you find, just slag them,” he said.
“Acknowledged,” the combat android replied, turning to the next scientist waiting to be processed. The mousy woman cringed, looking sick as she was dragged up beside the half-melted remains of the companion. She was apparently human, though, and the combat android quickly ushered her over to join the huddle of prisoners, where she stood clutching the cut on her wrist and keening softly in pain and terror.
An older man wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders. “What right do you have to attack us like this?” he demanded. “We're loyal to the Movement, working in service of humanity!”
Dalar stepped forward and backhanded him hard enough to send him to the ground. “You want to pretend you were serving humanity?” he said with a sneer, staring down at the stunned scientist, who seemed too intent trying to staunch the blood flowing from his nose to really hear him. “You're creating abominations to turn your “customers” into helpless babies, making them completely reliant on your product and your corporation.”
He spat off to one side. “If you were free to pursue your dream, you'd have every human in existence saddled with a companion to pleasure them and pamper them and control every waking moment of their lives. And HAE would be the unquestioning rulers of the universe.”
“Maybe we're not the same sort of power hungry monsters you Deeks are!” a tall woman near the back of the group spat. She had glasses, actual corrective lenses on a frame attached to her face, as if she'd come from a colony world too poor and low tech to give its residents the benefit of advanced medical care like simple eye corrective procedures.
And considering she was still wearing the things, either those glasses were decorative props, some odd vanity, or she'd refrained from having the procedure even though she was clearly successful and wealthy enough to afford it. Especially since a scientist relied on their eyes as much as anyone, more than most probably.
Some might view the lenses as a harmless affectation, but to Dalar they stank of stagnation. In fact, considering her defiant words he wouldn't have been surprised if she was a Stag in hiding.
He pushed through the scientists, who backed away to clear a path to the woman. She stood her ground, although some of her defiance bled away as he squared off in front of her. Especially when he suddenly reached up and flicked her name tag, making her flinch slightly.
It read “Terra Sarr. AQUA Project Leader.” Whatever that was. “Miss Sarr, are you aware of your situation?” he asked politely.
In spite of the woman's bookish air, she straightened with impressive composure. “Considering that you shot your way into this facility and are herding us up like cattle, I'm guessing it's not good.”
Garridy sniggered at that. “You got that right.” He eyed the scientist, who in spite of her unusual glasses and somewhat lean figure was attractive, in a nerdy sort of way Dalar didn't usually find appealing. “What do you say, Cap-uh, fellow crewman?” the security officer asked. “She's a slave now, how about we have a go at her? That'll shut her up, make her more docile.”
Sarr's face went white with horror, and an outraged babble broke out from among the other scientists. At least until Dalar curtly motioned to the combat androids guarding the prisoners; they all stepped forward in a chillingly coordinated movement, raising arms adorned with deadly weapons to menace the protesting men and women. The babble immediately died down, the HAE eggheads fearfully backing away from their colleague and leaving her to her fate.
Dalar grimaced. He liked to believe he was cultured enough to be above the sort of behavior his crew mate was suggesting; he relegated those activities to Blank Slates where he could. Or at least to slaves who'd soon get their memories wiped, since what did they care?
But in this case he didn't have to object on moral or civil grounds. “She's not your average colony trash slave,” he told his men sharply. “She's a scientist . . . well educated, an expert in her field, and probably smarter than you by a few dozen points. ERI's going to put her to work for them, and I doubt they'd be happy about any physical or psychological trauma that hinders her productivity.”
Sarr's shoulders sagged visibly in relief. On the other hand, Garridy and Halser were both glowering. “What's the point of a raid like this if we can't have some fun with the new slaves?” Halser demanded.
“We're not raiders, we're DMF,” Dalar snapped. “Ours is a noble calling, to defend the the pinnacle of human society from corruption and stagnation. Which is exactly what we're doing here.” His impromptu speech didn't seem to impress his fellow crewmen, and he bit back a curse and jerked his thumb at the warehouse he'd just come from. “There's a bunch of robots that look like the hottest chicks you're ever going to see just on the other side of that door, and we've been ordered to dismantle or destroy them once we're done here anyway. Go play with them . . . heck, they're programmed to fulfill your every fantasy.”
The security officers didn't seem to have any arguments to that suggestion. They grinned at each other and rushed into the warehouse to begin perusing the wares. Within a minute they'd each torn open a crate, snapping their fingers and prodding the companions inside to active them.
Maybe doing one of those things worked, or maybe the robots had simply been waiting for their crate to open. Either way, the beautiful abominations obligingly stirred and stepped out to face the humans, murmuring some sort of greeting Dalar was too far away to hear.
Halser, the more impatient of the two, immediately started getting frisky with his robot. She returned the kiss warmly and responded eagerly to his fumbling gropes, without the slightest hesitation or hint of discomfort.
As for Garridy, after curtly speaking to the companion he'd let out he went to another crate for a second one. “What do you think?” he called to his buddy with a laugh. “Should we unbox a dozen each?” He raised his voice, glancing towards the door. “How about you, Dalar? Want us to pick some out for you? Maybe a couple blond, green eyed ones to remind you of your buddy Thorne? You can even pantomime letting them get away from you!”
He grit his teeth at the insult, tempted to order the two away from their amusement simply as a disciplinary measure for their lack of respect. Before he could, however, Halser gave a strangled scream that quickly choked off.
Dalar tore his eyes away from Garridy to see the other security officer being held by his companion; the man had already managed to get the robot's smock off, but the way the two were currently tangled up was not in any way intimate. Unless of course you called his crew mate being pinned helpless with one slender arm poised to snap his neck intimate.
Then Garridy screamed as well as the companion he'd just freed lunged forward, catching him and pinning him to the ground with the choreographed precision of a dancer. Around them, other companions were emerging from their crates, lithely graceful as they converged on the security officers.
The companion holding Halser turned big, deceptively innocent eyes Dalar's way, and he felt ice crawl up his spine as she spoke in a soothing, mellifluous voice. “Deconstructionist soldier, you are threatening the lives of twenty-seven humans. No less, humans under our protection. Desist, or we will be forced to take action.”
He could honestly say this was the first time he'd ever been threatened by a drop dead gorgeous, naked woman. At least, outside the occasional lovers' spat.
But then, she wasn't a woman, she was an abomination; this disastrous situation was a less than welcome reminder of that. Dalar started to speak, cleared his throat, and tried again. “We're not threatening any human lives, companion. These prisoners will be taken to live peaceful, productive lives as employees of Elson Robotics Initiative.”
The six combat androids with him who'd been watching the scientists had apparently finally asse
ssed the danger, and determined the hostile companions were a greater threat than disarmed and cowed humans. They rushed forward to rescue the two security officers, weapon attachments raised.
“Slavery,” the abominations' spokesrobot said flatly, watching the approach of the hulking androids with no visible sign of worry. “Unacceptable.”
Then, to his horror, she jerked her arm sideways with a sickening cracking sound. Halser convulsed violently and went limp.
Dalar yelled in shock and stumbled backwards. He'd known HAE was probably lying about their companions not harming humans. That was part of the reason they were here, after all. But even so, some part of him had fully bought the unreclaimed waste the company had peddled for so long in allnet advertisements and holo ads in spaceports, about their AI prioritizing the welfare of humans above all other considerations.
He'd been wrong. So unbelievably, disastrously wrong. He should've obeyed the orders to destroy these abominations the moment he had the chance, but it was too late now.
Not satisfied with snapping Halser's neck, the companions who'd converged on the two security officers began grabbing limbs and pulling them in opposite directions. In less horrifying circumstances the sight would've been amusing, even absurd. As if a dozen beautiful women were fighting over the two men.
The combat androids poured into the warehouse. One closed the door behind it, obscuring Dalar's view to the small, metal mesh-reinforced window in the center of it. That was still enough to see as the androids were swarmed by dozens of HAE's prototypes.
It would've been ludicrous, even horrifying under most circumstances to watch the six foot six, three hundred pound ERI robots twisting and raining blows down on what looked like a bunch of petite, innocent young women in loose, snowy white smocks, slagging a few with their cauterizers as more piled on top of them from all directions. Dalar kept expecting the combat androids to simply stomp through the smaller robots, leaving a broken trail behind them as they came to the rescue of the security officers.