by Roxy Mews
The uniform turned to Matilda. “Which one is the mechanics?”
She looked at me. “The one without clothes. May I dress her before you take her?”
The guards looked at each other. “That’s probably best, ma’am. We’ll wait outside.”
When the latch clicked shut, Paisley grabbed Matilda’s arms. “You can’t let them take her. You’ve worked with all kinds of machines and you know as well as I do that she’s far more human than mechanics at this point.”
Miss Matilda slapped Paisley’s hands away. “I know. I had kept her protected until you and your asinine ideas about getting her out of the palace. The government didn’t understand what she had become, so they left her alone. You screwed that up.”
Paisley started to cry. Paisley didn’t like failing, but it wasn’t her own mistake that shone from her wet eyes up at me. She was sad.
Miss Matilda dug through the closet and pulled the clothes that I had pushed to the back.
“Shouldn’t I go in my traditional uniform?”
“No. You have to do something that should never be asked of a woman. You have to prove your humanity.”
“I am not human.”
Miss Matilda pinched my nipple. “Ouch!”
“Did you feel that?” She asked.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Miss Matilda picked up the tissues I had thrown in the waste basket. “You were crying tonight.”
The memories I couldn’t quite bring myself to delete yet surfaced in my temporary storage. More tears threatened to leak from my eyes.
“You’re more than mechanics. I’ve been hard on you, Coral, because you are special. I don’t know what’s going to happen to you now that others have seen that.” A small injector was rolled into my hands as Matilda finished dressing me.
My boss seemed to be so much more than that at the moment as she stood on her tip-toes to whisper to the auditory sensor in my neck. “It’s a way out. It’s a data scrambling cell. Please don’t use it unless there’s no other way.”
Data scramblers were injected into mechanics that had soft outer coverings to destroy the central processing units. If they were going to try and separate my skin without shutting down my systems, I could do it myself.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Then Matilda hugged me. She had never touched me before. I hugged her back.
“We can’t just let them take her.” Paisley was still going around looking for some door or window that would magically appear.
“We have to or they’ll take us as well. I told you this would happen.”
Paisley hugged me next. She was crying, and she was leaking from her nose and mouth. I reached over and grabbed a tissue to wipe her off.
“I am malfunctioning, Paisley. My CPU sent in auto-data and I had to follow up with a full report this evening. They would have brought me in for repairs soon anyway. This just sped up the process.”
“Why would you send in that data?”
I didn’t have a good answer, so I just let her words hang in the air as the guards opened the door to take me away. I held tight to the syringe Matilda had given me. I would see where they took me before injecting. I would make sure they intended to completely dismantle me before I took this under my skin.
The encapsulated microchip would kill everything. Once the casing dissolved in my lubricant, all of my drives would be corrupted. Nothing would be left. I thought about the incident tonight on the dance floor with Quinn. It wouldn’t be so bad to have his words erased, but it would also erase everything that happened the night before. It would erase Paisley’s joy at me having fun. It would erase the moments when Quinn touched me and smiled.
I couldn’t just let those moments go. I should have been able to selectively delete data, but it was just another way I was malfunctioning. Perhaps the DMA could fix me, and I could remove the bad parts of tonight from my memory. On that off chance, I went with the guards. They weren’t mechanics, so I could have broken free with my strength.
The only problem was they had those little glow stick wands. These weapons were used on out-of-control mechanics before, and the results had seemed unpleasant at best, and memory wiping at the worst.
“What is this?”
Quinn’s voice echoed in the large hallway. He was far away from his wing. He must have been coming to see me. Even with all his mechanics he couldn’t have gotten all the way over here since the guards showed up.
“Step aside, sir. We have a malfunctioning piece of mechanics here, and we don’t wish to harm you.” I saw Quinn’s face in my peripheral vision as the guard pushed him to the side of the hallway.
Quinn didn’t look happy. He looked fearful. It was a group he could fear as well considering how much of his own body was currently made up of mechanics. Although, since he was sanctioned by the government after serving in the military, it would be unlikely to find him in my situation.
“She isn’t malfunctioning,” he called from behind us.
“She was reportedly impersonating a human at a human-only establishment. That is a severe malfunction. She is going in for examination and possible repairs.”
I gripped the syringe tighter. The word possible in his explanation was very telling. They meant they would repair me after they dismantled me. If they could.
They wouldn’t be able to. My skin had changed so much in the last decade alone that I knew getting to any of my inner workings would be unsuccessful.
“Coral is not like most mechanics. Her AI is beyond the standard stock and her skin is human donated. You realize how painful it would be for someone to remove your skin and poke at your musculature with an energy probe? That is what you will be doing to her if you take her where I know you’re taking her.”
Quinn really needed to be quiet. I wanted to live with the possibility that I could come out of this intact a bit longer.
The guards made it to the front door and the large black van waiting for us. Our world had advanced in so many ways. The ugly boxy vehicle had been the transportation of choice for government agencies for nearly a century. Sure it drove itself now, but I found the whole ride to be a bit cliché.
The door slid open and the two men in front of our group stepped into the van. Once my feet hit that carpet inside, it would be the end for me. I knew I was expected to go in. I knew that it was requested of me by my betters to step inside, but I couldn’t make myself.
I could barely move. Fear. I was afraid. I began to leak from my eyes again.
The guards looked at me in utter shock. Their mouths hung open and they looked at each other without their former air of certainty. I didn’t fit into this world as a human. Tonight had made that violently clear. I also didn’t fit in as a machine any longer.
The guards to my left crumpled to the ground. Then those behind me followed. I wiped my eyes to get a clearer picture of what was going on. Quinn reached out to the last four men in quick succession and with a touch from his thumb and ring finger all the men collapsed to the pavement with a little squeak.
Quinn held out his hand to me, but after that dramatic show of whatever power he wielded, I didn’t jump at the chance to grab it.
“Stun gun. It was part of my upgrade package from the military. I have control over it. I won’t zap you. We need to go fast. I didn’t have much charge left by the time I made the last guy forget his mother’s maiden name.”
I took his hand then, because sure enough, the last man Quinn took down began to move. The movements were irregular and uncoordinated but he was right, we didn’t have much time.
“The queen…” the last man Quinn zapped drooled as he talked. “…the queen…will…know…of this.”
Quinn looked between our joined palms. The syringe Matilda had given me was held snugly in our grip.
“Her majesty didn’t know they were coming,” Qu
inn said. “I don’t believe it.” Quinn’s brows furrowed, but he didn’t turn back to the man as we took off.
I always slowed my pace when I walked with humans. I didn’t have to with Quinn. His legs were a part of his mechanical upgrades, and we both went faster than a human jog with our steps.
“Did they inject you with anything?”
Quinn was asking if I had been given a seizing agent. In the event of an out-of-control mechanical item the authorities had weapons that when shot into the frame of any robot would cause the gears to seize. It activated slowly, over a period of three to five minutes to minimize damage. This was just in case the robot was doing something like carrying a car over its head at a high speed. They could also hit the machine with a stun baton to destroy the CPU immediately. Neither had happened.
“No, they hadn’t even touched me.”
We ran for a full hour before either of us spoke again. Other than a glance back from Quinn every ten minutes or so, we simply moved forward.
“You have made yourself a target as well, Quinn. What are you planning on doing?”
Quinn didn’t answer me. We were deep into a wooded area, and there was no path out here. Quinn’s brain, although most likely integrated with computer connections, was still a human brain. When we came up to a barely visible cabin I was impressed that he had found it.
“I’m planning on going to the cabin. Beyond that, I don’t know.”
Quinn walked to the side of the building and flipped three switches. The first two made my mechanics twitch a bit, and the last was obviously a generator.
Quinn pointed to the first two large metal boxes. “Those are scramblers. They will impact and disorient any tracking device they use to try and find us. Don’t get too close. They irritate my legs in particular when I use them, but it’s the only way to make sure, if they do look for us, they can’t track us with traditional methods.”
We walked into the house and Quinn flipped on lights as he went. He opened up a cupboard and there were silver and gold foil pouches with the letters MRE on them. He flipped a package over and nodded at the date printed on the back.
He held one up to me. “I’m in luck. Still good. Not tasty, but not expired.”
“That’s not helpful for me.” I could go for a week or so without my lubrication drink, but it wasn’t pleasant to be without.
“I don’t have the mix you had, but I do have this.”
Quinn went to the other side of the kitchen and pulled out a solid beige bottle labeled with writing similar to that of the envelopes he had in the cupboards.
“What does MMC mean?”
“Mechanics Maintenance Consumable. I don’t have the stuff they added for your sea life tissue, but this will help with your bio-metal functions.” Quinn tossed me a bottle.
I turned it upside down and looked at the bottom. It was still one hundred and fifteen years from expiring. That was good. I opened the lid and sniffed. The tang of metal and oil hit my sensors.
“I said it was consumable. I never promised you would enjoy consuming it.” Quinn took the bottle from my hands and gulped half of it like he was taking a shot of alcohol at the bar. He shuddered like it was alcohol as well.
I mimicked his move and instantly regretted it. To say this was less palatable than my maintenance drink was a gross understatement.
Quinn took the empty bottle and rinsed it in the sink. The water that ran from the faucet started out a bit dirty, but after it sputtered to life, relieving the lines of the air and sediment, we had clear water. He tossed the bottle under the sink.
“I would say we could get some rest, but neither of us needs it. Let me show you around.”
Quinn gave me the tour, which consisted of the kitchen/living room/bedroom we were standing in, and a small bathroom with a shower that Quinn probably had to duck under to get clean.
“Why did you bring me here, Quinn?”
The man who had seemed completely sure of himself as we rushed away from the palace put his hand into his hair and tugged the strands.
“This is my safe house. I set this up before I went to the palace. I knew my cousins told me I was welcome in their home, but there was still this part of me that felt like a freak. I figured if they decided I was a freak too, I needed a place to go and hide.” He waved his arm around to the four walls that held us from the outside. “This is that place.”
“So we are in hiding.” This was not a large house. “For how long?”
“I haven’t gotten that far in my thought process yet.”
“Your brain needs to reboot faster. We can’t stay here.” I looked at the bed and images of the last time I was on a bed with Quinn went through my mind. I didn’t want to recall those images. If only the injectable still in my hand could be used for selective memory deletion. I could delete Quinn’s head and just recall his hands.
“What are you doing?” Quinn’s voice sounded fearful.
I looked around, but I didn’t see any danger. Then I noticed his eyes were trained on me. Oops. Guess my memory was having an impact on my body. My hands had begun to remove my pants. These pants were the same ones I removed when Quinn gave me my orgasm.
“Do you expect me to stay clothed the entire time? I don’t enjoy clothes.”
Quinn pulled a chair from a small half desk against a wall and sat down. “This is going to be the very definition of roughing it. You are not going to make this easy.” He ran his hands through his hair again. It was good that he seemed to have reasonable control over his stun capabilities. It would be a shame if he released that current into his own brain. Although, that might be preferable at the moment. I wanted to take off my clothes so I could relax, and it was obvious Quinn didn’t approve of that idea.
“I could stay in the bathroom and you could stay out here.” I opened the bathroom door. It was a small room, but I could put some blankets in the bathtub, and it should be fairly livable.
“I am not making you stay in the bathroom. We can make this work.” Quinn sounded like he was trying to convince himself and failing miserably.
Rather than discussing his obvious lack of a plan more, he stood up and nodded to himself. “We can make this work. I am going to walk the perimeter and check the generator and the camouflage that I use to make sure animals haven’t disturbed anything. You make yourself comfortable and I will be back in a few minutes.”
When the door closed behind him, I did just that. I took off my clothes and pulled the top comforter off the bed. The blanket underneath was quite soft and pleasant to the touch of my skin. I spread my arms and legs and stretched. This place was definitely not a palace, but I didn’t need a palace. I wondered how we would deal with each other when we didn’t have separate wings of a castle to retreat to. I guessed we would find out. Either Quinn would realize this was a mistake and take me in to the Department of Mechanical Affairs himself, or he would use those stun fingers on me when I drove him crazy. Either way, I had the opportunity to acquire more data before my systems were shut down for good.
I put the syringe in the single small night stand drawer. I increased my volume reception. If someone came close enough I could hear them and get the syringe in time. For the moment all I heard were the animals outside and Quinn pacing back and forth behind the cabin.
Chapter Seven
Over thirty minutes passed before Quinn returned. He carried in firewood and began loading logs into the hearth and in the basket next to the stone mantle. He never strayed far enough from the cabin that I couldn’t hear him. He even spoke to himself out there.
He was worried about both of us. I found it odd that he argued with himself, but, as he had pointed out, we were abundantly different. I tried not to listen in, but when he started telling himself that he could live like this for a bit, I wondered how long he considered that timeline.
We would both survive on the ratio
ns he had stashed here, but we wouldn’t be very happy. His food seemed to be extremely subpar, and my lubrication stash would definitely not have me performing at optimal levels.
“I will get a fire going. The temperature is moderated a bit by all the trees, but it does get chilly at night.” Quinn grabbed what looked to be a wax-filled piece of toilet paper roll and began to light it on fire among the smallest of the logs. “We can talk about what we will do in the morning. I think I need a good night’s sleep before I try and reason out what we are going to do for the long term.”
I sat up and crossed my legs over each other to give my body proper stability. “So you do not wish to discuss anything tonight?”
“No, I…” Quinn stopped talking when he turned around to look at me.
I looked down at my body. I wasn’t leaking anywhere, and after the incident at the bar, I found myself much less tingly around Quinn.
“You told me to get comfortable.”
Quinn looked up at the ceiling and put his hands on his hips. I looked up at the large beams. The cabin was very solidly constructed. I don’t know why he was checking on the structure. It would most definitely hold for hundreds of years.
“Coral, comfortable does not mean naked.”
“So you wish me to get dressed again?”
“Please.”
Quinn really needed to get more comfortable with nudity. His mechanics makeup would be far better maintained if he used a regimen like mine. I told him so.
“I might be mechanics underneath, but my skin is still all human.” He thought about it for a second, while looking at the ceiling. “I think. They did inject me a lot and I was unconscious for most of the operations, but they didn’t tell me about any alterations to my skin.”
“They would need to strengthen it to contain the amount of mechanics you have. Didn’t you say your legs and arms were replaced after amputation in battle?”