Usu

by Jayde Ver Elst

  Fingers tingled, eyes were wet, and one little girl woke up from one nightmare into another.

  Android - The Next Day

  He let me in, I didn’t think he would, not like sleeping against his only window was that bad, but it’s… nicer inside. His name is Snow, he got pretty upset when I kept calling him wafflehair boy, but I thought it was waaay cuter!

  I never believed in names Diary, but he says they’re important, I don’t know if I want one… but can I call you Dee?

  It’s small inside, but it feels warm and he even lets me use a spare room! Though, whenever I ask who it belonged to he gets sad, but one time he smiled instead and said, “It belongs to you now.”

  Can things like me have homes Dee?

  Chapter Ten - Myyrth

  You’d think making something able to weep profusely might be a low-priority feature, but you’ve read this far so it would be wise not to put much faith in what you think. Instead, the cruel reality drenched Usu’s paws once more, as he desperately tried to catch her tears, perhaps fearing that each and every one was a piece of her, a piece he couldn’t do without.

  At that moment, even Rain wished she didn’t retain her senses during her blackouts. She had heard every word, and every part of her body reverberated the truth in them. Minutes of sniffling (and rather pointless paw swiping) passed until she could move freely, and through every ache she pulled Usu close, hugging him tightly before saying, “I’m, I’m sorry Snow. I’m sorry for everything. I’m even sorry I’m crying, silly right?” She pressed her forehead to his and forced a smile across her drenched face.

  Manchester, as the disturbingly multi-legged mechanic turned out to be named after proper introductions were handled, was stroking his limb-beard at the sight, occasionally tickling himself into an embarrassed giggle before regaining composure. Then, when he felt he’d probably pass out from the strangling hug his daughter was still curiously intent on giving to him, he decided to speak up. “Now now lass, wipe yer sprockets ‘n polish yer nugge―oh right, ye don’t have those be’n a lass ‘n all. What aye meant t'say is, I n’er said there wan’t a way to save ye, or, at least try.” Pulling himself back into the upper reaches of the room, he proceeded to scratch a strange pattern onto a tile. Moments later, a massive terminal lowered and his endless stream of chin-arms sprung to life, weaving a marvelous tapestry of taps across it. The screen changed a multitude of times, reflecting across his metallic sheen before settling on a single image, casting a blue hue across the room. He faced the pair again, lunging to sexual harassment distance in a heartbeat before finally revealing his cards. “Now, tis true that yer ‘n trouble lass, but trouble’s me middle hand! Somewhere ‘n there at least.” Rain looked up with half-open eyes, trying her best to stop each tear before it began as he continued. “But there’s a way, or half a way at least I’d wager. Yer schematics, likes o' which I’ve naer seen, could be enough fer me to help ye. Better yet, they’re so rare y'd end up paying fer the help at the same time lass!”

  “Rain can… can stay with Snow?” she managed before taking one last deep, hopeful sniff.

  “Snew? The rabbit? Aye, if you kin get yer soul-scribbles I’ll do wha’ I can. Ye have me word, an'… an' me daughter! Ye kin borrow her fer a bit, maybe teach her some manners?” He was interrupted with a barely feminine growl dangling from what could possibly be called his neck.

  “The hell you mean manners? Shitbeard, I swear if I eventually find the washer that connects your ass to your fac―”

  A rather terrified look crossed Manchester's brow as he interjected, “S-She’s a sweet lass! Charming! Best thing I e’er made!”

  Seemingly calmed by a fair degree or two, the still-cloaked and apparently personality disorder-stricken daughter swiveled onto one hand and dropped directly in front of Usu. “Yeah so, we already met and all, but the name is Mercury. Dad over there is probably wanting to send us to what you see on that screen there. It’s the place where they developed your girl. Bit of a suicide trip; he’s been trying to send me there alone for years now. Claims it’s half the reason he built me without a killswitch in the first place.” Her eyes, which were startlingly human-like along with being the only part clearly exposed from her cloak, showed equal parts disinterest, disappointment, and empathy. “But hey, it’s fine, I shut off the power relays connecting him to the solar panel systems earlier, so if we don’t make it back he’ll die too!” she said while scruffing up Rain’s hair in an unusual attempt to lighten the mood.

  Laughing in an uneasy terror as his arms tried to reach behind him to confirm her threat, Manchester briefed them in the most long-winded way one could. “Ye see the photo there laddie? That'd be the lab, more than half a millennium in disuse, bit ye kin bet yerself a piece o’ stuffin' that the data ye want is ‘n it! Only trouble is what ye see around it there, all tha’ silly water nonsense ye know. Tis a wee bit… uncooperative.” As he said this, Usu, despite his lack of formal sign language training, was rather sure he saw one of the chin-hands mimic a slit throat and another slap an invisible knee in laughter.

  Encouraging.

  “The Hatchery, as it was called in its day, was wee more than an electronic part parade tae the public, but I'd bet mah independence the lassie there wasn't just born there, she wis conceived.” Lurching ever closer with each sentence. “Anything ye fin' there, be it designs or pieces o' her kin, could save her.”

  Silently observing until then, Modbot spoke up. “I’ll go with you Bunbun. I mean, I’ve got nothing better to do, and Blimey that place is probably in need of a serious cleaning!” he proclaimed while shying away from outright admittance, but edging close enough to impress his dangling nemesis, who then promptly chopped off the extra attachment from his crotch with a swift stroke from a random arm.

  “Bastards ‘ll probablae need me t'fix the door eventually anywae.” Manchester thereby unburdened Modbot for whatever lay in wait, or perhaps just took the opportunity to chop his not-so-proverbial knob off. Probably the latter.

  Now knobless, Modbot swung Usu around his back so he sat rather snugly between his incineration module and the rest of himself. Mercury was already piggybacking Rain, who was still waning her way out of grand sobbetry, when she gave Usu the sort of wink only someone who has kidnapped you and tried to sell of your body parts can give, and she gave it well. Winks be done, she left little time to waste, leaping out of what was presumably once upon a time a one-way entrance. By the time Modbot had used his extensive set of transversal skills to climb the ladder out, barely an echo could be seen or heard of them, already atop a great boundary and tearing away at any form of flooring that happened to be cursed enough to lay in Mercury’s path.

  Usu was attempting to shake the gobsmacked Modbot into some sort of similar action but the cleaning robot's rather appropriate response was, “Now, during our wonderful time of almost dying together ad nauseam, do you recall me ever leaping anything higher than myself? Because I’ll be snogfairied if we’re going that way, and trust me, I’m pretty sure neither of us wants to be snogfairied.” Left at a loss for words, let alone the ability to say them, Usu couldn’t put up much more resistance in earnest. “Good! Then we’ll be heading to the docks like gentlemen! That is: Through a dozen doors, about three hills and then I think we can just roll downwards until we hit something. I have it on pretty good authority it’s how people used get around this area, plus or minus a few bits of genitalia, of course.”

  Modbot wasn’t kidding. About an hour of walking, another of complaining about the overwhelming amount of simulated coffee shops, and another chasing down a pink piñata that had survived a fair deal better than the species that made it, they finally arrived, smashing Usu-first into a port barricade. Usu probably should have become more suspicious when Modbot tied him to his face as a 'precaution', though an accurate one it had been. Rain was there to offer him the same comfort he’d given her not so long ago through a hug that would make anyone grateful to lack bone structure while gleeful
ly spinning him around as if the encroaching nightmare was but a fleeting dream.

  “Snooow! Slow Snow! But still Snow!” She looked off to the side in Mercury’s direction with a mighty pout. “Pillow-case lady wouldn’t let me go find you, says I can’t exert myself right now, but Pillow-cases aren’t even supposed to talk!” said the oblivious girl to the stuffed rabbit before her.

  Mercury was leaning against a railing in casual annoyance, obviously having expected some sort of competition from Modbot, who was rather unwisely attempting his first conversation with her. “So! You were actually built by that geezer? You’re… rather young then, I take it? Never around for the humans? Oh, you didn’t miss much, too little air for them to even scream properly in the end, which made cleaning up after them a mite bit easier, I’ll have you know!” Laughing awkwardly to himself, he subtly squashed the remnants of a completely irrelevant piñata into his incinerator.

  Mercury scowled, or was constipated, things are hard to judge through an eye slit. “Manchester, yeah, he built me. I’m his 'shining star of success', considering the only other things he built are those hillbillies that pop up around the place. He’s been trying to kill me for years now though, or was that what I’ve been doing? Details. But hey, we haven’t exactly got all day if we want to get there.” She tucked a piece of silver hair back into her head wrap while briefly making eye-contact with what was beginning to resemble a sunset on prescription anthrax.

  She’d long since prepared for the departure, the strangely unnatural pier beside her was aloft with water, much like the rest of the city's bottom level. Next to Mercury bobbed a large transparent yet thick and slimy ball with one large hole atop for entrance, an entrance she used rather abruptly when she dropped Rain, Usu, Modbot and her rather brash self through all at once. She traced her fingers around the edges of the hole, which sealed itself instantly and began shedding thicker and thicker slime until their slow descent into purgatory began.

  Android - The Day Forgotten

  I messed up Dee. I messed up really, really bad.

  Snow, he… he kept telling me not to go into his workshop, but you kinda have to when someone says that right? It was amazing at first, all these bits and pieces of shinies he was taking apart to make the little woof-woofs and meows he sells, they were all sooo cute! But I wasn’t supposed to be there… I was rolling and playing before some weird papers with scribbles fell on me, and when I looked at them something happened.

  Something inside me burst into a million pieces and I couldn’t move until Snow found me. I’ve never seen him cry Dee, but it’s all he could do. He never shouted at me or told me I was bad, he just kept hugging me and saying sorry.

  One of those fragile pieces got much, much bigger that day.

  Chapter Eleven - Sanguine

  Machinations never did quite find the same appreciation for water humans were so well known for, probably because it could kill them, but at least partially because its very nature went against their own. The tide waxes and wanes, the ocean swells, and once upon a time even birthed life. The same life that went on to make them. To all but a few, thoughts of becoming a creator were horror stories of wiped memories and fragmented thoughts. As free as they were, they remained slaves to programming, dwelling on the devil in their data and fearing the excel spreadsheet that hides under their beds.

  For the few that faced demons greater still, however, it was an escape. Ironic as the steel it was built upon then, that the chronicle of Old Francisco, born from the structure once called 'Suicide Bridge', would continue to hold onto death; living patrons be damned. Dozens every day, two-fold by night. The number rose as the years did, and soon bloomed a deadly reputation to match. Those who could not take the world as it was, those who were lost without their masters, and those who had forgotten them completely. All manners entered the peaceful marina, and only one rather rude one expected to return.

  If forced to pick sides, Mercury would sooner turn to genocide than suicide. She entered this watery coffin with more than a mere plan up her jumble of cloth. She’d get to the underwater laboratory, called 'The Hatchery' during its better years, and 'Holy Shit' during the present, at least by the one person aboard who actually knew where it was. Several miles west and many more down, the ruins stood brightly lit, beckoning from a sea floor awash with well-whittled bones.

  Yet, they faced the initial problem of actually moving in a direction other than down, a problem becoming more and more pressing as Rain insisted she could probably have a quick lick outside the bubble and be fine. Slightly wiser in the ways of the world, Modbot did what he could to convince her otherwise. Indeed, no easy task.

  Mercury, in the meantime, gently pierced the outer lining with a small rectangular device that whirred to life the instant it felt the cold embrace surrounding them.

  Despite a round of shock and confusion, she hushed the group and watched the device with a nervous intensity. Finally, a stream of energy shot out from it with the kind of force that can call out a jet engine as limp and in need of erectile assistance. They had covered a tremendous distance before a crack was heard and the device shattered completely. Mercury explained the situation to the others. “We should be directly above it now, I’ve got one more of those but, well, best we save that for making our trip back a tad less of a crotch shot.” Now, they knew, came the somewhat less pleasant part.

  The 'less pleasant part' was that, by design, the bubbles based their physical buoyancy on the mood of the respective suicidee. Should they truly wish to end it all, sinking was inevitable, but second thoughts or that fiendish thing we call hope, well, then it would rise to the surface and pop, giving them a few precious moments of life’s blissful struggle before promptly drowning to death. This did pose a minor problem, in thanks to Usu’s stalwart nature and Rain’s love of everything, which were surely flight risks. However, they were in luck having chosen a prototype model with a very special feature to ensure automated sinking. A large portion of the vessel changed before Usu’s eyes, transparency was replaced by opaqueness. It began flickering, and static fumbled like maggots playing tennis for a bit before a human appeared, long blond hair, a muscular frame, standing before an anesthetized crowd.

  That moment, and several hundred thereafter, they would learn true terror, true fear, and true disdain as they were forced to listen a cacophony of screams and moaning playing over a video recording of Michael Bolton live in concert and on repeat. Unfortunately, all of the overdubbed shrieks and death rattles could do little to drown out his Dolby digitally enhanced voice.

  They sank, and sank further still until, dazed and confused, without mental mettle or hope in heart they were sucked down within a tunnel and emerged into the dim light of salvation. The song stopped as each occupant crawled out onto the hangar's metal skirts. Even Mercury couldn’t maintain her façade, throwing up some strange black bile away from the stumbling Usu and teary-eyed Rain, who could only mumble, “Why are there bad men like that Snow? W-Why must they hurt Rain?” with an innocent pained look that could almost put her dire future at second fiddle.

  The loading bay they found themselves inside of was―perhaps evidenced by the suction tunnel―not one intended for humanoid entrance, and probably even less so for that of a stuffed rabbit. The room held barely enough solid steel ground for them to regain their not-so-proverbial bearings, most of it awash with a dense water that reeked with a promiscuous blend of antiseptics and iron. A far too familiar smell to Usu, from long-gone days when blood and metal held him firmly in their grip.

  Yet, despite smells or horrendous transportation methods, the facility retained a pristine quality about itself. Not a light was broken nor a sign askew. Even the laughable idea of a pressurisation chamber held them for a few peaceful hours before Modbot accidentally ripped the door off whilst ever more accidentally having it hit the automated comm speaker. Means and methods behind them now, they were inside and well on their way to making some form of progress, that is until Usu’s
foot took yet another fateful step.

  With one movement, a simple paranoid attempt to check around a corner before facing it, the very tile he stood upon began to emit light, spreading across the room like wildfire until, at it’s climax, the light burst, giving way to darkness. Faint mumbles echoed across the hallways as faint, ghost-like holograms began trudging along in lab coats, some arguing, some laughing, some making dinner plans. It felt alive, as alive as anyone else there at least. But it remained only a memory, a fragment of time preserved for some unknown purpose. A fragment that pulled at something inside Usu, and twisted something inside Rain. There was great sadness here, and it resonated deeply within both of them, so much so that their eyes didn’t even need to meet to know the other felt it too. This was a rather good thing, because Usu was, at the time, being held against Rain’s stomach upside down, a truly awkward position for eye contact.

  Mercury was first to break the air. “Right, I know, spooky weird shit, but unless you want that princess here as a doorstop, we’ve got to spend more time moving and less gawking.”

  Rain, worried far more for how Usu would take such a reality than she would, faced Mercury, squinted up into her eyes, slammed both her legs together and her free arm against her forehead. “Yes sir, Lady sir!” she proclaimed before being gone in a heartbeat. The trail of ground debris among the digital sheen wrote her path rather clearly and didn’t do the holograms passing over it much good either.