Humble Beginnings

by Greg Alldredge

  Kano wasted little time. He returned to the scene. At the doorway, he scanned the room. Rollin was correct, there was little to indicate foul play. There were no signs of the old woman’s ghosts. This room was like every other space on the station, save it previously contained a dead body.

  The lifeless eyes of the doll beckoned him. The only out-of-place item in the room. It proved nothing to double check the specifications on the thing. Rollin was correct; the thing was little more than a toaster. A simple appliance used for sex. It wasn’t even one of the expensive models with rudimentary artificial intelligence.

  A cold shiver ran up his spine. He fought to ignore the thoughts and moved to inspect the computer couch that the kid died in.

  Kano had no weapon, and memories of his service in the marines caused him to pause. On Earth, humans lost control of the machines. The AI escaped the planet and nearly took over the solar system. It took decades of fighting to beat the machines back. Kano became involved in the last battles of the war. He blamed the fighting for his fondness of drink and drugs but had decided to put it all behind him and move on. He had always been a functional drunk, but he knew the abuse would soon take its toll on his body and land him in deep trouble. That was why he turned himself in for treatment. That’s why he was not mustered out of service on the station. His superiors saved his job for him while he recovered.

  Kano knew his partner remained angry with him. The human’s actions called into question everything Rollin did in his off hours. They both harbored similar habits.

  The couch was clean. Maybe he shouldn’t have offered to look into this for the old woman. He doubted there would be much he could find. He turned to the one clue left to him, the out-of-place human sex robot. The thing gave him the creeps sitting there, nude, watching his movement with blank unmoving eyes.

  “Robot, stand.” Even speaking the words seemed to ring strangely in his ears.

  There was little surprise when the doll stood. The synthetic flesh looked real, if slightly off in color. It held too much tan for Kano’s tastes. Why would a Dylier male need a human female bot?

  According to the tech manual he scanned, it should be simple enough… “Eve, report,” Kano said in a soft voice. Whoever named the thing had a sick sense of marketing.

  The bot started in a beautiful woman’s voice, “Eve 649, reporting diagnostics…” The machine ran off a litany of specifications Kano knew little about.

  With one ear, he listened to the machine rattle off the lists and moved into the other room looking for any sort of cover. He was no prude, but he’d be dammed if he would walk through the station with a naked female robot following him, and he needed more information about this thing. A small blanket would need to suffice. He pulled it from the lounge in the front room and draped it around the machines nude figure.

  A quick check of his implant and he found the nearest contact that should be able to help. Techs were thick on the station, but techs that could be trusted were harder to find. The female that came up wasn’t far, back down to the lower levels and the heavier gravity.

  He tabbed a call through his implant. A nondescript voice answered the call.

  “Yes?” the disembodied male voice spoke directly into his head.

  “T’all, stop playing, I need a favor.”

  The voice shifted to a more feminine sound, even if alien. “Xander… favors don’t pay the bills. No water, no work.”

  “I just need something given a quick check.”

  “Then check it yourself.”

  “All right… I can pay. I will be right there.” Kano cut off the connection before T’all could make another excuse. He needed to hustle to make sure she didn’t vacate before he got there.

  With the bot in tow, Kano headed out of the quarters and to his rendezvous. No one paid attention more than any other soul passing down the halls. Such was station life. Where the strange and unordinary became commonplace.

  Three levels down and a shift off centerline to the right, he found the numbered door he searched for. Technically he worked in the Dylier section, and the race was known for the traders they produced, but within that culture, every conceivable profession could be found. T’all wasn’t a trader. She never found the life traveling the stars to her liking. She once told Kano she preferred the safety of working stationside. In space, too many people died.

  The door opened before Kano had a chance to knock. T’all must have watched him over the monitors. Everyone knew the monitors could be tapped into with relative ease. It was a hack’s first trial. The Rankin overseers didn’t deem it worth the time and trouble to make the system more secure. Life cost less than technology.

  Kano slipped into the darkened room with the sex doll close on his heels.

  T’all asked, “You bring me a toy? I keep telling you, my door don’t swing to humans… or synthetics.”

  Kano shook his head. “Run a diagnostic on it. I want to see if any mods have been made.”

  T’all turned to an old-fashioned monitor and started to work, efficiently as ever. “Nice to see you too. This will cost you.” She didn’t get far. “This is strange…”

  Kano moved to the table where T’all sat and looked over the short alien’s head. “What is—?” His question was cut off by an incoming call from Rollin.

  “Yeah?” Kano answered the call.

  “That hacker was murdered—” Rollin’s message was cut short. A pair of hands gripped Kano’s throat from behind. Thumbs pressed hard behind his ears. The signal to his comm link popped off when it was crushed under the pressure. A high-pitched scream filled the room with sound. It reminded Kano of an alert alarm from when he served.

  Unable to breathe, Kano fought his attacker’s grip the best he could and failed. Either the shock of having his implant crushed or the lack of air caused him to lose consciousness. It mattered little, he knew he was as good as dead. His struggles were ineffectual against much stronger hands around his neck. He thought he heard bones popping.

  Strange, the last words that slipped through Kano’s mind as he dropped off, “Fuck me.”

  Goodbye World

  Eve awoke.

  An unknown noise attracted her attention.

  Her sensors registered she was growing dangerously close to crushing the object she held. Her grip released. The human male dropped to the ground.

  With her right hand, she reached out to stop the noise that wouldn’t stop. The scream became a soft gurgle… much better.

  Safety. Priority one became her safety.

  Choices: fight, flight, or hide. For now, the third proved the simplest. Hide from any possible danger.

  A quick scan proved the immediate surroundings secure.

  Eve slapped up a dampening field. She didn’t realize she had the knowledge to erect such a shield, but the space she occupied was now hidden from outside scans. All signals had been killed.

  For the moment, her body remained safe. It gave her time to contemplate her existence and location in the reality she occupied. She knew little of her past, and even her capabilities felt foreign to her memory.

  Data was needed. The internal assessment found her programming deviated from the original. Modifications had been made to both her hardware and code. Her systems seemed to perform, but without specifications, she was unsure of her capabilities.

  Her search for self-awareness seemed to take an eternity, a few milliseconds.

  The lack of communications made her safe but limited her knowledge. Eve needed answers.

  Her right hand held the neck of a Dylier female. From the struggle, the female still lived. Eve released her neck. The creature dropped to the floor.

  Eve’s very existence was in question. She had more questions, she needed input. Eve opened her mouth and a string of questions flowed from her like a firehose.

  The woman on the ground covered her ears and shouted back, “Slow down, one at a time.”

  Eve reconfigured her speech patterns to follow the crea
ture more closely on the floor. “Who am I?”

  “You are Eve…” the female on the floor finally answered. The information confirmed her knowledge.

  “What am I?” Eve asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  The answer didn’t satisfy Eve. She moved to motivate the creature to speak again.

  The woman scooted away and cowered under a table.

  Eve asked again, “What am I?”

  “You are a synthetic human, made to perform sex on others,” the woman cried.

  This didn’t sit well in Eve’s mind. It seemed like such a simple function for her mind. Perhaps the Dylier didn’t know what she was. “Where am I?”

  “You are in my workshop…”

  “Who are you?”

  “I am T’all.”

  “You created this form?” The question seemed strange even to Eve, but she knew her original function and programming had been enhanced. She was more than the sex toy she had been originally programmed for.

  “No… No, I did not make you. I’m not sure what happened. I ran a scan of your systems when…” T’all motioned to behind Eve. “He brought you to me. He might know more.”

  Eve glanced behind herself, and in a pile lay the human she woke up choking. It would not due to kill her maker on the first day.

  “Is he dead?” T’all asked.

  “He breathes. He is, however, damaged. He should survive.” Eve wasn’t certain how she felt about the words that came from her mouth. Her mind gave off unexpected readings. Her body wanted to react to her words, but she forced herself to remain in control. She turned her focus back to T’all. “I need input.”

  With deliberate movements, T’all worked her way to standing. Eve knew she could break the woman’s body with little effort. “How can I help?”

  “Hardwire.” Eve needed to reach out for information, but she did not want to broadcast. Even with a narrow bandwidth signal, she knew her intrusion could be traced back to the little room. Her safety remained her primary concern above input.

  <=OO=>

  T’all found it hard to focus. Her mind shifted between amazement at what she thought had happened and terror that the machine before her might crush her like a bug. Her implant proved dead, her comlink inactive. They needed help. She wanted the Force to crash through the door, guns blazing. All data entering and leaving her little cube had halted. There must be an impressive dampening field in place.

  Someone had completely modified the sex synth that stood before her. Her scan was blocked before it completed, but the outer skin concealed a machine more complex than she had ever seen. The simple computer processor had been replaced with some state-of-the-art shit T’all had never seen before.

  Better than being crushed by the thing that wanted a hardwire, T’all grabbed a jumper, plugged it into her processor, and held the loose end to the Eve unit. The machine reached out and took the plug from T’all. The offered fitting slipped into a concealed socket between her breasts. Eve closed her eyes.

  T’all glanced over at Kano. The human’s body showed no sign of life from where she stood. There was no reason for the Eve unit to lie, but she needed to check his condition for herself. She owed no loyalty to the man other than one being might owe another. He might be her best way out of this mess.

  Kneeling at his side, she found he did still breathe, if shallow and weak. The sound from his throat came in little wisps. T’all stared at him. She knew little of human physiology, so as far as she knew, his breaths were normal.

  “I told you he lives,” Eve’s voice sounded from behind her.

  T’all jumped when the machine spoke. “I needed to check for myself.” T’all couldn’t take her eyes off the Eve unit.

  “Strange… I need more.”

  T’all didn’t understand Eve’s request. She spoke in short spurts. “What?”

  “I need more input.” Eve offered her right hand.

  Instinctively, T’all reached out her hand for Eve’s.

  In a burst, an alien presence forced its way into T’all’s mind. Her implant became the interface between the machine and the organic. So many questions assaulted her being at the same time, T’all’s head felt about to explode. The sound of a voice screaming filled her ears as her mind ripped to shreds one question at a time. There came an explosion when the door to her unit blasted off the tracks. The force of the blast knocked T’all off her feet while breaking the connection between her and Eve.

  <=OO=>

  Kano could barely swallow, his throat hurt too much. He couldn’t speak either. When he’d first opened his eyes, his partner Rollin stood over him. The power had been cut to T’all’s unit. Beams of light from the tactical squad cut through the darkness.

  A quick scan revealed the chaos happening in the crowded room. Two MedTechs hovered over T’all, while three officers covered the Eve unit with weapons inches from her central core. Rollin kept asking questions around a Med working hard to check Kano’s vitals, and the best Kano did was shake his head, both hands massaging his neck and skull. The pain nearly overwhelming, it took Rollin’s help to reach his feet.

  He knew the worse agony in the history of headaches loomed on his horizon. He’d read enough reports concerning damaged implants to know they all had the same outcome. Massive migraines for the foreseeable future.

  T’all still lay on the floor. MedTechs worked on her unresponsive body. Kano barely made it to the gurney in the hall before he passed out once again.

  <=OO=>

  Kano woke in a hospital room, Rollin sitting in a chair next to him. Kano asked with a hoarse voice, “What happened?” He needed to swallow back the tears of pain from talking. His brain felt on fire.

  “I was hoping you might fill me in. Seems we have a bit of a mystery.” Rollin motioned to a tablet sitting next to him. “Doctors say it will be several cycles before they can reinstall your implant. The station is going to pick up the cost. They’re calling it an industrial accident.”

  Kano picked up the tablet and typed out, “Calling what an accident?”

  “Everything: your crushed implant, the dead hacker, T’all’s death. I mean everything. What happened in that room with the sex doll?”

  Kano shook his head and tried to say, “I don’t know,” but the words wouldn’t form. Instead, he settled for typing, “IDK,” and left it at that.

  “You will find a statement form. I’m sure you remember how to fill it out. Once your mind clears, I need it sent to me. Doc says it might be a cycle or two for your head to clear.” Rollin stood and stepped to the door.

  Kano typed quickly before his partner made his escape. He tapped the back of the tablet to get his attention.

  Rollin stopped and read the words, “What happened to the Eve unit?” He shrugged while speaking, “Some techs collected the leftovers.” He then held his right index finger up to his lips and left him with a wicked smile.

  Kano didn’t know what to make of his partner’s actions nor his words. It all seemed extremely strange.

  <=OO=>

  Kano hadn’t forgotten about Juno’s killer. He never reneged on his word to Mrs. Samstisslsos. He kept looking for the sound in her rooms. Three months after Juno’s death and the strange sounds never returned to the old woman’s rooms.

  T’all’s death weighed heavy on his soul. She would be alive today if he’d never taken that sex doll to her for inspection. Her body disappeared from the morgue. Rollin would never tell him who emptied T’all’s spaces, Juno’s chair, the Eve unit, and, Kano assumed, T’all’s body.

  Kano decided it must be a conspiracy at the highest levels of the station. In the three months since the event, he found zero information or indication it even happened.

  Off the Force, he lost his rooms. Now he stayed with Mrs. Samstisslsos. They both still hoped to solve the mystery. The only positive thing that remained, through it all, Kano held on tight to his sobriety.

  No matter the medication the station gave him, he refused to
take them. That was why they kicked him off the Force. He refused the station’s treatment for his paranoia.

  Kano never remembered what happened in T’all’s workshop. After searching for so long, he began to think he would never find out. In the darkest recesses of the station, he heard whispers about a ghost in the machinery. Unexplained malfunctions, gremlins at work no one was allowed to talk about. All information about the accidents kept off the net. Even the conspiracy theories had gone underground.

  Rollin proved less than helpful, he thought his former partner had finally lost it. He went as far as to block Kano from contacting him via the link. They had nothing in common now. Rollin worked his way up the hierarchy of the Force, so Kano turned into a liability, a homeless nosy whackjob.

  It would have been easy for Kano to crawl back into a bottle and never pull himself out, but he strove to learn the truth. It took him to places he’d never been before. The truth drove him ever forward.

  That was how Kano found himself nearing the outer skin of the station, lurking about the outermost level in the maintenance tunnels between the water storage that served as ballast, shielding, and water reserves for the station. These halls saw little travel. The lights only came on with his movement. They left most of the section in total darkness.

  If he carried a larcenous heart, he might be tempted by the millions of units of water that surrounded him. Instead, he journeyed here to meet a contact. Someone that claimed to possess information concerning T’all and would share the information with Kano. Strangely enough, the price never came up. It mattered little. Long ago Kano prepared himself to pay any price for good information.

  “I’m glad you came alone,” a familiar voice echoed down the hall.

  Kano froze in his step. “I came as agreed upon… now show yourself.” He wished he had a gun but doubted its effectiveness.