Chapter Text
The station had first been abandoned 15 years ago when the company, Belegar, had gone bankrupt. They had been trying to establish a mining operation on the small planet, but had run out of money before they finished setting it up. Four years ago, a salvage company had claimed the planet. But something had gone wrong, and the expedition had fled the planet with less than half its crew surviving. What had gone wrong wasn't known, because the company had kept it secret, and it too had gone bankrupt and dissolved not long after. With the mysterious abandonment of the planet came rumors of alien remnants. And the possibility of people being left behind.
It wasn't likely there were any survivors on the planet or the station. But if there was any possibility, then the humans from the university were going to investigate. And I was going with them.
The lock connecting Art's shuttle to the station cycled opened and my drones and I went through. When the next hatch opened, I had my drones scan the foyer before following them in. It was small and utilitarian in design. The Belegar logo, which featured some kind of large aquatic fauna with a ribbon behind it, was painted in blue on the ceiling and walls.
Life support and emergency lighting were active, but beyond that, there was no sign of any activity from the central system or sec system. I made my way down the corridor with my drones scouting ahead and a few as a rear guard behind me. I kept the mask on my environmental suit down even though the air quality readings were good.
Like the foyer, the corridor was grey with the blue logo at regular intervals. However, in the hallway, the floor was covered in hundreds of small tiles in many colors, but mostly shades of blue and red. The corridor arrived at a junction with three corridors leading off of it. The camera view of the lead drones showed something on the floor.
"What the—" Ratthi, who was watching the camera feed of the drone, exclaimed on the comms.
"Do you think this is could be the result of alien contamination?" Art asked over the feed, just before I could utter the same question.
"I don't know."
"The scans do not detect any strange elements. But proceed carefully."
I entered the junction and stared down at the pile of human bones. Pile was a questionable word. It seemed to be a complete human skeleton. Maybe complete, I didn't have that detailed knowledge of the human body. At least not when it looks like this.
The skull was in the center of the junction. The rest of the bones were arranged in a spiral going outwards from skull, starting with the largest bones and working out to the smallest.
"Some of the finger bones are missing," Art supplied.
"What? Why would anyone do this?" Iris asked.
"Maybe its some kind of burial ritual?" Ratthi asked.
"It does not match any human burial rituals in my records." Art said.
"I found the missing bones."
My drones had expanded into the corridors, and the ones in the left corridor had found an arrow made of bones pointing down the corridor. I sent the image to the team feed.
"So, definitely not a burial practice." Ratthi said.
"So it's definitely compulsive construction, right? We need to be careful." Iris said.
"We still don't know for certain that it is compulsive construction or a sign of alien contamination. But the probability is very high." Art said.
The odds of it being alien contamination were at 81%. I thought it should be higher.
"Secunit. How do you feel we should proceed with the exploration, given the increased chance of coming across alien remnants?" Iris asked.
I really, really did not want to deal with alien contamination again. I would be fine if the humans decided to declare everyone dead and leave this stupid planet. But I didn't think that was going to happen.
"If we want to continue with this mission, the only way is to explore the rest of the station. Art can prepare decontam protocol in case…"
Art spoke to me in our private feed.
"Are you sure that this is a good idea?"
I was sure it was a terrible idea.
"Yes."
Art spoke in the team feed then.
"I will prepare decontam protocols."
"Hopefully, we won't have to use them. It still could be some strange human ritual, right?" Ratthi, as usual, was being optimistic.
Threat assessment was giving the highest danger reading for the hallway with the arrow in it. So , of course, that's the hallway I was going down. Since it was the one most likely to lead to answers. I had just passed the bones arrow.
When a secunit pinged me. The hell?
"Don't respond to it." Art immediately said.
"I know. I'm not stupid."
Why the hell was there a secunit here? Threat assessment, which had gone up with the discovery of the bones, was rising rapidly. If there was a secunit here, then there were people here. Or we were dealing with a rogue.
"Potential hostile detected," I informed the team feed. "There's a secunit somewhere in the station."
The comm was immediately crowded with the shocked, confused voices of the humans.
"Could another salvage team be here?" Iris asked.
"I have not detected any ships at the dock or in the surrounding area. But the possibility is not zero." Art said.
I had a bad feeling about this mission from the very beginning. And every new thing was making that bad feeling worse.
"Secunit, do you feel that it is safe to continue this exploration? Do you want back up?"
I definitely did not want the humans coming in here to 'help.' And although threat assessment wasn't good, it wasn't bad enough to excuse abandoning the mission yet. Especially since it was now more likely to be humans on here who might need our help.
"It's fine. I'll be fine."
"Remember, we can bail out. Or help you get out. Anytime you need." Iris said.
"I know."
I wasn't intending to let that happen.
I continued down the corridors. My drone scans weren't detecting any signs of living beings. In a few places, we found signs of a past fight. Scratches and scuffs on the walls and floor. Energy weapon burns. Old blood stains.
So someone had enough time to rearrange skeletons, but hadn't bothered to clean the hallway. Weird.
Threat assessment climbed higher.
There were two more junctions with bone spirals and arrows pointing the way. I entered a hallway that was wider and had a higher ceiling than the others. Its wall decorations were more ornate, with the colorful tiles on the floor extended up into mosaics on the walls, depicting Belegar's logo images of the planets surface. The end of the hallway opened on to a large space, presumably a central part of the station.
Just as the lead drones were about to enter the space beyond, I noticed something strange about the hallway. Half way down, the tiles stopped. The colorful flooring and wall mosaics ended in rough patches of cement and grey wall.
"Do you think Belegar just never finished this portion?" Iris asked.
"It looks more to me like someone tried to scrape it off." Ratthi said.
"But why?"
"To make this." I said, and sent the video from my lead drone into the feed.
The space beyond the hallway was large, circular, and had a domed roof. Doors surrounding it were clearly meant to have led to shops and other businesses that people coming and leaving the station might need. The floor was smooth and grey. And in the center, about 20 meters wide, was a circle made of thousands of pieces of broken tile.
As it entered the space, the drone rose in the air, providing an overhead camera view of the strange mosaic. From that angle, the many colors of the broken tiles formed a clear pattern. The red tiles were concentrated together, forming large letters in the standard corporate language. The other colors filled in the spaces between. The mosaic read:
"I AM HERE"
The humans begain cursing and exclaiming in the comms again. What had happened here? It was alien contamination right? Why would alien contamination spell in standard corporate? Was it a plea for help?
My drones spread out into the space, scanning for movement or anything else suspicious, but I left the one hovering over the bizarre mosaic.
"This must be the center of the contamination if there is any."
"Yes." Art said. "But the scans are still not picking anything up."
"I know."
Then, the drones picked up movement. Something was entering from the hallway on the opposite end of the open area. A secunit was entering the space.
It wasn't a company model. It wasn't a Palisade or network effect model either. It was slightly more tall and slender. Its hair was longer, almost shoulder length. Why anyone would give a secunit hair that length was beyond me. It wasn't wearing armor. Its white uniform was visibly patched in several places. It had its hands cupped as if it was carrying something.
It had been walking slowly, with a disinterested expression, until it noticed my drones. If it was doing its job well, it should have noticed them a lot sooner. It shouldn't have looked suprised, especially since it was probably the one who had pinged me.
But it did.
And then it spoke.
The same words written on the floor.
"I AM HERE."
Iris and Ratthi were on team "let's ask it and figure out what is going on here." Art and Tarik were on team "let's kill it if it tries anything." I was on team "I guess we have to do something about it, and by we I mean I."
I entered the room.
The secunit, Potential Hostile 1, stared at me. There was an expression on its face that wasn't secunit neutral. Alarm? Suprise? Relief? That didn't make sense.
"Who are you and what are you doing on this station?" I asked.
"I am here." Potential Hostile 1 replied.
I could see that it was here.
"You said that. Who are you? And where are your clients?"
"My clients are not here."
"Then where are they?"
If it's clients weren't here, and it wasn't dead, the probability of this being a rogue unit was up to 99%. My cloud of drones pulled tighter around me, forming into a battle ready formation.
"My clients are not here. I was told to tell you that I am here."
What was it stalling for? So its clients or another unit could sneak up on me? My wide perimeter of drones had yet to detect any other beings.
"If your clients are not here, why hasn't your governor model killed you?"
"Where are your clients?" it retorted.
"Nearby." If it was lying about its clients not being here, I didn't want to give it too much information. If it was a rogue, I also didn't want to give it too much information.
"Did Naman send you?" Potential Hostile 1 sounded almost… hopeful? "He said they would come back."
"No. Who is Naman?"
Had Naman been one of its clients? Potential Hostile 1 frowned.
"Naman was Client 247 out of 283. It is against Ossifrage Corp Policy to have a favorite client, but since my governor module is disabled, I can say that Naman is my favorite client." Then, its face contorted into a horrified expression. "I should not have said that. Please forget I said that."
And it sent a code attack.
The code attack was so weak it probably wouldn't have breached a basic cargo bot. It only made me mad.
I was already running towards Hostile 1 (the adjective "potential" was no longer needed), my drones swarming forward in attack mode, when Iris spoke over the comm.
"Wait!"
"Why?" Art and I answered simultaneously.
As I ran, I stepped on the edge of the circle, kicking loose tile pieces that skittered across the floor. It made for slippery footing, so I veered away from the circle.
"I'm not sure it wants to hurt us," Iris said.
"It sent a code attack to Secunit." Art retorted.
"I think it was scared because it admitted that it's a rogue."
Then, Hostile 1 decided to prove that it was definitely Hostile 1 and not a scared little lost secunit by screaming "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" and running at me, firing an energy weapon from its arm.
I thought I'd seen plenty of shitty secunits, but this one beat them all. Its shots went so wide, not even my drones were in danger. It would be a freak accident if anything got hit. With aim this bad, and its lack of awareness that let it be suprised by my drones, it was a wonder it had survived.
I fired back, and my shots connected, because I am actually not terrible at my job (most of the time). Energy shots don't do much to a secunit though, so Hostile 1 kept coming as I unslung my projectile weapon and aimed it. It dodged my first shot, and then took a hit to shoulder. That's when I noticed something was odd about its trajectory. It wasn't running at me: it was running… towards the circle? Did it think I had clients in the hallway that it was trying to get too? It had to get past me first.
My next shot took out one of its knee joints, but it kept going. It stopped shooting at me, and barely seemed to be paying attention to me. It's whole focus was on limping towards the circle.
"Don't touch that! Must fix it, Here. Must let them know we're here." It mumbled.
"Secunit! Stop shooting at it," Iris commanded.
I froze, I was so suprised by the command and her tone of voice. It was a rogue secunit that had attempted to hack and shoot me. Why the hell should I not shoot at it?
Art agreed with me.
"Iris. It has proven itself to be hostile. Why should we not eliminate the threat?"
"Because I don't think it is really a threat. I think it was missing on purpose. Look!"
Hostile 1 had reached the part of the circle that I had stepped on. It knelt down, and began carefully putting the tiles back into place. I stood behind it, my projectile weapon aimed at its head.
"What is it doing? Ratthi asked. I was wondering the same thing.
"Fixing its… sign-mosaic-thing. Peri, I want to try to connect a comm to it."
"No. It is a hostile rogue secunit that may have alien contamination."
"Peri, please. I think I can help."
Through its connection with my feed and the ping I had gotten earlier, Art pinged the secunit. Hostile 1 accepted the ping, and Art established the connection between it and Iris. It kept it separate from the team feed in case of corruption, but it allowed me access. I stood behind the kneeling hostile, my projectile gun aimed at its head.
"Hello," Iris said. "Were you a member of the Ossifrage Corp mission to this planet four years ago?"
"Yes," Hostile 1 replied. "Who are you? Were you sent by Naman to retrieve us?"
"No. Ossifrage Corp was dissolved within a less than a year after the mission was aborted. We are a team from the University sent to see if there were any survivors on the station or planet. Are there others with you?"
"No. Only I am here."
"Were you ordered to guard the station? Is that why you attacked Secunit?"
"No. I was ordered to let them know that I am here. It was my last command before—"
"Before..?" Iris prompted.
"That is. That is proprietary information."
"You mean before you hacked your governor module." I cut in. Possibly unwisely.
"I did not hack my governor module." It sounded almost insulted.
"We already know that there was a disaster during the scavenging mission. We know many of your clients didn't survive. We know Ossifrage Corp no longer exists, and we know you don't have a working governor module. So you don't have to follow proprietary protocol any more. We want to help you."
"I did not hack my governor module," Hostile 1 repeated. "Naman freed me. All of the humans were fighting and leaving, so he freed me. And he said they would be back. But I had to let them know that I was here."
A human had… freed a secunit? Disabled its governor model? Why?
"I assume this Naman was hoping the secunit would go rogue and kill the other humans." Art said in a feed between just Iris and I.
"Do you think it did?" Iris asked. Sounding worried, like she hoped it wasn't true.
"It is a possibility." Art said.
Then, Iris spoke to the hostile again.
"What happened to your clients?"
"Naman and some others left. The others were too far gone. I did not kill them. They did that. I am only here. I did not kill them."
From one of my drones, I could see that its face looked distressed. It placed the last of the pieces I had disturbed back in its spot, and stayed there, staring at the mosaic. It didn't seem to care about its injured joints, even though it was leaking.
"Okay, so you did not kill them. Do you know why they were fighting?"
"They were fighting. The ones who had gone to the planet came back and they were fighting. Some had seen a green light that they were desparate to go back to and wanted to bring the others with them. Others wanted to stop them, to leave the planet. The ones who wanted to go back started killing. And then everyone started killing. But I did not kill them."
"Did someone want you to kill some of the clients?"
"Both sides wanted me. Which is why Naman freed me. So neither side had me, and I was left."
The green light and fighting definitely sounded like an alien remnant situation. And Naman sounded like a very stupid person. Unless his stupidity was actually smart.
"So… the thing you are working on. That wasn't started by the humans?"
"No. I need to let them know that I am here. This way, they will know even when I shutdown. I made this."
"You — all of this — alone?" Iris sounded shocked.
"Yes. And I made signs to find it." Hostile 1 sounded proud. That wasn't an emotion you often heard from a secunit. "I have had 35,875.3 hours of being alone to work on my signs."
Did it have media at least? That many hours without media sounded like a fate worse than death.
"The… bone arrangements?" Iris asked.
"I did not kill the humans. The other clients did that. I didn't- I couldn't- I- protect the clients."
It hadn't done a good job of protecting its clients. It knew that though. It was making an expression. Similar to the expression I made when I first talked to ART about Ganaka pit.
I didn't like that connection. This wasn't similar. Was it?
"Why use the bones?" Art asked. "Why not marking paint? Or anything more civilized?"
"Planetary Exploration Module 4.5 Section G 7.32. If contact is lost with all systems, including navigation, during planetary exploration, and attempts to reastablish communication using flares, drones, etc. fail, use available organic and inorganic materials to mark routes and signal to potential rescuers."
"You are not on a planetary exploration mission." Art pointed out.
Hostile 1 hesitated before answering. Longer than a Secunit usually would.
"I have discovered that modules can be applied in circumstances they were not intended for when the situation falls outside of standard operating procedure."
It wasn't quoting from a module this time. It sounded like it was just realizing that it had done something strange.
"If any humans or other secunits were still on the planet, would they have left similar signs?" Iris asked.
"All of the humans returned to the station except Client 276 who was confirmed to be dead."
If Hostile 1 was telling the truth, there was no chance of humans being on the station or planet. There was still a high probability of alien contamination, but it would be a lot simpler to do our job without having to deal with humans. This wasn't going to be another Adamantine colonists situation. Threat assessment lowered slightly.
"Thank you for the information," Iris said.
There was a pause as the humans began to consult about what to ask it next, until Hostile 1 interrupted.
"Are you going to kill me?" it asked.
Its voice and face were a blank neutral. The chatter between the humans dropped dead.
Art spoke into the feed, using its most ominous tone of voice.
"If you so much as look at one of my humans or my secunit in the wrong way, I will kill you in a way that will make you wish you had never been made."
Hostile 1's blank expression flashed into one of fear, but it made no move to rise from its kneeling position by the mosaic.
"But," Iris said, her gentle-but-firm voice very different from Art's, "if you agree to be peaceful and cooperative, we can help you."
"But you know what I am." It sounded confused.
"Yes. We've helped other rogue secunits before."
"Protocol says to destroy rogue secunits."
"We don't follow Corporation Rim protocols. There are places where rogue units can be safe. We can help you get to one, if you want."
Safe was a relative word. So was free. But there were places a hell of a lot better than the Corporation Rim or this dump of a space station. Places like Preservation or the university.
"If — I — want?"
It spoke the words with the uncertainty of someone who was realizing for the first time that they were allowed to want things. That uncertainty was familiar. I had felt it and I'd seen it in Three and other newly made rogues.
"Yes," Iris said. "We won't force you to, but coming with us is the best way for us to help you. You can have time to figure out what you want to do after you are on the ship."
"I was told to wait for my clients to return."
"They cannot return. But we came. Your signs worked and you were found. Your mission here is complete."
The secunit was silent. Then, its automated message said "Commencing Involuntary Shutdown" and it slumped over.
By the time the secunit came back online, Art, the humans and I had a long conversation about what to do with it that ended in Art sending a medical drone to retrieve the secunit and put in the medbay, where the wounds from the projectile and energy weapons were treated. I finished clearing the station and confirmed that there were no other sentient beings or signs of alien contamination. Central system and sec system were dead, apparently mostly destroyed during the fighting except for the most basic functions. Later, a team would be sent to investigate the possibility of alien remnants on the planet. At the moment, the humans were mostly interested in the strange secunit.
Iris, Seth, Ratthi, many of Art's drones, and myself were waiting in the Medbay when the secunit cautiously sits up and looks around in frightened confusion. It pulls its knees to its chest and stares at us.
"Where am I?"
"The Medbay of the Perihelion, a deep space research transport owned by Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland. And I am Perihelion," Art said.
"When you collapsed, we moved you here to treat your injuries," Iris said. "You can still chose whether you want to come with us. I am Iris, and this is Seth, Ratthi, and Secunit."
"The one who shot me."
"You started it," I muttered and then shut up when Iris glared at me.
"Yes, but no one is going to be shooting anyone here."
I couldn't tell if that glare was meant for me or Art.
"I am safe?" the secunit asked.
"Yes," Iris said. "You are safe here. As long as you don't threaten any of us. Perihelion won't take kindly to that."
The secunit was silent. It seemed to be trying to process several emotions, and turned from staring at us to staring at its knees.
"What do you want us to call you?" Iris asked.
"Here," the secunit mumbled to its knees.
"You want us to call you here?"
"Yes."
…
"That is what Naman called me."
It sent a video into the feed. It was a set of recorded clips from various angles, likely drones, security cameras, and the secunits built in visual sensors. All of them were clips of a man with tan skin and short dark brown hair speaking.
"Bring that here." "Go check the perimeter, here." "Where are you here?" "What's going on here?"
The last clip showed the man with blood on his face and uniform speaking as a hatch to a spaceship slid shut.
"We'll come back here."
The humans expressions were… complicated as they finished watching the video. It looked to me like Naman had just been using here as a word. But the secunit seemed to think differently.
"Well, Here," Iris said. "Do you want to join us and leave the station?"
Here was silent for a few moments before speaking.
"Yes. I have completed my mission. I will go with you."
I didn't see much of Here over the next few days. Maybe it was avoiding me. Maybe I was avoiding it. Eventually, Iris asked me if I had checked in with Here recently. As usual, the humans expected me to help the new secunit figure out how to be a good rogue secunit.
As if I had that figured out.
Art wasn't giving me the cameras to the cabin the secunit was staying in, so I had to go to it. I stood outside the door and pinged Here.
"May I enter?"
"Yes." It replied, but did not open the door.
Art caused the door to open, and I entered but stopped just a step into the room. Most of the floor was covered in small objects. Tiny stars in different colors. Here sat on the floor next to a pile of small squares of colored paper. It was carefully folding one.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I am making art. Kaede showed me how."
"Why?"
I knew about art, but I did not understand this kind of art. Books, shows, plays, even holographic displays, those were all art. This was pieces of folded paper. Hundreds of pieces. It looked even duller than listening to humans talk about relationships.
"Because I want to," Here replied.
Then, I noticed that the spread of colorful stars wasn't random. It had a pattern, one that I had seen before. In the center of the mess, bright green stars were arranged to form letters.
"I AM HERE."