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Whumptober Alt: Organ Theft (Murderbot)
Whumptobers will continue until morale improves probably a ways into November, since I'm still having a good time with it, and I have a few incomplete ones.
Alt Prompt: Organ Theft
Murderbot & Tarik, 800 wds (bookverse, post-System Collapse)
Also on AO3: Grand Theft Human
I slammed the door open hard enough to leave a dent in the wall. Inside the bare plastic-paneled room, hardly bigger than a closet, Tarik flinched so violently that he wrenched his wrists painfully against the plastic zip tie binding him to a piece of molding in an awkward half-sitting, half-standing position.
"I don't think I've ever been this glad to see you," he said as I crossed the room to him in a couple of strides. I already had the cameras in the room disabled and looping the last two minutes of Tarik trying to free himself.
I carefully gripped the plastic tie, applying pressure against the wall so I could snap it without hurting his wrists more than they already were. "Not even when I showed up to rescue you from zombie colonists?" I asked, crouching down to get the ones on his ankles while my drones watched the door.
He rubbed his wrists in a gingerly kind of way; I could see bruises and bloody stripes under the cuffs of his Perihelion uniform, a lot more damage than just that one tug could have done. "Yeah, okay, fair," he said. "But at that point I wasn't really sure who you were or whether you'd been taken over too."
I turned to cover the door with my arm guns, but watched him with my drones as he slowly straightened up, leaning on the wall. If he'd started to collapse I would have stopped him from hitting the floor, but Tarik wasn't one of my humans, so I didn't feel right about moving in to steady him like I would have -- yeah, like I would have done with one of my humans without having to think about it. (And I had no intention of pursuing that thought any further.)
Still, he was one of ART's humans, which made him -- some other category, not entirely one of mine but not exactly .... not. I had once overheard Iris call ART's crew my humans-in-law, which had made me want to immediately reformat my last ten seconds of memory, but she wasn't entirely wrong: it was a distinct thing, one there wasn't really a human relationship word for.
"Can you walk?" I asked him.
"Yeah," he said. "Where are we going?"
Tarik didn't have an interface or augments, so I couldn't give him a map. "Left out the door, up six levels at the end of the corridor, right, left again, up two levels, down a hallway and there's a lift to the docks."
He nodded, although I wasn't sure if he actually was going to remember it all the way to the docks. I could tell from what I could read of his vitals, as well as his dry lips and bruised-looking eyes, that he was sleep-deprived and dehydrated. But all he said was, "Perihelion's there?"
"One of its shuttles, yes."
"Okay," he said.
"Stay behind me," I said. As I stepped out into the corridor, he made a little huffing sound, kind of a laugh, and I remembered that this was the only human I dealt with regularly who had actual combat training and experience. He swayed a little as he followed me, but he fell immediately in at my right shoulder, where he could see around me but wasn't in my way, like another SecUnit might have done. I was thinking this escape might not be too much of a disaster after all. If I happened to get my hands on an extra weapon, I might even give it to him without worrying too much about being shot in the back.
"You know, the corporation that owned my indenture technically still does, and they have the right to all of me," Tarik remarked as we paused at the end of the hall for my drones to scout ahead. "You're committing grand larceny."
We both knew they planned to have him stripped for parts. My newly upgraded emotions module identified his tone as "wry humor," which seemed unlikely, but then again it was Tarik.
"Yeah," I said, pushing the door carefully open with arm guns charged. "That's a real problem for me, breaking rules."
Another faint huff of a laugh. He didn't speak again until we finished climbing the stairs, which I could tell he was having trouble with. I took a little longer with the scouting this time so he could lean against the wall and get his breath back.
"I'm surprised Perihelion wants me back enough to send you," he said, very quietly.
I wasn't sure if I was meant to hear it. I should've let it go. Somehow I couldn't.
"You're one of its," I said, and through my drones, I saw him give me a quick, startled look.
Okay, yeah, that was supposed to be below the threshold of hearing. My drones had picked it up. Humans tended not to realize how wide my drones' range of receptive frequencies was.
Somehow I wasn't done talking. "And," I said as I reached out to open the door, "I would have come anyway."
He wasn't one of mine. But he wasn't not one of mine.
Alt Prompt: Organ Theft
Murderbot & Tarik, 800 wds (bookverse, post-System Collapse)
Also on AO3: Grand Theft Human
I slammed the door open hard enough to leave a dent in the wall. Inside the bare plastic-paneled room, hardly bigger than a closet, Tarik flinched so violently that he wrenched his wrists painfully against the plastic zip tie binding him to a piece of molding in an awkward half-sitting, half-standing position.
"I don't think I've ever been this glad to see you," he said as I crossed the room to him in a couple of strides. I already had the cameras in the room disabled and looping the last two minutes of Tarik trying to free himself.
I carefully gripped the plastic tie, applying pressure against the wall so I could snap it without hurting his wrists more than they already were. "Not even when I showed up to rescue you from zombie colonists?" I asked, crouching down to get the ones on his ankles while my drones watched the door.
He rubbed his wrists in a gingerly kind of way; I could see bruises and bloody stripes under the cuffs of his Perihelion uniform, a lot more damage than just that one tug could have done. "Yeah, okay, fair," he said. "But at that point I wasn't really sure who you were or whether you'd been taken over too."
I turned to cover the door with my arm guns, but watched him with my drones as he slowly straightened up, leaning on the wall. If he'd started to collapse I would have stopped him from hitting the floor, but Tarik wasn't one of my humans, so I didn't feel right about moving in to steady him like I would have -- yeah, like I would have done with one of my humans without having to think about it. (And I had no intention of pursuing that thought any further.)
Still, he was one of ART's humans, which made him -- some other category, not entirely one of mine but not exactly .... not. I had once overheard Iris call ART's crew my humans-in-law, which had made me want to immediately reformat my last ten seconds of memory, but she wasn't entirely wrong: it was a distinct thing, one there wasn't really a human relationship word for.
"Can you walk?" I asked him.
"Yeah," he said. "Where are we going?"
Tarik didn't have an interface or augments, so I couldn't give him a map. "Left out the door, up six levels at the end of the corridor, right, left again, up two levels, down a hallway and there's a lift to the docks."
He nodded, although I wasn't sure if he actually was going to remember it all the way to the docks. I could tell from what I could read of his vitals, as well as his dry lips and bruised-looking eyes, that he was sleep-deprived and dehydrated. But all he said was, "Perihelion's there?"
"One of its shuttles, yes."
"Okay," he said.
"Stay behind me," I said. As I stepped out into the corridor, he made a little huffing sound, kind of a laugh, and I remembered that this was the only human I dealt with regularly who had actual combat training and experience. He swayed a little as he followed me, but he fell immediately in at my right shoulder, where he could see around me but wasn't in my way, like another SecUnit might have done. I was thinking this escape might not be too much of a disaster after all. If I happened to get my hands on an extra weapon, I might even give it to him without worrying too much about being shot in the back.
"You know, the corporation that owned my indenture technically still does, and they have the right to all of me," Tarik remarked as we paused at the end of the hall for my drones to scout ahead. "You're committing grand larceny."
We both knew they planned to have him stripped for parts. My newly upgraded emotions module identified his tone as "wry humor," which seemed unlikely, but then again it was Tarik.
"Yeah," I said, pushing the door carefully open with arm guns charged. "That's a real problem for me, breaking rules."
Another faint huff of a laugh. He didn't speak again until we finished climbing the stairs, which I could tell he was having trouble with. I took a little longer with the scouting this time so he could lean against the wall and get his breath back.
"I'm surprised Perihelion wants me back enough to send you," he said, very quietly.
I wasn't sure if I was meant to hear it. I should've let it go. Somehow I couldn't.
"You're one of its," I said, and through my drones, I saw him give me a quick, startled look.
Okay, yeah, that was supposed to be below the threshold of hearing. My drones had picked it up. Humans tended not to realize how wide my drones' range of receptive frequencies was.
Somehow I wasn't done talking. "And," I said as I reached out to open the door, "I would have come anyway."
He wasn't one of mine. But he wasn't not one of mine.
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