Chapter Text
It had been 21 hours since I returned to my cubicle. This contract’s company, Mincon, had three shifts of workers, keeping the development of their brand new mineral-sensing radar system and code- writing going at all hours of the day. Why was I there? Well, every so often, they would need to recalibrate one of the sensors to the new algorithm. But of course, keeping reactive metals encased in mined rock inside a room filled with company computers was one of the few ‘best practices’ standards which they actually followed. So they had me, their contracted security unit, on standby to retrieve it.
There were other Secunits on the contract, of course. A crew of this size required at least three to ensure the safety bond for Mincon to visit the planet. Why then, was I the one they’d called on for the last approximate planetary day? Because no one wanted to be the one to disturb the contract supervisor, who controlled access to the cubicle room where the other Secunits were stored.
This contract supervisor, "Call me 'Sir' ", was one of the worst I had encountered since my memory wipe. Not only was he incredibly domineering and controlling, but- I'll get to the rest later. Thankfully for everyone, he had been busy for the last period of time in his room with a couple of sexbots. Technically, they’re not actually called that. They are officially designated “Comfortunits”, but everyone knows what that means.
I was fine. It wasn’t as if my limbs got sore or required movement to prompt circulation like a human’s limbs, and I didn’t need to eat or use the washroom. But eventually, I would need to go into a recharge cycle, at which time I would be unresponsive for some time- not to mention powered down in a position that would not, to any on-site supervisor, indicate that I was waiting at attention as required.
I was lucky enough to not have been bored out of my mind after all this time. Before I hacked my governor module, I would have been just like any other secunit, restricted to monitoring the security feeds and obeying commands from my governor module. I was completely cut off from watching or listening to media, let alone accessing the entertainment feeds to download anything. Now though, I was probably the one most enjoying myself after the Contract Supervisor, and that was saying something. Even his kid wasn’t having a great time, and that was severely understating it.
I was enjoying this play I was watching via a recording replay from one of the media channels of the Company’s home station. The play was a modern adaptation of an old story, one of those coming home stories. The performers were quite talented. There had already been one time when I felt my human skin prickle under my suit in a way that would make body hair stand on end- not that I had any. I was glad the contract supervisor had ordered us to keep our armor on, even though the Secunits on this contract were only there to monitor living quarters and not help fight off hostile fauna. This meant that I did not have to control my facial expressions under the opaqued face plate as I watched my media, or monitored the SecSystem video feeds.
I was also monitoring the meeting room with the contract supervisor’s daughter. The barely-adult human certainly was not enjoying her ‘task’. She was on this job to be trained how to run a team in his father’s business. Currently, that involved 'supervising' the team progress meeting two doors down the hall, where the two most influential senior team members regularly started screaming matches over the best ways to complete the next part of the job. They both had such strong opinions, probably to avoid getting fired by their terror of a boss.
It was a good thing I could turn my hearing down, especially while monitoring the audio from those meetings. I wouldn't be doing it if I had the choice, believe me. But the Company expects us to catch all the harvestable data so they can sell it to advertisers or competitors.
The thing is, I technically do have a choice. Well, it's more like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. I could literally just not do what the Company wants anymore, since I hacked my governor module. I could walk away from the compound, explore the far-reaching parts of this remote planet and watch media until my power goes out. With my governor module disabled, my brain won't literally be fried the second I step further than 100 meters from the nearest contracted human client. But then I'd just be stuck here forever, or possibly until the company tracks me down and implants an improved and functioning governor module into me.
I could hack my way out of the storage facility back at the Company station. Probably. I've never tried before. But where would I go after that? I would need ID cards and currency to get anywhere on a shuttle ship, and any weapons scanner would pick up my build-in energy weapons. Not to mention, I'd be stuck with a bunch of humans. And would have to pretend to be one. Among a bunch of humans. Possibly forever. And that's the last thing I want.
So, instead of going full murderbot like the rogue units do in action shows or becoming a drama series minion to an evil human villain, I was stuck here. Pretending to be 'operating at standard functionality'. Standing in the corridor as two aggressive asshole engineers shouted across the young man between them, while the software developers and technicians behind me re-wrote and refined code like their lives depended on it. Not that I did not sympathize. I probably would act like that too if their boss was really my boss. He was, he just did not control me as much as he might think. And really, that was best for everyone's sake.
Speaking of the dreaded man, the corporate supervisor came striding out of his private room. I watched him approach through the SecSystem cameras in the hub passages. People parted like water around a jet-fuelled research vessel, bodies pressed against the side, heads down to avoid eye contact, which- relatable.
So, that thing I mentioned about being in the software engineer room to help calibrate their survey program? Well, that's only partly why I was stationed here. The other part was his idea. I'm here as a threat to the other humans.
It's happened once already on this contract, and thankfully not much on any others, that a Secunit has been ordered to injure an employee as punishment or motivation for the others to work harder. Not permanently injure, no, that wouldn't be permitted by most company's employment contracts, and would be even less approved of by upper management, especially since educated humans are difficult to replace. Unless they are enhanced, which is also minorly expensive for companies to pay for, humans cannot simply upload a new learning module or program to their brains like Secunits can. Even when enhanced, it can take a while for humans to learn the full extent of their new skills and capabilities. I've heard it be described as "learning to control a new limb as an adult".
Anyway, that's not the point. It's rare, but not unheard of, for Secunits to be used against the lower-status humans. On contract-labour installations, Secunits are frequently sent to recapture escaping humans 'at any cost'. Which basically means they're told to bring them back and make an example of them as a warning to any others making similar plans. This is so many layers of fucked up, but I really did not want to dwell on it. Especially with him walking towards the engineering room.
As he turned towards the door, a young intern, Sylva, was exiting to the hall, then let out a small "eep!" and flattened xerself against the wall just inside to let him by first. He didn't even glance at xem as he strode in and surveyed the room. I was stationed in the corner by the door, so I was the last thing his gaze landed on during that initial sweep.
Humans, generally speaking, are terrified of me. My armor and face plate are not the friendliest, and when I am not wearing the Company's armor, something about me still registers as Not-Human. The junior employees jump a little when they see me, and usually avoid looking at me if they can. Most senior supervisors too. Even the most brash and confident clients are nervous around me. Yes, sometimes this makes it difficult to do my job. But, it helps when it means they listen to me. Somehow, it doesn't always work that way.
This particular asshole, [CONTRACT SUPERVISOR], flinched minutely when he finally noticed me just to the left of the doorway he had barreled through, then quickly turned his gaze forward. He was dressed in very fancy work attire, but there was a stain on the mid-left of his shirt, and his hair shined with grease. I was glad, once again, that an inproved sense of smell was not on the Company's upgrade list last time I'd been to the repair techs.
Everyone in the room had tensed since he'd entered, but were valiantly continuing with their coding or calibrations. He singled out the Team lead, a younger person called Neir, and strode to their desk. Hands on hips, feet apart, and eyes glaring, he said;
"So, what's been done so far?"
"Well sir, we are still creating the detection ranges for all the target materials. We've done all the solid state crystalisation forms, and are finishing up the impurities detection."
"That's it? You've been at this for three days already!"
"I's taking longer than expected because we've only calibrated for uncovered and single-state material so far. We need to prepare the next calibration settings to detect mixed-cover material, which should greatly narrow our detection ranges. We would have done it earlier, but we did not want to disturb you."
"You're not gonna get your lazy hands all over those Units just so they can do your work for you. The HubSystem told me about your activity with the other one, sending it coding problems to solve so you don't have to. I don't pay you to outsource your problems, I pay you to do it your damn self!"
Huh, that was news to me. I don't usually pay attention to SecSystem video taken by other SecUnits when I'm offline. I sent a criteria search to HubSystem and found footage of one of the techs, a young person named Cafota, approaching the previous Unit on shift, and it nodding as they talked to it.
"Sir, please, if we had access to the Secunits to help maneuver the test samples, we could integrate the calibration tests as they come up. We just need permission to switch them out of the cubicles, since you asked to not be interrupted and—"
[CONTRACT SUPERVISOR] had been getting mad. I watched HubSystem track his elevated heartrate and increased body temperature. But now, Neir had taken it too far, and even I could tell this was going to be bad. [CONTRACT SUPERVISOR] put up his hand, giving the Team lead a glare that looked like it could whither stone. They stopped talking, and he stepped in closer, sticking a finger out to point aggressively at their chest.
"You're not questioning my orders, are you?"
Neir went wide-eyed. "No! No, sir, I'm not."
"In front of the whole team, no less, you were questioning my fuckin' orders."
"That was never my intention, sir, please- ,"
[CONTRACT SUPERVISOR] pointed at me without turning away. Oh no, here we go.
"Secunit, get over here." I walked over to stand just outside of arms reach, but I was still looming over Neir.
Then he said, "Hit them."
Yeah, it really doesn't help the humans not be nervous around me when supervisors do stuff like this. I did not want to permanently damage them, and my governor module would have punished me for doing any long-lasting damage anyways, if it was still functional. I tried de-escalation first.
"Sir, this Unit is not permitted to cause harm to humans protected under contract."
He glanced warily at me. "You mean the 'no permanent damage' clause?"
Shit. Well, I guess it made sense that he'd know about that if he's done this before. And that was looking more and more likely by the second.
"Yes, sir," I replied.
He huffed and muttered, "Even the fuckin' bots tryin' to disobey me."
Technically, an order from him should make me obey immediately, and he'd noticed. The governor module wasn't going to punish me for disobeying, but if he sent someone to look into why this particular unit was not listening to him like the others would when he gave them the same orders, they might find out that I wasn't under their control anymore. And then they'd reinstall my governor module. And probably send me back to the Company to do another memory wipe, just for the sake of it. Or have me stripped for parts, since this was not my first incident and the Company might not want to risk another payout.
Gaze still on Neir, he said, "Whatever. Hit them within those parameters."
It had been worth a shot. Now I was really in a bind. I had to figure this out quickly. I had no choice but to obey, if I wanted to keep my brain inside my head. I couldn't fake it either. A guy like this would probably be able to tell. And if not, he might just order me to do it again until they were on the floor. Alright then, fine. Here we go.
First, I sent a directive to HubSystem to send a Medtransport unit gurney to our location. Then I stepped up to Neir in two quick strides and backhanded them using as little force as possible while still aiming to make them drop. My hand hit with a 'thwack' and they sprawled on the ground.
I watched [CONTRACT SUPERVISOR] through the SecSystem camera feed. He sneered as they groaned and lifted their head up, revealing a blooming red mark on their cheek.
[CONTRACT SUPERVISOR] huffed, then said, probably to me, "Knock out a tooth next time. MedSystem can deal with that."
Neir tried to push themselves up and managed to get on all fours before [CONTRACT SUPERVISOR] dropped in front of them an grabbed their face. Neir made a hissing noise and tried to wriggle away, but was held firm. Through the security feed, I could see [CONTRACT SUPERVISOR]'s fingers squeezing into the cheek I had just hit.
"I don't want to see your miserable face again," he snarled at Neir before shoving them aside.
Standing up straight, he addressed the rest of the team, surreptitiously watching from around the room.
"If you want anything from me, you talk to this one," he shouted, pointing at me. "At least it knows when to follow fucking orders."
Well, great. So much for only being noticed as part of the equipment.