The darkness washed away, and Mae found herself back in the galleria with fried chicken on the table before her.
Lenny sat next to her, his face folded in concern. “What just happened?”
She took a deep breath. “Memories. At least, I think so.”
“So, what do you remember?”
Mae very much wanted to give him something, but as she tried, the sensations drifted away. As Mae grabbed hold of them, they slipped away like smoke. Only a few words remained. “Space station. Military. The rest—”
Angry, frustrated tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.
He placed his hand over hers on the table. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s coming back, so that’s good.”
She stared blankly at him. “Is it? Neither of us can be sure of that.” These fragments were not helping her come to terms with her current reality. Somehow, it felt like each was as ephemeral as the other.
“You still don’t want to go to the medical bay?”
“No. Not doing that.”
He nodded. “Well, Pelorus can help. He’s not with the company, but he has experience. You still want to go?”
She needed answers, not more of these plunges into memories she couldn’t hold on to. “Sure.”
Lenny packed up their chicken and tucked it into his satchel. “Too good to leave behind.”
Then he led Mae from the galleria. She tried very hard to keep her hands still in case what happened on the dock occurred again. She didn’t want to hurt the one person trying to help her.
When threatened even for a moment, she’d fallen into violence. Worse still, she didn’t understand where that instinct came from. She remained four paces behind Lenny, concerned that at any moment she might trigger that instinct again. The movement she’d performed on him so swiftly must have come from the same lingering impression of the military she’d felt upon waking.
Mae’s aversion to the medical bays was also a mystery, but apparently one more deeply embedded than even conscious thought.
“You okay back there?” Lenny stopped and waited for her. His eyes were kind and, she realized, naïve. Was she exploiting that fact through some other deeply seated training?
Mae let out a long breath. “I don’t know. I really don’t, and that frightens me.”
It felt good to be honest with him. Lenny glanced up and down the corridor, checking to see if they were alone. Once he’d confirmed that, he stepped in closer.
“If you’re worried about knocking me on my ass, then don’t. Isn’t the first time that’s happened.”
He was trying to make light of it, but his expression echoed a level of concern he didn’t want to voice.
Mae held his gaze. “Don’t trivialize this. Neither of us knows anything about me. I might hurt you.”
“Yeah, you might, but I can’t go back to the Eumenides and leave you on your own. I wouldn’t be able to stop wondering if you were okay.”
“But I—
““Let’s go. Right about now, Pelorus should be finishing up his shift.”
Completely unable to think of a response, Mae followed him. The corridor opened up into another large deck. This one also held spaceships, but none that looked able to fly. Three were parked on the deck, doors open, with workers walking in and out. Two smaller vessels lay nestled into a cradle of scaffolding. Synthetic and human workers scrambled over the ships, welding lights punctuating the dimness.
“This is Guelph’s dry dock.” Lenny let out a laugh. “The Eumenides should probably be in here. I mean, it has to at a certain point, but this far out, maintenance isn’t exactly cheap.”
The nearest ship, an old Stiemer freighter, looked near completion. Workers were disassembling the scaffolding and running diagnostic checks. The engines idled at their lowest settings.
As they neared the freighter, Mae realized that many of the workers here were synthetics. Most of them were as old as the Stiemer, and in need of the same amount of repair.
“Hey, Pelorus!” Lenny raised his voice in an attempt to be heard over the rumble of the engines.
The thin figure of a gleaming synthetic turned, pad in hand. A stab of fear pierced Mae, though why that happened she couldn’t pin down.
Pelorus was undoubtedly the most expensive piece of technology on the dry dock. Weyland-Yutani Sunstrike synthetic, brand new and incredibly out of place on Guelph. This was the only other piece of knowledge that had surfaced, since her name, and stuck.
Using advanced empathy, the company designed the Sunstrike to interact closely with humans. The operational core was top of the line and meant to replicate the human mind as closely as possible while not triggering negative reactions. Pelorus was physically almost indistinguishable from the humans working around him. Weyland-Yutani designed his appearance to be attractive, but not dangerously so. The company didn’t want anyone to be threatened by the Sunstrike.
The only sign he was anything but human was the flat silver eyes which were installed on all units. Humans wanted to have something to let them tell what was human and what a synthetic. The eyes were a little unnerving, reflecting everything that Pelorus focused on like eerie mirrors. Apart from that, his form was that of a middle-aged man, tall and thin, with a kind face.
“Lenny, a pleasure to see you.” Pelorus turned to Mae. “And you’ve brought a friend?”
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, I have, but she’s one with a problem.”
Pelorus gestured towards the back of the facility. “The human workers have just ended their shift, so I have time until the next one arrives.”
At the far end of the dock, the synthetic set up something that Mae might have described as an altar. He didn’t have any seating or facilities to make a cup of tea, but Pelorus had decorated the wall with images of people. Some were famous video stars, but others looked like regular people walking around Guelph. Mae leaned in and peered at them.
“Ah, I am sure the first thing you are wondering is: stalking?” Pelorus grinned awkwardly. “My mission is to be as human as humans, and I do not think I have yet achieved perfection. These images serve as reminders of how far I have to go.”
Mae found that unbearably sad. Perhaps the synthetic thought so too, because he did not hold her gaze.
Lenny glanced between them. “Pelorus worked as a fancy medical android before coming here. Was it physiotherapy?”
“I was embedded into a hospice.” The android pushed his hand through his perfect hair. “I provided care for a dying woman when her family would not. You learn so much about humans when they are in that state so close to death. Perhaps more than my maker intended.”
“Dying with only a synthetic to mourn you,” Mae whispered. “How terrible.”
“Better than dying alone,” he replied. “In her will I was released from my contract, but unfortunately her next of kin didn’t agree. I escaped to this charming backwater with the help of some… friends.”
Lenny nudged Mae. “Underground synth network operates out here on the fringes. Emancipating synthetics is illegal most everywhere, even in the UPP.”
“One day, perhaps things will change.” The synthetic’s face softened in melancholy, but only for a moment. “Now, what I can help you two young people with?”
“My family found Mae in a cryo escape pod while we were out looking for a haul. She can’t remember anything apart from her name. Mom said take her to medical, but she doesn’t—I mean, really doesn’t—want to go.”
Pelorus crossed his arms. “Sometimes painful memories must be hidden to protect the person. The human mind is a beautiful and complex creation. Perhaps something happened to you that your subconsciousness wants to protect you from? Tell me, have you experienced any dreams or flashbacks?”
“One or two, but I can’t seem to hold on to what they tell me.”
His eyes flickered over her face and form. Synthetics were much better at observing and analyzing human micro-expressions. She hated to think about what she might have inadvertently told him.
“If you won’t go to medical, I have a few memory recovery techniques that worked with my patients. Some even gave them peace.” He turned and opened a drawer under his bench. “I still have the probes that will—”
“Pelorus Jack! Where is Pelorus Jack?” A voice boomed out from the other side of the dry dock. “This is the Extraktors. We have all the exits sealed! Show yourself!”
The synthetic spun around as the noise of boots running on metal grew closer.
“Quickly,” he whispered. With one hand, he yanked the bench away from the wall. Behind it was a small, square door. He pulled it open and waved Mae and Lenny towards it.
She glanced in. The space was tiny. “But they don’t want us.”
Pelorus grabbed her wrist and gave it a small squeeze. “They’ll want who you are. Please, get in.”
Something about his tortured expression got Mae to fold herself into the space. Lenny crawled in beside her, and Pelorus shut the door behind them. Then came the scream of the bench being dragged back into place.
In the darkness, Mae held her breath and took Lenny’s hand in hers. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but panic swelled in her chest. Neither of them said a word.
That voice came again, this time closer and far angrier. “Pelorus, do you know an Anna Mortise?”
“I have my contract papers. They are all in order, and you may see them if you like.”
Something clattered against the floor. “Not worth looking at, since they’re forged.”
Another voice, low and gravelly, let out a laugh. “We found your name on Anna’s list of runaways. You’re no contracted synthetic.”
“That’s not true. My last owner, Meryl Sparrow, she signed my contract over to Anna. I have every right—”
A low sizzle of electricity thrummed through the air. That second voice let out a grunt. “Ms. Sparrow’s daughter said her mother wasn’t in her right mind. You are property, and also, you’re in UPP territory now.”
Pelorus sounded calm, but Mae’s heart raced for him. “Anna is my friend. She has the correct papers.”
“No. Anna is a piece-of-shit, tin-can underground runner. Oh yeah—and she’s dead.”
Emotion flowed through Pelorus’s voice. “I saw her this morning. She was operating functionally.”
“Yeah.” The first voice vibrated with a chuckle. “Terrible accident. Didn’t find papers on you, just your name on a smuggling manifest. Now you’re coming with us.”
“Nice piece of expensive Wey-Yu kit. We’ll get some fresh intel to reverse engineer the best hardware out of you.”
“Yeah, doubt that manufactured sorrow of yours will survive the process.” The voice sounded anything but upset about that.
Pelorus didn’t respond. His programming wouldn’t allow him to fight back. Mae wondered, though, did synthetics feel the loss of a friend? One who worked in hospice care just might.
While she and Lenny sat in the dark, the voices receded. Pelorus and the life he’d made in Guelph was gone and not coming back. Squeezing her mouth shut, she held back a scream. Hot tears rolled down Mae’s face. She’d only known Pelorus for a few moments, but the horror of his capture struck her deeply.
She and Lenny waited a long time before moving.
“Come on,” he said, wriggling his way past her. “We’ll never get that hatch open, but I know these air ducts. There’s a branch back here that’ll bring us close to the Eumenides.”
Mae wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. “Spend much time in here, then?”
She heard rather than saw his smile. “When I was a kid, yeah. Not much else to do on Guelph.”
“And what about Pelorus?”
“I dunno, but I’ll ask Mom if she can find out who took him. She’s hooked up that way.”
“What do you think they’ll do to him?”
His drawn-out breath echoed in the duct. “Out here, synthetic and human lives aren’t worth much. The Combine runs this place. Whoever they are, they can do what they want.”
That was as much of an answer as she needed. As Mae followed him away, her thoughts lingered on the last words the synthetic said to her. They’ll want who you are. She might not have understood the ramifications, but the threat lingered.
Darkness dropped over her as she struggled to understand. Losing herself in that moment was almost a relief.