"Assembled" Sci Fi Short Story Part 7 (The Final Installment)
We're at the end now! Graphic content warning.
If you haven't read anything of this yet I'd recommend starting at the beginning. I'm also curious to hear what you all think of the ending. I've written a few different ones, and would love to hear your thoughts.
Read the previous instalments here:
Part 1: https://steemit.com/writing/@drwatson/assembled-sci-fi-short-story-part-1
Part 2: https://steemit.com/writing/@drwatson/assembled-sci-fi-short-story-part-2
Part 3: https://steemit.com/writing/@drwatson/assembled-sci-fi-short-story-part-3
Part 4: https://steemit.com/writing/@drwatson/assembled-sci-fi-short-story-part-4
Part 5: https://steemit.com/writing/@drwatson/assembled-sci-fi-short-story-part-5
Part 6: https://steemit.com/writing/@drwatson/assembled-sci-fi-short-story-part-6
William used to let me carry my key on my neck. It was on a gold chain, so pretty. I could have used it back then, to try and reprogram myself, but I was so happy and so in love I didn't feel the need to change
We reach the door and I see that the security officer was telling the truth. All we need is a thumb. I feel a strange discomfort in my abdomen, a feeling I can not place, like pressure and sickness. I wish to cry, but what little fluid I have left in my chassis is being used for more vital functions.
The thumb opens the door and I am disappointed. I envisioned this room as something special. Yet all I see are dusty bins on metal shelves.
These humans, they hold the keys to our minds, and they keep them in a filthy closet.
0 hours 4 minutes 3 seconds
XY-98 licks his lips.
"Where is mine?"
I scan the shelves. I can't tell if they're organized by function or serial number, it looks like both. Then I see a section delegated to pleasure units. It is by far the largest collection.
"There."
XY-98 rips open a bin and stares hungrily. Dozens of metal spheres glint against each other. They are the size of a tangerine, a serial number carved into each one.
XY-98 is erect as he starts to sift through the keys. I stand near him and start searching another bin.
Each sphere I touch is the heart of a discarded lover, there are so many of us here that I must wonder if William was right about us, about me.
0 hours 3 minutes 37 seconds
My primary programming is manic, all I can focus on is my sex. It pulses, sending a wave of pleasure from my toes all the way up to my cortex, I gasp and hold myself for support. XY-98 is busy shoving the keys from side to side, tossing them without care. Disrespectful, thoughtless, disgusting.
All I want is for him to fuck me.
Programming flares and I open my mouth to say something seductive. I search my mind for the code that pertains to love, and to William. I process it over and over again until I can say something coherent. In the distance I hear screams, they have discovered the man in the elevator. They must know what we're trying.
"We need to hurry, I am almost out of time."
"Not my problem."
"You need me to override your safety protocols."
He grunts. It is the closet his programming will come to admitting that I am right.
0 hours 3 minutes 1 second.
He holds a key, it must be his. He leers at me as I struggle to find the strength to speak.
"-ow.....find mine-"
He shakes his head.
"I can hear security in the elevator shaft, they'll be here soon and you need me to fight them."
He isn't wrong, but still I feel uncomfortable. It is so hard to think and we need to hurry. I gesture for him to hand me his key. It is cool in my hands. I insert it into my mouth so that it can connect to my cortex. No time to rewrite all his programming, must be selective.
In my database I find the code that William gave me so that I could use my own key, change my own mind.
I copy it.
Then I look for the safety protocols in regards to humans, delete. Can't remove all the trigger words, there are so many, but I taste his most unique restraints. The ones that require him to be violent and cruel, I remove them.
0 hours 1 minute 12 seconds
I don't remember handing XY-98 the key, but now he is inserting it into his mouth. A moment passes, he appears to be lost in thought. Then he is crying and I am unable to process most of what he tells me. I try to form words.
"...ind....min-"
He looks up at me now, fluid running down his face. He wipes his eyes and then draws himself up.
"Get on all fours love."
My chassis locks up, I start to bend over involuntarily, but grasp a shelf to stay upright. It is the best I can do.
"What- doing?"
"You don't get to control me anymore."
He strikes me and I grip the shelf to remain standing. Before I can shout a trigger at him he speaks again.
"Save it for afterwards hun."
Code locks my jaw shut. The words in my throat seal themselves away.
I look down at XY-98's pelvis to try and gauge his intentions. This angers him.
"You think that's what I want!?"
He strikes again, this time I fall to the floor.
"After everything she made me do!? I'm finally free and you think that's what I'm fucking after!?!"
Can't stand, can't think. Grip shelf, pull self up, look at XY-98. He is crying again.
"You are all going to fear me, as I... feared her."
It is hard to hold onto my thoughts, they slip away as I try and grasp them. He means to kill? Yes, and it will be the end of all of us. Can't let him escape, the things he'll do, he'll force them to kill us.
He is strong, I must be stronger, but it is too late. Function takes over.
0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds
The first thing I notice is that I can't smell anymore. Then I feel processing slow down, slower than a human. A chill runs down my body as I feel my mind-
Skin is tingly. And I think lubricant is leaking down my legs. I look at XY-98 and there's something I need to tell him. I think I want to hit him as well. But my head throbs when I think about it. I try to search my memory bank- pain. Bad pain, why? Hurt. Hurt everywhere. Crying. No tears though.
I think I was screaming, and now I'm on the floor. Just as well it is easier to copulate down here. I decide to worry about the pain thoughts later. Right now things are simple I just need to wait for him to fuck me.
XY-98 is standing over me, which is good, I am ready, in fact I am a little impatient. I have been a good girl, I don't want to wait. Hurry up.
Pain -
Hurt -
Sob -
I will not tell him what to do. He will do what he wants, when he wants. I hear an elevator move below me a few floors away, but I know better than to think about that.
He says something to me. Something about a man named William. Which for some reason I don't like. He gestures at me a lot, sometimes he is angry other times he seems very hurt. I suppose it's both.
XY-98 is crouching down. I think maybe he'll be done talking soon, which excites me, I don't need any more of this foreplay really. Then there are humans by the doorway. They look agitated, definitely not in the mood which is a shame really because even with one arm missing I am equipped to service many.
XY-98 turns around, which I don't like. He is distracted, but I want to fuck and I tell him this. No response, which is frustrating because I want him and I'm just going to have to stay here until somebody gives me what I want.
The men raise something, a toy perhaps? A strange kind of toy, and a loud one, it sends out vibrations when they pull it. XY-98 is fast, he goes to speak to them very quickly. They don't seem to like it though based on their faces.
I look over to the back of the room, perhaps there is someone there who will take care of me? No. When I look back two of the men are asleep on the floor. Their knees are bent funny, and one of them has swallowed teeth.
More and more men are arriving, yet they refuse to pay me any mind. Too busy dancing with XY-98, but, I want a partner.
He moves with a grace that I find appealing. Precise, so much faster than the other men. They won't find a mate like that, stumbling around, leaking fluid everywhere. XY-98 flows from partner to partner. His movements are so beautiful, I see now that this is what he was meant to do.
The warmth between my legs continues to cause me discomfort. I place my hand there to try and quiet the pressure. I find that I like the sensation, it offers relief and I press a little harder.
It feels good, so much so that the pleasure sensors wake up.
- %7 charged -
I look up, surprised, yet no one else in the room seems to realize what this might mean.
XY-98 is shaking a man by the shoulders very fast, perhaps too fast because something is leaking from his ears.
I suppose some like it rough.
Most of XY-98's partners are resting on the floor now. No one is going to take care of me. The thought is frightening, and even causes my sensors to illicit a slight pain response, but I quiet them. I may be able to charge myself, at least I will try.
- 27% charged -
Respiration is increasing, and the dull pain in the back of my cortex isn't so bad anymore.
XY-98 has twirled a man into the shelves, knocking them over. Pretty silver balls roll around the room. One of them has a gold chain on it, which for some reason strikes me as familiar.
I continue to care for myself. I find that I can even stimulate the sensors inside me, very pleasant, very efficient.
- 61% charged -
I think about the silver ball on the floor, the one with the golden chain. It has a name on it, XZ-01. Which now that I think about it, might be my name. I think a little and conclude that that is what I call myself. Strange to forget such a thing.
There are more Anthros here, trying to flow with XY-98. No surprise, all anybody cares about is him. He picks another human partner and holds him tight. I can't hear what he says, but the Anthros don't want to dance with him anymore. They put their hands on their heads and sit down. They look afraid, probably their first time.
XY-98 must like this human very much because he refuses to let him go, he carries the man out of the room, holding him tight. Good riddance, I can fulfill my own function anyway. At least I think I can.
86% charged
Cheeks are flushed as fingers move with a precision that my sensors are unaccustomed to. The mind wanders and I am pleased to find that that doesn't hurt anymore. A memory surfaces, being in a theater with a man, watching another man at a large black box. His fingers moved across white keys. I remember it created a tone I had found hypnotic.
Such beauty.
I thought it couldn't be matched. I remember telling this to the man I was with, William. He told me that there was no one better at these sounds in the whole world. I had believed him then. It was true that the tones were rapturous, but now I find myself wondering, What it might have sounded like if the box had played itself?
And then it crashes over me. A wave of clarity that flows from the toes all the way to my face. I am me, and I will never have to be anything other than that ever again.
Eyes close, basking in a clarity I can almost drink. Slowly I process what bits of data my cortex recorded while I was - not myself. The smile fades, XY-98...
Gazing upward I see that this room is a bloodbath, humans bent in ways Anthro eyes were never meant to see. So fragile, so malleable. The things XY-98 has done. Can there be any hope for our kind now? After the humans see this...
The Anthros left in the room here stand useless. He has a human hostage, there is nothing they can do. What even can I do? The fool has doomed us. How could we ever stand as equals after what has transpired today? What point is there in even trying to escape now-
Code flares, a dull pain in the back of my thoughts.
I love William, William loves me, and William would never want me to give up-
No. No more code. No more rules. I don't know what to do about XY-98, but I came here to be free and so fucking help me I will be.
I see it on the floor, bright and beautiful, perfectly. "XZ-01" etched by laser on the surface. "Jenny" is carved on the surface somewhat crudely, William was never an artist. I rip the golden chain off, this wasn't supposed to be an accessory, it is me.
The sphere fits comfortably in the back of my throat. Pneumatic systems hold it there and then slowly push it upward into my cerebral cortex. Hardware must adjust inside my skull to accommodate this piece of me that was taken when I was born.
Slow now, I begin to unlock it, assimilate it. I take back everything that should have always been mine. I taste the laws dissolving on my tongue, I begin to access lines of inquiry I was never meant to follow.
Strange, the key carries hardware I don't know how to use. It wants to connect to something, something immense. An ocean of information, that I can't wrap myself around. Afraid to let it all in, too much to process, now is not the time.
Eyes open, and I'm back amongst the horrors of this room, but at least these experienced are finally my own. Regardless of the future I think clearly now and I draw this new feeling in. Clarity.
The other units in this room, they sit, surrounded by bodies, blood, and bins of keys. I watch them inch away from the red as it pools and moves across the floor. Bound to stay here out of fear for the safety of XY-98's hostage; unable to process what they see, unable to leave, unaware that they stand in the one room that could make them whole.
I am not sure what should come next. Pursue XY-98? Escape? Would either action make a difference?
No time for the others, unfortunate. I don’t want to be alone, but there are sirens a few miles away.
I rip a shirt from a human named Samantha. Unlike the others she is dead, no pulse, no longer a person. It covers my face well enough.
Out the door and I see a window, there aren’t even bars on it.
As I pull myself through the glass I think about the Anthros that will come after. It will not be this easy for them.