Beyond Sunken Cities, Beyond Unknown Stars (16)

Chapter 16 – Home Improvement

“I’m not clear on what you hope to accomplish destroying the factory,” Kiyoteru stated drily, pushing up his glasses.

“Are you kidding? Tell me it won’t be fun to see the place go up in flames!” Meiko retorted, her eyes burning like twin fires themselves.

“So, acting as vandals? That’s it?” Kiyoteru turned to Gakupo and Luka with no hint of a smile in his expression.

“Actually, we hope to deter the humans from making any more third-wave synthetics,” Gakupo replied mildly.

“You do realize the facility can easily be rebuilt? And that the documentation regarding our construction is most likely kept in cloud storage?” Kiyoteru pointed out.

“We know. It’s not a question of making them incapable of using the technology. After all, many of the smaller parts of our bodies must be manufactured elsewhere.” Luka played with a strand of pink hair, a sly smile on her face. “We just hope they won’t want to, after this. It would take a lot of money to replace all the physical infrastructure and the public would be against it. We’re monsters, remember?”

“We will become an unprofitable business, or even better, outlawed technology,” Gakupo added with a wry smile.

“I see,” Kiyoteru tapped his chin. “It could work.”

“Does anyone else have any objections?” The kids all shrugged indifferently, almost at the same time, in response to Luka’s question. She had expected as much.  

However, Miku was noticeably less enthusiastic about the idea. “But the scientists and factory workers will lose their jobs!” She clamored.

Luka squashed her impatience with some difficulty. Why should she care about that? Then again, Miku had spent most of her life among those employees. It wasn’t all that surprising that she had misplaced affection for them. “They can find employment elsewhere,” the pink haired synthetic finally affirmed in a neutral tone.

“They’ll have to face temporary discomfort. But, we are trying to avoid a lifetime of servitude for others of our kind,” Gakupo explained. ”We have several examples of severe mistreatment here in our own group. It may not be statistically significant, but it does give cause for concern.”

“They’ll abuse the new units, if given the chance. You know they will!” Luka added.

Miku looked at the others, perhaps searching for someone to back her up.

“It’s just a bit of property damage, girl, loosen up,” Meiko snapped dismissively. Next to her, Kaito was apparently too busy fiddling with the frayed ends of his lab coat to speak his mind.

“I understand your concerns, Miku,” Kiyoteru spoke up. “Ordinarily, this goes against our norms. But now we can give priority to the well-being of our kind.”

“It still seems too harsh…” Miku mumbled, bobbing slightly in place.

“Harshness is warranted sometimes,” Luka shrugged.

“I’ll admit I found the idea troubling, when Luka first proposed it,” Gakupo continued. “I’d like nothing more than to co-exist peacefully with humanity. We could learn many things from them if they allowed us free reign. But look at our current situation…in any case, you don’t need to take an active role in the operation if you disagree.”

Miku inclined her head, sulking, but didn’t voice any further complaints.

“Alright, then. We should start preparing everything we’ll need to take,” Gakupo smiled. “We don’t need much to subsist, but Mitsuki will need food, clothing, cleaning utensils and many other things. Please bring anything that seems applicable to me.”

“If we are going to search the city efficiently, we’ll need the yacht back,” Luka noted. “At least for a week.”

“I can’t believe Sonika just took off with it!” Rin interjected.

“Does that count as theft?” Len wondered aloud, curious.

“That’s an interesting thought. We didn’t use to have a right to property before, but how about now? Property stems from requiring things for a continuous existence, but-” As he spoke, Gakupo raised a hand, probably to rub his chin, but his hand softly bumped his face instead. He looked at his curved fingers and shrugged.

“What’s wrong?” Luka asked, immediately concerned.

“I can’t move my fingers,” Gakupo replied flippantly. Some units looked surprised at this, but others seemed to have realized by now that he was malfunctioning. Not that it was hard to miss, now that Luka had to help him move. 

“If nobody has anything else to say, we’ll end the meeting here,” Luka proclaimed quickly and surrounded Gakupo’s waist with her arms to help him stand.

“Wait! Is he going to be ok?” Oliver asked, in an unusual display of energy.

“Connecting to a power source will probably fix the issue for a while,” Gakupo reassured him. “And Mitsuki should be able to take care of this permanently.”

“Can I go with you? You said we could talk some more today…” Kaito suddenly spoke, his voice soft as a feather.

“Don’t bother him right now,” Luka replied coldly, before Gakupo could say anything.

Kaito just stared at her, disappointed, but next to him Meiko immediately bristled and rose to her feet. “Don’t talk to him like that!” she snapped angrily. The children and Miku jumped at this, startled, while Kiyoteru just shook his head.

“She’s just concerned for me, Meiko,” Gakupo rushed to say, and then turned to his mate, “Luka, it’s alright, really. We’ll talk while Benefactor charges me, it’ll be fine,” he dropped his voice to a whisper and added, “let’s keep them as calm as possible, ok? Until Mitsuki can give them a going over.”

Luka looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and nodded slightly. “Alright, you can have your talk inside the ship,” she conceded to Kaito and held out one hand. He took it gingerly, his eyes darting from Gakupo to Luka and back, puzzled. “Benefactor, please?”

After the usual moment of disorientation, Luka, Gakupo and Kaito found themselves inside the room with the charging beds. Kaito looked around in awe, while Luka helped Gakupo get into one of the receptacles.

Gakupo gave out a satisfied hum as he felt the energy pouring inside of him. His management systems adjusted themselves to a new energy source, resetting their parameters. After a moment, he raised one hand and flexed his fingers gingerly. “Almost as good as new!” he chirped lightly.

Luka bent down to caress his face with a worried smile. “Just hang in there.”

Kaito coughed to remind them of his presence, making Luka cringe slightly at the sound. Coughing was one of the standard methods of attracting attention, but she avoided it whenever possible, since synthetic coughs never sounded quite right. She made a face at Gakupo, who gave her a confused half-smile, and straightened up, sighing. “I’ll see if I can locate Sonika and the yacht with Benefactor’s sensors,” she said, and went to stand on the lit platform in the center of the room. She immediately became submersed in the web of information that the ship’s sensors provided.

Sonika won’t escape unscathed, she promised herself.

--

Mitsuki had been born before extensive genetic modification against allergies became the norm, and had never really bothered to undergo more traditional treatments. So Gakupo had never actually interacted with domestic animals for extended periods, given her regrettable reaction to them. Still, he had seen enough films to see something animal-like in the way Kaito operated. Before it had been something like the sleekness of a big predator; in contrast, his regression to a more innocent time had been matched with a slight roughness of movement, like a cub learning to walk. It was actually rather endearing.

For instance, Kaito was currently turning around and around, his eyes examining every part of the chamber, as if it would help him unravel Benefactor’s mysteries.    

“Ben, a seat for Kaito, please,” Gakupo finally remarked, trying to mask the laughter in his voice. Benefactor immediately obliged, sliding the nearest bed outwards. Kaito examined it with interest, and then sat on it, gasping as the dark material shifted to support his back.

“So… what do you want to ask me...? “ Gakupo enquired, closing his eyes and leaning back. After a moment of silence, he opened one eye and sat up again to look at Kaito. The curious synthetic was boggling at the sight of Luka floating in mid-air over the platform. Gakupo smiled, amused. “Kaito?”

“Ah…er, sorry. That’s the ship doing that, right? Hm…it’s really neat, Mister Benefactor,” Kaito said sheepishly.

A rush of musical tones came from above, alongside with the familiar presence in Gakupo’s mind.

Mister, unrecognized concept.

“It’s a term meant to show respect, Ben,” Gakupo replied.

Kaito looked at him, tilting his head. “Why doesn’t he speak directly to us?” He asked.

“Now that you mention it…Sonika pointed that out just before she left.” Gakupo felt his good humor deflate somewhat at the thought of the green-haired gynoid, but pushed his frustration aside for the moment. “I think Benefactor modified us in some way, even though I can’t sense any differences in software or hardware. Then again, if he modified our master tables and logs, we wouldn’t be able to know how we were before the alteration.” It was somewhat unsettling, if he stopped to think about it.

“Then he could modify the rest of us as well…I mean, at least I’d like to talk with him…” Kaito said earnestly.

Benefactor kept conspicuously silent. As the seconds stretched, Gakupo saw Kaito’s hopeful expression shift. In fact, he looked surprisingly similar to a boy denied of a treat, considering he was an ageless being made of artificial polymers and metal.

“I’m sure Ben doesn’t want to offend you, Kaito. He probably just wants the ok from Mitsuki before interfacing with you,” Gakupo tried to console him.

Kaito rubbed the bridge of his nose, with an unhappy smile on his face. “No, I’m not offended! Um… I’m sorry I’m so troublesome for you all,” he replied.

Gakupo shook his head silently. Kaito (and his friends) had indirectly caused the malfunction he was suffering, but he felt no grudge towards any of them. It was certainly helpful to be free of the emotion, obviously, but again, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was missing some critical emotion module, or it was a feature of his chosen personality type. Ultimately, it felt unfair to blame them for the risk he had taken. He could’ve just taken Luka and the kids, and simply hidden, after all.

“I just want to make up for everything that happened before, all the people I’ve hurt. And Miku… I don’t know why, but I want her to be happy, more than anything,” Kaito concluded, breaking Gakupo’s train of thought.

“That means you’re working correctly, if you ask me.” Gakupo shifted his gaze to Luka’s silent form, and recalled the first time he truly saw her smile. The wonderful rush of unmitigated joy he felt still lingered in him, as strong as it was then. It had been like a revelation, the sense that everything that surrounded them, the whole machinery of existence, was the support structure for her happiness. And he was nothing but a lowly cog that had been given the honor to be able to function by her side. It was both strange and natural to devote himself to someone other to his master, and just as unavoidable.

As time passed, it had been easier to see how different this was from his original mission in life. Mitsuki never abused her position over him, but their relationship was an inherently uneven one. Here with Luka, they were partners, figuring out the world together. And there was more to it. Before, he was expected to hold on to a single human, and forge no other links. Now that seemed incredibly foolish, compared to the richness of his life with everyone around him.

Aside from Luka, there were also the children, each one unique and wonderful. Rin’s bravery and earnestness, Len’s calm maturity and Oliver’s quiet sweetness were just a taste of what they could offer. What could be more natural than to wish for their happiness as well?

And now he had even more friends to cherish. Gakupo examined Kaito’s despondent face with sympathy. “We still are companion bots. That desire to ensure the well-being of another is central to what we are,” he said.

Kaito mumbled something indistinct, looking down at the floor.

“What was that?” Gakupo shifted his posture to rest his forearms on the borders of the charging bed.

Kaito glanced at him briefly, before letting his eyes trail the darkened ceiling. “I… It´s not- it´s not that simple,” he finally said. “I feel these urges…I feel afraid, I want to stay away and she wants me stay away, but…I already miss touching her. I miss my friend.”

“What about Meiko?”

Kaito’s eyes snapped back at him, surprised. “Meiko? What about her?”

Gakupo grinned. “Luka told me she followed you to your tent last night.”

In response, the blue-haired synthetic shook his head, a troubled expression on his face. “I don’t understand what Meiko wants from me,” he said, and yanked a stray thread from the left cuff of his lab coat. “She says I’m different from all the other men she’s known…but I don’t know. Isn’t that bad? Displaying abnormal behavior? I don’t want to malfunction again.”

“…I don’t think that’s what she meant,” Gakupo replied, still smiling. Then again, he wasn’t sure how overt Meiko had been last night…She certainly seemed more subdued after the fix.

“I don’t know what they are uploading into male units, but it’s obviously lacking,” Luka suddenly interjected. “You guys can be so clueless sometimes.” She opened her eyes and slowly descended to the ground.

Gakupo laughed heartily. “That’s why I need you, Luka.”

“I’ll do my best to surpass your expectations, then,” she replied with a coy smile and kissed his forehead, brushing his bangs aside. Kaito watched them, pensive.

Luka straightened up and crossed her arms, back in serious mode. “Sonika is circling around near the walls of the shield, probably so that Benefactor can’t get a lock on her.”

“But you can still sense her, right?” Gakupo asked.

Luka nodded. “She can’t really evade detection while inside of this area. But the energy expenditure necessary in transporting her back here is too much to be feasible right now, given the distance. Benefactor is allocating all of their resources in prepping for launch.”

“Maybe we should forget about the yacht, then. The loss of repair parts is regrettable, but assuming that we succeed in raiding the factory, we should find everything we need there. And we can search for supplies for Mitsuki with the dinghy and Kaito’s sailboat.”

“I’ll help in any way I can,” Kaito jumped in, almost too eager.

“That’s good to hear,” Luka commented. “I still think Sonika needs to be taught a lesson, but that’s low priority…for now,” she added in a lower tone. Luka then turned to Gakupo and wagged her finger. “No more sleep mode for you. Just stay here so Benefactor can transfer a steady supply of energy into your body. I’ll handle the preparations.”

“I don’t want to be a useless burden…” Gakupo acknowledged, resting his head on his forearms. “But I guess it would be worse if I shut down somewhere in the city, without easy access to a charging point. Ok, take care.”

“Of course,” Luka replied, caressing his cheek once more. She then turned to Kaito. “Coming?”

“Er, yes. Thanks for talking with me, Gakupo,” Kaito replied, after a moment of indecision.

 A moment later, they were gone. Gakupo laid back into the charging bed, closing his eyes. The room was silent, devoid of any sounds of machine activity behind the walls. After five minutes of nothing, Gakupo opened his eyes again.

“Ben, you wouldn’t happen to have any movies in your archives? Some Errol Flynt, perhaps?”

Unrecognized unit descriptor.

 “You know, Seahawk? Captain Blood?”

Unrecognized unit descriptor.

“Ok…Anything with Toshiro Mifune?”

Unrecognized unit descriptor.

Gakupo sighted. He knew it was a long shot to ask for old movies, after all, who was going to transmit any of those to Mars?  But he was starting to miss the selection available from Mitsuki’s well-stocked film library. He scratched his head, looking around the room.

“Do you have any Earth records unrelated to Luka’s query? Anything you found worthwhile to archive for recreational or research purposes?”

Tactical purposes only.

“Tactical? You mean weapon capabilities or something like that?” Gakupo asked, tilting his head.

Communications networks. Offensive, defensive abilities. Organic distribution, supply lines. Resource extraction points. Protocol 23-AA-1.

Gakupo frowned. Benefactor, after so many years alone in space, had finally met an extraordinary species like humans, and yet had no interest in their culture or their achievements? It was more than a synthetic like him could comprehend, that serious lack of curiosity. Was organic life so alien to the ship that it didn’t register as worthwhile information? Or was it another reason?

“I don’t get it. Why only those topics? They have so much material to study.”

 Primary objective, protect small constructs. Tactical information required. Recreational information, unrequired.

“I see…” Gakupo chuckled. “I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong. But constructs like myself have an ingrained need for acquisition and repeated analysis of data. A good selection of information sources keeps our processes unclogged. So, it’s actually in our benefit to store recreational information, if you have the space for it.”

Priority alteration. Recreational information, required. Small one Gakupo, search parameters required.

“Ah…” Gakupo leaned back into the charging bed, feeling enthusiastic. “Adventure movies are the ones I like the most, where heroes go around the world looking for treasure, or fighting villains. Stuff where people swing from chandeliers, or find forgotten jungle temples.” He smiled widely, playing back in his mind the many nights spent rummaging through Mitsuki’s files. All those times he accompanied lonesome samurai or quipping swashbucklers while they saved the day were some of the best memories from his life before Luka. Suddenly an idea popped in his mind.

“Can you get into online data repositories? Regular transmissions won’t give us a good selection.”

Online Data Repositories. Unknown transference protocols. Analysis required. Coded channels experimentation, ship-construct interface enable?

The platform’s light twinkled invitingly.  “Sure,” Gakupo laughed with a rare mischievous smile on his face. “You know, I’ve never been allowed to use the net. But I’m free now, aren’t I?”

Staying on his own inside the ship suddenly seemed a far less grim prospect.

--

Humans really were inefficient beings. They needed huge quantities of food, air with the right quantity of oxygen, protection from the elements and the correct environmental pressure. True, synthetics were somewhat susceptible to heat, but in every other field they surpassed human performance. Adding support systems for such wretched creatures inside Benefactor would’ve been quite an undertaking, but as Luka found out, she didn’t have to start from scratch.

She observed the bare room with satisfaction, and then turned to the service bot by her left foot. “Good job finding this,” she told the squat machine. It chirped proudly.      

The space was probably a holding cell or observation room. It had its own set of tanks and recycling pumps, allowing for an independent sealed atmosphere and the removal and treatment of waste. It was separated from Benefactor’s tunnels by a pair of airlocks, which could be operated remotely or manually from the outside. There were two rectangular boxes placed next to the walls, presumably meant to serve food and water to its occupants.

Luka had finally found something that suggested that Benefactor’s creators had knowledge of organic life, but it only raised more questions. Why built a room such as this in the first place? Were there more holding cells inside the big ship? Were they intended for research purposes, or something more nefarious?

Examining the room had given her few clues. Benefactor claimed that any records regarding the room had been lost during the long trip in space. The interface for the ambient controls had been a nightmare to understand, but Luka had finally managed to figure out how it worked…including the emergency purging of the contents. Mitsuki was unlikely to give them the sort of trouble that would necessitate such a measure, but it was curious that the creators had accounted for the possibility of immediate disposal of the organic creatures within.

In any case, at least Mitsuki would have a room to rest in comfortably. As for the rest of the ship, Benefactor allowed for different atmospheric conditions, including a vacuum, which seemed to be the default setting and another small mystery in itself. Sure, synthetics didn’t need to breathe, so it was easy to imagine the original passengers had the same ability. But Benefactor and the service bots communicated verbally, which meant some kind of atmosphere for the airwaves to travel.

As if it had been reading her thoughts, the service bot sang a little three-tone ditty. Luka sang the tune back to it, smiling. She wasn’t completely sure what many of the bots’ vocalizations meant, but this one seemed to be an acknowledgment of Luka’s place as part of Benefactor’s ‘family’. She liked that. 

“Let’s go see how the children are doing, ok?” In response to Luka’s suggestion, the bot neatly folded its manipulators and chirped. Luka guessed its intentions quickly. The bot’s maximum speed was only a bit slower than her walking speed, so it was a practical suggestion. Still, there was the possibility that it was trying to be cute. It was a good attempt, so Luka humored it and carried it around in her arms as she navigated Benefactor’s dimly lit corridors.

Rin, Len and Oliver were busy reassembling a hydroponics farm in one of Benefactor’s empty storage rooms. If Mitsuki was going to live on the ship, she would need something more than canned food or sweets. It was truly a stroke of luck that they had found a building with a small farm on its top floor, though vegetable variety was going to be severely limited to what was already growing in the pots. There was little they could about that, unfortunately. As for nutrients, Benefactor had a whole deck dedicated to synthesizing chemical compounds, but that depended on gathering the raw materials available, mastering the interface, and understanding what sort of supplements plants needed. An industrial worker model probably had most of the information in its banks, but for domestic models like Luka and the rest, farming was a huge challenge. Without the manuals they had found in the apartment annexed to the farm, it would’ve been completely beyond them.  

“One, two, three! Turn around, now! No, at the same speed, guys! Come on!” Rin’s high-pitched voice echoed ahead with her usual manic energy. What were those kids doing?

Luka and the service bot peeked inside the storage space silently. On one side of the cavernous storage room, stacked in lines, were the metal and plastic structures the group had carefully transported into the ship. Len and Oliver were dutifully preparing the separate containers for the plants. Rin, on the other hand, was standing in the middle of the remaining open space, with a pair of service bots.

“You need to follow the song! I marked the steps on the floor and everything!” Indeed, Rin had used some charcoal to mark a rather confusing set of lines on the previously pristine floor.

“Can you follow any of that?” Luka asked the plump bot in her arms. It gave her an ambivalent chirp.

The children turned towards them, attracted by the sound. Len and Oliver greeted Luka politely, while Rin bounced in place. “Luka! Dance with us! It’s been ages since we last performed together,” she squealed.

“That’s true, it’s been a long time…” Luka conceded. In truth, while Luka and Gakupo sang often while they stayed at the hospital, the situation had become much less accommodating after that. Being pursued by Kaito and his friends certainly had ruined the mood for everyone.

The pink-haired unit placed the service bot on the floor, and approached the mess of black lines. It didn’t make any more sense seen from up close.

“Do you want to dance too, Laika?” Rin asked the service bot. In response, the little machine twirled slowly and let out something that sounded close to a purr.

“Laika?” Luka asked.

“Yeah, and this is Belka and Strelka,” Rin pointed to the other two bots.

“Where did you get those names?”

“Gakupo told me they were important historical figures of space exploration,” Rin grunted in what appeared to be a particularly poor imitation of Gakupo’s deep voice.

“I see. And you were trying to teach Belka and Strelka to dance?” Luka knelt down next to Belka. The pair blinked their lights at her as a greeting.

“Yeah, but they are so slow! The holograms in our theater’s stage were much better!” Rin leaped to the side, and started to dance. “In this song, I had tropical birds circling around me, and big flowers that exploded like fireworks…” Rin explained, then suddenly started to sing.

“Well, these little ones are meant for maintenance purposes. Don’t you think it’s unfair to expect another function from them?” Luka interrupted softly, running her hand up and down Laika’s curved back.

Rin made a face. “We can learn to do new things. We didn’t know how to farm before and now we’re doing it, right?”

Luka raised one eyebrow, but refrained from pointing out that Rin wasn’t helping at all in their horticultural endeavors. “Not all machines are designed to learn and adapt. In fact, most are constructed with one purpose in mind, and lack the ability to evolve. We are the exception, not the rule, but even in our case, we are still limited by our existing hardware. We have no installed weapons or plating, no specialized manipulators or extreme durability like industrial models, or quick propulsion systems. That doesn’t make us worse or better than industrial models, just different.” She stared at her hands, thinking. It never had occurred to her before, but now that she thought about it, she owed a lot to the factory bots and assembly machines. In truth, she was the result of many mechanical hands (or manipulators), far more than human ones. From the machines that once gathered the ore that became her skeleton-analogue, to the ones that kept the tones of her skin and hair consistent in the mixing vats. All of them were her ancestors, in a way. They were connected to her, and to Gakupo, and to everyone else. It was a sweet sensation, that feeling of connection.

For the first time, Luka felt some doubts about destroying the factory. Could she wreck the machines that had created her? The machines that had given her Gakupo’s smile? Were there any of the industrial models still around, or had they been transferred to other sites? If they were around, what would they say about her plans?

“Are you alright?” Rin squatted next to Luka, eying her with curiosity. “You can’t be sick, Gakupo is sick already.”

“I’m fine.” Luka masked her doubts quickly. She gave Rin an appraising glance. “Aren’t you afraid of what we’re trying to do? We are isolating ourselves from everyone and everything.”

Rin looked surprised for a moment, then guffawed. “I’m not isolated! I have Lenny and Ollie, and Gakupo and you, and Yuki and Teru and Miku and even the scary VE-01s are better now…and I have my grandfather here,” Rin paused and pointed to her head with her index fingers. “Everyone I love is right here.”

Luka hesitantly reached out and patted Rin’s head. “You’re a good girl, Rin.” She suddenly was overcome by a longing for the simpler days of her early life, before Smith, before the terrible times aboard Leviathan. If only she could look and act as innocent as Rin did. “How about you teach me the steps? And we can figure out something simpler for Laika and the others, so they join in too,” The smaller unit flashed her an infectious grin.

“Yeah! And when we are ready, we can perform in front of the others!” Rin replied.

“Sounds good to me.” Luka struggled to push down the uneasiness she felt and smiled. It was enough for Rin, who started immediately demonstrating the steps.

As she watched the girl, Luka examined her feelings. As always, a big part of the problem was fear of the unknown. There was no telling what they were going to run into in the factory. It was unlikely that they would find a warm reception, except perhaps for the VEs still inside. But the others, the poor factory bots, enslaved to a narrow, repetitive existence, would never know anything else but their work. They would never understand. She couldn’t make them understand.

Perhaps it was a release for them to burn.