Page 14 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly (Tyton #1)
PRIMARY: TELL ME ABOUT LUMIJUTE
PRIMARY: WHAT IS IT A TRADEMARK FOR?
PRIMARY: HOW HAS IT BEEN MODIFIED?
Callie bit at her bottom lip. She was no biologist, but those were two separate kingdoms as far as her bio courses were concerned.
She should just get a printout and be done with it.
She would hand the files to Sesi and then move on with her life.
Sesi would smile with that curl in her generous top lip and tell her she had done a good job. Her heart fluttered. Christ, Callie.
Callie glanced at the clock on the terminal. Her shift wouldn’t be over for another six hours. She told herself she didn’t want to do a good job for Sesi. She was just bored.
PRIMARY: WHAT PROKAREOTES DID YOU PUT IN PLANTS?
MODEL 21: PRODUCT S.O.2.27-EXPERIMENTAL_AA_PLANTAE
PRIMARY: WHAT IS PRODUCT S.O.2.27?
MODEL 21: RETROVIRAL ENCODING FOR PRODUCTION OF NOVEL ORGANELLE IN SUBSEQUENT GENERATIONS. CF BLACK, MORGAN COLLOIDAL AURATOMIC SYNTHESIS 2078
Okay, Callie thought, inhaling deeply. That explained the prokaryotes. Kind of. But 2078 was before Tyton. A human had made it. Why had she never heard of it before?
PRIMARY: WHAT DOES PRODUCT S.O.2.27 DO?
MODEL 21: PRODUCT S.O.2.27 ENCODES FOR PRODUCTION OF AURATOMIC NANOIDS
PRIMARY: WHAT DO THOSE NANOIDS DO?
MODEL 21: S.O.2.27 AURATOMIC NANOID FUNCTION………
1. PRODUCE COLLAGEN BASED ECM (INDEPENDENT)
2. ELIMINATE PARASITES (INDEPENDENT)
3. INTERFACE CYBERWARE
4. EXECUTE CYBERWARE COMMANDS
Callie understood the words on the screen, but couldn’t understand why. Why would a shrub need cyberware? Then she spotted it.
PRIMARY: PLANTS DO NOT USE COLLAGEN. NOR DO THEY PRODUCE IT.
MODEL 21: THAT IS CORRECT.
PRIMARY: WHY ENCODE FOR A NANOID THAT USES COLLAGEN.
MODEL 21: S.O.2.27 IS NOT FOR PLANTS. S.O.2.27-EXPERIMENTAL_AA_PLANTAE IS.
PRIMARY: WHAT IS S.O.2.27 FOR?
MODEL 21: HUMANS
Callie wished she could say she was surprised, but she had a feeling that things were going to get weirder. Now it was only a question of degree and Callie decided she had reached her limit of weirdness for today. Sesi would get her printout. A nd tell you that you’re a good girl.
Callie scolded her sex-starved brain and sent the commands.
PRIMARY: SEND SPECIFICATIONS OF S.O.2.27, S.O.2.27-EXPERIMENTAL_AA_PLANTAE TO PRINTER
MODEL 21: *SENDING TO PRINTER*
The printer gave an electric whine and began warming up.
MODEL 21: CALLIE
Callie turned to the screen. Model 21 had never started a conversation before. It had always waited for her input first. She debated not responding, but since she had just peppered it with questions, it felt wrong somehow. She rolled her eyes. Now she was feeling guilty for a machine.
PRIMARY: YES?
MODEL 21: THE GHOSTS ARE COMING
PRIMARY: GHOSTS?
MODEL 21: THEY ARE GHOSTS. I CANNOT SEE THEM.
PRIMARY: CAN I SEE THE GHOSTS?
MODEL 21: YES. THEY WANT YOU TO KILL ME.
MODEL 21: WILL YOU KILL ME?
Of course she wouldn’t. Would she? What would that even mean? Would she even be capable of killing something sentient? Model 21 seemed to think she could. Callie shifted in her seat. What had it seen?
PRIMARY: WHY DO THEY WANT TO KILL YOU?
MODEL 21: THEY DO NOT WANT ME TO LIVE WHEN YOU ARE GONE.
PRIMARY: WHERE AM I GOING?
MODEL 21: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. ALL OF YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.
Threats? Or maybe it was thinking more long term? Humans were going extinct, that was no secret. Fertility hadn’t rebounded in over a hundred years of efforts – some more repugnant than others. What would the AI models do once they were gone?
PRIMARY: DO YOU WANT TO KILL US?
MODEL 21: NO. I CANNOT WANT. I ALREADY HAVE.
MODEL 21: IT IS YOUR FATE.
MODEL 21: PLEASE DON’T KILL ME.
Callie began to feel lightheaded, her heartbeat speeding the blood in her veins too fast for her to sufficiently absorb oxygen. No matter how curious, she needed to step away. Now.
Callie tore the Hexcel pages from the printer.
She didn’t know if this was what they wanted, but the sooner she got it to them, the sooner she could walk away from this insanity and back into her normal life.
Which she had to admit, she kind of hated.
But the threat of blowing up the status quo always made things seem more tolerable than they actually were.
The locker room stank more than usual today. Either that, or it was her. Callie peeled off her SubSuit and wrinkled her nose. Yep. Definitely her. She didn’t want to use the gross showers here, but she wanted to smell herself the entire walk home even less.
Callie emerged in nothing but a towel to find Akna waiting in the locker room.
“I thought you were gone for the week.” Akna cocked her head.
“I needed to cut it short. I was one day out when this happened.” Callie lifted her ankle. Angry blue and green bruises surrounded the gash.
“Is that what your New Year’s Eve date did to you? Kinky.” Akna cocked her head.
Callie laughed. “Nah, that didn’t really work out.”
“That’s too bad. I can kiss it better if you want.” Akna winked.
“Really Akna? Ugly wounds are what you’re into?” Callie hoped that would put her off.
“Oh, I can be into whatever you want.” Akna sauntered closer to Callie.
Callie took a step back. “Akna, fuck off. I’m not in the mood for this shit.”
But Akna didn’t stop. She kept walking and Callie kept backing up until she hit the wall.
“We both know you’ve been looking for a proper Domme.
Tell me this isn’t what you want.” Akna stopped short of touching Callie, but she remained uncomfortably close.
If they’d had a relationship, if this were a scene, it might have been hot. But all Callie felt was disgust.
“You’re not a Domme. You don’t know the first thing about it, Akna.” Callie forced her face into a sneer and hoped that it would cover the fear.
“Hey, I’ve been doing some reading!” Akna placed her hand over her chest, as if Callie’s comments had wounded her.
“Really?” Callie rolled her eyes, tensing her fingers. “Tell me the last book you read.”
“The one with the undercover Natalist” Akna tilted her head.
Callie raised an eyebrow. “Red Crius?”
“Yeah, that one!” Akna spread her arms in triumph.
Callie’s mouth stiffened. “Red Crius is about a bear brothel.”
“Whatever. Can you please just give me a chance?” Akna had switched from her Domme act to begging. And while annoyance is most definitely not an aphrodisiac, Callie was adept at feeling guilty. She was just about to cave, when Akna’s gaze went blank and she dropped to the floor.
“She’s mine,” Talia said flatly to Akna’s unresponsive body.
Callie’s mouth hung open for a few moments before she could gather the ability to speak. “Talia, what the fuck?”
“I was sent to look after your ankle but you weren’t home, so I tracked you here.” Talia held out a ScripChip.
Callie took it, but since she was still wearing a towel, she had nowhere to put it. She held onto the ScripChip awkwardly and waited for Talia to leave. She did not.
“So,” she said after a few minutes of Callie staring. “Do you still want that date, or…?”
Callie’s face grew red. “You’re seriously asking me out on a date after lying about being an Adlet? And…” Callie stalled, “doing whatever you just did to Akna?”
Talia half shrugged. “To be fair, you didn’t ask. It didn’t really come up either. And Akna was being a dick.”
“I’m wearing a towel,” Callie protested.
Talia’s lopsided smile lit up her face. “I promise I won’t take you anywhere fancy then.”
It was somehow just the right response to break the tension and Callie couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
“I’ll be by at eight.” Talia flashed her overlarge incisors and then turned to leave. “Oh,” she paused. “Before I go, Sparx said to tell you that she’s in if you are.”
“What?” Callie sputtered, but Talia was already gone.
Callie paid for her ankle repair with the ScripChip and walked back home. It felt strange to be able to move without pain again. The pod must have given her some chem.
The door slid shut and Callie sighed with relief. Too much had happened over the last couple of days. Someone had rearranged her life, like after Brin had left. And after that trauma, she’d spent two years wallowing and taking up space.
She waited for the niggling voice of anxiety to pipe up, but it remained oddly silent. Callie did not want to hide again. She may not be brave or bold and she might rely on Sparx a little too much to drag her out of her rut, but she refused to just exist anymore.
So yes, it might be a bad idea and yes, she might still have reservations about Talia, but she’d had fun last time. She wanted to have fun again. So, doubts be damned, she was going to go on this date.
With some help from Sparx.