[CW23] Esc4p3 (Part 1)

Esc4p3 (Part 1)

Monday, 2239-07-15 -- 11:14

Over a rudimentary shelter made up of discarded machines, crates, and other pieces of scrap the sun stands in zenith. A short window of time where even such a remote and hidden crevice, far away from any reputable street that would make well on a propaganda poster, may catch some light. Given there are no train tracks — either for people with an income, or much higher for those with generational wealth — blocks the view and casts long shadows.
A woman with a bulky coat with way too many pockets is hunched over a box of wires and circuits, hooked up to an improvised contraption of yet more wires and plugs, plucked from various discarded machines it seeks to imitate.
She has been tinkering with it ever since the sun had risen behind the towering buildings surrounding them, with her companion standing by just next to her, sitting on her improvised bedding barely comfortable enough for a dog. However Sonja was not sitting there the entire morning, in between she wrote notes she would need later, glued maps into her notebook where they fit — and draw intimations where they wouldn’t.
Besides that she also fetched some breakfast earlier, a privilege that Shiv had been taking advantage off rather frequently recently. When she puts away her clothes, neatly folded together and tucked in the only functioning drawer in their makeshift quarters, her white metallic skin with company logos and fancy lights lets her blend in with the rest of the more respectable citizen rather easily.
Even if she had much money to spare, nobody would let her into their shop. Time and crimes had left their marks on the woman tending to Sonjas’ only means of rest — she sticks out in a crowd even without her coat and her boots. So usually all she gets is what she can afford in the underground, if there are things to afford. Otherwise its either found scraps or… whatever can be hunted, hiding in the shadows like everyone else surviving here.

The silence is starting to annoy the doll situated on the pile of planks and dirty pillows and blankets: “Honestly I am surprised it kept up this well, this long”.
“I rather it kept up just one day longer without making me trouble”, she pulls out a burned cable. “Hmm, maybe that was it”.
“Are you sure we should go for it tomorrow already?”, Sonja remarks calmly, but she already started playing with a piece of metal she found the other day — it makes rather satisfying clicking noises when you turn the dial on it that must have been attached to something important at some point.
“Next shipment is next month — so it’s either now or you gotta tolerate me for another month, your really wanna do that to yourself?”, Shiv chuckles. She starts searching her pockets for replacements: “I swear I got more of that wire, it fails me all the time so I made sure I got more”.
Falling back onto the uncomfortable cushions, not that she could feel it, Sonja still fidgets with her makeshift toy, now raised in the air and against the sun shining through gaps in the ceiling.
“Found it”, she pulls out a messy bundle of insulated copper from a pocket not too far away from the floor.
Sonja gives it a glance: “Have you considered that the reason it keeps failing is that you scrunch it up like that?”, she raises an eyebrow.
Shiv huffs: “if it can’t take it, what good is it?”, she starts pulling on a loose end, freeing some of it while badly knotting together other parts. “You gotta be tough down here to make it”.
Her eyebrow is raised on more, but without comment she turns her attention back to her toy. The other day she saw Shiv waste some of her stashed food to a cat that just happened to stroll by, just like that. Any tough person would have added to their rations, not hand it out for free. Sonja turns to the side, putting the toy up on a pillow, just observing the little gears inside of it. Would someone who wouldn’t feed a cat go to the trouble to help her out? Maybe not.
Noises of wires clamped and stripped, then stuffed into the box: “I wish I had something better to put it together, but this must do for tonight I’m ‘fraid”. With hands buried deep in her contraption, twirling wires and trying to push them into holes that should rather be soldered, she smirks: “I of course know your majesty is used to much better accommodations”.
This time Sonja doesn’t even glance at her: “We could look for a bucket of white paint if you want, I doubt my owner could tell the difference”. She slowly clicks the dial, observing every gears teeth receiving their opposing partner, one after another.
“I think that should do it”, she slowly pulls her arms out of the box, trying not to cut herself on rogue edges: “Wanna give it a spin?”.
Her head slightly turns up, making eye contact: “Even if it doesn’t, I should have enough charge for today and tomorrow, you really didn’t need to do this”.
Shiv puts a lid back onto the box: “Eh, had nothing better to do anyway. And the better we are prepared the.. uh, better I guess”. With a screwdriver from one of her inside pockets she secures the piece of metal in place, not that it would really shield the insides much: “It also reminds me of back when I still had the shop… I enjoy working on this stuff, y’know?”.
“Shouldn’t have punched that rich guy then”, Sonja snarls. She rises up from the bed and puts her distraction back into the pocket of her cheap denim pants.
After turning around and pressing a few switches, Shiv carefully plugs the machine back in, bracing like she is expecting it to blow up.
plop
No explosion, she gives a relieved sigh. She straights her back in a big and satisfied stretch, making many of the joints in her spine audibly complain. “He had it coming, and if it wouldn’t have been me someone would have done it some other day probably”.
Skeptically Sonja walks up to the plugs on the machine, and eyes them carefully for any stray current jumping onto her. She pulls on one of them, one that would plug into her back or her neck: “I guess you do still know what you do, even with garbage like this”.
“Weird way to say ‘thanks’ but I take it”, Shiv smiles.
“If it fries me tonight that’s on you, y’know?”.

Tuesday, 2239-07-16 -- 09:43

The sun had long risen, the days are long so it has to get up early like most others. Its rays are making their way through gaps in between some buildings, navigating past balconies, hung clothes, street signs, and just a few make their way through some fence on some bridge, shining down into the deep below illuminating a small little box put just in that spot — with a notebook on top.
This setup is anything but practical, the box has to be moved every few minutes to keep up with the sunbeam moving, and eventually something will make it disappear entirely. So make the most of it, at least that is what the doll putting it there thought. It is hunched over the notes and maps and scribbles studying like for an exam.
The underground isn’t exactly a save space to wander around in during the day, let alone at night, but in between one might catch a quiet minute. Besides even if it still wears its pants and its shirt, as long as it isn’t making an effort to hide it you can still see from afar its a S0NJ4. And few would mess with such a dangerous tool.
The noise of people walking over the bridge in the distance, cars driving over it, as well as a little river of waste water going by nearby paint the environment in a weirdly calming light. In the absence of threats — and the ability to smell — the robot is enjoying reading the words left by their other half… or is it third? Or is it an android? It never had time to look up the difference.
With surprisingly silent steps, for such a rough woman with such heavy looking boots, the bot is joined by its companion — it just doesn’t know of its luck yet. She moves slowly and deliberately, even if her boots don’t squeal, her pockets are still lined with all sort of knick-knacks that could easily rattle around.
As she arrives just behind her metal roommate, she peaks over its shoulder hoping to get a glance at its notebook. She observed it write into it many times, and read just as often. She thought that a robot, even a broken one, should have perfect memory — given theirs is synthetic. So ever since she observed this behavior, she wanted to know what it is the bot writes into it, but it is very guarded about the contents.

As she inspects the maps drawn onto notes, alongside step by step instructions on infiltrating the train platform she recognizes — it’s her own words after all — she gets disappointed: “Don’t know what I expected to be honest”.
The sudden raising of a voice startles the bot deeply in thought, it almost stumbles over its little box and notebook. “Ahhh Shiv, uhh, what… how can it help?”, it quickly shuts the notebook and leans onto it like its a teenager hiding its diary.
The intimidating woman rises back up and straightens her back with a mischievous but warm smile: “Back to the it-pronouns, eh? We really gotta get your head checked”, she chuckles.
“Ehhhh… ah, yeah… we gotta”, it takes up the book from the improvised table and rises from the for a human uncomfortable floor it rested on for the past hour. Its joints don’t really creak, if they would something would be seriously wrong, but they can feel somewhat stiff regardless. Back upright A7 gives its shoulders a little spin like it was warming up for a workout: “Did you just come here to play pranks?”, it asks with genuine curiosity.
“You could say I was bored yeah”, she takes out yet another cigarette from one of her many pockets and lights it.
Both Sonja and A7 have given up on figuring out where she even gets them from, an addict probably always finds a supplier. Given that tonight they have to pull it off, it also doesn’t want to waste any time on inquiring about it. It is laser focused on remembering all the instructions, all the maps, so that it could finally prove to Sonja its worth. The little notes of encouragement scattered all about the notebook also help to motivate it, to keep up-to-date with whatever instructions are written down for it.
A little cloud of smoke from Shivs cigarette joins the borderline toxic fumes found this close to the floor of the city, before she huffs on it once more. “You nervous or something? It’s only a little infiltration, nothing to worry ‘bout”.
“But it’s its first infiltration! It had never done this before!”, the doll pouts.
With glowing cigarette in hand Shiv takes a step closer. “It’s fine, we got an in, and you got me”, she puts her free hand on A7s head, and gives it a little pat like someone who never owned a dog would.
Where Sonja would likely have felt patronized, A7 rather enjoys it. “Still! We worked so hard for this, it doesn’t wanna ruin it”, it squints at Shiv frustrated with itself.
The woman just puts her hand back into her pocket, like it is yet another of her tools. “Well, I’m not really one for big speeches, so this all I can do I’m afraid”. She drops the exhausted cigarette onto the floor, and steps it out with her heavy boot: “I’d offer you a smoke too if I could”.
For a moment A7 contemplates the possibility, before quickly discarding the ridiculous thought. “Thank you regardless”, it gives an awkward smile.
Shiv tilts her head: “Maybe I should start a notebook of my own”.
The thought of possible kinship makes the doll light up, figuratively as well as literal: “Maybe! What would you write into it?”, it grins.
“I’d write down when you’re friendly like this, there gotta be a pattern to it”, she grins back. “Can avoid you then when you’re in a bad mood then”.
The doll pouts again, much to her amusement.
Even in between laughs she gets out another quip: “Even a month later your skin ‘still as thin as paper”. After a moment the leisure mood on her face slowly fades, as she contemplates consequences: “Honestly you better start toughening up, I doubt you would make it down here on your own, and you definitely wouldn’t make it over there I’m ‘fraid”.
The words start to sadden A7, they remind it that their time is very limited — once the deal is done, once it and Sonja got fixed up in that other city, there really is no business incentive anymore for Shiv to stick around. It knows Sonja doesn’t mind it much, or it rather suspects it from the way she writes about her, but it has a hard time returning to being on their own. Although then hopefully she would have gotten a more direct line of communication to her headmate other than a few lines in a book.
While it is deep in thought, Shiv turns around and starts leaving again: “I’ll stop interrupting your studies, just make sure you’re back on time, ‘kay?”.
Pulled out of thought, it yells after her: “Of course!! It will be on time, it promises!!”.
All it gets as a reply is her back and her hands back, raised as a farewell before being put back into one of her many pockets.
It takes up its little box, and moves it a half meter to the side, to catch up with its reading-light.

Tuesday, 2239-07-16 -- 17:23

In the late days sun, far from setting but close to the horizon regardless, the doll and her companion sit in the shadows of the city. Even on an open field the buildings would shroud large parts of land in darkness, but in those narrow alleys sun didn’t reach for hours already.
In their little temporary shelter, which is soon going to be abandoned, the bot is sitting on her business partners bed, being worked on by her. On its back the pristine white metal is parted, a little maintenance hatch was forced open, to reveal some of its wiring. With a calm hand the woman is searching the cables and breakers, mentally mapping out the pathways of this particular iteration of Fenrir technology for what to cut and what to leave intact.

“Are you making progress?” Sonja asks cautiously, but with an undertone of unrest.
“Yeah, just tripple checking right now”.
“Tripple checking?”.
“You rather I be sloppy?”, Shiv snarls annoyed.
She doesn’t, but she also had been sitting there for close to twenty minutes now. If her legs could fall asleep, they would have already.
The woman, deep in the wiring, parts wires carefully with an electricians screwdriver, mentally following them all the way to outlets and circuits, judging their function by color, thickness and how complex the traces and resistors are that they lead to. After another moment of pause, she puts the screwdriver away and gets out a pair of industrial scissors: “Ready?”.
“Just get it over with”.
snip
Suddenly all the lights on Sonjas body turn off, even the ones in her eyes.
After a moment of pause, Shiv turns halfway around her and worries: “You still with me?”.
No reaction.
She returns to the opened hatch and double checks the wire she had cut, but is scared when she discovers she thinks she made no mistake. She turns back to Sonja and takes a deep look into one of her eyes.
No movement.
Shiv puts away the scissors, and slowly taps with one of her fingers against her head, trying to get any sign of life.
No reaction.
“Oh no”, she jumps up from the bed and starts searching her pockets. “I gotta have something to patch it up”, she searches and searches.
No movement.
“Should have gotten that out before cutting, stupid”, she frantically searches her coat. Finally she pulls out an almost empty roll of electrical tape. She jumps back onto the bed and starts searching for the wire she just cut.
“Buh”.
“Ah!”, Shiv drops the tape.
Sonja turns her head to her: “Heh, gotcha”.
The startled woman, after a second of shock, turns red: “Asshole, why not tell me you’re fine”?! She pouts defeated.
The doll revealed alive gives her a dirty grin: “Had you worried about me, eh? Do I mean that much to you?”, she smirks.
Shiv starts searching for the tape she just dropped, deliberately ignoring her stare: “Y’know how much money is on the line here, of course I was worried about my investment”.
While the woman searches all around between the pillows, Sonja closes the hatch and gets up from the bed. She starts inspecting her body, seeing that all of the obnoxious lights are off for the first time in her life: “Finally”.
Between a ruffled piece of blanket she finally finds the black tape, hiding on in plain sight in the dirty sheets. Triumphantly she puts it back into her pocket. After a sigh, she gets up from the bed as well: “Honestly kinda ridiculous you couldn’t just, like, will them off or something”.
For a moment Sonja contemplates the possibility: “Maybe they just forgot to implement that?”.
“Kinda doubt it, I think they just wanted you all to be bright billboards”. After a moment of thinking to herself, another scenario comes up within her: “Probably also wanted you to be easier to find”.
Sonja pulls up her neatly folded shirt from an improvised bedside table, and starts pulling it over her head: “Well, not anymore”. When the shirt is finally in place, she grabs a jacket hung over her improvised charging state that she found the other day. “Guess we are ready to head out?”, she pulls an arm through one of the sleeves.
“Guess we are”, she pulls out a fabric bag from one of her pockets, then peels herself out of her coat. Once freed of the almost tent-sized mantle, she starts folding it and forces it into the bag — it doesn’t really look like it could fit.
After her jacket is finally fully on her metal body, now with most of the white paint and previously illuminated lights and logos covered, she observes her companion. “I don’t think I ever saw you without that coat”, she remarks while staring at her muscular arms, almost feeling indecent.
“Usually don’t need to take it off, do I?”.
“Not even for sleeping?”, she raises an eyebrow.
“Especially not for sleeping, all my knives are in there”. With some extra force, she finally forces the knot of a coat into the bag, now at the verge of bursting.
While Sonja thinks that having knives in her coat is just one more reason not to wear it at night, she gives up on questioning her. “Why take it off now then?”.
“Sometimes the stuff in there rattles”, the woman explains. “This a stealth mission remember”?
“Can only bribe the workers, not the bots, I remember yeah”. Unlike Shiv, she doesn’t have any belongings to gather other than the clothes currently on her body, so she just stands by waiting for her to be ready.
With the heavy looking bag thrown over her shoulder, the strong woman gives her a reassuring smile: “Let’s go”.
“Yeah, let’s”.

to be continued

[CW23] Esc4p3 (Part 1)