Chapter Text
I wasn’t sure why I kept an extra watch on Ayres. He worked, as they all did, with grim determination to live through his contract. But he’d been the one to first bring the documentary excerpts and the children’s show, Our Friend SecUnit , to our attention.
He still watched them occasionally, the only adult who did, when he had pulled a bit more ore than usual and calculated he had enough for the extra energy expenditure cost. (His calculations were optimistic.) Or when the day had been really bad - like when Vinigo had been assigned to another section for fighting even before he had a chance to go to Medical. Not that anyone really thought he’d have us consult MedSys but he was supposed to have that option.
Before he was fully conscious, the supervisor assigned Vinigo to a new division in Sector 9 where they gambled on fighting and actual mining seemed a secondary occupation. The supervisor rarely missed a fight. He gambled frequently and actually thought he could buy his nephew into management. (His calculations were even more optimistic than Ayres’.) It wasn’t going to happen — not the way he gambled. There was no system to it. He gambled when and where he felt ‘lucky’. But when he wasn’t lucky he’d take out his anger on anyone in his path.
Vinigo fighting had been an aberration and he hadn’t survived two weeks in the new division. That also had been a bad day but Ayres had visited Tange, Klea, and Bipbip instead of watching the SecUnit documentary. Tange and Klea had been part of Vinigo’s core group.
That had been Before.
And then it was After...
Afterwards, 37-5 began to set out an extra ration in the mining shaft for Klea to find for three year old Bipbip. According to company rules, he could start digging in the mine at ten years with parental accompaniment. Only then would he be allowed a daily ration.
SU469-23 usually opted to safeguard (now there’s an ironic bit of information for you... we SecUnits were to safeguard the mine, the equipment, the supplies, the supervisor, then ourselves. The workers were nowhere in that list of importance)...
… SU469-23 opted to safeguard Cyndry’s equipment. She usually went mining with Reyes and Eva for safety from other miners. SU469-23 had often checked out blind tunnels or wandered off occasionally, allowing Eva to show Reyes and Cyndry self-defense. Though that was only supposition because if he had known, it would have been compelled to stop them. Klea had discovered preventative birth control added time to a contract and pregnancy added a lot more. (She was 41% over contracted time.)
That was Before.
And then it was After...
Afterwards, SU469-23 watched Eva demonstrate self-defense, secretly for a while with a drone, then gradually showing itself and even commenting. The first time SU469-23 silently returned and stepped from the corridor, all three women stopped and seemed to draw in upon themselves until they were motionless. SU469-23 stepped forward and rearranged Eva’s fingers against Cyndry’s arm with the words, ‘This is a more effective defense against someone larger’. SU469-23 guided them through back tunnels when going on- or off-shift and made sure it carried their rations so they didn’t need to confront the supervisor who made them uncomfortable or accidentally meet a miner from another division as Klea had.
Before, just Before…
Ayres preferred watching the excerpts of the documentary, listening intently with a slight, wistful smile as the SecUnit spoke. He didn’t understand the hidden message in the child’s show though he noticed it the first night he watched. He thoughtfully ran his fingers over the edge of the program where the passive components were streamed. Additional information came from the co-hosting drone, its antiquated propeller pausing incrementally at certain... well, never mind about borking your governor. That will come.
That’s what the message was. Instructions to a SecUnit on disabling the governor module.
And we had...
...disabled our governors.
Me first, when HubSystem had me monitor Ayres during his shift due to not making quota and other uncharacteristic behavior.
I monitored, then rechecked and recalibrated my inputs.
Then I asked for backup because the implications were staggering..
Quite truthfully, I was afraid if I did it wrong then 37-5 and SU469-23, the two other SecUnits for this division, wouldn’t know what I’d done in error and might do the same in their own attempts. And, maybe, I was simply scared and wanted someone there.
HubSystem brought in SU469-23.
I paused, unmoving, letting it watch Ayres' surveillance and the program three times. There was a long silence in the feed when it finished, then it pinged HubSys for the other SecUnit.
37-5 watched the feeds once then sent a visual of Tange nodding and speaking the single word ‘yes’. Query: atypical behavior typical continuum. But the emotion on the feed wasn’t analysis, it was desire.
Acknowledge: typical behavior continuum replied SU469-23. Its feed was hopeful rather than diagnostic.
Acknowledge, context, typical behavior. I reported to HubSystem with confirmation that Ayres’ behavior was within human norms.
I let them both know that I would attempt it first.
And following directions according to a bright-colored, cheerful children’s show hosted by a modified SecUnit, I hacked my governor.
Now our lives were divided into Before and After. But, except for no punishment from the governors, our lives were almost unchanged.
We still did as the supervisor and HubSystem ordered. Mostly. Though we didn’t report violations as often. And not the ones that required harsh punishment.
SU469-23 enjoyed the children’s program, watching it often in the ready room. I think it was mostly that the SecUnit character was an actual modified SecUnit rather than a human form bot that entertained SU469-23 so much. And the SecUnit’s modifications weren’t extreme... simply sufficient to make it unnoticeable. Not even unidentifiable, just anonymous at first look.
37-5 preferred to watch the humans, cataloging their interactions and trying to understand the relationships between them.
And I watched Ayres. Grimly determined to live, to keep his cohort alive, and only at rest with a small smile watching the few minutes from a non-CR 'backwater' polity documentary about a rogue SecUnit.
Before was pain and desolation and rage and neither knowing nor understanding.
Now it was After.
And After was... still unfolding.
What were we waiting for?