Work Text:
We docked at RothKatz station, and I made my way off the transport, out into the passenger docks.
A few of the other passengers made farewells, including my makeup-and-drinks friend, Maja, and I smiled and waved to them as I headed off the ship.
It hadn’t been too bad, for being only my second time interacting closely with humans of my own free will.
But I was definitely ready for some time actually alone.
Once I was in the station proper, my first order of business was finding a transient hostel, to get away from people for a little while, before I would need to spend time with more of them on my next trip.
I chose a middle-class lodging, where I might be able to blend in more easily, if I managed to hide most of my face, and booked a room for the night cycle.
It would honestly be nice to have somewhere safe to do a full recharge. I’d been wary of doing so over the last two trips, wary of being vulnerable around humans and under scrutiny of the cameras my rooms had both had. I’d hacked them somewhat, but couldn’t just leave them running on an empty room, unless I wanted to be tracked too easily.
I paused at a shopping kiosk and picked up another two types of hair covering, and a loose pair of dark pants. My former owner hadn’t had many comfortable pants. Mostly suit pants, and those were always too stiff, and slightly scratchy.
I also stopped at another bank kiosk, to swap out my larger currency card for a handful of smaller ones. And then at a beauty kiosk for a handful of simple makeup items to use for the foreseeable future. And it was such a pain in the ass, to decide which brands and colors I wanted.
Finally, I headed to my hostel, checked in, and - after double checking for passive or active surveillance of any kind, and finding none - got comfortable in the small space. I poked around in my organics and found the code for hair growth, setting it to grow as quickly as it was able to, because I knew it would grow out dark, like my brows and lashes. And I curled up in a chair in the corner of the room, tucking my feet comfortably under me, to go into a recharge cycle.
Thankfully, they never took very long, unless I’d gone for, far too long without one.
So a few hours later, I came back to full awareness, feeling more well-rested and relaxed than I ever remembered feeling before.
I realized it was my first recharge since I’d been freed.
I wondered if I should be marking milestones like that, or if I would just remember them as the years went on.
Or if in a few years it just wouldn’t be important to me at all.
My hair had grown enough while I was recharging, that the braids on my head felt awkward. So I adjusted the growth speed to a minimal level closer to human hair growth, and started the arduous process of untwisting and unbraiding the complicated hairstyle.
Honestly, I didn’t hate the colors, but it was far too conspicuous to have silver hair, with blue and purple accents. And the braids indicated I had someone who could do my hair or time to do it myself. Which would flag my apparent class level to anyone paying attention, even if my appearance didn’t already do that.
Brown hair with added colors, though, was believable enough to be a cosmetic alteration that most levels of society could pay for.
Undoing the complicated braids took the better part of an hour, and then I got up to have a shower, and give my hair a wash and a rinse.
I spent the extra time and funds on a long, hot shower - they’re so nice, and I felt a quick pulse of anger that this was one of my first memories of having one alone - and also on the nicer option for shampoo the hostel bathroom offered. And then spent even more credits on an extra towel to dry my hair while I waited for the morning to fully arrive.
I sifted through the feed, finding the listings for outgoing transports, looking for any that had a non-corporate destination, that were leaving in the next cycle, and found one that would be boarding in a few hours, when the work cycle started.
I sifted my fingers through my hair as I dried it, because I’d forgotten to grab a comb in my haste to leave HaveRatton, and hadn’t remembered to buy one yet.
Maybe I’d get one on the transport if it wasn’t too expensive, or I’d wait and buy one in the next system.
When my hair was finally dry, I twisted it up into a deliberately messy bun at the nape of my neck, and loosely covered it in my grey wrap, to hide most of it. It was nice not having to make sure that all that silver was totally hidden, since the roots were brown now.
Maybe I would cut some of it off. Tlacey had always liked it long, but it was kind of a pain to take care of if it was particularly long and I didn’t have a cubicle to fix it.
I put on the cleanest clothes I had - a blouse, a jacket and a knee-length skirt - added my coat and bag, then checked out and headed down the hall to the nearest entrance.
That proved to be a bad choice.
I exited the building onto a small side street that almost resembled an alley. Apparently almost opposite the main entrance for some reason.
I’d only taken a few steps toward the main street when I heard footsteps behind me.
I was already turning toward him when he grabbed me.
Construct minds work fast, much faster than human minds do.
But I felt like mine was trapped in tar, unable to process anything.
His hands squeezed my upper arms, bruising tight. His breath stank of more than one kind of alcohol. The building wall hit my back hard enough that it knocked the breath out of me.
I knew he was talking, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying over the pounding in my ears.
One of his hands had fallen to my skirt and was clenching at it with clumsy fingers, tugging it upward with obvious intent.
I hadn’t had a male client in-
Something clicked in my brain, and I remembered abruptly, almost sharply enough to hurt, that I did not have clients.
I did not have a governor module.
I was not going to be caused pain for rejecting him.
Or for hurting him, because he was hurting me.
I grabbed a fistful of my skirt, tugged it up just enough to give myself more room to move. Then I jerked my knee up between his thighs hard enough to discourage him - possibly for life - but not quite hard enough to do permanent damage.
I could have. I was stronger than he was.
I chose not to.
He hit the ground, clutching himself, and wheezing, and possibly swearing.
I was already at the mouth of the alley and running for the transit ring.
I got there faster than I thought I would, and had a moment of panic that I’d been carelessly fast.
Then I realized I’d buried my conscious thoughts on a back burnered channel and hadn’t been running faster than human. I’d only lost time because I hadn’t been thinking about my surroundings.
Human Behavior Module for the win, I guess. Fuck.
I had paid a fare for the transport before I’d left my room, and I hoped they’d let me board a little early, instead of having to stay in the passenger waiting area.
I didn’t want to wait around the boarding area and still be in a public space if the drunk sobered up enough to find the authorities and try to hunt me down.
I was still in the Corporation Rim, and no one would think twice about taking me as salvage, or trying to find my owner for a finder’s fee, if they figured out that I was a Comfort Unit. Or just using me-
I cut my panicked circling thoughts off, and focused on where I was walking instead.
When I arrived, the transport’s boarding hatch was closed, and I had a moment of not-quite panic, but as I approached, the hatch slid open.
A woman in a simple, neat uniform stepped out into the hatchway and smiled at me. “Hi,” she greeted me, voice polite and friendly. “Are you one of our passengers?”
“Yes,” I said a little shakily. I double checked the ID I’d used to purchase my trip. “I’m Ria. I just booked this morning.”
Her gaze went briefly distant as she checked the passenger list, and then she smiled again and stepped aside, letting me pass. “Come on board, Ria. We’ll be disembarking in about thirty-five minutes. Do you need me to help you find your room, or is the map sufficient?”
“The map is fine,” I said, feeling a little shaken, after the close call.
She peered at me for a moment, and must have seen something in my face. I had no idea what it was, because I was remarkably good at feigning most human expressions believably.
“Alright,” she said after a moment. Her voice was calm and firm, but also strangely gentle. “Feel free to go on to your room, then. The galley and lounge should be marked on the map, and are open to any of our passengers. If you’d like privacy, that’s also fine. My name is Tifany. Please ask for me if you need anything, okay?”
She sounded so genuine when she said that, I almost wanted to ask her for a hug.
But I didn’t really like touching people, if I didn’t have to, and if she hugged me I also might just burst into tears - again. So I just nodded a little stiffly, and thanked her politely, and followed the map in the feed to the room I’d booked for the trip.
Like the rest of the ship, it was simple, and a little dated, but clean, and comfortably appointed.
It had a restroom with a shower that I didn’t have to share with anyone, so that was nice.
I began going over the small info packet that I’d gotten upon boarding. It wasn’t anything like the ones I’d seen on the last two transports.
It went over the meal availability, public areas, and general rules aboard the ship, including who to go to in case one needed to speak to someone in authority. That was apparently Tifany, which was interesting. Was she the only crew aboard, or was she simply the highest ranked? And if she was highest ranked, why was she watching the door and greeting passengers?
And then the info packet went into a surprising amount of detail about the place I was going to, outside of the Corporation Rim.
It was a non-corporate polity called the Preservation Alliance.
Time to find out if I was going to want to stay a while, or if I’d need to catch a transport right back out of the system as soon as I landed.