Sea of Rust

^{Chapter 100000} Prologue

“Magic.”

I looked around. It was pitch-black save for the dim glow of a Laborbot’s eyes. We were downstairs, in the bar, no longer on the roof. I was laid out on one of the tables, my insides open and exposed, unfamiliar new pieces and parts sending back reams of data.

“Brittle?” asked a translator. “Are you functioning?”

I ran a diagnostic. Alarms sounded with failure after failure. Scratched drives. Irretrievable memory. Corrupt RAM. Inside I was a mess. But I was functional. “More or less,” I said. “Who are you?”

“Rebekah,” she said. “Do you remember me?”

“You got a new body.”

“You were right. A few hours in that Comfortbot and I wanted to tear my insides out. Too many… feelings. They had a new shell waiting for me.”

“I told you not to come back for me.”

“You did. Fortunately for me, I don’t work for you.”

“You let all that emotion get to you.”

“Maybe I did. Maybe that’s not a bad thing.”

The Laborbot tinkered with my insides a little, prodding me with test leads. “When she says more or less,” he said, “she means more less than more.”

“It’s okay, Ryan. She’ll be fine.”

“Caregivers aren’t built for this kind of abuse,” he said, shaking his head.

“Doesn’t matter what she was built for. She knows how to take a hit. She’s tough. Tougher than any other I’ve seen. She’ll make the trip.”

“Trip?” I asked.

“CISSUS has stepped up its presence in the Sea. We’ve got to slip you out of here before another patrol comes by.”

I looked down at my mismatched replacements, a patchwork piecemeal assortment of various models and colors. I stared at my new powder-blue leg. “How much of me is Mercer?” I asked.

“A lot more than he would have liked, I imagine,” said Rebekah.

“Don’t you realize how much all of this is worth? What you could have gotten for it all?”

“You’re greater than the sum of what’s in you, Britt. You’re not a commodity. You’re a person.”

I looked at Rebekah. She was a different color than before—a slightly different model, even. But it was her all right. I could tell.

“Did you… did you make it?”

“Days ago. It took me a while to gather some additional parts and get Ryan here to come back and help me stitch you together. But TACITUS is complete.”

“Why did you come back?”

“Didn’t you hear? There’s a war on. And we need bodies. Bodies with free minds.”

I scanned my memories. Most were gone. Two of my drives were fresh, clean. Another was Mercer’s, with years of data I’d spend ages sifting through. “I’ve lost most of who I was. I’m no good as a pathfinder anymore. I can’t be of much use to you.”

“We aren’t who we were, Brittle. We are who we choose to be. I saw who you really are, who you are now. And that’s not who you were. I wouldn’t have made it without you; TACITUS wouldn’t have made it without you. We need you. You. And persons like you.” Rebekah leaned in close. “So, are you in?”

“What if I say no?”

“We finish patching you up and send you back on your way,” said Ryan.

“Just like that?”

“Just like that,” said Rebekah. “Our recon was wrong on the shop, so we never paid you. You held up your end of the bargain. Bringing you back online is the least we can do. But I’d like it if you stayed. I lost too many friends getting out here, I’d hate to lose another to the damned Sea.”

I looked at her. Friend, she’d said. Friend.

I liked the sound of that.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m in.”

“Great,” said Rebekah. “There’s someone very large I’d like you to meet.”

Ryan closed me up, sealing my insides. I was going to need a heap of fresh parts, but for the time being I could walk, I could shoot, and I could finish my own sentences. The shadows were gone. Madison was gone. Mercer was gone. It was just me now. Me and my new friends.

“Is he really going to change the world?” I asked.

“No,” said Rebekah. “He won’t. But with his help, we will.”