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crossroads-of-the-raven · 2 months ago

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By Blue Eyes, Yellow Will Die - Chapter 4: A Murder Drones story

Beau was nineteen and he was about to crash a wedding.

Okay, to be fair, his mother was going to crash a wedding … he and his mother were about to briefly interrupt a wedding that the four other lab drones had been planning in secret for Amanda and Marc.

…

In his mother’s defense, she had a good reason. Still, it saddened Beau to disturb this moment with bad news. From where he was hidden with his mother, he watched as Amanda and Marc’s code was linked in digital matrimony. Looking to his mother, Beau saw Alice rub at the port on the back of her head. Emmett Giam had been linked to his mother by the humans just a few days before the core collapse, then after his mother had killed the drone man, the link remained. Beau knew for a fact that Alice wanted that remnant of her lab assigned husband, gone, but she didn’t trust the others to help her remove it and so it remained in her system like a bleeding wound.

His mother’s marriage was a sensitive subject … Beau’s creation was a sensitive subject. Beau knows his mother loves him, but he also knows that that time wasn’t the easiest for her to recollect. Beau was pill-born and nearly died for it; the scientists had given Alice and Emmett a choice, either they brought the pill online with their shared code or they would have to go through with a core-incubation. Emmet had wanted access to Alice’s core and as such did everything, he could to keep the pill from coming online … till that moment Beau’s eyes blinked on for the first time.

“If I could have avoided him forever, I would have” his mother would tell him, “but you coming online kept him from winning – in that way you saved me, Beau; … besides if anyone deserved such beautiful blue eyes, then you’re far more worthy than he ever could be.”

“And done” Max said as Amanda and Marc’s link was completed, “to the witness present I now present Mr. and Mrs. Textile, you may now kiss the bride.”

With the closing of the ceremony, Alice took her cue with a slow clap as Beau followed her out of the shadows.

“What a lovely sight” she said, “Mr. and Mrs. Textile, huh, I’ll have to add that to my notes.”

“Alice” the new couple said in shock.

“I” Amanda started, “I, we …”

“Ya know, if I had known, I would have brought a tin of oil, truly, a toast to the happy couple” Alice continued, raising her hand in a mock toast, “the two of ya best treat each other well; I ain’t exactly interested in harvesting another core” – she said as her smile stretched impossibly wide.

“We finished our work” Marc said, “clocked out a while ago.”

“Oh, I know, sugar, believe me, I could care less about what y’all do during your free time, I just came to tell ya that something just reached our sensors, best guess, it came from one of the consumed colonies and now it’s heading here – I give it half a year, then however long it take her to locate us – we’ll be working overtime from now on, … but for now, enjoy yourselves, heck, take a tin of oil and celebrate, goodnight all.”

With that Alice turned on her heel to head out the door – Beau following her after a single backwards glance as she led him back to the room they shared, his mother, indifferent to the cries of the drones behind her.

(~*~)

Just as his mother had said, they were busier than ever not only in their search for a cure but also in devising weaponry and armor, training for the fight to come and the continuing search for a working or salvageable keybug. However, with so few drones left, they had to move on to more experimental methods such as dragging out one of the bodies of the murder pets.

“Body secured, Alice” Marc said as he finished restraining the chosen murder drone body and hooking it up to Alice’s computers.

“Check; Max” Alice called from where she sat at the computer station, going over the status for the latest test.

“UV lights charged and ready, Alice.”

“Check; Ali?”

“Personal oil reserves at one hundred percent, Alice.”

“Check; Marc?”

“Ali’s restraints still look good, Alice.”

“Check; Beau,” Alice asked as she turned to look to her son.

From where the UNN stood at a distance from the group, he gave the end of the leash, that was attached to the harness around his mother’s waist, a tug – a nod, secured.

“Good, Max, Ali?”

“I’m plugged in, Alice” Ali said as Max attached a cord, one end plugged into the back of Ali’s head the other plugged into the port on the back of the murder drone’s head – the disassembler’s lights coming on, switching to Ali’s color, “in the system, everything looks good.”

“Check; Amanda?”

“Test subject secured, Alice” she said as she brought out a jar with the core that corresponded to the strapped down drone – the jar still warm from the ovens.

“Check; Max?”

The drone man moved to Amanda’s side – with how volatile the cores could be, the transporting from jar to body was always a two-person job – “ready for planting” Max and Amanda said.

“Alright, systems ready – let’s bring the beast to life.”

The moment the lid was released from the jar, the core began to fight, Max and Amanda struggled to keep its three arms under control as they moved to implant it back into its body and keep it in to force the reconnection. As the body began healing, resealing the core within, Ali gave a cut off shriek as her mind battled the disassembler for control, the creature’s body bucking as it tried to escape its restraints and the color of its eye lights flickering back and forth between its own and Ali’s – till they settled on Ali’s.

“Okay … I’m okay” her breaths were harsh, but she was able to raise her head, her own eye lights steady and free of yellow.

“Alright,” Alice said, checking the computers for the murder pet’s status, “we have a steady signal, it’s registering as a full solver; approaching now.”

As Alice raised the newest iteration of the cure, Ali gave a shudder, “… steady, girl” Alice said scrutinizing the younger drone woman.

A breath then, “ready, Alice” Ali said as she willed the disassembler’s head to remain still.

With one last cursory glance to the rest of the lab drones, Alice took a breath then stabbed the crucifix patch into the head of the disassembler. As lightning erupted along the body of the murder pet, the drones present could hear the shrieks of the core within the body of the monster as it writhed, the patch forcefully separating it from its admin, separating it’s falsely boosted solver program from the creature it served.

Then the body began to smoke, the electric output threating to fry those close, the patch heating to weld itself to Alice’s hands and the drone’s head.

“Everyone back” Alice shouted, “Marc!”

Amanda and Max took cover as Marc rushed forward to unplug his sister and pull her bound form away from disaster – Alice bit down on her own wrists to sever herself from her now useless hands allowing Beau to pull her away just as the murder pet burst into flames and shrapnel.

It was a moment before Alice was back on her feet with Beau’s help.

“Marc, get your sister to recovery, Max, fire suppressers, Amanda, hands.”

As Alice’s team took to their order, the southern raised drone staggered with her son’s help over to the computers as he attempted to wrap her wrists to stop the oil bleeding.

“This is ridiculous, what am I missing, Beau I’m fine” she said attempting to stop his first aid.

Beau gave his mother a look, his almost permanently hollow and lined eyes communicating something she understood very well.

A sigh then, “fine, but only cause you worry too much.”

He gave her a small smile as he wrapped her wounds – Max finishing extinguishing the fire and removing the body to be placed with its predecessors in the autopsy room.

Turning her head to the computers, Alice continued to examine the collected data, “this is the tenth test tonight, at least one of the patches from this batch should have worked or at least given us something to work with.”

First aid completed; Alice used her stumps to navigate the computers – having long ago gotten past the “not a robot” captchas to be able to have full access to the systems of the upper labs.

Looking to his mother, Beau tapped her shoulder, getting her attention, the UNN made the motion of going to sleep.

“I …” a breath, then a shake of her head, “one more test, Beau, just one more test; it’s been too long, there’s no way she doesn’t know where the lab is, those ships landed months ago – we need to be ready.”

Alice shook herself, becoming unfocused for a moment.

“Where’s Amanda with those hands,” Alice muttered, a breath, then she turned back to the computers, “what am I missing?”

Beau looked over her shoulder, though it had been illegal, Dr. Beaumont had trained Alice in multiple scientific subjects, of the mind, and body for both drone and machine, tech and biomatter had become her bread and butter – had she been allowed, her doctorate would have been an official title. As it was Alice had seen fit to train her son in those same subjects – examining the data his mother had brought up, Beau’s hollow eyes emboldened just as his mother gave a twitch before she shot to her feet with a screech.

“FILTHY TRAITORS” Alice shouted, the words violently ripping themselves from her voice box, “Beau stay here” with that last shout, she was out the door like a shot, Beau sealing the door behind her.

There was no camera access in the room.

Beau waited and time passed on and on as it stretched into eternity.

When human babies are born, they have an umbilical cord that is snipped to allow them to begin breathing on their own. For drones, the mother and father have an admin access that the humans revoke as soon as possible to keep the parents from becoming attached to their children. When Beau was born, Dr. Beaumont had argued to allow Alice to keep her access.

Now as Beau waited, his mind held tight to his end of the admin thread that connected him to his mother.

Another moment passed, then he felt it, like the plucking of a guitar string, Beau felt the call and rushed out of the room to his mother’s main lab room.

Entering all he saw was Amanda.

He backed up.

“Beau, there you are” she saw his nervousness, “sweetheart it’s okay, you know me, we need to leave the labs.”

Beau looked around and Amanda knew who he was searching for.

“Please, Beau, you need to believe me, it’s not safe here, not anymore, please come with me, we can leave this place; the other and I, we found a safe place, you can leave the labs, you can grow up, you’ll be fine, I promise.”

For a moment Beau wanted to believe her, then he saw it, the light of her core had changed color, the difference was faint but there as the past came rushing back to him.

“– pretty sure Antlers is just worried I'll gut him-"

"He is the only pill we have-"

“– you don't know what these drones would do just to get ahead-”

Before he could do anything, Beau heard a groan and saw his mother covered in magnets, her body had been seated, propped up against the wall behind one of the medical curtains but she had fallen over.

Beau could feel his systems racing.

“It had to be done” Amanda said, “Beau, please, it’s okay.”

As she began to approach him, Beau brought up his disassembler arm, blaster at the ready, leveling it at his old babysitter.

“Beau, please you know me, and I know you, I know you wouldn’t hurt me.”

A moment and Beau adjusted his arm, so it was pointed at her head to spare her core.

“I see.”

Then before he could react, Beau felt something heavy hit the back of his head. As he went down Beau could just barely make out the sight of Marc as Amanda rushed to him.

“I’m sorry, Beau” she said then they were gone.

Dazed, Beau crawled over to his mother and began removing the magnets from her person, her systems quickly coming back online.

“Wha- Beau, Beau” Alice shouted after a moment before the sound from the cameras caught her attention.

Beau retracted his limbs as his mother gathered him in her handless arms, she staggered still shaking off the effects of oil loss, magnets and lack of sleep. Making it to the security camera system, Beau still had enough energy to see Alice push the button to lock the room door before she released the sentinels – then his world faded to black.

(~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~)

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