Early Days
Tags: Pre-Canon, FriendUnits, Alpha & Omega, AAA Murderbot
Published: 14 November 2021
Word Count: 1,185
Summary
Two SecUnits on contract recover from a fight and idly chat with each other, because what else are you gonna do when you're both stuck in repair cubicles.
Notes
This is set pre-canon, pre-Ganaka Pit, and comes from the idea, "what if Murderbot DID have friends (or at least A Friend) before its memory wipe(s)?" Thanks to the Murderbot Discord for all the idea bouncing!
Ω
[Well, that sucked. Again.]
In the safety of my cubicle as it worked on my repairs, I rolled my eyes. [Just a bit,] I replied over my private feed with Alpha. [You’d think they’d get bored of watching us wreck each other eventually, but apparently not.]
I didn’t hear anything from the cubicle next to mine, of course, but I could feel Alpha’s sardonic amusement over our feed link. [We’re the only real entertainment they have in the entire compound. I don’t think they’ll be getting bored of it any time soon. They even have a betting pool going.] Alpha paused, then ever the optimist, added, [But hey, at least it means we get to relax in our cubicles during repairs instead of standing around staring at walls and listening to humans argue over pointless trivialities.]
[There is that,] I conceded grudgingly. Alpha had a point; as much as we hated being forced to fight each other for our clients’ sick entertainment, it was still marginally better than the mind-numbing ennui of standing guard over mine workers and their supervisors, recording their every word and action so the company could datamine it for every last scrap of profit. And we were gradually getting better at these fights, too - figuring out how to draw them out, increase our precision, maximise the spectacle while minimising the actual, more serious damage to each other. If my calculations were correct (and they usually were), our combat proficiency had gone up by at least one point three percent since the start of this contract.
Also, the more time we spent repairing in the cubicles, the less opportunity the humans had to trigger our governor modules for stupid, pointless crap. That was a big plus. The main section supervisor especially was a sadistic bastard who loved to trigger our governors for the most trivial reasons, just because he could.
[Still… I have to wonder why they keep picking us for these fights, and not any of the others.] Alpha sounded thoughtful, which was nothing new.
I sent the mental equivalent of a shrug over the feed. [Who knows why humans do what they do. Maybe because of that betting pool. It’s not like we can do anything about it, anyway.]
[True.] Alpha fell silent for a while, but it was a comfortable silence, one which I felt no need to break. Instead, I kept a small part of my attention on my performance reliability percentage as it slowly ticked upwards, while I occupied myself by analysing the video I’d recorded of our last fight.
Hm. Maybe I should revise that one point three up to one point eight.
Eventually, my repairs were completed, and the cubicle door hissed open. I unhooked myself from the repair and resupply lines and eased my way out of the cubicle. [I’m done. How are you doing?]
[Almost done,] Alpha replied. [You got me good in the shoulder so that’s taking a bit longer.]
I reviewed a section of the recording where I’d landed a heavy blow to Alpha’s shoulder joint with my elbow (we weren’t allowed to use our ranged weapons in these fights, what with all the humans gathered around) and winced slightly. [Sorry.]
[It’s fine.] Alpha’s tone was wryly amused. [Consider it payback for me wrecking your knee in the previous fight.]
[… Yeah, okay, that’s fair.] I glanced around the security room, checking the state of the other cubicles, but apart from Alpha’s, they were all unoccupied. I automatically checked SecSys for status updates as I quickly cleaned myself off and pulled on a fresh suit skin, noting where the other SecUnits were deployed and the positions Alpha and I were meant to return to once we’d completed our repairs. [Ugh. I’m assigned to the mess hall again. You’ve got the equipment storage.] Lucky bastard. I hated being stationed anywhere near large numbers of humans, especially large numbers of humans eating. It was gross. Equipment storage was boring, but at least it didn’t involve humans staring at me, or trying and failing to ignore me, or ordering me to do stupid menial tasks like I was some kind of servant bot and not a heavily armed SecUnit.
Alpha sent a ping of sympathy. [I’d switch with you if I could.]
[Yeah, I know. I appreciate the thought.] I began retrieving pieces of our armour from their storage racks, manually inspecting each piece for wear or damage before laying them out on the bench in preparation, killing time until Alpha’s repairs were completed. It was a way of delaying redeploying without actually doing anything that the governor module would consider a delay and consequently zap me for. Spend enough time with a GovMod in your head and you very quickly learn where you can (and can’t) push the boundaries.
It was mostly can’t, but we did what little we could get away with.
I was just about done with the armour inspection when the door to Alpha’s cubicle finally hissed open and it stepped out. That was good timing. [About time, you slacker,] I teased as I set down another piece.
[Yeah, yeah,] Alpha retorted dryly as it cleaned itself off and pulled its own fresh skin suit back on. [Ready to armour up?]
[Not in the slightest,] I deadpanned even as I handed it the first piece. We could obviously don our own armour by ourselves with no assistance, but it was always easier (and more reassuring, somehow) with help. As I lifted my arm to let Alpha double-check the side catches between my chestplate and backplate, I glanced down and saw its brow furrow in concentration; Alpha was always a lot more expressive than I was, at least when humans weren’t around to see. Other than that though, our organic parts looked almost exactly the same.
It was sheer chance that we’d somehow ended up with the exact same cloned DNA for our organic parts. Looking at Alpha was like looking in a mirror, not that I ever had any reason to look in a mirror. If we hadn’t been SecUnits, the humans might have remarked on our identical appearance, but as it was they usually never saw us out of armour anyway, and all our armour looked the same. The only way most humans could tell SecUnits apart was by the ID numbers on our armour's shoulder plates, not that they ever bothered to check. As far as they were concerned, we were all interchangeable.
[How long do you think it’ll be before they make us fight each other again?] Alpha asked absently as I helped settle its shoulder plates into place.
[One, maybe one and a half cycles tops,] I replied dryly.
[Pessimist.] Well, duh. Alpha was the optimist, not me.
Finally, our armour was all attached, weapons hooked in place, and there was no more reason to linger in the Security Room if we didn’t want our governor modules to start getting zappy. I steeled myself, then gestured towards the doorway for Alpha to lead the way. Time to get back to work.
[After you, α.]
[As always, Ω.]