Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This feels like nothing to complain about. But the nice thing about free will is that I can complain anyway.

Their SecSys is weird, I announce to Iris.

I’ve been probing ArguScylla Solutions' SecSys since the moment I could connect to it, and because we’re trying to look like normal, legitimate visitors to the company headquarters, I’ve had a lot of time to look around in it, even though we've only made it as far as the front desk.

What do you mean, SecUnit? Iris says, while simultaneously chatting with the person at the front desk.

I don’t want to say it’s a gut feeling, but threat assessment is slowly edging upwards. Though it could also be my anxiety making it do that. Thanks, organic bits. Stay in your lane.

We can easily abort right now, she says. It might be a while before we get another chance, but it’s up to you.

It feels too — too easy, I say, and have to stop myself from wincing.

Iris turns her own wince into an easy laugh at some dumb joke the front desk person just made. (Ok, that was smooth — I would keep that move in mind if I was ever going to laugh at something someone was saying.)

But yeah. It’s too easy. The SecSys had protested dutifully, then let me in and gave me access to its inputs. And the systems were solid, and the inputs were arranged logically, and not one SecSys I’ve seen has been less than a welded-together, technically-functional mess. (Yeah, I know who that sounds like.)

Their SecSys is too good, I say. It’s like something I’d make. Like a SecUnit would make.

Do they have SecUnits on-site? Are we prepared for this? Iris asks.

Probably, and I can handle them. But SecUnits don’t make the SecSys, we’re a part of it. There’s something weird here.

Understood. Abort or continue?

There’s no reason to abort. And this is a mission I pushed for (sort of), and it’s important.

Iris finishes chatting to the human at the front desk, and someone comes up to give her the tour. She’s ready for her role: to buy time.

I’m ready for my role. I make sure that walk-like-a-human.movement and glance-around-like-a-consultant.movement is running, set my notifications, and ping her. Time to get to work.

Continue. Starting info dive.

Update: location: entry lobby. Threat assessment 4.2%. Nothing notable.

The nice thing about being a SecUnit is that I can have my mind and body doing different things at the same time, which usually makes humans trip over their own feet or walk into walls. This is great for watching media on patrol, or, if you’re a SecUnit who's decided to try out a second career of being a spy: to hack into a company’s databases while bodyguarding your “client”.

Iris is here as a representative for the University, who has expressed interest in "partnering with ArguScylla to share research data and resources." I’m reprising my role as Security Consultant Rin, except this time I get a visor that covers my eyes completely. (It’s the closest thing to a helmet and it’s probably part of the reason that threat assessment is staying relatively quiet.) (I also got a haircut and different clothes, for some reason. Apparently it’s “suspicious” and “not fitting with our image” if the University hires a “scrungley” bodyguard. Fuck off, ART. I didn’t get caught last time. Mostly.)

My job, while Iris gets her “please lend us your impressive University research abilities” tour, is to find as much information as I can so we can decide if it’s worth hacking them further.

We’d been hearing things about ArguScylla for a while. On the grand scale of CR companies being monsters disguised by corporate hierarchies, it wasn’t the worst we’d seen. But those monsters tend to go through cycles of devouring each other via corporate takeovers, sabotage, or plain old incompetence. Considering how much the truly egregious fuckery tends to disrupt internal operations, the worst offenders tend to disintegrate without much help from do-gooders like the University. (See also: GreyCris.)

But ArguScylla is different. No other company bothers to sabotage them, for the simple reason that their business model is stupid as shit.

They rent out SecUnits, but they don’t make their own – they buy them, whole or in pieces, from whatever dissolving company is trying to get rid of them. They’ve also got a fantastic warranty and return policy, which lets companies happily not pay up on contracts. So obviously, other corporations are very pleased to keep working with ArguScylla, and they’ve avoided hostile takeovers so far. Somehow, despite all of this, they’re still a functional company.

I know. It sounds like this is none of our business. There are so many corporations out there, and so little time. The thing is, aside from the fact that their business model is stupid as shit, I've never heard of any company buying used SecUnits before. For one thing, if we get to the point where a company isn't going to bother repairing us any more, there usually isn't much of us left. If we don't get tossed into a recycler whole (or in pieces), we get dismembered and our inorganic parts are sent along on contracts so that they can be used for repairs in the field. (That way the company doesn't have to give anyone else the proprietary information for making new pieces for us in their recyclers.)

Sometimes a corporation will do a big upgrade to a new model of SecUnit, and usually when that happens, all the older models just get scrapped.

Whatever. The point is, people don't sell used SecUnits. So who was ArguScylla buying them from? And how much were they fucking paying for them? I wanted to know so that we could make sure there wasn't some kind of fucked-up shit going on, like them buying humans' indenture contracts and using them to manufacture SecUnits under the table.

It had nothing to do with the idea that there was a corporation going around buying up SecUnits that would have been scrapped otherwise. It wasn't like they were giving them a better life than they had before. They were just using other people's leftovers.

I absolutely had not had any particular emotions when I found out about it. I especially hadn't had any three-day-long emotions because I kept thinking about SecUnits, piled in scrap heaps, getting bought in bulk and repaired instead of thrown in recyclers. Or that repairable constructs were still alive while they were laying in the scrap heaps, waiting to be broken down.

But even though I wasn't having any emotions about it, I made the mistake of mentioning their business model to ART, who was an asshole and decided to write up a compelling mission proposal. And then Seth suggested I lead this mission, since I’m a sneaky little shit or whatever. Subterfuge! I guess!

I figure out the protocols for SecSys, then politely start inquiring around. Pardon me, are there any databases I should avoid? The ones about recent contracts? Oh of course, excuse me while I just go over here for a moment, I promise I won’t touch it.

While I’m rifling through some databases (that are clearly stolen from some other company), I start to feel the metaphorical hair on my metaphorical neck rise. I pause, and send a pulse through the feed. Response: null.

Ugh. My body is probably just being a body again, what with walking around and being surrounded by humans, who keep looking at me. I am once again glad for my opaque visor.

Update: location: employee station E. Threat assessment 10.3%. Nothing notable. (Humans eating food and leaving crumbs everywhere.)

I find some financial statements, which look important. Maybe. Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck to do with those. I tag them for ART to nerd about later.

ART, by the way, is not currently riding my feed. This is preliminary and sneaky info gathering, and we don’t know their capabilities, so we’re leaving the giant, occasionally-homicidal brain outside. I don’t like it, but this should be in and out.

And then I get the weird feeling of being watched again, and I suddenly think about my media. (Out of character, I know). Specifically, some dumb media I watched ages ago where someone was stupid enough to break into a haunted house. (Yeah, sure, a haunted feed. That makes sense. What would even be haunting it? Disembodied, sentient killware made from the kernels of SecUnits that were supposedly bought to be repaired and rented out again?)

Nope. Not thinking about that. Not the time, Murderbot, you’re on a mission. You don't have time for thinking about disembodied SecUnits or watching media.

I try to ignore the prickling feeling and threat assessment ticking up while grabbing all the databases I can get my grubby hands on. (Wow. That’s a lot of databases.) I notice an anomaly in one of the files I'm scanning through. There's a link to another document in it. A link that wasn't there when I started reading it. Right. Not following that one. I close out of the file and move on to the next set. Except that when I try to open the folder, it moves to another location. By itself.

It could be some kind of built-in security feature, which suggests that someone really doesn't want me looking at that folder. Well, fuck them. Now I'm going to. I run a query through the system and find the folder again. It's buried in a huge storage space for raw security archive data. (The security archives could be useful, but I don't have the storage space to take the raw data with me or the time to start processing it.) You can't sneak up on a file, so I tell SecSys that I need to take a look at it and could we disengage the protections on it. SecSys wants to know why I need to look at proprietary research results. Oh, it's nothing to worry about, just making sure everything's alright, and the data isn't corrupted. Haha.

It gives me access to the file, and. Oh, hello. It's a bunch of stuff about methods of repairing badly damaged constructs, plus information about what kinds of hardware failures different brands are prone to. I start a download of the file while skimming through it to see what brands of constructs they've managed to do research on so far. Unsurprisingly, they're all corporations that no longer exist, but then I hit a section that makes me stop short. There's an entire file in here about company SecUnits, and another one about B-E units.

Right, so buying SecUnits from defunct corporations is one thing. But buying SecUnits from active corporations is… well it's not unheard of. The company sometimes sells batches of SecUnits to other corporations or even private individuals, but they do a whole lot to scrub anything that might be useful for someone trying to reverse engineer how they make their SecUnits and probably (I don't know, I was only sold to Mensah, and I've never asked to see the sale contract) include something about only getting repairs from the company. This file is a whole trove of data about how company SecUnits work, how the company manufactures SecUnits, and how to repair pieces of us that only the company can make. And. Wait what? The company makes CombatUnits?

I check the B-E file, and it's the same thing. Fuck. And shit. And a few other expletives. I start doing a search through the file for other live corporations, but there's nothing. That might not be a big deal. I mean, companies like Palisade aren't likely to sell their elite, "obscenely wealthy corporate clients only" constructs to a company like ArguScylla. But it's a weird coincidence that the only live corporations they have data on are the company and B-E. You know, the companies that made me and the only other rogue SecUnit I know personally. That's the kind of coincidence that doesn't feel much like a coincidence.

There's a ripple through the feed that feels suspiciously like someone in here is deeply amused. I send out another pulse. Just a general hello, anybody there. This time, something responds. Threat assessment hits the metaphorical roof, and then Iris pings me, and I gather myself back together.

Update: location: CEO’s office. Threat assessment: you don't wanna know%.

We’re meeting the CEO. Any concerns? Anything I should try to get from him? she asks.

There's definitely something weird about their SecSys, but nothing we can just ask about, I tell her. Be careful.

She taps my feed to confirm, and then the situation gently gives up on being normal.

The CEO enters the room. Then the CEO enters the room, followed by the CEO entering the room, and (sure, why not) the CEO entering the room once more, for good measure.

SHIT. Am I glitching ? Hallucinating? What the —

What the fuck, Iris says in the feed. “Oh my goodness,” Iris says to the four CEOs.

Well. At least I'm not hallucinating.

CEO-second-from-the-left (CEO2) smiles at her. “Oh! Don’t worry about it. This is a security precaution.”

CEO-on-the-right (CEO4) explains, “A few years ago, some…. discontented employees attempted to remove me from my position. You know how these things go."

CEO2 gives a what-can-you-do sort of shrug and continues like he'd been the one talking to begin with, "However, their attempts came far too close to succeeding for comfort! After that, I commissioned a handful of aspiring construct development researchers to develop a set of SecUnits that could serve as both bodyguards and, if necessary, decoys. They're really quite useful! And far more intelligent than your average construct.”

CEO-farthest-left (CEO1): “So now you get to see my handsome face wherever you look!”

CEO-remaining (CEO3) sits down, and the others remain standing. “But I’m the real one, and the others are my SecUnits,” he says and winks at Iris. “See? I'm the one in the chair!”

Oh, ha ha. Yeah, I’ve never heard the “SecUnits can’t sit down” joke before.

CEO3 (actual name: Cerval) invites Iris to sit and folds his hands on the desk. To her credit, she manages to keep her face politely neutral and sit without looking too deeply disturbed.

"Now," Cerval says cheerfully. "What do you think of our facility so far?"

While he and Iris start in on stupid business small talk, I dive back into my hacking and… You know how they say “never hack angry”? Yeah.

I’m still irritated about the chair comment, and need to know why that SecSys just happened to let me into a file that just happened to have information about the company and B-E SecUnits, so I decide to do something really, really stupid. I reach out delicately to see how secure the CEO's feed link with his SecUnits is. I'm already in with SecSys, and if I can sneak in here I can probably manage a connection to their HubSys, and maybe get some more intel on exactly what the fuck is going on with their weird-ass SecSys. Their feed connection is, as it happens, pathetically easy to break into, but as soon as I do, I forget all about moving on to HubSys.

Humans, even augmented humans, use the feed differently than bots and constructs. For one thing, they don't have as much access. Also, their processing speed is painfully slow. But the biggest difference (and the one that's about to be really relevant here) is that bots and constructs communicate in data exchange languages that humans can't parse. Normally, the SecUnits' feed link to Cerval would be a lot of status reports flitting back and forth between them, while he was just a ghost presence on the edge of it, probably not even aware of what they were doing unless they deliberately send him a message.

What I actually find is all four of them chatting back and forth at literally inhuman speeds using SecUnit-specific data exchange protocols. I have exactly enough time to have an "oh shit" moment before they notice I'm there.

Cerval says, You really shouldn't have done that.

And then SecSys starts attacking the shit out of me. But because nothing in this fucking place can be normal, it attacks me by smashing through my walls and overwhelming my feed with incoming messages.

If you’ve never been the subject of a viral attack via overloaded feed, goody for you. It feels like a massive wave has suddenly rolled over you, scattering any thoughts you had, filling your nose and mouth, and flipping you ass over ears. (It's also, and I cannot stress this enough, really fucking embarrassing. Like, getting-the-shit-kicked-out-of-you-by-an-unarmed-human embarrassing.) All my inputs are washed away by the torrent of data. I can’t organize my brain enough to move. I can’t even tell Iris what’s happening.

Just to add insult to injury, the entire deluge is the absolute weirdest shit. Nonsense text, 6-second video clips, text bundles arranged into images. I’m literally drowning in a sea of stupidity.

In the middle of this, ART pings me. I try to reply, I don't know what I'm going to say, probably just "HELP" or something equally embarrassing, but SecSys has my feed locked down.

ART pings me again, and SecSys pings back about 300 times.

Then ART smashes into my feed. I've mentioned before, but ART is huge in the feed and can usually brute-force its way into other systems. It tries to lock SecSys down, but SecSys slips away and starts climbing all over ART, battering ineffectually against its walls. It's clearly not the slightest bit bothered by ART's sudden presence. If anything, it seems positively gleeful about it. I still have no access to my inputs or the feed outside my own head, but at least ART's in here now, and I can talk to it.

ART what the fuck is going on out there?

Iris is fine, it says, the CEO and his SecUnits have made no attempt to harm her. What the fuck are you doing in here?

You can see what the fuck I'm doing in here, I snap as another barrage of nonsense contacts washes over me. ART tries to delete SecSys, which would have kicked this whole situation up to a new level of shitshow, but SecSys brushes off the attack with what I can only describe as manic laughter and keeps scrabbling at its walls. What the fuck is this thing? Malware?

It is not malware, ART says. I believe this is some sort of sentient system.

What? The only sentient systems we've met before were the AdaCol systems. But this isn't like those. It hasn't made any attempt to contact me in a coherent way, and it's not using even the most basic machine language to communicate.

ART tries to grab SecSys and take control of it, but SecSys dodges again and sends back a barrage of messages to batter ART's walls. This this is beyond unhinged, verging into horrifying.

But its excitement about mobbing ART gives me the 0.5 seconds I need to send a message to Iris.

Iris! Get out of here! He's a SecU -

SecSys grabs me, and I'm back underwater with it.

Iris glances over at SecUnit, standing perfectly still behind her.

"Is something wrong?" Cerval asks, his friendly smile slipping into concern.

"No," she says slowly. "I was just thinking about your SecUnits. I've never seen cloned tissue from a living person used before. Aren't you worried about what could happen if they went rogue?"

Cerval still has that pleasant, light expression, but it's gone a bit fixed. "That's a very interesting question. It's a bit of a sensitive topic, honestly. I've found that it makes people outside the company a bit uncomfortable to talk about."

He glances at SecUnit as well, and then says, "Please, why don't you and consultant Rin come sit over here? I'll have someone bring tea for you."

Iris allows herself to be ushered to the chairs around the low table in one corner of the room. SecUnit doesn't move.

"Rin, come sit down," she says. It doesn't respond."Rin?"

She pings it. Nothing.

Peri?

The message she gets back is harried and irritated.

SecUnit and I are slightly busy at the moment, Iris. Keep him occupied while we deal with this situation.

It withdraws from her feed.

"Now, where were we?" Cerval says. "Oh, right. You were just asking whether I'm a SecUnit myself. Before we get to that though, would you mind telling me why you brought a CombatUnit with you, and what it's doing in my systems?"