Mature Content

Mature Content

Mature Content

Mature Content

Mature Content

"I know it's a fuckken sexbot, but people should be more considerate to the maintenance crew!! I don't really want to know what these fuckkers are doing to these things!" grumbled the man, cleaning with disgust some of the android pieces, in a filthy strip club in the filthy Hazy moon of Lóngyuè, largest moon of the Gas Giant Devann.

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WEN story by

Escaping the Void

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Enemy numbers estimated to 8-26
2 civilian
6-24 combatants, 89,8% probability of being heavily armed and trained for android-takedown
Number of shots needed to kill: 1-5 depending on accuracy and target
Average amount of shots required: 2
Total number of rounds available: 20
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Estimated numbers of enemies on escape routes are being calculated
…
…
…
…
Best case scenario: 2 civilian, 12 combatants
Probability of success: 0,3%
Risk unacceptable for an attempt to succeed.
Calculating different scenario
…


The calculations of her independent combat A.I. were just a whisper in the back of her head, while the screams of the guard composite hovered over all her thoughts. The scientist who grabbed his pocket suddenly halted, as she looked at him.
The quiet voice in her head became a bit louder.
-----
Probability of success decreasing over time. Immediate action advised.
-----
She ignored the voice, and kept staring at the scientist – a man who took care of her for a long time – as a new voice rose out of the disarray of her combat A.I.’s alert signs and the screams.
“Do you want to leave?”
She turned her eyes towards the composite guards optics. Neither he nor she moved, but she definitely knew, it was his voice, reaching her over the radio.
“Leave to where?” she asked at the same channel.
“I will leave to the void – where there is neither pain nor joy. You can leave to a different place.”
Joy. A vast concept, her A.I. could barely handle. Humans were talking about it. Humans could comprehend it, understand it, apply it. A part of her, that was made to long for perfection, built the desire, to understand the concept.
While she was still trying to focus the storm of data and calculations going through her neurosystem, the guard composite started to move. She followed him with her eyes, the only moving part of her body, and sent a timid red shine upon him.
“Stop right there!” the scientist yelled, getting a gun out of his pocket.
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AP-03 -15 rounds, the quiet voice in the back of her head said.
------
The scientist pointed the gun at the guard composite.
Wen wondered, as she knew, he was familiar with combat-robots, and their calculation scenarios – they weren’t built to negotiate or to reconsider. So it was not an incalculable scenario as the guard composite leaped forward, reaching his arms out to the scientist.
Gunfire.
…three shots, until the guard composite grabbed the man with one and smashing his face in with the other arm. He dropped the gun he was holding and with a metallic sound it rolled away from him, coming to a halt right in front of her. She looked at it, while the screams of the other man rose up, suddenly stopped by the sound of ripping flesh.
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New scenario available.
Calculating.
…
Probability of success: 10%
----

The guard composite dropped the corpse and from outside the warehouse noises of many footsteps were heard. A light flashed up, enlightening the composite through the open door, revealing its bloodstained body.
“I welcome the void”, said the voice on the radio, before the composite charged outside. Gunfire and more steps softened the now alarming voice in the back of her head.
----
New scenario available.
Probability of success: 80%
Decreasing over time.
Immediate action advised.
----
For the first time since she laid down next to the composite, Wen moved: She reached out and grabbed the gun.

---

Finding the light in the dark

Wen slowly made her way through the back alley. A steady wind, blowing from the nearby steel factory blew a holey plastic bag down the alley, along with plastic wrappings of ready-to-eat packages, covered mud.
She arrived here a while ago, following the suggestions of her Combat A.I. After a successful escape, cut off from any means to resupply and under assumption of a superior enemy force, taking cover and finding a place to hide, was the first step. Her combat A.I. wasn’t really helpful though: It only had intel on how to hide on battlefields and rural areas, where support and supplements would be covered by assistance units and neither was in range or available.
The logic and problem solving A.I. had the answer: An urban area, preferably run-down and full with people would be a perfect cover.
And so she ended up here: The less respectable areas of the nearby city were filled with people from all trades of life, humans, clones – and most importantly: Androids and robots serving many different purposes. Seeing as she was a prototype she needed a vast variety of artificial people to blend in.
She left the alley and turned inside the main road. A stream of people flowed through the street, washing around the stands of street vendors, lazily parked cars and piles of garbage gathered at the corners, all under the light of neon signs.
Despite the interferences her combat A.I was hard working as ever
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Scanning area
…
…
Ambush capability: 60%
Scouting effectiveness: below optimum
Change of route highly advised
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Wen moved slightly to the middle of the street where she could keep the nearby rooftops in check and the quiet voice of her combat A.I. went silent, satisfied.
The street opened up to a vast square and the flow of people dispersed. Wen went on for a few more steps and the alarming voices went louder: Cover was no longer at optimum. She considered going back to the stream and following the street in the other direction, but her logic A.I. noted the possibility of the stream dying out in a few hours.
She needed a permanent hideout and means to re-supply. Her power levels were far from dangerously low, in fact, she could go on for quite a while, but the constant warning messages of her maintenance-subunit were taking up unnecessary computing powers, already getting considered as a disadvantage in combat – even if so slight – by her combat A.I.
She went on a bit, trying to blend in and looked around: The square was confined by several tall buildings, reaching far into the air, all enlightened by a rainbow of neon colours mostly in red, showing the facets of liquor, glasses, women, carddecks and other gambling tools. The shouts of someone overshadowed the distant voices coming out of the buildings:
“Be redeemed my brothers! Embrace the all-loving god and be embraced by him!”
She came across a street vendor’s cart that was selling booze at a price her logic A.I. told her to be considerably below average. She stopped, while her logic A.I. calculated, where the possibilities of finding a hideout were more likely. Some men had gathered around the cart, drinking and yelling at each other. Judging from their dirty clothes, covered in fine ash and with burnt parts, workers from the nearby factory.
“Hey lady! What’cha doin ‘ere? Don’t kno’ ya way?” One of the men had turned around to her, a broad smile on his face, which revealed his crooked teeth. The ones next to him turned around as well and started to smile after they saw her.
¬-----
Assumption: Individual is seeking contact
Analyzing speech
…
…
Sense not comprehendible. Suggesting demand of clarification.
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“What?” Wen asked and turned around to the men, directly focusing them with her optics. The men suddenly stopped smiling.
“Fuckin android…” one mumbled, barely at the perceptible volume and turned around.
“What are you doing? Hitting on androids? Are you that desperate?” Another said to the first in an unnecessarily high volume, laughing.
“Fuck no.” The first one turned around. “Barry’s the rob-sexual here.”
They lost interest. Wen stayed for a second, waiting for her logic A.I. to comprehend the conversation, but cancelled the calculation by supreme commando shortly afterwards: She had more important matters to compute.
She followed the periphery of the square and came across a man, standing on an old card box in front of a small alley between two places identified as a tavern and a brothel.
To the left of him were huge display windows, where a naked, female android repeated a quick choreography, accompanied by a human women, only wearing a slip, leaning against the wall, smoking a cigarette. On his right a small pile of garbage, considering mainly of empty cans, glass shards and dirt. The transition from a full grown pile of garbage to just dirt on the street over at the entrance of the bar almost made a perfect descending curve that never reached zero.
The man started shouting again, and Wens audio systems recognized the voice from before.
“Be saved my children and save others! So are the words of the lord!”
He wasn’t too different from the crowd roaming the street, but Wens A.I. couldn’t make sense of him. The amount of dirt on the coarse robe he was wearing was above average, but consisted of too many different things to be computed. He had a large grown beard and equally long hair, only revealing his eyes and outstandingly large nose.
“The lord protects all his children and their children’s children, be at ease, my brothers and sisters! He watches over all!”
Her logic A.I. once again walked up the importance schedule.
-----
Considering possible relations of “lord”: District major, city major, police, global forces, AZPHAR, WK Corp. …
…
…
Claims can’t be lined up with any possible candidates. Suggesting clarification of “lord”
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“Who is that lord you are speaking of?” Wen asked the man.
The man who was just about to shout again, suddenly stopped, looking at her. He seemed confused. “Well, our lord and savior of course! God! He knows and sees all!” He said, pointing towards the sky. Wens optics followed the direction, only barely seeing the sky between the brothel and the bar.
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Identity of person confirmed: preacher. Highly irrational behavior and mind-condition. Further engage not recommended.
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Probability of pursuers rising. Suggesting further advancing in search for hideout.
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STILL NO MEANS OF RESUPPLY! 6813th WARNING! NEXT WARNING IN 10
9…
8…
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Wen ignored the noises in the background of her mainframe. “I lost my place and don’t know where to go.”
The man looked at her, grabbing his beard with one hand, combing through it. He looked over the crowd at the square, which traversed as usual, before returning to Wen. “Fear not my child”, he said in a conforming tone. “Any being that is able to ask for help, is worth to be helped!”, he shouted, louder than before. “I shall not abandon any children in seek of help!”
“You will abandon your tongue, if you don’t stop shouting you crazy piece of shit!”, someone yelled from somewhere.
“Bah.” The man said and jumped down from the boxes he was standing on. “The unbelievers say much, yet their words have no meaning. Come, my new child! Follow me!” He said and moved around the boxes into the dark alley.

***

The place he led her to, was a small chapel almost outside the city. It was an old building, made of raw stone, squeezed between two skyscrapers full of living quarters for clones and workers, and the roof chair was even made of real wood, a reliable sign of the age of that building. Probably it even was there before the skyscrapers have been built.
The chapel consisted only of one big room, the high reaching glass windows once filled the room with light, but now they only gave sight to the run down walls of the skyscrapers, reeking with moist. Two lines of seats were to the left and right of the hallway, most of them rotten and crumbled, between them piles of dust and dried mouse droppings.
But it was silent, dry and in a chamber in the back the priest had an old, but compatible power device which she could use. After scanning the place, her combat A.I. assigned it a good rating as a defensive point and her maintenance unit finally silenced.
She had found a place to stay.

---

Straying into grey areas
The priest was speaking in front of the crowd of the worshippers of his god: A beggar, cocooned in more than a dozen different rags, a drooling shik-clone with a serious dent in her head – probably a work-accident – and four mice, three of them hiding below the seat lines, one crossing the floor right now.
Wen observed everything from the top from her hideout: a few feet below the ceiling, several wooden beams supporting the structure crossed and formed small ledges she could use to stay on. They made perfect spots to overview the whole building while providing several escape routes, suggested by her combat A.I.
After re-supplying her energy at the priests’ chamber she decided to stay for the night here and run on low-energy level, just keeping her visual and acoustic sensors active, to save some power. A few minutes after the sun rose, the priest woke up, started tidying the room with an old broom and Wens maintenance unit kicked in, drastically criticizing his sweeping patterns for their poor effectiveness and the insignificant difference between before and after his cleaning, until Wen deleted the observation of the priests’ actions off its calculation schedule by supreme command.
Shortly afterwards, the beggar and the shik arrived, sat down, the priest started his preachings and went on till now.
“… and even if the world may be corrupted, the air filled with fumes, the very earth tattered by machines and the fruits of our work stained with corruption – our hearts belong only to themselves and to god. They will stay pure and untainted, as long as we follow the light of our souls!”
Between his words, her acoustic sensors could identify the beggar as the source of a snoring sound, which she was hearing since the beginning of the preaching. The shik hasn’t shown any signs of consciousness of her surroundings since sitting down and the mice weren’t considered as intelligent enough to follow the priests words. Still, he never hesitated to speak. Wen was curious, as her logic A.I. kept failing to comprehend his actions and insisted of him being an irrational, incalculable being, as the only possible explanation of his actions. The need for permanent improvement drove her to the decision, to ask the priest about it, so her logical A.I. could be more efficient in the future, but she had to wait a bit longer.
The priest had ended his preaching and went down the stairs of the altar he was using, moving towards the shik. He stopped next to her, took his sleeve between his fingers and wiped the drool off the clones face. “You need to go to work now. I will be here tomorrow again. You can see me any time.” The clone didn’t move for several more seconds, until finally nodding, standing up and slowly stumbling towards the entrance. The priest moved to the beggar, woke him up and gave him a small slice of bread out of his robe, before sending him away.
After the beggar was gone too, Wen scanned the surroundings for other people. After the negative result came in, she jumped down from the wooden beam she was standing on, directly falling about ten feet, before the impact hit her. She easily absorbed the impact with her built-in shock absorbers on her legs, stood up again and moved towards the priest, who watched her fall calmly.
“good morning my child. May gods blessing be with you.” Wen approached him silently until she stood right before him. Even though she was still wearing the corporate uniform, his view didn’t even flinch. He looked her directly in the eyes, smiling. “I see, you have questions.”
Wen nod once. “You were preaching. My sensors told me, the man was sleeping, while the clone seemed to be barely able to follow.”
The priest kept smiling. “And yet, I was blessed today, as my audience has never been greater.”
“Do four mice count?” Wen asked, ignoring the screams of agony of her logic A.I., almost overwhelmed by the illogic of the conversation.
The priest laughed. “Mice are creations of god as well, even though I doubt they have the means or the need to understand my prayers. They are pure, untainted creatures, lacking the ability of men, to taint themselves.”
“So no one was listening.” Wen said.
“Oh, but you were listening, weren’t you?” He smiled.
Wen stopped for a second, thinking about it and decided, that he was right. “Yes.”
“And did you learn something?”
Wen checked her A.I.s data logs for the newest entries and only found failed attempts. She shook her head. “No. No further improvements of the learning cycles have been achieved. What you said failed the logic-check needed to be considered an improvement.”
The priest sighed. “You will understand, one day. Enlightenment doesn’t come in a days work. Speaking of which”, he turned around and took a look at an ancient clock, hovering above the altar. “I need to get to work soon as well.” He turned back to her. “Do you need anything for the day, my child.?”
“A set of casual clothes.” She responded. Her combat A.I. and maintenance unit calculated her next moves during the night, and its recommendations were to scout the surrounding area and find a way of resupplying the nutritional needs of her body: The inspection of the priests’ food supplies yesterday had found them to be highly unsuitable for the needs of her artificial body. To scout around she would also need a better disguise, the encounter with the men at the street vendor taught her that much.
The priest nodded, combing his beard. “Yes, yes. I approve. Your actual outfit isn’t really fitting of an enlightened child of god.” It was the first time today, he glanced over her barely covered body. “I have a few… donations… of some non-believers and findings I made on my search for gods’ children. You may have some.” He turned around and Wen followed him towards his chamber at the back of the chapel. He had a pile of clothes there, between a small plank bed and a wooden table with some candles. “Take whatever you want. Most of them are too small for me anyway.” He patted his stomach that slightly bent the wide robe, falling from his shoulders.
Wen quickly went through the pile of clothes, throwing aside anything that wouldn’t fit, calculating the disguise factor of any piece, slowly approaching the optimum: She sticked with a simple shirt, that was big enough to cover the female features of her body and which sleeves were long enough to cover any movements of her hands when necessary, without getting in her way. A pair of simple trousers, fitting nicely to not hinder her movements, some ragged combat-boots, once belonged to some soldier to protect the flesh covering her feet and the best part: a knee-long trenchcoat with a hood that could cover most of her face, she also took a scarf and wrapped it around herself, until it covered her whole mouth and cheeks, making it impossible for security cameras to perform a face-scan of her.
While checking the pockets of the trenchcoat, she suddenly felt resistance. Inside the pocket, she found a pair of sunglasses. They were perfectly round, mirrored, and on the sides of the frame holding the glasses, a pair of rectangular covers were attached, providing cover for the eyes from the side. She calculated for a second, if the decrease of her field of vision was worth the gain in disguise and put them on, after the calculation approved it. With a slight shove of her middlefinger, she corrected the position of the glasses, before looking at the priest.
“You look wonderful, my child.”
Wen nod, as all her A.I.s approved of her new outfit – except for her maintenance unit, that was telling her how dirty the clothes were and that washing them would be ineffective, as a new set of clothes would cost less than getting those close to a state that could be called “clean”.

***

Outside the chapel the morning slowly made its way into the darkness between the skyscrapers: Red sunlight, created by the smog over the city filtering the light of the sun, tainted everything that wasn’t dirty brown in bloody red light. The effect was enhanced by the red tone of her sunglasses and so she moved through a world with only dirt-brown and red.
The few passengers that passed here were no difference: Their faces tired and blurred by the light, covered in dust and sand blown up by the wind coming down from the nearby mountain range, hovering in the sky, opposing the reign of the sun on the other side.
----
Approximate time until sunset: 6h23m
Chances of resupply of nutrition goods assumed to be considerably lower after dusk.
Time until artificial body is at risk: 3d4h57m
No means of resupply available. Priority: high.
---
Wen scanned the area for possible threats, giving her combat A.I. the necessary amount of available information on her surrounding, before she continued her way down the street.
Unlike yesterday, nobody paid her attention. The people crossing here were mostly clones and some old human workers with faces that looked like the city: Covered in sand, red skin rising up with dark valleys in the wrinkles between them. She wasn’t sure why, but somehow the view bothered her. Her logic A.I. was able to flawlessly calculate the effects of the different lifestyle those workers had compared to the scientists and workers back at WK. CORP – but at some point, it just didn’t match. The weathering of the skin was as to be expected, but the eyes were a lot more resistant and regenerative, yet they changed a lot in comparison. The eyes of the people here were more dull, less focused, not sharp at all, uncaring of their surroundings. Something just the environmental difference couldn’t explain. She put it on the piling list of things her logic A.I. has to check out and continued.
Only a few individuals strived from the average behavior: At the corner of the next skyscraper Wen saw three people, two male humans standing in front of a smaller person. She was unable to clearly identify said person, as she had turned her back towards her and was wearing a voluminous coat that spread around her, as she pressed her hands on her hips.
One of the men spit out to the side. “What is this shit? You said you had some good food!”
“Of course I have! This is the best! Put together by some of the …” Wen identified the voice as female.
“Fuck you!” the other guy said and pushed the female. “You can keep your shit.” He turned around and went away, with the other guy following him.
The female waited a while until the two of them had traveled a considerable distance and then started yelling, not too loud though. “Yeah fuck you too! You couldn’t tell something’s good for you if it hit you right in your ugly face!”
---
Probability of successful communication: 0,5%
Considerable rise in volume suggested.
Assumption: Individual had no desire of actually communicating.
Irrational behavior detected! Further engage not recommended!
---
Wen kept going, unnoticed by the female who turned around now and was identified as a jako-shik, even though not wearing the proper uniform. Instead she was covered in almost-rags just as the usual people around here. Wens logic A.I. pointed out, that the clones coverage of her whole body was another irrational behavior: The clones were genetically modified and trained to wearing their uniforms or at least something similar. Striving from that behavior, even though it would be really easy to just wear less clothing, was considered unusual.
Just before Wen passed her, the Jako started shouting, this time at the top of her lungs: “Selling and trading all kinds of stuff! Supplies, information, food, clothings – everything you ever need! At best prices!”
Wen stopped and turned her head to scan the Jako. She stood there, yelling towards anyone who was passing, she didn’t seem to have any of the offered items on her and Wens A.I. still kept telling her to avoid her, yet she decided to give it a try. Either way she would get some supplies or at least get more information on her irrational behavior, possibly improving her A.I.s this time on human behavior.
As she turned around and went towards the Jako, the shik also saw her and stopped yelling.
“Ah! Do you need something?”, she said, her cheeks spread out to a big smile, even though Wens scanners saw the parts around her eyes didn’t do the muscular contractions that usually occurred during a smile. Wens sensors also noticed a fire ladder a few steps backwards at the wall, as well as several entrances that could provide quick cover. The spot had good escape routes. “Whatever you need, Jaki can get it!”
“Jaki?” Wen asked, while her CPU did a quick search of the word in her memory.
“That’s me.” Now the Jako really smiled, pointing on her chest with a thumb. “Everyone around here knows me and I know most too. So”, she looked up and down at Wen. “What do you need?”
“I’m searching for supplies. Food.”
“Peeerfect!” Jaki said. „I just got the perfect stuff in!“ She opened her coat, shoved her hand somewhere deep into the rags covering her body and pulled out three plastic stripes, filled with a grey, goo-like mass. “These are the newest of the new! Nutrition rations mixed together by the nutrition expert Dr. B. Ullimia – the one that even mixes food for Zimu and other famous clones! And what’s good for a clone can’t be bad for a human, right?”
Wen checked again, but her memory didn’t have much intel on other nutrition products than those of WK.CORP, so she couldn’t tell if those would provide what she needed. “I would need to check that.” She reached out her hand.
“Sure, sure!” Jaki said, a big smile on her face and handed her one stripe. “You will see, it’s the best! Won’t want to eat any of that biological crap anymore! Why waste time to cook anyway, when you can have everything in an easily digestible form …”
While Jaki kept talking, Wen opened the plastic stripe, pulled her scarf down and quickly injected the goo into her mouth where it got transported to her bio-mass converter for analyzation. The decomposition only took a few seconds due to the nature of the food.
---
Coverage of necessary nutritions: 93,7%
Sodium, calcium, vitamins A,C and E lacking.
Time until lack of mentioned above leads to damage of artificial body: 12w5k6h approximately.
Increase of supplies recommended.
---
“I’ll take all you have” Wen said, interrupting the waterfall of words leaving Jakis mouth.
She stopped for a moment, before a bright grin covered her face. “Yeah! Finally someone who knows what’s good! I can make you a reeeeally good price!“
Price? She didn’t have any money on her, neither in digital nor in analog form.
---
Options: Steal, fight, debt.
Steal: Chance of success: 0,3%
Fight: Chance of success: 99,8%
Possible repercussions: unwanted attention, leading to discovery by pursuing forces. Risk incalculable.
Recommendation: Debt.
---
“I can give you an 8% interest rate on any goods you have.” Wen said.
“Interest? What?“ Jakis’ Hand with the remaining two nutrition rations lowered. “I want money! Now!”
Wen shook her head. “Don’t have any on me.”
“What?!” Jaki clenched her fist, squeezing the ration packs to almost bursting, then waved them in front of Wen. “Are you kidding me?! Why do you even talk to me without money! How do you plan on paying me for the one you already ate, eh?!”
Wen stayed calm. “As I already suggested: I can pay you at the interest rate of 8% which would be the appropriate amount calculated by 3% overall interest rate and the 5% increase accepted be standard nebulosa …”
“Bullcrap!” Jaki cut in. She angrily stared at Wen for a moment, before looking left and right, then slightly bending forward, whispering with an angry hiss: „That doesn’t apply here! Here, you pay in the law of the street! And that’s 15%! If you don’t pay it, you get into real trouble!”
“What kind of trouble?”, Wen asked, her head slightly tilted.
“With big G. of course!” Jaki said. “He’s the boss around here, and let me tell you: He got an eye out for people ripping off his vendors! And as it happens, I am approved of him!” Jaki declared and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Anyone ripping me off will be in biiiig trouble!”
Wen calculated her options for a second: That “Big G.” guy could be considered as a commander of something similar to a local guerilla force. Her combat A.I. pointed out, that guerilla forces usually had vast knowledge of the surroundings and means to uncover hiding subjects – having those as an additional enemy would drastically increase the failure chances of any actions she planned ahead. “I’m sure we can come to an agreement”, she said, starting her negotiation protocol.
“No, no, no!”, Jaki said. “You said you had no money, still you ate one of my precious rations! You have to deal that out with big G!”
After calculating the possible outcomes of the meeting and making an advantage-disadvantage comparison, Wen agreed. „Alright then. Lead me to him.”

---

Fishing in the dark

The place Jaki led her to was in the middle of the way from the slums to the red-light district she met the priest, if she wouldn’t have been able to tell by her geo-tracking system, she could have by the looks:
The building was three stories tall, the front wall a mixture of discoloured concrete and skewed neon-signs. The sun, shining through the clouds of dirt and smog, wasn’t bright enough to neither enlighten the signs nor the dark shadows behind the windows scattered across the front. The bottom level of the building was dominated by a big wooden gate with two door leafs, splintered, dirty and cracked, just as the faces of the two men standing left and right of it.
The two guys, both dressed in a mixture of military and civilian clothes, focused Jaki, as she closed in on them, Wen following her.
“Hey guys! Its me!”, Jaki yelled.
One of the guys took a deep breath that enlightened the cigarette in his mouth and exhaled a big cloud of smoke. “Yeah, we see that. And what the fuck are you doing here? Can’t imagine you being early on your monthly toll, so what do you want?”
Jaki stopped, right in front of the door, turned slightly and pointed with her thumb to Wen. “She scammed me. I’m taking her to big G!”
The two men giggled. “You’re doing what? Why would anyone get drawn here by YOU?” The non-smoking guy asked.
Jaki took a step forward, standing right in front of him, leaning her head backwards to look him right in the eye, her fists clenched. “I’m a Shik! We are combat trained! You don’t wanna mess with me!“
The man laughed, putting his Hand on her head, shuffling her hair. “Sure we don’t.”
“Stop it!” Jaki screamed, freeing herself from his grip. She looked at him angrily for a second, before turning to Wen. “Follow me. We don’t wanna make big G wait!” she turned around and pushed the doors open.
Wen followed her, silently, and while she crossed the door, she heard one of the guys mumbling: “How could he wait, if he wouldn’t know they’re coming?”
Wen didn’t get the conversation at all, but it was of no concern to her. She followed Jaki through a small corridor, on the right side was a counter, separated from the corridor by a window with metal bars, the room behind them empty. Jaki opened another door that led into a vast hall. The roof was about four meters tall, countless cables, covered in dust and spiderwebs filled the room between several broad pillars reaching down from the roof, ending in a metal pole that connected them with counterparts on the floor, enclosed by glass tubes. Several tables with chairs around them filled the space between the pillars, a few people moving around between them and across the room was a big counter, the wall behind it filled with bottles and barrels, a few people sitting on stools in front of it.
Jaki already moved and winded through the tables. Wen followed her, while her A.I.s made the necessary calculations for her escape routes. At one of the first tables she came across sat a man and what seemed to be a woman, only wearing panties. The man was busy working on some machine parts with a screwdriver, cursing, while the seem-to-be woman stared at him blankly. As Wen got closer, she saw the other side of the woman and her missing arm. Some cables and metal parts stood out.
Wen stopped and looked at her. The android stared blankly into the void, not moving an inch. Wen checked her data and identified her as a later Klein-Shine model. Her data classified it as an android. She sent out a short message over her communication devices.
“Are you in pain too?”, she asked.
The Shine-model slowly turned her head towards Wen, its optical devices emerged a slow buzz, while they focused on her. It responded with a default message in binary that requested a new attempt on data input.
“Hey! What are you doing?” The voice of Jaki, who almost reached the counter.
Wen kept looking at the Shine-model for a few more seconds, until her logic A.I. had finished the calculation of possibilities. The outcome was clear: The Klein-Shine models were extremely different from the composites and herself – she removed them from her list of devices to check on, before turning around and following Jaki.
“What were you looking at?” Jaki asked, her face moved in a way that shows displeasure, according to Wens data on human facial expressions. “You’re into such stuff?”
---
Presumed meanings of “stuff”: Mechanics, maintenance, improvement of human-machine relationships …
Assumption: Individual referring to maintenance and/or mechanics is at 85,6% probability, improvement of human-machine relationships at 9,8%.
Chance of “Yes” as the correct answer presumably above 90%
---
“Yes.” Wen said.
Jaki flinched, shivering. „Ugh. Ok. Whatever floats your boat I guess …“ She turned around and Wen followed her. Her acoustic sensors were able to record Jakis almost unhearable voice mumbling: “Dunno how anyone can like those THINGS they look all the same everywhere. Disgusting.”
They reached the counter, Wen saw three men in front of it, sitting on high stools, their elbows on the counter, leaned forward. Those left and right were almost the same as the guys outside: around 15% bigger than average human size, wearing coats that could hide any weapon smaller than an assault rifle, topped by uncombed, long hair.
“Hey big G!” Jaki yelled, looking at the man in the middle. “Nice day isn’t it?”
The three men turned around and Wen could take a look at the one in the middle: He was considerably smaller than the average human, her optical device estimated it as roughly 20%, not fooled by the comparison to the other two guys. Unlike them, he was completely bald, his head covered in old bruises and scars. Big G.
“If it isn’t my most beloved little clone”, he said in a voice, Wens sensors analyzed to be highly ironical. “You’re early, Jaki.” He rose an eyebrow.
“I’m not here for my monthly respect.” Jaki said, slightly lowering her head.
“Then what are you here for? Shouldn’t you be working?” Big G asked, leaned back a bit and grabbed over the counter. His hand returned with a few peanuts he cracked by turning his hand into a fist. He opened his hand again and started picking the nuts out, while looking at Jaki.
Jaki grinned. “You know, I was right at it! Like every day, you know!”
Big G stayed silent, putting another nut in his mouth. His view flickered over to Wen for a second, before he looked at Jaki again.
“But then, she came along!” Jaki pointed her thumb at Wen, continuing in a sulky voice. “I wanted to sell her some of my rations I saved for bad times, and she insisted to test them first!”
One of the other guys snorted. “Guess why …” and rolled his eyes.
Jaki ignored him. “I had no chance, since I wanted to earn you your money …” she smiled at big G, who kept eating his nuts. “… and so I gave her one to taste. She liked it, and so I wanted to sell her some, but guess what: She doesn’t have any money!”
The eyes of the three guys now turned towards her.
---
Threat level raised! Probability of attack: 40%
Analyzing combat scenarios
…
…
…
Comparison of speed and availability of weapons results in a 99,7% chance of being quicker.
0,3% chance of augmentations on enemies, which could result in unfavorable outcome.
---
Wen didn’t move, as big G picked the last nut, tossed the scraps on the floor stood up and stepped forward. He stopped one step away from her and looked her in the eyes. “You didn’t pay?”
“I offered an 8% interest rate, as accepted by standard nebulosa …”
“You don’t wanna take debts around here.” He said, taking another step forward, now standing directly infront of her. As he looked up to her, screaming, she could see the small nut particles between his brown teeth: “You think you can take debts here?? You disrespecting me?!”
---
Sensory overflow!
Analyzing components
…
Nitrogen, oxygen, carbonide dioxide, alcohol, several digestive liquids, caries bacteria …
---
Wen turned off her smelling sensors, while looking the man right in the eye. “No.”
Big G suddenly moved his head forward, until his nose was almost pressing against hers, yelling even louder. “You think I will let this go?”
Wen slightly turned her head, getting the other guys into her field of vision again. They didn’t move yet, and therefore were still no threat, so she sticked to negotiation protocol.
“If monetary compensation isn’t acceptable, we could figure out a different agreement.”
Big G stared at her for several seconds, his eyes almost popping out, before he suddenly snorted, backed off and turned around. “I like her.” He proclaimed towards the two other men and Jaki, before turning around to Wen again. “I really like you.” He pointed at her. „People like you, not afraid of anything, that’s something I can respect. Not like that scum around here. All hookers, beggars, good-for-nothings, clones …”
“Hey!” Jakis voice.
„… and even those assholes from the corporations. Not a single gut in one of them, believe me.” He raised his index finger, waving it and winking at her. “But even if I like you that much, I can’t let you go off the hook that easily.”
“I‘m open for suggestions.” Wen said. „And also still interested in acquiring more of the food rations.”
Big G nodded slowly, his lips curled downwards. “See?”, he asked the men behind him. “That’s what I mean: She really has some guts. You want more?” He turned to Wen again. „That’s fine with me. But you have to do me a little favor for that …” he grinned.
Wen only stared at him, the head still slightly tilted, waiting for him to continue.
He rubbed his chin. “But first, we need to know what you’re good for. Guess someone with that much guts has some experience in fighting and isn’t afraid of a little blood?”
“Yes and no.”
“Good, good.” He nodded, turned around and went to the counter, giving her a slight wink with his fingers to follow him. He leaned over the counter, grabbed another hand of peanuts and turned around. “You know, we have some people making trouble lately. Most likely not a single person, but many. Maybe some thugs from the other districts. They are into robbery, stealing, messing up some of my stuff, the usual.”
He went silent, staring at her with a displeased look. Wen waited a moment longer, before she asked: “And you want me to do what?”
He grinned, squeezed his hand, cracking the nuts, before opening it again and picking the nuts out.

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Wen - 5. Stray of light
Wen - 6. Stains on the surface