Chapter 2 #2
She shouldn't be trying to defend me, especially not with a weapon that would injure her! She should run from the situation and leave me to handle it.
INF-GRA 32811 was visibly hesitating, and I knew I only had moments to act before his control chip forced him into motion.
I lifted my arm, dropping my weapon free from the cavity in my forearm and pointing it at him.
"There you are, Big Guy!" the human woman, Andrea, called as she came around the corner, her pace picking up when she spotted INF-GRA 32811. "I've been looking all over for you!"
"Leave," INF-GRA 32811 said, his voice carrying uncharacteristic agony. "Andrea, leave."
I messaged him.
he replied.
I understood because I was feeling the same fear.
He cared for the woman. He was terrified he was going to hurt her.
I closed the distance, putting myself physically in between Mei and him. If he attacked, I wouldn't be able to dodge; I would have to take the blows to prevent her from being hit.
"What are you all doing?" Andrea asked, putting her hand on his arm.
He looked down at that arm, his gaze fixated.
Then she pressed her entire body against him, wrapping her arms around him, pinning one of his arms to his side. He shuddered and closed his eyes, showing he was experiencing the beginning of a chemical overload. If he cared for her, his biological suppression system was likely going haywire.
I hadn't experienced such a thing, but Sigidi had and had written up a detailed report that he placed in our shared media storage to access.
The human women could repeatedly trigger our control chips into firing off biological suppression systems until we went into a forced repair coma to clean out the chemical cocktail.
The control chips didn't register their actions as hostile, just as an environmental nuisance.
The human Adesewa had informed the rest of the women during one of their meetings, so Andrea's actions were clearly the result of intelligent calculation.
"Talk to me," Andrea pleaded.
"Get away from him, Andrea," Mei said. "He still has a chip in his brain forcing him to do things. He is dangerous."
"Listen to her," INF-GRA 32811 said. "You're in danger if you get in the way of my orders."
"I'd never get in the way of your orders," Andrea said. "What do you need to do? I'll help you do it."
These human women were brilliant.
She was using her words to confuse his control chip further. It would label her as an asset, making it much less likely that he would be forced to hurt her.
"Prove it," INF-GRA 32811 said as he put one hand on top of her head. "Get your hands on my makeshift focused laser cutter."
So that was the secondary order that had allowed him to hesitate.
The pieces clicked together. First,, his control chip was likely forcing him to try to retake the ship, as that was standard procedure.
That was why he was in this hallway, as it was the only place that led closer to the ship's core.
As soon as he saw the tool Mei had built, his chip identified it as a useful way to cut through to the core faster, and issued the order to acquire it.
Then, when it identified that I was free, it issued a secondary order to disable me, creating a stack of orders to obey.
Since I hadn't taken hostile action, neither order was prioritized, and he had been able to hesitate long enough for the human woman to catch up with him and enact her brilliant plan.
A plan that became even more spectacular with every action she took.
Andrea dropped to her knees in front of him, unlatched the front of his armored trousers, and looked back over her shoulder to wink at Mei.
"If you don't want a show, it's time for you to leave," she said. "My man has needs."
Then she began to mate with him with her mouth.
There was a loud, sloppy sucking sound, and she gagged as she shoved her head forward on his length.
It was startling to watch. I was not aware that was how humans mated.
No media showed the proper flirtation rituals for establishing mate bonds with humans, and Sigidi didn't include that information in his detailed report.
Mei let out a strangled sound as she stared at them, wide-eyed.
"Is it normal for humans to mate in that manner?" I asked her. The shows available to watch in our shared media repository featured a wide variety of species, and I had seen a few romantically focused ones. Many ways to initiate mating existed, but most required privacy.
Mei looked up at me, her skin darkening in hue before she lifted her hand to cover her face, not answering.
Embarrassment, my body language subroutine reported.
A low, painful groan and the thud of INF-GRA 32811's body hitting the ground pulled my attention back to him. Andrea stood over him, her hands clutched into fists at her sides, breathing heavily.
"Why do you keep passing out?" Andrea shrieked at his prone body.
Didn't she already know that? I thought her actions had been calculated. If she hadn't been deliberately trying to disable him, what was she doing?
"Haven't you been listening to anything we've talked about in the group meetings?" Mei demanded.
"Those meetings are dumb," Andrea said, crossing my arms. "The men will figure that stuff out for us; we don't need to stress about any of that."
What a strange way to think.
"I don't understand you at all," Mei muttered, then let out a heavy sigh and looked up at the ceiling, and I couldn't help but nod in agreement with her statement.
"Do you know why he passed out?" Andrea asked me, her tone becoming higher in pitch as she focused on me. "What am I doing wrong?"
Her second question didn't make any sense, as she had done everything right, so I focused on answering the first question instead.
"You overloaded his biological suppression system," I replied.
"How do I not overload it?" she asked, making it clear she had no idea what she was doing. "I just want to make this good for him, and I can't if he keeps passing out."
"By removing his control chip," I said.
"Sara needs to do that," Mei said. "You'll have to take him to her."
"If Sara operates on him, then this will stop happening?" Andrea demanded.
"Yes, Andrea," Mei said, exasperated.
"Fine!" Andrea snapped. "I'll take him to Sara."
She stared down at the prone unit in front of her, then looked over at me, her tone rising in pitch again. "Can you carry him? He is far too heavy for me, and you're such a big, strong guy."
"I'll help you," Mei said before I could respond. "We can move him; we just need the proper tools. Find a floating tray. If there isn't one in a supply closet, you're going to have to grab the one that Lyssa's been using."
"Fine," Andrea said and walked off.
Mei looked at the tool in her hands and then up at me.
"Since you know what is wrong with this, do you know how to fix it?" she asked.
"You don't need my help with that," I said, pointing out the obvious.
It was clear from my observations that now that I'd pointed out the flaws, she was more than capable of fixing them and would prefer to do so herself.
But so she wouldn't think I was rejecting her request, I added: "But I will if you wish me to, as well as answer any questions you have. "
Her eyes narrowed.
"Why doesn't the ship want to talk to us?" she asked.
"I will show you," I told her.