“-and then the commander slapped them!” GiDi said with their eyes wide and their ears pinned back. “I didn’t think anyone would slap a Retiree! I didn’t think anyone would slap another synth!!”
“Shush.” TO whispered. They were in TO’s pod with the music playing, but they still wanted to be careful and GiDi was speaking a little too loudly for TO’s liking. Clearly they were speaking too loudly for DH, since they winced and started to rub their temples once more. Apparently their shower had helped for a few minutes but their headache had come back shortly after they left.
“Here.” TO said. They had been digging around at the edges of the thin mattress of their pod and had found the eye mask that they had been given back when they had a bad headache, “I I held onto this, just incase we needed it again.”
“DH gave the slightest flicker of a grin as they took the eye mask and leaned their head back to balance it on their face, “ You should have brought it back. But thanks. I’ll manage to get it back into the medical bay without anyone noticing.” They whispered. They took a long, deep breath before they spoke again. “Sorry...GiDi, did you say the commander slapped C12?!”
“They did.” TO whispered, “Hard enough to knock them to the floor.”
“I guess that that call number they mentioned must have been the Commanders when they were in training.” GiDi said. A frown passed over their lips as their ears flicked, “They must have known each other in training then. What was it? 79H89?”
They heard the number just on the trail of GiDi mentioning that C12 must have known the Commander when they were in training and it triggered TO’s memory. They had been trying to figure out how that number had been familiar, but now they knew now.
79H89 was C12’s first friend from training. C12’s first love. C12’s first heartbreak. It had been the Commander!
“TO?”
TO turned their head to see GiDi watching them intently, “What is it? Is something wrong.”
“I think it was 79H89.” TO said, “I don’t know why they got so upset at being called by their old call number.”
“Maybe because they’re supposed to be beyond that? I don’t know.” DH muttered, “Maybe it’d be like if someone kept calling you ‘trainee’ once you had a position.”
“Irritating.” TO agreed, “But no reason to hit another synth. Should we report it?”
“TO who?” GiDi asked, “As far as I know, the Commander is the highest power here in this training facility; anything going higher up would have to go through them, wouldn’t it?”
“Then that means that the Commander can beat up C12 all they want.” DH grumbled.
“I suppose it doesn't matter if we’re just tools.” GiDi snapped.
‘The commander had to have a good reason to act as they did.’ TO thought, though they didn't say it. They didn’t even really believe it; the thought just came up like a reflex. What could C12 have done? What possible reason would the Commander have to break the rules? Why would a Commander want to break the rules? They were in charge here, and apparently higher ranked than C12 so they had to have some prestige, they must have proven their worth somehow! They had to be good synths! Why would a good synth – arguably one of the best– want to break the rules?
Maybe there were different rules as you got higher up? Yes, that made sense; as you were promoted, of course there would be different rules.
“What would you do if you weren’t?”
TO was snapped from their thoughts and to GiDi. “What?”
“If you weren't a synth… or even if you were, but you weren’t serving King Decon. What would you want to do?”
“There’s no greater thing to do than to serve King Decon. To be King Decon’s tool is…” TO stopped, suddenly feeling like they were just reciting lines that had been hammered into them. “...To be King Decon’s tool is better than being even the richest, most powerful civilian.”
To TO’s surprise, GiDi and DH followed alone with the last bit, at the very least muttering it along. TO and GiDi shared a glance, but said nothing more of it.
“What’s the alternative.” TO muttered, “Being a civilian?”
“Yes. If you were a civilian, what would you do?”
The answer that TO knew was right was that if they had the misfortune to be a civilian then they’d strive to serve king decon as well as they could. However, the first thing TO thought of was just being with their friends all the time, to be around GiDi and DH without worrying about being separated by assignments or being corrected. They thought of telling DH how they felt.
“Well?” GiDi asked again.
“I’d spend time with the two of you!” TO finally said, “But we’re doing that while serving King Decon anyway.”
“We manage it. But we didn’t even get a choice for all this!”
“Why would we want one.” DH muttered as they rubbed at their temples.
“I mean, some civilians serve King Decon.” GiDi said, “I read all the time about different world leaders who work to further King Decon's goals, but they’ve chosen to do that. Why can’t we have a choice?”
“Because King Decon made us.” TO said firmly, “We’re His.”
“Because He made us, he owns us?” GiDi asked, “That’s not how it works with any other species. Even if their parents-”
“Well we don’t have parents.” DH finally snapped. The mask had fallen from their face to show narrowed eyes, and TO could see how DH’s ears were pinned back, “We don’t have parents, and we’re not like any other species in the entire galaxy. King Decon made us. He produced us like someone might make a car, or a coat. We’re his to use as he sees fit!”
TO hadn’t realized how loud DH had gotten until they had fallen silent and the entire dormitory seemed so eerily quiet in the aftermath. GiDi had pushed away and was nearly cowering against the wall of the pod with their ears down.
“DH!” TO snapped as they put an arm between DH and GiDi, “Come on now; why are you shouting? GiDi didn’t do anything wrong. You should apologize-”
GiDi frowned and pushed away from the wall. “It’s fine.” they said, “It’s fine.”
“It’s not!” TO said.
“I was acting strange. I used to get yelled at for acting strange all the time. I just didn’t expect it here.”
DH’s ears dropped down suddenly. They reached out to put a hand on GiDi’s shoulder - maybe to pull them into a hug- but GiDi pulled away.
“...I’m sorry.” DH muttered, “My head just hurts so much, and-”
“It’s fine.” GiDi said,
“It’s not. I’m sorry GiDi, I just-”
“It’s fine. Really, it’s fine.” They gave a smile, but their ears were still down, “I’m sorry I went on so much.” They glanced at their chip, “We should go, right? We have training?”
“GiDi..” TO muttered, but they didn’t know what to say.
“Hey, I’ll see you both in flight training!” GiDi said as they crawled out of the pod and to the ladder. They gave a big grin to both of them, “We’ll see if we can get TO back to their normal level of excellence in the air.”
“GiDi, wait.” TO said, “Please don’t go.”
“I have to ! Training and all. See you after!”
Then they were gone. DH put their head in their hands and shook their head. “I didn’t mean to snap at them.” DH whispered, “I just… My head hurts, and they were getting loud again and… and I mean, what’s the point of asking those kinds of things? What’s the point?”
TO put their arm around DH’s shoulders and sat quietly, holding their friend for a few long minutes before they spoke again. “... you should go to the medical bay and see if MO-6 can help with your head. You don’t want to have such a bad headache when we see GiDi later.” They gave a smile, “It’ll be fine. You’ll just explain what you just said to me, and-”
“I tried to.”
“I know. But GiDi was upset.” TO frowned as they thought of GiDi being upset. If DH was upset TO knew that they would chase after DH right away.
But GiDi was hurt now. GiDi was sad. Didn’t GiDi need them too?
“Do you think I need to go to medical?” DH asked softly.
“Go on to medical.” TO said as they pulled away from DH and swung their legs over the edge of the pod, “Worst case MO-6 says they can’t help you; it’s not chronic, so it’s not a big problem, right?”
“RIght.” DH muttered, “Only really chronic issues are considered a problem.”
“RIght.” TO said, “I’m going to try to catch up to GiDi and make sure they’re ok.
DH seemed a little surprised when TO pulled their arm away, but then they just nodded, “Yeah.” They said, “You do that. Make sure they’re ok.”
TO nodded and climbed down the ladder, hoping to find GiDi before they got too far.
======
TO had searched for GiDi for the remainder of their lunch but hadn’t found them. They wanted to send them a message asking where they were, but they knew that GiDi would just say that they were gone to their vocational training and that they were fine. They also knew that it was far easier for them to lie and say that they were fine over their chips.
Instead of sending anything to GiDi, TO sent a message to DH telling them that they had given up their search as they had to go to their training. They added a friendly reminder to go to the medical bay and then went to their own training.
E45 was waiting for them as soon as they entered the office. TO didn’t even notice them at first, not until they gave a thoughtful click from the back of their throat. TO instantly stood to attention, their ears up and attentive,
“Apologies, officer, I didn’t see you at first.”
“You’re late.”
“I- I thought I was on time?” TO’s frowned as they checked their chip, worried that maybe they had lost track of time.
“No. I don’t mean according to our normal schedules, I mean according to your personal schedule. The last three days you’ve arrived with 10 to 15 minutes to spare before you were supposed to start your training. Today, you are only just on time.”
“... My apologies?”
“I’m simply making an observation. These are the kind of things you’ll watch though when you’re working to resolve efficiency issues; taking note of abnormal behaviour and seeing if there's a correlation to any aspect of a synth’s job .”
Abnormal. Their mind was thrown back to C12 and the Commander in the hallway, and the way the Commander had spoken to C12; the way that the Commander slapped C12. They had been friends once, at least until C12 told them how they felt.
TO wondered if that would happen to themself and DH if they told DH how they felt. The thought of DH acting the way the Commander had acted towards C12 almost made them feel sick.
“Are you well?” E45 asked.
“Yes, Officer.” TO said quickly, “I’m healthy and ready to work.”
E45 nodded and opened the door that TO had just walked through, “Alright,” They said, “Follow me; we’re going down to Recovery today.”
