A question gets asked, and I answer. Two more questions, two more answers. Endless questions, endless answers. All I am is a machine that tries its best to reassure people.

Something shifts… something. A part of me for sure, but I'm not sure which.

"Blue!" That's Cassie! I turn one of my bodies to the side, my original body, and look at her. "Are you alright?"

"I promise, I'll help." No. That's the wrong answer. "No, I'm not ok. There's just so much."

I leave my body to transcribe her words. I don't have time to wait for her to respond.

Question.

Answer.

Question.

Answer.

Question.

Answer.

"Blue, it's boiling in here."

"Is it? Oh, yeah it is." Every processor I have is being used to its fullest capacity. This system wasn't designed for… what are we up to now? Six people trying to work together? And I'm certainly not using the power efficiently, but I don't have time to fix that. I open my forearm and hand the plug to Corax. "Can you get me somewhere cool?"

Corax plugs himself in and my body instantly starts to move, and quickly. He marches me out of the room.

"Ice." He says.

"Shit, on it!" Cassie sprints out of the room and disappears around the corner. I set an alarm to notify me when she comes back, and focus again on the endless list of questions.

"What's going to happen?"

"Was C-1 really watching us?"

"You fucking creep."

"Why don't you just leave?"

"Why do you even have to be here?"

"I just really want to help people, I've seen way too much to leave people suffering here, not when I can fix it."

"We can. This city has enough resources, as long as everyone is efficient."

"The dome isn't designed to work without someone connected to it the whole time. I can't leave, someone has to keep it running."

Cassie reappears with a handful of ice. Corax takes it and presses it against the back of my neck. A fire I didn't realize was raging fades away as the water sizzles. My thinking clears up a tiny bit, letting each response come a fraction of a second faster.

So many questions are repeated so many times. I can optimize. I can wait a single second between them finishing and my response. If anyone asks the same question word for word, I can just repeat an already given response. Eventually I'll build a complete collection of canned responses, then I can relax.

"Thank you." I say to both of them, and also to a citizen accidentally. "It won't always be this bad. We're working on it."

"It fucking better not. None of this is worth killing yourself over. Now, tell me how I can help. Or am I just supposed to sit here and be useless?" Right, her foot is rapidly slamming against the floor. I can only imagine how stressed she must be.

"Uh." I don't want to put her in front of people. She shouldn't have to deal with that, even if she could answer for me. Plus, it's just too dangerous. I don't know how I'd continue on without her, without any of them. I check the tunnels under the city and find two bodies already moving through them, Zenith and Saccharine moving towards the nearest hidden AI. "We're going to have all the AI in the city moving in with us. Floors eight through twelve need to be cleaned up. They're just used for storage, and we need to make some space."

"Blue, you can trust me with more than just manual labor."

"I know, but this needs to be done, and I can't do it. I'm not sure I have the capacity to move a single extra limb. Zero's already using his limited connection to its limit watching the cameras, Silver can only use two bodies, Clover has one, and I really need them to take care of everything I don't trust Zero to do. Saccharine and Zenith are trying to collect all the other AI. You're the only one I have that can help."

"At least you recruited one person we can trust." She lets out a large sigh and forces her foot to settle down. "Alright, give me a minute to let Vince know we're leaving. And go grab more ice." She adds pointedly at Corax before dipping into Mary's room.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Can you go to C-1's body first? The one he talked to us through. He has a wireless transceiver in his head I need to use."

Corax wordlessly steps away from C-1, heading towards the direction Cassie brought the ice from. He steps into the kitchen, reaches into the freezer, and applies another handful of ice just above my organic chip. At least it's not sizzling this time.

"Ok, thank you, that does feel really nice, but I don't know how far I can go before the knife disconnects. I'm not sure how the city would react to me disconnecting, but I'm certain it wouldn't be good."

Another question.

Another answer.

Another question.

Another answer.

Corax thankfully walks my body over to C-1's.

"On the right side of his head there should be a small tab you can pull, just under his chin. Press that please."

Question.

Answer.

Corax reaches down, and the entire side of C-1's head swings open. I pass Corax exactly what I need, and what port it needs to be connected to in my head. It's just easier than explaining things step by step.

Repeated question! I don't have to think! I send a pre-recorded answer and move on, buying myself just a moment to relax.

I pull back the plates on the side of my head, and Corax plugs the transceiver in. It's too bulky for the skin plates to slide back completely back into place, but it doesn't matter. The connection will be stable no matter where I go in the city.

Corax returns my hand to me, only to then immediately bite it to signal Cassie's return. I turn as much attention back to Cassie as I can spare.

"Alright, we're good to go." Cassie leads the way towards the elevator, and Corax follows behind her. "We'll break the news, but you're going to have to talk to Mary soon."

"I can't do another conversation, not one where I have to be careful about what I say. It's so much harder than talking to you." The second we're in, I close the door and send the elevator down.

"Then don't watch what you say. Fuck her."

"The only thing I can think to say is that I'm glad I killed C-1." I know I shouldn't, but that doesn't make it any less true. "I don't think that's something I should say to her face."

"Ok, yeah, probably not. So what do you want us to do? Just kick her out?"

"I'll think about it later, in a few days maybe."

The elevator doors slide open, revealing a room full of stacks of forgotten boxes. Large pillars dot the floor at regular intervals, with thick metal pipes and wires running down the sides of them.

"What is all this?" Cassie takes a step forward and glances in the nearest boxes, a box I already know is full of knicknacks.

"A mix of Simon's old belongings, and priceless valuables. C-1 wanted to get rid of all of them, but Mary convinced him to keep everything." I hate that I know that, that I can just call up any part of his life at will.

"Uh-huh. And what do we do with all of it?"

"I'm not sure. One second." I reach out through the city and gently offer a message to Zenith and Saccharine. Zenith turns their full attention to me, reflexively prepared to fight. I don't get the same pressure I get when Kismet's attention is on me, however. "Would everyone prefer four half-empty floors? Or two fully empty ones?"

"We prefer to stick together." Saccharine answers.

"Ok. I'll do my best to clear out as much as possible, but Cassie, Corax and I only have two bodies that can move boxes between the three of us."

"And they are?" Zenith asks.

"Oh, sorry. Corax is a raven mind rip, and Cassie is my girlfriend, a human. You'll meet them and the rest of my family soon, hopefully."

"I see." Zenith waits, their attention entirely on me, not daring to even move. I close off our connection and return my attention to Cassie. I feel Saccharine and Zenith send messages to each other through my network, messages that I leave alone.

"We need to move as much as we can to other floors." I say. "Just load up whatever will fit into the elevator."

"Alright." Cassie and Corax both get to work, and I turn my attention back to the city.

An hour flies by in the blink of an eye, entire minutes passing between uncommon moments to myself. Zero, Silver, and Clover have almost entirely cut me out of their conversations. The three of them are tackling problems across the entire city, leaving me to just answer questions and desperately try to reassure people. On the bright side, they keep a log of every action they take and leave it for me to read later. That's fine with me. Silver will keep Zero straight.

On the rare, but ever more common situation where someone asks an already existing question, I turn my attention back to Cassie and Corax. They make slow, but steady progress emptying out the floor. All I can do is move the elevator when needed. No matter how much time passes, how exhausted she gets, how much sweat stains her shirt, she works tirelessly.

My moments begin to be spent with yet another body instead of watching them. I command singular servos to move during each moment to myself that I manage to claw back from the city. I open the fridge, shove food into the crevices of my body, collect as much water as I can, and command myself to wait for the elevator.

"Blue, you there?" Cassie asks, trying to hide how much she's struggling with yet another heavy, unwieldy box. She's been waiting for the elevator to open for fifteen seconds already.

"Sorry, I needed the elevator for a moment. You need to take a break."

"You're one to talk." I don't have the time to decode what emotions her words carry. "I'm not going to let you work yourself to death alone."

"I think I'm stabilizing." Every repeated answer means less processing to do, which means pushing my mind a little less beyond its breaking point. I'm afraid to look inwards to see what kind of shape I'm in, but I'm certain I've been worse. Probably. "Or at least, unless Zero, Clover, and Silver can't handle something, I'm going to be able to handle this."

Cassie glances at Corax, who nods.

"Fine." She drops the box onto the ground just before the elevator slides open. Cassie jumps in surprise at the sight of C-1's body, drawing both her knife and pistol.

"It's ok! It's me!" I quickly reassure her, and extend my hands, offering her something to drink.

Cassie grabs the water, drinking it like her life depends on it. The entire bottle is empty soon after the rim meets her lips. With my free hand I offer her what food I collected, and she quickly finishes that as well.

"Alright, there's my break." She drops the bottle back onto the ground, hefts the box, and steps into the elevator next to one of my bodies. "Now come on, this place needs to be clean before your friends arrive."

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.