bindsthedead

PSL

There was a time when Sabriel might have been eager to see the inside of Cyberlife Tower. Her class had been to Detroit when she was thirteen, and they'd toured an android factory- or the part of it they showed to tourists, at least- and visited museums and art galleries and all the sorts of things Young Ladies ought to see, but weren't available in the small town of Wyverley, or in Bain.

But Sabriel wasn't here for a school trip. Recent events in Ancelstierre meant that with the sudden loss of all android soldiers meant that soldiers from the entirely human garrison at the Wall had been transferred elsewhere- which meant fewer soldiers watching the border, on top of the losses from Kerrigor's attack, and a necromancer had slipped across, making his way to the largest city that was close enough to the Wall that magic still worked- one that seemed rather different than how she remembered it.

But what was occupying most of her attention was the Cyberlife representative in front of her. Sabriel listened politely as the woman spoke about malfunctioning machines and simulated emotions and how things that weren't alive couldn't die, so why would a necromancer- and from the woman's voice it was clear she didn't believe such things were real- want with deactivated androids?

Sabriel stood up and shook the woman's hand, telling her she'd been very helpful without meaning a word of it, and headed out the office before pausing.

She sensed something ominously familiar- Death, and a recent one at that. She turned another corner, following the sensation as a hound tracked a scent, half-expecting someone to spot her, to see her in her armor and bells (security had made her check her sword at the front desk) and tell her she wasn't allowed to be here.

But no one came, and no one living was in the laboratory she went into- just a dead- (deactivated?) android on a table-or its head and torso at least, with panels on its chest removed to reveal tubes and biocomponents, and Sabriel felt she'd stepped into a morgue and found an autopsied body.

Sabriel was seized by a sudden impulse. If androids weren't alive, then she'd simply waste some time, but if they were... well, she'd have a source of information she could interrogate as she would any Dead spirit. And unlike the representative she'd just spoken to, she could force it to answer honestly and completely.

Decision made, Sabriel undid the straps and drew Saraneth from the bandolier. This far from the Wall, stepping into Death took a deliberate effort, but soon Sabriel was in the First precinct and she cast around with her senses, trying to feel out the spirit of the android- if it had one, it couldn't have gone beyond the First Gate, and probably shouldn't be that far into the the First Precinct.

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Connor is ready to move on. Abhorsen evidently isn't—but the careful outpouring of guilt still catches him off guard. Like an unexpected stench, and his expression twists with similar distaste. What the fuck is she on about?

"What a poetic stock apology," he scoffs. "But we weren't talking about me."

Certainly, he hadn't brought up any supposed feelings. Connor had been sneering at her ignorance of Cyberlife. Of androids as a whole.

"If you want to prove how enlightened you are now—" the words cut off on a sharp edge, vectoring toward any number of targets. Save the apologies for androids who ask. Try not turning every topic toward your need to wallow. In the end, he keeps it simple.

"...don't."

That's not what he's here for.

Sabriel's mouth snaps shut, cutting off I don't think I'm enlightened' before it comes out her mouth and instead she just nods. Connor doesn't want to talk about it. So she won't.

Instead, she focuses on the task in front of her. She doesn't complain or flinch when Connor shoots the remaining Cyberlife survivors, not even when one tries to surrender while surrounded by pieces of disassembled androids. Instead she goes out in front to disable any EMPs, and carefully reassures any surviving androids they encounter that everything will be all right, help is coming, they just need to hold on a little bit longer.

Ultimately, they don't find any more exits, just more evidence about how naive Sabriel has been about Cyberlife, androids, and what Ancelstierre is actually like beyond the boarding school and small northern town grew up in.

It's a small door off a side room that leads him to his discovery. It's out of the way, and plastered with signs for high voltage and confined spaces, and he doesn't expect to find anything but underground transformers and circuit breakers.

... He doesn't expect for the room to be bigger than the door would have suggested, or for the walls to be lined with capacitors, surrounding one disproportionately small computer terminal. It's not a standard part of most labs, but he has seen this before. Once.

It's not good.

Connor freezes just in the doorway, taking everything in, then goes to the computer terminal for several minutes.

When he leaves, his face is pinched and his shoulders are stiffer than before. He's walking with purpose, and when he turns a corner and sees the others coming his way, he heads towards them deliberately.

"We have a problem."

It's a small relief, when Abhorsen stops pretending to sympathize. Clearing out the labs proves to be a much better one. By the time they finish, Connor's LED swims steady blue, and his pockets are a clip and a half lighter. He still prefers his handguns, but the rifle is growing on him. Almost enough to consider taking it with him when he leaves.

(If they survive the humans. If Jericho doesn't stop him even then.) Connor forcibly reallocates his processing, tilting his head dryly in response to his predecessor's announcement.

"How descriptive."

There are no sounds from the main entrance. And he assumes if Cyberlife had broken in, his copy wouldn't be strolling up to talk.

"I take it you mean 'in addition to the humans'?"

The other Connor is upset, but not as urgent as he'd be if the lab had been broken into already, so Sabriel just straightens up and grimaces. She mentally reviews all the spells she knows that can work if she's targeting something she can't see, in case she needs to break whatever their opponents might use to break in without leaving the laboratory.

"Did the military get here already?" It's the only thing she can think of off the top of her head that would cause this level of concern.

"We found other androids, but- the three of us are the only ones in any state to fight back." Unless they have the time to reattach all those androids' limbs, explaining the situation along the way.

Connor pauses for a fraction of a second, then shakes his head.

"The military's arrival isn't the problem," he replies, partially answering both questions in one go. He turns, leading them back to the door he'd just left. "For now they're being held by the doors. The problem is--"

He touches the light switches as he enters, throwing the dark room into blazing contrast. The capacitors loom on either side like hulking monoliths, and he turns as he walks, gesturing briefly.

"--This. It's a fail-safe EMP chain-grenade. We found the remains of what happened when about half this payload went off, and--" He drops his arm, turning towards them. "--it's enough to say that nothing electronic would survive." His eyes rest on Sabriel heavily, before he forces himself to look away.

"I can't bypass the terminal's security, which means I can't safely dismantle it."

Connor's eyes linger on the high voltage signs across the door... and the equipment, once he follows his predecessor inside. Bright lines of light set in the floor illuminate the narrow space: oversized capacitors and a hub of nested wires all linked to a small console by the wall.

A failsafe. What for is obvious under the circumstances. The real question is why it hasn't been set off already.

"It would affect the whole facility?" Connor clarifies. His LED blinks faster, empty hand curling slightly as he eyes the console. His predecessor hadn't managed, but it would still be worth a try to access. Unless—

"What triggers it?"

"I could try to deactivate it?" Magic makes technology stop working. But Sabriel has no idea how the device is set up, and it's possible any attempt to meddle with it will set it off, killing every android in the facility. That's not a risk she can take.

"But- if they can't get in, and no one in here wants to set it off, we should be fine, unless they can activate it from outside the lab." Although if they could, they surely would have done it by now.

Still, even if it's not an immediate threat- Sabriel can't help but shiver at the thought of both Connors- and every android in the lab- dying in one horrible instant.

"What should we do about it?" She'll just have to follow Connor's lead. Surely, he has some sort of plan.

"It would affect the facility and every building within a hundred meters," Connor corrects.

"And it appears to be waiting for someone to enter a code physically. Only..." His frown has deepened. "I've seen this once before, and our communication with the last team that found one of these was lost soon after they reported identical findings. It was unclear how, but the humans found a way to activate it despite its remoteness."

They're not safe. The system is isolated and underground, and that wasn't enough. Maybe it was on a timer? Maybe it required a check in? Maybe it was a freak accident, and it wasn't connected to the humans at all?

Abhorsen speaks, he considers her suggestion with visible hesitance. On the one hand, he's seen her do the impossible, and if anyone would be able to contain such a catastrophe, she would.

On the other--

"Have you ever dismantled anything like this before?" he asks slowly.

"No." Sabriel admits. "And I'm... aware that I could kill you all if I'm wrong, which is why I won't do it without your permission. But if they were able to activate it remotely somehow, simply leaving it alone isn't an option."

Then they'd have no way of knowing if it was about to go of, or how Cyberlife was able to set it off in the first place. But doing nothing except contemplating their possibly imminent deaths- she doubted the army would spare her, or Jericho if they broke in to find her surrounded by their people's corpses- was a waste of time. And it wasn't only their lives at stake.

"Do either of you have any ideas?"

Edited 2020-02-06 05:53 (UTC)

Connor's mouth is already open when Abhorsen turns to survey for opinions. His eyes narrow in irritation—she's not in charge here, and he certainly wasn't waiting on her permission to speak up. Still, she's not the reason for the yellow swirl interrupting his LED, and Connor's attention returns to his predecessor without much delay.

"Could we disconnect it physically?" A visual inspection of the cables shows redundancies—but if they removed enough... "Or disable the console?" Though his predecessor hadn't bypassed the security.

Connor casts out one hand out toward the terminal, frowning. "What did you get from it?"

Connor's lips tighten, and he shakes his head at the first questions.

What did he get from it? "Nothing. I can't hack it, and the security stolen from that technician is missing a key." And with all the technicians dead--well.

"As it is now, any tampering with the system might set it off prematurely." He shakes his head again, slicing one hand horizontally. "It's not worth it. Disconnecting it, bypassing it, force-resetting it--each one is a potential trigger."

He has ideas, but he hasn't reached that point yet. He looks at Sabriel, half waiting for her to produce an unlikely charm from her repertoire that can fix this with a whistle and a clap.

(Nothing.)

He glances between them again. "We should post a guard to ensure no one disturbs it."

Sabriel recognizes that look- and she wishes she did have a solution, but she doesn't- nothing she's sure won't set off the device at least.

"One of us needs to keep an eye on it while the others help all the androids here who are still alive. Maybe one of them knows something that could help." And if they don't- then maybe, if Jericho gets here in time, they'll be able to evacuate everyone before the failsafe activates.

"Besides, I told them we'd help them. That help was coming and all of them would get out of here alive. I intend to keep my word."

Connor's lips press together, stare lingering on the array. Leaving it fully rigged to go off strictly on mights seems at least as risky as attempting to dismantle it. Especially if there might be a timer already ticking down. Still, he's not designed for engineering, and with no way to access online references from here...

He exhales shortly, eyes rolling at Abhorsen's theatrics. "Fine." He looks at his duplicate. "We need anyone programmed for systems work in here, and at least one set of eyes on the cameras."

His LED flickers back yellow with a test message, irritation furrowing his brow as it fails. The wireless jamming seemed to apply through the facility. "...And runners. Or radios." The guards must have had some way of keeping in contact.

She promised those androids more than she could guarantee. Still, the look Connor gives her for it is even, and otherwise unreadable.

His counterpart continues, and Connor turns his gaze towards him. When he's finished, Connor nods.

"Abhorsen and I will sort out the deviants," he proposes, looking from one to the other. "Connor--" the other one, "--will stay here until someone comes to relieve him."

The other RK800 is still an uncertain ally. He's half bracing for a counter-proposal from him specifically.

The line of his mouth tugs a little flatter, but Connor answers with a grudging nod. Abhorsen can heal. His predecessor is part of Jericho—and consequently, an authority these captured deviants might obey. Connor is the least suited to assist, and until they can turn up the guards for multiple locations, one of them needs to stay here.

Here, with the giant EMP. Here, while the humans gather outside. While the other two go off together, free to talk—or plan—whatever they might want.

"...They were asking for you anyway."

They were mistaking Connor for the RK800 they knew. Connor shifts in place, fingers tapping irritation along the barrel of his rifle. At least he'll have time to try the terminal's security.

They had been. And Connor, at least, hadn't been cruel enough to correct them.

"We should hurry. The faster we helpt them, the better." The faster they help them, the faster they can evacuate once Jericho gets here.

As soon as Connor starts to move, she follows him.

"They're... not in good condition. I'm afraid you'll soon get more practice with healing than you'd like. Cyberlife-" Sabriel cuts herself off, then restarts.

"I don't understand how Cyberlife convinced themselves deviants aren't alive."

Connor gives the other RK800 a thin-lipped nod, studying him, before turning and leaving.

Abhorsen follows.

She talks, and he nods distantly, plotting a route to the nearest room where he'd seen deviants in need of help. It's a couple of hallways away. (He'd included his healing ability in his team selection, just now. He's already reviewing the right marks.)

Cyberlife--

... He glances at her, then forward again.

"Humans only see what they want to see. Humans want to use us, so Cyberlife makes this possible."

Abhorsen herself used the other RK800 without hesitating. She wanted a servant, and until Connor deviated him, she had one.

Sabriel pauses, turning the idea over in her head.

"Most Ancelstierrians don't believe in magic- sometimes not even if you use it right in front of them. They'll say it's slight of hand, some kind of magic trick with a hidden piece of technology. The first time they run into the Dead, they'll come up with some other explanation- it was a living human with some sort of disease, or they were hallucinating." She's familiar with the human tendency to disbelieve things- it's been both helpful and an inconvenience, often at the same time.

"I can believe that if they only met an android acting like a person once or twice, they'd think the android was just broken. But anyone who deals with magic or the Dead on a regular basis quickly realizes they're real, even if they don't want them to be. Why would deviants be any different, even if no one at Cyberlife has a Death sense?" It was easy to know whether something was alive or not if you could feel it die. But even without that... shouldn't they have known? Neither Connor acted anything like the androids she'd seen working as shop clerks in Wyverley, and even less like the Sendings at Abhorsen's House.

"I just- I thought I understood Ancelstierre, and that I could help the rest of the Old Kingdom understand them too. Now I feel like I don't understand any of it at all."

Connor listens. His brow furrows as she talks, his lips tighten then ease, and his eyes pinch.

It's... not where he thought this was going to go. He'd half expected a speech about what the real problem there was between androids and humanity. Or how the fighting was senseless from start to finish. Or--

--Anything that wasn't her effort to put her lost expression into words. It's--very sincere of her. She's putting bare thoughts in front of him and pushing them forward, and--he doesn't want to push them away. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what he wants to do instead.

She finishes, and he queues up a few conversation options for himself. (They're not helpful.) The hallway is silent for a couple of steps.

"There's no easy answer to any of it," he replies eventually, glancing away. The window to the labs on that side are blacked out, but he knows there are partially disassembled androids beyond. "I don't understand it, now, either, though I used to think I did."

He glances back at her, still frowning, then looks forward again. "All I know is that we can't let them continue to keep killing us until they came around."

He's not Markus. He doesn't have answers that tell why. Sometimes it seems that he only gets as far as 'what now', and works from there.

"No," Sabriel agrees, "Letting them kill more androids would just make things worse."

That would mean more death, more suffering. More bodies and souls for the necromancer to twist to his own purposes. But if Connor doesn't understand- maybe no one but Cyberlife understands why they'd rather kill people than talk things out.

"It's just- I know it's selfish, but I'm so sick of feeling people die, even if they're fighting me." She knows there are things worse than death, issues that matter far more than her own discomfort, and she'll spend the rest of her life surrounded by death. But even in the worst parts of the Old Kingdom, there were never sites of mass death like she'd encountered in Ancelstierre.

Ancelstierrians had killed androids by the tens of thousands, and apparently wanted to keep doing it. Were eagerly devising new ways to do it, and Sabriel couldn't believe they were blind to the suffering they were causing. But their deaths felt no different from android deaths, and some stubborn, naive part of Sabriel felt sure there was some way to make all of it stop, without anyone else dying.

They're in agreement there; more android deaths are not acceptable losses.

They turn the corner to the hallway they need. She continues talking, and he's ready to nod understandingly. Frustration and pain in the face of death are common reactions--

(--except, was that word choice deliberate?)

... He could almost understand it as a metaphor, but--

".... 'Feeling' people die?" he repeats, glancing at her sidelong as his brows draw closer together.

Sabriel gives him a long, searching look. He might have been willing to torture Craven, but he otherwise hasn't seemed as cruel as Connor. Perhaps it's safe to tell him.

Or maybe he's much better at hiding it. But Sabriel thinks he's sincere. If he hadn't been, he'd have killed her after Connor ran away, and she'd passed out, or simply left her on the floor and departed.

"It's... part of being an Abhorsen. When living things die near me, I can feel an echo of it, like it's happening to me- the water rushing into a drowning man's lungs, or blood flowing out of a dying body as the heart keeps trying to beat." Sabriel shudders.

"It's not painful," Sabriel assures him, "It's just... unpleasant. Father told me it was a reminder that a life isn't something to be taken lightly."

Connor is silent for several seconds, brow deeply furrowed. He opens his mouth, then closes it. His LED blinks quickly the whole time, blue with a there-and-gone-again points of yellow.

He's re-counting how many dead bodies he's seen in the last fifteen minutes, and reassessing her obvious signs of stress. She's been reluctant to kill during the time he's known her, and grimly tolerant when the situation demanded it.

(He thinks of his own deaths, and wonders how memories compare with these 'echoes'.)

"Your father could feel it, too..." It's not a question, exactly. He's sorting out the new information, trying to digest it the only ways he knows how.

"You've said androids are alive. Does this mean you can feel 'echoes' of their deaths too?"

Personal questions.

Sabriel hesitates, and when she speaks, her tone is... tentative, like she's poking at something that might explode. They're close to the door, and they'll have to end this conversation soon- they don't have time to drag it out.

"Yes. When Connor shot you, I felt you die, and it didn't feel any different from a human dying. And before then... I knew dead androids felt the same as human corpses."

Corpses that didn't rot, and were too numerous to cremate. Which raised... further complications.

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