Sector 50: Lira Venti
May 09, 457 AC
Aster strode through Isabel's school halls, pushing her way through the crowds. Her pleated dress swayed and her heels clipped the stained-glass tiles. Sounds of students echoed between honey-oak pillars and the high windows. There was an anachronism caught there, in the earthly material goods: shelves of old books and the yellow pads of papers. Students were uniformed in dull fabrics, with coordinated ties to indicate their years and subjects of study. Tension permeated. Dark uniforms parted as Aster pushed through. From a distance, she heard girls cry.
"Excuse me," she muttered. "Please let me through. I need to find my human."
"Hey," someone shouted. "No outside syns allowed here!" Another added darkly, "Didn't know they made syns out of the fat ones."
Aster ignored them. Instead, she stared in horror at the screens mounted in each wall.
Breaking news, the screens read, displaying a blurry photo still of a test score, Tomi Tanda cheated to enter this school. Then, Roy Olwatz kills small animals for fun, with the bloody surveillance footage of a private lunaroids's back garden. Ying and En Zhao, dish babies, as images of twins embedded in gel matrices crossed the screen. Colton Ashwood...
The screen continued like this, each image displaying the ugliest secrets of the student body. Aster knew only one person capable of this. She swayed and stalled. Bell, what have you done?
"Hey," a human snapped next to her ear. "Do you hear me? Syns aren't allowed here!"
"Bell," Aster whispered. "I'm looking for Isabel Sall. She needs me."
A current of revulsion ran through the student bodies, quick and instinctive like wildfire. Aster felt, more than heard, the throng around her go quiet. The way these humans stared at her, with malice and violence, Aster could see why Isabel hated them all.
The first strike came from behind. Aster dropped to her knees. A kick turned her on her side. She registered this abuse from a distance, curling to protect her stomach and head. Another blow sent static and half-finished codes through her. Distantly, Aster realized blood streaked down her mouth. Her nose was probably broken.
Humans. Aster's bios cycled. She was programmed to protect humans. Protect. Protect. Impacts hailed down her legs. Her diagnostics could not properly assess the damage. A boot struck her side, catching a dangerous angle. Her fifth rib cracked. Aster's optics flashed red.
Protect. Human—Crack!
Alert! Critical damage! Aster felt blood rush into her right hand as her self defense functions engaged. Nerves burned as they reattached. She reached out, grabbed a boy by the ankle, and wrestled him to the ground, planting a solid elbow between his legs. Amidst the howls, Aster stood, stumbling. She looked down and around at the human students. She located the leader, the one who spoke, and latched her right hand to his throat. She squeezed.
Aster watched the boy's face purple, begin to bloat. The throng of students grappled at her. She growled, throwing them off and adding pressure to her fingers. Alert! Defense was her most basic function, fundamentally bedded in the mind of the little girl whose body she now lived in. No matter how humans tried, they could never overwrite aggression and self-defensiveness in human behaviour.
"She's killing him!" someone shrieked.
Defense. Defense.
And then hands covered her eyes. A low whisper penetrated through Aster's hazy binary mind. "Right now, for this moment, you belong to me. Stop." These words parted the red film over Aster's eyes. The voice continued, "You're safe. Calm down."
YOU ARE READING
SOMA (LGBT-scifi-romance)
Science FictionAfter tragedy befalls his colony, Soma must escape the grasp of a tall-dark-and-suspiciously charming captor. It's hard, however, to fall in love when you were raised among robots. Even harder, when you're the secret weapon of a criminal robot rebel...
