Artemis Files (0.5)

Chapter 2

Early 2268 - The Institute

In the two months that S9 has been alive, so far all she's been kept to is the domestic duties. Usually alone though if she had been paired with someone it was, thankfully for her, J6. The two synths seemed to have formed something of a bond though they couldn't show it very much. Synths had a lot of rules to follow. Among them they weren't allowed to own personal items and they weren't allowed to form attachments to humans or other synths. Everyone was supposed to be treated on a professional level.

S9 would never admit it but she wished that she and J6 could openly be friends, or just to have something small that she could truly call her own, or even to have a chance at becoming something more then the domestic help. She supposed this life wasn't the worst thing though. Up on the surface people suffered from attacks by raiders, super mutants, ghouls, and animals. And if that wasn't enough then crop failures, radiation, and weather were just as big of threats. S9 squirmed at the thought of living around such filth and had to keep reminding herself that despite everything she had it relatively good in comparison. Still...there was a part of her in the rear-most corner of her mind that was just a little but curious about what it was actually like up there.

S9 shook her head and told herself to get rid of such thoughts. She was a synth, not a human. She wasn't even a Courser. And besides today was a good enough day since she was assigned to a section of the living areas that had been set aside for the scientists and their families. And much to her delight she was sharing this duty with J6. The one synth she could genuinely call "friend."

Her mood would quickly change though when the wife of this particular scientist stormed in. She'd always been a bit of a witch even according to the other staff and residence within the Institute, but today she seemed especially bad. J6 and S9 stood instantly from their positions they were in while making this residence's bed. They hadn't had time to completely straighten it yet and the woman noticed this as well. She spat in J6's face.

"Some improvement you Gen 3's are if you can't even make a bed," the woman spat looking each one in the eye as if expecting them to speak, but if they had nothing they could say would ever be good enough. "Such a simple task and neither you can't even do that much."

"I...we-" S9 began to stutter before she felt the sharp, stinging, smack across her cheek. A grunt escapes her as this happens. She's tempted to rub at where her face was smacked but got the feeling that this would somehow make the woman even angrier though a brief glance at a mirror in the corner of her eye reveals that the spot is now a bright red almost matching her hair exactly. She can't bring herself to do much past look at the ground as if she'd done something genuinely wrong.

"Speak up you damn machine," the woman snarled as she demanded answers. "Why are these covers still so askew?"

"We...we just put the covers on ma'am," J6 spoke. Her voice wasn't quivering, not like S9's was but there was fear there. "We were just about to straighten them when you came in. We didn't expect anyone to be here this early."

It was the truth and S9 gets the feeling the woman knows this, but she doesn't care as a hand strikes J6 as well before turning around muttering obscenities about "these damn machines". Once she's gone both synths rub where they got slapped. S9 even shedding a few tears though to her surprise she soon feels arms around her and turns to see it's J6 giving her a hug.

S9 hold her breath knowing that if someone caught them in this embrace right now, they'd have more to worry about then just a slap across the face. At this time she doesn't care though as she silently cries into her friends shoulder as she's comforted. S9 has had moments where she wasn't given a second thought with the threat of having a memory wipe done and potentially disposed of usually enough to keep them in line, but it was never like this.