Static Crush {M/M} ✔

Chapter #26

Damo leaves once the procedure is done. Without so much as a thank you, Hale notes.

That night, while Theo flicks through TV channels and Rayner works from the sofa on his laptop, Hale fights the sudden connection to Damo in as many ways as he can. The parting threats leave him hollowed out with a helpless fury he can't articulate or show on the surface. How can he fight against an android who doesn't care whether or not he's destroyed for his crimes?

All efforts to delete the invasive connection are in vain. If anything, they only serve to amuse Damo in their futility. Worse, when Hale demands to know what he wants out of all this, Damo gives no solid answers, just jibes and riddles, so Hale can't even resort to bargaining for freedom from his new, parasitic roommate.

Damo's grim warnings about the nervous system, though designed to repel him, only steel Hale's resolve to go through with the upgrade anyway. He didn't trust anything Damo said before, so why should he trust what he said about the pain? What's more, if the nervous system had been sabotaged in some way, he can at least scan and assess it.

As Theo pointed out, it's his choice.

Theo and Rayner listen, rapt, to news on the crew of the Athena discovering alien plant life on Planet B-9. He finds humanity's obsession with finding aliens both perplexing and endearing. Despite his past protest, he's come to think that perhaps he is alive after all, but not by any typical definition, and doesn't that make him a bit alien?

These are the sorts of thoughts he'd puzzle over without much awareness. Now, every time he has a strange or inquisitive train of thought, an obnoxious second voice intrudes.

>>Our Haley, the philosopher.

In the morning, Hale tells Theo while cooking breakfast that he's prepared for the synthetic nervous system whenever she is. She just beams at him over the stack of pancakes he made.

"I can clear my schedule if Rayner can."

Rayner looks up from his laptop, hand reaching blindly for another piece of bacon. "Definitely."

Within the hour, Theo is setting up a table of instruments and pulling the synthetic wire nerves out of an acid bath that cleaned them of silicone skin and thermo-fluid overnight. Hale thought that Damo had been unusually silent during the whole affair, and after Theo finishes laying the wires out on the table, he understands why.

>>Got no desire to relive this shit, Haley. I'm out. Catch ya later. Hope the nerves don't fry your little brain!

The moment Damo goes offline, Hale feels the knots of tension in his belly and shoulders loosen. He's too relieved by the solitude in his mind to worry over the parting jibe. Though it's only temporary—Damo's presence still lurks as if from the other side of a door— the reprieve is joyously welcome.

Briefly, he considers telling Theo and Rayner about Damo's transgression while he has the chance but reasons it would be a rash and foolish move. The moment Damo reconnects, he could sift through Hale's memories and discover the subterfuge, or infer the information from their behaviour.

No, it's too risky and could result in the arrest of both Theo and Rayner. There is an alternative though.

"Theo, Rayner? I have an unusual...request."

Rayner looks pleased. "Yeah? What is it?"

"Would it be possible to teach me the necessary skill sets for robotic engineering and hacking? I can learn certain disciplines using teaching resources and my own internal databases, but other skills are prohibited by my programming. I'd like to bypass those protocols."