THE FALL OF ROSENROT STATION

SHADES

ML MET(unknown) accompanying enforcer to warlord Rothschild - situation suboptimal - planning to fufill secondary contract -

Who is she, really.

Even blanked the screen of his coder and glanced up as Henderson joined him. They were walking, following a darkened corridor towards the spindle. A cold mist flowed around them choking the corridor and making it difficult to see the next man in line. He could not see Sarah either. He looked around with a start.

She's safe. She's up ahead. With the others. H said. But to my question. Who is she.

How do you mean. Even said warily.

I checked. There are no Chyans. At least none living.

She is who I said.

We have access to the station databanks. H said. Both through the network and by consulting the station herself, though she is not always able.

What does she say. When she is able.

That. That doesn't concern you.

They came to an intersection. There was fresh paint on the bulkhead here. Florescent yellow that glowed in the torchlight. A circle about twenty centimeters across encompassing a V. It pointed the way and they followed it. Even looked around. In a dim light he could see where the others were by their torchlight and flashes of torchlight reflected from their armor. The mist parted momentarily and he caught a glimpse of Sarah. She was walking between two of the men. If she tried to walk slower to fall back to Even then one or both of the men would touch the back of her elbow not grabbing her but letting her know they could and would grab her if she made it necessary.

There was a synthetic registered to Doctor Chyan. H said.

When Even did not reply H continued. You thought she was a person. H looked at Even. No. You knew he said after a bit.

Yes. I knew. But that is her name. They gave it to her. They gave their own name to her. Theres no mystery. Tell them to lay off her.

You're partially right. Theres no mystery about her. They're keeping her there because I don't want her hearing what I have to say next and supposing you don't either. He looked at Even and saw his expression. Be reasonable Tennec.

Reasonable would have been to ask me. Even paused. You have five minutes. And tell them to allow her to drop back two or three meters and remain at that distance.

H nodded. He immediately unclipped his radio from the front of his armor and spoke into it and made it as Even had said.

I am listening. Even said.

You're attached to the robot. I suggest from shared trauma. That explains some things. Not that it matters.

Is that it.

H studied him. No. It is you.

Scientists are curious things always needing to understand. They took samples of your DNA you know and did other studies. I'm talking of Morenos people of course.

Afterward I looked you up, or tried to in our own databanks. To find out who you were before this. There was nothing. You don't exist. Or rather you don't exist in our records.

Then your records are damaged. Corrupted.

I think not. H shook his head.  After that and because I was told you had died I dropped the matter. But here you are. And Rothschild wants you.

Here I am.

You could tell me why Rothschild wants you so bad.

Now that I do not know. As for what I do know you wont like the answers.

I've made guesses I already dont like my guesses.

See the scientists couldn't agree on who you were either. Or what.

Get to the point Henderson.

Your DNA differs from human baseline.

That is not a crime. My ancestors used genemods but they received amnesty after the war.

Yours diverges more than the legal two percent. But the strangest part is there were two sets of DNA at a ratio of one to one thousand approximately. At first we thought it was contamination. But we were wrong. The sample was chimeric.

Even frowned. That must be wrong.

Id have liked to do an in vitro study. Grown a scaffold and see exactly what it would grow into. But our own scientists didn't have time or resources to spare.

I have my DNA profile. It's in here. Even held up his dog tag.

That's only part of it. H said. Besides the DNA sampling they performed a molecular scan.

They did no such thing. Even interrupted.

You were unconscious during it. They had quite a bit of data on you in their slabs. We took all of that of course when we took them.

Even stopped walking. He looked at H and then swore. Id like to have a word with Moreno after this. He said.

You can see why I did this. Spoke to you alone. Noone else here has the totality of this information. They think I'm obsessed but I knew something wasn't quite right with you the first moment I met you. 

Well what is it. Your guess.

The scans showed extensive work. From depleted uranium in your bones to fastFire circuitry interwoven into your muscles along with military grade processing modules in your brain.

I am aware of those. Most people have some form of cybernetics.

Not milspec. That's not common. But you're correct. It was the chimerism that was the giveaway. I took my suspicions to Rose. To the station. She confirmed them.
She said you were not human.

He had stopped and now turned to face Even.

She said you were not synthetic either at least not in the traditional sense. You were not assembled the way a bot is. Neither synth nor human.

Does Rothschild have access to this information.

So it's true.

I never said that. But if Rothschild thinks it's true maybe that's what he is acting on.

Rothschild has access to everything we have. It is just a matter of attention.

Well he has obvious turned his attention upon me. So we must assume he has this information.

Is it true.

Tennec. Is it true.

Even sighed. I do not know. He tapped his head. Everything up here tells me I am human. Slightly genetically modified. A suite of cybernetics. Trained in fieldcraft. But human.

But those memories could have been implanted.

That is possible.

I suppose I should tell you the rest.

There's more.

I'm an agent. The company sent me to extract its assets from this shitshow. I have a vessel standing by for when I'm done with my mission. I see the question in your eyes but no it is not large enough to effect an evacuation. And no the company is not sending rescue. The station and everyone in it have already been written off by the insurers. The risk of the infection spreading beyond the station is too high.

So we are all going to die.

Most likely. There is a slim chance of getting the situation under control in which case the lockdown will be lifted and the company will swoop in and claim the credit. Either way I will have everything they need to rebuild.

What if you stayed. To help us.

Id have to look at the numbers. Even said non-committally. Now your five minutes are up. Return her to me.

H nodded and spoke into his radio and made it so.