Binary Love (18+)

Soul Of A Robot

"I don't like this," Rosalind said firmly. "We're essentially nobodies for a civilisation this advanced, so why is this Queen requesting a private audience?"

"I gotta say, I'm with the Doc on this one." Itsuki piped up from the corner of the room, while he pulled out several vials of meds to prep for the next round of treatments.

Since Rosalind's intern had turned out to be an alien spy, she was woefully understaffed to deal with the influx of new patients, so they had all banded together to help out. Nyx had offered too, but Rosalind had declined.

It meant that when they discussed the Volos - and their situation - they had some semblance of privacy.

"I'm uncomfortable about it as well," Nova replied. "Based on what Nyx said, they spent a lot of time and energy getting us to this station. To then be invited to meet their Queen..."

"Based on the chess matches, each of us hold varying levels of importance to them. We are of use; as long as we stay that way, I suspect their offer of protection from Earth Tech will stand." Mark's voice was low and gruff. Despite his confidence in his assertion, Nova could still see the tension in his muscles and the frown marring his face.

Since Atlantis had settled on Arcadia, Mark had explained how he had been playing games against an unknown player for a while now. The games had peeked his interest; his cybernetic enhancements made him inhumanly intelligent, but he had found someone that made the games a challenge. After a while, he had realised that the person had initially been assessing his capabilities, but soon started to use the games to symbolise historical events and people.

When the game had switched to chess, the undertone had become sinister. The pieces on the board symbolised them, and various scenarios predicting future outcomes would play out. From what Mark could hypothesise, the other player had started to assess his compassion and empathy for others, while also using the games to better predict how each of them would react in certain situations. The games of chess hadn't been about winning; it had been about how many 'pieces' Mark could keep alive.

"But we don't know what makes us useful to them." Harou snarled back. "Without knowing what makes us valuable, we could run the risk of making ourselves expendable completely by accident."

Mark's cool, crystal gaze scanned Nova's face. She knew that she wasn't hiding her nerves well at all, when he used the back of his knuckles to gently brush against her cheek.

"In all of the chess matches, our pieces never changed. We always stayed the same. Nyx was a Knight, I was a King and Nova was the Queen." Mark softly palmed her cheek, before tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I didn't know who all the pieces symbolised at first, so I presumed people were assigned pieces based on how close I was to them. It wasn't until I realised that Rosalind and Harou were pawns that I questioned that assumption."

Rosalind hissed in a sharp breath, while the others became visibly uncomfortable. Nova couldn't help but wince at the news either; everyone knew that the pawns awarded the least amount of points. Mark had essentially just shared that her closest friends might be seen as expendable by the Volos.

"When I realised that the rooks were meant to be The Mayflower and Faolán Station, I finally understood that the pieces symbolised people and resources in order of usefulness. It had nothing to do with my feelings or relationships."

"But by who's definition?" Nova asked him quietly. "If we know who's deciding our 'value' then we might be able to figure out why they ranked us in such a way."

Mark stared up at the ceiling, a crease forming between his eyes as he thought hard about her question.

"I don't know, but it's unlikely to be Nyx - she had wanted me to see what the chessboard looked like before we entered the medbay. Remember that pawn that had been taken? It symbolised Sheila attacking someone in the medbay - the bishop fleeing was Dr. Haber. But the Knight hadn't moved. By letting me see the chessboard, I finally knew that Nyx wasn't just an intern. I think that freed her to be able to intervene, because she was no longer constrained with having to keep the Volos a secret."