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The hopper’s cabin lights were a warm glow, contrasting the still shape of SecUnit’s slumped form. Ayda Mensah knelt beside it, her own breath still shaky from the panic that had gripped her minutes before. She watched its chest plate, willing it to move. It didn’t. Did SecUnits breathe? A slow, viscous fluid, the color of tarnished silver, seeped out from the wound in its side and from a cracked joint in its left arm, pooling on the hopper floor.
She had to do something. The SecUnit had just calmed her, shared its soothing show with her, its voice a flat, steady anchor from her fear. Now it was collapsed, leaking, because it had neglected its seeping wound to keep her alive. Her eyes scanned the small hold frantically, looking for anything that might help. The sign for lubricant below on the hopper’s floor a few feet away, the labels faded but the instructions clear that it is a maintenance port. She doesn't know if it will work, an idea born of desperation.
Her hands shake as she pries the floor up with a screwdriver. There are a number of cables with faded labels but she can make out 'lubri' on the yellow one, so tugs that out until she reaches a valve. The fluid inside was a vibrant, chemical yellow, nothing like the silvery leak. It was all she had. It wasn't long.
Ayda dragged and pulled the SecUnit over to the maintenance hatch. It was difficult, it was heavy and completely immobile. Its joints locked. She inspected the leaking part of SecUnit’s arm - it is a resupply port, hidden under a layer of synthetic skin rubbery skin. The connection is a perfect fit and she hopes thats a sign. She attached the feed line, opened the valve, and watched the yellow fluid disappear into the port.
For a long minute, there was only silence. She shuffles around and keeps herself busy, folding up some blankets behind its head. Then a low, pinging whine started deep within the SecUnit’s chest. Ayda leaned back, hope a sharp spike in her chest. Its fingers twitched. The whine escalated into a shuddering metallic grind, and SecUnit’s eyes snapped open, staring upwards.
Its entire body arched off the floor in one violent, convulsive jerk. A raw, static-laced sound tore from its mouth, nothing like its usual flat tone. It was a noise of pure distress and pain. It could feel pain, she suspected this.
Ayda scrambled forward, trying to press her hands against its shoulder, to hold it still. “SecUnit! Stop, you’re-”
A second convulsion, stronger than the first, threw her backward. Her shoulders hit the bulkhead with a painful thud. SecUnit was seizing, its limbs moving in horrible, puppet-like spasms. Its head slammed against the floor, denting the metal plating through her attempt at a pillow. Its eyes were open, fixed on the ceiling, seeing nothing. The grinding scream continued, punctuated by clicks and pops from its joints.
Panic, cold and immediate, washed over her. She had done this. She had poisoned it. It was dangerous for her to approach, it could kill her in its spasms.
Ayda launched herself forward again, her fingers fumbling for the lubricant line. She yanked it free from the port, the yellow fluid spraying in a short, toxic arc. The seizures didn’t stop. Its head hammered into the floor again and there was a cracking sound. She's not sure if it's from the hopper floor or SecUnit's head.
She needed to get the contaminant out. Now. The solution through her terror. Get it together Ayda!
She didn't have the tools and SecUnit wasn't responding to her words… she looked at the open port on its arm, still dripping the wrong-colored lubricant. She flung herself over its body, laid down on her belly over its belly, bent down, and placed her mouth over the cold metal.
The taste was immediate and revolting - sour, metallic, like rotten eggs. She sucked hard, spitting a mouthful of yellow fluid onto the floor. SecUnit continued to thrash, its arm jerking and almost catching her in the jaw. It kept making that horrible mechanical whine noise in its chest and and noises of pain from its mouth. She forced herself down, both hands grasping onto its arm. Sucking and spitting, over and over, like a fantasy creature from the historical books. The taste coated her tongue, her throat. It burned the insides of her mouth. Her eyes watered.
But the convulsions were weakening, the terrible grinding noise fading away and the pained noises following.
Finally, with a last shuddering creak, SecUnit went still. Unnaturally still. The dead halt of a crashed system. Ayda knelt there, panting and spitting, metallic bile in her mouth, staring at its motionless face. Please let it be okay. Please let it be alive and that she hadn't killed it and by killing it, killed everyone but herself.
One of its fingers twitched. Then another. Its eyes, still open, refocused slowly, the pupils contracting. They shifted, finding her face. Its head tilted a fraction on the dented floor.
“What?” it said, quiet and unmistakably confused.
Ayda sat back on her heels, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “I’m sorry SecUnit,” her voice is shaky. “I’m so sorry. You were leaking, the silver fluid, and I had the hopper lubricant, and I connected it, I thought it would help, but it started… you started…”
She gestured helplessly at the dent in the floor, at the spattered yellow fluid. The SecUnit’s gaze followed her hand. It looked at the open panel, the disconnected "lubri", then back at her face, at her stained mouth. The confusion cleared, returned to its usual flat expression.
“You used the L-7,” it stated.
“It was the only one with a lubricant label, I thought it was a chance I could take-”
“The hopper has three lubricant types,” it interrupted, its voice regaining its usual soft and stilted way of speaking. “L-7 is for the flying components. My systems use a neutral conductive fluid. The L-7 is incompatible and triggered a cascading interface failure.” it paused, its eyes darting back and forth. She realised it was looking at the hopper recordings. “You... conducted a purge. Manually. With your mouth.”
It wasn’t a question. Shame heated her cheeks. “I didn’t know what else to do. You were… it looked bad.”
SecUnit was silent for a long moment. It tried to push itself up on one elbow, the motion jerky but controlled. She moved to help, but it flinched back, a barely perceptible shift. She froze. It completed the movement on its own, sitting up with a series of faint, internal clicks.
“It's okay,” it said finally, not looking at her. “L-7 is...” it glanced at her mouth again, “…not toxic to humans. No harm has been done that the cubicle can't fix.”
Ayda stared at it. “I almost destroyed you with my mistake. You were screaming and in pain.”
“My systems are designed to withstand worse than that,” it said. It looked down at its arm, flexing the fingers. The leaking had stopped. “Lubricant tubing isn't self-sealing like my other fluids. I will need a correct top up with L-3.”
“You’re not… in pain?”
“I've lowered my pain sensors. My performance capacity has decreased twelve percent.” It tilted its head. “You are also injured.”
She followed its gaze to her own arm, where a bruise was already purpling from her impact with the bulkhead. “It’s nothing.” She said that, then winced. So, they were both lying to each other about their pain.
They sat in the quiet of the hopper. The crisis had passed, leaving behind the sharp smell of chemicals and a profound awkwardness. The SecUnit picked up blue line and tugged it out, examining the nozzle and a small blue-silver leak.
"This is an L-4. It's not perfect, but it's more compatible than an L-7. I may experience some verbal delays and language glitches." It attached the nozzle to its arm. It didn't lay back down.
“You used your mouth,” it stated, again.
“I didn’t have a pump.”
It nodded slowly, as if filing the information under a new, bewildering category. “Thank you,” it said. Slowly and awkwardly.
“It's fine,” Ayda replied, "You're part of the team."
It didn’t answer for a long time. “If you say so,” it said it so quietly she almost missed it. Then it stood, movements still slightly stiff, and offered her a hand. "I know how to fix the hopper."
She took its hand. It pulled her up with effortless strength, then immediately released her. It turned and began rummaging in the first aid kit, its back to her, as it began to explain its horrifying plan to her. As it pulled out the medical surgery equipment it pause. SecUnit touched the place on its forearm where she had attached the line, where her mouth had been pressed against the cold port. She could still taste it, a mixture of that awful fluid, its sweeter lubricant and the synthetics of its skin. It just stood there for a second, fingers resting on the metal, before resuming its explanation of how they would fix the hopper.
The taste of lubricant is still sharp on her tongue as she gives a token objection to cutting it open. It wasn’t okay, not really. It said it was functional but she noticed that it was not okay. Its movements stiff and slow as it sat on the chair, the lubricant replacement not working perfectly.
"Have you lowered your pain sensors?" Ayda checked with it, before she started harming it even more to save herself.