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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/EchoingCascade on 2024-11-03 03:24:52+00:00.
one-shot
Gorimas was an Arthurian security officer aboard station 234, the station had been chosen to be the site of first contact between his people and the newly found Deathworlders known as Humans.
They look so soft and weak. He watched a Terran diplomat walk by, he was a foot shorter than him, no scales, no claws, no fangs, anyone would assume them defenseless. That is unless you know about their planet’s gravity, my claws would only manage surface wounds at best and any one of them could crush my bones with an over enthusiastic hug.
Gorimas had many conversations with the members of the Human delegation, it was his job as security officer to get to know the dangerous aliens in his station but one particular Human had eluded all attempts at socializing: Specialist Stephanie Stine. The woman was a kind soul, helped others, listened to their plights, recommend solutions and even helped when she could. And yet, the other Humans seem to distrust her for some reason.
He’d studied her routine on the station during these last few weeks and at this hour she would be in her quarters, preparing to eat a meal. I’ll drop by with a bottle of fruit juice, if there is one thing I know is that Humans get chatty while eating.
*****
She had welcomed him with her usual friendly demeanor but until he had produced a letter of permission from Captain Ross, the Human head of security, she had politely refused to let him inside. They were eating a simple meal of grilled meat with a side of vegetables with the fruit juice he had brought, well she was, as a strict carnivore Gorimas was only eating the meat, not that he was doing much eating… From the moment he had entered the room he had noted something odd, something that shouldn’t be the case after months of living in this place. There is nothing that looks “her’s”, nothing personal, nothing is out of place either, everything is clean, too clean and then there’s how she eats. He looked at her plate, how she cut her steak into a perfect square, put a couple of vegetable on it with her knife, dabbed the meat to absorb the juices, put it in her mouth and chewed it seven times on both side of her mouth before swallowing.
She caught him staring, tilted her head and smiled in a clear show of confusion. “Is something the matter? You have barely touched your steak, I made sure not to use any spices that would be problematic to your digestive system.”
“No it’s just… Are you an AI?” The question had escaped his mouth before his mind had time to catch it. I mean it would explain so much, why the Humans seem to distrust her, why everything she does is so methodical, why her uniform is black while all others is green, even her overly friendly behavior makes sense if she’s programmed to help “real people”, Hells it makes sense why every team he had seen always had at least one member all in black, having an AI in a team would be an invaluable asset.
She responded with a shake of her head and an amused smile. “I’m afraid not, I’m just a normal Human, well a Human in any case.” She ate another morsel before before putting her knife and fork to side and she swirled the juice in her glass before taking a sip.
Gorimas threw caution to the wind and pushed forward. “I don’t understand, could you explain what you mean?”
She smiled again but this time something seemed of. “Let me give you an example to illustrate what I am. Let’s say some doomsday cult had hidden a deadly virus inside the bone marrow of a young child…” As she started to speak she began to cut what remained of her steak, it was no longer in neat little squares but in a far too big to chew jagged affair before she continued.”A medic would ask for consent from the child’s guardians before taking a sample, facilities to complete the procedure safely and would ensure the survival of the subject, me?” She stabbed the chunk of the badly cut steak in her plate and ripped a bite out of it with her teeth. “Me I would ask for nothing more than a knife.”
Gorimas felt the room temperature drop by several degrees and wanted to speak but words failed him.
“I have no empathy, I lack that little voice in the back of your head that says this is wrong, if it wasn’t for the conditioning at the academy I would probably be in prison right now or worse, I would be free.” She smiled at him again and he saw what was wrong, he finally saw what had made him think she was a machine.
Her smiles never reach her eyes, none of the emotions she fakes ever reach her eyes, they are as cold and empty as the void… A small buzzing sound brought him out of his reverie and made him jump. “… What was that?”
She either didn’t hear or was ignoring him as she continued. “Every team as one of us in it, someone who would carry the captain’s orders no matter how grotesque or immoral, space is a dangerous place and even we have our uses, after all we only ever harm others if ordered to do so.”
Gorimas felt relieved and got up from his chair. “Great talking to you, gotta go, bye!” He tried to open the door but nothing happened.
“Captain Ross’ orders were very clear, I am not allowed to be alone with anyone in my quarters…”
Gorimas didn’t know when but she had gotten up from the table, grabbed his steak knife and was standing right behind him. She continued to speak in his ear.
“Unless they have his written permission that is, you see we know someone was spying on us for other factions and if a spy was found they would be allowed to meet the real me… You said you wanted us to get to know each other better? By the time this night ends, I’ll know you better than you know yourself…”
End.