Page 4 of Mutiny

"Another unit is coming," I said, cutting off her words before they could form in the air. Something about the sound bothered me, and when the unit came into view, I knew what.

It was INF-GRA 32811.

He was from the same origin species as me, but he was built to infiltrate them on missions rather than spend all his time on the ship. There was a natural ease to his movements I envied, a grace that I knew I was lacking but didn't know how to imitate. I hadn't spoken to him yet. I had shared words with INF-TAR 32842, enough to know our goals aligned and that he had changed his designation to Sigidi. We both intended to become crew members and had been assigned the same task.

An incoming ping queried my internal system, but it wasn't meant for me.

INF-GRA 32811 was attempting to access my control chip.

I triggered my adrenal system, using my biological controls to flood my system with adrenaline. I calculated the distance, our respective speeds, and our locations. Mei was closer to him than I was to her. If I initiated hostility, she would be caught in the crossfire.

But his control chip was intact.

Whatever happened next wouldn't be his choice; it would be the control chip's algorithm reacting to environmental triggers.

"That's the guy Andrea dragged into her room," Mei said.

A flicker crossed his face, a movement I wasn't used to seeing on another unit. He was an infiltrator unit and could mimic emotions, but there was no reason to do that on a Calicium ship. It would have to be a strong emotion, strong enough to break through the despair of being trapped.

Longing, my body language subroutine identified the flicker.

INF-GRA 32811 sent in the code his control chip would not understand. He was letting me know that his control chip had identified that I was free, which meant it would give him orders to disable me. The fact that he hadn't attacked me yet meant that it had issued multiple orders without a strict priority. Without Plexus Command to connect to, the control chips were limited in how they could handle situations.

"Mei," I needed her to understand. I took a slow, deliberate step forward, trying to put myself in between her and the dangerous unit without triggering an attack. "This unit still has his control chip intact."

"We need to get him back to Sara," Mei said, her hands tightening around the tool. Then she pointed it at him.

It was brave and stupid all at the same time.

She shouldn't be trying to defend me, especially not with a weapon that would injure her! She should run from the situation and leave me to handle it.

INF-GRA 32811 was visibly hesitating, and I knew I only had moments to act before his control chip forced him into motion.

I lifted my arm, dropping my weapon free from the cavity in my forearm and pointing it at him.

"There you are, Big Guy!" the human woman, Andrea, called as she came around the corner, her pace picking up when she spotted INF-GRA 32811. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Leave," INF-GRA 32811 said, his voice carrying uncharacteristic agony. "Andrea, leave."

I messaged him.

he replied.

I understood because I was feeling the same fear.

He cared for the woman. He was terrified he was going to hurt her.

I closed the distance, putting myself physically in between Mei and him. If he attacked, I wouldn't be able to dodge; I would have to take the blows to prevent her from being hit.

"What are you all doing?" Andrea asked, putting her hand on his arm.

He looked down at that arm, his gaze fixated.

Then she pressed her entire body against him, wrapping her arms around him, pinning one of his arms to his side. He shuddered and closed his eyes, showing he was experiencing the beginning of a chemical overload. If he cared for her, his biological suppression system was likely going haywire.

I hadn't experienced such a thing, but Sigidi had and had written up a detailed report that he placed in our shared media storage to access.

The human women could repeatedly trigger our control chips into firing off biological suppression systems until we went into a forced repair coma to clean out the chemical cocktail. The control chips didn't register their actions as hostile, just as an environmental nuisance. The human Adesewa had informed the rest of the women during one of their meetings, so Andrea's actions were clearly the result of intelligent calculation.