Foundation of All

Sean checked the holopad. Still no message from Lira. He was standing in his room with V4, unsure of what he should do now. V4 had attracted a lot of attention as they walked through the station, but Sean and Ricardo’s assurances had calmed everyone down. Samir had even shown up at one point, only to leave again after Ricardo assured him that everything was fine.

But much to Ricardo’s disappointment nothing exciting had happened. V4 had been mostly silent, turning his head from side to side and scanning the station as they walked through. V4 was nothing more than a strange curiosity, to be inspected for a few moments by the crowd before being forgotten again as they moved on.

Disappointed at the lack of chaos and lackluster reaction by the rest of the Immortals, Ricardo had left after the group reached Sean’s room.

“Where is Lira?” V4 asked suddenly after they walked inside the room, “I wish to show her my new body.”

“She’s…” Sean checked the holopad again, “She’s still busy. Your new body will be a nice surprise for her when she comes back.”

V4’s eyes flickered, “What is she doing? How long until she finishes?”

“It’s… training,” Sean replied, “And no one knows how long it will be. She has to keep going until she completes her task.”

“Can we assist her with this task?”

“No, we can’t. It’s something she wanted to do by herself without me.”

The two of them waited there, man and robot. Sean played chess with V4, using a set he had bought a while ago after he first came to Immortus Station. V4 picked up the game quickly. It defeated him after their tenth game and only got better than there. By the twentieth game, Sean was being soundly defeated by V4, outmaneuvered at every turn. After that they switched games, Sean had a whole stack of them that he had almost never used. It felt like a waste of time to play them most of the time, but Sean didn’t have anything else he wanted to do at the moment. He was too distracted to play very well against V4, who was completely focused on its task of learning the rules and playing their best.

Sean checked his holopad again from where it sat at his side. There was no message.

Sean rolled some dice and went to move his piece, only for the holopad to chime next to him. He lunged for it, ignoring the board game as he quickly pulled up the device to his face. There was a message. From Lira.

“Done. I’m back in my place if you want to come over,” he read aloud.

“C’mon, V4. Let’s go see Lira.”

“Wait just outside,” Sean said to V4 as they reached Lira’s door, “I’ll call you in a few minutes so she isn’t totally surprised.”

V4’s eyes flickered, “Understood. I will remain here.”

Sean took out his spare key and opened up the door and walked inside. There Lira stood, looking more relaxed than he had seen her in a long time. He stopped and scanned her head to toe as she slowly turned at the sound of the opening door. She faced him and had a slight smile on her face.

“I did it!” She said, “I… It was so horrible. Painful… But I pushed through and got there eventually. Watch!”

Sean flinched as she reached down and picked up a large knife that he hadn’t seen before on the table. It gleamed as she raised it into the air and before he could react stabbed it through her palm with only a wince.

Sean eyed her hand and her face and while she looked a little strained, she still stood there relatively unmoved. She released the handle of the blade now dripping blood as it dripped off the blade that had poked through her hand.

They both watched for a few seconds as the knife just sat there in her hand in awkward silence. Eventually with a sudden plop the knife fell into two pieces as Lira’s regeneration finished destroying the portion of the blade inside of her hand. The two remaining pieces fell off of her hand and hit the table with a thump.

“Oops. Well, See!” She said excitedly. “I did it, I didn’t even cry or scream or… any of that. It feels so freeing to not have to worry about… any of it anymore.”

“Ruined a perfectly good knife too while you were at it,” Sean said jokingly, finally letting himself relax as he saw her so happy now that she was done.

“Yeah!” She laughed in relief and skipped towards him and they hugged.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Sean said in relief, mumbling into her hair. She squeezed tighter for a moment before releasing him and drawing back. “Me too,” she said, “Me too. I didn’t know how much it loomed over me until it was gone. I feel so much lighter than before.”

“Well,” Sean said, “I have a surprise for you too. While I was waiting for you to finish up, I got a little impatient. So, I built V4 his new body! It’s really something. He’s standing just outside.”

“She,” Lira corrected, “She’s already done? How long was I gone?”

Sean cleared his throat, “About four and a half months,” he said in a slightly strained tone.

“Oh,” Lira said in a slightly more subdued voice now, “Sorry about that. Brenda did her best but I had a really hard time getting it to stick. So we had to do, um… a lot more sessions than otherwise.”

“But it worked, didn’t it?” Sean said, pointing to the two chunks of knife sitting on the table, “You did it. Now you’re strong in two ways.”

She looked up at him and brightened a little, “I guess so. Now, let me see her. I can't wait to see the new body.”

They walked to the door and Sean opened it and stood back.

“V4, you can come in now,” Sean said.

Lira gasped when V4 came around the corner and walked into the room.

“V4? Is that really you? Your new body is so big and intimidating!”

“Yes, Lira. It is me. I am glad that you like it. It has many upgrades to the old model. Now I can make my own power and am durable enough to leave the lab without as much risk.”

“That’s great!” Lira said, “We’ll have to show you all around the station. Oh, I’ve just realized. Do you want a new name too? V4 is your model number. I never thought about it before but if we’re introducing you to all sorts of new people we should give you a human name too.”

Sean and V4 both paused. Now that Sean thought about it, he had only been calling V4 that by habit. Probably should have given him a real name years ago…

“That sounds good,” V4 said, “I believe you two can give me my options. Lira, you have said it is customary for creators to name their creations in the past.”

“Huh,” Lira mused, “Well… I was talking about children. But I guess you’re pretty much the same. We’ll come up with something for you. Sean and I can debate it while we show you all around the station. Did Sean give you a proper tour yet?”

“No. We came directly to his residence and waited for you to finish your unspecified training.”

“Ah. Well. Then, let’s go. I’m sure you’re curious to see everything there for yourself.”

“Yes. I am.”

“I’ve been looking at some of the older names on my holopad,” Lira said, “What about Sabrina? Or Anastasia? Those seem pretty.”

“Fine. Then what about Gregory or Drekovich?”

Lira wrinkled her nose, “No, V4’s clearly a girl. We can’t name her those.”

“Well, I think he’s a boy,” Sean countered, “Why don’t we just stick to gender neutral names?”

Lira turned to V4. “V4, do you feel more like a boy or girl? What do you think?”

V4 stopped walking and its eyes flickered for a few seconds.

“No preference,” it pronounced, “I will assume the gender associated with the name I receive if that is required.”

Sean groaned. Oh no. The fight was really on now.

“These are the gardens,” Lira narrated to V4 a few minutes later as they walked through the winding path through the trees, “Immortals from all over come here to grow plants here as a community. They do it all by hand with no automation at all to make things more interesting.”

Sean flicked through the holopad and searched for gender neutral names for V4 as fast as he could trying to find one that Lira might like. As soon as V4 declared that the winning name would decide its gender, Sean knew that he had lost. Lira would never allow V4 to receive a male name now, no matter what Sean suggested. The task was harder than one would think to come up with a gender neutral alternative.

They reached the end of the gardens and Lira’s speech ended as they returned to the normal hallways on the way to their next destination. She pulled out her own holopad.

“Okay. So names. For something more modern… What about Ilustrala? That one was pretty popular in my home world when I was born. Relutinari? Ohhhh, what about Ishana?”

Sean cleared his throat, “I was thinking Ash. Nice, gender neutral. I think it works pretty well for both, and V4 was sort of created from the ashes from his old body. Well, he ate it but symbolically it’s the same. What do you think?”

Lira didn’t answer for a moment and mulled it over.

“Okay, that one’s pretty good. Maybe… Oh, alright then.”

She turned to him and pouted, “Ahhhhhhh, but I wanted her to be a girl! How can you do this to me!”

He patted her on the back with a smile, “I’m sure you’ll recover. Now we can both still be right.”

“Grrrrrrr,” Lira replied playfully, “Fine, then. Ash it is.”

“So, V4? What do you think of Ash?” Sean asked the robot watching the exchange, “Do you like it?”

V4… Ash’s eyes flickered before it spoke again, “Yes. I like my new name. I am now Ash.”

“Alright, Ash!” Lira said, “Whooof. That was intense stuff. Now, let’s see where we should go next.”

She tapped on her holopad and a labeled map raised off its surface and the two of them inspected it as V4… Ash stood by. Sean pointed to a place that was close on Lira's map.

“What about there?”

Lira compared the map to the hallway they were in and then took a turn down a hallway to the right.

“Alright. C’mon Ash, Sean. I think it’s this way.”

The two of them followed her lead, ready to continue on with the tour.

They walked through the main thoroughfare, both Sean and Lira in a good mood after showing Ash most of the station over the last few weeks on and off. People had wandered over to investigate the robot, but they were mostly left alone as they moved around.

Suddenly Lira stopped walking and stiffened next to him, cutting herself off from what she had been saying mid sentence. Sean followed her suddenly intense gaze to the large man that had just rounded the corner from an nearby doorway. Lars. The man didn’t seem to have spotted them and was walking towards them on the large thoroughfare, his large frame distinctive amongst the few people other walking by in the large space.

Sean clenched his fists and took a deep breath before calming himself. Lars spotted them from thirty feet away and sneered at the two of them after recovering from his brief surprise. He diverted slightly to circle around them to pass by to the side.

“Whore,” he spat at Lira before walking by and purposefully ignoring them.

“Weak,” Ash said loudly. Lars whirled around, his indifferent facade crumbling away.

“Weak? You think you can insult me, machine? You’re nothing but a tool. A tool to a spineless coward who is afraid of a fair fight and a…”

“Do not insult them,” Ash said loudly and its eyes began glowing brighter.

“And what are you going to do about it?” Lars taunted, “Glare at me? I’m an Immortal. One of the ones chosen by the Shadow. Even these two scum are worth more than you’ll ever be.”

“Do not insult them,” Ash repeated.

Lars’ face flashed with anger. “You do not get to order me around. By the Shadow, I’ll pay the fine. I don't even care. You’re going down.”

He stomped forward and Sean’s eyes widened in alarm. Even if Ash was strong, who knew if the wrong blow might damage something critical? He went to step around Ash along with Lira, but Ash shifted to block the way.

“Stand back or I will use combat measures against you.”

Lars sneered, “I’m an Immortal. What are you going to…”

“Last warning.”

Lars continued moving.

“Employing combat measures.”

Ash raised its arm and something popped out of its wrist. Ash’s arm shifted in a tight arc as a red laser shot out with an electric crackle and sliced through Lars’ upper chest before he could react. Ash took a step back before the two halves of Lars slid apart and fell separately to the floor at the robot’s feet.

Everyone nearby froze and stared at the commotion. Ash took a few quick steps forward and picked up the lower half of Lars that even now was regenerating its skeleton, one white flake of bone appearing in the air after another. Ash dangled Lars upside down and then drove him down into the floor full force, shattering what skeleton had managed to form in the intervening time.

Sean and Lira looked on in shock as Ash held Lars there and kept pushing him deeper down as the metallic floor began flaking away and revealing a human shaped hole beneath.

Ash kept pushing down as Lars’ legs began kicking as his head finally finished regenerating underneath the floor. Ash finally stopped when Lars was buried up to the floor up to his knees. Upside down.

As everyone watched, Ash picked up the remaining half of Lars and walked a few steps to the nearest biological compost unit. It opened the door and threw the body into it and quickly returned to Lira and Sean after closing the door again.

The two of them were watching as Lars futilely kicked and squirmed, trying to wriggle his way out of his perfectly Lars shaped pocket of metal.

“Well, that’s one way to deal with him,” Sean said approvingly after the robot returned, “Good job, Ash.”

“Sean!” Lira scolded, “You’re being a bad influence on her! We shouldn’t always have to resort to violence to solve our problems.”

“I gave him several chances to retreat after I finished exchanging insults with him,” Ash said, “It was my understanding that one must match insults to defend others from emotional harm. My words seemed unusually effective on this individual you both appear to be familiar with. Was my emotional defense of you through insults successful?”

“I… Well, yes Ash,” Lira said, “That was fine. Better than fine, great actually. Thank you, we both appreciate it. Very proud of you for doing that.”

Sean nodded.

“But…” she continued, “You went too far by attacking him so much. You could have just shoved him away first without cutting him in half right from the start.”

“But why would I not use anything less than full force when in combat?” Ash said in seeming confusion, “Wouldn’t that just give the enemy time to adapt to my tactics?”

“Listen, we can talk about this later,” Sean cut in, “But for now we have to go. I’d rather meet Samir in one of our rooms rather than out here with Lars standing nearby glowering at us after they pull him out of there.”

Lira hesitated before glancing around at the ten to fifteen observers who had watched the confrontation from a distance.

“Well, alright. But when we get home Ash, we’re discussing this more.”

“Understood, Lira.”

The eyes of the small crowd followed them as they walked into the adjoining hallway and quickly walked to Sean’s room which was closest. No one moved to stop them or even looked overly concerned. Most walked forward and started oohing and aahing over the thrashing Lars like he was some sort of bizarre art exhibit.

Well, at least the people here were consistent.