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B12 stared down at the box monitor that lay now shattered on the ground, unable to look away. Why had he done that? The monitor hadn’t done anything. Nothing but display the same ‘EXPERIMENT FAILED’ it had the last hundred or so times he’d tried to get it to work. It wasn’t its fault it didn’t work… He was just frustrated.
Frustration.
It was a feeling he was well acquainted with. Speaking to those who thought they were upper class had tested his limits many times before, but never had he destroyed something over it. At least, from what he could remember…
His gaze drifted to the shards of glass around his feet. He wasn’t wearing shoes, the glass should have cut into skin. But that wasn’t the case anymore, was it? No soft skin, only metal that barely picked up the presence of the shards.
They crackled as he moved his foot, stepping down on a larger but still fragile piece. The most damage glass could do to him now was scratch the metal, perhaps get caught in a joint or sever a wire.
Not no pain, but less definitely. But that was what being a companion was, less injuries, less pain, less everything.
He knew on some level it wasn’t true, they did experience these things, their sensors could pick up some level of touch, warmth and even pain, but it was so different. So, so different from how humans did. But that didn’t matter to him right now.
He wanted to feel the softness of the cat family’s fur, he wanted to feel the sun on his skin, he longed to feel something, anything like how he could before and not with this metal and plastic body, before the drone, before the upload went wrong.
“B12?”
He didn’t turn his head at the voice, nor did he as it continued, “are you alright? I heard a crash.”
At his lack of a response, the voice’s owner came closer, the sound of glass crunching under their feet as they did. He felt a hand against his shoulder, finally raised his head to see Momo with a concerned expression on his screen.
“Are you damaged?” He asked. “I think Doc should still be in his lab, I could-”
“I’m not damaged,” B12 cut him off, looking back at the shattered monitor. “Just… Frustrated.”
Now that he thought about it, frustrated barely covered it, but he couldn’t put the words together on how to explain this feeling he barely understood himself.
He could hear the quiet motion of Momo tilting his head, “Frustrated? About what?”
B12 was quiet for a moment more before looking to him again, “Momo, do I belong here?”
Caught off guard by the question, he backpedalled for a moment, exclamation marks joining the question marks, “What?”
Before B12 could elaborate, Momo went on, “Of course you do! You’re one of us, aren’t you?”
That was a question he hadn't worked out himself yet, “Am I?”
Momo just seemed more confused at that. B12 shook his head, raising his hand and barely suppressing a growl as his hand, instead of wiping his eyes, clinked against the screen that was now his face.
He could see the light from his screen cast a red glow over his raised hand. He moved his hand to hold his head’s frame instead.
“Nevermind, it’s nothing, just forget I said anything.”
That line barely worked on humans, it wasn’t a big surprise that it didn’t dissuade Momo either, “B12, is everything alright? You’ve been acting off for a while now… did something happen?”
B12 ran the hand down his screen. He hadn’t told anyone about his origin, at least, no one that wasn’t a small quadruped animal. It wasn’t that he was hiding it from them per se, just that he hadn’t been ready to tell them yet, he was still coming to terms with it himself. But now, was he ready? If not, would he ever be? A second perspective might just help…
Here goes nothing, “Can I tell you something?”
Momo nodded, so B12 motioned to the chairs by the table and sat down. Momo was quick to follow, sitting in the other seat before facing B12 and waiting for him to continue.
Gesturing at the pile of papers on the table, B12 started speaking, “I’ve been working on a way to enhance the sensory input of companions to the same level, or similar to that of organic beings, but I haven’t been able to get it quite right. It turns out making something that can mimic trillions of nerves necessary for it is more complicated than I thought.”
“Mimicking organic input?” Momo parroted. “Like the little outsider?”
“...Somewhat.”
“Well, have you tried asking Doc,” he asked. “He’s the best I know at this kind of thing, well, aside from you. I’m sure he’d be interested.”
“I have thought about it,” B12 admitted. If he still had lungs, he would have taken a deep breath. “It’s just… explaining the reasoning for these upgrades has always felt so daunting…”
“What do you mean?”
“Before this, before I was like this, I…” The words were stuck in his metaphorical throat. Why couldn’t he do this? Momo is his friend, the outsiders are his friends, why did he struggle so much with this?
If he couldn’t say it directly, maybe there was another way, “I suppose I’ll start at the beginning.”
Momo leaned forward a bit, still concerned but now intrigued. B12 internally sighed, lowered his head, then began.
“A long time ago, back when humans were still around, there was a human scientist. He had lived on the surface, but when a plague started wiping out large portions of organic life, he and the other humans moved to the walled cities.”
The chaos of those weeks was one of the things he wished stayed forgotten. The move in deadline caused people to leave things behind, families were being separated across different walled cities and everyone questioned just how long they’d be locked away… If only they knew.
“Him and his family went to walled city 99 where they lived in the slums. They weren’t infested back then, at least not by zurks. There were a lot of rules and rationing, but they got by.”
Barely. It was so dark before the neon lights came on, the water and food so limited. What was worse was knowing that those living in midtown would splurge and even waste food and electricity. The upper class didn’t care. They lived their perfect lives while those under them struggled.
It was difficult trying to explain to people so out of touch that if they limited their electricity any more then the slums would be in full darkness.
“That scientist, he was working with a team in order to upgrade various technologies to improve life in the city.”
Energy efficient appliances, better lighting, they made a lot of things in that time. It was around then that he began work on the first companion schematics and built their prototypes. They weren’t a widely accepted idea at the time, but they caught on as more people gave them a chance. Those models were very different to how they are now.
“But the city wasn’t enough, they weren’t careful enough, the plague made its way in.”
They had tried to cover it up at first, to keep people from panicking, but then there was the day everyone found out. They tried to keep it quarantined, but it was hard to do with how ruthless it was.
“That was when the human extinction started, at least within city 99.”
His coworkers, his friends, his family, they all…
“The scientist survived longer than many, but he too caught it.”
That sickness and the damage it wrought on his body… one thing he was thankful for in a robotic body was that he couldn't get sick, at least not like that.
“His last hope lay in a machine that could upload himself into the computer.”
He heard a whirr of surprise from Momo, but went on.
“But the upload, something went wrong. He was stuck for hundreds of years…”
Here it was, the end of the story. The words felt heavy on his voice box.
“Until a little cat appeared and helped him find a physical body in the form of a drone marked ‘B12’.”
B12 eased himself into an upright position, finally looking at Momo for the first time since the story started, “And you know the rest.”
Momo was completely still and silent, the simplistic eyes and mouth on his screen forming three perfect ‘O’s. He shook his head and seemed to regain his bearings.
“Wait, hang on, you mean-” he held up his hand, pointing at B12. “You’re an ancestor? A soft one?”
“I was,” B12 nodded. “But now? I’m not really sure what I am.”
He dropped his head into his hands, “Do I still count as human? Or am I a companion now? Does me being born human impact my current state as a companion? Do I even have the right to be here and make an impact on this brand new civilization while still mourning the loss of my own?”
He would have gone on, but Momo’s hands on his shoulders stopped him. B12 looked up at him.
“Hold on a moment,” he said. “What are you saying? You don’t think you belong here?”
B12 held his gaze, then shrugged, “I don’t know. ‘Suppose I’m just having some identity issues…”
They sat in silence for a moment, B12 waiting for what the other would say and Momo presumably struggling to find the words. A small scraping sound told him that Momo had increased his grip on his shoulders.
“You do. Belong here, I mean,” Momo said. “You were an ances- a human, that’s quite the terabyte you've dropped… But you still belong here, of course you do. I mean, human or companion, you're still an outsider, right?”
B12 considered the words, a small smile formed on his screen, “Yes, I am. Though the name is a bit ironic in this case.”
Momo made an offended chirp. He pushed B12’s shoulders away, causing a laugh to escape B12’s voice box. “You know what I meant, my point still stands!”
“Yes, it does,” B12 confirmed, calming his laughter. His tone took on a sincere note. “Thank you though, I… I needed that.”
A smile appeared on Momo’s screen and he nodded, “Y’know, Clementine had invited me over to try out the telescope she found, do you want to tag along? It might be good to take a break from…” He gestured at the broken monitor. “...This.”
“Yeah… yes, that,” B12 shook his head. “You’re right, I do need a break.”
He stood, motioning to the door as Momo did the same, “Lead the way.”
Momo left the lab with B12 close behind him, a smile on his face as the other had already started animatedly talking about things the outsiders had done for fun before the city opened up. B12 was happy to listen, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of his chest, even if he only told one of them about it.
Well, there would be time for the others to find out later.