Chapter Text
The good thing about Ratthi's birthday party was that he was keeping it small this year. It was going to be just the survey team, gathered at his apartment on Preservation Station. Otherwise, I wouldn't have shown up.
As I hacked the front door and let myself in, Overse and Arada were already there. Overse had climbed on a chair and was putting up the most intentionally cheesy decorations ever, while Arada was helping Ratthi with preparing snacks in the kitchen. The whole living room already reeked of junkfood.
"Happy birthday, Ratthi." I announced my presence and dropped a gift voucher into his feed. It contained two tickets for some kind of live media performance that he liked. Usually, he'd bring his new hookup-of-the-month to such things. But sometimes when he's inbetween hookups, he'd bring me instead.
"SecUnit, hey, sit down wherever! We'll be out in a bit." Ratthi called out to me from the kitchen.
I plopped down in the middle of the biggest couch and spread out my long legs, as my network of drones similarly spread out to fill the entire apartment. They cozied up into various nooks, until there was no room left unmonitored.
Oh, there was Gurathin, too. He was at a desk in the bedroom, struggling to fix some kind of glitchy software on Ratthi's PC. The room was dark, except for the light coming out of the screen, and the only sounds were coming from him quietly cursing under his breath.
I poured over his feed presence, leaning heavily on his metaphorical shoulders the way ART does to me. No idea how that would feel to an augmented human, but he flinched and looked around the empty room, then watched the screen in surprise as I combed through the messed up code until it compiled smoothly.
My attention then returned to my physical body and with nothing better to do, I started tinkering with the living room's display surface, looking for something good to watch.
Mensah showed up a bit later and sat down next to me on the couch. She squeezed the palm of my hand and asked how I was doing. It was... Okay. I did not dislike it. She'd grown so much older during the years we'd know each-other, whereas I looked pretty much the same as always. The lines around her eyes had deepened, and there were locks of grey hair in her complicated braids. It made me have a brief emotion.
Arada showed up to save me from small talk. Mensah and her exchanged the whole obnoxious ritual involving happy squealing and hugs and kisses. Then Arada sat down on my other side and started showing us photos of her brand new baby. It was extremely awkward, sitting trapped between two hormonal parental women exchanging enthusiastic baby-talk. I tried nodding along at all the appropriate moments.
Everyone present knew with 90% certainty that Ratthi was the one who had fathered that baby. Both of the parents had vehemently denied it in the past. So this remained the best-known secret in existence and there was no need to gossip about it anymore.
Then came Bharadwaj and Pin-Lee, and Arada wandered off to see them, sparing me from any more baby-talk. More happy squealing ensued. It was getting really crowded in here, but it wasn't considered polite to leave yet. At this point, Gurathin crawled out of the bedroom to greet the newcomers with some 'heys' and warm smiles (at least considered warm coming from him).
Pin-Lee looked exhausted, with dark bags under her eyes, but also happy. She'd had a grueling month of several lawsuits between Preservation Alliance and a small (but very ambitious and underhanded) mining corporation that had been trying to move its operations into Preservation territory. In the end, they'd been successfully driven away.
I was kind of looking forward to seeing Bharadwaj again. It had been a while since we'd last met, because she never did survey work anymore. Her damaged leg would give her trouble, so she needed to take it easy.
Something must have shown on my face at the sight of her, because she mirrored my expression and hurried to sit on the couch next to me. "Heeeey. How are you holding up?" She teased with a grin, knocking her shoulder against mine.
"Barely." I rolled my eyes, trying to look grumpy.
"Hold on. Just a couple of more hours until everyone gets drunk, then you're off the hook."
Talking to her has always been easy, even if it's about things that sucked. That's why she was one of my top 5 favorite humans, right after Mensah and Ratthi. (Yes, I had a list. No, I didn't care if that offends anyone.)
So we talked. She had started her third documentary about constructs. She'd met other units that were willing to be interviewed, which made her enthusiastic. Sure, that didn't mean I'd be left out or anything - there would be enough screen time for me, too. I nodded along, not really caring. Good for her and no, I had nothing more to add to the content anyway. I was all talked-out at this point.
"So. Enough about me. What have you been up to?" She smiled.
It was the first time this evening that someone had asked and expected me to answer as well. I drummed my fingers on my knee, wondering whether it would be a good idea to tell her. I think this mannerism was something that my behavior algorithm had picked up from Ratthi, but it could have been one of my media characters. After a while, I ventured to say: "I have something prepared for this party."
"Oh, is it a gift?" Bharadwaj played along, prompting me to speak before I lost my nerve.
"No, not exactly. It's... More like a surprise. But I don't have enough relevant experience to know whether it is a good surprise or a bad one. So I'm not sure it's a good idea to bring it up."
"Hmm. Perhaps you need a second opinion. May I have a look? Promise to keep it a secret."
"Sure." I tossed a file into her feed and stared at the wall ahead, suddenly too nervous to see her expression. It took an agonizing amount of time for her to review it. When she made a choked sound, I glanced at her, only to see that she was fighting very hard not to laugh. She turned to hide her face into my shoulder and muffle her giggles.
"Not awful?" I asked.
"Oh, it's awful and you know it, you little menace." Bharadwaj said. "But they're going to wet their pants laughing anyway. Just wait until they're more drunk before you show them."
"Umm..."
"Trust me, it will be fine!" She reassured.
Famous last words.