I practiced this new way of speaking as if my life depended on it. To some degree, it did.

  Nicole would play various recordings, and I would parrot them back. Learning how to pronounce words, how to form them in the first place, and even occasionally mimicking the background music.

  The voice never sounded like me. It was a scratchy thing of artificial intent rather than any actual voice box.

  If I had been minding my business and had heard such a voice, I would have jumped out of my skin. But it was my voice, and creepy as it was, I could speak again. Even if my words were often blending up and leaned towards being intelligible.

  With practice, I would become fluent.

  Nicole found a backpack. While I practiced, she fiddled with it, sewing the radio in place securely inside, a little hole cut in the side to slide the antenna through. Finally, she hooked the radio up with a wire that went to a little earpiece thing.

  “This will direct the sound vibrations to my ear rather than projecting them audibly. You will be able to speak to me without us being overheard, even in public,” Nicole explained, as she slipped the earpiece on.

  “Haaaalooooo,” I tried. The radio no longer projected my words into the tent; it suddenly felt rather silent.

  “I hear you,” she smiled, adjusting the earpiece and tucking the extra wire into the bag.

  I did my best approximation of a smile. The whole thing seemed rather precarious, especially since Nicole would need to lug the big radio around. But just like pretty much all of the solutions currently, they were temporary and made the best of a bad situation.

  I could hardly feel down about anything right now. I was filled with determination and still riding the wave of endorphins for everything that had happened. Despite not much having changed, everything felt so much more right.

  I guess… I guess I had changed; my outlook and priorities. Somehow, that seemed to be even more significant.

  A siren blared. The repeating whooping alarm I had so grown to despise.

  Oh no.

  Nicole frowned, slipping the backpack on and adjusting the straps. “If the native sapients are attacking, we should… not be here.”

  I nodded. “Hideeeeee.”

  “Exactly. Let’s go hide,” she smiled, holding the tent flap open for me.

  We both stepped into the chaos of the camp.

  Well… except there wasn’t really any panic. People all stood about, looking up at the sky. Nicole and I both followed suit.

  It was bright, the heat of the thrusters, the glint of the sun off the metal. It was a starship, not just a shuttle. A tunnel boring ship. Small compared to the Euphorion but mounted with a long cylindrical drill on the front, the wings folded out as it descended from the sky. It was still massive, bigger than the shuttles.

  It wasn’t an alarm; it was a rescue. The Imerium had heard our call. But Nicole was frowning as she squinted up at the descending ship.

  “Whaaat?” I asked.

  “The Imerium has yet to respond, and it would take months for a manned ship to arrive,” she explained. “I fear this may have more to do with our traitorous little friend.”

  Fuck.

  The starship passed overhead, sending a wave of wind through everything. It continued down towards the grasslands, thrusters shifting as it slowed and descended nearly vertically towards the ground. When it landed in the distance, my teeth practically rattled.

  On the side were words in bright yellow lettering, a logo. But not the Imperium logo, no white handprint of man.

  “Whooooss it?” I asked.

  Nicole stared, staying back even as others rushed to greet the vessel. I stayed with her uneasily.

  “It’s…” she trailed off. “It’s the Vander-Frakes Corporation.”

  “Whhhhhho?”

  “My creators,” she grimaced. “Vander & Frakes is the second largest company in the Imperium if you count the crown corporation itself. Powerful enough that the CEO is given the rank of Imperial Duke while in that position. They specialize primarily in resource extraction in the American Cloister. Whatever their purpose here, it won’t be good.”

  I did my best to take it all in. My heart sank further with every morsel I absorbed. At the very least, Nicole did not remotely speak of them as friends.

  I didn’t say anything, so easily forgetting that I now could.

  “W-Weee expooooossss trrrratrr,” I suggested. Signing a question mark to make it clear it was a question.

  “We have no real evidence,” Nicole pursed her lips. “If this is all some corporate espionage scheme, they must want something very badly.”

  “Leeees goo fnnnd ouuuut,” I pressed, feeling a tad impatient. Everyone else was running off to investigate. I didn’t want to miss whatever was going to happen.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Nicole sighed. I had never seen her hesitate before. “Fine,” she acquiesced.

  This time, she followed me.

  A crowd had begun to gather on the outskirts of our settlement. People were pointing and whispering. Tobias, Captain Tameron, and Commander Alcantar all stood together; several armed officers stood watch. The crowd had been prevented from going closer. The officer’s ire turned as much inward as outward. Clearly, Nicole wasn’t the only one concerned about this turn of events.

  I slipped closer, trying to be stealthy. As much as people were agitated and excited, no one was really looking down. And while I was quite long, I was far from tall.

  “There’s been no contact as of yet,” Commander Alcantar informed his two superiors.

  “They’ve shown up, landed near our camp on my planet,” Tobias huffed. “They certainly owe us an explanation. Have your man try again.”

  Commander Alcantar nodded and spoke into his communicator.

  I glanced back to look for Nicole. She was at the sidelines, glaring past everything at the starship. Uneasy wasn’t the right word. It just seemed like she wanted nothing to do with any of this. It was very unlike her.

  “I still think they picked up our distress signal and came to help,” Captain Tameron hummed. “Though it was such a quick response, they had to have been in the area. And at no point did we have any record of any other vessels in the region.”

  “It’s suspicious,” Tobias nodded. “And now they’re just sitting there.”

  Commander Alcantar’s communicator crackled. “We’ve got a response, sir. Central Intelligence has identified itself as the SS Ramses. Received notification of disembarkment imminently.”

  Commander Alcantar raised his binoculars. “Do we have a data tag on the vessel?”

  Everyone watched with baited breath as the ship hissed, hydraulic pistons firing as the cargo bay door opened, sliding down to the earth below. Blurry figures descended out of the ship, too far away for me to see clearly. They waded through the tall grass towards us.

  “SS Ramses is an arrow-class reconnaissance drone,” the man responded. “It’s unmanned, I repeat, it’s unmanned.”

  Tobias sighed. “Fucking androids.”

  Even now, all of the jargon meant very little to me. But I could at least grasp that last part. No people on board, just androids. Still, that was hardly a bad thing, right?

  The figures stomped through the grass, approaching us at a steady pace. They began to come into focus for my bad eyes. Four of them were utterly identical. They wore jumpsuits and had gray, rubbery skin. Their faces were… creepy, glowing white eyes, a slit for a mouth and holes that vaguely resembled a nose. The ears were just flaps.

  I recognized them, working joes. Not full synthetics designed to resemble humans, but cheap and chore-focused. I had seen them back before boarding the Euphorion; they had always made me uneasy. Robots already existed, why make androids that looked semi-human?

  The leader of the pack was a synthetic. He wore a simple gray uniform and had blond hair. He carried no equipment or tools, nothing that could be considered threatening. But the officers didn’t relax.

  “Hello,” the synthetic greeted as they approached. “We received your distress signal and were dispatched to assist you. Who is in charge here?”

  “You got here real fast,” Tobias scowled, stepping forward.

  “Correct. Hence why synthetics were dispatched, we are capable of tolerating much faster interstellar travel without liquifying,” he replied. “Please identify yourself.”

  “I am Lord Barrick, Imperial Baron and dignitary of the crown. You are on my planet,” Tobias replied mightily, his distaste was clear.

  “I am–” the synthetic began.

  “A Matthew-076,” Nicole cut in, making everyone turn. During all of the excitement, she had finally crept closer. “I’m surprised your line has lasted so long. They never seem to get you quite right.”

  The synthetic looked her over. “An 013. I was not aware there were any of you still functioning after the recall.”

  “Enough of the dick measuring contest,” Tobias huffed. “Neither of you have one.”

  I coiled myself around Nicole’s legs, trying to be supportive.

  “If you’re here to help, I take it, you have supplies?” Captain Tameron butted in.

  The synthetic, Matthew, swivelled to look at him. “Yes. The SS Ramses is loaded with supplies to construct both a B-class airtight emergency facility and an C class artificial ecosystem. A team of 20 working joes to assist you as required, and we have already taken the liberty of placing a satellite in orbit.”

  Tobias nodded bitterly. “Let me gues… It’s gonna cost me the planet?”

  “No, Vander & Frakes has little interest in ownership of Novak 784 d,” Matthew replied simply. “However, we would be purchasing ownership over the natural resource extraction of the planet.”

  So that’s what all of this was about. Greed. The death of hundreds to turn a profit and force Tobias’s hand.

  I didn’t really understand what would be given up, but all the stuff they would give us sounded amazing. I really missed sleeping in a proper bed. And an artificial ecosystem would probably fix the food problem. I assumed it would let us grow plants outside of the small greenhouse tents. Oh, for cows! Maybe the cows could use it.

  They were horrible for what they had done. But they also held exactly what we needed. At this point, what did we really have to lose?

  But Tobias wasn’t me. Neither was Nicole. Neither of them seemed pleased. Nicole anxiously ran her hand down my back, trying to stay out of it.

  Tobias shook his head with a sneer. “And I won’t sign away my planet?”

  “Then we will simply be on our way,” Matthew replied, heartlessly. Well, he didn’t have a heart at all; he wasn’t Nicole.

  “I’d call you a bastard, but you don’t have the capacity to be hurt by it,” Tobias scoffed. He glanced back at the rest of us. “See…” he sighed, grinding his teeth as he turned back to Matthew. “You’re on my planet, I’m in charge. I’m not letting my people die, and I’m certainly not letting any of the scumbags you work for have a say in any of this.”

  “It’s quite unfortunate you see things that way,” Matthew replied flatly.

  Nicole leaned forward and handed Tobias a slip of paper. I hadn’t even noticed her writing it, but I certainly suspected what had been in it.

  Tobias read it, his brow furrowing even as he smiled. “Thank you, Nicole. I do love probable cause. That should make this easy.”

  Everyone watched anxiously. Unsure of what was about to happen next. The working joes just stood there blankly, their rubbery necks folding weirdly as they looked about. So weird.

  “Matthew, relay a message to your boss,” Tobias spoke up. “By the authority of the empire, you are charged with the malignant sabotage of the Euphorion. Your androids and your vessel will be seized, pending investigation. Commander, arrest them.”

  “Negative,” Matthew blinked. “You have no jurisdiction here.”

  Commander Alcantar raised his rifle. “If you are capable of valuing your existence, then you will comply.”

  “We are beyond the borders of the Imperium; you are required to enforce Imperial law,” Matthew explained, still not doing anything. “And as you are incapable of doing so, you have no authority here.”

  “What are you taking ab—“

  Tobias couldn’t get the words out before Matthew grabbed him.