Pairing - Bucky x Reader Soulmate AU
Summary - You’ve always believed your soulmate was out there somewhere, Bucky not so much. What happens when he finally takes a leap of faith and reaches out to you?
Warnings - some canon-typical violence in later chapters, the occasional curse word, but I promise to make up for it with loads of fluffiness
Chapter Word Count - 2208
Notes - Bet y'all never thought you'd see this day lol. Thank you for everyone who has read this series and hasn’t given up on me, I promise I’m not giving up on this fic. Inspired by Rescue by Lauren Daigle and by a lot of the concepts in Sense8.
Series Masterlist - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
“Come on man, how else do you explain it? You shouldn’t have been able to touch those guys at all and somehow they end up unconscious with multiple injuries?” Sam steps out of the elevator, moving boxes in his arms, with Bucky not far behind and similarly weighed down. “Meanwhile, not a scratch was to be found on your super soldier ass while your girl looked like she’d been through the ringer. It’s the only explanation that makes any sense!”
“So I’m just supposed to believe that not only do she and I have this miraculous soulmate connection that lets us hear and see and touch each other but that somehow we can also take over each other’s bodies whenever it’s convenient?!” He sets down the stack of boxes outside of his door to pull out his keys. “You’re crazy, man.”
“You may not want to believe it but you don’t have a real explanation of what happened that night, do you?” Bucky holds the door open for Sam to enter then easily lifts the rest of the boxes. “I call denial but eventually you two are going to have to come to terms with what happened.”
“What happened when?” Cross-legged on the floor you look up from the box you are unpacking.
“Nothing doll,” Bucky glares at Sam, silently insisting he drop it. “Birdbrain here is talkin’ crazy is all.”
Sam of course can’t let it go, even as he busies himself with breaking down a couple of empty boxes. “I’m tellin’ you, it happened whether you want to believe it or not.”
“Is somebody gonna tell me what’s going on?” you huff as you push yourself off the floor, scooping up a much healthier and happier looking ball of white fluff before she can tangle herself between Bucky’s legs.
Bucky sighs, reluctant to give in but knowing you are just as stubborn as he is, “Sam here seems to think that night you found Alpine, that ‘somehow’ I was able to fight off those goons through you. That our soulmate bond allowed my brain to control your body.” He shakes his head and rolls his eyes. “It’s nuts is what it is…” You stood in silence for a little too long, pondering the idea as you stroked Alpine’s fur. “Doll.. c’mon, the idea of it is ridiculous!”
“Is it though…?” you questioned as your mind struggled to replay the events of that horrible night. “I thought I had blacked out and that’s why I couldn’t remember anything, but that doesn't really explain how the guys who attacked me got taken down. Maybe… maybe my soul just kinda stepped back and let you do what you needed to do so that you could protect me. Sam might be right, that’s the only thing that makes sense.”
Sam throws his hands up excitedly, “That’s what I said!” He smacks Bucky’s arm then gestures your way, “See? She gets it!”
Bucky levels him with his most murderous murder face. “You know I’m not going to admit you’re right. Like, ever.”
“I know you know it, deep down anyway.” Sam laughs and claps his hands together. “Well, I’ll let you two get settled in. Welcome to the neighborhood,” he sweeps you into a huge hug only to be interrupted by an indignant meow. “And welcome to you too lil miss fuzzy britches,” Sam coos as he scratches Alpine behind her ears. “Barnes,” he nods with a grin in Bucky’s direction.
“Asshat,” Bucky tosses back, causing Sam’s boisterous laughter to echo through the hallway as he leaves.
Alpine wiggled her way out of your arms as your own giggles faded, leaving you and Bucky in the silence of his– now also your shared apartment. You turn toward each other with matching shy smiles. “We’re really doing this, huh?”
Bucky walks over and pulls you into his arms. You are surrounded by his smell, his strength. Swaying slowly with your head tucked under his chin you instantly feel at peace. In moments like these you swear you can feel your soulmate bond weaving stronger and more interconnected threads. “I still can’t wrap my thick skull around the fact that you’re really here doll, that I can hold you whenever I want,” he pulls back just enough to gaze into your eyes, the love there unmistakeable. “That I can kiss you,” leaning in he whispers against your lips, “anytime I want...” The kiss is slow and sweet, setting sparks off all over your body in a way that continues to confirm the uniqueness of your bond. This feeling is still so new, the physical aspect of your relationship while welcomed is something you are both slowly adjusting to, savoring every second, not wanting to rush a single thing.
A few hours later with an empty box of pizza on the coffee table and the newest episode of some reality show playing in the background, the two of you are cuddled up together on the couch. Curled up into Bucky’s side was quickly becoming your favorite position, especially with him constantly finding sweet ways to touch you; sometimes tracing random patterns on your knee, lazily scratching or rubbing your back, placing kisses on your forehead, any little way to stay connected through touch. You sighed, snuggling further into his embrace. “You okay, doll? I’m not bothering you, am I?”
A happy hum escaped you, “Just the opposite, actually.” You let your hand wander across his chest and tiptoe up and down the plates of his arm. “I was just thinking about how perfect everything is… I’m in the arms of my soulmate after just moving in with him, I’m starting my new job tomorrow, your friends have welcomed me in like I’m part of the family–”
“That’s because you are,” you giggled as he booped your nose. “I mean if they can take in an ancient relic like me with a past he’d rather forget, then adding someone as amazing as you should be a piece of cake.”
“Hey,” reaching to cup his jaw, you wait until he’s looking directly into your eyes, “you’re amazing too, James Buchanan. And don’t you forget it.” Punctuating your statement your lips connect with his firmly but far too briefly seeing as how he gives chase when you pull away. Your fingertips on his lips halt his forward advance and he nips at them in retaliation. Laughing, you ease off the couch, “Come on soldier, it’s been a long day and we need to get some sleep.”
He groans watching you walk away. “What am I gonna do with you, doll…”
Your sing-song voice calls out as you make your way to the bedroom, “Oh I’m sure you’ll think of something…”
He might be a former assassin known for his stealth but you’d never heard such a dramatic commotion as the sound of your soulmate scrambling to catch up to you.
Your POV
“Alpine, NO!” You lunged for the plant that your furbaby had just carelessly swiped off the windowsill, your fingertips only managing to brush the edge of the ceramic pot before it collided with the ground, shattering and spilling its contents all over the floor. “Dammit,” you sighed, your hands resting on your knees as you got face to furry face with her, “that’s the fourth one in two weeks. You know this puts you in serial killer territory, right?” Alpine responded with an indifferent chirp as she leapt down and began winding her way between your legs, headbutting you and purring happily. “Oh no you don’t, being too darn cute isn’t going to save you this time.” You scooped her up and unceremoniously dropped her into the laundry room then grabbed a broom and dustpan before shutting the door. “I’m not about to suffer through another bath with you just because you can’t resist rolling around in dirt!” You chuckled at her plaintive wails as you made your way over to handle the mess.
Life with Bucky had been a dream come true the last few weeks. You’d had some time to get settled in and find a rhythm that worked for the two of you. Both of you had worried about living together since neither of you had done it before. However, you quickly realized that because of the bond you shared, being in each other’s presence made so many things so much easier. Your connection made anticipating the other’s needs and wants an almost seamless action, it was the most in tune you had ever been with a partner. You’d actually started jokingly pinching each other during random moments to remind yourselves that this was real life.
“I promise I’m not trying to distract you but ‘your’ cat is on thin ice,” you called out to Bucky as easily as if he was just in the other room instead of hundreds of miles away on his first mission since the move. You didn’t expect him to answer but old habits die hard and for you keeping your connection open constantly was as natural as breathing. “Why can’t she just let me be a plant mom and a cat mom?” A faint huff of laughter was all you got before your connection went back to a dull static letting you know that he was listening but keeping his promise about making sure you were protected from the sights and sounds of the mission.
Determined to distract yourself you filled your afternoon with errands around the city. Sam and Bucky were due back in a few days so you decided to surprise them by baking a few of their favorite sweet treats. Unfortunately, you underestimated the amount of ingredients needed and found yourself struggling to maneuver into your apartment without dropping everything. “Wish you were here babe!” you huffed out. “You make carrying everything in one trip look ridiculously easy.” Bucky’s quiet non-response didn’t surprise you at first, it wasn’t until you’d set the bags down on the counter that you realized something wasn’t quite right. It was way too quiet. “Bucky…?”
Radio silence. No static. Not a blip. “Bucky, if you can hear me I need you to give me something, anything. Okay?”
You held your breath, straining to hear through the silence. Still nothing. You tried to ignore the pang of dread settling in your stomach.
“I’m sure it’s fine. I’m overreacting. Right?” Alpine only looked at you quizzically as you paced the kitchen floor. “It’s fine. Any second now I’ll hear from him and we’ll have a big laugh about how paranoid I am.”
Out of nowhere pain slammed into you like a punch to the gut. It took you so fast and so hard that your body immediately gave out. Laying on the cold tile you were helpless as waves of confusion, panic, and rage held you down. It was like you were drowning on dry land, you couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t think.
Just when you thought you couldn’t take it for one more moment, it was gone. Vanished. Like someone had literally flipped a switch. The relief you felt was immeasurable, your heart nearly pounding out of your chest as you took several greedy breaths. Paranoia be damned. Something was wrong with Bucky. Very, very wrong.
Your phone screen lit up just as you reached for it, Sam’s face and name a glowing beacon of hope.
“Sam? Thank goodness, I was just about to call you. Where is Bucky? Are you with him? Is he okay?”
“That’s why I was calling (Y/N), we ran into some.. unexpected trouble.” The stress in his voice was not helping your already erratic emotional state. “We got separated and lost contact, and now his tracker isn’t transmitting”
“What does that mean, Sam?”
“Don’t freak out yet, it could be nothing.”
“It’s not nothing Sam, something is wrong. The things I’ve been feeling through the bond are scaring me and he’s not answering.” Leaning back against the wall you forced back the tears threatening to fall.
“Listen, just try to stay calm. Right now you are our best chance at finding him. Until you’re able to contact him we are doing everything we can on our end to figure out what’s happened. He’s going to be okay.”
“I wish I could believe that Sam… I’ve got a really bad feeling about this. I just want to know he’s alright…”
“Hang on a sec…” You could hear Sam moving around and after a moment a door closing. “Okay (Y/N), it’s just me and you now. Let’s try something. I need you to focus. Close your eyes, breathe with me.” You let your body slide down the wall until you were sitting on the floor again. “Block out everything around you. Picture his face, feel your connection, focus on it…”
Bucky… where are you…
You could feel the threads connecting you, solid as ever. The relief of knowing he’s not dead is welcome but short lived. Everything still feels off, but it’s not the total silence from earlier. It reminds you of the early days, back when he still kept you at arm’s length.
That doesn’t make sense unless… unless something is happening that he doesn’t want me to see?
Standom will be the death of fandoms……Standoms are the source of all evil, I’m telling yall! The shit I’m seeing across this app…ABSOLUTE INSANITY! And the fact of the matter is everyone is a bit too grown for the bullshit and bullying.
just sitting here in my room/car/kitchen/castle, procrastinating on work, pondering the meaning of life and the fact that some people genuinely believe they know or will ever know what's going on in Connor, Hudson and Francois' private lives because they like, watched some blurry video enough times, or "read their body language", or found a hidden meaning in a public statement they made, or figured out a pattern and the pr strategy in their public behavior, or just generally understand life and the universe on some deeper level and they see what we're all not seeing. i always keep you in my prayers, guys! 🙏🙌
why's everyone in your inbox crashing out because of jenna's allegedly leaked letterboxd as if it's some safety concern? it's a fucking social media account. not her home address. JFC!
Because it is a social media safety concern, you fucking idiot.
Jenna Ortega Stans have proven themselves time and fucking time again to behave like parasocial animals towards her on her social media accounts.
She doesn't want a bunch of followers on there bothering her about whatever they hate, and people like that fucktard Anon are exactly the types to pull that shit.
In fact, she has two new fucktards following her today, which she WILL remove (and hopefully block). She'll see (just as anyone can see) that these fucktards deliberately created their Letterboxd accounts JUST to follow her — it's their first action on their accounts — because they're fucking stupid as shit. They're not cinephiles, they're STANS, and all they want to do is stalk her.
They're probably watching this here, so fuck off the both of you, you fucking idiots. Oh, and for good measure, since one's marked Portuguese: Vá à merda e morre, tu e a tua amiga; espero que ela e os amigos dela te eliminem e bloqueiem rapidamente.
Another Anon:
Sorry not sorry, but removed your clever little quip about how it was found.
The mere act of following her when you don't know her, GIVEN THE HISTORY OF Jenna Stan behavior (which we all know about, none of us is ignorant), is disturbing her peace, since now she has to delete a couple of moronic stans.
The last time this happened it was a Jemma freak who had a damn AI'ed photo of her kissing Emma Myers. Who the fuck wants to see that, to be reminded of the toxic forces that drove her production into chaos after the 2023 Golden Globes? (Because as much as your Jemma/Wenclair fantasies make up 90% of your daydreaming and personalities, those two actresses never appreciated that shit. Myers has told you several times to cut the shit, but you won't.) Stop being such STAN CUNTS.
Their presence on her list right now is the exact shit I was warning people about. People with bird brains not doing any thinking.
Funny how the true statement of, "Just cus the hero did something bad, it does not mean the story is endorsing it!" is often said by the same people who say, "The story can't be endorsing anything bad! The bad stuff was done by the villain!"
It's like most people only understand framing when they want to. They only understand the basic concept of nuance when it benefits them, if it does not, then everything is black and white.
And this is speaking in broad strokes, may the gods help you if you are talking about specific works.
"The narrative predetermines not only what information you receive, but how you interpret it and order it within the larger story. As Duncombe writes, 'We understand our world less through reasoned deliberation of facts, and more through stories and symbols and metaphors.' Received in a community of devotees, such stories and symbols often morph into esoteric codes only true believers can see, from 'Q drops' to signs that Louis Tomlinson’s baby is fake." [color/ emphasis added]
--Aja Romero
I've often thought the way that extreme fans (or "stans") form communities centered around celebrity "narratives" and conspiracies is very much a similar phenomenon as what we see with certain Trump voters. Aja Romano does a great job of describing the troubling parallels between celebrity "stans" and Trump's MAGA followers. Below are some excerpts from the article:
It’s a common observation that modern-day politics increasingly resembles fandom: Both feature communities created around and united by passion, and both are often heavily fixated on a single public figure.
[...]
In both subcultures, the rise of social media echo chambers has fomented toxicity, extremism, and delusional thinking.
[...]
OUR EMOTIONS INCREASINGLY SHAPE HOW WE VIEW REALITY AND WHAT WE’RE WILLING TO DO TO PRESERVE THAT VIEW
Applying the concept of a shared narrative to political activism imbues that activism with all the heady intoxication of a fantasy role-playing game, whether it’s a fantasy of progress or a fantasy of extremism.... [A]uthor Stephen Duncombe observed that Trump won the 2016 election not based on facts — he lied often — but upon his ability to create fantasy masked as truth. “Facts, it seems, are not things that are verifiably true or false, merely components in a story,” Duncombe notes.
[...]
This distortion of reality is partly inadvertent slippage. After all, when all your friends are playing the RPG with you, it can be hard to re-enter reality. And when all your friends are creating the narrative with you, it can be hard to remember what parts are real and what parts you constructed together.
That communal narrative is crucial connective tissue between politics and fandom; it unites people around not just a shared sense of identity, but a shared story and the idea that they’re building that story together. These narratives aren’t just entertainment. To their proponents, they have a higher moral purpose, whether it’s “draining the swamp,” rooting for your favorite characters in a series to get together, or freeing Taylor Swift from the oppression of the closet.
[color emphasis added]
I highly recommend that you read the entire article at the link above.
Hi genuine question, not trying to sound rude but I’m not exactly sure how to phrase this- why specifically are you so intent on criticizing Martha Wells, and why not just…give your opinion then move on? Because I feel like there are other authors who are actively worse, more popular, write books with issues that are significantly more glaring. Ex. I just got the way of kings from my local library and that one…expresses some very Mormon views at best and cater to an audience that is much less likely to think critically about their media than a book like the Murderbot Diaries might. Also, are there any books/tv shows/etc that you personally would recommend that you think fix/address some of the issues you see in Martha Wells’s writing? Thank you :p
Because she's liteally profiting off of white supremacy and shilling for Apple of all things, while claiming that her series is anti-capitalist and anti-corporation.
Literally, someone has to do it, and I don't see anyone else in this fandom volunteering.
"an audience that is much less likely to think critically about their media than a book like the Murderbot Diaries might."
What? If you think this fandom is actually willing to think critically, why are you confused about the fact that I'm asking the fandom to think critically? What sense does that make?
This fandom is *not* willing to think critically, that's why I've been so loud about this for years now. This fandom, and this author, are not allowed to keep getting away with this level of racism, ableism, exorsexism, and aroacemisia.
If this fandom were willing to actually engage critically with this series, I wouldn't be one of, at max, three people actually talking about this shit without whitewashing it in every way imaginable to pretend it's "not that bad".
Martha Wells is literally proudly profiting off of white supremacy by shilling for Apple, telling the poor people in her audience to spend their grocery money on subscriptions to one of the corporations that her books are, supposedly, but not really, supposed to be criticizing.
You wanna know the moment I decided I'm never letting Martha Wells get away with this shit uncriticized?
When I found out that her response to criticism of her older fantasy series from 2011, was to double down on the antiblack, pro-eugenics shit she baked into there, by DEFENDING BRITISH COLONIZATION.
This woman literally gets up on stages and gives speeches about how anyone who thinks The Murderbot Diaries is lighthearted fun, is "willfully ignorant" even though she's the one literally undercutting any and all tension, and, as a white woman from Texas, decided to use literal chattel slavery as the set dressing for "putting character in situations" while continually asking us EIGHT YEARS LATER to keep cheering on when the protagonists murder and torture slaves.
How did you sit there and type out the idea that this fandom is willing to engage critically with this media? What are you talking about??? How do you come to my blog and say that?
And there's no way for other peices of media to "fix" what's wrong in The Murderbot Diaries, because only Martha Wells is capable of "fixing" what's wrong with this series, because she's the one actually writing it.
And she's made it clear, from the fact that she would literally rather defend British colonization than apologize for putting racist stereotypes in her fantasy series from 2011, to her casual statement that she doesn't do character development "because real people don't change all that much", she's never going to "fix" what's wrong in this series, because she refuses to ever admit she's done anything wrong.
And even if the next book, ~magically, miraculously~ does try to "fix" this shit....it's far too fucking late. There's no fixing it now. The time for that has long since passed. There's no fucking damage control that can save this series from going down in history as fucking woobified slavery apologism in 2025.
I am literally not joking. She would rather defend British colonization than just apologize for racist stereotypes she used in 2011.
She is, as we speak, profiting off of white supremacist patriarchy by cheering on the whitewashing and ciswashing of her Black nonbinary slave protagonist, by the fucking evil corporation she's shilling for like the literal definition of a performative ally sellout, casting a cis white man. In the role of a nonbinary person enslaved by people of color.
And you don't understand why I won't let people keep pretending she's progressive? You don't understand why I won't let this white supremacist fandom keep lying to people about how these books toootally handle everything soooo progressively?
They won't even admit it's literally just the nonbinary/aroace robot stereotype! They won't even admit the slave owners are slave owners, or that the slaves are slaves!
No other media I can recommend will "fix" the problems in this series because they're not this series. Martha Wells has had every opportunity to learn and grow as a person since she published The Cloud Roads, and at every opportunity, she has refused.
It does not even take one single book to actually take slavery seriously if you actually genuinely care about it in the first place.
Martha Wells has published 13 stories in this series and we're still expected to cheer on heroes who think genocide is nothing to even blink at, who torture slaves to death just to show how "badass" they are.
You say you don't want to be rude, but there's no non-rude way to say what you've said in this ask.
This fandom is not willing to engage critically with this series. I have been begging them to for years now. You don't just get to come into my inbox and lie about this, and tell me I should just let everyone keep pretending Martha Wells is progressive and literally let her continue to explicitly profit off of white supremacy, eugenics propaganda, and so much more, because that's what you, and every other stan who's tried this before, is asking.
You all need to learn that ignoring racism is how you uphold it. Everyone who's read these books, especially if you're white or nonblack, has a moral obligation to speak up about and criticize the blatant slavery apologism and ableism and more going on in here if you're gonna continue engaging with the fandom.
Why does everyone understand that "silence is violence" is true when it comes to things that personally affect them, but not when it comes to racism and a white woman in 2025 literally, explicitly, gleefully profiting off of white supremacy??????
If you're trying to ask for stories that don't do slavery apologism, here's a short story from fucking 1956. 69 years ago. Accomplishing more in a single short story than Martha Wells has in 8 years of writing 13 stories.
Because Harry Harrison, unlike Martha Wells, actually cared about minorities.
This was written before segregation was abolished!
The Velvet Glove, by Harry Harrison.
Jon Venex fitted the key into the hotel room door. He had asked for a large room, the largest in the hotel, and paid the desk clerk extra for it. All he could do now was pray that he hadn't been cheated. He didn't dare complain or try to get his money back. He heaved a sigh of relief as the door swung open, it was bigger than he had expected—fully three feet wide by five feet long. There was more than enough room to work in. He would have his leg off in a jiffy and by morning his limp would be gone.
There was the usual adjustable hook on the back wall. He slipped it through the recessed ring in the back of his neck and kicked himself up until his feet hung free of the floor. His legs relaxed with a rattle as he cut off all power from his waist down.
The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it, plenty of time to skim through the newspaper. With the chronic worry of the unemployed, he snapped it open at the want-ads and ran his eye down the Help Wanted—Robot column. There was nothing for him under the Specialist heading, even the Unskilled Labor listings were bare and unpromising. New York was a bad town for robots this year.
The want-ads were just as depressing as usual but he could always get a lift from the comic section. He even had a favorite strip, a fact that he scarcely dared mention to himself. "Rattly Robot," a dull-witted mechanical clod who was continually falling over himself and getting into trouble. It was a repellent caricature, but could still be very funny. Jon was just starting to read it when the ceiling light went out.
It was ten P.M., curfew hour for robots. Lights out and lock yourself in until six in the morning, eight hours of boredom and darkness for all except the few night workers. But there were ways of getting around the letter of a law that didn't concern itself with a definition of visible light. Sliding aside some of the shielding around his atomic generator, Jon turned up the gain. As it began to run a little hot the heat waves streamed out—visible to him as infra-red rays. He finished reading the paper in the warm, clear light of his abdomen.
The thermocouple in the tip of his second finger left hand, he tested the temperature of his leg. It was soon cool enough to work on. The waterproof gasket stripped off easily, exposing the power leads, nerve wires and the weakened knee joint. The wires disconnected, Jon unscrewed the knee above the joint and carefully placed it on the shelf in front of him. With loving care he took the replacement part from his hip pouch. It was the product of toil, purchased with his savings from three months employment on the Jersey pig farm.
Jon was standing on one leg testing the new knee joint when the ceiling fluorescent flickered and came back on. Five-thirty already, he had just finished in time. A shot of oil on the new bearing completed the job; he stowed away the tools in the pouch and unlocked the door.
The unused elevator shaft acted as waste chute, he slipped his newspaper through a slot in the door as he went by. Keeping close to the wall, he picked his way carefully down the grease-stained stairs. He slowed his pace at the 17th floor as two other mechs turned in ahead of him. They were obviously butchers or meat-cutters; where the right hand should have been on each of them there stuck out a wicked, foot-long knife. As they approached the foot of the stairs they stopped to slip the knives into the plastic sheaths that were bolted to their chestplates. Jon followed them down the ramp into the lobby.
The room was filled to capacity with robots of all sizes, forms and colors. Jon Venex's greater height enabled him to see over their heads to the glass doors that opened onto the street. It had rained the night before and the rising sun drove red glints from the puddles on the sidewalk. Three robots, painted snow white to show they were night workers, pushed the doors open and came in. No one went out as the curfew hadn't ended yet. They milled around slowly talking in low voices.
The only human being in the entire lobby was the night clerk dozing behind the counter. The clock over his head said five minutes to six. Shifting his glance from the clock, Jon became aware of a squat black robot waving to attract his attention. The powerful arms and compact build identified him as a member of the Diger family, one of the most numerous groups. He pushed through the crowd and clapped Jon on the back with a resounding clang.
"Jon Venex! I knew it was you as soon as I saw you sticking up out of this crowd like a green tree trunk. I haven't seen you since the old days on Venus!"
Jon didn't need to check the number stamped on the short one's scratched chestplate. Alec Diger had been his only close friend during those thirteen boring years at Orange Sea Camp. A good chess player and a whiz at Two-handed Handball, they had spent all their off time together. They shook hands, with the extra squeeze that means friendliness.
"Alec, you beat-up little grease pot, what brings you to New York?"
"The burning desire to see something besides rain and jungle, if you must know. After you bought out, things got just too damn dull. I began working two shifts a day in that foul diamond mine, and then three a day for the last month to get enough credits to buy my contract and passage back to earth. I was underground so long that the photocell on my right eye burned out when the sunlight hit it."
He leaned forward with a hoarse confidential whisper, "If you want to know the truth, I had a sixty-carat diamond stuck behind the eye lens. I sold it here on earth for two hundred credits, gave me six months of easy living. It's all gone now, so I'm on my way to the employment exchange." His voice boomed loud again, "And how about you?"
Jon Venex chuckled at his friend's frank approach to life. "It's just been the old routine with me, a run of odd jobs until I got side-swiped by a bus—it fractured my knee bearing. The only job I could get with a bad leg was feeding slops to pigs. Earned enough to fix the knee—and here I am."
Alec jerked his thumb at a rust-colored, three-foot-tall robot that had come up quietly beside him. "If you think you've got trouble take a look at Dik here, that's no coat of paint on him. Dik Dryer, meet Jon Venex an old buddy of mine."
Jon bent over to shake the little mech's hand. His eye shutters dilated as he realized what he had thought was a coat of paint was a thin layer of rust that coated Dik's metal body. Alec scratched a shiny path in the rust with his fingertip. His voice was suddenly serious.
"Dik was designed for operation in the Martian desert. It's as dry as a fossil bone there so his skinflint company cut corners on the stainless steel.
"When they went bankrupt he was sold to a firm here in the city. After a while the rust started to eat in and slow him down, they gave Dik his contract and threw him out."
The small robot spoke for the first time, his voice grated and scratched. "Nobody will hire me like this, but I can't get repaired until I get a job." His arms squeaked and grated as he moved them. "I'm going by the Robot Free Clinic again today, they said they might be able to do something."
Alec Diger rumbled in his deep chest. "Don't put too much faith in those people. They're great at giving out tenth-credit oil capsules or a little free wire—but don't depend on them for anything important."
It was six now, the robots were pushing through the doors into the silent streets. They joined the crowd moving out, Jon slowing his stride so his shorter friends could keep pace. Dik Dryer moved with a jerking, irregular motion, his voice as uneven as the motion of his body.
"Jon—Venex, I don't recognize your family name. Something to do—with Venus—perhaps."
"Venus is right, Venus Experimental—there are only twenty-two of us in the family. We have waterproof, pressure-resistant bodies for working down on the ocean bottom. The basic idea was all right, we did our part, only there wasn't enough money in the channel-dredging contract to keep us all working. I bought out my original contract at half price and became a free robot."
Dik vibrated his rusted diaphragm. "Being free isn't all it should be. I some—times wish the Robot Equality Act hadn't been passed. I would just l-love to be owned by a nice rich company with a machine shop and a—mountain of replacement parts."
"You don't really mean that, Dik," Alec Diger clamped a heavy black arm across his shoulders. "Things aren't perfect now, we know that, but it's certainly a lot better than the old days, we were just hunks of machinery then. Used twenty-four hours a day until we were worn out and then thrown in the junk pile. No thanks, I'll take my chances with things as they are."
Jon and Alec turned into the employment exchange, saying good-by to Dik who went on slowly down the street. They pushed up the crowded ramp and joined the line in front of the registration desk. The bulletin board next to the desk held a scattering of white slips announcing job openings. A clerk was pinning up new additions.
Venex scanned them with his eyes, stopping at one circled in red.
ROBOTS NEEDED IN THESE CATEGORIES. APPLY AT ONCE TO CHAINJET, LTD., 1219 BROADWAY.
Fasten
Flyer
Atommel
Filmer
Venex
Jon rapped excitedly on Alec Diger's neck. "Look there, a job in my own specialty—I can get my old pay rate! See you back at the hotel tonight—and good luck in your job hunting."
Alec waved good-by. "Let's hope the job's as good as you think, I never trust those things until I have my credits in my hand."
Jon walked quickly from the employment exchange, his long legs eating up the blocks. Good old Alec, he didn't believe in anything he couldn't touch. Perhaps he was right, but why try to be unhappy. The world wasn't too bad this morning—his leg worked fine, prospects of a good job—he hadn't felt this cheerful since the day he was activated.
Turning the corner at a brisk pace he collided with a man coming from the opposite direction. Jon had stopped on the instant, but there wasn't time to jump aside. The obese individual jarred against him and fell to the ground. From the height of elation to the depths of despair in an instant—he had injured a human being!
He bent to help the man to his feet, but the other would have none of that. He evaded the friendly hand and screeched in a high-pitched voice.
A crowd was gathering—staying at a respectful distance—but making an angry muttering noise. Jon stood motionless, his head reeling at the enormity of what he had done. A policeman pushed his way through the crowd.
"Seize him, officer, shoot him down ... he struck me ... almost killed me ..." The man shook with rage, his words thickening to a senseless babble.
The policeman had his .75 recoilless revolver out and pressed against Jon's side.
"This man has charged you with a serious crime, grease-can. I'm taking you into the station house—to talk about it." He looked around nervously, waving his gun to open a path through the tightly packed crowd. They moved back grudgingly, with murmurs of disapproval.
Jon's thoughts swirled in tight circles. How did a catastrophe like this happen, where was it going to end? He didn't dare tell the truth, that would mean he was calling the man a liar. There had been six robots power-lined in the city since the first of the year. If he dared speak in his own defense there would be a jumper to the street lighting circuit and a seventh burnt out hulk in the police morgue.
A feeling of resignation swept through him, there was no way out. If the man pressed charges it would mean a term of penal servitude, though it looked now as if he would never live to reach the court. The papers had been whipping up a lot of anti-robe feeling, you could feel it behind the angry voices, see it in the narrowed eyes and clenched fists. The crowd was slowly changing into a mob, a mindless mob as yet, but capable of turning on him at any moment.
"What's goin' on here...?" It was a booming voice, with a quality that dragged at the attention of the crowd.
A giant cross-continent freighter was parked at the curb. The driver swung down from the cab and pushed his way through the people. The policeman shifted his gun as the man strode up to him.
"That's my robot you got there, Jack, don't put any holes in him!" He turned on the man who had been shouting accusations. "Fatty here, is the world's biggest liar. The robot was standing here waiting for me to park the truck. Fatty must be as blind as he is stupid, I saw the whole thing. He knocks himself down walking into the robe, then starts hollering for the cops."
The other man could take no more. His face crimson with anger he rushed toward the trucker, his fists swinging in ungainly circles. They never landed, the truck driver put a meaty hand on the other's face and seated him on the sidewalk for the second time.
The onlookers roared with laughter, the power-lining and the robot were forgotten. The fight was between two men now, the original cause had slipped from their minds. Even the policeman allowed himself a small smile as he holstered his gun and stepped forward to separate the men.
The trucker turned towards Jon with a scowl.
"Come on you aboard the truck—you've caused me enough trouble for one day. What a junkcan!"
The crowd chuckled as he pushed Jon ahead of him into the truck and slammed the door behind them. Jamming the starter with his thumb he gunned the thunderous diesels into life and pulled out into the traffic.
Jon moved his jaw, but there were no words to come out. Why had this total stranger helped him, what could he say to show his appreciation? He knew that all humans weren't robe-haters, why it was even rumored that some humans treated robots as equals instead of machines. The driver must be one of these mythical individuals, there was no other way to explain his actions.
Driving carefully with one hand the man reached up behind the dash and drew out a thin, plastikoid booklet. He handed it to Jon who quickly scanned the title, Robot Slaves in a World Economy by Philpott Asimov II.
"If you're caught reading that thing they'll execute you on the spot. Better stick it between the insulation on your generator, you can always burn it if you're picked up.
"Read it when you're alone, it's got a lot of things in it that you know nothing about. Robots aren't really inferior to humans, in fact they're superior in most things. There is even a little history in there to show that robots aren't the first ones to be treated as second class citizens. You may find it a little hard to believe, but human beings once treated each other just the way they treat robots now. That's one of the reasons I'm active in this movement—sort of like the fellow who was burned helping others stay away from the fire."
He smiled a warm, friendly smile in Jon's direction, the whiteness of his teeth standing out against the rich ebony brown of his features.
"I'm heading towards US-1, can I drop you anywheres on the way?"
"The Chainjet Building please—I'm applying for a job."
They rode the rest of the way in silence. Before he opened the door the driver shook hands with Jon.
"Sorry about calling you junkcan, but the crowd expected it." He didn't look back as he drove away.
Jon had to wait a half hour for his turn, but the receptionist finally signalled him towards the door of the interviewer's room. He stepped in quickly and turned to face the man seated at the transplastic desk, an upset little man with permanent worry wrinkles stamped in his forehead. The little man shoved the papers on the desk around angrily, occasionally making crabbed little notes on the margins. He flashed a birdlike glance up at Jon.
"Yes, yes, be quick. What is it you want?"
"You posted a help wanted notice, I—"
The man cut him off with a wave of his hand. "All right let me see your ID tag ... quickly, there are others waiting."
Jon thumbed the tag out of his waist slot and handed it across the desk. The interviewer read the code number, then began running his finger down a long list of similar figures. He stopped suddenly and looked sideways at Jon from under his lowered lids.
"You have made a mistake, we have no opening for you."
Jon began to explain to the man that the notice had requested his specialty, but he was waved to silence. As the interviewer handed back the tag he slipped a card out from under the desk blotter and held it in front of Jon's eyes. He held it there for only an instant, knowing that the written message was recorded instantly by the robot's photographic vision and eidetic memory. The card dropped into the ash tray and flared into embers at the touch of the man's pencil-heater.
Jon stuffed the ID tag back into the slot and read over the message on the card as he walked down the stairs to the street. There were six lines of typewritten copy with no signature.
To Venex Robot: You are urgently needed on a top secret company project. There are suspected informers in the main office, so you are being hired in this unusual manner. Go at once to 787 Washington Street and ask for Mr. Coleman.
Jon felt an immense sensation of relief. For a moment there, he was sure the job had been a false lead. He saw nothing unusual in the method of hiring. The big corporations were immensely jealous of their research discoveries and went to great lengths to keep them secret—at the same time resorting to any means to ferret out their business rivals' secrets. There might still be a chance to get this job.
The burly bulk of a lifter was moving back and forth in the gloom of the ancient warehouse stacking crates in ceiling-high rows. Jon called to him, the robot swung up his forklift and rolled over on noiseless tires. When Jon questioned him he indicated a stairwell against the rear wall.
"Mr. Coleman's office is down in back, the door is marked." The lifter put his fingertips against Jon's ear pick-ups and lowered his voice to the merest shadow of a whisper. It would have been inaudible to human ears, but Jon could hear him easily, the sounds being carried through the metal of the other's body.
"He's the meanest man you ever met—he hates robots so be ever so polite. If you can use 'sir' five times in one sentence you're perfectly safe."
Jon swept the shutter over one eye tube in a conspiratorial wink, the large mech did the same as he rolled away. Jon turned and went down the dusty stairwell and knocked gently on Mr. Coleman's door.
Coleman was a plump little individual in a conservative purple-and-yellow business suit. He kept glancing from Jon to the Robot General Catalog checking the Venex specifications listed there. Seemingly satisfied he slammed the book shut.
"Gimme your tag and back against that wall to get measured."
Jon laid his ID tag on the desk and stepped towards the wall. "Yes, sir, here it is, sir." Two "sir" on that one, not bad for the first sentence. He wondered idly if he could put five of them in one sentence without the man knowing he was being made a fool of.
He became aware of the danger an instant too late. The current surged through the powerful electromagnet behind the plaster flattening his metal body helplessly against the wall. Coleman was almost dancing with glee.
"We got him, Druce, he's mashed flatter than a stinking tin-can on a rock, can't move a motor. Bring that junk in here and let's get him ready."
Druce had a mechanic's coveralls on over his street suit and a tool box slung under one arm. He carried a little black metal can at arm's length, trying to get as far from it as possible. Coleman shouted at him with annoyance.
"That bomb can't go off until it's armed, stop acting like a child. Put it on that grease-can's leg and quick!"
Grumbling under his breath, Druce spot-welded the metal flanges of the bomb onto Jon's leg a few inches above his knee. Coleman tugged at it to be certain it was secure, then twisted a knob in the side and pulled out a glistening length of pin. There was a cold little click from inside the mechanism as it armed itself.
Jon could do nothing except watch, even his vocal diaphragm was locked by the magnetic field. He had more than a suspicion however that he was involved in something other than a "secret business deal." He cursed his own stupidity for walking blindly into the situation.
The magnetic field cut off and he instantly raced his extensor motors to leap forward. Coleman took a plastic box out of his pocket and held his thumb over a switch inset into its top.
"Don't make any quick moves, junk-yard, this little transmitter is keyed to a receiver in that bomb on your leg. One touch of my thumb, up you go in a cloud of smoke and come down in a shower of nuts and bolts." He signalled to Druce who opened a closet door. "And in case you want to be heroic, just think of him."
Coleman jerked his thumb at the sodden shape on the floor; a filthily attired man of indistinguishable age whose only interesting feature was the black bomb strapped tightly across his chest. He peered unseeingly from red-rimmed eyes and raised the almost empty whiskey bottle to his mouth. Coleman kicked the door shut.
"He's just some Bowery bum we dragged in, Venex, but that doesn't make any difference to you, does it? He's human—and a robot can't kill anybody! That rummy has a bomb on him tuned to the same frequency as yours, if you don't play ball with us he gets a two-foot hole blown in his chest."
Coleman was right, Jon didn't dare make any false moves. All of his early mental training as well as Circuit 92 sealed inside his brain case would prevent him from harming a human being. He felt trapped, caught by these people for some unknown purpose.
Coleman had pushed back a tarpaulin to disclose a ragged hole in the concrete floor, the opening extended into the earth below. He waved Jon over.
"The tunnel is in good shape for about thirty feet, then you'll find a fall. Clean all the rock and dirt out until you break through into the storm sewer, then come back. And you better be alone. If you tip the cops both you and the old stew go out together—now move."
The shaft had been dug recently and shored with packing crates from the warehouse overhead. It ended abruptly in a wall of fresh sand and stone. Jon began shoveling it into the little wheelbarrow they had given him.
He had emptied four barrow loads and was filling the fifth when he uncovered the hand, a robot's hand made of green metal. He turned his headlight power up and examined the hand closely, there could be no doubt about it. These gaskets on the joints, the rivet pattern at the base of the thumb meant only one thing, it was the dismembered hand of a Venex robot.
Quickly, yet gently, he shoveled away the rubble behind the hand and unearthed the rest of the robot. The torso was crushed and the power circuits shorted, battery acid was dripping from an ugly rent in the side. With infinite care Jon snapped the few remaining wires that joined the neck to the body and laid the green head on the barrow. It stared at him like a skull, the shutters completely dilated, but no glow of life from the tubes behind them.
He was scraping the mud from the number on the battered chestplate when Druce lowered himself into the tunnel and flashed the brilliant beam of a hand-spot down its length.
"Stop playing with that junk and get digging—or you'll end up the same as him. This tunnel has gotta be through by tonight."
Jon put the dismembered parts on the barrow with the sand and rock and pushed the whole load back up the tunnel, his thoughts running in unhappy circles. A dead robot was a terrible thing, and one of his family too. But there was something wrong about this robot, something that was quite inexplicable, the number on the plate had been "17," yet he remembered only too well the day that a water-shorted motor had killed Venex 17 in the Orange Sea.
It took Jon four hours to drive the tunnel as far as the ancient granite wall of the storm sewer. Druce gave him a short pinch bar and he levered out enough of the big blocks to make a hole large enough to let him through into the sewer.
When he climbed back into the office he tried to look casual as he dropped the pinch bar to the floor by his feet and seated himself on the pile of rubble in the corner. He moved around to make a comfortable seat for himself and his fingers grabbed the severed neck of Venex 17.
Coleman swiveled around in his chair and squinted at the wall clock. He checked the time against his tie-pin watch, with a grunt of satisfaction he turned back and stabbed a finger at Jon.
"Listen, you green junk-pile, at 1900 hours you're going to do a job, and there aren't going to be any slip ups. You go down that sewer and into the Hudson River. The outlet is under water, so you won't be seen from the docks. Climb down to the bottom and walk 200 yards north, that should put you just under a ship. Keep your eyes open, but don't show any lights! About halfway down the keel of the ship you'll find a chain hanging.
"Climb the chain, pull loose the box that's fastened to the hull at the top and bring it back here. No mistakes—or you know what happens."
Jon nodded his head. His busy fingers had been separating the wires in the amputated neck. When they had been straightened and put into a row he memorized their order with one flashing glance.
He ran over the color code in his mind and compared it with the memorized leads. The twelfth wire was the main cranial power lead, number six was the return wire.
With his precise touch he separated these two from the pack and glanced idly around the room. Druce was dozing on a chair in the opposite corner. Coleman was talking on the phone, his voice occasionally rising in a petulant whine. This wasn't interfering with his attention to Jon—and the radio switch still held tightly in left hand.
Jon's body blocked Coleman's vision, as long as Druce stayed asleep he would be able to work on the head unobserved. He activated a relay in his forearm and there was a click as the waterproof cover on an exterior socket swung open. This was a power outlet from his battery that was used to operate motorized tools and lights underwater.
If Venex 17's head had been severed for less than three weeks he could reactivate it. Every robot had a small storage battery inside his skull, if the power to the brain was cut off the battery would provide the minimum standby current to keep the brain alive. The robe would be unconscious until full power was restored.
Jon plugged the wires into his arm-outlet and slowly raised the current to operating level. There was a tense moment of waiting, then 17's eye shutters suddenly closed. When they opened again the eye tubes were glowing warmly. They swept the room with one glance then focused on Jon.
The right shutter clicked shut while the other began opening and closing in rapid fashion. It was International code—being sent as fast as the solenoid could be operated. Jon concentrated on the message.
Telephone—call emergency operator—tell her "signal 14" help will—
The shutter stopped in the middle of a code group, the light of reason dying from the eyes.
For one instant Jon's heart leaped in panic, until he realized that 17 had deliberately cut the power. Druce's harsh voice rasped in his ear.
"What you doing with that? None of your funny robot tricks. I know your kind, plotting all kinds of things in them tin domes." His voice trailed off into a stream of incomprehensible profanity. With sudden spite he lashed his foot out and sent 17's head crashing against the wall.
The dented, green head rolled to a stop at Jon's feet, the face staring up at him in mute agony. It was only Circuit 92 that prevented him from injuring a human. As his motors revved up to send him hurtling forward the control relays clicked open. He sank against the debris, paralyzed for the instant. As soon as the rush of anger was gone he would regain control of his body.
They stood as if frozen in a tableau. The robot slumped backward, the man leaning forward, his face twisted with unreasoning hatred. The head lay between them like a symbol of death.
Coleman's voice cut through the air of tenseness like a knife.
"Druce, stop playing with the grease-can and get down to the main door to let Little Willy and his junk-brokers in. You can have it all to yourself afterward."
The angry man turned reluctantly, but pushed out of the door at Coleman's annoyed growl. Jon sat down against the wall, his mind sorting out the few facts with lightning precision. There was no room in his thoughts for Druce, the man had become just one more factor in a complex problem.
Call the emergency operator—that meant this was no local matter, responsible authorities must be involved. Only the government could be behind a thing as major as this. Signal 14—that inferred a complex set of arrangements, forces that could swing into action at a moment's notice. There was no indication where this might lead, but the only thing to do was to get out of here and make that phone call. And quick. Druce was bringing in more people, junk-brokers, whatever they were. Any action that he took would have to be done before they returned.
Even as Jon followed this train of logic his fingers were busy. Palming a wrench, he was swiftly loosening the main retaining nut on his hip joint. It dropped free in his hand, only the pivot pin remained now to hold his leg on. He climbed slowly to his feet and moved towards Coleman's desk.
"Mr. Coleman, sir, it's time to go down to the ship now, should I leave now, sir?"
Jon spoke the words slowly as he walked forward, apparently going to the door, but angling at the same time towards the plump man's desk.
"You got thirty minutes yet, go sit—say...!"
The words were cut off. Fast as a human reflex is, it is the barest crawl compared to the lightning action of electronic reflex. At the instant Coleman was first aware of Jon's motion, the robot had finished his leap and lay sprawled across the desk, his leg off at the hip and clutched in his hand.
"YOU'LL KILL YOURSELF IF YOU TOUCH THE BUTTON!"
The words were part of the calculated plan. Jon bellowed them in the startled man's ear as he stuffed the dismembered leg down the front of the man's baggy slacks. It had the desired effect, Coleman's finger stabbed at the button but stopped before it made contact. He stared down with bulging eyes at the little black box of death peeping out of his waistband.
Jon hadn't waited for the reaction. He pushed backward from the desk and stopped to grab the stolen pinch bar off the floor. A mighty one-legged leap brought him to the locked closet; he stabbed the bar into the space between the door and frame and heaved.
Coleman was just starting to struggle the bomb out of his pants when the action was over. The closet open, Jon seized the heavy strap holding the second bomb on the rummy's chest and snapped it like a thread. He threw the bomb into Coleman's corner, giving the man one more thing to worry about. It had cost him a leg, but Jon had escaped the bomb threat without injuring a human. Now he had to get to a phone and make that call.
Coleman stopped tugging at the bomb and plunged his hand into the desk drawer for a gun. The returning men would block the door soon, the only other exit from the room was a frosted-glass window that opened onto the mammoth bay of the warehouse.
Jon Venex plunged through the window in a welter of flying glass. The heavy thud of a recoilless .75 came from the room behind him and a foot-long section of metal window frame leaped outward. Another slug screamed by the robot's head as he scrambled toward the rear door of the warehouse.
He was a bare thirty feet away from the back entrance when the giant door hissed shut on silent rollers. All the doors would have closed at the same time, the thud of running feet indicated that they would be guarded as well. Jon hopped a section of packing cases and crouched out of sight.
He looked up over his head, there stretched a webbing of steel supports, crossing and recrossing until they joined the flat expanse of the roof. To human eyes the shadows there deepened into obscurity, but the infra-red from a network of steam pipes gave Jon all the illumination he needed.
The men would be quartering the floor of the warehouse soon, his only chance to escape recapture or death would be over their heads. Besides this, he was hampered by the loss of his leg. In the rafters he could use his arms for faster and easier travel.
Jon was just pulling himself up to one of the topmost cross beams when a hoarse shout from below was followed by a stream of bullets. They tore through the thin roof, one slug clanged off the steel beam under his body. Waiting until three of the newcomers had started up a nearby ladder, Jon began to quietly work his way towards the back of the building.
Safe for the moment, he took stock of his position. The men were spread out through the building, it could only be a matter of time before they found him. The doors were all locked and—he had made a complete circuit of the building to be sure—there were no windows that he could force—the windows were bolted as well. If he could call the emergency operator the unknown friends of Venex 17 might come to his aid. This, however, was out of the question. The only phone in the building was on Coleman's desk. He had traced the leads to make sure.
His eyes went automatically to the cables above his head. Plastic gaskets were set in the wall of the building, through them came the power and phone lines. The phone line! That was all he needed to make a call.
With smooth, fast motions he reached up and scratched a section of wire bare. He laughed to himself as he slipped the little microphone out of his left ear. Now he was half deaf as well as half lame—he was literally giving himself to this cause. He would have to remember the pun to tell Alec Diger later, if there was a later. Alec had a profound weakness for puns.
Jon attached jumpers to the mike and connected them to the bare wire. A touch of the ammeter showed that no one was on the line. He waited a few moments to be sure he had a dial tone then sent the eleven carefully spaced pulses that would connect him with the local operator. He placed the mike close to his mouth.
"Hello, operator. Hello, operator. I cannot hear you so do not answer. Call the emergency operator—signal 14, I repeat—signal 14."
Jon kept repeating the message until the searching men began to approach his position. He left the mike connected—the men wouldn't notice it in the dark but the open line would give the unknown powers his exact location. Using his fingertips he did a careful traverse on an I-beam to an alcove in the farthest corner of the room. Escape was impossible, all he could do was stall for time.
"Mr. Coleman, I'm sorry I ran away." With the volume on full his voice rolled like thunder from the echoing walls.
He could see the men below twisting their heads vainly to find the source.
"If you let me come back and don't kill me I will do your work. I was afraid of the bomb, but now I am afraid of the guns." It sounded a little infantile, but he was pretty sure none of those present had any sound knowledge of robotic intelligence.
"Please let me come back ... sir!" He had almost forgotten the last word, so he added another "Please, sir!" to make up.
Coleman needed that package under the boat very badly, he would promise anything to get it. Jon had no doubts as to his eventual fate, all he could hope to do was kill time in the hopes that the phone message would bring aid.
"Come on down, Junky, I won't be mad at you—if you follow directions." Jon could hear the hidden anger in his voice, the unspoken hatred for a robe who dared lay hands on him.
The descent wasn't difficult, but Jon did it slowly with much apparent discomfort. He hopped into the center of the floor—leaning on the cases as if for support. Coleman and Druce were both there as well as a group of hard-eyed newcomers. They raised their guns at his approach but Coleman stopped them with a gesture.
"This is my robe, boys, I'll see to it that he's happy."
He raised his gun and shot Jon's remaining leg off. Twisted around by the blast, Jon fell helplessly to the floor. He looked up into the smoking mouth of the .75.
"Very smart for a tin-can, but not smart enough. We'll get the junk on the boat some other way, some way that won't mean having you around under foot." Death looked out of his narrowed eyes.
Less than two minutes had passed since Jon's call. The watchers must have been keeping 24 hour stations waiting for Venex 17's phone message.
The main door went down with the sudden scream of torn steel. A whippet tank crunched over the wreck and covered the group with its multiple pom-poms. They were an instant too late, Coleman pulled the trigger.
Jon saw the tensing trigger finger and pushed hard against the floor. His head rolled clear but the bullet tore through his shoulder. Coleman didn't have a chance for a second shot, there was a fizzling hiss from the tank and the riot ports released a flood of tear gas. The stricken men never saw the gas-masked police that poured in from the street.
Jon lay on the floor of the police station while a tech made temporary repairs on his leg and shoulder. Across the room Venex 17 was moving his new body with evident pleasure.
"Now this really feels like something! I was sure my time was up when that land slip caught me. But maybe I ought to start from the beginning." He stamped across the room and shook Jon's inoperable hand.
"The name is Wil Counter-4951L3, not that that means much any more. I've worn so many different bodies that I forget what I originally looked like. I went right from factory-school to a police training school—and I have been on the job ever since—Force of Detectives, Sergeant Jr. grade, Investigation Department. I spend most of my time selling candy bars or newspapers, or serving drinks in crumb joints. Gather information, make reports and keep tab on guys for other departments.
"This last job—and I'm sorry I had to use a Venex identity, I don't think I brought any dishonor to your family—I was on loan to the Customs department. Seems a ring was bringing uncut junk—heroin—into the country. F.B.I. tabbed all the operators here, but no one knew how the stuff got in. When Coleman, he's the local big-shot, called the agencies for an underwater robot, I was packed into a new body and sent running.
"I alerted the squad as soon as I started the tunnel, but the damned thing caved in on me before I found out what ship was doing the carrying. From there on you know what happened.
"Not knowing I was out of the game the squad sat tight and waited. The hop merchants saw a half million in snow sailing back to the old country so they had you dragged in as a replacement. You made the phone call and the cavalry rushed in at the last moment to save two robots from a rusty grave."
Jon, who had been trying vainly to get in a word, saw his chance as Wil Counter turned to admire the reflection of his new figure in a window.
"You shouldn't be telling me those things—about your police investigations and department operations. Isn't this information supposed to be secret? Specially from robots!"
"Of course it is!" was Wil's airy answer. "Captain Edgecombe—he's the head of my department—is an expert on all kinds of blackmail. I'm supposed to tell you so much confidential police business that you'll have to either join the department or be shot as a possible informer." His laughter wasn't shared by the bewildered Jon.
"Truthfully, Jon, we need you and can use you. Robes that can think fast and act fast aren't easy to find. After hearing about the tricks you pulled in that warehouse, the Captain swore to decapitate me permanently if I couldn't get you to join up. Do you need a job? Long hours, short pay—but guaranteed to never get boring."
Wil's voice was suddenly serious. "You saved my life, Jon—those snowbirds would have left me in that sandpile until all hell froze over. I'd like you for a mate, I think we could get along well together." The gay note came back into his voice, "And besides that, I may be able to save your life some day—I hate owing debts."
The tech was finished, he snapped his tool box shut and left. Jon's shoulder motor was repaired now, he sat up. When they shook hands this time it was a firm clasp. The kind you know will last awhile.
Jon stayed in an empty cell that night. It was gigantic compared to the hotel and barrack rooms he was used to. He wished that he had his missing legs so he could take a little walk up and down the cell. He would have to wait until the morning. They were going to fix him up then before he started the new job.
He had recorded his testimony earlier and the impossible events of the past day kept whirling around in his head. He would think about it some other time, right now all he wanted to do was let his overworked circuits cool down, if he only had something to read, to focus his attention on. Then, with a start, he remembered the booklet. Everything had moved so fast that the earlier incident with the truck driver had slipped his mind completely.
He carefully worked it out from behind the generator shielding and opened the first page of Robot Slaves in a World Economy. A card slipped from between the pages and he read the short message on it.
PLEASE DESTROY THIS CARD AFTER READING
If you think there is truth in this book and would like to hear more, come to Room B, 107 George St. any Tuesday at 5 P.M.
The card flared briefly and was gone. But he knew that it wasn't only a perfect memory that would make him remember that message.
____
So everyone can stop fucking acting like Martha Wells doing slavery apologism is the height of progressiveness and scifi, now, she is literally less progressive than a man from the 1950s. And fucking 1884!
could you get your commenters to chill a bit? ive been getting death threats in my dms cause i disagreed with a single post
like i get your points and all, but people like that is why most fans dont listen to you guys, anti viv people have a habit of telling us to kill ourselves because we consume the cartoon :/
Death threats are a no-go no matter which side any of you are on, I DO NOT want to see that shit in my presence, have some fucking self control guys.
But let's not get things twisted either. Some antis being this way is NOT why fans ignore proof. I have seen this fandom grow for 4 years and have researched into Viv's fanbase prior to HH. They've all been very protective of the content because that's what Viv has harbored for a while now. The only contribution they've added in is spreading misinformation here and there by a few people. I don't think you realize how long Viv has had a fanbase and has weaponized them for years. One of her old closest friend was called an *IT* and told to kill themselves which they nearly succeeded in doing thanks to her rabid fans back in 2014-2015, to which she responded with saying "Karma is awesome". So ion wanna see this "they tell us to kill ourselves" angle, I have seen this fanbase throw the same shit if not more + racism.
Keep in mind, despite them having talked it out and resolving everything, Viv still refers to them as abusive/an abuser even though multiple people have said it was just them disagreeing and not meeting eye to eye. She not only ruined someone's reputation but also lied on someone due to a disagreement, having her fans be absolutely abysmal toward them till this day.
This fanbase, VIV'S FANBASE, is toxic as shit. Do not frame it as if they needed valid reasons to ignore the issues with the creator, that is not the main reason why they've acted shitty multiple times. I do NOT wanna hear that nonsense, you could have simply kept it at those idiots that were treating you like bullies. Don't spin nothing on anyone when her fanbase [stans] chooses to be fucking dense.
And to those sending death threats, unfollow me and gtfo off my page. I don't condone stupidity nor do I wish to have anyone who thinks telling people to kill themselves is at all a sane and sensible reaction to a fucking disagreement. You don't lower your morals and standards all cause someone either said something right or wrong, have some gat damn sense. Seek help. You can not be against Vivziepop but then do anything SIMILAR to her or the like, that's just insanity to me.
I may have disagreed with you remark on those against Viv, but I will still thank you for letting it be known that this happened to you. It shouldn't. And I am sorry you went through that.