Gunther.

  Rebeodded at him, simultaneously relieved, scared, apologetid nervous. Never a good bination of emotions to see on someone, but, there it was…

  As it happened, he watched as the girl took another long drag with her lungs, not fidgeting; no, Beck hadn't ever been a girl to really be all that nervous, but the fact she did seem to be in a good deal of distress was, well, ing...

  “Alright, so like I said, don't freak out. But—oh, who am I kidding… Right! So, I’m being hacked,”

  “Hacked?”

  “Yeah, Gunny, fug hacked, alright?” Gunther frowned, but then his eyes grew a fra wider as one of Rebecca’s arms lifted to give him a little wave. “Fuck, Christ, would you freaking stop already?”

  In respohe arm simply moved to gently tap the rge woman’s he act so delicate that it had Gunther somewhat surprised and Rebecca twitg at the cheek.

  “And that wasn't you?” The old man asked, finger already pressing on his device.

  “Don't—hit the emp, Gunny… please,”

  “You’d be free…”

  “Nope—no, fug bitjected my mods with reaper-code. Says she’s gonna brick every piece of tech I got if either of us tries something ‘stupid…”

  Gunther nodded, not taking his finger away from his a the hole but wavering all the same. “And why you? The fuck you get yourself into, Beckie?”

  “Nothing! Alright? Fuck, literally nothing—mmhhhmm! O-okay, shit... ugh, maybe we kind of sort of attacked someone's android.”

  Gunther sighed…

  Closing his eyes, he silently ted to ten in his head, then, as if hoping it was all a bad dream, he popped them open again, only to realize nothing had ged.

  He wao call her stupid.

  He wao call her a fug right and proper numb-head…

  He wao call her a whole lot of things—yet he wasn't going to let the girl suffer through this on her own…

  “Right!” He instead chirped, reanimating himself through force of will as he spyed a hand across his ter, fingers drumming rhythmically across the pstic surface. “The fuck does your mysterious ‘hacker’ exactly want?”

  “She, ugh… umm… w-well, again, don't freak out, but… ‘she’ is sort of—ugh… hard to expin.”

  “Well, I’ve got two ears, yeah! And now that you’ve dropped this shit off at my doorstep, I suppose I’ve got the time. So, be out with it. Is it credits she wants, or—”

  “She’s a robot.” Beckie blurted, though her words didn't quite pute.

  “A—robot?”

  “S-stu a robot.” The girl corrected after one of her hands lifted to start rotating as if whoever was trolling it wao just ‘get on’ with it. “She’s apparently some high-profile tech from ‘Pt’s Ville’ who went ‘n got herself uploaded to a bot.”

  “So, call the peacekeepers,” Gunther grunted, not seeing what he nor Rebecca really had to do with this. “Not the first time this ‘has happened; I’m sure they could help her out better than we ever could.”

  “No, they 't.” Came a new voice, cheery and upbeat, musical even, and though he didn't want to admit why, ohat was—as it happened, somewhat familiar to him…

  Just like that, Gunther felt his asshole tighten as a geo-god Paradise 'Doll' sauntered in from the street, her appearance as and pristine as they came, or that was to say, when they arrived at one of their ‘appois.’

  He reized the model too. Not ohat he’d personally rented, its line was a little—well, he just had tastes that didn't quite to the somewhat monoatic variant, which was also the most on to see.

  A ‘Cire’ Doll…

  “The fuck is going on here…?” He muttered, teeth now chewing his lip as the ‘Doll’ stopped right beside Rebecot seeming intimidated in the least by her size, nor the proximity...

  “Yeah—trust me, you’re not the only one who thinks it's fucked!” The bot huffed, pnting her hands on her hips and staring him down. “Alright, look, I’ll be straight with you here because I already know what’s going through your head. But yirl here,” she pointed, a delicate finger gesturing to the much rger woman at her side, “attacked me first. She’s lucky I didn't just fug fry her! But—I need help…”

  “So, you hack her fug systems and march her io do it?”

  “Thank you!” Rebecca groaned, gring at the smaller girl, but unable or unwilling to test the woman’s patience.

  “Okay, again, she attacked me first! So what if I treated her like a puppet for a few minutes?”

  “It’s been nearly an hour!”

  “Better thah!” The bot huffed, rolling her lumi eyes as she spoke. “Look—Gunther, is it? I 't go to the Peacekeepers because ‘I’m’ not the real me! Alright? There you have it! I’m a fug mind-e!”

  “Oh, shite…”

  “Yeahhhh!” The Doll agreed, throwing up her hands with exasperation. “Best case? They just fug delete me! Worst? I get sold off as ‘property’ and dumped somewhere in the fug Sub-verse until I go insane!”

  “How’d you get the bot?” Gunther queried, uanding what was going on here, if not why the steaming bag of dog shit had been tossed on his particur porch.

  “I’m aive tech for Paradise, alright? You don't o know anything more than that, and I don't really care what shady shit you’ve got running here. All I need is someoo help me on a ship heading for a mining y on the rim.”

  “Got the cred for something like that?”

  “No, I don't have the fug ‘cred!” The bot hissed, shaking her head like he was a moron. “I’m not cssified as a freaking person by the Gover! I don't have anything…”

  “Well, we ain't got the cash to pull something like that off for ya—so,” Gunther added, reag for his burner again for another puff. “I’d suggest you let go of my girl there and then piss off before I send a call to the ‘boys’ in white. I’m sure they won't charge me a greasy nickel if I let them know what’s roaming around down here in a Paradise bot.”

  “Haha! Yeah, no, that’s not how this is gonna work.” The android ughed, reag out to pce a hand on Rebecca’s back. “You see, I’ve got a nasty bit of ‘dead-man’ code all nid cozy in Beckie’s hardware. The moment the signals cut from my e to the Sub-verse, her brais cooked like burnt scallops!”

  “Fuuuuuck!” Beckie groaned, her head tilting back as her own eyes closed, loose neon strands falling across her forehead.

  For his part, Gunther simply nodded his head. Oh, this was far worse than he really thought it was, wasn't it? For someoo be capable of bypassing the security restris on proprietary tech like that, they weren't dealing with some random jackoff that had gotten themselves ed.

  No, they were in the presence of someone who kheir shit inside and out because they had likely been the oo write it. If the story was true, and they were an engineer from the Ptinum Mile, then they were in a whole lot more dahan even Beckie might suspect.

  He’d only heard rumors, of course, but those rumors had likened sudividuals to be the ‘wizards’ of the me. Capable of doing things on the Sub-verse or, much like she was now, to cyberics that most people simply couldn't fathom.

  “Mm Hmm… Alright, say I believe ya. Still doesn't ge the fact I 't help ya either.”

  “Don't fuck with me…”

  “You think I got that kind of cred just lying around, do ya? You have any idea how much it is you’re asking?”

  “Ten thousand for a passenger—”

  “Ha! Ten thousand, she says! Girl, you’re right fucked you are! Ten thousand..." Gunther chuckled, shaking his head at the fug insanity of it all.

  "You’re a bot! Ten thousand is for human ers. You? Yonna a pay in chips. So, were already needing to add thirty pert to get them loaded in the first pce, then ahirty ‘cause nobody in their right mind is gonna take a hit on their own profits when turning those into proper credits!"

  He ughed, eyes narrowing as the android’s own widened, not letting off as he began tig things from his fingers, “Theta talk about how much it would cost to bribe a fug captain to take you aboard! We gotta talk about the fug bribe to keep him from turning you in and colleg a bounty! We gotta talk about—”

  “Fuck! I get it! It’s going to cost a lot of money!”

  “A lot of money!” Gunther ughed, shaking his head as he did so, “A fug fortune! And even then, I’d give it fifty-fifty odds they don't turn you in anyways! Work in a cheeky ‘double dip,’ as it were!”

  “Okay, but, ign the cost—”

  “Nay, not ign the cost—”

  “Ign the cost!” The bot interrupted, speaking over him with an exasperated tone. “Could you do it? Set it all up—if I got the credits?”

  Gunther paused, pulling in a long breath through his teeth as he regarded the woman for several long moments. Then, he cleared his throat, gng at Rebecca, then, with a sigh, he nodded his head…

  “Nay, I couldn't do it myself, but I know the man who could. But I already tell ya it’s a fool's errand! Ain't no way yonna be able to ‘sge’ the numbers we’re talking about.”

  “Just—tell me how much I need, and—I’ll figure it out.”

  “It’s not so simple…” Guried, drawing his words out while shaking his head. “Where do you pn to get the cred, hm? By robbing people?”

  “No… maybe? Look, I’ll admit, I’m desperate here.” The bot groaned, her shoulders and somewhat aggressive posture slumping, very much like a normal human. “But, Beckie here and her goons tried to ice me, so not only does she owe me for that, but I also saved her life. That’s two life-debts, so far as I’m ed, and if you people don't help me, well, then I see no reason to be her.”

  Gunther—nodded. Not blinking for a span while he zoned out, mind grinding the problem before him.

  He couldn't see how the girl could possibly get the funds o get where she wao be, let alone what would happen to her o there. For as rough as Port Pride was these days, the frontier was a sure-as-shit sight rougher!

  He’d know!

  Gunther had piloted a mining drone himself for damwenty-five years before taking his hard-earned savings and pissing off back to real civilization absent the misery of darkness…

  But, what choice did he really have here?

  “You said you’re a tei from Pt’s Ville, did ya?”

  “Ptinum ‘Mile,’ and yes, I practically wrote the fug code for the Doll I’m in!”

  “Alright, tell ya’s what!” Gunther grunted, eyeing the android cooly. “If you’re some ‘hot-shot’ code wizard, then it shouldn't be too hard for ya to earn your way through ho bor!”

  “Labor?”

  “That bot’s got some good specs, or so the rumor mill tells it. And if you are who you say you are, then you should be able to make miracles out of the heaps of scrap I pull in from the sgers. You let Beckie there go, wipe that nasty bit-o code from the augments, and I let ya work at my shop until you afford—”

  “ter-offer.” The bot snipped, lifting a long fio point at Gunther’s chest. “The code stays in Beckie until I’m on the ship. You get the process rolling right away and leave me to show you why I was living in a penthouse while you’re all scraping iter.”

  “Hmph! Cheeky bitch…”

  “Better than an old swindler.”

  A near minute went by as both of them stared at each other, her quite willing to be the first to speak befunther flinched first.

  “Fine! But if you think I’m not charging you for electricity, tools, whatever parts you use...”

  “Whatever! Do we have a deal?”

  “...Aye…” The man sighed, eyes gng at the stupid girl who'd gotten them caught in the shit. “Aye, we’ve got a deal…”