E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death. Chapter 139: Borderline Psychology

V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T

Chapter 139: Borderline Psychology

The E-UNIT convoy sat at the border crossing between Elysium and the Veridian Coast, ten trucks and two semi-trucks queued behind each other, waiting for the military checkpoint to process them. 02 was outside at the front of the line, showing the border officers the email chain and Salaska's official invitation docunts.

The rest of the team had spread out across the rocky hillside to use the ti. Most of them had never seen a border before, tied to their city their whole operational lives, police officers rarely had reason to leave. So were stretching. Others were just standing and looking at the view like they'd forgotten that open space existed.

Dave climbed out of the semi-truck's back compartnt and stood for a mont doing nothing but breathing. The E-dics had made the space technically inhabitable but not comfortable. 19 pushed through after him, navigating the sa crowd in the opposite direction, and finally made it out.

Dave sat down on the ground and let himself fall flat, eyes on the sky. The Veridian Coast held onto its cloud cover year-round, so combination of geography and ocean current that the locals had apparently given up trying to fight. 19 settled beside him and exhaled through her vents.

"I think I like this," Dave said, hands behind his head. "I don't usually go looking for change when what I have is working. But being able to stand in a place where no Elysium operative is about to appear and take soone apart, that's a aningful improvent."

19 looked up at the sa patch of sky. "We gave sothing up too. The bubble could shut down any robot who committed violence inside it, Reaper never had to co in personally for that reason, he just waited. But the feeling of being outside that white structure is—" She searched for the word. "Cleaner."

Dave turned his head. "You just said what I said with different words."

The smile dropped. "You ruined it."

"There wasn't anything there to ruin." He stared at the clouds again. "You'll understand soon enough why I pushed back against leaving. It wasn't about the automatic doors or the pink E-dics or any of that. Though the whole place did look like a hospital ward, I spent most of my ti in the underground grey walled factory specifically because being above ground felt like waiting to be diagnosed with sothing."

19 laughed. "It was essentially a ntal health facility with you as the only patient."

Dave turned sharply. "Why specifically?"

"We're androids. We don't require therapy. You were the only human actually living in there full ti. The other civilians passed through but you were, you have to admit this, operating at a slightly elevated level of intensity compared to a baseline human."

Dave looked back at the sky. "I genuinely don't know how you've arrived at this stage of your developnt and haven't noticed yet that all of you are more human than a significant number of actual humans I've known. That includes the ntal health dinsion."

"That was a little cutting," 19 said, not losing the smile. "But I have to admit there's sothing to it. I saw 01 after the captain's mory was deleted from the network. Without the devotion she'd built around her, I almost didn't recognize who I was looking at."

Dave raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

19 started tracing shapes in the rocky dirt in front of her, legs crossed. "She couldn't stop pulling footage. She kept saying she couldn't remove them from her HUD."

Dave went still. "Remove who?"

"The people she killed." 19 kept drawing. "We have control over most of our processes but certain responses the system pushes through regardless. She couldn't close the files."

"That's not different from how we work." Dave's voice was quieter now. "Humans can't delete the feelings that co attached to the things they've done. So we compress them, push them down, and eventually find the wrong person at the wrong mont and unload everything into them. Then they carry it. And they find soone else."

19 looked at him for a mont. "Dave. Are you alright? I can listen if you need to talk."

"Stop treating like I need an intervention."

"I'm not," 19 said, completely level. "You're one of the more functional people I've known. I an it."

"19—"

"Dave, everyone goes through hard things—"

"You sound like a targeted advertisent for an online therapy platform." He clicked his tongue. "And that particular tone isn't in your base code, which ans your AI has been spending too much ti around 04."

"Speaking of code." 19 turned to face him, still cross-legged. "The fourteen thousand seven hundred and five E-UNITs you built, are they all copies of the spy? She must be having an identity crisis sowhere."

Dave was quiet for a mont. The specific number clearly landed sowhere. "I didn't copy her mind."

19 blinked. "What?"

"05 said sothing about originality that I disagreed with at the ti and then kept thinking about for days." He smiled at the clouds. "She was right. I like how different all of you are. When 04's particular brand of calm unsettling behavior gets to be too much, I go find 05 and lose an entire night to code and coffee. Then I co to you and talk about everything I've been carrying around, and fill your SSD with my complaints." He paused. "Seed worth preserving."

19 laughed. "I'm not complaining. Fill my SSD as much as you want. I'm definitely not storing everything you say."

"That's genuinely rude." Dave sounded wounded. "I thought at least one of you was worth keeping."

"I'm sorry, what? I already cleared your last three sentences."

Dave looked at her. "I genuinely dislike you."

19 laughed properly for a mont. When she ca back from it, her expression sobered. "But if they're all originals, how did brand new E-UNITs follow her leadership without question? They had no reason to trust her."

"Not hard to explain." Dave stood and brushed the dust from his clothes. "Showing them what humanity has done to their kind is sufficient motivation to get any robot moving in the sa direction." He looked at the horizon. "It's not like I don't have my own examples to contribute to that list."

19 looked up at him. "Dave. Is today the day you finally—"

"I'm not embarrassed, if that's what you're implying. I'll tell you properly once we're set up in the Veridian Coast." He started walking. "Not here. 01 might hear it, and I don't know if she's ready for that."

19 got to her feet. "01? Dave, what does 01 have to do with anything?"

"Soon, 19." He kept moving without looking back. "Very soon."

"Stop framing it like a season finale and just tell !" She broke into a jog to catch up.

"Tell you everything? What are you, law enforcent?"

"Oh, hilarious. Deeply funny. Coming from you specifically." She kept pace with him. "The irony is not lost on anyone within earshot."

"There's nobody within earshot."

"I'm within earshot, Dave."

They went back to the overcrowded semi-truck.

‎Dave