Prologue

"Okay, just” the incredulous tone cut through the bustling cafe like a knife, “run that by me again.”

“Which bit?” Melanie asked, the bouncy lilt to her voice unwavering at her friend Skylar’s condescending confusion.

“All of it girl! What do you mean you’re a damn sex-bot on the weekends?”

“A drone, hun, and not one of the pleasure models. I’m part of the domestic fleet, so you know cleaning, tidying, cooking stuff. Just because the programming is reinforced and rewarded with senses of pleasure doesn’t make me a fuck-bot.” Melanie shot Skylar a humour filled smirk, used to the same old questions from those she would let in on her moonlight employment. “Besides, it pays real well and the time passes like it was nothing. Don’t tell me you’d rather spend a lifetime paying off these degrees once we’re done with school?”

Skylar shrugged, dropping their head down into their chest as they parsed this shocking revelation. All those cancelled plans and missed calls to hang out started to make sense, so much so that they started to question who else they previously thought of as a shut in was actually human.

A moment later, they popped their head back up, medium cut red hair flopping back into place as they locked their quizzical eyes to Melanie’s slightly too enthusiastic pair. “So… okay what I just can’t wrap my head around is why? Like sure, I get it, easy money, but like why this, and not just flipping burgers or tending a bar on the weekend instead?”

Melanie pursed her lips, taking a moment to let the words form in a way that would make sense to her friend. “Well, I don’t know… You know how I talked to you about hypno-therapy? Using my psych degree to become a therapist and that would be an interesting tool in my box to use with patients?” Skylar cautiously nodded. “Well, think of it like extra-credits for that. As well as the standard programming needed for a unit to operate, we can opt in to learn the specifics behind it, how it works, how to apply it in more standard settings as well as in Hive.”

“Hive? Like, insect colonies?” Skylar cut in confused.

“Oh yeah,” Melanie sighed with resignation, “you know how you’d call like lesser bees or ants drones? Yeah like that, it’s a whole thing, I don’t fully understand it either. But anyway! Back to my point, you could probably find a course related to robotics and tie it to your degree.”

“Woah now,” Skylar piped up, pushing away from the little table between them. “Who ever said about me signing up to this freaky robo-sex cult shit.”

“Hun,” Melanie’s sympathetic hand reaching out and resting on Skylar’s hand clutching the table edge, “you’re still here, talking to me about it and haven’t ran off calling me crazy or a damn clanker. Look, the office I report to has a rolling open-day policy. If you want to find out more,” Melanie reached her free hand into her purse, pulling out a small, black card with a bright green logo emblazoned on the back and laying it in front of Skylar, “drop on by, ask some questions, maybe take a tour if you feel comfortable to.”

Skylar looked down between their friend’s hand and the card presented to them. A million suspicions racing through their mind. Was this a trap? Was their friend ordered to lure her in? Should they even consider this more than they already are? They’d be lying to theirself if they didn’t find at least the mechanical aspects kinda cool. Like safe human implementation of micro-generators and cybernetics was thought to be years off, but if what Melanie was said was true, that the drones for all those companies that have popped up over the past three years were actually drones as she described and not just humanoid androids like everyone thought at the time.

“Look,” Melanie said sympathetically as she withdrew her hand and stood up from the table. “Just think it over Sky. Who knows, maybe you’ll like the feeling of Unity this brings.”