Faith did not consider herself a particularly easy person to shock. It came with the territory of running the last independent body shop on the Ophelia, and as such the one best equipped for every machine and runaway droid either too old for the main dealerships to support or too far into the grey areas of the law to appear on any of their registries.

She had in her time recut shipminds for bipedal motion, coded for nanomachines, and in a memorable bought of youthful excitement and too much cheap booze, built a solid deal of modular design into her legs in order to win a dare reguarding a plant growing up in a well hidden nook of the station. The sight of a slight, round-faced doll of a thing dressed in an absurd amount of black lace did not stand out in the least. Neither did the fact that its left arm dangled by two bits of wire, staining the remaining fabric something brownish.

The droid had stumbled a bit as it worked its way to the business’s desk, and rang for Faith’s attention. That attention had already been gained, but she made a point to make some noise as she made her way over to the other side of the counter. “In after a battering, I take it?”

The android fidgited. “Well, uh. It’s kinda, well-”

Faith waved her off. “I don’t actually need to know the specifics of how you ended up here, just what you want me to fix. You don’t need to give me a sob story. If anything it’s good for my liability if you don’t.”

“O-oh! Oh no, I’m a battering case, nor am I trying to run away from home, it’s just…” She tilted to the side a bit, showing Faith the yawning cavity where her shoulder socket should be, before humming out a precise tone that made Faith’s eyeballs feel like they were rattling. Slowly, threads of some silvery material climbed out of the dark to curl around the android’s outstretched fingers. “This is a little hard to explain.”

Faith blinked. “Been around a lot of sewers lately?”

The android rolled her eyes. “Why yes, I do in fact make a habit of sticking my arm down toilets! Thank you for realizing!”

Faith put her hands up. “Look if it’s some kinda tapeworm that would make my job a whole lot easier.”

It was at this point that the threads lurched forward towards her, bringing the android along with them. More and more material swarmed out of the cavity, and a tendril wrapped around Faith’s arm before she could get away, sending a stinging, menthol sort of cold shooting across her skin.

“Did you know how hot you run, Faith-of-Innocents?” The android hissed, in a tone much too deep to be coming out of its diminutive frame. Its eyes had gone hazy, looking at nothing. Having found a target, more of the tendrils swarmed up after the first to squirm into the crevices of her muscles. Faith’s breath caught.“How your heart pounds, even a decade later? Are you truly this wanton? For shame.”

Faith mastered herself, and started creeping her free hand under the counter. “It’s a pretty normal reaction to somebody trying to assasinate you, isn’t it?”

“Assasinations are for public figures.” The thing that was not an android said, dismissively. “And you decided you’d had enough of that, didn’t you? Don’t you go having second thoughts about that now, dear.”

“I’m doing work here, you know, and a lot more of it than I did in silks. Now, get the hell out of my shop!”

Several things happened in short succession here. The not-android’s jaw unlatched, showing a mouthful of pristine teeth, and surged forward into the barrel of Faith’s gun just as a lighter held in a shaking hand came up against the underside of the thread. The monster shrieked, falling sideways and sending a bullet sailing out of its cheek.

The android hit the ground with a thud, and set to fighting the thing coming out of her. “Piece of shit!” It shouted, sending a spray of oxide across the floor. “Get back inside and stop trying to kill people or that next bullet’s going through my ears and then where will you be?”

Faith almost wanted to say that the silk was just as capable of piloting a dead body as a live one, but her train of thought was cut short by the sight of it proceeding to go limp and retract back into the android’s chest cavity.

“Um.”

The android rounded on her, eyes blazing. “That hurt, asshole!”

Faith looked at the gun, and back at her. “I’m sorry? I should probably-”

She put up a hand to stop Faith’s approach. “I’ll live. I have some spare cheeks at home. Now, do you have a muzzle?”

Faith blinked.

The android rolled her eyes. “Are you sticks girls all naive as well as stupid? I swear. If you’re operating on people with loose screws, some of them are gonna get bitey about it. This can’t be that complicated.”

This conversation had changed directions a few too many times in a minute for Faith’s constitution, but the direct attack on her professional pride was enough to make her curse, pull the least dignified clear plastic contraption possible out from under her desk, and throw it directly at the android’s head.

The android caught it, and held it up to the light for inspection. “Good enough, I guess.” She said, pulling the thing over her head. It had just enough room in its base to let her talk, and she gave Faith a sharp nod. “Lucille, bounty hunter. New arm, inhibitor, and a hell of a defrag, and I won’t mention getting shot to my master.”

Faith was, at last, on solid ground. She grapped a few restraints, and walked Lucille over to the pulse synch device. She relaxed into its padded seat with a sigh of relief, throwing her feet up over the bulk of the machine’s hull. This was a pitted, irregular dome that split at one end in vaguely pistachio fashion to allow a glimpse at the various thumbs-width holes within. A few sharp keystrokes opened the device further, and the spinnarettes began to send out lengths of thick, rubberized wire with flanged tips. They moved briskly, supporting Lucille’s joints and pressing against her temples, the base of her neck, and in long stripes down her spine.

She jerked when Faith started the current, and then went slack, breath perfectly regular. Her unwanted guest jolted too, jumping out of its cavity and grasping at one of the wires before falling still itself, drooping and drunk.

Faith rolled her eyes. “Feeling all sorts of dramatic today, aren’t we?”

Lucille glared up at her through thick lashes

Faith ignored her, and started looking around for a scalpel.