The screen was bright in the abyssally dark, windowless workshop. It shone over a mess: mostly not the tools and materials that other creators might work with, including this one on another day, but instead a space made for them flooded with design documentation, notes, and half-deranged, unintelligible ramblings; all of it was scrawled out in cheap ballpoint ink over cheaper paper, cycled and recycled and still smelling of the greasy food that scraps of it once held in their previous lives as takeout bags.

Amidst it all, of course, was the cause. Red hair that hadn’t been trimmed in a damn long time cascaded in a somewhat oily braid down to rest on the bare tan thigh, where it wouldn’t have reached if its bearer’s spine wasn’t currently shaped like the station’s habitation ring’s curve. At least she’d remembered (mostly) fresh clothes today, if only a pair of plain panties and a tank top that didn’t hug her body like it used to. Lean times, these.

<joullienne> what did u even need ths shit for anyway

She bent just a bit further in, preparing for this conversation with a deep breath and a quick hit of caffeine powder under the tongue. Supply was getting low - she’d have to fix that. Couldn’t afford withdrawal during this.

<tinkerbelle> new project, gonna try to make something worth the patenting costs this time around, needed good tools for that

The reply was immediate.

<joullienne> wh

And the rest shortly followed.

<joullienne> ok

<joullienne> lme get this str8 (ew)

<joullienne> u got MY HELP

<joullienne> put MY ASS ON TH LINE

<joullienne> to rip off an HONEST TO FUCKIN STARS MEGACORP

A sigh of relief that this computer and this chat program were far too cheaply made to bother having any kind of built-in monitoring.

<joullienne> n. this isn’t even some shit some client told u to make

<joullienne> no this is

<joullienne> one of ur horseshit tries at originality

<joullienne> shit like this is why we broke up yk

<tinkerbelle> no it’s not :P

<joullienne> ur rite it’s cuz ur a fuckin nerd

<joullienne> but srs wtaf

<joullienne> better not be ur “for the principle of it” schtick

The engineer leaned back from her screen for a moment, lips curled in distaste and eyebrows knit in concerned hesitation.

Then her stomach growled.

<tinkerbelle> nah dw I’m not falling into that again

<tinkerbelle> got bills to pay

<joullienne> fuckin finally u see the light

<joullienne> only took 3 years

<joullienne> ok ok. ill bite

<joullienne> wtf are u even building

<tinkerbelle> so you know how rich fuckers do nothing themselves?

<joullienne> dont we all

<tinkerbelle> so they have two options right?

<tinkerbelle> 1: the classic, pay some poor fucker who literally can’t afford to say no to whatever they want - has problems tho, they can sell them out to whoever wants their ass, no guaranteed loyalty unless they also dropped a lotta cash on security, and there is only so much blatant bullshit they can get away with before someone just chucks an ied in their four poster bed

<tinkerbelle> or. yk. steals their silverware and pawns it off

<tinkerbelle> degrees

<tinkerbelle> 2: bot help, but that has a pretty damn big starting cost and if they want more like, intimate stuff, they can’t have genuine opinions or excitement or w/e

<joullienne> ur building a sexbot

<tinkerbelle> I am NOT building a sexbot

A suspicious amount of time went by before an image attachment came in: Kaja with a grin so full of smug joy, tears from laughter running down her cheeks.

<tinkerbelle> asshole

<joullienne> hodl ono i can stille bare ly breat keep goinglol

<tinkerbelle> h8 u

<joullienne> <3

<tinkerbelle> okay look at this

A link to the article she’d seen weeks ago.

<joullienne> “The question remains as to why we, as educated and sophisticated upper class men, can’t find partners who see us for more than our money.” ITS UR ONLY GOOD FEATURE STR8BOI OMFG THIS IS GOLD

<joullienne> IM CRYING AGAIN HES SO FCKIN PATHETIC “Surely even among the masses there must be some diamonds in the rough who can appreciate our finer qualities? But so often it seems as if it’s not so.” DUDE SIGNED UP ON A DATING APP WITH A FACE AS STRONG AS HIS PERSONALITY LMFAO

<tinkerbelle> Seriously though, think about it: untapped market here. These assholes are lonely. They can’t find anyone who wants to talk to them that there’s any mutual like for. They can buy bots with VI personalities but those aren’t exactly great conversationalists, you can tell there’s nothing but algorithms going on behind the eyes.

<tinkerbelle> Sure they could hire high end sex workers, but there’s security issues, loyalty issues, hard to find one willing to live as a full time partner, and there’s nothing genuine there.

<tinkerbelle> Imagine you’re one of these rich pricks - and someone starts selling bots that not only look human, but talk human, act human, think, have opinions.

<joullienne> why tf would they take that over a hooker

<tinkerbelle> Because people can’t be replaced. Not 1:1. These fuckers grow up from kids who were never taught not to break their toys because their daddy could always buy more. So they fuck up, they mess with someone in a way that ends a relationship, they piss off sex workers enough that they don’t find it worth the pay anymore, or if they’re really fucked they break their partners’ bodies, maybe kill them.

<joullienne> … dark

<joullienne> so u think u can sell them something they can fix

<tinkerbelle> Guaranteed loyalty. Repairable and replaceable parts. Black box brain that you’d have to try really hard to crack open accidentally.

<joullienne> wouldnt it be like, supremely fucked to make a synthetic person to fuck some rich dude who might ice them?

<tinkerbelle> Nah they don’t have to have consciousness, just look like they do, have room to grow and react dynamically. It just has to look the part and it’ll be cash from the sky for life! A girl’s gotta eat!

<joullienne> if u say so

<tinkerbelle> Kaj, you know me.

<joullienne> i do

<joullienne> and ur way too good at this shit for ur own good

---

<tinkerbelle> uuuuuuuugggghhhh I do NOT like the way she looks at me when she’s booted up

<joullienne> lol get uncanny valley’d bitch

<tinkerbelle> it’s not even that! I think

<tinkerbelle> it’s just way too good for knowing there’s no intelligence in there yet, way too organic

<joullienne> so uncanny valley

<tinkerbelle> kinda?

<joullienne> what u don’t like her watching u jack off

<tinkerbelle> I cover her eyes

<joullienne> lmao pussyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

<joullienne> elenia. babe. boo. ur building a sexbot and ur not even using her to get off?

<tinkerbelle> I know her too well! the eyes weird me out!

<joullienne> blindfold her then dumbass

There was a long pause from the engineer’s end. Much consideration, a few code tweaks, and finally what happened after she stopped stalling.

<tinkerbelle> oh my god

<joullienne> LOL

<tinkerbelle> I’m good at this

<joullienne> ur not gonna get weirded out when u put a robobrain in her are u

<tinkerbelle> … how is your pillowtalk still so fucking abysmal when we’re not even dating anymore?

<joullienne> its a natural talent

---

Her fingers were getting thin enough that the keyboard’s plastic was practically clacking when she tapped them nervously against its side.

<tinkerbelle> I’ll be fine. I just need a little longer. If she’s not perfect for her buyer I’m done for good. No one will contract me again.

<joullienne> you don’t have time

<joullienne> seriously pull yourself together and just ship her out already you can’t keep this up

<joullienne> I’m worried.

<tinkerbelle> caps and punctuation from you? guess I am fucked up huh

<joullienne> fuck off

<joullienne> look I’ll send you enough cash to get you dinner tonight.

<joullienne> this has to be the last time tho

<joullienne> neither of us can keep up like this

<tinkerbelle> Last time. I promise. I’ll get a buyer for her tomorrow.

---

<tinkerbelle> Look, I found a guy who can get me an in. I managed to swipe some materials so I can have more stock ready. I just need someone to bite.

---

<joullienne> last time, for real. scrap them, use them for parts, don’t expect a free lunch again

---

<tinkerbelle> im so tired.

<joullienne> the front’s closing in. you gotta get off that station, babe

<tinkerbelle> no cash left for a ticket

<tinkerbelle> navy fkers won’t evac us less we pay too

<joullienne> Shit.

<joullienne> I have nothing.

<joullienne> I’m gonna try to swing something for you. Phish an account number or something. It’ll suck when security comes down on me but you’ll be safe.

<joullienne> … Nia? You there?

<joullienne> I love you. Don’t die.

---

Alarms blared, but it was indistinct behind a wall of ringing in Elenia’s ears. Emergency lights flashed, but they looked so dim, like dying stars flaring into novas. The air smelled… sweet. That wasn’t right. The air on the station was stale, poorly filtered, a mix of every smell that was in someone’s quarters going back a week, two if they’d microwaved something truly rank. Yet here that sweetness was, an infectious thing that dominated the senses, made her want to lie down and sleep. That was okay. She’d wanted to do that anyway.

Her pulse was pounding in her ears as some part of her animal brain was telling her to run, to hide, but that same pulse was weakening gradually, imperceptibly, and slowing to boot.

At least she had this. Soft thighs beneath her head. A hand running through her hair, slow and firm, just how she liked it. A distinctly human smell from a distinctly inhuman creation.

Creation. Her creation. A funny word, that, to be bouncing around in her head at a time like this.

Elenia looked up. Even though she knew there wasn’t a person behind the eyes, she wanted to see her creation one last time before the aliens found her and discarded her like trash, just like humanity had. Grey eyes, in a pale face with short black hair at its sides, met her own. They stared into her in a way that was decidedly like a human - near effortlessly factoring in near-microscopic details of expression to put together what she was looking into, what Elenia was feeling in that moment.

The lips moved, but Elenia wouldn’t have been able to understand if she hadn’t programmed those muscles herself, recognised the sounds her first prototype was making.

Light flooded the room - a word was barked loud enough that Elenia might have been able to process it, if it weren’t in an alien tongue.

Even in this sudden brightness, the engineer, the creator, slipped into the dark.

---

Inquisitive eyes looked over the green that moved so quick it was like flashing lightning, dominating the room with imposing presence that took up most of it. Needle-like spines at the ends of verdant, flowering appendages sank into unwashed skin, delivering toxin - or was it medication? - in rapid succession.

A mimicry designed to be indistinguishable looked up to a mimicry designed to be distinct, and spoke in a high, clear, unaffected voice: “Who are you?”