Ch. 8 Three weeks vacation ( Week 1)

A week had gone by since they got to the facility, and besides a rough meeting with the director of the facility, a man with artificial black hair, slicked back and unnaturally shiny; an executive with trained, natural lungs and loud vocal cords, overused from his levitating armchair. Refuses, on some weird principle, to ever use a microphone. “ Everyone can understand me”, he once screeched at an assistant that had issues understanding him.

“I am Doctor Director Digital Diplomat Domain 5, Dieti Durante- As for why you three are here, well, it’s cheaper for your Brands to prepare you all at once. Number 8”, he then turned to Siete and scoffed. “ Number 6, budgetary cuts this year. Number 5”, and he looked at Angie and seemed a bit bewildered. “…I don’t know why you’re here, to be honest. But your Brand asked for it, so whatever.”

The woman wasn’t surprised by the treatment, instead was a bit confused by the seemingly missing one. “ What about 7?”

D5- “Ugh, yes…the one that slipped through my fingers. Those feckless pecker kissers from the Temple are taking care of him. AND the C.T.D! I was so looking forward to analyzing that specific drone and-” but before he could divulge any more secrets, a jolt of electricity jarred left arm.

A piece of the wall slid quickly to the left and right to reveal a hidden hallway from where a beanstalk of a human with a semi-lune smirk greeted everyone and closed in the director’s chair. He then slouched closer to whisper directly in the old man’s ear. “They’re watching,  frowning!”

The doctor’s face went through several stages of disgust, but relented and activated a self-censory app he devised to mute him whenever key sentences slipped out.

-” Now, present patients. Let us go over some details about R.O.C and what you should expect. Next!” The wall behind the doctor started to whiten in a contained rectangle and Angie groaned, while Siete and Marcos started their notes app preparing for some intense lecturing.

………….

-“All good? Can someone summarize everything we just went over?”

-“Teacher, me, me!”, Siete asked enthusiastically.

-“Not a teacher”, replied D5 before letting the clopy do so.

-“Ok, so correct me if my list has any mistakes:”

1. 8 contestants + 8 helper C.T.Ds, selected by the 8 Brands, will participate in a battle royale style contest in an arena called The Playground, situated in a crater outside the County. 
2. 8 to 5 will have random entry points while 1 to 4 can select theirs. 
3. The main objective is to gather as many points as possible during specific events, called Standing Disputes, created by each Brand to test out the patients. They can be started by small devices called FOKs, scattered around the arena. 
4. Each dispute signals the end of a round, and only after the 5th round lethal actions against patients are allowed. This doesn’t apply to the C.T.Ds. 
5. Based on standing after each round, the winner is allowed to choose their enhancement from what selection is available at the Clinics scattered around the Playground. Second place then can choose from what remains, third same and so forth. 
6. So finally, each Brand has a favour they can use to minimally change something in the competition. New C.T.D, new enhancement and weapons, outside hires and other such favours are banned. Usually it comes in the form of changes to terrain, climate, or add or remove 1 point to a patient during a clash. Addendum- Based on their numbering, the favour has a lower or higher expiration date- Number 8 favour expires sooner than 1’s favour.

“Brava, here’s a sweet tablet as a reward”, clapped the presenter. “ So far, so good, but you forgot that weapons not attached to the patient’s body are prohibited, otherwise everything else is permitted. And also-”

“The public”, chimed in Marcos after going through his own notes. “ You can gain additional points based on the public’s vote. 1 or 2 though, based on the votes.”

“Well, I’m not going to do any clown act to make the suckers back here howl like exhaust horns.” While Angie thought that her attitude wouldn’t make her popular with the crowd, both the doctor and Marcos already foresaw that out of everyone inside the room, she’d be the winner in that category. 

 …….

Spending time and learning more about their C.T.Ds was also part of their preparation, and Siete was like a recorder capturing everything Vivar told about himself, including his energy gauge, weak points, and abilities.

Siete -“No offense-”

Vivar- “Acknowledged, offense ignored.”, to which the clopy stare with a short squint and just continued as usual.

-“but since when do you have a hidden railgun in your right arm and there are no records of using it? The…Emerald Spear? ”

-”Simple. Footage and logs removed by management or I was removed from the competition before I could properly use it. “

-” Hmm rough, buddy, but don’t worry, this time we’ll make sure that everyone remembers you and your Emerald Spear. Would you like that?”

-” Invalid question, please provide me with a query/ a yes or no question.” 

The others didn’t comprehend as to why, but since meeting him, Siete made it their personal quest to get the robot to crack. Something about it raised a lot of flags for the clone, but nothing they could define yet.

Siete- “Suure. Ignore that, just tell me more about the Spear. So how come the Brands aren’t fighting over you if you’ve got such a weapon?” 

Vivar -“ Yes. It has high destructive capabilities, but it consumes a third of my energy reserves, which means it can’t be used sparingly. And my targeting system was removed, as once it got filled with bugs”, he said remembering the swarm that chewed some of his data cables a few years ago. 

Vivar- ”Secondary option- There is my titanium shield, another way to resolve disputes. Good for defensive tactics and it has a sharpened edge at the bottom, which can be used to cut any material when pressed on it. Biological, mineral, metallic, it can cut through everything and everyone. If I put enough steel on it.”

-” Right, the wanton violence. Forgot about it for a second”. Siete sighed. Every footage, discussion and presentation about the R.O.C showed that, ultimately, it boiled down to one tactic of success- elimination of the competition through violence and trickery. Realizations that eroded at the honeymoon high the clopy felt after the life changing choice. “Sorry for my outburst, we do need something to defend ourselves with. I just, well, hoped that this year’s challenge was a bit less bloodless, to be honest”.

A simple apology for the clone, but for the C.T.D this felt like the pebble that could start an avalanche. Siete’s intuition was somewhat on the money on Vivar, as he was, in limited portions, capable of feeling. During small moments, like now, he could feel a flicker of happiness to have found that the c.e was somewhat akin to him. 

Still, experience taught him that bullheaded pacifism could also be a detriment in the R.O.C,  so, to help them understand his perspective, Vivar opened up a bit:

Vivar -” Patient 8, I took part in many other rounds so far, and I found sturdiness but also downfall in trying to team-up with others. I am open to other methods, but try to remember everyone has their own push in the race. Be kind but weary, so I won’t be eliminated again after the first few rounds, Seven.”

The answer was yes, but the sound failed to escape the fascinated clone. They nodded and instead could think to ask for a favour.  -” Siete…wait. Subject, uh”, they mumbled, trying to remember Marcos’ command.

-” Are you trying to update the network’s library?” Vivar asked.

-” Yes…I guess, but I don’t remember the line. Can I simply ask you to do it for me, change my name?”

-” Surely. Also, you can do that without the patient’s 5 admin commands, I’ll teach you the method later. Also, it’s done, everyone in the facility and competition will know to address you as Siete Four”.

Siete -” Yes”, exclaimed the clopy before noticing the last part. “No, redo.”.

—-

At dinner, Angie started to complain about her C.T.D and how it reminded her of a child she knew back home.

Angie -” It just…sits there, staring at me quietly, like the kid. I tried the same things I did with him- I growled at him, hid whenever he was nearby, thought that maybe some work in the mines would tire him out, but nothing.  The boy was like glue.”

Siete-” Oh? Sounds to me like you had an admirer. So, what happened next?”

The miner shrugged- “ Don’t know. He was moved to another section by the foreman when he turned twelve. But he tried to fight me before leaving, so I know he’s fine because he was smiling after the thrashing I gave him. Still said nothing, though.”

Marcos stopped eating, took a deep breath, as realization struck him as to whom Angie reminded him of. ” She would have done the same too”, he muttered out loud without noticing.

-” What was that?”, asked the miner while injecting her sustenance in her veins.

Marcos -” Oh…I thought that…Nothing, just that you probably would have done the same to me if we had grown up together.”

Angie -” I hardly left my neighborhood, so we probably never met. Lucky you, I guess?”

Marcos -” Maybe. My older sister was a bit of a hard-ass to prepare us for our family job. But it was only a poor imitation of someone else’ methods.”

Siete sat quietly between them, able to only listen to talk about their childhoods, since a year in a cloning tube wasn’t that adventurous or filled with memories.

-” Big family, I guess?” replied Angie. ” I never knew who my folks were, as back home kids are raised by the entire group, so that way I probably had tens of family members close-by. Only one distant aunt, weirdly enough. There was this lady that came from time to time, with gifts and stuff for the adults and the kids.. “ she giggled, remembering how old the custom was. “They lied and told us it was Santa.”

Marcos also spat out some of his rice, caught off-guard that the tradition was still kept somewhere in the County. This got him a bit curious, though, and turned to the clone.

-” Don’t mind me if this sounds stupid, but do your people know about that, Santa?”

-” Well, only customer centric clopies are taught about such concepts. Just in case a well-endowed family comes with their child for their ‘santa’ gift. I once found a sweet tablet left behind by another clopy during ‘Present’ period when I took over their platform. Would that count as getting a gift from santa?”

—–

The number 8 duo went over different scenarios that could take place in the Playground- ambushes, stalking, hit and runs etc. Vivar gained a lot of terrain experience and had a plan for the first round.- 

“There are caves we could explore at first. It would make it easier to protect you for some time.” The robot also tried to find ways Siete could use their knowledge of enhancement products to help them out of peril, seeing as “you are quite frail for a C.E, Siete”.

-” Yeah, sure”, they replied, focused on something else besides the plan-”…I had a question, a personal one”, Siete probed a bit and it took a moment for the robot to give their ok. “I’ve studied your…well, body…and no matter how much I frown, the same jumbled…everything it looks.”

-”…Go on”, Vivar asked, curious of what the clopy had to say.

-” Bulky arms, but they remind me of the industrial waste versions used in factories as prosthetics by humans. The general body is actually 3…or 4 different parts, each manufactured a long time ago. By different Brands, right?”

-”I have my own question. Have you noticed these differences from experience or was it something -build- inside of you to do? For your jobs?” 

Siete -”Hmm, well my generation had some kinks to them when we were created. I believe that geneticists who played around with our genes wanted to cram more into a packet, without consideration of the packet. Heck, I think I only survived so far just because I got placed at the safest of times.”

-” From the records, I would conclude that is not true. C.Es from your generation did the exact same jobs, but still suffered massive injuries or mental breakdowns. R.O.C analysts studied you and concluded that your zealous disposition and friendly attire helped you get here. From my time spent with you, I would agree with them.”

Siete -” Oh, thank you, buddy, that’s nice of you, but I would say the conclusions also apply to the rest. I know, I saw them . So, with no disrespect for my passed-on sibling, I just had the right luck, at the right moment to save me from dire moments.”

Vivar didn’t know how to continue the conversation or if it had any point to do it, so they only “noted” it down.

Siete -” And Vivar, I have another request- could you change just your designation for me from C.E to clopy?”

The C.T.D appeared a bit confused by the request, especially since their partner asked only for his library to be updated. He nodded and did exactly as asked, but still inquired about it.

Vivar -“ Clopy isn’t a word. I understand wanting to have your name changed, but why your species designation as well?”

With rosy cheeks, Siete bowed her head and rapidly answered: “I know it’s a silly thing, but it’s just, well, that it’s something I came up with. And it’s mine…and maybe, somewhere in the future, others as well”, they said more confidently this time. “And only If they want it”, with less certainty in their voice this time.

Siete -” Acknowledged, clopy Siete”, responded Vivar.