System Overclocked 2 -Ch7- (Patreon)

Walking across the Upper Field toward the Supply Depot, Wrench was thinking about this Barracks that’d been mentioned. The only thing he could come up with, was some group of Brawlers that actually ran the Lower Parts.

As if they working on things from the background but didn’t want to stand at the front of it all. A small group of powerful Brawlers that kept the rest in check.

Or if not in check, at least semi-organized.

Mildly policed?

Ugh.

It definitely doesn’t seem like they were keeping people out of trouble that’s for sure. Given what I’ve heard from others as well as what happened to Joy.

This feels more like a gang that only marginally cares what happened on the fringes.

Now that they’re in danger of being excluded for their actions, they suddenly want to talk.

Well. It’s not as if—

A deep thrumming went through Wrench. A thrumming he knew quite well.

It was the signal a Tongsta could use. They’d activated the “Assembly in the Hab” command.

Everyone was required to go to the assembly area and wait. If there were those who didn’t heed it, the second phase of the call would bring them.

Their implant would take over and start walking them to where they needed to be.

Looking around Wrench wanted to get an idea of where he was expected to go.

Except everyone he saw was walking in a robotic and unnatural way.

The Tongsta had skipped the voluntary assembly and had gone straight to the implant forcing it. Not even bothering to let the Hume do it under their own power.

“Bastard,” growled Wrench and started heading back the way he’d come.

While it was a Tongsta’s privilege to do such a thing, it was generally not something a good Tongsta did.

This was something done by Tongsta who were impatient or didn’t actually care about the Hume they had. Not as living beings at least.

He spotted Bird trudging his way in a rigid and horrible way. In a way that clearly showed her body wasn’t her own.

Behind her came Joy, Stripe, and Seventh. Talking amongst themselves in a very nervous looking way.

“Wrench!” Stripe excitedly got out and rushed toward him. “It’s a Tongsta call, isn’t it? They’re all acting odd?”

“I told you, it’s the Tongsta forcing it through the implant,” Seventh interjected. “This is something any Tongsta can do if you’re in their Hab. It’s part of the implant. Bird may not even realize it’s happening.”

“That’s all true,” Wrench agreed with a nod of his head. “Seventh is exactly right. This is very normal. It just isn’t something that happens unless you’re with Tongsta that don’t really care.

“Tongsta that care about Hume don’t use the forced assembly. They just let the Hume assemble and then do whatever task needs to be done, like Hab changes. Or adding new pieces or the like.”

“I was in a Hab change where they pulled everything out once,” Joy offered. “Even the air was changed out. It was like they were nervous about there being something in the Hab and just… redid everything.”

“Sounds like a very nervous Tongsta,” Wrench mumbled as everyone kept pacde with Bird. As an Admini she would be likely to be placed near to where the Fixers would need to be.

Wrench saw no reason to not tag along with her for that reason alone.

“Maybe it’s Goodie?” Stripe asked hopefully.

“I don’t think so. Without our implants it’s unlikely she’ll find us. There’s a lot of Shelters,” disagreed Wrench regretfully. “If I had to bet, it’s an adoption, medical check, or something along those lines. Where they need everyone present.

“If it was a delivery or something like that, they would’ve just dumped it in and left. Quick and easy.

“No, whatever this is, is something they have to do. Something that’s forced on them or something along those lines.”

“I’m not sure either way,” Seventh offered with a shrug. “My Tongsta was just there to breed my family. Nothing else mattered to them. Just genetics and breeding my family back and forth.

“Well, that and training. But the training was so that I didn’t get turned into a broodmare like my mom. The idea of having a man atop me, sometimes different ones by the day, until pregnant until you can’t have kids anymore… yeah, that wasn’t for me.

“But anyways, whatever’s happening right now, I’ve got no idea. It doesn’t feel overly wrong to be summoned like this or that there’s another way of doing it.”

“I was just a School Hume,” inserted Joy as everyone thought on Seventh’s words. Her life had sounded rather bleak to Wrench. “I’m only now realizing how limited my view on the world is. How shallow.

“In fact, I should probably go check on Blue-Bill at some point and make sure he’s alright. Peaches said it’d be a number of days before he was well enough to even talk to people.”

Blue-Bill?

Wait, what?

Is that who I saved as well as Joy?

It was Blue-Bill?

Huh.

I guess that makes sense.

Pain had a soft spot for Blue-Bill above and beyond anyone else. I never found out why or even how that’d come about.

She’d “play” with anyone, but Blue-Bill was different.

He was there when it all happened. Had come with her from the other Hab and tried to help. Instead of it going the way it did, I stepped in.

Joy was staring at him with a determined gaze. One that he only now fully recognized as the same way she’d looked at Blue-Bill.

And now I’m the focus.

Got it.

In the Upper Field, and beyond toward an empty space that had nothing at all in it, Hume were lining up. They were putting themselves into groups and rows.

Lined up and waiting for something to happen.

Wrench spotted the other Fixers and motioned the others toward them. The Admini were in a very large group next to the small number of older Fixers.

It was a group of Admini large enough that he’d guess it was easily a hundred or so deep. Why anyone would need that many Admini was beyond him.

The only possible reasons were preference or ignorance.

“I’m not a Fixer,” Seventh muttered even as Wrench continued to herd them toward the Fixer group.

“You are now. Your implant isn’t working so whatever,” argued Wrench. “I’d rather we all stick together and pretend to be Fixers than separate.”

“I agree!” Joy put in with a serious voice.

Leave it to her to agree to School.

Ha.

The four of them moved into the group of Fixers and stood with them. Wrench wanted to ask them about the Barracks but the glassy eyed stare that they all had told him all he needed to know.

The Hab lights were on, oxygen was pumping, but there weren’t any Hume in the Hab. Everyone here was physically here, but not mentally.

“Oh, look, it’s Peaches,” Stripe murmured.

Looking to the side, Wrench saw Peaches standing by herself.

The lone Mender.

Standing around, they waited.

Minutes slid by at a crawl, though given the opportunity Wrench memorized their assembly location. Even if their implants were fixed he would work to fritz them out so they couldn’t control them.

He also noted that the Lower Parts Humes had come up. They were all dressed quite differently than he and everyone from the Upper Parts. Their clothes were worn, light in color due to fading.

A few of them looked quite dirty as well.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of them were Brawlers, though some did leave the group to join the School. The rest moved into the Solo group that was as nearly as large as the School.

“Fuck this is a huge Shelter,” muttered Wrench. He was surprised at the numbers. This was by far one of the largest Shelter’s he’d ever seen before.

With so many though, it made even less sense that they’d have so many Admini. They weren’t exactly an active part of a Hab and past a certain point they just ate food, bred, and added nothing extra.

“It’s surprising. I never would have figured there were so many Hume here,” Joy whispered, sliding between Stripe, Seventh, and Wrench. She was acting just like a School and trying to move into the middle of her group.

The top of the Hab rumbled and shook, causing Wrench to look up. Far above he could see a Tongsta. A blob like creature that could vary wildly in size. From being only a few times bigger than a Hume to truly gargantuan.

The top of the Hab had been peeled off and the Tongsta was moving something down into it. From this distance it looked almost like a fork with only two tines on it.

Large, silver, and reflecting a lot of light as it came downward.

It hit the area in front of the Hume with a thump and stayed there.

Hume began to march in a line. Forming up and moving toward the fork.

“What the hell is that?” asked Seventh.

“I have no idea,” Wrench answered honestly. He’d never seen anything the like of it before. This was a new one for him.

Marching through the two tines the Hume passed by. Each time one of them did, a small vibrational feeling was sent out. As if the Tongsta was getting some type of confirmation from it.

As the first few went through the tines, a new tool came down. Then another.

A net and a carrier had been added.

Now that Wrench was looking upward, he could see that there were a few Tongsta up there. They were all floating around and peering down at the Hume as they filed through.

If they were talking, he couldn’t hear it.

Except he was fairly certain they were talking. There was no way they wouldn’t be.

Regretfully, without his implant working, there was no way for him to understand anything at all.

As the Hume went through, the net came over and scooped up some as they went. Quite a few School were scooped up and put into the carrier. As well as a handful of Admini.

Wrench watched as Bird was taken and delivered into the carrier with the others. A few Admini were taken as well as here, though not many.

Brawlers and Solos went next.

A second carrier came down and was loaded up with similar numbers to the first.

When the Fixers went through, they were divided in two and put into each carrier. At the end, Peaches went through.

Wrench realized that they were the only four left.

He wasn’t sure if they were supposed to go through with the others or remain where they’d been. Given that they had no communications from the Tongsta, and no implant to tell them, standing still was likely their best option they’d reasoned in the end.

The fork darted forward and stopped just in front of Seventh.

“I guess we go through, too, then,” she muttered and peered up at the tool. Wrench noticed there was a hollow spot inside of it now that he was much closer to it.

Seventh walked ahead and between the tines.

Only for drop panels that’d been hidden inside of it to come down and close around her and let out a low ugly rumbling noise. She was pulled up into the tool with a muffled curse.

The tool didn’t move forward, nor did the panels retract. It just sat there.

After a handful of breaths. Seventh was ejected back out of the tool. Landing on her feet with a thumb.

There was a bald spot on the bakc of her head the side of a thumb as well as bandage over it. The type he’d only seen when Tongsta cared for Hume with injuries.

Seventh stumbled forward after the panels slid back up.

She put a hand to the back of her head.

“Ow, that hurt. Son of a bitch,” she grumbled.

“I’ll go next,” Stripe offered and moved ahead before anyone else could.

The tool once again let out that ugly rumble, sucked her up inside, then spat her back out a bit later. She also had a small bald spot and a bandage.

By this point Seventh had turned around with a grimace on her face looking rather annoyed. She was there to catch Stripe as she came out of the tool and held her upright.

“The pain fades quickly,” promised Seventh.

“I’ll-I’ll go,” stated Joy and marched forward. Apparently Wrench would be going last.

Once again, the tool rumbled, took Joy, then deposited her back onto the ground in no time at all. Same haircut and bandage as well.

Wrench realized it was hist turn and then entered the tool. He was only standing between the tines for a moment before he was pulled up into it. It’d felt as if he was being pulled by an incredible wind.

He was suddenly inside a dark and empty area. There was nothing to see or do here.

There was a whisper like presence against the back of his head and he felt hair falling down his neck. A sudden sharp poke made him wince and try to jerk away but there was nowhere to go.

A heavy pressure was applied to the back of his head and he found himself back on the ground. Stumbling forward almost as soon as his feet hit the ground.

“— oh my xxhht it’s Wrench. The Hume champion,” said a Tongsta voice. “It’s really him. Look, look.”

“It is. That’s… there’s no way their owner gave them up willingly. There’s no way they’d be here if it wasn’t for the implant breaking,” said a different Tongsta.

“The implant!” shrieked the first voice. The tool fell to the side and slammed into the Hab wall. It hung there, forgotten by the Tongsta.

“No, no, no, no. No… I need to… yes! I got it. Okay,” the Tongsta said. “Okay… ah… okay.”

“Why’d you do that!? Why’d you rip the xxhht out!?” demanded what sounded like a third Tongsta.

“Because it would have sent the results from the implant,” said the original Tongsta. The tool was retracted and pulled out of the Hab. “They’ll send someone to fix it in a xxhht xxhht. Then the system will know that Wrench is here.

“After that… I’m sure someone will be here to take him. Until that happens, I can try to make this work for myself.”

“What? What’re you talking about?” asked one of the other Tongsta.

“I’m going to breed him,” breathed the first Tongsta. There was a definitive sound of longing and greed that was being transmitted through the implant. It was hard to miss. “I’ll breed him with everyone I can. When his owner comes for him, I’ll just hand him over and act like nothing happened at all.

“And I’ll get his genetic line. I can easily xxhht it on the xxhht xxhht. Easily. No one will even know.”

“Oh, that’s kinda smart. It’s not like there isn’t always a bunch of pregnant Hume running around, either. No one would even notice it,” said what Wrench thought was the second Tongsta. “It’s a shame they’re pregnant for such a short time. If it was longer you could hide it better.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll just… I need to go buy some Hume. Good Hume. If he breeds with these castoffs here they won’t be worth anything,” the Tongsta lamented. “Okay. Here. Take these away and go give them to the adopters. These are all the ones they wanted.

“Let’s close this back up. I’ll go get some Hume and we’ll go from there. This’ll be fine. Have the existing signal send everyone back to where they came from.”

In no time at all, the Hab was closed, all the implements removed, and the Tongsta left. As if they’d never been there at all.

Quite a few Hume were gone as well. At least a third of the number that’d been here were no longer. They’d been taken away.

The Hume began to awkwardly leave. Their bodies flexing and moving with that strange will of it’s own. The call that they’d been given to force them to move, was now taking them back.

“That didn’t sound good,” worried Stripe, coming to stand next to Wrench.

“Yeah, that wasn’t good at all,” Seventh agreed.

“I didn’t really understand anything they said,” Joy confessed sounding worried. “Was I suppose to understand them? Did something happen?”

“They’re going to try and breed Wrench out until our Tongsta comes and gets us,” Seventh growled. “They knew exactly who Wrench was and are going to use him for their benefit.”

“Well… that’s fine,” muttered Wrench. He’d just zero out his ability to have children and play along. So long as they let him go home when it was all done, to go back to Goodie, he’d let them have their way.

That and he wasn’t sure if he had the tools to modify his implant so that he wouldn’t be beholden to the wills of the Tongsta through the Hab.

All he could do for now was forcefully underclock his reproductive system so he’d be firing blanks. Then let the Tongsta did as it would until they could escape.

“They took all the Fixers,” Stripe muttered. “We’ll have to do all the work ourselves. Or hope they bring more Fixers to replace the ones they took.”

“Bird, too,” added Seventh. “I saw her get taken. She was a little off, but nice. That’s a shame. I hope that whatever Hab she’s going to is a nice one.”

“Yeah, well… that’s how it goes. Especially in a Shelter,” said Wrench with a sigh. Turning on his heel he started off toward the barrier. He needed to make sure it was finished and locked down once everyone had gone by. “Still sucks, but it’s not unexpected.

“Hey, Stripe, could you go teach Joy how to watch the monitors and system checks? I don’t want you two out and about when this all clears. There’s no telling how these Hume will react.”

“Sure, not a problem,” Stripe answered. She touched his forearm briefly before moving off with Joy.

Who was staring over her shoulder at him.

With that settled, he figured he had to move rather quick.

While there was no telling what the Hume would do, he at least owed Shinista an explanation of what he’d seen.

What’d happened.

The man should at least be told his grand-daughter was gone now.

After that, he wanted to head into the Ducts. See if he could scrounge up what he’d need to limit the implants control over him.

“Hey, can we do it every time before they make you stud out? That way you’re less likely to give them a seed,” Seventh asked after glancing over her shoulder. It was obvious she hadn’t wanted to say this in front of Stripe or Joy.

And given the tone of her voice, the question also sounded very odd to him.

Her words sounded logical and with a purpose, but the tone and wasn’t being said, sounded very emotional.

Emotional, pained, and jealous in a way.

“We can do that. I’d prefer it,” offered Wrench. “When they had us pair together I was rather happy about it. I’m not very happy about this one at all. There’s no reason for you to be jealous.”

“Huh? Why’s that? I’m sure the Tongsta will get pretty Hume,” mumbled Seventh. “Not jealous.”

“Because it was you. You’re a very unique woman, Seventh. Pretty is anywhere. I’m looking for unique.

“I mean, did you not see Popsicle and Pistol? Or any of my School? That’s all pretty. Don’t need that. Don’t want that.

“And yes, you’re clearly jealous. It’s fine. I’d be the same way if you had to be mounted with other Hume. I’d probably get violent about it.”

Seventh caught up to him as he walked away and stared at him with a wide grin. Her cheeks were a faint red as well.

“Violent over me? Damn, Wrench, I know I’m perfect, but you don’t have to feed my ego like that,” she purred. “It’s already rather inflated, you know.”

“I’ll feed you something else instead then,” he countered, glancing at her.

To which she only raised her eyebrows and smiled wider.