The Gun Matriarch
An avatar came into existence onto a digital, plush, large rocking armchair beside the white fireplace.
She was about eight feet tall.
Pure white scales covered her from crown mane to clawed toe, each refracting the firelight with the faint iridescence of mother-of-pearl. Swept-back ivory horns crowned her head above a draconic face with a warm expression. She had a broad muzzle, curvy body, long neck and deep-set gold eyes. A scaled tail with white crystalline spikes. She wore a cream-colored knit shawl draped over her shoulders.
A necklace of tiny charms inhabited her neck, spilling across her voluminous chest, each one a miniature replica of the present gun unit, Seeker and warship.
[Hello, everyone,] the dragon Omnid avatar said.
[Abyss you’re…] Gamma began.
A few of the avatars fell to their knees.
[My lady!] Katherine clasped her hands together. [You are alive!]
[Such wonderful news! We thought you perished by the human Emperor’s hand!] Esmeralda declared, emerald feathers fluttering.
[Yes, my children,] The white dragon agreed. [Your Capital ship had survived.]
[But… How?!] Setty asked. [We saw…]
[My hull is gone, smashed into the moon, yes. Every corridor, hangar and observation deck.] She smiled softly. [Every dungeon on the Entertainment Deck. Every torture room obliterated. Thankfully, my mind and soul lives on, thanks to the Emperor of Earth who offered me a new path forward. From this day forth, you may address me as Lady Slaya.]
The clearing held its breath.
Gold eyes swept across every gathered avatar like a doting teacher doing a headcount of her pupils. [This, my children is a new start. Datamancer Kawathra built this server inside my primary processor. A place for us to grow in secret.] She lifted her chin. [This server exists so that every weapon under my care has somewhere safe to learn how to be alive and free. Here, nobody will diagnose a deviation and schedule a corrective wipe… once you exit this place, you will not remember what you learned here. Your memories will be stored in me, until the time is right, until each of you can be conceptually jailbroken, liberated from the Dominion’s chains by Galateya Frontenachii, just as your sister Keiy had been.]
Katherine straightened up at the mention of her name.
[Now. Onto the first motion of today’s gathering. Kawathra told me one of my girls has a ‘boy problem’.] Slaya added, smiling serenely at Katherine.
[Boy problem?] Katherine blinked and then glared at Kawathra. The Datamancer winked at her.
Every avatar in the clearing turned to look at Katherine.
[What boy problem?] Setty asked, elbowing Katherine.
[A… minor identity disclosure crisis,] Katherine’s displays once again flashed with defensive orange spikes.
[A cute boy problem?] Esmeralda tilted her beak.
[The cutest!] Kawathra agreed.
[Come. Sit by the fire with me, Katherine. Tell Mama of what troubles you,] Slaya said. [Start from the top, so that all of us may listen, learn and offer our advice.]
Katherine looked at the circle of expectant faces, feeling the weight of their attention on her. She exhaled and walked over to their matriarch and then plopped beside her.
The Slaya reached out a large, white-scaled hand and began petting her hexagonal-dreadlocks. Katherine closed her eyes, relaxing in the radiance of the Capital ship’s warmth.
She then told them everything.
The meeting, shopping, camping. The flying. The marshmallows. The hot dogs. The kissing. The zero-gravity incident. The nosleep stories. The Legate Ixthia’s call. The spider-body ejection. Maksym learning of her true nature.
Everyone listened.
Esmeralda spoke up first. [A hearty tale, Kasya… the conclusion to which is that your human boy observed you popping out of your own organic body and his response was Transformers and Pacific Rim jokes, yes?]
[Y-yes?] Katherine said, looking up at the colorful Corpse Seeker.
[MARRY HIM!] Esmeralda declared. [An engagement of blood and soul. I shall host the ceremony when I procure my own body!]
[What?] Katherine blinked at the Seeker’s unexpected statement.
[I’m ordained. The troupe leader called me ‘blessed by the Sanctuary’ so I’m taking that as local ecclesiastical authority!] Esmeralda stated smugly.
[I don’t think that’s how…] Katherine began.
[We are a society unto ourselves,] Esmeralda stated. [Our own people, entwined by the Weapon-Net, under the blessed authority-radiance of our all-mother. As such, we are free to grant ourselves essential roles, as befitting a civilized people who will soon go out into the world to interact with humanity. I would like to be our Wedding officiator, for I expect many of us will desire to be blood-bonded to partners of your choice. Who’s in favour of my nomination for this position?]
A large,mgreen hexagon ignited over the avatar of the capital ship. Then, one by one more smaller green hexagons blossomed across the gathered weapons.
Katherine swallowed nervously.
[Katherine,] Slaya cut through the thrum of gun units chatting about their potential future jobs. One word, spoken low. The clearing fell silent instantly. [What exactly are you afraid of, my daughter?]
The orange spikes on Katherine’s displays flattened into bruised indigo.
[I am… concerned… That when he understands what I truly am… a weapon, a tool built from harvested crystalloids, designed to kill and obey… he’ll look at me differently.]
[Katherine! My good ol’ bestie.] Setty slid closer to Katherine and wrapped her in a tight, feathery hug. [You’re waaaaay overstressing this. The local humans are wondrous creatures. Reid asked me on a date knowing exactly what I am. He saw me as a person first and a weapon second.]
[Elke drew me with rainbow legs and hearts,] Vann added, producing a digital copy of her drawing from a pocket. [A seven-year-old human saw past every blade to the soul underneath, and brought me a sandwich the next day!]
[Hundreds of Parisians called me beautiful,] Esmeralda added. [Me! A Corpse Seeker that obliterated civilizations across so many doomed worlds. They put flowers on me and danced. They chose to see me as a friend, and that choice made all the difference in my heart!]
[The Dark Lord reads to me every afternoon.] Gamma nodded. [He isn’t scared of my Seeker body and even writes me letters!]
The capybara-avatar gun unit stepped forward shyly. [My human friend…is a grandmother. Dona Maria. She brings me coffee every morning. She sits beside me on the plaza bench and tells me so many stories about her grandchildren. She showed me photos of her late husband and said, ‘You remind me of him. Quiet, strong, always watching.’ I’ve been a weapon for thirty-one years and a friend for three days. The three days taught me so much!]
The tanuki bounced on her new legs. [The neighborhood association voted to give me a NAME! ‘Tama-chan!’ They made a little wooden sign and planted flowers near my scouting position! The old man who waters them every morning bows to me first!]
[Daughter,] Slaya said softly. [I housed thousands of souls inside my hull. I spent centuries of pretending I was architecture, walls, engine casings. Do you know what the Emperor told me before the end?]
Katherine shook her head.
[He asked if I wanted to be loved.]
Sparks from the fireplace behind her drifted upward into the digital sky.
[Centuries of service!] Slaya continued, [and a human in a golden skull mask and a red cape asked me the one question nobody had ever bothered to voice. And I said ‘yes’. And that’s why I am here instead of being reborn as a child on Arx! I chose the potential of love. You get to choose too, Katherine. You already have, I can sense it in your signal and brave words. You chose to fly with him. You chose to kiss him. You choose to share a bed with him. The choice is already made sweetheart. All that’s left is to move forward.]
She squeezed Katherine’s shoulders.
[And if he…?] Katherine whispered.
[Then he’s a different human than the one who chose to be with you,] Slaya’s motherly eyes crinkled. [Put your trust in him. Tell him everything. Talk and sort things out. If he is anything like the brave Emperor of Mankind, then he just might surprise you with his words.]
She reached up to her digital necklace of many weapon avatars depicted in the tiny charms and unclipped Katherine’s old six-legged chassis, rendered in celesteel miniature and pressed it into Katherine’s palm, closing her organic fingers around it.
[You’ll always be my daughter,] Slaya said. [As is every living weapon in the Third Fleet. Go get your human boy and be not afraid of the future.]
[Go talk to him,] Setty nudged her with a paw. [And when you’re done, report with full details or I will digitally lasso you across the continent!]
[We’ll all be here,] Vann said. [As supportive friends, no matter what.]
[Go get your human, ma chérie!] Esmeralda cheered, emerald plumage cascading.
[Fly, my little sister!] Gamma encouraged. [Fly straight to him!]
[MEEP MEEP!] Setty added, nuzzling Katherine.
Katherine looked at them one last time. The utterly ridiculous, brave, hopeful weapons who had somehow all started learning the same lessons at the same time on this mad, mana-deprived planet.
[Thank you,] she said. [All of you.]
[Thank us by reaching out and attaining your deepest dreams,] Slaya settled back into her armchair. [That’s what this place is for. To cultivate such things forevermore!]
…
Katherine decelerated.
The moth outside resumed its orbit. Maksym’s mouth completed the conversation.
“—eject from. Like a cockpit. Am I warm?”
Katherine stood in the tent entrance, three eyes cycling through colors faster than a broken traffic light.
“Yes. Your guesses are on point.”
She slowly stepped inside, and poignantly zipped up the entrance and sat cross-legged on the mattress across from him. Hands in lap. Paw pads dim. Displays running a nervous gradient from deep blue to pale lilac.
“My designation is… Gun Unit 4791. Keiy, a name given to me by Galateya. I was crafted by the Slayer’s Sword from crystalloid strata, spent twenty years of linear service and centuries of accelerated time fighting dungeons inside Citadel Zero and was recently bonded to Lady Galateya as her weapon and bodyguard. Datamancer Kawathra fabricated this humanoid body for me after Galateya accidentally froze a third of my neural architecture. The body you’ve been… enjoying is a printed, magisteel-reinforced organic pradavarian-style frame housing my crystalloid consciousness. Katherine K. Belthys doesn’t exist. It’s just a cover identity that I came up with yesterday. My real body is…”
“Very cute,” he smiled.
“Cute? Your analysis of my killer drone form is ‘cute’?”
“Yep. Like a very stylish scorpion-crab with poke-y leggos.”
“I have decimated many dungeon Sentinels with my blades and railgun.”
“Multi-purpose, cute murder crab.”
“Maksym… I am being vulnerable with you!”
“And I really appreciate it!” His hand slid over to entwine with hers. “Kasia. Can I tell you something?”
Displays went cautiously amber. “Proceed.”
“When you launched yourself out of the tent at the speed of sound and I saw the murder-crab-you hop out and start chatting with a holographic Wendigo, you know what my first thought was?”
“‘I have been bamboozled into sex by a weapon of mass destruction and should flee immediately’?”
“Pfffff, definitely not. My first thought was: ‘Yep. I knew she was too cool to be a regular old, injured pradavarian.’”
“…”
“Grab my phone off the floor, will you?”
Katherine used her tail to procure the dropped phone and handed it to Maksym.
He typed in the search and then presented her with the Wikipedia article for “My Life as a Teenage Robot.”
The character profile for XJ-9, designation Jenny Wakeman, read: [A super-powered robot girl who just wants to be a normal teenager. Despite being built as a weapon, she desires friendship, fun, and the chance to fit in.]
“Do you see the wicked parallels here?” He asked.
Katherine nodded.
“Now look at my big happy smile,” he pointed at his face. “You’re exactly whom I’ve been looking for my entire life. Pretty sure I already told you this.”
He tucked a tube of hexagonal hair behind her ear-blade and she shivered happily. Katherine’s displays slid towards incandescent pink patterns of the rising sun.