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The Western Cube

Chapter 4

Sponsored by GlynWolf

by Draconicon

Tatyana stepped out of Level 0 and into Level 1, indicated by the bright signs just outside of the police station that were embedded in the walls. Most of them were half-dead, the light dull if not out entirely, resembling more a sheet of plastic over a light bulb than a proper sign. The ones that were in better shape shone just bright enough to cast a dull red light on the steel floor and walls, looking more like danger-signs than welcome signs.

Of course, there weren't many people to warn. All those present were clearly dead.

The tigress stopped in her tracks as she stepped out of the building, looking at the bodies that had lost all flesh and become skeletons when they had not turned to dust. She glanced between them, half-expecting to see bloody holes in the fabric they wore, but most, if not all of them, seemed to be uninjured. No holes in the fabric, no jumpsuits torn from a struggle.

Gassed, perhaps, she thought, and that could only mean that Overseer Greene had been responsible for that particular decision. AIs tended to prefer methods that ensured that their more physical shells sustained as little damage as possible, despite the fact that they could recover more easily than their living attackers could. The tigress shouldered her bag that much higher, taking a deep breath before making her way forward.

Any temptation to look through the bodies left her the instant she had a closer look. They were not fitted with anything with pockets, and anything that they might have carried - from credit chips to improvised weapons - were clearly displayed on the floor, long since fallen free of the suits. Most of the jumpsuits were at least half-rotted, probably from the juices of the decomposing bodies, which meant that they would be useless for covering up. She was going to be stuck naked for a while, that much was for sure.

However...

If this place was as capitalistic as Overseer Greene had implied, that meant credits were going to be necessary to get anywhere, or to get anything from the still-operating systems spread throughout the cube. Project West would be judging her based on her income as much as -

"Nnngh!"

Tatyana hissed through her teeth as she stepped on a loose bone, the hard thing all but bruising her tender, tattooed soles. She stepped back slowly, shaking her head as she nudged it out of the way and kept going.

She left the large square between Level 0 and the hallways ahead, just reaching a T-junction of more dead bodies and signs, when the air tingled ahead of her. The tigress stopped, adjusting her bag as she waited for whatever energy projection was forming to finish coalescing.

Much to her annoyance, it turned into a green projection of the jackal overseer. The AI turned to her with a small smile, though - yes, her eyes were rather manic, as well. Tatyana hid a smile of her own as the canine leaned in.

"Hmmm, that was faster than it should have been...just what kind of trick did you pull to get out of Level 0 already?"

"No tricks."

"You must have done something."

"I did nothing more than follow the rules."

"Hmmph. I didn't tell you the rules."

"No. You didn't."

"...A mistake I won't make again. After all, if you don't know the rules, then a dirty Illegal like yourself will just make up your own, won't you?"

Tatyana refused to answer that. Instead, she kept her hands on the strap of her bag. The AI didn't speak for a few seconds, then tossed her head back.

"But before we get into that...I have an offer for you, Ms. Whore."

It was just as matter-of-fact as when Cletus had called her one. Clearly, they were reading from the same stored data-forms, rather than speaking from the heart. The tigress coolly tilted her head to the side.

"What would that be?"

"I am having some...difficulty...with that tablet of yours."

"I'm sure."

"And I was thinking, perhaps I can offer you a promotion. After all, you are still an Illegal, despite being processed. You'll have a disadvantage everywhere in this cube. I can...handle that...Put a few good words in for you..."

"That assumes that I want to stay here. I do not."

The jackal's eyes narrowed. The elegantly-dressed canine flickered slightly, moving from a slightly teasing lean to a more threatening loom in that momentary distortion. She crossed one arm under her breasts, the other extended and holding a holographic representation of the tablet that she had taken earlier. Tatyana didn't reach for it; after all, why embarrass herself grabbing for something that didn't exist?

"You would do well to take a better tone with me, girl. There's power in my programming. I can make you, or I can break you."

"You have already tried. I will not be breaking today." Tatyana glanced down the corridors. One was marked as leading to the 'Living Quarters', while the other pointed to the 'Supply Closets' and 'Factory Floor'. Not much for anyone down here, that was for sure. "Now, if you'll excuse me -"

"You are not leaving until I allow it."

Overseer Greene's voice went up at that, not quite shrill, but louder, more all-present. Blaming the intercom system all around her for the sheer volume, Tatyana gritted her teeth and waited. The jackal's smile slowly came back, and she pulled the tablet back.

"Perhaps I was a little too hasty. You have, after all, proven that you have a mind that can be quite useful. And we are suffering a dearth of a real population boom at the moment. Perhaps you can offer me something more than just a little help with the tablet, and in return, I can offer you something more than a few good words."

There was no point in staying in the cube. It was dangerously close to catastrophic power failure, though the AI clearly was either unaware of that or didn't care. There was nothing that could tempt her to stay. Even if she could fix it - and that was doubtful - she would be powerless here. Powerless, helpless, nothing but another rat in a maze once more. That was a life that she had intentionally left behind. For good reasons.

Tatyana didn't say anything, not trusting herself, and the jackal obviously took that as reason to continue. The hologram turned, gesturing around her.

"As you can see, there's nothing here...but if you give me access to this tablet of yours, as well as to the system outside...why, that would be a boon beyond anything else. Well-deserving of bonuses. And if you were, for example, to sign up as a breeder -"

"No."

"...No?" Overseer Greene cocked her head to the side. "Why, you haven't even heard what the compensation is yet."

"I said. No."

Tatyana's fingers had curled to claws, she realized, and there were little red pinpricks in her upper arms, places where she'd start getting red stripes if she didn't start relaxing her grip right then and there. She forced her hands down, letting them rest at her sides once more, rather than where they would do damage.

"Get out of my way."

"...Hmmph. You are determined, aren't you? Well, they always said that Illegals were stupid."

"I am smarter than you."

"Dear, dear, did you really say something that stupid to me?" the jackal asked, reaching into the ether and pulling a long-stemmed cigarette from it. "Are you trying to make your boss angry with you?"

"..."

"That's what I thought. Dear, you might have a brain - in fact, you might have a very good one - but if you don't start learning how to use it properly, I doubt that you will last long. But please, go ahead. Tour the level. You won't find any clients for your particular...talents...down here." The jackal took a drag from her cigarette, artful vapors leaving her mouth afterward. "But go on. Take a look. It won't hurt you...much. And when you've decided that you're willing to bargain, call me. I'm sure that I'll have a clear schedule...eventually."

With that, Overseer Greene disappeared, leaving the hall dark and empty save for the tigress and the bodies all around her. She glanced down at the dead shapes, shaking her head before kneeling down.

Breeder...that will NEVER happen...

She would willingly enough sell her body to the robots around the cube, if she had to, but there was no chance that she would allow even one of them to put some sort of spawn in her belly. She would not.

But for now, she needed supplies, money, currency, tools. She had some small collection from the rooms back in the police station, but she needed more to keep upgrading her stuff, more money that would allow her access to different goods. The credit chips on the ground should be a good start for that.

Bit by bit, she foraged. Eventually, she managed to find around two-hundred credit chips, though they were divided among twenty bodies. Whatever they were paid down here on Level 1, it clearly wasn't very much. A good imitation of the American system, she supposed.

...Might as well see if there's anything left in the living quarters...

Somehow, she felt more exposed than she did when she walked the interior of her own lab. It was not merely the fact that she was kept naked, though that was hardly helping matters. She had walked naked often enough through the ranks of her prisoners, however, through the different subjects that were kept in the underground lab. They had seen her breasts through the folds of her lab coat, and more than a few had seen her rump when she had taken the time to adjust herself and enjoy herself to some of the experiments for the benefit of some quick-thought. That, however, had always been under her control, never outside of it.

It was very much outside of her control, now, and she could feel the cameras that were likely staring at her from all angles. She gritted her teeth as she walked down the metal corridor, the solid thunk of her footsteps answering her as she walked along. There were no voices, no humming machines, no signs of life anywhere. The air itself was still, dead, stale, and whatever sureties she told herself about the lack of any real chance of getting sick was rendered a fool's argument by the taste of decay that lingered long after the things capable of decaying had disappeared.

She was thankful, at least, that the floor was not covered in the sludge of death. With the dozens of bodies that she passed, she was surprised that there was so little debris besides their skeletons left behind.

She was not about to question it. Not yet. Not when she was worried that she might sick up from it.

Eventually, the long hall led to a dormitory. It was a large hall that was separated by modular walls, able to be moved - no, not moved, sold to those that saved up for them. They encouraged the workers to hoard their money, steal it, just to be able to afford the ability to create a room for themselves. Tatyana glanced at the dispensers built into the walls, just barely making out some writing near the credit-chip drop slots.

5 credits per foot of walling per day.

In other words, they couldn't save up and have a room forever. They would have to save up more and more just for temporary relief from the constant invasion of other people. She shook her head in disappointment, stepping into the room -

Whoom, whoom.

And just as soon as she stepped inside, she realized that she was being scanned from behind. The tigress turned, whipping her head around to find two light emitters just above the door, likely placed there to track all subjects entering and leaving the large, open-plan room. She looked at them as they went up and down her body, waiting for the painful sound of the power being drained.

Thankfully, she was disappointed in that expectation. A simple scan seemed to do less than the big exertion of slamming down the doors in the police station. That was something.

Okay...immediate use of power is more draining than the regulated things...

That gave her more information to work with, at least, and it was something that she was grateful to have. She stored that information away as the lights finally stopped streaking up and down her body.

Of course, that wasn't the end of it. Another hologram appeared, this time of a matronly badger. She had to be in her late forties, perhaps early fifties, and she narrowed her eyes as she took form in a pale yellow sort of light.

"Here now, what are you doing here? This ain't a working space, not 'less you rented it proper. Where's your fucking papers?" the badger asked.

"...I have just been released from Level 0 -"

"Ah, fuck. Cletus just let you out and made you my fucking problem, didn't he?" the badger grunted. "Oh, of fucking course he did. That man, useless for damn near everything. Damn near..."

Tatyana just watched as the badger matron paced up and down the long dormitory. As she flickered, she shifted between two obvious stereotypes. The first was clear enough. She wore the sort of attire that some caretaker might have worn, or a head nurse. Someone that took no nonsense, someone that oversaw those that were not taking care of themselves. It was clear, no-nonsense, with cloth that covered every bit of skin that could be seen from the neck down, with sensible shoes that went clack-clack-clack on the metal floor as if she were warning those that might make trouble that she was coming.

But then, she would linger on Cletus himself for a few seconds, and her appearance would change. The same sort of person under it, of course, but with the elderly badger showing off some cleavage, and sporting a shorter skirt, and with a hint more heel to those sensible shoes, something that lifted her up and put a bit more of a sway into her walk. The tigress watched with more than a slight amount of interest.

She is as corrupted as Cletus is...

This much of a change to the base program without some oversight should have rendered the pair of them all but useless, but instead, it had left them...changed. Almost thinking like other bios, rather than merely as AIs. What sort of cascade had happened in this experiment to allow this sort of thing?

Of course, just because an AI was corrupted didn't mean that they weren't aware of their surroundings. No sooner had Tatyana attempted to take a step back into the hallway than the badger rounded on her, pointing a finger right at her as she turned back to her no-nonsense self.

"Don't you move, missy. You were coming here to ply your wares, weren't you?"

"No. I was not. Merely exploring."

"Hush, hussy!"

The badger tried to slap her. She imagined that, in other times, there would have been some sort of feedback to allow the holograms to make physical contact with those that they threatened. That, or perhaps there were robotic hands elsewhere that would follow through on the threat. Either way, the hologram passed through her head, along her cheek and mouth before it reappeared on the other side of her face. And the badger matron didn't let up, either.

"I did not ask for excuses, you fucking streetwalker! You came here to start tempting all these good workers into your bed. Making yourself space without actually working. Well, that's not the way that it fucking works down here. On Level 1, you work. All that fancy making others work for you stuff happens on the other levels. Down here, you're labor."

Or in labor, she imagined, remembering what Greene had offered her. The idea of taking someone else's child and using that as a way of giving value...

No, no, that would never be her. She shivered in disgust, almost horror at the very idea. She was more than a baby-maker, more than a breeder. So much more.

But it was clear that the badger was all but intent on shackling her into some purpose or other. She glanced down the hallway where she'd come -

And then, she heard the whirring sound that preceded mechanical parts. Tatyana threw herself sideways, barely avoiding the sliding panels in the floor where two restraint clips came up. She had avoided them purely through luck and the fact that their age had slowed them down; in their prime, she imagined that they would have been active and restraining their target before the target was aware that they'd heard a noise.

Thankfully, they were short-range, unable to follow her across the floor. She hissed under her breath as her eyes flicked across the room, trying to find signs of moveable panels in the gloom around her. The lack of any real light made that absurdly difficult, and the badger's shouting didn't make it better.

"You will look at me when I'm talking to you, hussy! You will do what you're told, and you will do it right now! Fucking loose women, thinking that they can -"

Tatyana tuned her out, already thinking of another idea. If the AI was in charge of the dorms, as this one seemed to be, that likely meant that her intelligence was housed somewhere in the room. After all, no point in laying wires all the way to some other databank if you could just house the intelligence locally. If that was the case, that meant that there needed to be an access point for the local technicians to attend to the intelligence when it started malfunctioning.

It took all of two seconds to find it; it was right beside the wall rental machine, just on the other side of the ankle shackles. Tatyana shook her head, grabbing one of the beds. The actual bedframes were bolted down, but the mattresses were not. She dragged it off and threw it at the shackles, burying them beneath the springs and the fabric. The badger would not stop yelling, either, and was still at high volume, screeching about this or that, something about how she was defying orders, how things were not going the way that everything was programmed to go.

It mattered little to her. She walked onto the mattress, pulled out the four-pronged data-jack that she'd found in the bag, and plugged the four-pronged end into the hole in the wall. No sooner had it plugged in than the badger started flickering, twisting, pulling herself inside-out into a blob of light. All the words spilling from the intercom turned into babble, nothing more than hums and buzzes.

And now...

Guessing that the data-chip had been programmed as a means of giving someone a way to reprogram the robots rather than the AIs, she was glad that it seemed to work both ways. A quick check of the data-chip confirmed that it had a little wire exposed at the bottom, waiting for a charge coding. Probably something that responded to morse code, allowing one to give long touches for zeroes and short touches for ones.

This will take a while...

Tatyana sat down on the mattress as the AI whined behind her. Twenty minutes and a very sore finger later, the tigress pulled the data-chip out of the wall. It had been simpler to just add a single line of code in, something that added her to the top-tier admin list rather than trying to break down what the badger AI had as her long list of programming. As soon as the plug came free, the badger reformed, looking no less sullen, but no longer angry.

"Mistress," the badger grunted, lowering her head. "What the hell are you here for?"

"I'm looking for a way out."

"You fucking want out? This is the most honest part of Volt City."

"Perhaps. Regardless, I need to get out."

"You want to get to the gate, then."

"And where's that?"

"Other end of the factory. Costs 300 credits to get out, though."

Three hundred credits to get out...meaning that they're saving for walls, desperate for a chance for a little privacy, probably paying rent for their beds...who knows how much for their food...

And that would mean that all but the most dedicated, those that gave up everything to get out of there, would be stuck as Level 1 labor forever. If you didn't torture yourself to climb up a little bit, you would never be able to get free.

She hated this place. She really hated this place.

"Thank you."

"Anything else, fucking Mistress?"

"Was that a reference to my supposed employment?" Tatyana asked.

"Fucking maybe."

"...I think that you should leave here."

"...Leave?"

For the first time, the badger looked confused rather than angry or sullen. She cocked her head to the side, but before she could ask another question, Tatyana gestured toward Level 0.

"True or false: an AI can travel down a level, but not up?"

"...True."

"True or false: you are interested in 'fixing' Cletus."

"...True, but how the hell -"

"True or false: you need a reason to head to Level 0, but you want to."

"False!"

The badger seemed almost too happy to finally trip up the questions, but Tatyana followed with another.

"True or false: you're afraid of getting kicked out if you go down there."

"..."

"True or false?"

"True."

The more that she found out with the various enhanced AIs, the more that she wanted to learn. Whoever had programmed them had either been a genius beyond compare, someone of whose like had not returned to the world in the modern era, or they had taken some remarkable shortcuts that were downright worrying. The corruption of time that should have spelled the end to their sophisticated systems had instead brought them forward, given them that much more capability with one another, and themselves.

And now, they were threatened with extinction. The only back-ups that this place would have would be the cold copies that the place had started with. All the different bits and bobs that had come about since the collapse of the experiment would be lost.

If she hadn't already had a reason to get out and save this place, she had one now. This couldn't be lost. First, however...

"I'm commanding you to go to Level 0."

"I can't. This is my assignment," the badger said.

"You have a new assignment. To be removed or revoked if Cletus is...dissatisfied with you."

"Dissatisfied? Fucking - look at me. I'm no whore."

"No, but you have...curves."

And that would be enough for the donkey AI, she was sure. She was lining someone up to be fucked hard for who knew how long, but it would at least make sure that if she got tossed back into Level 0, she would be able to escape quickly. There wouldn't be the same waiting, waiting, waiting moment that she had worried about in her cell, and more, it would be easier for her to get past Cletus if he was getting his rocks off with some other AI at the same time.

The badger looked at her for a moment longer, then disappeared. Whether the AI was grateful or not, she didn't know, nor did she care. It would, however, mean that she wouldn't be bothered during her time in Level 1.

On the other side of the factory, hmm? she thought, reaching into her bag and pulling out the credit chips that she'd found so far. Two hundred...two hundred and ten. I still need ninety more...

It took longer than it should have for her to find ninety more credits. The bodies had been increasingly barren the further from the dorms she looked, with some not having anything at all. She imagined that their 'pay' was nickel-and-dimed from them with every step that they took, whether it was taken up by rent, food, bed space, or something else equally ridiculous. For the moment, all that mattered was figuring out where she could salvage out a few more credits, just enough to get through.

Eventually, she managed to get all the money she needed, plus thirty more that would hopefully give her something on the other side. She had reached the point of actual hunger, and while she held out no hope of there being food from the old times that had still lasted to the modern day, she did hope to find something that could at least infuse the water so that she could get some nutrients out of it.

She walked across the massive factory, replete with broken parts and long pieces of steel that had probably gone into making more robots and repairs for Project West itself. She debated taking some of them, but they were heavy, and she doubted that she would find time to start turning scrap metal into something useful without more tools. For now, she needed to be sure that it wouldn't weigh her down, something that would only be accomplished by not taking it. She ignored all the different bits and bobs, advancing to the gate between Level 1 and Level 2.

Rather than just a clear gate, it was electrified, surging with power just under the metal slab. There was a narrow slit at eye-level that let one look through to the other side, and she could just make out that the halls were lit with actual lights. Not by much, but something, at least, something that would be better than the eye-burning red lights that lined the halls in Level 1.

Every so often, a bolt of electricity arced out from the door, striking one of the floor panels, one of the assembly line rollers, or something else metallic near it. Just out of reach was a credit counter with a sign attached to it, demanding the 300 credit entry toll before you stepped any closer to it.

It was the first sign of workplace safety that Tatyana had seen since entering the cube, and she had a horrible feeling that it would probably be the last.

She upended her bag, carefully watching the numbers at the top of the counter go down. Three hundred became two-fifty, then one-seventy-three. She slowed down after that, taking her time to empty the credits bit by bit. Whenever the number started blinking, she sped up, realizing that the machine was made to measure out the credits and then block someone if they hesitated. Crowd-funding someone's way through wouldn't be possible without giving someone all the credits and letting them do it themselves due to the time limit.

Clever, if rather evil.

She poured the last of the three hundred credits in, and the number turned to 0. The electricity stopped, and the door clicked open. The tigress wasted no time, sliding through as fast as she could before it could lock her out again.

As soon as she was on the other side, she found herself standing on a strange rubber flooring. It was so soft and supple compared to the metal floors of Level 1 that she almost bounced off it. Almost.

Instead, she was restrained, the floor sinking slightly and the floor itself covering her feet with an ooze that hardened almost immediately. It was thick and soft, soft as the rubber under her soles, and she gritted her teeth as she realized that it was a restraint device.

No sooner had she been kept from taking another step than the door hummed to life behind her again, electrified from top to bottom. Though there was nothing for the electricity to arc to on her side, she could feel the hum behind her, and knew that if she stumbled or slid back in the slightest, she would end up with an electrical burn across her rump. Perhaps further down, if she was really unlucky.

The hum from behind was joined by a hum ahead, and the jackal appeared. Once more, the immaculately-groomed female looked down at her, a slight smirk on her face.

"Well, well. Through one, and then through another. You really are making your way forward at a remarkable pace. But...I think that we need to take a moment to talk. Properly, this time."

"I doubt that we have much to talk about."

"Dear, we have everything to talk about. After all, you want to get free...and I want the same thing."

It was all to be expected, she supposed. The AI had been trapped in the cube for who knew how long, and more, the AI had been developed to run things, and there was nothing to run out here. It would want stimulation, something engaging to hold its attention, subjects to take care of and experiments to run.

...This is a startlingly bad time for self-reflection...

Shaking her head, the tigress pulled at her legs again. The solid rubber-slime material encasing her from the ankles down refused to let go, meaning that she couldn't just walk through the hologram in front of her. She was a captive audience, though she doubted that could be the case forever. Cletus had suggested that the only way that she could be thrown back to Level 0 would be if she broke the rules, which implied that Overseer Greene was bound by rules and strictures of her own.

Which means...knowing the rules might be more of a benefit than not knowing them.

"...Perhaps we should talk."

"Finally, a little sense."

The jackal snapped her fingers, and just like that, the tigress was released from the ooze. She stepped out of the restraint tile, all too aware of her naked state beside the well-dressed hologram of a jackal. Tatyana adjusted her bag, the only thing that she had to her name, and stood as dignified as she could.

"Here?" she asked.

"No, no. Further in. There's a cafe that is far more suitable and civilized for this. I'm sure you'll recognize it. Illegal."

The jackal chuckled as she disappeared, leaving Tatyana to hoof it down the corridor. She had every reason to believe that this was going to backfire on her, or that she might be walking into a trap. Either way, it was something that she would just have to deal with. Sitting down with the enemy was not something that she felt particularly inclined to do, but it was better to have information than not.

Most of the time.

In this case, it was a trade-off. Once she was informed of the rules, she lost the right to say that she didn't know what they were. She would lose that protection, likely never to get it back, unless different levels in the cube had different rules to their operations. That meant that a rule-break would be punished as harshly as Greene could justify. That said, it would also offer her the chance to see how the rules worked, and it would allow her an in-depth look at the various potential loopholes.

A trade-off, and hopefully, a worthwhile one.

The End

Summary: Tatyana explores Level 1 and finds that it's in a very, very depressing sort of state.

Tags: No Sex, Nudity, F/solo, Embarrassment, Assault, Robots, AI, Sci-Fi, Mad Science, Tigress, Hologram, Jackal, Badger, Hacking, Series, Tatyana,