A screen above the elevator buttons flickered to life, switching between various rooms of the facility, some familiar, like the garden or the kitchen, and some she’d never seen, like a colossal server room or what looked to be a cargo bay with a pair of doors dozens of times taller than she was.

“Addison? Are you trying to show me something?” Asked the android, receiving only a dread silence in response.

Eventually it settled on an image of her creator sitting alone in her laboratory, the image largely hard to make out due to the quality of image being so poor. A figure could be seen walking in behind her, what looked to be a short, balding human man. She could see him say something and watched as the scientist stiffened up, slowly turning to face the man.

Helplessly she watched Aurelia fire something from her wrist, and saw the man bend out of the way of the plasma infused bolt, then rush her with blinding speed. She felt overwhelmed with dread as a knife was jammed into the scientist's thigh, then rendered unconscious only moments later. The stout man caught Aurelia as she slumped forward, and despite the significant height difference, she seemed to throw her over his shoulder with apparent ease. He then carried her out of the laboratory with apparent ease until they were no longer in view of the camera.

Isobel looked around frantically, pushing the open door button over and over, using more and more force until she pushed hard enough for the button to break. Her breathing picked up pace, harder and faster, her eyes rapidly looking around the confined space, looking for an escape. The elevator's confined space seemed to shrink around her.

In a panic, she slammed the bottom of her fists with enough force to leave a dent in the doors, a metallic clang ringing true throughout the confined space. Her skin slightly torn and silvery blood oozed from the splits. Looking at the damage she caused to both herself and the doors, she slammed her fists into it again, causing more damage to herself and her metal victim. She ignored the pain warnings she was getting and kept hammering away at it until a small hole formed, then started prying the thick doors apart, the metal easily giving way to her impressive strength.

Her metallic muscles screamed at her as she pried the doors apart, sliding her lithe form through when enough space had been made. Isobel climbed through the hole she made and immediately turned to race to the entrance. It had only been a minute since Aurelia was dragged off, so the man couldn’t have got far. The lobby doors barely opened in time for her as she barreled through, bursting out onto the plaza clearing.

Ahead she caught a glimpse of a man carrying Aurelia into the jungle, disappearing from sight once more. She rushed after them with superhuman speed, crashing through the foliage haphazardly, barely slowing down as vines and roots blocked her path. For just a moment, she wondered how she moved so fast through such dense flora, then dismissed the thought entirely

Doesn’t matter, I have to save her.

Her head spun to the left as she heard the engines of a starcraft light up. She stopped  suddenly, sliding on the dirt and then immediately turned to the direction of the sound. The android picked up speed and sprinted through the dense foliage with reckless abandon, ignoring the branches and thorny plants as they cut and tore at her soft skin with ease. 

She finally reached the edge of the clearing, where she could see the balding man carrying Aurelia up the cargo ramp of an unmarked frigate. The stout man looked up to spot Isobel emerging from the treeline, barrelling towards him, then tossed the unconscious scientist into the hold, making her disappear from view.

He quickly brandished a small plasma pistol from inside his sweater vest and shot at the Androids head, all within the span of a second. His aim was precise, and against any other target, it would have been an instant kill, a hole in the skull. He recoiled in surprise when his target kept barreling towards him with frightening speed. Half of the skin on her face had melted off, revealing a singed metallic skull underneath.

Isobel picked up speed, each step leaving deep footprints in the grassy dirt, each step, a thump on the ground. He shot at her heart, piercing straight through her torn dress leaving a blacked melted hole and continued through her left breast, the silicone melting around it. The bolt was only stopped by another metallic plate underneath the melted silicone. She grit her teeth as pain surged through her body, her right eye so damaged she could barely see through it.

He shot once more while she was mere metres away from the cargo ramp, but she ducked underneath the third bolt, and leapt through the air. She crashed into the would-be kidnapper and the pair tumbled to the deck, landing several metres away from an unconscious Aurelia. He brandished a knife from behind him and brought it down on her spine, his eyes going wide with surprise as the knife snapped half way along the blade. She released him as pain surged through her body and he used the opportunity to slip out with unusual dexterity from underneath her.

A menacing smile spread across his mustached lips, and he dashed to the side of the blindspot of her heavily damaged eye, then brought the broken knife down again on her back, the blade piercing the silicon flesh with ease. A sickening clang rang throughout the android's body as the knife found its way into a gap in her spine. Isobel released her grip on him and scrambled forward, her left arm barely responding to any command, and her right leg was now as stiff as a rock.

She used her working arm to grab him by the scruff and tossed him, sending him flying into the ship wall with a strangely dull thud, his skin rippling like gelatin. The contractor recovered quickly, taking aim with his pistol once more. He shot at her with his pistol, landing in her other eye. Isobel reeled back in pain, her brace a mess of melted silicon and scorched metal. The contractor looked confused, as if wondering how much of this woman was machine, and how much was flesh. As she reeled away, he took this opportunity to brandish another blade from his half and lunge at her with his knife, ducking under a wild swing from the android. He dashed around her and stabbed the fresh blade into another section of spine. She cried out as her legs completely gave out under her, and with a heavy thud she hit the deck, barely able to see, barely able to move.

I can’t do this. I don’t know how to fight. I don’t want him to take her away.

She felt the plasma pistol to her back, and squeezed shut what was left of her eyes.

I don’t want to die

The click of a trigger, followed by a thunderous noise rang through her ears, but she felt nothing. She looked up to see a blue splatter on the wall where the assailant had been. Her nostrils flared at the smell of burnt synthfiber and a strange smell she couldn’t place. She looked around fervently, her eyes trailing off to where the redhead lay. Isobel could barely make out  the strange device coming from Aurelia’s right wrist. With what little of her body would respond, she began to drag herself to her creator.

“Oh Isobel. I’m sorry you went through this.” Aurelia croaked. She pulled herself up on the floor, attempting to sit up and bit hard on her lower lip as pain shot through her bloody thigh. The contractor was no more, and was left couldn’t even be called remotely human. There was no blood, no organs, scarcely anything that could be called viscera. Disgust overwhelmed her.

“I’m… sorry… I couldn’t… do more.” Isobel squeaked out. Her mind was filled with damage warnings and with the situation now over, the pain was unbearable. Aurelia responded with a bitter laugh.

“You did more than enough. It’s my fault. I was complacent. I thought my defences were impervious.” Aurelia reassured as she slid herself to the android's side. She placed her gnarled hand on the androids head and began to stroke reassuringly.

“I’m afraid I’m not strong enough to carry you home.” She said with a pained chuckle. “I’ve sent for drones to carry us back, we’ll need several of Addison’s drones just for you.”

“I-I think Addison was attacked too.” Isobel said with worry.

“Yeah, I know, but I activated a failsafe that should at the very least get us out of here. She won’t be her usual charming self but basic orders will be easy for her to carry out.” Aurelia reassured.

White foam formed around each of Isobels wounds, preventing any leakage of her silvery nanomachine blood. She weakly reached up to Aurelia, a thin, grey liquid streamed from her most intact eye.

“I-I-I” She kept tripping up on her words, her voice rough and mechanical. Aurelia gently grabbed Isobels hand and placed her cheek in it.

“Shh, It’s okay. You did so well, even though you were scared. We are both alive.” Aurelia closed her eyes, and continued to stroke Isobels silky synthetic hair. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” She cooed, her cheeks damp with tears. The searing pain in her thigh was overwhelmed with the miserable feeling lumped in her chest. She didn’t want Isobel to go through anything like this, let alone this soon after her awakening.

They sat there for several minutes, waiting for help to arrive. Noise could be heard at the edge of the clearing, dozens of drone cleared their way out with massive blades protruding from their forearms. They made their way quickly to the wounded duo, a pair of drones setting down a stretcher for the scientist to drag herself onto. A pair of the drones stood at either hand and gently picked the stretcher up with the scientist lying down on it..

Four others each grabbed a limb of the immobile android, the whir of struggling servos indicated a great struggle to pick the dense android up. Four more grabbed her limbs, the whirring of servos easing as they lifted her from the cargo bag, then they slowly walked her out.