Challenge #01504-D043: Puzzling Piece
“And when you’re young you want to fit in. Hell, I still want to fit in with certain [sophonts], but as you get older you get a little more discriminating.” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence
Even when he didn't have the words for it, Rael knew that he was different from his creche sibs. They were able to do more, work more efficiently. They didn't need as much of the hosts of chemicals they regularly added to Rael's mostly-liquid body. They did not need to use the cheats he used just to perform to specifications.
He learned the wounding dismissal of "stress test version" and "most-failure success". He was the worst product they could make before the genes failed and turned out another Cleaner.
Ayg, the first of the line, was perfection incarnate. The display model. The one they showed off to prospective contract buyers. Those who saw Ayg would likely get the mass-produced others. Trained and run through their paces before they ever saw a non-lab environment.
But the company who made him, Wave of the Future, would not let their potentially profitable test versions lay idle. Rael, Kint, and Ayg - in order, the buggy test run, the industry standard, and the sparkling show model - would be rented out to organisations that wanted to get in on the newest gengineering gadget.
Rael was almost always shipped off to the low bidders. Thrust wholesale into an environment where his vocabulary was limited to understanding the basic lexicon of commands to obey and no more. Where vital food supplies depended on his ability to work fast and work well.
Where his life hinged on his next meal.
Rael worked according to specifications. Watched as he was swapped out for a newer, better model and sent on to some other organisation. He was the trial version. Sign with us and get a free better model.
Sooner or later, he would be scrapped. Rendered into component molecules to make something... new and improved. Which meant that his only course of release from his predicament was in attempting to communicate with those renting him from Wave of the Future. Difficult when he didn't know much of the language. More so when the people using him thought he was malfunctioning.
Arguing, even limited arguing, got interesting results. People started to wonder if the Faiize were really what Wave of the Future said they were. People started to enquire about the exact nature of Faiize adaptability.
Rael got shuffled between places a lot faster, after that. But it was too late. Other Faiize, ones who were not as flawed as he was, were catching on. They, too, recognised that their situation was precarious at best. They, too, recognised the need to be... well... recognised.
Malfunctions and odd behaviour were spreading like a virus. News was getting around. And yet, every time he returned to the factory, he did his utmost to perform according to specifications. It was one thing to stand out to others, but standing out to the makers possibly meant molecular reclamation and his inevitable doom.
And the next destination always had the hope that this time, this time, there would be freedom at the other end of his trials.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / rustyphil]
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It's very interesting post!!
I like your job...Exchellent :)