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No one around them looked the same, and Urle revelled in that.
This part of Gohhi was only marginally less busy than the main area, the clientele mostly but not all human, and every single one of them was an augson.
Mechanical parts replacing eyes or limbs or adorning the tops of heads in fantastical configurations made the outline a riot of shapes and even hues – many were embellished with lighted strips in neon colors.
A being passed them – whether man or woman a mystery, as so much of their body had been replaced that they simply moved on mechanical tendrils, nearly hidden under a long cloak.
Urle watched the being pass, considering for a moment the pros and cons of such a form of movement.
Not today, at least.
He looked at Kell. “Amazing, isn’t it?”
Kell looked to him. “Do you believe that you have a soul?” he asked.
Urle sputtered. “Wait, what? That came out of nowhere.”
Kell did not reply to that, and Urle had to beat down his disappointment. He’d actually expected Kell to be full of questions about the beings around him, and he had looked forward to discussing the matter in depth. But after a moment Urle made himself consider the actual question Kell had asked. When he took it seriously it was not a hard thing for him to answer.
“No,” he said. “I don’t really believe anything happens within us except the physics and chemistry that makes up our bodies. Why, do you think people will lose their soul if they become augs?” It had been a common resistance to this lifestyle in past periods, though rarely brought up now except by the most fringe of organic fundamentalists.
“No,” Kell replied with finality.
“Good, I’ve always found that a silly thought. But what about your people? Do Shoggoths have a concept of a spiritual essence?”
Kell’s laugh was deep and honest. “No,” he said.
Urle puzzled on that a moment. “Just curious – why ask me, then?” He rarely got the sense that Kell wanted to know much about humanity. It seemed more a tolerance at best, with the occasional superficial curiosity or amusement.
“I wished to know your stance. Many humans have believed in such a concept, in older times,” Kell replied.
“Depends on the times, really,” Urle said. “Nowadays, less than one percent of humans in the Sapient Union identify as strongly religious. The whole concept has lost a lot of traction over the centuries, starting in the Enlightenment era.”
He turned to look at Kell. “And the concept has varied quite a lot. In the Germanic cultures of pre-Christian Northern Europe, they believed that humans consisted of four parts; the physical form, the mind, the fate or luck, and a familiar that existed externally.”
Kell looked at him in silence, but Urle sensed a curiosity in him. “The ‘familiar’ existed outside of their body?” he asked.
“Well, in their beliefs, yes. It represented something about their personality. Like someone who was excessively violent might have a wolf that preceded them, and people who would meet them might first meet their familiar in a dream or something like that.”
Urle cleared his throat. “My point is really that the whole conception of a single ‘soul’ within a physical body is hardly the sum of human spiritual belief.”
“I see,” Kell said. “You say that most humans in the Sapient Union are not spiritual, but what of those outside it? Like here?”
“There are still faiths. It is much less than it used to be – most don’t survive unless they have a lot of psychophants or are profitable schemes, but most historical faith has been simply the gasp of the oppressed. A hope that one day things will be better, when it never seems like it will be.”
Kell was quiet again, and Urle continued. “One thing I’ve seen among Augs is a belief of something like a . . . ‘spirit in the code’ or similar. Some of them feel that machines have a will beyond just what’s coded into them, especially once melded with the body.”
“And you do not believe that?” Kell asked.
“It’s utter nonsense,” Urle replied.
His scanners had been checking each store as they passed, small data signs outlining each store’s products and services. It alerted him that it had found something that met his search criteria.
The sign above the storefront was small and unobtrusive. Not even a fancy name was writ on it, though the letters of the name were glowing dimly in the darkness of the station’s long halls.
‘Upgrades Available’.
Urle scanned the code beneath the sign in more depth, getting a series of simple, informative ads on what exactly they stocked.
“Let’s go here,” he said to Kell.
The Shoggoth said nothing as they entered the store. It was dim, lit only by neon blue and red lights that dominated different sides of the store.
Cases made of translucent titanium formed the shelves, and within them each item lay in a box of darkened glass.
“They are machine parts,” Kell noted.
Urle glanced at him. “You can see them?”
With the lighting, only an aug could even have seen in and to the product beneath – which was no accident, he surmised.
“Yes.”
“Your eyes are better than they scan as,” Urle replied. “Most people wouldn’t see any details.”
“These eyes are inadequate,” Kell replied, but said nothing more.
Other Terrestrial 
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