New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

A looming shadow approached, and Urle saw that the figure was over a full head taller than he was, and even more augmented.  Urle had to crane his neck to look the man in the face.

“What name ya?” the man asked.

Unlike many augs, Urle had never taken on a new name.  “I’m Zach.”

The man clearly judged him for that, but Urle found it childish.  “Madspark,” he said as his own introduction.  “What you search here for?”  His voice came from not just organic vocal chords, but two synthetic voice boxes, one tinny and metallic, the other so deep that it seemed to vibrate the floor.

An odd choice, Urle thought, but effective.  With his size and the strange voice, Urle doubted that anyone messed with him or his business.

“Looking for the bleeding edge,” he said.  “You carry that?”

“Aye,” the man grumbled.  “Take a look.”  His one real eye looked beyond Urle, at Kell.  “Your friend a baby?”

Among augs, anyone without upgrades was little more than the flesh they’d been born into – a baby.

Urle took a moment to decide how to respond.  He couldn’t pass Kell off as a realskin, hiding his augments.  Madspark surely had scanners that would see through that.

“No,” he decided to say, reckoning the man could not tell if Kell was entirely bare of augments.  “But he’s pretty bare.  I trust him, though, yeah?”

Madspark considered that, glowering, but then nodded.  “Trust like.  Don’t let me go find out you been tellin tales.  Just have sure no touching, yeh?”

Urle nodded, and turned to Kell.

“Man doesn’t trust unmodded people,” he told the Shoggoth.  “Try not to touch anything.”

Kell was looking over at Madspark, but at least his face was calm.  “I have no interest in touching them.”

Urle took that as compliance enough, and started to browse.

He’d been right to pick this place, just from what he was seeing on the shelves.  Many of the pieces were one of a kind, at the absolute forefront of cybernetic tech.

Most of it was for humans, some able to multi-species, and some for the other major species – Dessei, Sepht or Qlerning.  Somewhere on another station, he knew, there would be communities of augs of those species, who would surely have stores catering mostly to their own kind’s specific cybernetics, but here they were really just a curiosity.

“What is a Glef?” Kell asked, peering at a sign for a piece.

“Ah, to be honest – I’m not sure,” Urle said.  “That may be an alternate name for Latarren, a species outside the Sapient Union.  We don’t have a lot of contact with them.”

“Then why is a piece of one here?”

“It’s just tech,” Urle said.  “I guess occasionally one might come through.  We had conflict with them decades ago, but we really didn’t see them much.  They cover themselves completely for cultural reasons.”

Kell did not reply, which Urle was frankly used to.  He browsed on.

He considered an eye piece that could give him an even broader range of vision, but without the appropriate brain implants to help, it was not nearly as good.  And he wasn’t even sure it would interface with his current ports.

Getting those redone would be a much bigger deal, but not out of the question.

He moved on, looking at external scanners more sensitive than his current set – though only barely – but also more compact.

The Sapient Union did not lag in this tech but they did insist on thorough testing before approving pieces for common usage.  It was wise, really, as people would expect things on the market to be trustworthy, while experimental tech could be finicky.

He felt confident that he could check these parts himself.  But for many of them he was really going to need that new socket . . .

He moved towards the proprietor.  “I want piece 472,” he said.

The man glanced at him.  “Not with that port.”

“You do hands-on, yeah?  Not afraid of the wet?”

“Not afraid,” Madspark said.  “Get wet often.  Got suite that chop real clean, no one feel thing.”

“Good.  I’ll get a port upgrade, too,” Urle said.

Madspark considered.  Then; “40k.”

The price was high, even for top-end work like this.

“30k,” Urle countered.

He hated haggling – he’d rather things just be priced reasonably, but he knew he had to play the game at least a little.

“37,” the proprietor replied.

“All right,” Urle said.  He’d given up too easily, but it wasn’t the worst price.

“I prep the suite,” Madspark said, his voice still with that odd combination of rumbling and tinny.  “You wait.”

He left, and Urle continued to glance through the shelves.  He’d already looked at every item on them, but he derived some pleasure just looking at the pieces.

“You replace your flesh with machine willingly,” Kell stated.

“Had you not noticed before?” Urle asked seriously.

“Of course I had.  And while I had seen others like yourself, I assumed they were replacement for defective or damaged anatomy rather than a conscious choice.”

“Some of us want to be more,” Urle said.  “Our biology can only take us so far.”

“I see,” Kell said, looking at a device intently.  Urle realized that, while it was not a particularly cutting-edge piece, the connective mesh to attach it to a body was uniquely fluid, able to move even with a body as it flexed and contorted.

Kell, he surmised, had grasped the significance of it in relation to his own biology.  Urle felt a tingle go down his spine for some reason.

“Are you considering an upgrade?” he asked Kell, feigning simple curiosity when he was burning with deeper questions.

“No,” Kell said.  “But they are a curiosity.”  He looked up to Urle.  “In what way did you feel inadequate?”

Urle was caught off-guard.  “Ah, well . . . I wasn’t, really.  Not by the normal standards.  I got interested in weight lifting when I was young, but I also wanted to be a runner.  I tried to strike a balance, and became good at both.  Other sports as well, but those were my main ones.”

He paused.  “But I never liked that people who focused on one or the other exclusively could be better.  I tried, for a long time, to overcome it by just working that much harder, but . . .”  He shrugged.  “Like I said, biology has limits.”

“Yours, at least,” Kell replied.  “But I believe I understand.”

“Are you suggesting your biology doesn’t have limitations?” Urle asked, his curiosity burning harder.

“Have you not wondered why we never developed technology?” Kell asked in return.  “We never needed it.”

“But you can’t go to space,” Urle said.  “You needed us for that.”

Kell said nothing, only looking into the case again.  Urle realized what he said might be construed as insulting, and continued.

“Not that your people aren’t incredible.  I feel honored that I’m getting to know a Shoggoth better.”

Kell looked up sharply, surprise on his face for a moment before disappearing.  “You feel you are getting to know a Shoggoth?”

“Yes, of course.  Am I wrong in that?”

“You are getting to know me,” Kell replied.

Urle noted the particular way he said it, but wasn’t sure what to make of it.  “Well, as I said, I’m honored – but I do sometimes wonder why you seem to like me.”

“You are more human than some,” Kell replied.

Urle laughed.  “Sorry, that’s . . . well, it’s in the eye of the beholder, I suppose, but most people wouldn’t say that about an augson like myself.”

The door at the back swished open, and he heard Madspark call.

“Zach, ready for chop and replace.”

He turned and moved towards him.  “Kell, you can wait here if you like – or go out, this might be awhile.”

But Kell was already following him.  “I will stay,” he said.

---

< Ep 7 Part 15 | Ep 7 Part 17 >