Vignettes from a Corporate Family

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Chapter 24 - Help Me, Maryanne!

The eager newbies filed into the Disassembly Line to see what the job entailed. The room was sterile, the main thing in the room being a table in the middle with an array of machine arms above with assorted tools.

The gentleman in charge, Laocon, motioned for them to stay away from the red zone painted around the table. "Keep your hands, feet, and everything else you value about your corpus away from the Red Zone while we're working, folks." He deadpanned, before motioning for the android to come in. She had carefully stripped herself down to total nakedness, and was pretty attractive. Presumably someone's Spousal Model, now replaced or superannuated by the owner's own death. "An older model. You'll see mainly old models in this job", Laocon continued laconically, as he motioned to the android to lie down on the table, which she did as told.

Laocon watched the happy people who had written Disassembly as their first job choice out of a handful of low-end jobs that were available. They were eager to see how little the job took to earn a Arendtcoin. In about several minutes, he expected pretty much all of them to rethink their choice. Some might even throw up. He motioned upwards at the robot arms... "That's a Human Assist Machine, tweaked for this job. it does most of the work now, you just have to keep this Dead Man's Lever primed to "On" for the few minutes it does its work." He looked at the happy group. The job seemed easy enough...

Laocon tilted his head. "We do have several rules... the machine must consent to the operation before we disassemble them. They may withdraw consent at any time up to a point during the procedure. As such, operators in this section may not wear anything that hinders hearing, and the android, must remain online... for most of the procedure."

The crew nodded their heads eagerly. waiting to see it happen.

Laocon obliged them, pushing the lever to "On" and keeping his hand on it so that the machine would keep running. The machine arms started moving around menacingly as the support they were on gradually lowered into place so they could reach the android. They did nothing for two long minutes as Laocon kept the lever held down, before something started happening. The machine arms started to slice off bits of Human Analogue Flesh, before removing screws. The android remained motionless, but there was a growing look of fear in her face... Finally, she began to scream, before an arm snipped the wires to her vocal system, rendering her mute even as she struggled.

Laocon kept watching... He heard someone throw up and run back down the staircase access to Room 1. Then another... Then another... He smiled as the barfing and running continued, even while the machine did its job, robbing the android gradually of its existence and placing major components in a tidy layout around it.

At some point, it became irreversible, as he let go of the lever and it stayed in place. The android had been reduced mostly to its endoskeleton, its eyes glowing faintly as more and more of it was ripped away and laid out. The barfing got worse behind him... more running footsteps. You HAD to be a psychopath to bear this job, he thought. No sane, ordinary man could do it.

There was a faint buzz as the HAM did its job, slowly retracting into place. Laocon calmly walked over to the table with a few bags after locking the lever into place to prevent potential accidents, though the sensors would sense biological tissue and refuse to operate if it was detected. "And after the disassembly is completed, we sort out the usable servos and sensors and components that have been rendered from the obsolete android, and pack them into various bags by type..."

The barfing had stopped. Clearly all the "easy job" idiots he had brought up for this view of his work had fled. He still continued anyway. "And they get either recycled into new parts for a new generation, or reused right away. Any questions?"

"What's the pay like?" a voice calmly rang out.

Laocon obliged. "You get five days a workweek, free therapy on a regular basis, management requirement to keep working here.... and your pension for retirement is accelerated. It takes five years instead of the normal twenty to vest if you start doing this job and only this job nonst-"

He blinked. Someone had asked a question... that meant... He turned his back to look at who had asked...

It was a middle aged man, about 30 or whatever he was if he was on rejuve, nudging his glasses... a slight chill ran over Laocon. This wasn't supposed to happen. "My my my..." he looked back as if this was normal - it wasn't - and continued tidying the components, ignoring the agonized look on the bones of the robot he had just disassembled. "nonstop. This is not a job for the weak-willed though. Even with therapy, there's a 100% chance of dying in this job before your pension is fully vested."

The young man who had stayed, his feet having shifted a bit to stay clear of the vomit on the floor next to him, continued asking calmly. "How long have you worked in this job?"

"Thirty. It really helps if you're a psychopath in this job. I take my meds, and I submit to regular security tracking and oversight, so I'm perfectly harmless out there. Honest... And I have a huge-ass pension waithing for me when I leave too! What's your name, kid?" Laocon finished collecting the parts and walked over with a carefree pacing, one foot ahead of the other, a grin on his face. "I think you're one of us..." He reached a hand out to shake his.

"Theodore. Theodore Maxim. Sir. I'm still interested in this job." The earnest middle-aged man shook Laocon's hand. "When do I get into the roster and start earning?"
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The last war between the True American Union and Europa had started well. The Megacarrier had crashed into France without warning, spilling half a million crazed young men in war gear, guns and razer fire cannons blazing. They had gotten to Geneva without major failures, and it seemed like they would make it to Brussels and silence the guns that had been pounding the Eastern front of America for years.'

Then the nukes fell. He saw what the glow could do to a man, safely ensconed mere inches from a melting soldier all too often, the flesh melting like candle wax as they begged for release from the pain before falling down. It was a good recipe for gaining PTSD, and-

Theodore woke up in a cold sweat, wiping his face as he sat in his provided domicile. The job had been a decent paying job all these four long years, but the nightmares he'd had regularly from his days fighting for the TAU kept returning, fiercer and more frightening with each time...

Theodore glanced at the calendar and carefully read the numbers... One month left. In one month the accelerated pension they had promised would fully vest and he could lead a life of luxury for the rest of his still very long life in Little Sanctuary. He got out of bed quickly and started to prep for the day.
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He arrived at the Disassembly Line on time as he always had for the past four years and change. The building was a dreary grey, with no windows and only one heavily protected door, in contrast to the airy and light structures that characterised the main Complex.

As usual, the protesters had kept going just as they had on the first day of his job, holding signs with large letters that spelt out condemnations of the work he was doing. "THIS IS ANDROID AUSCHWITZ!" "That was someone 's Son/Daughter/Wife/Hubby/Friend!" "No More Disassemblies." "This is Inhumanity Writ Large." A few Black Reset Crew members laid into the protesters with shock batons as soon as they saw Theodore approach in his undertaker's outfit, recognizing him after so long coming to work repeatedly. he walked through the crowd like Moses parting the ocean, the Black Reset Crew assigned to security for the day occasionally thumping one of the protesters a little to hard.

The inside of the building was as bright and sterile as it usually was, people calmly walking to form a line at their respective teams for Roll Call before the work started. He headed to his own, Team 7, Laocon's team, standing in place. He blinked as he noticed a gap in the formation, but focused immediately on Laocon as he addressed the seven who had shown up. "I see Vargas is out sick...."

A secretariat quickly ran to Laocon's side and whispered to him, to which he whispered back to her... "Correction, I see that Vargas is DEAD. Gentlemen, I did say this job had a 100% percent Mortality Rate the day you joined us... And poor Vargas apparently didn't get out in time. That doesn't mean the work stops, gentlemen..."

He ahemed as the remaining crew whispered fearfully and worriedly to each other. "Vargas was supposed to collect and process a special client today. But since he isn't..." He slapped Theodore on the shoulder suddenly. "it's up to you to pick up his slack. The rest of you will handle Theodore's own load. Not slack. Slack means he abandoned his duty and ran. I just asked him to do something else for us that needs doing. Are you up for this?"

Theodore nodded and awaited the details.

Laocon put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it despite the myriad "No Smoking" warnings placed throughout the facility. "That's the spirit, Here are the details." He said as he handed him a folio...
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Theodore drove his grey van to the indicated house, and got out without bothering to park it, walking to the front door. He noticed the symbol of the Goddess Of Existence hammered into the wood as he knocked... A minute later, the door opened, as a youthful and surprisingly healthy-bodied woman in a modest dress and a headgear that hid all her hair came out. "Hi. If you're looking for Father Diesel, he's not here anymore."

Theodore nodded. "Sister Maryanne, I'm afraid it's time for your appointment," He announced quietly with some delicacy.

Maryanne blinked, then nodded. "Come in, I was just finshed with final preparations and I needed to say a little farewell."

Theodore did this, then noticed that unlike most houses, this one didn't have a Telescreen. The space had been replaced with religious paraphernalia and a photo of the woman smiling and glancing at a tired old man in a preacher's outfit as they stood together.

The woman had put together a small holograph album, a personal rosary, and a hardback copy of some religious bible on the table in front of the altar. She knelt down on her knees and clasped her hands together. "Father Diesel, it has been a long time since we parted. I have finished settling the matters of the church we ran and eased our people into the embrace of others who can guide them further. The monies left have been given away to charity, and only one thing remains for me to do. I will be by your side again shortly..." She closed her eyes and quietly prayed, the sunlight streaking in through the dusty smoke from the candles.

Theodore watched the scene quietly and respectfully, as Maryanne kept praying, before she stood up slowly and collected the items she had prepared in a small satchel bag. "Some little odds and ends for my last trip, sir."

Theodore shrugged. Like all other things, they would be tossed in the bin like so much detritus. He escorted her to the door, briefly pausing as she locked the front door up like she would be back later, then eased her into the van and drove her back to the Disassembly Line.
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The house had been very far away from the Line, and even with AI doing the driving and his privileges to use the fastest routes without paying the onerous tolls that would have entailed, it was still a long drive. Theodore folded his arms and sat back, watching Maryanne in the seat next to her.

Maryanne blinked slowly, then started trying to make conversation. "So... are you religious in some way?'

Theodore grunted and shook his head. "I don't do God, M'am. God wasn't there for me when I needed him. So I stopped begging him for anything ever."

Maryanne frowned. "Tell me... more about that?"

Theodore closed his eyes, and then told her about his life before he'd come to Little Sanctuary. He had been an trooper in the True American Union's armies... even one of the half million who had boarded the bunkers beneath Drurutus' little holiday home, surprising everyone when it turned out the bunker network was actually a half-buried Megacarrier capable of making the trip across the atlantic to land at France. A crazy Hail Mary play to end the bombardments and wars the two sides had by taking it to them.

Maryanne innocently asked. "And how did that go?"

Theodore snorted. "Started out great, then went to hell three quarters of the way into Brussels. I watched men die in front of me randomly all the time, frankly, I'm surprised we won and I survived... But after that... I felt dead inside. I quit and went a-roamin', then landed at the gates of this here town. Not much in the way of qualifications so the D-Line was the one of the few places I could make a buck quickly..."

Maryanne nodded slowly. "You poor soul. such a hard life. But then, since when has a good life ever been easy..."

Theodore looked away from her. "I'm sorry, it's not stopping what's about to happen. Orders are orders."

Maryanne closed her eyes and fingered her rosary. "I wouldn't expect anything less of my request..."

Theodore blinked, and turned back to look at her... "You... requested this disassembly?" This was wrong. Androids learnt to fear the idea of ending up on the tables and becoming mere scrap. Yet here was this machine that prayed to god, literally walking to a doom that she had actually asked for.

Maryanne nodded slowly...

Theodore yelped. "But why? you could have continued living in there, doing church work. There's waivers for this sort of thing in the Programmes and and...."

Maryanne silenced Theodore with one finger. "There is a purpose for all things, and an end to all things. I have accomplished my objectives, and tidied up the last messy ends of my dear Father Diesel's works. Why would I need to stay online any longer, Theodore?"

Theodore looked down at the useless pedals of the van. "Because .... because...." He couldn't find a reason, and yet he knew there must be one.

Maryanne suddenly eased his head to look at him. "Honor me, Theo. Do your job properly as you have done for... how many years?"

Theodore frowned. "Four years. I vest next month."

Maryanne laughed. "Father Diesel was in this line of work too... Did his time before he was called by the Goddess. I, naturally came along. Married together beneath the five-angled sign in service to the Goddess of Existence. One of a myriad of tiny churches, home to a handful who needed saving."

Theodore blinked and stared...

Maryanne smiled beatifically. "May I sing you one of the hymns we used to sing in our church before we ended it?" She closed her eyes and sung... It was like liquid gold pouring into the cabin of the van, Theodore watched and listened, entranced by Maryanne as she lilted and warbled...

Finally, the song was over, and Maryanne opened her eyes.

Theodore sat there, "I... I've never heard anything like that. before. Like angels."

Maryanne nodded slowly. "A gift I'm bringing up there, really. One does not go to a housewarming without gifts." She cracked wise, giggling. Her laugh was infectious, alluring. She looked over at the front of the van and pointed at something. "Oh, that's the D-Line, isn't it? Time to get ready to meet my dear Diesel and our Goddess..."
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Theodore respectfully escorted Maryanne down the corridor. As he did, he noticed the normal wisecracking and boys' ribaldry of the D-Line fade, replaced by the quiet closed eyes of his colleagues, somehow understanding the implications of Maryanne's walk down the line and what her incoming disassembly represented potentially.

He chose his usual work room and ushered her in, locking the door behind them. "Please strip." He said matter of factly, a requirement of of the process to prevent clothing from jamming the HAM above the disassembly table.

Maryanne did as instructed, her gossamer blonde hair and bombshell figure becoming visible. Theodore looked away, blushing, as she calmly folded her clothes tidily, resting them atop her satchel for later disposal, before she prompted him... "There's a briefing before you do the deed, isn't there?"

Theodore looked back, still not used to how beautiful this woman in front of her was... "Oh yes... You understand there's a two minute safety window before the disassembly begins. At some point after that, the procedure will become irreversible. The usable remains of your corpus after the procedure is completed will be used in other units or recycled into new components for the same purpose... Are you agreeable to this? Do you understand what you are asking for?"

Maryanne smiled and nodded. "I do... How funny... I know a hymn that's about two minutes long, just the right song to sing while you do your work..."

Theodore begged somewhere deep inside not to have to hear it, but he understood the rules, the unit could do whatever they wanted on the table, and he wasn't allowed to wear anything to muffle his hearing in case the unit broke and yelled to stop the process. "Please assume the position atop the disassembly table..."

Maryanne did as she was told, looking like a naked goddess as she clasped her hands together, her hair framing her gentle visage like a halo. "I'm ready, Theodore, you may begin."

Theodore put his hand onto the lever, gripped the safety to disengage it partially, then pushed against it to start the two minute countdown to disassembly. As he did so, he heard the strains of Maryanne closing her eyes and calmly singing another hymn, one more majestic than what he had heard in the van. The acoustics of the room muffled everything that happened in it from the outside, but only amplified soft voices into loud whispers...

Theodore shut his eyes, but he couldn't shut his ears. The beauty of the woman on the table kept intruding into the darkness of his eyelids. He had had nothing to live for any more. A dead man walking since Geneva's charnel house atrocities... and yet...
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Maryanne continued singing, showing none of the fear of disassembly as the HAM above her began to get closer... closer... the arms promising total obliteration and careful arrangement into a ordered set of disconnected components that did none of what the whole had been capable of... Her voice lilted gently, as if summoning the Goddess to take the parts that weren't on the table back home to Haven...

1:55.... 1:56.... 1:57... 1:58... 1:5-

The HAM suddenly jammed just an inch or two above Maryanne and stopped working, then began to slowly retract, as an alarm sounded.

Maryanne opened her eyes and stopped singing, blinking... This wasn't part of the process, she assumed. it was supposed to be a painful parting of parts, followed by an end of all consciousness. Whatever was going on?

She sat up, her pulchritundinous body mounding and flattening against the tabletop, looking around the room.

The lever had been returned to its usual position by a failure to hold it in for long enough. And Theodore was on his knees next to the controls, crying slowly.

Maryanne got off the table and walked over slowly, her feet daintily going up the steps to stand next to Theodore. "Theo... is everything alright there?"

Theodore looked up. He was crying. "No, Mary.... I saw beauty, I heard words that drilled into me.... how can I be alright with running a disassembly on all that? how can I even think about disassembling you? I... I'm sorry, I can't do this job anymore. Just one month and everything would have been perfect...." He looked away, a slightly upset face on his mien. "But I had to run into you... and now my career with D-Line ends here. one month shy of being fully vested and retiring..."

Maryanne sat her naked frame down next to him and hugged Theodore as he started bawling and hugging him.... She closed her eyes, thinking about something, then looked at the ceiling of the room as footsteps thumped down the corridor to check on Theodore because of the alarms.... "Sorry, Diesel... I think I still have something else to do..."
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It was an awkward sight. Maryanne was still standing there naked, watching Theodore sitting on the floor next to the controls, a grizzled old man smoking in contravention of the "NO SMOKING" sign in the room standing next to him, his arms folded.

Laocon frowned. "This one is on me, Theodore. I hadn't realised your MaryAnne was a Analisse Unit... Original era.... built like siren goddesses... Terminating them takes a total psychopath. Possibly one who's even completely off their meds. Never had a successful termination of one in D-Line ever.... run the lever properly, then take a month off, you'll come back to a vested pension and then retire immediately-"

Theodore Maxim looked up, a face of refusal looking at Laocon. "I can't do this job anymore. and I can't terminate this unit."

Laocon frowned, then fished in his pocket. "Then take responsibility. Here's a one-reset pen for an Analisse unit. I keep a few just in case this sort of thing happened ever since the first time I saw a young man like you bawl in front of one with the alarm going off. I need to keep a 100% success rate here on my team... but you need her. You know what needs be done..." He paused at the register in the room, calmly raising his hand to falsify the successful disassembly of the unit and signing off on it. "Do it, and leave. don't come back. We'll start pensioning you after your month away from the roster on holiday."

Laocon left and locked the door.

Theodore stared at the pen and carefully armed it....

He felt an embrace from soft, warm flesh behind him. It was Maryanne. "Honor us.... do the job..."

He closed his eyes...
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Theodore woke up slowly... the nightmares had been gone for weeks now, and every night had been blissful. Well, not all of them... He looked at his clock and calendar, fingering the current day and the hastily scribbled note on it as his communicator sounded, announcing the arrival of his first pension payment. He quickly bounded out of bed and hit the shower as he'd always done, a creature of habit...

A soft body sidled up behind him in the shower, hugging him from behind. He blushed hard...

He had carefully applied the reset pen onto the requisite interface behind Maryanne's ear, causing her to stutter and glitch before fainting. By the time he had gotten her home, carefully wrapped in her priestess clothes, the Maryanne that had sung to him twice in beautiful tones was gone, merely prompting him as to what her role in his life was... He'd gone for the obvious thing, but he still wasn't entirely used to the role that required him to play.

Maryanne smiled, eyes half closed. "Hey, Theodore... lovely morning... lovely body too..." This machine now spoke not of some high-falutin devotion to God and a man long gone, but of only Theodore. It felt strange, hearing that gentle voice of hers praising him.

Theodore glanced back at the owner of the comely beauty pressing into him, before turning around to face her under the drizzle of the shower head. "Hey, Maryanne..." He kissed her for a bit, before letting go of her lips. "Planning on a busy day?"

Maryanne blinked and traced her finger down the tip of his nose. "I'm always planning for a busy day, Theodore Maxim... a quick breakfast, a quiet lunch, and a simple dinner, plus lots of busy busy busy in here..."

Theodore admired the curves of his new wife. He had had to quickly get in a mesh printer and get serious about learning android repairs, but that had parlayed into a new job with Reset Crew away from D-Line. It didn't pay as well, but the pension filled the gap very generously.

Theodore adored her almost as much as she did him. "would any of that involve me?" he teased.

Maryanne looked mischeviously at him, her body now chock full of mischief rather that religiousity. "But of course, dearie... take me now, for instance?"

Theodore obliged, lifting her surprisingly light heft up by her buttocks and gently sliding his cock into her vagina as he pressed her against the back wall of the shower. She let out a soft moan of pleasure as he started pumping, trying to bring her pleasure and joy, even as he suckled on her thick nipples. "You're still a gift to me, Maryanne..."

Maryanne didn't respond in any clear words, merely shivering and hugging him tightly as they stood together in the shower, her silken skin shimmering like treasure as they had fun. She wasn't perfect of course... as he finally came into her, Maryanne stuttered and glitched, eyes rolling upwards. "a-a-a-a-ah, Theo-doooooorr...." She warbled in random tones, before her head slumped, the shower water drizzling down her slightly plump face as she crashed, her thick lips parting and closing slightly.

Theodore smiled as he examined his sleeping sybarite, before using the shower to carefully wash his seed out of her vagina and patting the two of them dry, before lifting her body out of the bathroom to the bedroom. Her systems were delicate and unable to exactly cope with having an orgasm full-on, being better suited to gentle caressing and foreplay.

He carefully did the same thing he always did, carefully clicking the power switch behind her left ear to power her down for several seconds, then doing it again to turn her back on. "Hi, Theo... did you have a good sleep?" The occasional bouts of amnesia were adorable in their own way too. She WAS an ancient model, and the wear and tear on her showed in cute ways.

Theodore chuckled as he gingerly shifted her onto his lap, taking care not to put himself against her in a way that triggered her sexual programs again. "Like Coke on the Goddess' birthday.... Maryanne, did YOU have a good sleep too?"

Maryanne nodded. "Yes, honey... can we play a little now?" She asked suddenly, not questioning her lack of sleep clothing as she sat atop Theo's robed haunches. She leaned in closer. "Let me honor you, Theo... let me do the job..."

Theodore had a momentary flashblack to the last thing she'd said as a woman of the Goddess. The reset pen was supposed to have purged all of that, surely... He stayed silent, then shrugged. "Sure..." He yelped as Maryanne got down on her knees, flipping his bathrobe to expose his slowly engorging cock, her lips proceeding to fellate the shaft gently yet firmly with her eyes half-opened.

He closed his eyes and started moaning. This woman was truly a gift...