Chapter 32Forge.
Zeta felt happy the next morning as she bathed baby Wah in a tub of warm water with a makeshift baby bath hammock to rest the baby in to keep her head out of the water, just so blissfully happy.
Standing beside Zeta in the rusty scrap metal bathroom was the reason for her current happiness, the servitor.
The servitor was as blank faced and slightly creepy as before, just a naked female torso and neck and head with metal arms and legs, but deeper down she was sweet. The servitor might be a partially lobotomised factory tool but beneath this disturbing exterior was a real sweetheart who seemed to care deeply about Zeta without any ulterior motives.
The pair had spent half the night kissing and cuddling, no sex at all, just intimate connection in a way that was incredibly rare for Zeta. Zeta was a sex worker, literally everyone fucked her, but to just be kissed and cuddled for hours without even doing breast play was almost unheard of for Zeta's intimate life.
Most people would have woken up with regrets after a night of intimacy with a servitor, and maybe in the back of her mind Zeta had some, but she was a woman who embraced the pleasures of life. Her life was cruel, the few pleasures it gave her were cherished and savoured as a reprieve from the pain and degradation of her life. Zeta would accept these open consensual affections without guilt or regret, it was abundantly obvious that the servitor loved Zeta in her own retarded way.
Zeta reached out with a fingertip to tickle the servitor's naked side.
The blank face smiled in reflex and giggled adorably, the only time the servitor ever smiled or laughed. She had a beautiful smile, she would have been a stunning woman had she not been lobotomised.
Zeta stopped and the beautiful smile went blank and emotionless again, the smile was just a reflex action to stimuli not a true expression of emotion, the woman was still a servitor.
"Burt-tatata-tatata."
The servitor was asking Zeta why she stopped, the servitor enjoyed tickles in a way that was adorable, like a baby or very small child.
"I'm bathing Wah at the moment." Zeta explained with a smile, returning her attention to bathing their baby.
A little later Wah was out of the bath and diapered, the mother servitor held Wah to her breast and suckled the infant. Zeta briefly kissed the servitor tenderly and then decided to stop putting it off any longer, today she would finally do what she should have done days earlier.
Zeta went to her makeshift metal wardrobe and searched for her archeotech hunter's style duster jacket and matching boots with worn looking purely cosmetic items of gear and equipment added to the ensemble to complete the look. Zeta got her archeotech hunter disguise and put it on over her usual skimpy peddlitute dental floss outfit, standing in front of a crude mirror to get her look absolutely perfect.
Zeta searched for something modest to dress the clueless servitor in, finding a front opening long hooded cloak robe as well as an old gas mask that didn't work but looked outwardly functional.
Dressing the confused servitor proved to be more art than science, the servitor had never worn clothes before and she didn't like them.
"Burt-tatata-tatata-tatata" the servitor buzzed in confusion.
"Just let me put the clothes on you!"
It was a frustrating effort but finally the servitor was fully dressed including the gas mask.
Zeta got an old crude small metal hand cart and put a bunch of soft clean(ish) old rags in it as baby bedding. She then put baby Wah in it experimentally to make sure it worked before taking her out again and handing her to her mother. Zeta then put the push cart in the back of a truck and carefully secured it in place.
Zeta then got the servitor and Wah in the front of the truck, Zeta got in the driver's seat and drove away on an outing. The servitor held Wah in her sleeved arms and metal hands, looking inscrutable in her gas mask.
The little family drove for some time, Wah fell asleep from the soporific motion of the moving vehicle. Zeta carefully slowed down and stopped, monitoring local communications with her handheld passive com frequency interceptor device. The device gave a torrent of voices and text messages, Zeta very carefully listened and read to learn the location of the Skitarii and the specific menials.
Zeta didn't rush, a single mistake could doom her, she took her time until she knew exactly where every individual Skitarii soldier was and what they were doing. She then took careful note of the location of one very specific menial.
Zeta carefully drove the truck onwards again, carefully navigating the maze of tunnels to avoid the Skitarii whilst getting as close as safely possible to her target menial.
Zeta parked her truck in a deserted back tunnel and thought carefully about what she was going to say. Should she make up a grand story of fabricated events?
No… not this time, Zeta would tell the truth, with just a bit of fabrication to make the truth sound less bad… No… The truth…
Zeta sighed and got her little family out of the truck, putting Wah in the hand cart and pushing her carefully and quietly.
The air down here was nearly deafeningly loud with the periodic sound of explosions from mining explosives, the noise coming from multiple directions as different menials in different tunnels blasted ore at different rates.
Wah got upset by the noise and started to grizzle, the mother servitor went to the baby and picked her up, silencing the tears.
The little family walked through a small maze of back tunnels, Wah stopped crying and was put back in the hand cart and Zeta double checked the com frequencies to make sure it was safe.
Very cautiously they entered an active mine tunnel full of the sounds of rock being drilled by a small multitude of servitors.
They turned a bend in the tunnel and came upon an immense dig face with at least a hundred servitors drilling holes or standing around awaiting orders, with a single menial woman in a rad suit and gas mask directing the entire dig.
The menial wasn't looking in Zeta's direction and couldn't hear them over the drilling sounds. Zeta led her little family closer at a slow pace, hoping that the menial would turn around and notice them.
They were about 15 meters away when the menial turned to examine her servitors in Zeta's direction and noticed Zeta.
"Zeta!" The menial said jubilantly.
"Mummy!" Zeta said emotionally and walked faster with the hand cart.
"What is in the cart? Who's your friend?" The menial asked joyfully as they approached.
Zeta parked the hand cart and very carefully lifted out baby Wah so that her mother could see.
"Oh my cog!" Zeta's mother exclaimed.
"Meet your granddaughter Mummy." Zeta said sombrely with solemn gravity.
"Oh my cog oh my COG! I didn't know you were pregnant!" Zeta's mother exclaimed louder than the drills.
"It's not mine but I'm raising her as my own. This is the mother." Zeta said, pointing at the disguised servitor.
"Oh my goodness hello! I'm Zeta Function's mother Theta Function, what's your name?" Zeta's mother gushed excitedly.
"Burt-tatata-tatata-tatata." The servitor replied stupidly through the gas mask.
Zeta's mother flinched back in horror, the servitor had said (Subject this servitor) (state lacks) (subject name).
Zeta cringed slightly and rushed to defuse the situation.
"I found this servitor lost in a tunnel, she had just given birth to the baby a few days prior, the baby would have died if I didn't take them in. She is my adopted daughter now." Zeta quickly explained.
"That is so noble of you!" Zeta's mother exclaimed emotionally and ran forward to hug Zeta around the held baby, the sounds of sobbing audible in her gas mask.
"You good child of mine! You noble child! I raised you right! I'm so proud of you!" Zeta's mother sobbed.
Zeta blinked hot tears at these words, they struck her deep, her mother was actually PROUD of her criminal peddlitute daughter!
Zeta wiped the tears from her eyes, feeling a wonderful feeling in her heart, she kept blinking more tears.
"So tell me everything, what's the baby's name?" Zeta's mother asked happily.
"The servitor herself named the baby before I got her, brace yourself, it's pitiful." Zeta warned.
"What is the name?"
"She named the baby 'Wah' as in the noise it makes…"
"Oh my cog!"
"I didn't feel like it was my place to rename someone else's baby." Zeta explained apologetically.
"That's so pitiful and sad. The poor servitor mother knows no better of course, but that just makes it all even sadder." Zeta's mother said with deep pity and sadness.
"She did her best, she loves her baby in a way I didn't think servitors were capable of. She really is trying her best." Zeta defended.
"Who is the father do you know?" Zeta's mother asked quietly.
"I don't know his name but he raped her, he is a tech priest enginseer…"
"Oh my cog! The evil daemon! The heretek! The evil evil man! That a TECH PRIEST could do such things to a helpless servitor, despicable!" Zeta's mother ranted in righteous rage.
Zeta nodded grimly.
"You did the right thing helping them Zeta." Zeta's mother said quietly.
"Do you want to hold your granddaughter?" Zeta offered her mother, holding up Wah protectively.
"Yes yes of course." Zeta's mother said eagerly.
Zeta carefully handed over the baby to her mother Theta, who cradled the baby lovingly in her rad suited arms.
"She's absolutely adorable! Hello little one, hello." Zeta's mother gushed.
The mother servitor grew agitated seeing Wah in the arms of someone the servitor hadn't built up trust with, she gently plucked the baby from Zeta's mother's arms and walked a few meters away suspiciously.
"Oh dear. Rather protective I see." Zeta's mother said awkwardly.
"I'm the only one she trusts, you just have to spend more time with her and the baby and she will trust you." Zeta reassured.
"Could I come over to visit wherever you live? Then I can spend proper time with her and help out." Zeta's mother requested.
"I would rather you didn't come over, I would be embarrassed if you saw my home." Zeta admitted shyly.
"Don't be embarrassed, I can help you clean it up if it's messy." Zeta's mother pressed.
"It's not the mess and dirt I'm embarrassed about, it's… I work from home sometimes… I don't want you to see…" Zeta said miserably.
"Zeta Function, I know full well that you are an 'archeotech hunter' for a living and I don't think any less of you. The amount of condoms I bought for you over the years, do you really think I'm that clueless?" Zeta's mother said gently!
Zeta wailed and sobbed at these terrible words of her mother admitting she knew full well that Zeta was a sex worker!
Zeta's mother hugged Zeta tightly and hushed her weeping with reassuring noises, patting her back lovingly.
"There there Dear it's alright." Zeta's mother soothed her.
"I just wanted you to be proud of me!" Zeta sobbed.
"I am proud of you Zeta."
"How could you possibly be proud of me doing what I do for a living?" Zeta whimpered in tears.
"It's not YOUR fault that *I* engaged in illegal breeding out in the tunnels with a man who wasn't even registered as my boyfriend. I broke the law being a horny slut and you paid the price for my crime. The moment you were born you were destined to a life of crime if you even survived to adulthood. And out of all the crimes you could be doing you chose the victimless crime of prostitution, I like that a thousand times more than if you did crimes that hurt people. I'm proud of you." Zeta's mother said beautifully.
"I should have been an archeotech hunter for real." Zeta criticised herself.
"I'm glad you're not actually doing anything so frightfully dangerous. The vast majority of them never come back alive, snooping around in some lost ancient tunnels crawling with hereteks and who knows what else. There's no guarantee that you'd even find a single scrap of archeotech even if you didn't get eaten or murdered or turned into a heretek's latest blasphemous creation. I'm much more glad to have a prostitute for a daughter than some dead fool who thought they could find archeotech in some monster infested catacomb." Zeta's mother orated sincerely.
"You really mean it Mummy?"
"Of course I mean it. Let me come over and help with the baby." Zeta's mother insisted.
"At least wait until I get the place fixed up, I have to run air ducts through the entire building, I have to air seal all the walls, the place looks like a construction site." Zeta requested.
"I will help you with that stuff too." Zeta's mother insisted.
"It… It looks like a brothel…" Zeta shyly admitted.
"I guessed as much."
"Oh wait the bodies! You can't come over, I'm storing smoked servitor bodies in the home on meat hooks." Zeta suddenly remembered.
"WHAT!?!" Zeta's mother exclaimed in horror.
"It's not anything bad! We are going to starve soon unless we eat corpse starch! The Lexmechanic has cracked down on food theft so I can't get any nutrient powder, and I am rationing my meagre stored stock of remaining nutrient powder severely to make it last long enough for this baby to grow up without vitamin deficiencies!" Zeta frantically explained.
"You murdered servitors and engaged in cannibalism?!" Zeta's mother said in a quaking voice of horror.
"We need to eat to survive! Those servitors were going to starve to death anyway. They were my own servitors and I couldn't feed them anymore because of the Lexmechanic. I put them down painlessly and humanely, they didn't suffer. It was a hard decision Mummy." Zeta defended herself, feeling awful.
"Was there no other choice but killing and cannibalism?!" Zeta's mother exclaimed.
"No there wasn't any other option Mummy. Life is hard for illegal people like me." Zeta insisted.
"It wasn't your only option, you have a mother and 5 aunties to help you, you don't need to resort to murder and cannibalism!" Zeta's mother scolded.
"I couldn't do that to you and the aunties Mummy, not again. How do you think it made me feel seeing you and the aunties taking it in turns skipping meals in the hab unit so that you could feed me?! You all got so skinny and I felt so guilty! You are getting too old to starve yourself again Mummy!" Zeta exclaimed emotionally.
"Your aunties and I would rather be skinny than have our own daughter and granddaughter being reduced to cannibalism to eat!" Zeta's mother stubbornly insisted.
"You can't keep this servitor in the hab unit, she would shit all over the floor and randomly wander around the hab unit and be seen through the windows." Zeta logically pointed out.
"We could still save up nutrient powder each week by skipping a few meals and give it to you once a week to take home with you Zeta Function, honestly use your brain!" Zeta's mother scolded.
"I can't do that to you and the aunties again! You are all getting too old to starve yourselves!"
"I'm not even menopausal yet Zeta! Just how old do you think I am? I was young and silly when I got pregnant with you, I wasn't even 20 years age equivalent. I can survive missing a few meals a week long enough for you to raise that child." Zeta's mother insisted.
"You would be feeding three people not just one. You were hard pressed enough just feeding one until I moved out." Zeta reminded her mother.
"You can feed the corpse meat you already have to the servitor, it won't know the difference. We can stretch to feed you and the baby." Zeta's mother insisted.
"No, not unless we have no other option. I'm not letting you starve yourself. I won't take your food Mummy." Zeta stubbornly insisted.
Zeta's mother sighed in annoyance at this defiance.
"I'm coming over to your place at the very least to help out when I can, you won't stop me doing at least that much to help. The aunties will want to come too to see their granddaughter." Zeta's mother insisted.
"The aunties as well?" Zeta asked in dismay.
"Six women took it in turns raising you Zeta Function. I might have given birth to you but my five roommates helped raise you. Your auntie Tuple took voluntary night shift for 16 years to make sure you were never home alone when the rest of us were at work. Your auntie Arity personally made all of your clothes by hand when you were a child. They all deserve to see their grandchild not just me." Zeta's mother pressed sternly.
"I will have to make the place a lot more presentable first before I invite over the aunties." Zeta reluctantly capitulated.
"I will help you make it presentable. The moment I finish work I'm going to tell your aunties that they have a granddaughter and you are going to show them the baby. Then you are going to take me alone with you to see your home so that I know the way and can help out." Zeta's mother sternly pressed.
"I… Yes Mummy, where do you want me to meet you and them?" Zeta sighed in defeat.
"There is a tunnel where the Skitarii don't go, it's… I will draw you a map… I will come with you now and show you." Zeta's mother changed her mind several times.
Zeta's mother verbally ordered her servitors to pause their tasks and wait in standby mode until ordered to stop. Zeta's mother then led the way, Zeta gathering the mother servitor and baby Wah and the handcart to follow.
After carefully making sure no Skitarii were around, Zeta's mother led the way into a maze of abandoned tunnels, finding one random cavern with thick dust and no recent footprints. Zeta's mother then carefully marked the dusty floor with multiple X marks with her gloved finger to identify the cavern later.
"Meet me here in about five hours from now, you might have to wait for me to arrive so make sure you bring food and water and anything else you need. I will bring all your aunties. Is that understood?" Zeta's mother instructed.
"Yes Mummy we will be here. I have a truck, I will go get it and park it here to wait for you." Zeta promised.
"Good. I have to get back to work, I will see you then." Zeta's mother said, hugging Zeta tightly in goodbye and waving to baby Wah before returning to her work site.
Zeta sighed and squatted down in emotion as soon as her mother left, that had been emotionally intense.
Zeta composed herself and led the mother servitor through the maze of tunnels back to their truck. They all got in and drove back to this meeting cavern and parked inside, just sitting inside the seats with a dim cabin light on to see.
Zeta needed some comfort right now and moved to the mother servitor, pulling off her gas mask and opening up the front of her hooded robes. The servitor's beautiful pale face looked at Zeta blankly, but the servitor suddenly leaned forward and kissed Zeta's lips passionately.
Zeta returned the kiss heavily, closing her eyes and making out desperately in an emotional release, kissing hungrily with desperation.
The servitor still held baby Wah in her lap, limiting their options, Zeta just focused on kissing her. The pair sat kissing for long minutes, both hungry for each other's kisses, both equally enjoying the activity. The servitor was an excellent mimic and she had learned to copy Zeta's own kissing technique during the long hours of kissing last night, making the servitor a surprisingly excellent kisser for one who was only kissed for the first time yesterday.
The servitor's lips were soft and full, Zeta couldn't smell anything with her nostril flugs but the kisses tasted clean and sweet. Zeta sighed deeply as they kissed, sighing out her feelings.
Zeta had no intention of having sex with the servitor. Doing so would only freak the servitor out with rape trauma memories. The servitor didn't understand sex at all beyond her experience of being raped and she didn't know that it was something they might do. As far as the servitor was concerned kissing was the ultimate act of physical intimacy, she was completely innocent and Zeta wouldn't corrupt this innocence anymore than it had been corrupted already.
Zeta just kept kissing her, enjoying the feel of her mouth and the intimacy of the act. The servitor was relentless, energetically kissing Zeta without fatigue or pause, overwhelming Zeta with so much sustained kissing. Zeta kept her eyes closed and lost herself in the wonderful feeling.
Wah eventually cried, pausing the heavy kissing. The servitor fussed over their baby and suckled her as Zeta checked and changed the diaper.
The servitor assertively resumed the kissing as she suckled the freshly diapered baby Wah, Zeta passionately returned the kiss again and the pair once more got lost in their heavy kissing.
Zeta was getting wet now, she was bisexual and attracted to women as much as men, and the servitor was beautiful and passionately kissing her. Zeta got more aggressive in the kissing, licking the servitor's face and carefully began teaching the servitor to open mouth tongue kiss without biting.
The servitor learned fast by mimicry and the pair were soon passionately tongue wrestling in the truck, both of them getting sweaty and breathing hard.
Zeta wanted more, she was wet and hot and bothered, she stripped naked out of her clothes and stripped the servitor naked out of her hooded robe as well.
The baby was still suckling, complicating things. Zeta licked the servitor's shoulder erotically away from the baby, the servitor made binary noises of pleasure.
Zeta led the servitor into the back of the truck in the empty ore bin, laying out their clothes as a makeshift mattress to be intimate on. The pair of naked women laid down together, Zeta spooning the servitor from behind and nibbling on her ear to make her buzz repetitively in binary pleasure noises.
Zeta did endless amounts of extremely mild foreplay in the form of ear nibbling and neck licking to make the servitor sweat like crazy and breathe hard. The baby was still suckling so Zeta just excited the servitor relentlessly in these mild ways, making her skin shiny with the sweat of sexual arousal.
Burt-tatatata…
The servitor's binary language was clicking brokenly in blissful pleasure, she seemed to be in some sort of pleasure haze and her clicking was becoming more and more incomprehensible nonsense. The servitor was completely sexually aroused but simply didn't know how to have sex to relieve the tension, making her spaz out with drooling and nonsensical binary noises that weren't actually language related.
Zeta felt wonderful making the servitor wet and flustered for ages.
Still there was no release for the servitor, her excitement was mercilessly increased.
Baby Wah fell asleep finally and was placed down on the soft clothing for a bed. The servitor then turned and pounced on Zeta, kissing her desperately with pent up sexual aggression.
Zeta was under the servitor now, the servitor straddling her hips and leaning forward to touch fronts, kissing Zeta very aggressively. Zeta rubbed her crotch against the servitor's straddling pelvis, horny now and yearning to make love.
The servitor cried out in binary pleasure from the pleasure of this intimate rubbing and pressed into it mindlessly.
"Stop stop, I will make it better, get off me for a few seconds." Zeta said naughtily.
The servitor clicked in compliance and briefly got up. Zeta raised one leg with impressive flexibility to rest one ankle beside her head then told the servitor to straddle her again. This new position let them directly touch their clitorises together, Zeta expertly ground her clitoris into the servitor's own wet clitoris with practiced gyrations of her hips.
The servitor stopped and stood up, crying, her blank face somehow looking terribly betrayed and even violated!
"Shit! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" Zeta apologised mortified.
The servitor picked up baby Wah and was trying to leave the truck now!
"Stop!" Zeta urgently commanded.
The servitor paused, looking subtly deeply hurt. Zeta hugged her tightly and cried, feeling awful.
(Subject Zeta) (subset female) (action rape) (subject this servitor) (subset female)
"I thought you wanted me to do that!" Zeta explained in tears of regret.
(Subject this servitor) (subset female) (state did not want) (action rape)
"I won't do it again!" Zeta frantically promised.
(Assessment understood)
"Stay in the truck with me." Zeta coaxed the blank faced naked cyborg.
(Action comply)
The servitor remained in the truck and returned to the seats in the front through a hole in the back where a rear window was missing.
Zeta got dressed and followed, sitting with her.
"I'm sorry." Zeta apologised.
(Syntax error)
"I didn't mean to upset you". Zeta attempted.
(Syntax error)
Zeta just cuddled the servitor soothingly.
(Subject Zeta) (action touched) (components urinary systems) (subject this servitor)
"I was trying to give you pleasure." Zeta explained penitently.
The servitor's very subtle body language seemed to soften slightly at this information.
The servitor then turned her head and suddenly kissed Zeta passionately in apparent forgiveness!
The servitor broke the kiss.
(Subject Zeta) (subset female) (action pleasure) (subject this servitor) (exclude) (component urinary system) (period in future)
"I won't pleasure your urinary system in the future unless you ask me to." Zeta promised.
(Assessment understood)
The servitor suddenly resumed kissing Zeta passionately in complete forgiveness.
This was going to be an interesting relationship, having a sexual romantic relationship without any actual sex. Zeta could always masturbate and fuck other people, she could cope. Zeta was a sex worker and was never going to be sexually faithful no matter what sort of relationship they had.
The pair kissed hard in reconciliation, the servitor seemed to completely forgive Zeta and trust her again.
Zeta had been stupid to try fucking the servitor and was cross with herself after she had already decided not to but did it anyway, it was obvious that the servitor was frightened of vaginal sex after being raped and associated the whole thing with trauma and pain. Zeta was so upset with herself.
Zeta was a whore and had her own major issues surrounding sex. She was so used to fucking complete strangers without hesitation that she had to consciously control her sexual freeness at other times when it wasn't appropriate. She had to repeatedly remind herself that other people weren't whores like she was, but she kept forgetting this and making poor decisions that ultimately hurt her.
Zeta eventually stopped the kissing. She had smoked meat and water in the truck, she fed and watered the servitor as well as herself, then wisely toileted the naked servitor in the dust outside the truck.
A while later they were both in the truck, the servitor lying down naked on her side on the seat with her head resting in Zeta's lap, fast asleep. Baby Wah was asleep on the truck cabin floor on top of a crude bed of cleanish rags. Zeta fondly stroked the hair of her servitor lover as she lay sleeping with her head in Zeta's lap, Zeta only half awake herself.
Light dancing around the corner of a nearby tunnel interrupted Zeta's comfortable relaxation, she checked the time, it was a bit after the time her mother had set, they were running slightly late.
The light came around the corner, showing six female sized figures in the rad suits and gas masks of menials. It could only be Mummy and the aunties.
Zeta flashed the truck lights a few times in greeting and the group walked eagerly to the truck.
Zeta waved to them and shushed them with a finger to her lips.
"The baby is asleep and the mother is having a nap." Zeta said softly.
The mother servitor sat up abruptly.
"Correction the mother WAS having a nap…" Zeta amended.
Zeta climbed down from the truck and hugged her five aunties very fondly, happy to see them again.
The aunties immediately gushed over Zeta in hushed voices, lying that she looked well and deliberately overlooking Zeta's pollution ravaged face and skin.
Zeta took her aunties up into the truck cabin one by one to see the sleeping baby, they all "aw'd" at her and said that she looked cute and gorgeous and the usual stuff aunties say about newborn nieces and nephews.
"Why is she naked now?" Zeta's mother whispered, pointing at the completely naked servitor in the truck.
"She was breastfeeding the baby." Zeta made up an excuse.
Zeta's mother nodded skeptically.
The group climbed up onto the back of the truck ore bin where it was slightly cleaner and sat on the low sides of the ore bin for seats, they periodically peered in through the missing back window to look at the sleeping baby and quietly chatted to Zeta happily, asking her all sorts of questions.
"Do you have any boyfriend at the moment Zeta?" Auntie Tan asked nosily.
Zeta paused in embarrassment.
"So there is someone! Do tell your auntie." Auntie Tan pressed assertively as though Zeta's personal life was completely her business to know.
"Well I am sort of seeing a man, but he's not really my official boyfriend or anything." Zeta said carefully, deliberately not mentioning her relationship with the servitor.
"What's his name?"
"Excludant…" Zeta shyly said.
"And what does he do? Is he an archeotech hunter?" Auntie Tan pushed excitedly.
"He is not… His… Work, isn't exactly legal, are you sure you want to know?" Zeta hesitantly admitted.
"What does he do exactly?" Zeta's own mother asked disapprovingly.
"He's a member of the 'square root of negative one' gang…" Zeta quietly admitted.
"Those train robbing bandits!" Several aunties exclaimed alongside Zeta's aghast mother.
"Yes he robs trains for a living." Zeta confirmed.
"I don't want you being involved with such a hardened criminal Zeta Function!" Zeta's mother erupted.
"I'm not his girlfriend, we just… have sex occasionally…" Zeta said the last part extremely quietly.
"Well you're not anymore! I don't want you getting involved with such infamous notorious outlaws!" Zeta's mother scolded protectively.
"I need him for the baby. His gang stole a bunch of vaccines that the baby needs to be healthy. In exchange for… My occasional affections, he is going to give me a whole bunch of vaccines and things." Zeta hesitantly explained.
The aunties all murmured about this, having mixed feelings.
"I promise I'm not getting in too deep with him, it's just a little casual thing we have going, a favour for a favour." Zeta defended.
"Why can't you find a nicer man who isn't a dangerous wanted man? I know that bad boys have an appeal but you need to find a nice man with a nice job." Auntie Tan opined foolishly.
"Are you high on ketamine or something Auntie Tan? A man with a nice job?! Illegal people don't HAVE nice jobs." Zeta exclaimed incredulously.
"But aren't you an archeotech hunter yourself? That's a nice job." Auntie Tan said foolishly.
"Zeta's a prostitute…" Zeta's mother explained delicately!
Zeta hung her head and buried her face in her hands as Auntie Tan spluttered in shock.
"Honestly Tan can you just read the room a little better and pick up on the subtleties?" Zeta's mother scolded, going over to comfort Zeta by putting an arm around her.
Zeta was stressed and mortified with embarrassment, the aunties were all silent with awkward embarrassment.
"I didn't want you all to find out. That's why I pretended to be an archeotech hunter. I'm a peddlitute, it's the only thing I could find to support myself. Life out in the tunnels is incredibly hard." Zeta wretchedly admitted.
"Wait, are you the one who has been peddling that inferior iron ore that got a lot of menials in trouble?" Auntie Tuple asked suspiciously.
"Yes, though it wasn't just me. The Lexmechanic increased the shifts massively for a while recently so that most of the men were too busy for my prostitution services even when I showed up to their work. All the nat born prostitutes had to peddle iron ore to get by, either that or become virtually the sex slaves of some gang in exchange for food. Times have been really hard lately." Zeta explained uncomfortably.
The aunties all murmured at these terrible words and there was forgiveness and pity towards Zeta.
"I never wanted to hurt anyone, I just didn't want to lose everything including my own life or my freedom." Zeta justified her actions.
"Out of the options available I think you made the best choice. But I want you to stay on this best available path and not get caught up with this dangerous gangster boyfriend of yours." Zeta's mother said seriously.
"Excludant's not my boyfriend, we are just having sex…"
"I don't want you having sex with him either." Zeta's mother complained.
"I need to for the sake of the baby. And he's not as bad as you think he is, he's actually really sweet with me." Zeta gently argued.
"What does he look like?" Auntie Tan asked nosily.
"He's big, has muscles, covered in tats, wears green gang colours, but he's also kind to me and cares about the baby." Zeta explained.
"He sounds like a hardened criminal." Zeta's mother said darkly.
"I didn't ask him about what crimes he's done." Zeta quietly said.
"I want you to introduce me to him, I will ask him all the relevant questions." Zeta's mother said crossly.
"Mummy if you tried to enter a gang stronghold in your official rad suit and gas mask they would think you're a spy for the Skitarii and shoot you! To even know the location of their stronghold if you're not an illegal nat born like them is certain death. I'm only allowed to visit because I'm nat born myself and because I'm literally fucking one of them, the gang doesn't take kindly to visitors." Zeta dispelled this madness.
"They sound worse and worse with every word! I don't want you involved with one of these outlaws!" Zeta's mother crossly demanded.
"I already told you that I NEED him to get medicine for the baby. It's not like I have any other options here. I'm thinking about what's best for my DAUGHTER here!" Zeta crossly defended.
"So am I!" Zeta's mother retorted.
"I don't see anything further to discuss in this conversation topic, can we please talk about something else or I'll just leave right now." Zeta warned.
"I have a topic. Why don't you become an archeotech hunter for real?" Auntie Tan suggested foolishly.
"Because it's DANGEROUS. The deep tunnels have hereteks and all the monsters they create. Any archeotech that still exists is likely going to be deep inside the very lair of some terrible ancient heretek from the deep past of the Great Schism of Mars!" Zeta disabused this ridiculous nonsense.
"You don't know that for sure." Auntie Tan foolishly pressed.
"I know for a fact that there is a heretek living somewhere in the tunnels above us right now. His name is 'The Abuser' and he's constantly creating terrible blasphemous mechanical monsters that he sets loose in the tunnels. I have even talked to one of these monsters in a terrifying conversation that still gives me nightmares sometimes. According to the monster itself The Abuser has found some working archeotech and is hoarding it for its evil experiments. There is no WAY I'm going marching in there to try to steal treasure from the monster infested lair of some diabolical lord heretek!" Zeta exclaimed.
Mummy and the aunties all shuddered at this terrible description, looking up at the cavern ceiling nervously, imagining this monstrous terror lurking somewhere in the tunnels above them.
"What if you got some Skitarii to go with you?" Auntie Tan pressed relentlessly.
"Even an entire Skitarii Legion wouldn't have enough firepower to fight its way inside such a terrible place. This is a very silly topic to continue." Zeta said impatiently.
"I don't want Zeta doing anything so hideously dangerous either. Being a prostitute is her best and safest path sadly." Zeta's mother defended.
"What's it like… Being a prostitute?" Auntie Tan found a different topic of inappropriate insane questioning.
"It's having sex with complete strangers on a daily basis in exchange for food and money and supplies. Not that I even have customers at the moment thanks to the Lexmechanic spooking everyone. Next question?"
"But what's that like?" Auntie Tan pressed with morbid curiosity.
Zeta sighed deeply and got stressed.
"It can be really really good sometimes but also really really REALLY bad depending on the client. Sometimes it's fun, more often it's dull, sometimes it's absolutely awful. I don't want to talk about it." Zeta said bluntly.
"Is some man hurting you Zeta?" Zeta's mother asked protectively.
"They pay generously to hurt me, the pain is temporary. Men hurting me is how I could afford this truck, the sadistic men tip me well afterwards." Zeta said bluntly.
"That ends right now!" Zeta's mother snapped protectively.
"It's already stopped, I haven't had a client come over to my brothel building in weeks. I have no income at the moment, I'm living off what I've got saved up from the past. I actually wouldn't mind having one of the big tipping sadists come around right now." Zeta admitted despondently.
"No, you don't need such awful men. Men who are gentle with you are the only ones who you will be working with from now on." Zeta's mother crossly demanded.
"At the moment my clientele is exactly zero, I don't exactly have a lot of options." Zeta pointed out.
"Your boyfriend should be supporting you then." Zeta's mother changed tack.
"I thought you didn't like him?! (Also he's not my boyfriend)." Zeta called out this one eighty change in attitude.
"Well I'm trying to think of options for you!" Zeta's mother snapped.
"I wish you would just let me make my own choices without second guessing them. I have this handled, we won't starve." Zeta insisted.
Zeta's mother wasn't happy about this and fell silent.
"Ok let's change the subject to something happier. The baby's new name." Auntie Tan pushily tried to help.
"She already has a name." Zeta said quietly.
"We aren't going to call the poor thing 'Wah' for the rest of her life. She needs a real name." Auntie Tan pressed.
"Wa Function?" Auntie Arity suggested with knowing smugness.
"Is there a Wa function?" Zeta asked in confusion.
"Wa as in W A, the *Weighted Averaging* Function. It's a regression and calibration function used mostly by Genetors to predict averaged data trends of environmental variables in long term ecological surveys. It's a branch of Gaussian Logistics Regression statistical modelling mathematics." Auntie Arity said excitedly in a huge info-dump.
"How by cog do you know that off the top of your head Auntie Arity?!" Zeta said in amazement.
"I actually already looked it up on a data slate before I came here after Theta told me the name." Auntie Arity admitted with a chuckle.
"Then Wa already has a respectable name, just an obscure one." Zeta's mother sighed in relief.
"Good, because I wasn't going to change her name anyway, the servitor would hate it." Zeta said firmly.
"What about naming the servitor then?" Auntie Tan said disappointedly, obviously wanting to name something today.
"The servitor can choose her own name." Zeta said softly and coldly.
"But she would just choose something stupid like she did with the baby." Auntie Tan said insensitively.
"I'm not naming her without her consent and input in the process." Zeta said firmly.
Auntie Tan wanted to press the issue but the conversation topic was quickly changed by the other women.
Some people (like Tan) just really couldn't read the room and show the slightest subtlety and tact…
…