Chapter Text
Dr. Petrov was one of the few remaining Gestalt teachers at Hans's school - most had been replaced with Eule units, with one Star in charge of physical education. Perhaps the administration simply thought it odd for a Replika to teach Replika Studies. Today was one of the few days that Hans wasn't zoned out in class. To the contrary, he paid close attention to Petrov, and waited - because today was an important day, for him and for Arbi as well.
"Class, today we have a very special activity. You've read all about the inner workings of Replikas - now you have a chance to work with them hands-on. You will be disassembling a fully-modeled display variant of a E-U-L-R, or Eule unit. Can anyone remember what E-U-L-R stands for?"
Einfache Universal Leichte Replika. Simple universal light Replika. Hans remembered his notes. Mass produced, suited to light labor, teaching, office work and menial household tasks. Known for their gentle demeanor and social tendencies. And they always gave Hans a feeling of déja vu. He never knew why.
Dr. Petrov gestured to his assistant, one of the Eule units he'd just spoken of.
"Go fetch the model now, birdie."
The Eule looked at him and quickly nodded, before walking with hurried steps towards a door at the back of the lecture hall. She leaned down and placed her eye to the scanner. After a few seconds, the door clicked open, and she walked in. After a while, she stepped out, bearing a metal gurney. Laid upon the gurney was another Eule, presumably the display model. The model Replika was laid out ramrod-straight upon the table, perfectly still, her edietic modules staring intently at the ceiling.
"Now that we have our model, who would like to help get her opened up?" Petrov asked. Hans stared at the model Eule on the gurney. Even though sheit was just a display model, the idea of this just felt wrong. But Hans stifled these thoughts. He was well-trained in that matter. He had to do this, for Arbi.
Hans slowly raised his hand.
"Ah, our first volunteer! Come on down, my boy." Petrov called out, beckoning Hans to join him on the stage. Hans stood up and made his way down the amphitheater stairs, going to the edge of the stage and standing there.
"Would anyone else like to join Hans down here? I need at least four more of you. I'll call on people at random if you don't hurry up!"
At that, four more students quickly raised their hands. Petrov beckoned them down.
"Now, while the Eule is commonplace in the Nation, she is a rather recent invention. The first Eule Replika was made only twelve years ago. Since then, over a million have been produced across all corners of the Nation," Petrov lectured. "While she's a more recent model, she still uses fourth-generation hardware and software, as opposed to the sixth-gen construction of Kolibris, in order to simplify production."
That could complicate things. Hans looked over the model Eule intently. He examined the Replika's edietic modules - herits artificial eyes - and then snuck a glance at Dr. Petrov's Eule assistant. He hoped the components matched. It was perhaps a vain hope, but Hans had to hope. He had to hope that from this disassembly he could get the key he needed.
The four students came down to the stage, joining Hans. They surrounded the model Eule. Dr. Petrov looked at them and motioned to the lower level of the gurney.
"Tools are on the lower shelf. We'll start, by removing the largest parts of her shell: The leg plates. Use the screwdrivers. And worry not - we have spare screws, should you lose them. I know that's very tricky."
Hans knelt down and grabbed a screwdriver. He started on the front of the model Eule's upper thigh, scanning the polyethylene for screwports. He quickly found one and began removing the screw. As he worked, he couldn't help but look at the model Replika's face. It just felt wrong. This was the same mouth that lectured him on the history of Vineta and Kitezh, these were the same eyes that glared at him when he didn't pay attention, now staring up at the ceiling as Hans took the leg apart. The others worked quickly, and soon the outer plating on the front of the Replika's legs was removed. Hans retched at the sterile, overpowering smell of lubricants and cleaning agents as the students opened up the model Eule's shell.
"Ah. Taken by the smell, Hans? I get it. I remember my first time opening up a Replika. But, can you tell me what that smell's coming from?" Dr. Petrov asked, never missing an opportunity to teach.
"Well...the oxidant and temperature-regulant are all in tubes...so...it must be the lubricant or the cleaning agents, right?"
"You're right that it's one of the former two, Hans, but wrong about the oxidant. Can anyone else tell me what Hans is missing?" Petrov invited.
"Oh! I know!" One of the other students working on the model Eule, a red-haired girl with a narrow face, piped up. "The oxidant is carried in tubes, but it's pumped out into the synthetic musculature, which has blood...no, oxidant vessels, in it, that are like what we Gestalts have...so the oxidant isn't always in tubes."
Hans looked down into the open thigh of the Eule. The synthetic quadricep, grey and wiry, was slick with lubricant. Tubes of coolant snaked around it and through it.
"I...see." Hans said nervously.
"Now, I hope everyone got a good look at the internals of this Replika's legs. Notice that the biocomponents are grey - while they are flesh, and while early-gen biocomponents were the same color as Gestalt flesh, it was quickly found that working with these materials made Gestalt technicians uncomfortable. So biocomponents have been updated over the years to be more user-friendly," Petrov explained. "With the leg plating opened up, it's time now to do the arms. Same screwdrivers. Remember to keep track of the screws!"
Hans and the other students reconvened and continued opening up the model Eule, unscrewing and removing the black polyethylene plating of herits arms. Hans tried not to look at herits face as he disassembled herits shoulder. Even if sheit was a model, a model of a Replika, no less, he still couldn't in good conscience look at the face of the human[Language Violation!]Gestaltoid that he was taking apart piece by piece.
Once the plating of the model Eule's arms was off, Petrov directed his students to begin working on the Replika's torso. As they began unscrewing the stomach and chest plates, the latter coated in rubbery white silicone, Hans looked up and saw Dr. Petrov staring intently at their work. The teacher shifted his sling bag, which usually hung at his hip, to his front. Hans looked back down and focused on the disassembly. The last screw of the Eule's chest plate was undone, and Hans carefully lifted it up. The piece hinged upwards, but remained secured to the frame. Beneath it, Hans could see the grey synthetic pectorals. His face scrunched up as the smell of cleaning agents assailed his nostrils once more. Dr. Petrov spoke up once again with further instructions.
"Now, what you're seeing there, is, ahh, is the pectoralis major, just as on a Gestalt...and little else over it by way of internals. Though this Replika is feminine in, in appearance, there's little need for expressly gendered organs, as such organs are non-essential to the Eule unit's function. So, while the appearance is feminine in order...to maintain Persona stability...the internals, which ideally wouldn't..." Dr. Petrov paused briefly and took a deep breath. "...ideally wouldn't be visible to the Replika, are non-gendered. Now, you'll find these major pectorals have hinged metal frames, which swing up for access to the pectoralis minor and to the ribcage. Simply unscrew the screws between the two pectorals...and hinge them open. Carefully..."
Dr. Petrov's voice wavered slightly as he spoke. Hans stared at the exposed muscle of the model Eule. He knew the bones would be next, and then the guts. He couldn't be the one to open the body up, so he stepped back and let another student switch with him.
The students kept working. The pectorals hinged up, revealing the blue titanium ribcage. That too hinged open, and the Replika's rubber lungs and hydraulic heart were laid bare. The heart was mercifully a simple box, whirring and pumping away, hooked up to the tubes of oxidant. The lungs were grey rubber sacks also hooked up to tubes and then connected to the heart - and each one was stamped with a factory number. More muscles hinged up; more guts were shown. PVC intestines and a silicone stomach, an expiration-dated liver and a quick-change bladder. Dr. Petrov kept watching. Hans just waited, keeping his eyes down, away from the model Eule's face, the face he couldn't help but recognize as a person's.
Once the Replika's organs had been displayed, Dr. Petrov motioned to its face.
"Her synthetic skin is on a pair of faceplates, separated at the bridge of the nose. To unscrew the plates, simply look for the screwports under the chin, and atop the forehead. For the top one, you'll have to move her hair back - be careful with it, please," Petrov instructed.
Hans stared at the model Eule's face, then back down at the Replika's internals - her guts and musculature, laid bare, a perfect mess, colorless wetware, but ware that was wet all the same as it would be in the body of a Gestalt. Components - guts - sustaining a face which stared upwards, pristine, almost that of a person - until the red-haired girl took her screwdriver to the lower faceplate, and detached it, revealing the grinning jaws of a titanium skull.
"...Hans. Hans!" Hans blinked and gave his head a shake as one of the other students, a boy from the Volksjugend in his prim black-and-red uniform, called out to him. "What's the matter? Scared? You really are soft," he teased, "it's just a Replika up there. Just like Teach. C'mon, hold its hair back so I can get the top plate." Before Hans could refuse, the Volksjugend boy took him by the arm, squeezing a bit too hard, and pulled him over to the head of the gurney. He looked Hans in the eye.
"Do it." The Volksjugend boy commanded. Hans knew better than to refuse, so he reached down and grabbed the model Eule's bangs, lifting them up. The hair felt so strange in his hands. It was as if he remembered it somehow. How?
Hans was snapped out of his thoughts as the Volksjugend boy removed the top face-plate with a sharp metallic click. The piercing blue edietic modules now almost shone against the dark grey of the Replika's exposed skull. Those were the keys he was after - no. A Kolibri might hear. There was a story Hans was thinking of, yes, a daydream, nothing more. Of a knight, desperate to save the queen of the kingdom. The knight would need to find the elixir of life - but it was held in a castle, and the knight needed the key. A jewel, in the shape of an eye.
"...is everyone paying attention?" Dr. Petrov looked around the lecture hall, and once satisfied, he turned back to Hans and the other students around the gurney. "Good. Now, we're going to remove the two most important components of any Replika: The edietic modules. The eyes of the machine. Wired to the auxiliary tech-brain in the Replika's chest, these modules can draw on the data within for facial recognition, information overlay and..."
Hans listened intently as Dr. Petrov described the modules - their capabilities, limitations, and most importantly to Hans, how they were removed. With a wave of his hand, Petrov gave the students permission to remove the modules. Hans quickly stepped forward, earning a look of confusion from the Volksjugend boy, and reached out for the model Eule's left eye socket.
A twist, a pull, and the edietic module was out, the artificial eye sitting in the palm of Hans's hand. Hans looked down at it. And he thought and thought of his story, his daydream. To get the key from the wizard's tower, the knight's sleight of hand would have to be perfect.
With a precise fumble, he let the edietic module fall at his feet. He then fell to his knees and snatched it up in one fist, while reaching and pawing about on the floor with his other hand as though the module had rolled away.
"Oh, no, no no no," Hans lamented quietly.
"What's wrong?" Dr. Petrov asked.
"I, uhh, dropped the edietic module. I lost it..." Hans lied, as he slipped the module into one of the pouches on his belt. He hoped his look of fear at being caught could pass as a look of embarassment at his feigned mistake. The other students stared at him as he crawled about on his hands and knees, looking around for something that wasn't there.
"Ugh. I can't find it, it must've...rolled through a grate or something..." Hans lied again as he stood up and dusted himself off.
"That module's very valuable," Dr. Petrov sighed, "but nowhere near as valuable as learning. Looking for it can wait until after class. Let's continue now, class. With this fine piece of engineering fully opened up, we can now look at all her parts. Some of them you may recognize from your textbook."
As Petrov spoke, Hans tried to stay calm. It seemed like he'd actually pulled it off - the knight, that is. The knight of his daydreamed story had managed to steal the keys to the castle from the wizard's tower. That was all. It wasn't real. All that had happened to the edietic module was an accident.
But come the end of the lecture, Dr. Petrov went to his desk and spoke quietly into an intercom. He then addressed the class.
"Now, class, my assistants and I have searched the whole of the stage for the edietic module that Hans lost, and found nothing. So, as a precaution - just a precaution, nothing more - I've called over a Protektor to search each one of you for the module. None of you are in trouble; the module could very well have...how did you put it, Hans? Rolled through a grate? But we must remain vigilant." At that, Dr. Petrov looked to the section of the lecture hall mostly occupied by Volksjugend students. "The potential theft of National property, of a special technology no less, is nothing to be taken lightly," he warned, "so sit tight. I'll unlock the doors when the Protektor unit arrives."
The class sat in silence, waiting for the Protektor. After a while, there was a click, and the door slid open. Standing there was a Storch unit, standing frighteningly tall on long white legs, her stark white armor plate a sharp contrast to her dark shell plating and red webbing straps. Her dark hair framed an unamused face.
"Form a line," the security Replika ordered, and the students quickly obeyed. Hans looked down. She was going to find it, unless...
In one swift motion, Hans grabbed the module from his belt, put it in his mouth, and pretended to chew as if he'd just eaten a snack saved from the mess hall. He feigned swallowing, and then fell into line with the other students.
He stood in line. With each call of "next" from the Storch, his heart beat faster. He looked down as the line moved forward.
"Next."
Forward once more.
"Next-Oi! Have you gone deaf, boy?"
"Hmm?" Hans looked up and saw that he was at the front of the line. He quickly bowed his head before stepping in front of her and raising his arms. The Storch knelt down and checked him over, patting him down quickly. Hans tried not to shake. All she'd have to do was ask him a question that wasn't yes or no and he was done.
"Next."
Hans looked up at her.
"You heard me. Move along, boy."
Hans didn't hesitate. He exited quickly and hurried to a bathroom - one of the few places without cameras. He ducked into a stall and spat out the edietic module, looking at it as it sat in his hand, staring back up at him, dull and greyed.
He'd done it.