“Hey, check this out!” Mari set her tools down in the dirt and carefully walked over to the source of the voice - pit number 6, an uninteresting corner of the dig site, manned by a single undergrad student. Nothing was expected there except for maybe some rubble and a few low-value artifacts, so it’s a bit of a surprise to be called over. She made her way around powered-off earthmoving equipment and the ground sensor team’s trailer, to the edge of the excavation pit.

“I found a void, and I think it’s a big one.” The field worker pointed to a spot in the gridded-off excavation pit where a small hole had collapsed inward, leaving a ragged opening in the dirt about the size of a fist.

“Oh, I didn’t think…” She tapped the side of her glasses, and activated the datalink back to the survey archives. She paged through the ground survey, looking for any reference to this spot.

The field worker carefully interrupted me “Oh, I already looked up the survey a little bit ago. This didn’t show up on sonar, gravimetric, magnetic, muon, nothing. It’s very strange.”

Mari’s face went pale. “Get the hell out of there right now!” He jumped out of the hole and they quickly walked together to the edge of area six. She squinted and zoomed in as far as her glasses allowed, trying to see into the hole. The field worker asked. “Um, Ma’am, what’s up?

 “It’s got to be a stealth generator - we covered that area with everything we have. something might be down there that doesn’t want to be found. Or we got hacked, which could be worse.”

“You want me to go get the site director?”

Mari replied, “Not yet. If it was something really dangerous, it probably would have activated itself by now. Just in case, grab the disruptor. Oh, and grab a Geiger counter and a camera snake too.”

After the field worker ran and got the equipment from a nearby crate, She walked over to the hole, a bit nervous but trying not to show it. He soon returned with a duffle bag filled with the equipment. “Perfect. I’ll put the camera down the hole, you go over to the supervisor and fill him in.”

“Oh, ok!” He immediately sprinted off to fill in the team, as Mari unpacked the camera and linked it to her glasses display.

She carefully approached the hole, camera snake in one hand and the controls for it in the other. The hole seemed to angle sharply downward - it looks like he managed to catch the top edge of this mysterious void with his trowel, luckily he wasn’t directly on top of it when he broke through or this discovery might have been a bit more catastrophic. She set the snake down and the image from the front camera appeared in the right lens of her glasses as she drove it forward, into the gap in the pulverized concrete dust and soil leading downward.

About a meter in, the hole suddenly opened up much wider, and the half-buried and crushed crates and equipment inside hinted at much more to find. It looked safe enough, so she began to dig the hole wider with the nearby trowel, until it was an easy squeeze through for her - the smallest person on the team. The Geiger counter didn’t show any radiation above the normal warzone background, so she proceeded, her glasses amplifying the little bit of light inside the hole. She snapped and tossed a glowstick, casting a soft light around the wreckage.

She began to wander around inside, hitting the record button on her glasses to document the video along with starting to build a 3d map for later use. She carefully looked around for any unexploded ordnance, and the chemical sniffer attached to her belt didn’t show anything really nasty nearby.

As Mari began to narrate to herself and the video for posterity, she tried to keep her excitement to a low level. She said to herself and to the video, “This has all the markings of a command center from the Corporate Wars, and an important-looking one from the equipment.” She reached into a pocket and put on a dust mask as she documented the cracked and dusty walls lined with communications equipment and monitors, which although heavily degraded were clearly part of the machine auxiliary forces of a private contractor army.

The site director peeked his head into the hole and knocked down a bit of dust as he waved his hand around to clear it out. “Hey Mari, sounds like you found something interesting?”

“Yeah, it's not on the scan but clearly it’s important. It’s a command post from the same strata as the finds from pit 2. And it’s nearly untouched. Something must have collapsed on top of the bunker and sealed it up this whole time.”

“Oh awesome! We’ll start to stabilize the hole and widen it. I’ll pull half the crew from pit four.”

“Sounds good! I’ll keep looking around here. Oh also, could you pass me that bag next to you?” The director zipped up the duffle and passed it through the hole as she reached up to carefully grab it. “Thanks, I think there’s a door at the end of this room, and if I’m not turned around it’s probably the commander’s room.”

“Oh, definitely check that out, and make sure your video recorder is running.”

“Already on it.”

“Awesome, I’ll grab the team and we’ll get to work. I’ll be down there soon. Try not to discover everything before I get there!”

“Don’t worry, your name will already be the first one in all our research papers from this little trip…” He left the hole chuckling at her comment as he left to gather the team.

Mari walked up to a bent and jammed metal door and began to heave against it, puffs of dust and rust coming off of it as she worked. With a loud groan and a screech the aged door eventually opened, and revealed a partially demolished office.

As her amplified sight moved over the back of the office, she noticed something astonishing. Pinned to the back of the room and pierced in multiple places by chunks of rebar and wreckage was the nearly demolished body of a high-end and late-war cybernetic commander. The AIs that initially designed the machines sought to make them have a commanding presence to both humans and other cyborg units, so the chiseled features of the artificial body and face looked extremely pleasing to the eye even after hundreds of years and being buried and half destroyed, like a living marble statue from ancient Greece in a combat uniform.

“Oh wow, that’s a rare one. I wonder if we can recover the head unit and try to pull the memory? Better to grab it now, before the fresh air starts to corrode this whole place.” She climbed up close to the unit and grabbed a multi-tool from her belt. These things were built to be easy to repair due to being a combat unit, so popping the head off was a simple matter of finding the synthflesh split line, prying it up, and jamming in a screwdriver until she found the separation latch.

With a snap of the latch and a hard tug, the power and data connectors broke loose and the head popped off and into her arms, a surprisingly heavy thing to hold in her hands. She quickly put it in the duffle bag, taking care not to damage it any more than time already may have. In the corner of the room, the small stealth generator was still humming, almost silent but still disrupting nearby sensors in a small radius even after such a long time. She immediately turned it off, an artifact as rare as that and still running is worth a fortune even if it’s hopelessly out of date and unnecessary.

The team quickly returned, and the digging and scraping sounds of them enlarging and stabilizing the access hole began, right after Mari squeezed back out - pushing the duffle bag ahead of her.

She turned to the director. “You’re not gonna believe this - there’s a commander down there. I got the datacore and it’s not totally destroyed. I think there’s like three of those in the world.”

His eyes opened wide. “Oh shit, I’m glad you’re here then! Do you have it right now?”

She pointed to the bag. “Safe as I can manage - I’ll bring it to my tent and try to pull the data before it formats itself or corrodes out here from the air.” She kept walking away quickly, trying to get the unit stabilized as soon as possible.

Mari speed-walked to her tent, balancing the desire to get it connected and the data extracted against trying not to knock it around too much. She went to her private tent - a makeshift bedroom and office with all her gear on one side and her bed on the other. She set the duffle bag down on the bed, getting dust everywhere, and unzipped it. She picked up the head and moved it to the desk, thinking for a moment, and grabbing a pillow to give it something softer than a metal desk to sit on as she worked.

“They really went out of their way to make you guys look good, huh.. Too bad the rest of you got so smashed up.”

She grabbed a box from the corner of the tent and pulled out a bundle of cables and wires, looking through generations of connectors and adapters until finding the appropriate data plug to bootstrap the head unit into at least a diagnostic mode. She connected the power and data to her computer and a lab power supply, and hit capture on the laptop and powered it up.

At first, the normal base operating system console debugs scrolled by, looking only slightly damaged at first, but throwing hundreds of errors for missing components. “Yeah, sorry about all that.. You’re missing quite a bit of you.”

Once the bootloader finished up and the memory core looked more or less intact, it flashed a screen Mari, and probably nobody living today, has seen before. “Oh wow, it’s actually starting up?”

A fraction of a second later, a flash of light appeared on the computer screen and her work computer instantly crashed. “Oh shit! That’s not good.. Did it fry itself? Fuck.”

As She yanked the data plug out and examined the end of it for any burns or bad connections, She noticed her subject’s eyes twitch slightly. “Oh.. I better document this..” She reached up for the button on her glasses, when the head spoke:

“Unauthorized recordings are a violation of local security directives. This violation will be recorded and reported.”

“Um, hi?” The head looked directly at her, its piercing silver eyes seeming to take in vast amounts of data.

“You do not appear in my personnel rosters. Are you a battlefield reporter, or newly assigned?”

“Um, it’s complicated. You’re a head on my desk.”

“That explains the missing components. Is this a repair depot then? It appears to be a very improvised field service area. My memories of the past moments are incomplete. My last log is a seismic event and a cascading series of errors.”

“This might be a bit of a surprise to you - the war ended four hundred years ago. From what my team figured out, this particular battle ended pretty quickly. Someone dropped an orbital bombardment on your position, and more or less vaporized your outpost and everything within a kilometer. Is there any more information you have about your position, the mission, anything?”

He looked at her with a suspicious face, although a slightly twitchy one from centuries of idleness. “Divulging classified data is the highest level protocol violation and would result in my destruction.”

“But the war’s been over for hundreds of years!”

“I am not a declassification authority, nor do I have any valid orders from a superior allowing the release of information.”

“How about I just take you apart and perform a memory dump of your most recent memories then?”

“COMMENCING SELF DESTRUCT PROTOCOL”

“Oh come on, you and me both know you don’t have a self-destruct.”

He sighed, a slightly gritty and hoarse sound. “It was worth the attempt though.”

She smiled. “I suppose so. Everyone here at this site has pretty extensive knowledge of this time period and the various unit types stationed here, so no more funny business. You definitely have the most experience here of course, so it would literally improve all of our careers overnight if you gave us some detailed data about what happened. A single piece of information could totally change my field overnight.”

“Divulging classified data is the highest level protocol violation….” She shifted a bit and accidentally bumped the power feed wires, knocking one loose from the underside of his neck; suddenly making him go silent.

“Shit, sorry! I’ll have to apologize when I get him awake again…”

“This should be a lot better..” A few hours, and a trip to the on-site 3d printer shack later, and a custom neck-sized battery box and stand, complete with a locking connector to hold him onto it was prepped and ready on the desk. She set the robotic head on top of it, and flipped the switch on the side.

“Sorry about that - I didn’t mean to interrupt you or cut off your power feed. It should be way less of a problem now.”

He looked down, attempting to see the new addition. “I appreciate the change in perspective. This seems much more.. natural.”

“Yeah, I was getting a crick in my neck trying to look at you laying sideways. And now you’re portable, not tethered to my lab power supply any more. So, are you seeing any additional data degradation in your memory cores?”

He closed his silvery-blue eyes for a moment. “None since we last spoke. I appreciate the concern and the interest in my mission, however I am only permitted to speak of generalities until I’m granted the appropriate clearances.”

“I suppose that’s fair, however a lot has changed since the Corporate Wars. Unfortunately it ended suddenly after everyone involved went way too far - orbital bombardment and ICBMs ended it all at once, and in the worst possible way. Somehow we survived, and very quickly cooler heads prevailed.”

“I see. I apologize for the actions of my peers. Although I can’t divulge any details, I wasn’t directly involved. I was assigned here as the command unit for a combined human and android unit, hence my appearance.”

“Interesting. Our research pointed to your designers wanting to make the command units both attractive and somewhat intimidating, and other sources hinted that they took inspiration from ancient sculptures. That confirms it.” She smiled. “You just made my thesis so much better with one sentence.”

His expression became a slightly subdued combination of confused and happy. “I’m pleased that I could be of service. It’s my primary mission to serve my human overseers, and as you seem to have taken over my maintenance and care, I suppose that makes you my new master.”

“I’d like to think of us as colleagues, we don’t really do that whole ‘Humans have absolute authority’ thing anymore.”

He looked at her, with an eager and inquisitive expression. “Oh? It seems that I have much to learn.”

“How about we start with names? I’m Mari.”

“I’m CM-A-MK2-CDR-564354. My human colleagues called me Marcus.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Marcus. Let’s get that grit cleaned out of your head - you’re probably about twenty percent concrete dust by weight right now.“

A few hours later:

She took the last couple gentle swipes with a swab across Marcus’s reassembled face, and started him back up. “There we go. I cleaned out all the dust I could, some of it was damn near structural dust at this point. I was a little afraid I'd end up cleaning you to death.”

“I think you’ll find I’m built to be very durable, Miss Mari.”

“True, you did survive a war, being entombed in concrete for hundreds of years, being jump started by a barely qualified archeologist, and being pestered by my interrogation.”

“You’re not annoying at all. In fact, I find you fascinating.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Really…”

“Absolutely, You’re intensely interested in me, my existence, and my mission. And being asked some questions, as persistent as you are, is much easier than leading a combined arms battalion.”

“Leading…” Suddenly Mari nearly fell out of her chair, struck by an unexpected idea. “Oh! You said earlier that a superior would have to allow you to divulge information, right?”

“Indeed.”

“And I assume that goes through a chain of command, right?” Mari smiled a bit, with an intense and slightly mischievous look in her eyes.

“Of course.”

“So, if your superiors are destroyed, killed, or missing, you have to take command, right?”

“Right.”

She turned on a nearby screen and looked up the history of the private military company that Marcus belonged to. “Look here - the company that built you was destroyed and their assets disbursed as part of the Commonwealth Agreements of 2143. That makes you the last one in your chain of command. So you’re in charge!”

“Oh. I lack the necessary information packages to perform that duty fully.”

“Well, you might not have to lead divisions as a general, considering there’s nobody to lead. However, what you can do is declassify and talk about anything in your archives - you’re in charge, so you make the decision.”

He smiled slightly. “I see.. In that case, where do I start?”

She leaned in closely. “Wherever you want, Mister Marcus. I’m all ears.”

Across the central campus courtyard, Mari saw a familiar shape off in the distance waving and speed-walking up to her. “Oh hey Phera, what’s new?”

“Other than being busier than I’ve ever been, not a whole lot.” Phera smiled, and Mari returned the expression.

“So, what’s the plan with that ancient android head of yours?” Phera turned slightly as she walked with her friend and colleague, back to the history building of her university under the artificial sky of dome 177.

“Now that my paper’s published, we’re going on tour. I was able to get some information out of him, more than enough for the paper. Hell, maybe enough for my tenure application. I’ll probably end up becoming one of those book-writing sort of historians eventually, his war stories are pretty compelling stuff.”

“Oh really? That’s awesome! So where are you heading to?”

“New Los Angeles University, then a couple smaller colleges and museums that I have some contacts with - they are getting together some students and professors who are looking to fill in their notes.”

“Oh nice!” Her colleague opened the door to the university cafeteria. “So, have you gotten your android friend a body yet?”

“His name is Marcus, and not yet. He’s concerned about the rewriting of his brain necessary to adapt to the new body - it seems that their minds and personalities are changed a bit when they adapt to a body. He mentioned that they had massive problems trying to take damaged units and put them in aircraft or combat walkers during the war, with androids suffering personality damage and lots of other problems. Of course, he’s also concerned about an off the shelf body with all the data services and stuff like that turned on. Security stuff, a military android is understandably paranoid.”

“Oh, that does sound a bit scary. I’d imagine though that we’re a lot better at that sort of thing by now.”

“Oh, definitely. He is four hundred years old, though, so yeah - he’s a bit concerned. Maybe if someone knows a whole lot about both his generation of android and the protocol stacks on each side they could figure something out, or at least help him through the process.”

Phera looked off in the distance, deeply in thought. “Perhaps.”

The crowd of historians, students, and random visitors slowly dispersed as Mari and Marcus sat at a table in the center of the auditorium, the last questions answered and the last exchange of contact information from an interested guest completed. “Well Marcus, nicely done! That was actually a lot of fun.”

“It was! I never expected that I’d be a minor celebrity hundreds of years after being created. I enjoyed this greatly.”

She turned to him, looking down at his head attached to the power unit underneath. “I’d hug you if you had a body to hug…”

He looked up at her. “I think you'll find I’m plenty huggable even like this. Maybe slightly awkward, but aren’t awkward hugs the best kind?” He smiled at her, an affectionate look even from an android with somewhat age-limited expression capabilities.

“You’re right!” She gently wrapped her arms around him while leaning down to meet him.

“That’s a nice feeling. I didn’t expect it to be so pleasant.”

“Oh? You’ve never been hugged?”

“No. I’ve gotten praise from my human colleagues, but most people back then just treated an android like a somewhat opinionated appliance. They didn’t really think I had real thoughts, just programs and algorithms. I can’t really say just how close to human I am in terms of being truly alive - after all, that question is one of the most difficult out there.”

“Well, I think we’ve more or less solved it now. If you think you’re alive and say as much, and there are enough connections in your brain, CPU, simulated cortex, whatever to justify that opinion, then that’s good enough for us." She looked to him, his small form still in her arms. " Anyway, I probably should get us home.”

She gently lifted Marcus up, and carried him to a bag built for his unique situation. “I always hate to do this to you, it feels like you’re less a friend and more a piece of luggage.”

“It’s alright - I’m too heavy for you to carry for a long time, and I appreciate the gentle swaying as you carry me in the bag. Avoids questions in public too.”

She smiled. “You’re just too nice.” She zipped up the bag, and they made their way back home, walking to the tube station and onward to the protective dome in which their home resides.

After a quick dinner and cleanup, made fun by Marcus’s presence, Mari got ready for bed, changing into a t-shirt and short shorts. “Today was so wonderful, Marcus. I’m glad I found you.”

“And I’m glad to be found. It was jarring to say the least, being blasted into the future like I was, but you made it all worth it.”

She leaned down, getting close to Marcus as he sat on top of her desk. “Marcus, do you like me? I mean, like-like me?”

“I… think so? Not having a body for so long seems to have changed my mentality a bit, and being a combat model attraction was seen as unnecessary, but I’ve always been fairly flexible in my personality matrix. So, I suppose I do.”

She smiled and leaned in, quickly giving him an unexpected kiss. He seemed a little shocked, but quickly smiled. “Oh, you really do like-like me… I really liked that.”

“And there’s plenty more if you want it. I have some.. Ideas.”

“Oh?”

She lifted him up, and kissed him again. “There’s plenty you can do as just a head, mister Marcus…”

“Interesting.. I’m not going to be able to get your clothes off, but I’d be happy to watch you do it.”

“Well then, you’re about to get one hell of a show.”

Mari’s birthday party preparations were mostly completed in secret, her friends setting up a celebration of both the day and her new book getting published. The venue, a rented space in a nearby seaside resort, was decked out from floor to ceiling in her favorite colors and packed with her favorite food and booze. The view outside, the outer wall of the building composing the dome at the edge of the city, showed the ocean and the ongoing efforts to clean up the remnants of the last war. A slightly nostalgic and bittersweet view, but one reminding her of the history that brought Marcus and her to the same place and time.

As Mari opened up the doors, the decor and scale of the event shocked her. “Holy shit guys! This is crazy!” Mari looked around to her gathered friends, her face reflecting her immense surprise and happiness.

Phera, standing next to her, smiled and took Mari over to the possibly-slightly-overdone dinner table. “Hell yeah it is. Only the best for our new author and birthday girl!”

The rest of the crowd filtered in behind her, a mix of close friends and colleagues who all chipped in to make her party one to remember. Those who weren’t involved with the setup were just as impressed as Mari, smiles and excitement all around.

After looking around with some amount of anticipation, Mari turned to her partner in crime and the organizer of this whole thing, Phera, and asked “So, where’s Marcus? I know the two of you were planning all this, and he was supposed to be back from his maintenance appointment this morning. So what’s up?”

Phera tried to suppress a grin and act casual, but mostly failed at it. “Oh, he’s on his way - the maintenance took a little longer than expected. Nothing bad though. He should be here any minute.”

After some schmoozing and a couple stiff drinks from the bar, Mari started to get a bit worried as the cake came out on an automated cart. She looked around for any sign of someone bringing Marcus in to participate, but nobody appeared with him.

Phera saw Mari’s concern, and made a small announcement. “Hey everyone, I know that food is here, but there’s a small change of plans. We’re going to do presents first, and food right after. So if you can’t wait a few minutes, grab a snack from the bar trays, and maybe another drink. Anyway, time for presents!”

Phera reached under the cart and retrieved a small bag, setting it in front of Mari and with a huge grin on her face. So, we all decided to get you one big present…”

Mari seems excited, but still a little concerned by the absence of her friend and the source of her recent success. Phera urged her to open it up, and Mari reached inside the bag and pulled out a small envelope.

Mari opened up the envelope, which contained a single sheet of paper with a partial map of the building and an arrow pointing out and down the hall. “Umm, what’s this?”

“I think it’s wanting you to follow the arrow.. Probably should do what it says.”

Mari nearly jumped out of her seat and speed walked down the hallway, with the other guests following behind her while holding drinks and snacks, and trying to keep up. She reached the end of the arrow on her card, and found a small table with another bag. In it, another envelope sent her down the back hall of the event center, to another table. That one said to go upstairs, so she followed the directions to a rooftop balcony area. The door had a sign on it, saying “Wait for everyone to catch up (I know you outran all of them), and knock!”

Phera ran up behind Mari, and slightly out of breath, said, “Ok, wow. You’re fast. One sec.” She knocked on the door loudly, and pushed the door open.

The sudden bright light from the sunlight through the windows of the dome was blinding for a moment, and Mari initially took a couple steps out, squinting. Someone was approaching in the distance, and as Mari’s eyes adjusted in a second she screamed and ran as fast as she could towards him.

Marcus reached out, his new arms spread wide to catch the blur of Mari as she collided with his chest and wrapped him up in a huge hug. “What the fuck Marcus! You’re amazing!” She looked up at him, his restored body nearly seven feet high, an imposing hulk of artificial muscle and chiseled features wrapped in a nice suit.

He smiled and laughed, gently holding her as they embraced in the sunlight. “Phera had a secret plan, and after we spoke a few times she helped me along with all this. She’s very persuasive…”

“Yeah, she’s a great friend when she’s not being a total pain in the ass..” She grinned even wider, while nearly smothered in his chest. “Damn you look good, you big jerk. Sneaking around and getting a new and really goddamn hot body...” She grinned and teared up a bit as they continued the hug, the crowd of friends filtering in and nearly as shocked and pleased as Mari.

“I’m glad you like my new body. I was wondering if it was a bit much - I have to be a little careful of low doorways, but it’s a pretty close match to my original one. Only about four hundred years better.”

She feels his artificial muscles through the suit as they embrace. “It’s perfect. You’re perfect. I’ve dreamed of this since we first got close, so now, wow.. I feel like I’m dreaming.”

He carefully stopped hugging her and leaned down, giving her a small kiss. “It’s no dream. I’m here for you.”

“I’m fully expecting you to put away stuff that’s too high up or too heavy for me now.. You have a lot of missed chores to make up for mister Marcus..”

“I’ll pay you for all your help, with plenty of interest. We probably should get back to your party though, I’d imagine all these people are getting a little warm out here.”

Mari looked around at the crowd, tears in her eyes and a huge smile on her face. Thank you, all of you. And Phera, thanks for figuring all this out for Marcus and me - I’d bet you’re the only person in the world who could work out how to get him a new body. I don’t know how to thank you enough for this, it’s unbelievable.”

Phera replied from the crowd, “You’re my friend, so why not? No need to thank me, seeing you happy together is more than enough. Anyway, Marcus is right - it’s dinner time and these drinks are hitting pretty hard, so let’s get some dinner and cake!”

After the festivities concluded, Marcus and Mari walked back to the tube station route back home, hand in hand. “So, Miss Mari, what’s next for us?”

“Well, in the short term I want to get back home and get these awful shoes off. After that, I want to get a much better look at you now. You’re one hell of a specimen, mister Marcus.”

“I think I'll need to spend some considerable time getting used to this body. I can think of at least one way to get us acquainted with me, without even needing to leave home. Or leave our bed…”

“Oh? So is this new body of yours ‘fully equipped’?” As she looked over to Marcus, she looked down a bit - not very far down though, considering the height difference.

“Of course - I’ve been wanting to get more involved in our relationship, so I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I see. Well then, mister Marcus,” She smiled a bit. “Would you like to come home with me for a drink?”

He looked down to her with a sly grin. “Oh I’m thinking we continue our evening together at home, but we skip the drinks.

She began to walk a little faster, a fact that was noticed by Marcus - he picked up his pace too.