Jessie struggled against the bonds, but there was absolutely no give to them. They didn't dig into his flesh, but nonetheless, he couldn't move his arms or legs even an inch. The head restraints kept him staring straight ahead, so he couldn't see Mary beside him, but he could hear her grunt with the effort of struggling against her own bonds, so he knew she was there.
Lars moved into his field of vision, speaking to some sort of hovering spheroid robot. He knew Lars was smart, had even called him a genius more than once, but all this...it was beyond anything he'd ever imagined his friend to be capable of. Not just because he didn't think Lars was smart enough, either. He'd never seen this coming. "Why?" he grunted out, his jaw partially immobilized by the head restraints. "Lars, we've known each other since we were kids, why are you doing this to us?"
Lars looked over at him with a calm, almost disinterested expression on his face. "I don't have to justify myself to you," he said.
"The hell you don't!" Jessie shouted. "I'm your best friend, you were going to be Best Man at my goddamned wedding, you at least owe me an explanation!"
"There'd be no point," Lars said. "That's what I mean when I say 'I don't have to justify myself to you'. You're not going to remember any of this in a few hours anyway, so why bother telling you when you won't remember having this conversation?"
"Because you want to tell us, Lars," Mary said. Mary had always been the smart one in their relationship. "I can hear it in your voice. Whatever your reasons are for doing all this, you want to tell us what they are, even if you know we'll never remember it. You want to tell us, because you want to convince us that this isn't wrong. Because if you can convince us, maybe you can convince yourself."
"It's because..." Lars sighed. "It's because I don't want to hurt either of you. You're absolutely right, Jessie. You're my best friend. I always want you to be my best friend. I'd hate for anything to come between us. And this would. I thought maybe it wouldn't, but I realized that even if you'd broken up that night, instead of getting engaged, it would still come between us." He patted Jessie on the shoulder. "It's better this way."
"Better what way?" Jessie tried to shrug off the hand, but he couldn't move enough. "What the hell are you going to do to us? What's wrong with you, Lars?"
The robot bleeped. "Deep brain scan complete. The memory extract has been downloaded to your personal files for later viewing. Verisimilitude projections holding stable at 98.97%."
Lars nodded, decisively. "Good enough. In fact, more than good enough. That's a 14.7 percent increase on natural memory. Congratulations, Unit Seven."
"Thank you, sir. Do you wish to begin?"
"Yes, I think it's about time. Let's start the process. Oh, and begin scheduling retrieval units to pick up the others. We'll need to make sure everyone's on the same page, or otherwise the whole thing is kind of pointless."
Jessie twitched as he felt a tingling sensation in the electrodes attached to his temples.
UNSPOOL.
Mary smashed the chair leg as hard as she could against the robot's silvery hull, but all that happened was that her hands stung like a bitch. The robot reached out for her, and she backed up in an effort to dodge its hands; but whipcord-thin steel tendrils extended out from each palm, wrapping around her with lightning speed. They felt cold against her naked body.
"Dammit," she heard Jessie say, and she knew he must have been taken prisoner too. The robot reeled in the slack on the tendrils, pulling her right into its waiting arms, and lifted her slightly off the ground. She couldn't even kick at it--tendrils wrapped around her calves, tying her legs together just as tightly as her arms were bound to her sides. The robot walked out of the bedroom holding her, just like its identical twin held Jessie. Incongruously, she noticed that Jessie's dick hadn't softened yet; little details like that sometimes stood out at stressful moments. "What the hell are these things?" he shouted to her.
"Some sort of robot," she said, as the machines carried them down the hall. "I don't know exactly what they are, but I know who they have to belong to." She heard the matter-of-fact tones in her own voice, and was surprised at her own calm. She'd never have thought she'd be able to handle something like this so calmly.
Sure enough, Lars was waiting for them in the living room. "I'm sorry," he said, pushing his glasses back. "But it has to be this way. You understand why, of course."
UNSPOOL.
Jessie motioned Lars over to the booth where he and Mary sat, and Lars slipped in on the other side. "Hey, Lars!" Mary said. "I suppose you're wondering why we called you out here tonight."
Lars said, "Well, I thought that--"
Jessie couldn't hold it in any longer; he thought he was going to burst from happiness. "We wanted you to be the first to know. Mary and I are getting married!"
Lars' eyes widened in surprise. "I..." He glanced back and forth between Mary and Jessie for a moment. "Congratulations!" he said at last. "That's wonderful!"
"Ain't it just, mon ami? We decided to bring you out here for a little party, just to celebrate. What with my folks being dead and all, and Mary...well, you know how she doesn't get along with her parents...you're the closest thing we have to family." He chuckled. "Our kids can call you 'Uncle Lars'!"
Lars blinked a few times, his expression unreadable. "I...don't know what to say, Jessie. That means a lot to me. Thank you."
