A New Machine by AstroGirl (R)

[aralias.livejournal.com]

Fandom: BLAKE'S 7
Pairing: Avon/Orac, Blake/Avon is implied but is very secondary to the concerns of the story
Length: 10,273 words
Author on LJ: astrogirl2
Author Website: on AO3, on Hermit (under the names AstroGirl, Betty Ragan, Belatrix Carter)
Why this must be read: In my very first rec, I said that Avon was at least half of all the most popular ships in Blake's 7. This fic (written in 2005, and posted first on LJ!) is not the only reason why I said that, but it does fit the pattern. In brief - the plot is that Orac's consciousness is placed into a human body that is a clone of Avon.

One of the things that's particularly interesting about Avon/Orac as a ship and the way Astrogirl portrays it in this fic is that it's not crackalacken. Avon is accused of being a machine by Vila and would probably quite like not to have to deal with his numerous emotional problems - and Avon and Orac do have a close relationship (of sorts), and Orac does canonically express his/its love for Avon - admittedly due to some sexpollen sand in series 4.

So - you might expect a crack fic between the sexy, leather-clad antihero of our series and his computer, but what you actually get is some reasonably hard-skiffy ideas about what it's like to be a computer and particularly this computer, which is acknowledged to be a member of the crew by most of the crew. And what it would be like to be a human if you've only before been a box that observed humans. It's very funny, very clever, very sad and... really disturbing. The ending creeps me out wonderfully.

Astrogirl has written some truly stunning things across various fandoms - this is one of my absolute favourites, although since I'm here I'll also thoroughly second the recs for The Zombie Master and Bargaining Stage.

Excerpt:

Why would these organisms -- human and alien alike, it seemed -- never speak clearly and directly? "I require a more coherent explanation. What is it that has been done to me?"

"You were damaged…" the alien began.

"Yes! Yes! I am aware of that!" he snapped, frustrated, as always, at the painful slowness of verbal communication, willing the creature to simply get to the point.

"Well, it certainly sounds like Orac." Avon shouldered past the alien before it could speak again, coming towards Orac until he blocked most of his field of vision. He stood there looking at Orac for a moment, then reached down and touched... Touched Orac's...

The input made no sense. It was very much like the meaningless pseudo-sensations that he had earlier dismissed as random noise, caused by the malfunctions in his sensory apparatus. But this… This was not noise. This was genuine sensory feedback, perfectly coordinated with what he could see of Avon's movements. This was information. This was, presumably, what it was like to have a sense of touch.

And, in a moment, Avon's hand rose until it again entered Orac's field of vision… holding a human hand.

Orac's thoughts were moving slowly, sluggishly, his intellectual capacity far, far below what he considered nominal. And yet, he had not been robbed entirely of the capacity for deductive reasoning. He considered again what the alien had said. "Biological substrate." It all made a horrifying sort of sense.

He made a tiny moaning sound, quite involuntarily.

Link: A New Machine