Title: Non-negotiable
Story Series: Glitch
Author: Kristen Sharpe
Date: June 17, 2011
Rating: K
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: "Fullmetal Alchemist" belongs to Hiromu Arakawa, Square ENIX, Studio BONES and various other parties.
Author's Note: In 3510, with all soldiers mass-produced and genetically engineered, family man Maes Hughes is instead a brilliant computer programmer.

It was not a job Maes Hughes would have chosen. But, the government contract paid well, and it had only been meaningless code at first. Systems debugging, they said. Bits and pieces of tangled data that he was somehow meant to repair without ever seeing the full picture.

And, he did repair it because he was that skilled. That was why they came to him.

Unfortunately, it was also why they decided they had to have him.

On a permanent basis. Non-negotiable.

On the bright side, he now had the full picture.

But, it was one he had never wanted.