The din of the traffic noise was cut out by the alleyway, but the drizzle helped cover the light footsteps of Officer KD6-3.7. Through three soggy, steaming hoovervilles Officer K had pursued the suspect, and the chase had narrowed down to this- an urban stalking beneath one of the thick arteries of 2040 Los Angeles. It was darker than any human could naturally see. K breathed evenly, weapon ready.
A blaster shot inverted the darkness for a moment and a shot grazed K's shoulder. The alley returned to blackness. K backed against a wall, waiting for more fire. Glass breaking, furniture overturning, screaming. Footsteps, dragging. K always shot with one hand, anyway. Just the pattering of the rain now.
K rounded a corner just a woman staggered forward, a human shield in front of K's target. And K could tell she was human. She kicked and bit against the suspect LV3-87.
"Stay back, collaborating scum!" LV3 yelled from behind the woman. He pointed the blaster at K, not at the woman's head. Humans carried no bargaining value.
Another human ran out of the same domicile and called out of the first, running towards her. Two blaster shots blew it down for good. LV3 shrugged. "The first casualties of a long revolution…"
The woman trashed enough for an opening, and K fired, dropping LV3. The woman crawls to her dead lover. K steps over them, and towards LV3, until his boot heel pins LV3's head to the ground.
"Look up and to the left, please." K recites, holstering his blaster.
"Fuck you, traitor…" K increases the pressure into his heel.
A wet sound.
And blood-black nothingness began to spin.
A system of cells interlinked within
Cells interlinked within cells interlinked
Within one stem. And dreadfully distinct
Against the dark, a tall white fountain played.
Nothingness.
Nothingness.
Do you dream, or is sleep always blank? Nothingness.
Nothingness.
Do you ever feel like a copy with no original? Nothingness.
Nothingness.
When you look into your future, are you filled with dread? Nothingness.
Nothingness.
Do you feel incapable of joy? Nothingness.
Nothingness.
Then K was home again, pouring himself a drink. But this time, a Wallace Corp projector-arm loomed above the main room, retracted in the stand-by position.
K drank from a small tumbler. The contents had a smell similar to Kerosene. He leaned near a wall-mounted keypad and emptied the glass. He turned it on and the room filled with the trademark flourishes of the Wallace Corp jingle…
The projector arm swiveled to life and projected words onto the negative space in the middle of the room.
Experience Joi…
A beam of cheap color flickered into the shape of a woman. A list of traits and a menu of options beside it:
Height-
Body Type-
Face Type-
Skin Tone-
And On…
The amorphous figure stared out with black, soulless eyes. It faced K.
K didn't have a complete idea of what she should look like, so he cycled through the options at a hundred per second.
The figure, gaining shape stepped towards K, growing and shrinking in size and form within every movement. But the eyes were black. Nothingness.
K cycled through thousands of variations; including ones that do not occur in nature: legs in longer proportion to the body, impossibly small waists, pin-up breats, but what came forward was a classic beauty from 100 years ago. The projector filled in the slender curves of her neck and the flow of her hair as he decided. Almost a step in front of him, and still moving forward, she looked out with lightless eyes. He couldn't decide on the eyes.
Randomize.
It stopped.
Its lids covered the blackness, and then finally Joi blinked awake with big hazel eyes, and looked at him. K averted this direct eye contact by reflex. When she didn't move, he realized he didn't have to look away. He looked back into her face and Joi smiled at him.
She didn't look away, or curse at him, or bark an order as he was used to from humans. He held her gaze, but he had to sit.
Dreadfully distinct.
Her chest rose and fell as if she was breathing. He watched her and didn't have to look away. He could almost feel her breath on his face. He could hear it. He noticed he had stopped breathing and inhaled sharply.
"Hello. My name is Joi. What can I do for you?" K did not know the answer to this question.
She opened her legs slightly, fingers tracing stockings. "Anything you want to hear. Anything you want to see…" Joi traced her collarbone.
"Can you sit with me?"
"I can sit her all night with you…" Joi sat next to him and placed a hand on his. Was it light energy warming his hand, or an eye to hand association?
Interlinked.
K spoke without deciding what he wanted. "Ask me something." K prompted. Joi look blankly at him. "Please. Ask me something about myself."
Joi blinked. "What is your fondest memory?"
Dreadfully distinct.
Only one came to mind. "It's an implant; it's not my memory."
She giggled. "If you remember it, then it is." But K still felt strange sharing what was not his.
Joi persisted. "I will keep your secret, and you can keep me. I'll be your secret..." She turned to him, almost on top of him now. "You can own me."
So he told her. And now Officer KD6-3.7 owned two things.