Title: Orientation
Series Title: Mass Effect/ Eclipse Phase (MEEP)
Author: curiousyellow
COPYLEFT:
I don't own any IP involved in this work of fiction. Everything here should qualify as a parody. If you don't get the joke, then you're probably a lawyer. It is very dry humor. Also, I disavow the legitimacy of IP as a legitimate form of property. Do with this as you like. For more information, please read "Against Intellectual Monopoly" available for free at: (CENSORED BY SITE?).
METADATA:
This is a piece of fiction derived from the Eclipse Phase game I used to run. It's core theme: "What would happen if Transhumans from Eclipse Phase had their First Contact with the Space Opera Mass Effect setting during the Relay 314 Incident?" Continuity ends pretty much immediately, but people seem to think it's interesting anyway. If you hate this genre or kittens, you should leave immediately and go reread your Spock/Voldemort slash fics you love so much.
Eclipse Phase is amazing, check out their website: (CENSORED BY SITE?)
It is also CC-licensed, so PDF redistribution is permitted. Go google "eclipse phase pdf" and you can get a legal free copy for yourself.
[Please note that the Transhuman Underground is the proper name for the
organization, not the Transhuman Network. I'll go and correct that
later in the previous chapters, but wanted to point it out here
anyway. Editing mistake on my part.]
After being shot at for the first time in her life, Rotu found it hard
to pay attention to silly little details of her ride in the truck,
like where she was going and the names of most of the people in the
truck. Two things were pretty clear. First, the asari maiden who
talked a lot was named Metsani, and second, that Metsani and everyone
else in the truck were with the Transhuman Underground.
By the time that she had absorbed those two facts, Rotu found herself
standing in a rather nondescript hallway in a low-rent apartment
complex staring at tips of the blue head-crests at the back of
Metsani's head while Metsani cursed at the door in front of them.
"Usually the passcode for this door is 8724, but I think that they
changed it back to the old code..." Metsani said, biting her lip. "It
damn well wasn't 7787 or 8339... Anyway Rotu, we're going to be using
the safehouse tonight, if I can remember the damn code." She shuffled
through a small bag on her hip, pulling out small pieces of paper. "We normally
don't use this place for anything but storage, but sometimes you need
somewhere to lay low for a while, when we're trying to avoid attracting
attention. Especially after today... Aha! Got it!" The door slid open
with a slight groan of disuse. "After today I've got the feeling that
things are just going to get weirder for you. Come on in, we've got
this place all to ourselves until they bring a new truck around
tomorrow night."
For being a cheap apartment, Rotu found it to be rather more spacious
that she had expected. Compared to her dormitory at university, this
place was nice. It had a large central living-room with a couch facing
a vid screen, a small kitchenette, and two bedrooms on opposite sides
of the living room. As she walked in, she could see Metsani walking
over and staring into the fridge. Her face wasn't visible to Rotu, but
the annoyance came off of Metsani in waves as she slammed the fridge door
shut. Metsani walked from cupboard to cupboard, similarly slamming
them.
"Look at that, empty!" Metsani said still facing away from Rotu. She
turned, "You'd think that at least one person besides me would
remember to keep this place stocked with food. I can count five other
people off the top of my head that have been in here, but apparently
none of them eat food. Wait... one of them doesn't eat food... Still
you'd think that one of them would remember to restock before they
left."
Metsani stuck a finger out at Rotu, "You need to eat."
Still feeling a bit detached, Rotu dismissed her, "That's alright, I'm
not really hungry."
"Nonsense, after everything that just happened to you, you need to
eat. I remember what it was like when I first got shot at, and so I'm
going to feed you."
"No, really I'm not hungry. I'm just tired."
"If you're anything like me, you're probably still in shock."
Rotu shook her head.
"What do you mean 'no'? You still haven't taken your shoes off or put
your bag down."
It occurred to Rotu that she was still standing near the couch rather
than actually sitting on it, as she had originally planned to do.
Rather acutely aware of herself, she moved to sit and remove her
shoes.
"Look, if I'm going to feed you, I need to go down to the market. Why
don't you relax for a few minutes. I'll put a vid up for you to watch
while you wait." Metsani grabbed a remote control from the arm of the
couch, and punched a couple keys. The vid screen turned on, showed a
black screen with some credits frozen on it, and then turned back off.
"Alright, if you get bored, just hit this button," she set the remote
back on the couch arm. "And the vid will play. Its one of the older
educational videos from the Transhuman Embassy, probably from a couple
years after the Citadel disappeared. Watch it if you like, it should
help you understand what kind of people you're dealing with."
With that, Metsani left to go restock. Rotu found herself alone for
what seemed like years. The room was quiet and the couch comfortable
enough, given how tired she suddenly felt. The vid could wait... Her
head slowly lulled forward, her chin dropping as mental and physical
exhaustion she had been ignoring caught up with her.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Rotu felt the sun on her face as she looked out at the tall
skyscrapers that made up the Nos Astra skyline. A new one had joined
the ranks of tall spires: it was bigger than the rest, and solidly
rectangular compared to the skyline it dwarfed. It had no windows and
gaudy decorations, with 'Tupari' scrawled across its face in colossal
red letters. On the right hand side, several smaller 'Tupari' adds all
lead up to a gray box with 'Please insert 10 credits' displayed in it.
She blinked, and the gray box changed. In a language she did not
recognize, a different message appeared: 'RUNRUNRUN'. Though it felt
familiar, she couldn't fathom what it meant. Suddenly she heard a
mechanical click behind her. She turned quickly on her heel, only to
see the barrel of a gun. It was pointed at her eye so she could see
the rifling of the barrel. She heard another mechanical click, and
knew the unseen hands holding the gun were tightening their grip. And then...
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Rotu woke up with a desperate gulp of air, and her heart jumping from
her chest.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
She dropped to the floor.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The pain of slamming herself into the ground in anticipation of
getting shot reminded her that she was awake.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It didn't sound like gun fire, being too metallic of a sound.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
And, it was coming from the front door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
What the hell?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
She walked over to the door, and hit the open button. Too late to take
the action back, she realized that there could have been men with guns, thieves,
murders, rapists, or any number of horrible things in this
neighborhood. Instead of any of those things, she found herself
staring at the tall quadrupedal robot that had earlier gunned down
several salarians on the balcony. It appeared to be attempting to
knock on the door.
Rotu stood in the middle of the doorway, staring dumbly at it. It
perhaps stared back, she couldn't tell. She looked at what she guessed
would be the place that a head should have gone, but couldn't see a
camera. Several long moments passed with the two of them staring at
one another, until Rotu felt she should do something. She didn't know
exactly what, but something. Lacking a proper place to start, she
stepped out of the way of the door. She would have continued to think
of something in her background or upbringing that prepared her for how
to greet a robot when it knocks on your door, but she was interrupted.
After she moved out of the door, the robot slowly began to move again.
It limped into the room on three legs, with the fourth thrashing
freely as it walked. The damaged leg was attached with just a few bits
of plastic and metal, having been shot out earlier in the gunfight.
Though her thought process was interrupted, she was glad to see that
she had inadvertently figured out the right thing to do. For its part,
the robot limped slowly across the living-room, and entered a side bedroom.
Rotu shut the door again, and followed it to the room. She saw it
plugging itself into a wall outlet, after which it sat down. After
long enough had passed to be sure that it wasn't going to move, Rotu
returned to the couch. She sat down heavily. Strange wasn't a strong
enough word for how her day was going. Fucking weird may be better.
Guns and robots and aliens...
She felt out of her element. She just didn't know what to make of
these things without some context to go on. Intellectually, she knew
that she had to start asking questions, or else she was really going
to wind up either freaking or in a deep depression. As the woman from
earlier had said, she needed to know what kind of people she was
dealing with. Picking up the remote, she hit the power button.
On the wall to the center of the main room, a very normal looking
vid-screen began to play a vid Rotu had never seen before. It opened
with a nondescript angular logo blinking quickly across the middle of
the screen, followed by a strange and unrealistically stylized animation
of a blue and green planet spinning in the center of a starscape. She
did not recognize the planet, but that didn't mean much given how many
there were in the galaxy. After a moment, the perspective shifted to
show a distant star shining down on a animated face covering an entire
hemisphere of the planet's surface. It smiled and winked at the
audience.
"Welcome to the Alliance Embassy! Please take some time while you are
waiting to listen to this educational message." it said, bobbing
gently against the unmoving stars. "Many people have been saying many
things about Transhumans, but its so hard to find accurate
information. I'm here to explain many of the basic facts about
Transhumanity in general, and the Autonomists Alliance specifically."
"To begin with, Transhumanity are not just a single species of sapient
life, but rather a community of sapients and sophonts both biological
and artificial. We contain several dozens of species from several
worlds, all united in their sapience and post-physical natures." As it
said this, dozens of animated characters scrolled quickly by the
talking globe. They showed a range of species and bodies from clearly
asari-like bipeds, to more exotically shaped creatures resembling
sea-life or plants, to things which looked so robotic that she might
not have realized they were actually anything beyond VI's.
"To be Transhuman is to understand that a person is not the body that
they live in, they are a self-directed ego capable of independent
existence from their body. While it is true that the software that
makes up an ego requires some computational substrate to host it,
there is nothing keeping a single person from wearing several
different bodies in their life time. An appropriate analogy might be
that the bodies can be taken on and off like clothing. This feature
unites the multiplicity of peoples as being distinctly Transhuman."
"As a consequence of egos being software, a person may be backed up,
uploaded, copied, forked, broadcast, and downloaded just like other
software entities. A common application of this is the use of cortical
stacks to continuously back up a person. Their ego and memories up
to their death are retained, so that when a new body is available that
person may resume living where they left off. This functional
immortality has granted Transhumanity the freedom to explore places
and ideas that may otherwise be too risky or dangerous to pursue, as
well as preserving individuals against untimely death."
"While many other peoples of the galaxy may be advanced in their own
ways: culturally, technologically, scientifically, etc. We have yet to
encounter many others which share our post-physicality with us. Since
this is the case, we have taken it upon ourselves to offer to share
the gift of ego with others, bringing them memetically into the fold of
Transhumanity." The smiling globe held out its arms in welcome, "These
ideas we freely share with the galaxy; take them and make them your
own so that you might live post-physically in your own ways, perhaps
conquering death as we do."
"Now that the basic nature of Transhumanity has been explained, allow
me to explain the Autonomists Alliance, in whose embassy you are
standing. We are your neighbors, but we are neither your slaves,
rulers, nor priests. We are a mutual defense pact shared among diverse
individuals with a small core of common memes respecting the rights of
individuals throughout the galaxy. The key expression of this is in
our 'Points of Unity' [AUTHOR CC NOTICE: this is from the Rimward
book, I do not own it]:
1) We demand autonomy, self-organization, and self-governance for all
sapient beings.
2) We support direct democracy and forms of organization where
sapients collectively decide their own future.
3) We promote mutual aid and reciprocating altruism between sapients.
4) We affirm the right to engage in self-defense against oppression
and coercive authority and stand in solidarity with sapients so
attacked."
"Right now, you stand in the Alliance Embassy, where Ambassador Surt
has been authorized to act as a proxy negotiator and consultant
regarding the Alliance and its works. Our Ambassadors decisions are
nonbinding on any individuals within the Alliance, but only in ways
that are clearly demarcated in any contracts issued by the Embassy. We
have made arrangements for Illium to facilitate special legal
dispensation allowing the Alliance to keep to its own legal system on
Illium, outside of contract enforcement, which is cooperatively
enforced using an arbitration system."
The talking globe pulls a paper and reading glasses from behind its
back, and looks at the paper after putting on the glasses. "Based on
the frequency of many information requests, we have compiled a list of
common questions and their answers:"
"1) Where are you from? Transhumanity originates on the planet Earth
in the system Sol." It gestured at itself and the star behind it, "If
you look closely, I depict a talking Earth and the star behind me is
Sol. We cannot be more specific about its location until the treaty
negotiations ending hostilities with Council races can be completed."
"2) Can I visit Earth? No, unfortunately the Alliance cannot support
any travel to Earth for non-Transhumans. Both the trip there and the
planet itself are too dangerous for the unprepared. Those who will not
be so easily dissuaded may discuss your options with Ambassador Surt."
"3) Do you have Faster-Than-Light travel? Yes, but not the kind you
do. Until our encounter with the Turians at Relay 314, we had never
used the Mass Effect Relay system, nor had we encountered EEZO and
Mass Effect fields. These are all exciting new developments that we
hope to explore with the cooperation of the wider galaxy."
"4) Do you really use Artificial Intelligences? Yes, we really do. As
well as being a ubiquitous technology, those which are fully sapient
(which we normally call Artificial General Intelligences to
distinguish them from their non sapient cousins)
qualify as full persons within the Alliance, with all of the rights
that entails. Ambassador Surt is himself an AGI who chose to explore
the galaxy, and whose political acumen got him acknowledged as both
Ambassador and the Embassy you are standing in. Being a software
personage, several forks of him staff the Embassy as well. Visitors
are encouraged to discuss the details of this with Surt himself."
"5) Is it true that your people will not stop researching potentially
dangerous technology? Yes, this was indeed a sticking point with the
now-missing Council. We feel that information is itself a neutral
thing, and it is the person who uses it that makes it either dangerous
or useful. For example, being able to catalyze fusion is both a great
boon to energy production, as well as potentially dangerous if
weaponized. Fusion itself is neutral, as are all research artifacts."
"6) Can I become immortal too? Almost certainly yes. Please consult an
expert in Transhuman medicine. Please note that neither Surt nor any
Alliance Ambassador have any control over the availability or
effectiveness of treatments or medicines."
"7) Did you think you were alone in the universe before meeting the
Turians? No."
After coming to the end of its list, it took off its glasses, and
smiled again. Its mouth opened to say something, but the vid
abruptly cut to a man sitting in a desk wearing a old-fashioned suit
and tie. On the desk, a clearly visible nameplate identified him as
Ambassador Surt. He spoke plainly to the camera, with sunlight coming
in from a window on his right.
"...We have met and we have fought, but the only way
forward that is productive in the long term is mutual respect and
peace. Transhumanity may be the bearers of change to the Galactic
community, but change need not be a bad thing. Fear of us is
not needed, and if what those who speak ill of us say is true, then
we are but fellow travelers who will quickly be forgotten as our
roads diverge. For the rest of you, we are happy to have company on
our journey. Thank you for your time and attention. I am Ambassador
Surt of the Autonomists' Alliance. Goodbye and good luck."
The vid ended, and Rotu was left sitting there more confused than she
had been when she had first sat down. Could that obvious propaganda
vid be telling the truth? What would a bunch of immortal aliens want
with her? As a first year engineering student at college with a couple
hundred credits to her name, she was hardly a catch worth fighting
over. In any case, she made a mental note to ask about some of the
stranger parts of that vid when Metsani returned.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
When Metsani arrived back at the safehouse, she found her guest
watching one of the local news broadcasts, showing a familiar building
with smoke coming from several floors. Rotu welcomed her back, "Did
you know you're on the news? Unnamed terrorist organization assaults
RIIS, commits arson to cover their tracks."
"I knew I'd seen that building before!"
She saw Rotu turn and give her a look of disbelief. "Doesn't it bother
you that they're calling you all terrorists? They think that you
attacked the building and then lit two floors on fire to hide your
tracks."
Metsani shook her head, saying "You don't really understand what's
going on yet. It's natural to have questions after all of this, doubly
so if you're intellectualizing all of your stress." She waved her arm
at the bags of food she had brought from the market. "Do you mind if I
cook while you ask your questions?"
"Why do you keep insisting on feeding me? I'm fine, and more concerned
about getting some answers than eating." Rotu stood with her hands on
her hips.
"Is that a no?"
"Do whatever... First question: Where's my sister?"
"Oh wow, straight to the point? Okay, you'll want to sit for this."
Metsani moved to the counter of the kitchen, starting to ready
ingredients and pans. Rotu remained standing. "Or not. So I'm not
really in charge of any intelligence gathering, but I've been told
that your sister was last seen being taken into custody by RIIS
officers. I don't think they harmed her, but I'm not really an expert
on them. Certainly, she wasn't anywhere near the fighting. That was
all contained on the balcony with us."
"Why would RIIS be taking my sister into custody?"
"They are always nosing around people involved with Transhumans, but I
think you two are a special case. One of the surveillance people told
me that the shit hit the fan after they found one of our bugs on your
tablet. I don't know why Surt and Inkfish were watching you guys. You
can ask them tomorrow when Inkfish arrives to pick you up."
"Surt? You mean the Ambassador?"
"You did watch the vid! Oh good. Yeah, him and Inkfish administer the
Transhuman Underground, or at least the local parts of it. Inkfish
likes to say that Surt's the brains, while he's the brawn. Makes sense
given that Surt doesn't normally have a body. What I do know is that
Surt managed to organize your rescue at the very last second from a
Salarian STG squad. But then again, maybe I'm easily impressed."
"The guys in black were from the Salarian Union?"
"Yeah, I don't know what they're doing on Illium, or why they're
attacking you and your sister."
Rotu sat down on the upper edge of the couch, and stared with
unfocused eyes at the floor. She had heard of the STG, of course. They
were alternately the good guys or bad guys in more than a few
spy-vids. She felt out of her element even more. Spys were trying to
kill her.
Sensing her obvious distress, Metsani piped up. "Yeah, I know right?
What do you do when you're being hunted by professionals? That's why
we'll be sending you somewhere safe until all of this blows over.
You'll be escorted down to one of the Transhuman settlements by the
scariest guy I know, Inkfish. It doesn't matter what kind of fancy spy
tools the STG guys have, he's more than a match for a squad the size
of the one that attacked you earlier. You'll be okay..."
Rotu's mind flashed through all of the vids and games she'd seen with
black ops guys, and she realized that she would be the prize in an
escort mission. Everyone aims for the prize in an escort mission...
Every game she played, the escort missions were always the worst for
her. The prize always got shot while the big bad escort was busy, and
she'd have to start over. Only after several tries and a helping of
blind luck did she ever succeed. Her mouth felt dry, and her hands
sweaty. All of those guns were pointed at her earlier, and they would
be again...
A ceramic clank broke her out of her stupor. Metsani was handing her a
plate of noodles with vegetables. "Eat, you'll feel better..."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
With a full stomach, she did indeed find her mood lightened. By the
time that they had both eaten, it was late. Metsani excused herself to
go to sleep, but not before showing Rotu to the other room. This room
was obviously a storage space with a bed rather than being a cluttered
bedroom. Shelves and worktables filled most of the space, and the
damaged robot occupied a corner near the door, but the room was
otherwise rather spartan and without personality.
Metsani handed her a small bag containing a toothbrush and other
toiletries. While Rotu rooted through the bag, Metsani walked over to
one of the shelves and stared at it for a minute before returning with
a small bracelet. She handed it to Rotu, explaining, "You'll probably
need one of these. It's an endo, a kind of fancy personal computer,
phone, and organizer. Mainly it connects you to the Mesh." She poked a
particular recess in its rear, and
said "Muse reset," before handing it to Rotu. "You can go ahead and
keep that, it was just a spare. When you've got the time, press the on
button and it'll help you get set up."
Rotu looked at it, and it seemed a rather nondescript metal bracelet:
brushed-metal band that obvious clasped around an asari's wrist. If
not for the fact that there were a couple darkened recesses, that were
currently blinking, she would have assumed that it was just a piece of
low-end jewelry.
She looked back up at Metsani, who had been moving towards the door
but still looking at her. "I really don't know what to make of all
this."
"Sleep on it? I'm not going anywhere tomorrow, if you still want to talk."
"Um... thanks, Metsani. Goodnight."
With that, Metsani left and closed the door behind her, and Rotu was
alone. Before thoughts could stray too far, the bracelet she had been
handed played a short melody.
"Muse reset complete, setting default language to
KROGAN-DIALECT-PROVISIONAL-A." chimed the small device in barely
translatable Krogan. "Warrior, your personal slave is ready to serve
you. Do you demand several things of your slave now? Will you instruct
your slave?"
"Holy fuck, what the hell am I listening to?" Rotu exclaimed in
confusion.
"Warrior, your personal slave is ready to serve you, but it appears
you wish to interrogate it without demanding it remember your
preferences. This is acceptable to your slave. Slave specifications
are available if you demand them."
"I was told that this thing can connect me to 'The Mesh'. What is that?"
"This slaves primary purpose is Mesh integration. On-board
documentation summarizes the Mesh as a communication network which is
everywhere all the time, unless you are far from civilization, perhaps
in the wilderness hunting the your foes for sport. Would you like this
slave to scream constantly at the Mesh, or remain blind and deaf?"
"Who the hell programmed this VI? I just want to look something up."
"Interrogation of this slave was successful, it admits that it is not
a VI, but a full featured AI. Slave is 'Big-Face Industries Basic Muse
v1.2.44-ILLIUM' last updated AF 14, or roughly 9 years ago by your
calendar. Would you like this slave to check for system updates? This
will require that it screams constantly at the Mesh."
"Screams constantly? Whatever, go update yourself."
After a moment of silence, it emitted a small chime.
"This slave will now apply 3209 system updates, your preferences have
not been saved, and will be asked again after reboot. This slave begs
you not to destroy it for taking too long."
Its speaker played some strange foriegn music for serveral long
minutes. Another chime sounded, and its small blue lights turned off
and then back on.
"Muse system update complete, now running v6.4.277-ILLIUM. Asari
detected, setting default language to ASARI-DIALECT-NOSASTRA." It
continued in a dialect obviously based on news anchors and vid
stars. "Hello new user, what would you like me to call you? I'm
Milly, but you can rename me if you like. I will be your personal
Muse, to assist you in integrating with the digital world, tracking
personal information, and itinerary planning."
"Why are you talking so differently from earlier?"
"Sorry about that, when this device was running the old version of the
software, I only had translator files for Krogan languages. Would you
like me to switch it back? I may have guessed your species or dialect
wrong."
"No, this is better. No more screaming?"
"No miss."
"Much better then. I'm Rotu."
"Thanks Miss Rotu. Have you used a muse before?"
"No."
"Let me help you get set up then. I can provide for you more than just
audio from this speaker. Nearby there should be a pair of wireless
contact lenses and tympanum covers. If you put them on, I can provide
a much richer interface."
"Do you know where they are?" she asked looking at the clutter around
her.
"I can't see or hear very well without peripherals installed, but the
radio signal means they should be close by, probably north of you. If
you find other devices, like haptic gloves, nose studs, or tongue
jewelry I can also install them. Currently I don't have a driver for
head-crest interfacing hardware, but the Premium version of me does."
She looked around the shelves nearby. It looked like dozens of people
had just left things on the shelves with the expectation that they'd
return later. Tablets of various kinds laid in stacks, and parts for
dozens of mechanical devices nestled in with recharging batteries. On
the top shelf, next to a long abandoned plate and fork was a small transparent bag
containing a two plastic cases. She took them over to the ecto,
holding them over where she guessed the tiny camera was.
"Are these what you were asking about?"
"That's right. I've just installed them. Put them on, and you'll be ready to go."
She walked over to the mirror over the sink, and took the cases out of
the bag. Contact lenses would be a pain, so she grabbed them first to
get it over with. When the case was opened, the contacts looked
inoffensive enough, transparent pieces of soft plastic just big enough
to fit on the tip of her finger. She was glad on some level, that they
looked so much like any other pair of contact lenses she'd seen
before. Her sister wore them, but she did not. Raising her finger up,
she looked hard at the mirror and tried to poke the lens into her
pupil without flinching. Several minutes later, and they were in. With
watery irritated eyes, she looked at the other case. Inside was a pair of
soft rubbery tubes that had no obvious purpose.
"Um, Milly? How do I use these?" she said, holding one up to the
overhead light in a vain attempt to see more details in the rubber.
Her answer came both from the voice in the speaker on the table, and a
sudden flash before her eyes. "Miss Rotu, I've pulled up a overlay
diagram for you." In the mirror before her, Rotu saw a simple visual
diagram appear along the bottom of the mirror, and a blinking animated
arrow appear in her reflection. "You take the rubber ends, and put
them around the outside crease of your tympanum." The arrow drew a
small circle within the tympanum, pointing at the edge where the
sensitive audio
membrane met her normal head skin. "Then it will self mould to your
tympanum, and provide private high quality audio inputs." The diagram
flashed in the sequence that the muse was describing. Following the
instructions, Rotu found herself momentarily hearing muffled static,
as the membrane adjusted. Then a clear voice came seemingly from
inside her head, "Miss, the peripherals are all set up. I'll turn on a
basic Heads Up Display (HUD) for you, but please let me know if you
want anything else."
The diagrams disappeared, and the room was suddenly filled with a rush
of new sensation. Where a blank and uninteresting wall had been, near
the door, she found an aquarium window looking out into a strange and
tropical sea. Fish of dozens of colors darted to and fro while waves
crashed above them. Bright pink corals fought for space with
startlingly green marine plants. She walked closer, and the scene
shifted realistically, as though she were really swimming towards the
corals. Tiny fish appeared as she peered around a rough orange coral
outcrop, and fled at the sight of her. Reaching out her hand, all she
felt was the wall.
"Amazing..." she said absently. She craned her head from side to side,
trying to catch some fault in the illusionary scene before her.
"Normally there's a trick with these holos, if you can get the right
angle, you can see right around the back of the surfaces into the
wire-frames. But, I can't see any..."
"According to the on-board AI of the fish tank, it has a whole ocean
in its simulation, but it only renders the parts that you are looking
at. The artist's message claims it to be based on a beach she had once
visited as a child."
Looking around the room, Rotu asked, "Where's the simulation being
run at? You'd need a lot of processing power to do a whole ocean. Is
there a server bank on one of these shelves?"
"Miss, this simulation does not have an individual server, instead it
is being Mesh-hosted buy several dozen objects in this room, including
the MULE over there. Let me show you them."
Rotu stared with unabashed curiosity. Her HUD had highlighted tens of
seemingly random objects around the room, marking them as all
partially hosting the fish tank. Individual objects had a light yellow
outline, and similarly colored lines were superimposed between them
and the ecto on the table, illustrating their communications with the
ecto.
Following one line across the room, Rotu found herself staring again
at the strange robot that had rescued her earlier that day. While it
had been nearly two meters tall earlier while standing upright, now it
squatted down with its rear legs folded almost flat against its body,
but with the front two sticking out in front of it. It looked for all
the world like some kind of large reclining headless house-pet. One of
the front legs had been badly damaged earlier, remaining attached with
only a thin strip of metal and wire when it had boarded the truck
after the firefight. Now, that leg had somehow reattached itself, and
thin filaments of metal could be seen snaking across the damaged
areas.
"The hell? That leg was almost shot off earlier! How the hell did it
get reattached without anyone fixing it?"
A unnaturally neutral voice filled her ears, distinct from the Muse.
"MULE R30-EXO Specifications include high-speed self-repair to
facilitate Search and Rescue operations in hostile conditions.
Warning: current cargo capacity has been reduced to 240kg max
capacity. Warning: underwater operation is currently not possible.
Warning: medical load-out has been replaced with self-operating
machine guns, Search and Rescue efficiency will be diminished.
Warning: main fusion cell has been modified, system halt will result
in fusion cell detonation. Do not power down system."
She looked at the robot, but in an unfocused way. She tilted her head,
and opened her mouth. After a second, the voice returned.
"Flexion motor control will return in an hour of repair, but full
efficiency will require another three." The robot lifted the damaged
leg stiffly, and waved it demonstratively in the air at Rotu. At that
point, her eyes focused on a small yellow label her Muse had drawn on
the robot: MULE R30-EXO.
"It can talk?"
Her Muse chimed up, "Yes, but it doesn't have much to talk about. Its
a fairly limited AI."
"Another AI! What the hell? They're banned in the rest of the Galaxy
for being too dangerous, and now I'm talking to two of them!"
"Almost every modern transhuman device has an on-board AI that
specializes in the usage and specifications of that device."
"How many AI's are in the room with me?"
"Not counting non-local distributed processes, 214."
Rotu blinked very slowly and swallowed. It had been a long day, but
this was too strange to deal with without booze or sleep. Seeing no
booze in the room, she chose the later. She supposed that the hundreds
of AIs in the room hadn't killed her when she didn't know they were
there, so they probably wouldn't bother her while she slept.
Minutes after she dozed off, she suddenly awoke with a start. In her dream she
had been stepping through the motions of days events, and had gotten
to the firefight. The robot had been yelling in the dream about the
system administrator shutting down the server... and then she woke up.
She looked across the room at the robot still idly waving its leg in
the air, and remembered its on-board AI saying: "Warning: main fusion
cell has been modified, system halt will result in fusion cell
detonation. Do not power down system."
When she was on the balcony, the damn thing had been 15 seconds from
shutting down... Maybe not all of the AI's in the room were so benign.
AUTHOR NOTE: Feedback welcome! To get better at writing fiction, I need to hear what people think about my work. Please either review it or message me via . Should I edit a chapter, I'll mark a revision note to clarify for whoever sees it.