Like anything in the dot, the entertainment centre was a small and simple affair, but it was in an exceptionally festive mood tonight. Zax was not the type to drink, but he rarely refused an invitation from his friends. They were few enough to not be a problem.
Kad was his best friend, so of course Zax would be cheering for him during the best time of his life. His smile and cheers were at least as loud as those of the gorilla’s colleagues and definitely more genuine. He just couldn’t help the tinge of sour bitterness, deep in his heart.
I’m the last one.
Their old group of friends had all left the dot over the years. Useful mutations had made them more effective at their jobs, letting them catch the eye of the Shelter’s higher levels and let them leave for a better life in the first circle, that dream area around their birthplace.
Better life, better pay, more resources, a better future in general. The dream of all the dot’s inhabitants, and one very few ever achieve.
Thinking back about it, isn’t it weird that so many of them succeeded?
Kad and Zax were all who remained from a small group of childhood friends, and not unlike countless clueless pups before them they dreamed big. They had promised no one in particular that when they grew up, they would be like the Superxplorers they watched on the news and in the cartoons.
Then life had caught up with them; they had learnt how uncontrollable and unpredictable the mutations were, then realised how rare the best ones were, and how seldom any meaningful mutation was for doters, the inhabitants of the dot. A full tail such as Aran’s foxy limb was as far as it went for them. Basic, lovely, but useless. The crafty girl didn’t even benefit from the enhanced balance they usually came with. Partial fur or altered ears and eyes could happen if they were lucky, giving slight protection or slightly improving the senses respectively.
It didn’t prevent the young woman from fully enjoying herself however, as shown by the way she kept the party going, her tail constantly wagging.
“OOOOH! ONE MORE!” Aran excitedly ordered yet another round. She really loved those games, and her enthusiasm kept even the sorest losers coming back for more.
Zax smiled in amusement before going back his train of thoughts.
For all intents and purposes, and with a lot of luck, maybe a gifted one from among their group could have left the dot. Yet, they had all found themselves with befitting mutations one after the other, even if just barely. It had been so gradual that none of them had noticed, but they really didn’t fit within the statistics.
Kad was even more of an outlier, with a very rare and spectacular mutation, so he might even reach further circles. Even in the first circle, a second pair of fully functional arms wasn’t common, much less so one identical to and as strong as the first pair. Late bloomers shot the highest and all that.
Then again, they didn’t know much about the next levels of the Shelter, so maybe it was more common there. Still, just getting a bit closer there was something to be proud of.
It was for further in the future though; the new limbs were still too small and weak, but reaching that point was basically guaranteed. Zax would know, he did the scan himself. On the house, complementary to refitting the giant’s clothes. A man needs his hobby, after all.
Well, he was not really surprised by what his friend’s mutation ended up being, more by it happening at all.
That strange malformation of the spinal nerves caught his eye from the start, years before, and he had already suspected something comparable when the arms’ bones grew so… laterally, for lack of a better word.
Everyone thought he was crazy to suggest “more arms” as a mutation in the betting pool, but to him, it was easy units. But to be fully honest, even expecting new limbs he would have never thought they would be so… perfect. An exact copy of the innate limbs, down to the longer than natural body hair, thicker skin and worst of all the same inhuman bone and muscle density the rest of the body already sported? Even he would see it as wishful thinking. No wonder all of Kad’s past mutations were so minor if they were setting up such a tremendous one. Massive if, but still.
Really, the human couldn’t blame the other gamblers. New body parts didn’t come from duplicating another limb, they were supposed to grow from vestigial parts. His eyes scanned the partying assembly, seeing many examples.
Amal was at the snacks, chewing a piece of wood because he could ingest any plant matter with actual molars where wisdom teeth should be, even raw with his functional appendix. Edy’s horizontal third eyelid, a lot more opaque than a haw was supposed to be but still protecting his eyes when his friends poured their drink on his face, laughing arrogantly and maybe a bit drunkenly at his own joke until they poured his too. Zax chuckled at that. Good friends. Many had long ears too, donkey’s, rabbit’s, monkey’s, which usually meant restored vestigial muscles, to move them consciously or fold them for protection. Hard to cover your ears when they were larger than your hands.
Could I be an even more extreme case?
The human shook this thought out of his head as fast as it came. Nothing welcome ever came from that line of thought.
They were all very representative both of the common mutations in the dot and how the dot was considered in the Shelter: they were there, they mostly filled their functions, but they didn’t make a great difference and their absence would be at most an annoyance and easy to live with, while the most useful ones were also the most subtle and the hardest to spot.
The most significant mutation, beside Kad’s of course, was still Aran’s. Her tail was moving more slowly now, Zax could almost follow it with his eyes. A beautiful and healthy red fox tail, long enough to reach her head, moving with a feline grace.
“Try not to forget us when you make it big!” The black-haired woman giggled, standing tiptoe on the open palm held at arm’s length by one of Kad’s new limbs.
The two-meter-tall man had his original arms crossed behind his head and showed tense gritted teeth in a very awkward attempt at nonchalance. His arm was shaking and his face twisted under the effort, but reaching that level of strength at once was a feat nobody would dare to belittle.
Aran kept laughing joyfully as she lightly jumped to the ground. Even running out of juice, that small ball of sociable energy kept breathing more life in the group again, although it was clear everyone was reaching their limits, even her.
Her happiness was very communicative though, she had to be-
[Error!]
His retinal HUD’s notification interrupted his thoughts. It didn’t seem important, just an incoherence between observation and expectation. At first glance it wasn’t a miscalculation, so he just loosened his expectations and put the matter aside for later.
“So… what will you do now?” Zax asked the four-armed star of the day as he gave him a glass of special electrolyte-rich energy drink. Not healthy at all for a normal human, but the giant drank it with a relieved sigh like fresh water, already forgetting his pretence that lifting a woman at shoulder height and arm’s length with one hand was easy.
“Isn’t it obvious? Get a place in the first circle of course! I already had excellent offers.”
“No, I mean, after that?” at his friend’s confused face, he detailed. “With those new limbs, you have new opportunities too. You can keep doing what you were doing before as a professional mover, or you could try something new. In our development plans, you always focused primarily on strength and secondly on coordination -pretty sure it’s not a coincidence, by the way- so maybe you can try the opposite now? I bet you could do crazy wild things once you’re as coordinated with four arms as you were with two. Or maybe something totally unrelated, like speed and reflexes? Or stamina and endurance? Just to see what would happen?
I guess what I’m trying to say is… are you going to do more of the same thing in the first circle or further, or are you going to blindly throw yourself in something new?”
“The way you say it, none of those options look terrific.” Kad pointed out, deflating a touch.
“Haha, sorry. I didn’t manage to think of a way to make them both appealing, so I just made them both as appalling. That choice will impact the rest of your life, I don’t want to influence you with the one I would do.”
Kad looked pensive, so Zax chomped him on the forehead. He needed to jump to reach him.
“NO! No pondering what I would do! Make your own choice first.” He ordered firmly.
“Yes sir.” The giant reluctantly agreed, before sheepishly adding, “But I dunno man… I didn’t think that far…”
“Fair enough.” Zax shrugged. “Just don’t forget to do it sooner than later. Your answer will let you decide what kind of offer you should look for.”
“Come on man, stop being such a killjoy!” Aran energetically tapped his back, staggering him. “It’s a great blessing. Just enjoy it! Why do you want to drag us down like that?”
Zax briefly caught a note of aggression in the girl’s expression, but it was gone so fast he wasn’t sure he spotted it right. Out of sheer habit he sent a mental query to his recording anyways, but still answered without hesitation.
“Because I don’t want that blessing to become a curse.” He stated in a flat voice, empty of any emotion. “We always had each other’s back. But you’re right, now is the time to party.” He added with a smile, diffusing the tension in the air before it could build up.
He grabbed the virtual controller and selected their next game. Coloured armbands materialised on everyone and the whole room filled with even more coloured circles, indicating each the bonus targets.
“Custom mod: team compositions and target will change randomly over time.”
“Wait, what?” Aran panicked.
“Oh this is gonna be great!” Kad smirked.
Zax’s mods were always interesting and challenging. This time was no exception, as less than an hour later everyone was panting, on a chair for the lucky ones, on the floor for the others.
“That, was, awesome!” someone managed to say between breathes. “Didn’t know, that game, could be so…”
“Exhausting?”
“Difficult?”
“Chaotic?” many voices tried to find the right description.
“Heh, yeah, those too.” The first voice gave up with a chuckle.
“That was a party to remember, for sure. I’m beat, I think I’m going to call it a day.”
A bit later and the guests started to leave.
Zax was among the last to leave, and when he did, he proposed Aran to come with him:
“Aran, I’m going straight home, want to come with?”
“Sure!” Not a blink of hesitation.
Kad rose an eyebrow at that, but Zax sent a knowing smirk his way, so he chose not to comment.
They left the premise side by side, Zax leading the way to his place. It wasn’t far so they went on foot. Not that they would have much choice anyways.
After a few steps, Aran apologised for calling Zax a killjoy. He knew how to play. Zax accepted her apology, it wasn’t very important. The foxy girl looked relieved to hear that. She hummed a popular song with a carefree expression as they travelled.
Two blocks further, Zax started a new conversation:
“By the way, do you know what I do for a living?”
“Uh? Er, no, I don’t think it came up.” Aran was a bit confused by the sudden topic but answered candidly.
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“I’m a handyman. One of the best of the dot, actually.” She looked with a pitying eye that replied ‘Suuure you are’. “It’s true!” The pure human defended himself. “Anything in the dot I can fix. For far less time and units than anyone, actually. Including small machinery pieces in hard-to-reach places, clothes destroyed by a sudden mutation, and many other things.” Well, a few other things at least.
“Wait, you’re the one who adjusted Kad’s uniform?” The woman’s initial rebuttal was cut short when she remembered the topic being breached earlier.
The giant man’s new appendages were appropriately covered despite being less than a day old, with complete additional sleeves on his old work uniform and no visible stitching. Even the best adjusters would take at least a full day to make something of such quality for such an extensive mutation, and that was if they treated it in priority. With the time constraint, they all expected a normal top with clean holes for the new arms, at best.
His only explanation had been that it helped to be friend with the best omni-expert in the dot, and everyone had chuckled and left it at that. She had thought it was a private joke or something similar.
“His whole wardrobe, but yes.”
“Uh.” She was floored, but she couldn’t help but believe him. It just fit too well with a few eerie points she had noticed in the evening. Such as that custom mod for their last game. She had never seen or even heard of anything analogous. Custom mods were notoriously rare for AR/VR games; too resource intensive or time consuming to make.
“I guess your mutations are pretty strong but mental then?” Her voice and smile were a lot more subdued.
“No, I don’t have any mutations.”
“What!? How can you be that great without mental mutations? Wait, how can you not have any mutation!? They should just be very small or subtle...”
The poor girl’s whole universe was turned upside down.
“Nope, I’m all natural. A hundred percent pure human.” He tried to force casualness in his voice and an easy smile, and did a very poor job at it. “The why I didn’t is one of the great unknowns of the 3G, it just never happened. But the how I am that great is a lot simpler than you’d think, and a bit related: nanotechnology.”
“…” She wanted to say something again. Probably something about how nanotechnology -or any non-biological technology- was so obsolete they could never let someone reach high, even in the dot, but she clamped her mouth shut and waited for him to continue.
Cunning, sharp and adaptative. As expected of a true fox girl.
“I stopped waiting for my first mutation long ago. It was just doing more harm than good at that point. But it didn’t change the fact I couldn’t compete with normal mutants in the market. Nobody in their right mind would hire me over them.” Zax shrugged helplessly.
The girl nodded absentmindedly. It simply wouldn’t make sense, if one has several candidates for hire, one takes the most enhanced ones. That was just common sense.
“Unless it’s for some PR move.” The man added absentmindedly. “But once the move is done, they are done with you. No matter that you have better results than others and are the one holding the rest of the team together.”
The girl looked surprised at that, but didn’t comment. Despite the lightness in the voice, she could feel it was a sore point.
“The only jobs I could keep were those with very little concurrence. I’ll let you imagine what it was. The gross ones, the boring ones, the tedious ones… well, the ones nobody wanted to take. One of the tedious ones happened to require working with a nanotechnological interface. So, I was taught the basics. And ended up realising that it was a lot more cost-effective on me. I didn’t need to be purged every evening and injected every morning, since there was no chance of destroying the nanites with a surprise mutation, which gave me at least two hours more every workday.”
“Wait, two hours?” Aran broke her silence at that. “A syringe or a pill in the morning, a purge in the evening. How could it be that long?”
“A common misconception.” Zax nodded. “You’re thinking of randomly injecting nanites via intramuscular injection and letting their program make them go where they need to, right?”
“Yes?”
“Well, doing that actually hurts the organism. Just a teeny bit, a few cells here and there, so it’s no big deal if you only do it a few times. But once a day, every day? Damages cumulate real fast, and in all the tissues on the way. And very hard to detect on time if you don’t look specifically for it.
Plus, random injection mean they could have to travel in the whole body before finding their designated place, or force their way through. Yeah, not pleasant at all.” He smirked at the girl’s full body shiver and fully bristling tail. “So even if you have to inject them, better do it where they will arrive fast and unhindered, which takes skill and knowhow. And the expulsion has the same problem. If you just turn them off and let the organism eliminate them, it takes time and energy, and you will be sick for several days. If you’re lucky. You have to unbind from where they are and either be neutral to the organism or actively follow the most efficient natural evacuation routes. And it’s not always the digestive track. And don’t forget, they will have to be reused the next day.” The following grimace of disgust showed she understood the implications, so he didn’t pursue. “Anyways, safely taking and leaving nanites takes time, and even more so when they are set in sensitive organs -like the brain for an interface- so me not having to-”
“Wait.” Aran interrupted once more. She was really gaining back in confidence. “Couldn’t they just use a mutation to fix whatever damage had cumulated?”
“Did you forget the part about nobody wanting that job? In the dot?” Zax raised an eyebrow. “It didn’t exactly pay well, nobody with the 3G units to spare to heal avoidable health problems would work that job.”
The girl was abashed, more than expected actually, lowering her eyes to the side, shoulder and tail fully dropping.
“Anyway, my situation was a great boon for my boss, and let me take the nanites home. A veteran of the place taught me a few tricks that would make them useful instead of just being… there; like setting an alarm clock. Then I tried my hand at making simple programs, then games, one thing led to another, and before I realised, I was pretty skilled at programming them. I could make my own, and I was using them naturally even in day-to-day activities.”
“… and so you became that great without mutations.” The girl concluded after a moment of silence, lost in thoughts and almost knocking her lowered head on the wall several times. Then a realisation made her rise her head: “so that means… you are an actual techno-enhanced human?” she asked with a nuance of awe and fear.
“Nope, that’s still science fiction.” Zax chuckled at that. “I tried, but no, no bodily modification for me. The only thing that can be considered an augment is that I always have a better bracelet than yours with me.”
“Oh. Then it’s not possible” She was part relieved part disappointed.
“Not necessarily. But at least I can’t do it, and I don’t know anyone who can. Maybe I just lack that ‘medical knowledge’ or ‘engineering’ thing?” He shrugged.
Aran tried to ponder at that, but quickly decided to firmly not and quickly changed subject:
“So, if that’s not how you are as good as a mutant, then what?”
“Right. I use the nanites as a multi-purpose tool. They can go in basically any non-airtight place so I don’t need to open hard to reach broken devices in inconvenient places, I can shape them how I need to do many things and even build durable things with them. For instance, clothes. Very convenient. If you’re proficient enough.”
“You mean Kad’s clothes are going to melt at his next mutation?” The fox actually smirked at that.
“Another common misconception. When the 3G activates, the disruptive field it emits only destroys active technology. Sure, nanites are vulnerable at a further range than most things, but with the right type and shaped in the correct piece, they can be deactivated and the constructs will stay, problem solved.”
“… Seriously? That’s it?”
“Yup!”
“Why don’t everybody do it then?”
“Well, everybody has the same misconceptions you did. That doesn’t help. Second, I took years to reach my level, and I didn’t have to take enormous precautions to… not destroy my own nanites. Anybody else would have to stay very cautious or to keep buying or making new ones. Too annoying to be worth it, and the cost really builds up. Lastly, using nanotechnology is not that easy. You need the right type of nanites, held in the most appropriate way or the construct will fail, which means knowing the properties you want, which… well, let’s just say there are a lot of hurdles for even the simplest operation. Most don’t want to bother, and for excellent reasons.”
“That… makes sense…” she muttered to herself. Zax wasn’t sure she realised she whispered it aloud.
“There’s also that nanotech is only really useful in the dot.”
“What?”
“Everything it can do, a sufficiently advanced 3G-tek can do. Possibly better. Only here, where 3G is too scarce to spend it on 3G-tek, it can have some use. Who would spend years to seriously study something that would instantly become useless if they left the dot?”
He had, and the implications creeped Aran out. Silence followed after that. Aran wanted to ask something as they kept walking, but she didn’t dare to voice it. Her eyes kept going back to Zax’s, looking for an answer, but Zax refused to meet her gaze, staring in front of him. A few minutes later, he answered, his voice low but never wavering:
“I told you, I stopped expecting my first mutation long ago. The dot is my home. I will never leave.”
They kept walking silently after that. Zax’s expression unreadable and Aran trying to process what she had heard. Somehow, it didn’t feel like a proclamation of surrender or giving up on life. But what else could it be? That human had openly admitted he didn’t even bother trying to leave the dot anymore. Not trying to mutate, to improve in the most basic way possible. Not even having the possibility. She couldn’t fathom what it would be like. He seemed content with his life. What did he want then? What other goal could anyone have? Goal?
“Why did you tell me all that?” the words spewed from the girl’s mouth before she realised. She was so lost in thought she hadn’t noticed they had reach Zax’s residential complex. The sight gave her pause and made her forget her own question.
It was the standard issue for the dot: an ordered, compact and efficient pile up of identical boxes. As compact and space efficient as possible for a living space. Almost no trace of 3G-tek, but sturdy and well made enough that it seldom required repairs. The first generation really built things to last and stay.
It was well known that the Shelter had started its construction at what was now called the dot, growing in concentric circles as mutations and associated 3G-tek made expanding on the planet first a possibility, then a reality, then a fact of life, even if it never became fast or easy. And that evolution was shown in the architecture and the technology as much as in the people.
Just as the doters were mostly humans with a few exotic or animal traits, that building was mostly metal and stone, with some plastic here and there, and the only visible biotechnology was the basic ambience mushrooms for light and temperature control. It should make for a very boring and dull building, but the inhabitants had added small touches of individuality, a flower pot here, a child’s finger-drawing opposite, an actual paint job there, all added up to make a place that really felt… lived in. Alive, for a lack of better word.
Being so homely was certainly uncommon, but what really caught the tailed girl’s attention was the finger drawings and hand prints on several places. Many of them were small and perfectly proportioned for human children, usually next to or bellow prints with inhuman proportions, a different number of fingers, or claws, and even webs for one.
A wholesome family memory. Aran shook her head to chase the thought, focusing on the important part.
“Are- are there children here?”
“Yes? Family units tends to?” The human raised an eyebrow at the question.
Thinking back about their walk to this place she realised they had clearly been indicated. She had just ignored it, so distraught she was.
“You? You don’t have a family.”
It wasn’t a question; it was a statement. A statement she knew to be true from the conversations in the evening and his life story. A basic human was not a prospective father. Even a successful one. What if their children stayed stuck too?
That meant he had to pay the rent in full and unassisted. And with only his own revenue. That was impossible. Family units used a lot of space, and the dot always had a severe lack of that resource. Who lived where was always tightly managed, and the only way to have a larger living space was a severe tax that rose exponentially the more above their needs one lived. In the dot, where successful people were a rarity, for a single person to live in a couple’s unit was an achievement, but to live in a family unit? Just how rich was he!?
It really wasn’t a question, but Zax answered anyways.
“No, I don’t.” ignoring her emotional state, he went on with the situation. “And about your question, well, if I straight up asked ‘why did you insert yourself in a group of strangers and pretended you knew someone/everyone?’ or ‘why are you so afraid of going back to your home?’, you would just have clamped up even more behind your mask, denied it all with a distraction, disappeared and ran away without anybody noticing. Now you can’t deny it or run away, because you believe me when say I recorded everything and I can prove it.”
Aran’s heart jumped in her chest. Her tail curled tight around her back, so puffed it tripled in volume but she ignored it. She was already jumping for the exit when he finished, only to see the door she had just passed close just behind her, and nothing she did could make it bulge. She tried all the voice commands she knew, and push with all her strength, and even resorted to bang on it, but it refused to bulge.
“I say this just in case, but the timing of me answering and the door closing is just a coincidence. Now stop banging, you’re going to wake the neighbours.”
Zax’s voice pulled her out of her panicked frenzy. She stopped moving, then slowly turned around, her lips tight but her real emotions still in full display with her tail. She definitely didn’t believe him.
Zax was opening the second left door before the end of the hallway. He just briefly glanced at her before entering:
“Nobody fancy being looked at like some kind of monster, but I still prefer when you show the real you.” He declared with a small smile. “Now come in. If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t have taken you to my own home unit, with all the general safety measures and potential witnesses. I’ll give you a place for the night, and maybe propose something. And if you are really set on running away again, just give your bracelet a query about how doors work. Especially those with handles.”
He went in without looking back or waiting for her answer, but the door didn’t close behind him.
That was scary, but the last words were confusing. Doors with handles?
Aran stepped away from the door and turned around, finding that there was indeed an inset on the side of the door. A quick glance at the control panel on the side revealed it had broken long ago, the box was askew and the interface hidden behind a small plate. No wonder her voice commands didn’t do anything. She hadn’t noticed its state because she hadn’t paid attention, but why would she? Technical maintenance was a very serious affair in the Shelter, even in the dot. The very notion of something as common as a door controller staying broken more than a few hours in a row was alien. Then how did they-
Wait… an errand, crazy thought crossed her mind. It was ludicrous, but she had to try. She slowly put her hand in the door insert and slightly pulled on the side. The door opened all the way without resistance, swallowed by the wall without even a creak. It had never been locked.
Just to be sure, she closed and opened it again. After a few second, it closed by itself. Just as any normal door.
All the tension in Aran disappeared at once. Her whole body slumped, her forehead softly banging against the door.
She felt stupid now. Had she overreacted?
Well, even if she had, she couldn’t blame herself. She wore that mask for a reason, and those who saw through it were always bad news. She shivered just thinking about them. She had to leave now. She opened the door and took one step outside, but something stopped her. She felt she was missing something. Something important. Then it dawned on her. Her instinct.
It hadn’t nagged at her. And it still wasn’t. It had never failed her before. What could it mean? Could it be… she was safe? But that man had seen through her. Tricked her into coming here. Unmasked her without her noticing. It had been so smooth she wasn’t even sure when he had done it. Long before arriving at the residence, that was for sure. And then he… hadn’t done anything? They had just kept walking, he invited her, then left her alone. What did that mean?
She was so lost in her thoughts; she barely realised her legs turning around and moving towards the open door in the hallway, nor did she notice the slight click of the exit closing behind her.