“Alright, let’s stop for today.” Zax clapped his hands once.

“I can… keep going.” Aran panted, struggling to get up. Falling flat on her back had taken her breath away. Fortunately, she was already at ground level, it could’ve been worse.

“Maybe, but let’s not. We already let you keep going long enough with that ankle.”

“Just a bad landing... no biggie…”

“I don’t have the boxes, but I’m still reading everything live, remember?”

Health monitoring was part of the basic package for his nanites, and the experiment required to constantly watch and compare her and SG’s readings.

A few days ago, he would have required ongoing direct contact with their personal B-boxes to use them as relay points, possibly minus one if his nanites copied part of its software. His recent progress with the C-nanites let them fully replace up to three boxes at once, with direct contact only necessary to establish a wireless connection.

Who would’ve thought resonance was so strong at that scale?

There could be more than three, but he would struggle to follow such an input. If he couldn’t interface mentally, there was no point in using his nanites instead of his bracelet. Zax had more immediate concerns than hand-free scanning and being the weak link of his chain, however:

“Your muscles were overstretched and you were way too close to actually breaking your ligaments. I can see the damage. It changes the way you feel and react. Like right now, just staying up, you favour the other leg.”

“He’s right.” SG concurred as she landed as if stepping down stairs. “Even if it’s not that bad now, it’ll only get worse if you insist. It can give you bad habits too. You’ll only regret it later.”

Seeing no help was coming, the tailed girl relented and let herself fall back spread eagle. It made sense, but she didn’t have to like it.

They were off-path in the forest area of the summer park. Even with the occasional root, the ground was soft and comfortable, the earthy smell appeasing, and the shade of the trees kept the worst of the heat and light at bay.

“Now you see why it was important to learn how to land first.” Zax concluded as he and SG followed suit. “Honestly, I’m surprised it took so long before you hurt yourself. Maybe you’re good at it.”

“Well, that exercise was weird.” She pouted.

She was to jump, grab a branch, swing her body for momentum, and throw herself to land the furthest possible, or at a specific point they decided. Aiming too far made the landing awkward and unbalanced, and it was easier to accidentally turn than to keep going straight; she had fallen on her back more than once.

“It was mostly to get you used to the sensation of falling backwards. Estimating distances and your current limits are good bonuses though. Tomorrow we’ll do forward.”

“It… worked, I guess… but shouldn’t it be the opposite?” She was getting her breath back.

She didn’t panic and threw her arms randomly when she felt a fall coming anymore. She could even confidently take a running start now.

“You’d think so, but no. When you fall forward, you can actually see yourself falling. If you fall backward, only your natural balance tells you about it, so your brain doesn’t raise as much alarms.”

“That’s why?” SG blinked. She had observed the phenomenon, but never knew why falling forward was so much more difficult.

“Uh. Neat. Did it help with your experiment? The mapping exercises got boring real fast.” Aran sighed. “I have no idea how you could do that not once, but twice. Cudos, SG.”

“Greatly.” Zax nodded as the feathered girl awkwardly fidgeted.

The neural mappings had been completed the previous evening. They wouldn’t need more exercises for that, and since they did the same ones at the same time, they also helped to draw parallels. Zax even joined to add his data to the pool, even if mapping wasn’t a problem for him.

“It’s not enough to translate thoughts between us –not sure it’d be a good idea to try anyway – but it’s enough to give me a foundation.”

“And your ‘more harmless than direct stimulation’ option?” She snickered, quoting his own words.

“Well, you tell me.” He raised an eyebrow. “You said you could see it? No issue?”

“Yeah, a see-through shadow of me that showed me what to do. Kept the same advance on me even when I tried to mess it up. Creepy, but funny.”

“Could you follow it? Was it accurate? Did it help?” The programmer rolled his eyes at her trying to make it a game, but didn’t comment on it since it gave relevant data.

Knowledge of what had to be done came from SG, but how to move her body came mostly from him, as his body was more similar to hers. The tail part was added from Aran’s own template, but the movements and perceptions had to be extrapolated. It all congregated in a guide, projected in her mind, who had to be followed.

It had taken a few tries before reaching that point.

The tester thought a moment before answering.

“It felt weird. I could… see it, even when I looked elsewhere or didn’t want to. And I could see the whole thing even when I focused on specific parts. It was disorienting at first, but I got used to it easily. It… helped, but mostly at the start. After a few demos, I knew what to do, and it was more distracting than helpful. And annoying. Worse than tutorial windows in a replay. Impossible to ignore, hard to focus on it and me at the same time. It still helped with the timing and the aim though, so yes for accuracy, I guess. But it’s more like a… micromanaging personal coach? It didn’t feel that different from learning under you and SG.”

“Excellent. Great start, and that could definitely be useful somewhere. Intrusiveness shouldn’t be hard to fix, and I can already see how to make the guide accurate without trial and error. We’ll try next time.”

“What about your stimulating thing? The main computer gave you the green, right?”

“The simulations showed no danger in using the right nanites for deeper and stronger stimulation, but reality has more variables than I know to set or even to look for. The main computer won’t heed for what I want to do, only-”

“Only for what you tell it to~?” Aran sing-songed, earning a chuckle from SG.

The foxy girl quickly followed; he had hammered that motto over and over again, it felt nice to turn the table back at him. Or maybe the dopamine rush from her recent exertion hadn’t worn out yet.

“… I still want to test it before actually using them on a person. I never used it for more than waking up or calming down. Minor hormonal production at best.” Zax grouched. “And even without that, there’s no reason to do something potentially dangerous before we’re done with the normal method.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Normal, he says…”

SG shared her amused smile.

“You know what I mean. We’re not on a schedule.”

“Well, at least you have time now, right?” SG changed topic with a low voice. “You’re done with that ‘secret commission’.”

Fingerless wings shouldn’t be compatible with air quotes, but she made it happen. Somehow.

“It only took work hours. I kinda hope those stay busy. But yes, I’m glad to be done with that. That was tedious and so annoying.”

It had taken him three days of running in circles to stop trying to use the list to get specific names. He had no other choice but to move to plan B: making it interactive. It was pretty straightforward; copy the Shelter’s census and set the bullet points as custom filters. Some tweaking was required, the census didn’t account for everything, but it was overall more effective than making several reports with every possible combination of the points. Best luck to them if they wanted to give it sense.

Why three days? His roommates’ brain mapping took that long and he wanted to focus on his personal projects.

Why wasn’t it plan A? Because the customer expected specific names and coordinates of course, it had nothing to do with being paid by the hour or an eventual personal dislike! He would have taken longer, but he was running out of patience and creativity, and the rate wasn’t high enough for him to push himself. He did have to justify the time spent, and he wouldn’t lie about it.

Even the written comment joined to his delivery was nothing but polite and professional, mentioning the number of people who didn’t want to share their names and coordinates, along with how messy and ineffective their list was.

He obviously didn’t enjoy picturing a single-horned Resident’s expression when she would read it among her peers either. Schadenfreude wasn’t his style.

He was glad he included a user manual though. He had worried it might come off as insulting, but it was moot since she didn’t get to hear his explanations. In any case, she wouldn’t come back anytime soon and he was free to focus on Aran’s parkour lessons and other projects.

Two days later, he received a notification of her passing the border. He hadn’t bothered unsubscribing, but he didn’t think it would come up again and he had no idea of her reasons. He had already received his payment in full, and she could contact him with her anonymous account. Maybe it had nothing to do with him? He could only hope.

Hope, nope. She went straight for his shop. She even bothered with pleasantries before going to the meat of her business this time, although she still ignored the apprentice mostly hidden behind the counter.

“Excellent idea with the filters. Had we known it was an option, we would’ve gone directly for that.”

“Had I known, I would’ve made it earlier.” Zax assured. “It would’ve been more time and cost effective.”

The hypocrisy is strong on this one. Or is it bad faith?

“We didn’t get what we seek though.”

“I did the best I could with what I was given.” He casually defended with a shrug. “I can customise new filters if you want – as a separated commission of course – but I can’t promise it will help. I have a feeling you don’t know much about what you’re looking for either."

“Yes, you said that much in your comments.” She was unamused. “Nonetheless, we could show tangible progress, so it wasn’t a waste of time.”

“Glad for you.” A basic meal pill was less bland than his reply.

“We decided on another strategy.” Bathor produced a stash of paper from an inner pocket and waved it as if showing it off. “This is a typical non-disclosure agreement. Please sign it and we can talk.”

“An NDA?” Zax’s eyebrows rose sharply. “You’re going to tell me what this is all about?”

A smirk was is answer.

“Do I want you to? You smile like I want you to.” He deadpanned.

“A possibility of becoming a Resident is at stake for you. I would say you do.”

The handyman frowned and the sound of his apprentice’s work jolted. Bold statement, but honest mistake.

He glared at her unmoving smirk a bit, but quickly turned to the papers. He didn’t care about such a reward, but reading should be more effective and less frustrating than playing twenty questions. The physical agreement also explained why she came in person. He’d tell her about electronic signatures later.

The NDA part was indeed pretty common, basically ‘shut up or we’ll sue you’ with a long validity period and severe penalties for failure. No non-rivalry section as was often associated with such clause, but conditions on how they were to discuss the ‘unspecified topic’ and how he was to handle the information afterwards.

He was required to accept their related commissions after the explanation was given, but he was free to have nothing to show if he could justify it. They didn’t define what counted as a justification, so he could just say “because I don’t want to” and be done with it. He couldn’t ascertain whether they had left that way out because they underestimated him, out of respect or by sheer incompetency like the list, but he doubted it was the first option and he could work with the rest.

On the other hand, they had bothered to specify he was to keep any kind of personal thought or involvement out of his reports. It hinted at three points: his comments had an impact, they were less likely to underestimate him, and he wouldn’t find strong allies in whoever they were.

Besides, her assurance of a place in the Circle was a bold-faced lie. There was mention of it in the offered bonuses for the coming commission, among others and depending on how satisfactory his results would be. No specification of what counted as satisfactory, so he could get minimal payment for stellar results, or maximum payment for a blank report. It would be all on their whims.

He had an inkling about which they planned to do. Good think he didn’t care about any of the listed bonuses. Support and resources to guide his mutation might be great for a Resident and even most dotters, but not him.

Once bitten, twice shy; he used his nanites to ask for advice on legal forums and licenced law-related accounts. It cost him units, but it was worth it. They revealed that given the lack of a specific clause and since he was a dotter, in case of dispute between the dot’s law and the Circle’s, the dot’s took precedence. Interesting, but not immediately useful. Besides that, they confirmed he wasn’t missing any loophole or trap.

They still advised him to be careful with the actual commission contract he would receive afterward. He could still be screwed up that way, and it could potentially open loopholes in this one.

Zax was generally satisfied with their terms. He had only one problem, and it wasn’t something they could have known without making a serious effort to dig:

“This is a complete and well-thought contact, and I appreciate the care and respect that went into making it. However, I have one issue that should be solved beforehand.” It was a more personal matter, so he made sure to be as polite and formal as possible.

“We expected it. I have full authority to make amendments and corrections.”

Anticipating a hurdle? They improved.

“You take several precautions to ensure secrecy and non-interferences. This one should be specified.” He pointed to the point in question.

“… You don’t want to report to us directly?” The negociant clarified, knowing full well that wasn’t the issue. It would beat the point of everything.

“I have no issue reporting in person. However, I won’t go in the Circle. If you want face-to-face, physical reports, it’ll be in the dot. Such must be specified in this agreement.”

“That is a tall order you’re asking for.” The Resident raised an eyebrow. She had never seen him so serious.

“How? Is transport such a hurdle in the Circle? No one has to know why you’re coming, so it’s not a matter of confidentiality. You can come separately and for unrelated reasons too; it would cover the tracks.” It all was said so matter-of-factly Bathor couldn’t find anything to retort. Not that he gave her the occasion: “You can also specify additional conditions if you want, for example setting the venue or the duration. I apologise, but I will be adamant on this point.”

“Is that a dealbreaker for you?”

“I’m afraid so.” Zax confirmed.

Bathor thought about it, but quickly amended the contract. His report would happen in the dot, with at least one member of her team, and a non-exhaustive list of safety and confidentiality measures was added. A last round of network assisted checks, and the deal was signed.

“Finally. Let’s go.” Bathor turned to the door.

“Go where?” Zax was confused but didn’t move. He had just made it clear he wouldn’t leave the dot.

“What do you mean ‘where’? Somewhere discreet we can talk. I have to explain the situation, and the sooner the better. You’ve signed the agreement, so no turning back now.” She replied with authority.

“Already using it to try and pressure me into compliance, uh?” The handyman raised an amused eyebrow. “A few problems with that. First, the agreement doesn’t mention any timeline, so any hurry of my part would be courtesy, not contractual obligation. Second, I am still in my shop hours, and that time can’t be expected to eat on my custom commission hours, as is specified in my general terms of business. Third, if you’re in such a hurry, we can talk in my backroom.” He moved his head toward the door behind him. “Not exactly a meeting room, but there’s enough space for two to sit and talk, and privacy is ensured. Unless you need a visual support or something?”

During his counter-offer, the Resident’s severe expression had morphed in a displeased frown at his resistance, but ended with a forced neutrality when she couldn’t counter his arguments. She wordlessly went in.

Zax gave instructions to SG in case it took too long and followed with a sigh. He couldn’t fathom how politicians managed to live like that; this kind of mind game was not amusing at all. He didn’t feel like he had won anything, only relief that, finally, this charade was about to end.