When Harriet arrived to escort her to the exercise room, Juliet was more than ready. She’d known what Doctor Chen would do. She expected her to start laying the groundwork for a thorough gaslighting about Angel, but seeing it in practice was another thing altogether. She’d tried to maintain her façade—a naïve scrap-worker who didn’t even remember the rogue PAI the doctor was maligning, but she found herself wanting to tune the doctor out, to withdraw from her intensity, and by the end of their initial meeting, she couldn’t really say what the doctor had thought of her or even if she might have seen through her act.
Of course, all of that was troubling for someone like Juliet, who was used to reading people like open books. It wasn’t that she couldn’t feel the doctor’s animosity; it was barely hidden under the surface, simmering like a kettle ready to blow, but Juliet couldn’t tell if it was entirely directed at her or if this woman was just plain mean. Juliet could just as easily picture her pulling the limbs from a small animal as arranging a bouquet of flowers, and she was convinced the woman would wear the same joyless smile on her face in either situation.
She tried to read her several times, tried to pull thoughts out of that dark void behind her eyes, but was met with silence. Was she shielding her thoughts from her? Was she some kind of mentalist, someone with an uncanny ability to lock her thoughts away, not unlike Lemur had done with his false personas? Or, and this sent shivers down Juliet’s spine, was she a new kind of synth? She had to use the “new kind” qualifier because Juliet had scrutinized the woman and couldn’t find any hint that she wasn’t a natural human, nothing other than the emptiness behind that simmering animosity.
In any case, when Harriet arrived and rescued her, Juliet was eager to be gone from the strange woman’s presence. In that first meeting, they’d only made small talk, and the doctor had suggested that Juliet might find herself remembering some small pieces of her missing memories the next time they met. Of course, she promised to help Juliet process them and to see through the deceptions she’d “built up as reality.” Juliet could only suspect that, prior to her next appointment, Kline’s people intended to unlock a small portion of the memories they’d stolen from her.
Thinking back to the glimpse of Kline’s schedule she’d pulled from his mind, she knew they intended to do a “full scan” of her in two days, while tomorrow, the listener was scheduled to evaluate her. Did that mean they’d only make her visit Chen once a week? She hoped so.
“I’m supposed to stay with you while you exercise. Is there anything in particular you need?” Harriet asked, moving to sit on one of the benches lining the exercise room’s wall.
“I think I mostly want to swim. I didn’t get a chance to see if Kline put any, um, instructional videos for weights or anything like that on the deck he gave me.”
“Well, the pool’s up and running! They checked it out yesterday. All you have to do is get in and start swimming, and the current generator will kick on.”
Juliet started toward the pool but paused and turned to face the lab tech. “Harriet, how often will I have appointments with Doctor Chen?”
“That’s up to the Doctor and Kline. I know your next appointment is on Tuesday next week, but I’m not sure how often she’ll see you after that. You’re scheduled for TMS on Fridays, and Chen’s protocol calls for at least two days between TMS and her appointments, so that’s a limiting factor.”
Juliet frowned and raised an eyebrow. “TMS?”
“Sorry about that—transcranial magnetic stimulation. I just got training on it, so, yeah, you can pretty much consider me an expert now.” She winked, sharing the joke of her words. “They use magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells in the brain. Originally, it was designed to help treat depression, but Doctor Chen’s developed methodologies that will, according to her, gradually bring your memories back to you.”
“Really? That sounds pretty hopeful for me!” Juliet’s thoughts did not mirror her words and corny thumbs-up. On the one hand, she was pleased to know that Harriet was ignorant of the actual situation with her memories; she could tell the lab tech was being honest. On the other, she was already getting tired of the duplicitous nature of the whole setup.
Undoubtedly, that’s simply an excuse to load you into the scanner array, which will check the status of the blockages they’ve put in place and perhaps remove a small percentage each week.
“Yeah,” Juliet subvocalized. “We need to figure out a way to either mess with that scanner or get you into it.” She climbed into the pool, pleased to find it not exactly warm, but not cold, either.
If we don’t, you’ll have to be prepared to act because I can’t imagine they won’t realize I’ve removed the memory blockages.
Juliet stood in the pool near the steps, and while Angel spoke, she dove toward the far end. As soon as she glided past the halfway point, the generator turned on with a rumble, and bubbly water started flowing toward her. She grinned as she began to take strokes and kick, and the pool somehow matched her pace, keeping her firmly in the middle as she swam. It was easy to pretend she was alone, away from WBD, swimming in a pool of her choosing as she subvocalized, “I was going to ask about that. You don’t think you could get the nanites to do something to make it look like the blockages are still in place?”
No. There were millions of chemical structures rebuilding them would take longer than removing them. That’s assuming we could synthesize the chemical bond that was in place. I’m doubtful of that.
“Well, then we’re going to have to make something happen when they bring me for my ‘TMS’ treatment.”
Angel didn’t reply, perhaps sensing that Juliet was ready to zone out for a while and let her subconscious do some ruminating. She wished Angel was in her proper chip and could pipe some music into her ears, but she tried to lose herself in the rhythm of her swimming, breathing every third stroke and slowly exhaling in between. The bubbles of the water, the churn of her arms and legs, and the deprivation of other stimuli served to send her into a kind of meditative state, and that’s when the voices started drifting her way.
Harriet’s voice: . . . really getting after it. Must have some pent-up energy. I would!
A man with a gruff, scratchy voice and a frustrated tone: Seven goddamn hours. Seven hours on this stupid, journeyman repair job, meanwhile I’m falling behind on three other jobs ‘cause that little shit called in again—
A sharp, cutting, feminine voice: This how they want it, hmm? Cooked just like this? Hard on the edges, raw in the middle? These pans are too wide! The ovens don’t heat evenly!
Juliet smiled and let her mind drift, listening to the people occupying the facility around her, fishing for information, for clues, or for any insight into the corporation and its people that might help with her situation. She was forming an overall impression of angst and stress, of people overworked and handed deadlines and responsibilities they could barely manage. She heard many thoughts complaining about cramped quarters, homesickness, and a yearning for loved ones. It felt like the facility and the staff were new and that they were in a very remote locale. She tried to expand her reach, to pull thoughts from further away, but then Angel spoke up.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Juliet, I can’t get detailed reports from the intracranial blood cooling system without my missing software, but your medical nanite control module is reporting an elevated body temperature. Are you using the lattice?
“Yeah. I was kind of fishing around, picking up stray thoughts.”
Well, that, combined with your strenuous exercise, might be dehydrating you. You should take a break.
Juliet blew out her breath, taking the opportunity to scream underwater as an outlet for any remaining stress. Then, she stopped swimming and allowed the waves to propel her backward toward the steps. She was breathing heavily, and now that Angel mentioned it, she could feel how flushed she was. She floated idly on her back for a few minutes, letting the water and her deep, steady breathing cool her down.
“You were really going at it!” Harriet said from the edge of the pool. Juliet let her feet drift to the bottom and stood, turning to face the woman. Harriet sat near the steps, her feet dangling into the water. She noticed Juliet’s gaze and smiled. “These bodysuits are great, huh? They dry almost instantly, and with the footwear built-in, I don’t have to worry about getting my socks wet. Nanite layers, they tell me.” She shrugged.
“Yeah, to be honest, I didn’t even feel it while I was swimming.” Juliet squinted at Harriet, noting that her eyes felt totally clear despite the chemically treated water. The old Juliet wouldn’t have expected that. “Do I have full ocular implants now? Usually, my eyes sting after swimming in treated water.”
“I believe so. High-end ones, too.” Harriet cleared her throat. “Must be strange, finding yourself so changed.” She flushed and stammered, “Gosh, was that insensitive? I’m supposed to make you feel more at ease, not freak you out!”
Juliet chuckled and took a few steps closer, standing closer to the other woman. “It’s no big deal. How long was I swimming? I don’t have a PAI, so no clock . . .”
“Um,” Harriet’s eyes unfocused for a second, “looks like about forty minutes.”
“Seriously?” Juliet laughed. “I really zoned out! Man, I didn’t used to be able to swim that hard for so long, not back when I was going to the public pool in the Helios Arcology. I hardly swam laps, to be honest. I mostly floated around trying to forget the day.”
“Yeah, I’m not supposed to talk about any details. That’s Doctor Chen’s department, but you had quite an intense couple of years. I mean, they only gave me a broad briefing; I don’t have the details, anyway.”
Juliet nodded and shrugged. “No worries. Hopefully, I’ll start remembering soon. Should we head back? I want to play with my new deck.” She walked up the steps, exiting the pool. She chuckled as the water sheeted off her. When she ran her palm over her bodysuit, it felt dry.
“Yeah, let’s. Your brunch service will be ready soon, too.”
As Harriet led her back toward her comfortable prison cell, Juliet had an idea. “Hey, Harriet, if I don’t like the music or vids Kline loaded up, can I get you to add some things to the deck, or do I have to wait for him?”
Harriet turned, pressing a finger to her chin in thought. “If you let me know what you want, I can—” Her words were cut short as she almost bumped into one of the hulking corpo-sec guards by the door. He didn’t budge, and Harriet stumbled over his foot. Juliet darted forward and caught her wrist, steadying her.
“Nice one, creep,” she growled at the guard, who silently turned his opaque visor toward her, unmoved by her outburst.
“Thanks, Juliet. It’s fine. I’m fine.” Harriet gently extracted her wrist from Juliet’s grasp. She entered a code in the door, stared at the screen, then walked into the lab-like antechamber to Juliet’s room. As soon as the door closed and locked with a click, she turned to Juliet and shrugged. “I’m clumsy. Anyway, if you let me know what you want added to your deck, I can message Kline to get the go-ahead and then load it up for you. We don’t have to wait for him.”
“Awesome!” Juliet looked around the lab, noting the addition of a coffee machine and a fridge in the corner. It looked like they were still setting things up for Harriet and whoever else might share this space. “Is there another you? I mean, another tech that watches me when you’re off duty?”
“There’s a corpo-sec unit assigned to this part of the, um, facility, and they station someone here at night when I’m off. They’re not supposed to interact with you, though. If something comes up, just hit the call button on the door, and they’ll contact Kline, who will determine the right person to come see to your needs.”
Juliet nodded, filing the information away. If she needed to make a violent exit, she’d do it at night. When Harriet opened her door for her, Juliet walked through and sat down on the couch. Harriet hadn’t followed her through, but she lingered in the doorway. “Coming in?”
“No, I better not. I’ve got some reports to fill out, but I’ll be in with your lunch soon.” She pressed a few keys on the door pad and waved as the big door began to swing closed. “See you.”
“Bye! Thanks, Harriet.” As the door thunked shut and the locks latched into place, Juliet subvocalized, “Could it be that easy? If you set up a new daemon like Fido, and I give the deck to Harriet to load some new vids on—”
Then, my new daemon can infiltrate her computer and, hopefully, the rest of the facility.
“Yeah. Speaking of Fido, is he okay?”
He’s encrypted on the memory chip they pulled from your data port. He should be fine unless they delete everything. I like your plan, Juliet, but I’ll be working from scratch. All of my libraries are gone. All of my notes and many “memories” I didn’t keep in my active consciousness are on those chips. I’ll be able to do it, I know how to code, and I’m sure I can steal some building blocks from this deck, but it won’t be a quick thing. It might take me several days. Honestly, it may take longer than that before I feel confident enough about the new daemon to let it loose.
“No worries, Angel. We’ll get there.” While subvocalizing, Juliet flipped the slender data deck in her fingers, looking at every angle. It was small, which was nice, but also not so great; she doubted it had much processing power. Still, she pulled her data cable out and carefully plugged it into the tiny pop-up port on the deck. Almost immediately, her ocular implants flickered with some static, and then a loading bar appeared, slowly counting up from 4%.
It's installing the AUI Kline mentioned. I’m sure it’s just meant to let you access the drive’s contents, but I’ll analyze the code as soon as I figure out the ICE. It seems fairly straightforward.
Juliet leaned back and watched the status bar fill in, and then lights flared in her eyes as a new AUI took shape. It was simple and overbearing—more of a UI than an AUI, really. Menu elements obscured her vision, and the window for viewing vids was always open, though currently, it only featured a black rectangle that blocked out her view of the wall in front of her. While Angel explored things Juliet couldn’t see, she spent time tabbing through the menus, scrolling through the movies, serials, books, songs, and a handful of games.
A few other apps were installed, like a calendar, a calculator, and a recording “studio.” Juliet sighed and tried to wave as many elements away as possible, eager to have Angel rewrite things to be more like a proper AUI. “How’s it going?” she subvocalized.
Well! This little deck is surprisingly robust. It has plenty of storage, even with all of the media Kline loaded into it. The processor isn’t purpose-built like mine, but it has a graphics coprocessor that I can utilize. I think we’re going to be able to accomplish a lot with it, but I’m going to start burning through the battery soon. Can you find a charging station?
Juliet stood up and looked around. It didn’t seem like her room had one. She walked over to the door and touched the call button. A moment later, the screen came to life, and she saw Harriet’s face. “Something wrong?”
“No. Well, not exactly, but how am I supposed to charge this deck?”
“Oh! The tabletop. Anywhere. All the, um, apartments in the, uh, facility have one of those built-in tables.” Harriet’s smile was infectious, and Juliet wasn’t sure if her halting speech was due to nervousness or a natural tick, but it was kind of endearing.
“Thanks, Harriet.” Juliet waited until the screen went opaque again, then turned and walked over to the table. When she set the deck on the plastic surface, the battery icon changed to indicate it was charging. “Easy enough.”
Yes! Just keep it on the table while I work. I’m still analyzing the ICE and the operating AI. When I get that under control, I’ll start working on interface and management protocols for your cybernetics. It’ll take me a while. I think I’ll prioritize your reflexes in case something happens on Friday during your scan.
“I’ll need the deck with me and plugged in, right?”
Oh yes. There’s no wireless capability—they didn’t just disable the software; they must have physically removed the transceiver. Once I have software for your cybernetics, it’ll be useless if you don’t keep the deck plugged in. Think of it as a bulky, external PAI module because that’s what I will turn it into.
“Angel, if they take that deck and analyze it, aren’t they going to see all the stuff you’re doing?”
The software managing this deck is like a stripped-down version of a PAI. That’s how most operating systems work these days. Nobody writes software from scratch anymore; they deploy a general-purpose limited AI on a device and then configure it for specific tasks. When they examine this drive, they will have an AI interface with the operating AI on this drive and, in that conversation, ascertain what you’ve done. They don’t know that I will reprogram the AI on this chip to report only what we want.
“But what if they bypass the AI and just dump all the raw data on the deck?”
An operating AI has control over firmware-level access, or at least it can. When I’m done with this deck, any connection they make, regardless of whether it interfaces with the operating AI, will only pull the data I’ve marked as “non-sensitive,” for lack of a better term. The ICE I’m currently circumventing is meant to stop me from doing any of that. You would have no means even to begin combatting the ICE on this deck without me in your head, and they’ve no idea I’m in here.
“Okay. If you say so.” Juliet leaned on one elbow and worked through the menu until she found the music. She selected a pop song she’d often heard played while on Luna and, while listening to it, let her mind zone out, visualizing what she would do the next day during her “listener” scan.
She thought about the horror Tono felt when he killed the love of his life in a car wreck. She thought about Nick and felt tears spring into her eyes as she remembered finding his body. She remembered watching Lemur’s head slide from his body and roll on the floor like a bloody, lopsided bowling ball. She ran through one horrible memory after another, and by the time the door beeped, and Juliet stood to answer, she had to take a moment to gather herself. She knew it was Harriet delivering her lunch, and Juliet didn’t want her to feel what she’d been brewing for the listener.
“Coming,” she called, slowly exhaling, willing the darkness out of her mind. She felt ready for the listener. Her only concern was that she wouldn’t feel it when it happened, that she wouldn’t know when the listener was “listening,” and wouldn’t be able to focus her empathic push properly. As her AUI flickered and some familiar elements came into focus, she smiled grimly and shook her head. Angel was doing her part. She had to do hers. She had to succeed. She had to show WBD’s cheap knockoff of a psionic what happened when it went digging around in the wrong person’s mind.