“Love is infinite but time is finite. As children we were told we had to choose. Focus on your art or your craft. A Jack of all trades is a master of none. We set aside our dreams and followed one path at the cost of all others. Now we don’t have to choose. We can follow all of our dreams. Time has always been money, but now money can be time.”
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I arrived at the Chrome Emporium still grinning between breaths. I was slightly out of breath but Fen was nowhere in sight. I felt amazing. In through the nose out through the mouth. Control the lungs with the diaphragm. Not so fast I hyperventilate nor so slow I hypoxiate. It was all second nature, not something I needed to think about, just something I did. A-maze-ing!
I could actively control what I was doing, now. Mastering my breath control had only taken a 15 minute jog. I started in a zen-like state where my body moved and I didn’t feel involved. Strange and not fun. I tried taking over and lost the rhythm, slowing down until I could bring the zen state back. I tried paying attention to what I was doing without trying to change anything. Learning how to do something you are already doing is super easy. I think there is more for me to learn, from myself? From my past selves? But I was at my destination so that would have to wait.
The store doesn’t look impressive from the outside. A hole in the wall, with a lone ad for hardware arms on the outside. I take a few moments to slow my breathing and calm down. The AR ad playing outside the Chrome Emporium is an arm performing dumbbell curls. At the bottom of each curl the dumbbell would have more plates added and the arm strains, trying to lift the weight. Only once another piece of metal, more synth muscle or neon wires were added to the arm would it be able to perform another rep. By the last iteration the arm was all shiny and chrome and the dumbbell was massive. It is an interesting answer to the ship of Theseus. Each time a board breaks it is replaced with a break resistant board. Each sail that rips is replaced with a rip resistant sail. Each sailor that leaves the ship or dies in its service is replaced by a cybernetic sailor. At the end of the journey of course the ship isn’t the same. It’s a better ship that has been improved by its journey.
That is how I am going to view my memory problems. I am sick, but I am getting better. Even if I regain all of my memories I will not be Flash when I am done healing. I will be someone better. I’m not the ship of Theseus, I’m the … Ghosts in just one shell? A traumatized transhumanist? The progression protagonist? The Mighty Morphing Mental Ranger? I’m not great at names and I like alliteration. Sue me.
With a last deep breath I push the door open. A digital bell sounds as the door swings closed behind me. The interior is crammed with stuff. Some of the stuff is clearly broken. Three short aisles break up the customer side of the shop. The hardware is bolted to the walls. Hardware accessories are mixed in bins at the end of the aisles. The aisles display hardware maintenance things, cleaning cloths, tool kits and the like.
H3atS1nk watches over his store from the proprietor side, like an ogre behind a cluttered workbench / counter. His arms are both modded with hardware. I can see the same model strapped on the wall to my left. Two doorways led further into the shop, one labeled bathroom the other labeled employees only. No sign of a chair like the one I woke up in at A Stitch in Time.
H3atS1nk is keeping an eye on me as he tinkers with a partially disassembled metal hand. I walk through the shop, trying not to brush into anything on the shelves. Little ads for the products pop up in my vision as I walk past.
Hiver’s Choice Reclomated Synth blood, 1 liter
Guaranteed to be C quality or higher
Suitable for human use!
10 sols and 5 bits
Add to Cart
Buy now
Just one click!
Close
Block
I dismiss them as soon as the prompts appear. I’m not here to buy synth blood. H3atS1nk is still pretending to mess with the robotic hand but I have his full attention as I approach his work bench.
“Nothing catches your interest kid?” The huge man asks, still hunched over his project.
“Not really,” I raise my arms demonstrating that I’m all meat. “Meat doesn’t need synth blood to work, but maybe you can help me with something else.”
I hear the digital bell sound behind me but before I can look H3atS1nk’s eyes glow and a red light washes over me. What?
“You ain't integrated yet. None of this” He gestures to the hardware bolted to the walls “is calibrated to work without an integrated core.”
Did he just scan me? My core? Was that red light necessary or just an AR artifact? “I heard from a friend that you can do wetware installs?”
“Maybe, what do you want installed?” His attention is focusing back on the hand in front of him. He pulls out a pair of needle nose pliers and gently pulls on something inside it.
“I don’t want anything installed, but I’m looking for my friend, the one who told me you do wetware installs.”
“Kid, if you’re not going to buy anything then get out of my shop.” He’s not even looking at me anymore.
“I just need to know if she had any wetware installed here today or yesterday, maybe the day before yesterday at the earliest.”
“Kid, I don’t hand out customer information. Period. I don’t care if you’re her friend, her boyfriend or her big brother. Get out of my shop.” H3atS1nk puts down the pliers placing both hands on the workbench he lifts himself up towering over me.
I put my hands up, palms open trying to ward him away “I don’t want any trouble but please, she’s gone missing and Mama Isabella wants me to find her I just need” *hurk* He grabs me by the neck and lifts me off the floor; one handed. Stepping over the workbench he carries me to the door. I’m dangling over a low shelf as each of his legs takes up an aisle. I reach, grabbing onto his arm with both hands, pulling myself up. I gasp a breath of air. Behind him I see Fen, when did he come in? Fen is slipping through the door labeled employees only. I consider fighting back, but he is wildly stronger than me and this is his shop. Besides, I don’t think he’s noticed Fen.
I look into his eyes, trying to gauge his intentions. He is frowning at me but I don’t see unbridled rage or a loss of control. I let him push me out the door before twisting his hand away from my neck while kicking off his chest. His one handed throat choke holds is impressive but inherently unstable. I land on the street taking several steps back. God, even outside his lair he’s huge, seven, maybe eight feet tall. He doesn’t chase me.
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He squints his eyes, reassessing me after I broke his hold “You’re not welcome in my shop kid. You come back in or bother any of my customers and I won’t let you off so easily.”
He backs into his shop without breaking eye contact with me. I brush myself off, cross the street and sit down looking at the Chrome Emporium. I don’t think I knew H3atS1nk from the before. At least I didn’t have any strong feelings about him. I do now, he’s a self interested asshole more interested in covering his own ass than saving the life of another human.
With nothing better to do until Fen comes out I watched the people walking along the street. This is a commercial area, aka super mall. Many people are walking by but there isn’t a lot of traffic. Is this too early for rush hour or does the Hive never sleep?
The clothing was a mix of familiar and alien. A man with a prominent widow’s peak in his neon blue hair is wearing a business suit while walking next to a woman with crew cut hair wearing a mechanic’s overalls. A helmeted man in riot gear stops by a food stand and buys chicken flavored mmmmeat on a stick from a woman dressed for a punk rock show.
The clothing was slightly exotic to my 21st century eyes. The riot suit looked like it was made from ceramic plates. The suit was some kind of Neo-Victorian style. A long vest and or waistcoats made from leather with a metallic looking mesh on top, although I could see a woman farther up the street wearing a similar style suit with no petticoats or corsets in sight. Faux leather, I assume. If you have real animals to harvest leather from there wouldn’t be so much mmmmeat.
I try to lean into my eyedrop’s effects, trying to pull up a memory to give context to what I’m seeing. I’m not experiencing any visuals, my arms feel normal and the floaty feeling is so faint I can barely feel it. It’s only 8:15, I should be feeling the drug's effect for at least the next half hour. Exercise must burn the drug out of my system, or adrenaline balances out the effects or whatever.
All of the conversations I can hear are mercantile. Business first, second, and only. I think there are other conversations happening, but they are all in private groups. People are texting with each other, although one woman is moving her jaw rather than flicking her eyes. Subvocalizing? I tried subvocalizing a memo to myself and it kind of works. ‘Making a memo to myself’ turned into
Making a lemon to my elf.
Another skill I could practice, but I don’t feel the pull that I do towards my dailies. Why am I so focused on them? They aren’t fun, exactly. I do like numbers going up but clicker games lose their appeal after a few hours. I check my progress.
Daily Quests
XP
Gym
433/2000
Reading / Writing
0/1000
Math
0/1000
Art
0/2000
Music
0/1000
History
0/2000
Science!
0/1000
Programming
168/1000
Social Studies
0/1000
I didn’t time myself but assuming half an hour of light to medium cardio I’m getting less xp than I would from normal training in the creche. What is the program looking for?
Fen: We’re done here. Meet me by the food stall selling baked fruit on a stick.
I look at the front door of the Chrome Emporium but Fen isn’t coming out. I haven’t been paying close attention but there is no way he could have slipped out without me noticing. The location is on my app’s map again, without me agreeing to anything. I need to turn off this auto accept bullshit.
I stand up and jog down the street. The food stall is two levels down. My map has a set of stairs marked but I spot a convenient scaffolding and use that to hop down the two levels.
I find Fen next to the food stand licking some syrup from the baked fruit on a stick off his hand.
Fen: Great distraction. Did you plan that or was that your natural charisma?
David: Ha ha, no I didn’t plan to get thrown out of the Chrome Emporium. Why are you down here? For that matter, how did you get out of the Chrome Emporium? I didn’t see you use the front door.
Fen: There’s a back door that opens onto the street back that a way.
Fen gestures with his still sticky left hand back in the direction of the hardware shop.
Fen: The shop has multiple levels, there’s an operating suit on this level. Not sure why an operating room needs a back door, but I was happy to use it once I found it. Couldn’t count on another lucky distraction.
David: So, did Lily get her wetware installed there?
Fen taps the side of his head.
Fen: I don’t know. I found H3atS1nk’s operating chair and downloaded its recent memory. It doesn’t have patient names but it does have the core IDs of everyone it was used on for the past deciday. We can check the creche’s records and see if Lily was one of them.
I consider it. That is almost all the information we could have gotten from H3atS1nk. The only problem is we don’t know if we are done until we go back to GSC 138.
Daid: That’s good work Fen. Were infiltration and exfiltration part of the skills you picked up?
Fen grins, his ears flicking up and to the sides in joy and for a moment the bitterness is completely gone. He looks like the Fenris from my memory. If he had a tail it would be wagging. I smile.
Fen: Maybe, not those specific skills but something like that.
Fen rubs the back of his head and looks away.
David: That worked so well, want to try the same thing at the other shops? I go in first and try to just ask for the info and if that doesn’t work make enough of a distraction that you can nin nin into the back?
Fen: (¯―¯ ٥) Ok!
David: Where to next?
Fen: Tools R Us is the next closest, then maybe Build a Better U. Pro Wetware Solutions and A Stitch in Time are about the same distance so we could do either one after BBU.
I quickly look up Tools R Us, adding the destination to my map app.
David: You know the first step right?
Fen: What?
David: Race you!
Fen: Davvvvvvvid!