Ok the bit about free air was melodramatic perhaps but as he walked towards the main road it occurred to him that until he actually collected some of the allowance that James had organised he really should stick to free as much as possible. It took him a few minutes to make his way to the bus stop and once there realising he had no way to pay bus fare just kept walking in what he hoped was heading to the town centre. By the time he could no longer see the medical facilities he had looked back several times to check for a response, whilst he was not sure what he expected it was disappointing that no reaction was visible from the outside. Feeling vaguely offended that there were no flashing blue lights or helicopters he started checking traffic signs.
Forty minutes later seeing the first sign for the motorway he got to the northbound slip road and started thumbing. It took half an hour of waiting before a lorry stopped. Running to the door he was surprised that a balding middle aged to old man with an enormous belly stopped him from opening the door “ID – show me your ID before you get in my cab”. Digging it out the driver took a photo of it on his phone and then after hearing a chime opened the cab door. “Hey Im Lenn whass the matter with you – get your id up before trying to open the door alright. I nearly hit the panic button. Where you going?” Morgan slid into the cab and then “Conwy – what panic button?”. “You kidding right. The social app. Not going to Conwy but stopping at the services you’ll find someone who is there. That ok?” Nodding agreeably he settled back making a mental note to ask someone what the social app was but since his ignorance had already caused comment with this guy maybe the next guy would tell him. Lenn was starved of conversation and wanted to talk about politics, finding someone wildly uninformed he spent a great deal of time explaining his hopefully crackpot theories about the government organising hard landings to kill communist Buddhists. When they reached the services Morgan got out to use the toilets and thanking Lenn was grateful both for the lift and that the talk had ended.
After freshening up he went to the lorry park and it took very little time finding someone who would get him home or at least Dolgarrog. He took that offer gratefully as he would walk from there. It seemed the social app was a social contribution program, show that you were doing your bit to help others and post it there to prove it. For hikers it had the added benefit of being proof about who picked up who in theory. It made sense he supposed. Another hour and a half later and he was dropped off outside a community much larger than he remembered around a largish power station. Ignoring the place he started walking.
After another couple of hours walking he was approaching the outskirts of Conwy. It had been largely unchanged since the thirteenth century and he was pleased to see that another decade had not visibly changed the place. Taking a quick rest it was time to make some decisions. He wanted to find his family of course but unless he was crazy lucky that would take some time. Time during which food, shelter and water would get important. There was he recalled near the train station a YMCA that would take in vagrants – bitter pill – and then he could work out his status, resources and see what help was available to
Help functions available. Would you like to see your status Y/N
The voice in his head was back. What was this?
This is the K32 monitoring system for functional development. This system is designed to assist incubation protocols by various metrics. Included in this monitoring is interactive guidance. Help functions available. Would you like to see your status Y/N.
Well that seemed quieter at least, if not any clearer. To be fair why should the voices in his head make any sense anyway?
Help functions will be less efficient if not understood. Would you like to see your status Y/N. Well insistent bugger aren’t you – no not now. Even if you were real I don’t want to stand on the road arguing with myself, can we do this quietly anyway?
Verbal input not required, Would you like to see your status Y/N. Morgan clenched the muscles in his leg and then relaxed each of them one at a time, it was a relaxation technique he had been taught as a child. While it had never worked before and was not working now it at least gave him something to do whilst thinking. Eventually that drill finished he silently walked on until he found a bus shelter. Sitting down he took the rucksack off and placing it between his legs and then sighed. Thinking carefully he decided to ask a few questions to his voice. Ok Voice a few things, wait until I’ve finished before responding ok. First do you have a name or title, voice is irritating. Next what is a k32 Monitoring system, what is meant by functional development, what are incubation protocols, what metrics do you use and what’s with the flaming status? Morgan then readied himself for a data dump of gibberish. He sat in a concrete shelter gazing across a slowly darkening sky waiting for enlightenment. After a few minutes he groaned and then added finished.
This unit has no unique designation but when combined with planet code its numeric logging code forms a unique identifier. A Designation may be added to this unit at incubators request. This unit is a k32 monitoring system. Functional development is the development and refinement of function cores as they express functions and achieve integration with supporting systems. Incubation protocols are those protocols designed to allow maturity of function cores without destruction of incubating host. Metrics used are common Confederation notation metrics. Would you like to see your status Y/N
Morgan thought about what he had just heard, there was probably a lot of information there but he lacked context for most of it. Also some of those answers were quite circular. He could either dig into those answers or try to get more information and hope it started to link up and make sense. Assuming any of this was real. Tell you what voice, lets see that status. Bracing himself for something arcane instead a series of charts appeared in front of him each blinking out when they made no sense. Eventually a table formed in the centre of his field of vision. Before reading it he moved his head around watching whilst it remained in the centre of his vision and then closing his eyes it was still visible. Deciding it was some sort of projection it was probably time to read it.
Current Status
Maximum capacity
Health
87%
97%
Senses assistance
2%
100%
Physical assistance
5%
100%
Build systems
Not implemented
Not implemented
Power bleed
63%
2%
Recovery systems
36%
100%
Status - other
99.99% pending
One million forty eight thousand two hundred and seven functional clusters installed of which one million forty eight thousand two hundred and six functional clusters are currently unassigned. Would you like me to list all clusters Y/N
Oh definite no. Morgan read through the chart a few times trying to guess the implications of the numbers. Brow furrowed he slowly articulated his first question . “Voice I have lots of questions but lets start with health – why is my current score 87% and why is my maximum below 100%”
Your current score is due to recovery from long period of immobilisation, your maximum is below 100% due to damage caused by long term immobilisation. Ok no surprises there, “voice – what is meant by senses assistance?”
During initial parameter setting it was indicated that you wished to be as aware as possible – for this reason your base senses were augmented by having unassigned cores not in a function cluster assigned to improvement. To allow assimilation increased functionality is being augmented slowly. Current augmentation is at 2%.Thinking back to over hearing conversations and being revolted by hospital food Morgan just decided to accept that. “Ok Voice, warn me a day before any further augmentations. Can I assume the physical augmentation is similar?”
Yes “ok voice what are build systems and why are they not implemented?”
Build systems are a function for reassigning modifications from non upgradeable systems to those that can be upgraded. As you have only one function core assigned earlier today no build systems are in place as they would be dangerous with no assigned output. “Voice – whats my assigned function core then?”
Stealth – it was assigned during your escape from medical facilities
Morgan mentally shrugged, maybe not as good at sneaking as he had thought. Alright and what does power bleed mean? Its the only one where the numbers seem inverted.
Power bleed is a measure of how much power is wasted during the functioning of a core. The lower that number the better. Why is my number so high, actually no better question what is a normal power bleed number?
This unit does not have a statistical basis for establishing a normal number. Anything over 20% is flagged an urgent systems flaw and may indicate damaged systems. Ugh alright voice getting there I think now recovery systems, what are they and is 36% a problem?
Recovery systems are the means by which damaged function clusters are repaired. This unit does not have a model for defining if that would be a problem. Current status 35%. Systems are suffering ongoing damage due to power bleed. And what can I do about that?
Isolate damaged systems, allow repair functions to recover and then repair clusters one at a time. This system can implement that procedure. Implement procedure Y/N Well yes of course. How long will it take?
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Initiating – Projected down time uncertain. Minimum time 1024 minutes, maximum time 32,768 minutes. This unit will be unresponsive during that time. So Voice -am I right in saying from a few hours to weeks depending on how it goes? Voice? Voice?
After a few moments of silence he started to walk into town again and if he muttered something about idiot machines nobody heard him.
The YMCA was where he remembered it but not how he remembered it. It used to be a beacon of cleanliness and pride in what was quite a shabby area of town frequented by homeless vagrants desperate for a warm night. Whilst it was still clean and well maintained the area around it had become gentrified and it no longer stood out amongst its neighbours. The lack of vagrants made him edgy, a response that would normally have been peculiar. He was exactly the sort that would cross the street rather than make eye contact with a beggar but today bitter pill though it was he was in that category. If there were no longer vagrants to be accommodated would he find the facilities he was after. Head held high he walked into a bright airy lobby with several people in workout clothes drinking concoctions that looked revolting. His growling stomach disagreed but it could just keep on growling, mush and gruel were not on his menu. Not today and with luck never. The sign still said YMCA but the look of the place was middle class gym. With a sinking feeling he approached the desk and rang the bell.
A young lady wearing a uniform that hung loosely on her in places but stretched at others looked at him with a bored expression that slowly morphed into professional interest. “Hello do you have your membership?” she asked in what was a fair imitation of caring. Morgan just launched into his spiel “Hi when I was a lad I was told the YMCA helped those down on there luck. Sadly today thats me. Would you know if you still provide aid to those in need. You know. Homeless. Transient. Like me” looking at him her jaw worked for a few seconds and then she called out to her colleague “Brian whats the policy on bums these days?”
Inwardly wincing Morgan maintained a outwardly calm and polite expression turning towards a middle aged man who looked like he spent far more time at the barbells than the policy manuals. After an initial sour look at the girl he indicated towards some seats and sat down opposite Morgan. “Ok well we do offer help and support still but its a much smaller facility than we used to offer. I’m afraid there are just far fewer homeless at the moment – with national service taking a lot off the street and much lower unemployment due to well you know fewer people around hard landings the facilities are no longer supervised. What we can offer is a room with a bunk bed, camp stove and privacy. Hygiene facilities are shared with the gym. Toilets are the public ones in this lobby. Showers are available during Gym hours only if no paying customers require the facilities. You can use them for a week only during which time you will be expected to sort yourself out. Staff here will help out” glancing across at the young girl with another grimace he continued “though some staff may be more help than others obviously. Is that acceptable?”
Morgan just nodded, he would have liked to hear about dinner being included but otherwise this was ideal. After a moment he responded “oh yeah that sounds great – where do I go?”. Brian chuckled “Slow down there, unsupervised facilities can be abused so we need to know a bit about you then I need to read some rules of conduct. Breaching those rules will result in expulsion and we do keep a national database of the excluded. Before I start would you like a drink. I mean I guess thats the first question, I meant tea or coffee. Is drink a problem for you? “
The interrogation that followed was polite but thorough. Brian gained some points from Morgan when after observing him eating the biscuits with his coffee he ordered a meal from the food area. Essentially he prodded until he got an explanation that made sense to him – he latched onto the concerns about the funding panel with an attitude of both sympathy and understanding. “Well I guess we are all one bad break from those troubles. Should I guess that you would prefer it if we kept you off the books?” Rather than try to explain Morgan latched onto this explanation gratefully and just agreed. After that it all went quickly and Morgan was lead upstairs to a numbered room with a numbered keypad. Brian showed him round an impossibly small room with a bunk bed, sink and what he had thought was a cupboard opened up to reveal a tiny cooking area. Brian left him there after pointing out several cameras in the corridor and warning him that he was not entirely unsupervised. Morgan laid back on his bed and looked round. Ok this room was somewhere between half and a third of the size of the room he had been in at the hospital. The bed was lumpier and he was possibly on the run. All in all a productive day he mused.
Waking up the next morning he called out “Voice?” and waited. No answer came the reply so he started to perform his ablutions at the sink regretting the lack of a toothbrush. So what was his best plan for the day was the question. Ok lets think about it logically like this is a discussion at work. Using his favourite model ORI he started with objectives (resources and issues would probably depress him anyway). Ok he wanted to find his family, get a job, rebuild his life. The first of those was the most important but the job part may be more achievable in the short term.
Resources – alright he had local knowledge of his and Joanne’s friends of family. Less about Annie but maybe school records would be a start there. He had work colleagues who might be able to help both with the family search and with work references. Bottom of the corporate ladder was at least one rung from rock bottom. The big unknown here was voice. Firstly whilst it was extraordinarily detailed maybe every lunatic thought the voice in the head was convincing. Secondly assuming that he was not crazy (or maybe he wondered with a mental giggle he was crazy but not delusional) so what – what could this do for him? Like a bell in his head he suddenly remembered the discussions about specials. Right when voice came back he had question number one. If he was a special maybe he could sponge off the retainer fee Dr Scott had talked about and use that money to fund a search for his family? Speculation, leave it till later. He had a source of funds credited to him according to the discharge team but was wary about collecting it.
Issues – Lack of material resources, money home and food. A stunning lack of familiarity with the current social attitudes. An old fogey like he was would be forgiven but the trouble was he no longer could pass as an old fogey. Oh and that might be another issue, convincing people of his age and or identity. Last but by no means last he might be on the run from the police? Depending of course on how seriously the hospital took discharge.
So looking at all that what was his plan for the day. Begging was out. At least at the moment anyway but lets not take anything off the table. Spend today getting information. Go to the council, check ownership of his old house. Check the electoral register for Joanne and Annie. Go to his company website and see if he recognised anyone – find out how to approach any familiar names. While on the web search for any historical news reports that mention him. Actually any that mention Moran as well. Find out how to earn money, get food. If he got all of that done this was a very productive day, lets see how far down that list he could get.
The first problem was having to wait until the showers were available. Eventually he left the YMCA feeling more human than he had for a while. The walk to the town centre was quite pleasant eating up about forty minutes but giving him time to look round. Something was not quite right but for the life of him he could not work out what the problem was. The yellow doors dotted about were new but he knew what they were for. After a while he let it boil in the back of his head and just forgot about it.
Reaching the town centre he reached a point where he had to decide where to go first. Town hall or the library? After some fretting it occurred to him that police officers were more likely to be at the town hall than the library so turned to follow the street signs for the library. Though he was not going to avoid the police that did not mean go looking for them either.
Walking into the library he looked at the garish horrible art that nobody dared scoff at since the sign above it proclaimed it came from the special needs school. Walking in he found a middle age man next to a fish tank stacking books. A quick discussion reassured him that there were public access internet terminals available for free though the connection speed was described apologetically as painful. Following the hand waved directions and eventually finding some chipboard cubicles he started in on some research.
Well it was not the most encouraging of results. His home had been sold six years after he went to the centre due to non payment of council tax. It had been sold as an empty property and it was unclear what had happened to it after that. The excess monies were held in trust by the council as no family had come forward to claim them. After making note of the case number and details he moved onto the electoral register. That was just a complete bust, he suddenly regretted ticking the confidentiality box on the registration forms.
Ok moving on his company was apparently still trading though the offices had moved to an industrial estate out of town. Going there would be a full day so that was out for today. No personnel were listed so it would be speculative if not purely sentimental. What the hell nothing wrong with being sentimental.
It took some searching but eventually he found news reports about his assault. Strangely it was not in the local rag but in something called the fortean times. It had been speculated that demonic possession was the cause of a burst of fire that had injured two drivers. The assault was not mentioned but since the younger of the two drivers had spontaneously combusted in police custody eight hours later only this paper had carried any stories. Probably a waste of time but Morgan noted the listed journalist and started to look for a dude named Moran who was hospitalised at the same time. This was much easier, a poor unfortunate in Reading had been captured and tortured by a local gang over gambling debts. Things got out of hand and he was hospitalised with “serious brain trauma” and assigned to you guessed it the William Grove facility. Was it possible that they actually had his contact details and if I just told them where to look his problems would be solved by someone else? Try that later as his trust was still damaged.
Folding the loose leaf paper the library had been kind enough to provide him with for notes into his pocket he left the library and sat down to organise his thoughts. No real progress on the hunt for family but not a problem there were other options. Resolving to visit Joanne’s family and friends until someone could give him a lead the next problem was food and money.
Looking round for a job centre wasted some time until he was directed back to the library. Apparently the job arboretum (why did every change of name just keep getting more stupid) was on the 1st floor. Getting back to the Library he saw the sign noting that he had probably been too revolted by the art to look in the right direction and headed upstairs. Once upstairs the signage was more obvious leading him quickly to the job arboretum. The idea was dumb in so many ways but after he got the idea at least he felt less irritated by the stupid name. The room was filled with pots labelled either with the name of a course or an employer and stick sculptures showed what jobs or careers they could lead to. Kind of like showing opportunities as a gamer’s tech tree. Was this seriously how people thought information was best presented? After a brief impulse to run round knocking pots over was suppressed he looked for help from some staff. Finding the book stacker again he was told there would be a job fair in two weeks but all recruitment advertising was done on line these days. Register on a site tell them it what you wanted and let the AI’s sort out your life and career. Not phrased that way of course, just let the website do its job and tell you what you were going to do.
As disturbing as that idea was Morgan sat on a bench outside the library and wondered how he was going to get a job in the medium term. In the short term food was an issue that had to be addressed. Admitting defeat Morgan walked towards the town hall only to turn back when he saw a card machine at the door which people waved ID badges at. Still wanting to stay under the radar he made his way back to his room at the YMCA.
Walking in he saw the same pair as yesterday on the desk who appeared to be half messing about, half practicing some sort of juggling act between them. Seeing him wander in Brian called a break and wondered over to talk to him. “So how was your day, did you find any of your friends that could help you out?” Sitting down Morgan reflected that he had done an awful lot of walking today and though he expected to need a break the 5% physical augmentation must be kicking in because he felt fine but just anwered “no, got some information from the electoral roll and old news reports on the web but no results just yet”. Brian nodded and seemingly ignoring the reply continued “see the thing is I was asking round about work for people who are reluctant to show ID. Got some answers but I gotta say man. These people are sketchy – By definition people casual about id are kind of sketchy”. Morgan heard everything he said but somehow tuned out everything but one comment “A job? No questions asked a job without ID?” Frowning Brian slowly replied taking care to enunciate clearly “Yes, but the work is – I don’t know what the work is ok? If you want to do this you need to be at the corner of Bradshaw at half six tomorrow morning. Payment is cash in hand. Make sure you agree a rate before you start. You hear rumours yknow” . Morgan was ecstatic about finally making progress somewhere and looked up “Well its not like my finances can get worse. Do you have an alarm clock I could use?”
Half six in the morning was something he used to joke about. Now here he was on a street corner wondering what was coming his way and what he was going to get out of all this. A convoy of dirty beat up VW Vans rolled up and a rough looking man walked up to him. In an eastern European accent he asked him “a doni pune?” then seeing his blank expression “you want work?”.
Morgan nodded vigorously and speaking slowly asked “how much and what work?” earning a spit from the driver?boss?paymaster? and the contemptuous reply “you lazy brit people – good work good pay. Say yes or time wasted and I go. You eat? We give food”. This was obviously a squeeze to get him to go without agreeing in advance but there was a problem. His pitch was right on target, Morgan needed money and food. After a couple of seconds he just got in the van, if he got screwed then do something else tomorrow. How bad could it get?