Thaigoon looked up sharply at the air that was the source of RETA’s voice. “That’s not what I was expecting.” Before thinking about it, he stood and went to the door and opened it.
“Hello...oh. I have disturbed your sleep. I can return later. This is not important.” Mahina nodded her head in a slight bow. “I apologize for bothering you.”
“No, it’s ok. Please come in. It’s not every day corporate royalty visits me.” He blinked a bit more than he needed to as the fog continued to lift from his mind. He sidestepped and motioned her to enter. He reached over and turned the lights up.
Mahina’s lips drew into a line as she entered his quarters. This process was a bit uncomfortable for her to begin with since she was entering the quarters a man whom she barely knew. This would have been unthinkable in her previous life, especially as “corporate royalty”. In the current climate where casual sex was nearly universal in the scrums, it made her feel exposed even though sex was the last thing on her mind. She was not one to partake in such things. Although perhaps even that old thought process needed to be reconsidered. The whole point of joining this colony project was to escape her old life and her old expectations.
She took a moment to take in his quarters. It wasn’t messy although cluttered would be a necessary and apt description. He had myriad of what appeared to be partly finished projects laying around. Some of them had flashing lights blinking endless reminders of their need for attention. Mahina noted a set of goggles on the floor. She, at first glance, was absolutely not going to pick up the VR goggles of a man who was just in bed. Yet, she looked back at him. He is wearing a haptic suit so he couldn’t have been doing too much of anything. Wait.
Mahina scowled in thought and picked up the goggles. Before she could get a good look of what was displayed on them, Thaigoon stepped in.
“Oh,” He took the goggles. “Sorry, I was just reminiscing.” He couldn’t help frowning a little as that was almost painful to just consider it merely reminiscing. He set the goggles on his bed and scratched at the back of his head as he stood back up.
Mahina used the opportunity to look at the suit. It fit him nicely and it was somewhat snug and form-fitting. Thaigoon, while normally was not someone she would consider with potential interest, he was not unattractive. He was about her height, perhaps a bit shorter. His jet-black hair was spiked perfectly in spite of having just woken as one would expect in a scrum. He had brown, almond eyes and bronze skin commonly found in Southeast Asia. She suspected there was some westerner of some sort in his bloodline as well. In truth, it was impossible to tell anymore.
The Japanese remnant, some Chinese, and some Scandinavians were the only ones left who even attempted to keep their ethnic blood lines pure. In Mahina’s opinion it was a fool’s errand. The mixing of ethnicities was very thorough before people tried to consider preserving ethnic bloodlines. Thus, by the time the preservation effort started, it was already too late. Humans being humans, they would cheat with resequencing and gene therapy. In the end, humans discovered they could theoretically change their ethnicity whenever they wanted. This just cheapened the effort to preserve anything.
While her own ancestors had worked hard to maintain a pure Japanese bloodline, Mahina never felt inclined to maintain that tradition. So much so, that the only way she would have children now is via surrogate or ectogenesis. She certainly was not going to concern herself with looking for a pure Japanese man to be the father. Assuming, she ever decided to use those frozen eggs. She would never have wondered aloud in front of anyone in her family, with the exception of her sister, but she wasn't entirely certain that her bloodline was pure Japanese.
For as common and easy as cosmetic changes were to eye or hair or skin color, it did not go unnoticed by Mahina that he had done none of that. He certainly could have changed it on his Scrum avatar with even greater ease. She wondered to herself if there was some sort of quiet confidence at play. And she found that quite attractive in itself. Nevertheless, she should get to the point of her visit.
“So... can I help you with something?” Thaigoon offered as he turned back toward her.
“Are you using VR inside a scrum?” She asked.
“Heh,” As opposed to when he spoke with Booster, for some reason he felt chagrined. “I was just seeing if I could do it.”
“Hmm.” She nodded and moved on. “I was hoping to ask for a favor. For some help.”
“Oh? With what?”
“I want something to help me evade the Omnilander’s security so that I may come and go as I please without being detected.”
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Thaigoon was a little surprised at the request. While he was certainly not above shirking conventions like security and protocol, he didn’t expect the same thing from someone like Mahina.
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“Uh, why would you want to do that?” Thaigoon asked. “I mean, who is going to tell you, you can’t leave or do whatever you want?”
Mahina paced for a moment as she considered what she wanted to say. The problem was that she felt a bit silly for even feeling the need to do this, but she simply wanted her privacy. She wanted to come and go as she desired and to succeed or fail and she saw fit. This is especially true if the leadership decided to not follow her advice. She turned and looked at him in the eye having decided to walk him through everything.
“You know the PHENOtype system that has been introduced?” She saw his nod and continued. “I think there may be more to this than may be obvious. I think we are wasting time not moving faster to understand what that system is. Some in the leadership may try and prevent people from leaving the lander to try and pursue this action. They are acting with too much caution, and I believe we should be out there exploring and learning what this planet and this system has to offer. If they will not pursue it, I will.”
“I mean...it’s kind of dangerous out there, right?”
“We will respawn as needed and without negative impact on the scrum. This has already been verified with RETA.”
Thaigoon nodded and thought for a moment. “Did you ask RETA if she could ignore you?”
Mahina blinked. She had not thought of that. Could it be that simple?
Thaigoon smiled his charming smile. “RETA, can you ignore Mahina when she comes and goes from the Omnilander?”
“I can ignore Mahina since she will not be placing the Omnilander and its personnel in danger. I cannot prevent others from noticing her on cameras or opening secured doors.”
“What if she had backdoor permissions and scrambler token?”
“Mahina Arita does not have backdoor permissions nor does anyone in this scrum have permissions to add her.”
“Sure,” Thaigoon shrugged. “But IF she DID, then she could access doors without notifying anyone correct?”
“Yes.”
“And the scrambler token will prevent the cameras from seeing you.” Thaigoon grinned at Mahina.
“What’s a Scrambler Token?”
“It’s tech that can slot into an expansion port. It’s an old netrunner trick. It interferes with the camera processing relay. It tags you as noise which then gets filtered out. It’s not perfect. Someone looking for an anomaly might still see you or a weird blob moving around. It will only work with the image data being routed through the Omnilander. So don’t try to use it with any security personnel or drones that may be piloted directly from the field.”
“And you have one of these on hand?” Mahina asked.
“I will have one shortly along with your backdoor permissions. I don’t have to physically make the tech; I just have to tell the scrum that I made the tech.”
RETA spoke up, “Mahina Arita does not have back door permissions and no one in this scrum has permissions to allow that.”
“Shhh,” Thaigoon said soothingly. “It’s ok, bebe. I’ll get it all worked out.”
“This won’t cause you any issues?” Mahina asked.
“No, the permission will only be for this scrum instance, and it will only allow you to access nonrestricted areas. Don’t try to break into the Con or engineering and we’ll be fine.” His eyes narrowed in contemplation. "What are you going to do out there?"
"Are you familiar with role-playing games? Progession Novels? Game-like worlds?"
"Of course. I generally go for more realistic VR novels and games. But I've played a few."
She tilted her head. "Doesn't this seem like one of those games?"
Thaigoon considered this for a moment. "Yeah, but I mean, it's not like we're going to gather more power and become superhuman. It's just a narrative device, right?"
Some of us are already superhuman to some extent, Mahina thought but didn't speak aloud. "I don't exactly know how this turns out." She admitted. "But it seems to me there is more to this than we think. If we do become superhuman in the scrum, and we need that to explore this world, then landing there without having done that exploration, may be very dangerous. People will likely die for the lack of preparation. I think it's safe to assume there is a reason for all of this to be happening."
He nodded in understanding.
"And," She spread her hands out with a shrug. "It might be kind of fun?"
Mahina smiled at Thaigoon and he might have melted a little. She put a hand on his shoulder, “How can I pay you back?”
Thaigoon’s mouth went dry, and he tried to get his mind to work. He wasn’t normally a bumbling schoolboy when it came to women, but it had been a while since anyone had touched him. Even in a scrum. He had forgotten what such a simple gesture could mean. He suddenly realized he had been so isolated. “You, uh...you can just owe me one. I mean this is kind of my thing. You know...sticking it to the man. Although you are usually on the side, I’m sticking it to.” He went pale as he realized the words that had just come out of his mouth. “I mean, you’re not a man and I would never stick it to you. I mean, you look awesome and are totally stickable.”
Thaigoon just froze and his brain tried to reboot. Damn, how did that go so wrong so fast?
Mahina laughed. It felt nice. She couldn’t remember the last time she laughed. “Ok, well, I owe you one. And Thaigoon, I’m just another colonist like anyone else. Any money or power I had are light years away. So, thank you for your help.” She gave him a polite bow and left his quarters.
“RETA,” Thaigoon croaked. “Can you eject my capsule into space?”
“No, Thaigoon.”
“No? OK. Let me know if anything changes regarding that. Like if you need volunteers.” Thaigoon went to sit down at his workstation. He muttered to himself, “She's just another colonist. So smooth Thaigoon.”
He sighed. “What was that anyway?” He shook his head. "I need to get laid or something."