Cassandra Williams sat in her office hard at work. The law was not an easy profession even with her mental augments. She wore a specially tailored gray suit and gray glasses cut in the style of the late 21st century. Her short blonde bob swooshed as she ran on the treadmill.
Internally she was handling a phone call. Despite her body working overtime her mind’s voice was placid and calm. “No, we’re going to have to reschedule the pre-trial. I’ll file for an extension with the judge’s replacement. There were too many conflicts of interest. We’ll talk again in a week. Goodbye.”
As she hopped off the treadmill in her office she took a minute to catch her breath. Then she finally gave up and moved to grab her daily neural link chip. “I hate using these.” She muttered. She sat down, took a moment to rub her eyes and sighed. She was already dreaming of the after work cocktails she’d be getting tonight at the new bar across town.
Instead she started loading up her new memory package. Years of college education flowed into her head in a few minutes. It was bizarre and disorienting. They weren’t her memories, and they weren’t her experiences. Even edited down and stripped of all the emotional and personal detail they were distinctly alien.
It was absolutely necessary to keep up with the legal profession these days but that didn’t make it any more pleasant.
She sat in silence for several minutes processing the flood of new information. It was unprofessional to drink at work but she really, really wanted to. Her hand started to edge towards the bottom drawer of her desk when her neural-cell began to ring in her head.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” She said, fighting back the splitting headache she was beginning to develop and pushing it to the back of her mind.
“Miss Williams, one of your clients is on the line.” Her secretary said over the link.
“Is it that important? You know I don’t want to be disturbed right after getting my update.”
“It’s Johnny Hashmoore, boss. He says it’s urgent.”
“Yeah yeah, it’s always urgent.” She placed her palm over her face and sighed, taking a moment to steel herself.
“Alright, patch him through.”
“Hey Cassie, you gotta help me out! I’m in big trouble here.”
“Well hello Johnny, it’s always good to hear from one of my repeat clients. What do you have going on this time?”
“Some darkie foreigners came to my house and started causing trouble, so I beat ‘em up and sent them on their way. They said they were gonna press charges, so I figured I should call ya.”
“Yeah? You sure they were the ones causing trouble? It’s not good to lie to your lawyer, you know. Don’t worry, you know I’m bound by attorney client privilege.”
“Alright yeah, I might have been a little aggressive, but I promise you I wasn’t doing anything bad.” He said jovially.
“He probably believes that too,” she thought glumly. She didn’t like protecting people like him, and she often thought about dropping him as a client. Still, the money was good enough. Besides, everyone needed someone to defend them. Even the worst people, like Johnny, needed someone in their corner.
“Alright, I take it you’ve got the recordings, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to send it on the net.”
“Fine, fine. Come on in later today. Just keep in mind I’m charging extra. Everything will come up during the pre-trial so it’s not like any of this is going to be a secret. I’ll make sure to defend you to the best of my abilities.”
“That’s good. Don’t worry, I’ve got lots of sights to show ya.”
“I’m sure you do. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye.”
—--
Dara Wharton lost herself in her old shows again. There had been a time when she hated connected movie universes, but modern entertainment no longer interested her. It was all direct-to-brain first person experiences with far too much sex and violence for her taste. She found comfort in old things.
Despite her advanced age and her desire mostly dying off long ago, she still enjoyed films with the attractive male actors she’d once enjoyed. Many of them had been taken by time - both drug use and not quite making it to the point where the cure for aging had been invented took more than their fair share. Yet others had died from violence. The last century hadn’t been peaceful, even setting aside the vast metropolises that had been annihilated in the brief exchanges of nuclear war.
She looked on her shelf and took a moment to remember as she gazed upon a vial full of what had once been Los Angeles. The vial itself merely contained sand - the actual remains of the city were too dangerously radioactive or contaminated with chemicals from the city ruins to carry anywhere. Time had moved forward and there was a city there once again. It had only taken fifty years for it to become a bustling metropolis a second time.
She closed her eyes and shuddered as she recalled the faces of children with third degree burns, nerves so scorched they felt no pain. Disaster relief there had been a horror beyond horrors, and eternal proof that they needed no machine emperor to make life painful. Mankind had more than enough sin to its name to match even the superhuman horror they faced.
It was that very thing that made her frightened for Sam. She knew that he didn’t like his lack of enhancement. It seemed hypocritical to her that she’d once made cybernetics to save the victims of nuclear fire and now forbid them to her own grandson. Yet she felt that was precisely what she needed to do.
There was another fire in her memories. One that consumed the very people dedicated to helping others, and one not a product of war, but spite and grief.
Power could not change the nature of someone, only magnify it. Now was the only time she could truly help to shape Sam. Once he was enhanced he would be beyond her and there would be nothing she could do. Already that power had ruined so many people in her life and created a monster the world could not contain. Could humanity even last like this? She didn’t know, but if there was a hope it wouldn’t lie in twisting their humanity. That was why she’d decided to grow old and die rather than live on like the rest.
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Already the tumors were growing within her body, a legacy of that time in the fallout of a destroyed city decades ago. Now only one enhancement held them at bay - a threadbare immune system enhancer that kept it in check. At one press of a button on her chair it would be over.
Sam still needed her. It was the only thing she truly had left.
She was disturbed in her reverie over forgotten times when her cell phone rang. She picked it up expecting spam, but saw an unexpected name. At that moment she knew everything would change.
—
Loki was on a mission. The very friendly humans had allowed him into their apartment and he took full advantage of it. Loki hadn’t been his name for very long, but that was fine. For cats a unique scent was enough to identify them to each other. He liked the human name anyway. Apparently it was the name of a trickster and that was fitting considering what he was doing now.
He’d snuck out of Sam’s room, hopping up and using his paws to hang off the doorknob until he could turn it enough for it to open. Then he very carefully crept out into the hallway, doing his best to make no sound at all. This was fairly easy as the floor was carpeted. Still, he couldn’t let the old lady know that he was out. The most dangerous part of the journey was just up ahead.
Suddenly there was a loud ringing sound from the living room and he jumped straight up into the air. He barely suppressed the yowl that he instinctually wanted to make and did his best to land quietly on the floor. The old woman started talking to seemingly no-one.
“It’s been years since I last spoke to you,” She said.
Loki did his best to creep up on the hallway and glance into the area the humans called the, “living room.” Since they seemed to live in every room he didn’t understand why it was called that, but he understood it just the same.
“Yes, you did what I asked you to do, even if it wasn’t what I expected.”
She was speaking into a small rectangle, her motorized chair facing the television and away from him. Loki would have laughed if that was something cats did. Instead he did his best to silently pad past the hallway and towards the kitchen.
“I… don’t know,” the old woman said, voice full of uncertainty. Suddenly Loki realized that she was using the strange human magic that let them talk with other humans over long distances. That was good - she’d be distracted while he got to work.
“It’s been such a long time, but I don’t know if that’s something I could ever forgive, even now.” She said, her voice full of regret.
He moved to the kitchen and next to the fridge. He listened to the conversation to make sure she didn’t end what she was doing. Things would get a lot harder if she did. Leaping up on the counter he went over to the sink. Once there he carefully grabbed a dirty butterknife in his mouth, barely able to carry it. He swatted a hot pad off the counter and dropped the knife on it, hoping beyond all hope that it wouldn’t bounce off and make a loud noise.
“You’re outside right now? I suppose I can let you in. We’ll at least talk. I owe you that much.” The old human said. This gave Loki a sense of renewed urgency.
He braced his front paws on the refrigerator and his hind paws on the door. Then using all his strength he pushed and pushed and pushed. He wasn’t very large or strong, but he was able to barely manage it. He put the dirty butterknife in the door, carefully balancing it so that it held it open. Then he made his way to the meat tray and pulled it open.
There it was - the golden prize. A pack of sliced ham. The writing said “Vat grown”, but he didn’t know what that was. He put it in his mouth and pulled it out of the drawer.
Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. Loki leapt out of the fridge, moved the hot pad beneath the refrigerator door, and knocked the butterknife down with a swipe of his paw. It silently hit the pad and the great door began to swing closed. He then darted behind the kitchen island just in time, hiding from sight as the old woman’s chair moved towards the front door.
He panted heavily, the exertion of opening the refrigerator and almost getting caught making him feel desperate. He set down the packet of ham - it was incredibly heavy.
He peeked around the corner and saw the front door swing open. A man stepped in, dressed in colorful looking clothes that made a continually shifting pattern.
He had to suppress the instinct that came up in him to go pounce on it. The shifting pattern was alluring, tempting, so… so…
He found himself silently chittering without realizing he was doing it.
“Hello Dara.” the male human said, his voice as rich and deep as any Loki had ever heard.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” The old woman asked.
Loki could have sworn he saw the man’s eyes dart near him for a moment, but it was so brief he couldn’t be sure. He’d never seen a human move that fast before. The man looked casual and slow, but he felt his fur stand on end. It was like standing near an angry dog. Something about him gave off the impression of a predator. He held his breath and ducked completely out of sight.
“No need for extra pleasantries,” He said, voice booming in the confined space of the apartment. “Let’s go talk.”
“Alright, come to my room.”
As they moved out of sight Loki finally let himself breathe again. He didn’t move until he heard a door close.
Then he charged as fast as he could into Sam’s room and out of the window to the fire escape. The great ham heist was complete! His mom and siblings would eat well tonight too.
—
Cassandra let the man into her office, his bulk immediately filling the room. She made sure her security systems were active and working on overdrive when he was here. The skinhead was on his best behavior with her, but that didn’t mean much.
“Well if it isn’t my favorite lawyer.” He grinned.
“Alright, Johnny. Let’s not waste time. Hand over the memory and let’s take a look.”
“What, no time to be friendly? Alright, fine. Here you go.”
The man blinked and she received a neural link request, which she immediately sent to the company filter for review. She waited… no problems. The file came back clean, nothing strange. She hated watching the memories of this sociopath more than she hated downloading new memories every morning but it provided a clear, unfiltered view of events.
The moment she accepted the memory she knew something was wrong. She didn’t experience anything. She tried to talk and say something, double check on the file, only to find she couldn’t move at all.
She tried using her neural link to call someone, only to find that too was disabled. For all intents and purposes, she was completely paralyzed. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and couldn’t do anything else.
“I see.” She said against her will, with words not her own. “Come closer. Let me take a look at the mark from the attack. We may be able to do something with that in court.”
Internally she was screaming, thrashing, and trying to make herself move. She was unable to do anything but what her puppeteer wanted. Johnny moved closer, her body now on autopilot as she grabbed his hand at an angle that left the cameras unable to see the full detail.
As her hands moved to cup Johnny’s arm, she felt a sharp, stinging pinch in the back of her hand. Something had pierced her skin - a concealed needle or something like it, she guessed.
“We’re going to need a fulldive pod to go over this in more detail. I’ll call my secretary and set something up,” She heard her own voice say.
Over the neural link she heard a message. It was in a voice very different from the one Johnny used.
“You’re a smart woman, Cassandra. Do you know who I am now?”
As she got up and walked to the office’s pod, she realized that she’d been speaking with the Machine Emperor all along. No matter how much she wanted to scream she couldn’t. She simply walked smiling towards her fate.