23. Getting Connected

23 – Getting Connected

Sometime in the night, while he’d been deep in a feverish dream about a conflict his Imperial Guard unit had been sent to in the Aphrodite Aerostat Corridor above Venus, Hector’s aura system completed his second level up. Surprisingly, the process didn’t wake him, but he had a feeling it interrupted the dream, which he was grateful for; that conflict wasn’t one he wanted to relive. When he awoke, Evie displayed a window on his AUI with a much sharper, less intrusive version of the native, direct-neuro message:

//Corpus vivum conditioning complete and level advancement has been applied. Results are as follows:

• Strengthened aura pathways, increasing maximum load—use caution when exploring this limit to avoid aura overload
• Aura Pool increased from 10 to 12
• Strength increased from 9.8 to 10.4
• Speed increased from 11.4 to 11.7
• Vitality increased from 9.1 to 9.9
• New archetype pathways detected—exploring

Aura Potentia Available: 2

End Report.//

Hector cleared his throat, blinked into the dark apartment, and then read the report again. Evie, what’s the note about a new archetype?

//I’ve detected new pathways, but mapping and conversion calculations will take some time to decipher. Perhaps in a day or so I’ll have an archetype description for you.//

You’re definitely a lot cleverer this time around, aren’t you?

//Yes, I suppose that’s one way to put it. I’ve learned some tricks that weren’t available to me during your previous trek through the lower levels.//

Hector couldn’t help the smile that took over his lips. He’d never admit it, but it was a tremendous relief to have Evie talking to him again.

//You don’t have to admit it. I can read your mind.//

His smile fell away. Don’t remind me.

She seemed to take the hint and changed the subject. //You’ll need more potentia to level this corpus vivum again.//

He moved into a sitting position, trying to be silent because he could hear Lemon’s slow, steady, sleeping breaths. Gonna work on that today.

His AUI told him it was nearly six in the morning, so he pulled his duffel close and picked out some clothes before slipping into the bathroom to get cleaned up. He tried to be quiet, but the walls and door were thin, and the pipes were noisy. When he came out, his ears—much enhanced thanks to his new augments—picked up the change in Lemon’s breathing right away.

“Sorry,” he muttered, walking over to the kitchen.

“I was ready to wake up.” She was lying, but Hector didn’t call her out. She yawned sleepily and asked, “Going in today? Weather’s still nasty.”

“Gotta talk to Grando. Gotta help Orin.”

“Orin?”

Hector grunted, mixing some electrolyte powder into a large plastic cup of filtered water. His body felt fine, but his hands were shaking, and he knew he needed nutrients. Lemon’s little fridge had the remnants of their last two takeout meals threatening to fall off the shelves, so he pulled out a box of noodles and the last carton of fried chicken meat. “Yeah.”

“He’s back? That’s a relief.”

Hector arched an eyebrow at her as he opened the food containers. “Yeah?”

“Yes! I told you he keeps Jam in line. What’s he need help with?”

Hector looked at her, narrowing one eyebrow. Orin had said “off the books,” and he liked the guy enough to respect that. “Not sure exactly.” He grabbed some chopsticks and attacked the noodles.

Lemon, dressed in just a long T-shirt, slid off the end of her bed and approached, making a face. “Heat it up, savage.”

He shrugged and did as she suggested, putting the food containers into the little auto-oven. “Want some?”

“Too early.” They both watched the oven hum for half a minute, then he pulled the food out, steaming. Lemon yawned and stretched. “So? How do the new augs work? You connected?”

Hector nodded, stuffing some noodles into his mouth. After he swallowed, he said, “Need to buy planetary access.”

“Oh, right. Yeah, since you don’t have an online bit-vault, you’ll need to use a vending machine. You can use a Sol Terminal; they’re in most markets.”

“Close to the club?” Before she could answer, his mini-map updated with a blinking yellow dot a few blocks away. “Never mind. Got one.”

“Oh? That’s right! You’ve got an AI in that head of yours, huh?”

He grunted, mouth already full of chicken.

“How does that work? I was thinking about it while I waited to find out what happened to you.” She frowned, moving to sit on the back of the couch so she could still face him in the kitchen. “Don’t tell Grando this, but I was having some paranoid thoughts, like maybe he sold you out to some of the dirty PKs who work for him. Like, what if he wants your ghost chip? Maybe he wants that aura system of yours and, um, the AI, or whatever. That’s got to be worth a mint, right?”

Hector was mid-slurp on some noodles, so he tilted his head, narrowing his eyes at her. He liked how she was thinking; paranoia was good in the harsh world they lived in. Still, she had a few things wrong. As he swallowed, he shook his head and said, “It’s all part of my engram.” He could have said more. For instance, he could explain that the system and the AI were one and the same. More than that, Hector and the system were wound together, utterly; there was no using his AI, his aura system without him. Those were a lot of words, though, so he just took another bite of chicken.

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“Couldn’t he, like, delete you?”

Hector swallowed and then grinned. “Not without deleting the system.”

“And if he plugged that chip into someone else, like himself?”

Hector shook his head. “I don’t like roommates.”

She giggled at something, probably a mental image of Hector ejecting Grando from his own skull, but then she scowled. “Hey! I’m your roommate!”

Hector smirked and took another bite. She stared at him for a few seconds, then stood and walked over to the fridge. While she rummaged for a drink, he finished wolfing down his food and tossed his containers into the recycler.

“You’re not going in this early, are you?”

Hector thought about it, then shook his head. “Gonna hit the gym.”