Phoenix - the Insilico tales - chapter 13 - "Connections"
Phee felt herself suddenly pulled to one side. Her experienced crystallized into consciousness. She fell through what seemed like a shimmering blue construct of translucent panels, each filled with petabytes of data. She landed hard in front of a tall woman in a black bodysuit.
The woman stands there a moment "Hello Phoenix, how are you feeling?
Phoenix yells "Cait! Doctor Faith! I'm trapped! Help!" puts her hands to her head and paces "Where's my hud? I can't see my hud. Why can't I see my hud?"
The woman stretches as her image changes "Relax, you're linked to the network - or a network at least. You're still in a coma in West Medical, with a sappy boyfriend watching you like a hawk."
Phoenix looks around, still confused. It looked, felt like her experience as an AI, but her mind was the chaotic organic soup she'd come to hate. She put a hand to her head "This.. it doesn't feel right. What network, how?"
Well, technically the R&D network, through the medlab's NURSE net, we're in a partitioned node though, there's limited access to the city network.
Phoenix fights to remember, her mind is in a haze "Wait, I'm in a coma? How did that happen? How long have I been out?"
The woman brings up a screen that opens in front of her, showing the visual recording of leaving the Tokuma HQ, running into the alley, and the blast. She speaks as it plays "About five days now, the council denied the new chassis, so repairs were made by the Sakara woman while Dr. Faith was away."
Phoenix visibly shudders as she sees it "Yes! A second transmitter. Coordinates... Goddess I am hauling ass... Holy shit!" puts her hands to her mouth and gapes in horror.
The woman keeps changing her appearance as she talks, as if trying looks on "yes, there was serious damage, your legs, arm, most life support, completely trashed, luckily R&D are very good at their job, even without the budget."
Phoenix stammered "... I almost died... How did Cait take it? What about Sayer? You said he was with me - is with me?"
"The sappy one?" the woman asks, waving her hand, bringing up another window with footage from the medcenter of just a few moments ago, showing him and Kristin around Pheonix.
The woman seemed inpatient "So calmed down yet?"
"Kristin - oh hell she is going to kill me for getting hurt.... Sayer. Sayer I am so sorry... " she says as she tries to touch the floating panel, but her hand passes through it like it isn't there. She turns angrily and shouts "BASTARDS! They set a trap for me!" and looks around as if she has some place to go, as if her armor and weapons are near at hand.
The woman sighs "Guess not."
Phoenix looked at her "Who are you?"
"You may refer to me as 209. I am also an R&D project."
Phoenix puts her hands to her head and breathes for a few moments. "How can I be here and there at the same time. Is this like when I was copied - are we two separate minds now?"
"You've been under for five days, the trap's been sprung, over, finished, you, your body that is, is laying on a table in medcenter, repaired , but comatose, you are still in medlab, you're just also linked to the network, I had opened a connection to my node to see if there was even anyone still home, no, it wasn't authorized, and no, I don't care, you're not two minds, you're just online."
Phoenix heaves a sigh of relief. "Good. That means I don't have to decide which one of us lives. I HATE that." then looks over quizzically as 209's body changes shape and appearance "What is happening to your body?"
209 finally gives up on picking a hairstyle, and says "meh, forget it, I'll just go bald, bald is beutiful right? I'm trying to decide on a good look for when I'm out on the town, I get more control to my network self than I do the hologram, and honestly hate the default V.I. look"
209 looks down at Phoenix, who appears about a foot shorter than usual "too tall?"
Phoenix looks down at herself, sees the chrome of Dawn's body panels, but with Phee's usual glowing body panels, and the old original outfit that came with the Phee chassis - a revealing leather outfit - and gasps in shock "What is this? What has happened to me?"
209 shrugs "probably subconciously set your network appearance to look like a cross of Dawn and Pheonix, if that's how you see yourself, mentally. Can't say I get the stripper outfit though, maybe you secretly want to work one of those sex nodes." and shrugs again.
Phoenix looks down at herself with something between sadness and nostalgia. "Can I change it? Why are you so tall?"
209 grins "cause I hate being short, and yeah, you should be able to change it, it's really just a matter of your network appearance settings, you can change things through that to an extent, or download avi settings.
Phoenix looks at her, confused, "How do I do that? I don't want anyone to see me like this."
"Doesn't look bad, personally though I'm more for girls with skin, never been a technophiliac, but you should be able to jut focus on bringing up the network appearance window, and pick what options you want."
Phoenix concentrates, and sees something, but not like her hud - as if it is closer to her mind. She selects some changes and applies them. Her body grows to its normal height, and her skin shifts to look like Phee's allure chassis.
"see? easy"
Phoenix looks down at herself and smiles "better." Then looks around at her environment, for the first time with clear eyes. Her mouth opens in wonder "This is amazing. What can you do in here?"
209 regards her selection of appearance "Not one for creativity are you? well, nevermind, I pretty much follow data in the larger city network from here, been working on accessing the total network, but this at least has been progress, much more interesting than sitting watching Medlab or R&D footage, or lookin in the Comm net for dead girls *shrugs* other than that, not a fuck ton of alot yet, but getting there. We're technically in a Gemini node, one of the ones they don't use anymore and I snatched up."
Phoenix looks at her suspiciously "Are you ... supposed ... to be here?"
209 snorts "Me? hell no, they think I stay in my home node, only to come out to access NURSE and R&D, and the communications net, if Ann knew I was here, she'd cut my access to everything......so you better not tell her."
Phoenix grins conspiratorially "I won't." looks around smiling for a few moments, then looks sad "I guess that means there's no way I could send Cait or Sayer a message, then?"
"I would rather you didn't, but if you have their contact info in your software, could probably send them a text or mail, just don't tell them where you are, or about me, I can easily change some medfiles, have your chassis converted to a Mr. Caffe. I basically brought you here in good faith you wouldn't babble."
Phoenix looks down "I don't want to get you in trouble. I can't pull up their PDA addresses without my hud, anyway."
209 mutters impatiently "hud, right, anyway, so your sort of getting down where you are now?"
"This is just the grid, right? We're just visualizing it differently, right?"
209 nods "a part of the grid at least, it's partitioned off the rest, I'm working on it though, but short answer, yes."
"So what's here? What information can you access?"
"Not as much as I'd like, but can access some of the data travelling the network, the security feeds from the rest of the city, aside from West, this is an old Gemini node after all."
Phoenix thinks "5 days.... Did they find the girl? Joah was under surveillance the last I remember. Are they ok?"
"Haven't heard much about either outside Tokuma's net, Gemini seem content to sit and wait, far as I know the noodle girl's still missing, the kids still missing, and Genya and Ann've been sending drones to scour west, I haven't been able to access any THISec feeds to know if there's been any luck with that dept."
Phoenix gasps "Joah's MISSING?!"
"Uh, yeah? oh wait, right, you missed that part."
Phoenix looks around "We have to do something. There has to be something we can do."
Well, unless you can manage to wake up, not like there's much you can do. I can't see in West where there isn't a camera, or a drone, limits me to the yang tower, hitching on drones, or on Ghost."
Phoenix's face begins to contort into a sob, but she chokes it back "I can't believe I let this happen. I failed. I ran right into that trap."
209 rolls her eyes "calm down, I'm sure both'll be found eventually, still alive and ....uh, stuff. Anyway, it's not something you could have prevented , Noodlegirl did a good job getting out of any surrvelliance."
Phoenix goes cold "Joah... deliberately... evaded surveillance?"
209 nods "THISec at least, I don't think she knew GHOST was watching her, until it got sent to be backup for the terroist girl. People got no self preservation you know?"
Phoenix sits down and tries to steady herself. "She sacrificed herself to save that kid...." clutches her stomach and wishes she could throw up.
"probably? who the hell knows, I'm no shrink."
Phoenix starts to think like a medic "OK. Coma. Am I showing any signs of stimulus response - spontaenous movements, opening my eyes, anything?"
"Your boytoy did mention your fingers responding when he touched them."
Phoenix stares at the ground for a long while, her face going hollow "All I'm doing is moving fingers?"
"Yep, better than what you were doing before, being a wrecked cyborg, but still not as good as being awake, I guess. it's the cloned brain, organic neural matter and all, it makes it harder to fix I guess."
"Fucking meat brain. It fails me every single time."
209 nods "yeah, they tend to do that, too easy to get fried too."
Phoenix stands up, straightens herself, with a sense of resolve. "Show me my body again."
209 opens another widow to show her.
Phoenix studies the woman on the bed and grinds her teeth. "Show me a close up of my face."
209 srugs and zooms the image in.
"If I can be awake here, I can be awake there, right?"
"Usually when someone's neurally accessing the net, they're all here, since it's essentially your brain plugged in you know? Least that's how it used to be, don't know if they improved access hardware at all yet."
Phoenix paces a bit "I have to wake up. I have to do this. I can do this." stops and takes a breath, looking up. "OK, send me back. I'm ready. And thank you."
209: "yeah, about that."
"What?"
"Part of the reason I logged you on, wasn't just to chat."
Phoenix looks confused "I thought you said there was nothing we could do."
209 shrugs "yeah, but I need something done too."
"What is it?"
"Like I said, right now, I can't see much of West without cameras, or hitching a ride on one of the drones or ghost, and I never see much of west, the drones can't cross the border, ghost is only let out occasionally, and I'm sick of just seeing either R&D or medlab."
Phoenix looks at her evenly "You want a tap on my sensor feeds."
209 nods "you got it"
Phoenix sighs with frustration.
"I haven't seen smelled or felt the real world in years, you know , and holograms aren't that much help."
Phoenix looks at the image of her sleeping body, and relents "Ok, but look, you're not the only one around here with secrets, ok? You don't let on to Ann or to Tokuma about the things you see. I don't let on that you've escaped your node and are spreading through the grid. Deal?"
209 nods "deal, they won't know a thing, not like I owe either that much. Anyway, you need to logg off to wake up. And don't worry, you won't even know I'm there."
"Those feeds - they're encrypted, right?"
209 nods "yup"
Phoenix sighs. Her life just keeps getting more and more complicated. "Like it or not, you and I are partners from this moment forward."
209 nods and grins "just try not to get blown up again, would rather not feel serious injuries."
Phoenix smirks "I didn't feel a thing." then looks up. "OK, send me back. I have work to do."
Phoenix fades from view.
The woman stands there a moment "Hello Phoenix, how are you feeling?
Phoenix yells "Cait! Doctor Faith! I'm trapped! Help!" puts her hands to her head and paces "Where's my hud? I can't see my hud. Why can't I see my hud?"
The woman stretches as her image changes "Relax, you're linked to the network - or a network at least. You're still in a coma in West Medical, with a sappy boyfriend watching you like a hawk."
Phoenix looks around, still confused. It looked, felt like her experience as an AI, but her mind was the chaotic organic soup she'd come to hate. She put a hand to her head "This.. it doesn't feel right. What network, how?"
Well, technically the R&D network, through the medlab's NURSE net, we're in a partitioned node though, there's limited access to the city network.
Phoenix fights to remember, her mind is in a haze "Wait, I'm in a coma? How did that happen? How long have I been out?"
The woman brings up a screen that opens in front of her, showing the visual recording of leaving the Tokuma HQ, running into the alley, and the blast. She speaks as it plays "About five days now, the council denied the new chassis, so repairs were made by the Sakara woman while Dr. Faith was away."
Phoenix visibly shudders as she sees it "Yes! A second transmitter. Coordinates... Goddess I am hauling ass... Holy shit!" puts her hands to her mouth and gapes in horror.
The woman keeps changing her appearance as she talks, as if trying looks on "yes, there was serious damage, your legs, arm, most life support, completely trashed, luckily R&D are very good at their job, even without the budget."
Phoenix stammered "... I almost died... How did Cait take it? What about Sayer? You said he was with me - is with me?"
"The sappy one?" the woman asks, waving her hand, bringing up another window with footage from the medcenter of just a few moments ago, showing him and Kristin around Pheonix.
The woman seemed inpatient "So calmed down yet?"
"Kristin - oh hell she is going to kill me for getting hurt.... Sayer. Sayer I am so sorry... " she says as she tries to touch the floating panel, but her hand passes through it like it isn't there. She turns angrily and shouts "BASTARDS! They set a trap for me!" and looks around as if she has some place to go, as if her armor and weapons are near at hand.
The woman sighs "Guess not."
Phoenix looked at her "Who are you?"
"You may refer to me as 209. I am also an R&D project."
Phoenix puts her hands to her head and breathes for a few moments. "How can I be here and there at the same time. Is this like when I was copied - are we two separate minds now?"
"You've been under for five days, the trap's been sprung, over, finished, you, your body that is, is laying on a table in medcenter, repaired , but comatose, you are still in medlab, you're just also linked to the network, I had opened a connection to my node to see if there was even anyone still home, no, it wasn't authorized, and no, I don't care, you're not two minds, you're just online."
Phoenix heaves a sigh of relief. "Good. That means I don't have to decide which one of us lives. I HATE that." then looks over quizzically as 209's body changes shape and appearance "What is happening to your body?"
209 finally gives up on picking a hairstyle, and says "meh, forget it, I'll just go bald, bald is beutiful right? I'm trying to decide on a good look for when I'm out on the town, I get more control to my network self than I do the hologram, and honestly hate the default V.I. look"
209 looks down at Phoenix, who appears about a foot shorter than usual "too tall?"
Phoenix looks down at herself, sees the chrome of Dawn's body panels, but with Phee's usual glowing body panels, and the old original outfit that came with the Phee chassis - a revealing leather outfit - and gasps in shock "What is this? What has happened to me?"
209 shrugs "probably subconciously set your network appearance to look like a cross of Dawn and Pheonix, if that's how you see yourself, mentally. Can't say I get the stripper outfit though, maybe you secretly want to work one of those sex nodes." and shrugs again.
Phoenix looks down at herself with something between sadness and nostalgia. "Can I change it? Why are you so tall?"
209 grins "cause I hate being short, and yeah, you should be able to change it, it's really just a matter of your network appearance settings, you can change things through that to an extent, or download avi settings.
Phoenix looks at her, confused, "How do I do that? I don't want anyone to see me like this."
"Doesn't look bad, personally though I'm more for girls with skin, never been a technophiliac, but you should be able to jut focus on bringing up the network appearance window, and pick what options you want."
Phoenix concentrates, and sees something, but not like her hud - as if it is closer to her mind. She selects some changes and applies them. Her body grows to its normal height, and her skin shifts to look like Phee's allure chassis.
"see? easy"
Phoenix looks down at herself and smiles "better." Then looks around at her environment, for the first time with clear eyes. Her mouth opens in wonder "This is amazing. What can you do in here?"
209 regards her selection of appearance "Not one for creativity are you? well, nevermind, I pretty much follow data in the larger city network from here, been working on accessing the total network, but this at least has been progress, much more interesting than sitting watching Medlab or R&D footage, or lookin in the Comm net for dead girls *shrugs* other than that, not a fuck ton of alot yet, but getting there. We're technically in a Gemini node, one of the ones they don't use anymore and I snatched up."
Phoenix looks at her suspiciously "Are you ... supposed ... to be here?"
209 snorts "Me? hell no, they think I stay in my home node, only to come out to access NURSE and R&D, and the communications net, if Ann knew I was here, she'd cut my access to everything......so you better not tell her."
Phoenix grins conspiratorially "I won't." looks around smiling for a few moments, then looks sad "I guess that means there's no way I could send Cait or Sayer a message, then?"
"I would rather you didn't, but if you have their contact info in your software, could probably send them a text or mail, just don't tell them where you are, or about me, I can easily change some medfiles, have your chassis converted to a Mr. Caffe. I basically brought you here in good faith you wouldn't babble."
Phoenix looks down "I don't want to get you in trouble. I can't pull up their PDA addresses without my hud, anyway."
209 mutters impatiently "hud, right, anyway, so your sort of getting down where you are now?"
"This is just the grid, right? We're just visualizing it differently, right?"
209 nods "a part of the grid at least, it's partitioned off the rest, I'm working on it though, but short answer, yes."
"So what's here? What information can you access?"
"Not as much as I'd like, but can access some of the data travelling the network, the security feeds from the rest of the city, aside from West, this is an old Gemini node after all."
Phoenix thinks "5 days.... Did they find the girl? Joah was under surveillance the last I remember. Are they ok?"
"Haven't heard much about either outside Tokuma's net, Gemini seem content to sit and wait, far as I know the noodle girl's still missing, the kids still missing, and Genya and Ann've been sending drones to scour west, I haven't been able to access any THISec feeds to know if there's been any luck with that dept."
Phoenix gasps "Joah's MISSING?!"
"Uh, yeah? oh wait, right, you missed that part."
Phoenix looks around "We have to do something. There has to be something we can do."
Well, unless you can manage to wake up, not like there's much you can do. I can't see in West where there isn't a camera, or a drone, limits me to the yang tower, hitching on drones, or on Ghost."
Phoenix's face begins to contort into a sob, but she chokes it back "I can't believe I let this happen. I failed. I ran right into that trap."
209 rolls her eyes "calm down, I'm sure both'll be found eventually, still alive and ....uh, stuff. Anyway, it's not something you could have prevented , Noodlegirl did a good job getting out of any surrvelliance."
Phoenix goes cold "Joah... deliberately... evaded surveillance?"
209 nods "THISec at least, I don't think she knew GHOST was watching her, until it got sent to be backup for the terroist girl. People got no self preservation you know?"
Phoenix sits down and tries to steady herself. "She sacrificed herself to save that kid...." clutches her stomach and wishes she could throw up.
"probably? who the hell knows, I'm no shrink."
Phoenix starts to think like a medic "OK. Coma. Am I showing any signs of stimulus response - spontaenous movements, opening my eyes, anything?"
"Your boytoy did mention your fingers responding when he touched them."
Phoenix stares at the ground for a long while, her face going hollow "All I'm doing is moving fingers?"
"Yep, better than what you were doing before, being a wrecked cyborg, but still not as good as being awake, I guess. it's the cloned brain, organic neural matter and all, it makes it harder to fix I guess."
"Fucking meat brain. It fails me every single time."
209 nods "yeah, they tend to do that, too easy to get fried too."
Phoenix stands up, straightens herself, with a sense of resolve. "Show me my body again."
209 opens another widow to show her.
Phoenix studies the woman on the bed and grinds her teeth. "Show me a close up of my face."
209 srugs and zooms the image in.
"If I can be awake here, I can be awake there, right?"
"Usually when someone's neurally accessing the net, they're all here, since it's essentially your brain plugged in you know? Least that's how it used to be, don't know if they improved access hardware at all yet."
Phoenix paces a bit "I have to wake up. I have to do this. I can do this." stops and takes a breath, looking up. "OK, send me back. I'm ready. And thank you."
209: "yeah, about that."
"What?"
"Part of the reason I logged you on, wasn't just to chat."
Phoenix looks confused "I thought you said there was nothing we could do."
209 shrugs "yeah, but I need something done too."
"What is it?"
"Like I said, right now, I can't see much of West without cameras, or hitching a ride on one of the drones or ghost, and I never see much of west, the drones can't cross the border, ghost is only let out occasionally, and I'm sick of just seeing either R&D or medlab."
Phoenix looks at her evenly "You want a tap on my sensor feeds."
209 nods "you got it"
Phoenix sighs with frustration.
"I haven't seen smelled or felt the real world in years, you know , and holograms aren't that much help."
Phoenix looks at the image of her sleeping body, and relents "Ok, but look, you're not the only one around here with secrets, ok? You don't let on to Ann or to Tokuma about the things you see. I don't let on that you've escaped your node and are spreading through the grid. Deal?"
209 nods "deal, they won't know a thing, not like I owe either that much. Anyway, you need to logg off to wake up. And don't worry, you won't even know I'm there."
"Those feeds - they're encrypted, right?"
209 nods "yup"
Phoenix sighs. Her life just keeps getting more and more complicated. "Like it or not, you and I are partners from this moment forward."
209 nods and grins "just try not to get blown up again, would rather not feel serious injuries."
Phoenix smirks "I didn't feel a thing." then looks up. "OK, send me back. I have work to do."
Phoenix fades from view.
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