“How did you get into Surge?”
Boris laughed and said,
“If this shows up on the net, I will find you and kick your ass.”
Althea laughed and said,
“I am just curious, really.”
That and Boris intrigued her. Beneath the cussing and tough veneer, he seemed deep. As if a mass of education and experience swirled beneath that facade. And Althea really wanted to know what that mass looked like.
“Fine. I expect I know what you’re digging for, but since we’re wasting time might as well go whole hog.
My folks came from old, big money. Started with oil and power in Texas, then houses and land on Luna. From there, Grandpa founded a deep mining colony. He sank his whole fortune into the venture and hit it big. By the time I came around, my parents owned some of the finest stations in the outer rim.
The Chalk Rebellion ended all of that. Almost overnight, my extended family died followed by my mother and father. Me and a few of my cousins escaped in pods, junkers picked us up not even realizing who we were.
Life turned grim for me. For a few weeks, I had access to barter and emergency accounts. But the rebellion ruined everything. I grew up hating them.
I killed my first victim at fifteen, because they stole food from me and two of my cousins.”
Boris grinned, but his eyes seemed vacant as if seeing the scene again.
“I beat him to death. Sure, he hit Karen and Bobby. The latter lost his eye from the blow, almost died. At the time I just wanted the older boy to know he was not allowed to hurt my family. I felt like I could focus all of my fury and hatred into a single point on that other boy’s body and just hit it as hard as I needed.
Karen pulled me off of him. But not before he breathed his last. It sounded like a zombie groan from VR. But it smelled like shit and blood.
Most VR gets this wrong, beating another human to death is a bloody, messy affair. I even found his blood in my hair. Broke half the bones in both my hands.
After that I don’t really remember the rest of them. I never killed anyone without reason. Not even once. But not every reason was equal.
When CoreMil found me, I thought I was destined for the brig, sense dep, or a void bath. But instead, they fed me, sent my earnings to Karen, and gave me counseling. When I applied for Surge, I still failed two times.”
Althea felt oddly at peace with Boris’s words. He had been right. What happened to him was nothing like what happened to Althea, what she did. But she could understand it and it made her feel a little less alone.
As if reading her mind, Boris said,
“You’re not the only one who goes through what you’re going through, you know. There are people in the city you can talk to if you want. Some of them experienced something very like what you did. I can say one thing for certain: if you don’t let this crush you, or change you into someone you don’t want to be, it will get easier. If for no other reason than you’ll get used to it.”
“Did that work for you?”
Boris laughed.
“So far.”
Althea followed him out of the ship and into the afternoon sunlight. No one seemed to linger this time when Boris and Althea emerged. His previously absent guards waited for the two of them outside the door. He walked all the way to a building on the opposite side of their city. Just a few blocks away. It had a high ceiling and a clean, padded floor.
“What is this place?” Althea touched the mirror with her fingers, wondering if the glass felt hot or cold.
Boris motioned for her to sit in the center of the room.
“This is a classical dojo. Or rather the remains of one I had my people restore.” He held up his hand before Althea could ask, “and we’re going to use it to train you.”
He stayed seated and pointed to his legs.
“Sit down like this, please. We need to handle some preliminaries.”
Althea mimicked his legs and position as best she could. Her knees and thighs felt tight and clumsy compared to Boris.
“Good, good. The main point of this is to teach the real you how to fight and respond in a crisis. There’s a good reason for this. Do you know what it is?”
Althea shrugged and shook her head. She wanted to know.
“Because right now, you’re letting your programs guide you. And while they are very good at what they do, they have some limitations. If you combine those programs with your mind, your conscious, well-trained mind, you will surpass those limitations.”
“You’re saying I have to learn how to fight? I thought the whole point of the implants was to make that unnecessary?”
“Then why can’t you beat me?”
“Because your implants are better than mine?”
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Boris walked across the rammed earth floor and touched Althea on the shoulder,
“They aren’t actually. The crazy things make my arms a little slower and a good deal weaker than these massive pipes.”
He flicked Althea’s bicep, producing a dull thunk as he did.
“Yeah, but you beat me because you’re… Oh, right.”
Boris smiled and put his hands on her shoulders,
“You got it in two! Right, I beat you because I knew what I was doing and knew how to use my body without the Persona Implant or algorithmic skills. And I think it’s far past time for you to pick up those skills. What do you say?”
Althea nodded, uncertain. With her restored ability to introspect, she had to ask herself if she really wanted to become a more effective killer. But the facts laid out before her were undeniable: violent people sought her death and the deaths of her only friend. They had already killed all of her other friends.
“Sounds good. Let’s do it.”
Boris nodded and said,
“Step number one is to get changed. In that closet back there you should find a host of acceptable outfits.” He pointed to a door in the corner of the small dojo, “Try one on and tell me what you think.”
Althea walked back into the closet to find the largest collection of clothing she had ever seen outside of a catalogue. Running her fingers across the garments made her hand tingle as if she could feel the texture of the cloth beneath her hands. She imagined the effect, of course, because her chrome hands could not detect such subtle impressions.
Nothing in the closet made her think training. She expected to find all-white or all-black robes with color-coded belts on the hangers, but nothing met those expectations. After a few minutes of searching, during which she worried that Boris would get bored and leave, she finally picked a red dress with a long skirt. It was not so long that it would drag on the floor, with or without heels. But it was long and billowy enough to let her move easily. A lower neck-line than she preferred created her only objection to the dress. But the bright red color won her over in the end.
She stepped out of the closet wearing the dress and a for a second when he turned to regard her, Boris looked shocked, interested, and then smooth. As if his face displayed all of his moods in short succession.
He seemed to shake himself and gave her a once over with his eyes.
“You’re not wearing any shoes. Are you okay with that?”
Althea shrugged.
“I guess so?”
Boris nodded and said,
“Before we get started too far, you should know that the combat system I studied does not give much room for pulling punches or consciously avoiding hurting the target. The only way I can do that is to slow down and not really attack. When I speed up, it becomes harder to avoid a full-intensity strike.”
“In other words, this might hurt?”
Boris nodded and said,
“I will do my best, but consider that I learned aboard a ship working with some nasty people who always had access to ready medicine and for whom a few series sparring-related injuries were considered badges of pride.”
Althea nodded and said,
“Alright. I am ready. What do we do first?”
Boris shook his head and said,
“No, what do you do first?” he pointed at her and said, “this is gonna be harder than you think: you have to turn off your PI - I mean your Persona Implant - and shut down the neuromuscular interfaces.”
Althea had to force her mouth shut at his words,
“Are you serious? How will I fight?”
Boris nodded and said,
“At first, you’re going to watch and repeat the moves ad nauseam. Then we might let you fight. Maybe.”
“Ugh. Can I sit?”
Boris nodded, surprisingly patient in the face of Althea’s reluctance in accepting his help, especially now that he set the stage for her lesson.
Speaking within her Interface, Althea said,
“Pontikos, can I even do what they’re saying?”
The fairy nodded and said,
“Yes, but this will feel very odd. Is that okay?”
Althea nodded and said,
“Let’s do it!”
“You should sit down, Mistress. And perhaps school your mind to calm?”
Althea opened her eyes, but addressed Pontikos,
“Is something bad going to happen?”
“Probably not, but you have grown accustomed to using your implant for most of your waking hours. You have not shut of SLIDE since you woke weeks ago.”
Althea nodded at the AI and said,
“Then let’s hurry up and do it. Kill the PI integration and give me real control over my limbs.”
Pontikos flashed and said,
“Certainly, would you like to enact a timer during which you would like your implants to return?”
“Sure! Let’s say two hours unless I want them before that?”
Pontikos nodded and said,
“Very good, Mistress. Releasing automated system controls in 3… 2… 1…”
For a microsecond, Althea felt something tickle in the back of her mind. Nothing changed, not exactly, more like she could feel her own Persona, her core Persona more intensely than she remembered.
Then the seizures started.
Less than five minutes later, Pontikos gave her a clock, Erie managed to fix whatever had gone wrong with her arms and legs. The girl sat on the floor next to Althea with a wide assortment of mechanical and digital parts on hand.
Althea looked up at Erie and said,
“What happened?”
Erie shrugged and said,
“Mostly I am a dumbass. But Boris knows how I work, so he’s a dumbass too.”
Boris stood a meter away and shrugged his shoulders at Erie’s words.
“This is the civie world. How was I supposed to guess you enacted detachment safeguards and auto-control integration?”
“I have no idea what either of your are talking about.”
Erie shrugged and said,
“It’s mostly CoreMil paranoia. But it’s also a serious habit.” She poked Boris in the chest as she added, “What I did was add systemic protocols that would give anyone who tried to sever your Implant link a Very Bad Day - TM, CR. I did not consider that the two of you might break the link on purpose. Sorry about that.”
“Did you fix it?”
Erie looked guilty, rubbing her hand along her implant as she said,
“Sort of. I just disabled the protocols in general. Now, nothing bad should happen if an external threat messed with the Implant link.”
Althea said,
“I mean, it sounds like that would be useful…”
Erie nodded and said,
“I am not a fan of pulling out my own security systems and disabling them. But it’s either that or you don’t conduct this training.”
She directed her last five words to Boris, staring at him and slowing her speech as she did.
Boris held his hands before him and said,
“She chose this, not me. Direct your ire elsewhere, young lady!”
All three chuckled at his words as Erie cleaned up the space around Althea and had her drones carry the scraps away.
As she stood, she rounded on Boris with a big smile still splitting her face,
“If you break her, I break you, buddy.”
Erie extended two fingers of her right hand, pointed to her eyes and then back at Boris as she walked out of the dojo repeating the gesture.
“Sorry about that, Althea.” Boris held his hand out to help her stand and she nodded.
The process of standing, even with assistance proved harder than she expected. Her legs seemed to work just fine, but the ungainly weight of her arms swung around in multiple directions. When she started to get her legs under her, she would collapse again as her balance fell completely off kilter.
“What is wrong with me?”
Boris nodded at her and said,
“You have a partial cybernetic conversion. Your body is struggling — and failing — to account for the weight of your trunk.” He extended both arms to her, which she grabbed as soon as she could. “Try to use me like a walker. There, does that help?”
Althea bit off a sarcastic response as she finally managed to stand.
“Yes, how do I walk?”
Boris nodded and said,
“That is the secret, isn’t it?”
Almost an hour later, they both managed to limp and drag Althea’s body over to her ship-board bunk.
