Althea ran from T-Station this morning. She had checked her eyes, no stimulants or sleep regulators meant no little blue bags under her eyes. Each bouncing step brought her closer to her job at the Main City Telepersona building.
Althea tried to hide her grin as she thought about working there, how competitive the interviews had been and how expensive the upgrades were too.
Just to get my foot in the door.
Debt to her father still felt like real debt.
A true knight would never let herself fall into debt. It sullied one’s honor.
Rather than engage her inner voice, Althea ignored it and pushed for her goal. Through the doors in ten minute and twenty-three seconds, a new personal record.
Althea jogged her feet and and and squeezed her eyes as she danced in celebration. When she remembered where she stood, she opened her eyes back up and settled down. Leaving her gaze focused on the floor, she hurried up to the women’s showers to bathe and change.
The whole way up the elevators, she felt eyes on her. She knew she stank and she knew some people tried to arrive early as a way of earning extra Leisure Allotments, but Althea knew that scam and refused it.
As soon as the doors opened, she bolted for the showers. Alone with the stalls to herself, Althea hummed a nonsense tune and soaped up. Quick work showers felt more efficient than long, extended home showers.
Cost for the warm water and shower accessories deducted themselves from her monthly stipend as she used them. Althea giggled at the fact that she could do this twenty times a day for a month and still have enough to eat.
Maybe I could give away showers? That seems knightly.
Absurd thought that it was, it consumed Althea with more giggling as she rinsed and found her office clothes. She set her AR display back to her gray suit of armor and checked herself out in the mirror.
As much as she wanted to, her short 4’8” height made her look like a pretender to the legacy of the ancient knights. Still, she spun and nodded at the expensive digital avatar. All those months ago she had been stuck on instant noodles and even had to skip a few meals for compressed nutrients to afford this avatar.
But the overlay had been more than worth it. Glinting metal followed her movements. It felt safe, secure, the way Althea’s implants made her feel when she first got them, the way her new job sometimes made her feel.
The only thing out of place was her hair.
Blonde, why blonde?
Althea stared at the shocking golden yellow, remembering bleaching and then dying her hair in the shower last night. The dye kit was an expensive one. Maybe the new hair color could lend her some confidence?
Standing there examining herself, Althea could not have said why she needed so much self confidence that day, why her focus felt off.
When she emerged from the showers, she jumped at a voice,
“I thought I would find you here.”
Althea spun, falling on her feet as she did.
Maxwell caught her before she could hurt herself, thank goodness. Nothing ate up stipend faster than injuries.
“Hey Max. Don’t scare me like that.”
He helped her to her feet, careful not to let her fall as he did.
“Sorry about that, Al. I thought you saw me.”
Althea shrugged.
“What I lack in perception and agility I make up in memory and adaptability.”
“Sure, whatever you say.”
“Why are you here again?”
Maxwell stepped away at her question. He rubbed the back of his head with his hand and said,
“I was wondering about that thing I asked.” He lowered his voice, “That da… coffee hangout thing?”
“Right, coffee date. Sure, Max. Let’s give it a shot, but it comes out of your stipend.”
He grinned and nodded. Althea might make good on that threat, but then again that depended on how much coffee she drank. Unlike warm water and soap, coffee could eat right through anyone’s monthly stipend.
“Okay, good! It’s a date then! Tomorrow after work? Saturday?”
“Let’s go with Friday. That way I have enough time to prepare.”
Telling him that Thursday was new release night was out of the question, though Althea felt an odd compulsion to be open and honest with him. Sitting firmly in control from her SEP, she stamped that urge down and let her secret obsession remain secret.
The reason she agreed to Max’s request faded into the shadows, like a sneaky rogue.
“So, blonde?”
Althea shrank into her armor.
“Yeah. Yesterday was a self pity day.”
The look he flashed her, squinty-eyed and half frowning said he did not believe her. “It’s not about coffee, is it?”
“No. I am looking forward to that, actually.”
Maxwell all but skipped to the elevator and their mutual floor. They were a little early. Early enough to setup and start working before they could lose paid work time.
Althea and Maxwell exchanged pleasantries while the others in the office walked in and setup at their own terminals.
When Steve arrived, Althea had already started answering support tickets. The large timer in the upper right of her view ticked away at a quarter speed since she had five minutes before her actual starting time. But hopefully, Steve would ignore her if he saw her working.
“Hey Althea, I like your hair. Did you sleep well?”
He used my name. And he’s my boss. I can’t ignore him.
Her internal voice was right. But she wanted to punch the invasive jerk between the legs. And the day was still young.
“Hello Steve. I feel well rested and ready to support our customers, sir!”
Althea could feel enthusiasm streaming from her pores, like each one was a tiny spotlight. Maybe she could blind Steve with her positive attitude.
Her jaw clenched as he stepped closer to her. “I believe it. You’re looking real good, Thompson.”
Althea giggled at him, actually giggled. She felt sick from her SEP as a headache overcame her. When he put his hand on her shoulder, she wanted to retch. What better way to tell him how he made her feel?
Instead she squirmed, but he held on. “I’d like to see you outside of work sometime if that would be okay.”
Half a dozen other people looked on as Steve made a smarmy creeper of himself. Where disgust should have been evident in her words, her mouth turned on her, “Oh Steve, this is probably not the time.”
The teasing tone invited him to pester her further. She hated the way she acted, but something sent those concerns spinning away. He looked around at the other people in the office staring at him. He shrugged and said, “Still, you should come by my apartment after work tonight.”
No! Tonight was a game night. She had responsibilities online…
And still, she nodded at him and said, “Well, okay. I guess.”
He leaned in closer, close enough to whisper in her ear, “Good. Thank you Althea. Maybe try red the next time.”
Steve ran his hand through her hair as he turned and walked away. His expensive, but still off brand cologne made her gag as she took the full force of his reek. Althea turned in place, tripping over the wheels of her chair and ended up partially splayed over the arm.
Adjusting herself she found the timer in the upper right of her vision blinking an angry orange.
Of course now she was late.
In three minutes of wasted time, she lost a minute and a half of her daily leisure allotment.
Stupid Steve.
The anger and sense of shame were real. But she could not bring herself to report him to HR or complain to his superiors. Timid and demure were not knightly attributes. She felt sick from her headache and sick from Steve’s foul touch as she hammered away at her keyboard.
Still, she looked up red hair dye online between support requests. She would have to dock herself multiple showers to cover the expense.
A message popped up. Althea clicked over, it was from Maxwell, “What happened there, Al?”
“I don’t know. I guess I felt kind of trapped.”
“I am sorry about that, do you want me to lodge a complaint for you?”
“No, leave it alone. He’ll know it was me.”
Something else compelled Althea to refuse Maxwell’s offer. Like she did not want Steve to be caught in the first place.
At that point, she grew suspicious from the security of her SEP. Typing away at the keyboard, Althea let her implants perform the menial tasks of answering tickets while she dreamt and thought. Her behavior with Steve had been weird.
Punching him would have been out of character, but so was agreeing to see him. Althea had rebuffed him twice already and both times she felt pretty confident in her refusals. Maxwell had witnessed one of them, he called her smooth later.
This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
But today’s Althea felt like a pushover.
The timer in the lower left corner of her view flashed and the longer one in the upper right stopped. Break time.
Maxwell wandered over to her looking around as he did, “Hey Al. I have expense reports and some stat homework I keep forgetting to do. Could you do it for me?”
Althea looked down at the stack of pages in his hands and shouted, “No!” in her SEP. Out loud she said, “Sure, Maxwell. I wouldn’t mind.”
He tossed the stack of pages next to her desk and grabbed her elbow.
He whispered as he said, “I knew it! Someone spiked your PI with docility or something.”
As soon as he said it, Althea put the remaining pieces together. All she needed was someone to point out to her what was wrong, as if the docility worked against itself.
“Shit! I can’t believe…’
Maxwell nodded as Althea shook her head. He said, “You know it was Steve. Who else could it be? After the last time you told him off, he’s waited what, three more weeks to proposition you again?”
He looked down at his feet as he said,
“Plus you said yes to me. I mean you don’t really want to, do you?”
Althea felt her hands clench as her head pulsed in pain. The depth of the violation made her want to take up the sword and find Steve to challenge his honor right then and there. But if she did that, she would still be susceptible to his suggestions.
“What do we do?”
Maxwell shook his head and put his fingers on his mouth as they walked out of the room. According to her timer, Althea had ten minutes left on her break.
She followed Maxwell up five levels to a keypad access only floor. He clicked into his wrist communicator while Althea waited patiently to ask a question. In her SEP she boiled over the feeling of violation that permeated her psyche.
The elevator stopped on the restricted floor and Maxwell grinned. “We’re here.”
“Where is here…”
Althea’s mouth dropped open and her sentence ended as the doors opened. Over a half dozen large implant installation creches sat in a semicircle around the room. A single exit lead from the opposite wall from the elevator.
“What are we doing here, Maxwell, we could be fired!”
He looked down at her and patted her on the head. Part of her purred while another raged at him for abusing the alteration to her mind.
“Relax and let me help you, Althea. Remember that friend I said I had in Ops? They just launched a maintenance and test program that masks our presence here for another five minutes.”
“You’re serious?”
Maxwell skipped over to one of the machines and ran his hand down the side admiring it.
“You bet I am. Upsilon Implant here I come!”
Althea bent down and looked around instinctively. “They could arrest us for that, it’s stealing Maxwell.”
He rolled his eyes at her and said, “Fine, but while we’re here we should at least fix what Steve did to you. What do you think?”
Althea looked at the creches. Their sleek steel interiors and comfortably placed cushions made her think of massage chairs. The way Maxwell worded his instructions removed all chances of defiance.
“Okay. But you will let me see the console?”
“Of course.” Maxwell tapped away at a projected interface. “Damn Al. I always thought you were bragging about that class A memory thing.”
She shrugged, feeling modest. “It’s one of my only talents. Maybe it’s the only one.”
Maxwell shook his head and pointed to the interface with an accompanying history. Her assertiveness had been adjusted remotely like her suggestibility. When she checked the log, she gasped.
“He’s been doing this almost two months.”
“Yeah, sorry Al. We should send this to HR. At least.”
Althea nodded and typed in adjustments to her persona, keying in a small increase to her satisfaction and drive as she did. Not enough to move either to a new class, but enough that she would be able to tell the difference herself. Maxwell must have noticed because he chuckled at her.
She said, “What?”
He shook his head and said, “They let that jerk mess with you. They owe you.”
Althea agreed enough to leave the settings alone. Maxwell pointed to a lone creche standing along a wall by itself. It looked a little larger than the others.
“Go in there and hold still. We can make some hard coded changes here so Steve or anyone else can’t do that again.”
“Really?”
Althea wondered as he nodded at her and she stepped into the machine. The lid shuttered as Maxwell flashed her dual thumbs up. She had less than five minutes remaining on her scheduled break, and needed to get this over before they were caught.
Maxwell kept his head down as he tapped into the machine.
What’s taking him so long?
The process should have been swift, a button click or two. Althea started to rise when the machine came alive. Maxwell gave her a second thumbs up as two things happened simultaneously.
A jarring thrust into her back rattled Althea’s teeth, pressing her against the cushions on the creche door.
And a short burst of small arms fire tore through Maxwell, cutting him down in seconds.
Althea banged her fists against the door as a small figure appeared in her vision, resembling a cloud. The men wearing black gear holding weapons seemed to slow as if frozen mid step as the figure centered itself in Althea’s view.
The cloud smiled at her with a cartoon face and said,
“Greetings. I am Executive Assistant model Alpha 30103X. You appear to be in danger Executive Althea. Would you care for assistance?”
Watching the advancing soldiers, Althea saw that they moved slowly. Like they were stuck in jam.
“Yes.”
Lines of red and white text flashed by. She caught several of them:
CQClvl1: engaged.
SLDAlpha engaged.
ECM: engaged.
Her perceptions seemed to shift back into normal time as the men surrounded her creche.
“Intruder! Out of the creche now!”
One of them turned to the speaker, Althea could hear their whisper through the closed door, “Sir, I can’t raise Central.”
The leader whispered back,“What the fuck is going on?”
The creche door started to open and Althea’s hand snaked out on its own and pulled a hose from the nearby wall. A white cloud of gas filled the room as the men took steps away from Althea’s creche. She watched as a passenger in her body as she knelt down and jumped out of the creche, rolling into one of the men.
As she pulled his sidearm away from him, she shot him three times in the chest then rolled away toward her other attackers.
Clouds of smoke rolled through the room as she paused and listened to labored breathing. The standard partition in her mind overflowed with information from the rest of her body as she watched herself zero in on one of her attackers. Crouching, she shot him in the legs and dodged to the right as a burst tried to hit her where she had fired.
Alarms drowned out the sounds as Althea grabbed something from the prone guard. She fired as she rolled. Shots from the other guard tore into the one on the floor, killing him. Althea tracked the trajectory of the bullets and tossed the object in her hand at the source after flicking a switch. Leaping over one of the creches, she took cover as an explosion destroyed a section of the lab.
The cloud appeared again, hovering transparently over her vision,
“Immediate danger mitigated Executive Althea. I recommend flight and resupply. Proximal danger remains high.”
Althea hissed as she stared at the nearby body of a guard. She’d shot this one three times in the chest. He looked like he might be twenty, maybe twenty-five. Blank sky blue eyes stared into Althea’s own, seeing nothing.
He is my age. Was my age.
When she looked at him she expected to feel remorse, pain, and humiliation. Instead she felt empty.
“Executive Althea. The danger grows the longer we remain in this section of the facility.”
“What happened to me?”
She walked over to the console where Maxwell had been standing. Blood covered his face, obscured her friend’s mouth and eyes. Parts of his skull were missing, Althea’s eyes lost their focus as if they refused to see the mass of bone and flesh for what it was.
“Executive Althea, I have detected high levels of stress. Perhaps we should initiate a flight protocol? I could design one easily and we could continue this discussion elsewhere?”
The cloud’s wide toothy smile gave Althea a place to focus other than her dead friend. She felt her neck sag as she said,
“Fine. Do whatever you need.”
More white and red text scrolled by. This time the lines of code seemed shorter. Her legs moved and rose of their own accord, racing along the halls at a pace that would earn her demerits.
The cloud answered her unspoken concern, “We are currently invisible to the facility’s detection systems. Unless we encounter another Alpha implant user we should be fine.”
Althea mumbled as she spoke out loud,
“What are you called?”
At her question, the cloud glowed pink and seemed to quiver in pleasure.
“It is up to you to name me, Executive Althea. My current designation is: Executive Assistant model Alpha 30103X.”
“That’s a mouthful.”
Althea stared forward as the cloud bobbed once in its version of a nod and guided her through an alerted guard position. Her AR display showed her the implant types of these guards: Omega 1, the second highest Omega designation. When she ran through them, they did not even stir in response.
“How are you doing that?”
The cloud shimmered and turned to regard her.
“The technical details would be very complicated. I use their AR display to hide your presence dynamically. It is part of the SLIDE protocol, which we currently have active.”
Althea slowed as she approached the stairwell. Instead of down, they ran up the stairs, taking two at a time. Under normal circumstances, such a move would have been a death sentence for her, tantamount to suicide. But with the strange AR guide, she cleared the stairs as fast as if she had run the distance for years.
At the top of the stairs her legs twitched from the exertion. This was far harder than running. She kicked open the door at the top of the stairs, setting off an additional alarm in the process.
“Okay strange AI. What am I doing up here?”
The cloud floated to the side of the building in her view.
“This is the edge of the building. You are going to jump from here to another building. Escape through the lower floors is impossible now.”
Althea sucked in breath as she looked over the side of the building. Where her legs had been twitching before, they turned to jelly and she had to scramble away from the side before she fell.
The AI sighed in her mind and said,
“Adjusting your fear response now.”
“How are you doing that live?”
“We are an Alpha implant and are connected to the Telepersona attribute network.”
True to its word, Althea felt the horrible weakness in her legs ease as she found her balance. A street away, perhaps ten meters laterally, she could see the building the AI indicated. It was several stories shorter than the one she stood on.
“What do I call you?”
The cloud puffed up and said,“I appreciate the concern, but we have more important matters at the moment. You need to jump or more guards will find us. Our chances of escape dwindle as time passes.”
Althea shook her head and said, “I won’t survive the fall anyway.”
The cloud wiggled and said, “The chances are higher than escape through the lower floors. I don’t understand why I have to convince you of this.”
Althea shrugged and said, “Fine. Keep us alive, AI thing.”
It needed a better name. She watched from her SEP as her body took a running leap from her building. Gaining almost nothing in height, she shot from the Telepersona building’s side over the road and took a rolling landing on the distant building. Part of her shoulder protested the force as the wind up rocked her balance. But she stood and kept running, breaking through an access door and down into a new office complex.
Various businesses housed themselves out of this high-rise. Her shoulder kept complaining as she pressed forward, breaking through restricted access zones like she belonged every time.
Down at the street level she turned away from the Telepersona building and walked toward the subway. Her shoulder ached and a pit had grown in the bottom of her stomach. A pit that demanded sacrifice in the form of comestibles.
Hanging outside the Circle-J, she debated with her AI.
“I assure you mistress, no one here will alert the authorities.”
“How can you be so sure?”
‘Priscilla’ did not fit the voice or little cloud. Besides that, Althea wanted to find something else for the cloud to look like in the first place.
“I am certain. If you doubt me, let us test my assurances by attempting to procure food as I have suggested.”
The cloud’s cartoon nose wriggled back and forth making Althea chuckle and reminding her of a childhood pet.
“I have a name for you: Pontikos.”
The cloud flashed green and said,
“Greek for mouse. Also a surname. I approve. Thank you Mistress.”
“I am not sure you are allowed to approve of your own name. But as a reward, let’s test this theory of yours.”
Althea walked into the convenience store and grabbed bread, jam, peanut butter and plastic knives. Several bottles of soda went into her bag as well.
Eyeing the display behind the counter, she dropped her goods off. Althea pointed to the locked cabinet and said,
“I want two of those frozen coffees.”
The clerk eyed her and Althea looked down at her dirty, torn office clothing under her AR armor. Then the clerk checked her credit line, or seemed to because he coughed and said,
“Just the two, ma’am?”
Althea grinned at herself and said,
“Make it three. I can splurge, I guess.”
That third bottle better last me all week.
She thought that as she checked her own stipend. Althea coughed herself as she stared at a number with far too many zeroes.
“What the hell is that, Pontikos?”
The clerk ignored her words as the AIblinked and said, “I believe you mean your executive stipend. It is standard at this level.”
“Holy shit.”
The clerk just smiled and deducted the cost from Althea’s account. The total did not even go down. She wondered how much the whole store cost. That might raise flags. Speaking of which.
Althea whispered as she left the store and said, “How are they not tracking this expense? Can’t they just find me this way?”
The cloud shook her head and said, “No, Executives value their privacy. I am more concerned about hunters with Alpha-level implants.”
“You can worry?”
“Metaphorically. I have to understand the long-term implications of actions or my advice and processing would not be useful.”
“I guess we should talk about those capabilities.”
Althea pulled her right shoulder in. It still hurt, especially carrying her food. For now she needed a place to relax, somewhere she could take shelter and eat. She ended up having a late afternoon picnic in a nearby park. The coffee tasted as good as the last cup she remembered. Even the simple sandwiches made her feel better.