Skua looked both relieved and grateful. “Thanks, I really do appreciate this. Apologies for the outburst earlier.”
Ani replied. “Outburst? That was a very mild response bearing in mind what I unleashed on Violencia. For that I will always be sorry. On a different note what is your Level Minus Zero apartment address?”
Skua provided Ani the information that he asked for without question.
Junco found out later that it was after this exchange that Ani sequestered several million nanobots that were floating in the air in Skua's apartment and reprogrammed them to provide a live view with sound.
4. LEVEL MINUS ONE – ANI'S HOUSE
Junco showered and then slept for a solid six hours before ordering a transporter to take him to Ani's house. He entered the transporter and read aloud the encoded address that Ani had given them all. The glass of the transporter then went completely opaque and stayed that way until the vehicle had powered down outside Ani's residence. Junco had absolutely no idea of where, on Level Minus One, he was. The journey could have been mainly over land or over sea. The route could have been a direct one or a circuitous one. In other words he could be on the other side of the planet or a mile from his home. He had no way of knowing and this, of course, is exactly what Ani had intended.
Junco arrived at the same time as Scoter. They walked through the main gates and up the long driveway together. House was perhaps the understatement of the year. The building that stood in front of them looked more like a fortress than any house that Junco had ever seen. A single slab of a wall that sloped inwards as it rose. Narrow plain slits for windows. A single small entrance, just wide enough for one person to squeeze in. Zero decoration or adornment. Scoter referred to it as a monument to neo-minimal-brutalism. The air was salty and damp – as if they were on a small island.
Ani greeted the two of them at the door. “Welcome to my humble Level Zero abode.”
“Humble is not the word that I would choose,” said Scoter. “I would go for something more along the lines of deeply intimidating.”
“I have enemies so I have to be careful – saying that, the place probably doesn't have to look quite so menacing,” said Ani.
The inside was very different. Very open-plan, airy and with lots of big floor to ceiling hologram windows which imitated a perfect view of a tropical beach. The view wasn't a cheap, static one either. As Junco walked around the view synched to his position perfectly.
Teal and Skua were sitting at the bar looking very comfortable in each others company. There were several empty glasses in front of them. The newcomers joined them. Ani personally prepared them drinks. Lots of ice, primary colors, shaking, and even a little dance by the host went into the preparation.
Ani spoke. 'Skua, you should know that your brothers have been back to check your apartment here on Level Minus One. Of course you were not there so they assumed that you were really dead and had been disposed of by the automatic trash collectors. This all happened about fifteen minutes ago.”
“How do you know that was their conclusion?” Skua asked. Ani told him about sequestering the nanobots to provide a feed.
“I can let you access the playback of what they saw and said if you like,” Ani offered.
Skua did not seem to bothered. “No, that's fine. I really don't want to see or hear them unless I absolutely have to.”
“Bottom line is that they, and probably everyone that knew you, now thinks that you are dead.”
“That's a good thing,” said Skua. “By the way, how long do you think it will be before I can return to my own apartment? Soon I hope.”
Ani looked serious. “About that. The answer is never, I'm afraid. Your brothers torched your place before they left.”
“My apartment was part of a block. There were thirty other units in the same block...”
“All dead,” said Ani simply. “Did you know any of your neighbors?”
“No, I didn't socialize on Level Minus One as a rule. I don't think that I ever even saw any of them.”
The room went silent. Junco found himself running a causal chain: These new deaths really couldn't be laid at Ani's door as Skua and his brothers were responsible for these events. There was no link to Vireo and therefore no link back to Ani. Junco was relieved. He liked Ani a lot, but the guy did seem to come attached to a large body count.
“Skua, did the damage to Violencia get repaired, or did your people just decide to live without the destroyed areas?” Scoter's inner historian never stayed buried for long.
“Good question. The place got completely rebuilt. In record quick time as well, and with some major improvements. The thing is , no one knows how it happened. Some of the usual small town type swellheads tried to take the credit but their stories fell apart under any sort of examination. They were obviously just as clueless as the rest of us. In fact there was a minor uprising. The worst of the opportunists were found hanging from street signs with messages attached – one sticks in my mind. 'For taking advantage of the grief of others'. There was often a second sign which read simply 'Real body also terminated'.
“We know who repaired your Level,” said Ani
Teal interjected, “Are you sure about this? They might get really pissed off if they know you are publicising their existence.”
“To be honest Teal, I am past caring what they think.”
“But you are a part of them,” she continued, careful not to reveal their name.
“Not any more. I haven't had much to do with them since they destroyed and rebuilt Rubidium Beach. Even the surviving good half have become so morally ambiguous that even I find them deeply offensive. The thing that really did it was seeing how easily they went back on their word and executed a quarter of their number.”
Junco was next to speak. “How do they feel about that? They are not the most forgiving bunch as you have just illustrated.”
Ani replied without hesitation. “I really don't care, to be honest. I accept the rationale for the job that they have assigned themselves. Keeping the Levels functional is pretty important, but I am now wondering if even that is worth the downside. Maybe it would be better to let the Levels fail and have others learn how to do the work to maintain them. Sure a certain amount of chaos would ensue but humanity would get past it. Having such important work done by what is in effect a secret society, answerable to no one is becoming less appealing by the day.”
“Wow. I knew that you were having issues with them but always thought that you approved on balance,” said Teal.
Ani replied, “I did, but not any more.”
Skua, who had been listening intently, looked Ani straight in the eye and said simply. “You are in exactly the same position as I am. We were once both part of a gang which we now wish to leave.”
This was something of a revelation for Junco. He had tried to get his head around the Mechanik since he had first encountered them but had never really succeeded. Skua described them with one simple word. They were a gang. Junco then made a decision for the group. “Skua, you are absolutely right, they are a gang and the gang's name is Mechanik.”
5. SKUA SEMP – PART II
The group carried on drinking and talking for several hours. Skua had a healthy sense of curiosity and asked the group lots of questions about their background and how they got together. He never got into really personal territory though and, as Teal noted to Junco, he seemed to have a good instinctive sense of people's boundaries. Junco thought that this was probably an essential survival skill on Skua's home Level, Violencia.
Skua seemed to answer all the questions that the group put to him, openly and with good grace. Generations of his family had been low level thugs within the Mayhem operation, dishing out beatings and the occasional murder of minor operatives that had fallen afoul of the parent organization. They were the enforcers. This generally enabled them to survive and even allowed for a few luxuries.
Skua's father had been either more intelligent or more motivated than hi
s ancestors. He worked out just who to impress to move up the ladder – to get off the streets and into 'management', so to speak. He even volunteered to do a hit on one of his own sons to show the bosses exactly where his loyalty lay. Skua, aged fifteen, watched from another room as his father put a bullet in the back of his oldest brother's head, then poured a coffee and checked over the racing results. When two gang members appeared to clean up the mess he didn't even look up from his reader – just waved at where the body was.
Skua and his remaining brothers ran their corner of the Mayhem empire very conscientiously, making bank for both themselves and those above them in the gang hierarchy. They committed or sanctioned as much violence as they needed to maintain the status quo, and were generally well-liked in the part of town where they ruled. By and large, they understood the importance of the balance of fear and compassion.
Up until a few months ago things were fine and there was no antagonism between Skua and his brothers, but then they got greedy. Their actions pushed many of the more lowly members of Mayhem into poverty and the result of this ran the gamut from resentment to unconcealed hatred. This broke the status quo and the brothers had to rule more harshly to keep the workers in line. Skua voiced his opposition to the new way. Unfortunately his brothers had greased the palms of those above them well and when push came to shove, putting a hit out on Skua was not a hard decision.
The only concession, agreed by the brothers and their bosses, was that the hit was to be clean and that no torture or degradation was to be used. In other words his execution was not to be used to send a message. This much Skua gleaned from a friend who worked in the mansion of one of the bosses. Two days after the friend passed on the information he was found on an embankment, dead, naked, and minus his skin. Skua dropped down to Level Minus One and went to his friend's apartment. Sure enough there was no sign of his friend. 'Trash collection' had taken place.
The group talked some more and had many more drinks at Teal's insistence. Ani was more than happy to perform the duties of host and barkeep. He had anticipated the long evening and had made up rooms for each of them. After a quick hit on their SoberUps and a few hours sleep the group reconvened. Ani suggested breakfast on the event horizon of the Milky Way's central black hole and handed each of them a carton of the nutrient slop that was now the staple of the vast majority of the human race. The sim's level of detail blew Junco away. The slop was transformed into something spectacular and the visuals were as high a definition as his mind could handle. Whether it was a strictly accurate representation or not did not matter one iota. This was a quality of sim that Junco had not experienced before.
When they were done Junco took one final look at the tropical paradise framed out in the large windows and jumped back up to The Jupiter Moon on Rubidium Beach only pausing at Level Zero long enough to check in virtually at has place of work or to be more accurate his place of nothing to do. Still, it paid the bills so he did not complain too much.
6. THE VIOLENCIAN HORDES
Skua materialized outside the front door of the body repair shop and walked in through the door scanner. He walked out with his replacement digit and headed for the Jupiter Moon. The others met him in there.
The bar that was empty when they had left was now at capacity. There were over a hundred men drinking, laughing, talking loudly and acting macho. They were all wearing the same style of pink suit and green pointed-toe shoes that Skua and his brothers favored. The automatic bartender generator had already cranked out eight clones to keep up with the liquor demand.
Junco turned away from the chaotic scene unfolding in front of him and to the group that he was with. “I need to get message to Skua – this looks like his old gang and I don't think that they are here to chew the fat.”
“Good idea,” said Ani. “While you are in the body shop give him a cosmetic.” His eyes glazed over for a second then he continued. “I've set up a new icon on your internal home-screen. Just click on it and Skua will have new clothes – remember to tell him to take his old ones off first though, otherwise things will get really messy.”
“Good thinking.” And with that, Junco left the bar and entered the body shop. Skua was just getting ready to leave, brand new digit attached. Junco told him that showing up in the Moon was likely to be a very short and painful experience and then mentioned Ani's cosmetic change suggestion. Skua was not delighted but agreed that there wasn't really a choice.
Skua returned to the table where he had only just been and laid flat. Junco spoke. “Full cosmetic change required. Invoice to Ani the Benevolent.” He didn't know whether the last part was required or was just one of Ani's little jokes but decided to stick with what worked on a previous occasion. A voice that came from everywhere replied. “That seems to be in order please specify the changes required.”
Junco replied immediately. “Face, complete change to completely unremarkable. The type of face that human brains struggle to recreate because everything is so average. Body. Again average. Lose the muscle definition, add a little fat but not too much. Age 20.”
The machine read the request back to him in machine speak and asked for confirmation from Skua. He obliged but did not sound happy. Junco got the impression that he liked the way he looked. Five minutes later the medibox that had been covering Skua lifted and recessed itself back into the ceiling and an unremarkable looking Skua mark II sat up looking only a little groggy.
“Take your clothes off,” said Junco. Skua didn't look happy but did what was requested. Junco then mentally tapped the new icon that Ani had provided and Skua was immediately fully clothed in 'universal drab'.
Junco spent a few seconds mentally burying the fact that his request for an unremarkable appearance had more to do with the fact that Teal was attracted to Skua than in the ex-gang member's personal safety. He buried it very, very deep.
Junco and Skua had to force their way from the Jupiter Moon door to where the others were sitting. The atmosphere was turning bad and it didn't take a genius to realize that things were about to get worse quickly. There seemed to be many more pink suits in the bar than when Junco had left to see Skua and, more worryingly, there was another group. The newcomers were also wearing suits but theirs were bright yellow. In addition to the banana suits the new crowd were also wearing floppy-brimmed lime green hats. The view from where Junco sat was ugly on every level.
Then it happened. The bar exploded with the sound of smashing glass and gunshot. It was impossible to see into the blur of gaudy hues and the sheer amount of flying glass. The five of them dived behind the bar counter. Ani activated a fine mesh grill that descended from the ceiling and came to rest on the bar counter. For now they could watch the action in reasonable safety. Ani assured them by means of hand signals and pantomime that the screen and the invisible reinforcing that he'd added to the bar would keep anything short of a tactical nuclear device from harming them. Junco didn't know if this last part was exaggeration or not. Glasses continued to smashed against the screen and several gunshots added to the noise levels. The view was still a blur ten minutes later. This crowd certainly had stamina.
Ani reminded the rest of the group not to go over to mind to mind communication as this would be too dangerous. One hack and Skua's true identity would be known – that just wasn't worth the risk. This did mean that communication had to be by shouting into an ear with a cupped hand or exaggerated hand gestures. Junco made several very unambiguous hand signs that conveyed his thoughts about the gangs now tearing it up in the bar. The others laughed despite themselves.
Eventually the loudest of the noise died down and the projectiles stopped flying. The uninjured and the walking wounded staggered out of the two exits. A pile of bodies, some unconscious and some undoubtedly dead remained and covered just about the entire floor. “What do we do about them?” Teal asked no one in particular.
The moans and cries of the injured were filling the air. Junco preferred the sounds of things breaking that weren't people.
“Please make it stop.”
“Well, the dead are dead – remember, that is how it works on this Level,” said Ani. “So they are past caring.”
Scoter asked. “What about the living?”
“I think that we should let Skua decide their fate,” said Teal.
Skua responded, “Is there anyway, that we can just banish them from this Level?”
Ani thought for a second. “I need to send a message to Violencia before the hordes really start to come pouring through. My preference is to let them live but to send them back with their injuries and no chance of returning to get fixed.”
“Harsh but understandable,” said Skua. “Can you just banish them?”
“No problem there, I just hack their implants, then there is no way for them to access Rubidium Beach.”
Junco looked perplexed and directed a question to Ani. “I thought that Rubidium Beach was invite only and that you charged rental?”
“I loosened things up a bit on that front. Basically decided to let anyone in on a trial basis. The idea was that a user could try the Level for thirty days without my permission. If they didn't do anything to piss me off and wanted to stay for longer then they would pay a rent.” Ani went on, “I figured the place needed a bit of shaking up to keep it interesting. If I carried on over-policing entry it was only ever going to be a reflection of me and my tastes.”
Ani disappeared to his virtual White Room. When he returned the Jupiter Moon was restored. There were no gaudily suited bodies, no blood stains and no broken glasses. Everything was as it was before the invasion.
“Impressive bit of housework,” said Junco.
“That's as maybe but we have a problem,” replied Ani.
Junco prompted, “Which is?”
“The ones that escaped out to the Plateau are still free. I did manage to send all the ones back that used the Downtown, exit.” Said Ani.
The Rubidium Beach Series - Episodes 1 Through 4: Cyberpunk/Dystopian Science Fiction Page 16