Now that the scooter was hovering over the floor, it was much easier to manhandle down the stairs of her building and on to the street. When she reached the street, the scooter thumped to the ground, and she turned off the now-useless chip. Jack straddled the machine, and brought up the control program. She sent her password to the machine, and it started with a dull whir. She checked the charge, and confirmed that the machine was fully powered. She also checked the bio-diesel tanks and saw that the tanks were full to about half capacity, so she figured that without topping up she could probably go for 200 kilometers on oil alone if she had to.
She checked the street for traffic, but it was quiet as usual. She pulled onto the street, accelerating smoothly. She had a live map of the area up on her left eye, while she kept the other eye clear to watch for traffic and pedestrians. It was only a few clicks to the TGV station, so the ride didn't take very long. About halfway to the station, her system gave her an audio notification that her message to Adrian had been acknowledged. Good, she thought, if something happens to me, at least I know that there's someone else who knows what I know.
She pulled into the station with a good quarter of an hour to spare. She queued up for the parking zone, and was surprised to see so many other scooters, 'cycles and hover boards. Most people were happy to take the trains which could get you anywhere in a city. Of course, the capital was a gateway to many places that didn't have such a good transport system - the hinterland of the north was a popular tourist attraction among the physical world adventure types.
The parking line moved quickly enough, and soon Jack was slotting her scooter into a space barely big enough to accommodate it and the panniers she had attached. She flipped on the anti-grav, and hoisted the scooter up to the clamps on the side of the parking car. She slipped the wheels into the clamps, and turned the anti-grav chip off as the clamps closed over the wheels, locking her scooter in place. She took an image of the location of her spot for future reference, then made her way into the passenger compartment.
She found an empty seat, and settled in. The TGV ran at just over 400 km/h, so Jack anticipated that the trip would take roughly four hours. She had exhausted her capacity for research and preparation by this point, so she pulled out a meal packet and opened it just as the train was starting off. After she was done her dinner, she pulled out a bottle from one of her pockets, a three hour draught of SleepingJuice. She drank it down in one, thinking that it wouldn't hurt to sleep through this one train ride. She leaned back slightly in the chair and the dark curtain of sleep fell over her almost immediately.
Chapter 20
00101
This has to stop. The last time I came out of a blackout, I knew that this isn't just some malfunction with the hardware, this is a real problem. I came to in my room, at my table, as I have so often in the last few weeks. I was cold, as I usually am after one of these episodes. But this time my hands… my hands were all scraped, scratched and bleeding, like I had been fighting or tearing into a bolt of glass cloth without gloves. And I have no memory of any of it.
Of course, I listened to my recordings. I listened to them over and over until I finally couldn't stand it anymore. Because there's nothing, not even background noise or hiss. The entire section of my blackout has been erased. And the log says I'm the one who erased it.
Chapter 21
Jack woke up with a start, and for a moment didn't know where she was. The motion of the train was so even that it was as if the train were still. The seats were fairly wide and comfortable, so she wasn't even being jostled by other passengers. Her confusion was fleeting, though, and she checked the time. SleepingJuice was amazing - at that point the train would be arriving in about fifteen or twenty minutes.
She stretched as best she could while staying seated, and cracked her neck. She quickly checked her system and found an acknowledgment from Gilles for her report. Good, she thought, at least if they turn me into one of those drooling monsters they'll both know who to blame. Jack had given both Adrian and Gilles encoded links to contact each other in case of emergency. She allowed them to talk to each other anonymously; she had no interested in dragging them into this any more than was necessary.
Jack looked out the window and saw the coastline blurring off in the distance. She drank out of the complimentary bottle of water she got with her train ticket, and finished it off in one draught. She pulled up the information on her system about how to get to the Red complex. The train station was near the city centre, but the complex was out on the western-most reaches of the city. The map of the city seemed complete and she had good directions for the lay of the land at the complex. She was as prepared as she could be, so there was nothing for it but to just get going.
She felt the train begin to slow, and she made sure she had all of her things. She had left most of her gear locked in her scooter in the parking car, but from force of habit she patted her pockets making sure that all the items she had stowed there were where she had left them. After her little ritual was done, she stood, and leaned against the force of momentum as the train was slowing. She made her way toward the parking car, bringing up the image of where she parked her scooter.
She weaved between the rows of vehicles, guided by the image on her display. She found her scooter with no problems, and hung on to it for balance as the train stopped. A notice popped into her vision advising her to activate the anti-grav chip, which she did. In a few second the clamps sprang open, and she pulled her scooter down off the wall and turned it to face the exit. She turned the chip off and felt a satisfying thump as the scooter obeyed both Newton's first law and his most famous discovery.
She straddled the seat, sent her password and started up the engine. She had been able to recharge the batteries on the trip so she still had a full charge now. The big door at the end of the car opened, and the line of traffic slowly filed out of the train. Jack was antsy and wanted to get moving, but there's nowhere to go when you are in a queue of traffic. Finally she escaped the train and the station, and found herself on the city streets.
There was more traffic than she was accustomed to, but her map had prepared her for the traffic and the street. She took a right, deciding to take the longer but more scenic route along the waterfront. She accelerated, and soon was zipping along the coastline, headed for the Red complex.
It had been some time since Jack had driven, and she had almost forgotten why she had put up with the inconvenience and expense of storing the scooter. The touch of the wind through her hair, the feeling of the road rushing beneath her and the sheer thrill of moving with her machine, separate but united, were among the most pleasurable things she ever experienced. It had been too long. Some people were just born to drive, she thought, and she was one of those. She pushed her scooter to the limit its electric engine would allow, and on a particularly open stretch of road, flipped over to hybrid mode.
At first the engine was sluggish, adjusting to the new fuel source, but then she felt the gears change and the engine seemed to roar with life. The faint smell of real food cooking that came with the increased speed always made the experience more fun for Jack. She switched back to pure electric when the traffic increased as she neared the complex. She crossed its legal border a full five minutes before she saw the first evidence of it being the right location.
She drove up to a large building that she believed was the semi-public centre. She parked her scooter in the lot behind it, surprised that there was so much open parking space. She locked up her scooter, taking the panniers with her. She checked her system and was unsurprised to discover that she was offline. She walked back around to the front of the building, and up the main steps. The large centre doors opened for her and she found herself in what seemed more like the lobby of a nice hotel than the lair of criminal crackers.
She approached the main counter, took a deep breath, and introduced herself. "Hi," she said to the bored-looking man working the front desk, "I'm b0xenjester, and I've come to stay and lear
n." He didn't respond, he just looked like he was waiting for something. "I have a map," Jack said, trying to sound like a regular hopeful acolyte as she explained that mojo had given it to her and suggested she come to the headquarters to learn more.
"Fine," the clerk sighed, "send it to me." He asked if she had wireless, and she frowned, since everyone did, but said yes. He flipped a switch on the desk, and Jack's system came back online. She found the map and sent a copy to the clerk. The network went down as soon as the transfer was complete, and Jack waited while he ran the checksum. The map must have seemed authentic enough, because he said, "fine," again, and turned his back. When he turned around again, he handed Jack a small plastic device with a prong at one end. "I've put you in room 10734; you'll find your way using that map over there." He pointed at a large freestanding board in the lobby covered in a complicated map. "Just stick the key in and it will tell you how to get there."
"Thanks," Jack said, trying for the right combination of blase understanding and gung-ho excitement.
"The next orientation session is in about an hour. Your room will tell you more." He turned away from her, obviously ending the conversation. Jack walked over to the map, and after a moment to figure the system out, stuck the prong end of her device into the slot in the board. A route lit up on the map, and a flashing light designated her room. It was about 250 metres away, off on the left of the central building in which she stood, on the seventh floor. She took an image of the map to her local system, and yanked the plastic device out of the board. She walked out of the lobby in search of her room.
She walked down the path that led from the main building to a cluster of short, residential type buildings. She found Building Ten, and entered its dingy lobby. There was not much to it, just a small space where you could wait for a lift. Jack did just that, and as one of the platforms came around, she stepped aboard it and rode up to the seventh floor. She stepped off into an equally dingy hallway of concrete and metal, and walked down the hall to room 34. She found the door, a solid slab of metal, and stuck the prong of her key into a slot just next to the door. A small red light came on above the slot, and the door slid open.
Jack entered the room and was surprised to discover that it was much the same as her own apartment. It was only slightly smaller, missing the kitchen area, and the fixtures were a little less up to date, but otherwise it was very similar. Jesus, Jack thought, I wonder how much this little weekend is going to cost me? She dropped her panniers on the bed, and looked around. The striking difference between this room and her apartment, or any other room she had stayed in, was the large panel on one wall. She walked up to it, and saw that it looked like a viewer, a smaller version of the one at the Red party she had been to the previous weekend.
Jack wasn't sure what to make of it, but she noticed one of those now familiar slots next to the screen. She shoved the key into it, and jumped slightly as the viewer lighted up and some kind of startup chime sounded. A pleasant-sounding voice came from the screen, and said "Hello, b0xenjester. I am Red Five, the personal assistant for all newcomers. I am here to answer your questions, keep your schedule and help you navigate the compound and the program. The next orientation session will be held in the common room on level two in 46 minutes. I will remind again you 36 minutes from now. Would you like to see a map to the common room?"
Jack felt stupid, but said "yes" aloud to the bright rectangle on the wall. Immediately a floor plan of the building appeared in the rectangle, showing a large space at the far end of the second floor. "Do you have any questions?" the voice asked.
"Not yet," Jack answered, turning away from the wall viewer. She spent the next half hour sitting on the bed with her eyes closed, going through her local system. She was hoping to record much of the events of the next few days, but she knew she wouldn't have enough on-board memory to keep it all. First, she set her recording rate to the lowest settings possible to conserve space, then set up a code she could think to start and stop recording. She kept the recording program going in the background and set it to "remember". This meant that it would record constantly, but delete everything older than two minutes unless Jack thought her record code. That way, even if she was a little slow, she should be able to get everything she wanted.
She was finalizing the settings on the recorder when the Red Five voice said, "You have ten minutes until the orientation starts, b0xenjester." Jack opened her eyes, and looked through the cabinets near the bed. She found a case of bottled water, grabbed a bottle and drank half. She stoppered the bottle, and slipped in into one of her pockets, after unloading the pocket's previous contents into one of the cubby boxes on the wall. She pulled the key out of the wall, and the viewer faded off. She stuck the key in her pocket, left her room and headed for the second floor.
There were about a dozen other people milling around the common room when Jack arrived. She guessed that some of them weren't actual newcomers, but she had to wonder about the number of people at the complex. Were there really ten or more new members every day or did she just happen to show up on an orientation day? And if there really were so many people interested in the Red, how come she had never heard of them until a week ago?
Jack hung around the back of the room, watching the others. There were some chairs set up facing a lectern at the front of the room. Slowly, people began to take the seats, and Jack slipped into a chair in the last row. One of the people up front, an older looking woman, walked up to the lectern and cleared her throat.
"Hi, everyone, can we get settled?" she said, "I'd like to get started as soon as we can." The group quickly stopped chatting and gave her their attention. "Thanks, everyone. My name is Alaina, and I'm going to be your guide for this orientation to the Red. Obviously, you all know something about us and what we do, or you wouldn't be here, but there's always more to know. Also, you'll want to learn about the various programs available here at the compound, and I can help you with that too. If anyone has any questions before we get started, go ahead and ask."
Everyone was silent, and most people shifted in their seats a little. It was strange being in an environment where the other participants could see each other or that you couldn't control the image they saw. Jack was pleased to see that she wasn't the only one uncomfortable with the situation, and began to believe that she might make it through the weekend without being exposed as a fraud after all.
Alaina continued on. "Okay, then, let's start with an overview of the Red way of life. Of course, we are a loosely grouped collection of individuals whose views run along a continuum. At one end are the folks who are drawn to the Red because they oppose the typical modern way of life, others simply think that people ought to question their surroundings more often and they want to be part of actions and events that help to shine a light on certain aspects of society.
"At the other end are those of us who do not participate in specific types of human/machine integration. Those Reds who subscribe to this more radical doctrine remove any systems which allow direct machine access, such as implants to connect to everywherenet or the identity chips in your palms." She held up her left hand, and a small gasp escaped a few of the participants, even though it was a demonstration, not an example.
Alaina laughed, "Don't worry, there is no dogma here. No one has to do anything, the whole point of the Red is to get away from the strict rules and regulations that society has placed on us all. Like I said, some of us are just here for the art. But you need to know that some of the people you will meet at the compound have strong opinions about integrated technology, and we all strive to be inclusive. Therefore, you cannot assume that everyone here is able to be connected wirelessly, or that everyone is chipped. Many people here are not. That's why you'll find keys and cables used here more often than anything else.
"This brings me to the first thing you'll need to learn about staying at the compound. Keys." She pulled a plastic stick out of her pocket that was similar to the one Jack had been given by the surly front desk
clerk. "You all have been given a key to get to your room. This key is your token for the whole complex - it's the equivalent of your identity chip. We do not read identity chips here, so access to the various buildings and courses is determined by your key. If you lose it, it will be a big hassle, so keep a close eye on it. Many of our new folks tie it to themselves." Alaina pulled out a tangled mess of red lanyards.
Most of the participants giggled, but a good number of them rose to take a lanyard. Jack joined the group who took the strings, not trusting herself to remember the small key. She affixed the key to one end of the lanyard, then slipped it over her head, stuffing the key between her sweater and t-shirt. "Okay, one last bit of housekeeping before we get into the meat of it all. You all should have been assigned a room, and you've noticed there's no kitchen. We all eat together in a communal hall in the main building. There are a number of sittings for each meal, which you can learn from the viewer in your room."
She proceeded to explain how the viewer worked and the information available from Red Five. There were schedules, program outlines and you could sign up to attend events through the viewer. Then, Alaina got to the part that was the least interesting, but in some way the most important.
"Now, many of you are probably wondering how much this is going to cost," she said, "and the answer is both nothing and a lot. The Red complex is run by donations and volunteers; there is no cost to stay here and learn." The group erupted into murmurs of shock and delight. "However," Alaina said, "everyone who stays here is expected to contribute to the community. On your viewer you will also find work schedules. For ever two programs you attend, you will have to put in a shift of work. There's lots to do, so you will all surely find something suitable." She explained that the Red also accepted financial donations, but that money could not be used to get out of work.
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