Hardwired Faith (The Exoskeleton Codex Book 1)

by Sean Kennedy

  “Hmmmm...” each puff was a different platonic solid cloud. After a few moments of thought, he returned, “I don’t have it, Teeva. Syntheltryptamine was a trademarked synthetic, maybe a finder might be able to...”

  “No time, bro is locked up an’ the door’s closing. What’ve you got bro?”

  The old gnome leaned against the side of the wooden bridge. He took a long draw from his pipe before blowing a cloud of smoke that rendered into a molecular model.

  “Hmm,” he nodded, observing it floating in the air.

  “Well... I don’t know Teeva, this syntheltryptamine molecule,” he pointed with the long stem of his pipe, “this is a very complicated piece of synthesis. It’s some deep neurochemistry you’re playing with here.”

  “Nice!" Teeva smiled, “I knew you would know ‘bout this stuff.”

  Toes scowled, “No one really knows about this stuff Teeva, it's not like penicillin, these synthetic brain breakers are horrible! Syntheltryptamine is a corrupted synthetic harmaline...”

  “Bro’s gonna die, for sure, unless you can figure out something, Toes,” Teeva interrupted his lecture, “you gotta have something!”

  Toes took another deep haul from his pipe. “What happened to him? What was the nature of the injury?”

  “Crew got him at Alcazar,” Teeva said and the old man's eyes flynched, “bro has a zero bounce Toes, and Crew lit him up ‘til he hit the floor.”

  Toes shook his head, “but why syntheltryptamine?”

  “His uncle wants it, he’s got some kit he can use to bring him out, but he needs the syntheltryptamine to get his brain to dance with some tech.”

  “A neural helmet?” Toes asked in smoky words.

  “Maybe,” Teeva shrugged, “I'm only finding, his uncle is the one doing the work.”

  “Hmm,” the gnome mumbled as the smoke molecule dissipated.

  “Maybe... something might work,” Toes said, more to himself than Teeva.

  “It's the kind of thing you don't try too often, and it's very dangerous Teeva. Those neural helmets were abandoned for a reason, you know. The failure rate was too high even for the military. There's no guarantee...”

  “You’s awesome Toes, I’ll take it!”

  “Not so fast, Teeva!” Toes nodded, “What if he comes out of it a vegetable? What if he can't string a sentence together from the neural burn? Are you sure that's what you want to see happen?”

  “Not gonna happen Toes, bro is incredible! He just needs a tiny boost to get out of a hole.”

  “Syntheltryptamine is not a tiny boost.” Toes shook his head.

  “Bro’s dead if we don't,” Teeva shrugged. “Not much to lose.”

  The apothecarian nodded and his eyes lost focus as he drifted, searching through his records.

  “Well... I do have some modified telepathine,” he said after a moment, “it's a naturally derived harmaline with some small psychoactive boosters I’ve mixed in, but I won't be able to guarantee results, Teeva! Even if I had some syntheltryptamine to analyze...”

  “It’s sketchy bro, I get it.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Bro’s a new arc kid, only been in the zone long enough to save my ass before he got burned in Alcazar.”

  “I guess he saved the right ass.“ The old gnome raised his brow, “I suppose you need this right now?”

  “Bro’s drifting, Toes, gonna be out of range soon.” Teeva shrugged.

  “The usual drop?” he asked.

  “No bro,” Teeva transmitted the farmhouse coordinates. “It’s goin’ to the edge of the zone.”

  “The Kaizen Sanctuary?” Toes read the location.

  “Yeah bro! You know it?”

  “I know of it, how did you get in there?” Toes shook his head.

  “My bro is the nephew of the cats that own it.”

  “Hmm...” The gnome nodded. “I see.”

  His lips shifted as though whispering soundless incantations and slowly his head began to nod. Teeva smiled and nodded in time as the fog cleared from the old man's eyes.

  “Okay, it’s in the air, be there in less than fifteen minutes.”

  “Yeah bro!!” Teeva stuck out his hand. The old gnome reached out and bumped Teeva’s fist with his own.

  “What's it gonna cost?” Teeva asked, and Toes eyed him for a moment. “It's a single booster of my own experimental stock, Teeva, we can talk about price after it works.”

  “You got wings bro!” Teeva held his fist out again and nodding his wide straw hat as Toes smiled and bumped his fist a second time.

  “Well, we’ll see Teeva. Just let me know what happens.”

  Teeva nodded one last time. “Bond!” he said, and after a wink, walked off the small bridge towards the Edwardian mirror.

  Chapter 14

  The garden sounds were blasted away by ghostly crowds as Teeva appeared back on the Zone Town public network. He tried to activate an exit, but the cursor chased itself, drawing a small circle in his vision as he waited for access. Still more avatars arrived at the flesh parade as fans jammed local servers to see their musical messiah.

  Hierarchy became simple with the authority of the real. All physical matter has a ghost, but not all ghosts exist in the real world. If one wished to have any item online, one needed the physical object's representation rights to use it in Immersion’s A/VR reality.

  That simple decision is what catapulted Immersion into the world's most dominant net technology. It was possible to harvest purely virtual items in the virtual resource worlds, and a mirror market developed to bring actual items across the screen.

  Virtual combat gave individuals the authority to protect themselves, and police their own. In the dedicated Warscape servers, death meant a permanent ban, a ghost would never be able to return to a server once they were killed there, but on the public systems, death only meant a seventy-two hour expulsion.

  Most users couldn’t handle being offline for more than a few conscious hours. People worked, played and had relationships, all though Immersion’s A/VR interface. To be thrown offline was a serious disruption, and it gave virtual actions very real consequences. With only a three-day suspension for death versus seven days for disconnection, it was better to kill yourself online rather than just unplug cold.

  As real as Immersion tried to make itself, there were still bandwidth limitations. The local area’s network had too many people trying to arrive to free up a port for his exit. Teeva’s cursor kept spinning as it searched.

  A deafening roar filled the street as a long black limopod came closer. Teeva pressed himself back against the apothecary's gates and watched the cursor spin.

  This is taking too long, he thought, and just then heard the explosion.

  A virtual charge, laid paper thin on the street and covered with an oil stain, had detonated. The limousine reared up, curving its frame like an angry snake before rocking forwards on the road. Screams with a new tone rose as the limopod glass exploded into the avatars.

  Amongst the oblivious shifting gray forms of the offline, augmented figures shed their offline disguise like cloaks, transforming into sudden virtual life.

  A woman screamed, “Plague!”

  Teeva looked again to his exit circle still trying to depart, and then back to see the blasted bodies of avatars strewn on the neon street.

  A giant, swollen from steroids with spiked steel hair, climbed up the twisted limopod's virtual wreckage holding a rescue axe painted in twisted Plague glyphs.

  Bare chested under a purple leather jacket, he stood on the limopod, feeding on the ecstasy of violence as Plague avatars attacked the screaming crowd with hooks, clubs and blades.

  More Plague ghosts manifested on the street as Teeva drew his stellite blade and pressed himself along the fence. He crouched low, moving his blade as a shield in front of him.

  Teeva heard sounds of tearing metal over the screams of Plague victims, as the warped limopod was torn open by a ragged crowd of frenzied muscle. Freakish
avatars with beastly eyes and crowbar claws dragged the famous Redundant-T from the virtual vehicle.

  Redundant-T was himself a monster of muscle, but he was no match for the crowd of howling freaks that dragged and pinned his avatar face down on the street.

  Teeva pleaded with the turning Immersion spiral as Redundant-T’s clothing was torn away by the Plague mob. The axeman jumped from the limopod, landing beside the DJ’s pinned avatar, choking his grip high on the axe. The blade glistened as though it was dipped in chrome under the street animation’s glow.

  With a knee in his victim's back, the axe-wielding monster began to carve. Blood sprayed, spattering his spiked head as he harvested the DJ’s avatar.

  Redundant-T would receive no special treatment from Immersion’s physics engine. With the Wreckage Festival days away, he wouldn’t be able to perform if his avatar was killed or he dropped. He could only scream in humiliated rage as the axeman harvested his avatars flesh like a resource beast.

  The Plague not in pursuit of the fleeing avatars had turned to witness the blade carefully peeling digital flesh from the muscular DJ’s back. Still, Teeva’s cursor turned, but the Plague’s denial of service attack had trapped them all. Without Teeva’s confirmation in Immersion, the delivery drone wouldn’t land; Jacob would be lost.

  All was screaming. Teeva hoped to remain unnoticed as he pressed along the fence, staying low among the signposts.

  Teeva watched the crowd pull back from the blood spattered axeman. He stood, bare-chested and holding his jacket high for all to see. Large steel safety pins held a fresh cut slab of avatar skin like a back patch on the purple leather. It was Redundant-T’s back tattoo, stolen from his flesh.

  A victory cry went up through the Plague, just as woman with half a shaved head and a long kitchen blade spied Teeva as she licked lips, Teeva’s Immersion exit caught. She was bounding towards him when a kaleidoscopic portal opened, and Teeva fell back into the real.

  Chapter 15

  Teeva gasped as he tore the headset from his face.

  “You alright?” Mac was over him as he adjusted to the ground rush.

  “Plague.” Teeva panted, “But it's okay bro! I got it! There should be a drone arriving real soon.”

  “You some found syntheltryptamine?!” Mac said.

  “Kinda.” Teeva was still breathing heavy. “Toes said some telepathine should work, it’s kinda the same stuff.”

  “How much?” Slate asked from beside Jacob’s bunk.

  “I been going to Toes for a long time, this one was buck-shi.” Teeva winked as he stood up, unsteady on his feet.

  “What happened?” Mac asked.

  “Plague attack, just appeared out of nowhere, blew a dude’s limopod and skinned his ghost. Took bro’s whole back.” Teeva stretched and adjusted his courier bag sword.

  “That drone should be here quick,” Teeva said as he moved to the attic door. Mac nodded to Slate and followed Teeva down the stairs.

  Outside, Teeva half collapsed sitting on the mismatched front steps of the house. As he tried to steady his breathing, he pulled his vaporizer from the courier bag.

  His hands were starting to tremble as he pressed the button. Placing his lips on the tube, he drew in a long sweet breath of the vapor and held it, feeling the thick tension of a looming seizure begin to dissolve.

  Mac watched him settle against the stairs and release a cloud of white smoke as Teeva finally cleared his lungs.

  “Black Shakes.” Teeva shrugged his shoulders.

  “That’s how you know Toes?”

  “Yeah, been going to him forever.”

  “Well, if he comes through on this, I’ll owe him, not you.”

  “He heard of you. Called this place the Kaizen Sanctuary.” Teeva said.

  “I suppose that’s not surprising.” Mac laughed as he took a seat next to Teeva on the steps. “Word about this place is bound to get around.”

  Teeva’s eyes drifted up to where he knew the delivery drone would come from and watched the distant clouds, feeling the soothing cool of the herb set in.

  “Can I ask you somethin’ Mr. Mac?”

  Mac nodded.

  “What’s the deal with the Kaizen?”

  “That’s a good question,” Mac chuckled.

  “I mean,” Teeva went on, “everyone is scared stupid of this place in the zone, they say you got crazy robots running around out here...”

  “Kaizen aren't dangerous, just different. They learn who they are over time, just like people.”

  “Do they let you connect to them sometimes?”

  “Oh no, you can’t connect to a Kaizen, nothing more than pilot controls anyways.” Mac shook his head, “once you activate them they are a closed system.They can’t connect out, and we can't get in... I think that's what makes them special.”

  “Because we can’t change them?”

  “Well, that's not true either. You can connect, but only the way you and I are connecting right now.”

  “So... they won’t... like ...come after me?”

  “I don’t think you need to worry,” Mac looked into the stacks, “They’re a lot like children, but not as cruel.”

  Teeva raised his eyebrows over half closed eyes. “Are they AI? Joni says they are, she’s mad to get a look at one.”

  “Well, not all Kaizen are the same. Sure, they’re all autonomous systems, but they’re still different based on their design.”

  “Like people.”

  “Exactly,” Mac smiled, “we don’t get a lot of visitors out here, they’ll remember you showed up, and that you tried to help.”

  “Well yeah... but… I did take bro there...” Teeva stared into the horizon hoping his words would die hanging in the air.

  “It doesn’t work like that. You did the best you could with what you had.”

  “I guess,” Teeva sat up, focusing on a speck in the distance.

  “Yeah Toes!” he whispered, and Mac followed his stare to see a delivery drone flying towards them.

  Chapter 16

  Mac climbed the stairs and stepped through the attic door.

  “I sent him on his way with a ration sack. He’s wobbling, but I think he’ll make out alright.”

  “Did he get it?” Slate asked from his bedside post.

  “He got something.”

  “Will it work?’

  “Well now, I… I don’t...”

  Slate turned his eyes back to Jacob’s tiny shocked gray face.

  Mac walked over and sat on the foot of bed, watching the boy's chest rise and fall in long breaths.

  “I don’t think it will work Vince,” Mac whispered, “you should know.”

  Slate nodded, “Go get it, Mac.”

  Vince waited for him to be halfway down the steps before he reached up and gently began removing the monitor sensors from the boy’s scalp. The monitor let out an alarm before Slate hit the switch and pulled the steel pole away from beside the bunk.

  He reached down and lifted Jacob, shifting the pillow under his neck. Holding the boy's shoulders, he easily slid Jacob to the edge of the bed, so his head was supported, but exposed.

  Long moments later, Mac’s feet sounded on the stairs before he stepped back into the room. Vincent stood up, letting Mac have the space he needed at the head of the bunk.

  He watched Mac open the dark duffel bag, and saw the hovering hesitation as he looked down at the helmet. Slate reached past him and withdrew a small brown envelope Mac had retrieved from the shop’s red safe. He tore it open, letting a drive with ‘Vade Mecum - Classified 1’ printed across it slide into his palm.

  Slate held out the drive. “This is my call Mac, it’s on me.”

  His hand hung in the air as Mac crouched. With drilled precision Mac pulled the helmet from the bag and slid it over Jacob’s child-sized head, the helmet base almost touching his shoulders.

  The fan and small lights of the brain interface spun to life, and only then did he reach out and take the black drive from
Slate. He smiled as he unwrapped it.

  “It’s a nice thought Vince, but I was the one who took the helmet out to start with.” Mac slid the small drive into the helmet’s crown slot.

  He lifted his Immersion goggles to program it, but a few seconds later he removed and handed them to Slate. The goggles showed a Space Corps Special Warfare logo floating in a dark void, with a prompt asking to confirm installation.

  “It’s not even asking for data, and it's a huge imprint, Vince.”

  Slate lowered Mac’s goggles and handed them back. Jacob looked even smaller now with the large black ball overtop his head. Mac did a single check and placed his hand on Jacob's chest.

  “It's ready.”

  Mac retrieved the telepathine from his pocket and laid the auto-injector on the bunk. He took the nanite booster from the waiting duffle and pressed it into Jacob’s shoulder until he felt the needle deploy.

  Jacob gasped, taking a few deep breaths before his breathing steadied. Mac picked up the telepathine autoinjector, placing it against Jacob’s other shoulder before looking to his partner again.

  Slate leaned forwards and placed his hand next to Mac’s, feeling the rise and fall of Jacob’s breath with the warmth of the afternoon sunlight streaming through the mismatched attic windows.

  “Do it,” Slate said, and they heard the turbine whine of the microdrive spinning up as the injector deployed.

  Chapter 17

  “wΔz = cov (wi, zi)”

  “In a population of reproducing individuals,

  any trait (z) that increases fitness (w) will increase in the population with each new generation;

  if a trait decreases fitness, it will decrease.”

  - The Price Equation

  Jacob existed in blasting pain. His body twisted as his sense of self burned away in the wind of his life's memories, like blasting sand dissolving his being.

  Jacob screamed, but couldn’t hear his voice over the storm. He curled into a ball amongst the searing chaos as agony clawed at his neck and face with each heartbeat.