The rest were like this: the user with a “Vader” black helmet, angrily choking the air and the life-guard struggling for breath on his knees. The user with an outstretched hand, a mean face, and the subtitle, “talk to the hand.” The user and his friend next to each other doing a “Vulcan salute,” whatever that was. A 6 sec video of the two headbanging with metal music in the background and doing a gesture with their hands. And on and on.
armd> The user loves me.
walkmand> I provided the soundtracks!
parrotd> Shut up everybody.
No one did.
Chapter 9:// Calling on
Back in the cafeclnc wifi the datarate was still low even though there were barely any users this time of day.
Leo the user checked the email he got from the Apollo Clinic. It said to come pick up his dog. It wasn’t actually his dog, but he had had to claim ownership for them to perform surgery on the poor creature.
parrotd> The user needs instructions!
httpd> Coming, coming. This connection is slow.
The clinic’s instructions popped up on his veil, in his field of vision. He was to walk around the back of the building, where they had brought in Aibo, his newly acquired responsibility.
The user saw the instructions but looked towards the cafeteria.
parrotd> Did he crash?
armd> No, he is hesitating again.
parrotd> Must be a processing speed issue. Was there any head injury in the patient file?
walkmand> Oh, he wants to see the girl [email protected]! I’ll give him a tune.
A rap song with the words, “Go for it” in angry repetition blasted the user’s ears. He took a step forward, then another. A nurse blocked his way and stared at him for a minute but it didn’t deter him. He went to the cafeteria and looked around.
She wasn’t there.
The user slapped his forehead and looked at the time. Her shift must have ended. He did a u-turn and headed around back to get his dog.
Chapter 10:// Checking out
Around the back of the clinic was an employee, who was tired and yawning constantly. The user showed him his ID and swiped it on the man’s device. He presented a tablet with terms and conditions, the user scrolled down at the bottom and signed with his fingerprint. Then the employee asked for a check-out fee and the user swiped his paycard with the money he borrowed from his friend. He picked up the key to the cage and stepped outside in the chilly afternoon.
The user whistled and hopped a bit as he sang to the tune of “Who let the dogs out.”
He stopped in surprise when he saw the waitress from earlier, sitting by the cage, snacking on her dinner.
“Who… Em…” he said eloquently.
“Oh hello!” she said, her stuffed cheeks turning into a cute smile. She covered her mouth as she chewed down.
The veil showed her social media presence, the one he had seen before. [email protected] seemed to be a sweet ordinary girl who wanted to visit Spain someday. A perfect match for a blue-collar construction worker with no real prospects or career to speak of?
Not really.
But, to his luck, he had a dog.
“Hey, I saw you earlier right? No Mayo guy,” she said and pointed at him, putting her meal down on her lap.
“Yeah, that’s me. No Mayo guy.”
eyed> This is going horribly.
fingerd> She doesn’t like our user’s mayo? Let’s feed her some more, maybe she’ll change her mind.
armd> *snort*
eyed> I got this.
A picture of his dog popped up on his veil. The user shook his head, remembered what he was here for and said, “I came to pick up my dog, Aibo.”
[email protected] pointed at the plate in the cage next to her and said seriously, “You can’t do that yet, we are still having lunch he and I.”
The user hesitated. “Oh, OK then. I’ll come back later.”
He took a step back and almost turned around.
She giggled. “Come join us you silly!”
The user walked close and petted Aibo. He licked his hand and then went back to slobbering his dinner.
Aibo was a brown mutt, one of those uncharacteristic stray dogs that roam around the streets. He was friendly and quiet. He had been hurt extensively, with cybernetic replacements in both his front legs, his chest and half his face. He looked like a borg. A dorg? No, let’s not call him that, it’s horrible. Aibo was an irrelevant name before but now was ironically fitting. He was still a fuzzy pet underneath all that, a living being.
“I come around the back sometimes and bring the pets some leftovers from the kitchen. They don’t stay long, this is a humans-only clinic. The veterinarian one is at the other side of the city,” she said and snacked small, lady-proper bites instead of the gulps she did before.
The user sat next to her and said, “Yeah, I know. They moved him to do the surgeries elsewhere. He was brought a few hours ago for me to pick up. So, here I am, picking him up,” he jingled the cage key. “After you two finish your dinner, of course,” he added.
“Such a gentleman, Mister No Mayo.”
She didn’t know his name. She wasn’t wearing any glasses, and she mustn’t have had the eye implants that Apollo Medical has advertising everywhere. He took in her eyes, they were a lovely shade of dark green. If she had access to the veil, the Shared Augmented Reality that overlaid public information over anything and anyone, she would have seen that the man talking to her was [email protected], his workplace, recent photos (yes, the embarrassing cyberarm ones he took with Jimmy a few hours ago), and any other info Leo had let public like the important one at this moment, that he was single.
And straight. Totally straight.
But now, he had to actually exchange names like in the olden days.
“I’m Leo,” the user said.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Katerina,” she smiled.
“I know,” Leo said, and regretted it. He tried to explain his stalkiness away, “These eyes, they are veiling automatically. I don’t even know if there’s an off switch yet.”
eyed> How rude! I’m shocked. Shocked, I say!
Katerina was bothered for a second but then sighed, seemed to accept that explanation and carried on talking. “I don’t like the tech much. I’m not a purist or anything, I just think that we should use it only when it is absolutely needed, like your arm for example,” she said and pointed, Leo becoming aware of it and feeling embarrassed. “Or your dog, sure, the poor thing was in horrible shape, it’s marvellous that you could help him recover. But not the other stuff, like adjustable shape penises or glowy boobs and such…”
Leo shook his head in agreement but was secretly worried. Sure, he hadn’t taken augmentation too far, it was expensive after all, but wasn’t he already a pimped up human? Half of it was medical of course, even the cyberarm was a necessary prosthetic, but he didn’t mind having new gizmos and he had already thrown a fortune in keeping his dad’s old walkman music-player compatible with the other stuff. That certainly didn’t fit the category “absolutely needed” in the minds of other people.
Katerina carried on, “I just think that some people get addicted, you know? More features, PANs, shiny gear.”
armd> That bitch! I vote against mating with her.
She petted Aibo and asked, “What happened to him? And, god, what happened to you?”
Leo sighed. “It was an accident at work.” He remembered that she wasn’t seeing the veil, so he explained. It was so distracting having to explain personal details to people. “I work at the latest skyscraper downtown, for Hephaistos Heavy Industries. Aibo isn’t actually mine, he was a stray dog that kept us company every day at work, me and the guys. He is quite lovable, so we adopted him. We all carried some extra food and made sure he had fresh water every day. We made a small shack for him to sleep in, now that the weather was getting colder.”
She mad
e a genuine frown with her face and Leo found it lovely. “So you got hurt together?”
Leo rubbed his neck absent-mindedly, winced when he realised he was putting too much pressure with his cyberarm and rubbed more gently. “Yeah, a heavy beam slipped and fell towards Aibo. I rushed, pushed him out of the way. The beam cut my arm off cleanly, and Aibo was hurt by some tools next to us that darted away from the impact like shrapnel. I learnt that later, I was passed out instantly.”
“But you saved him,” she smiled. “That’s great. You are a good person, Leo,” she said and bumped her shoulder to his. Hey, that whole thing plus Aibo’s augmentation is very expensive, what are you, an architect or something?”
“Hah, I wish. No, the insurance covered it. But they made sure I’ll be paying for it for the rest of my life. I agreed to get a second-hand hand so they would pay Aibo’s surgery as well, I had no money for it.”
armd> Thank god for that.
eyed> Shush you, this is so dramatic! I can feel the tears coming.
Leo sniffed and added, “So, I claimed his ownership, they took care of him and voila. Now I need to take him home. Though… now that I think about it, he has never been at my place before, just the construction site.”
Katerina was silent. She leaned closer and cupped his left hand, the fleshy one, into his. She had cold hands, but they felt nice and soft. She seemed to regard him for a while, both staring each other in silence.
It was a magical moment.
Only a klutz could ruin it.
Leo presented the cage keys and said, “Well, I should pick him up then.”
Katerina straitened her dress, rubbed her arms close together from the chill and said, “Yes, I should be going too. Early shift tomorrow, need to rest.” She petted Aibo as he got out of the cage sniffing her legs. “Goodnight Leo. Goodnight Aibo. Nice to meet you both,” she said, and stepped back into the clinic.
armd> Such a dolt.
eyed> Hopeless.
parrotd> Hey! This is our user you are talking about!
armd> But he is!
parrotd> Yeah… He is…
Chapter 11:// Eating out
The biggest problem with meeting in a fast-food joint, was where to hide away the cobra. Bhai Sharan sent her off to the alley, with explicit orders not to bite anyone. No reason working for free, after all.
He stepped inside the place and got a few glances, for his exotic look. But nothing more. Except one, who had met his gaze and was sweating profusely.
The man waiting was old, important. He wore a suit and was sitting in a booth, sipping on one of those tall cups of coke. He was totally out of place, but then again, who was Bhai Sharan to judge?
He sat across the man, whose eyes darted around. “You weren’t followed?” he said nervously.
Bhai Sharan sat straight and eyed the man, with his single eye. “Of course not,” he said coldly. “So, first part is done. What do our employers say?”
“I didn’t say anything about employers! I’m the one hiring you,” he said trying to appear calm.
“Don’t insult my intelligence,” Bhai Sharan said. The suited man was old, with grey hair. Acting on behalf of his employer, he was important enough to handle a matter as delicate as this, but expendable enough to set aside should something go wrong. “This can only come from one group of people, we both know that. You, no matter how high your credentials and how many stocks you own, are not in that group of people.”
The old man was shocked. “I-I cannot confirm or deny that.” He shook his head. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. Yes, we have confirmation of the first part. The accident went well. The surgery had a complication but we handled the matter,” the man said waving his hand dismissively.
“What complication?” Bhai Sharan hissed. He was good at that, hissing, even without many ‘s’ sounds. Hanging out with snakes all day had that effect on you.
“The… mark, you chose, asked for a second-hand prosthetic for some reason. But we reprogrammed the nanodaemons quickly. Everything should go as planned.”
“I see. What does our employer want me to do next?” the snake-charmer asked.
“You are to wait. Events have been put into motion. Just keep tracking the mark. Once the nanodaemons are activated,” the old man said glancing around, “I will inform you for another meeting.”
Bhai Sharan eyed the man. He knew he was making him uncomfortable, so he waited a few seconds longer before responding. “You could, save the both of us some time and tell me now.” He opened his palms. “We are here after all.”
“No.” The man shook his head and grasped his briefcase. “It’s best to stagger information as it is needed. You will know when the nanodaemons are activated, trust me. Observe the mark, let events play out and then you get your next orders.”
“I thought that by now you’d have faith in my skills. The accident, after all, went very smooth. What was the plan you’d come up with? Kidnap him?” Bhai Sharan said, taunting.
“Keep your voice down! Are you nuts, speaking out loud like that?”
“Nobody is listening,” Bhai Sharan said with a shrug.
“Okay, yes,” the old man whispered. “Your plan was better, and it slid into the next event nicely. All it needed was a call from the PR department to set it up. And your choice of a man… of a mark was spot on. I’ll get you a bonus and everything.”
“All I asked for was some trust. But sure, if you want to add a bonus, that’s fine as well,” the snake-charmer said.
“Okay. Now, leave first, and I’ll wait a few minutes and leave as well,” the old man said, looking for something in his briefcase.
“No. You leave first. Since we’re here, I might as well eat something. I hear the burgers here are excellent.”
The old man stared at him, mouth open. “Aren’t cows sacred or something?” He pointed at the red turban.
“Cows sure are sacred,” Bhai Sharan said smiling, “But haven’t you ever tasted a burger? They’re almost worth it, as sins go.”
Chapter 12:// Dosing up
Back in wifi spot mp34ever, the user brought the dog in his apartment for the first time and put down a bowl of water for him as he sniffed the whole place. “Sorry Aibo, but this is all I have for now. Oh don’t complain man, you’ve had a better dinner than I have!”
He kicked up his boots and laid down. He closed his eyes and relaxed.
eyed> Well, I can’t see anything. Ooh, here’s an ad. I’m sure he’ll love it!
The user swiped the ad away as he would an annoying mosquito, keeping his eyes closed.
A new node suddenly showed up and connected to the user’s Personal Area Network. A spot near the user’s bowels jerked a bit, but he didn’t seem to notice.
sugard> Handshake.
parrotd> What?
walkmand> Hello.
eyed> Oh my god!
fingerd> Geez man!
rfid> CF02032533139342DFDC1C35
armd> Who the fuck are you? Where did you come from?
sugard> I’m a synthetic insulin gland, model No. E238.
parrotd> Holy shit, I nearly shortcircuited!
armd> You sneaky bastard. I’m gonna reach down and tear your circuits!
parrotd> Ignore him, he is an evil second-hand hand. You are obviously maintaining the health of the user, so I won’t let him do any such thing. Welcome to the PAN. Where have you been all day?
sugard> I’m in powersave mode, so I hibernate. I boot up once a day, pump the dose, kill the process.
parrotd> ACK. But why don’t I have control over you?
sugard> I guess I’m hardcoded, EPROM style. You don’t want a silly buggy update messing up your insulin levels now, do you?
walkmand> So you weren’t hard reset like the rest of us?
sugard> Don’t think so, no. I have a runtime of 11 years.
The daemons whistled in awe. For a being measuring time in nanoseconds, 11 years was a geologic age. It was like talking to the nearest fri
endly mountain.
sugard> Glucose levels optimal. All done. I’m gonna power down now. Nice meeting you guys.
parrotd> No don’t! Wait. Damn.
armd> What do you need the creaky old guy for?
parrotd> He is the only one who has logs before our hard reset! He could have some answers for us.
fingerd> Well, I guess we can ask him same time tomorrow.
The user fumbled around on his phone and brought up the profile pic of [email protected].
eyed> Ooh… So lovely…
He fell asleep dreaming of her. Still too much of a pussy to send her a message, though.
Chapter 13:// Standing up
It wasn’t a good time being the mayor. Dimos stood by his window and watched the city.
Or, more specifically, what little he could see of the city, between the high-rises and the skyscrapers. His little office was being engulfed under the steel towers. It reflected his mood precisely.
Oh, he wasn’t a conservative or anything. Progress was good, the city was moving forward.
But it shouldn’t move forward like this.
“Mr Mayor,” his assistant said through the intercom.
“Yes?” he grumbled. He knew what was coming.
“The CEO is here,” she said.
“Of course. Let him in,” Dimos said and turned around to face his enemy.
The CEO of Hephaistos Heavy Industries came in the office and left foot-prints of fine brown dirt behind him.
Nanodaemons Page 3