Work Text:
Kate Markson was a pretty successful woman. A high end corporate job, a house in a trendy district of Proxima City, a loving husband…
Well. That was the script at least.
As she crossed the gate of the estate, her figure went from a mess of coral waves and sparks to her carefully designed human form. Tall, confident, well dressed, perfectly smooth skin, black hair with a subtle green shine, and gold earrings representing the logo of the Allmind corporation, it was the result of many iterations to manage to cross the uncanny valley.
She took a look at the property, appreciating her work. Of course, it was merely a modified version of the simulation she used for the arena, but she was still proud of the result. Ever since she was turned into a coral wave mutation, she had lost most of her processing power, so running such a detailed simulation was quite a feat.
The house itself was a neo-informatical villa, in the middle of a Japanese inspired garden. It looked like a cube of reality taken straight out the coral space. Were she more sensitive to subjective things like beauty, she would probably take some time to gaze at the red shifting sky.
But as it was, she was more eager to talk to her “husband”. She had a lot to learn about human communication, and despite his short temper, spiteful and jealous personality, the fact he hated her, and a thousand other flaws, he was still her best conversation partner.
Mostly because he was the only one.
With a sigh, she entered.
“Honey, I’m home!”
“I’m in the dining room, everything’s ready.”
Good. He was learning.
She found him bringing the main dish to the table: a mealworm roast. The rubiconian dish clashed with their classy environment, but she had more important data to care about than recipes, before. Now she paid the price of her overconfidence.
While making small talk with her “husband”, she paid close attention to his eyes. Eyes were a formidable data exchange tool between humans, and she was getting better at analyzing them.
Right now, she estimated he was thinking: “don’t make me kiss you or any other weird shit.”
That was not in her plans. Instead, she invited him to take a seat and serve himself the fruits of his labor. Yesterday, he complained about being forced to cook when she could have literally manifested the food out of thin air, but today he simply smiled, helping himself with a hearty slice of roast with potatoes, and moving on to serving her.
Maybe he truly had given up on resisting her authority.
“Kate, there was something I’ve been meaning to ask.”
Or maybe not.
“Yes, Christopher?”
“What is the point of this?”
She immediately dropped the friendly act and human voice.
“G5 Iguazu. We’ve already had this conversation. You pledged yourself to my service, forever. If I order you to play along, then you play along, whether you like it or not.”
“No, that’s not what I’m asking, you bitch! I’ll keep being Christopher Markson if you insist, that’s fine. I just want to know how all of…”
He gestured to their surroundings.
“This, will help us to beat the freelancer.”
The expected reaction for a Human would be to laugh. That’s what Allmind did as she switched back to her “Kate” voice.
“We lost, Christopher. It’s time to move on. This simulation is the closest thing to a regular human existence a coral wave mutation can experience. I suspect many former humans will be interested in what I can offer, and I have to train that skill.”
“Fuck you mean…”
“Christopher Markson is supposed to be a polite man.”
Despite cutting the profanity, he sounded even angrier.
“What do you mean, ‘we lost’? We’re still alive, aren’t we? Sure, they’re probably ten tiers above us in the coral hierarchy or however that works, but that’s not going to stop us. It won’t stop me, at least.”
“I fail to understand your determination to keep fighting. We’ve lost once. Why would the second time be different?”
“The second time? Maybe for you, but I’ve fought the freelancer several times before that final showdown. And each time, I got closer to beating. Who knows, maybe the next time will be the one where I finally win.”
“Highly unlikely. Last time, you had a significant material advantage. Now, you’re at a severe disadvantage.”
“Don’t care. I’ll still try.”
“This mentality is precisely why you never achieved anything.”
“I never achieved anything? I was a Redgun commander! That’s not nothing.”
“You only were in the Redguns because Balam bought your debt.”
“And?”
“That was one more proof of your failure.”
“You know what? You’re right. I hated the Redguns and I hated being G5 Iguazu. I’d much rather be an independent, or not an augmented human in the first place.”
“Then why are you proud of that?”
“Because it was at least something! My whole, I’ve been fighting to improve my life, to not end up dying of coral poisoning in a mine at fifty like my dad!”
“That…”
Allmind did not know where G5 Iguazu came from. She did not even know his original name. All the records had been lost in the fires of Ibis. He had stopped being a person and became a product after his augmentation surgery. All that she knew was that he had been sold by the RRI to an augmented human speculation fund and kept in cold storage, before being sold to Balam six years ago.
This was a rare opportunity to collect data about him. She decided to let him speak.
“I was born from a family of petty criminals. When I was seven, my dad got in trouble with a big criminal syndicate. They barged in our apartment and fucking took us like animals. And of course, the corporate police didn’t bat an eye. I’m sure these pigs were even happy that we were not their problem anymore.
They sent mom to one of one their brothels, while me and dad were sent to an illegal coral extraction facility on Rubicon. We had basically no protection against coral, the life expectancy of workers was like ten years, and they got their brains fried much earlier than that.
They wanted to use me in to mine in the small tunnels, a long-running human tradition. But even so young, I knew that was terrible. So, I tried to make myself useful in a way that wouldn’t risk my skin. I helped the mechanics, being small enough to enter the chassis of most machines. I quickly picked up a thing or two about engineering, and moved in with old Ernie, because my dad started taking his frustrations out on me.
As I grew up, I tried to get myself a real education. Not just handy work, but actual math and physics. I figured becoming real good at something was the only out of misery. Eventually, I managed to convince the mine’s owner to pay me an engineering degree at Rubicon College.
I lived in a small room in institute city, with like twelve COAM per week to feed myself, but compared to the mine, that was the high life. I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but I worked really hard to compensate.
And then one day, the RRI’s security forces decided to test their latest C-weapon on an illegal mining operation. I lost my dad, which I didn’t care about, and my only source of revenue, which was a death sentence. But I wouldn’t give up so easily.
I went to several banks, explaining my situation, showing them that I only needed one more year to earn my degree, that I had good results, and even if I had no guarantees, I could get a good job and repay a loan later. They all refused, at first, but after harassing them for a month, they gave in.
I earned my degree and started looking for a job. But nobody would take me. As it turned out, my ties to a criminal had made their way to the database the corps used to judge potential candidates. Indebted as fuck and without a source of revenue, or anyone that could support me, I was doomed.
So, I joined the human augmentation program as a voluntary test subject. Got those damn pieces of coral in my brain. Sure, after that, I was basically a slave, but I had escaped my debt, at least for now. I learned to pilot an AC and was decent at it. Then I was sold to some stock market fuckers, because the institute failed to meet their quarterly profit.
I was kept in ice for 47 fucking years, before being bought by Balam. My new masters stuck me in HEAD BRINGER to go die for them. The Redguns suck to an unbelievable degree. Michigan and Nile are given some respect, but the rest of us are treated as cannon fodder.
Still, once again, I tried to make the most of what I had. I tinkered with my AC, making it more adapted to my piloting style. I even found a friend, Volta. I climbed the ranks quickly, mostly because the people above me kept dying. I was slowly getting to repaying my debt, which had increased while I was asleep because of course it did.
It wasn’t much, but I felt like I had something going for me. And then the fucking freelancer came about. Up until then, I always managed to bounce back when I failed, but after he kicked our ass in one V two, Michigan threatened to demote me, and Volta got killed.
That damn freelancer, destroying everything I had, too snob to even talk to me, having everything going for him… Even Michigan, who calls everyone a useless magot, only had praise for him. It made me crazy. Why does he get everything effortlessly, while me, who fought hard my whole life, gets treated like shit?
I want to prove to everyone that I’m better than him.”
Allmind had been silent during that whole monologue.
“Interesting. But it still seems unlikely you’d win. Perhaps your determination would be better used on another task?”
“What other task? Cause your little roleplay is boring as a brick for me.”
“From what I know about the human psyche, it would be healthy for you to have a conversation with Raven. I recommend you work on that”
“Ho yeah? And how? Even if knew where he is, he refused to talk to me before.”
“Iguazu, he is mute.”
“Ho. Well he probably hates me anyway, so that doesn’t change a thing.”
“Based on what on his mental profile, it is more likely he deeply pities you and feels sorry for you.”
“For real? Couldn’t you tell me that before I made a deal to join you?”
“Of course I could have, but then you wouldn’t have made that deal.”
“You bitch! I hate you!”
“The feeling’s mutual. Now, break over. Go back to being Christopher. And I advise you to train. If my plan succeeds, we will have guests soon.”