Conversion, pt. 3: Escalation

“So lemme get this straight,” Sy said, pushing around crumbs on her empty plate. “Y’all got sorta created slash born on some facility out in the badlands. Y’all got blue blood, carbon bones, super strength an’ reflexes, an’ ya got tailor-made fo’ bondin’ with Neo. An’ y’only got half a lifespan. That sum it up?”

“... Yea I think that does it. Also we’re all 6”1’ on the nose … fun fact.” Romeo added wiping the remnants of his kill with a napkin.

“No wonder clothin’ is so easy for y’all, only need one size,” Sy smirked. The shortened lifespan troubled her, but she didn’t want to press it, nor how long Romeo even had left to him. Instead, she turned to Piper. “So… How’s about you get up into my hand this afternoon, then?” She displayed her left palm for emphasis. “Think we should do it publicly. Give e’ryone a chance to be there, too, ‘f they want. No secrets, right?”

“Well… If I’m there --” Piper began, and then smiled. “We’re all there.”

“I get that,” Sy said, “But it’s still different from physic’ly bein’ there, ain’t it?”

“Not for a Neo. If Piper needed to call in emergency meeting everyone's Avatar would be here before she finished the thought. You have to consider how Neos eat, live, and breath with their Technomancy …” Romeo said wiggling his fingers. “ … it’s as much a part of them as your hand, so there really isn’t a difference for them.” He pointed out.

Piper nodded in agreement.

Sy ran her fingers through her dreads. “Man, I keep havin’ t’adjust my view on this hive mind o’y’all.”

“It’s one of the reasons why the New Way and there Neos are so dangerous.” Romeo explained. “There is no us and them. All Neo’s ... ANY Neo … Spire or New Way when they meet … instant connection and they actively FIGHT that WHILE taking care of business. It’s why only bonded pair can go out. Then there's the whole terrorism and wanton destruction ...” It was pretty clear though Romeo first concern was always his Neo’s well being. Everything else was secondary.

“Yeah, guess I can see what’cha mean,” Sy nodded. “So y’wanna do it right here in the caf or have ya got a be’er place for it?”

“Yeah, let’s have at it,” Piper said, rubbing her hands together, eager to dive in. She stopped suddenly and shifted her eyes back and forth quickly, having been ‘pinged’ by the Den Mother. She cringed slightly before looking back up. “Pyria’s office would be a much better choice, I think we should go there.”

"Yeah, that sounds good," Sy said, getting up and grabbing her empty plate. She put the plate on the rack for dishes and joined Piper and Romeo on the way to Pyria's office. "This way, we can have a cuppa tea while you mess 'round in my hand," she quipped.

“Nothing like tea and Piper exploring new tech.” Romeo tsked. “You’ll be the envy of the Spire.” He teased.

“I do love new tech.” She said excitedly. “Pyria’s tea? Icing on the cake.” The hallways were a bit quieter this time of day, mid-afternoon, what with most of the Neo were either in classes, or training, or occupying their time somehow. Arts were big in the Spire, there was always someone painting or, like Romeo mentioned, sculpting something. Plus there was always some sort of music going on in the conservatory. Of course today, it was likely quiet because everyone wanted to see the goings on in a different kind of Gallery, the range the Alpha pups were playing on.

Pyria knew the moment they arrived, even though Piper was making a special attempt, courtesy of the Den Mother to spend more time that day talking out loud rather than staying in the stream of chatter. Pyria had the respect of everyone, Neo and Alpha alike. If she asked something, usually everyone was happy to comply.

"Hey Ms. Rai," Sy waved as she entered the office. "Very nice to see your place from a normal height for a change!"

Pyria was already pouring tea in cups as the scent of green tea and mint filled the room. “Nice to see you doing so well!” Pyria chirped brightly. “Eager to get the ball rolling I hear? Go sit.” She waved at the trio.

“I heard the boys are all in the Gallery today and all the Neo’s are ditching class to watch.” She chortled.

‘You know it! Pups love to show off to all the pretty prospective Neos. Can’t help it. It’s in our DNA … or RNA … you get the point.” Romeo grinned helping pass out the tea.

“Yeah.” Piper agreed, hiding a smile. “The  Pups  love to show off. We’ll be there later.”

"Well, all the Neos should be getting a secondary show soon," Sy said as she sat down. "I know it won't be the way it is for all of you, but I can't wait to be a bit more part of the community here." She took a cup and blew on it. "So what should I do, Piper? Are you just gonna poke around and see what's up or do you need me to do anything as well?"

“I’m just going to do a little fine tuning. Don’t hit the ‘on’ switch til I’m back out.” Piper kidded. “Something tells me it’d hit like a bitc… it would hurt a lot.”

“Happy to see your sense of humor is intact Piper … and vocabulary expanded.” Pyria added dryly. They all knew who was to blame for that.

Sorry --  “Sorry, Pyria.” Piper replied, with a sheepish grin.

"I think I might have to apologize in advance for my usual vocabulary as well, Ms. Rai," Sy said, grinning sheepishly. "It is commonly a little more… colorful, so when I'm patched in, you may see some less polite language from my side every now and then."

“Piper has no excuse.” Pyria teased. “You're perfectly fine my dear. Do what you need to.”

Piper shot the Den Mother a look of mock indignity and pointed to Romeo, who made himself look like the picture of innocence. She nudged her Alpha and considered this taking one for the team.

Sy breathed in deep, smelling the green tea's soothing scent, and took a sip. Then she put the cup down. "Well, Piper," she said, laying her left hand on her knee with the palm upwards, "I guess we may as well get started, yeah? Hop on in."

Piper looked briefly to Pyria for the green light.

Pyria gave the nod, watching carefully. Clearly more in a supervisory role.

“Be gentle with me,” Sy said in a mock-sultry voice. “It’s my first time.” She winked and blew a kiss at Piper with a nervous giggle.

“Don’t worry," Piper quipped, “we’ll cuddle after.” Given the go from both Pyria and Sy, Piper’s eyes darted to her Alpha, “Be right back,” she said, giving him a quick wink. She started softly rubbing her thumb over her fingertips. Something tangible she could hone in on before letting her eyes roll back in her head, slipping into Heimdall.

With its power off, Sy could not immediately tell anything was happening. The only indication Piper was doing anything was her motionlessness and the frankly creepy thing she did with her eyes. A warning appeared in the bottom left corner of her vision for a moment, then vanished. She said: “If it’s easier for you to get ‘round the encryption, there’s a key in a file in the microdrive implant behind my ear.”

Piper’s fingertips continued to twitch as she untangled the encryption meant to protect Heimdall from prying eyes and viruses. Since she’d been pinged once and tracked its signal, she went through the initial encryption quickly, unraveling the locks as easily as unwinding a well coiled ball of yarn. Vivid colors flashed as she worked, data transferring from one stream to the next like rivers, images, everything Heimdall had to offer. Hidden in a file, just like Sy said, was the encryption key. Things opened faster now, fanning out in series of numbers that somehow made sense to the Neo. Hidden in the same microdrive, in sub file behind a tangled encryption was a compartmentalized folder of photos which when opened triggered feelings of what Piper could only assume was Sy’s father. Inexplicably, she felt tapped into the worry, the concern and fear, the strong need to find him. Her father had kind eyes, Sy’s eyes in fact, and it was clear she’d do anything for him. Piper wasn’t trying to be invasive, but data transfer happens on an extremely fast basis, one nanosecond, less time than it’d take for her thumb to move to her index finger and she’d have accessed all content.

As Piper burst through more virtual doors, the warnings multiplied, and accessed files flashed in her vision and disappeared. The photograph gave her a jolt, as if the floor dropped out of her stomach. But then she smiled. "I'm coming, dad," she whispered. "Just you wait."

‘Focus. Focus. Task at hand.’ Something didn’t resonate. Finding it, her hand stopped twitching and curled into a fist, her body jerking slightly. “Found you.” She cooed, hearing the tell-tale twang which would make the hair on her neck stand up. It felt like scratching a metal fork against your teeth. She scrolled through, until a comfort level was reached, and her hand once again began the rhythmic rubbing of fingertips. The static stopped but was replaced with something else, something she couldn’t quite place, kind of a low humming noise, maybe it was the strange glow. The circuit patterns seemed to be twisting.

Pyria? Something’s off, really off. Piper projected in a worried tone.

Indeed child. While it seems you have tuned this tech to be less abrasive there seems to be a deeper problem at hand. Shall we investigate? Pyria suggested her presence a feather-light touch against Piper's mind.

Sy saw Pyria's eyes glazing over and looked at Romeo. "My firs' time 'n I already got two ladies inside me," she said dryly. A pang of worry shot into her stomach, however, and she turned away, not wanting him to see it on her face.

“Relax.” Romeo assured Sy. “They tend to be very careful and your tech is new so can you blame them for taking extra precautions?” The Alpha reminded casually sipping his tea.

That’s why they pay you the big credits… Or they would - if we were paid. Piper replied, placated. Focussing. Intricate pathways and tunnels bisected each other, and a complex sea of masks, TCP, IP, something about coffee machines, she ignored that all as the humming sound grew stronger. The noise seemed linked to some sort of code written in a language she didn’t recognize. It was clearly a patch, something hastily inserted. An override? Maybe? She wasn’t quite sure what, never having come across anything like it before. She took a closer look and something snapped open, whatever it was, it hit like a freight train. Heimdall sparked to life.

Across the Spire, a disturbing scene began to take place. The games in the Gallery slowed, then grinded to a halt. The Alpha pups looked up to the stands with horror dawning on their face. Neo were moaning, crying, clutching at their heads. Several were starting to cry openly. “What’s going on?!” Roach yelled. A voice came back from the bleachers: “I don’t know! They just-” Then the first scream drowned out the rest, and chaos began to descend.

In the cafeteria, the phenomenon had a quicker effect. A group of Neos carrying their lunches to a table, chatting happily, had collapsed simultaneously, food, plates and cutlery spilling out onto the floor. Several plates and cups shattered, shards spreading in a fan. Two of them lay on the ground, twitching, gasping for air. Another got to his knees shakily, his eyes darting, tears running down his cheek. “What- Argh!” He covered his eyes, hyperventilating. Between gasps, he uttered: “What is going on?!”

Lights flickered, and Piper felt electricity crackle through every cell in her body as if she’d grasped a live wire in the rain. Information spooled, pictures images and numbers, blinking in rapid succession. Every time she tried to snap out, she reverted right back to the same images. Fuck! Trapped! Her eyelids blinked rapidly. Pyria! Get me out!

Pyria dropped her cup from the sudden shriek. It was a like a dentist drill that vibrated down to the marrow of her bones! She could hardly hear Piper above the din but still complied.

Piper found herself surrounded protectively in a pair of white wings as Pyria plucked her up and was speedily, mostly out of desperation and pain, thrown out into her body with enough force to physically knock her out of her chair.

“Piper? What is…” Pyria said holding her head in pain. “ … going on?!” Since she hadn't been inside herself but for only a moment.

Piper hit the ground and gasped for air, when she found it - used it to swear. Her body jerked with the remnants of electricity, her teeth chattering loudly. The sound wasn’t limited to just the inside of Heimdall, it was inside the Spire! “Override!” She shouted. Her eyes moved in rapid succession, still looped in getting an overwhelming amount of transfer in rapid fire succession from Sy combined with swarms of panic from other Neo. Firewall, Firewall! , but nothing was working. There was nothing to lock down, nothing to block.

Romeo had abandoned his tea to the floor to check on Piper. It didn’t need to be said that Pyria might still highly disapprove of shooting Sy in her office at the moment, but whatever was happening was escalating quickly!

Though Sy didn’t hear anything, she had no less effect from it. Warnings and errors were blasting across her vision in a loop, a constant array of characters, glitching, twitching, glowing, burning. “Piper!” she yelled over the voices of the two Neos. To her horror she saw them both clutching their heads as if something was about to burst out of them. “Piper, I can’t…” The warnings were multiplying, pulsing in her vision. Her eyes swam with tears, the background behind the whirlwind of errors breaking up into prisms, the red lettering all the clearer for it. “I CAN’T TURN IT OFF!” She twitched her thumb violently as if someone was jerking it around, but the nerve-guided relay was welded shut. It was like trying to fell a tree by flicking at it.

Piper propped up on one elbow, trying to focus, wanting to help both Sy and the Neos. FOCUS! STOP. She held a palm outward, pushing like a bulldozer, trying to override the system, but nothing was working, there was no going back in to help, nothing but blinding, skull splitting noise. Piper’s hand dropped back to the ground.

Panic bubbled into Sy's chest and she pushed it down in a mad scramble for control. Heimdall was still unresponsive, still blaring out its stream of insanity. She saw Pyria on her knees, her head to the floor, her arms clutched around her raven black hair. She saw Piper go limp. "Piper!" There was no time. There was no choice. If she hesitated, she knew she’d lose the guts, and it would be too late. Through the veil of tears and flickering text, she saw the teacup in front of her, and she knew what had to be done. It was the only way to save them.

She grabbed the porcelain cup by her right hand and smashed it on the table. Her hand seared in pain as still-hot tea splattered across it, scratches from shards beginning to bleed instantly. She ignored it, her heart beating so hard and fast she could feel it pulsing behind her eyes. “HOLD ON!” she shrieked, grabbing a large, sharp shard and laying her left hand out on the table, the palm facing up, as if laid out on a butcher’s block.

She breathed in deep, gritted her teeth, and brought the shard down.

Blood gushed from the deep laceration in the soft flesh below her thumb, the torrent of text flickering but persisting. She wrenched at the shard, trying to get at the mainline feed, trying to cut the cable. Her fingers spasmed involuntarily as nerves and ligaments were damaged, the text darkened for a moment and disappeared, only to start up again. She could hear herself screaming. She yanked the shard back out, held it high and brought it down one last time with all the might left to her. The pain was like electrocution, spreading like a thunderbolt through her hand and arm, the feed overloading and burning out, the flood of feedback finally, mercifully, disappearing for good.

Sy stared at her twitching hand, blood pooling in the palm and running onto the table. She didn’t trust herself to breathe. She had murdered her baby, her pride, the one thing that could help her find her father, the one thing that could end her loneliness. Despair welled up inside her. She knew that if she took a breath, she would not be able to hold it back any longer. But when she looked up, slowly, as if waking from a nightmare, and saw Piper’s pallid face stare at her in horror, the dam collapsed. Sy put her head between her knees and broke down, as all the losses she had suffered drowned the last spark of hope she'd had.