8.22 – UDISKS_NOT_IGNORE

<< VOL.08_HARDWARE-AND-HOLLOWS.log >>

// data corrupted — recompiling //

Night had come down over the flower field. The bioluminescent insects filled the air. The stars ran brighter on this side of the capital, where the only competing light came from the road poles illuminating an empty road for no one in particular. The asphalt had been empty all evening and showed every sign of staying that way.

Behind the concrete cube that served as the Kasparian military base sat a long, mostly forgotten runway. The grass and various stubborn plants had determined that asphalt made acceptable soil and had been moving inward from the edges ever since, growing slowly and without urgency. The runway lights that were supposed to guide incoming aircraft had been switched off at some point and left that way. The white lane markings had faded to near nothing.

None of that had stopped a single small military plane from being there, brought out and positioned on order from the base captain for a specific guest. A truck had arrived to fill it with kerosene while other soldiers worked through the hardware checks. The plane had spent a considerable number of years in the hangar. It had opinions about being asked to function.

---

Inside, the captain's office held four people, two made of the usual materials, two made of different ones. The space was clean and maintained in the particular way of offices that belong to people who take their environment seriously but don't perform it. Beige tiles on the floor, white walls ready to be painted over when the occasion demanded.

An old plasma screen on the wall while the rest of the world had moved to hovering displays. A small fridge in the corner full of soda cans. Furniture that was waiting patiently for permission to fail.

Near the window stood the captain's wooden desk, a simple chair, a flat-screen PC from 2030 accumulating its own small history of dust. The captain sat with one leg crossed over the other. Raphael stood near the wall in front of the flag.

"—which pushed us out of Altea. I refuse to call it Elysium. Now we're settled in the Veridian Coast capital, waiting on the president to release enough budget to sustain the operation." 02 was on the worn brown sofa. "I understand his position, he absorbed millions of displaced Alteans at once. There's housing. But it's still a significant weight."

Infinity looked at the floor. "That evacuation was partly my design. I developed the operation that cleared them out when I was still working for Elysium. I'm still a little surprised at how well it worked."

"A hard decision, but a rational one." The captain nodded. "Unlike us in the military, and unlike most people in general, almost no one has actual loyalty to the ground they stand on. When the first bomb drops, everyone moves."

"We do have loyalty." 02 paused. "I wasn't myself when that decision was made, and being absent from my team for so long pushed them further than they should have gone. And Infinity's infiltration made everything harder."

Infinity held her silence.

Raphael smiled. "I keep thinking about the optics of this though. 02—the actual 02, is wearing the Omega suit. It looks good, by the way. And Infinity is wearing 02's hoodie, connected to 02 through the link, but isn't 02. I want to see what’s the link for though."

"I'm still following." The captain looked between them. "So the one in 02's hoodie, she's not the captain. She's wearing it to present a certain image to people."

"Partially." Infinity smiled. "It was her way of passing something to me. I'm still grateful for it." She looked at the hoodie fabric. "The number can be changed to any E-UNIT designation, it's nano-texture. I can set it to whoever I need to be."

"Are you impersonating 02 right now?"

"No… but—" Infinity looked at 02 and dropped her voice. "Help me out here. Why am I still wearing your number?"

02 laughed briefly. "Don't worry about it, Captain. She's a fan."

Infinity raised an eyebrow. "What."

"I can show you what the link does," 02 continued, turning back to the base captain, "but the full walkthrough takes time I don't have. What I can do is demonstrate one feature."

"That's all I need." The captain looked through the small window toward the runway. "When I was still in the Altean military, the E-UNIT project came up constantly, Tamer and Vegas were both consumed by it. But before we get into that—" He looked at her frame. "—why is your hardware in this condition?"

"A fight with one of Elysium's strongest operators." 02 stood. "I barely got out. The hardware state made everything significantly harder. But it's manageable. The mission finishes first." She looked at Infinity. "I'm going to borrow you for a moment."

Infinity nodded.

Raphael pushed off the wall. "What's the feature called?"

02 lowered her head. Her eyes went fully blue and began to glow at a level that made the room feel smaller. Her frame settled onto the sofa on its own as the glow transferred, moving to Infinity's frame, which flashed blue once before the posture changed. Something in the shoulders and the stillness shifted to something more deliberate.

02 spoke from Infinity's frame.

"Mind Transport." She looked around the room from the shorter perspective. "I can transfer into any empty or inhabited E-UNIT frame within range. I haven't tested it on non-E-UNIT robots, but the architecture likely blocks the connection for security reasons."

Raphael crossed to 02's original body and crouched, inspecting it with the focused attention of someone who builds things for a living. "The original frame becomes a relay node, it extends the link's bandwidth to all nearby E-UNITs and allows you to keep your original hardware somewhere safe while operating through another body." He looked up. "Nick Rivera was extraordinary."

The captain put both feet on the floor. "And the Infinity girl?"

"Dormant. Inactive until I return." 02 touched her original frame's shoulder lightly. "But I'm limited to whatever this frame's hardware can produce. Most of my capabilities don't carry over."

Raphael tapped the top of both frames. "Which one registers the contact?"

"The original only."

He sat near the original frame, studying it. "What happens if the original frame is destroyed while you're in this state? There's a safety system, surely."

02's voice came out colder. "I asked my system. It said I would override the resident E-UNIT and take permanent control, deleting her in the process. The Omega link assigns priority to the leader. There's no exception built into it."

The captain's eyes sharpened. He opened a drawer, found a cigarette, put it to his lips without lighting it yet. "Something about you concerns me, 02."

She turned to him. "In what sense?"

He lit the cigarette with a small, well-worn lighter and drew a slow breath. "Why did you ask your system that specific question? Was it because you're concerned for the E-UNIT inside this frame, or because you were thinking through what happens if you need to use her in an emergency?"

"I'm not sure what grounds that accusation, sir." 02 took half a step forward. “I value my sisters a lot, that’s why I think about their wellbeing.”

“I believe that part.” The captain scoffed. “Are you considering someone who killed your sisters before and pushed you out of the country you grew up in, if that’s the right word for your kind, a sister?” He smiled, not an honest one. “Be honest with yourself for a moment.”

02 calculated the next words. “She is a good ally.”

“That was not the question.” He noticed the half-step she'd taken and took another draw. "I've seen that gaze before, it belongs to someone who is prepared to sacrifice anything and anyone for a small group of people they've designated as worth it. I understand why Vegas wanted you on his side. And I understand why you're still alive. Survival in war means knowing what weight can be cut loose, even when that weight is breathing."

02 held the silence.

Raphael had stopped studying the frame. He was standing now, watching her. "Why aren't you answering?"

"I thought about it." 02's voice came out flat. "Yes. I kept Infinity as a contingency in case this frame becomes non-functional. I trust her—"

"No you don't." The captain's voice didn't rise. It didn't need to. "Not even slightly. And I'm not assigning blame, she was your enemy for a long time, and she actively worked against you not many months ago. That kind of history doesn't resolve quickly."

02 looked at him steadily. "You've made this kind of decision before."

"Many times." He met her eyes. "I know this look from the inside. And the question you should be asking isn't whether you're wrong to think this way. The right question, the one every field commander eventually has to sit with, is this: will the people I'm protecting be able to live well after I've done what I'm doing now?"

"I don't know how to answer that yet."

"No one does before the mission ends." He laughed, short, dry, not unkind. "So tell me. Why don't you trust her? Is it that she turned on her own creator? Or is there something she did specifically that you won't be able to get past?"

"Both." No hesitation. "She concealed a sister from me, someone I care about deeply. And changing your allegiance from your creator within weeks is not a pattern I can place confidence in. Father did considerably worse things to me than Reaper ever did to Infinity. I didn't move against him."

"That's a fair answer." The captain drew on the cigarette again. "I should have expected the most precise response from you. You're too human to read like a machine and too logical to respond like a person, that's what threw my assumptions off." He looked at the window. "Confirmation came in. The plane is ready. It'll take you to where your people are waiting."

"Thank you, Captain." 02 brought herself to attention in Infinity's smaller frame. "I haven't had a conversation this direct in a long time."

"Because you're a skilled liar." He stood. "A poor liar builds a story. A skilled one uses the truth and shapes what the listener takes from it." He put the cigarette out and extended his hand. "You're the best kind, you've convinced yourself first."

02 looked at the hand. Shook it. "I'm not a liar. I know when to say the truth."

"That's another way of describing the same thing." He laughed. Then turned to Raphael. "Soldier, you're cleared to join her and keep learning about the link. I haven't seen you this engaged in months."

Raphael saluted, the smile fully committed. "Thank you, sir!"

"Captain."

"Sorry, sir! I mean captain!" He turned to 02. "When are you releasing her?"

"Now." The blue glow returned to the Omega frame. The eyes came back on. The body stood from the sofa and recalibrated its balance.

Infinity's posture shifted, the rigidity releasing. Her eyes flashed blue once.

"That was a good rest, honestly." She looked at 02. "We should do that more regularly, Captain."

02 looked at her without speaking.

‘Am I doing the right thing? This is for my sisters.’ Infinity tilted her head, the silence was going on longer than it should. 02 still didn't respond.

‘My real sisters.’