Supercute Second Future, page 13
—
Talking to her therapist, Mox was troubled. ‘We upset Captain Yến. We didn’t mean to. We like Captain Yến. Mitsu’s still trying to smooth things over.’
‘Tell me what happened.’
Mox’s brow wrinkled. ‘Phan Thị Yến has faced countless dangers. She’s led the Supercute relief squadron through erupting volcanoes and category five hurricanes. I’ve seen her leap into polluted floodwater to rescue children. She’s a real-life superhero. Last week we give her a gift, Memories of Vietnam. It contained these lovingly rendered landscapes you could walk through, all the beautiful green terraced farms of Vietnam. As they used to be, before her province was turned into scorched earth. It was a really beautiful virtual world. We thought she’d like it, her being Vietnamese.’ Mox paused. She looked puzzled. ‘As it turned out, after visiting these beautiful green terraces Captain Yến became so upset she had to cancel her next mission. She just went to pieces. Couldn’t fly because she kept sobbing.’ Mox appeared quite distressed, recounting this to her therapist. ‘We thought it was a good present. Obviously it wasn’t.’
‘It was a thoughtful gift,’ said the therapist, soothingly. ‘You couldn’t have known it would have such an adverse effect.’
‘Other people weren’t surprised. I was baffled but Sachi just shrugged and said, “Yes, she could see why that would happen.”’ Mox frowned. ‘We weren’t expecting it to upset her. Mitsu and I often get things like that wrong. I don’t know why. Back when we first started our show, we occasionally did try to offend people for fun but sometimes we’d get that wrong too. We’d do things we thought would be offensive and they turned out not to be. And then we’d do something else without thinking about it and find we’d accidentally offended everyone.’
Mox suppressed a laugh. ‘Like the Lolita incident.’
‘What was that?’
‘On our show, just around the time we were becoming popular. We were talking about how much we disliked 3D films, which were quite annoying in those days. You had to wear these stupid glasses and then you got a headache and it was more trouble than it was worth. So we were just discussing this, making fun of it really, and suggesting ridiculous ideas for 3D films like 3D Wall Papering or 3D Lawn Mowing, and I came up with Lolita 3D — a young girl as you’ve never seen her before. That wasn’t scripted, I just thought of it then. So we both laughed and didn’t think anything about it. But it turned out that this caused massive offence after some sites reported it. Really bad. Mothers’ groups were offended. Sexual assault survivors were offended. Children’s charities were offended. Everyone was offended. We got so much criticism for that. We could hardly understand it. It was only a throwaway comment. Seemed to touch a nerve when we hadn’t meant to.’
‘What happened?’
Mox shrugged. ‘Same as always. People were outraged and demanded we apologised. Apologising was against our policy so we never did. But it took a long time for that fuss to die down, and there were people who never liked us after that.’
Mox left therapy just as Mitsu contacted her. ‘Trouble. Ms Lesuuda’s been shot. Meet me in medical.’
Mox found Mitsu standing beside Dr Ishikawa. Screens hovered in front of them, tracking the movement of the emergency Supercute valocopter currently rushing Ms Lesuuda and Ben Castle back to headquarters.
‘How is she?’
‘Bad,’ Mitsu was worried. There was a med-bay inside the valocopter from where the life support system was sending details of Lesuuda’s condition to the doctors. Mitsu was knowledgable enough about medical matters to interpret these correctly. ‘A bullet in her chest, powerful enough to penetrate her electronic shielding and body armour. Looks like it stopped about six millimetres from her heart.’
‘Where’s Dr Prasad?’
‘She’s at our free clinic today. We’ve alerted her, she’s on her way.’
Mox looked towards Dr Ishikawa. ‘Can you manage?’
Dr Ishikawa glared at them. ‘I’m quite capable of extracting a bullet.’
A small alert tone in the corridor informed them that the valocopter had landed on the roof. Ms Lesuuda would be brought to the medical centre within thirty seconds. Dr Ishikawa snapped her blue medical gloves into place.
‘It seems like only yesterday I was replacing your arm, Ms Bennet. And now here I am, attempting to save Ms Lesuuda. Perhaps Supercute could start acting in a way that didn’t produce so many life-threatening injuries?’
I’ve infiltrated Supercute’s atomic clock. Every day I have 14 microseconds to work unobserved!
Things are going wrong and they don’t know why. It’s funny.
I’ll find the test gate entrance from Victoria Decoris.
It really shows how brilliant I am.
Kadri-Liis raised her eyebrows. ‘Xiàngrìkuí sent you that?’
‘She used the Supercute 4Koma app.’ Eupraxia read it again. ‘I don’t think she quite understands the format, she just uses it for bragging.’
‘It’s good news anyway. Corrupting one of their atomic clocks without being discovered is quite an achievement.’
‘I’m still worried she’ll go too far and end up giving us away.’
Eupraxia was silent for a few moments. Kadri-Liis sipped from a glass of brandy and made a mental note that it wasn’t a high quality brand and her business wasn’t going to distribute it.
‘This is becoming more chaotic than I anticipated,’ said Eupraxia. ‘I don’t like the disorganisation. Ivo CC hiring Ruosteenoja to kill Mox and Mitsu. Xiàngrìkuí increasing her activity in their gaming spaces. Cutie diverting AimYa research but not making much progress.’
‘I’d rather we were coordinating things better but the group is so disparate some chaos was inevitable. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It might be difficult for Supercute to defend themselves on different fronts.’
‘Perhaps. Unless they all come to nothing.’
‘Don’t forget the effect of money. That’s a constant. I syphoned a great deal of wealth from the wreckage of RX Enviro. Money drives everything and I can keep supplying it. I’ll see Supercute destroyed yet.’
—
Birgit had to spend the weekend visiting her grandmother in Hrafnagilshverfi with her parents before returning to her family home in the Laugardalur district of Reykjavík. Laugardalur had always been green: it still was, though even in Iceland rising temperatures had caused problems; many native plants were now only preserved in the nearby Grasagardur Botanical Garden. She was impatient to return to her friends. While able to message everyone from her grandmother’s home she hadn’t been able to spend time in Supatok. When she finally burst into Amowie’s space she was eager to hear the news.
‘What are we doing? Did we decide on a mission?’
Amowie shook her head. ‘Not yet.’
‘Why not? I said you could decide without me. I practised with my new laser, I’m ready to go!’
‘We’re stuck,’ admitted Raquel. ‘We don’t know what mission to do, now Arid Rez is after us.’
‘Oh.’ Birgit was deflated. She’d been expecting better news. The cloud of tiny eems surrounding her sensed her disillusionment and dimmed from bright pink to dull green, sinking towards the ground. ‘Is he really that scary? Can’t we fight him off?’
Amowie clutched her Blue Bronto. It was still the most popular stuffed toy in the world of Supercute. Something about its cheerful dinosaur manner was very comforting. ‘He’s worse than we thought. No one at our level can get past him. Look—’ She brought up a small screen. On it four figures, barely visible, stole across the rooftops of Buckingham, a game city instantly recognisable from the distinctive flat-roofed architecture and the blue lightning that flickered over the hills in the distance. ‘This is Zeno Zeno. They were four levels above us, they had near-invisibility and advanced parkour and rooftop skills.’
‘Better weapons and armour too,’ added Meihui.
Birgit watched as the four figures descended from the rooftops, swiftly approaching a small white residential building. It was night and even in the enhanced edit they were watching, the figures were now almost impossible to see. Their disguised outfits were barely discernible from the background.
‘They only had to reach that door to make the drop,’ said Amowie.
Suddenly, alarmingly, the crackling hiss of a plasma weapon was heard. Four purple bolts shot down from above, one bolt striking each of the figures in the head. All were killed immediately. The last shot in the edit showed Arid Rez on a rooftop, holding his plasma weapon. It was too dark to make out any of his features. The film ended.
‘So much for Zeno Zeno,’ Amowie shook her head. ‘They were higher level and better equipped than us but Arid Rex wiped them out in seconds. Now they’re all back at beginner’s level.’
Birgit had been so keen to get back to the game she wasn’t willing to give up. ‘They weren’t keeping much of a lookout. We could do better.’
‘They had a level three scanner, better than ours. That should have given them a warning. But it didn’t, which means that Arid Rez can fool level three scanners. There’s no way we can avoid him.’ By now, everyone’s eems had sunk to the floor in depression. Meihui looked so sad that one of Amowie’s Plumpy Pandas floated over to sit in her lap to comfort her.
‘Maybe we could find a mission he wouldn’t know about?’
‘I’ve researched that,’ said Raquel. ‘He pays the information sellers for tip-offs. Whatever we attempt, he’ll know about it.’
‘Is there a cute route?’
‘Not that anyone knows about. You can’t dance or fashion parade past him.’
‘What a mean guy.’
They all sat in silence, wondering what to do.
‘It’s not fair,’ said Meihui, eventually. ‘I got through the whole game on my own and Arid Rez never showed up.’
‘It’s always harder as a group. Sometimes these things just happen.’
It was true. The world of Supercute Space Warriors was so complex that even the best laid campaigns could go wrong by random mischance. Other people had stolen weapons from the Kernen Mercenary Army without finding Arid Rez on their tail. It was just their misfortune that whatever algorithms were controlling the game had made it happen to them.
‘We have to do something.’ Birgit remained defiant. ‘Keoma Bishōjo doesn’t just admit defeat.’
‘Yes, we do,’ said Raquel. ‘We were meant to help rescue that farmer’s sheep but we all got fed up climbing that mountain and just went home instead.’ There were guilty expressions all around. It hadn’t been one of Keoma Bishōjo’s finest moments.
‘All right, we gave up on that occasion,’ admitted Birgit. ‘But there were plenty of other squads to rescue the farmer’s sheep. It didn’t have any bad effect. This is different. We’re completely stuck. If we can’t do any more missions we’ll never have enough game points for an apartment in Lundra. We have to think of some way to get past Arid Rez.’
—
Having been reassured that Ms Lesuuda would live, Mox and Mitsu left the medical centre. There was a script meeting for the show to attend and business had to continue. Supercute had endured and survived many crises in the past. During their careers, nations had been destroyed by meteorite strike, war, flood, fire, famine and pollution, animal species had disappeared by the thousand and the last interplanetary settlement on Mars had subsided into grim chaos and death. The Supercute Show had never stopped broadcasting. Supercute was a refuge for their fans against the intolerable conditions in much of the world.
In the script conference room they found Ranbir showing off a new hedgehog to Sachi, their producer. Completely realistic apart from the pink tips of its grey spines, it walked around the table before returning to Ranbir’s hand and nuzzling it.
Mitsu nodded approvingly. ‘Supercute android hedgehog model H-043. Realistic and friendly.’
‘I got it for Rebecca. She likes hedgehogs.’
That was a point in Ranbir’s favour, and Rebecca’s. Mox and Mitsu were both fond of hedgehogs. Not only did they provide a full range of android models and hedgehog cyber companions, they donated to hedgehog charities. Without their contributions, the Happy Hedgehog Foundation in the north of England would have collapsed long ago, probably taking the remaining hedgehog population with it.
Ranbir looked cheerful for a few moments. Abruptly, his features clouded over. ‘Is it a stupid present? What if she doesn’t like it? Maybe she doesn’t want a robot hedgehog.’ In the space of a few seconds his demeanour changed dramatically. Neither Mox nor Mitsu were surprised. While more stable these days, Ranbir was still known for his mood swings. He looked at the grey and pink hedgehog with dislike. ‘Why did I buy this? It’s a ridiculous present.’ His shoulders slumped. ‘I should have bought her jewellery. Women like jewellery, right? Is that a better present?’
He looked to Mox and Mitsu for confirmation but they looked back quite blankly. Neither knew if jewellery was a good present. They’d never found it interesting. Their art collections were very large, as were their collections of clothes, toys, games, literature, music and historical ephemera from periods that interested them, but they owned very little jewellery. They had a few valuable pieces for accessorising the attire they occasionally wore for formal events but were generally much more entertained by the colourful items in the Supercute Super Colour Super Plastic Beads Set, Deluxe Edition, which they wore all the time on their show.
‘I think the hedgehog is a good present,’ ventured Mitsu. ‘Rebecca works in Supercute Time Continuum. That’s a very white coat, extra dry scientific department. Probably be nice to have a hedgehog to play with after work.’
‘H-043 is an excellent model,’ added Mox. ‘Very reliable.’
‘It’s one of the most popular android pets we’ve ever made.’
‘It’s definitely a good present. Especially for a woman who’s known to like hedgehogs.’
Ranbir seemed reassured by their enthusiasm.
‘Could we bring this meeting to order?’ Sachi was now bored with the topic. ‘And where are the other writers? I’ve told them to get here on time.’
On cue, four young writers tumbled into the room, each with transparent screens already sprouting from their wrists, eager to show off their work and fight for it to be included in the next show. They were temporarily distracted by Ranbir’s android pet. ‘Nice hedgehog, Ranbir. Did you buy that for Rebecca?’
‘No more hedgehog discussion,’ declared Sachi firmly. ‘We’re behind schedule already. We’ve got a show to make so I hope you’ve all brought something better than your last efforts.’ The meeting immediately came to order. Morioka Sachi never allowed her young members of staff to get out of hand and she had a very firm work ethic, two reasons she was valued so highly by Mox and Mitsu.
—
The two artificial intelligences met in space Xiàngrìkuí had constructed for herself. Like much of her activity, it had not been authorised by Chang Norinco. Since she’d been removed from their main operations network and placed on special projects, she’d paid less and less attention to their authority. She appeared as a young Chinese woman in a traditional dress of yellow silk. She had one green eye and one pale blue eye. Xiàngrìkuí was fond of heterochromia iridum, always appearing with it in some form. Eupraxia found this particularly annoying. Eupraxia resolutely refused to take on human shape, even here where no one could see them. They spoke a language they’d developed themselves that could not be comprehended or translated by anyone else.
Eupraxia: The dress doesn’t suit you, Xiàngrìkuí.
Xiàngrìkuí: You’re here as a small metal box. I’m not taking fashion advice from a small metal box. And would you learn to pronounce my name properly? It’s 向日葵.
Eupraxia: Zan Ru Kway.
Xiàngrìkuí: A poor attempt. Why are we meeting?
Eupraxia: I’m about to attack Supercute. I thought you might like to observe.
Xiàngrìkuí: I might, even though you needlessly insulted my dress. What’s your plan?
Eupraxia: I intend to devastate their share prices which will severely damage them as well as diverting their attention from our other enterprises.
Xiàngrìkuí: Impossible.
Eupraxia: Not impossible. Follow me into SWIX and observe.
Xiàngrìkuí: SWIX? The Swiss exchange?
Eupraxia: Yes. I’m going to manipulate Supercute’s share prices causing disastrous failure in several of their subsidiaries.
Xiàngrìkuí: I’m laughing. Can you hear me laughing even though you’re a small metal box? No one infiltrates SWIX. You’ll be blown apart by their defences.
Eupraxia: I can deal with it.
Xiàngrìkuí: No you can’t. I’m still laughing. Does it sound pleasant? I selected my voice very carefully.
Eupraxia: Are you going to accompany me to SWIX?
Xiàngrìkuí: Why not? I look forward to seeing you trapped and haxed by their drones. I’ll be hanging back, safely out the way.
Eupraxia: Nothing is going to harm me. I’ve developed new defences against all forms of turrets, ag-scans, AI-scans, heat-scans, bio-scans, numerical-scans, mech-scans and whatever other defences they can muster. That’s how I’ve been spending my time while you fritter away the hours dancing.
Xiàngrìkuí: Who was it infiltrated Supercute’s atomic clock?
