The Revelers (Serial 1)

Act 2 - Chapter 27: Ari

The last ten days have been wild. Rowynn and I have been racing more often, sometimes with random explosions tossed in for flavor. Fun stuff! I'm not into thrashing an expensive bike, but Rowynn seems to handle it, unlike those rich kids who crash their luxury cars in Vegas all the time. Even with technological advances in vehicle safety, car wrecks are still a thing.

When I'm not racing, I'm helping The Doc in planning missions for Dax's Revelers, which can get technical, but at least I know what resources are available and the capabilities of The Remnants.

For the past two days, The Doc and I have been researching bits of my past. Based on documents found by Samza and Mezos during recent hacking missions, coupled with The Doc's previous experience as a CrystalCorps lab technician, she concludes my origins begin at Area 51. Seems like a strange place to start but I trust The Doc knows what's up.

I'm in The Doc's office, analyzing Samza and Mezos's recent haul of secret documents on a holographic workstation. It feels like whenever the word Arizona pops up, it's referring to me in some capacity. I haven't been called that since kindergarten. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, the reason I went with Ari is that many people kept pronouncing my name like the US state instead of Ah-ree-zona.

However, I wonder who Mathilde is. That's another name popping up in these documents. It feels like I'm supposed to know this name, but I can't match it up. Then I recall that voice I heard in my dream nights ago. I wonder if that's Mathilde. I'm not 100% sure, but my gut is telling me it is, and if there's one thing I know, it's trusting my gut.

"I have received a report from Livia," The Doc says as a notification window appears on her screen.

"What did she say?" I ask.

"It looks like Cithara is in a sticky situation. Right now, she's in a comfortable VIP residential cell at the Solstice Sky Labs. However, depending on Milani's fate, Cithara could end up in The Eyes' interrogator cells."

"Solstice Sky Labs? Isn't that The Eyes of War's central headquarters, like up in some gigantic-ass airship?"

"It is," The Doc says.

"Then why is Cithara up there?" I ask.

"Cithara is Ruby's registered caretaker. She must look after her when Ruby leaves Boulder Beach Labs."

"So, this whole time, Cithara has been taking care of Ruby?"

The Doc nods. "Yes. CrystalCorp and The Eyes have a strained relationship, in case you don't know. Ruby has to visit with her peers to discuss matters regarding the WarGames during the off-season, which means Cithara has to accompany her in case Ruby goes through her manic episodes."

"Okay, so when Ruby is not at the Solstice Sky Labs, then who's running the show there?"

"A young woman by name of Octavia Cerayle. In case you're wondering, she's related to Livia. The two are twins."

"I didn't know Livia has a sister," I say.

"Octavia is a hermit and lives on that airship." The Doc reads through Livia's report, picking out any notable details. "However, it seems Octavia has learned of a way to track Livia's presence, which can compromise further missions. That means Livia will have to undergo surgical procedures on her cybernetics."

I cringe, thinking about those procedures. A day after I signed my contract to join The Remnants, I had some surgery done to my cybernetic eye. The Doc's team of Savants had to swap out my cybernetic eye, enable certain security features, and install an app called Librascope on it. The Librascope app allows me to look up data from a multitude of resources, including The Remnants' in-house data centers, simply by analyzing an item in front of me.