Yeh!! we've got to 17 in SciFI with 10K reads! Thanks, everyone. The writing gods have been kind to us and we have had time over the Easter to get a lot of stuff written. We thought we would celebrate with a new chapter.
Video: shamelessly stolen from one first used by the mighty KaranSeraph in her excellent book Ironman. We thought this was a very good demonstration of how Kimjodo might look. RK+Reb
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Streets of DownTown City 05 ( formally Known as New York).
It was two intensive weeks later and the night of the first 'dance' contest. We had begun to feel safe perhaps too safe. The Kimjodo was illegal so our suspicious behaviour was protected under a cloak of knowing nods and smiles. My collar was loaded up with untraceable bit-coins and the apartment was under one of Bret's aliases. While Little Jenny and I trained, Hunter spent hour after hour looking for the resistance but he found little but a rumour of a man they called 'The Frenchman'. Unfortunately while Hunter asked to talk to 'the Frenchman' it seemed the 'The Frenchman' didn't want to speak to him. While Little Jenny and I were dead beat after every training session I tried to go with Hunter and approach people, but it didn't help.
Tonight I was nervous and little Jenny was wonderfully oblivious to the impending hurt. She had taken the punishments in training well like the way she had taken the punishments in school. She did get punished a lot at school.
Teacher "02 what is the second law of humanity?"
Jenny "Never say Never?" followed by a level two buzz.
Sometimes she would get huge thing right and the teacher ignored her especially if she put her hand up to answer a question. So the training was a lot less painful that time at school. That didn't stop me worrying about her. She seemed genuinely happy about the dancing. It did make me wonder what the resistance wanted her for? Perhaps she was someones daughter.
We were driven by a cyber-car over to the west side. It was a machine area, the high towers here were dark standing like cold monuments to humanities former industry. We got out and walking into a tower via a small side door blocked by a man who stood aside when he noticed Bret Fox. We had gone some small way into the tower when we began to pass large cylinders on their sides. They seemed to be connected to some power system.
88 noticed me looking at me looking them.
"This is a pod bay- they keep humans frozen here." said 88.
It clicked each cylinder was a freezer pod like the one Hunter had been kept in. We were in a store house of sleepers. We passed a series of complex pipes and translucent bags.
"What is that?" I said.
Hunter played the part of the co-lab master "No speaking with out asking permission. Your lucky its before a match other wise I would be running level 2 on you"
"Hunter did you know this is one of the few failed simulant laboratories?" said Bret Fox
"Simulants? biscuit" said Hunter.
"Yeh didn't they hear of them in region 03? - twenty ish years ago the machines tried to genetically engineer these humans which would only produce blood. Failure then they tried to make fully grown blank humans which could be programmed. The idea was Eternals could be uploaded into a new biological body rather than a machine one."
"What happened biscuit?" said Hunter as we turned a corner. There was a roar in the distance.
"When the Continuity took over they kind of cut the head of the CPU off." said Bret "The CPU was super-sentient but the core though processes were removed. The CPU now runs the world but at the will of the Continuity. With out the head the CPU can't do new research or make new Laws. This included work on Simulants or a chip able to work like the A.I blood chip but without human blood. Luckily for all the dance fans of New York, they left a large logistic space."
We arrived in the hall. It was a large space with numbers of seats laid out. I checked the exit. Technically fighting between slaves was illegal, police raids happened but were rare. It didm't make me feel less nervous. Bret Fox had told us that you should always know the exits incase of a raid. We were due to have two matches. One 'warm up' and one proper one.
"You can see the Pretty Little ones over there" said Bret Fox nodding. There are two matched slave girls in blue over on the platform were we 'performed'.
"Their owner is Marcellus he's a col-lab, he likes to think of him self as quite the talent spotter. He's never danced him self. He's made most of his money from a pair call 'Containment' a while back."
"What happened to them?" I said. I knew most of the groups which people talked about had got to the finals and typically won their freedom. Bret Fox new enough about motivation to keep going on about the unlikely but fabulous upside.
Bret Fox leant over so little Jenny couldn't hear "Two brothers. Got to the finals being held on city 9 that year. One of the brothers had a heart fault. They worked in a match which set the bar at level 7 and it was enough to kill him. But this is level 1 pain only. You just get out there and enjoy your self."
We pulled our harnesses on. The harness held the pain projector, and the mechanism for scoring and a real pain collar, they also held the bracelets on.. My low power so called 'period' collar wasn't going to be of any help. Both owners had agreed we were going to dance to a pre-rising track called 'No good' by The Prodigy. True Kimjodo had a random track selection which prohibited too much pre-rehersal. We watched a couple of other 'dance-off's before getting started. The first was two singles - by far the most popular category in Kimjodo. There were larger groups but they tended to be put on later. I was almost glued to my seat with fear but then our turn came and little Jenny jumped up grabbed by hand and ran on stage. We dusted our shoes and got to the points marked on the canvas. I looked around there were about a few hundred people watching the capacity was much larger and most of the people watching had got there early to get good seats. They chatted to each other and ignored us. I was surprised such a fragment of the crowd were robots. Mom had said they had evolved their intelligences by absorbing the internet and that meant a lot of human attitudes to pain and suffering in flicked on others that they had sucked from the internet when they were created. Every cruel youtube video, every nasty prank and happy-slapping had been summed up with the rest of the internet which had formed their minds and attitudes. They thought that this cruelty was in integral part of what it meant to 'think'.
88 had pointed out there were some cyborgs in the audiace, the were the ones who looked perfect. The rest were co-labs while most had transitioned to eternal life in android form they dressed more normally and drank and ate while they waited. The crowd mostly ignored us as we stood to our spots.
The referee was a slave. He looked at each of us and we both nodded and formed our positions. The song was fast and had a long intro. This gave you time to get into the rhythm and look at the eyes of your opponents. The kick drum broke in and we started to do our opening move. By synchronising between little Jenny and myself the moves emitted more 'power' (i.e pain). We began as planned with the wild flower movement. Which hit but the two twenty year olds we were 'fighting' had a 'windlash' move in motion which stung. After that we kept moving and six minutes and 20 seconds later we both stopped.
I was out of breath but pretty excited. Little Jenny seemed OK and was smiling. With level one pain no one was really going to give up so it was down to who got the most hits. In the end we were only two points ahead which was enough for a win but Bret wasn't too pleased.
"That was sloppy you missed points by not being on the beat." Bret said "The kick drum is there for a reason use it!"
We drank water and waited while the hall filled for our next 'match'. Little Jenny seemed pleased and Hunter came over to see how we were doing.
"How was that?" he said.
"Not as bad as I thought it was. We won the first match so that's half a ticket to Washington 2.0" I said watching a man arrive in the crowd who was walking his dog.
"The next match is at level two pain threshold," said Hunter.
"Its' OK, it like getting your face slapped," I said knowing he had never felt level two pain.
"Its going to be like getting your face slapped twenty of thirty times." Hunter said grimly "Still Shadow-fall seems to be confident, I heard him placing a bet on you"
"That's nice," I said sounding like Little Jenny.
"Look you don't have to do this," said Hunter.
Just then the previous match finished early, the next one was cancelled. Bret rushed up.
"The organisers have changed things." Bret started " The previous match was cancelled they have lined you up with the left over pair from the previous canceled match but you have to go now or loose your place"
Glad the waiting was over I got up. We got to the dance floor. The hall was filling up it was about half full. Some people would still chat through the matches. Others would watch. We got to our positions. In this match There was an announcer.
"On the left we have a pair of sisters owned by Eternal Hunter trained by Shadow-fall" the announcers said. There was slight hush to shadow-fall's name.
"On my right 0321 and 1702 owned and trained by the Ovid Miraed."
I looked in slight panic. I could see a group of black Ovids like the one which had attacked us. After my encounter with 88 I had discovered the Ovids really hated humans and the Ovid who we had fled from had been back for three days looking for us.
"They are insisting that the match played to full and correct rules," said the announcer. This got a cheer from the audience. That meant level three pain. I looked to Bret who rushed up.
"What do we do now?"
"It's a trick. The Ovid's wanted to punish you" said Bret.
I looked at Bret. "Bring it on" I said.
Seconds later we were listening to another track. Hot Ride by the Prodigy, I knew this one. No breaks. We began by starting to sway to the intro then when the track began the man 0321 let out a well timed pulse on the second beat. I felt I was doing rather well missing a lot of the pulses then I looked at little Jenny as I turned around. They were aiming at her I could see her wince at the shots. I spun round and time began to slow like it had done in the alley way. The music slowed down I could see what move they were about to make. I was able to move in and block the pulse which had been aimed for little Jenny. They both bent over rolling their hands moving up to a move called the the flick-crow. Moves taking longer to prepare took had more 'power' and it was clear they would direct it at little Jenny. If they could break her they could win before the track was over. I needed to stop one of them coming up in time. There was on move a back roll but I realised I could do it in a new way.
I leapt up landed next to them facing away and leapt to the side over 1702's back. By leaning back as I leapt over him I was able to do both the back-roll and stop 1702 come up. If he slammed into me he could loose points get the pain hit and possibly loose the game so he kept down. 0321 kept coming up breaking the synchronisation of the move reducing it's power. I landed on a bent knee turned around and was able to send a level three pulse to 0321. Mean while little Jenny did a ballet move and turned slamming her wists together at 0321.
It was entirely unplanned but the combination of blows and surprise meant that 0321jerked back in pain. He lost his balance, fell over and the match was over. The marking computer singled a win and the machine stopped the music. I sped up back into real time. Everyone was shocked and then instantly burst in to applause. I saw the Ovids walking off in disgust.
We walked back off to the preparation area and I was delighted. The sound of the next contest began and we stood off stage. A robot walking a dog approached us.
"That was a very fine, conflict if you pardon me for saying so, Sir. Mr Fox why don't you make the introductions" said the robot to Hunter.
I looked at the dog the machine was walking, I hand't seen any animals apart from birds and fish in my life so it was also a bit of a new experience looking at a real dog for the first time. I looking closely down and realised it was not a dog but a wolf. I noticed that the wolf's head had a number of wires coming out from it it and leading to the collar. While the 'Masters' congratulated each other I realised that the robot wasn't walking the wolf, the wolf was walking the robot. The wolf was a zoological cyborg. The machines had augmented up a number of animals to human leveles of intelligece and used them to run divisions of drones during the man-machine war. With all the extra electronics the wolf would be capable of talking through a speach synthesiser. Unlike the collaborators the Z-Cyborg's we mostly ex-military and were choosen for their deep seated dislike of humanity. He had a beatuful slave girl hanging back who had been augmented up with four more arms. The Z-Cyborg's didn't need blood for A.I blod chips, their animal brains supplied all the A.I they needed so the slave girl was to show off his wealth and status. Unlike the Ovids this one was still in his flesh body.
"Well Mr Fox that was an impressive performance," said the wolf's drone. "Warn me next time I might be able to put a larger bet on."
"I was thinking of next week if Mr Hunter agrees," said Fox. Hunter nodded non committally. He tried to keep talking to a minimum in public.
"Mr Hunter my I introduce this is Captain SeveredNeck, Formally of the forces of the New mechanical order. " said Bret Fox.
The wolf looked around the drone copied him.
"Perhaps we should send the slaves off to chill while we sort things out," said the wolf's drone "I have one who is very keen to talk to them. 9341! Shiva!"
I slave girl came over. Except she wasn't the typical slave girl. This one was had a back pack which had two pairs of robot arms attached. She looked like a cybernetic vision of the Hindu goddess Shiva except the arms were yellow and she wasn't blue.
9341 the id sounded familiar.
The slave girl opened her arms "Emily. You look so freakingly good" suddenly it clicked.
"Lilly? Is that you?" I said. She looked stunning. I had grown up all my life believing Lilly to be my biological sister. At least she was my stepsister and it felt no diffrent . She had black hair the darker coffee coloured skin of our up mother, but dad's nose. Originally we said she took after the mother and I took after dad.
"The very same," said Lilly. "look, lets go and sort things out over here"
We hugged. I had six arms around me.
"Be gone," said the drone part of Captain SeveredNeck.
"Yes Master," said Lilly and we all rushed off.
"Oh my googleplex what's the odds. ehh!" said Lilly, "Little Jenny, who's my favourite sister?"
"me me!" said Little Jenny said a broad smile over her face running over to Lilly.
"You've got it! " said Lilly smiling and hugging.
"Lilly this is 88" I said introducing 88 while Little "I'm sorry I don't know you're birthname"
Lilly paused for a second, stood up straight and almost bit her lip. She raised her mechanical hand then went "oh" and then held out her real hand. "nice to meet you. You've been looking after my little sister."
"Yeh," said 88 "she moves well".
Lilly turned to me "I couldn't believe it when I saw your number and Jenny's number on the line up. Like what are the odds? So I had to find out. How are mom and dad?"
I paused and looked at her collar camera, then looked her back in the eye. "It's complicated, but they were fine the last time I saw them. Mom said to say Hi if I saw you. I didn't think I would."
We hugged again.
"Seeing you was so normal and so unlikely and so perfect all at the same time." I said. "what have you been up to?"
"Not much," said Lilly "I went to slave school. They thought I was pretty tame so I skipped being emotionally torn to shreds. They did some cosmetic work on me to make me into a model 54"
"54 looks good on you," said 88.
"Yeh thanks" then I did what 10 weeks basic slave training. Got sold on cBay for 1890 bit coins to this Master. So for the last year or so I've been with the Captain He needs me to top up his blood supply occasionally and he likes maintaining his collection of pulse rifles hence the hands. Generally it's a pretty sweet deal. Could have been a lot worse. He's a big Kimjodo fan, bets heavy. "
"That's so interesting," said 88.
"Any boys?" I asked.
"Errr no. It's complicated . I'm in an apartment block on east side. Mostly just house slaves round my area. I don't get to see anyone much, nothing regular. What about you?"
"I was sold off reservation to Master Hunter." I lied. "He's a [Non-com] from region 03. Parents disowned him. He picked me and little Jenny up in a two for one deal. He's drifting around, short on cash we stumbled on Bret and 88 here. Bret says Jenny and I could make a good pair. Master Hunter had't heard of really so thought it might be interesting" I said.
Ok it was a bit of an info dump but as a slave you don't know how long your going to get to see family. I could well not see Lilly again in my life. This might be her only knowledge about home she would be able to take to her grave so slaves tend to have this just-the-facts-approach.
"I saw Mary a month ago" added Lilly. "she had a lot of work done but she was working for a robot, she looked OK. Oh can it, your master is coming over."
Mary was another defrost sister. We had all got on well. I had really cried the day Mary went. Poor her the robots tended to treat you badly and really didn't like slaves talking. They also really watched your collar cam you had to be really careful what you did and said.
Hunter came over. Jenny, 88, Emily and I all curtsied to him and looked down.
"I've agreed to doing another contest next week. Same money but I can bet on you. If you win that Captain SeveredNeck will sponsor a trip to city 05 it's halfway between here and Washington 2.0. If that works out he might put the stake up to take us to the big final in Washington 2.0. They want a handle, a game name. Not that I care but do you have any ideas? I really don't have any"
"Faceripper," said 88.
"I didn't ask you! biscuit. " said Hunter pretending to be the co-lab.
"Yes master sorry master" said 88, looking down. She might be a terror on the dance floor but she had still been trained by the machines to be servile enough.
"If master pleases, how about Destiny Rising?" I said. It had been the words my parents used. Perhaps other resistance people would hear of it and come to us.
"For a worthless piece of scum that's quit a good title biscuit. At the risk of spoiling you, I might take that up. You did well today but I might give you extra punishment tonight to remind you your still basically a worthless biscuit" Hunter lied. He was talking for the benefit of 88 and Lilly. Slaves were encoraged to rat on lax masters.
"Thank you, master," I said in slave mode. Hunter winked.
We went and watched the other matches from the slave area, Which meant from under the racked seats. Lilly have been brought to a lot of illegal matches so she new a fair amount about dance contests. Begin back with Lilly seemed so totally natural and we just magically slotted back into being sisters - well half sisters like other had ever happened but I wanted to get her alone to tell her the full story with our parents. We watched the rest of the matches again trying to learn from this while Little Jenny alternated between watching, copying moves and doing cartwheels.
I looked around happy and trying to learn as much as I could. I would be here next week and after that with any luck off to Washington 2.0 if only I could find the resistance.
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OK Well thank you for indulging our moment of chapter production madness. With the introduction over From this chapter things are about to hot up.See you This Thursday. RN+Reb.