Getting up the next day was almost impossible. If it wasn't for her caffeinated drinks, she wouldn't be able to functional. Zhen's thoughts went to Finn as she forced herself to get out of bed. Finn must be in the same wretched boat. Zhen wanted to feel guilty, but she didn't. They'd batted and talked all through the night, going back to their rooms with just a little over an hour left before they needed to get to get to their workshop.
Zhen showered and rummaged through her stuff, unsteadily grabbing another classic, wearable-free outfit. This time she went for a casual formal look, wearing a black suit, with a white, low V-neck tee and black ankle boots. The blazer sleeves were designed to look like they were pulled up to her elbows. She added a thin gold chain that went down past her tee's neck and an analogue watch on her left wrist to complete her look. She braided her hair into a fauxhawk, giving prominence to the rainbow strands. Today she'd carry a suitcase.
"Pearl?" Zhen called out as she worked on her makeup.
"Yes, Zhen?" her AI assistant answered.
"Please mix two cups of the new wake-up formula."
There was a pause. The coffee machine whirred as Zhen put the final touches to her face.
"Done."
"Thank you Pearl."
"You're welcome, Zhen."
At the hardware workshop, Zhen walked over to Finn and handed her a mug.
"Thank you!" Finn yawned. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was having trouble staying upright. She took a sip of her drink. "Is that peach?"
"Last night, you said you loved peaches," said Zhen. She'd only slept for about fifteen minutes, having stayed up to create the new formula. "Is it alright?"
"Are you freaking kidding me? It's ambrosia!" said Finn, taking another sip. "I really hope this stuff isn't addictive or slowly killing us."
"Only after about a thousand cups, and we're always slowly dying," said Zhen, a satisfied grin on her face as she took a sip of her own. Finn was right. The new flavour tasted amazing. "Toning down its addictive edge was one of the modifications I made on the caffeine molecule."
This time they had to design and build a hardware prototype to help mental health patients who couldn't, for one reason or another, access a facility where they could be helped. Their group's drone and AI assistant design ended up being chosen to be used as the framework for the Collective's design. After the final design was built using the best parts from all the groups and uploaded, they were released for the day. Mr. and Mrs. Martin invited them over to their room for a celebratory meal. Zhen was a bit bummed at having to miss out on a night with Finn but decided accepting the invitation was the polite thing to do. She was about to speak up when Finn beat her to it.
"I was actually hoping to just rest tonight," said Finn. She turned to Zhen and gave her the most subtle of winks. "I'm pretty exhausted."
"Yeah," said Zhen, trying to keep that stupid smile from her face. "I wish I could come, but I was going to call my sister tonight."
"Not to worry girls," said Mrs. Martin, pleasantly. "There's always next time."
The couple walked away, her husband pulling her close, as always. He whispered something in her ear. She laughed and rested her head on his shoulder.
"They're cute," said Finn, wistfully. For a split second, Zhen wondered if that was a sad note she heard attached to the words. Finn turned to Zhen. "Do you really need to call your sister? 'Cause I was thinking we could hang out again."
"I do have to call her, but it won't take long," said Zhen. She couldn't stop the stupid smile this time. "See you in an hour or so?"
"See you then," said Finn, her smile reaching her green eyes and making them sparkle.
This time Zhen gained them access into the highly secure 'Immersive XR' room. She uploaded a game program and hooked them both up to the mechanical rig that would hold their bodies up and move them through space to give them that immersive extended reality feel. They smoked more of Zhen's joints and talked as they waited for her program to upload. Zhen liked that she had to think really hard about Finn's heavily accented words being filtered through her slightly high mind. The notes were melodic and a bit surreal. It was awesome.
"What direction are you planning to go on for the Keynote Challenge?" Finn asked.
The next three days were going to be used by each member of the Collective to come up with a system of mining the metals from the asteroid that Desire the rover had been surveying and sampling for the last eight months. This was the first Open Source asteroid mining operation in the world. The resources obtained from the venture would be sold to corporate buyer and the proceeds used to help strengthen the Open Source capability of the Collective. It was a roundabout way of doing things, but money was still king, and the Collective needed a lot of it if they were to realise their full potential.
"I was thinking of biomining, bioleaching and self-replicating machines, but I'm not sure how to combine them all," Zhen answered.
Finn was silent for a moment. She passed the joint back to Zhen, forgetting to smoke it. The smoke from the joint mingled with Finn's rosemary scent and the herbal infusion was heavenly, more so because there was an undernote of Finn's own scent. Zhen closed her eyes and lost herself in the floral notes, almost forgetting what they were talking about.
"That sounds really good," Finn finally said.
"What does?" asked Zhen, lazily. Her thoughts finally caught up. "Right. The project. What about you? What's your idea?"
"Magnetic raking and strip mining were my first thought," said Finn.
"Proven techniques. Nothing wrong with that," said Zhen. She handed a headset to Finn.
Finn slipped on the VR headset. "How do you keep getting into these places?"
"A magician never reveals her secrets," Zhen said as she started the program.
"What's this?" asked Finn, staring at her orange cartoon hands.
"It's an old, old game by Sega," Said Zhen. She was a blue character, with spikes on her back. "It's called Sonic The Hedgehog. Our goal is to get the golden rings and kill my nemesis, Dr. Robotnik."
They raced through the levels, Finn marvelling at the fact that, as the character called 'Tails', she could fly. They were a few levels in, working to collect golden rings without being killed by Robotnik's minions, when Finn went off on an unexpected tangent.
"If you really believe we're in a simulation, what do you believe about death?" Finn asked.
Zhen took a moment to compose her answer. She waded through clouds of brain fog. "If I take off my headset and you're still in this simulated VR world, my Sonic avatar goes lifeless and, if this cartoon reality was all you knew, it would seem like, for all intents and purposes, that I wasn't alive anymore."
"But in reality, you just accessed another simulation," said Finn. "The one in the background of this VR's world."
"Yeah," said Zhen.
"That's so trippy!" said Finn.
They quit playing with two hours left until their next workshop. Zhen walked Finn to her room. They stopped at her door.
"I like this reality, even if it's simulated," said Finn, turning to face her.
Zhen smiled. "And, why's that?"
"Because I got to meet you," said Finn.
Zhen leaned in and planted the softest of kisses on Finn's cheek, right at the corner of her mouth.
"Goodnight, Finn."
Finn's hand touched her cheek, she looked up, her eyes asking for more. Zhen didn't want to push it. She was wary of the emotions bubbling inside her. Almost afraid of them. No, not almost. Petrified. That chaste kiss had been her bailing on anything more meaningful as she fought off a slight panic attack climbing up her chest. But Finn didn't stop smiling, which had a somewhat soothing effect on the lava of fear swallowing all her organs.
"Goodnight, Zhen," she said. Before closing her door, she added. "And good luck."