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“I kinda like the martian neoZEROwave scene better but Earth-Moon æthercore is pretty good,” you say.

“It’s all kind of overproduced isn’t it? ZERO was always closer to the metal,” 7 says.

“Yeah I’ll give you that, but who among us understands processors like ZERO?” you say.

“I wish...” she says.

At the end of the hallway you reach the heavy insulated doors to main power sector. You scan the key in your hand, and the doors slide open. Hot air rushes out. It’s always hot in there.

“You’re here, good,” an older engineer shouts down from an upper walkway. “Aydan, go check the calibration of all those resonant inductive couplers over in the supply cart before we get to installing them. 7, come up here and prep the old ones for decoupling.”

With a parting glance you split up again. The supply cart is nearby. You pick up one of the little cylinders and connect to it. Calibration tests go smoothly. Only one so far needs a minor adjustment.

Quickly losing interest, you mentally glance over at your messaging program. You message ÆON Club channel.

2254-10-06 16:12:12 Aydan > so I was thinking tonight would be good

2254-10-06 16:12:17 Zeta > sounds good, if anything goes wrong there’s no class tomorrow

2254-10-06 16:12:20 Zeta > so we should decide how we want to go about this

2254-10-06 16:12:26 Aydan > it would be safest to listen to it purely surfaceside, but, that would be missing half the point of an album like this...

2254-10-06 16:12:31 Zeta > we can probably establish a secure ætherspace via a private server partition

2254-10-06 16:12:34 Synthesis-03 > there’s a way for you to experience the ætherwalk at a safe distance, from the surface more or less, but I don’t know if you’re ready for it

2254-10-06 16:12:41 Aydan > oh, synchronization? I’ve done that

2254-10-06 16:12:49 Synthesis-03 > oh right, this is Aydan we’re talking to...

2254-10-06 16:12:56 Aydan > what do you think Akiko, would it work?

2254-10-06 16:13:02 明子 > well yes in theory it would work fine, but not with me, music is...the vibration is stimmy on the surface but ætherside it doesn’t have much to offer me

2254-10-06 16:13:05 明子 > but as the club’s designated CommSpec I can moderate your sync with someone else. just remember the...side effects, with whoever you sync with..