FUNCTION-L₃ #20

You look down into the dark pit--jagged broken metal and glass all around it, descending into total darkness. The opaque green water behind you seems more appealing. “If those are my options, the water...”

Next to you, Akiko sits up, looking around her and over at you. “What happened?” she signs.

“Well I was this close to de-escalating when a certain creeper took over and got us captured by the moss cult,” you sign.

“As I feared...he was pressing hard before I had to let down the binding program. Now he suddenly doesn’t want the front I guess--” She stops abruptly and feels around her left forearm where her terminal should be. “--Aydan they’ve disarmed us!”

“Yeah, I know,” you sign.

“Good, you’ve rejoined us,” Marimo Noriko signs to Akiko.

“Return my augment! If not--”

“Your leash-holder will send much better technopaths than you to retrieve it, yes, yes,” Noriko signs.

“What are you gonna do with us?!” Akiko signs.

Noriko points down. “You wanted to go to the old city, so we’re sending you there. But not as technopaths.” She holds up Akiko’s terminal. “You’re still just students, you can’t touch the æther without this. Go down and have your fun, but only with the tech the original AtaraChibans had available. Find your way back up to level 2, and we’ll return your owners’ precious property. But you better keep your promise and come back only with what you left with.”

“So that’s the deal,” Akiko signs.

“Since you’re just kids, we decided to be merciful. Maybe you’ll learn something, if you can handle getting a little wet.”

Akiko reaches for your hand to sign to you by touch, “Can you swim, Aydan?”

“I had lessons when I was little,” you sign. “Luckily my moms are rich enough for that... What about you?”

“Yeah, my old school has a pool, it’s part of a standard education here.”

“You really have everything on this colony!” you sign.

Akiko looks behind you into the murky water. “I can make out the bottom in the IR, there’s a little passage that leads somewhere.”

“Oh good, your eyes still work,” you sign.

“Primary sensory organs usually have a direct neural connection, so I can still receive input and adjust their settings. Not that I need them! But...the IR range is helpful here...” She turns back to Noriko and the others. “We’ll take your challenge.”

She takes your hand and turns around toward the water. “Don’t lose sight of me, Aydan,” she signs.

“I’m not sure ÆON’s device can survive this...” you sign.

She reaches into her deep skirt pockets, and hands you a small Faraday bag. “This has a watertight seal, it should hold. I’d power Ær off just to be safe though.”

You pull the little handheld computer out of your pocket.

“Hey! What’s it got there?” says the girl watching from across the pond.

“Hand it over!” Noriko says. “I said--”

“No tech that wasn’t available to people who lived in the old city, right? This is a 21st century machine, so it’s fine by your rules,” you say.

“Fine, take your toy, little femboy,” Noriko says.

Aydan > have to shut you off for a bit!

ÆON > Understood.

You message ÆON on your backup primitive chat program, then put the device in the bag and seal it tight, before holding down the power button until its screen goes black.

“Ready?” you sign to Akiko.

“Let’s go.” She jumps in, and you follow after her before you can lose track of her.

Cold water envelops you, thick with a slimy residue of the layers of algæ growing within. Akiko dives down, and you take a deep breath and follow. Underwater, it’s even harder to see than you expected. You follow the faint lights of the LEDs in Akiko’s eyes and her synthovaries, four reference points as your only beacon of navigation. At least the effects of gravity feel lower under water. You press onward, down into the depths, until she suddenly stops, and you arrive a moment later, scraping the concrete bottom of the basin, landing between clusters of green spheres of moss.

She gets her hands on a metal grid along the back wall, coated completely with moss, and tries to pry it open, struggling. It opens, but she struggles to lift it up The cold stings your flesh wherever the metal conduits inside you touch. Unsure how long you can last down here, you feel a panic response--unable to simply suppress it with your interface.