FUNCTION-L₃ #29

“I’ll go first,” you sign.

Akiko grabs you by the sides of your head and kisses you, holding you there a minute or more. She sides down your neck, your shoulders, your arms, takes both your hands, and signs, “Good luck,” or perhaps, “Do your best.”

As she lets you go, orange circles light up around her purple irises. “If there are structural defects in the metal, I might be able to see them using my infrared thermography.”

“Have I told you how cool you are?” you sign.

“You could tell me more.”

“If we make it out of here I’ll spend all night inflating your ego,” you sign.

“Contract received. So don’t die!”

You step onto the first rung and begin your ascent. The metal creaks with every kilogram of pressure you put on it. Normally in a situation like this, your training would say you should technopathically suppress any fear or anxiety to make it through the danger as smoothly as possible. But without your interface collar, all the conduits in your skin are just metal---you can’t stop the numb, detached feeling in your body, the elevation of your heart rate, and with no induction field to interface with your brain you can do nothing against the mounting sense of panic welling deep within you. You try a more straightforward technique and focus your thoughts on the task at hand---remove yourself from the context, only the things in contact with your body are real.

You hear a vocal stim from Akiko and you freeze, turning your head spinward to look down at her. You’ve gone much further than you thought, nearly halfway there.

“Avoid the next rung! It’s rusted through!” she signs.

Following her advice you proceed, avoiding the structural weak point. One step at a time, you make it up to the top, where a metal trapdoor stands between you and the next level. You push up on it---the rusted latch breaks easily, and the door lifts up. You climb up through the narrow passage onto stable ground, looking back down at Akiko and signing, “Clear!”

She follows your path. Your primitive organic eyes lack onboard infrared thermography---all you can do is helplessly watch. What if your weight had weakened the metal just enough? You try to put the thoughts out of your mind, but without technopathy they force their way to the forefront. Gripping the edge of the door frame, you watch.

She reaches you, taking your hand, and you help pull her up onto level 2. She grabs hold of your head and kisses you again.

“We made it...” she signs.

“Not bad, not bad.” An unfamiliar voice. A young girl in a moss-covered cloak looks down on you, sitting above you on a lichenous ledge.

“Already? How’d you know where we would be?” you say.

“The slime molds are our ears,” the girl says, “our eyes.”

“Really?” you say, looking around at the networks of yellow slime on the walls.

“Or we put up sentries at each plausible exit route, who knows?” she says. “Follow me, I’ve alerted the others.”

---

On Level 2, Sector 29, at the plaza of the pond of deep green water, spheres of algæ floating beneath, you again stand surrounded by the Marimo no Kachibito.

“You survived,” Marimo Noriko signs to you both.

“Evidently,” Akiko signs.

“Guess we can’t keep these high-end military terminals...” She opens her cloak of living moss to show both of your terminals nestled in a pocket on her SCOBY leather vest. “Assuming you upheld your agreement.”

“We didn’t bring a single object back with us,” you sign.

“Scan them, Noriko!” says one of her comrades behind her.

Pulling out her wooden wand wrapped in a wire coil, she waves it around your head, your torso, your arms and legs. She scans Akiko next.

“No unknown electric fields or metal objects detected,” she says.

“See what Sakura thinks!” says another moss-walker. Their ranks part, and an animal walks out---a dog, about 70cm tall, with thick fluffy fur, patches of black and white.

“Here, Sakura,” Noriko says, pointing at you and then Akiko with her staff.

The dog approaches Akiko, who responds with a happy stim and a bright green glow from her eyes as Sakura inspects her scent, around all her pockets and compartments.

“An Akita! So cute,” Akiko signs.

“I think she likes you...” Noriko signs.

Sakura inspects you next, sniffing you over thoroughly before sitting down, facing Marimo Noriko, and concluding with a single bark.

“Good girl,” Noriko says.

“Can I pet her?” Akiko signs, her eyes purple.

“Yeah, but be gentle, she’s pregnant,” Noriko signs.

“Puppies!” Akiko signs. She kneels down to greet Sakura, petting her head, her back, and reaching into the thick fur around her neck, parting it to reveal a plastic collar---a neural interface collar, not unlike yours though an older model clearly put through some modification, including the little pink charm of a sakura flower hanging from it. “I knew it, you’re technopathically connected with her,” she signs. Sakura licks her face in response.

“You could tell without your interface?” Noriko signs.

“I told you I’m the apprentice of Technopath Abeja Reina, legendary biohacker in the field of cross-species interface?” Akiko signs.

“I don’t really keep up with certs, but you seem to know a thing or two,” Noriko signs. “Anyway...” She signs to her moss siblings.

Two of them bring her your interface collar and Akiko’s coat. Noriko takes your terminals in hand, dangling them in front of your eyes.

“What did we learn?” she signs.