Cynthia’s drone is sitting on a bench in the hallway across from Zoe’s room, currently deactivated. Zoe taps on the screen. It lights up with a “Standby” message on the screen, and within a few seconds Cynthia’s back and the drone takes off. “Ready to head out? Also, nice outfit!”
“Thanks, I just picked it up… sorta.”
They head down the hall into a temporary office, and Cynthia carefully positions the drone in the room. She fires up a projector built into the drone, lighting the wall up. They go through a long series of presentations, legal agreements, contract terms, and sign offs, but it’s all basically a blur to Zoe. It’s the same agreement with Argos, but this makes it official to the machinery of the corporate structure.
Cynthia shuts the projector down, and turns the drone toward Zoe. “Ok, on to the fun stuff?”
“You mean that wasn’t the fun part? Sure, I could use some distraction - that was a little grueling.”
They wander over to this sector’s recreation area, and although Zoe knows where it is already, it’s still nice to get shown around. The giant open space resembles the intersection of a shopping mall, casino, spa, and internet cafe. The streets are lined with distractions of all types, from the mundane to the borderline questionable.
“Here it is, all the fun we’re legally permitted to indulge in - maybe slightly more. Your employment grants you access to all the standard tiers, and allows you into some specialized services for cyborg workers. As you progress through the organization you can unlock more. We also take payment with either standard currency or paycheck deduction. One second…” She squints into the screen, attempting to see something in the distance from her end of the video link.
“Oh cool, looks like one of your teammates is here - I’ll introduce you!” Cynthia pilots the drone toward the internet cafe, which at this time of day is basically empty. The drone floats toward one of the booths, currently occupied by a woman wearing a bulky headset covering her eyes. Below her regular human-looking arms are another set of smaller artificial ones, with cables extending from the ends of the auxiliary arms’ cybernetic claws and plugged into data jacks in the booth.
She appears mostly human, wearing some kind of dark bodysuit underneath a synthetic leather jacket. When the pair approach, she flips up her headset and starts to disconnect from the terminal. “Hey there. So you must be the new hire - I’m Alex. One second, I’m still logging out of this thing.”
The rest of the cables disconnect and retract back, and she stands up. As she does, a thick insect-like segmented tail unwinds from around the chair, and moves upward into an arc behind Alex. At the tip of it, an array of weapons and gadgets extend out on a pivoting tool changer, like a cybernetic scorpion stinger. “I’ve got it from here Cynthia, thanks for the help.”
“Sure, have a good day!” Cynthia’s drone flies away, picking up speed as it floats off.
“So, Zoe, right?”
“Right. It’s nice to meet you, Alex.”
“Same. I’m glad you’re here, we’ve been hurting for a 5th team member for quite a while. There was a hiring freeze for like 8 months, which really put us in a serious bind. Anyway, enough about business - let’s walk.”
They stroll through the entertainment district with Alex pointing out some of the better attractions and shopping, and some places to avoid.
“So you’re a mimic, right? That’s really cool. We didn’t get much info from CR, so did you transfer from another team or are you a new hire?”
“I’m totally new here, and I think I’m probably still in shock. I didn’t exactly volunteer, and it’s been a hell of a trip so far. It’s only been a few days, and I still don’t feel like this body is really mine yet. Even though I basically look the same, everything feels so different. I’m a little worried that I'll be a problem for the team…”
Alex stops in the nearly empty street, just as they round the bend back to where they started. “Zoe, everyone here comes from somewhere else, and we all get to start over from zero. They probably didn’t cover this in the training, but on my team, we all get a fresh start. If you have any loose ends to tie up, or anything causing you trouble, whether here or in the real world, please let me know. The company might own our bodies and most of our future, but in trade we get access to their resources.” She smiles, “Which I happen to be really good at freeing up for our crew.”
“Anything you need, I’ll try to take care of. Within reason, obviously. We happen to have a lot of tools in our toolbox…” The tool changer on her cybernetic tail cycles through a series of unidentifiable but increasingly dangerous-looking gadgets.
“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.”
“So, want to meet the rest of the team? They’re eager to meet you and get rolling as soon as possible. Let’s take the tube to our area, I’ll send you the location.” A notification pops up in Zoe’s vision, and she mentally accepts the data share. “Oh that’s cool, thanks Alex!”
They walk to the nearest tube station, a high speed subway that connects each sector of the complex. They each grab onto a convenient handhold, and the train takes off.
“So how was your first night? Hopefully the overnight training sims weren’t too crazy.”
“There was one where I was in school chained to a desk, which was really weird. I figured out how to shapeshift clothes, so it was pretty embarrassing but useful, I guess?”
“That’s gotta be one for Mimics only, I probably couldn’t hack my way out of that one. Did they send you the hunter seeker one? That one’s sweet. I got so close to taking it down, I think next time it’s toast.”
“Yeah, that was freaky. There was also a shootout at a dinner party, which was totally insane. I got hit by a grenade…”
“Oh nice! That one’s Hugo’s favorite! Of course he’s usually got a machine gun, so it works out a little different for him. You’ll get used to the training really quickly, we treat it like a game. I think our team has the third highest score so far, and we were down by one person.”
The subway dings. “This is our stop. Let’s go meet the rest of the team; they should be in our office.”
The team office isn’t typical by any normal measure - as they walk in, Zoe sees a massive repurposed hangar, mostly empty space. Vehicles of various types line one wall, and on the other a handful of automated fabricators are cranking out repair parts and supplies to order. In the middle of the open space are a handful of chairs and a table. In the far corner the team built an improvised hangout area with couches, VR gear, a beaten up vending machine and miscellaneous other distractions.
As Zoe and Alex walk in, two figures approach from the motor pool. Alex shouts to them from the distance “Hey! Our new team member is here!”
The larger figure responds “Oh sweet! Finally!”
The four of them meet in the center of the hangar for introductions. The first teammate looks to be about halfway between a person and a dragonfly, if you removed the wings and clothed it in a green canvas poncho. Its large compound eyes take up most of the front of its anti-reflective coated metallic head, and a pair of tubular radio antennas stick out of the top on adjustable pivots. On each side of its head, it has what appear to be metal triangular catlike ears, sealed with louvered shutters. Its entire body seems to be composed of various cubes, cylinders, and spheres, like its resolution got turned way down.
“Greetings, it pleases us to meet you. We are Egregor. We provide air cover and surveillance during our missions.” They reach out a hand, and Zoe suddenly realizes that the hand and arm are composed entirely of drones of varying sizes and shapes, connected together and shifting subtly from time to time. “If you would like, we can demonstrate our capabilities - it should only take a moment.”
“Sorry, I’m a little confused. We?”
“We believe you will understand more after the demonstration.”
“I see, sorry. This is all new to me and I don’t want to be rude.”
Egregor turns around and takes a handful of steps into the open space of the large room, and spreads its arms out. The sound of hundreds of wings, rotors, and microjets fill the air like a giant swarm of bees; and what was a solid mass of alien looking humanoid dissolves into a swarm of flying and buzzing machines, filling the back half of the hangar. Their head, the largest part of the swarm, flies back toward Zoe, the cat-ear intake ducts ingesting vast volumes of air and exhausting it out of the hover jets on the underside.
Egregor speaks, the voice much louder to compensate for the sound of the swarm. “We can provide many types of assistance to the team, including counter drone warfare and targeted assasination, along with a legion of eyes in the sky.”
“That’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve seen so far. So I’m not sure if it's rude to ask, but are you an AI then, or a cyborg?”
“That is a valid question, our form is unusual even in this place. We began as a human, originally a drone pilot. As the number of devices under my control increased the edges of our mind began to blur and the organic body became less relevant. Now our intelligence is partially distributed throughout the swarm.”
One by one the various drones scattered across the hangar converge on the main head unit, and begin connecting together. In a matter of seconds the pace picks up, drones dive bombing their way back into the body and reconstructing it. The last one, a large portion of its arm, grabs the poncho from the floor and drapes it over the rest of its body, the antennas swiveling inward and passing through the neck hole of the garment as it falls.
“Demonstration complete. We look forward to working with you, our team will be far more effective with your contributions.”
“Thanks! I’m looking forward to us working together!”
The next team member, standing patiently nearby, is an absolute mountain of a man. He stands at least head and shoulders above everyone, and looks like a competition weightlifter stuffed into the largest ballistic armor suit available. His carefully tailored combat uniform seems crafted to conceal multiple weapons without looking like a walking surplus store. He walks up to Zoe and the top of her head barely reaches his chest. He kneels down, holds out his hand for a handshake, and says “Nice to meet you - Zoe, right? I’m Hugo.”
Zoe puts her hand in his - which completely envelops hers, and says “Wow, you’re really impressive. I think I can guess at your job.”
He firmly but carefully shakes her hand. “Dance instructor.” He grins. “It’s probably pretty obvious I’m the muscle of this operation. If things don’t work out I tend to fix any problems that might pop up - or pop out of cover and shoot at us. That usually doesn’t happen though, ‘cause we’re supposed to be the nice guys.”
“Right. I guess if there’s not much for you to do there’s always the dance lessons.” Zoe smiles. “It’s nice to meet you, Hugo.” As he stands back up she can’t help but notice the other weapon he’s concealing, the fabric of his pants stretching to reveal some serious firepower.
Alex looks around and asks the group “Where the hell is Harvey? I knew we shouldn’t have brought him back here.”
Off in the distance, a man in the very latest in fashionably expensive business wear approaches from the hanger door. Even from far away he seems a little strange, chewing on some gum very aggressively, twitching slightly and constantly adjusting his suit jacket. He speed walks over to the group, just short of breaking into a run. He waves to the group, and shouts “Hey sorry I’m late, I got distracted!”
He rapidly makes up the distance, and Zoe gets a better look at him. He looks outwardly like a typical salesman, with both his physical charisma and energy level turned way up. “Hey Zoe, I’m REALLY excited to work with you, it’ll be great! We needed a mimic for a really long time. Version 5? Nice! Six is gonna be fucking cool. Sorry about the whole first night thing, it’s a weird tradition, like a basic training breaking us in thing. Did you get the hijacked spaceplane one? That one’s wild.”
He paces back and forth, clearly either on some kind of stimulant or just way too enthusiastic. “So how was the new book? That one you bought two weeks ago. I wanted to read it but I was really busy doing some field work. Man! It’s really great to be back! Alex usually keeps me out of the HQ but I got a sweet apartment that the company pays for. Too bad about the bike, I’m sure we can get you a new one if you want.”
“Wait. How did you know about two weeks ago? Also my bike? The hell?”
“Oh yeah, I pulled a huge download from here today, the bandwidth is fucking great! So I got all of your records and your online purchasing history from one of our data taps. I did some cross-referencing, and found out a bunch of stuff. You had a pretty cool setup before coming here!”
Alex interrupts. “Harvey, you gotta dial it back a bit - you’re really creeping her out. Also you’re being profoundly annoying.”
“Hey sorry, when I get back here the bandwidth is fucking awesome! It’s like drinking from a firehose! You ever stand under a waterfall? It’s like that! 8 fucking terabits a second!” He aggressively adjusts his jacket again and paces around some more.
Alex continues. “Anyway, Harvey’s our Watcher - he might look like a normal human, and he mostly is, but he’s stuffed full of sensors, storage, and data analytics co-processors. When he’s not out of his goddamn mind, he’ll be your right hand man.
He can at 50 meters tell you someone’s name, the factory their concealed submachine gun came from, who they bribed to get past security, and what their favorite flavor of ice cream is. He’s probably our most powerful weapon for anything that’s not purely sneaking or shooting, and he can tap into any data I can grab from the network while we’re on target.”
Zoe holds her hand out to shake his, and he returns a very enthusiastic handshake. “I’m sure we will make a great team.”
“Absolutely! We get a mission to crash a rival company event, I’ll tell you everything you need to know. We get a mission to blow something up, I might sit that one out…”
Alex speaks up “Zoe, I almost forgot! I’m supposed to bring your phone number over! While you were out nobody could call you - part of our security and vetting process.” She flips down her headset, and her fingers twitch slightly as she navigates the company network. “There, you should be able to use your number again. I also set you up with our private comms channel, so you should be able to communicate on our net.” She speaks inside Zoe’s head, slightly echoey and distant but still clear, “Like this.”
“Oh cool, can you hear me?” Alex nods. Just then, begin to roll in from Zoe’s message backlog. Among the expected ones for unpaid daily rent, eviction, and her stuff being sold off, one catches her eye - from her former courier boss:
I don’t know where the fuck you went after that last delivery but Saturn’s got someone looking for you and they arent fucking around. If you’re trying to sell that shipment, don’t. If you bring it back and beg, they might not kill you. Your choice.
“Ah shit, I’m in big trouble.”