Exin Ex Machina (Asterion Noir Book 1): Amaranthe, #11

Exin Ex

Machina

Asterion Noir Book 1

G. S. Jennsen

2018

EXIN EX MACHINA

Copyright © 2018 by G. S. Jennsen

Cover design by G. S. Jennsen, Tiemo Brants and Obsidian Dawn

Cover typography by G. S. Jennsen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at:

Hypernova Publishing

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Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815

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Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

The Hypernova Publishing name, colophon and logo are trademarks of Hypernova Publishing.

Exin Ex Machina / G. S. Jennsen.—1st ed.

LCCN 2018946287

ISBN 978-1-7323977-0-5

For Alexis Mallory Solovy Marano,

daughter of Commandant and Commander Solovy,

first Prevo and goddamn savior of humanity thrice over

Dramatis Personae

NOIR

Nika Tescarav

Perrin Benvenit

Joaquim Lacese

Parc Eshett

Cair Norton

Ava & Maggie Zobel

Ryan Theroit

Carson Faine

DIVISION ADVISORS/STAFF

Dashiel Ridani, Industry Advisor

Adlai Weiss, Justice Advisor

Gemina Kail, Administration Advisor

Maris Debray, Culture Advisor

Iona Rowan, External Relations Advisor

Spencer Nimoet, Justice Officer

Erik Rhom, Justice Analyst

GUIDES

Anavosa (Mirai)

Delacrai (Kiyora)

Luciene (Synra)

Selyshok (Ebisu)

Iovimer (Namino)

OTHER CHARACTERS

Grant Mesahle

Vance Greshe

Roqe Ovet

Theo Jacoby

Xyche’ghael

View the Galaxy Map online at gsjennsen.com/map-machina

CONTENTS

WHOAMI

BOOT SEQUENCE

RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY

INTERRUPT

EXCEPTION ERROR

PATTERN MATCH

STACK OVERFLOW

SYSTEM CALL

Exin Ex

Machina

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WHOAMI

Generation: kyr

Input desired designation: __

Raindrops splattered on the pebbled surface beneath her cheek. One, two, three-four-five they splashed, bounced and rebounded into her face.

Generation: kyr

Input desired designation: __

The input cursor flashed across her vision, blurring and wobbling to mix with the rain. What did it want from her? Who she was?

No. The blinking cursor told her she was no one. Nothing. It asked who she intended to be.

Generation: kyr. Cardinal. First. New. Tabula rasa.

She splayed trembling fingers upon the surface beneath her—a street. She recognized its nature because, without thinking about it, she knew many things. Words. Names for objects. How those objects worked. History…but not her own. Behind the blinking cursor a universe of knowledge waited, prepackaged, catalogued and ready to serve her. Everything in the world except who she was. Had been. Could be.

Her eyes rose to focus on the visual plane stretching out from her, centimeters above the street. Shimmering lights in the darkness. Shadows of buildings swallowed by deeper, darker shadows. From here to the indistinct horizon, raindrops splattering plink-plink-plink.

Who began life sprawled face-first on a street in a rainstorm in the middle of the night?

The answer returned as null. Some before had led to her awakening in this situation now. Kyr was a lie, for this was not the beginning. Something had preceded it to bring her to this moment. But when she sought an answer in her mind, she found only emptiness. A blank slate. Tabula rasa.

Generation: kyr

Input desired designation: __

Desired? She desired the name that went with before. She desired data to fill the emptiness—

Murmured voices flowed into the gaps between the splatter of the raindrops, accompanied by harsh clack-clack-clacks. A shadow loomed over her, and the rain stopped. She looked up.

A woman with long ginger hair, bright blueberry eyes and a freckled nose crouched beside her. Above the woman, a translucent leaf sheltered them both from the rain. What’s wrong? Do you need help?

She forced her throat to move, followed by her tongue, then her lips. I….

The woman glanced past her to something in the distance. Joaquim, get over here!

A new shadow dimmed the darkness further and brought with it a deeper, gravelly voice. She’s functioning?

Did her sorry state qualify as functioning? A nod from the woman proclaimed it did.

Can you sit up? The deep voice drew closer until it overpowered the rhythm of the rain. We’re going to scoot you back against the alley wall, okay?

The alley wall? Had her sordid awakening not even merited a proper avenue as its setting?

Strong hands grasped her shoulders and lifted. She belatedly tried to help, but it made little difference. A second later a hard surface met her back, and she was sitting upright. Two visages hovered in front of her to study her in concern—one open and expressive, the other guarded and cautious.

She moved facial muscles that felt foreign, as though they’d been sloppily glued to the bones beneath them, into something like a smile. Thank you.

Of course. The woman continued to scrutinize her. Are you hurt? Do you need repairs?

Carefully she shook her head, relieved when it didn’t tumble off its perch. No, I’m not damaged. I’m ky—

Kyr. Yeah, we figured that part out. The man’s mouth rose on one side as if amused, yet the rest of his expression insisted it didn’t do amusement. Bit of a rough transition, eh?

A rough transition is forgetting where you’re supposed to sleep for the first few days. Something went wrong with her. The woman flashed her an apologetic smile buoyant enough to bring color and verve to the washed-out world. Sorry. I’m sure you’ll be fine. Do you want to come with us? We can offer you a roof, a shower and something to eat, if not much else.

The faint traces of levity vanished from the man’s face. I don’t—

Shush, Jo. She’s in no condition to be a threat to us. The woman’s warm, comforting smile returned. Please, come with us.

She nodded mutely. Notions such as showers and food sounded luxurious beyond imagination, not to mention mere dryness. All this blank slate had known of life thus far was the hypnotic but terribly wet splatter of rain.

Let’s get you up. It’s not far. The man took one of her arms, and she climbed to her feet mostly under her own power. Sloppily glued into place or not, her muscles seemed to recognize their function. It was a start.

The woman touched her shoulder in encouragement, or perhaps to provide a steadying hand. I’m Perrin. This is my friend, Joaquim. What are you going to call yourself? Do you know?

Know? What did she know? She knew emptiness. A void where there should be data. Wherever her eyes looked, the cursor followed with its incessant wobbly blurred blinking. Taunting her, judging her. Who are you? Who do you intend to be?

Generation: kyr

Input desired designation: __

Her lips moved of their own accord, acting at the behest of something beyond her conscious perception.

Nika. You can call me Nika.

BOOT

SEQUENCE

1

FIVE YEARS LATER

PLANET: MIRAI

ASTERION DOMINION

GENNISI GALAXY

Clear through to the 5th level, second hallway.

Team 1, move ahead.

Team 3 in position.

Team 3, hold there until I give the signal.

When Team 1 reached the final hallway separating them from their destination, Nika signaled a halt.

Ηq (visual) | scan.thermal(240°:60°)

Τ → Η μ (α) = 342°

Τ → Η μ (β) = 9°

The building’s security force had consisted solely of dynes and drones up until now, but two semi-flesh and semi-blood guards stood watch over the data vault itself.

Nika (Team 1): Two heat signatures on either side of the door.

Ava: (Team 1) Permission to take them out?

Nika (Team 1): Negative. Lock your targets but hold position here. I’ve got this.

She crept forward one silent step at a time, and her kamero filter rippled and shifted to match the visuals of her changing surroundings.

Nika: Team 2, status?

Perrin: Team 2 ran into a very rude security dyne.

Nika: Which resulted in Team 2’s status being…?

When she was three meters away from her targets, blades extended out from the inside of each of Nika’s wrists. The guards stared forward, seeing nothing as they shuffled their weight from foot to foot in boredom. She timed the rhythm of their natural movements and fell into sync with it as she reached the closed door between them.

Perrin: We’re fine. Ryan spiked it, and it’s now our new best friend. In position in fifteen seconds.

Nika: Tell Ryan he can’t bring it home. He exceeded his pet limit two pets ago.

She rose onto the balls of her feet and spun in a half circle, thrust her arms out so they extended behind the guards, and plunged the blades into the bases of their necks. The metal pierced each of their port openings and speared the cores of their neuromorphic brains.

The guards crumpled to the floor as one. Instant neurological shutdown. Far more controlled and less messy than letting Ava shoot them.

Perrin: He says—

Nika: No more pets.

She watched the bodies for two seconds to make certain they were out of commission, then wiped the brain matter residue off the metal before retracting the blades. Odds were the guards’ employment contracts with Dominion Transit included replacement bodies and free regens for line-of-duty expirations, though the paperwork might take a while.

Nika: Team 1 beginning vault infiltration.

She retrieved a thin roll of flexmat from the pouch on her belt and applied it in an X pattern across the door while the rest of her team cleared the hall and joined her outside the data vault.

Perrin: Team 2 in position.

Nika: Team 2, hold your position until I give the signal.

She pressed her fingertips against each edge of the neat X to confirm the seals. Parc, mirror me.

Parc Eshett stepped up beside her, though his presence there revealed itself only through the flow of data exchanged between them. She pressed her index fingers to the top and bottom right corners of the X; he did the same on the left side. Activate.

A calibrated series of electrical signals flowed from their fingertips into the flexmat at each corner and began transforming the door’s chemical composition molecule by molecule.

And back, everyone. She stepped away from the door as, from the corners in, the metal crumbled and its remnants drifted aimlessly to the floor. In seconds nothing but a pile of chromatic dust lay on the floor, and the entrance was open.

Nika: Team 1 moving into the vault.

She pulsed the room to mark the layout and electrical junction points and shared the results with the other team members through the operation’s nex node. Next, she placed a shell on the floor beneath the center of the door frame and triggered it. From the perspective of the hallway, a projected replica of the former door and the two meters surrounding it now filled the space, concealing both their presence inside and the bodies’ presence outside from any person or dyne that wandered into the vicinity of the vault.

Ava and Carson, place your charges. Parc, go to town.

Finally! He rushed up to the hardware block that dominated the room and instantly became a flurry of motion and flashing augments. Specialized tools appeared and vanished from his hands so rapidly they might be mistaken for body mods. She didn’t think they were, but where Parc was concerned you could never be certain.

Nika’s gaze swept across the room and her team. They all carried out their assigned tasks with focused, honed efficiency, and she couldn’t ask them to work any faster. The reality of the open doorway made her feel exposed, though, as the false projection only protected them so long as the illusion wasn’t tested by security. Team 2, Team 3, status?

Joaquim: Team 3 check.

Nika: Team 2?

Perrin: Maggie wants to know if she can take the dyne home as a pet, since Ryan’s exceeded his limit.

Nika: She’ll simply give it to Ryan the instant I go upstairs. No. More. Pets.

Perrin: But—

Joaquim: Perrin, get your people in line. This isn’t playtime.

Perrin: Mind your own team.

Joaquim: I’m Operations Director, which means I’ll mind every team. Shape up.

Parc looked over at her. We’re all set here. Just give the word.

Nika: Enough. Stand by for my signal.

She moved up beside Parc, tapped into the vault with her fingertip and scanned his work. Not that she didn’t trust it; he ran figure eights around her diverges in his sleep. As usual, the subtlety and finesse of his painstaking alterations radiated digital brilliance, so she disconnected and stepped back. Ava, Carson?

Charges are armed and ready.

Same.

Start your timers…and we are out of here. She gestured toward the doorway to emphasize the point but waited until everyone had cleared it to exit herself, stopping to retrieve the shell on the way out. Once in the hallway, she slid her Glaser out of its sheath and pointed it at the wall above the empty door frame and the bodies.

The Glaser was a flexible device with many uses, both as a tool and as a weapon. When its energy output was targeted in a fine, precision stream, one of its capabilities involved etching markings into virtually any material. The laser it emitted followed the flow of her hand’s graceful, sweeping motions, and in its wake the engraving burned brightly against the muted pewter of the wall.

Nika smiled.

Inside the data vault, the timers hit zero and the charges detonated, sending sparks flying and smoke hissing into the hallway to temporarily obscure her handiwork. Teams 2 and 3, you are a go. Execute and exit along your designated routes. Reconvene at The Chalet.

The walls shuddered as more substantial physical explosions detonated elsewhere in the building.

She pivoted to her team, who had taken up defensive positions behind her, and confirmed their kamero filters were active. Security will be moving in now, but let’s try to get out of here without being noticed.

They reached the lift free of incident, and it soon deposited them on the ground floor.

Two security dynes waited in the entrance atrium of the building, however, denying her the pleasure of escaping unnoticed. Alas.

Ava’s right arm extended toward each of them in turn. Streaks of electricity jumped from her hand and through the air to fry their circuitry before anyone else even began to respond. Ava had long ago integrated the Glaser technology into her right arm augments, and she took great pride in displaying her literal ‘walking weapon’ status.

Carson grumbled as the dynes sputtered and died on the floor. You never let anyone else have any fun, Ava.

If you want to get in on this kind of fun, learn to move faster. They make augments to speed up your reflexes, you know.

Parc laughed. Be thankful she handled them, Carson. She turns into such a bitch when she hasn’t shot anything recently.

How can you tell the difference?

Nika cringed. Ava, don’t take Carson out, now or later. Or Parc. Everyone stay focused. We’re not out of here yet.

She scanned the entrance for additional threats while praying for patience. The line between friendly joshing and less-friendly squabbling was a thin and ever-shifting one, and Joaquim and Perrin’s crossing of it earlier had heightened her sensitivity to its lurking presence.

All right, let’s move. The extraction route should be clear for the next twelve seconds. Let’s make that window.

She moved to the lobby’s side door and entered the security override passcode she’d acquired on their way in. The door slid open, and she again motioned the others through.

Halt!

She spun to find an Asterion guard rushing through the lobby from the far side, Glaser raised.

Nika (Team 1): Retreat.

Ava (Team 1): But—

Nika (Team 1): Retreat.

Her hand went to her utility belt as the guard fired on her, sending an energy pulse to sizzle across her shielding. She unlatched a grenade and tossed it into the lobby. It sailed through the air for two seconds, then exploded above the guard’s head with enough force to electrify the entire room.

She twisted around and dove through the open door for the grass outside; the balls of her feet parted ways with the lobby flooring an instant before the cascading electrical charge spread to the doorway, and she landed in a combat roll beyond its reach.

The next second she was back on her feet, Glaser pointed at the doorway—but the guard lay on the lobby floor jerking like a marionette from the electricity still coursing through his body.

Ava appeared at her side wearing a scowl. Now who’s showing off?

Nika shrugged and re-holstered the Glaser. Me. Let’s go.

They wound around the facade to the rear of the building, where they met up with Parc and Carson. On reaching the promenade separating the Dominion Transit Headquarters from the city streets, they spread out to cross the open and exposed space. As they neared the far side, their kamero filters gradually faded, and they blended into the pedestrian traffic.

Nika paused in the entryway to take in the flurry of activity spreading across The Floor in the aftermath of the operation. Though chaotic at a first, uninformed glance, over time she’d learned to discern the flow beneath the chaos. Now she sensed the concentric circles of data and thoughts put into action as they rippled out from clusters that had drawn adherents. Occupying the negative space in between were quiet spheres carved out and cordoned off from all the activity.

She’d arrived back home—‘The Chalet,’ as it had been affectionately dubbed—well after everyone else, having opted to stalk the streets along the various exit routes to ensure the others made it back safely. Only when Perrin confirmed everyone’s return had she headed to the #3 door and returned home herself.

Five separate d-gate entrances to The Chalet lay scattered around Mirai One, each one disguised as innocuous architecture—windows, artwork, ordinary doors and unadorned walls. They each required a special passcode to activate, and providing those passcodes to an individual was the last and most momentous step in their initiation into the group. All the d-gates led to an entry anteroom in the interior of The Chalet, which had no obvious external, physical door of its own.

Only three people knew where on Mirai the building was located: herself, Perrin and Joaquim. In a yet further security measure, the entire building was warded by a signal interference field. While inside its walls, a person could not pinpoint their own geographic location, and neither could someone on the outside.

Because living in a tomb wasn’t healthy for anyone, there were windows, but they displayed idyllic visuals rather than the actual outdoors. The precautions were drastic, but they protected every person here, not to mention the group as a whole.

Nika walked The Floor as soon as she arrived, before putting up her gear or showering. It was important for her to check in on those who had taken part in tonight’s operation, but also, arguably even more so, those who had not. It was important for them to see her—sweaty, messy, sometimes bleeding, but above all working, and working for them—and for them to know that she saw them as well.

She spoke to several people on her way to the alcove in the far left corner of the expansive room, where Ryan lounged at one of their two repair benches. Together with the advanced rehabilitation tank upstairs, the equipment ensured that most physical damage short of decapitation or catastrophic electrical overload was not permanent.

Two modular appendages swept around Ryan’s left arm, patching up a nasty cut above his elbow, and she arched an eyebrow as she approached. If I had realized you spilled blood to win over the security dyne, I might have let you keep it after all.

Ryan winced as a clamp pinched the treated skin together and held it tight. Shit, really?

She laughed. No. If we have any more pets buzzing and skittering around in here, we’ll have to start calling it a zoo.

He reached down with his other arm and stroked a canary yellow spiderbot circling his feet. I know. But the dyne wanted a more fulfilling life.

Did it tell you this?

Not in so many words, but I saw the longing in its code.

Perhaps after meeting you, it will find a new path to follow on its own. Good job tonight. Turning the dyne kept your teammates safe and kept it from calling the cavalry down on us.

The clamp released its grip, and another mechanical arm swept in to paint on a top layer of sensory nanofiber. When it had finished its work, Ryan peered down at the seamless, healthy skin left behind. Thanks for taking me. It was fun, if occasionally painful.

I think you just summed up our lives here. She patted him on the shoulder and left him to wrap up the repair sequence.

Next to one of the structural pillars, Ava sat cross-legged beside Maggie. Ava had opened up the pseudo-skin covering of her weaponized forearm and was showing Maggie something among its inner workings, but Maggie’s confused-yet-skeptical expression provided no clues as to what it might be.

Ava and Maggie were siblings—co-equal up-gens from the same psyche. Together they served as walking proof of how much a single up-gen could change a person…and all the ways it didn’t.

Nika offered them a supportive nod, mostly grateful Ava wasn’t currently beating up her teammates. She continued on toward where Parc sat at the center of his own personal command center, which he had built smack in the middle of The Floor. Anyone was free to wander through it and touch the exterior of the equipment, but he protected the access passcodes with the fervor of Charon guarding Hades.

He couldn’t have been back and working for longer than ten minutes, and he’d already attracted an audience.

Nika didn’t push her way through the crowd to reach him, instead leaning against a pillar on the periphery to watch the show.

So then, what I did was I set loose this smart worm I wrote into the Dominion Transit database. Wiping the database would’ve been easy, but selectively altering and scrambling existing data while inserting new data? This required a higher and more refined level of skill.

One of the newer people, a tall guy with auburn hair named Cair, leaned in toward Parc. But the manipulations will leave traces. Even if the traces don’t expose the details of what you did, they’ll announce which data points you diverged.

Parc not-so-subtly nudged Cair out of his personal space. "You’re cute. See, the worm touched every piece of data, leaving behind an identical trace whether it altered the information or not. There’s not a person or algorithm running that’ll be able to spot the difference between altered and unaltered entries. He grinned over his shoulder in her direction. Right, Nika?"

She wondered how long he’d known she was in his orbit. You’re the expert on data worms, not me. I bow before your genius.

Oh? He considered her with new interest. I don’t suppose you could? Bow, I mean. It would bring a huge increase in my cred around here.

Those closest to Parc scooted back to clear the way so she could step into the inner circle of his command center. She dropped a hand on the top of his chair, then shifted to face the onlookers. What do you all think? Does Parc deserve the knee?

A chorus of boos and grumbles answered, along with a few whistles and some color commentary.

"He’s good, but not that good."

An ego boost is the last thing the prick needs.

He’ll be insufferable—oh, wait.

She chuckled and turned back to give Parc an exaggerated shrug. Sorry, but I have to respect the will of the people. She leaned over the top of his chair and made a show of inspecting the plethora of code spilling across multiple display panes. Maybe one day.

Yeah, yeah. He sounded exasperated, but his expression remained one of amusement. I sent my operation report to Joaquim an entire six minutes ago.

I wasn’t checking up on you, but thank you for putting work before play. I’ll let you get back to showing off for your adoring fans.

She left the command center and eased into the crowd reforming around him. By the time she reached a bubble of empty space, Parc was full into another demonstration of his coding savvy.

As she turned to head upstairs, activity near the Board caught her eye.

The Board kept a running record of the missing and the lost— individuals who had done something once thought impossible in Asterion society: vanish. Some fell victim to Justice, were sent off to prison to serve their sentence and never returned. Others signed up to work at one of the outposts on the wild frontier of the exploratory worlds—and never returned. A few had simply been living their lives one day, and the next day were gone.

Most of the names belonged to friends, co-workers or loved ones of the people here. The troubling implication of this was that the true number of missing people could be exponentially higher.

Cair had slipped away from Parc’s demonstration after getting snubbed, and now he paced in front of the Board. A hand repetitively came up to his chin then dropped to his side while his lips enunciated silent words.

She sighed and went over to check on him. Do you see something here that bothers you? Do you need to add a name?

Damien Soljitsen and Monique Palade shared a former employer. Monique and Francis Quelle lived three blocks apart. Francis and—

She carefully placed a hand on his arm, but he still jumped in surprise.

Sorry. Listen, we’ve run the names through dozens of algorithms looking for connections. There aren’t any. The surface-level similarities you’ve identified don’t lead to anything concrete. She glanced at the Board and the subtle glow of the names on it. I wish they did. If we could discover what links the disappearances, we could figure out why they happened and stop it from happening again. Maybe even find the people who are lost.

Cair nodded distractedly. I’ll work on a new algorithm.

2

Nika settled onto one of the two couches in her room, next to Perrin and opposite Joaquim. She draped her shower-damp hair behind her shoulders and poured herself a drink from the pitcher on the table. What’s it look like?

Joaquim instantiated a data sphere between them. We were successful in accessing and corrupting the primary Dominion Transit passenger database. By altering or deleting sixteen percent of the existing records, we obscured the insertion of twelve new simmed identities. We should be able to use them, paired with their morphs, for a minimum of four months before they stale.

This will make travel so much easier, as well as safer.

Which was the idea. Perrin didn’t sound enthused, however. I do wonder, though—would it have been better to do this on the sly rather than announce our presence with explosions and artwork? Now they know their database has been corrupted.

Joaquim snorted. As well they should. We need to be in every institution’s face, and thus in the Guides’ faces by proxy. They need to know we can get on the inside. They need to know their precious data troves aren’t so infallible.

Joaquim’s passion for the cause was both his best and his worst trait. Nika leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees. You’re both right. Yes, Perrin, it would’ve been more prudent to stay under the radar, and it might have bought us an extra month or two of breathing room. But we’re never going to change laws without changing minds first. We have to be publicly disruptive. We have to act as a beacon others can see and believe in.

That’s what I meant.

She shot Joaquim a quick smile. I know. The point is, we’re always walking a tightrope between ensuring our safety and pushing the cause forward. Tonight, we successfully furthered both interests…or that’s my hope.

Perrin clinked her glass against Nika’s then leaned across the table to do the same to Joaquim’s, apparently accepting Nika’s defense of their strategy. We’re all back safe and sound, and we got what we needed. Looks like a win to me. She brought her glass to her lips, but paused it there. "Did it look like a win on The Floor? I was too busy confirming everyone was accounted for and any damage got taken care of to get a good