Aetheran Child (21 page)

They left for class together minutes later.

IV

After the last class of the day, Lexan left for the Tronics district to meet Romul and Remu. They were an odd pair, twins, one girl and one boy. Romul, the boy, was a chubby tall boy with long hair that he usually wore in a pony-tail, at least his avatar did. His blonde hair slicked back, it gave him the look of a professional in a career that was not meant to be taken so seriously.

Remu on the other hand, appeared much cleaner and professional. She stood as tall as the boy, very thin and wore short hair as dark as night.

“Ah here you are Lexan. Let's start our security lesson, shall we?” Romul grinned put his arm around Lexan's shoulders and they walked. Remu walked shortly behind them, giving a dark look toward Romul every once in a while, “First of all, you can't work with the equipment you have right now.” Romul took Lexan's wrist into his hand and stared at the shimmering liquid.

“It's completely out-dated!” He laughed, opening his mouth broadly.

“We should first head to the NCC shop on the fifteenth floor.” Remu suggested and pointed upward.

The Tronics District consisted of about five different Spheres. At the moment, they stood at the middle plaza of the central Sphere. It had been augmented and adjusted to include five different main plazas, as opposed to one, meaning, the usual light that came through the ceiling windows was nowhere to be seen. The sphere also consisted of twenty different levels all lined with shops. They took off to the fifteenth floor through the tubular elevator.

Once there, they stepped out and Lexan noticed the immediate change of environment. The whole plaza transformed into a busy street with small shops on the side and men with carts carrying computer parts. Neon-like lights jumped out at Lexan, robots talked and announced sales. It was all very busy.

Romul lead them toward a small shop right beside a large dance club. The music boomed loudly as Lexan walked by. The store resembled a thin hallway, wide enough to house metal shelves and two people side by side. Remu walked behind them once again. Most of the shelves contained old computer parts, ancient enough to resemble Earth's technology. Lexan laughed at that. All of it was dirt-cheap.

At the end of the hallway stood a man behind a counter. Behind him, the metal shelves were replaced by dark blue shelves made of what looked like polymer plastic. While the hallway seemed very messy, behind the counter, the store changed into a clean futuristic store with treasures of unimaginable technology.

“Welcome,” the man said scratching his scruffy beard. He had very short, frizzy hair and wore plain clothing. Romul walked up to him, exchanged a few words quietly. The man nodded and gave Romul a small clear box. Yet despite its see-through appearance, one could not see into the box without opening it. Romul stashed the box into his pocket and subsequently, he erased it from his profile to make it seem as if he was not carrying anything at all.

Remu joined us into the opening where she could finally fit with us and talked, “We need a newer model of a nano-contructed computer for him.” She cocked her head toward Lexan and took his wrist to show the man. Her eyes eyed the man coldly.

“Oh yes, that's an ancient model. I didn't know anyone used it anymore.” The clerk said.

“What about all those old parts over there?” Lexan turned his head toward the metal shelves.

“I got it for free, while traveling across the galaxy. I use it to set the mood,” the man laughed, “and what sets the mood better than some ancient computer parts that are only good for throwing at people?” he laughed again and continued, “I really hate the stores nowadays, everything is so clean, and with the latest technology, serviced by droids. It feels cold and impersonal.” He smiled at Lexan then noticed Remu still starring.

He turned around and walked a couple paces backward, reached into the plastic shelves that ironically resembled the shelves in the “new” stores. He grabbed a three or four boxes and brought them forward. They all looked the same, stainless steel outside with laser printing that described its contents.

“Okay, let me see your NCC.” the man touched Lexan's wrist and the computer slid out. Lexan gave a mental command and the liquid poured out onto the counter, leaving a thin line behind for connection. The nano-liquid unfolded and showed a screen.

“Ah, I see,” the man mumbled as he touched some of the buttons on the screen. Then he set up a wireless connection and did all the work in his head. He stood with eyes frozen on the screen while the screen flashed different diagrams.

Lexan followed all the information presented on the screen and called upon Joshua.

“Joshua. Record his actions and tell me of anything suspicious.” He told Jousha, after he mentally muted his helmet. Joshua's face appeared in the lower right corner, right by the avatar status. He nodded.

“Okay, well, this isn't really that much of an old model as your friends make it seem,” He started, still starring at the screen. One of his hands reached and put two of the four boxes below the counter, “It has many limitations though. Someone customized the firmware to disable a few functions.”

“Raki,” muttered Lexan. He downloaded all important information into his head and unplugged the silver liquid.

“I assume you'd like to get rid of this.” The man looked up, Lexan nodded. The liquid quickly disassembled and fell apart on the table. The clerk scraped it and threw it into an opening in the wall, marked “Trash”.

“Here I have two NCCs, all ready to go. This one on the left -” He pointed at the box with a green marking, “-is about the same quality as your previous computer. While this one on the right -” he tapped the red-marked box, “Is a significant update. It's easier to customize and it features better bio-mechanical synchronization. Look” The man brightened up at the prospect at playing with the computer.

He opened the box and touched the liquid with his finger. It disappeared seconds later, “As you can see, it can get into the body without leaving a trace. And then,” he stretched his hand and the computer enveloped his wrist, showing a screen, “it can materialize without the need of a dock, of course that takes a lot of power out of it.” The man shifted his arm again and the liquid climbed up to his neck and turned into a necklace, “It can easily transfigure into any object you desire.” he pressed a button on the necklace and the whole apparatus enveloped his mouth and created a rebreather. Then it shifted again and climbed into the back of his skull, “Another neat feature, it's completely wireless, even in its liquid state. As you already know, most computers cannot do this because they need to build an antenna first.”

He demonstrated this by opening the second box. The liquid came out just as quickly but instead of disappearing, it formed long dark lines over his skin. When it reached the top of his shoulder, the liquid formed a small metal square, probably the antenna. The clerk gave the liquid one more order and it formed around his neck, but not into the seamless necklace as he had before, but into a crumbling, strange, disfigured piece of metal, “You actually have to program the object you want the NCC to form into.” He connected the computer to his brain and downloaded a program. Afterward, the liquid turned once again into the necklace, and this time it worked.

“You see, the older version has to be adjusted and programmed to resemble an object while the new version uses an algorithm that processes your command into an object without the hassle of programming.”

Lexan turned to Remu for help. She nodded, “What's the price difference of these two?” She pointed at the shimmering liquids.

“About thirty to fifty credits. Depends on the quantity you want to take.” He put the liquids back into the boxes.

“Okay, I will take three packs of hundreds, red.” she said and pulled out three blue square crystals and two red crystals. Each was actually a box filled with precious sand. The man took the credits, inserted them into the computer console on the counter. The computer verified the crystal's contents and sucked the powder in, “Would you like these back?” He asked Remu and she took the empty credits.

Romul stared at her, incredulously. She took the three boxes and they all left. Once outside the store, Romul turned to Remu, “How did you get so much money?”

“What? I have been working.” She answered.

“I work too, you know, but how did you get so much money? You know you have to give most of it away to the school, it's almost impossible to get that much money.” Romul stared at her.

“Not if you do extra-curricular activities like take care of the gardens, and save, efficiently” She raised an eyebrow at him. He waved his hand at her dismissively and looked at his box.

She, meanwhile, turned to Lexan, “You owe me.” and handed him the box and announced, “We're going to the Code-master shop. I think it's on this floor.”

Lexan walked behind Remu as she headed the way through the crowd. Romul followed close behind them already unwrapping the red-marked box and trying out his NCC. The liquid jumped and climbed all over him. They walked up to a directory, Remu quickly scanned it, and they all continued.

“So why are we going to the code-master's?” Lexan asked. He stashed the box into his pocket but Remu motioned him to open the box. He did and tried it on.

“Joshua,” he said, “link me to the new NCC and put the important data back on it.”

“I will link it as soon as it boots and establishes connection with the dock on your wrist.” Seconds later the liquid swarmed his wrist and took a hold of the metallic dock. A thin line extended and connected with the dock. Immediately, a company logo lit up with numerous status icons. The NCC was half-way charged, all seemed to be in order, the firmware and software worked fine. Joshua pulled up all the diagnostic tests, and it turned out to have no problems at all.

“Don't bother with the diagnostics. We're going to re-install the firmware anyway. That's why we're going to the code-master’s.” Romul answered, “The first rule of security and anonymity is not trusting the original software. You never know if it's bugged to send information back to the software company. It is best to program all of it by yourself but since that is quite difficult, you can obtain pieces of code at the store.

“Then just put it together, look it over to see if there is anything suspicious, and you are good to go.”

He nodded toward Remu and said, “I will cover this one.”

“Oh yeah, you pay for the cheap stuff,” she rolled her eyes and all of them walked into the Code-master's store. The store differed immensely from the previous one. The room was circular, lined with holographic stands on shelves that displayed the codes. Next to each stand was placed a cheap NCC in its dock that showed a screen that tested the code. Lexan walked up to one of the stands and saw a long string of numbers, letters, and strange symbols. The symbols had a special arrangement, as did the numbers and letters. A small screen on the bottom explained the code and what it does.

This particular one was used to calibrate the screen's sensitivity to light. Remu walked up to Lexan and explained it, without looking once at the small description screen, “This code changes the screen brightness depending on the light outside, so you can see it right. But, it also changes the screens viewability from different angles. Look,” She touched the small NCC, “Right now, we are in the store, so the light is just perfect and there is no need for a change. Look what happens when I shine light on it.” Her NCC emmitted a small ray of light onto the screen. The store's NCC adjusted and so it was still visible.

“Hook it to your dock.” She said and Lexan sent out a line to connect, “Right now, it's monitoring where you are. You can set that up wirelessly, of course.” Lexan looked left and right but the screen did not change, “Do you see any change?”

Lexan shook his head. Remu reached out and connected the computer to hers, “Now look.” She moved her head and as soon as she did, the screen went completely black. Lexan moved right behind her and saw the screen again. He was impressed and wondered how it worked. Joshua informed Lexan that the code was very simple and has been around since NCC have come out. Most people also tend to completely shut off the screen and view everything privately using 2nd Degree Vision.

“Hey come over here. This is where they have the core coding.” Romul waved them over and showed them an array of cores for the NCCs. The compatibility list checked out alright with Lexan's computer and they bought the simple core coding, copied it three times and continued to shop.

Lexan found a couple more codes he wanted to try out and bought them with Remu's help. She was not reluctant at all to lend him money, “Economy is good so everything is cheap.” She said.

“How about the NCCs?” Lexan looked over at Romul.

“Oh that's just an industry the school does not like to support. We, students, get a higher price for NCCs because the grandmaster wants us to create our own in class or use the school-assigned ones.” She answered and Lexan probed no more.

A few minutes later, they walked out of the store.

“We'll meet again in a few days.” Remu said, nodding toward Lexan, “We'll let you know when.”

“Then we can discuss the plan to retrieve the data from Master Raki.” Romul grinned. His nano-constructed computer turned into a blob with little appendages with chubby hands and feet. It stood on his shoulders, and a small grin spread over its head.

V

Lexan walked down the hallway, heading toward the programming class, after that, he would have recess. Already, after only one class in the morning, he felt exhausted. He has not gotten much time for relaxation and meditation lately because he kept thinking about the files that Master Raki had on him. He wanted to find out what the council thought of him, and what they meant that he had no Aether genes. That was just impossible. The conversation he overheard so many months ago in the spaceship became suddenly vivid in his mind.

He tried to remember the details but could not.

“Hey, there is a break coming up.” He overhead a couple of students talking.