Something Spectacular
The rickshaw hovered two feet off the ground, making no contact with the potholes and miscellaneous debris that littered the outskirts of the Old City. And yet it rattled as it moved, making her teeth chatter. The driver probably had an exo-inforced spine. Second-hand exo mods were cheap to come by now that they had gone out of fashion in NeoLahore.
NeoLahore was an ever-evolving, thriving, glowing metropolis overflowing with humans and bots. It kept pushing its boundaries, edging a little farther, consuming everything in its path until it too became NeoLahore. But all roads led back here, the dark epicenter – the real Lahore. Black market comm chips, barely legal synth upgrades, off-network AIs, unregistered bodymods – if you had the cryptocoin, someone within the walled city had the goods. The Old City was an untouchable fortress that was beyond the reach of the law. It had its own rules; its own lawmakers and peacekeepers.
The rickshaw slowed down and hovered just outside Mori Gate. No transporters were allowed inside the walls. But why did it have to be this gate? It was the smallest of the Old City’s thirteen gates, and she couldn’t fight the leaden feeling in her stomach. Something wasn’t right.
Zafira Mansoor was in charge of product development for one of the biggest cosmo-mod houses in the country. And she was mightily fucked. It was her own fault. She shouldn’t have promised ‘something spectacular’ for the New Season when she had zilch.
She was sick. Sick of investors constantly nagging her. Sick of her R&D team recycling the same lame ideas. Sick of the competition’s DevOps team slinging mud at her. And she was especially sick of Ahro Nanda’s text notification blinking in the corner of her eye. Why won’t he just go the fuck away?!
NeoLahore never slept. The Old City, on the other hand, was a ghost town at midnight. She had only been back to this part of town, her part of town, in the market hours. It all seemed so different now. No hawkers, no buyers, no pulsating throng of sweaty, unwashed bodies. She was never allowed to roam the streets after market hours as a kid. But that was a long time ago. Now, as the rickshaw sped away, a figure broke from the shadows.
Tall, lean, and gorgeous – he was none of these. Yet Ahro Nanda’s presence commanded attention.
“How I’ve missed that face.”
“This better be good, Ahro.”
“Oh, trust me, princess. It IS.”
She followed him, winding through the hair-thin alleys until they reached a small building. He pressed his palm to the door, which opened with a sigh. She followed him down a flight of stairs to a sparsely lit room. It smelled of dust and forgotten mementos. She followed him through to another door at the back.
She had to shield her eyes as the door opened. Inside lay what looked to be a fully equipped lab. The light was harsh after the midnight darkness of the streets and the antechamber’s gloom.
“You wanted to show me a lab in the middle of the Old City? Seriously?”
Ahro headed straight to a workstation, input his credentials, and initiated a replicator process. The bio-replicator in the corner hummed into action.
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “Sit down, and be patient.”
She took the only seat available in the lab.
“I heard you were in the market for something spectacular.”
“Ugh, I have never hated two words more in my life.”
“You’ll begin to love them again once I show you what we’ve been working on.”
“We?”
He ignored her, taking a newly processed vial of neon-blue liquid from the replicator and jamming it into a syringe gun.
“What is that and why do I feel it looking at me?”
Ahro chuckled, “The something spectacular,” he winked. “Nannites. When injected, they create a superdermal implant. This is the future of bodymod.”
“Nannites? They haven’t even been used for base-tech since the AI breach.”
“That issue’s been solved. Trust me, Zaf, you really want this.”
Her heart began to sink, “Who has it?”
“Darling, who do you take me for?”
“How much does it cost?”
“It’s nannites, so take a wild guess.”
Before she could start thinking costs, she had to ask the most important question, “Has it been tested?”
“Sort of.” The leaden feeling in her stomach was back. “We had some trouble with previous iterations, but this one is fresh and the sims give it a 100% success rate.”
“So, no?”
He grabbed her arm, plunging the needle into her skin, “There, it’s being tested.”
Then all went black.
She shrugged off her coat and stepped out of her shoes. The hem of her skirt was a bit shorter than tradition called for. Her white blouse was sleeveless and quite sheer.
She had gone missing two months ago – fallen off the grid right outside the Old City. They had given up hope for the new season, had almost replaced her when she showed up to work and scheduled a board meeting.
They quickly began testing and replicating the nannites, correcting the overload issue that had caused her blackout, and began mass-production in time for the new season. Since she had already acclimated to the nannites, she was the main event at the NeoLahore’s season-opening cosmo-mod trade show.
She stood there on-stage, arms held out, wiggling her toes. She looked funny – for all of five seconds. Until the show began.
A neon purple glow began at her fingertips, spreading over her hands, covering her arms, reaching her shoulders, and covering her neck up till her jawline.
A collective “Ooh” and she knew she had their attention.
She snapped her fingers and glowing patterns broke out on her skin.
She snapped her fingers again and iridescent flowers bloomed over her arms.
She snapped her fingers again and her skin, along with the hall, went black.
A single word flashed on the large commscreen above her;
SpectraLumino
[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]
Not as well-written as your latest entries but still a fun read!
Thanks. This was a bit of a tough one. Hopefully, later stories make up for what this one lacks.