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Libera pulls the hammer back on the gun that’s pointed at Quidel. It’s a
cliché, she knows, but it’s that way for a reason. It’s effective.
Obviously, it doesn’t make it more accurate, and she has the steady hands of
a surgeon, but she had to do something to become more threatening
than she already was. Here is where things get interesting. “You know, if I
kill you, you’ll just wake up in your primary substrate. I have little
incentive not to if it shows these others that I mean business.”
“Right, but I’m the only one who knows where the package is,” Quidel
volleys.
Libera moves her arm slightly, so the gun is now trained on Lycander. “Then
I’ll kill him. He too is just in a tempo.”
“But I’m the only one who knows the combination,” Lycander contends.
“And before you suggest that you’ll just break it open, it’s being housed in
a Tantalum-Vanadium case. You can’t crack that without blowing it up, which
will almost certainly destroy the gooey center that you’re after.”
“Well, I have to kill someone to prove my point, and I’m obviously
not going to kill my daughter.” She tilts her head like she’s just gotten an
idea, but she obviously did the math instantly. She shoots the Ambient with
her other gun.
“No!” Renata laments as he tips over the railing, and down to the floor
below.
“Eee-nnnh!” Libera buzzes when Renata tries to turn around for the stairs.
“Take one more step, and I’ll kill the boy anyway. Sure, I’ll have to
interrogate him on the outside, which risks exposure to other forces, but I
will do it, and you will never see him again, because once he gives me what
I need, I’ll just be able to kill him permanently.”
“I have a back-up,” Quidel boasts. “Multiple back-ups. Standard procedure.”
“And when was your last update to your other backups?” Libera poses. “Recent
enough to remember the device? Your feelings for the girl? That she even
exists at all?”
“Hm. Good point,” Quidel admits. “Before she can do anything, he unsheaths
his own knife, and jams it into his neck.”
Libera is frozen for a second. She has to get to him before he can wake up
in his other body. If he manages to kill himself from there, the knowledge
of the location of the device might be lost forever. Whatever back-up of his
mind that activates later won’t have any recollection of that. She doesn’t
have time to run all the way there. She took the liminal routes before, even
though they were slower, because they aren’t very heavily monitored, and she
has control of the Custodians now anyway. And it doesn’t raise any alarm
bells. Teleporting will. This whole dome has sensors that will pick up
temporal anomalies, because that’s exactly what they are; anomalies. It may
be the only way now, though. If she can pull this off—if she can even only
see the specifications for this device—she might be able to just build one
herself, and none of what the planet owner does or tries will matter. So she
disappears, and ends up in the substrate storage sector.
Here is where things get tricky, because it’s not like there is some central
database where she can simply query a name, and find out a location. It’s
highly secure specifically so nothing like what she’s trying to do is
possible. Each storage chamber has its own sensors and logs, which are
stored on-site, and transmitted later, at the behest of the substrate owner.
The ceilings are made of a semi-transparent material, allowing just enough
light for a drone to hover overhead and check for any threats or other major
issues. If there aren’t any, nearly all of its memory is immediately erased
while it continues on its patrol. Unless it detects something actionable,
the only things it stores are the name of the user and their location. In
the real world, guns have not been completely eradicated, but many of the
reasons to have and use them have gone away. The motivations just aren’t
there in a post-scarcity society. Furthermore, they’re mostly illegal for
territorial protection. They’re seen as an expectation of violence, which
could be what leads to unnecessary violence. This sector is different. The
purpose of this place is to store people’s bodies while they are off using
different substrates. The implication is that if you’re in here, your mind
is already digitally backed up. That is the loophole that allows these
drones to be armed.
She needs information from one of the drones, but she doesn’t know which
one. The jurisdictions overlap, but not entirely. Fortunately, she has some
time to look while Quidel is on ice. The transfer process is not
instantaneous; not because it can’t be, but because coherence safeguards
require storing and diagnosing the consciousness data before download, just
in case something went wrong, or knowledge is missing.
“Let’s see. How can I make this go faster? I know, I’ll have the drones come
to me. Oh. This should be easy.” She points both of her guns at the nearest
storage chamber, and empties the magazines into the door. It’s not enough to
break into it, but that’s not what she’s going for. All of the drones are
alerted to her intrusion. Four that she can see right now start flying
towards her. More are probably on their way. Here is where things get funny.
“Show me what you got, boys!”
