Content Warning: Strong Language
Thursday, October 17th, 1996. 8:22am
Scene Chaos Factor: 4
Expected Scene: Reaching the Pacifica Roadblock
Testing the Expected Scene: 7 - Expected Scene
The journey north was a fair bit easier than the journey down to Barstow,
Is the wind whipping up the dust, reducing the visibility? Likely - 96 - Exceptional No.
Overnight, the wind had died right off, so the early morning air was still and clean. There was still dust and sand all over the road, which made going a little treacherous at times, but I could at least see where I was going.
Is the pickup attacked on the way out of Barstow? Unlikely - 43 - No.
Does they see anyone else moving around in the early morning? 50/50 - 53 - No
I had expected to see at least one of the vagrants wandering about in the cool morning air as we left town, but there was no one around. Barstow is a ghost town now, with a population two less than there was yesterday. I have no idea how many people still eke out an existence in town, but it can't be many. If things keep going the way they are though, then there's a good chance that Nature will reclaim the town in the next few years and there will be nothing but fading memories left. Not that there's a whole lot left now.
Does Nym manage to stay awake during the journey? 50/50 - 64 - No.
Does Vinit manage to stay awake during the journey? 50/50 - 77 - No. Doubled digits, but greater than the Chaos Factor, so no random event.
It didn't take long before the two Shanis were fast asleep in the backseat. I had hoped to talk to Nym about his research, and learn more about what he had been doing before he left Sentre, as well as what he had been working on in Barstow. Unfortunately, he passed out as soon as we got rolling, and his father did not last much longer. I guess all that walking was too much for their already taxed physical state.
So, for about half an hour, I drove north up the highway again, my only company being one of the mix tapes of power ballads from the glove compartment. I had thought about something heavier. I mean, I usually love stuff like Van Halen for freeway driving, but I just wasn't in the mood for that this morning, and it would probably wake the Shanis anyway. So something softer it was.
After about half an hour, a thought occurred to me: with both the men unconscious in the backseat, I now had a chance to take a copy of Nym's memory card and upload it somewhere safe. I was worried that it might be intercepted or discovered by Sentre, but that was a risk I just had to take. Especially if I wanted to pass a copy over to Blackwelt somehow. I hadn't want to go into the 'scape for a while, but I didn't think I had a choice at this point. I wasn't going to get a chance to do it once we hit the roadblock.
So I pulled off the highway the next time I found a turnoff, and drove along it until I couldn't see the highway again. Shutting off the engine, I got out and grabbed my neurocaster, then rummaged around in Nym's bag for the memory card. After I slotted it into the card reader on my neurocaster, I sat down in the shade of the pickup, and pulled my neurocaster onto my head.
The Sentre logo faded in, then faded out before the doors opened into the atrium again. It looked pretty much the same as it did last time, apart from the people milling about. They were all different.
I didn't want to spent a whole lot of time in here, so I went up two floors, and went looking for the locker room. It's kind of like the rows of lockers that you used to see at bus and railway stations before the world went to shit, but it's a place that everyone can store information while they're in the scape. It's part of your account; everyone has one.
Is the locker room empty? 50/50 - 87 - Yes.
The place was thankfully empty when I walked in, but I still went to the back corner, out of sight of the doorway. I picked a locker at random, and then punched in my usual code. In a second, the access light on the door flicked from red to green, and the door popped open with a click.
I reached into my inside jacket pocket, and pulled out a thick manila envelope. I'd set up my neuroscape persona so that the inside pocket of my jacket was connected to the memory card reader in my neurocaster. The envelope that I pulled out was a copy the content's of Nym's memory card, all set up to stick to my character.
I wanted to have a read of the contents of the file, but I knew that I didn't have the time now. I didn't want to leave the Shani's unattended in the back of the truck, and I didn't want spend too much time in here. The sooner I can get out from under Sentre's thumb, the happier I'm going to be.
I put the envelope into my locker, then closed the door, making sure that it closed properly. I punched in my access code again, and then the command to change the code. I wanted to make this a bit more secure, so I changed the code to my parent's old phone number, followed by the phone number of a girl I had a crush on in junior high. Don't ask me why I still remembered it. It was just one of those useless pieces of information my brain has hung onto.
Happy that the access code was changed successfully, I headed back out to the main part of the atrium, and looked down. People - in all their many and varied personas - where going about their business.
Is there anything unusual going on? Unlikely - 92 - Exceptional No.
I was suddenly hit by a wave of revulsion for this whole scene. Normally I enjoyed doing a bit of people watching in here, seeing how people let their guards down in this place, and inadvertently revealed parts of their true personalities.
But today, the complete fakeness of the place made me feel almost ill. It was also so utterly pretentious, with everyone having these fake avatars that they think are somehow the real them. Maybe Vinit's ideas had sunk their hooks deeper into my subconscious than I realised, even in the few hours I'd known him. Perhaps it's just awakened something in me that I always knew.
I forced myself to wander around in the atrium for another ten minutes or so, so that if anyone bothered to check my access logs - if they can even do that - then they wouldn't just see me log in, save a file, and then logged out again. I called up some news channels and scanned the headlines, then checked my personal message bank.
Does Eamon have any new messages? 50/50 - 14 - Yes.
Is it anything of importance? Very Unlikely - 85 - Exceptional No.
There were a few new messages in there, but mostly just messages from advertisers that constantly fill up my box, trying to sell me on some wondrous new service or product that I really couldn't give a rat's ass about. They got deleted straight away. There was also a couple of new summaries from a few data aggregators that I always have running. They sometimes pull in some interesting tidbits. I scanned through them today, but there was nothing useful in any of them. I moved then into a different folder, as they might be useful later on, but I didn't feel like going through them.
I just wanted to get the fuck out of here.
Closing up my message bank, I caught the escalator back down to the atrium's main level, found a seat next to the big fountain. I sat there for a moment, then gave the shutdown command.
As the atrium faded to black, I let out a breath I didn't even realise I was having.
I pulled the 'caster off my head, and stood up, squinting in the bright light.
GM Note: It's been less than a full day since Eamon was last in the neuroscape, so there's no chance of him reducing his current temporary Bliss score today.
Have the Shani's woken up while Eamon was neurocasting? Very Unlikely - 52 - No.
I had a quick look into the backseat of the pickup: both the Shani's were still fast asleep. Breathing another sigh of relief, I quickly popped the memory card out of my caster and then put it back into Nym's bag where I had found it. I then put my 'caster back into its travel case, before closing up the back.
I got back on the road. I still had about twenty miles to go before I hit the Pacifica roadblock, and I needed a rest. I was starting to feel guilty about what I had to do, but while Vinit Shani was a decent human being, Nym was somehow caught up in some nasty shit. And at the end of the day, none of it was really my business. I just need to get out of here and go find Kate.
If I'm not already too late.
Does anything else happen before Eamon hits the roadblock? 50/50 - 93 - Exceptional No.
It took me another thirty minutes before I came to the roadblock again. There was nothing else out there. No traffic on the roads, no wildlife, nothing. The place was dead and desolate. At one point, I kinda hoped that I'd somehow run into Merrick and his squad again, so they could take the Shanis off my hands before Pacifica did, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. Like Merrick said, he hoped he never saw me again.
I came around a bend in the road, and came face to face with a whole bunch of Pacifica armoured vehicles. I braked pretty hard and came to stop as their turrets swivelled to point at my pickup.
End of Scene Bookkeeping
This scene went pretty much as expected, with no surprises, so the Chaos Factor decreases to three.
End of Scene Notes
A quiet little scene, where Eamon betrays both the Shanis and Sentre a little more by grabbing a copy of Nym’s research before he hands it over. I decided to set myself up for something useful later on.
I’m still trying to find an opportunity for Eamon to actually have a read over the notes, even as far ahead as the end of episode 19. It will come, when there’s a quiet spot.