A Break in the Sunlight

1. Beginnings

When Jane turned sixteen, she blew her birthday money and a few months allowance on bio-implants. It was more money than the average Ardenian earned in two years, so she'd expected her mother might make trouble when she found out. But her mother barely noticed.

After all, if Jane was determined to be willful, how could Ellie profit by disciplining her? If Jane disappeared for weeks on end, what use was that to her? It was midway through Ellie's cleansing phase, and a rebellious daughter was just another of the complications she was trying to erase from her calmed and centered mind.

So when Jane–except her name hadn't been Jane Cross then, but Jaren Christian–when Jaren had entered her mother's empty rooms, with white curtains billowing, synth music echoing, incense burning, and her mother's figure prone on the huge expanse of floor, she hadn't got much of a reaction at all.

"Mother, I'm back."

No answer, just a vague affirmative humming from the blonde woman, still and beautiful at her feet. Jaren plunked down, cross-legged on the floor.

"Mother, I need some money."

Ellie opened her cool-coloured eyes slowly, turning her head and fixing her gaze on the leather-clad teenager beside her. Jaren's blonde hair had grown longer than Ellie remembered. Her eyes were heavily decorated with the sim-tattoos she insisted on wearing. The khol and henna swirls and dots remnants of painting classes Ellie had enrolled her in while Ellie was in some visual arts phase and Jaren more malleable.

"I just signed you over 60,000 creds," Ellie said faintly.

"I know. But I used it. See?"

Jaren lifted her hair back from her temple, showing her mother where the flesh around her implant was still tender and pink. It was a Neuro-Gen, and Jaren had had to talk a pretty good game to get the doctors to give it to her, considering her age. She'd known once it was done, her mother would never make her remove it. If that were even possible.

They'd wanted to talk to her parents, of course, but Jaren had convinced them to talk to her bank account instead. Nothing made so convincing an argument as creds, she'd found. And parental permission had turned out to be as easy as forging an electronic sig. She had a cursor chip already, so how much could they mind? It had cost her more than 200,000 creds, together with the bribes, but it had been well worth it.

She'd already taken a few spins with the bio-ware. The doctors had advised her to let it acclimate for three or four weeks more before going Inside, just to make sure her system wouldn't reject the implant, but screw that. She had things she wanted to do and she wasn't going to wait around to use this work of art anymore than she had been going to wait for her mother's permission. Not that her mother would probably have cared. After all, Jaren had been in hospital for close to two weeks after the procedure. She'd been vaguely concerned that someone would come looking for her, but Ellie hadn't seemed to notice she'd even been gone. All to the good, as far as Jaren was concerned.

Ellie sighed, her cool eyes closing again, seeming to almost roll back into her head.

"I'll have Lotus put something in your account," she murmured faintly through lips that barely moved.

"Thank you, Mother."

"Don't disturb me again, Jaren."

"Right." Jaren jumped to her feet.

How much would her mother transfer? If it was enough, she'd take Indigo and leave now. She'd find Kaski and convince her to come along. There was a moon near Sona that was rumoured to be linked to the CenNet on an untapped node. That would be the place to put her hardware through its paces. And if it worked the way she hoped, she would begin the real journey. Somewhere out there the Night City waited for her. If everything went as planned, she wouldn't be bothering her mother ever again. Impulsively, she bent down and kissed Ellie's fine-boned cheek.

"Goodbye, Mother."

Her mother made no response.

Jaren tracked her way out of Ellie's echoing rooms, turning for one last look at her mother's form before closing the door gently behind her and going to find Lotus.

Please note: This is a YA story of sorts, but can get rough in bits. While it's not a story about prostitution or drugs, both do feature in the story. There is violence, murder, and implied sex as well as some foul language where it fits the needs of the story. However I've edited it significantly to remove the Mature rating. If you see anything you think is borderline, please let me know.

Copyright 2016 Jae Darcy. All rights reserved.