The Electric Archipelago (WIP)

Chapter 6: A Friend in Need

A million thoughts race through my mind as the car flies back to my apartment building. This is a disaster, I might lose my Burabō identity.

Why on Earth would she leave with an Untouchable? And more importantly, how in the hell am I going to find him?

An Untouchable is someone who has been excommunicated by every single corporation. They are pariahs, completely cut off from the rest of society. Those people are by their very nature hard to find. They live off of the grid, because they can't buy from or work for any company.

Luckily, I know someone, hell, it is my job to know someone.

As the car speeds along, I check my assorted social media profiles. The bots that maintain them are doing a good job of posting what needs to be posted to earn me a steady stream of social credit. Alpha Prime: still in Superb standing. My Délta Corp rating just went to A+. And I only need a few more points to reach LC I with Echo Industries. All in all, I would say that I am doing pretty good with the remaining two companies.

I give the feeds a once over. The senate is getting ready to vote on war reparations. Délta members are out in force. One pundit called for payments that are so large they would bankrupt the government. When this was pointed out, she belligerently countered with, "Well then, we better double it."

Another important issue that is making the rounds is that a man named Ben Millard was caught criticizing the gameplay of a new Charles Fauré game. He would normally only lose some social credit, but this game is about the struggles of one of the first people to get a non-humanoid body. Now people are up in arms and the company is thinking about excommunicating him.

There are no doubt many other people using bots to raise their standings, but I get the feeling that most of the posts are genuine. Well, genuine in that they are thought up and posted by the person that owns the account. But maybe the opinions that are being espoused might not be so genuine. People do such an amazing job saying what the corporate systems want them to. They know just what to say to get the big points, mastered the art of finding and repeating the right slogans.

My car lands in the lot of my complex. I need to get some rest before I head into Section 4143; it is a very dangerous place and I will need my wits about me. I enter the building, practically crawling toward my room. My neighbor steps out of his door, "I could really use someone to talk to."

Fuck it, I don't really need to sleep that bad anyway.

After I take a minute to put on warmer clothes, we take seats on a communal balcony. The lunch hour rush is just starting up. The sky traffic is starting to increase. One of the ground highways is a little backed up.

Anthony is legitimately young, he isn't just wearing the face and body of a young man, he really is one. As far as I know he is completely natural, save for the DMT emitter that is attached to his brain. Some of his features scream Latino while others say African. His hair tends to have a mind of its own.

Anthony is a member of the transhumanist religious movement called The Church of the Ascended. They are a fairly new religion. Their founder lived in a place that isn't too different from where we are right now. Interestingly, none of the current Church leaders knew the man.

"So, you just got back from vacation?" he asks. Anthony doesn't know the truth about me. He thinks that I work for Echo, just like everybody else in the building.

"Something like that. So, what is troubling you?"

"I think that Martin was right, but what I don't understand is why I need to be a part of the Church to follow his teachings."