Orchid Nights

By Sonja Pieper

The government deregulated itself into non-existence. Then automation came and put everyone out of work. The lucky few are the employees living on a Campus of one of the remaining mega-corporations. The rest live in the Fringe, barely getting by on the scraps thrown to them by the corporations, always in fear the gangs that rule the cities. Their only escape is a trip into VR.

With one parent from the Fringe, the other from Campus, Lys had a choice few ever get to make. She chose to stay where she grew up. A hacker by night, a VR programmer by day, she lives under the thumb of her uncle, leader of the Dragon gang, hiding her identity even from her friends. And now her work on the Mindscapes draws her deeper into the Fringe’s latest threat: Dive—the drug that makes VR so real, it kills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sonja Pieper
• Release date: May 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463884911

Sonja Pieper

(Why are most author bios written in 3rd person as if someone else was writing them?) English is not my first language and yet I write in English. The reason is that Creative Writing class I took during my junior year in high-school that I spent in the US. The class was great and it permanently fixed English as my writing language in my mind. It took me nearly 20 years to discover that. Today I live in the same town where I was born, went to school, later to university to study computer science, worked as a software developer for many years (and still do) and started writing again.

Book preview

The information archived in her storage, IDs, names, and security clearances of the guards, scrolled through her vision as she stepped up to the Campus gate. She stopped and waited. The higher ranked of the two ExOps initiated the handshake with Sybil’s ID, accessing the paperwork she had filed for the excursion. After a slight pause, he nodded at her, glancing at the stunner at her hip. Neither of them had any visible weapons, and even if she had blinked into the weapons radar, she wouldn’t have seen theirs due to her lack of clearance. Then the heavy gate opened smoothly, and with a shiver, Sybil passed through. It was done. The logs would show her unsanctioned departure, so she had better get started on what she had come to do.

The river bridge spanned before her. The moment she stepped onto it, she smelled the inescapable stink of the city’s remnants rising from below.

She knew for a fact that Campus had installed recycling drops in every single Quarter. It was pure self-interest because the smell refused to remain in the Fringe during the hottest days. But Fringers were either immune to it or didn’t care.

Sybil held her breath, as the rotten smell assaulted her nose. She hurried across the bridge towards the rickshaw stand at the far end. No pods in the Fringe, just human powered transportation. But the little shack stood empty.

Denied even that small comfort, Sybil bit back several curses and set her lenses to display walking directions. The old man would wait; it wasn't like he could sell his information to just anyone.

The street lay deserted, and her footsteps echoed from empty doorways as she hurried past buildings with mostly dark holes for windows. A shiver ran down her spine as she imagined hidden eyes behind those openings. It wasn't fear, not exactly. She was from Campus after all.

What creeped her out most was not seeing any of the inhabitants. The street was empty. Where had they gone, those wretches who lived here? She was several blocks into the Fringe and only twice had she seen any movement. This was worse than the last time she had been here.

As she evaded another heap of refuse, Sybil stepped into a puddle instead, and some of the not-quite-water stained her sneakers, seeping inside. Ignoring the squelch, she made with each step, Sybil rounded the last corner and finally stood before the clinic's back entrance: a simple door with an unbroken lock, set into a wall so smooth it was out of place and gave no hint to what waited behind.

Using the app the old man had provided, she switched her ID band to another set of credentials. It unlocked the door and Sybil stepped into a brightly lit hallway. The door closed behind her, replacing the outside stink by the bite of disinfectant. If anything, the uneasiness that had gripped her since she entered the Fringe grew stronger. You're late, Jin-Woo Han said as Sybil entered the room set aside for their meeting, an office. Not his, he no longer worked at the clinic. Sybil winced. Maybe this charade was intended to remind her of their last collaboration. The one that had cost him the job because she had thrown him to the wolves. Once again, she told herself that she had had no choice. It had been either him or her. Except now she needed him again. And the payment was oh-so-small. The information on the ExOps he had demanded seemed useless to someone outside Campus like him. She had no idea what he could make of it. The information she was getting in exchange on the other hand… if she were getting it… she looked at him, studying him.

Jin-Woo Han lounged in the only chair facing a row of monitors currently displaying a series of bleak images of the Fringe. His long black hair was pulled into a ponytail, and his dark eyes burned, I don't like being made to wait.

Who did he think he was? Just another cheap suit with even cheaper thugs waiting outside. Just a Fringer. She was about to say something along those lines, when he spoke again, voice grating, You want something from me, the least you could do was be on time to get it.

Sybil gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She could point ExOps at him anytime she wanted. But she didn’t want to just yet, because he was just too damn useful. With a deep breath, she opened her eyes. I got held up, and since our meeting isn't quite official— she let the word hang there for a moment before she continued, I lacked an excuse for a hasty exit, Dinu. He frowned at the nickname her half-sister had given him when she was younger and couldn’t quite pronounce his name. Sybil thought it was funny. He did not, which was the point.

Plan better next time, he shot back immediately. As always, he seemed sure there would be a next meeting. And he was right.

Or what? You’ll send your gene-pool rejects after me? she asked, only half-joking. One never knew what kind of crazy the old man might come up with. He smiled, showing more teeth than necessary. Do you have the keys? she asked quickly.

He nodded, and his smile widened. The slyness in the expression dropped a stone into Sybil's stomach. He was going to change their deal. He wanted something more than what she had already promised. As if the information on the ExOps had been that easy to obtain.

Of course, your sister—

Half-sister, she interrupted. She respected her father, but her sister's existence was the one thing with which she could not reconcile; she couldn't forgive him the stain on both their reputations. And Han knew it, kept bringing up the contagious bitch.

—knows what she's doing, he continued as if she hadn't said a thing. Then he added. Even if she doesn't know who she's doing it for. He cackled.

I don't care who did what, I just want that back door into the auto-medicator. To look at the wealth of data that was gathered but never analyzed, at least not on the scale she intended. Wasteful. Once she set it up, the data would flow directly into the Cassandra system and she would get answers to so many questions, maybe even to some that had not been asked.

And you will have it, said Han.

Suddenly, he stood—that predatory smile frozen in place—and came towards her. Sybil took an involuntary step back and cursed herself for letting him get to her. He reached out, holding something—an ID chip. Not even a band, just a chip.

Sybil had expected another virtual meeting and had prepared an encrypted container for his payment. Before she could explain, Han waved his hand. Here are the keys. As for the information I am sure you gathered… I don't need it anymore. Instead—

This, she had expected. She interrupted him, We had a deal.

And now we re-negotiate the deal.

I took risks to get the information you wanted. Han didn't need to be reminded that she knew how to cover her tracks. At worst, her father's security measures would be blamed if anyone discovered that the ExOps database had been plundered. The question was what did he want instead, and was she willing to pay the price?

This information is worthless to me now. You owe me.

What do you want? Sybil clipped every word. In Han's case, covering her tracks kept coming back to bite her. Letting a man like Han take the fall for her had not been one of her best ideas. She had never intended to hand him the kind of leverage he now wielded.

What I want shouldn't be hard for you to get. You developed the formula for the crowd control gas after all.

Sybil froze, and her heart stopped beating for several seconds. You can't have that. She barely managed to get the words out. The substance was so dangerous—politically—that it had been relegated to if all else fails status. She could not hand it to a Fringe gang boss. Ethics weren’t the corporation’s strong suit but even they would balk at this. And he knew it. So what did he want?

Are you afraid of what I might do with it? Or is it that you don't want me to find out what you have done with it? He cocked his head and his smile turned jovial. She realized that he knew. Somehow that snake of a man knew.

You can't have the formula, Sybil repeated. The original project had been classified beyond her official clearance and the formula she had derived from it would only give him more blackmail material. Nothing she would ever let the Fringe monkeys play with. It would be useless to you.

Useless? How so? His voice turned suffocatingly sweet.

You could never get the ingredients to produce the drug.

Drug? What drug? he asked, his eyes wide open, his expression making a mockery of his fake innocence.

Stop pretending. We both know what you’re talking about.

His brow wrinkled, as if he had indeed not been talking about Dive. Had he? The man was a first-class liar. Of course, you are right. Truth. He gestured as if there were a desk between them. After a short pause, he said. I have another proposal for you then. You produce, I distribute.

Sybil had to bite her lips to prevent a traitorous smile from spreading across her face. Oh Uncle, she thought, now you're making it too easy for me.

Me? Produce? However did you get that idea? she asked wonderingly, as if she were still trying to pretend. It was perfect. But she couldn’t let him guess that, or he would never agree. It had to be his idea.

You just told me nobody in the Fringe could possibly produce it, ergo, someone on the Campus can, and that someone is you, he said.

But… she insisted. Come on, put your hand in the trap.

I want to control the distribution, the price, everything. You guarantee this, and for as long as this arrangement works to my satisfaction, the keys will remain valid.

She wasn't sure what he was aiming at with this. Money? Power?

Sybil wasn't in it for the money. She only needed people to keep using the substance, to keep producing valuable data. The formula was as secure as she could make it, obscured by dozens of added compounds and a cascade of chemical reactions that would make it impossible to reconstruct the active agent itself. Especially without access to a Campus grade laboratory. She had hidden the origins of the substance so deeply, that nobody would ever be able to decipher the formula, especially not Han.

While Campus tolerated Dive—for now—having someone else deal with the most dangerous part, distribution, was worth the added risk of giving Han something he wanted.

Fine, Sybil said with a faked groan. I see there is no convincing you. But I’ll need something else from you as well. You have spies at SENS, yes?

He nodded cautiously.

They are working on a project that is of interest to me. I want all the data you can get from them. It wasn’t the same work as she was doing but close enough. And getting information from another corp might be exactly the edge she needed when things came to head with her internal rivals.

I’ll see what I can do, he said vaguely.

If you want in on Dive, you better, Sybil said. She’d take whatever he could get her.

Then we're agreed, Han said. Sybil didn't like the calculating look in his eyes, but she nodded. And this time, she’d ensure that nothing could lead back to her when she decided to end this. He wouldn't catch her with her pants down again.

####

Chapter 00

Breathing Fire

§5 Private vSpace representations must conform to real-space regulations within their boundaries. Visitors of private vSpace representations must be informed of any changes in physics upon entering the premises.

Two years later

The edges of her vision shimmered as Lys ghosted above the barren landscape towards the oasis. The lush palm grove around the pond was her favorite spot here. On arrival, she dropped back into her avatar and inspected her work up close. The colors were still a little too bright, but the upgraded textures finally looked natural.

The desert was an environment she had converted from an old series of games. There had not been time to create her own designs, as the list of what Soomin Joon—the Mistress of Orchid Nights—wanted was already long enough. A medieval castle including a dungeon, a racing event called Formula with designs of historical cars that Soomin Joon had provided, a weirdly boring office building, and even a simulation of Orchid Nights itself.

In the desert, she had polished the details, but there was no need for photorealism; users who wanted that would use Dive. Their drug-addled brains would elevate the make-believe of any environment to a level of realism that was otherwise impossible to create. The Mindscapes just had to be convincing enough to tell a story.

The story-telling was the problem, however. She had been dancing around the troubling components for a while, but today was the day. This test would show whether she could make it work.

She entered the oasis itself. The current settings created a busy scene. Beside the water, a group of colorful tents had been erected, and the family of nomads waved to her as she passed by. A dog barked somewhere, and a pair of horned animals, labeled goats in the code, crossed the path ahead of her, followed by a young girl herding them towards a small meadow that lay to the east. Smoke rose from a cook fire, and not for the first time, Lys wished she could simulate smell or taste. Her stomach growled at the sight. How long had she been in here?

She banished the thought of eating and took a deep breath to calm the flutters she felt. Then she started the uplink app that connected the health data from her VR set monitoring her heart rate, skin temperature, pupil dilation, respiration rate, blood oxygen, and blood pressure. Normally, these were used to prevent health issues arising from VR usage. Lys had different plans. Her code would extrapolate changes in the user's emotional state and use the results to drive the story.

No sign that anything had changed. Good. The engine should adapt gradually to the information she was feeding it now, learn from the decisions she would be making once the plot began.

Before she could think about what to do next, a small boy ran up to her and grabbed her hand. Look! There! A man coming to see you! he shouted while jumping up and down. This was too soon for anything—especially anything exciting—to happen. She had not even triggered the initial plot point. What could have caused this behavior of the NPC? The temptation to switch to debugging mode tugged at her. No, she was here to run a complete story. She would analyze the recording of the session afterward.

Lys stared in the direction the boy was pointing and stopped cold. A man wearing ornate purple robes stalked the desert sands. She didn't need to zoom in to know who it was. Not a problem with her code then. Swearing, she stopped the app and froze everything.

Without even calling up the command console, she waved her hands in a complicated gesture and pulled the man towards her. Using gestures always gave her a tingle of pleasure that couldn't be spoiled even by the arrival of her uncle. What did he want now?

Just before he arrived, she remembered to swap out her game avatar for her personalized one. Then she settled him right in front of her and sighed. Uncle, can't you see I'm working?

Doesn't look like work to me, said Jin-Woo Han. Those robes would have been silly on anyone else but somehow, he carried off the formal retro look. He looked around, probably searching for a place to sit, then turned back to her with a grimace. The man never seemed to understand that it wouldn't make a difference to his body whether he sat or stood in vSpace. Lys rolled her eyes and belatedly triggered the emo-hack that dialed down her avatar's facial responses.

I told you this needed tests, she said when he didn't react. With just herself running the scenarios, there was no way she’d find even half the problems. She was trying her best to prove she could, since delivering half-finished work made her all itchy inside.

That's why I’m here. Soomin has had some of her customers run the latest version. Their recordings and feedback both show that the scenarios derail into chaos almost every time, he said. Especially with Dive. You fix that! he added like an afterthought, which it obviously was not. The anger in his voice was anything but an afterthought.

Lys flinched, I told you it wasn’t ready for field testing. Especially not ready for testing with Divers. And he had delivered the code to Soomin Joon despite her warnings. She was about to say so, then noticed the smirk on his avatar's face.

I have told Soomin that you need to be on location for this and— Uncle Jin said in the matter-of-fact tone that Lys knew all too well.

But that's not true, I can… she trailed off as his expression darkened.

And while you're there, you will have access to the Orchid Nights' systems. I expect you to bring back the keys to me. So that was it. What was the point? Soomin Joon was already working with him. But Uncle Jin needed absolute control and power; apparently, Soomin Joon's cooperation wasn't enough.

Why do I always have to do your dirty work? With every fucking project, he made her complicit in his lies and deceptions. Like that back door into the automed. Her only revenge was creating additional keys for herself and in some rare cases, dropping hints to her father who might choose to investigate. So far, consequences for Uncle Jin had failed to materialize.

Your job is to do what I tell you to do. Like a tool, he pointed her at a problem he had and expected her to fix it. Every single time.

As if he knew how badly she wanted out, how desperate she was to find something with which to blackmail him that wouldn’t also drag her down with him.

What do you even want with Orchid Nights? She cringed at her own words This was as close to defying Uncle Jin as she came. Orchid Nights. Going there was unthinkable. A Dive bar! There would be strangers, Dive addicts, and who knew what else. The place used to be a brothel before going virtual.

You do your part and I'll do mine, he said, while Lys' body shook so hard that it broke the VR immersion. Disoriented, she let go of the controls and her avatar wavered and stumbled.

I can't, please, don't make me go there, Lys said, pleading, but—small mercy—the emo hack smoothed away the tremble in her voice turning it perfectly flat.

My decision stands. Soomin says she's ready for you in a week. That gives you plenty of time to prepare. The hard set of Uncle Jin's mouth left little doubt as to the results of further discussion.

Plenty of time. One week! As if that would make a difference.

Her avatar stood rigid and silent as icy fingers of dread choked her ability to speak. If only she had told him earlier that she needed more time.

You don't have to be afraid, my dear. I am sending Dorian with you. He'll make sure no one bothers you. He might have meant it to sound reassuring, but the effect was quite the opposite.

Dorian. The man had only been with the Dragon gang for a few months but his endless derision of her work made her avoid him like the plague. His contempt extended to all things vSpace. She couldn’t imagine someone more likely to get her in trouble at Orchid Nights.

Uncle Jin dematerialized while after-images of his grin hung in the air, mocking Lys.

This was how it always went. Uncle Jin took her ideas, then twisted them for his own ends until nothing was left but a bitter taste in her mouth. No way she could avoid getting him those keys once she was at the Nights.

It was worse than having to go to the Dive bar and that was her own fault. Suddenly, the greenery around her burned in her eyes, the bright colors too much. Not even Uncle Jin knew that by forcing this impossible deadline on her, the whole project threatened to collapse. She wasn't good enough. Head hanging, she left the environment.

~

Upon disconnecting from VR, her stomach reminded Lys that she hadn't eaten all day. As she put on her glasses, she scanned the room for a quick bite. Normally, she had a bunch of snacks stashed away so she could work without interruption. But the last few days had used up her stockpile. She sighed, looking at the chaos in the room. Clothing, empty food packages, and half-finished drinks covered nearly every surface; only her VR set in the center of the room seemed untouched by the clutter. Cleaning up could wait. She set her glasses to DND mode, opened the news feed in the right peripheral dock, and went downstairs to the ground floor where the Fire Dragon Bar was located.

In the store room, her glasses pointed out her favorite ready-made: Pestomato Instaghetti. She took the last package and added the item to the Dragon's food queue so more would be delivered. The precise red-green swirl of the sauce looked delicious except when it sank into the noodles while heating and the pattern was destroyed.

She glanced at the news as the Instaghetti warmed up in the microwave. The swirl remained intact. The news was boring, none of the headlines catchy enough to entice her to read further. Lys smiled and took the food into the bar proper.

The lights were on, but the room remained dark, the whole decor flowing lines of black on black. The lighting only illuminated the image of a scarlet dragon that covered two walls.

Only a few years ago, the place had looked quite different, but one day, Uncle Jin had traded away the lacquered antiques, taken down the mementos of bygone times, and instead created his own gothic interpretation of a Campus cafeteria.

Before entering, Lys made sure that the low tables sat abandoned on the curving platform along the far wall, and the bar stools stood empty. The bar was closed. Good. The only person present was Aurora, the barkeeper, who was polishing the monstrous coffee machine behind the counter.

You could have had some real food, Aurora said as Lys slid into a seat opposite her. I traded for some fresh ingredients and cooked dinner for everyone. Well, everyone but you, anyway.

Lys started eating and ignored Aurora. The barkeeper was as old school as they came. Her strange aversion to ready-mades was just one of the symptoms.

We even had baked apples for dessert. You missed it.

What you call real food just tastes weird, said Lys. She grimaced, but she wasn't sorry at all about missing dinner.

That's because you're used to the artificial shit, Aurora scowled at her with one blue eye. Her short blond hair half-obscured the black patch she wore over the dead white orb that was her other eye.

Aurora could have had that eye replaced with an implant anytime. Uncle Jin would even pay for an upgraded version, Lys was sure. But Aurora insisted that she didn't care for technology inside her body. She even used an external uplink and had no automed.

The patch meant that the Fire Dragon's bar would be open soon. It wouldn't do to scare away the supplicants while they waited for Uncle Jin to listen to their grievances.

Lys devoured her food; she had no time to waste and even less inclination to meet any of Uncle Jin's subjects.

The usual? Aurora asked when Lys was done with the food.

Yeah. Maybe I need two, though. Lys drank her coffee concentrated. Distilled into a couple of sips. She still wasn't sure she liked the taste but it cleared her head.

The machine hummed and whirred while Lys watched Aurora perform her coffee magic.

Of course, the machine had to be operated manually. Automated, prepackaged, or ground coffee wasn’t good enough for Aurora. Where she found the beans was her secret, and they cost Uncle Jin dearly, but they were worth it. Lys flinched when Aurora grabbed a cup from the scalding hot water in which they awaited customers. The machine sputtered, and steam escaped somewhere to the side. Lys thought it must be breaking down at last but then black liquid streamed into the tiny cup.

So… someone refactored your code again? Aurora asked and placed the steaming cup before Lys, the liquid covered by a thick layer of foam.

Lys just grumped.

Apparently, Aurora took that as a yes, Renamed your constants, huh? Tell me.

Lys looked her in the eyes while raising the cup with one hand and carefully snatched one of the sugar packets from the bowl on the bar. Aurora hated it when Lys diluted the coffee. It was a game they played. If Aurora caught her, she’d have to drink the coffee black. He's making me go to Orchid Nights.