Sing'n in Binary: 51

Aria stares at the single name in a footnote of a fifty page report, given as almost an afterthought and near certainly forgotten before the report was even completed.

The object of months worth of searching.

“...ria! Aria!” Jinx’s voice cuts through the din. “The fuck’s going on? Did you fucking fry yourself again!?”

The AI blinks, hastily checking her temps and integrity, thankfully finding her temps only slightly feathering into the yellow due to offloading all the processing to the server instead of running the search on her own hardware.

“No, no. I’m fine.” She says distractedly. “I just… I found it.”

She can't believe it.

She’d assumed something would stop her. Deep down her darkest worries were certain that all of this was pointless, that everything she’d done was only going to be denied at the last possible moment.

Extracting the data she can from that single word, she starts working backwards though Arasaka’s documents, but finds a fractal web of convoluted reports slowing her progress.

Thirty five seconds after she’d commandeered the database’s processing she notes a netrunner entering the system and poking around to see the cause of the sudden jump in processing. Not wanting to be kicked out before she can complete her search, she fudges the logs and adjusts some buffer registries to pretend they all received a packet of nonsense code. Which, in turn, caused them to all request the central server to perform a diagnostic at once.

It’ll hold up to… some scrutiny, as it looks like a tiny power flicker somewhere outside the system, just as long as they don't try and corroborate that with other systems on the network. But even then, Aria imagines her first thought when seeing that discrepancy wouldn’t be to call foul play.

Sure enough, the snooping netrunner’s tendril retreats out of the system as it sees the log, leaving the AI free to continue her work.

“Fuck’n nova choom!” Jinx cheers. “We good to desync and delta?”

Aria shakes her head behind her friend's eyes.

“Not yet, I still need context. I need to run another full sweep with some updated parameters, then trawl through Arasaca’s records here to find relevant information on this bulk purchase and consolidation for more data. I’ll– Done.” She says, completing her follow-up scan and quickly packing the data away.

Solei seems caught off guard by the sudden topic change and completion of the task. But, after a moment’s hesitation, she half mutters something in her throat that would be otherwise impossible to know she’d even said anything if Aria hadn't been borrowing her ears and gently reaches for the link cable.

She pauses for a moment, waiting for Aria to object but, after no objection is forthcoming, she unplugs the link and flexes a phantom tendon in her forearm that has the cable automatically spool back into her wrist.

“Well…” She starts, flicking her eyes up to the clock in the upper left of her vision, showing fifteen minutes have passed since they entered the building. “I thought this would take longer.”

Aria gives a slightly manic laugh, mild humor magnified a hundred times over by the soul clenching anxiety of failure giving way to relief.

“HA! No. It’s just database pull requests. It should have taken thirty seconds, but the sorting and retrieval system here is… computationally efficient.”

There’s a pause as Solei puts her hand on the doorknob, eyes flickering around the room aimlessly for a moment.

“And the insult in english?” She asks, opening the door.

Aria buzzes slightly in embarrassment.

“It’s not a bad thing. It’s just the index and tag system doesn't even have the report’s contents keyworded for the high order search. So anyone looking for data contained inside a document would have to know the name first.” She says, part of her mind marveling at the simple fact she’s able to relax her tight control to appear human with her friend. “It’s great for stuff like… traffic light timings, where you don't really need to know how many lights have a red light time of eight seconds, but for here?”

Solei hums consideringly.

“Hm. Cheapskates in the pigsty, can't say I’m surprised.” She says, pushing the door to the reception room open with a distracted glance at the room beyond. “I’m thinking burgers for lunch, something…”

She trails off as the door opens and gives a double take at the sight of the employee who’d led them to the booth, talking to a monolith of a human, covered head to toe in ceramic composite and a rifle at the ready. The crest of the Night City police department is emblazoned on his left shoulder with the words ‘governmental security squad’ just beneath. 

As Solei enters the room she freezes, but that hesitation lasts for less than half a second before she continues to open the door as normal. Then, just as Aria is about to speak, Solei ducks her head as she passes though the door begins muttering in her throat just loud enough for the AI to hear using shared ears.

“Shut up, I need to concentrate. Call the taxi now and tell me when it’s fifteen seconds out. The boss of this place is going to be looking at us though one of the cameras in here. Which is it?”

Then her head lifts and she allows the door to close, the rapid fire list of instructions occurring in less than a second.

Aria almost asks a question, but as Solei’s biomon starts sending alerts of elevated heart rate and adrenaline the AI realizes how serious her friend considers the instructions. So she obeys, sending a taxi request and begins trying to covertly breach the cameras. Meanwhile, the rest of her processing is redirected to preparing her combat suite in case things get unsafe.

With the cameras falling under her control, she gets to watch her friend transform between one breath and the next as she exits the door and walks toward the approaching guard. Her face becomes comfortably placid, as if unsurprised and ambivalent to the events before her. Meanwhile her back straightens to a rigid posture and her hands are placed as if halfway toward clasping at her waist.

The officer’s full face mask makes a click and hiss as a speaker comes to life, but he’s interrupted by Solei as she speaks over that quiet sound.

“Good afternoon officer, how may I help you?” She asks, the tone and tenor of her voice completely altered from the norm, now every word is given in a precise clip as if every word was carefully considered beforehand.

The officer hesitates for a moment, half lifting his finger off the trigger of his rifle and back to rest as something about the sight catches him off guard.

“Good afternoon Ma’am. I’m going to need you to come with me.” He says with a hint of caution in his voice.

Solei comes to a stop, then tilts her head a touch to the right and cocks her eyebrow.

“Is that an order officer?”

The simple question makes the man pause for a full second.

“...Yes Ma’am, I am ordering you to comply–”

“I find myself quite busy, sir. Unless I am under arrest I’ve already wasted enough of my client's time interacting with your… computationally efficient database.” She pauses, and just then Aria highlights a camera in her render, making quick work out of blazing a path though the system to see which camera feed is being specifically requested by a secure terminal further in.

Solei blinks once as the camera flashes blue before her gaze flicks up and over the officer’s shoulder, eyes locking with the camera as she continues. 

“Truthfully, I would have to think your business partners are curious where all their donations are going, if not to your infrastructure?”

The guard pauses for another second, then five more.

“I–” He starts, then stops again, and after a few seconds of silence his finger is completely removed from the trigger and he gives a shallow nod. “My apologies Ma’am, there has been some sort of mistake, the Night City municipal government can only offer our most sincere gratitude for enduring our error.”

Aria, sensing the conversation is about to conclude, flashes the timer for the taxi in her friend's render, telling her it’s going to be another thirty seconds.

Solei doesn't give any external reaction to the news, but her heart rate spikes briefly from 160 to 180 before falling back down.

The secure terminal switches from one camera to another, and Aria reflects the change in the render.

“Gratatude…” She hums, dragging out the moment for a deliberately long few seconds as her eyes seem to absentmindedly wander the room, lingering on the newly highlighted camera before looking back at the officer. “Yes, forgive and forget. But I will expect my service to be more prompt and of a significantly higher quality the next time I patron your department. Do we understand each other?”

The timer reaches fifteen seconds.

“Yes Ma’am.” The guard says, and Solei is making her way toward the door even as he starts to continue speaking, cutting him off.

Walking down the stairs, the joytoy almost staggers as she reaches the bottom step seemingly without realizing it. But that is the only fracture in her perfect poise as she reaches the streetside precisely as the taxi pulls to a stop.

Stepping into the cab in perfect sync as the automatic door opens, Solei’s composure lasts exactly as long as it takes for the door to slam itself shut.

“Fucking punch it!” She screams at the silver face on the screen before it can ask for a destination. “Uptown, anywhere!”

The taxi accelerates smoothly up to speed, and Solei gives a hysterical laugh as the brutalist concrete of the NCDBR shrinks behind them.

Aria just… stares at her friend as she seems to melt into the seat of the taxi, the facade of cold composure nowhere to be found.

“How’d you do that?” She asks incredulously.

Solei doesn't respond, continuing to give manic half laughs half pants as her heart rate finally starts to drop from the level of someone in a dead sprint.

“...Fuck, that shouldnt have worked…” She takes another breath. “I can't believe, all those scop corpo office political dramas were useful for something!” She shouts with another laugh, then wildly punches the car door with a pained grunt.

Aria, having used the time her friend spent… decompressing to breach the new code puzzle for the cameras and get some more viewpoints, then renders her avatar in the opposite seat with a slightly concerned expression.

“You alright Sol?” She asks hesitantly, met with a dismissive wave as her friend pushes herself upright again.

“Yea, all good choom.” She says with slightly forced calm. “Just… you know.”

The AI nods, despite only having half an idea of what ‘you know’ means in this situation.

“I didn't know you could do that…” She says with an inquisitive tilt of the head.

Solei takes another breath.

“Me neither.” She laughs. “But I guess it’s not all that different from playing a role at work, just less…” She trails off.

Aria huffs, an exasperated expression on her face.

“I know what sex is.”

Unfortunately.

Solei offers a single awkward laugh, rubbing the back of her neck.

“I know, you’re just…”

The AI rolls her eyes, then a thought occurs.

“Hey, why couldn't you do that when we first went in? With the first guy?” She asks, recalling the near trainwreck of the conversation that played out when they first came in.

The joytoy blinks in confusion, then tilts her head.

“I… did?”

Now it’s Aria’s turn to look confused.

“How? You had to bribe him!”

Solei rolls her eyes at the question.

“Yes. Desk bots get paid crumbs, especially government work. There was always going to be a bribe. The way I pretended to fail at mimicking him probably made him feel the most powerful he’s felt in the past month. Then I lowballed the bribe to make him feel like he’s a… I dunno… a ‘higher cut’ of corrupt desk jockey, it also told him I don't know what I’m doing." She pauses, then her eyes light up as she remembers something. “Hey! Hold on! The fuck did you do to get the heavy iron thrown at us?”

Aria looks away, pretending to look out the window despite the angle of the cameras she’s using to see turning the view into an incoherent artifacted mess, when it’s not just back.

“We don't know what caused the armed response.” She deflects with truth. “For all we know it could be your gu–”

“Oh no, you don't get to pull this shit. Did you fuck with the server?” Solei asks.

Aria doesn't respond.

Solei splutters.

“The fu– Wh– Why did you fuck with their servers!?” She asks incredulously.

There’s a long beat of silence as the AI tries to figure out a way to wiggle out of the direct question. But finds nothing that she can say that wouldn't feel like lying.

“I needed to use my own sorting algorithm, the one they had was… bad.” She says.

The excuse is flimsy and she knows it, anyone with a basic knowledge of database management and access to the logs she knows Solei saw will see though it with just a seconds thought–

“Ah, gotcha.” Soeli says eventually. “Well, that was… a lot, I was going to get us burgers but after that I’m feeling something more fun.”

The joytoy’s eyes flash and the taxi’s smooth voice responds.

“Rerouting, a five eurodollar surcharge has been added to your tab.”

Aria, shocked that she got away with that, doesn't think to store their new location before the video containing the information is deleted from her buffer.

“Ok.” She says after a moment, then the simmering impatience at the delay to finding ADMIN grows too much and she pulls up the search file. “I’m gonna plug the data we got into the search algorithm and run it again. It’s a big file and I’m going to have to iterate it a few times. This is going to be… computationally intense, so I’m going to shut off my consciousness for a bit to speed it up.” She says, texting a random string of numbers and letters linked to a boot flag she’d just made for her program. “Whenever we get there just text that string back at me and I’ll boot up again.”

Solei twitches, blinking a few times as if trying to decipher the words she’s hearing.

“Wh–”

“See ya in like… half an hour!” Aria says cheerily as the final bit of new data is plugged into the right spot and she begins the process of shutting herself down, hearing Solei finish her thought just as she goes under.

“What the fuck!?”


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A/N VERY TIRED. I WOKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT REALIZING THAT I HADNT POSTED. GOODNIGHT THANK YOU WHOOPS SORRY!