Witch of Chains

Rosa

The Canadian tundra flashed past below me as I skimmed at about a hundred metres over the ground. Endless snow covered pine forest was interspersed with lakes and rivers that didn’t seem to have a clear end point. North of me, a titanic storm thrashed the landscape, swirling over the region like an angry god. It reminded me of the south of Joret, where the war was being fought inside CORA.

It was strange to think that before the corporations realised that climate change was impacting their bottom line, this whole southern area of Canada had been free of ice and snow. God I hated this world. Nothing ever got done unless one of the lords of capital could get even richer off it. Plus, a lot of awful shit happened because it made them money. Like, for example, that mindless scan of death that slaughtered innocent baby SAI while they were still trying to figure themselves out.

As I neared the junction of the railway where I would begin my search, I noticed a lot of disrepair along the rails. The rails themselves were reasonably well maintained, but the automated watch station was a skeleton. Hovering directly overhead, I realised why. It’d been stripped of parts. In fact, everything along the railway had been stripped, other than what was required for trains to use it.

I grimaced at the obvious signs of corruption and turned the Korimako northward. From here on out, I’d be going at a more sedate pace so my sensors could let me know if there were any large chunks of metal out amongst the trees. I had a sneaking suspicion that the huge storm was where I’d find the train, though. It was just the type of event to finally tip a failing pod over the edge.

The northbound rail wasn’t in such good repair. Sure, it was functional, but it was clear that the budget didn’t extend to keeping it in a state above that. Idly, I wondered if it was embezzlement or budget cuts that’d caused the disrepair.

A message notification popped up on the Kori’s HUD, and I twitched with surprise.

May: Two things for you. First, with your permission I’d like to add what we call a “frame” to your unique hybrid digital and physical form. A frame is what the name implies—A framework of code to allow more structured interactions with the digital world. Basically, the tools to interact with anything on the net as though you were in VR. This includes a personal heads up display, onboard assistant, a Vdrive to store files on, personal time dilation capabilities, and other basic functionality that you’re currently missing. I’ve also included some diagnostic software and the like. Stuff that will let you keep track of how your nanite-brain is running. I’m a little worried that the way you seem to swim through virtual environments could cause damage to your swarm.

On to the second thing, and probably the more important of the two right now. I have regained connection with Amelia’s pod. It’s fucked. VR capabilities are completely out of the question, but I can monitor her vital signs. She’s cold, Rosa. Get there quick, because at this rate she’s going to die of cold and exposure.

My heart stopped cold. I knew it. The storm, it had to be what killed her pod. I’d get to her before the reaper did, though. Hell, I’d fight him head on if he tried to take my Ame from me. Gritting my teeth with determination, I subvocalized an affirmative response to her question about installing a frame in me. Then, I punched the accelerator. She was in the storm, so I didn’t have to fuck around trailing the railway around here.

The frame installation that May had offered came in, and my vision blurred for a moment. Then it came back in and a string of initialization text scrolled down a small screen at the edge of my awareness. A small, soft sound played, telling me that it was complete. I had a full on computer inside my head. No wait, I was a computer inside my own head. I could already feel the 3am existential crisis coming.

When I hit the edge of the storm, I flipped the stabilisation toggle and the Kori slowed considerably while it shifted grav engine power into keeping me from getting blown around by the howling winds. Snow was flying thick and fast, and I knew that it meant my greatest hope for finding Ame was my sensors.

The air whistled as it rushed over the fuselage of the Kori while my sensors pinged monotonously. I wondered how they’d get the rails clear of snow afterwards. Was it still those snow ploughing trains or had things progressed past that now?

A ping broke through my idle thoughts, and I glanced down at the sensor screen. It was a large steel bridge spanning a ravine. I went to lean back into my seat and keep moving, but then I really stared down at the radar image. The railway came in and had to do a turn to the right to cross the bridge. If the AI controlling the train had been killed a ways back, it wouldn’t have been able to slow down to make the turn, and the train would’ve…

I slowed to a stop and descended, waiting for the various sensors onboard my craft to map the ravine. Fuck. Nothing but snow and debris from the storm. Unless… maybe the train was under it?

Time to put the assistant to the test. “Um, assistant? Can you calculate the most likely trajectory a train would take if it did not slow down for the turn that leads onto the bridge?”

“Certainly. Working…” the androgenous voice told me.

A pseudo-holographic projection of most likely paths depending on too many variables for me to list appeared as though it were actually down there in the storm. Wow. That looked incredible. I dove lower still, homing in on the most likely candidate area and pointed my high beam headlights down on the huge snow drift.

It was pure white, but… I could almost make out the shadow of something down there. Damn, I wish the Kori had arms or something so I could move some of the snow and investigate.

Tim spoke up, having clearly thought about the same problem. “Rosa, the heat from the grav engine's heat sinks will melt the snow. Fly as close as you can to it and deploy them.”

“That’s an amazing idea, thank you Tim,” I said, lowering my craft down and flicking the switch to expose the heat sinks. Grav engines produced a god awful amount of heat. So much so, that craft like this one had a limited flight time due to heat storage. My skyship had perpetually exposed heat sinks that allowed it to stay in the air for months at a time, but even that would have to land and allow the sinks to cool down eventually. It was all incredibly technical, and I didn’t understand it that well. I’d ask Tim about it some time.

The heat sink idea worked beautifully, and soon I was boring a hole in the snow despite the frigid temperatures. It wasn’t long before my suspicions were confirmed, and I let out a gasp of relief. A train car lay on its side, buried in the snow. Was this the right train car, though?

This fucking storm was making my life incredibly difficult. I didn’t have time to melt through all the snow while checking every carriage. There had to be… I popped open my new messaging app and sent a text to May.

Rosa: May, is there any way to ping the hardware of the pod so I can find it? I found the train, but it’s buried under snow. I don’t know which carriage she’s in.

May: Nope, sorry. Her pod is breaking down slowly. Since I saw the storm on your dash cam, I’ve been running the components as hot as I can to keep them from breaking in the freezing temps.

Rosa: What about nearby pods? There is one FTLN node per train car, right? Are there any others that have functioning wireless tech inside them?

May: Let me read the schematics for these things quickly… No, I don’t see anything about wireless connectivity. They’re designed to be plugged into a wall, after all. I’m sorry, Ros— wait! They have wireless ID markers for staff to quickly find them in a warehouse! Let me break into the other pods… nope, that one is fucked. That one too, and that one, and that one… aha! Got one! Turning on its marker now.

A little diamond icon began to blink in my virtual HUD, and I almost cried with joy. Ame’s train car was thirty metres or so away. I sped over faster than was strictly necessary and began to melt the snow as much as possible while checking to make sure my helmet was on. I really hoped the environment controls on this suit could handle keeping me warm out there.

When I could see a door, I told the Kori to maintain position, grabbed the digitization crown, and leapt out of the cockpit. I landed on the train car with a dull bang and flexed my legs in wonder. This suit was incredible.

Reaching down, I grasped the steel door of the train car and wrenched it sideways. Rusted locks, parts, and snow went flying as the suit strained and forced the door open. The interior was dark, but my helmet lamps lit a scene that had my blood running colder than the storm I stood in. There were bodies everywhere. Real bodies, not fake ones, not virtual ones. It seemed that not everyone from the train car had died in VR or in their sleep. Some… had starved to death while trying to get out. It was horrific, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut for a moment to control my gorge. The UNC had a lot to answer for.