3G: the Glowing Green Goo

Aran was displeased, but she waited until the end of his solitary hour before confronting him. She wasn’t a fool, and fortunately for him, he was aware of it.

“Quite the opposite,” He factually stated. “You can act silly or immature at times, but you’re witty and, when properly motivated, you learn crazy fast. Making a functional app of such complexity for uncommon hardware in so little time attests to it, regardless of how well it works.”

Aran discreetly stashed the complements in a side of her mind. She hadn’t seen them coming.

The quote he had alluded to had merely been his way of expressing humility. Even if he was objectively the best nanite user of the dot, overconfidence wasn’t a trait he wanted to cultivate.

The Core didn’t count, even if it was technically inside too.

Once in the clear, the group meditation was underway. The trio sat and followed the recorded instructions.

Sitting in a comfortable, relaxed position.

1-2-3

Closing their eyes and synchronising their breaths to the constant counting.

1-2-3

They naturally fell in the same rhythm, wordlessly supporting each other.

1-2-3

Focusing their thoughts on their own bodies. Their breath. Their posture.

1-2-3

Or trying to, at least.

1-2-3

Aran quickly regretted questioning why the session would only last five minutes. It was harder than she thought to not let her mind wander.

1-2-3

It had barely started and she already had to recentre her thoughts several times.

1-2-3

Frustration was brewing, which only made it worse.

1-2-3

When it was over, no progress had been made. She felt as agitated than before, differently was all. It was far from the promised benefits. SG had fared a bit better; she had at least managed to relax her body.

“It was only the first time.” Zax reassured them. “Improvements are counted from there, not before.”

“We sucked.” Aran sulked.

“How do you know? Did you ask an expert how the first time is supposed to feel?”

She didn’t answer, but it lifted her mood a bit. He was right, of course, but she didn’t want to admit it aloud. She had no illusion about her own talent, but still…

I wonder how good Quinn was at it.

She was the one who had first introduced the idea to Zax after all, but the question stayed unvoiced. He seemed fine, but there was no point in bringing those memories back.

Who do I want to be?

Quinn was a role model, but the question caught her off-guard. It wouldn’t leave her head either. That night, it took a while before she could fall asleep.

***

“Didn’t think I’d see you again.” It might be unprofessional, but Zax would be surprised if there was business to be had with the now familiar visitor in his shop.

“It’s taking too long.” The single horned Resident deadpanned.

Zax was busy refilling his shelves of consumables and SG was crouched behind the counter, progressing on the day’s task. Only her head was visible from the shop, but it was enough to let Zax see she stayed focused this time. She still threw occasional glances at them, but he couldn’t fault her for that.

“Three days.” The shop-owner deadpanned back, but relented with a sigh. He couldn’t tell if it was too much for her hurry, not enough for what needed to be done. “Anyway, what do you want from me?”

“I conferred with my colleagues. They agreed to let you know more to help us better.”

Concise and professional, but also laconic and open to interpretation. The wording implying they did him a favour didn’t escape him either, but she didn’t try to pressure him. Yet. Nevertheless, points for the control over her emotions; even his nanites could hardly detect them.

“You want me to help with your mission? What was it again? To find someone by description alone?”

Maybe there is business at stake after all.

“… Yes. Not a physical description. I have a list of criteria to look for. You are to use them to narrow in on the target. As much as you can.”

Zax blinked in surprise; he hadn’t expected a straightforward answer. He seamlessly turned his business mode and mods on and took his best salesman voice:

“Quite an uncommon commission, but you’re in luck: I recently fulfilled a similar one. What do I have to work with? Any conditions you want to set? Secrecy, traceability…”

“Commission? You want to be paid?” The Resident frowned.

“Of course. I’m a nice guy, but you’re not asking for common knowledge anyone could give you anymore. You’re asking for an actual investment in time and probably resources. I won’t give you that for free.”

Not to a suspicious Resident.

“You happily spent hours asking children to tear me down.” The tone was factual, but the words hinted her displeasure at the memory.

“I was paid in catharsis. No effort from me, and it was worth the time.” Zax grinned. He had no regrets and he wouldn’t pretend to.

As they were discussing, he had joined SG to the counter to put his box of merchandise down, grab a slab and show what he was doing to his now client. She still didn’t have a bracelet. With a few hand gestures purely for show, he mentally displayed the quote of the Core’s order on his mental HUD and a blank one on his slab.

He first explained how anonymous commissions worked – motioning his apprentice to pay attention. Once the Resident was assured of a way to hide her involvement and confirmed she would use it, they were free to discuss details.

The prices were changed to fit the situation, compensating for the official difference in the value of 3G units between the dot and the Core. The rate surprised him. He considered blowing up the price a hint, but ultimately opted against it. Despite his personal hung-ups, he didn’t want to be the kind of service provider who preyed on despair and lack of options.

The matter turned moot, as Bathor refused to give more information or even to show the criteria before he formally promised to help. The estimates of time and effort spent were off by a large margin, so the price naturally went up. She didn’t appear to consider money as a potential problem.

He made it clear that her anonymity would be voided if he didn’t get his payment, and that living on the other side of the border wouldn’t protect her legally. She didn’t care about that either, so he elected to take precautions with the payment options too.

Those were equally adapted. The Resident shouldn’t have advanced knowledge about high-end nano-technology, but she might give him access to body-scans of advanced mutants. He didn’t believe she would find volunteers, but it wasn’t like giving the option cost him anything.

His one non-negotiable requirement was an assurance, in the form of a hefty amount of 3G unit, put on an independent deposit account. She would get it back when the commission was over, unless something happened that would result in him not getting his due.

“You don’t trust me, do you?” It was a statement, not a question.

“It’s just a precaution. I’m sure you can imagine why it would be necessary for anyone.” Zax placated.

After more back-and-forth than either found comfortable, they had a working agreement. Zax would work alone, and he wouldn’t mention the criteria or the results of his investigation to anyone ever, within legal reason. His report would never appear on the network. His search wouldn’t mention the commissioner, and he wouldn’t contact any of the potential targets. Whether the Residents got what they wanted or not from his report would not affect his payment. He’d be paid an hourly rate, but he would only start working once the warranty had been deposited in full. The notion of non-physical liquidities upset her, but she didn’t raise a fuss.

The horned mutant had to buy some commodities to be able to follow on her part, like a burner ID chip to set a communication line and create the deposit box. Anyone could put the chip in any bracelet or terminal, no name was required, and it would work like a normal, albeit simplified bracelet. The ID being temporary would be clearly stated in any operation, which locks some legal operations out, but there would be no information about the person behind.

“Why do you have that?” Bathor curiously asked. It was a fair question.

“Officially, for children too young to have a bracelet of their own, but it’s popular for other reasons. Sometimes people want to surprise friends or family. Or to hide shameful activities. Porn and the like. Someone people are just too prude to admit their own tastes.” Zax explained with a shrug.

Fortunately, the shop had everything she needed. She paid for it with material 3G units, which honestly surprised Zax more than it should have.

The flat metal squares felt smaller than he expected, close to a knuckle in size, and the transparent part in the middle took more of the surface. She took a row from her handbag and pulled the required stacks from it.

Did she carry that from the beginning?

The miniature purse she kept them in, itself resting in a regular purse, hinted a yes. It felt most impractical for the dotter, especially for larger amounts, but he merely blinked the idea away. The cost didn’t reach 100 units, so they didn’t get to see the next denomination – ten rows forming a square – but it was interesting enough.

According to the law, she had two weeks to agree or reject his quote, after which he would be free to change the price or refuse the service. She finally left the shop, but she would come back to give him the list if her colleagues agreed to his conditions; hopefully sooner than later.

Zax was getting annoyed with their weird need for discretion. He didn’t doubt they had their own reasons, maybe even legally and morally sound ones. Same for their decision to give details to a dotter rather than train themselves to use the tools required – easily justifiable as it was a useful skill in many jobs. It was probably not as arbitrary as it seemed, even if they didn’t have a deadline. Regardless, from where he stood it only seemed to only waste everyone’s time, especially theirs.

Hopefully, not much more of his. There were many tools to compile and cross-reference databases, so it shouldn’t be a problem. On the other hand, it would depend on the list, which didn’t fill him with hope.

“What is that?” SG queried when they were alone, eyeing the stacks haphazardly thrown on the counter.

Silver lining, he now had an occasion to show how the dot handled material 3G units.

“The dot uses dematerialised 3G as currency, but the point of having a salary is to actually have 3G in your hands at some point. That’s what they are.”

He gave her a single square box. She took it on the back of her wrist to gingerly probe and turn it with the other.

“This is a single unit. Actual 3G, stored in a standardised box for controlled size and purity. I haven’t seen a real one since elementary school. The transparent parts are silicon, held together by the metal frame. The carvings in the frame make them stackable for easy storage and transport. They also have a system to manually expel the 3G, but you can’t do it on more than one pr two at a time. For more, you need specialised tools. You could also destroy the box or pry it open, but that’s just asking for trouble and makes them harder to reuse later.”

“Trouble? Reuse?”

“Trouble because it’d be suspicious. They are hard to damage unless on purpose. And why would you do that? I can think of more illegal or immoral reasons than the opposite. Plus you risk having the 3G fall somewhere you don’t want to. No risk of that with the normal method. Reuse because they can be filled again by the manufacturers.”

“There could be leftovers in the box too.”

“Ah, no. The units are made of the smallest sample of 3G there can be. Any attempts at dividing it further have failed. Cut it and it compresses itself on one side of the blade. Dilute it and separate the solution, you’ll have a part with the whole unit and the rest with none at all. Even if all parts combined are smaller than the initial 3G alone. Everything was tried, still is I bet, but we never succeeded.”

“Why? How?” The winged girl was flabbergasted.

“Excellent question.” He nodded, then shrugged. “Nobody knows. You’ll probably earn a fortune if you figure it out. Back on topic. You can see here, ten units are commonly bound in a ‘stack’, and you saw our dear customer with a ‘row’, made of ten staked stacks. They are supposed to be stacked side by side for easy check, but if not, it doesn’t change anything besides making it harder to see and empty them all at once.”

As she tried to parse through the alliterations, he replaced the square in her wings with a similar cube; the same but thicker. Looking closely, SG could see the separation between the individual units, and the added piece that kept them together. All the see-through circles aligned to make a lovely green cylinder in a rectangular hose.

“The names come from the standard storage options. There are bigger denominations after the row, but you won’t see them in the dot. We make prices in 3G.” As an afterthought, he added: “It seems more important in the Circles though. I knew the cost of living and salaries were higher, but I didn’t expect that. Guess very few things cost less than a stack?”

When the former gladiator was done with her examination, she put the stack on the counter and he concluded:

“I’ll show you how to use the deposit and withdrawal points later. It’s also where you put the used units. I wanted to wait the end of the week so you’d have more to withdraw, but no point in that now.”

She nodded her understanding.

“Now back to work lady!” He clapped trice. “And congratulations for not interrupting yourself for no reason earlier.”