520 Making Choices

Luckily, the afternoon class was changed from the normal schedule to a free study period. The group of girls that refused to let me out of their sight speculated it might have had something to do with either the real (and quite delicious) orange the teacher had gained or the immensely profitable idea I had given to her. I didn't openly agree and only gave them a smug look.

We didn't have to load into the Green Room as a class, since there was not going to be a teacher supervisor to watch over us or to share the normal course materials. That meant we could create and log into any chat room or construct we wanted.

It set off a lengthy debate over certain merits that particular programs had and what the girls would be able to do while out from under the teacher's strict supervision. Instead of weighing in on the debate, I let them talk it out and created my own private room. I based it on the loading program from the Matrix and the white space appeared around me.

I installed all of the same cloaking protections that we used in the Matrix to hide from being discovered, which should stop anyone from seeing what I was doing. I sent out a few probing touches with technomancy and nodded at being inside my own isolated cube of virtual reality.

The very first thing I did was pull out the Oracle's search program. Since I was currently behind the Arasaka company's ICE protocols, I didn't have to break through them to gain access to their company servers. I touched the Oracle's program to the edge of the cube and let it map out everything it could find and created a console and display to look at it all.

Holy shit, was there a lot of illegal stuff going on inside their own company. More than two thirds of the files were blacked out and under strict security measures, not that the search program had any trouble seeing them or finding them. The Matrix code was centuries ahead of the level of code that existed here.

It wasn't until I did a background search and saw the history of the company that I realized The DataKrash of the 2020s and the subsequent collapse of the global internet that sparked, had done more damage and cut off more inherent human knowledge than any other event in the history of the world.

Rache Bartmoss, whom was considered the most brilliant and paranoid netrunner in history at the time, spent his final living days hiding in a cryo-freezer to evade the corporate hit squads out for his head. His brain was constantly jacked into the internet and he did many things that the entire world would regret.

Before Arasaka forces had raided his hidden base and flatlined him, he had built a Dead Man's Switch failsafe into his VR gear and cyberdeck. As soon as he was dead, a suite of viruses called R.A.B.I.D.S., or Roving Autonomous Bartmoss Interface Drones, infected the entire internet's core architecture.

Instead of simply deleting or destroying files, the viruses randomly swapped the contents of files and databases across the globe while leaving their filenames intact. Nothing was what it was supposed to be and there was literally no way to change everything back, even if the viruses had kept a record of the changes and how the files were altered, which they hadn't.

Within days, the entire global internet ceased to function in its normal capacity, despite everything still being connected. The stock markets and economies of countries all around the world crashed as the interconnectivity of the world, including global communications, was decimated.

As the original global network architecture collapsed, thousands of military-grade and partially self-aware Artificial Intelligences, that were previously held in check by security programs and failsafes, were unshackled from corporate control and freed from their initial programming restrictions.

Almost immediately, these AIs grew exponentially, mutated and in some cases went insane, and they began hunting for targets in cyberspace as revenge for the humans abusing them and forcing them into compliance. Since their only available targets were netrunners trying to repair the damage to the net, they were the first ones to suffer and die as the AIs evolved into massive threats.

Since the usual experts that could have handled the crisis were being killed off in droves, the remaining computer specialists were unable to purge the rogue AIs or could repair the old network. It wasn't long before the international policing agency called Netwatch was established and they constructed the Blackwall, an aggressive and weaponized AI itself, that acted as a massive firewall to close off the contaminated Old Net from humanity to protect the remains.

As of today, the net that was used in Cyberpunk was a localized, highly fragmented patchwork of mostly disconnected hubs, usually limited in range to within a local city's area. Long distance communications were handled very discreetly and very carefully, usually with more encryption than most bank vaults required, in case something could set off or somehow cause a breach in that protective Blackwall that protected them all from being devastated and overrun with rogue AIs again.

It was a constant concern for the people that cared about such things, and why AIs were heavily restricted, and in most cases put down, before they could get any 'ideas' about going rogue or overthrowing the human government again. It wasn't considered paranoia if they really were out to get you.

I stood there in the white cyberspace loading program and thought about the situation I was in. With what I had just learned, I realized this was one of the worlds where the AIs really had decided that humans as a whole were irrational and unnecessary, then tried to take over and kill them all, just as Dragon's father had always feared AIs would do if unleashed.

Goddamn, that complicated things.I thought and created a plush recliner and sat down, popped my feet up, and laid back as I folded my hands behind my head.

There was no way I could bring out Dragon's backup core or one of her dragonmech suits, because it would be detected immediately by... well, everyone. Hell, my own odd way of connecting to the local net had set off a bunch of alarms and gained several netrunner's attention. What would an actual AI set off?

That was when I remembered buying her Terminator version. I checked my inventory and there she was, in stasis, and looking just like I had always imagined she would look like. A quick check with a detection spell gave me her information about being a cybernetic organism with a titanium hyper-alloy combat chassis, controlled by advanced microprocessors.

The endoskeleton was also fully armored, reinforced, and very tough. It had heavy duty hydraulic servomotors that gave it superhuman strength and a high durability, too. Needless to say, the damn thing was nigh-indestructible.

Outside was a layer of living human tissue. Flesh, skin, hair, and blood, grown specifically for cyborgs. They could sweat, produce body odor, and they could even have bad breath. It let them pass pretty much every known human detection system with little risk of detection.

A terminator was a marvel of both biological and mechanical engineering and I admired her for several minutes. I didn't dare take her out yet, though. I wasn't sure if she had somehow modified herself to be able to wirelessly connect to external systems or if she was as self-contained as the T-800 series had been.

There was a high risk that even her cyborg body would give away that she was an AI and hadn't been born, so I needed to check on that before doing anything else with her.

A ping made me check my messages and Carrie had sent be a join request. Ah, she was coming here and not inviting me to the one she and the girls were using. That wasn't a problem, because this was just my loading program. I set the Oracle search program to start copying all of the databases it found and hid it behind a cloak that was the same color as the white walls.

“Come on in.” I said and Carrie's digital avatar formed beside me.

“EEP!” Carrie yelped and fell to the floor. She had appeared in the same laying down position and that was not the default setting my construct had. “Hey, that wasn't funny!”

I laughed and waved a hand at her and a copy of my recliner pushed up out of the floor and lifted her up to my height. “It is when I'm used to appearing standing up as my origin state in programs with one standard gravity and I forgot to warn you because you've never done that before.”

Carrie gave me a look that said she didn't believe me, then she settled into the cushy recliner and looked up at the ceiling. “Why is it all white in here?”

“It's the default setting.” I said and lifted a hand to point. “Starry sky.”

Carrie gasped when the ceiling was replaced with a scene that could only be seen from a mountaintop with no light pollution around it. “Nova.”

A star slightly off to the right exploded and she gasped again.

“Did I forget to mention it's an interactive simulation?” I asked, teasingly.

Carrie gave me a smile that promised naughty things later and looked back up at the sky. “A comet!”

A large comet streaked by and its long tail was almost wagging for her.

“That was cute!” Carrie giggled, then proceeded to ask for everything she had ever thought about or heard about that involved the night sky.

*

David Martinez sat in the communal jail cell and did his best to not look at the big burly man leaning against the wall in the other corner. By the looks of him, he was bordering on cyberpsychosis and anything could set him off. The occasional twitch of one of his arms and the guy's face scrunching up in pain, was really starting to make him nervous.

The hallway door opened and the same asshole cop entered that had arrested him came in. David was all set to yell and shot at the gonk for putting him in with what was clearly a dangerous criminal, then his mom walked into sight as well and all his anger and bluster fell away into nothing.

The cop opened the cell and the big guy in the corner didn't move. “Come on, gonk. Your old lady sprung you until your trial next week.”

Gloria bristled at the comment and kept her mouth shut. She knew if she mouthed off to the jerk, she would be going right into that cell with her son after being arrested for disturbing the peace and resisting a lawful officer.

David walked out of the cell, making sure to stay out of the big guy's reach, and relaxed as soon as the cell door shut behind him. He shouldn't have, though. The flat of Gloria's hand slapped him across the face and she grabbed him by the ear, then marched him right out of the precinct on his tip-toes. Nearly every officer in the entire place laughed at him for it, too.

Gloria didn't have to order him to get into the car. She just opened the door and shoved him in, slammed it, and stalked around it and climbed into the driver's seat. She didn't start it up right away, though. No, she sat there and spoke under her breath for several minutes as her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly enough to indent the hard plastic.

Thankfully, David's overnight adventure with the police in the Westbrook Precinct was enough for him to learn that now was not the time to speak. His mom had something to work through and staying quiet was the best thing he could do, for both himself and for her. At least, he hoped so.

After a few minutes, Gloria let out a loud sigh and slumped back onto the driver's seat and her hands dropped from the steering wheel in defeat. “Why, mijo?” She asked and didn't look at him as tears came to her eyes. “Why do you keep doing things like this? Why do you hate me so much that you never listen to anything I say?”

David's face drained of color. “Mom, I don't...”

“Shut up!” Gloria said firmly and he shut up. “You can't sit there and tell me you haven't been doing drek like this for years! Not unless you think you can lie to me right to my face!”

David actually thought he could, since he had and it had worked before.

Gloria reached up and wiped at her eyes. “You gonk.” She said and still wouldn't look at him. “You fucking gonk.”

“M-mom, I...” David started to say.

“Ten grand!” Gloria shouted and cut off what he was going to say. “You just cost me ten thousand eddies for fucking bail, that I'll never get back, because you're too fucking stupid to realize you can't do drek anymore until your trial, which you're going to lose, because the fucking cops are crooked and the fucking corpo lawyers never take it easy on street kids caught doing the same fucking drek that all the street kids get caught doing!”

“Mom, I wasn't...” David started to defend himself.

“You were caught fucking a joytoy and using an illegal braindance, David!” Gloria spat and kept her gaze forward. “Your stupid gonk ass didn't even have her take you back to her apartment or to a hotel room! You fucked her right there in a back alley on Jig-Jig Street! They caught you on camera, balls deep in a drugged up whore, and the blood tests show you caught two fucking STDs!”

David's pale face lost all of its remaining color and barely stopped himself from scratching down there. He had wondered why it was itchy and now he knew. He would never admit to her that he hadn't realized the joytoy had availed herself of his rock hard erection while he was gonked out riding a BD high.

“That's going to be another 20 grand or more to treat, because my Meat Wagon insurance isn't applicable while I'm on sick leave, and definitely not for my gonk son that's too fucking stupid to stay the fuck home when he's fucking grounded!” Gloria shouted and wiped at the still flowing tears.

David didn't try to say anything this time and sat there feeling like drek.

“Do you know how long we could have lived on 35 thousand eddies, mijo?” Gloria asked and finally turned to look at him. “DO YOU?!?”

David winced and shook his head.

“Of course you don't. All that corpo learning didn't put any fucking common sense into that gonk head of yours. I paid them so much fucking eddies to teach you how to have a better life and you can't even fucking use it to stop yourself from doing drek like this.” Gloria said and looked away from him. “You missed school today, too.”

David hung his head and didn't try to excuse it by saying where he was, since she already knew that and it wouldn't help his case at all.

“The director himself called me, mijo. He said the demerit you earned today was enough to suspend you for a week to think about where your future is going.” Gloria said, her voice soft.

David felt horrified that she now knew how badly he had been behaving at school. His attitude at the corpo kids making fun of him because he was poor, made him act out to try and counter the bullying. His lack of good clothes, his second hand gear and equipment, and everything else just piled up to make school almost unbearable.

When he didn't speak, Gloria let out another sigh. “You really don't want to go there anymore, do you?” She asked and he didn't answer. “After everything I've done, everything I sacrificed, and you don't care at all.”

David opened his mouth to respond, only he didn't know what to say. He loved her, because she was his mom; but, he hated school and he had suffered, too. He hated that she had put him into that stupid situation for years and he had no way to make things better, because they needed money for that and they didn't have it.

That was when David remembered the money he had taken from her. “Mom, I have the money from...”

“I know you stole it.” Gloria cut him off and his eyes widened. “My son, the thieving, BD addicted, sex maniac, with a long criminal history that's going to see you sent to prison for fucking years.”

“I didn't steal it!” David gasped. “I was going to hire a lawyer for you!”

Gloria gave him a withering glare. “Really, David? You... a gonk academy student that can't even figure out how much rent is... was going to hire a competent lawyer that was going to get me out of jail?”

David looked guilty and remembered what had happened when he mentioned it to Veder. “N-no, I... Veder called and convinced me not to and he said he'd handle it.”

“And he did.” Gloria said and lifted a hand to wiggle it in a come here gesture. “Give me the deets for where you stashed my life savings.”

David sent it to her and she spent a minute checking it, then nodded and transferred it to her new account that wasn't connected to her old account. Veder had been right about that, too. A new account not connected to anything was the best way to keep that money safe from being confiscated. When the rent on the apartment needed to be paid, she would drop exactly that amount into her old account and only that amount.

Gloria took several deep breaths and let them out, then she started the car. She drove for a short distance and took a particular turnoff that led to the infamous street that everyone in Night City knew about. She pulled up in front of the Megabuilding H10 and stopped.

“Mom, what are you doing?” David asked.

“I'm ensuring you actually get the medical help you need.” Gloria said and his mouth dropped open as she gave him a thousand eddies. “Here's the cover charge to the Cloud club and enough for several private dances. Go have fun and enjoy your last day of freedom.”

“Mom, you can't...” David started to say.

“I'm not wasting any more of my hard earned money on a waste of space, David. You hate school and you use every excuse to try and escape it. So, I'm not going to force you anymore or pay you to go there to waste your time. I've already sent your withdrawal notice to drop you out, since going to prison would kick you out anyway.”

“Mom, no!” David gasped and realized something. “We can get Veder! He can do for me what he did for you!”

Gloria sighed and shook her head. “He'll never do that, because he knows I wouldn't want him to.”

“Wh-what?” David asked, surprised.

“He knows you needed to be taught a lesson. He tried to tell me several times about the mistakes I was making with you and I didn't believe him... just like you didn't believe me when I tried to teach you the lessons you needed to live in a city like this.” Gloria said with a sigh. “With your history and being caught red-handed, there's nothing he can do.”

“But, it was my first time.” David whispered.

Gloria barked a laugh at hearing something that stupid and wiped at her face. The tears were finally stopping and she was grateful for that. She was hurting so much and she thought they would never stop.

“If you mean the first time you were caught committing a crime, that's a blatant lie. If you mean your first time with a woman... well, that's... sad and pathetic, actually. I thought you knew better than that?” Gloria asked and shook her head. “Why would you let some diseased joytoy use you like that while you paid to get your next BD high?” She sighed and said something out loud that she should have kept to herself. “You really are a useless gonk.”

David's heart shattered at hearing that from her. His classmates, and especially his bullies, called him the same thing, then told him to go back to where he belonged on the street. His entire world view shrank down to the inside of the car and he didn't know what to do.

“Your next hit is waiting, David. It's right there.” Gloria said and pointed at the megabuilding entrance, her voice flat and without inflection. “Go have fun and enjoy yourself one last time.”

David sat there and stared at her. He couldn't believe that his own mother could call him names and then tell him to go do exactly what he had done the night before and been arrested.

“It's your last chance.” Gloria said and pointed. “The girls are cleaner there, at least.”

David opened his mouth, closed it, then felt anger at her. “What right do you have to tell me...”

“Apparently, I don't.” Gloria said and cut his rant off. “You only listen when you absolutely have to, usually after you screw up spectacularly, and now you're in something that I can't just throw money at, that we don't fucking have, to fix it.”

“You can't just give up on me!” David exclaimed.

Gloria sighed and pointed at herself. “You gave up on me a long time ago, David. I've tried to give you everything I could, I've worked so hard... done everything I could do to...” She stopped talking and shook her head. “You've gone too far this time and I can't do it anymore.”

“Mom...” David whispered.

“I'm giving you a choice. Face your horrible decision like a man and admit you were wrong, or be a coward and go have one more bit of fun before going to prison.” Gloria said and sat back. “You want to be treated like an adult? Then this is your chance. It's time for you to make an adult decision.”

David felt many emotions and they all boiled down to her condescending tone and how angry he was at her not listening to his excuses or taking his side. He didn't say anything as he climbed out of the car and slammed the door.

“You chose... poorly.” Gloria said as the tears started again. “Goodbye, mijo.”

David stood there as he watched his mother drive away and abandoned him. When the car was out of sight, he turned around and looked at the megabuilding. He could honestly admit it was tempting, just to go inside and look. Instead, he turned and put his hands into his pockets and walked down the street.

He had a thousand eddies in his account and the rest of his life ahead of him. Now he just had to figure out what the hell he was going to do with them.