Chapters
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Dakota rested one hand on the heavy metal door, feeling its smoothly machined surface with her fingers. Here on Abyss station, she could never be sure that she wasn’t just bouncing around the sides of a box. But at least she still had the freedom to walk around her box.Java couldn’t even do that. “How many ponies like her are there, Cinnabar?” she asked, stopping in the hallway, staggering back a few steps. Through that door was waiting the trip she couldn’t return from, but it would wait just a…-
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“You could still change your mind,” Cinnabar said, his voice cheerful as they walked through Equestria. They had a destination here in Manehattan, though of course it was also possible to transit directly to the system they wanted to visit. But Equestria made you pay in bits for that, and rewarded you when you indulged the world in its verisimilitude.Just now, Dakota wouldn’t mind a little walk. Her limp was finally gone, her breathing clear. Her body was working about as well as could be expected,…
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The next thing Dakota knew, she was sitting up in Clay’s bed, letting the sheet fall away in front of her. Several hours had passed, and her internal sense of time demanded she get up. There was somewhere she had to be, something she needed to do.Right, the parser! I need to go with Beck, make my case in person.Her whole body ached, and the smell of sweat and other things was thick around her. Not unpleasant, but… she would have to leave them behind.Clay twitched beside her, then opened one eye.…
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She did exactly that. Dakota took it, and found she could drink it too. With steam in her nostrils and warmth flooding into her chest, she found it was a little easier to concentrate on their conversation.“There aren’t many ponies you could ask about that. Anyone who hasn’t had their hands in this thing since they first opened might not know. Everybody’s happy enough to just take what they’re given and call it good. But… there’s the other side too. Mostly ponies there. Most of them don’t…
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Dakota blinked, and nearly fell over on her shaky legs. She’d seen plenty of drones in her time, plenty of robots. Even her early memories included delivery drones, and little flying things that people would use to record their vacations and sporting events. But this… it was hard to compare this to a little flying box that dropped off a pizza. Something that could stand and walk on two legs, without the awkwardness of the old Boston Dynamics creations.“That screen head thing is… incredibly…
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Dakota woke with a painful smack on the submarine’s fuselage. She moaned, glancing to the side. Apparently she’d been moved to the sleeping area after she dozed, and tucked into the sleeping bag. There wasn’t much headroom back here, just barely enough for her to get in and out. Dakota glanced up—there was Clay, asleep in the front seat. She reached behind her—he’d even plugged her implants into the sub to charge.“Before you ask, I told him to do that,” Cinnabar said. “He was a perfect…
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Dakota stepped off the bottom of the lift and into an area that obviously saw humans more often. Here there were real control surfaces, albeit most of them were reconfigurable touchpads with only sonic feedback. If anything, the space looked more like an advanced hospital than somewhere for computer maintenance. There were shelves of mylar-sealed medical implants, a pair of operating tables with articulating robotic mounts above, and a polished white floor kept free of dirt or debris. Strangest of all was…
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“You won’t like it,” Clay answered, prying her arm free. He moved over to his equipment, and began opening the massive metal case holding his speargun. Except—what was in there wasn’t a speargun. It was smaller, more compact than she’d imagined—but there was no missing a rocket launcher when she saw one. The weapon itself was little more than a plastic tube with a sight and a sensor package—the rocket emerging from within was almost as large.“Holy shit I don’t like it.” She stumbled…
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Dakota couldn’t remember ever even riding a ship before, much less heading out into the ocean to go diving. But there it was on the docks, its sleek metallic shape glittering in the early morning sunlight. She hadn’t been arrested the night before, nor were there any other signs that she was about to spend the rest of her life in prison. None yet, anyway.The boat itself looked new, and for once there wasn’t a single overlay to enhance its appearance. Even with everything on, all that Dakota could see…
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The autocar started driving before Dakota could even move. She wondered idly where it might be taking her, but she was so drained she couldn’t muster the energy to lift up her hand and check. At least the air in here was filtered and air-conditioned. Dakota fished around in one of the side-compartments, eventually coming up with a complimentary bottle. She downed the whole thing in a few quick gulps, spilling lots of it down her chest.“Hey, Dakota,” Cinnabar said, after an indeterminate time laying…
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