Nights and Days in Hive Acropolis Ch. 12

As the days pass, Vaia's life is miserable. But it is, at least, not frightening. Not for now.

When her file transfer got cut off, she thought she would get another stormy telling-off for trying to send the message. But instead, a chat window popped up from the admin. He told her that he'd stopped the transfer when he spotted it, and that she shouldn't try it again. But he also said he wouldn't tell anyone else about it. He even told her that most of the message had got through!

Vaia knew very well that the system didn't work like that. But he even went as far as showing the message logs confirming its receipt at the Spire! He'd helped her out. She thanked him. And again later when she saw him in person in the canteen. He pretended that he had no idea what for.

She'd always liked Fonso. He should be clan boss, she thought. But he wasn't assertive enough.

It was a nice reminder that there were some people in her clan who still liked no matter what. For whom all this nonsense made no difference. They didn't think she was mad, or dirty, or depraved... Or whatever else others thought. Not for a moment.

A nice reminder, yes.

Not that she gets many others.

She continues to be confined to the compound. When her chores take her anywhere near any of its exits, she can tell that she's being watched.

A lot of people don't want to talk to her at all. She tries to strike up conversations in the canteen, to start with, determined to try to combat the gossip. People -- friends, she'd thought! -- actually stand up, and move somewhere else, when she sits down to join them! When people are willing to talk to her, it usually turns out to be because they want the chance to throw some barb at her. Some nasty joke about tying her up, mostly.

Her frustration grows, and she finds that she gives up, going to the canteen when it's quiet, and eating alone. She's always been totally happy with algal food, but now it seems tasteless and dull. A chore to eat. Though she knows it's not really the new food she tried that she's missing.

She considers refusing to do her chores in protest at her arbitrary treatment. But she isn't sure how Manfred or Brega would react to that. She doesn't want to give them an excuse to form a common front against her. Especially if it's one that includes Doctor Frank.

Besides, doing her share of tasks around the compound gives her chances to talk to people privately. Most of them still do everything they can to avoid conversations though. At best, they say there's nothing to be done about the situation. She just needs to accept her punishment, deserved or not.

She can't believe it. Is no one willing to be in her corner? Has this place always been like this, and she's just never seen it this way before? In the past, it never seemed to her that her clan was so oppressed. People had been prepared to speak their minds. Hadn't they?

Increasingly, she spends almost all her time in her room. Not an entirely new thing for her, in any case. She refuses to let herself do any studying. It's a futile form of protest, as no one notices, but she does it anyway.

No head-set. No drugs. No hive-wide connection. She feels bereft for a while.

But there's still the internal system.

She fires up Underhive.

Fonso put the game on the system. She'd wondered once if he'd made it himself, but he told her that, no, it was a fork of one of the oldest computer games ever made. Almost as old as space flight.

She hasn't touched it in so long. It turns out that it's still fun. Nothing like the real Underhive, but that's not really the point.

It uses the system's standard character set as symbols to represent the spaces, people, objects and creatures of level after randomised level of Underhive. She makes a Goliath as a character, and, smiling to herself, names her Rebeck. Of course, she gets her killed in no time. That's just how this game goes, especially when you haven't played it in a long time.

Sash is next.

As Sash, she gets lucky, finding a hand flamer. She burns her way through scavs and easy mutants, until she gets overrun by a horde of Orlock gangers. She needs to pay attention to stealth and detection to get very far, she remembers.

Supposedly, the game ends on its 100th level, where there is a final boss called the Smuggler Queen. Underhive was the only place where Vaia had encountered a myth about such a person.

Fonso, assigned to monitor her, or having assigned himself, notices that she's playing it and opens a chat.

F: ( nice to see you playing that again =) )

V: ( maybe by the time i beat the SQ, i'll be allowed out again? )

F: ( there are worse ways to pass your sentence, rite? Better than that headset junk! )

V: ( it's different. I guess i was due a break from head-sets )

F: ( yeah. You've been using those too much, haven't you? Don't go back to them, pls, V )

V: ( well, i just got a taste of real life! Wouldn't care about head-sets at all if they weren't keeping me from it....I gotta get out, Fons )

F: ( some of us have got your back, V. Just stay strong )

V: ( ty, F )

V: ( i need to tell you something. I'm scared that they will send me back to the clinic. I don't want to be alone with Dr Frk )

There's a pause before any reply comes.

F: ( understood, V. I promise, i'll make sure that doesn't happen. I'll bust the guy up myself if i have to! )

Vaia grins at the idea of pudgy Fonso punching someone. But then, one of his hobbies was needle guns... Fonso's promise was actually very reassuring!

F: ( V, if things don't work out like you hope, i can put in a word. Try to get you assigned to sys admin with me )

V: ( i don't know if they'd let me do that. But thank you. That sounds like it would be nice. :) )

V: ( so, got any tips for keeping a Goliath @ alive? )

F: ( i don't remember. I mostly use advanced chars these days. Sometimes a VS to be overpowered ;) )

V: ( there are advanced characters!?!? )

F: ( only once you've beaten the SQ ;) )

V: ( ohhh. Can you tell me what they are? )

F: ( no, my secret society would kill me :P )

V: ( awww :( )

F: ( lemme see. Basics are just the six great houses, yep? )

V: ( yeah. Plus a generic bounty hunter )

F: ( oh. Of course. BH is actually very strong. First char i won with )

F: ( advanced? There's a lot of them. Redemptionist. Ratskin. Ash nomad. Spyrer. Squat. Ratling... )

F: ( you can even be a scav! )

V: ( gross! xP )

F: ( yeah. I think scav is the hardest difficulty. And it's just not fun to play )

F: ( then there's the uber-powerful ones. Space Marine, etc )

V: ( you can be a Space Marine? )

V: ( isn't that a complete walk-over? )

F: ( yeah, well, once you've beaten the game, it can be refreshing to play as something rly powerful )

F: ( plus, it suckers you in. You're not invincible, but you feel like you are )

F: ( then you make a dumb mistake and BOOM! yasd )

YASD. 'Yet another stupid death'. A common phrase among Underhive players.

F: ( there are heresy forks out there too. Play as a genestealer, or whatever )

F: ( but i prefer the main fork. Not censorship. It's just, the game's about loot, rite? And 'stealers can't even hold guns! )

V: ( okay. I want to check this out. I'm gonna try to beat it, F! )

F: ( gl! )

V: ( l8r )

Vaia creates another Rebeck.

***

The next day, when it's her turn in the rota to drain the sump, Vaia finally runs into Manu. He's been avoiding her. Not this time. She grabs him by the shoulder before he can go anywhere.

"Hello, Vaia," he sighs.

"Talk to me, Manu."

"Look, we didn't roll over on you, okay?"

"Then how did Manfred suddenly know so much?"

Manu looks angry for a moment that Vaia really might believe that he'd sold her out. "I'm not certain. But I heard that someone saw your collar. Someone who used to be into that, I suppose. Or still is, for all I know. They knew what it meant, and started telling people. When Manfred heard, he hauled me and Joak in."

"So you did rat me out!"

"No! Well... All I did was say which club we took you to. Unfortunately..."

"Unfortunately, he can use the 'net like anyone else, and found out what the club's known for in no time."

"... Yeah."

Vaia lets go of him.

"There were other things," Manu goes on. "Someone on the level saw you kissing one of those girls and getting out of her air-car. At least one person. Told Manfred about it."

She sighs. "Yeah. Okay. I don't blame you for all this."

"Thanks. I guess."

"You guess?"

"Look, Vaia, I've been trying not to be pissed off at you, but a lot of people in our age group are now."

"At me!? What the hell for?"

"You could've just stayed quiet and taken the punishment."

"I haven't done anything to be punished for!"

"I know that, but... You said something about obscura, didn't you?" he hisses quietly.

"I... No. I mean, they found it in my bloodstream. They thought I'd been taking it while I was away."

"Yeah, and you corrected them, didn't you?"

Shit. She had. "Oh fuck. I'm sorry."

"Well, I'll pass that on, but I don't think it's going to cut it. You've fucked it up for everyone. They found your little stash, and used that as a reason to search just about everyone else's room too!"

Fuck. This does a lot to explain the hostile or blank attitudes she's been getting from her peers.

"So you're not even the only one locked down! Plus, word is that they're going to decide that head-sets should be illicit now too."

That kind of crack-down is going to lead to a lot of pissed-off young Van Saars, Vaia thinks. "Well, you can't blame that one on me!"

"I don't, Vaia! But a lot do. Almost no one our age gives a crap how you want to get your kicks, Vaia. But as far as they're concerned, your little adventure is what has kicked all this off."

"But--"

"Yeah, I know. It's Manfred's fault. His decisions. But he's on the warpath right now, and no one wants to take him on. You, it's safe to blame."

Vaia had no idea about all this.

"On top of all that. You were the test case, Vaia. One of the most trusted young women, yeah? Now, the other girls are worried they won't be allowed to go out to party, except maybe if they're styled as boys. At best."

It's a disaster. But it's so ridiculous! If their elders weren't trying to control their lives in the first place...

"Manu--"

"And I'm sorry, but I'd rather not be seen talking to you right now, Vaia." He gives her a very quick kiss on the cheek. "Take care, Vaia. Maybe this will all work out."

And with that, he's off and gone.

***

Keeping her ears open later while quietly having tea in the women's quarters, Vaia learns of even worse.

Joak is the usual contact of the Van Saar youth with the House Delaque obscura dealers. He doesn't draw himself a profit, but he does take thalers from other young people to pay for the amount they want.

The elders haven't just found a few stashes. They've found a supply that Joak brought in recently, along with a stack of money, and plenty of evidence pointing to him as the 'ringleader' of all this.

He's not talking. Of course. The women are saying that he's going to be turned over to an Inter-House Tribunal for trial as an obscura dealer.

"And about time too!" crows Brega, throwing a look at Vaia.

Vaia has to make her excuses and get back to her room before she starts crying.

***

Underhive keeps her company as more days pass. She can understand now that no people want to. Although she and Fonso still message often enough.

She's got a Sash to Level 37. Most progress so far.

The weapons now are much more serious. Even a bolter is barely good enough. Her Sash is developing psychic powers. The enemies include an improbable quantity of Orks.

It's distracting enough.

Time passes.

***

Rebeck waits nervously in the Representative's suite at the Hotel Acropolis, outside the room that Pallas uses as an office.

She's not comfortable doing this. A large part of her still much prefers the idea of raiding the Van Saar compound. But this approach is sensible, and might actually work. It just involves humbling herself in front of her boss.

"Come in," ring out the clear, perfectly-pitched tones of Representative Pallas Athena.

The Representative is a very elegant woman. Stylish, but not so striking as to stand out. Rebeck has often wondered just where she came from, though she's deemed it wise not to investigate. She thinks she must be Necromundan, but Pallas has shed any accent that might have placed her, speaking now in a non-descript Upper-Upper Hive accent that blends in comprehensibly and well among aristocratic and off-world company, shorn of affectation and hive slang.

Rebeck did research her name once, and soon realised it was an assumed one. Its old-Earth origins fit perfectly with the myths from which her hive's name also derived. Pallas Athena. The Acropolis's patron goddess indeed.

"Rebeck," Pallas greets her. "I read your message, but I would like to hear you explain this request of yours in person."

Rebeck clears her throat. "Thank you for making time for this, Representative."

"Indeed. Don't waste too much of it."

"Right. There is a Van Saar woman. A... good friend of mine and Sash's. She doesn't want to stay with her clan any longer, but they're holding her incommunicado."

"A 'good friend'?"

"My lover. Our lover."

Pallas nods. "I see. You and Sash never did make sense to me as a couple. This adds up."

"I'd like you to buy out the release in her House contract, Representative. They can't prevent her from taking other employment if the release is met, and then they won't be able to hold her."

"You do realise that the added cost of those releases is the main reason I do not generally recruit directly from Houses?"

Rebeck nods.

"If I do this, Rebeck, I shall garnish your pay to cover that cost. Is she worth that much to you?"

"Yes, Representative. She is. That was part of the solution I was going to propose myself."

"Very well. You are also requesting that I employ this young... Vaia van Saar as... an air-car mechanic?"

"Yes, Representative. A contract for specific employment has to be on the table in order to activate the release."

"I am aware of that. But you must realise that I will not pay a wage to... super-cargo. Is this woman actually going to be a competent air-car mechanic?"

Vaia had never even been in an air-car until they met, Rebeck knows! But she also remembers how Vaia knew what every part of Frere's trike engine did without ever having seen one before. She just had to... massage the truth here. "She is a true Van Saar, Representative. Excellent technical education. If anything, the role of air-car mechanic is some way below her level of competence. I am more than willing to vouch for her."

"So be it. If she proves a disappointment, I will touch your pay to cover hers as well."

That would be a hit. But not that much of a one once she's getting head-of-security pay. Assuming this conversation isn't about to blow that whole prospect...

"Thank you, Representative! I would be happy to cover every thaler of this on my own part, but I don't have the standing to make a deal like this. I really appreciate this!"

A small smile. "I didn't agree quite yet. Doing this might cost me political capital with the Van Saars of Acropolis. Even for me, it's hard to say how much. The influence of any individual clan is always hard to assess..."

Rebeck doesn't really know what to say to that. "Well... It seems to me that they consider her a disruptive influence now. They may turn out to be happy at an opportunity to be rid of her profitably!"

"Rebeck, I do not pay my security people for speculations of that type."

"No, Representative."

Pallas takes a moment, before speaking again. "I am prepared to do this for you, Rebeck. It is worth the trouble if it helps ensure the stable private life of my next head of security."

"Thank you, Representative!" Rebeck could not be more relieved! "You won't regret this!"

"No, I had better not. I do not pry into my employees' personal lives, Rebeck, but I would have to be deaf and blind to be completely unaware of the gossip about what you and Sash get up to with the girls you bring up to the Spire. If she accepts to come and work for me, this Vaia will live with you, and I expect the visits by any others to stop."

"Yes, Representative."

"I am not going to do anything like this again! You -- and Sash -- had best ensure that this relationship works out. I certainly will not tolerate you building a harem."

Rebeck can't help but guffaw. Pallas ignores it.

"In terms of performance versus cost, I do consider you to be one of my most successful hires, Rebeck. Sash as well. Two of the most undervalued talents I've managed to sweep up. That's why I was willing to consider your request. However, if things go awry, I will have no hesitation in terminating both -- indeed, all three -- of your contracts."

"Understood, Representative."

"Very well. Bring the relevant documents to me to sign and seal once they're all written up."

Rebeck can recognise that she's been dismissed. She gets up slowly, makes an awkward bow which for some reason seems appropriate to her, and leaves the office.

Once she's outside the suite, she breaks into a run to tell Sash.