Episode Seven: The Going Too Farr Job, Part 2 - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

date: 5 Minsky

The Team is in Stridev’s apartment, as Friction tries to get her panic about the correspondence between the missing Netwatch Vulcan and her graduate advisor under control. Star asks her about her advisor, and Friction explains that Hohstadt – Nixietube – is one of the handful of top experts in known space on synthetic minds, but isn’t anywhere near as worldly as she thinks she is. She could be in well over her head with this business.

They speculate as to whether Nixietube and/or Stridev are already dead. Paragon and Carbide don’t think Stridev’s dead: it’d be easy enough for Netwatch to fake up his “not returning from Vulcan” as a cover story if they were the ones after him. Star hopes this won’t be a situation like the Ferengi, and she won’t have to sleep with a Vulcan. Paragon notes that if she does, he won’t be satisfied with just an ear rub. Friction interrupts the banter to warn them again about how dangerous the file data could be. She’s not sure where Netwatch draws the line, but this could be shoot-on-sight stuff for all of them. At least so far the only ones who’ve seen the data are herself, and she doesn’t have an internal Agent, and Dino, who’s shielded. Paragon’s determined to keep a copy on Dino, but Friction doesn’t know whether they should admit to Netwatch that they have it. Paragon says they should take it for granted that Netwatch is monitoring every screen and all their Agents – and so, if they go see Friction’s advisor, they need a plausible reason.

Discussion turns back to the kittyborg: Carbide considers them “felines of interest” in their investigation. Starscream wonders if they’re networked such that they’re a hive mind. She interrogates Chieko-chan. She learns that Chieko gets data from Nixietube’s cat Pixel, with an implication that transfer is by contact only. She discovers that Chieko has given her a glob of unreadable data (Carbide: “an informational hairball”), which she sends over to Paragon, who can’t make anything of it either. Starscream uses her onboard holo-projector to project a visiualization of it in her hand, and Carbide recognizes a variant of an ancient video format. With a day in the workshop and research help from Paragon, he can whack up a reader.

Star and Paragon consider burglarizing a museum of technology, but Carbide notes that in the time needed to plan a heist, he could build a converter. Star and Paragon are disappointed.

They return to wondering whether Stridev is dead or in hiding, possibly with the kitty colony. Maybe if they knew whether his favorite barista is dead? The team decides to ask Friction to set up a meeting with Nixietube in the department’s electronic cleanroom. Their cover will be Vir’s interest in going to college, and Nixietube likely being interested in Starscream, as she’s “a brain in a jar – a very attractive jar, but a jar.”

They decide to take the decoder and the data stick, both in RFID baggies. Starscream tucks a credit chip into Chieko-chan’s collar with a note, “please feed the kitty,” and tells her to go back to the noodle shop, as they’ll be going to a dangerous place. The kitty heads off. They plan their approach to Nixietube. Starscream will lead, as Friction’s a bit stressed. She wants to lead with “is Stridev dead?” but they agree on Paragon’s suggestion of opening with the cats.

At the clean room, Starscream leads with questions about the cats. Nixietube is confused: didn’t Friction tell her that’s not their department? Not the hardware, Star explains, the colony: are they being used as a network? Is she using them to pass information? Have they succeeded in uploading or downloading a brain?

At that, Nixietube panics: that sort of talk gets you and your barista a bullet in the head. In the clean room, Paragon projects a page of math from the correspondence they recovered, while Carbide ensures the room is as secure as advertised. Star holo-projects the kitty data again, and asks about Nixietube’s cat, Pixel.

Nixietube, shocked and confused, asks if they think that Pixel is a spy. Not, Carbide says, for anyone she might think: murder-for-insurance where the cats did the murder is one possible hypothesis. Star adds that she doesn’t think the cats did it: Chieko-chan seems to be helping them with the investigation. But, if the cats are a hive mind computer, they may be acting in their own interests. And, it’s possible Stridev is hiding out with the cat colony.

Starscream asks Nixietube about the correspondence: who would understand it, or profit from it, or be willing to kill for it. She says that there are maybe six or eight people in known space who could follow it on their own. None of those are on NeoTokyo – though who knows what Netwatch has? One or two are on other independent worlds, and might kill for the data. In terms of corporate interests – she starts a long digression on the correspondence and its implications.

They were examining the circumstances that led to hostility towards networked technologies and computer sentience on Earth and comparing it to those on Vulcan. The hostility grew out of circumstances around the Eugenics Wars and World War III, but since so much of that history was lost when digital networks and repositories were destroyed, nobody’s really sure of the specifics. NeoTokyo was settled by people who rejected the postwar, Vulcan-influenced, anti-capitalist, anti-tech order – which is still enforced on the planet by Netwatch.

Since the corps know that Netwatch acts with extreme prejudice against tech they don’t approve of, generally there isn’t a lot of pushback, she says. At that, Starscream makes a hand gesture meaning “blowing up ice cream truck,” to refer to their rescue of the researcher who was being used to develop technology proscribed by Netwatch. Only Carbide picks up on her meaning, and suggests that any connection is probably too far afield to be relevant.

Paragon engages Nixietube in a deep and nerdy discussion of the role of science fiction in popularizing anti-AI ideologies in the 20th Century, and both are lost to the discussion. Friction tells them about her work with Chance Aspect and Night, in applying 21st Century social engineering techniques to NeoTokyo to undo unrestrained capitalism. She’s a little weirded by the apparent coincidence that she and Nixietube were working on the same thing from different ends.

Starscream corrals them back into focusing on Stridev: “the rest is, literally, academic.” She leaves the room to call her manager, dropping into popstar-ditz to ask for them to arrange a tour of the kittylab. Nixietube told them that the lab director and his assistant are both away at a conference on Bynar – which looks totally cool, and they don’t get funding for that sort of thing, it’s not fair!

Paragon wonders if the conference is real, and if they’re really there. Nixietube mentions that they’ve been posting on the conference social media site, but Paragon says that would be utterly easy to fake. And, when she investigates, it turns out that that’s what happened: the posts were actually made from a residential neighborhood near campus, and hadn’t passed through subspace relays.

Starscream gets a call back: she’s got a meeting at the kittylab in two hours. They decide to go check out the location of the computer that the fake posts were uploaded from.

Nixietube asks plaintively if she’s in danger. Carbide tells her that in situations like this, “constructive paranoia is never a bad idea.” She says she’ll go to a safe space, and whispers the location to Friction.

As they leave campus, Starscream hears a “pspsps!” from around a corner. They’re greeted by a furry cat-man, who introduces himself as Mister Snuggles, saying that Chieko-chan sent him. He knows who grabbed the Vulcan.

The Team follows him out of sight into an alley. He explains that the cybercats had eyes on the Vulcan – two humans followed him, there was a bright light, he dropped, they stuffed him into a van which drove out of their range. The guys were mooks with the local mob, contractors. He explains that he’s got a kittysurgery in the local mob warehouse: they’re cool with the cats, he’s a low-key security guard, and patches them up sometimes. He’s pretty sure the mob had no direct interest in the Vulcan but were hiring out.

The Team asks him about the data packet Starscream got from Chieko-chan. He explains that translating the video format won’t help all that much, because all the data’s in Cat. He can handle it: he’s got an onboard hardware catbrain emulator.

This notion thrills Paragon: she wants one! Vir suggests that it’d be a lot easier to send the data to Mister Snuggles to run, but Paragon won’t be dissuaded. Mister Snuggles tells her that he’s got parts on hand, and building one and doing the brain surgery will take 4-6 hours.

She’s determined to come back later. Vir insists on accompanying her when she does. Mister Snuggles whispers to her that she’ll want to install whiskers at some point – so much of their sensory data just won’t make sense without them. Paragon’s giddy at the notion of having three brains: hers, Dino’s and a catbrain emulator. The Team suggests that her going neko will help conceal her identity, at least.

Mister Snuggles leads the Team to the site of Stridev’s disappearance. There are video cameras, owned by the local totally-not-a-protection-racket security firm. They don’t store data locally.

The Team plans: Paragon, Carbide, and Vir will go hack the security firm offices, while Starscream and Friction go take the kittylab tour.