The Bonsai Recordings - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

Star’s trip out to Shimizu U:

• Nymph is clearly Zolofted into orbit, but she’s there and functional. She’s going to be seeing Dr. Desai regularly. She knows the Lab is one of Netwatch’s prime investigation targets, so feels like she’s got a huge bullseye on her back at work. It’s not good.

• [I don’t think Nymph knows about Friction’s adviser Nixietube’s correspondence with Stridev from Netwatch. Nixie’s about as oblivious to risk at Nymph is hypervigilant now – maybe they’d average out? Up to Star.]

• Star meets with Bolovoi. With the infusion of cash, the gut project is zooming along: the theory and design work was solid and is proving out. They’ll be in cat-testing within a week, and human trials in a month or so. Should be ready for rollout in three months, max. Could speed up if you don’t need your corners sharp and neat.

• The Lab doesn’t do plant work, but she knows a guy. And as long as you don’t need the tree to develop telepathy or speed-walking, yeah, he can probably do something. Nymph takes you across the campus to Dr. Pranav Antal, maybe because he’s got a lot of plants under a gro-light in his office?

• The tree is clean, but – as he finishes and turns back to you, his handheld scanner passes over the moss on the soil, and bleeps. Well, shit. Give him half an hour, okay?

• The moss is moss, but there’s actually about a terabyte of encrypted data in it. One thing was in clear, but it was addressed to someone, so he didn’t read it -some “Oshin Kazue?” Whatever. He’s never seen bio-storage like this, and is completely lost in reverse engineering it. Nymphie may be stoned, but she’s still sharp enough to get a 20% cut, personally.

• There’s a letter to you:

“Miss Kazue: Please excuse my informality, I am dictating this in rather a hurry. You have established yourself as an accomplished adversary to my formidable niece and a valued ally to my erstwhile partner, for which you have my respect. Their battle is of little concern to me, much as I would have preferred to retain my home and titles.

“Several years ago Dr. St. Pierre and I were both wronged – as was your friend Miss Hyde, rather more grievously. I take full responsibility for what occurred, but I acted to avoid a much more widespread harm. You and yours, of course, may continue to seek retribution against me. I am asking you, however, to act against the instigators in ways in which I will not be able from my exile. “St. Pierre has used his power within the firm to stay my hand from that retribution: I believe his sole concerns have been safety and security, for himself and his nephew. I fear his complacency: I do not believe he has interests or ambitions beyond control of the firm, while those who exercised power over us are seeking ever more power in this world.

“I would ask your assistance in gaining retribution.

“On the first of each month for the next three months, at noon, my agent Vanta Black will be eating lunch in Takazawa, in the Spire. Should you choose to join her, she can answer questions. The establishment is as secure as these things get, and you will be safe and welcome there at any time.

“Do not attempt to decode the database: it will wipe unless a number of factors are present, and the information may prove invaluable to you in time.

“Even if you decide not to assist in this cause, I ask you, as a respected adversary, to please take care of my tree. He is quite venerable, utterly innocent of the events in history he has witnessed, and very dear to me. I believe that you understand the fragility and preciousness of life in a world given to violence.

“My most sincere regards,

Bai Wen-Ji”

Star runs this by Antoine:

You catch Antoine in a warm and expansive mood. He’s consolidated power and everything’s going his way. And you flatter him. So he pours a drink and starts telling stories.

Bai’s a cold bastard. Antoine’s dealt with Vulcans, and they’re not as ruthlessly unemotional as Bai. Even family, if they don’t measure up, they’re out. Taken care of, but out.

He’s a hell of a scientist, and if he weren’t old, old money – well. As it was, a lot of his attention was elsewhere – family business, incredibly subtle political shenanigans playing out over generations. Chairman was a good role for him: the firm needed a CEO who was 100% focused on the company and on staying on the scientific cutting edge.

As for the tree – Antoine bets that Bai thought his coup plan was foolproof. He just couldn’t give Antoine the credit for outmaneuvering him, so that had to go to Star. And he absolutely has that old-school “respected adversary” thing going on. Plus, no secret he’s been working on life-extension for half a century or more. His work’s biological, so Star’s eternal youth at the cost of sacrificing the bodily that means so much to him – Antoine can see that resonating for him at a profound level.

So, losing the firm to Antoine probably stings, but he can shrug it off. Finding a good home for that stupid tree – that’s his legacy. And aside from Jie, his family’s mostly a disappointment to him – which is definitely a message he was sending by giving the tree to the woman who beat Jie.

Just, if you let anything happen to that tree, exile is not going to stop Bai from bringing the wrath of god down on you. Which would be another insult to Jie, really, putting you down when she couldn’t.

You know, a paranoid might think this was all his plan: he’s pretty much untouchable on Sado Island, but he’s probably got orders and contingency plans with hundreds of agents around the world. He’s not out; he might not even be down…

Antoine is feeling a little less like king of the world suddenly.

When you meet with Vanta Black

• You’re pretty sure she’s a Bai. She’ll deny it, though, and only say she’s personally beholden to Wen-Yi.

• Yes, she has the keys to the moss. There are multiple factors involved, and she’s capable of arranging for them to align if the contents should prove useful to you and you to Wen-Yi.

• The key to everything is the noodle recipe. St. Pierre said that it was BSP manufacturing a substance highly illegal, and classified, in the Federation. That is true. However, the firm had been coerced into it, and he was a party to that agreement. Also, the substance isn’t what he said it was.

• BSP was approached in a hostile takeover two years ago, by a secret consortium. Wen-Yi fended it off, but at a price. The price was the liquidation of their Senolytics researchers (except for Antoine, on the condition that he move into a strictly managerial role), and their agreement to manufacture certain substances in an off-the-books facility on Yamato Station. Both Bai and St. Pierre signed off on the agreement liquidating St. Pierre’s staff (including Paragon’s parents).

• St. Pierre said the research was for inducing long-term memory in clones, the implication being that the firm was looking to supply clone workers. That is not false, but not true. And few in the quadrant would know the difference. She’s not authorized to say more, and you have the ability to learn on your own.

• Wen-Yi is curious about you. You may be St. Pierre’s agents, in which case he may choose to work with others. Or you may prove sufficiently independent, curious, and perseverant. Should your interests align with his, there is much he can provide, from information to resources.

• There’s no concern over you working for St Pierre per se, just a hope that you don’t share his complacency and lack of curiosity, ambition, and vengefulness.

• But a word of warning: if you complete the Netwatch contract, consider delivering the data to Netwatch directly, not through St. Pierre. Just to ensure your continuing viability.