Johnnie Ruffin - Betta's Station

Citizens. Friends. Awake from your slumber, from your lazy languish, from your bored and purposeless existence, and look here. Before you all, I present a tale that comes before the great Mortality Cure, a time when Humans could only travel by stasis pods. All was ruled by Pilo, the great Corporation then, though we would see it change later on. There was even the rule of law enforced by the federals and not the rule of civility we know so well.

Perhaps this experience was catalogued, but now I have it recorded through the use of specially selected memory engrams so that all might experience the wonder of where it all began. It is the story of Bettas Station, of Betta and Jadis, of Joy, and even Teena Maverick, of the Antogin, and Drafers.

And it all begins in the last gasps of Old Earth. By then it was a place of pestilence and decay. Much of our history was lost to the sentient viruses that ravaged what life dared to survive. In this place, pods were used to keep the young alive in the hopes that a cure would be found, that the war on disease and virus would be won. We know now that there was never any hope, but for one.

There will come a time when everyone you know and love will be gone. Every person youve made a brief acquaintance or offered a passing glance will eventually die. All those brief temporary lives exist all around you and they will only exist for that time and no more.

This was the thought that swirled around Bettas mind each time she woke from the stasis box on Old Earth. It was like she was a child again. Her mother would greet her and then her brothers would kiss her and they would play the day away. Those memories were the clearest, though shed forgotten the sound of her mothers voice and the faces of her siblings.

The memories came as the top of her stasis box on Arys-27 slid open. That moment when disorientation was at its worst and the mind was just catching up with the burst of adrenaline that woke her body. It was a dreamy sensation, like being half-asleep and half-awake all at once. Then it was gone, replaced by the blaring alarms of feds that needed her participation.

Operator Betta Reganta, the emotionless voice of a cybernetic agent repeated for what Betta could now reverse in her mind to be the third time. Please sign into your console and begin mission execution.

Betta sat up quickly, her body flushed and her dark skin slick with sweat as she eased herself out of the oval container and to the wall console. A chair rose to her standing position as though molded from the flawless white floor below her. She sat without preamble, immediately reviewing the particulars of this impromptu call-up.

A small smile touched her lips. This was it. Her last mission before she was given field clearance.

As if the agents were monitoring her thoughts, a slot opened near the console and a globular green sphere revealed itself with a straw sticking out.

Betta Reganta, your last scan revealed that you are lacking in important amino acids

Grabbing the drink quickly, her eyes on the console, she muttered in between sips, Im drinking, okay? See. Dont tell me what you put in it. Ruins the romance.

The mechanical listing of ingredients faded away and Betta was finally able to concentrate fully on the work at hand.

Betta was familiar with the information that blurred across her console, her mind and eyes processing it faster than most humans. It was both a skill and a curse. Unlike the cybernetic agents, her eidetic memory was a natural phenomenon that had been with her since she awoke on Arys-27, smuggled in a box all the way from Old Earth. It was why the feds kept her isolated, why she had spent most of her youth in their care, only seeing her father on rare visits.

The report that ran across the screen mentioned possible black-market dealers in the orange district. Being a mining colony, areas in orange district were more unstable than others, besides red, which allowed for an opening where criminals could operate at risk. Still, they needed a means to communicate and the darkNet was their preferred means of doing so. This report focused on a Lyten clan, an alien species that resembled bears, but had equivalent, if not at times superior, intelligence to Humans. Infiltrating the criminal organizations were normally the duty of an operator, but most operators were Human, making infiltration in a Lyten clan difficult.

But according to what she was reading, there were at least two operators that were attempting reconnaissance in the more deserted and unstable areas. Betta sat up straight. They were requesting an immediate analysis of what they were seeing.

Linking into the first operators gear, Betta could see through his cybernetic eyes from her wall console. The image that was before her revealed a fully lit room with metallic flooring and walls. At the bottom of the screen the name Agent Lime flickered for a moment.

This is Black Tiger, she offered with an even broader smile. Im linked.

Acknowledged, Black Tiger. Accessing playback.

The video reversed quickly, giving the impression that she was walking backward through the chamber, back around the two black cubes whose dimensions were immediately included in the video dump. Betta nodded, recognizing the manufacturer immediately. There was only one on Arys-27. The containers were advertised as one of the most secure and advanced in the galaxy.

Our Z Model Security containers can shield a variety of electronic gear whose frequencies will not make it past the container walls. Each container can also be custom fit for your convenience. Any scans, passive or intrusive, will alert the owner of the container. Any tracking material will initiate a static response that will neutralize any technological or biological Betta cut off her recall of the advertisement.

Agent Lime, she said quickly. You need to find an exit. Now!

Understood. Im placing a tracker now.

No

Too late. Her screen went dark. A new agent appeared on the screen. His eye sockets were black, indicating combat mode, and flickering green dots infested the transparent skull dome above his olive forehead. The grey of his lips barely moved when he spoke, much like all the Enhanced Agents. They had no emotion, felt no pain, and existed in a universe that was all logic, algorithms, and carefully strategized violence.

Operator Reganta. An EMP has been detonated in the location of assets Lime and Lemon. Enhanced Agents are en route for extraction within two minutes and thirty-one seconds. Do you have your report complete?

While he had spoken, Bettas fingers were moving quickly across the console in anticipation of his words. Shed managed to get a schematic of the security box through a darkNet interface. While she couldnt operate or make contact with any real questionable activity, she could access what the feds considered noise. One of the most rebellious things a society of darkNet citizens could do would be to broadcast proprietary secrets in encrypted algorithms for pure entertainment. In seconds, Betta had enough to recognize and match the frequency of the Z Model Security Container. The report she passed to the agent on the screen with a swipe.

Once youre close enough to the tracker, modify it to match this frequency and we can see where these containers are headed. I should be able to get a better idea of what theyre smuggling. Is there anything else, agent?

The green lights of the skull increased in ferocity and Betta was suddenly overwhelmed by a memory. The way her mind played and replayed the past was a constant distraction. Unless she kept a constant reign on her control, she would be taken through every detail of every day she had ever lived.