"Why 'Samurai'?" Damn it, I don't know. The name was not chosen by the protectors. When you first started, they called you the Vanguard of Humanity. Someone tells you directly that you are the one who is at the forefront, the one who breaks the trend. warrior? It was some smart idea from some smug punk that stuck like shit to the drywall. It makes sense, once you become one of us, it's like... you're part of a new caste, you know? "
June 2032
***
"Okay, thank you," I said, and pulled the bracelet taut with my teeth.
"You are very, very welcome," came the half-asleep voice of an Indian child from the robot's mouth. "Thank you for using... our services today."
I made sure the band wasn't too tight and tested my wrist's flexibility by showing my middle finger to the robot sitting behind the desk.
Lucy giggled and walked over to the robot. Within seconds, she was wearing her bracelet.
Still a little angry, I stomped to the museum door, accompanied by the clicking sound of Lucy's crutches on the marble floor.
"Let's explore!" Lucy said as soon as we left the security desk.
"Take care of the kids first," I said.
We rounded a corner and found ourselves on a small platform above the open museum. There are walls behind most of the exhibits, and some of them are clustered together, leaving plenty of room for people to move around.
I guess they expected a pretty big crowd. In fact, there were about three dozen kids running around.
Hovering camera drones move around, capturing footage of children staring at displays or poking at interactive exhibits designed to teach them something. They might get great footage of kittens playing with children from elsewhere and add it to their media feed.
"Bah, kittens aren't all stupid. They can run around and burn off energy. Our threat alone should keep them in line," Lucy said. "Isn't that right?" she growled at the twins, who ran away screaming and giggling.
"You're terrible," I said deadpan. I nodded toward the main hallway, which, according to the floor plan hovering over the entrance, bisected the main floor. "We can find Daniel."
Lucy showed her unique smile and walked in front of me with a "click-click" sound. "We can check it out as we go!"
I snorted and followed.
I'm not a big fan of museums that are more of a promotional piece, but I was still impressed by the main entrance exhibits. The first steps along the main path open up to a one-to-one scale model of the opposition, which stands tall and menacing in the middle of the corridor. Its four-hinge jaws opened wide, crushing a hovercar inside, and its skin was covered in conical spikes, making it look dangerous.
Samurai holograms fade around the monster, some flying through the air on hoverboards or jet packs, others appearing next to the monster or behind holographic bunkers, armed with bizarre weapons. One or two even appear to be riding on the creature's back, weapons gleaming at close range, ready to take down their foes.
"Cool," Lucy said. Impressive display.
"That's model twelve," Daniel said as he rolled over. He pointed at the monster's long back. "See that second belly? There should be some kind of organic body there. They can fool even the best cameras or scanners.
Bus bug. They are always labeled as hover buses and carry model one and three everywhere. "
"Are you memorizing the encyclopedia?" Lucy asked, her tone light and sweet.
Daniel's cheeks flushed slightly. "No, I read the plaque," he said. "Uh, hey, you still need some help with your auger rig?"
I nodded.
"If you get out of this mess, I promise not to laugh at you samurai fan."
"Come on, Kate," Lucy said. She put a hand on Daniel's shoulder and squeezed. "We're happy to help."
"Yeah, that's right. Come on, there's a cafeteria over there, there's a seat available. I'm hungry."
The cafeteria is like a gorgeous waiting room. A few benches, a small table and a row of a dozen vending machines are squeezed together against the wall, with neon signs grabbing attention.
We were sitting around a little table - us girls, and Daniel beat us with that punch when his legs stopped working - and in the middle of the table stood the head of a girl in a frilly dress. statue.
"Which one?" I asked, pointing to the girl.
Daniel only looked at the statue for a second before answering. "Neon Girl Happy-Chan. One of the first generation samurai. She's still around. So scary, you know, the first generation."
"Yeah," I said. I watched Daniel pull out a small cube, covered in scuff marks and cracks. He fiddled with the screen and managed to get the tiny machine to spit out a foot-tall hologram of a spiral galaxy.
The boy pulled a piece of wire out of his pocket next to the chair and sighed because it came out in a mess. "Yes." He said as he hurriedly untied the knot. "Jake join this."
I reached down to the base of my neck, felt my way to the auger's insertion port, and removed the tab covering it.
It's better than nothing. Without the right equipment, a person cannot interact with media.
The small computer in front of him moved, displaying three columns, with hundreds of tiny specs jumping from one to the next. He pointed to the largest of the three. "This is the primary operating system on your device. The other column is the typical hardware bits, CPU, battery, charging, network modem, you get the idea." He pointed to the third column. "It's neural uplink stuff."
The third and smallest pillar itself was twisted and deformed;
It's like there are six dozen streamers spinning around each other, creating an optical illusion. "Weird," I said.
"Yes, neurotechnology has always been a magical thing. No one is skilled in it except some samurai who are keen on it. That's your problem." His eyes moved wildly, then normal column The two parts above light up red. "You have a virus in your operating system and in your gear belt driver."
"Awesome," not completely clueless. I'm sure some of my fellow orphans were once coders and developers of the same viruses that pissed me off at the time.
"Can you remove them?" Lucy asked.
I interrupted before Daniel could. "need
oot access, right? "
"Yeah, pretty much," he said. "The good news is we're centrally located. The internet here is very fast."
I frowned. "What does it matter?"
"Would it be faster to redownload the entire operating system?" he asked.
I leaned forward against the table, letting my forehead rest on the cool surface. "Okay," I said.
Lucy played with my hair and talked to Daniel about which parts of the museum he wanted to visit while prompts and lines of code flashed across my vision. I didn't save much, just a few preferences that I needed to adjust later. Although the loss was not huge, it was painful.
"We're done!" Daniel said. "Try it?"
I raised my head and looked around the room. No more pop-ups. There's also no clock in the upper right corner of my vision that I like. “Don’t even know if it’s on,” I said.
"Look at the vending machines," he said.
I turned around and stared at the light blue machine for a few seconds. A bow appeared in front of me, floating a few feet away.
Master Leng! The coldest! *
Kula
275C
hot brown drink
275C
Happy Coke
250C
Prepsey
300C
golden goose
300C
*Not actually the coldest
"Yes, it works," I said. "The prices are a steal."
"This is a museum and if you want cheap drinks, go get them elsewhere," Daniel said.
Lucy jumped, then grabbed the edge of the table to keep from falling. "We can move on!" she said.
I smiled behind her and stood up, unplugging my gear as I did so. "Here, thank you."
"No problem," Daniel said. "Every boy dreams of dating two girls."
I snorted. "Don't push your luck. I don't mind beating an idiot, wheelchair or not."
"Can you beat a lame man?" Daniel said with a smile.
We stood up, Lucy pushing off the bench and putting the crutches under her arms. Being the only one still able to use my legs, I jumped up and circled around Daniel. "If you're a cripple too, you can hit a cripple. That's a big loophole, haha."
"Ah, the infamous disability clause," Lucy said with a smart nod. "That's why I have these crutches instead of some fancy gravity device. So I can use them as a last resort weapon."
I shook my head, led a group of us out of the cafeteria, and looked around. Nose resting against the glass monitor, a finger in his nostril, next to an expressionless Junior. The other kids around me weren't my problem, so I ignored them. "Where to go?" I asked.
"I want to see pretty dresses," Lucy said.
, "Yeah." There is a complete samurai fashion area here. " Lucy pointed to a small sign hanging from a pillar. A look at it opened up a small map of the museum, including the fashion section.
"What does this have to do with human endurance?" I asked. "You'd think they'd at least try to keep things on topic."
"Maybe it talks about the durability of miniskirts and their impact on humans?" Daniel wondered.
"Shh," I said.
Daniel smiled at me. "I want to see the technical part. They have first-generation decks and propeller units."
‘Hey!’ Lucy shouted.
As I pushed Daniel forward, I was surprised at how much fun I found.
Suddenly, the lights in the museum flashed red, the entire building shook, and the sky I could see turned crimson.
