HAWK

CHAPTER SEVEN: DRIFTERS (1/5)

Dante's Digiverse was exactly the kind of place Kas used to frequent back on Holgar when she needed an escape from her mundane reality, though Dante's was a little less clean.

Digiverses had many uses, but they were mainly used as gaming arcades. Dante's place was a single large room that had been made smaller by a network of sixty isolation modules. Each module was eight feet high, four wide and hexagonal in shape so that they could be slotted together like a child's jigsaw puzzle. From above, they looked like the beginnings of a beehive. The sixty modules were separated into three rows of twenty, with each row split into pairs of ten that ran from front to back. Down the side of each module was the same thin vertical strip of red light, informing Kas they were currently occupied.

Business is still going strong, I see...

Open one's door and you would find a chair made of quickform body-polymer that adapted to your shape and temperature so that sitting in one felt like you were floating on air. Close yourself in, and you became entirely shut off from the outside world, cocooned in a soundproof shell that waited to realise your dreams. Take a seat, and the module would begin its process, lulling you into a deeper state of consciousness, much like hypnosis, until your senses loosened and your brain felt something like wet putty. You would enter a realm somewhere between sleep and pure lucidity - a place often referred to as 'the drift' - where you became disconnected from your body but still had complete control over your mind.

It was very similar to lucid dreaming, except with modular detachment, your experiences were absorbed by the capsule's mainframe and then digitalised, allowing you to 'dream' inside a computer. You also couldn't control your dreams as you were bound to the rules of the program, but you could choose the program and allow others to see and experience what you did, and vice versa. It connected people in a way that initially revolutionised communication until people woke up to just how addictive it was. Inside a module, hours could disappear in minutes if you weren't careful, and it wasn't uncommon for people to stay in them for an entire day without meaning to. That's why most places made you pay for your time up front or automatically faded you out every hour, just to keep you time-aware.

But some places didn't bother; places like Dante's where its customers pretty much lived inside their modules, only leaving to stuff down some food at one of the many local fast food dispensaries or have a quick wash in the bathhouse upstairs. Time wasn't cheap for 'drifters', but some were willing to use up what little income they had just to keep their so-called 'mod-time' ticking over. When they couldn't afford it any longer, they went back to wherever they called home (many were street bound), got a few hours of real sleep, then did whatever they needed to make some quick cash and run straight back to Dante's. Then they were back in paradise.

Kas had kicked the habit a decade ago, even before it became illegal for teenagers to use mods, but the all-too-familiar fragrance of thinly masked sweat stripped away the years until she suddenly felt like a kid again, making her way to the arcade after a boring day at school.

In all the years Kas had known Dante, the Digiverse had never changed. The room was perpetually dark and an eerie kind of quiet. It would have been silent if not for the soft droning music that these places pumped out in a feeble attempt at atmosphere.

The girl in the booth didn't even look up as they approached; she was immersed in something playing out through her shaded VR specs. Kas stepped up to the booth knocked on the reinforced glass. The girl turned her head but didn't bother to disable her specs. She was barely out of her teens. Her hair was pink on one side, blue on the other.

'Mods are occupied,' she said. 'All booked up till tomorrow.'

Kas touched the tip of her nose against the glass and talked into the mic-pad

'I want to see Dante.'

The girl shrugged. 'Dante's not here.'

'Dante's always here.'

This time the girl actually huffed before raising a well-manicured hand and tapping on the rim of her specs. They turned clear, revealing pink and blue eyes to match her hair.

'Look, lady, I told y--'

She saw the X1 and froze while every hair on her body stood to attention. Kas smiled.

'Dante. Now.'

The girl mouthed something that might've been, 'OK', before lowering one trembling hand under her counter and pressing a button.

'Thank you,' Kas said. The awkward silence lasted only a few seconds before a tall rectangle of black wall came away behind the booth, revealing itself to be a door. A mist of cold blue light poured out, followed by a short woman dressed in a silver crystalline leotard and a band of golden ribbon over dyed red hair. Her bright blue eyes stared wildly under a mask of thick white cream that made it hard to discern her age. She came out shouting.

'Dizzy! I thought I'd made it very clear to you, I am not to be disturbed dur--' Her eyes locked onto the X1 like a distant explosion. 'Holy mother of sandwiches.'

Kas gave the woman a small wave, letting her know she was also there. 'Hey, Dante.'

Dante returned the wave but kept her eyes on the X1. 'Hiya, kid. Tell me he's with you.'

'He's with me.'

'Good. Then get it the hell off my floor before one of my customers sees it and I have to close this place forever. Through here, quickly.'

Dante turned and shuffled back into her room, leaving the door wide open in invitation. Kas nodded her thanks to dumbstruck Dizzy as she led Worm and Hik into the swirling blue mist.