Chapter 1: The Hum
The first thing you notice in the Deep is this hum.
It's not something you hear; it's a vibration that rattles your teeth and sits at the back of your eyes. Think of ten thousand cooling fans spinning like crazy or a billion terabytes of data rushing through cables. Or the rich folks living large while I wipe the sweat off their stasis pods.
Sector 4 clear, I whisper, voice all scratchy. The air down here's been recycled so many times it tastes like copper and old socks.
I tap the tablet on my arm. The screen flickers green. Biosigns good. Food flow normal.
I look at the guy in Pod 712. Mr. Henderson. Real estate big shot from the Old World. He looks peaceful, floating in the blue goo. His skin's pale, almost see through, muscles all gone. He hasn't used those legs in twenty years. Why would he? Inside the Aether, he's probably twenty-five again, flying a dragon over some golden city or partying on a yacht.
Down here, he's just a meat sack I gotta keep from rotting.
Lucky bastard, I whisper, spitting on the floor. It's against the rules, but nobody watches the cameras in Sector 4 anymore. The bosses are too busy trying to fix the water filter upstairs.
I move to the next pod. Same old drill. That's what keeps you from going crazy in the Deep. Check the seal. Check the goo level. Check the brain thingy. Repeat until your shift is up, or you die.
My name's Elias. I'm thirty two, but I look fifty. My left hand shakes a bit from breathing in too much silicate dust during the Great Collapse, and I have exactly four hundred credits to my name.
I need five thousand.
I check the time on the wall. 3:00 A.M. Four hours left.
I sit on a crate near the vent, pulling a protein bar from my pocket. It tastes like sawdust and fake cherry, but it beats stomach cramps. I took a bite and pulled a crumpled photo from my jumpsuit.
Jasmine. My sister.
She's smiling in the photo, standing under a real sun - it must have been a rare day, about ten years ago, before the smog showed up. Now, her lungs are turning to stone. Silicosis type B. The doctors say she has six months unless I can get her Ascended.
If I could get the cash together, I could get her a cheap spot on a server. It wouldn't be great, maybe just a bad simulation of a regular house, but she wouldn't feel pain. She wouldn't cough up blood. She'd live forever in the code.
Just a few more months, kid, I told the photo. I'm working on it.
The lights in the corridor flicker. It happens sometimes. Power goes up and down. The grid is old, and the generators care more about the Server Racks than us. If the AC goes out, we get sweaty. If the Servers go out, the Ascended will have a bad day, and God forbid a billionaire sees a glitch in his digital heaven.
I stood up to finish the round. That's when I heard it.
*Thump*.
It was a quiet, wet sound, like a heavy bag of water hitting the floor.
I freezed. The Hum is always there, but this sound was different. It came from the end of the aisle. The Gold Tier section.
Hello? I called out. I instinctively reached to the stun baton on my belt. We have rats down here, weird ones the size of dogs, but they run from the light.
No one answers. Just the whirring of the fans.
I walk slowly down the aisle, boots making noise on the metal floor. Pod 800. Pod 801. Pod 802.
Everything looks normals. The blue light from the pods made weird shadows on the rusty walls.
Then I see it.
Pod 815.
The glass isn't broken. The seal's fine. But the goo… it's swirling.
Normally, the goo doesn't move; it's thick like jelly. But inside Pod 815, it's was going crazy. Bubbles are coming out fast.
I rush over, wiping the grime off the screen.
WARNING. BRAIN STRESS. HEART RATE: 180 BPM.
Crap, I mutter. 180? That's a heart attack brewing." If a client died on my watch, they'd take the cost of the body from my pay check. I'd be paying that off forever.
System, calm down! I shout, hitting the touchscreen. Admin override! Sedatives, now!
ACCESS DENIED. External Tampering, the screen flashes red.
External?? What the heck?
I look at the pod.
The woman inside, Client 815, just some random ID number, is losing it. Her eyes are taped shut (normal procedure) but her mouth's open, silently screaming in that goo. Her hands are slamming against the glass.
*Thump. Thump.*
She isn't just twitching; she's awake.
No way. The Neural Link is meant to kill motor control. Your brain is online; your body's just a shell on life support. You can't move. You can't feel. You shouldn't even know you *have* one.
Unless she got disconnected.
Crap, I say, starting to panic. I reach for the manual release.
Opening the pod risks messing up the gel. Cost: 500 credits.
I yanked the lever.
HISS.
Gas shot out, freezing the air. The glass slid open. The smell hit me hard, ozone and sterile chemicals.
The woman shot up, gasping and spitting out blue goo. She fell over the side of the pod, hitting the floor, shaking like crazy. Stark naked, skinny, skin pale as moonlight. Wires trailed from the port on her neck, snapping as she fell.
Hey! Hey, calm down! I knelt beside her, scared. Easy, you'll rip the interface!
She rolled over, coughing up fluid. She clawed at her eyes, ripping off the tape.
When her eyes opened, I backed away fast.
Not human. Glowing. Not reflecting light, they were actually glowing with this faint, digital light. Lines of code ran deep in her pupils.
She grabbed my wrist. Her grip was like steel, crazy strong for someone so weak. Her hand was ice cold.
Where... Her voice cracked, like she hadn't used it in years. Where is... the exit?
You're in Server 9, I said, stammering. You're in the Deep. You need to calm down, ma'am. You're having some kind of mental breakdown. I'm calling the meds.
I reached for my comms unit.
She crushed my wrist. I yelled, dropping the radio.
No! she screamed. No meds! You don't understand.
She pulled me close, her glowing eyes locked on mine. She looked scared stiff. Not confused, terrified.
They aren't glitches, she whispered, her teeth chattering. The disconnects... they aren't accidents.
What are you talking about? I tried to pull her fingers off, but she held tight.
The Aether, she gasped, blood trickling from her nose. It's not paradise, Elias.
I froze. How do you know my name?
No answer. She slumped back against the floor, panting. She looked up at the ceiling, at the miles of cables above us.
We aren't customers, she whispered, a tear cutting through the blue goo on her cheek. We're fuel.
Then, the alarms went off.
BREACH DETECTED. SECTOR 4. SECURITY TEAMS ON THE WAY.
Red strobe lights began to flash, turning the corridor into a pulsating nightmare.
The woman looked at me. "Run," she said. "If they find you with me... they'll delete you too."
I looked at her. I looked at the exit. I looked at the security camera swiveling toward us.
I had a dying sister. I had four hundred credits. And now, I had a naked billionaire telling me that Heaven was a lie.
I did the only thing a man in my position could do.
I helped her up.