Chapter 10 - netrunning

A soft but rhythmic song is playing in the background as the little Asian girl opens her eyes.

She jumps from her bed in a rush and bolts out of the room. She quickly checks the operation room.

"Not here!" She shouts and keeps running.

She arrives in what appears to be the living room, there's a sofa that takes up a corner and faces a holographic projector. The projector is on the news channel.

"The Year is 2045, April 10th, another building in the commons has been the witness of horrible fights last night, the NPPD reported casualties..." The news anchor keeps reporting the news.

The little girl doesn't pay attention to the news at all, she just goes through the room and passes an entryway. She is now silently entering the kitchen, Pax is busy preparing something, he doesn't notice the girl.

She silently moves right behind him and gets ready to scare him when he suddenly turns around to face her.

They both scream at the same time and start laughing.

"Do you know what day is it today?" She asks Pax.

"Mmmm, April 10th?" Pax answers.

"aaaaah, you forgot! I knew it!" She says while frowning.

Pax grabs a small box and puts it in front of the little girl.

She grabs the box hastily and opens it.

"You are so bad at pretending!" She pests at him.

She takes out a small device with a tag on it. She turns it around to look at it at every angles possible.

She starts frowning again and looks disappointed.

"That's it?" She asks.

"Yes, this is it, what did you expect it would look like?" Pax asks her.

"I don't know..." She answers.

"That's how neural links with ID chips look like." Pax says.

"But... It's so small, I thought it would be bigger." She says.

"Did you imagine a kind of holoscreen displaying your new identity over your head at all time?" He asks ironically.

"Noooo, I'm not stupid!" She complains.

Pax smiles softly at her as he takes her hand and guides her to the operation room.

He waited an entire year for officer Johnson to make this happen. The little girl now has an official name and an adoptive father.

They enter the operation room. She rushes to sit on the long chair. Pax takes a stool and sits right next to her.

"Dad... What's my legal name now?" She asks.

"I thought you would never ask, Officer Johnson managed to keep the name I gave you but he had to add a different family name than mine, so you are Hanako Sato, officially my adoptive daughter." Pax says.

Hanako's eyes fill with tears as she stares at Pax.

"Are you ready to be linked?" Pax asks.

Hanako nods and wipes her tears with her hand. Pax adjusts the long chair into a flat position. He grabs the neural links and installs them in a machine that he places around Hanako's head.

Hanako feels nervous but she doesn't move one bit. Pax adjusts the machine to fit perfectly around her head.

"All right, it will not hurt, the machine applies an anesthetic before starting the operation." Pax tells her.

"OK, I'm ready for it." She says as she tries to stay still.

Pax activates the machine, a screen lights up on the side displaying several pieces of information. He does one last check before launching the operation's protocol.

The machine starts moving around her head, scanning her brain. After a moment the machine goes completely still for 30 seconds and Pax turns it off.

"Done!" Pax says.

"So fast? I didn't feel anything!" Hanako says as she tries to sit down.

"Slowly, girl, now your implant needs to be configured properly, it may make you feel dizzy." He warns her.

Pax checks the new implant, a small metal plate with slots located behind her left ear. He inserts a small jack in one of the slots and plugs it into a screen, it lights up and starts displaying information.

"All right, everything looks optimal, do you experience any dizziness?" He asks.

"No, it feels completely normal, no changes at all." She answers.

"Let's try to link you with the network then, close your eyes." He commands her.

Hanako closes her eyes and suddenly goes "wow!".

"Impressive?" he asks her.

"I see plenty of "things", what is that?" She questions him.

"This is the representation of the network you are connected to, what you see is our home network, you are safe to explore it." Pax explains.

"This is so cool! I can control a lot of things!" She says.

Pax smiles as he thinks about her enthusiasm. Hanako is only 13 years old, she knows nothing about netrunning.

Since the war, networks are fragmented, the world wide web still exists but it's a very dangerous place filled with viruses and rogue AIs.

Corporations keep their networks under tight security protocols and self-hosted in very secure server rooms. They are often the target of talented netrunners who are after corporation's secrets.

Hanako's giggling brings back Pax from his thoughts trip. He checks the screen to make sure everything is still fine with her.

"How's everything down there?" He asks.

"Great, it's like an entirely new world in here." She answers.

She opens her eyes and instantly realizes that the network structure overlays with the real world. She looks shocked for a moment before she starts talking again.

"Pax... I can see the network structure in this world too!" She says.

Pax gives out a soft smile and gets closer to her.

"Yeah, it's cool, isn't it?" He says.

"It's awesome, I love it!" She says.

Pax thinks about the first time he connected to networks to salvage data.

It was before the corporations' war, networks were still connected to the world wide web. Rogue AIs were hiding their presence, creeping in the darkest corners.

Netrunning was something relatively safe during this time and a good netrunner was still something rare. You could become rich overnight with your skills.

When the corporations started their war, netrunning became very popular but also very dangerous.

Zealous netrunners would take over networks, steal the data and sell them to other corpos, creating more chaos.

A lot of brains were fried during this period.

For some reason, it pushed the rogue AIs to become more active and they stopped hiding. Some of them working for corporations and others just sporadically attacking any netrunners.

The situation became critical when the rogue AIs seemed to act more coordinated, taking over the world wide web.

Corporations started to lock their networks from the web, essentially becoming the isolated networks of today's world.

Many attempts had been made to try to control the AIs, but none succeeded. Ultimately the containment of AIs was made through the development of a huge firewall called the Blackwall.

Smaller versions of the Blackwall were used in local networks to imprison AIs that would have infiltrated a corporation's network.

Corporations would use this way to try to enslave and control the trapped AIs.

Pax shrugs as Hanako disconnects from the network and jumps off the chair.

"I want to learn everything about networks!" She says.

"Really? That's your new life goal?" Pax asks her with a smile on his face.

"Yes!" She replies enthusiastically.

The rest of the day goes by with talks about networks and the history of the world wide web.

Hanako is like a sponge that absorbs every single detail that Pax feeds her.

Slowly the darkness of the night takes place and the little girl starts to look sleepy.

Pax grabs her and carries her to her bed, then he softly lays her down. She snuggles her face in her blanket and slowly drifts away.

Pax stays silent, staring at her for a while. He knows tonight her dreams will be full of networks and rogue AIs, maybe nightmares, but that will not stop her in the future.

He softly taps on her shoulder to comfort her, he knows soon enough she will be on her own again in a scary world.