Ah, Zofia! In the prime of life at twenty-six (Verdant years), well-proportioned with waist-length sleek black hair and grey eyes. Saucy, bold, competent, athletic, she attracts Jake Palatin’s attention right away. She plays zero-G racquetball, at the top of the ladder
Zofia materialized out of the growing crowd, drink already in hand. She flipped her long black hair over her shoulder while she looked at Jake. “Is this a private party, or can anyone join?”
Jake stood up with a big smile. “This is my work team, but we’re just enjoying ourselves.”
She smiled to the other four. “I’m Zofia.”
Jake went around the table with introductions. “Zofia’s an implant technician. I met her here last week. It turns out we both play zero-G.” He turned to her. “When are we going to play? I want to see how good you really are.”
She laughed. “Oh, I’m good. Count on it. Tomorrow’s Wentday. Let’s do your usual courts at Hadley. I’ll see if I can get a court after work. I’ll let you know.” With a wave to everyone, she rejoined her other group.When Jake arrived, Zofia was doing some stretches to loosen up.
Not Like Us, Doc Honour 2022
“It should be open in a minute,” she said. “I was just warmin’ up.” Her grey eyes did that twinkle thing he liked.
“Of course,” he chuckled. “You’ll need it.”
“Oh, it’s goin’ to be like that, is it? Smack talk?”
“Only if you can take it.”
Zofia laughed out loud. “I’ve been takin’ it for years. I take some, and others take me. There’s always someone better.”
She twinkled again. “You think you’re that one?”
Zofia’s an implant technician, wearing the prescribed yellow coveralls of the Technology people in Verdant Prime. She spends her days on call, fixing software in implants people use to connect their senses to the InfoNet. (Picture a smartphone on steroids, implanted into the side of your neck and connecting to your sensor nerves.) Most of it is straightforward, reloading or updating software with an induction interface—no surgery required. She travels all over the city of Oriens, with somewhat more freedom than the vast majority of people.
She was raised in the Warrens, the lowest-class workforce proletariat of Solity. At age four, like everyone else in Verdant Prime, Solity took over her raising and education through the creche-style primary schools. But she showed unusual promise and was Selected for secondary school in programming, eventually topping her class in learning how to convince the AI programming tools to do exactly what she wanted.
But Zofia also has a secret: she has worked for years with Yitzak Goren in the Lazarite resistance movement, trying to change the socialist Solity methods of Verdant Prime. And on this hangs a story.
Can she change Jake, also?
Doc Honour
December 2022
Image by Khusen Rustamov from Pixabay
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