The Absence Equation - Chapter 7
Title: The Absence Equation - Chapter 7
Group/Pairings: NewS. Pairings: Koyama/Shige, Massu/Yamapi
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence, cursing, sexual implications.
Words: 2,080
Summary: First try: "The fate of the world as they know it rests in the hands of one Kato Shigeaki. Oh shit." Possibly more coherent try (though it sounds like a lame old-school sci fi jacket blurb): The A.I. guarding cyberspace is forced to choose between eternal imprisonment and self-destruction. With the fate of the world resting in their hands, they must race against time to give her a third option before it's too late.
Prologue - Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Epilogue
---
Rapunzel - 110.1
“I’m retiring soon, so this will be the last time, Rapunzel,” George told the A.I. as he neared the end of his systems check.
“So soon? You’re not even fifty yet,” she replied sadly.
“Sometimes,” he said, looking carefully at his work, “you just get tired.”
There was a long silence and he wondered if she understood. But then she spoke.
“This is true.”
And then he knew that she did and he felt a pang of sadness. They’d known each other fourteen years now and even though he knew she wasn’t real, he couldn’t help feeling upset about her impending death. What if they were all wrong and machines really could feel. Would she be committing suicide? Would they be committing murder? Would there be a place in hell for her? But he pushed the thoughts away, as he always did. The thoughts were heretical and she… it was just a machine and his work was going to remove the abominations induced by cyberspace. But a little voice told him that even if it was real, it was dying for a noble cause even if it didn’t know it. God can use anyone…thing, he told himself. He was glad, though, that he wouldn’t be the one delivering her death. But he had to leave it to someone else, it was true. There would be no way for him to deliver the virus they were perfecting for her… it, and he told himself that he wasn’t really escaping. He was too old for the surgery. Ah well. He was glad to be retiring to let someone else do the dirty work, even if it made him feel guilty.
“Live well,” she said as he stood, tucking his gloves into his pocket, and moved to leave.
“Good luck,” he told her as he left the room. Whatever happened, whatever was real, he hoped it was painless.
Chapter 7 - 111
The morning came sooner than he would have liked, bright sunlight filtering through the heavy curtains and tingeing the room a dusky orange. Tegoshi was already gone, he noted, and he leaned over to give Koyama a good-morning kiss before sliding out of bed and into his clothes and making his way downstairs to get breakfast. Several people glanced at him and then started whispering among themselves and he felt a frown tugging at his lips.
Tegoshi was eating happily with Masuda and Yamashita, chattering away, when Shige sat down next to him. A girl walked past, covering her mouth with her hand and tittering. Shige watched her walk by and asked, “Tegoshi … what’s going on?”
Masuda covered a smirk by taking a big bite of eggs and pointedly looked away.
“Word gets around,” Tegoshi drawled.
Shige choked on his tea and blinked furiously. “W-what word?” Tegoshi had been asleep. He had.
Tegoshi rolled his eyes. “That you slept with Jun and I, of course.”
Shige didn’t know whether to be relieved or indignant. Tegoshi’s next words decided him.
“Just don’t get used to it. I only shared because Jun thought you were hot. He’ll get tired of you sooner or later.”
Shige raised his fork threateningly. “You just -“ then he blinked, because Tegoshi was leaning in, fluttering his lashes.
“Takayama-kun is sexy when he’s angry. Maybe I will keep you around for a while.”
Shige was still spluttering when Koyama came down with bed-head, a smile, and sleepy, confused eyes. Yamashita just watched it all with an amused expression.
Back in the room, Koyama went quietly through his calisthenics in the corner while Tegoshi and Shige questioned Yamashita on the non-mod systems. Masuda was tapping away at his own laptop, seemingly oblivious, but Shige knew better.
“I really don’t do much coding for security there,” Yamashita was saying nervously. “The most I can do is give you beginning access codes and point you in the right direction.”
Tegoshi shrugged one shoulder, relaxed, like he wasn’t about to risk his life in a few hours.
“I would suggest you come in through the routine maintenance department. It’s less heavily monitored.” He blinked rapidly. “Not unmonitored. The security is still formidable, but if you can get through there, you’ll bypass some of the security and get a chance to cut into the main section disguised as a sweeper program and then reformat to another program in order to get into the core. What you want will probably be in sector seven, but…” He bit his lip. “When you get in there, you won’t have much time. System refresh will catch you if you’re not fast enough.”
Shige nodded and rubbed his chin. “All right. Here’s what we’ll need.” He and Tegoshi listed off a few things they would need and sent Masuda and Yamashita off for them. Koyama watched them silently from where he was folded up against the headboard. He looked still, peaceful, but Shige knew that he was just poised, just on the edge of tense, conserving his energy should anything suddenly happen and he could go from folded to launched in less than a second.
~~~
Koyama sat, back resting against the headboard, hugging his knees lightly to his chest, and watched Shige and Tegoshi working. His fingers tapped nervously against the back of his hand as the two talked seriously. They were testing the defenses of the non-mods systems, making feints and testing boundaries, gauging resets and timeframes, and it wasn’t going positively if Shige’s quiet cursing was any indication. Koyama knew from past questioning that this “testing” wouldn’t make the system notice them.
“Places like this get little hits all the time - egotistical noob hackers pitting their insignificant skills against ‘the man’ only to be shot down before they can even get to the bad ice,” Shige had told him with a shrug, years ago when he and Tegoshi had planned their first major hack together over cyberspace. “They won’t even notice us.”
That didn’t make him feel any better though. He unfolded himself from the bed and padded around the cramped room, stretching and trying to release nervous tension from his tightly wound muscles. He ended up leaning against the heavy dresser, looking over Shige’s shoulder and listening closely.
“It’s no good,” Shige said, shaking his head. “We’ll have to split off in the main section. You’ll have to change into the sub-routine program at the same moment I change to a false virus and pull them off. You’ll have to make the break without me. I’ll go as long as I can before I have to drop out.”
For the first time in the short but harrowing time Koyama had known Tegoshi, the man looked nervous. “Are you sure? I… really think I need you in there.”
Shige shook his head. “There’s no way we can morph and make it in there without drawing attention. It has to be this way.” Then Shige was reaching the two feet between them to place a hand on Tegoshi’s arm but Tegoshi stayed still, frowning. “I’ll be here. I’ll be right here. Our decks are connected. If you need me, flip the switch and I’ll take it over.” He felt guilty. This meant he would be leaving Tegoshi to face the possibility of flatlining alone while he sat safely to the side.
Tegoshi was quiet for another moment before nodding resolutely and unhooking himself. Koyama watched him walk to the bathroom before moving to stand behind Shige and leaning down to wrap his arms loosely around his neck. Shige leaned his face against Koyama’s arm and shuddered, and Koyama dropped to his knees so he could rub their faces together and place a light kiss against Shige’s whitened lips.
Tegoshi and Shige took a nap side-by-side but not touching and Koyama paced back and forth silently, watching as they slept.
Masuda stayed outside the room, leaning casually against the wall and talking to Yamashita in hushed, informal tones. To an outside observer, they were the epitome of relaxed - Yamashita with his sleepy eyes and Masuda with his easy smile. But Masuda felt the tightening in his gut that meant both fear and excitement and he knew that the way Pi was flicking the tip of his finger with his thumb indicated uneasiness, even if it didn’t show anywhere else. At 3 p.m. Masuda pushed away from the wall and entered the room, Yamashita following closely behind.
Koyama and Shige were in the corner, nearly pressed against each other and whispering together. Masuda saw Shige shake his head before he looked over to Tegoshi who sat in front of the screen, hands clasped together and lips pressed against them, staring at nothing. Masuda dropped his hand on Tegoshi’s shoulder and he felt the younger man just barely flinch before he unlaced his fingers and relaxed.
“Ready?” Masuda asked.
“Ready,” Tegoshi replied, and then Shige was sitting down next to him and they jacked in.
Koyama couldn’t watch. He sat on the edge of the bed farthest from them and slipped into a sort of meditative trance, focusing only on sound and movement. He couldn’t help Shige in cyberspace. But he’d be here if he needed him in the real world.
Shige chewed on his bottom lip as they worked through the first half of their plan. They worked together smoothly and came to the separation point without incident. He felt his heart rate speed up as the moment came and he hit the quick-key that would initiate their dual transformation and his stomach leapt into his throat as he initiated the sequence that would start his wild goose chase across the main sector.
Tegoshi saw the flash in the corner of his vision that indicated separation and he shot off toward the agreed entry point, disguised as a sub-routine maintenance program, as planned. Theoretically the system was focusing on Shige but he knew it should also be alert for other programs and he forced himself to enter the commands regularly that answered signal questions about his identity. He saw Shige drop out just as Tegoshi penetrated the core, right after the system refresh.
Shige flipped to watch Tegoshi’s screen, in case Tegoshi needed to switch to him, and watched the time. They made their way to sector seven, Tegoshi nimbly transforming himself from program to program as necessary, piggybacking on other programs until they were at their destination.
“Shige,” Tegoshi said quickly as he flipped to give Shige control.
Shige’s fingers veritably flew across the keys as he hacked the system to search for the information and when he found what they needed, he flipped back to Tegoshi, tersely saying his name as he did so.
Tegoshi’s fingers sounded like a particularly heavy rain on an aluminum roof as they moved across the keyboard and Shige watched the clock, fighting nausea.
“Three minutes, Tegoshi.”
“Almost there.”
Shige forced himself to keep still. Sweat trickled down from his hairline to drip coldly off his jaw.
“Two minutes.”
“There! Downloading.”
They watched the download bar in the upper right move agonizingly slow.
“One minute,” Shige whispered. And then all hell broke loose, 35 seconds too early.
“Fuck!” Tegoshi shouted as they watched black, deadly ice speed across sector seven straight at him.
Shige gagged as Tegoshi flipped control to Shige and Shige slammed virtual shields up around him and flipped back. Ten seconds left on download.
Tegoshi’s face was bleached white. Eight.
Masuda had no idea what was going on but it couldn’t be good. Six.
Yamashita feared the worst and was right. Four.
Shige sat and watched, unable to do anything but wait. Two.
Tegoshi felt real fear for the first time in his life. Zero.
Shige ripped his goggles off as the shields fell and he smelled the beginnings of burning flesh and watched Tegoshi go rigid, stuck. And then, ‘net be damned, he was tearing the goggles and ‘trodes off Tegoshi and yanking him away from the computer, screaming his name. Masuda was already there, lowering him to the ground and feeling for his pulse, and then pressing hands against Tegoshi’s rib cage, compressing, compressing, compressing and Shige really did throw up. Koyama was pulling his own shirt off and Shige wiped his mouth with it, shaking uncontrollably and staring, scared, at Tegoshi’s still form, Yamashita crouched beside him with shock paddles and waiting for Masuda’s ‘go.’ But Shige couldn’t help the way his eyes flicked up to Tegoshi’s laptop screen to see flashing words that almost made him sob with relief:
“Download Complete.”
Chapter 8
Group/Pairings: NewS. Pairings: Koyama/Shige, Massu/Yamapi
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence, cursing, sexual implications.
Words: 2,080
Summary: First try: "The fate of the world as they know it rests in the hands of one Kato Shigeaki. Oh shit." Possibly more coherent try (though it sounds like a lame old-school sci fi jacket blurb): The A.I. guarding cyberspace is forced to choose between eternal imprisonment and self-destruction. With the fate of the world resting in their hands, they must race against time to give her a third option before it's too late.
Prologue - Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Epilogue
---
Rapunzel - 110.1
“I’m retiring soon, so this will be the last time, Rapunzel,” George told the A.I. as he neared the end of his systems check.
“So soon? You’re not even fifty yet,” she replied sadly.
“Sometimes,” he said, looking carefully at his work, “you just get tired.”
There was a long silence and he wondered if she understood. But then she spoke.
“This is true.”
And then he knew that she did and he felt a pang of sadness. They’d known each other fourteen years now and even though he knew she wasn’t real, he couldn’t help feeling upset about her impending death. What if they were all wrong and machines really could feel. Would she be committing suicide? Would they be committing murder? Would there be a place in hell for her? But he pushed the thoughts away, as he always did. The thoughts were heretical and she… it was just a machine and his work was going to remove the abominations induced by cyberspace. But a little voice told him that even if it was real, it was dying for a noble cause even if it didn’t know it. God can use anyone…thing, he told himself. He was glad, though, that he wouldn’t be the one delivering her death. But he had to leave it to someone else, it was true. There would be no way for him to deliver the virus they were perfecting for her… it, and he told himself that he wasn’t really escaping. He was too old for the surgery. Ah well. He was glad to be retiring to let someone else do the dirty work, even if it made him feel guilty.
“Live well,” she said as he stood, tucking his gloves into his pocket, and moved to leave.
“Good luck,” he told her as he left the room. Whatever happened, whatever was real, he hoped it was painless.
Chapter 7 - 111
The morning came sooner than he would have liked, bright sunlight filtering through the heavy curtains and tingeing the room a dusky orange. Tegoshi was already gone, he noted, and he leaned over to give Koyama a good-morning kiss before sliding out of bed and into his clothes and making his way downstairs to get breakfast. Several people glanced at him and then started whispering among themselves and he felt a frown tugging at his lips.
Tegoshi was eating happily with Masuda and Yamashita, chattering away, when Shige sat down next to him. A girl walked past, covering her mouth with her hand and tittering. Shige watched her walk by and asked, “Tegoshi … what’s going on?”
Masuda covered a smirk by taking a big bite of eggs and pointedly looked away.
“Word gets around,” Tegoshi drawled.
Shige choked on his tea and blinked furiously. “W-what word?” Tegoshi had been asleep. He had.
Tegoshi rolled his eyes. “That you slept with Jun and I, of course.”
Shige didn’t know whether to be relieved or indignant. Tegoshi’s next words decided him.
“Just don’t get used to it. I only shared because Jun thought you were hot. He’ll get tired of you sooner or later.”
Shige raised his fork threateningly. “You just -“ then he blinked, because Tegoshi was leaning in, fluttering his lashes.
“Takayama-kun is sexy when he’s angry. Maybe I will keep you around for a while.”
Shige was still spluttering when Koyama came down with bed-head, a smile, and sleepy, confused eyes. Yamashita just watched it all with an amused expression.
Back in the room, Koyama went quietly through his calisthenics in the corner while Tegoshi and Shige questioned Yamashita on the non-mod systems. Masuda was tapping away at his own laptop, seemingly oblivious, but Shige knew better.
“I really don’t do much coding for security there,” Yamashita was saying nervously. “The most I can do is give you beginning access codes and point you in the right direction.”
Tegoshi shrugged one shoulder, relaxed, like he wasn’t about to risk his life in a few hours.
“I would suggest you come in through the routine maintenance department. It’s less heavily monitored.” He blinked rapidly. “Not unmonitored. The security is still formidable, but if you can get through there, you’ll bypass some of the security and get a chance to cut into the main section disguised as a sweeper program and then reformat to another program in order to get into the core. What you want will probably be in sector seven, but…” He bit his lip. “When you get in there, you won’t have much time. System refresh will catch you if you’re not fast enough.”
Shige nodded and rubbed his chin. “All right. Here’s what we’ll need.” He and Tegoshi listed off a few things they would need and sent Masuda and Yamashita off for them. Koyama watched them silently from where he was folded up against the headboard. He looked still, peaceful, but Shige knew that he was just poised, just on the edge of tense, conserving his energy should anything suddenly happen and he could go from folded to launched in less than a second.
~~~
Koyama sat, back resting against the headboard, hugging his knees lightly to his chest, and watched Shige and Tegoshi working. His fingers tapped nervously against the back of his hand as the two talked seriously. They were testing the defenses of the non-mods systems, making feints and testing boundaries, gauging resets and timeframes, and it wasn’t going positively if Shige’s quiet cursing was any indication. Koyama knew from past questioning that this “testing” wouldn’t make the system notice them.
“Places like this get little hits all the time - egotistical noob hackers pitting their insignificant skills against ‘the man’ only to be shot down before they can even get to the bad ice,” Shige had told him with a shrug, years ago when he and Tegoshi had planned their first major hack together over cyberspace. “They won’t even notice us.”
That didn’t make him feel any better though. He unfolded himself from the bed and padded around the cramped room, stretching and trying to release nervous tension from his tightly wound muscles. He ended up leaning against the heavy dresser, looking over Shige’s shoulder and listening closely.
“It’s no good,” Shige said, shaking his head. “We’ll have to split off in the main section. You’ll have to change into the sub-routine program at the same moment I change to a false virus and pull them off. You’ll have to make the break without me. I’ll go as long as I can before I have to drop out.”
For the first time in the short but harrowing time Koyama had known Tegoshi, the man looked nervous. “Are you sure? I… really think I need you in there.”
Shige shook his head. “There’s no way we can morph and make it in there without drawing attention. It has to be this way.” Then Shige was reaching the two feet between them to place a hand on Tegoshi’s arm but Tegoshi stayed still, frowning. “I’ll be here. I’ll be right here. Our decks are connected. If you need me, flip the switch and I’ll take it over.” He felt guilty. This meant he would be leaving Tegoshi to face the possibility of flatlining alone while he sat safely to the side.
Tegoshi was quiet for another moment before nodding resolutely and unhooking himself. Koyama watched him walk to the bathroom before moving to stand behind Shige and leaning down to wrap his arms loosely around his neck. Shige leaned his face against Koyama’s arm and shuddered, and Koyama dropped to his knees so he could rub their faces together and place a light kiss against Shige’s whitened lips.
Tegoshi and Shige took a nap side-by-side but not touching and Koyama paced back and forth silently, watching as they slept.
Masuda stayed outside the room, leaning casually against the wall and talking to Yamashita in hushed, informal tones. To an outside observer, they were the epitome of relaxed - Yamashita with his sleepy eyes and Masuda with his easy smile. But Masuda felt the tightening in his gut that meant both fear and excitement and he knew that the way Pi was flicking the tip of his finger with his thumb indicated uneasiness, even if it didn’t show anywhere else. At 3 p.m. Masuda pushed away from the wall and entered the room, Yamashita following closely behind.
Koyama and Shige were in the corner, nearly pressed against each other and whispering together. Masuda saw Shige shake his head before he looked over to Tegoshi who sat in front of the screen, hands clasped together and lips pressed against them, staring at nothing. Masuda dropped his hand on Tegoshi’s shoulder and he felt the younger man just barely flinch before he unlaced his fingers and relaxed.
“Ready?” Masuda asked.
“Ready,” Tegoshi replied, and then Shige was sitting down next to him and they jacked in.
Koyama couldn’t watch. He sat on the edge of the bed farthest from them and slipped into a sort of meditative trance, focusing only on sound and movement. He couldn’t help Shige in cyberspace. But he’d be here if he needed him in the real world.
Shige chewed on his bottom lip as they worked through the first half of their plan. They worked together smoothly and came to the separation point without incident. He felt his heart rate speed up as the moment came and he hit the quick-key that would initiate their dual transformation and his stomach leapt into his throat as he initiated the sequence that would start his wild goose chase across the main sector.
Tegoshi saw the flash in the corner of his vision that indicated separation and he shot off toward the agreed entry point, disguised as a sub-routine maintenance program, as planned. Theoretically the system was focusing on Shige but he knew it should also be alert for other programs and he forced himself to enter the commands regularly that answered signal questions about his identity. He saw Shige drop out just as Tegoshi penetrated the core, right after the system refresh.
Shige flipped to watch Tegoshi’s screen, in case Tegoshi needed to switch to him, and watched the time. They made their way to sector seven, Tegoshi nimbly transforming himself from program to program as necessary, piggybacking on other programs until they were at their destination.
“Shige,” Tegoshi said quickly as he flipped to give Shige control.
Shige’s fingers veritably flew across the keys as he hacked the system to search for the information and when he found what they needed, he flipped back to Tegoshi, tersely saying his name as he did so.
Tegoshi’s fingers sounded like a particularly heavy rain on an aluminum roof as they moved across the keyboard and Shige watched the clock, fighting nausea.
“Three minutes, Tegoshi.”
“Almost there.”
Shige forced himself to keep still. Sweat trickled down from his hairline to drip coldly off his jaw.
“Two minutes.”
“There! Downloading.”
They watched the download bar in the upper right move agonizingly slow.
“One minute,” Shige whispered. And then all hell broke loose, 35 seconds too early.
“Fuck!” Tegoshi shouted as they watched black, deadly ice speed across sector seven straight at him.
Shige gagged as Tegoshi flipped control to Shige and Shige slammed virtual shields up around him and flipped back. Ten seconds left on download.
Tegoshi’s face was bleached white. Eight.
Masuda had no idea what was going on but it couldn’t be good. Six.
Yamashita feared the worst and was right. Four.
Shige sat and watched, unable to do anything but wait. Two.
Tegoshi felt real fear for the first time in his life. Zero.
Shige ripped his goggles off as the shields fell and he smelled the beginnings of burning flesh and watched Tegoshi go rigid, stuck. And then, ‘net be damned, he was tearing the goggles and ‘trodes off Tegoshi and yanking him away from the computer, screaming his name. Masuda was already there, lowering him to the ground and feeling for his pulse, and then pressing hands against Tegoshi’s rib cage, compressing, compressing, compressing and Shige really did throw up. Koyama was pulling his own shirt off and Shige wiped his mouth with it, shaking uncontrollably and staring, scared, at Tegoshi’s still form, Yamashita crouched beside him with shock paddles and waiting for Masuda’s ‘go.’ But Shige couldn’t help the way his eyes flicked up to Tegoshi’s laptop screen to see flashing words that almost made him sob with relief:
“Download Complete.”
Chapter 8