Chapter Five

Intermission

Another Earth

Virtual Location. Sacramento, California. United States Kingdom.

Mai sighed, as she ran her hand along the frame of the huge windows and watched the comings and goings of passersby and vehicles in the virtual world. The nighttime cityscape showed how the movement on the streets had barely slowed down, even though business hours were over.

As in the real world, many cities in Another Earth simply did not sleep.

It had been a little over a hundred and twenty years since Mai finally decided to get the Neurowire implanted but, no matter how much she tried, the virtual world, like almost all the others she had visited throughout her life, always gave her a strange sensation. She was not sure if it was the fact that she knew that her body was immobile at that moment in the other part of the world, or if what bothered her was that she could hardly distinguish the differences between the virtual worlds and the real one.

For people there was no difference, the real world and the virtual ones were both parts of the same reality. But for Mai, who also lived in a time when Neurowire was still a dream, it had taken some getting used to the fact that simply a quantum state computer in her brain could allow her to be anywhere at any time.

For humans it was easy. At the age of three or six, a child could undergo a non invasive procedure that lasted no more than ten minutes, and within a couple of days he or she could be completely used to it.

For the Aeon it was even easier. They were already born with the Neurowire and also with the connection to the hive mind of their species.

For the Feys, however, it was another matter.

The feys, or at least most of them, were not born. They appeared out of nowhere sometimes and, most of them, as adults. The procedure was not very different for them. Many Feys had the ability to regenerate much faster than a human being and that helped. The main problem was that they did not receive it when they were young, and the acclimatization period could take much longer. Not to mention that there were a minority of Feys who could not get used to the system and opted to simply use the most basic functions such as language or neural assistance.

It took Mai a month to get used to it, and while she could no longer live without one and it had made it easier for her to be anywhere without the need for tiring trips all the time, that strange feeling she had always been with her. It was different from having shared dream states like when she had lucid dreams with Shin, Lizbeth or Kotori.

"Very different..." she said to herself in a softly tone.

She stood in the hallway of one of the high floors that served the city's Justice Department. Her avatar, looked a bit diferent from her real look and wore a suit with a short jacket. The long silver hair was less tousled than usual. That was the appearance she had worn during that case since they had also been required to use a hologram to hide who she really was.

Although she arrived on the scene during the early evening hours, the trial was dragging on longer than it should, despite the fact that she expected her appearance before the judge to last no more than an hour.

The truth was that she was upset at the time, and the reason was that the judge had asked her, albeit politely, to leave the room where the trial was taking place for a case that occurred some time ago. The defence had resorted to the argument that their clients were nervous in Mai's presence. She was an expert witness, but her involvement in the case resulted in the culprits being sent to the hospital for a couple of days. She broke the arms of a couple of them when they wanted to escape after being caught in a case of trafficking of Feys.

Before Shin's arrival, Mai was almost always on the island monitoring operations and rarely went out on active duty, unless it was something really serious, and that case had certainly been bad enough for her to lose her composure.

She declined to press charges for the injuries she and a couple of other agents from the local California Station received, so they could join the prosecution side of the case and act as expert witnesses.

From the moment Mai entered the room, her eyes were been fixed on the culprits and apparently their lawyers used that as an argument to get her out of the room once the statements were finished.

A sudden rustling sound brought her out of her reverie and she turned to see how the doors of the courtroom opened wide and several people came out of the room walking hurriedly. Some simply vanished into thin air, perhaps disconnecting or perhaps changing the location of their avatars. Others simply began making neural calls through the Neurowire. A large group walked past her and gave her a smile as they nodded slightly. Mai returned the gesture, they were the local police officers who helped during the case.

Behind them came two people walking slowly, and the smile on their faces relieved Mai.

"It's done," said a male voice with an affable tone.

The man who spoke was Jeremiah Strauss, head of the Nevermore law firm and who also served as Mai's personal attorney. He was a dark-eyed older man, with short gray hair and a gray goatee beard, dressed in a neat black suit with a white tie. He had pointed ears and the wrinkles on his face gave him an appearance as if he could be the grandfather of the young woman accompanying him.

"They're going to present appeals to the defense but, most likely, they're going to have a seventy year reconditioning period in the Cocoon program, not counting trafficking charges and expenses to the state." said the girl at Jeremiah's side.

The girl's name was Aria, a young looking fey who fulfilled the duties of being Mai's secretary and assistant with all things related to office work on Siren Island. Aria was a little shorter than the man and had light blue eyes and long flowing hair that reached a little below her waist. She wore a black suit with some red decorations and white pantyhose with black boots.

"I would have sent them to the other side if I had any way… Seventy years? And physical conviction?" Mai asked.

"Twenty years, just as we thought," Jeremiah answered.

"Those bastards deserve more, trafficking of sentient beings, drugs, and use of industrial espionage. And I'm the bad one for beating them up. I really held back that time."

"And well you did, otherwise they would have used that against you," Aria said.

"At least they're going to be out of the system long enough," Jeremiah continued.

"Relax at least they were punished. Even with an appeal this was a slam dunk."

"I hope so. I wouldn't want them to delay a conviction again to present the same defence another way."

"There's not going to be time for that. Closing arguments are next week so I'll keep you posted if anything happens."

"Yeah… Thanks, Jeremiah." Mai said, with a weak smile.

"This is what you pay me for," Jeremiah said smiling, and added. "Try to be relaxed, next week will be the day where Lizbeth can finally be on the team. You should be more than happy."

"Oh, believe me… I am."

"I don't know if Claris has told you anything yet but, we received an RID from the Council. You, Lizbeth and Shin will have to sign it." Jeremiah added.

"I don't know why I'm not surprised... but an RID? Really? Hardly anyone uses it."

"Well, you guys have shown that you are very eager to team up, and that you guys also have an … polygamous… relationship. It was obvious that the board was going to say something. A Relationship Information Disclosure is only a lesser evil."

"I wish they wouldn't put so many sticks in our wheels sometimes," Mai said with an annoyed sigh.

"Well... it's not as bad as it was a few years ago," Aria added.

"It's still annoying."

"Try not to generate so much trouble and the Council will probably go soft too," Jeremiah said.

Mai and Aria exchanged glances quickly and Jeremiah, who noticed this, wiped the smile off his face and looked at both of them questioningly.

"What you two have done now?"

"Me? Nothing," Aria said, with a nervous grin.

"Me neither... yet. But if you want to know..." Mai said, scratching her cheek innocently.

"No, I don't want to know," Jeremiah said, shaking his head.

"Aren't you curious?"

"I'm your lawyer, not your accomplice. My job is to keep you guys out of jails… I just wish sometimes you wouldn't make my job so hard."

"You wouldn't like us any other way," Mai said.

Jeremiah smiled looking at both of them. "Certainly, I wouldn't."

"I'll text you later in case we need the whole Fire Department."

"Is it that bad?" Jeremiah asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We're not sure yet. We haven't told Virg either, for that very reason. It's probably something simple but, just in case, we've kept it off the books. We've just altered a bit of information so we can find out more..."

"I don't want to hear any more," Jeremiah said as he pulled back smiling. "Ladies, you know where to find me if you need any help. Take care and try not to blow anything up this time."

"See you later," Mai greeted as Jeremiah's avatar vanished into thin air.

Aria turned to look at Mai in concern."How bad is it?"

"At the moment not too much. Let's hope it's nothing earth-shattering or that we don't have another monster on the loose."

"You should have called some First Response Team with you."

"Aria, we're trying not to draw attention to ourselves. For the moment everything is fine. Shin is with me."

"You guys should be resting today. Even Tony and Kotori are worried."

"Tell them everything is fine. We'd like to go back to the island for a couple of days after everything that happens next week, but it's best if we just wait until the next month, when our break falls."

"About that, the hangar crew sent me an overhaul request for the vehicle."

"Why?"

"Well, since there are three of you from now on, they have to modify some parts to have more room inside and make changes to some parts. By the way, I wanted to tell you something."

"What happened?"

"Jeremiah didn't want to tell you anything because he's not sure, but it's possible that next week Shin will finally get a permission to be able to leave the planet… with custody, of course, of the two of you but, it's something."

Mai opened her eyes in surprise looking at Aria. "I didn't think he was going to get permission so quickly."

"I'm not sure, but maybe that's the reason. The RID is a bit formal, I know, but it's highly possible it has to do with the three of you already being team."

"We have a friend on the board," Mai said thoughtfully.

"Do you think it's this guy Travis?"

"I don't know, no one has seen his face, but the rumor that he's other of the Old Ones on the Council is strong."

"Whatever it is, it's not certain. You probably shouldn't tell Shin yet."

"Well, he's just following the rules so, as not to cause trouble for us. If it were up to him alone I think the Council's decisions would matter very little to him."

Aria, reached over and hugged Mai to her chest.

"And why is this?" Mai asked, blushing.

"I'm just happy for you guys," Aria said, smiling.

"Th-thank you..."

Mai knew that just the Neurowire was sending signals to her brain, but the sensation of being pressed against Aria's generous chest felt incredibly realistic at the moment.

"I-I can't breathe… "

Aria finally released her slowly.

"Be careful, you two."

"I know."

"Let me know if you need anything else."

Aria stroked Mai head and gave her a smile before her avatar faded away.

Mai sighed and looked at the time in her Neurowire. She glanced outside watching as the movement in the streets was becoming more noticeable. She disconnected from the virtual world, just wishing she certainly hoped she didn't have to bother Aria with the case at hand.

But for some reason, she felt that she was facing something that appeared to be much more complicated than she suspected.