Memory Shard 2.01

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**Memory Shard 2.01 Hanging Curve** contains the fifth piece of lore on Prisma Dimensions, Neo Arcadia and the Hyper Scape.

## Story

ONE MONTH AGO

The charged carbon barrel sliced through the air connecting with the white leather sphere with a satisfying “whack!”

A stream of data filled her visor – a gyroscope and accelerometers embedded in the handle of the bat analyzed the axes and speed angles – detailing everything that happened with her swing. It was also broadcast to Coach Mayeux, on a train headed to a small town hours away, scouting a new recruit.

“You need to attack the pitch. Shift your grip so you spend less strength holding the bat, and more is available for accelerating the barrel through the zone,” Coach Mayeux said, Amandine hearing her voice in her head.

“Oui, ok.”

“Can’t believe you’ve already got the new B-Link. This stream is amazing!”

“Membership has its privileges,” Amandine joked.

“Clearly. I’ll get mine when I get back to town. The lines are going to be crazy at first. But these are going to be amazing for training camp! Anyway, I want you do another series of swings. Practice your form, ok?”
The cage at the batting center was Amandine’s for another 20 minutes. Her arms were tired, but she wanted to get the swing down. Start building the muscle memory.

A message popped up in her HUD – Simon was calling. With a flick of her eyes she muted it. She’d hear his message later.

THREE WEEKS AGO

As soon as the security officers left, Amandine rushed back up into the apartment. It was humiliating, the way they’d escorted her down into the lobby and made her wait, under the watchful eye of a “community representative.”

They wouldn’t tell her anything about what they were looking for. They wouldn’t even say Simon’s name. Only that they were investigating a “data breach of classified materials.”

The handler asked Amandine if she wanted to be accompanied back up, and Amandine had to strangle a primal yell, instead politely saying, “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

Immediately out of the elevator she saw the idiots had left the door open. She went in, worried the place would be trashed. But it was the opposite. Nothing had been disturbed.

Except...

The framed picture of their parents was askew.

The couch cushions were shifted, slightly.

The snowglobe on Simon’s desk – a gift from Mathieu Eiffel – was a touch too close to the edge.

A dirty tissue was next to the garbage bin.

What were they looking for? she thought. Where are you, Simon!?

TWO WEEKS AGO

The messages had piled up from Coach Mayeux, but Amandine couldn’t make herself go to practice. She couldn’t do much of anything with Simon gone.

There were half-full take-out containers in the fridge, and dirty plates piled up around the kitchen.

She was a creature of action, but with him just… gone, there was nothing for her to act on.

Somehow the hours passed in a fugue state, staring at the news stream.

A WEEK AGO

Paris glowed like a thousand candles below her. Simon’s apartment – Prisma’s corporate apartment –was 60 floors up in one of the tallest buildings in the city. Everything was dependent on him and the company.

A voice droned on the news, “Crown Rush viewership continued its sharp uptick, despite rumors of glitches in the battle arena. Fans are rallying around early favorites, such as Javi and Basilisk…”

No one from Prisma had returned any of her calls. None of Simon’s friends had heard anything. Her messages were blank.

An “eye-in-the-sky” surveillance drone swooped by, then hung in the air just beyond their balcony.

Is it looking at me?

She stood by the window, watching it.

Suddenly the lights on the drone flickered and died. The drone wobbled, then fell out of the sky.

Amandine gasped.

Then she saw Paris wink out, all the candles snuffed at once.