Memory Shard 1.05

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**Memory Shard 1.5 Bad Romance** contains the fifth piece of lore on Prisma Dimensions, Neo Arcadia and the Hyper Scape.

## Story

The sky was all pink and yellows strobing the sky well past eight o’clock. But Prodigy was still in her office, nestled deep in the confines of the Prisma Dimensions building in Paris.

She ignored the incoming call until she couldn’t. A slight frown creased her mouth, but Prodigy took a deep breath. “Yes?”

“Working hard or hardly working, Dr. Jepsen?” Nahari asked with a smirk.

“Nahari...what?” Prodigy’s frown returned. “Of course I’m working hard! I’ve told you this is import—"

“Relax, Thea. It’s a joke, OK? You ready for tonight?”

“Tonight?”

“You forget again?” Nahari looked hurt. She could see Prodigy’s eyes flit to the side as she checked her calendar.

“We have a date tonight? No, I just...got lost in work. Do you think there’s any way we could—”

“No! Definitely not!” Nahari cut her off. “Besides, you’ll come back to your project with fresh eyes.”

When Prodigy rolled her eyes Nahari knew she had her. “OK, fine. See you in Neo Arcadia in 30!”

* + -

Prodigy was right on time. Nahari was lounging at a table at the Parallax Café, sipping a Green Cola.

“You couldn’t order something more interesting?” Prodigy asked.

Nahari shrugged. “I’m addicted to the taste. What can I say?” she said as the bottle dissolved into a puff of pixels. “Besides, you need to take the blame for coding it so well that it tricks my brain into thinking it’s the real thing.”

“That wasn’t mine,” Prodigy insisted, “that was all Eiffel and his team. They did all the truly revolutionary work. So,” she said changing the subject, “what to do tonight? Wardrobe upgrade? I saw the new outfits from Macaw. Truly brilliant!”

“Maybe later.” Nahari gave her a sly wink, “How about… the most dangerous game?”

* + -

Prodigy and Nahari raced across the zone, laughing as they stumbled into – and took out – a couple of slow-moving casulinks. “They just stood there, gobsmacked!” Nahari joked.

Prodigy laughed, looking at the loot they had left behind. “Do you want any of their gear?”

“Nah, I’m happy with zappy,” Nahari indicated her D-TAP, a small, auto-targeting, energy pistol. “But you know what I would like, is to see some of the hacks up close.”

Prodigy said, “You’re really obsessing over them.”

“Look, the viewers want to know! Any article I do on the hacks gets a hundred times the traffic of anything else.”

“Hunh,” Prodigy sighed. Then pointed to an undisturbed supply crate on a hidden rooftop.

A judicious application of force and the crate spilled its contents like a military-grade piñata. In addition to the ammunition boxes and assault weapons there was a brightly glowing… object.

```
“What do you think it is?” Nahari asked.

```

“Pretty sure the triangle iconography symbolizes rapid traversal via displacement,” Prodigy said.

“In English?” Nahari prompted.

“Teleportation,” Prodigy explained.

“Cool. So… did Prisma really design them as part of the game?”

“Yes, of course,” Prodigy answered quickly.

“Uhhh-huuhhh,” Nahari said. “Then why the secrecy and lack of PR? Are they connected to the glitches users are reporting? Why won’t anyone from the Crown Rush division talk on the record?”

“Lord, Nahari! Just… give me a minute, ok?”

Nahari scanned the horizon, giving her girlfriend space.

“Say, Prodigy,” Nahari said casually.

“What now?” Prodigy snapped, still irritable.

“We’ve got bogies incoming.”
Two enemies were bearing down on them. They wore standard casulink jumpsuits but, unlike their earlier opponents, these two meant business, opening up with heavy weapons: RATATATATAT!

Prodigy froze, not sure if she should grab the hack, shoot back, or run.

Nahari grabbed her girlfriend and leapt down to the street.

Up ahead was the yellow glow of an anti-grav bumper. If they could reach it, it could give them a chance to escape. “Hit the bumper!” Nahari called out.

Nahari was two steps ahead, shots ripping by them. She hit the bumper and – whoosh! – it flipped her up in the air. She twisted around to make sure Prodigy followed.

But the streets of Neo Arcadia distorted strangely below her. Not the usual fragmentation of a collapsing sector, but as if the whole street lost coherency for a moment. Prodigy’s foot hit the bumper – but the energy field was off – a red glaring “ERROR!” alert floated above it, and Prodigy went nowhere.

“Nahari, what?” Prodigy called out.

“Oh hell,” Nahari said. The casulinks were right there! Nahari tried to line up a shot with her D-TAP but was out of range.

“Don’t leave me!” Prodigy said.

But there was no way for Nahari to do anything. She watched helplessly as Prodigy was taken out.

What the heck was that, Nahari wondered. Even Prodigy had been taken by surprise. Nahari wasn’t sure what had happened, but she was going to find out.