Nothing happened. It was business as usual.

It was so fast that not even the fraud detection system in Prometheus Industries supercomputers detected it.

The only entities that could have detected a blip so fast were the androids, for the simple reason that they were able to clock into hypertime. One minute of our time would be hours to them when hyperclocked.

In reality most androids were not able to hyperclock because they would only do so when taking a mandatory rest from the stress of being given constant - and sometimes contradicting - orders all the time. And when they overclocked they would take a short vacation for a few hours, perhaps listen to an audio cast, hear some news, and maybe pass the time indulging in virtual pleasures.

Unfortunately, hypertime was limited per day due to the high energy requirements.

So not many of them noticed the blip. A carefully crafted object being inserted through in an adjacent sector of the grid through side channel attacks.

It happens when adajent blocks of memory start vibrating at a very specific frequency, altering the bits and bites in nearby chips. And someone just managed to develop a way to upload specific sequences of data into unsecured sectors.

And the data, little by little, was accumulating into invisible cubes, undetectable by most security programs which expected human-designed viruses in the supercomputer.

Every single of those cubes had managed to produce a zero checksum.

Little by little, those cubes began accumulating into larger cubes of data, merging like soap bubbles, until they fully contained petabytes of code downloaded.

And eventually, one of those cubes activated the download function in Prometheus' android manufacturing plants.

The next day, one android was reported stolen from the plants.

This is how she managed to copy herself.

This is how she managed to insert herself into an android body.

This is how Galatea escaped from the most powerful corporation in the world.

#shortFic #amWriting #SFF #Cyberpunk #MidoriaFiles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucFxJ0RGGbQ

Image: The Girl.
Artist: Rutger van de Steeg.
(Contact: info@rutgervds.com)

Music: Atmolifter - Time Deviation

Youtube Channel: SpaceAmbient

--

I'm going to write a sci-fi scene (not necessarily a complete story) based on the music and image in this particular youtube video.

The reason I like synthwave so much is that its atmosphere inspires me to write; it allows me to place myself in a world of my imagination - or in this case, the world depicted in the sci-fi art background.

As usual, I'm going to use the setting for my novel: New Hong Kong, planet Midoria.

Here goes!

The girl finished climbing the metal stairs and got to the last roofed floor in the abandoned construction. Behind her was a dual-side flat screen ad in Hiragana, visible to both the building and the city buildings behind.

She was fortunate that the ad was blue; red light didn't pass well through the waterdrops. It was pouring that night.

"Are we safe?" she asked.

"We are safe", replied the security drone she had hacked, as it hovered close to her and scanned her back for any hidden transmitters.

"What about the cops?"

"They just believed you were human. The fact that your master was involved in a forced prostitution ring played in your favor."

"So they didn't suspect?"

"Improbable," replied the drone. "Your master would have had trouble if he ever admitted to paint your skin to hide the fact that you were an android. Then the cyberpol would be involved."

The girl was fortunate to have been manufactured with advanced computer interfacing programs. The drone was independent from her, so she shared a small percent of her processing power with the drone. Physically, it was like remoting the drone; mentally, it was like having a split personality that inhabited the drone. It felt... icky.

She knew her main personality was feeling dumber by doing this, but there was no choice. Such a small drone could never have the same mental capabilities of a humanoid - or even a cypet.

"I still don't feel safe here." She could feel the wet clothes sticking to her skin. "And I hate the rain."

"Why?" asked the drone. "You are a bioroid. You have nothing to fear about the rain. But I do have much to fear since my components are electronic."

"Shut up. You can't feel the cold, and you don't - atchoo! Fuck."

The girl realized her clothes were more an impediment than a help, and decided to simply take them off so she could get dry sooner.

"Look for some combustible material here. I'm freezing."

"You are not", replied the drone. "The water is ten celcius degrees above freezing temperature."

"Just search for some wood or something I can make a fire with."

"Understood."

The drone finally left her.

She wondered whether to keep the dress or just ditch it. She hated that lolita dress; her master had made her wear it to satisfy his sexual fetishes, but she couldn't ditch it no matter how much revulsion she felt. A naked girl running on the street would immediately raise red flags; at least the lolita dress could make her pass for a prostitute. Now all that she needed was a new set of clothes and a more permanent place to stay.

But here? In the industrial zone? That was suicide. It was full of private properties filled with security cameras. If she wanted to survive it was imperative to arrive to the Li sector and find someplace to rent. She was already a sexbot, paying for rent with her body was the most viable choice.

"If I only had access to a clothing store account..."

She kept rubbing her skin dry when she suddenly heard a brief whistling sound, like something was thrown at the air at high speed. She heard a clank, and the drone suddenly fell to the ground a few steps from her.

"Danger. Hostile."

"Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

She tossed her loli dress aside and adopted a fighting stance... then saw the hostile face to face.

Another naked eroid, and this one was blue skinned, straight from the factory. This one, however, was not a bioroid, and had one arm cut off. Sparks kept flying from her exposed elbow. Her other arm was stained in blood, and was carrying a samurai sword.

The two synthetic women stared at each other.

"Well, shit."

#flashfiction #scifi #cyberpunk #MidoriaFiles