The Starfighter Invitation

31 puppets

"Dio, how feasible is it for me to try to go do some orbital Challenges, then log to watch Dom Kinnen’s interview, and get back here for the gauntlet without keeping Arlen and Imoenne waiting about for me? Oh, and do I lose my parking place if I go off-planet for a little while?"

[[There are orbital shuttles: you don’t need to use your Snug. They’ll cost lux points, however. Timing is more difficult. We don’t have teleportation in The Synergis—yet—and you won’t be able to complete a Challenge and a return trip in the time frame. If you want to return to this location, you could board the shuttle before logging, and I’ll put you in the Soup on arrival.]]

Te meant taking over my body and walking it somewhere. "Ew," I said, settling onto a bench of the tram-thing back out of the Challenge area.

[[This, after all, is only a simulation.]]

"Even so. How common is it for a Cycog to walk about in Bios' empty bodies?"

[[It’s sometimes used to tidy away spare modals. Not so common for Core Units. When you are in The Synergis, you are generally not logging out of reality.]]

"Do you wear people’s—Bios' modals—to experience being that species?"

[[The command interface is different for Bios and Cycogs. A Type Three modal can be constructed with a Cycog suitable interface, of course, but your Core Unit is not structured for us to be. It is something we would control with a portion of our consciousness, rather than experience.]]

"Like a finger puppet."

Dio laughed, that little synthesiser-like ripple of sound, and…it wasn’t Dio. The speaking voice was Dio’s, but the laugh was different.

I blinked, looked out the tram window as it drew into the first rest area, and then stood up, feeling dizzy and hot and cold all at once.

"I’ve changed my mind. I’ll log now."