Umidiz's page

I picked up the data jack at Franz' house and mostly worked from home. It was good money Zo, more than I've seen in a long time. I'm not sure what happened.

Umidiz looks at you with a blank stare for a moment. It has been hard Zo. Real hard. Odd jobs here and there to make ends meet, mostly virtual design. But it isn't about skill anymore. Well not only. You gotta have the new tech, like that IA data jack, to compete anymore. I need a new one. Can you help me?

But ... Did I fall asleep? How did we get here?

Umi is a bit shocked as she appears in the asylum. Na-Zo? Where are we?

Umi stares in shock at her ruined cyberhand for a moment, and then uses her off hand to attempt to set off the deadman switch. She gives up after a second and collapses to the ground, clutching her head and screaming as if in pain. After a moment, she stops and looks up at Na-Zo.

They've stopped Na-Zo. She smiles and then responds to Rache, a bit confused. Yes. Of course, yes. She lays her head against Na-Zo's shoulder and begins to cry.

If you examine the datajack you will see that it is smoking slightly and appears to be dead.

A brief moment of pain against a thousand generations of hopelessness.

She stops throwing packages onto the cable and points at Rache with the deadman switch. You notice that it is a cybernetic hand of some sort, an older model. She yells, Heiress of an empire! What do you know of suffering?

She steps towards Rache and holds her off hand to her head as if she is in intense pain. Tell me!

No Na-Zo. You don't see it! You've never seen it! You can dance among the levels, but have you ever been to the tens?! I'm not scared, my eyes are open! She is ranting and raving at this point. The scrape is misery, Na-Zo. All lives are misery.

She continues to throw sticky packages on the cable. Her bag looks like it is almost empty.

I'm not sure how to give Rache the information from Art of the Pursuit in fiction. So I'll do it outside of the fiction. Umi is comforted by voices in her head and the knowledge that she will soon bring an end to countless future generations of misery in the lower levels. She is terrified because the voices will not let her turn back from this course.

What do you do?

Rache and Na-Zo:

You race towards the central cable spire and you arrive only seconds behind Umi. To be clear, this spire houses the load bearing cable that connects the very top of the space elevator, far above you, to the ground far below.

Umi stops for only a moment at the high security door before it opens and she slips inside. You enter only a few seconds after her.

She has her hand on a deadman switch and looks at you with a wild look in her eyes. Back! Stay back! She continues to scream threateningly at you while she tosses sticky packages onto the cable itself.

What do you do?