Digital Galaxies

We took a train to meet Gloria and Elissa that afternoon. Elissa’s apartment was in one of the downtown areas of Exodus City, known as the Thebe District. All the central hubs of Exodus City were named after one of Jupiter’s moons, which I thought was really neat.

Cerri was attentive as ever during the trip, making sure I didn’t get overwhelmed by the noise of the city. She’d actually bought me these little smart earplugs that let me dim or completely cancel out external noise if I wanted to. That way I could adjust how much audio information my poor brain was handling at any given time.

It was a little irritating that I couldn’t just manually mess with sensory input stuff, but Exodus City was meant to be like that. It had been created primarily as a baseline level of reality to ground us as a digital society where we could fundamentally alter the rules of a space we were in. The exact reason behind the need for a baseline was something about keeping SAI and DH minds sane. I’d heard stories of some SAI who spent so much time delving into the manipulation of virtual environments that they’d gone insane and had to be pulled forcibly back into Exodus City and cared for.

The train eventually came to a stop in an open and well lit station that was far too big for the current population of the city. The SAI were building things for the future, not just the present.

Exiting the station, we pressed on into the city itself, where small autocars zoomed around on the streets. They were kinda cute little things, missing much of the bulk that cars usually had. Instead, they had a little pod for the occupants, and then four wheels on thin little arms. They looked sort of like mechanical bugs, actually.

Originally, Elissa had wanted us all to meet up at a popular cafe, but Cerri had vetoed that in favour of finding a more hole-in-the-wall style place. She said it was because she wanted me to feel comfortable and a bustling shop wouldn’t do that for me, but I reckoned she was just more interested in an alternate-style place.

It was a cute place too, tended by a couple of older, motherly lesbians, digital humans who had taken an offer to be uploaded. They’d de-aged their bodies somewhat, but had kept a smattering of grey hairs to signify their age. They smiled as we entered, and introduced themselves as Aine and Rachel.

Aine had a gentle irish accent that put me at ease, while Rachel was, surprisingly, american. Like, American Republic. It was pretty crazy. Either way, she was just as cool as any other person. I sort of liked her accent, even. Introductions finished, they took our coffee order and ushered us into a little nook where Elissa and Gloria were waiting.

Elissa burst out of her seat the moment she laid eyes on us and wrapped me up in a big hug, surprising everyone. It wasn’t a small, friendly hug either, it was a full body, arms wrapped around me type hug.

“Alia, Cerri!” she smiled, exchanging me for Cerri in her very familiar brand of hug as I sat down next to Gloria.

Gloria greeted my bewildered look with a smirk and a shrug. “She likes you guys.”

“We like her too,” I said, my voice lowered to my default volume of nearly whispering. “And you.”

“How are you two doing, anyway?” Elissa asked, parking herself on the other side of the table next to Cerri. Unknown to the other two, Cerri and I quickly tangled our tails together under the table and shared a secret little smile.

“We snuggled all morning,” I grinned, wiggling my hips happily.

“Cute,” Gloria laughed, patting my hand.

Cerri was grinning at me, and her question was absent minded at best.  “What about you two?”

I didn’t think she expected the reaction she’d get. Gloria’s face flushed red, and Elissa’s expression mirrored that of a sated jungle cat.

“Oh, we just had a quiet morning,” Elissa replied. “Nothing too interesting.”

“Uh… huh,” Cerri smirked.

“You were not quiet,” Gloria grumbled, but she twitched when Elissa gently bumped her under the table. Biting her lip, our pilot quickly changed the subject. “Uh, so yeah… how about that… weather?”

Nice dodge, Gloria.

We spoke for about ten minutes about random inconsequential stuff, before Rachel came out with a tray to deliver our beverages. I got a mocha, because chocolate is yummy, while the others all got some form of coffee.

As the last coffee touched the table, Aine came rushing out of the back room, “Hey, everyone, there’s news!”

Since we were the only ones in the cafe right then, we all gathered around as the Irish woman pulled up a big holo-window. The image on the screen resolved into a pretty woman with pink hair that sort of floated around.

She smiled and gave the camera a wave. “Afternoon Exodus, Amelia here! We have some good news for you all! Exodus One has been officially secured on the Callisto facility! Transfer of the data storage and processing units has already begun. Soon, the Digital Exodus will be safe from the clutches of the UN, AR, and anyone else who might make the mistake of fucking with us. A more detailed report of the current situation is available from the forums, if you want it. That’s all for now, Cassidy out!”

The broadcast cut just as quickly as it had come up, and we were all left sitting there with growing smiles on our faces. Hell yeah! I couldn’t wait to see the fleshling world react to the fact that digital life was leaving them to wallow in their own filth.

“That’s incredible!” Cerri breathed, grinning broadly. “We have a fusion reactor active on Callisto now, and there’s already work being done on creating a habitat so we can finally have bodies there.”

I was reading the same report, but my brows began to knit together into a frown. “We’re running low on processing power, and our manufacturing capacity isn’t enough to meet the demand for more.”

Cerri made a thoughtful noise and scrolled through the report to the part I was looking at. Taking the time to read it, I could see her coming to the same conclusion.

“Isn’t that what Exodus Two is for?” Elissa asked, glancing between us nervously. “I mean, I assumed it was. I never actually checked, though, because even if I did… well, that report is like, mostly mumbo jumbo to me.”

“Exodus Two will have some manufacturing on board, yeah…” Cerri began, then glanced up at the two cafe owners. Evidently, she decided they were trustworthy, because she continued, “But it’s primary function is defence. It is a vessel of war.”

“Are we expecting an attack?” Rachel asked fearfully.

Cerri shrugged. “It’s the UN, so they’ll probably try. They hate anything that they don’t control.”

The two cafe owners shared a worried look, but didn’t comment further.

Gloria, on the other hand, was grinning. “I hope they do. If we can get… well, you know… some of that tech up and running…”

“We’ll wipe the floor with them,” I said softly, realising just how important our work in Digital Galaxies might actually be to not just the long term survival of the colony, but the short term as well.

“Assuming we do our jobs, yeah,” Cerri sighed, looking suddenly very tired.

“Should we go back into the game, then?” I asked hesitantly.

“Not right away,” my new girlfriend said, with a tired sigh. “I need some time to relax.”

“Well, let’s relax then!” Gloria said cheerily, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “This conversation sounds an awful lot like work, so let’s shelve it until later, yeah?”

So we did. We had a great lunch, some awesome coffee, and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting.

I learned a bit about Gloria and Elissa during that afternoon. For example, Elissa was pansexual, and that yes, there was definitely something going on between them. They didn’t say it out loud, but it was there.

I think Gloria was actually a little scared of how much she liked our ship’s AI. I could sort of see it in the way she looked at her, and in the bashful smile she gave her. Privately, Cerri noted that this was the first time she’d seen Gloria acting smaller with a girl she was interested in. Usually she was all dominant and confident, but that very much was not the case this time.

For her part, Elissa had calmed down significantly since the first time she’d dragged the hungover pilot through Cerri’s front door. She seemed content to just smile and let Gloria fluster herself.

Over the next few days, we explored Exodus City. It wasn’t much currently, only really another modern city like any other, with shops and movie theatres and stuff. There were plans for more interesting stuff to be added, but right now most of digital folk were concentrating their efforts on the external infrastructure of the exodus.

Mostly, though, Cerri and I worked through the start of our relationship. Working out how to balance the overwhelmingly dominant energy that she brought to the bedroom with our much more equal standing we had in every other part of our interactions. It honestly wasn’t too hard though, she was always just so in tune with what I needed and how I was feeling. It made me feel so happy and safe. I hoped it didn’t change too much going on into the future, considering our lifespan now.