Hardwired

[Fairchild]

Chapter 02: Awakening

The sunshine peeked into her hotel room, illuminating a stack of Synth Paste tubes and a couple of used up prepaid PADs lying on her bedside table. Her mind's eye turned to where Vergil should be. It was still there. But it was different this time. The version had changed. She put up her wrist close to her face and checked her messages on the PAD she actually used.

<fairchild> nick?

A couple of moments passed.

<__n> I'm here. You've woken up I see.
<fairchild> ur done?
<__n> I think so.
<__n> Have you tried accessing yet?
<fairchild> should i try?
<__n> Go ahead.

She sighed and pulled up the login screen.

Vergil v2.5.1 tty1
username:

She hesitated for a second and filled in the field with her previous username.

Vergil v2.5.1 tty1
username: jera

User does not exist. Retrying...

<fairchild> whats the usrname
<__n> Oh right. I have changed it to "fairchild" as well. I didn't touch the password.
<fairchild> good for u

She filled in the login prompt again.

Vergil v2.5.1 tty1
username: fairchild

User exists. Proceeding to the authentication pattern...

So that's my name now. She still remembered her own password but she forced herself not to think of it, just in case. The login prompt displayed four light icons, all glowing red. They started changing colours as soon as she focused on the images that were her password. Elephant. Skyscraper. Maple leaf. Eagle.

Authentication complete.

Starting display server...

She let out a quiet sigh. Her mind was complete again. She relaxed and smiled as a familiar presence appeared in the back of her head.

"You know, it's quite comforting to see everything with a human's eye again."

She smiled in amusement. "It's nice to talk to you... this way. Again."