Storyline Pt. 1

Lijho is in prison on a penitentiary asteroid complex called Genocy-A, which orbits the planet Paseo. Today is the day of his release after being imprisoned for 3 years. He transports back to the surface of Paseo, and all the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations are familiar, yet still new to him as he rediscovers the aspects of living outside of Genocy. One of the big things he’s noticing is that the sun seems to be larger than how he remembered it. He can’t tell if it’s just because he’s been in prison orbit so long it’s his eyes playing tricks on him, but his gut tells him something is up. He heads to a diner to get some coffee and breakfast- two things he has been thinking and daydreaming of since he was first imprisoned. In his backpack, he has a piece of paper with the address of his childhood friend, and unofficial partner in crime, Eckley. He’s not even sure if Eckley still lives at that address, but when he’s finished with breakfast, he will go check it out.

Lijho walks down the busy streets of Nova, the capitol city of Paseo, the capitol planet of the system. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not as governmental as people would think. Most of the people who live on Paseo do in fact work for the government, known as ‘The Paseo’, but the actual governmental buildings and complexes make up a small minority of the cities and habitations on the planet. As he is walking down the streets he used to walk, he notices how much they’ve changed in the last 3 years he’s been imprisoned. Things look different, but still recognizable. Restaurants he used to go to that are now new places, parks that are now shopping centers, it all looks different, but still familiar.

He eventually arrives at the high-rise apartment building of Eckley, and makes his way up to his apartment. When he knocks on the door, Eckley answers in a towel, having just got out of the shower. He looks much different than Lijho last saw him. He has long dreadlocks, and is covered in tattoos. Obviously surprised to see Lijho, he invites him inside. He comments on how muscular and fit Lijho looks compared to the skinny kid he law saw, but of course in prison there’s very little else to do except get in shape.

Apologizing for not being able to hang out, Eckley is getting dressed and about to head into work for the day, but tells Lijho there is an internet cafe a block away that he can hang out in while Eckley is at work. The apartments use bio-metrics instead of keys to make sure nobody can enter without permission, and the landlords know who are authorized residents.

As they walk outside back on the street from the apartment building, Lijho asks Eckley if he noticed the sun seems bigger or if it’s just because he’s been locked up so long. Eckley replies “you know it’s funny you mention that. I’ve been thinking the same thing, but it’s hard to tell when you see the same thing everyday. I don’t think it looks bigger, but there’s definitely something different about it for sure.” The two part ways as Eckley heads into work, and Lijho heads down the block to the internet cafe.

Lijho walks down the set of stairs that lead under the street level to the internet cafe entrance. He walks in and finds himself in a dark room with people of all ages at different computers. Some are playing games, some are sitting back in their chairs watching movies. The person working at the front desk greets him, and Lijho opens an account, since you pay by the hour. The clerk tells him that he doesn’t need to prepay, he can just pay when he leaves and his time has been calculated.

He sits in a computer in the back, facing the entrance with nobody behind him; his preferred way, so nobody can see what he’s looking at. He used to be a hacker, which is how he ended up in prison to begin with, and privacy is king.

He first starts to go on a couple dating websites, checking out the different people around the area, to see if anyone catches his eye. Then he goes on the website of “The Guild”. The place where people of different skill sets can find odd jobs for money. Hunters, caretakers, computer experts, doctors, the Guild is the go-to for people looking to hire and be hired. Lijho used to be a member of the Guild under a false identity, but was swept up in a sting operation by the Paseo to weed out unethical hackers that were causing problems and helping to further various illegal activities. He looks at his old profile. Staring back at the screen seeing his old photo, with his bio and credentials, the memories start flooding in. On the one hand, he still feels wronged by having 3 years of his life taken away, but on the other hand, he made peace with it while he was incarcerated in Genocy, and he knows now he is in a new chapter of his life.

He impulsively closes the Guild site before he changes his mind and goes further down memory lane digging up painful nostalgia. He realizes what time it is and grabs his backpack and heads to the front counter to settle up his tab. The man behind the counter asks him what his name is, because he looks familiar.

”I’m Lijho”

“Oh yeah! I remember you! You used to come in here all the time, you were always really chill. What have you been up to man?”

“Long story honestly.”

“Understood. Well hey it’s good to see your face again. Definitely come back sometime and hang out.”

“Yeah, I’ll be back for sure.”

The scene ends with a shot of the internet cafe- people at their computers, just a normal scene.

Back at Eckley’s place, Lijho asleep on couch, earthquake breaks out.

“Since when does Paseo get earthquakes?”

“Believe it or not this is the third time it’s happened in the past maybe 3 or 4 months? They’re never intense, but it makes me wonder if there’s a problem with the Plate Systems.”

Lijho has a visibly worried look on his face when he hears that.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it. You know the Paseo, I’m sure they’re all over it.”

PLATE SYSTEMS marker comes on screen

Lijho visits Remi to create something that will stop him from being traced if he decides to get back into hacking.
Remi says he has something, but Lijho having just got out of prison is skeptical if it will really work
Lijho goes back to the internet cafe and manages to hack into the Guild website to delete his old profile, and take a look at any unlisted jobs. He stumbles across something called The Nebula Project, a job commissioned by the Paseo (government), but he can’t get any further information on it without being able to access the Paseo government portal directly, and for that he needs to break in.
His screen suddenly freezes up, the keyboard stops responding, and sitting in the internet cafe, he is very vulnerable, as everything he was just doing is up on the screen for anyone to see, and he can’t get it to go away.
A message comes on the frozen screen - “Good afternoon Lijho. Come to this address. It’s an 8 minute walk. Don’t be late. Leave now.”
Lijho obviously thinks he’s been caught trying to break into the Paseo network, so he’s frantically thinking of a way out. Not like it matters, because if they can find his exact computer in a place as anonymous as an internet cafe, AND take over his screen to send him a message, obviously he has nowhere to run. He walks out of the internet cafe, and as he passes the guy at the front desk, he just looks at him and says “I’ll be back.” He tries not to look panicked, but he’s sure his emotion is showing despite his best efforts. He’s walking to the address, using AR guidance with a handheld device like a phone.

He doesn’t want to go back to prison. He’s only been free a couple days, and already he’s fucked up. As he walks, he’s constantly looking at every person he sees suspiciously, out of pure paranoia. He doesn’t know who sent him the message, so it could be literally anybody on the street. As he nears the meeting spot, he sees Remi smoking a cigarette walking toward him on the opposite side of the street. He cuts across the street and casually walks up to Remi, who barely notices him, as he’s nose deep in responding to messages on his dating app. Just before they meet, Remi happens to look up and sees Lijho- “oh shit!” he exclaims, trying not to drop his cigarette.
”You’re early.” Remi says.
”Early for what"?” Lijho says confused. He doesn’t remember having any plans to meet up with Remi…
”You still have 2 minutes. Damn you must walk really fast.” he says jokingly.

It takes a second for Lijho to process.

“That was you?!” Lijho says almost panicked.

Remi laughs dismissively and says “My bad dude. I had to prove a point. Things have changed a lot since you got busted in that big hack. Nowadays when you wanna do some nefarious shit, you have to make extra sure who and what you’re dealing with. The Paseo really stepped their game up. The past year or so they’ve been up to something big.”

“What makes you say that?”

“All of a sudden their security went nuts. I mean they stepped up their security prescence online anyway because of the hack you were involved with, but all of a sudden a year ago, it’s like they REALLY started going hard core with it. They don’t do that unless they’re hiding something major.”

Remi takes a drag off his cigarette.

“Question by the way- what do you know about Zelan?” Remi asks, smoke coming out of his mouth as he talks.

[ZELAN MARKER]

“A lot honestly. Why, what does Zelan have to do with anything?”

“Well, we think the Paseo have gotten Zelan involved in their cyber security”

Lijho looks confused. “Why would Zelan be involved? Zelan has nothing to do with cyber security. Zelan’s only job is to just monitor the conditions of the planet to make the corrections to keep the planet under the right conditions. Zelan basically receives data from the monitoring systems on the planet surface, then when something needs to be fine tuned, like making it rain when it gets too dry, managing the plate tectonics to prevent earthquakes, Zelan sends the signal to make it happen. Zelan basically keeps the planet in balance. But… Zelan really only talks to the Plate System, Climatrol… I mean, they don’t really have anything to do with the Paseo.”

Remi shrugs. “All I know is, ever since the Paseo started big time stepping up their security, Zelan has been working overtime. Me and a buddy of mine have managed to… intercept… some of the signals coming from Zelan, and now instead of 3 droids running the place, they have 7.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well normally when a signal leaves Zelan, regardless of where it’s going- Plate System, Climatrol, whatever… there’s a number attached to the beginning and end of it… a signature, basically. That number identifies which droid sent that signal. Usually one droid works one system. So one droid gets assigned Plate System, one droid gets assigned Climatrol, and that’s ALL they do. Up until a little less than a year ago, there were only 3 unique numbers, so 3 droids basically. Now there’s 7. And the signals are coming and going constantly. Basically, Zelan is working overtime. And that earthquake last night was the 4th one we’ve had just in the past two months. So you figure, if the Plate System is working at 100%, and we’re still having earthquakes, that shows you that whatever is causing the quakes is more than what the Plate System can handle. Something is happening.”

There’s a long pause in the conversation as Remi flicks his cigarette on the ground. “Too many coincidences dude.”

“So what do you think is going on then?” Lijho asks.

Remi pulls what looks like a coin on a necklace out of his pocket and holds it up for Lijho to see.

“As long as this is within a few feet of a computer, you’ll be invisible online no matter where you go. Completely. It works wirelessly. And no matter what, do NOT let anyone get ahold of it. It’s powered by the electrical current in your body, so it only works when you’re wearing it. If you ever have to for whatever reason, just break the chain of the necklace and it fries itself. No traces. Think of it as the suicide pill. Don’t worry, you’re not going back to Genocy this time.”

Lijho puts the necklace on and tucks it under his shirt. He lets out a long sigh. “Oh how the plot thickens.” he says sarcastically.

Remi’s cell phone rings. He pulls it out of his pocket to see who it is, looks at the phone and says “I gotta run. Lemme know what you find.”

“Yeah for sure.” Lijho replies. “Oh, and don’t ever scare me like that again.”