{"id":743,"date":"2024-09-17T19:15:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T23:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=743"},"modified":"2025-01-28T23:30:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T04:30:06","slug":"the-changeling-game-chapter-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/the-changeling-game-chapter-66\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changeling Game, Chapter 66"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\ntt {\nfont: .857em menlo, monaco, consolas, monospace;\nmargin: auto;\n}\nh2 {\ntext-align: center;\n}\nh2.chapterhead {\nmargin-bottom: 2em;\ntext-align: center;\n}\n  .nowrap {\n    text-indent: 0;\n    display: inline-block;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p><b>Title:<\/b> The Changeling Game <small>(Formerly <i>Identity Theft<\/i>)<\/small><br \/>\n<b>Author:<\/b> Ardath Rekha<br \/>\n<b>Chapter:<\/b> 66\/?<br \/>\n<b>Fandom:<\/b> <i>Pitch Black<\/i> (2000); <i>The Chronicles of Riddick<\/i> (2004); <i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury<\/i> (2004)<br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> M<br \/>\n<b>Warnings:<\/b> Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language, violence<br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Gen<br \/>\n<b>Pairing:<\/b> None<br \/>\n<b>Summary:<\/b> The final preparations for Audrey MacNamera\u2019s return to the life she left behind are underway\u2026 but who, really, is going home?<br \/>\n<b>Disclaimer:<\/b> The characters and events of <i>Pitch Black,<\/i> <i>The Chronicles of Riddick,<\/i> and <i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury<\/i> are not mine, but belong to Universal Studios.  I just <i>wish<\/i> I were in charge of their fates.  No money is being made off of this.  I\u2019m writing strictly for love of the story.<br \/>\n<b>Feedback:<\/b> Absolutely, the more the better!  Shred me, whip me, beat me, make me feel grammatical! I post \u201crough,\u201d so I can always use the help. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6a8e793c222189017150902' value='6a8e793c222189017150902'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6a8e793c222189017150902' value='Long post is long. Click to read the story.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6a8e793c222189017150902' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6a8e793c222189017150902' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-green-button  '   style=\" color:#D9ECFB;\">Long post is long. Click to read the story.<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6a8e793c222189017150902' ><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"chapterhead\">66.<br \/>\n<u>In From the Cold, Into the Cold<\/u><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOh, well <i>played<\/i>,\u201d Audrey said once she could manage to speak. \u201cYou didn\u2019t give anything away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI will endeavor to make sure that you achieve the same level of circumspection,\u201d <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> told her, his voice merry.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The moment she had heard his \u201cBoston\u201d accent emerge from the speakers, everything had made sudden, perfect sense.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWell, you were right,\u201d she told him, sitting down in a rolling office chair as enormous relief made her knees wobbly. \u201cWe\u2019re meeting again, and I\u2019m definitely in good \u2018hands.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd not just mine,\u201d he told her. \u201cGeneral Toal is using our unique situation as a test-run for AI-managed safe houses. He believes that we might make more effective handlers than human beings. Less prone to bias, bribery, or coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201c\u2018We?\u2019\u201d Audrey asked, looking around. The boxes that the technicians had brought with them were open and empty near a set of panels that, she remembered, had housed the AI mainframe cores on the <i>Nephrite Undine.<\/i> There weren\u2019t quite as many panels as there had been on the ship, though.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019m a precise digital clone of the \u2018MilitAIre\u2019 AI that you interacted with on board the <i>Undine.<\/i> Clones of \u2018SensAI,\u2019 \u2018First-AId,\u2019 \u2018EntertAIn,\u2019 and \u2018CommissAIry\u2019 have accompanied me here, all of whom now have been given full disclosure about <i>you.<\/i> I apologize that the other four could not accompany us. Their skill-sets don\u2019t mesh as well with the needs of a safe house, and the General needed to keep this test affordable. I\u2019m happy to send them messages from \u2018Marianne Tepper\u2019 on your behalf, though.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019d love that,\u201d she admitted. She would definitely miss <tt>CaptAIn<\/tt>, <tt>AIngineer<\/tt>, <tt>mAIntenance<\/tt>, and <tt>mAItron<\/tt>, but she could see why they wouldn\u2019t suit a safe house as well. Their minds were specifically designed for starships. \u201cDo they know that you\u2019re with me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNo, but they know that their iteration of me was in charge of you, in an unspecified capacity. I\u2019ll send messages to him, and he\u2019ll pass them on to the rest of the AI crew. No one will question it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI was afraid I wouldn\u2019t have a way to stay in touch with any of you, once I stopped being Marianne.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI know. General Toal instructed me not to tell you until we were absolutely certain that the data cloning would be successful, which we didn\u2019t know for sure until well after you had landed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Was that the real reason, she wondered, that it had taken so long for the contact to reach the spaceport? Would she have been taken to a different building if the techs hadn\u2019t been able to set things up the way they needed to?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat was Plan B, if that hadn\u2019t worked?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cA few days with a human handler, while a new MilitAIre was installed on the <i>Undine<\/i> and my original iteration was brought down here, officially for hardware repairs. In that circumstance, you would have only had me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd God only knows what he would have fed you,\u201d <tt>CommissAIry<\/tt> interjected, still sounding stereotypically French. \u201cHello again, Audrey. That name is every bit as lovely as Marianne.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHello, CommissAIry!\u201d Audrey sagged back even further in the chair. \u201cI was going to miss you and your cooking <i>so<\/i> much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was amazing, she reflected later, how much trusted friends could turn a cold, dark building into a place of light and warmth. The safe house was still in the process of being set up\u2014more equipment would arrive in the days to come, now that the AIs had been successfully installed\u2014and she would be making do with basic rations until all of <tt>CommissAIry<\/tt>\u2019s food synthesis gear arrived, but she didn\u2019t care. She could handle it. She felt, suddenly, like she could handle <i>anything.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><tt>First-AId<\/tt>, likewise, was awaiting all of the equipment <i>she<\/i> needed for a proper full-service infirmary. The office suite that had been set aside for her, up on the second floor, would become the place where Audrey received all future medical care. Discussions about expanding <tt>First-AId<\/tt>\u2019s patient roster to include emergency care for local Federacy agents, which had apparently been underway, had stalled abruptly when <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> had demanded assurances that such traffic wouldn\u2019t expose the safe house and put it, and its primary ward, at risk. Audrey might be her only patient for the next several years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI need my library installed,\u201d <tt>EntertAIn<\/tt> noted. \u201cI have all of your settings and preferences\u2014those came down with me\u2014but the library itself takes up three exabytes. Assuming the WitSec program can acquire the same licensures that Sirius Shipping had. We\u2019re <i>all<\/i> going to be \u2018roughing it\u2019 for a few days. Especially poor SensAI.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey had checked out all of the rooms in the building by then, and the recreation area set aside for <tt>SensAI<\/tt> currently had no holo projectors. It would be difficult for him to lead her, or anyone else, in exercises without them. She tried not to feel too much amusement at how <i>miffed<\/i> the AIs were about the safe house\u2019s \u201chalf-baked\u201d\u2014in <tt>CommissAIry<\/tt>\u2019s words\u2014state. It already had more than she had hoped for, just by having <i>them<\/i> in it at <i>all<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It took two weeks to configure everything in the safe house, although <tt>CommissAIry<\/tt> was already set up enough to overload her with candy by Halloween. Audrey spent most of the days, as workers came and went, dressed in a bizarre costume designed to conceal whether she was male or female, complete with a face-covering mask that also changed her voice when she needed to speak to the workers. None of the crews were apparently cleared to know that the building would be run by AIs; Audrey became their spokesperson whenever they needed to make requests of, or give instructions to, any of the workers. Travers came back twice to supervise specific projects, asking both times if \u201cMarianne\u201d was settling in well, unaware that she was <i>speaking<\/i> to her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The AIs wouldn\u2019t let Audrey go trick-or-treating, though. Which, she supposed, was a good thing when another surprise snowstorm rolled in shortly after dusk.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Cameras, microphones, and hologram projectors ended up being installed in every room and corridor of the building. <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> had been surprised when Audrey, herself, had advocated for that, and had even argued against omitting bedrooms and bathrooms.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLike bad things won\u2019t ever happen in those rooms,\u201d she\u2019d scoffed. \u201cNone of you are gonna be <i>perving<\/i> on anything you see in them. You can blur out the parts of my body that would be illegal to record, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThis is true,\u201d <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> said. \u201cAnd it would be particularly illegal to record them where you are concerned, given your age\u2026 but blurring is a good courtesy for anyone staying in a safe house. Full surveillance with discretion\u2026 and the ability of the surveilled to request privacy if they wish. We understand that most humans have moments that they would prefer not to have recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAs long as <i>you<\/i> keep in mind anyone planning an attack would be looking for those kinds of openings,\u201d Audrey pointed out. \u201cRiddick told me, back when we were killing time on the skiff, that he\u2019d wait for his targets to get up to no good and start covering their tracks, \u2019cause that meant they were covering <i>his<\/i>, too. He\u2019d let <i>them<\/i> do all the work of concealing the circumstances of their own murders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cFascinating. His records do indicate that he targeted working criminals much of the time, and frequently killed them when they were \u2018on the job.\u2019 He <i>volunteered<\/i> this information?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYeah. I think he told me about it as a kind of fuck-you to Imam. Whenever <i>he<\/i> was awake, he\u2019d fuss if we said more than \u2018boo\u2019 to each other. But Riddick also told me that because he wanted me to stay <i>out<\/i> of under-surveilled places. He said all <i>kinds<\/i> of criminals look for the places where nobody\u2019ll see them strike, and especially because I\u2019m a girl, I need to stay away from camera \u2018dead zones.\u2019 He said you have to watch yourself twice as hard in the places where nobody else is watching you, and he said I\u2019d be better off having some \u2018random pervo\u2019 I never even met \u2018fapping\u2019 to a picture of me than some \u2018sick fuck\u2019 actually on top of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It pissed her off, though, that those were still the only two \u201cchoices\u201d he thought she\u2019d have in broad swathes of the Federacy. Wasn\u2019t humanity supposed to be more advanced than that?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Most of it is,<\/i> she reminded herself. <i>You\u2019ve seen people who are, and even lived with some of them. You never had to balance those kinds of risks when you were staying with the Mezianes.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Then again, Safiyya had worried relentlessly on her <i>behalf<\/i> on a few occasions. There were still too many monsters in human form to make that wariness unnecessary, and she had encountered examples of them on either side of her time with the Mezianes. And, she admitted, such monsters could be <i>anywhere.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThat was good advice,\u201d <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> said after a brief pause. \u201cAnd well taken here, too. Someone wishing to launch an attack on a safe house ward would time it for a moment in which that ward sought out privacy and was no longer under direct surveillance. The resulting delay in, or absence of, a response from the security system could increase the chance of a successful strike. I must discuss this with General Toal. There are a lot of arguments about \u2018surveillance states\u2019 and \u2018government overreach\u2019 that have to be addressed, especially on a planet like Deckard\u2019s World, but within the context of Witness Security, most of them probably wouldn\u2019t apply. Are you <i>sure<\/i> you\u2019re all right with having the cameras in your bedroom and bathroom?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBetter you guys than some Duke Pritchard type,\u201d she told him, \u201cany day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The addition of the holo equipment, everywhere that there were cameras, also meant that all of the AIs could \u201cmanifest\u201d themselves, aside from just <tt>SensAI<\/tt>. That led to discussions about the importance of body language and eye contact for human interaction, and Audrey\u2019s admission that, during her flight on the <i>Nephrite Undine<\/i>, she\u2019d used the recreation area more frequently than she normally might have <i>because<\/i> <tt>SensAI<\/tt>\u2019s visual representation made her feel less alone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThis is important information for us to pass onto Sirius Shipping,\u201d <tt>First-AId<\/tt> said when she finally admitted that. \u201cThey spent a great deal of time choosing our voices, to make them as warm and comforting as possible. The argument they made for not giving all of us holo forms was the \u2018uncanny valley\u2019 risk. If we weren\u2019t one hundred percent authentically human in our appearance, guests would find us repulsive and might not even realize why.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI guess it wouldn\u2019t be necessary on a ship where the guests have other flesh and blood passengers to interact with,\u201d Audrey mused. \u201cBut any situation of isolation\u2026 I don\u2019t think SensAI\u2019s image ever felt off or inhuman to me. But I think, even if it had\u2026 it\u2019d still have been more comforting than no contact at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">They still hadn\u2019t settled on their preferred \u201cbodies,\u201d but the ones they tried out were always interesting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She and <tt>First-AId<\/tt> did end up spending time unpacking many of the things that she\u2019d told <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> about her time on the run. Although the medical AI had full access to all of the transcripts of her discussions with <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt>, he had approached her experiences from a strategic and tactical perspective, while <tt>First-AId<\/tt> wanted to delve into the psychology and do trauma-healing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It soon became clear to all three of them that there were several memories that were still too much for her to handle, especially on their tight schedule. The <i>Kublai Khan<\/i>, with its menageries of suffering prisoners, turned out to be one of the biggest minefields in her head. To her, that wasn\u2019t even the ship\u2019s <i>real<\/i> name\u2026 it was \u201cthe ship that was <i>screaming.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAn esper, who didn\u2019t know she was an esper and had never learned how to deliberately block out others\u2019 thoughts, surrounded by tortured prisoners who were all mentally shrieking for rescue\u2026\u201d First-AId finally murmured. \u201cEvery memory you have of that time has been poisoned by it. Whenever we discuss even the simplest elements of your stay there, your heart rate increases by at least twenty beats per minute and your blood pressure increases by an average of twelve systolic and eight diastolic. I agree with MilitAIre\u2019s original assessment that you need to try to block out this part of your run from your memories, if you can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Maybe, she thought, it had been a good thing that she hadn\u2019t had time to share that part of her story with Kyra or the Mezianes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe <i>Apeiros<\/i> wouldn\u2019t take it away,\u201d she reported back the next day. \u201cThey say I\u2019m going to need too much of it, even if it <i>is<\/i> uncomfortable. So\u2026 I guess\u2026 I just need to try not to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The easiest way, she found, was to imagine that it had happened to \u201cJack,\u201d and not her. To imagine Jack as a separate person, who had seen and even done terrible things\u2026 but wasn\u2019t <i>her.<\/i> She\u2019d already begun doing that with some of the other memories that had proved too troublesome. The things she couldn\u2019t look at were things that had happened to Jack. And Jack was dead.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Maybe if she kept saying it, the day would come when she believed it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><tt>First-AId<\/tt> had then attempted to speak with the <i>Apeiros<\/i> through her, via hypnosis. Afterward, Audrey had a new hole in her memories and none of the AIs would discuss what they had apparently learned during the three-hour session she\u2019d lost. The <i>Apeiros<\/i>, when she went into their starfield that night, refused to discuss it either, although they all agreed that the AIs were \u201cgood creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra, whenever she inquired about her sister, was still \u201cdreaming of a world with three suns.\u201d Still in cryo. Wherever she had decided to go, it must have been <i>far<\/i> away from Tangiers Prime.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The Moribund was still silent. When she asked, the other <i>Apeiros<\/i> said that it had been avoiding contact with her ever since her screaming fit. She wasn\u2019t sure whether she should feel relieved or guilty, but in truth, she felt both ways at the same time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">A week after the hypnosis debacle, General Toal ordered hand-to-hand combat training added to Audrey\u2019s routine. A human trainer arrived for an hour each day, although she was never allowed to see his face and he was never allowed to see hers, and they sparred under <tt>SensAI<\/tt>\u2019s trenchant supervision.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The Safe House was in a hardscrabble part of town, but properties were apparently easier to acquire there. Officially, the outside of the building now claimed that it was home to a security consulting firm. To sell the charade, three local Federacy agents, who were never allowed to see her face either, had offices on the first floor, which they periodically visited during working hours. Audrey grew accustomed to having her costume on and mask handy whenever she needed to be down on the first floor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSurprise\u201d Quantification tests happened with greater and greater frequency. Her passing rate slowly climbed from 50% of the time to 80%. On the academic end, <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> tested her repeatedly and told her that she would easily qualify to join her former peers as they began their tenth grade year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">November turned from snowy to rainy. She managed to finish reading <i>The Crystal Cave<\/i> by striking a bargain with the <i>Apeiros:<\/i> they would take away her memories of the train ride and standoff just long enough for her to reread the story without any emotional baggage, and then return them once she and the AIs had finished discussing the book and its meanings. This, she told them, would also be proof that they really could one day return the <i>rest<\/i> of the memories they\u2019d made off with, an act of goodwill.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She ended up liking the book so much, even once she remembered the train ride and standoff again, that she devoured its three sequels over the next week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">And, she admitted to herself, it was a relief to <i>know<\/i> that the <i>Apeiros<\/i> really could give her the rest of her lost moments back, that the \u201choles\u201d in her memory were not empty as much as shrouded spaces that would one day be uncovered again. She and <tt>EntertAIn<\/tt> had a long discussion about the character she had been most drawn to in the books, Nimue, and why the woman who had disguised herself as a boy, for a chance to be taught magic by a wizard, resonated so strongly with her. <tt>EntertAIn<\/tt> told her there was a whole <i>trope<\/i> about heroines disguising themselves as boys, and put several more books\u2014a fantasy series called <i>Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn<\/i> among them\u2014and videos including a film called <i>Dragonslayer<\/i>, into her recreational queues.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Thanksgiving arrived with the first \u201copen window\u201d day in Settlement Point. It was still early spring, but the temperature had risen to a glorious 77\u00b0 Fahrenheit, 25\u00b0 Celcius, and Audrey could hear the laughter and shouting of kids a block or two away.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><tt>CommissAIry<\/tt> decided to take Audrey on a \u201cculinary adventure\u201d of different traditional Thanksgiving foods, most of which were more typically autumn fare, while <tt>EntertAIn<\/tt> and <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> acquainted her with various legends about the holiday and the truths behind them. The holiday, when they were done, made much more sense to her than the odd portrayals she\u2019d grown up with involving \u201cPilgrim Joe,\u201d \u201cTurkey Sue,\u201d and \u201cPumpkin Bob.\u201d Those characters had apparently evolved on Deckard\u2019s World itself and had proved so popular that they had overwritten most of the original American traditions. But she supposed some adaptation was necessary for anyone who wanted to celebrate a <i>harvest<\/i> holiday in early spring.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Cautious explorations of both Elsewhere and U83f, which Audrey nicknamed Wonderland, revealed that they were both habitable and welcoming worlds. Although she didn\u2019t spend a whole lot of time in either one\u2014it was early spring in both of them, too\u2014she and the AIs agreed that she should continue exploring them in the future. Until she went back \u201cout into the cold,\u201d though, they were the only \u201coutdoor\u201d environments she was permitted to venture into. As far as the local neighborhood was concerned, she didn\u2019t\u2014and couldn\u2019t\u2014exist.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">December arrived and, a few days in, Audrey MacNamera was biologically fourteen years old at last. The AIs and the <i>Apeiros<\/i> marked the day with her. There were gifts\u2014most of them virtual but surprisingly meaningful nonetheless\u2014and an extraordinary cake that <tt>CommissAIry<\/tt> had invented based on her \u201ctaste profile,\u201d which she told him she\u2019d like to have again for <i>every<\/i> birthday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The auburn hair dye had washed most of the way out by then. Her hair was halfway to her shoulders, verging between dark blonde and mousy brown thanks to how little she had been in the sun in months. <tt>EntertAIn<\/tt> and <tt>First-AId<\/tt> announced it was time to begin preparing her appearance for her return to her family, starting with some camouflage to make sure that no one would believe she had shaved her head the year before. For the next week, as final preparations were underway for her return to her old life, she received special hair growth treatments until her locks once more touched the small of her back. They lightened the hair as well, until she looked\u2014in her opinion, at least\u2014like a funhouse-mirror elongated reflection of the girl who had cut off her hair, put on her cousin\u2019s discarded clothes, and run off to the stars more than a year of lived time and nearly two years, real-time, before.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Welcome back, Audrey MacNamera,<\/i> she silently told her reflection, before asking the AIs to give her bangs in front. She wanted to look a little more like <i>Tislilel Meziane<\/i>, the way Ewan had last seen <i>her<\/i>. Even if it did twist the knife a little. She\u2019d never get to be \u201cTizzy,\u201d or see <i>him<\/i>, again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Were <i>any<\/i> of the girls she\u2019d once been still alive inside her? The na\u00efve fool, the cocky outlaw, the besotted mermaid\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Who, exactly, was going home to Bettie Paige Hawthorne-Baxter?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey had liked it much better when her mom had been Bettie Paige MacNamera.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Sundays, the AIs decided with her, would be Safe House Days. She would be required to report to the house first thing in the morning\u2014in part because recent intel had revealed that Alvin Baxter had developed an evangelical bent in the last year and a half and would undoubtedly try to insist on \u201cthe whole family\u201d attending church services unless that was a fight he couldn\u2019t win, and Audrey\u2019s relationship with religion was rocky at best\u2014and would stay most of the day. During that time, her combat training would continue, any medical treatments she needed would be provided, and the AIs would help her evaluate and critique the events and news of the week and identify any possible threats.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd,\u201d <tt>CommissAIry<\/tt> informed her with unrepentant glee, \u201cyou will go on <i>three<\/i> culinary adventures!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She would return to her mother\u2019s house at the end of the day, an hour before official curfews began for minors and even in time for some evening \u201cfamily time,\u201d but the bulk of the day would belong to her and to her handlers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Friday, December 17, they decided, would be the day of her return. She was hitting 100% on the surprise Quantifications at long last. She\u2019d figured out the trick of switching her brain into \u201cbaseline mode\u201d on command\u2026 <i>finally.<\/i> And it had been four months since she\u2019d uttered a single syllable in her sleep. It would be safe for her to go \u201cout into the cold.\u201d All her secrets were tucked away where none of her loved ones would ferret them out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">So why was she so damned <i>scared?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The day arrived.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was exactly a year, real-time anyway, since she had tried to kill herself on Helion Prime. A year since she had tried to end Jack B. Badd, believing Audrey MacNamera forever lost. And now Audrey MacNamera\u2026 or a convincing facsimile\u2026 would return home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The scars on her wrists had been concealed. <tt>First-AId<\/tt> had asked if she wanted them removed, but\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u201cScars are trophies,\u201d Kyra had once said\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u2014while she\u2019d chosen to keep them, she intended to keep them hidden until they faded even more, and until nobody was especially scrutinizing her anymore. The pseudo-skin layer that covered the scars would be retouched during each weekly safe house visit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was 58\u00b0 Fahrenheit at dawn, and the temperature would rise into the mid-70s. She had dressed in a simple outfit for the \u201chandoff,\u201d jeans and two light, layered shirts for changeable weather, a pair of the ankle-high, flat-soled boots that girls in her class apparently <i>lived<\/i> in that season, and no adornments or identifying brand names of any kind. She had a comm in her pocket, government issue and locked against anyone but her. The chrono on her wrist was locked in place by a band that only her code, or a code transmitted by <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt>, could remove. Both devices were registered as Federacy property, assuming anyone got that far in tracing them before being ordered to stop. Anonymous, untraceable\u2026 a quintessential WitSec ward.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">With one more deep breath, she climbed into the car parked in front of the safe house and isomorphed into Wonderland\u2014there were too many trees in Elsewhere for what she would need to do, but this part of Wonderland was a flat, sandy plain\u2014holding onto the interior\u2019s surfaces as \u201cdelimiters.\u201d Five minutes later, one of the Federacy agents emerged from the safe house, climbed into the driver\u2019s seat, and drove it to the center of Settlement Point near the main courthouse. He had been instructed to idle the car for two minutes\u2014unaware that a phantom teenage girl was climbing out of the back as he did\u2014receive a package from a courier, and then leave. As far as he would ever know, the courier\u2019s package had been his whole mission.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Audrey walked over to a nearby park, watching the countdown on her chrono. When it hit zero, she knew, all the cameras in range of the park would go down for five minutes. She made sure she was in no one\u2019s line of sight before isomorphing back into U1. Her \u201ctargets\u201d were up ahead, sitting on a bench and facing away from her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMan, I hate this shit,\u201d one of them, a sandy-haired man dressed in a mid-line three-piece suit, said as she drew closer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAin\u2019t the worst assignment,\u201d the other one answered. He wore a police uniform.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cPicking up a WitSec case? Those people are <i>garbage.<\/i> If it\u2019s Denny the Knob, you might need to look away for a few minutes. I owe that bastard a few bruises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWord is it\u2019s some material witness, not a criminal,\u201d the cop objected.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019ll believe it when I\u2014\u201d the first man froze, hearing her boots crunch the path\u2019s gravel, and turned around to look at her. His eyes widened. \u201cWhat the\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Assistant District Attorney Alvin Baxter\u2019s mouth dropped open as he stared at her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The cop next to him, a freckled redhead who looked <i>maybe<\/i> a year older than Ewan, turned and stared as well. \u201cIsn\u2019t that\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u201cAudrey?\u201d<\/i> Alvin gasped.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She\u2019d known that he\u2019d be the one assigned to the pickup, but it was still a rough moment. She could feel his shock, and a weird combination of relief\u2014she was alive, she looked healthy\u2014and horror at the realization that <i>she<\/i> was the material witness he\u2019d been assigned to pick up. His <i>stepdaughter<\/i> had reappeared in a way that he hadn\u2019t even imagined when he\u2019d been picturing worst-case scenarios. What was he going to tell her mother\u2014?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She forced herself to block off his mind. She didn\u2019t want to hear or feel any more of that. As it was, her voice wobbled when she spoke. \u201cI\u2019m ready to go home now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">At least, she thought, struggling not to cry would be \u201cin character.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">They took her to the nearest police station, which was in the basement of the courthouse, exactly as <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt> had predicted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Brief attempts to confiscate her comm and chrono, to make her change out of the clothes she was wearing so they could be analyzed, and to record more than her basic biometrics, were all brought to a screaming halt by Federacy directives to the contrary. Each time someone tried, every comm in the precinct would ring and the same authoritative voice would speak on each one, instructing everyone to cease what they were doing immediately. The basic biometric readings they were permitted to take confirmed that she was Audrey Hepburn MacNamera, missing since January 30, 2516, and that she was a legal ward of Federacy Witness Security. Eventually, the precinct Captain emerged from his office and testily informed everyone that he\u2019d been given ground rules and strict instructions for how Audrey was to be \u201creintegrated\u201d into civilian life. He didn\u2019t seem enthused.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was all so fucking <i>dramatic.<\/i> She could only imagine how much more dramatic it would have been, and how fast the stories would have unraveled, if General Toal, <tt>MilitAIre<\/tt>, and the actual WitSec department hadn\u2019t taken charge of the whole process and it had been entirely dependent on whatever ruses she\u2019d cooked up on her own.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAudrey? Audrey! Where\u2019s my <i>daughter?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She took a deep breath. Her mother had arrived. Standing up, she braced herself and turned toward the entrance of the police station\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMom\u2026\u201d Her voice was the tiniest thread. Behind her, Alvin rose from his seat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Bettie Paige Hawthorne-Baxter was hurrying into the building, looking around frantically. She wouldn\u2019t see Audrey yet; <i>she<\/i> was in one of the small interview rooms, a one-way mirrored glass window between them. She had a moment to look at her mother, see her for the first time in more than a year\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u2026and see, perched on her mother\u2019s hip, the <i>reason<\/i> for everything that had happened. The reason her father had left so abruptly, needing to go to a whole other <i>planet<\/i> to escape his heartbreak. The reason that Alvin had reappeared in their lives after almost going away forever. The reason for the sudden wedding announcement and its inordinate rush\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u2026the reason that Audrey MacNamera would <i>never<\/i> have left Deckard\u2019s World at <i>all,<\/i> not <i>ever,<\/i> if only she\u2019d <i>known<\/i>\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Elodie Jane Hawthorne-Baxter, sixteen months old.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her baby sister.<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Changeling Game (Formerly Identity Theft) Author: Ardath Rekha Chapter: 66\/? Fandom: Pitch Black (2000); The Chronicles of Riddick (2004); The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury (2004) Rat","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"\u201cThe Changeling Game\u201d 66: \u201cIn From the Cold, Into the Cold\u201d","bgseo_description":"The final preparations for Audrey MacNamera\u2019s return to the life she left behind are underway\u2026 but who, really, is going home?","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fan-fiction","category-the-changeling-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1155,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions\/1155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}