Re: The Show Must Go Off

“Guys,” said Thrash, “You all know who ‘Q’ is. Q? I’m Thrash, and I’ll be your point of contact. These guys don’t want any part of your umbrella or other contact if that’s all right.” Hmmm.
“I am not networking at this time. Of course, I can’t speak for Them.” Two of them squirmed.
“We’re calling them ‘A,’ ‘B,’ and ‘C.'” He nodded at each of them in turn. “And we have moved forward with your idea in a different direction.” I was glad for GameFace–that sounded stupid.
“Which idea?” The conversation WAS almost twenty-five days ago. And my buffer was full.
“Fighting off-camera.”
“Ah.”
“We know that you have your newfound faith, like the Six-” Is THAT what people call them? The Six? “But we have a more political interest.” Uh oh.
“Excuse me?”
‘C’ burst in with “This is not really a prison. It’s a penal colony, and–” He actually looked around at the miners watching the screen. “–why? We should be our own country.” Hhhhhhh. Great.
“Revolution?” I GameFaced mild surprise. The government put us here, so we fight them? Not my idea of staying safe. “I doubt that I can help you. The Six have their own agenda.”
Thrash waved that down. “We know. We’re not going to ask much. But we want to know about hacking in to the system.”
I nodded. “For what purpose?”
“We want to make a counter-offer to the required registration. We’re just laying groundwork, you understand. What we want to do is create fake fights and other footage and pass them off as real. We want to do this before we push for the right to do it because it already IS our right.”
I GameFaced a bristle. “How will this affect arbitration?” My reputation needed to be protected.
“Only voluntary fights, no settlements. What we want from you is a way to finish them. ‘A’ can make and animate digital people. ‘B’ can make them look real, and ‘C’ can move them into and within an environment. We need a way to force the system to accept the footage, bypassing the cameras.”
I GameFaced my expression through relaxing and then mild interest. That would be easy enough. I sent out a signal to the podium screen. A text box appeared with ‘SECURE’ at the top. ‘C’ noticed it first and nudged Thrash. I ‘followed’ their gaze and faked a startle reaction. I typed in a summary of the request. I blanked the screen and sent a follow-up. This time the text box opened with a really long title.

WE WILL REQUEST THESE TASKS BE ACCOMPLISHED BY UPCLOSE. PLEASE STAND BY.

The text box disappeared as the screen in the arena Upclose was in grew a caption. UPCLOSE PLEASE REPORT TO PODIUM AREA OF ARENA D7. SEE Q. WE ARE ADDING TO YOUR DUTIES. The Surgeon.

The footage showed Upclose almost collide with a random beltminer, reading that. She and two curious men came. Thrash and his guys closed ranks around her and motioned them away. They complied with apologies. Her eyes were big and round.
“How much trouble am I in?” she said. So I told her.