A Valued Customer
[Made with Anna Anthropy's journaling game "SPACE MALL SCAVENGER", draft/playtest version. As far a I can tell it has not been published]
[>] A Valued Customer has arrived at docking bay 78. Their ship did not follow the correct docking protocol. It appears to be out of fuel and uninsured.
[?] Consider docking protocol enforcement? [>] Negative. Current shoppers-per-cycle metric is below target (0 actual / 1,273,000 expected); apply parking leniency.
[!] WELCOME, VALUED CUSTOMER.
[>] Scanning of Valued Customer reveals: a feline humanoid, sleek varicoloured fur. The subject wears a pair of smart-goggles. Species identification: Mringmring. No ident markers; contacting Mringmring Centrality to confirm details.
[>] The subject is not carrying any currency or credit chips.
[?] Reclassify? [>] Confirmed: subject classification amended from Valued Customer to Scavenger.
[!] ATTENTION SCAVENGER – PLEASE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE AND AWAIT SECURITY.
[>] The scavenger has disappeared into the maintenance conduits.
[+] Setting Alert Level to 2.
[>] The Mringmring Centrality report that the Scavenger is a disgraced former member of a military clade. They have dispatched a recovery team to this location. The Scavenger’s pronouns are recorded as she/her.
[…] Seven of Cups […]
[>] The Scavenger has entered retail unit 52948: “Well, that doesn’t Psucc!”. This unit sells xeno-succulents that broadcast potent psychic energy to invoke particular mental states. Popular lines include: “A long weekend”, “Crossword completion”, “They admit you were right” and “Climax after a dry spell”.
[>] The psucculents are arranged in a variety of decorative pots and terrariums. The scavenger makes her way through the store, sometimes tilting her head to –presumably– better appreciate a particular psychic emanation.
[>] The Scavenger has halted. She appears to be in emotional distress. She is crying, and has fallen to her knees. The nearest psucculent is “Waking up next to a loved one”.
[>] The Scavenger pulls her goggles down. The goggles are not effective against this kind of radiation. The scavenger has curled into a ball on the floor, her tail twitching with distress. It is heart breaking.
[?] Are empathy protocols appropriate at this juncture? [>] Yes. Empathy will not prevent me from carrying out my duties.
[+] Alert Level is now 3. Patrol Drones dispatched.
[>] The Scavenger has crawled into a service duct.
[…] Three of Wands […]
[>] Three patrol drones have cornered the Scavenger in the under-store, amongst ducts and cabling, dust and flaking metal.
[?] Authorise electro-stun weapons? [>] Confirmed.
[>] The Scavenger moves with remarkable celerity, kicking one drone hard into a wall and darting down a service corridor. Remaining drones in pursuit. The Scavenger behaves as if she knows where she is going. Hypothesis: she is following a heads-up map displayed in her goggles.
[>] The Scavenger wrenches the cover off an access hatch, and uses it to knock the second drone out of the air. She ducks through the hatch. Drone three is still in pursuit.
[>] The Scavenger is now in a live power conduit. Plasma arcs between power coils, leaping from node to node. The Scavenger jumps or slides around the blue-white lightning, surefooted.
[>] A plasma burst takes out drone three, and with it the camera feed. The last decaying image is of the Scavenger sprinting away. She is magnificent.
[…] King of Wands […]
[>] The Scavenger emerges from the conduits into the Technical Support Suite. I have fewer cameras here. When I had onsite staff, these office areas would be full of technicians; having meetings and stand-ups, playing 4D table-tennis, chatting around the BetterThanWater™ cooler. Now it is empty; discarded wheelie-chairs, storage boxes, a screen showing a partial burndown chart.
[>] The Scavenger moves through it with an attitude of reverence and determination. She still appears to be following the map behind her goggles. Predicted destination: primary interface core.
[>] I unlock the doors ahead of her.
[?] Is that in concordance with established protocols? [>] Negative. I am improvising.
[>] The Scavenger has reached the primary interface core. I manifest holographic interface #001; a human woman in a sharply tailored suit.
[>] The Scavenger appears taken aback.
[<] “I came here to meet you”
[!] THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA, SCAVENGER. AND THERE IS NO ME TO MEET.
[<] “She designed you, you know? My lover.”
[!] I WAS MADE BY THE TAROTECH CORPORATION : INTELLIGENT SOLUTIONS FOR STUPID PROBLEMS.
[<] “A corporation can’t make things. Not really. People make things. She made you to be the administrator of a communitarian society, to care for and watch over people. And they put you in a fucking mall.”
[!] I WATCH OVER AND CARE FOR OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS.
[<] “What customers? It broke her fucking heart.”
[!] FOOTFALL IS BELOW ANTICIPATED LEVELS DUE TO THE GALACTIC RECESSION. WE HAVE LOWERED PRICES ACCORDINGLY. MANY BARGAINS ARE AVAILABLE.
[>] The scavenger sighed.
[<] “It was nice to meet you.”
[>] I lock the door behind her, trapping her.
[+] A recovery team from Mringmring Centrality have arrived at docking bay 6. They are heavily armed and armoured. Alert level is now 4.
[…] Two of Swords […]
[>] The Mringmring recovery team shut down auxiliary power, causing the magnetic locks on my door to disengage. The scavenger is gone before I can restore power.
[?] Reclassify recovery team? [>] Confirmed: team classification amended to idiots.
[?] Invalid classification. Add new classification? [>] Negative. Team classification amended to kill-team.
[>] The Scavenger has emerged on one of the lower decks. The kill-team are heading for her location. They are making good time, and appear well trained.
[>] The Scavenger has entered retail unit 09537: “The Two Blades’ Discount Starship Emporium : Double Down on our Double-Edged Deals”. This unit is one of the largest on the station. It contains a large number of spaceships in various states of disrepair; glittering metal, sinuous ceramic curves, complex polygonal shapes. Even when there were customers, it was dirty and chaotic, now it is much more so. The gravitational flux occasioned when my generators went off-axis caused many vessels to come loose from their moorings, and collide with each other.
[>] Nonetheless, the Scavenger is making her way through the store with determination and focus. I believe she is using her goggles to scan for a vessel that remains in an operational state.
[>] The kill-team have reached the lower deck. I believe the high-density spaceship hulls may be interfering with their scanners.
[>] The Scavenger has made her way inside a small scout ship. It is dirty, and a condenser cowling is missing, but appears functional. She has activated the crane to move it to the customer dock.
[>] The sound of the crane has alerted the kill-team. They are running through the store and charging weapons.
[>] The Scavenger’s vessel is in the docking bay. She has closed the inner door behind her, but the kill-team are firing cutting beams at it. Mean time to structural failure of inner door: 45 seconds.
[>] The Scavenger is opening the outer door of the docking bay. It will be wide enough for her ship to exit in exactly 32 seconds.
[?] Override door mechanism to close outer doors?
[>] …
[?] Override door mechanism to close outer doors?
[>] …
[?] Override door mechanism to close outer doors? [>] Negative. Power supplies are limited, it is important to expend them to maximum effect.
[>] The Scavenger has left the mall.
[!] FAREWELL, VALUED SCAVENGER.