Khopesh: Introductory Story

The ruins sat, undisturbed for what had to amount to decades, decay having taken its toll. The stone structure had parts of its upper levels fall away, exposing the blue grid of coding underneath that stretched up to the sky. Suddenly, near the entrance to these ruins, a swirl of emerald and jade energy coagulated into the cross fox as he loaded his code into the system.

Khopesh saw the ruins and grinned knowingly. The techno-archaeologist had been hired to extract some industry secret code deep within this system, blah blah… He didn’t care all too much. The company paid well, they provided a third of the credits up front, and they allowed him to operate however he wanted. The system he used allowed him to upload his mind into the computer system, with a series of filters so that each system he investigated was always some sort of temple, ruin, tomb, or city to explore. For him, it worked so much better than standard file systems and graphical interfaces.

He flicked his thumbs, casting some headphone pods into his ears as he flipped through his playlist, picking a rock-style track as he walked into the ruins. A few traps had been set — likely outdated cybersecurity programs — as he maneuvered through the structure, working his way down into the depths before locating the file packet. He picked it up and flicked it skyward, watching it pierce through the ceiling. Never gets old, he thought to himself, knowing the file had been moved to a more modern drive. He gave a few taps to his wrist-mounted computing system and blinked out of the ruins.

His eyes flickered open in the real world. He had probably only been in the system for about a minute — it was an archaic, simple computer system after all — as he reached over and unplugged his link cable from the system, reeling in the wire to his left wrist. He then pulled the stick drive from the console, flipping it around in his hand before sliding it into a box and sealing it up. While it was old data, the fact that it was an “industry secret” meant he couldn’t just upload it directly to the customer’s servers. There was too much of a chance for an interceptor to get in the way, or even just break the data link and corrupt the information. Couriers still had to physically bring the data to the actual server to ensure there was no data loss. And to make sure I get paid in full, Khopesh thought to himself as he set the package in the pick-up box.

He threw a cover over the marble chair he used as a rack while exploring data — an odd choice, most would say, but one he saved for years to get — and then poured a few measures of a decent bourbon into a glass, swirling the bronze-colored liquid for a moment before lighting a stick of sandalwood incense and relaxing. Techno-archaeology wasn’t a high-paying job by any means, but the fox knew how to negotiate better rates on his contracts than most, and because he had a proven track record for data quality, companies were willing to pay what he asked for. Usually, he would only have to take a dozen or so contracts a month to live comfortably. This most recent one might cover half the month; he could take a break for once!

The alert on the pick-up box jingled, breaking his thoughts. The package was on its way.

After finishing off his drink 20 minutes later, he stood and pulled a coat on. As he walked to the door, his temple-chip gave a ding. A hologram projected in front of his left eye, showing that a deposit had just been made in his account — nearly twice what he was expecting! For good work, swiftly done: a bonus, was the message tied to the transfer. He shrugged a bit. Maybe it was time for a change of scene. Maybe he could hire one of the corvettes in the spaceport and head off to a planet with actual ruins.

For now, he was going clubbing, looking for some evening company.