Chapter 90: To the Moon
"Alright, come this way. I'll check your vitals."
Tigress led the way, glancing back specifically at Rebecca. "Especially you, shortstack. You look like you're held together by duct tape."
"Who the fuck are you calling sh—" Rebecca instantly flared up. She was aggressive with strangers at the best of times, and she wasn't about to let this corpo soldier call her short. This was the girl who tried to shoot Adam Smasher while he was crushing her, after all. Getting angry and losing her mind was her default state.
But a hand clamped over her mouth, reducing her tirade to muffled noises.
"Sorry," Dorio said apologetically. "Our kid has no manners."
Tigress just smiled, her eyes lingering on Rebecca for a moment.
Shoko, watching from her chair, had a weird expression on her face. She looked from Rebecca to Tigress, then grinned behind her helmet. Heh. They're actually kind of alike.
Tigress led them out of Shoko's room and into the fortress's medical bay.
The room was filled with high-end medical tech, machines most of the crew couldn't even name. Pilar, however, recognized them instantly. After handing Rebecca off to a doctor, he started geeking out over the equipment.
"This is our Captain's domain. Like the command room, all this gear was funded by the Boss," Tigress said, hands on her hips.
She started barking orders. "Alright, everyone except Rhys and the two netrunners needs a full diagnostic. We need to check for implant rejection and physiological stress. Especially you, big guy. You look like you're two steps away from cyberpsychosis."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Maine grumbled, clearly annoyed.
Dorio, however, looked at Tigress sharply. She'd been worried about this. As the person closest to Maine, she knew his body was reaching its limit.
Rhys looked over too. Tigress smiled. "Exactly what it sounds like. Let me ask you, big guy: have your implants been glitching lately? Locking up? Failing to respond?"
Maine fell silent. Before he met Rhys, his chrome glitched constantly. Since meeting Rhys and getting the new arm cannon from Vick, it hadn't happened. He'd assumed it was just because he'd been using low-quality chrome before. Especially now that he had the Sandevistan... if his body couldn't handle it, he should have gone psycho already, right?
Seeing his silence, Tigress continued. "Naomi, our Captain, is a brilliant doctor. She's been scouted by Zetatech, Biotechnica, StormTech... I'm telling you this so you understand she knows her shit."
"First off, she's studied cyberpsychosis extensively. It's not just 'too much chrome equals crazy.' Look at me. I have more chrome in my body than all of you combined. Why am I fine?"
Everyone looked at Tigress.
The beautiful soldier held up a finger. "Tech. And environment."
"Installing too many implants, especially low-grade trash, causes physiological damage. That has nothing to do with your mental state."
Tigress walked over to Rebecca, who was now on an operating table. Doctors surrounded her, injecting suppressants, hooking up blood bags, and surgically removing damaged components and shreds of flesh. It looked gruesome. Tigress gently poked Rebecca's cheek.
"But I'm not saying the environment doesn't play a part. High stress triggers it. In Naomi's research, ten out of ten cyberpsychos are bottom-feeders. Vets, Nomads, mercs. You never see a rich corpo go psycho."
"She compares it to drinking. Installing chrome is like downing shots. The quality of the chrome is the quality of the booze. Everyone has a different tolerance. Some people can drink all night and stay sober; others take two shots and start a bar fight. But what if you prep? Take sober-up pills? Train your liver?"
"It's a science. Learning to release stress, maintaining your body, avoiding constant overload... that's how you avoid going over the edge."
Tigress was lecturing them when Shoko's voice cut through the room.
"Rhys. Boss wants to see you."
Rhys glanced at Tigress. She shrugged, standing protectively in front of Rebecca. "Go. They're safe here."
Rhys nodded, thanked her, and walked back to Shoko's command room.
The door opened. On the massive central screen, Michiko Arasaka was waiting.
"Rhys. I accept the deal," she said immediately. "Two years. In two years, you must become the King of Mercs in Night City. If you and your crew don't meet my standards by then, you all work for me."
"Don't worry about the pay. I'll match your rates. I'm not doing this to save money. If eddies can buy loyalty, I'll spend billions."
Michiko rested her chin on her hand, smiling. "But I have a condition."
"Let's hear it," Rhys said.
"You cannot install high-end combat chrome. None. You must maintain your current organic state. You have to become a figure like Morgan Blackhand. No... better than him. He relied on gadgets. You need to be better. Agreed?"
"Agreed," Rhys nodded.
"Then it's a deal. For now, you and your team will stay at this base. Use whatever you need. Tigress and Shoko will keep you company for a month."
"A month? We can't go back to Night City?" Rhys asked.
"Correct. We could do it sooner, but a month is safer," Michiko confirmed.
"I've already arranged it. I have idols, variety shows, and contacts at WNS ready to go. We're going to flood the news cycle with celebrity gossip, global politics, corporate leaks, and legends' scandals. We're going to divert attention."
"In this month, I will dilute the impact of what you did. And... I'm going to ruin your reputation. I'm telling you this now so you know the play."
"You can't have an 'anti-corpo' image right now. It's too dangerous. So, Arasaka Night City execs will 'leak' that they hired you to eliminate Tanaka because of internal corruption. It was a sanctioned hit."
"As for your speech... well, that's tricky. But public opinion is malleable. Words can be twisted, context changed. Don't worry about it."
Michiko rattled off the plan. She had other contingencies in motion, but Rhys didn't need the details.
Bottom line: in one month, Rhys and Maine's crew could return to Night City openly. No hiding.
"Will that work?" Rhys was skeptical.
"Doubting me?" Michiko narrowed her eyes, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "I'm an expert at this."
"Night City, the world... there's too much information. The human brain can't process it all. It's like wind. It blows through, takes the dead leaves, and leaves a fresh landscape."
"Attention spans are short, Rhys. The corps made the world this way. The net, the news, reality... people just follow the loudest voice. They've lost the ability to think. They listen to what the corps want them to hear, do what the corps want them to do. Even their anger is manufactured."
Michiko smiled, the calm confidence of a ruler radiating from her. "So... if I say it's true, it's true."
"Okay. I'll listen to you."
"Good. I have other matters to attend to. If you need anything... here. Take my personal number."
She sent the contact info to Rhys's agent.
Rhys stared at the new contact—the highest-ranking person he knew.
Many players wondered what would happen if V had Yorinobu Arasaka's personal number. Now, in late 2075, Rhys had Michiko Arasaka's.
In a way, Michiko wasn't any less powerful than Yorinobu. Hell, Rhys figured she was probably sharper than her uncle.
Evening.
Rhys joined the crew in the base cafeteria.
Maine and Rebecca weren't there; they were still in surgery, getting upgraded on Michiko's dime. The implants were incredible. Better than what Vick had. Rebecca was getting new dermal plating that could shrug off stray bullets—military-grade stuff.
Pilar was in the corner, drooling over the room full of Dangerous Girls operatives. Besides the doctors and techs, the place was crawling with beautiful, deadly women.
Rhys ate a high-protein synth-meat meal quickly, intending to check on Rebecca. But as he stood up, someone called his name.
"I need to talk to you." Lucy tugged on his sleeve, her voice quiet.
Rhys turned, surprised, then nodded.
Kiwi, watching from nearby, aggressively sucked down a nutrient pouch but said nothing.
They went to Training Room 3. Tigress and Shoko hadn't restricted their movement; Michiko said the base was theirs to use.
"Did you refuse to join Arasaka just to save face?"
Sitting on a bench, Lucy lit a cigarette and looked up at Rhys.
"...I hate corps," Rhys said after a moment.
Lucy had ties to Arasaka. She probably wanted to talk about the deal.
"I don't want anything to do with them. If I could, I wouldn't even take their contracts. But that's impossible. Mercs eventually work for corps. So... I'm conflicted, Lucy. sometimes I don't know what the right move is," Rhys sighed.
Lucy turned her head, looking at his profile. She pulled her legs up, hugging her knees. "You asked me if I was a princess."
"I guess... I used to be. A long time ago. Now, I'm just a fugitive." Her voice was open, honest. "My father was a high-ranking exec at Arasaka Poland. Network Security Director. My mother was a brilliant netrunner. I was born into that."
"I loved computers. My parents taught me, I learned fast. Life was good. Fancy schools, rich friends. My future was set: grow up, join Arasaka, be a top-tier netrunner."
"But everything changed when I was eight. I found something on my father's computer. Secrets. And then... I was sent to the facility."
"I lived with other kids my age. During the day, we were locked in dark server rooms, jacked into the Old Net. At night, we huddled in a tiny room, talking about dreams, hoping..."
Her voice grew quieter. "We were divers. Expendable assets sent into the Old Net to recover lost tech and data. It was dangerous. One slip, and the Blackwall, or rogue AIs, would shred your mind."
"More and more kids died in the chairs. So we... we rebelled. We planned it, fried the guards' neural implants, and ran."
"Arasaka agents chased us. At first, we ran together. Then we split up. I could hear my friends screaming behind me, but I didn't look back."
Lucy looked up, a bitter smile on her lips. "Poland is cold. The wind cuts right through you. But I just kept running. Running for my life."
"Loneliness, fear... I had no direction, no hope. Just a kid, worth less than the grass I was running on, crying but too scared to make a sound..."
"Until I couldn't run anymore. I collapsed in the wasteland. I thought, this is it. I'm done. But then I looked up at the sky. Through my blurry vision... I saw the moon. Shining down on me."
Rhys listened in silence.
"That's when I had the thought. To go where no one else is. To go to the moon."
"That's why I want to go, Rhys," Lucy said, looking at him intensely. "I've been running from Arasaka my whole life."
"I've been to so many cities. I lost count. Twelve years of running, trying to find a place without Arasaka. But... I never found it."
"The only place they aren't is China, but they wouldn't let me in. So I came to Night City. Arasaka's grip here is looser because of the other corps."
"And today... I realized how arrogant I was." Her smile turned mocking.
"Arasaka didn't even care about me. Michiko Arasaka... when I saw her, I thought she'd recognize me, drag me back to the facility. I hid my face. But... she never even looked at me."
"If... if Arasaka never really cared... then Rhys, tell me. What have I been running from for twelve years? What was the point of all my struggle to survive?"
She looked at him, desperate for an answer.
She needed someone to tell her that her life hadn't been a joke. And she had no one else to talk to.
So she came to Rhys.
When she went with the crew to Japantown, she'd been prepared to be caught. But instead of just surviving, she wanted a home. And Rhys... he gave her hope.
Did she really love the moon that much? Maybe. But the moon was just a symbol. A symbol of a place where she didn't have to run.
Rhys leaned back on his hands, looking at the ceiling.
Today had been insane. Morning with Lucy, attacking Japantown, killing Tanaka, hunted by Arasaka, rescued by Michiko...
He was dizzy. He wanted to be stronger. To protect everyone. The Mox, Sasha, Maine, Jackie, Rebecca, Dorio, Kiwi... and Lucy.
"Hey, Lucy."
"Hm?"
"Wanna go to the moon together?"
"?"
"Watching it in a BD isn't enough. If we get the chance..." Rhys turned to her, raising his right hand.
He didn't know how to comfort her. He hadn't lived her trauma. He'd been lucky; Susan and Korna had protected him. He couldn't offer empty platitudes.
So... he offered a different kind of promise.
He extended his pinky finger. He smiled.
"Let's go to the moon together."
Lucy stared at him, stunned. Her dull eyes focused, then began to shine. She quickly lowered her head.
"Rhys... has anyone ever told you you're really just... an emotional trash can?"
"You just listen. You don't talk."
Burying her face in her knees, Lucy extended her left hand. She hooked her pinky around his.
Her voice was muffled. "It's a promise."
"Yeah," Rhys smiled. "It's a promise."