John blinks rapidly as she suddenly knows a great deal about the place she's in, with no effort. It's as if a part of her mind simply reappeared, something there already. It takes a moment to figure out how it effects her current situation but she frowns. "Oh man...this is..." She groans, "Oh crap." The warm feminine voice speaks up, "Is everything alright Mrs. Smith?" John shakes her head, "No it's....it'll be fine."
On the plus side, John thinks, she now knows a lot more about basic life in subspace. She thinks into the helper channel, >>Hey, is there anyway I can get out of the node early?<< The stern man's voice echoes in her head >>Negative, Node is temporally accelerated on a 100 to 1 scale, exit to the primary subspace network is locked for safety and to ensure local cohesion of setting. You may petition the Node Owner, known local as Admiral Dalran. << A groan escapes John's lips, "Fuck, fuck, fuck." You remember being asked about taking on a new life and body here, and think >> Take me OOC, for character creation. << There is a moment of silence then the voice speaks >>Character Creation impossible. Information dump has locked you with current default profile Mrs. Smith.<<
John blinks, >>You're kidding<<,
>>I never joke.<<
>>I...<< John pauses and thinks, reviewing her assigned background >>I run a bar?<<
>> Manage a bar, on level 4. The previous manager had a health issue and is waiting out the current cycle in protective care. <<
John shakes her head, "Fine...stupid..." She sighs, and starts to make her way through the station, she knows the way, to her apartment above the bar. Her mind is racing as she thinks over the info she has been given. Direct subroutine access is delayed, she won't be able to exit for a hundred days, this is some kind of lawless science fiction setting, and..."At least they didn't assign me a boyfriend, just a fucking ex." John shakes her head, "This is so fucking dumb..."
Later, she's in the cabin/apartment she has to herself. It's undecorated. She knows that as far as anyone knows she was transported in just today from a passing hyperfreighter. But...she blinks, seeing the glint under the bed. "Huh...the last owner must have left something behind..." John kneels and reaches under the bed, deep under the bed and pulls out a small plastic case, that is totally textureless to the touch. "What the..." She racks her new memories and realizes that this is not a node defined object but rather something someone must have made, hacked into the node. She knows now, that some people can do that, and it is both highly dangerous, punishable by confinement for breach of setting, and also...
"Cool..." John's grin is wide as she taps the plastic case, "You, my friend, have told me what I needed to know. This could be my way out of here, if I want to find whoever got me put into this body and tricked me into coming here to the SHS." John pauses and pops the case open revealing a slip of crumpled paper and a quartet of syringes. The piece of paper has a design on it, a domino mask, but as she looks close you see it's made of thousands of ones and zeroes. No instructions, just that sigil, which she files away for later use before picking up one of the syringes. It glows faintly, and unlike the box she can feel it. Probably hacked in, but clearly made with more care than the case.
"What's the worse that could happen..." John mutters to herself, pressing the syringe to her wrist and pressing the button. There's a warm rush across her body and...