Her words were full of sincere faith in her friend, but Anna only nodded absently, absorbed in her own thoughts. Her eyes were staring somewhere far away, as if she saw not the walls of the NeuroHub, but her uncertain future.
Finally, they reached Anna’s room. The door, reacting to the biometric data of the hostess, silently slid aside, revealing a view of a small but cosy space. Inside, on one of the beds, lay Anna’s roommate Dash, enthusiastically adjusting the latest lip augmentation and eye discolouration implant. Her face, reflected in the video mirror, was constantly changing, trying on different shades and shapes.
– Oh, you’re finally here! – Dash exclaimed, breaking away from her work for a second. Her voice sounded a little distorted because of her half-enlarged lips. – You’ve been gone all day. Nova and I were getting worried.
The interior of the room was typical NeuroHub, but it had the personality of its inhabitants. Three narrow beds built into the walls could fold up to make room for work or rest. Now one of them was unfolded – the one Dash was lying on – and the others were neatly tucked into the wall, revealing Anna’s desk, which was littered with schematics and physical prototypes of devices.
Screens replaced the usual windows, now projecting a view of the city at night – millions of lights, flying cars and distant silhouettes of skyscrapers gave the illusion that the room was at dizzying heights. In the corner stood an old-fashioned wooden cabinet, a true rarity in a world of plastic and metal.
Nova walked over and sat next to it, tucking her feet up on a worn chair upholstered in synthetic leather. Unlike many of her peers, she favoured naturalness, avoiding obvious cybernetic modifications except for optics.
– Don’t be upset, you’ll pass, I believe in you,» Nova said, leaning over to Anna. Her voice, soft and warm, contrasted with the cold glow of the gadgets around them.
Anna looked up, her eyes a mixture of gratitude and hidden stubbornness:
– I’m not upset,» she said, trying to keep her voice firm, but the slight tremor in her tone betrayed her true feelings.
Nova sighed, her fingers nervously tugging at a strand of hair, the only sign of worry on her otherwise calm face:
– Just a few per cent… – she whispered, staring into the void in front of her. – Why couldn’t they forgive them? That’s how you’d get everything and turn it in.
Anna straightened up sharply, her eyes flashing with determination like two little supernovae in the cosmos of her face:
– And I’ll get in anyway,» she said with unexpected firmness.
Dash, absorbed in the process of adjusting her cybernetic eyes, which were now shimmering in every shade from emerald to sapphire, said absent-mindedly:
– Who’s arguing? The corporation hires until how old? Thirty-five? – she said, fixing her lips, which, thanks to nano-implants, were changing shape and colour to suit her mood. – You’ve got plenty of time to try.
Anna’s neighbour, who had been silently watching the conversation until then, snorted, leaning back in the antique armchair that contrasted strangely with the ultra-modern furnishings:
– But at least you graduated from the institute first,» she tossed in Dash’s direction, her voice full of caustic sarcasm.
Dash only laughed back, her laughter modulated by her voice implants, sounding like a melody from the future. She walked gracefully across the room, showing off her fancy jumpsuit of colour-changing and texture-changing smart fabric.
– «Here you are setting your lips and eyes, and now Faza is coming. And you’re going to scare him. And we have to go to the concert with him tonight,» Nova continued, her voice tinged with envy and admiration at the same time.
Dash rolled her eyes, which went completely black for a moment before returning to their usual shimmering state:
– What concert? – she sighed theatrically. – You’ve been here for two years and you’re still going to concerts? You are cultured!
In the dusky corridors of the NeuroHub, where the neon stripes on the walls pulsed in time with the beating of the building’s electronic heart, there was a sudden insistent knock on the door.
– We can, we can! Come in! – Dash said in a high-pitched voice, her voice, modulated by cheap voice implants, sounded like a melody from the distant future, each note filled with artificial harmony.
Nova, desperately trying to pull on a tight-fitting smart-fabric dress that shimmered in all the colours of the rainbow, reacting to the slightest changes in her mood and heartbeat, screamed with a note of panic in her voice:
– You can’t, you can’t! You can’t go in yet! – Her voice echoed off the walls, creating a bizarre echo in the room.
But it was too late. The door opened with a soft pneumatic hiss, like the sigh of a cyborg, and on the threshold appeared Faze, a tall, russet-haired young man with large facial features and an athletic build that seemed to defy the general fascination with cyber-implants. His cyber-leather jacket, with a brightly glowing pattern on the back of it depicting a writhing neon dragon, made him look like a modern knight from the neon kingdom.
Nova, like a frightened nymph from Greek myths, lost in the labyrinth of high technology, skulked behind the wardrobe, trying to hide her half-naked body from Faz’s gaze.
Faza, slightly confused by the unexpected scene, quickly entered the room. His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings.
– Hello,» he began, but stammered when he saw Dash, whose lips now took up almost half her face, shimmering in all the colours of the rainbow like a living neon billboard.
– Hello,» Dash mumbled, her huge lips barely moving, creating a surreal spectacle, like a Salvador Dali painting brought to life in a high-tech world.
Faza, shuffling from foot to foot, his boots making a quiet squeak with every movement, analysing the composition of the air and the floor, asked with a note of surprise and slight concern in his voice:
– What is it with our Dasha? – His gaze darted between the giant lips and the rest of the girl’s face, trying to make sense of what he saw.
Dash, trying to give her voice a languorous note, which combined with her current appearance looked comical, like a parody of Hollywood divas of the last century, purred:
– You’re the one who got me… turned me on. – Each word was accompanied by a wave of iridescence running across her lips.
Faze, clearly feeling out of place, began to heel towards the exit. The sensors in his shoes beeped quietly, warning him as he approached the threshold.
– Sorry,» he mumbled as Dash continued to swivel her multi-coloured cyber-eyes in different directions, creating a hypnotic effect like a kaleidoscope.
By this time Nova had already managed to tidy herself up, her dress taking on a more conservative look as she adjusted to the situation. She adjusted the fabric on her firm young thighs, and her blond hair framed her face with delicate features. When she heard Faza about to leave, she shouted, her voice, amplified by the room’s speaker system, echoing around the room:
– Faza, Faza, wait! Don’t run away! I’m ready!
Nova turned to Dash with a smile as she put the finishing touches to the video-mirror, which obligingly highlighted the most favourable features of her face and suggested make-up options:
– Why