“If you had to boil down this year into a sales pitch, what would it be?”
Reed laughed and bumped his shoulder against Hanne’s. “A sales pitch?”
“Yeah,” she said, leaning briefly against him as they walked. “I’m in the market for a new year. Sell me the 2368 model. I’ve got a wide variety to choose from, so tell me why you decided to live through this one.”
“You’re a nerd. You realize that, right?”
“Tell me why I should be a nerd in the year 244. Next year we can decide on 245.“
Reed scuffed his heel against the pavement of the street. New Year’s Eve, and everyone was still inside. Bars: full. Restaurants: packed. There were a few scattered couples or groups around, but they were all walking with purpose. Champagne called. Canapes. Crudites.
And here they were, Reed and Hanne, arm in arm, strolling leisurely down the street, heedless of the passersby, to celebrate the last day of 2368, systime 244+365.
“If you’re looking for the utmost in luxury, then it’s really hard to go wrong with 2368. The ride was just about as smooth as could be.”
“How about comfort?”
“Oh, very comfortable. Cushy, even,” he said, poking himself in the belly.
Hanne laughed. “Cute. How about the exterior?”
“No clue. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had any reason to pay attention to the world outside. I imagine it looks just as confusing as it anyways has.”
“Well, okay, fair enough. You’ve been here longer than I have.”
“I keep forgetting you’re younger than me.”
She nodded. “Robbing the cradle, you are.”
“You’re 83.”
“Barely legal.”
It was his turn to laugh. “Whatever.”
“How about, uh… Features? Amenities?”
“Well, it’s got us in it, doesn’t it?”
She laughed and shoved him away from her. “Now who’s the nerd? Gross.”
Reed stumbled to the side, laughing. Their own champagne from earlier added a pleasant freedom of movement he only ever noticed at two drinks. Any more and he became too loose and had a hard time staying upright. Any less and he didn’t notice that any freedom was lacking.
“Is that so bad?” he said. “Alternatively: am I not allowed to be a bit maudlin? It’s fucking New Year’s, Hanne.”
“Maudlin? Is that even the right word?”
“What? Uh…” He hunted down a dictionary on the exchange, prowled through it. “Oh. Mawkish, that’s the one. Or saccharine, maybe? I don’t know. Maudlin still kind of works, doesn’t it?”
She titled her head at him.
“”Extremely sentimental,” it says. Pretty sure that fits.”
Hanne rolled her eyes, grinning. “Okay, yeah, that fits you to a tee.”
They walked in silence for a few minutes. Reed tallied the occupants of the various restaurants along the way, making note of the busiest to check out on some less-busy night. Good date spots, perhaps.
“What was it like when you uploaded?”
“You mean phys-side?”
Hanne nodded. “What was Earth like? What was your life like?”
He shrugged. “Fine, I guess. The Western Fed was swinging conservative again, it was hot as hell all the time, most places were starting to subsidize uploading despite an already declining population. I guess that makes it sound terrible, and maybe it would have gotten worse, but I wasn’t around to see it. We were doing alright, so maybe I was kind of sheltered.”
“I hear you on the hot as hell part. We couldn’t afford moving south when it got too bad, so we moved up into the mountains. It helped a little bit, at least.”
“When was that?”
“2290 something. I don’t remember. I think I was five, at least.”
Reed nodded. “I guess that’s what I mean by sheltered. We were already up in Newfoundland. Summers sucked, winters sucked, but it was alright between them.”
“Autumn or spring?”
“Huh?”
“Pick one, dummy,” she said, laughing.
“Oh, autumn, for sure. Autumn bitch all the way.”
“I knew it.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m nothing if not myself.”
“So why’d you upload?”
“You know that already.”
Hanne shook her head. “You said to transition, sure, but didn’t you already do that back phys-side.”
He stayed silent, picking apart his thoughts on the matter. “I– Marsh got sick of being trans. He wanted to just be a man, not a trans man.”
“You’re a trans man, though.”
“Sure, but that’s not what he wanted at the time. He started to miss it by the time he forked.”
“Why?”
He laughed. “So many questions tonight.”
She grinned, shrugged.
“Well, I think half of it was that there was just too much pressure at the time. Like I said, the WF was swinging conservative, so there was this push to assimilate, and I guess he internalized that pretty hard. He felt pushed to just be a man, and always felt that he fell short, despite all he did to try, but on Lagrange, he could do that right off the bat.”
“So he went back to being trans–“
Reed shook his head, cutting her off. “He’s still cis. I became the way he experienced that again.”
“Sorry, Reed.”
“No, it’s okay,” he said, feeling a rush of warmth to his cheeks. “Didn’t mean to get too pushy. It’s still a little tender, I guess.”
The shadow of her shoulders relaxed again in the dark of the night. “Even after so long?”
“Yeah. Like I said, he internalized it pretty hard, even as he tried to diversify later on. I headed back trans, Lily headed back feminine, and Cress sits in between.”
“is that why you forked, too?”
He laughed. “I forked for fun. Even if it’s still a tender spot, I think I’m still way more relaxed than he is. There may be a bit of that in Sedge, I guess. He’s still pretty happy being a guy. Rush is as ve is of ver own choice, though.”
Hanne looped her arm through his. “Well, I still like you as you are.”
“What, trans?”
“No, a huge nerd.”
“Of course.” He bumped his shoulder to hers. “Why’d you upload, then?”
“The weather. The money. All the same stuff the government told us. Same as most people, I think. I internalized that as much as Marsh did the whole gender thing.”
“Was the WF still on its conservative swing?”
“The Republic of Argentina wasn’t part of the Western Federation.”
“Oh, right. I guess I knew that.”
She shrugged. “Sure. But either way, they were somewhere in the middle, maybe. There was this big push from the liberal side on the climate, and this big push on the conservative side on the financial side. They said they could cut costs on services if there were fewer of us. Dad was with them, mom was with the libs. It was one of the few things they could agree on. They said they’d miss me, but they weren’t exactly sad when I went the Ansible.”
“‘Went the Ansible’? Is that what you called it?”
“‘Uploading’ sounds so sterile,” she said, nodding. “‘Went the Ansible’ just made it sound like moving away from home.”
“Well, I’m glad you went the Ansible, then.”
“Sap.”
He laughed. “Got it in one.”