Chapter 116: Gizmo’s Secret
“You never know what kinds of secrets a glyph can contain.”
—Bounty Hunter Elex Tuthran
“Hm,” the mechanic, named Goran, grunted. He was waving a long, warbling metal wand over Gizmo and making curious noises. Gizmo sat by emitting a happy chirp or beep every so often, clearly liking the extra attention.
“Hm.”
“Anything yet?” Zaina asked.
Goran scratched the back of his head. “Well, the glyph’s in working order from a hardware standpoint. I’ll connect to the repair port to see if I can run an internal diagnostic. Otherwise I’d recommend a full system wipe.”
“A full wipe? I thought he was already wiped when the Order gave him to me.”
“Well, yes and no. When a glyph is transferred from one lancer to the next they receive what’s known as a memory reset. Basically, all the preset functions and whatnot the glyph needs to perform its job as a lancer’s assistant are kept, but all the stored memory and personalized function data are washed away. A full system wipe involves cleaning out everything and starting from scratch. It takes about a day to wipe everything and reprogram it. Might be easier than trying to fix whatever’s wrong with it at this point.”
Zaina shook her head. “No—no, I don’t want to lose him. The little guy means a lot to me—as is, aside from the constant resets.”
“Well,” Goran replied, “I’ll get hooked up and run a diagnostic, but if it’s too sensitive an internal issue, I’ll have to recommend you to Valsi’s shop. I’m what you might call a hardware specialist, and while I know my way around the inner circuits of a glyph, I can’t claim to be near her level of understanding on the topic.”
Zaina nodded her affirmation. With a grunt, Goran went about his work. First he grabbed a cable and connected one end into his vis-screen and the other into a small port in Gizmo’s side. Then he went about typing on a holographic keyboard projecting from his vis-screen. It felt like he was going to type forever—then, he checked a smaller holo-screen projected to the side and grunted.
“Hm. That’s curious.”
“What is it?” she blurted out, hopeful for a resolution.
“Memory overflow,” Goran muttered. “But that shouldn’t be possible after the memory reset.” He patted Gizmo on the head. “There’s more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there, little guy?”
Gizmo replied with a happy chirp.
“Memory overflow?”
Goran stood and scratched the back of his head. “It’s a term that refers to what happens when a glyph stores too much memory. Space is taken away from other processes—glyphs don’t like permanently deleting memory, so they’ll make room for it however they can, even if it harms the rest of the unit’s functionality.”
“So—what does that mean?”
Goran sighed. “Could mean a couple different things. The most common case scenario with this sort of thing is that the glyph recorded too much to store in its memory databanks, so it went in and stored a compressed version inside other databanks not targeted by the Order’s memory reset. Video-audio recordings generally have a higher data threshold than one or the other.”
Zaina nodded, pretending she understood what any of that meant.
He grimaced. “I think the common scenario is unlikely. The Order’s pretty thorough with its memory wipes, and it’s never made a mistake like that wiping a glyph to my knowledge, even accounting for active memory overflows. They have scans that go in and search the non-targetable databanks for overwritten data. It’s pretty neat, but it’s a bit above my pay-grade.”
“So,” she said, “what are the other options?”
“Well, they’re also pretty unlikely, so—I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? What do you mean, you don’t know?”
His head tilted back and forth as if he was deciding whether or not to say something. Eventually, he did. “Could be a software malfunction. Could be some sort of bug or a virus it picked up on a mission—that’s not unheard of. Or maybe the previous owner manipulated the data in some way—it’s possible they wanted this to happen.”
That didn’t seem right—Gir cared about Gizmo. Zaina was sure of it. Why else would he keep a malfunctioning glyph around for the better part of a decade?
Goran continued, “I’ve heard of cases where memory inside a glyph’s storage was encrypted and disguised as a memory overflow to hide it from targeted resets or other interference. Usually it’s to keep some sort of secret in case the glyph falls into the wrong hands. I’ve really only heard of that in criminal scenarios, but we can’t rule out the previous owner having something they didn’t want wiped from this glyph. Byzon knows why, of course.”
Zaina stared at him. A secret? Gir? He didn’t seem like the secretive type. Or the type to hide something from the Order itself. And he definitely wasn’t a criminal.
Goran continued further, “And, of course, let me reiterate that this sort of thing isn’t my specialty. You’ll probably get a better explanation from Valsi if you go see her. I think she’ll know what’s going on in this little guy’s head.”
“I—it has to be one of the first two things,” she said.
“Was the previous owner a lancer?”
“High Lancer Gir.”
He nodded. “All right. Well, in any case, it’s a bit beyond my realm of understanding. Glyph memory is complicated business. I’d recommend you take it to Valsi’s shop.”
“Do they do house calls?” she asked.
“Not to my knowledge, no. How long are you on bed-rest?”
Zaina groaned. “Today’s it.”
“Well, unfortunately, you may have to wait until tomorrow. If you’d like, I can rent you a glyph for the night. Rentals are no-frills, but they’ll do what you need them to.”
She thought about it for a moment. “No, that’s okay. I can wait until tomorrow.”
“You sure? It’s no charge to you if that makes a difference.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, it’s no big deal.”
A coy half-grin spread over Goran’s lips. “You really are attached to the little guy.”
“Gir was a good friend to me. I—I didn’t know him for very long, but I still miss him. And Gizmo’s all I have left to remember him by.”
Goran nodded. “I get it. I still have my Father’s old glyph—not that it’s functional anymore, mind you. Just could never bring myself to throw it out even if the wife wants me to.”
Zaina understood exactly what he meant. A lot of people might have thrown Gizmo away, wanting a superior glyph; but she felt like, on some level, Gizmo was her friend, too. She’d never had many friends growing up—she wasn’t about to throw one away, even if it was a glyph.
“Okay,” he said. “Well, I’ll get out of your hair, then.”
Goran went about packing up his things. Zaina, stuck in bed, cursed her wounded leg.
I’ll get you fixed up, buddy. No matter what.
After Goran was gone Zaina decided to get some sleep. If it made the next day come faster, all the better. She tossed and turned for a while, trying to find a position where her aching leg was comfortable enough to let her sleep. When she finally drifted off, she dreamed of Gir looking for Gizmo in a cave, using his cipher to illuminate the darkness. Zaina was always behind him, trying to catch up to his fervent pace, but never able; she followed him until she woke up.