When I walk by my mirror to the bathroom, I do a double-take at the person looking back at me. My muffin top area has significantly depleted. I flex an arm and a thigh to do a jiggle test, and there is much less wiggle to the jiggle. All that time lifting glass around and hiking are doing very nice things to my ATC self.

  Today sees me in a white satin tank and a pleated black and hunter green tartan skirt. Paired with a stylish red cropped coat and red Chuck Taylors, I’m ready to meet or game and whatever the day throws at me.

  “No pigtails?” Jessie asks from my living room.

  I stumble back through my bedroom door, my heart racing as I try not to fall over. “Damnit Jessie!” She did that on purpose! Which I confirm with the smirk she gives me as she hands me a coffee from the cute café near the tube station two blocks from here.

  “You’ve committed to three weeks this time, and much of your schedule is busy. Saturday afternoons and Sundays should stay free, but no promises. Your first item today is a site visit with Chance near Surrey Quays. Lucy’s taken your lunch period, and you have a meeting with management at 1pm. After that, you’re blocked out for gaming for the rest of the day.”

  “Any idea what management wants?”

  Jessie shakes her head, “The game and experience testing director asked for you multiple times over the last two weeks, so probably something to do with that.”

  Crap. I hope Chance is okay. I have a meeting with her in like an hour, so I won’t bother asking Jessie about it. I suppose I should check my messages after I finish with this update.

  “I have meetings for those issues, so what else? Do you have a brand schedule for who I’m supposed to wear, when?”

  “We have targets to hit, but you don’t go out of wardrobe very often, so I put some new outfits in your wardrobe that should fill in your casual and semi-casual wear.” She glares at me because I deviated from my closet this morning. I shrug. “That said, you know who your sponsors are, but Elitas did send us a contract to agree that your Alpha-Lime fit stays within the yoga slash casual lane that you’ve been in with them.”

  “Is it good enough for me to wear their gear when I workout with Lucy?”

  She waggles her hand with a maybe. “They agreed that if you wear their brand in photos or clips you are in with Lucy, that she will get half of an ad actor’s pay in addition to her sponsorship each appearance.”

  That’s basically pence on the pound. “Did Ophelia say anything about that contract?”

  “She said you’d be stupid not to take free money.”

  We chat a little more about her meetings with Ophelia and Lucy in the last few weeks and nothing surprising comes up beside my new Orion Gaming gear and how much potential revenue my boss stands to make off of me next year.

  I pick up the DLR train at Montgomery and transfer to the Overground line that takes me to Surrey Quays. The process takes longer than the distance suggests, so I consider taking a scooter back. As I exit the landing, I see Chance standing with a hunch, worrying her hands together.

  “Hey Chance, something wrong?”

  “Selena, I-I think I messed up.”

  “Show and tell, chica. Walk me to the project?” She nods and walks.

  I follow and review my messages.

  A few acknowledgements of my actions of giving Chance permission to act on my behalf, a bank alert for 10k pounds? And a whole bank of testing messages talking about errors. Oh, there’s one about a shutdown of the real-estate module and the live simulation module due to excess server load. That’s probably why I have several meetings to go to.

  When Chance stops, I look up to see a substantial apartment complex in a U-shape with a short barrier wall with a gate to close out the square. The part that alarms me is that the whole thing looks physical and built.

  “Okay, Chance, why don’t you start, and I’ll ask questions about anything you may have left out.”

  She whimpers then starts, “I found a few properties that would accommodate your desired arrangement for the building, and decided that this was a reasonable and close location. It required land ownership to test anything physical so I purchased the land for you with your expense account.

  “I then modeled the building, noted interface errors when joining prefabricated modules and went through the building finding those in a wireframe layout before turning on the live simulate option to see if my changes and modular joining affected any of the internal appearances of the complex, and minutes after I initiated the simulation, I got some angry messages, a revocation of the permissions you gave me and a shutdown of the real-estate and construction system.”

  None of that seems out of what I asked her to do. The only way that the server load would have been anywhere near that high is if she asked to simulate the whole building at once. “Did you put any restrictions on the simulation? Like the room you occupy or anything like that?”

  “No. Oh, gosh I should have.” She puts her hands over her mouth and then her whole face in embarrassment.

  “Alright, lets see if my permissions were blocked. Come over and watch what I’m doing.” I waive her over and make my messaging screen visible to her.

  “First, we identify the project in the ATC testing prompt, then we put in the action performed, the response received, and the proposed action. For me and a few Senior testers, we put in change requests in response to an error code. Most of your inputs will be forwarded to a Senior tester if major changes are needed. In this case, costing the company millions with an error goes above us to the testing director. The angry message I got told me to fix it though.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  ATC_Test:\> @Module_Realproperty @Module_Construction @Module_LiveSim: Auto attempt to fix module placement errors for electrical, piping, and ventilation. Auto attempt to fix superficial defects to walls, siding, and roofing. Live Simulate ONLY attempted fixes and the current room of the requestor, wire frame or ghost ALL ELSE in current project.

  ATC_Test:\> Simulate error reduction and server load of shutdown project [Surry Quays Apartment Complex] under new conditions.

  //Command Return: Errors requiring further tester input reduced 63%. Server load reduced 97%. Variance expected <1%

  ATC_Test:\>Send last two prompts and return to @Testing_Director.

  //Command Return: Sent. Due to severity of error, fix will be implemented unless overridden.

  “That’s the best I could have expected. Excellent. What else happened?”

  “Well, when the Director shut off the modules, since the complex was live, it became permanent?”

  “I mean, that is a bug, but why is it a problem?”

  “People moved in. Namely your friends. I’m worried that when the complex get’s ‘fixed’ something bad might happen.” This woman is scared.

  I take a step and put a hand on her shoulder, “Chance, you did what I asked, and you found a release-limiting bug, two of them, and that’s something to be proud of. This last issue may take a minute, because a lot of issues should have prevented this from happening, but it’s all important to have identified. Good work Chance. I mean it.”

  Her solemnity lessens, but she still looks guilty.

  “Lets see what we can do, shall we?” I leave my prompt open to her.

  /Query: Are there issues with people living in a test property?

  //Answer: Test property should not be inhabited, and habitation should not be enabled. Post test period, Inhabited persons will not be allowed to enter until all persons are vacant, then the property will be removed and all personal property will be held in storage.

  //Answer: Potential conflict: Persons under contract may not be summarily evicted without 30 days prior notice.

  Shit. This gets a little complicated. I go to attempt to buy the building, but the real estate module was not enabled with the temporary fixes. Alright, time for some dirty pool.

  I set up a contract blast to all current inhabitants of the complex, that they agree to pay one pound to the property owner (ME) and agree to re-negotiate rental occupancy at the end of the month, or at such time that the real estate module is re-enabled, whichever is later. I get a message immediately.

  Sabrina:\ I was wondering when the free was going to run out. What’s our rent going to look like?\

  /No idea Sabs. I’m just engaging a loop hole to keep you from being booted on a whim./

  \Sure. Lucky I trust you. I’ll tell the crew. Food soon?\

  /You bet. After a session we can all go out./

  \Bitch, you and me, then the crew. Don’t try to cheat me out of friend time.\

  I chuckle at her cheeky swear, /FIIIINE, lunch tomorrow. I’ve got GF duties for lunch today/

  \I expect hot tea tomorrow.\

  /Sabs, love ya babe. BYEEE/

  “Good news is, I think I found a way to put their eviction on hold. Bad news, though, is that I might get overridden today depending on how my meetings go. Either way, Chance, this is good work.”

  He head snaps up like I slapped her. “You think so?”

  I nod. “Know so. If a developer came up against this, not only would it have crashed the servers, it might have taken investors with it.”

  I continue to praise Chance as we walk around the complex, and finally she takes me two the two suites on the fourth floor. They split building space on the bottom of the ‘U’ but the two wings are rooftop gardens for each suite.

  “Damn, this is excellent work. The suites I never would have thought of. Two things I would change. Since the suites are enormous, one suite gets an exclusive garden, with the second half of the wing being a community garden for that wing. The other wing gets a larger community garden that the suite also has access to. This all creates a price and amenities distribution to tailor the product to various customers.”

  Goddess, I sound like a sales person.

  “I can see where that would work, but wouldn’t that cause some issues between the two sides of the complex?”

  “Sure, but giving people a separate price to actively consider the benefits of said disparity is important. Even if the choice is minor, people feel involved if they get to choose.”

  “How do you know all of this? Did you take management classes or something?”

  I snort, “No. I just take what I know of the people I know well and generalize. It’s not exactly a representation of a real population, but it’s better than my personal whims. Speaking of whims, I should start a company if I’m going to own things.

  Frost-Fire holdings is born. I transfer the company my land for a pound more than I paid, then pay the company a pound per my agreement with my crew and rent the garden suite. I queue some changes to fix the complex, lucky that none of the occupied rooms will be impacted by my elevator additions and the garden separations. I update the payment link to automatically redirect to Frost-Fire and figure my day is set.

  Then I remember the scooter issue. I shrug and order a small fleet of scooters, and a locker bank labeled ‘Scoot & Store’ and create the interface connection to rental from the box and linking them to the scoots. Sweet. I write a note of whimsy to Orion London asking if I can put a ‘Scoot & Store’ location on their block and see what they say. Add that to the Frost-Fire holdings portfolio and see where it goes.

  While I’m at it, I identify some parks and landmarks that could use a scoot and put those in for introduction all around London and the surrounding townships.

  “I don’t have anything else to discuss?” She sounds uncertain, then I realize I’m staring at her.

  “Cool, cool. You coming back to Orion? Or do you have other things?”

  “My next event is setting up your table during your gaming session.”

  “Oh! Did you talk with Martyr’s assistant? He might already be doing that for the team.”

  By the look on her face, she did not. She hurries to rectify that in several menus, and sighs in what must have been a response.

  “He said that team intake during practice and matches is regimented. There is a rather long statement on how you don’t get special treatment, etcetera.”

  “Is it rude?”

  “No, but I just want to do my job.”

  I sigh and look up, trying to figure out what else she can assist on. Too bad she’s not in Alaris to take over some duties from Melody. Wait. Why couldn’t she arrange my schedule? She doesn’t have access and messaging out of Alaris is restricted.

  “Is your testing interest only in the ATC and Orion? Or would you be interested in beta testing in Alaris as well?”

  “No offense, Selena, if I was in a fantasy world, I don’t think I would want to be your assistant.”

  I shrug. “I would pay in real money, but that’s up to you.” She doesn’t say anything else.

  With no other considerations on my schedule for her, and having no interest in creating something she’ll drop as soon as she can, I grab a scooter and head back to Orion.

  Getting back, I change into an Orion jersey, the fancy windbreaker that I instantly fall in love with, and a generic black pair of shorts that I have because they don’t have team shorts. Artemis sports apparel is apparently a sponsor, so I get to wear their light and comfy women’s line shoes.

  I wasn’t supposed to have a gaming block before lunch, but I’ve decided that my time would be better used in the game lab than walking around the apartment block that I’ll buy as soon as I have a committed resident. I blast some games in Gigavibe, doing solid with an assortment of scrubs, and play a few with my auto chess game just to shake out the mental rust that may have accumulated. My last game, a quick Fathoms game, is an absolute disaster. I miss opportunities and just . . . miss.

  I can not play like this after lunch.