Metal Cosmos

While she could see hundreds of stars in the sky, there was no moon that night.

Light pollution was the lowest after 4 a.m. in Polaris, as the LED lamps and holographic billboards were rarely on at that hour. Sitting on the rooftop of her apartment building, Stella was surrounded by the tall edifices in Vesper, one of the four main areas of the city. Facing towards the east, she could see some of Aurora’s commercial establishments, but the view was partially blocked by the top half of the Pollux Tower, which stood imposingly in the middle of the slanted cityscape.

It had been a while since she had last talked to Selene. Her friend and roommate had been giving her the silent treatment ever since their argument two days before. The younger woman had called her stupid for not getting a bodily upgrade that would significantly improve her stagnant modelling career, and Stella had reminded the influencer about their tight budget. While Selene was self-employed and created most of her social media content inside their building, the 40-year-old model had cab fares and payroll taxes to worry about. But she’d been losing sleep thinking about her friend’s harsh words, and how true they sounded. Upgraded people who had bionic body parts were given more career opportunities and a better social status, which helped them to stand out in one of the most relevant and culturally diverse cities of 2123. And standing out from the rest was essential in a place where the stakes were as high as its skyscrapers.

That was how people survived in Polaris.

⟡

The next morning, Stella realized Selene hadn’t come back home to their shared apartment the night before.

At first she didn’t think much of it, figuring her friend must’ve hooked up with someone in Aurora after filming a campaign she’d mentioned last week. Around 4 p.m., the model arrived home from a holographic catalogue shoot and saw that her lunchtime messages were still unread, so she decided to swallow her pride and properly check up on her friend. The silver band of her digital bracelet gleamed against her dark brown skin when she brought it near her face to initiate a call by voice command — but it didn’t go through. Growing worried, she checked her signal and tried tracking Selene’s bracelet location, to no avail. Did she get robbed? I hope not, she scratched her shaved head while her slender legs paced the cramped living room. During the decade they’d spent sharing a place, Stella had never gone for more than a few hours without contacting the 36-year-old influencer (unless it’d been previously agreed upon), so the extended silence was disturbing.

The worst thing about Polaris — other than the astronomical levels of economic inequality — was the lack of effective safety policies. The special forces only protected the wealthy, and the less-rich citizens were often left to fend for themselves. Having lived there for most of her life, Stella knew she wouldn’t even be able to file a report if anything bad had happened to her friend.

The most she could do was wait, and hope for the best.

⟡

Damn Selene Marwood and her predictions. As always, she’d been right all along.

A couple days later, Stella was fired, after the agency changed its casting criteria to only work with upgraded models. Her income had barely been enough to get by when the rent was shared, and her current savings would only last her a month. While she wasn’t living in a billionaire zone like Boreas up north, Andromeda’s apartments weren’t easily affordable either. The building was primarily destined for subcelebrities, and each of its thirty floors had rental booths where the residents had virtual and augmented reality devices at their disposal, allowing them to manipulate reality, or to escape it.

That was where Stella had met Amisha Setiawan, a 20-year-old Indonesian streamer and gamer who had come to Polaris in order to expand her already growing fan base. She had chosen Vesper because its living cost was much cheaper than that of Boreas, and she wanted to invest her remaining revenue in stock shares. The model had been more than welcoming when the young celebrity replied to her vacant room announcement, since she was desperate to lessen her portion of the rent. After helping her settle in, Stella asked the girl about her newly acquired titanium hands.

“It’s like my hands, but better,” Amisha replied. “Now I won’t get as many cramps when gaming, which means I can do longer streaming sessions. Not to mention how much more precise the mechanical movements are when coding.” She ran her purple bionic fingers through her long, silky hair, as if to demonstrate how the strands wouldn’t get caught in the grooves of her knuckles. “Do you plan on getting your upgrade soon?”

“Yes. The sooner, the better.” The model had told her new roommate all about her earlier predicament, and the gamer had offered her full support in case she needed assistance.

During a photoshoot a while ago, Stella had overheard another model advising someone to look for connections in the Underground for a cheaper operation, since the government only funded surgical procedures in cases of medical necessity. There were rumors about clandestine clinics that flew under the radar, where medical records were manipulated for as little as a third of the price of a private upgrading procedure. Among the various upgrade options, those involving limbs were usually the least expensive, while bionic eyes and spinal columns were only affordable for the elite.

The compensation Stella had received after being laid off was only enough to keep her afloat for a week, and soon her savings would start vanishing too, so the decision had been made for her.

Like it or not, she was being forced to get an upgrade.

⟡

Urban automation and technological development hadn’t yet reached the Underground.

The buildings uptown were strong and sleek structures made of glass, steel, concrete, and carbon fiber, whereas the outskirts of Polaris had scattered two-story inns and little shops with three staff members at most — a stark contrast to the floating vehicles and elevated streets in the urban center. The reason was the ever-growing crime rate in the decadent part of the city, which the administration of Polaris didn’t care about unless it affected the main areas. Most of the Underground's residents lived in bunkers below ground level, or in the basements of their shops, with triple locks on their doors and guns under their pillows.

Unlike the autonomous cab Stella had taken to get to Auster (the only area of Polaris with access to the Underground), the one she hailed near the border wasn’t driverless and didn’t have windows made of camouflaging lens. For the first time since she’d arrived in the city decades ago, she was able to gaze at the southern houses from below, and properly notice just how strikingly small they looked against the glittering skyscrapers in the distance.

The city had been planned in such a way that the more affluent the residents were, the taller their area’s edifices would be, which led to a gradual height difference that physically represented the power imbalance between the wealthiest citizens and the least privileged ones. Each of the four main urban areas was built on chevron-shaped zones of flat terrain, and they were symmetrically positioned around the diamond-shaped bottom of the Pollux Tower — a fortress-like administrative bureau taller than any other Polarian building. Boreas was the ultimate capitalist playground up north, Aurora offered products and services in the east, Vesper had its residential buildings located in the west, and Auster housed most of the service workers down south.

After paying the driver and getting out of the vehicle, Stella hurried towards the rundown pub where she would meet the insider, whom her model acquaintance had described as unmistakable. Upon seeing Vlasta Skypala, with their silver vampire-like canines and one-sided undercut, she couldn’t help but notice how young the Czech bartender looked. They had an alternative style reminiscent of the previous century’s fashion, like most people in the Underground; they would always keep an eye on the metropolitan trends, but their “upgrades” were reduced to outdated forms of body modification, due to their limited purchasing power.

While a customer waited for his drink to be mixed, Stella crept towards a dimly-lit corner of the establishment, just close enough to be able to observe the bartender's figure from a distance without being seen. Unlike her own buzzcut that was currently hidden by the hood of her cloak, Vlasta's cyan-colored hair was long and swept to one side, accentuating their pale skin. Seeing them hand the customer his glass, Stella went up to the counter, subtly adjusting the discreet little camera she wore as a necklace pendant. Amisha had given it to her, since she’d been worried for her new friend’s safety.

When the bartender looked in her direction, Stella could see tiny wrinkles at the outer corner of their eyes and moderately deep smile lines, which suggested they weren’t as young as she’d originally thought. That’s so weird, I could have sworn they were around Amisha’s age… Maybe I need an eye upgrade as well.

“What can I get for you tonight?” Vlasta’s deep blue eyes seemed friendly and attentive.

Leaning on the counter, Stella said, “I need you to help me get an upgrade.“

⟡

Every citizen who lived within the borders of Polaris had a public profile in the Cygnus Cyberspace, the city’s all-in-one social media and newsfeed platform. It was the main source of information for Polarians, and also a virtual advertising window they could use to promote themselves or their work. Four weeks after the amputation surgery, Stella posted a picture showing her upgraded right lower leg, a black prosthetic piece made of titanium and carbon fiber, with silver details that went from below her knee down to her new foot in a stylish pattern.

The post quickly became the one with the most engagement on her profile, and her followers seemed delighted with this new development, judging from their reactions. Therefore, it was no surprise when, within that week, the model had already received a casting invite from Azura Enterprises, one of the biggest names in areas like modelling, entertainment, and retail. The message she’d received stated that she’d been requested by the CEO herself, whom she would be meeting in her personal office, located in the Pollux Tower.

“Do you think I should wear a formal or a casual outfit?” Stella held two hangers with designer pieces up to her chest, waiting for Amisha to pick one. Looking out through her bedroom window at the glaring afternoon sun, she couldn’t help but remember how Selene would always choose the flashiest clothes, making sassy remarks about how the older woman needed some flair to avoid looking boring. It’d been a bit more than a month since her disappearance, but she already missed her friend terribly.

“I think you should go with the casual one, to let your natural beauty shine! Isn’t that what they prefer in castings, after all?” Amisha’s deep brown eyes left her laptop to briefly glance at her roommate, and then promptly returned to the device in front of her, where she was rewatching the footage from Stella’s trip to the Underground. Suddenly, her metallic fingertips made clacking sounds as she zoomed in on the image, her gaze fixed on the screen with a childlike wonder. “Wow, keren banget! Come take a look at this.”

The model dropped both hangers on her bed and sat down beside the girl to see what had gotten her so excited. In the center of the frame, the back of Vlasta’s neck was only partially covered by their hair, revealing a fluorescent tattoo in the distinct shape of an abstract palm tree design, glowing under a black light bulb in the pub’s staff room.

“That’s a UV tattoo! Wow, I haven’t seen one of those in a long time.” Stella got up to start getting ready. “Maybe that’s the next trend, who knows? Retro fashion always comes back at some point.”

“I’ll do some research about it later to see if you’re right.”

After the model had left for her casting, Amisha had been mindlessly scrolling through Cygnus when she found a gossip blog’s article about Azura Enterprises’ rumored new product. Eager to be in the know about her friend’s possible new workplace, she clicked the title, and was surprised to see the exact same palm tree design from Vlasta’s tattoo being revealed as the rumored logo.

It took her only a few seconds to connect the dots. If it wasn’t just a big coincidence and Vlasta was indeed linked to this product’s launch, there was a chance Stella had been influenced by the company to be upgraded for their own benefit. Having a bad feeling about the whole thing, Amisha tried to call her friend, but after multiple failed attempts, she decided to contact the only person who she knew could help her at that moment.

“Is it time for me to repay that favor?” The person answered in a low drawl.

“Yes, and it's urgent,” she replied, while scrambling to find an appropriate outfit.

In less than an hour, she would be arriving at the Pollux Tower.

⟡

Azura DePalma was the CEO of Azura Enterprises.

The elegant middle-aged woman was dressed head-to-toe in an expensive designer suit; the off-white loose fabric from her tailored trousers hid her long prosthetic legs, which made her look a few inches taller. Her short white hair was neatly styled in a sleek low bun, highlighting her sparkly diamond earrings. The sky blue color of her bionic irises was mesmerizing next to her tan skin tone, and Stella felt beyond intimidated as the billionaire welcomed her into the spacious office.

“My goodness, you look even prettier in person! Come in and take a seat, dear.” Sitting across from her, Azura observed the model’s timid mannerisms while organizing a few papers on her desk. “You know, I’ve been keeping tabs on your work for a couple months now, and I couldn’t help but wonder why it took so long for you to get an upgrade.”

Although her tone was unassuming, Stella felt like Azura was deliberately trying to gauge her level of commitment to her career. “The timing just wasn’t right. I was always busy with work.”

“Hmm… Very well.” The Italian-Mexican woman seemed pleased with her answer. “I want to make a proposition that, should you accept it, could turn you into one of the greatest models of your generation.” Azura moved a small stack of papers in Stella’s direction. “Our team will be launching a new product soon, and since your image perfectly fits what I was looking for, I have handpicked you to be the new face of the brand.”

Skimming the pamphlets with interest, the model noticed the product in question was an anti-aging pill that promised various benefits, such as a youthful complexion and an increased lifespan. So far, it was nothing she hadn’t seen before, but the offer had come to her with such good timing that it almost seemed too good to be true.

“It is obvious that you take very good care of yourself, and it would be a great opportunity for both sides if you would partner with us. So, what do you say?”

Just as she was about to agree, Stella’s eyes zeroed in on the product’s logo, and she felt all the air leave her lungs. That’s why Vlasta looked so young. Schooling her features to hide her unease, she simply replied, “That’s an excellent offer, but I need some time to think about it,” while discreetly trying to manually call Amisha.

Meanwhile, the gamer was fretting over her friend in the ground floor of the building, after being let in by her acquaintance — an Irish guy whom she had saved from bankruptcy months ago, before he was hired to work in Polaris. After receiving a quick rundown of the Pollux’s guidelines from him during her cab ride, she was aware she wouldn’t be able to contact Stella using her bracelet. Besides blocking calls from the Cygnus platform, the tower had its own internal network system, to which the model’s bracelet wasn’t connected either (she had checked).

“Calm down, you’re gonna make a dent on the floor if you keep pacing like that.” At that, Amisha stopped going back and forth and glared at Eamon.

“I just wanna know if she’s okay,” she sighed, feeling apprehensive.

“I still have a report to finish, so I need to get back right now. Will you be fine on your own?” He glanced at his bracelet, furrowing his eyebrows. Despite being her age, the office worker seemed exhausted at the mere mention of his job duties.

“Yeah, thanks again for helping me.” She gave him a weak smile.

“No problem, I owed you one. If you need anything else, just call me!” He walked backwards until he turned the corner of the deserted corridor, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

Back in Azura’s office, the businesswoman had picked up on Stella’s nervous state, her artificial pupils scrutinizing the model’s every movement.

“Oh, dear…” Faking pity, the older woman suggested, “I think what you really need is a little… incentive.” Pressing an area on the surface of the desk, she gave an order, “Bring her in.”

Both women faced the steel door as it opened, revealing a commotion as two security guards forcibly carried someone into the room. One of them removed the cloak covering the person’s short frame, and Stella gasped. “Selene!”

Her friend looked paler than usual and still wore the flimsy green jumpsuit she'd left the apartment in, and her platinum blonde hair, formerly in luscious waves, was now messy and had visible dark roots. Her disheveled appearance was a huge contrast to the polished image she usually had. The influencer's grey eyes were trained on the mint green surface of her bionic left forearm, seemingly afraid to make things worse.

“After you sign the contract, your friend is free to go with you. But if you don’t, you can say goodbye to her, capisci?” Azura slid the document towards her with a pen on top.

Looking once more at her friend, Stella felt her eyes water when she saw tears running down Selene’s fair cheeks. The trembling woman then uttered what her desperate countenance was already screaming: “Please.”

Finally grabbing the pen, the model shakingly signed “Stella Vecchi” above her printed name, possibly giving away her independence to ensure her friend’s safety.

“You made the right choice. Welcome to Azura Enterprises! Unfortunately, I have a meeting to attend in a few minutes, but you will soon be informed of your first official activity as the Palma Supplement’s representative.” The billionaire filed the papers away in a drawer. “Gentlemen, please escort the ladies down to the lobby.”

Feeling a mixture of defeat and relief, Stella followed her friend and the two burly guards out the door and towards the elevator, in an unsettling silence that made her feel like she was floating in the vacuum of outer space.

⟡

When Amisha saw Stella heading towards the front doors of the Pollux Tower with another woman, she rushed to catch up to her friend, only managing to do so when they were already outside.

“Oh my goodness, are you okay?” She panted, gazing at the both of them. “Wait, are you Selene?! I’m so glad to know you’re still alive!”

“Thanks...” Selene looked at her friend confusedly, wondering how she knew the famous internet personality.

“We’re safe and reunited, and that’s all that matters for now.” Stella said, leading them away from the building. “How did you even get here?”

“It’s a long story.” The young celebrity yawned, suddenly feeling exhausted. “Can I tell you guys about it over some coffee?”

“Sure! We all have a lot to talk about, indeed.” The model agreed. Side-hugging the both of them, she told Selene, “I’m really glad you’re back.”

“I’m glad to be back as well, thank you for saving me.”

The sun had already set behind Vesper’s buildings, and the three women stood on the sidewalk in front of the Antares Nightclub — a hotspot of the nightlife in Boreas — waiting for their driverless cab to arrive. Behind their backs, the luxurious exterior of the club shone brightly under the moonlight, with fluorescent shapes glowing on the wall, as the UV lamps on the sidewalk lit them up from below. Taking a picture of the fancy pattern to post on her Cygnus profile later, Stella failed to notice that the black light was also making a small part of Selene’s jumpsuit dimly glow in the middle of her upper back.

There, covered by the thin fabric, was the abstract design of a palm tree.