I really enjoy “Techs From Last Night,” it’s one of my favorite comfort reads when the day is dull and the train is late. It just feels like one of those little worlds I can move on into and take up residence.
One of the things I really like about the story is the way it mentions on a couple of occasions that it’s fall when the story begins, with descriptions of the chill in the air and the shortening days. And since we know the power of authority lasts for one year, so I imagine the progress of Matt and Mercy’s story through the four seasons, from one fall to the next. The urgency between them increases as that date gets closer, since surely some kind of decision will have to be made when it arrives.
The first thing that happens, is another encounter with the police. They definitely aren’t going to just forget about Mercy. Cassandra summons him downtown for an interview. Matt goes with him, naturally. The first few officers they encounter just see another junkie gang member and are casually cruel to Mercy, who is already hyperventilating to begin with. Matt struggles to keep his temper under control because the one place where he absolutely, positively cannot lose his shit is in a police station. Matters improve once they find Cassandra. She’s happy to see them, and takes them to meet Christine, an expert in Computational Forensics. She has been trying to hack into Ma-Ma’s security system for months, and she is beyond ecstatic when she realizes that the system’s architect is sitting in her office. Mercy shows her all the chinks in Ma-Ma’s armor, making him a hero to her and Cassandra. Matt is very impressed, a little intimidated.
As the winter progresses, Matt’s professional life starts looking up. When the weather is wet and cold he always seems to draw an assignment that’s indoors. His reqs get filled a little faster than normal, just like the one he was filing out when he met Mercy. He’s getting more jobs on the other side of the river, the kind that demonstrate his technical ability to his superiors. His performance review gets bumped up and goes well. And Rey starts getting suspicious. She comes to the (correct) conclusion that Mercy is somehow accessing First Order Aerospace’s systems and tipping the scales ever-so-slightly in Matt’s favor. Rey assumes that Mercy is up to something, redirecting Matt’s paycheck or using him to get access to FOA for some criminal purpose. She and Mercy have a confrontation, which clears the air between them. She accepts that his intentions are honorable, if not legal. He is able to work through some of his jealousy toward her. Rey keeps quiet, and maybe knows who to go to if she has difficulties with the scheduling and procurement systems.
We all know that Mercy is head-over-heels in love with his knight in shining armor. Well, all of us except Matt. I mean, after that rescue, the care and comfort, and their companionable relationship after being so lonely for so long, how could Mercy feel otherwise? He has no conscious memory of any relationship that wasn’t strictly transactional. In the Ma-Ma Clan, if you ceased to be useful, you ceased to be breathing. Mercy certainly doesn’t really think that Matt will kick him out for being too much trouble, but he’s still aware of the enormous amount of effort and money Matt has expended on him, and it bothers him. A lot. Fixing the TV, making sandwiches, and accelerating parts requests don’t feel like enough. It’s not like Mercy can go out and get a job with a resume that includes gang membership and lacks a real name. So he starts utilizing the skills he does have. When Matt sits down to pay bills one day in the spring, his account has more in it than the expected. A couple of largish purchases that he distinctly remembers don’t appear on his bank statement. A couple of smallish deposits that he definitely didn’t make do appear. Not enough to draw the attention of the bank, but . . . Matt remembers Christine and Cassandra’s admiration for Mercy’s security circumvention skills, and he knows what’s up. He blows up at Mercy, since getting caught would probably mean jail for Mercy, and would definitely mean the end of the authority agreement. Matt absolutely does not get the emotional component of what Mercy has done, and Mercy is terribly hurt. But he promises not to try it again.
There’s another medium of exchange that was popular for getting what you wanted within the Clan, and anyway, Mercy desperately wants to show his affection for Matt. When summer comes, he tries to express his willingness to have a sexual relationship with Matt. It doesn’t go well. Mercy’s never had any relationship that didn’t involve some level of coercion, and Matt is beyond horrified that Mercy would think he should do this as payment, that Mat would want him to. Mercy is hurt and humiliated, and he takes off in the middle of the night. Matt is frantic and finally hunts him down, curled up in the shelter of the nearest bus stop at two in the morning. They have a big emotionally wrenching conversation out there. I picture it being miserably hot, under those bright orange sodium lamps that make everything that happens after midnight look surreal. They resolve . . . something, and go back home. Honestly, these two just need a little human contact and affection way more than smutty circus sex. Just holding hands and sharing a bed would be comfort beyond words for both of them.
I picture Mercy finally finding his calling, combing the city by day for discarded tech with a little wire cart and a crazy-looking straw hat (to protect his eyes). He brings the best junk home and rehabs it or breaks it down for spare parts, then sells it all online to turn a surprisingly large, but completely legal, profit.
However, it’s late summer now, and the agreement of authority is about up. Matt certainly isn’t going to bring it up, because of course Mercy is going to want to leave once he’s no longer legally or economically obligated to stay. Why wouldn’t he? And Mercy isn’t going to bring it up, because of course Matt will be getting impatient for him to leave so Matt can have is his money, his home, and his freedom back. Why wouldn’t he? While they’re still busy tiptoeing around the issue, Mercy gets a call from Dr. Gallia. After all this time, the DNA sample she took has finally found a match. Mercy’s father was a prominent guy, his mother was an escort. His father had absolutely no interest in recognizing his illegitimate child. He shows a little, minimal interest in the beginning, but eventually discarded Mercy and his mother. Mercy’s mother became an addict, and she eventually sold him to Ma-Ma Clan to discharge her drug debt. Shortly after the breakup, she used a paternity test to try to blackmail his father, unsuccessfully. It’s been sitting in the hospital’s EMR all this time, and the searchbot has finally found it.
Mercy’s parents are both dead, but he has a half-brother. (Armitage Hux, CTO of First Order Aerospace? Too much?) His brother isn’t a warm and cuddly guy, but he’s unexpectedly moved to discover that the younger brother he very vaguely remembers is still alive. They agree to meet. Matt is happy for Mercy having a chance to finally find out who he really is, but quietly devastated. Mercy doesn’t need him for anything anymore. That’s the end of it then. Mercy goes to meet his brother, and Matt goes along and waits outside tragically, waiting to say goodbye. Mercy comes out, gives his newfound sibling an awkwardly stiff hug, and says he’s ready to go home. Matt is shocked that he isn’t staying with his brother. Mercy is shocked that Matt expected him to. Mercy has a home and a life of his own, with Matt. Or, well, maybe he could get his own place, or something. Or not.
So that’s the end, nothing happens. I like the idea of it being sort of anticlimactic. Nobody saves the galaxy or anything, for Matt and Mercy surviving is good enough, and finding someone to survive with is even better. Things can be pretty good without being perfect.
Oh my god, that seems like a lot, all written out. I hope you don’t think I’m a psychopath or something, for being so obsessed with someone else’s story. I really enjoyed that you took the time and trouble to share it, and I wanted to return the favor. Maybe I should have just said, thank you.
