Nothing bothers her for at least a day. Free room service, if she asks.

She will order food that did not come out of a can or a vat, and take a second bubble bath, and at that point she's pretty ready for the next thing to happen but in the meantime she can lounge in bed and play Candy Crush. Oh how she missed you, beloved crushable candies.

She has an email asking her to set up an appointment to go over the job.

Sure, she'll do that.

And then the appointment time will eventually arrive! A black woman in a suit will meet her in the hotel's conference room.

"Good afternoon. Now's high time for you to get all the information, and what we have to offer. Any questions before we start?"

"Nah, let's hear it."

"This is an offworld position, on a planet known as Thander. It's a one-way trip, with no affordances to return to Earth. Perhaps some day it might be possible, but not in the foreseeable future due to the intense technical limitations at play. The job involves using equipment to manage semi-automated terraforming processes, guiding and optimizing them over time. You can't just plop down seeds and call it good- The esoteric sculpting exercises were meant to stretch exactly the kind of mental muscle that you'll need, though. It's a long term position. Very long term. 100 to 200 years, with possible extensions. And there will be very little, if not no, social contact - just your superiors and possibly a few coworkers. That's what makes it a great opportunity for you. You'll be provided with an improved, unaging body and a full restoration and backup system. Our client for this one has done her homework, set things up very thoroughly. The pay, aside from transit and the job perks, is eight point two million dollars here on Earth, as well as a number of benefits on Thander, plus performance bonuses."

"Sounds shiny. How much stuff can I take with me, is it still gonna be a no phone zone? I mean, obviously I'm not expecting to make calls, I just want to know if I get to play Candy Crush while I'm out there terraforming planets."

"That's one possible perk. Essentially, I've put together a menu of sorts of the different conveniences or perks you could get. If you want something slightly different from what's listed, I'm sure we can try to accommodate you."

She slides over a paper.

Starting balance: 3

GPMG above minimum: 1

Diligent temperament: 2

Sculpting performance: 2

Total: 8

 

By default you will receive:

Artificial body similar in capability and need to a baseline human body, optional remodeling to 'ideal you'.

An MPSSA system in your home base will keep a constant mental backup, and automatically generate a new body in 30 days should you expire. Should the MPSSA system be damaged, you may be at risk of permanent death.

Access to global energy flow system to perform the work duties. Recreational/personal use also permitted.

Living quarters will only be fitted with extremely basic amenities by default, unless perks are applied. Rations consist of nutritionally complete prepackaged survival meals.

 

Sample Perks:

Improved MPSSA (3 days respawn, rapid healing, extra durable): -1

Offsite MPSSA Mirroring (restore possible for any case short of destruction of the planet): -3

Peak Human Body (athlete improvements): -1

Hardened Body (reduced needs): -1

Hardened Body (toxicity & trauma resist): -1

Greater Energy Budget (double the available input from global energy flow system): -2

Energy Intuition (assistive adaptive system to improve ability to sculpt esoteric energy): -2

Heads Up Display (essentially a computer built into your body, guaranteed reliable): -1

Internet Archive (a snapshot of most of the current internet, including all major media on it): -2

Internet Downlink (live-updating copy of the internet and all major media, receive only): -5

Modern Basics (improve the supply of items like toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, clean water from bare minimum to sufficient if not wasted): -1

Improved Food (continuous shipments of good-quality raw ingredients, sufficient to live off of): -1

Food Delivery (regular deliveries of cooked food with some affordances for specific orders, known brands, etc.): -3

Land Rights (ownership of a land region after terraforming is complete): -X (variable)

There's no way she's not taking the MPSSA upgrades. After that, sure she wants food and toothpaste and toilet paper and the internet, but she should be taking the added energy budget aaaand either Energy Intuition or some body upgrades... "How much am I likely to need toxicity and trauma resistance?"

"If you don't do things recklessly, 75% chance over a century that they save you a respawn. Estimated. Very approximate. It's hard to tell for sure. And mind you, a century is a long time." She frowns. "I hesitate to mention it, but there are a couple of ways to get additional perks. If you forego any payment to family or charities here on Earth - An additional three points. If you commit to maintaining the ecosystem for longer, you could get additional points as well."

"Oh, I'm definitely interested in maintaining the ecosystem for longer if it gets me more points, what's the trade on that?" If she can never come back for her money anyway, she's potentially also willing to give that up, but it would be nice to be able to leave her family with eight million dollars as she fucks off to another world never to be seen again, so it's not her first line. But, if her points budget is less constrained than she thought... "And how does Land Rights work exactly?"

"One point per twenty-five years, up to an additional two hundred. As for land rights, well, Thander is going to be completely colonized and built up after the terraforming is completed. There are some very grand plans. Essentially, each point assigned to land rights will allow you to claim some land - depending on how valuable it is. Downtown in a city, perhaps just enough to build a mansion. A large neighborhood block in suburban areas, a few square miles of good farmland, or vast tracts of less attractive and marginal land. Whole islands, large mountain or desert areas... There's going to be a few hundred like you eventually, so it's restrictive enough that not too much of the planet will end up parceled out like that."

"I might like having my own island. I will take two hundred extra years for eight more points, and, let me see... Improved and Offsite MPSSA, both the Energy perks... all three Body upgrades, Internet Archive, Modern Basics, I think that leaves me two points for Land Rights, is that enough for a good-sized remote island?" She might be interested in spending one of those points on Heads Up Display, except that it is simply not the case that they can provide her sufficient guarantees of its reliability to overcome her fundamentally suspicious nature.

"Two points of land claim will get you, for example, Guam."

How big is Guam? She's not gonna ask but it definitely feels like it should be more land than any one person could conceivably personally use, which sounds about right for her purposes. "Seems legit."

"Without, necessarily, the strategic geopolitical importance of Guam. No custom requests?"

"I mean, I'm assuming 'even better immortality' and 'even better energy perks' are both concepts you've put a lot more thought into than I have, and if you're not offering any more in that area it's because you don't have anything good."

"Not really. Technical limits, logistical limits. I could get you a library of pre-made energy patterns, but that's it. You don't particularly need it."

"Yeah, I'll have more fun doing my own design work anyway. Does the Internet Archive include all my favourite dumb mobile games or are they not technically the internet?"

"It'll have any existing ones, jailbroken not to require constant connection, even. No updates."

"Suits me fine."

"Alright. How would you like your signup bonus distributed?"

"All to my parents." The thought crosses her mind that she could have some sent to Sean just to imagine the face he'll make about it, but that's probably not a good enough reason to divert part of her payout to her ex-boyfriend. And she would have to say out loud with her mouth that she wants to divert part of her payout to her ex-boyfriend. So yeah, that's not happening. Besides, what if he got inspired to get into the program and followed her to her planet somehow? Terrible. The worst.

"Okay. That's everything. We'll have the paperwork all ready for signing in a day or two, and then we can send you off whenever you're ready, after that. You can change your mind right up until the last moment. That's important to us, at Phoenix."