Jocasta had so much to do and a great deal to learn – though she barely had a spare minute to sit and try to analyse everything she was supposed to be achieving. MICA became a familiar, friendly face: even if it was a computer generated one. Jocasta found it was easier asking a smiling, unbiased animated computer person, rather than an officer of the Elite all the personal stuff that she needed to know. Things like sharing a room; did they get free time, and when were they allowed to wear their own clothes. Somehow she couldn’t imagine walking around the Elite’s cities on Mars dressed in old jeans and a faded t-shirt. She couldn’t picture her trainers even existing under the Biodomes; the two just didn’t seem to belong in the same dimension. Also, she made it a priority to discover if they would have access to the newly developed film and entertainment uplink that she had just discovered on the Vanta channel. MICA did her best to answer these important questions. Jocasta was convinced that she was female by the way she phrased her answers; although she had to admit that David was right when he pointed out that MICA’s features might be interpreted as androgynous.
