When the lights went out Addie instinctively froze her body, not wanting to attract the attention of night hunters.

But by now her brain never froze. She needed some light, a decent glow would do. She couldn’t reach the overhead lights, but sim or real she was in the realm of technology, which meant indicator lights were common. She brought up her memory of the chairs from before the lights went out — her ability to commit images to memory had improved dramatically over the course of the sims — and picked out her target, a fairly strong indicator light on finger clip pulse/blood pressure monitors. They had glowed green while on a finger and red once taken off. It had been wired, but at least it was a fairly long wire.

Thank goodness she’d listened to Widget in enough of the sims. The two colors meant two light emitting diodes, both of whose brightness was voltage dependent and which wanted direct current. Because their current needs were low, the wires could be thin, and because the voltages used were low the insulation didn’t need to be too thick. She didn’t have any proper tools, but that was just typical by now and Widget had shown her how to do this in three different sims.

She quickly found the finger clips, then just applied voltage from her electrical gland, next to one end of the lights, quickly overcoming the voltage rating of the insulation. When one end didn’t work she tried the other, and the LED lit up brightly. They might burn out soon, but for the moment it was enough to illuminate the room dimly, and dimly was enough for her eyes to get back in the game.

She quickly scanned the room for threats and opportunities.