At the end of her long, contemplative sunset walk though the city, just as the red light faded completely and the helix began to sparkle a vague facsimile of starlight, she made it to the endcap, where she strapped into a pod and got a ride through the nexus to the next few cities. Some dark and industrial, some quiet and residential. Apparently, night and day are decided by the station's hemispheres. Her journey took her deeper into the "night" side, exhibiting a variety of different nighttime moods... some with false stars, some with nebulaeic clouds illuminated by directional light, even one with localized rainstorms!
Eventually, she ended up in an inner cylinder, this one full of storage facilities, densely-packed hotels, and a much dimmer orange glow accompanied by a gray haze at the lowest visible level. Unlike the outer cities she had just visited, the roads and city blocks were not arranged in a beautified helical pattern, but in stark straight lines slicing all the way down from one endcap to another. Perpendicular to them were these tall warehouses that formed almost complete rings through the city, like baffles in a fuel tank. A few slowly rotated, as though indexing to certain locations, making an exchange, then returning.
Her pod did not drop her off on the ground level – there seemed to be an absence of inhabited spaces there anyway, other than some industrial catwalks around machinery. Rather, it descended below the ground level, into an almost underworld beneath the storage warehouses. The ceiling was still two or so stories tall, but it still felt cramped with the bustling masses she had to push through to make headway toward her next waypoint.
Each city "block" down here was a dock port, with an open front for passenger traffic, and an open ceiling to the rotating warehouses above their heads. Skyscrapers above them would move until doors in their floors aligned with the open ceilings, interfacing elevator rails to deliver stored cargo. Each ring she walked through seemed to have its own designated color.
She entered a dark green clad port as her HUD directed.
[Dock 30 - Waypoint achieved - please stand by for contact - ETA 3 minutes]
Era had arranged for one of the crew, Jym, to meet her here.
She took in her surroundings while she waited. The room was very industrial - plenty of steel and carbon fiber columns and exposed equipment everywhere, not the plastic facades and LED advertisements she was used to. The ceiling inside was tall with a massive window, and the metallic floor beneath was an almost rust red.
The three closed walls were full of what looked like vendors... hot food being cooked and served by table-top robots in one shop, automated biometrics screening booths at another... and over on the street side of the far wall, a barbershop - perfect! With all of mans technology, hair was one thing still done by humans. Barbers also did tattoos (functional and aesthetic), cybernetic implants, HUD contact lens fittings, etc. But human hair grows faster than circuitry rusts, so hair care was the primary time consumer. And Axy liked to keep her hair silver.
In the center of the room stood a massive elevator, obviously capable of holding a crowd of people or heavy freight. She could see - though a few slit-like windows in the floor - endless miles of networked infrastructure piercing down toward the center of Anaxon. Within this network were hundreds of cargo ships and thousands of transports, and from most of the inner cylinders, like the one she was on, she could see batteries of long tethers reaching down to the docked ships, like a monsters tendrils feeding on underwater prey. Each time the cylinder rotated, she could feel this sinking feeling in her gut when she looked at the endless expanse beneath her... that's a long way down!
But what amazed her the most was just the sheer amount of PEOPLE everywhere! Just... out and about! Most of which were either walking from one destination to another, or waiting in seats doing business or entertainment behind their eyes. A select few in the crowd were definitely NOT from this side of Freespace – some covered head-to-toe in dense fur, some with breathing apparatuses on, some with naturally pale blue skin and – are those webbed hands? It reminded her of just how diverse the galaxy was outside of Illumount. Humans have made colonies on in countless thousands of star systems, including hundreds of colonized planets. A few ancient planet-side civilizations adapted to their environment though genetic engineering, body modification, and even some natural selection, and diverged from there. Regardless of the diversity, though, she was feeling far too antisocial for this much traffic.
"You WANT this, Axy" she said to herself, reminding herself of the isolation back home in Illumount. "You WANT to be around people, opportunity, you WANT conversation, you -"
"You must be Galaxy!" came a loud voice from behind.
Slightly startled, she turned to see a younger man with an angular-shaved short beard and thick eyebrows. He had on a dark red vest and quite a lot more glowing implants down his arms than she had.
[Pai Orijym]
MAT5
Occupation: Director of VirDecks C-Crew, cargo-ship Cinder
Skill set: Personnel; Holoprojection programming; VR world curation
[Contact confirmed]
"Oh, I just... I go by Axy, it's... shorter..."
She was still uncomfortable using her full name, but didn't want another reprimand from Era if word got back to him.
"It's all good! I don't like being called 'Pie', so I just go by Jym myself" he chuckled.
"Where am I supposed to be? We don't board for another eight hours, right?"
"Twelve, actually, our Novoid's shuttle got delayed. But if you'd like, me and the boys are hanging out at Flyer's Faults if you're down for some inebriations! Oh wait, I guess you're only MAT4, so you can't dri - wait, you're only MAT4?? How the heck did you get on this crew??"
Once again, a little frightfully defensive, she bumbled, "Oh I - well, I just kinda... met Era a little while back and he umm... he said I'd be a good fit for the new - "
"Wait wait wait, fire retro - you said you MET Era? As in, THE Erastus Plyther? In PERSON??"
"...yes?" she said shyly, wondering if she was somehow in trouble.
"Okay, we have GOT to introduce you to the boys! C'mon!"
They walked a few buildings down the street to a dimly lit bar. Since she had only been in social venues like this in VR, she could hardly believe she was ACTUALLY IN one right now. It was a lot smellier than VR... in a good way. The different scents of sizzling exotic foods being served, the gentle breeze from the vent system filtering out fumes and smoke particles... it was also a lot noisier than expected, with the music and conversations in the densely packed crowd. She followed Jym through the masses for a bit until they reached a booth at the back, seated with eight men.
"Aayyyy!" the men cheered as Axy and Jym arrived.
"Hey guys, meet Axy, your new navigator!" he shouted above the crowd. Everybody was loud and interrupting each other.
Axy was already touched-out from the crowd, nervous, and now she was getting WAY too overstimulated auditorily.
[Change parameter: Noise Canceling: Set to: 50%]
Much better.
"What in bicephalation?? A MAT4?? Now I've seen everything!" came from an older, heavyset man in the back corner. "What kind of health choices does HE make??" she thought, judgmentally. In this age, health is so heavily monitored, everybody can easily be a perfect specimen of physical fitness. You have to be intentional about rejecting the chemical and nanobot regulations from your implants AND eat an extremely alternative diet to deviate from a perfect body.
"Seen everything?? You can't even see your own festin' toes, Dread!" quipped another voice in the group, sparking a round of laughter.
[Define: BICEPHALATION, FESTIN']
[Obscene language derived from radiation-caused mutation incidents during [REDACTED] ... ]
"Go easy on her, guys, she's one of Era's own recruits for the new Switchback Student program we're starting this run"
"OOOooohhh!!!" Jeered the bunch.
"In fact - if you can believe it - she even MET Erastus Plyther himself – IN PERSON!"
To this, the crew absolutely went wild with amazement and laud.
She still wasn't convinced this wasn't just some prank they play on rookies. She was young, but she was smart. However, being *celebrated* for the first time in her life... if even so trivially... felt kind of amazing! She played it cool. At least enough to forgive the cussing.
By now everybody had scrunched in around the table, with her being second to the edge after Jym. Some of them tucked trash and empty cups in the recycling hole in the center of the table as they rearranged.
"Well, let me introduce you to the rest of C-Crew!" said Jym.
"Right next to you is Kai-Val, he's one of our programmers"
[Kai-Vyala D'jya-da]
MAT5
Occupation: Nav-Eye Support Tech
Her HUD confirmed. He had dusty gray air and a modest mustache. He seemed reserved.
"Then there is Yangy and Bedrun, our com officers – never a truer bromance in all of Plaric!"
"AAYYY!!!" They yelled in unison, exaggerating their arms in a huge welcome.
[Yanglan Dom Ferriman, 4th]
MAT5
Skillset: General VR programming, Linguistics algorithms and implant service tech
[X Bedrun]
MAT5
Skillset: Negotiations, Defense coms, Territory infographics
"...we got Mob, our EXPERT orbit coordinator..."
Mob wore a scruffy black beard and a black leather jacket.
"... then Dread in the corner, our materials handler. Actually used to be a Rocker!"
"You can't miss him!" yelled Bedrun.
Excited to meet somebody who already had the same cross-training, Axy piped up across the table, "Does this mean I'll be working with you planetside?"
"HAHAHAHA!" He roared. "I wouldn't spend another MILISECOND down there if my life depended on it! Besides, they'd tear me apart if they knew where I went! HAHAHA!"
This was a bit deflating. But a good learning experience about the difference between cultures.
"...and then we got Rake-ay and Esteem, our ship systems specialists, and Oxtace, our Invokur, so we got luck on our side!"
Rake-ay seemed to be busy with his HUD; Esteem was enjoying some harder inebriations.
[Search: Recent keywords: Invokur:]
[Definition: a 50% or greater genetic resident or descendant from Origin World Invoke]
Believed to be one of the seven planets human life originated on, Invoke was the last one of them that was habitable. Invoke has a strongly religious culture rooted in ancient theology and naturalism. Although few superstitions existed in civilized Freespace anymore, many elite communities still held that having an Invokur on a team was good luck.
"Are we going to see the captain tonight?" asked Axy.
"Astellia? No, she'll meet us on the ship. She's a harda** anyway, she'd ruin the fun!" said Jym, throwing back his second shot.
"She..." Axy thought to herself, hopefully. Axy was hoping for at least one other girl to be on this crew.
After the brief introductions, the conversations between the men spun up quickly again. She read through a few more of their profiles and just listened as they talked.
"Kai-Val! D'you get that Shore shot, too? Good huh??" said Jym, basically across Axy's face. Kai-Val gave a half-smile nod and a thumb's up. Axy turned the sound cancellation up another 15%. Now the furthest conversation she could hear clearly was Yangy and Bedrun.
"Bro, I am SO EXCITED for the packs I just got this week!" Started Bedrun.
"You got another DreamWhine download again?"
"Naw, bro, I got this Aggerwave thing from this unregistered vendor. It's got 12 worlds AND an oxy jailbreak!!"
She wasn't entirely sure what the context of their talk was about, and her HUD seemed to either not be catching on to the lingo - or was censoring it - but Yangy seemed pretty hyped for Bedrun. Obviously some new VR world purchase.
"Bro, I heard those Oxy-unlockers can really fest you up though. I'm pretty sure that's how my Dad reverted." said Yangy.
"Oh you just have to micro-pull them, bro. That's what everybody gets wrong. If you pull it all on the first few goes, then you lose the ramp. It's the extra RAMP threshold that you need the jailbrake for!"
"Axy, you getting anything to eat?" Interrupted Jym, now slightly de-sobered and unaware of her study of the conversations. "You know, we could get you an Anti-hol download if you wanted to drink with us!"
Minors - anybody under MAT5 - Weren't allowed to get drunk, but MAT4 teens could get an injection of alcohol-dissolving artificial bacteria ("Anti-hol") that would make it safe and legal.
"Oh, no thanks, I've been in and out of zero-G all day, I'm a little nauseous".
Only partly true. Once again, implants have nanobots and highly-tuned chemicals it can inject directly into the bloodstream to counter most physical ailments; but Axy preferred to use them the least she could. Plus, even PRETENDING to get drunk around these guys felt... "off". She had gut-feelings that weren't just biological.
Yangy continued talking to Bedrun. "Still, I'd hold on to a catch if I were you. Hell, man, tell me when you're going in, and I can monitor for you bro."
"You wanna go in and do a double like we did last run? We'd have to rent the Coreyard again"
Axy was still trying to make sense of their conversation. She had her AI pull up some recommendations for what "Ramp" and "Oxy" could mean in this context. Eventually, her blasted curiosity got the best of her:
"Oxy...tocin?" She asked, out loud.
They both turned their attention to her: "Oh, don't worry about it, you're too young for this stuff anyway" dismissed Yangy.
"But isn't oxytocin like... really heavily regulated? I thought jailbreaking was illegal?"
"It's Freespace, baby!" rejoiced Bedrun. "Once we're interstellar, no more rules! No VR or implant lockouts once you're out of Stoic!"
Suddenly, the WHOLE picture became very clear to her. Still new to the group, she decided not paint herself as a target with a confrontation, and just suffer the discomfort of her revelation. So far, "the guys" have been more repulsive than exciting.
After an hour or two more of enduring the bar, she retreated to some solitude. She figured she'd check out that barbershop, as it may be the last chance she's have at getting her hair dyed again before they reached Nuric. She did, after all, have her Illumount severance to burn.
Almost everything is automated these days - from food growing and production, to habitat manufacturing... but people still only trusted other people to cut their hair. And, being technically dead cells, hair was one of those things nanobot injection tech couldn't impact much yet, either.
"How much for a quick dye?" Axy asked the apron-clad lady behind the counter. Hairdressers and barbers were Axy's most reliable places to get good conversations, despite being reserved herself. Also... refreshing conversation with something not fueled by testosterone.
"Hey! Uhh, let's see - what color?"
"Starlight silver?"
"Looks like... 16 hundred credits!"
"Geesh... that's almost my whole severance..."
"Ah, a suburb girl, huh? Yeah, they don't tell you how bad the exchange rate is out here" the hairdresser chuckled, disarmingly.
Axy sat in the chair. It wasn't like she had anything else to spend the money on. If your living expenses are covered by an employer, like on a cargo ship, the only other things you buy really are new VR worlds and implants. Her hairdresser started wetting her hair down.
"Are all Flyers like this?" Axy asked.
"Like what, hun?"
"Just... pick interstellar career paths so they can... live out their sexual fantasies in their free time?"
"Ah, you must have been hanging out with a cargo crew. Yep, that's their perks. Couple months of piloting, then sit in a virtual brothel for a few months, little more piloting, then more brothel..."
"Eww. It's disgusting."
"Well, you figure... they're boys. They've got all the time in the world, and freedom, and their bosses don't see anybody getting hurt."
"Are they all like that out here?"
"No... some of them study. Good way to get another education AND get paid, instead of cramming your 6 years in and then paying taxes for the rest of your life. Some people want to get out of Plaric space. Speaking of - What brought you all the way out here?"
"I don't know... trying to escape, too, I guess..."
"You ended up on their ship"
"Yeah..."
"You poor soul" the hairdresser chuckled.
She began working the dye compound into her hair.
"You know, if you're going on this run with those boys, let me tell you this:
Ignore them. You want to get through this run, study your a** off and out learn them. Make a name for yourself. And if they bother you... raise hell, and watch them get dropped off at the next depot."
They finished up shortly afterword. Her hair was now a slightly shinier silver, and her dark roots were covered back up.
"If you don't like where you are..." the hairdresser admonished Axy as she departed, "Change it. Don't keep chasing escapes. I've watched lifetimes worth of worry sit in that chair, hun, and no one ever finds that escape outside black hole."
