Across the Ocean, Across the Sea
Feb 10, 2015 11:54:49 GMT -5
Post by Death on Feb 10, 2015 11:54:49 GMT -5
This novel rated T for mild violence, adult themes & suggestive content.
I have the first entire part of this novel written (so about 30,000 words) and I kinda want to see what people think about it. The beginning may be kinda slow, but I promise everything picks up by chapter 3.
I sigh and take a deep breath of the shallow, salted air. We couldn’t go outside often. Not with this moon having such an insubstantial artificial atmosphere. I could see clear to the gold and blue surface of Kalypso and into the black space beyond as I looked into the sky.
“Move along,” a guard grunts before shoving me forward. I catch myself and continue in the line with the others.
The marine sea to the left of the bridge we walk over is calm and lazy-- as usual. It would’ve been fresh water, but they didn’t want us to be able to survive for long periods of time, should we decide to escape.
Our time is almost up. The breathable air will soon run out. The guards and admins glance at their watches. Some of them finger the aeration masks clipped to their belts.
“Hurry up!” the head of security snaps. “We haven’t got all day you useless lumps of flesh.”
That was a new one. Generally we didn’t get more than two words at a time out of guards. Things like, ‘Shut up,’ ‘Move along,’ ‘Hurry up,’ or ‘No talking.’
We could finally see our new facility. Double-oh-one. Our escorts all take visible sighs of relief. I smile to Jaeda, the blonde haired girl walking next to me.
“Nice to see them worried for once,” I murmur.
“Yeah,” she replies.
“No talking!” a black haired guard barks.
Who chooses to babysit servicers for a living? Do they just like shouting abuse and controlling things?
We share a smile before I turn my head away from her.
The doors to the gray stone facility rumble open for us to walk through. They quickly swing shut behind us and we stand in the middle of the entrance hall, gazing up at the tall ceilings and the glass windows.
Men and women dressed in various shades of pastel colors scurry about. Ones in lilac carry tiny seeds, or infants. Ones in mint green dash about with tablets in hand and miniature headsets jammed into their ears.
One wearing a light orange sprints past, clipboard in hand.
“When I call your ID, step forward,” the head of security says as she tucks back her light brown hair and pulls out a holo-tablet. “We’ll be assigning you to groups and barracks.”
I tune her out as I go to stand next to Jaeda. “Why are they moving us?”
“If you haven’t noticed, we were the oldest kids of our facility,” she whispers back. “Maybe we’re being sold-out, Aira.”
“But couldn’t they have––”
“78B9D, usename: Aira,” the woman’s voice calls out.
I glance at Jaeda and shrug before dashing to the front of the group.
“Yes, ma’am?” I ask.
“You’re in Janus. Report to Admin Kimber and Admin Selenius.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Kimber and Selenius were my previous admin. They must be transferring.
I walk over to Kimber, who is checking a holographic list and already has a large group of servicers under her wing.
“78B9D, usename: Aira, reporting,” I say formally.
Kimber nods and touches a box on her list, causing a little check to appear inside of it.
Jaeda soon joins me and I look around.
No one else from our group is the same. The others are from facilities who joined us on the march over.
Selenius gazes at Jaeda and I smile to myself. She catches his stare and blushes before turning away. He scratches his forehead with his robotic left hand.
I nudge Jaeda. “He sweet on you?”
She blushes further, giving her the look of perfect innocence with her big blue eyes and light, shining blonde hair. She plays with the edge of her white tunic and murmurs, “I don’t know. I mean… I’ve never…”
“Noticed it before?” I ask.
She shrugs, takes control of her emotions with a few deep breaths and, within a minute, her blush has faded into the creamy white of her skin.
The last of the servicers are pushed into their groups as Kimber closes her list and motions for us to follow behind her.
Our silver fabric shoes make soft padding sounds against the stone floor as we traipse down the hall. Kimber motions us towards a doorway and into a corridor marked “Janus.” The walls are painted a very watered down version of marine blue.
The corridor narrows and we have to walk in rows of three as Kimber leads us into an open room with bright windows facing out towards the ocean. Two doors branch off of this room. One is painted black. The other is white.
“Males to the white door, females to the black door. There will be two to a room. Your new items will be in the trunk that you claim. There will be no arguing, under any circumstances. Is this understood?”
We nod and murmur, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Now,” she sighs. “I understand that you’re going to be excited over having so much more room and so many more new things, but please, contain yourselves. Dismissed.”
The group quickly parts into males and females and we swarm down the halls. Jaeda grabs my hand and drags me towards one of the rooms facing the sea.
She pushes the door open and we both enter. There’s a small pinging sound before our IDs and usenames glow in blue on the white door.
“Rho-Sham-Bo for the window bed?” she asks.
I turn around to her. “Sure.”
“Rho, Sham, Bo,” we say together. Her hand clenches into a fist, while mine goes flat. She groans.
“I win!” I say before I run to the trunk and lay my hands on it. It instantly detects my touch-prints and registers my claim.
I open it and inside are a few new white outfits, along with a turquoise-colored uniform. I pull it out.
“I wonder what this color means.” I say. “What color did you get?”
“Purple,” Jaeda replies, pulling out a lilac colored uniform.
“Looks like you get to work with seeds.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Hope I get sold out before my shifts start, then.”
“Why don’t you like working with seeds? They’re so cute!”
“They’re so helpless. I don’t like having to feel so responsible.”
I shrug. “To each his own.”
“What are you hoping for?”
“Kitchens, maybe. I wouldn’t mind working with seeds. Maybe sprouts?”
“To each his own,” she replies.
“You just don’t like to work.”
“Yeah. Maybe that’s it.”
I kneel by my trunk and pull everything out. Two turquoise uniforms. Three white tunics and legging sets. A new pair of silver sneakers. A silver Holo-tablet. A bag full of toiletries.
“Ah, man. This is the stuff,” Jaeda says from her place at her trunk. “A Holo-tablet and everything.”
“It’s probably insanely monitored,” I reply.
She shrugs. “It’s better than no Holo-tablet. We didn’t get them back at the old place.”
“We didn’t have beds at the old facility, Jae.”
“And now we do.”
“It sounds kind of suspicious to me.”
“Maybe they just want to make sure we get sold out, you know? Like, better treatment will make us happier and all that.”
“What if we never get sold out?” I ask.
“Then we stay here and rot. I don’t know, Aira. Why don’t you ask Kimber?”
“Why don’t you ask Selenius?”
She shudders. “I’m sorry. I mean, he’s good-looking and it’s flattering he stared at me, but… I’m not interested in cyborgs.”
“If you get sold out where you want to go, that’s what you’ll basically be.”
“No, I won’t! That’s different.”
“How’s getting your brain plugged into a computer system any different from having machinery plugged into your body. At least you’d still have a body.”
“Well, it sounds really cool. At least I have dreams of where I want to go.”
“I know where I want to go,” I retort.
“Let me rephrase that. I have a viable dream of where I want to go. Going to Earth is not viable.”
“Well, maybe some rich guy who lives there will buy me out and then I’ll escape and live happily ever after.”
“Don’t,” Jaeda growls. “You’re not supposed to talk about that kind of stuff. You’ll get in trouble.”
“No I won’t,” I say. “There’s no harm in joking about it, right?”
“Sure, Aira. Whatever. I personally wouldn’t risk it, but that’s just me. Maybe I’m not as daring as you or––”
“That’s not fair, Jae.”
“Just… whatever.”
She turns and puts away her stuff.
I pick up the Holo-tablet and power it up. A bunch of coding gobbledy-gook streams across the screen before displaying a quick message.
“It never forgives.
It never forgets.
Be careful with your smallest steps.
Don’t take a breath.
don’t bat an eye.
The House just wants to watch you die.”
My heartbeat picks up, but then the numbers and letters fade and the welcome screen beams up into my face.
“That was weird,” I murmur to myself.
“What was that, Aira?”
“Nothing,” I say quickly. “Nothing at all.”
There’s a knock on our door and I look up from the Holo-tablet. Jaeda hauls herself off her bed and opens it.
“45H1O, usename: Jaeda?” asks Kimber.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Here is your instructional code and here is the one for 78B9D, usename: Aira. Make sure to give it to her.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”
Jaeda closes the door and Kimber moves on. She tosses a large, but thin packet of papers in my direction and it skids across the floor before hitting the wall.
“Mail’s here,” she grumbles.
“You still mad at me?”
“Yup.”
“Why?”
“Because… because you were being stupid!”
“I see.”
There’s a pause, during which I pick up the packet.
“Alright. I’m not mad anymore. Just… uhg! You really piss me off sometimes. You know that, right?”
I smile to myself and say, “Of course, Jaeda. The feeling is mutual.”
The cover of the packet says, “Instructional Code for a Sprout Caregiver.” I flip it open and thumb through the pages. General codes of conduct. Caregiver codes of conduct. Training code.
I sigh.
More rules.
“So you’re working with seeds?” I ask.
“Yeah. What’re you––”
“Sprouts,” I say before she can finish. “I’m a sprout caregiver.”
“Ah.”
There’s another silence, except for the flipping of paper pages.
“Dinner’s at 1900 for Janus division,” I say.
“Yeah. And our shifts are from 1300 to 1800 with the Mars, Pluto and Venus divisions.”
“I wonder if any of the others are in with them.”
“Maybe.”
I sigh. “So… you sure you’re not interested in Selenius. You could get us some sweet benefits. Maybe get him to buy us both out.”
“I doubt his paycheck would be enough to let him buy both of us. Besides, what use does he have for a–– oh.”
She stops speaking and I can almost feel the heat of her blush and embarrassed anger from my place across the room.
“Aira…” she says warningly. “One more word about Selenius and I’ll––”
“Hey, not my fault.” I put my hands up in surrender. “Just curious, is all.”
She nods and looks back at her packet. “Oh. Well good.”
The air conditioning faintly hums in the background. I look out the wide, clear window out to the ocean. It’s picked up some. The slight wind blows it around a bit and its tide laps at the sharp-rocked shore.
“Do you believe there are monsters in their oceans?” I ask. I glance at Jaeda.
She looks up, the looks back down and shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen one.”
I nod. “Okay. But do you think there could be?”
“Well sure,” Jaeda said. “There could be anything in there.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
I check the time. 1600. What do we do for the next few hours?
“I’m going to go see if I can grab a snack or something,” I say, putting down the holo-tablet and standing up. “Want to come or…?”
Without looking up, Jaeda shakes her head. “No thanks.”
“All righty, then.”
I step into the hallway and close the door behind me. The hallway is empty, but the door to the commons area hangs open.
A few guys are hanging out around a table with a deck of cards, while Selenius sits on a white couch pushed up against the wall, his head buried in a holo-tablet.
“Uhm… excuse me, sir,” I say. “Could I get a snack?”
He points over to a dispenser cabinet filled with snacks. “Scan your chip. You’re allowed two snacks per day, maximum.”
I bob my head in thanks, then turn.
“Wait,” he says. “You’re associated with 45H1O, usename Jaeda, yes?”
“Yes, sir. Will you permit me to ask why?”
“I will. I was just wondering because I see you spending a large portion of your free time with her, especially at the previous facility.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Dismissed, 78D9B.”
“Yes, sir.”
I turn around, as protocol demands and go to the snack dispenser. I select a can of Lemon Punch, which I assume to be some kind of lemonade, and some grapes. They shoot down a tube within thirty seconds.
Feeling my eyes grow wide, I try to hide my astonishment. We never got stuff like this at the old facility! It was all work, work, work and protocol, protocol, protocol.
“Permission to approach, sir?” I ask, turning towards Selenius.
He sighs and looks up from his holo-tablet. “What, 78D9B?”
“Why are we getting all of this nice stuff? Is it time for us to be sold out?”
He purses his lips. “This is a somewhat blunt question, 78D9B, but I’ll overlook it for the time being. Please do not make it a habit.”
“Yes, sir.”
As I turn away to go back to Jaeda and my room, he says, “Yes, Aira. You’re going to be sold out.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I continue to walk and quickly go through the doorway. I almost miss the door to my room, but see Jaeda’s name along with mine and slip through.
“They have food dispensers. It’s amazing.”
“Really?” Jaeda says, looking up. “I thought those would just be––”
“For the admin? Yeah, I know! They’ve got some good stuff.”
I crack the top of my Lemon Punch, which came in a tall silver can with a yellow blob printed on the front. The smell of sugared lemon makes my mouth water and I take a sip of the frigid beverage, the tips of my fingers going numb against the side of the can.
“It’s really, really good. Want a sip?”
Jaeda holds out her hand and grabs the can before downing a gulp.
“Mmm,” she says, smacking her lips. “It’s a bit tart for me, though.”
I shrug. “Better than nothing. Maybe they’ve got something sweeter. Why don’t you go check it out?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“Selenius has his face glued to a holo-tablet. I doubt he’ll notice you.”
Her cheeks go a light pink that spreads almost to the tips of her ears. “Oh. Well… maybe later.”
“Suit yourself. I can’t go get one for you. I might want a midnight snack or something. We get two a day.” Leaning back against the cushions on my bed, I sigh and pop a grape into my mouth. “This is the life.”
I have the first entire part of this novel written (so about 30,000 words) and I kinda want to see what people think about it. The beginning may be kinda slow, but I promise everything picks up by chapter 3.
Part 1: The Slave
“Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat.
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
“Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat.
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
~William Shakespeare
One
I sigh and take a deep breath of the shallow, salted air. We couldn’t go outside often. Not with this moon having such an insubstantial artificial atmosphere. I could see clear to the gold and blue surface of Kalypso and into the black space beyond as I looked into the sky.
“Move along,” a guard grunts before shoving me forward. I catch myself and continue in the line with the others.
The marine sea to the left of the bridge we walk over is calm and lazy-- as usual. It would’ve been fresh water, but they didn’t want us to be able to survive for long periods of time, should we decide to escape.
Our time is almost up. The breathable air will soon run out. The guards and admins glance at their watches. Some of them finger the aeration masks clipped to their belts.
“Hurry up!” the head of security snaps. “We haven’t got all day you useless lumps of flesh.”
That was a new one. Generally we didn’t get more than two words at a time out of guards. Things like, ‘Shut up,’ ‘Move along,’ ‘Hurry up,’ or ‘No talking.’
We could finally see our new facility. Double-oh-one. Our escorts all take visible sighs of relief. I smile to Jaeda, the blonde haired girl walking next to me.
“Nice to see them worried for once,” I murmur.
“Yeah,” she replies.
“No talking!” a black haired guard barks.
Who chooses to babysit servicers for a living? Do they just like shouting abuse and controlling things?
We share a smile before I turn my head away from her.
The doors to the gray stone facility rumble open for us to walk through. They quickly swing shut behind us and we stand in the middle of the entrance hall, gazing up at the tall ceilings and the glass windows.
Men and women dressed in various shades of pastel colors scurry about. Ones in lilac carry tiny seeds, or infants. Ones in mint green dash about with tablets in hand and miniature headsets jammed into their ears.
One wearing a light orange sprints past, clipboard in hand.
“When I call your ID, step forward,” the head of security says as she tucks back her light brown hair and pulls out a holo-tablet. “We’ll be assigning you to groups and barracks.”
I tune her out as I go to stand next to Jaeda. “Why are they moving us?”
“If you haven’t noticed, we were the oldest kids of our facility,” she whispers back. “Maybe we’re being sold-out, Aira.”
“But couldn’t they have––”
“78B9D, usename: Aira,” the woman’s voice calls out.
I glance at Jaeda and shrug before dashing to the front of the group.
“Yes, ma’am?” I ask.
“You’re in Janus. Report to Admin Kimber and Admin Selenius.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Kimber and Selenius were my previous admin. They must be transferring.
I walk over to Kimber, who is checking a holographic list and already has a large group of servicers under her wing.
“78B9D, usename: Aira, reporting,” I say formally.
Kimber nods and touches a box on her list, causing a little check to appear inside of it.
Jaeda soon joins me and I look around.
No one else from our group is the same. The others are from facilities who joined us on the march over.
Selenius gazes at Jaeda and I smile to myself. She catches his stare and blushes before turning away. He scratches his forehead with his robotic left hand.
I nudge Jaeda. “He sweet on you?”
She blushes further, giving her the look of perfect innocence with her big blue eyes and light, shining blonde hair. She plays with the edge of her white tunic and murmurs, “I don’t know. I mean… I’ve never…”
“Noticed it before?” I ask.
She shrugs, takes control of her emotions with a few deep breaths and, within a minute, her blush has faded into the creamy white of her skin.
The last of the servicers are pushed into their groups as Kimber closes her list and motions for us to follow behind her.
Our silver fabric shoes make soft padding sounds against the stone floor as we traipse down the hall. Kimber motions us towards a doorway and into a corridor marked “Janus.” The walls are painted a very watered down version of marine blue.
The corridor narrows and we have to walk in rows of three as Kimber leads us into an open room with bright windows facing out towards the ocean. Two doors branch off of this room. One is painted black. The other is white.
“Males to the white door, females to the black door. There will be two to a room. Your new items will be in the trunk that you claim. There will be no arguing, under any circumstances. Is this understood?”
We nod and murmur, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. Now,” she sighs. “I understand that you’re going to be excited over having so much more room and so many more new things, but please, contain yourselves. Dismissed.”
The group quickly parts into males and females and we swarm down the halls. Jaeda grabs my hand and drags me towards one of the rooms facing the sea.
She pushes the door open and we both enter. There’s a small pinging sound before our IDs and usenames glow in blue on the white door.
“Rho-Sham-Bo for the window bed?” she asks.
I turn around to her. “Sure.”
“Rho, Sham, Bo,” we say together. Her hand clenches into a fist, while mine goes flat. She groans.
“I win!” I say before I run to the trunk and lay my hands on it. It instantly detects my touch-prints and registers my claim.
I open it and inside are a few new white outfits, along with a turquoise-colored uniform. I pull it out.
“I wonder what this color means.” I say. “What color did you get?”
“Purple,” Jaeda replies, pulling out a lilac colored uniform.
“Looks like you get to work with seeds.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Hope I get sold out before my shifts start, then.”
“Why don’t you like working with seeds? They’re so cute!”
“They’re so helpless. I don’t like having to feel so responsible.”
I shrug. “To each his own.”
“What are you hoping for?”
“Kitchens, maybe. I wouldn’t mind working with seeds. Maybe sprouts?”
“To each his own,” she replies.
“You just don’t like to work.”
“Yeah. Maybe that’s it.”
I kneel by my trunk and pull everything out. Two turquoise uniforms. Three white tunics and legging sets. A new pair of silver sneakers. A silver Holo-tablet. A bag full of toiletries.
“Ah, man. This is the stuff,” Jaeda says from her place at her trunk. “A Holo-tablet and everything.”
“It’s probably insanely monitored,” I reply.
She shrugs. “It’s better than no Holo-tablet. We didn’t get them back at the old place.”
“We didn’t have beds at the old facility, Jae.”
“And now we do.”
“It sounds kind of suspicious to me.”
“Maybe they just want to make sure we get sold out, you know? Like, better treatment will make us happier and all that.”
“What if we never get sold out?” I ask.
“Then we stay here and rot. I don’t know, Aira. Why don’t you ask Kimber?”
“Why don’t you ask Selenius?”
She shudders. “I’m sorry. I mean, he’s good-looking and it’s flattering he stared at me, but… I’m not interested in cyborgs.”
“If you get sold out where you want to go, that’s what you’ll basically be.”
“No, I won’t! That’s different.”
“How’s getting your brain plugged into a computer system any different from having machinery plugged into your body. At least you’d still have a body.”
“Well, it sounds really cool. At least I have dreams of where I want to go.”
“I know where I want to go,” I retort.
“Let me rephrase that. I have a viable dream of where I want to go. Going to Earth is not viable.”
“Well, maybe some rich guy who lives there will buy me out and then I’ll escape and live happily ever after.”
“Don’t,” Jaeda growls. “You’re not supposed to talk about that kind of stuff. You’ll get in trouble.”
“No I won’t,” I say. “There’s no harm in joking about it, right?”
“Sure, Aira. Whatever. I personally wouldn’t risk it, but that’s just me. Maybe I’m not as daring as you or––”
“That’s not fair, Jae.”
“Just… whatever.”
She turns and puts away her stuff.
I pick up the Holo-tablet and power it up. A bunch of coding gobbledy-gook streams across the screen before displaying a quick message.
“It never forgives.
It never forgets.
Be careful with your smallest steps.
Don’t take a breath.
don’t bat an eye.
The House just wants to watch you die.”
My heartbeat picks up, but then the numbers and letters fade and the welcome screen beams up into my face.
“That was weird,” I murmur to myself.
“What was that, Aira?”
“Nothing,” I say quickly. “Nothing at all.”
There’s a knock on our door and I look up from the Holo-tablet. Jaeda hauls herself off her bed and opens it.
“45H1O, usename: Jaeda?” asks Kimber.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Here is your instructional code and here is the one for 78B9D, usename: Aira. Make sure to give it to her.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”
Jaeda closes the door and Kimber moves on. She tosses a large, but thin packet of papers in my direction and it skids across the floor before hitting the wall.
“Mail’s here,” she grumbles.
“You still mad at me?”
“Yup.”
“Why?”
“Because… because you were being stupid!”
“I see.”
There’s a pause, during which I pick up the packet.
“Alright. I’m not mad anymore. Just… uhg! You really piss me off sometimes. You know that, right?”
I smile to myself and say, “Of course, Jaeda. The feeling is mutual.”
The cover of the packet says, “Instructional Code for a Sprout Caregiver.” I flip it open and thumb through the pages. General codes of conduct. Caregiver codes of conduct. Training code.
I sigh.
More rules.
“So you’re working with seeds?” I ask.
“Yeah. What’re you––”
“Sprouts,” I say before she can finish. “I’m a sprout caregiver.”
“Ah.”
There’s another silence, except for the flipping of paper pages.
“Dinner’s at 1900 for Janus division,” I say.
“Yeah. And our shifts are from 1300 to 1800 with the Mars, Pluto and Venus divisions.”
“I wonder if any of the others are in with them.”
“Maybe.”
I sigh. “So… you sure you’re not interested in Selenius. You could get us some sweet benefits. Maybe get him to buy us both out.”
“I doubt his paycheck would be enough to let him buy both of us. Besides, what use does he have for a–– oh.”
She stops speaking and I can almost feel the heat of her blush and embarrassed anger from my place across the room.
“Aira…” she says warningly. “One more word about Selenius and I’ll––”
“Hey, not my fault.” I put my hands up in surrender. “Just curious, is all.”
She nods and looks back at her packet. “Oh. Well good.”
The air conditioning faintly hums in the background. I look out the wide, clear window out to the ocean. It’s picked up some. The slight wind blows it around a bit and its tide laps at the sharp-rocked shore.
“Do you believe there are monsters in their oceans?” I ask. I glance at Jaeda.
She looks up, the looks back down and shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen one.”
I nod. “Okay. But do you think there could be?”
“Well sure,” Jaeda said. “There could be anything in there.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
I check the time. 1600. What do we do for the next few hours?
“I’m going to go see if I can grab a snack or something,” I say, putting down the holo-tablet and standing up. “Want to come or…?”
Without looking up, Jaeda shakes her head. “No thanks.”
“All righty, then.”
I step into the hallway and close the door behind me. The hallway is empty, but the door to the commons area hangs open.
A few guys are hanging out around a table with a deck of cards, while Selenius sits on a white couch pushed up against the wall, his head buried in a holo-tablet.
“Uhm… excuse me, sir,” I say. “Could I get a snack?”
He points over to a dispenser cabinet filled with snacks. “Scan your chip. You’re allowed two snacks per day, maximum.”
I bob my head in thanks, then turn.
“Wait,” he says. “You’re associated with 45H1O, usename Jaeda, yes?”
“Yes, sir. Will you permit me to ask why?”
“I will. I was just wondering because I see you spending a large portion of your free time with her, especially at the previous facility.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Dismissed, 78D9B.”
“Yes, sir.”
I turn around, as protocol demands and go to the snack dispenser. I select a can of Lemon Punch, which I assume to be some kind of lemonade, and some grapes. They shoot down a tube within thirty seconds.
Feeling my eyes grow wide, I try to hide my astonishment. We never got stuff like this at the old facility! It was all work, work, work and protocol, protocol, protocol.
“Permission to approach, sir?” I ask, turning towards Selenius.
He sighs and looks up from his holo-tablet. “What, 78D9B?”
“Why are we getting all of this nice stuff? Is it time for us to be sold out?”
He purses his lips. “This is a somewhat blunt question, 78D9B, but I’ll overlook it for the time being. Please do not make it a habit.”
“Yes, sir.”
As I turn away to go back to Jaeda and my room, he says, “Yes, Aira. You’re going to be sold out.”
“Thank you, sir.”
I continue to walk and quickly go through the doorway. I almost miss the door to my room, but see Jaeda’s name along with mine and slip through.
“They have food dispensers. It’s amazing.”
“Really?” Jaeda says, looking up. “I thought those would just be––”
“For the admin? Yeah, I know! They’ve got some good stuff.”
I crack the top of my Lemon Punch, which came in a tall silver can with a yellow blob printed on the front. The smell of sugared lemon makes my mouth water and I take a sip of the frigid beverage, the tips of my fingers going numb against the side of the can.
“It’s really, really good. Want a sip?”
Jaeda holds out her hand and grabs the can before downing a gulp.
“Mmm,” she says, smacking her lips. “It’s a bit tart for me, though.”
I shrug. “Better than nothing. Maybe they’ve got something sweeter. Why don’t you go check it out?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“Selenius has his face glued to a holo-tablet. I doubt he’ll notice you.”
Her cheeks go a light pink that spreads almost to the tips of her ears. “Oh. Well… maybe later.”
“Suit yourself. I can’t go get one for you. I might want a midnight snack or something. We get two a day.” Leaning back against the cushions on my bed, I sigh and pop a grape into my mouth. “This is the life.”
