Inside The Door
Grayson was staring at where the door lay. A peeling Titanium-Steel staircase led down into the belly of Exo 3. Grayson turned on the welder, and used the purple blue light to see, as he stepped down the stairs, his soft boots made no sound. In the welder’s eerie light, his steely grey eyes looked purple. It was cold in the bowels of the ship, but the heated wires in his leatherlike black jacket kept him warm.
He thought he heart a crash, and then a wrench, like metal tearing, but he wasn’t sure,
Grayson couldn’t see much, and what he saw was mostly metal nuts and bolts and scraps.
It was awful drafty here, Grayson thought. Then he noticed a light switch. He turned off the welder, and flipped the light on. Huge Glow Lights buzzed to life with a pleasant hum.
Grayson looked around in surprise, The room was huge, maybe as wide as the ship, he thought, and probably 3 or 4 levels high.
And it was full of used metal, and broken scraps as far as he could see, when he looked up, he saw metal chutes, and every once in awhile, he saw a scrap or two fall and then smash into a pile. He turned around, and noticed the light switch was next to a couple levers. One was labeled “Ch” but half of it was peeled off. He pulled that lever and heard a loud chunk chunk chunk. Grayson waited. In a minute, he heard the Clank Clank Clank Clank! Of a scrap falling down the chute. But instead of the crash of the scrap hitting, he hear a dull thud.
“Oh,” he thought to himself “That must close the chutes!”
Grayson knew that any of the other 5th class passengers of Exo 3 would kill for a find like this, so he spent the next hour or two fashioning a door that only he could get in. He couldn’t find any fingerprint locks, so he settled on an old retina scanner. He took a heavy door he welded to the wall above the busted door, and attached an old pulley system with titanium braided rope. He connected the pulley to the door (With the welder,) And the pulley to a motor. After another hour, he was able to wire the motor to the retina scanner. Finally after 2 and a half hours he stepped back and inspected his work. He sighed. It wasn’t pretty, but it would work. After testing it, and hiding the welder under the floor in the small room (as a precaution),
He was exhausted. He sighed, thinking of the long walk to the nearest HoverT . HoverT’s were silver, egg shaped vehicles that hovered a foot off the ground and had a seat or two. (Actually, they were called ExoTech Automatic Hover Transporter v34, but everyone called them HoverTs) when he got to the HoverT,
He looked at his watch. It was 10:30
“Great” He thought aloud, as the automatic HoverT zipped around corners and up HoverT chutes.
“Paid Service is in 30 minutes!” He sighed. To get better housing, since Grayson was an orphan, You could sign up for Paid Service. Paid Service basically meant you hoverTd from the kitchen to first class rooms ferrying food for the people who could afford room service. When he got to to his room he changed into serving clothes. Grayson ran to the nearest HoverT, and picked up his Work Tablet. His work tablet was a sheet of cloudy transparent material, but when he turned it on, a client that asked for food would pop up.
All of the sudden, a new order appeared with a dull ding:
Aly Richard: Level 130 : Sector Alpha : Room 5
Cheeseburger:
Cheddar Cheese, Wheat Bread, Ground Beef Patty, Ketchup
Crinkle Cut Fries: Yukon Potatoes, Sea Salt
Extras:
Ketchup
Arrived Delivered
So Grayson headed off towards the kitchen.
He picked up the food, which was delivered from a small chute that went from somewhere inside the kitchen to the pickup room he was in. Grayson punched in the level, sector and room into the HoverT, and zipped off at a considerable pace. Grayson watched the other HoverT’s zip past him, and was again amazed at how fast the hoverT’s went. He looked down at the (dented) sleek silver form of the hoverT, and wondered how it worked.
Grayson turned on the built in GPS of the HoverT, “This trip is taking a while…” He thought, as the GPS system booted up ”I wonder where this room is” He was looking at his work tablet, and was curious about the Sector Alpha part. It was the highest class in the ship, and he had never delivered to a Sector Alpha. (If he had payed more attention to the introduction class to Paid Service, He would have learned that Sector Alpha was reserved to Pilots and Officers of the ship and their families.)
Then finally, the hoverT slowed, and hovered lower to let him down. He looked around in surprise, “this place looks more white and polished than anywhere else” he thought, “I must be on the bridge!”
He took the food, which was wrapped in a silver Temperature Retaining Mesh. Grayson straightened his hat and pressed the arrived button on his Work Tablet. He waited for the nearly invisible food slot to open.
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