Sanctuary Falling (17 page)

“With a guy in R&D to get fitted for your survival suit,” Erica answered.

Yllera wondered about that. She thought that maybe she remembered about Angela mentioning an extreme environment. “When am I supposed to be there?”

“You’ve got about an hour travel time, and you may need it all,” Erica answered.

“Why?”

“Because, the department is shielded to prevent the disturbance of
 
some delicate equipment down there in research and development. The pods won’t even send you there. You have to walk and it’s a maze. I’ll send you a map. Good luck!” Erica’s face disappeared and was replaced by a map showing the way from the transport pod outside of research and development to the office of the man she was supposed to see. A small frame to the side of the map offered text directions.

Yllera examined the map thoroughly while finding and waiting to use the nearest public transport pod. By the time it was her turn, Yllera had come to the conclusion that calling the place a maze was a serious understatement. Yllera stepped into the pod and instructed it to take her to research and development. It squeaked and informed her she would be delivered to the pod just outside, because R&D was a restricted transport zone.
 
Yllera made a face and tapped the activation button.

Research and development was the lowest and oldest level. Each new level of Sanctuary had been dug deeper into the planetoid than the last, but artificial gravity generators made the side of tunnels nearest the center of the planetoid the ceilings. So, while the orientation of the artificial gravity generators decreed that nothing was below R&D, everything could be considered beneath it. The outer research and development tunnels were rough. They hadn’t been smoothed because they were never intended to be more than a work zone.
 
The original living quarters and the oldest section of medical services were later dug in above and more carefully finished.

Yllera examined the walls on arrival. They surprised her. Just the look of them drew her touch, causing thoughts of the history they had seen. Yllera glanced at her pop-pad. She was supposed to find the door to cavern one. She walked up and down the hall until she found the right door. It opened with an asthmatic squish as opposed to the usual silent sliding into the wall of most Sanctuary doors. On the other side, Yllera expected to find busy scientists and researchers fiddling with shiny doohickeys or bubbling thingamajigs What she found was a high ceilinged stone cavern divided into ceiling-less cubicles, and narrow walkways by dingy nine-foot-high extruded plastic walls. It was an ugly place, with ugly smells, and the ugly sounds of metal grinders and arc welding. Smoke of various colors wafted up over some of the walls and was sucked into air cleaners on the ceiling. Yllera looked down at her pad and began following the map.

After an absurd amount of time wandering amongst the cubicles, catching glimpses of people working on projects that were far removed from the slick finished devices she was used to, Yllera finally came to a door. Yllera checked her pop-pad, and went over the path she had taken, in her head, through the maze of the research and development complex. Small, grease stained, absolutely filthy, it looked like a janitorial closet, and it was of the oldest type in Sanctuary. Not only did it have a knob it had a manual lock as well. Yllera hesitated, this couldn’t be the place. While she stood there staring at the knob, it turned.

The door swung inward revealing a man wearing a grungy leather apron over a simple blue shirt and slacks. He looked middle age, but there was no telling the number of years he’d seen. His hair was mostly sand colored and his eyes an ageless blue. On his face was a slightly mangled grin. All together, he was instantly likeable.

“So, you would be Yllera,” The man said plainly. His voice was soft rich and deep. Yllera nodded and tucked her pop-pad back into her pocket. The man’s smile broadened.
A
My name’s Ralph. I’ll be your tailor.” He gestured for her to enter the room.

Yllera entered hesitantly. Inside the room was relatively clean, as compared to the rest of the research department. The walls were smooth, white and met the rougher, though mostly flat, ceiling at nearly right angles. Shelves and baskets of stainless steel, filled one long wall to the ceiling. A long white plastic work surface spanned the opposite wall. The plastic was stained, worn, singed and in places had electronic components melted into the surface.
 
The short wall opposite the door held a media screen and small desk.
 
Several chairs of various heights were scattered around the room. One chair floated free from any support, with an attached foot rest. It hovered near a portion of the work surface with clear electrical burns. The room smelled of melted plastic and lubricants, and the hum from the air filtration system was much quieter than in the room outside. Nowhere did Yllera see anything resembling a survival suit.

“So, is this your first assignment, or are you an old pro?” The man asked taking a small scanner from a shelf. He held it to his eye and began walking around her.

“It’ll be my first as a secondary. I just finished an assignment on an earth,” Yllera answered eyeing him.

“So you’ve used my stuff before.” Ralph took the scanner from his eye and tossed it towards his shelf. It landed neatly, and softly where it belonged, with a clear telekinetic assist from Ralph. He reached for a pop-pad, “Your med-file doesn’t mention any allergies. Are you aware of any that you haven’t reported?”

“No, I haven’t come across any yet. So what is this survival suit suppose to protect me from?” Yllera asked.

Ralph smiled and tapped at his pop-pad. “It’ll be a generalized factor survival suit, but it will look and work like one from Jelaria.
 
The desert of Jelaria is very hazardous. The desert region is especially large with very few mostly seasonal water sources. Sandstorms in the central desert can have hurricane force winds. They do a good job of sandblasting everything especially flesh, and if the storm itself doesn’t kill you there are several different pathogens which can and will eat you alive if they get into an open wound. Plus, Tina ordered bio-sensors to monitor your health, and sent me a very specific diet she wants you to stick to as much as is possible. So, I’ll
 
have to adapt your suit to provide the proper nutrition over the course of what will most likely be an extended assignment. It’ll be a fun project. Any more questions?”
 
Yllera shook her head. “Then step on the scale young lady.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Annette trotted down the hall to the cafeteria, going over her notes as she went. Her anxiety over Angela’s second test was growing by the hour. It was five days away.
 
In less than a week, Annette would know her future fate. Despite Niri declaring the weekends rest days, Annette had worked herself frazzled last weekend going over her notes and getting in several hours of practice with the various factor tech items common to most factor packs. Thanks to the transport pods, Annette’s days had stretched to twenty-eight hours or more.
 
One side effect of that was that she wasn’t always sure whether she was coming or going, especially the one time she ran into herself in the hall.

Annette almost changed course for her room, but Tawny’s remote pin bleeped, “Niri told you to head to the cafeteria and eat!”

Reluctantly, Annette followed instructions.
 
Niri had made Tawny Annette’s keeper when she discovered Annette missed meals several days in a row a few weeks ago.
 
It frustrated Annette to have the computer program watching what she ate. Annette honestly hadn’t been hungry in almost a month, there were days food made her nauseous. Despite eating little, and a work schedule which should’ve been burning calories like paper, Annette had been gaining weight. She’d always been thin, not quite sickly thin, but lately she gained weight if she looked at food.
 

Annette finally reached the cafeteria. She was the last to arrive and found herself at the butt end of a long line. She forced herself to focus and tuned out the noisy room around her, until her pop-pad and a hint of the back of the person in front of her were all she saw. Annette’s stomach began doing flips as she approached the food counter.
 
She wondered if there was something wrong with her. That turned her thoughts to Tina. Despite the mention that the test results would be in within the week, five weeks ago, Annette still hadn’t heard back from Tina about it.

The pop-pad screen in front of Annette wobbled drawing her attention back from where it had wandered. She glanced up and was suddenly hit by all of the noise and light in the room. She had to blink back tears from the intensity. Dimly through the haze of sensation she heard a male voice, “Annette, I thought it was you. Why didn’t you come back and visit me?”

Annette found focus on a young man’s face. He was dressed in a second year purple jumpsuit. She stared at him for a few more moments, still not able to recognize him. “Oh, so you found me less memorable than I found you,” he grimaced, and suddenly she recognized him and remembered. It was Carl, the young man she’d met on her semi-illicit visit to the metamorphic isolation ward.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ve been so busy, studying, practicing, and training. Angela’s going to be administering a test which will determine if I become a factor trainee. I only have five more days, and am getting a little stressed about it,” Annette blurted in apology.

Carl smiled and held up his hands, “Back pedal one minute, I wasn’t angry. Just slightly disappointed. If you were busy trying to make the program I can hardly complain. Especially since if you make it we might see more of each other. Don’t let me add stress to your pile! By the way, you look absolutely adorable in blue,” Carl’s smile became a smirk which degenerated into a chuckle. Annette knew he was laughing at her jumpsuit.

“It’s better than nothing!” Annette turned back to her pop-pad in an effort to firmly ignore him.

His chuckles stopped with a grunt, and he turned beet red, though she missed his blush,
 
“I can’t win for losing with you! How about you come eat with me? I’ve got a friend holding a place in line for us.”

Annette looked up to see him point at a boy in purple near the head of the line. The boy waved and tapped his wrist as the line drew a few feet closer to the salad bar. Annette did a quick calculation in her head, if she accepted the offer she could be finished eating fifteen to twenty minutes sooner, but she might be subjected to more unwanted taunting. Funny how part of why she wanted to join the factors was because they treated her better than most. You really couldn’t tell from how the trainees behaved. Annette glanced at the time readout on her pop-pad. She could use fifteen minutes more time trying to get the telekinetic amplifier to work.
 
“Okay, Carl, but if you start cracking up about my jumpsuit again I’m leaving!”

“You did remember my name!” Carl crowed in triumph, “I promise, not to laugh again, even though I wasn’t laughing at your jumpsuit, just a mental picture I had. It had almost nothing to do with you!” He gestured gentlemanly for her to precede him.
 
Annette eyed him warily and stepped out of the line, which she was the end of.
 
When she didn’t head towards his friend, he did, checking behind him to make sure she followed.

“Yo, Carl, I thought you said you knew her. What took so long?” The boy holding their places asked as they arrived.

“Sorry Mike, it took a couple of minutes to remind her and convince her. Thanks by the way,” Carl responded.

“You didn’t mention she was this cute,” Mike said looking Annette over carefully. She felt an annoying itching at the back of her mind and suddenly realized Mike was trying to communicate telepathically with her.
 
She tried to open her mind, and listened very hard, but nothing more than a faint buzz came through. The look on Mike’s face changed from invitingly welcoming to uncomfortable, “I see Scope over there, I think I’ll eat with her if you don’t mind.”

Carl looked confused for a moment, and Annette felt silent words pass between him and Mike. Carl glanced at Annette with surprise, and shook his head. Then Carl turned gruffly back to Mike, “Yeah, so, fine with me man!”

Annette felt a sensation akin to her ears popping, and suddenly an uncomfortable wave of anger from Carl washed over her followed by an explanatory fear from Mike which resolved itself into faint words, “She couldn’t hear me, she’s not a telepath and that creeps me out man!”

“Whatever!” Carl growled. His anger was sharp and painfully piercing to Annette, even directed away from her. She drew herself back, wanting to throw her hands over her ears, but knowing it wouldn’t help. She returned her focus to her pop-pad ignoring them both. Slowly, but more quickly than Carl’s anger abated, Annette managed to shut the room out and put her focus onto her pad.