Stargazer: The Fractured Universe

A Morning Away From the Sun

Jay's eyes popped open. His vision spun before focusing on the strip lights lining the ceiling of his lab. He must have gone to sleep. After doing this enough times, he finally decided to reprogram the exosuit to monitor for a sleeping heart rate, and to take him into a lying down position if he ever fell asleep while working. That way he wouldn't sleep in a weird position and end up with joint pains or dizziness upon waking.

Well... he didn't have joint pains.

Jay pushed himself to his feet, aided by the exosuit. Without it, he'd probably have just tumbled over and fallen back to sleep, but if he just got moving, he could continue. He was so close to being done with his machine. The exosuit locked into place as Jay threatened to tip it all the way forward. Maybe he needed coffee. That would mean stopping his project for a few minutes, but if he sliced the wrong wires together, he could potentially blow up the entire building. So yeah. Coffee first.

Jay walked into the office part of the lab between his project and the elevator that he sometimes used to leave on the days that he decided to eat. The exosuit clanked around as he gathered the things he needed. Water, coffee, a trash can to throw out yesterday's coffee. He scooped coffee grounds into a new coffee filter, filled the small machine with water, and started it up.

The intercom crackled. "Mr. Cooper, are you there?" Olivia, one of the receptionists, asked.

He exhaled and rubbed his forehead with the big metal fingers of his exosuit. "Yes, Ms. Warner," he responded.

"There you are. I didn't see you come in this morning. Having a slumber party again?"

"After today, I won't need to anymore." A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, but it turned into a yawn.

"Well, Khaleel from accounting is here for your paperwork. Can you come up real quick?"

"Can I give it to him later?"

"Mr. Cooper, it's Friday, and he has to do the whole week of paperwork from your department before the end of today. Do you have anything prepared?"

Jay shook his head. Unless he did his paperwork in his sleep. He walked over to his desk, and... wait... no there it was. The encumbrance sheets. For the whole week.

He walked back to the rack of suits, rubbing his head again before backing up into the docking arm, reaching under his breastplate for the button, and opening the suit in the front to step out. He caught a whiff of himself as he got out and scrunched his nose. Now he knew what he smelled like after 3 days of not visiting his apartment to shower. He didn't even stop by last night when he had to leave to go get his burn looked at by a doctor.

His arm throbbed as it left the cooling system from the suit that was keeping the pain manageable. That was stupid. Testing the ability that the altered-human virus had forced on his body. Some embraced it, but Jay had enough going on in his world without needing to worry about the AHRA bursting into his lab to cart him off to some room he'd never get to leave. Jay's scientific curiosity did not stop it from being what it was: a virus.

Focus.

Jay grabbed the papers, removed the elevator key from his pocket, called the elevator, and turned the key in its slot to ascend to the first floor. The key was the only way up or down to make sure only authorized people were allowed access to his lab.

He stepped out into a semi-busy lobby. The smell of coffee, body fragrances, and a variety of breakfast items hit his senses like a well placed right hook. He shook it off. He ate last night. A coffee, a bagel, and some eggs would be a reward for finishing today.