Genetix

9-Maya

After Olivia and Jakob leave, I set out to find the other arrival... Derek, I think. Jakob seems to have forgotten about him. It may not be my job to take care of him, but it doesn't look like anyone else is going to.

I wander around, checking the infirmary and the kitchen, but to no avail. Finally I give up and take a scan from the security room, even though it feels like cheating. There he is, stuck in the only service elevator that doesn't always work, cursing and kicking at the control panel. I open the broadcast link.

"Need some help?"

He jumps and whirls around, looking for the source of the noise. I laugh. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you. We prefer not to use that elevator 'cause it jams sometimes, and the drones can't seem to fix it. I'm sending someone down to you now. Just sit tight. And quit abusing the controls," I add, frowning at the screen.

The man does as he's told, and I pull up a call to Jordan. "Hey man, it's me."

Jordan lets out a sleepy groan. "What do you want?"

"The new guy's stuck in the service elevator between 42 and 43. Mind fishing him out?"

"Yeah, whatever." I hear the rustle of sheets as he rolls out of bed. "Be there in a sec."

Derek is getting impatient, pressing random buttons on the controls. Finally the doors are pried open. Jordan takes one look and hits the intercom. "Wow, Maya, I'd have showed up faster if you said he was cute."

I roll my eyes. "Find him a room, wouldja? And not your room, got it?"

Jordan mock salutes at the camera. "Aye aye, Cap'n." Cocky bastard.

I switch off the console and sit back in my chair, sipping my sorry attempt at a chocolate milkshake. Too much cocoa, or not enough sugar.

I'm itching to do something. I hop up and walk out of the office, deciding that I will ask the first person I come across for an errand to run. As it happens, I all but slam into Trixie almost immediately. I fall down on my ass, but she keeps angrily storming down the hall.

"Watch where you're going, asshole."

I pick myself up and dash after her. I did say the first person after all.

"What's up with you?" I call after her. She flips me off and keeps walking. I struggle to catch up. "No, really, what's up? Maybe I can help."

Trixie throws a scrap of paper at me. "If you think you can get the little grease monkey downstairs to make some sense," she snarls, "be my guest!"

I pick up the scrap of paper. By "grease monkey" I assume she means one of the twins in the basement. I don't approve of her nicknames, but I can't blame her for her attitude. Honestly I wish I was more like her, stomping around, everyone doing what I say. She really gets things done, when she decides to.

Instead of climbing back into the elevator, I take the "fun" way down. There are air shafts that run all the way to the bottom of the complex, sucking air down through the cooling units and spitting it out into the generator room. A hop, skip, and a thirty second freefall, and there you are.

I check to make sure the tunnel is clear before I jump. Sometimes debris can get jammed in the pipe, and it'd definitely hurt to smack an eight-foot dust bunny at 20 miles an hour. This one's clear, so I take a step back and leap into the chasm, arms and legs spread wide.

Adrenaline pumps through me as i fall. Humans were meant to fear heights, but that instinct has become fairly obsolete with antigrav technology. Still, it makes this kind of thing a lot more fun.

The lifters take effect about halfway down, pressing upward slightly and gradually slowing my descent. Within seconds I am hovering two meters above the ground, in easy reach of a maintenance ladder. I pull myself over to the side and disengage the antigravs before hopping down to the exit hatch.

I tumble out onto ratty sofa- and right on top of Michael. He jerks awake and falls out onto the floor, scrambling around and finally holding a rusty spoon out like a weapon.

"Wha- wha' d'you want?" he slurs sleepily. I gently pull the spoon out of his hand and set it aside.

"Hey, Mikey. You okay?"

"Uh, yeah. What do you need, Maya?"

I'm not entirely sure he's fine, but it's hot down here and I can barely hear him over the generators. Time to get down to business.

"Could you tell me what this is, and what it's for?" I hand him the piece of paper.

"Yeah, this is one of Brandy's drawings. Trixie was down here a few hours ago, asking about the generator, which would make sense if you got this from her. I pretended to be asleep," he admits sheepishly. "I don't like talking to her. Still, I can understand the confusion. It's a 297 Voltrix, usually called a juicebug. You use it when you need a big battery charged up fast."

Great. Trixie's planning another expedition then. "Do you know where I can find one?"

"Not inside the compound. As long as these things keep pumping," he says, jerking a thumb at the clanking machines, "We've got a stream of power, nice and steady. Those are built for instant charges. They could suck a skyscraper dry for up to ten minutes, if you needed to and had a place for the power to go."

"So I'd have to go inside a city for it."

Michael nods. "Seems like it, which means you won't be getting it any time soon. Only city close enough is Vegas. Sorry, Maya."

I smile silently and send for a lift. Twenty minutes later I'm setting up a short-range hovercraft and calibrating a v-ray scanner. V-waves work basically the same as x-rays, except there's next to no harmful radiation. I set it to look for anything resembling a 297 Voltrix. Hopefully I can be gone and back before anyone misses me. As a final thought I strap on some plastic body armor and a helmet. You can never be too safe, right?

A press of a button and I tear through the compound doors, on a straight shot course to Las Vegas.