A Year of Stories

Trains, Brains and a Cat Named Theia

I should be taking a nap. Mona says I need more sleep, says that she's been tracking my blood pressure and doesn't like what she sees, says it in the way the VI often does when she's giving a command veiled as a suggestion.

It's not like I have anything better to do, my itinerary puts me in The Dust at Noon, just in time for my sit down meeting with a group of squatters who have been venturing a little too close to the Campus' borders.

I'm there for their safety more than anything else. The outskirts of Primus are filled with ruins from the War, unexploded munitions and broken bits of unstable military hardware. There is no telling what kind of trouble they could get into if someone doesn't warn them off, and if they get into the wrong kind of trouble, I'll be the least of their worries.

If the train gets in at Noon, that leaves me nearly three hours of completely unscheduled time. Which means that I should either take Mona's advice and go to sleep, or find something else to do before I get myself in trouble.

2.

I could have taken a Lifter. I should have taken a Lifter. I'm an Executor for Apollo's sake, and if I had taken a Lifter, I would be there by now. But no, I had to be responsible.

"Of course I can take the train Mona."

"You're so right Mona, why waste the feedstock?"

"It'll be a nice change of pace to travel with the locals Mona."

Idiot.

It wouldn't have been such a bad idea if it didn't turn out that this train spends most of it's time shuttling School children out to The Dust to visit their parents, and Barony brats back to School to pretend to learn, which officially makes me the oldest person on board by at least three decades.

Thankfully, Theia is still here and she seems comfortable enough, curled on my lap and purring away like she was a real cat, and not just a loosely assembled amalgam of combat mites.

At least she knows when to get some sleep.

3.

"Nice cat. What are you doing here?"

A girl whose Augmented Reality makes her look like a cross between a spider and a Grecian statue, takes a seat next to me.

"Heading into The Dust."

As I speak, her gaze drifts down towards Theia, who couldn't care less if she tried.

"Oh yea? A little early for the Bowery, isn't it?"

I'm wearing black pants, a white dress shirt, and a Blazer with the Raven Muninn stitched onto it's left breast. I couldn't look more like an Executor if I tried, which means she's either trying to get a rise out of me, or she's even younger than I think she is.