Higgs & Soap: Galaxy Delivery

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

(An hour earlier)

The Public Digital Archives Department, or "library" as it was commonly called, was one of those places you found in almost every city in the known Expanse but never had much reason to visit. Since the proliferation of implants all data was stored inside yourself, either encrypted or shared openly. The only places that used data storage any more were large corporations and The Federation, who had their own secure facilities anyway. So you only went to the library if you wanted old information stored on a vast array of incompatible systems that weren't connected to the DataNet. It was mostly old business data, ancient public records from pre-colonisation times and pictures of cats.

"We should have grabbed lunch," said Soap, her ears drooping.

"Quit whingeing. We've only got time for a detour here then back to the Spaceport again. I'm not paying any extra landing pad fees. We'll grab something at departures."

They climbed the steps to the front door and Higgs took a look behind him. The library and the two buildings opposite, (the old Town Hall and The Museum of Earth), were the only three in the city built from quarried stone. Everything else was constructed from surface regolith concrete and bricks made with the building machines the colonists brought, or from newer exotic materials developed in the last hundred years.

The city leader at the time thought it would be a great idea, in light of his waning popularity, to get the people on his side by appealing to their nostalgia. He had horrendously expensive plans for an entire area of the city to be built from stone, but in the end he only got these three buildings and a wall. He had wanted to remind everyone of how things used to be done back on Earth, and he succeeded; they went on strike.

"Look at the size of that door! People must have been giants back then!"

"You never studied the history of human biology did you?"

"Nope, engineering all the way. It's all I ever wanted to do."

Higgs pulled hard on the door and it swung open reluctantly.

Inside was just as impressive as the outside, although the printed furniture and fittings were recent, the originals having degraded within a few decades of their creation. Soap looked around, mouth open, as Higgs approached the doughnut shaped desk in the centre of the room. All the actual hardware was hidden away out of sight, the only access available through fixed-point terminals situated along the walls, paid for by the hour. But Higgs had no use for these. The client had sent a data request to the library ahead of their arrival, he just needed to collect it.

Behind the desk sat an elderly lady with silver grey hair, swept back on top, that curled down to a bob at her neck. Higgs looked at her name badge. It read "Betti".

"Hello Betti. My name is Higgs Dittum. I believe you have a data package for me?"

"Digi-reference?"

Higgs broadcast the code to the reception port he could see on his implant HUD.

"OK hun, that's confirmed. I'll just get that on a data card for you. Can't promise you won't be here a while though." Betti thumbed over her shoulder, but there was nothing there.

"Well, we do have a time issue, I..."

"You see," said Betti, leaning across the desk, "I was born to do this job sweetie. And if you'd come here a few weeks ago I would have had it for you in minutes, but now I have to negotiate everything with this piece of chud AI they insisted on installing."

"I HAVE MICROPHONES EVERYWHERE YOU KNOW BETTI."

"Oh, there you are MIMIR. Thought you were sleeping again."