a Tale Among the Stars

Chapter 12: the Site

William parked his land cruiser in its usual place, smacking the side when it refused to turn off. He fluidly got off of the worn seat and looked at the gate. Nothing seemed amiss, and Hal looked just like...well, Hal. So, cautiously, William approached the gate.

"Good morning Hal," he said nervously, looking at the red glass circle that was the AI's one 'eye'.

"Good morning site manager Hawtalon. Please report to site 240-A." Hal responded as the gate swung open. William sighed in relief and shifted the bag on his shoulder. He recognized that number immediately. It was HIS site, the one he had been working on for years.

"So they decided to give me that site, huh?" He whispered to himself as he passed through the gate.

He quickly walked where he always walked every morning, following the path right up until the split. One path lead down to the mines, the path he had previously always taken. The other lead to the site managers cubicle. As far as he knew, the old site manager had quit several years ago and the company hadn't bothered to promote or hire anyone for the position.

"Well here we go." William said to himself, taking a deep breath.

He began to walk up the path leading to the cubicle and laughed a bit when he saw that it wasn't any more luxurious than the one that lead down to the workplace. In fact, it might be even worse than that oath at this point. The grass surrounding the path has slowly eroded at it, leaving entire parts missing. Ge just hoped that the cubicle wasn't this run down.

"It would be rather ironic," William said to no on in particular, "that I go from one rubble heap to another."

However, that wasn't the case. As he reached the end of the path, the cubicle came into view. It wasn't much, only the most ver basic of necessities were allowed inside. The walls were plastered with dirt, small rocks, and mud, but compared to.the warehouse, it wa much safer. Much more...homely.

"I never thought I'd be able to live in one of these." William said, approaching the door. Right beside the door was a small keypad. It was blue, indicating that it needed to register a new home owner. He slowly walked up the the keypad and in amazement watched as the blue circle scanned his face, from top to bottom.

"Hello. Welcome William Hawtalon. I am Eve, your personal AI assistant. If you wish to register this house, please press-"

William didn't even let Eve finish. He jammed his finger onto the ACCEPT button faster than he intended and felt a little guilty when Eve stopped mid sentence.

"Sorry Eve. I was just a little impatient."

Eve's scanner changed color to pink as she answered.

"That's quite alright Sir Hawtalon. Please come inside." She answered, the door sliding to the side at her words.

William entered slowly, looking around. It was a lit more spacious than he would have expected, with a coffee table, a kitchen, even an upstairs (though how much room the 'upstairs' had was dubious).

"Huh." He said, resting his hand in the coffee table. "I thought this place would be a lit smaller."

Suddenly, a small metal rod popped out of the ceiling and lit up, scanning the room. William's jaw dropped as he saw this. It was a Hologram projector, and by how smoothly it was operating, a new model at that. And this made his Holophone look like a peice of garbage(though in all truthfulness it was- he had built it out of working parts from the junkyard). Not only that, but his Holophone wasn't a true hologram. There was an extremely thin peice of plastic that the machine projected images on. He was struck silent as the image of a beautiful young woman slowly appeared, smiling at him. She looked to be about 5'8, had tan skin, jet black hair that stopped at her shoulder blades, and bright green eyes.

"Hello Sir Hawtalon," she said, and William instantly recognized her.

"Eve?" He said In amazement.

Eve nodded and beamed.

"Yes I am Eve. And yes, your cubicle would typically be much smaller than this-and would not include an AI like myself. Your cubicle has been renovated recently."

William became suspicious at this. Why would they renovate a cubicle just for him? And give him a top of the line AI? It didn't make any sense- even if AI weren't very advanced. He figured that Eve had the intelligence of a young girl, perhaps younger.

"Well that makes sense."

He set down his bag by the small sofa and began to inspect each room one by one. The kitchen had basic spices, an electric stove top, and a food printer. Expensive for a cubicle. His room had the standard setup, the only exception being the single photo on the wall of Earth. The living room had a brand new Holotv, a sofa, and a minifridge. The attic, surprisingly, was large. However most of it was being taken by Eve's mechanical parts.

"Well..." he said as he came down from the attic, smacking the button to retract the stairs into the wall. "Everything seems to be in place I guess."

Eve nodded and walked to his room, gesturing for him to lay down.

"You have a long day tomorrow sir. Please rest." She said, her arm disappearing as it seems to pass 'through' the bed.

"Well...you're probably right." William answered, and laid down onto the soft looking sheets. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he began to get drowsy.

"Eve," he said sleepily, turning to her.

She waved and her mechanical 'arms' dropped down from the ceiling and tucked him into the bed.

"Goodnight sir. Rest well, and tomorrow we will go over your manager responsibilities."

William yawned and nodded as his eyes grew heavier. Soon, he was asleep, out cold.