“I, uh, commissioned them from a clothes shop. I gave them some instructions from what I’d seen Scraper people wearing. They did the rest,” Nero admitted.
“Maybe you’re in the wrong job, Nero. Ever thought of designing clothes?” Nate asked.
“Very funny. I had hardly any input.”
“Still, you didn’t do a bad job...” Nate conceded, turning around to try to get a look at his back.
Talyah interrupted them. “When you’re done admiring yourselves, we’re nearly there.”
“Okay,” Nero said. “You remember who we’re supposed to be, yes? We’re investigating an augmentation for my mother, yes?”
“Yes, Nero,” they both replied in unison, exchanging amused glances with each other.
The ship was set on autopilot, and as they approached the Scraper, it circled in to the top of the building, where there was a waiting pad for them to land on. As they descended, they could see a couple of guards emerge from the roof entrance, ready to escort them in.
“I hope this works,” Nate said, as the ship touched down. The ramp at the rear of the ship descended, and the three of them walked out onto the top of the building. Taking a quick look around, they could see far into the distance, almost able to spot the mountain range from which they’d emerged that morning. Looking closer at hand, they could also see vast distances across the city, though the other massive Scrapers, some even taller than the one they were standing on, blocked a lot of their view.
They walked the few metres from the ship to the entrance of the building, approaching the guards as if they had every right to be there, and the guards were just a minor inconvenience.
“Can I see your IDs, please?” one of the guards asked. Nero held out his hand. As with the clothes, he had prepared some earlier, buying fake IDs for all of them. These ID chips were embedded in rings they wore on their fingers, so they each waited for the guard to scan their rings. Nero’s heart beat a little faster as they waited, and watched the guard. He hoped the fakes were as good as he was told they’d be.
A few nerve-wracking moments passed, before the guard’s small scanner thankfully flashed green. “Welcome to Scraper 5,” he said. “I hope you have a pleasant stay.”
Acting as if he hadn't expected any other result, Nero confidently strode through the automatic doors, followed closely by Nate and Talyah, and entered the majestic building. Or at least, entered the lift, which was still very impressive. As the doors slid shut, the three of them studied the inside of it, impressed at the ornate white-metal panelling that covered the walls.
“Nice,” Nate commentated, afraid of saying anything more in case they were being monitored. Nero glanced at him, but didn’t bother replying.
The lift descended a couple of floors before slowing down, the doors sliding silently open to reveal a grand entrance foyer. They stepped out, pausing momentarily as they were struck by the design. In front of them was an incredibly long and wide corridor, almost large enough to fly their shuttle down, leading away from four lifts. Just visible at the far end of the corridor was an information helpdesk, which served as the point of entry for visitors to the building.
The three of them made their way to that desk, their footsteps echoing ominously in the bright confines of the corridor. The lighting was also strange, with the walls themselves emitting a clean, white light. It was entirely unlike the sort of buildings they were used to.
“How may I help you?” came an artificial voice as they drew up to the helpdesk. In actuality, it wasn’t so much of a helpdesk, but rather more of a cube. It was made of four semi-transparent screens, each about two metres square, mounted on a single metal pole through the centre, which stretched from the floor to the ceiling far above them.
Nero was the one who replied. “We’re looking for the augmentation clinic.”
“The augmentation clinic may be found on the 368th floor.” As the cube said this, the screens came up with a schematic of the building, zooming into a floor very near the bottom of the skyscraper, near ground level - evidently they were on floor zero at the top of the building. “Please use the highlighted lift. Have a pleasant day.”
The screens faded back to moving abstract patterns, and a blue line illuminated in the floor, leading directly from the help-cube towards a lift down the corridor to their left. The line pulsed slightly, as if waiting for them.
“Well, I say we follow the blue line...” Nate suggested. They did, walking up to the lift, which opened as they approached. “Erm, 368th floor please,” Nate tried, once they were inside.
“I think it already knows which floor we want, Nate,” Talyah said, the lift having already started to move before Nate had finished speaking.
It accelerated downwards remarkably quickly, leaving them feeling a little like their stomachs had been left back up at the foyer. The speed quickly levelled out, though, leaving them to cover the 368 floors astonishingly quickly. By the time the lift had slowed down again - making them feel twice as heavy as they normally did for a moment - they had only been moving for about sixty seconds. They stepped out of the lift feeling a little queasy.
The design of this floor was similar to the foyer level, with illuminated walls and ceiling, though this time there appeared to be an actual desk, with a real human behind it, not far ahead.
Nero spoke first as they approached the desk, cutting straight to the chase. “Hello. Can we see a consultant about getting an augmentation fitted? Our mother has just lost her arm, and she wants us to find out what sort of replacement she could get.”
“Certainly signore,” the receptionist said. “Let me just check who’s free...” she moved her hand in front of her display, navigating through the 3D interface, until she found what she was looking for. “You could speak to Dr Ludovico now. Would that be okay?”
“Perfect,” Nero replied.
The receptionist continued manipulating the display on her desk, and after a moment another one of the blue lines illuminated in the floor.
“If you follow the line please,” she said, giving them a slightly fake smile.
“Thank you,” Nero said, turning on his heel to follow the blue line. It led them back down the corridor they had walked up for a short distance, before stopping next to a door on their right, which was now outlined in pulsing blue light.
“Well, that went remarkably well. Shame really, I was looking forward to having a little fun.” Nate said.
“There’s still time, Nate,” Nero replied, as they drew up to the door. As they did, it slid open, revealing a large, sparsely furnished office on the other side. At the far side of the room, in front of a great panoramic window, was an imposing desk, behind which was sat Dr Ludovico. Unlike the receptionist, he was an alien of some description. Probably a vacso, Nero thought, looking at him. Not that it mattered.
Dr Ludovico stood up to shake their hands as they approached.
“I understand you have a query about your mother?” he said, shaking each of their hands in turn. “I’m Dr Ludovico, augmentation clinician.”
“Yes, a pleasure to meet you Doctor,” Nero replied. “My name is Colver, and this is my sister, Staf, and my brother, Gae. I’m hoping you can help us. See, our mother recently suffered a tragic, tragic accident. She was moving some things around in her apartment - she lives alone, you see, since our father died - and managed to knock a cabinet over, which fell onto her, crushing her arm.
“Sadly, no one discovered her for a couple of hours, and in that time the blood wasn’t reaching her arm. When I found her, her arm was severely broken and deathly white,” Nero paused here, as if to allow himself a moment to compose himself. “Well, the doctors say that they can, of course, patch her arm up, though it will never be quite the same. However, we thought,” he said, indicating Tal and Nate, “that it might be a nice present to get her a new arm. So we were wondering, Doctor, what you might be able to suggest?”
“Well, it’s a shame your mother couldn’t come with you today.
I generally like to have a look at my patients. However, I can certainly suggest a few options to you, and give you some information to take back to her,” the doctor paused, allowing Nero to nod his approval.
“One of the most popular arms we have at the moment is a beautiful, skin coloured one. Unless you look closely, you wouldn’t even know it was an augmentation, yet it still comes with all the usual benefits, as well as our lifetime guarantee. We also have arms designed for extreme strength, and which come in the more traditional black with visible vents and actuators. But perhaps those sorts of arm are more suitable for a younger customer...?”
“Indeed,” Nero replied. “I believe our mother would prefer a more discrete arm, don’t you agree?” he said, turning to Tal and Nate. Right on cue, Talyah started to tear up, hiding her face behind her arm. “Ah, Staf,” Nero said, putting his arm around her.
“Staf gets a little distraught thinking about our mother in this way,” Nate explained to the doctor, as Nero was comforting her. Tal gave a particularly loud sniff as if to illustrate the point.
“Will she be okay?” the doctor asked, concern writ on his alien features. “Can I help?”
“I’m sure she will, given time,” Nate paused for dramatic effect, and then carried on. “I wonder if you might be able to find her something to dry her eyes with? Perhaps you could escort her to the bathroom?” he asked, hoping that the doctor would agree.
He hesitated for just a moment, before agreeing. “Certainly, certainly.” Standing up, he held out his arm for Talyah, who accepted, still with tears running down her face, and the doctor led her towards the door, and out of the room.
“Good old, er, Staf,” Nate said with a grin, as soon as the door had shut.
Nero was already moving around the doctor’s desk to access his computer. “Let’s hope she’s bought us enough time.”
He fetched a small digi-stick out of one of his jacket pockets. The doctor’s computer being a high-tech piece of kit, Nero didn’t have to plug the stick into a socket. Rather, he placed it near to the screen, and the computer detected it and started running the files on it. Unfortunately for the computer, the stick had some impressive code on it that automatically broke through the computer and network security, letting Nero access the secure information.
With more time, there was probably a significant amount of intel that he could find on the system, but with the doctor’s return imminent, Nero just searched for the stock the clinic had, and the location of that stock. It didn’t take long, with an inventory list coming up almost instantly. Nero whistled to himself, impressed at the number and variety of augmentations they had. Glancing up at the door, he copied the files across to the stick, watching the progress bar flash across the holodisplay.
“Quickly, Nero,” Nate urged.
As soon as the files were copied, Nero grabbed the digi-stick, seeing the screen revert back to its previous state. Just as the door was sliding back open, he ran round to the other side of the desk, and sat down just as the good doctor and a remarkably composed Talyah came back into the room. Nero calmed himself, and sat there as if he’d been patiently waiting there the whole time.
“Are you feeling better, Staf?” Nero asked.
“Much, thanks to Ludovico here,” she flashed the doctor a smile.
“Great, well, Doctor, I think we’ve mostly got what we need here. Me and Gae agree that the first option is probably the best. If you could give us some information on that to show our mother, we’ll leave you alone for now.”
“Certainly,” the doctor agreed, making his way back around behind his desk, and retrieved a digital information sheet from one of the desk’s drawers. “If your mother wants to visit when she's feeling better, then I’d be happy to discuss the process in more detail with her,” he said, handing over the info sheet.
“Perfect, I’m sure she’d love to. Thank you for your time Doctor. We’ll be in touch.”
Not wanting to wait around any longer than they had to, the three of them headed towards the door, Nero still feigning concern for Talyah, or Staf, for the doctor’s benefit.
“You managed it then, Nero?” Talyah asked, as soon as they were back in the corridor.
“Yep.”
“Only just, though,” Nate added, “there was like, no time at all between his butt setting down on the chair and you stepping back in the room.”
With Talyah frowning at Nate’s choice of words, the lift doors opened and the three of them got back in, ready for the ride back to the roof.
****
In the cave, Nero stood before his men, carefully watching their faces. Would they go along with his plan? Was it too risky? He wasn’t sure, but he couldn’t think of a better way to break in. After studying the details he’d brought back from the Scraper, he could see that the aug storage room was well secured, on the floor just above ground level. He needed a daring plan to get in there, past lots of people, and out again. He just hoped it would work.
There were about twenty people stood before him, mostly human, though Nero had also recruited two vacsos recently. Much like Dr Ludovico, they broadly resembled humans in their anatomy, walking on two legs, with two arms at their sides, though they appeared misproportioned. They also had pitch-black skin that was incredibly hard, often able to withstand knife attacks - a trait that made vacsos particularly attractive to the Nostra.
Now, though, they were considering Nero’s proposal just as intently as everyone else. “So, really, we just fly in with all guns blazing?” queried Ty, who was never the sharpest tool in the shed.
“Quite,” replied Nero. “The security is so tight, we’ll never be able to simply sneak in and get all the stuff out. And they won’t be expecting anything, so we’ll have the element of surprise; we just have to do everything quickly before they can organise a big response.”
“Is that all...?” Nate said, a grin spreading across his face. “Well, you can count me in; I’m ready for a bit of fun. When do we leave?”
Smiling to himself at Nate’s constant positivity, Nero looked at the others. “What do the rest of you think? Are you with me on this?” Glancing at Col evaporated Nero’s good mood just as quickly as it had come, however. He hoped Talyah was wrong, but he’d find out soon enough. If Col tried anything on this job, Nero would be ready for him.
After a moment’s more consideration, everyone agreed, even Ty. This was, after all, what they lived for. And if they pulled this off, then they stood to make a lot of money; augs sold for huge amounts on the streets, in part because they were so rare, and in part because they could be the difference between life and death. Everyone would be able to retire, at least for a few months until they got bored again.
“Well then, get prepped. We move out in five hours.”
****
The three small shuttles sped out of the cave mouth, briefly illuminating the cave blue as the ion engines flared up, accelerating the ships upward towards the stratosphere. Their speed increased rapidly, until the three black ships, in close convoy, were doing in excess of Mach 4 nearly twenty miles above the planet’s surface. The near-four hundred mile distance to the largest city on the planet was covered in a little less than ten minutes.
Starting their descent, the three ships slowed down dramatically as they neared the city, circling around and coming in low from the north. Only a few metres above the ground now, the ships sped over the barren desert until they reached the first of the buildings that formed the city. They swept in past the spaceport first, on the outskirts, which was almost deserted at this time, and then flew over the endless factories and industrial buildings that surrounded the city, all low on the ground.
Weaving above and between these buildings, the ships then came to the first of the Scrapers, extending up far above them, and glittering slightly in the light from the triple moons. Flying down the grand avenues that separated the Scrapers, the ships passed only a few metres above the heads of the startled pedestrians, most of whom yelled up abu
se at the ships after being knocked about in the ships’ wake.
On reaching the central buildings in the city, the three ships slowed down, making a left turn down a perpendicular avenue, finally passing Scraper 8, then 7, then 6, and finally reaching Scraper 5. There, the ships stopped, hovering in the air outside, engines humming slightly as they maintained a constant position. In front of the ships was the sealed-up main entrance of the Scraper - or what used to be the main entrance, in centuries past - with metal coverings now in place.
Those people standing below the hovering ships, staring up in confusion at this strange spectacle, could start to hear a faint whine build up. It sounded to them as if it was coming from the three ships, and those that had a degree of common sense decided to run, to get away from whatever was about to happen next. Those that had experience with weapons would recognise the sounds of laser weapons building up the juice necessary to fire, and these people ran away even faster. They didn’t want to be nearby when the lasers fired.
Then the whining ceased, and was immediately followed by a blinding flash of pure, high-energy, blue light, emitted from the three ships in unison and directed at the metal front of the Scraper.
CHAPTER FOUR
AUGS
“Here comes the wakeup call...” Nero said, firing the high-powered lasers they’d mounted onto the ships.
The panoramic window at the front of the ship darkened slightly, compensating for the blinding flash of light emitted as the laser fired. When the screen returned to normal transparency levels, and the afterglow from the lasers had disappeared, Nero looked out into the Scraper. A hole, wide enough for all three ships to fit through, at a squeeze, had appeared in the metal wall of the building. At the base of the wall was a glowing red pool of molten metal, smoke still rising from it to obscure their view into the building.
Nate’s voice came through over the radio. “Bloody hell, Nero! Why haven’t we done this before?”
Slowly, the three ships maneuvered through the hole, entering the Scraper’s ground floor. Arrayed before them were about thirty scared, frightened individuals, most of whom were collapsed on the ground, still not recovered from the blast. The nearest ones quickly got up when the ships entered the building, though.
On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance Page 6
