Star Realms: Rescue Run

by Jon Del Arroz

  The lift loomed ahead, the only exit from his own confinement, luxurious as it was. At any point, the company executives could shut it down, trapping everyone in the managerial residential area in the halls surrounding their quarters. That thought had never occurred to him before, but before he achieved the management position, he never had this looming feeling like he was a product on a conveyor line, ready to be pushed off the edge and into a box.

  There were hundreds of other megacorporations within the Trade Federation, and with his position, schooling, and name, Dario was certain he could make his way into any number of them with a similar management job, but would they be any different? Each had their own planets and stations, Megahaulers disbursing their goods across the galaxy.

  There were independent contractors who did consulting work for the various firms. Some who had their own, smaller Cutter vessels that operated somewhat independently. When Dario first read about potential berths on those ships, he fantasized about leaving the company, travelling the stars. But at the end of the day, he’d still be trapped inside walls, smaller ones at that. Moreover, he would still be beholden to the corporations who gave them the work.

  Despite his searches, his thoughts, Dario determined no life within the Trade Federation would be any different than what he had right now. Also, he couldn’t very well go outside to live a frontier life with the Blob looming to scorch entire worlds. At least here, he had the power to do something. What that something was, he wasn’t sure yet. He hoped this visit down to the underlevels would give him some inspiration. At the very least, it would give him concrete empathy with real people. Something Regency BioTech needed desperately.

  He held his handtab toward the console to activate the lift, but the doors opened, revealing the last person he wanted to see at this moment: his father.

  The elder Anazao stepped toward Dario and clasped him on the arm. “Son, I was just coming to see you. Good timing.”

  Good timing indeed. Dario stepped backward, startled. Had he been compromised as he’d worried? He tried to keep his face reserved, but he knew his father would be able to see through even the most minute of masks he put on. Had the security footage given him up? Was his father really monitoring him that closely? Or worse… had Jake been compromised, or betrayed him?

  “Is something the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Mr. Anazao paused, raising a scrutinizing brow at Dario. “I was hoping to discuss our plans for the new RetroSilver line debuting soon. I know you’ve worked tirelessly to ensure quality control output caught up for the launch.”

  Dario panicked, looking back to the lift, the doors closing once more. “I actually had plans today. Took some vacation for once.”

  “That’s why I’m here. I assumed you would be hobbled up in your room with your oculars turned to some holotainment like usual. That’s not a healthy way to spend your leisure time. There’s studies about that.” He shook his head. “I never should have had those installed in you at such an early age. Hindsight.”

  “I’m fine,” Dario said with a little annoyance. “Seriously, though. I’m late meeting up with someone. We were going to spend the day…” he tried to think of an excuse. “…going out and meeting some people. Learning our way around Regency.” It was completely true, he just left out some of the details. Dario relaxed.

  Mr. Anazao studied him for a long moment before nodding. “Very well. That’s good initiative. I’m surprised though, you’re not usually so social. New position is going well?”

  “Yeah.”

  An awkward moment of silence followed. “Good,” Mr. Anazao said. “Glad to hear that it’s suiting you. I knew you’d have a knack for management. It’s in the genes. Your aptitude scores are showing well in the system too. I thought you should know that.”

  Dario blinked in surprise. It’d been the second time in as many months his father had shocked him. First with the promotion, now with telling him a job well done? Wonders never ceased. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

  “No problem. I have some more things to do on your level anyway,” his father said, pointing down the long hallway. “We’ll talk soon. You’ll be at the corporate gala? It’s coming up some.”

  “Of course,” Dario said. The event was mandatory for management personnel anyway. “I’ll see you then.”

  His father nodded and strode in the opposite direction, leaving Dario with the lift. The experience had been surreal. Dario exhaled sharply and placed his handtab up to the console in front of him. The lift opened once more.

  Dario was greeted by another familiar face, Antonio standing in front of the lift. “Hey boss, was just about to come see you.”

  “You and the whole planet,” Dario said to himself.

  “Huh?”

  “Nothing,” Dario said, stepping outside the lift and pausing. He didn’t have a ton of time. Jake wanted to run everything on a perfect schedule, saying it would be easier to ensure there were no security problems that way. Dario wasn’t sure what that meant, but he trusted his assistant. He would have to ask Jake how he knew how to circumvent so many security protocols at some point. “What’s up?”

  “Heard you were off today. I did a little more digging about the prisoner. From what I hear, she’s not an underleveler at all.”

  “She’s not? Who could she be then?”

  “Don’t know yet. Reports on the nets are pretty sparse on this topic. Whoever it is, the company wants to keep it quiet.” Antonio shrugged.

  “Good work.” Dario shifted, glancing around Antonio toward the lift. It wasn’t that he had no interest in the topic. This was another piece to the puzzle of dissecting the bad practices within the corporation and Trade Federation. He didn’t have time to speculate right now, however. “Can we talk about this later? I have a meeting.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Antonio’s eyes flashed disappointment. He shook his head then reached into his satchel and produced a bottle, which he offered to Dario. “By the way, I got you this. It’s an imported brew from Luna. Supposed to be really good, a mild hops flavor.”

  “Thanks, Antonio, but I can’t take it. I don’t drink,” Dario said with a little smile. “I appreciate the thought though. Why don’t you give that to Daniella?”

  Antonio flushed. “I would, but she might get the wrong idea.”

  Dario shrugged at that. From the looks of things, it was an idea Antonio could get behind. Dario couldn’t encourage relations within his department, but it wasn’t his business if they developed naturally. “Up to you. You can always enjoy it yourself. I really do appreciate it; don’t think I’m snubbing you.”

  “I won’t,” Antonio said, securing the bottle.

  “Good to see you.” Dario gave his employee a fond nod.

  “Yeah, see you soon. I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything else.”

  “Sounds good.” Dario sped toward the lift, leaving Antonio in the residential area.

  When Dario reached the Central Office’s main bowl, he found it packed more than usual. People stood in line, waiting for the much larger skylift which connected the station to the Mars spaceport, surface and the underlevels. Dario had been up and down the skylift before, when he traveled to and from his schooling on the surface. His university was on the upper thirty-fifth level of the New Dome, not even close to where he would be heading today.

  A hand clasped his shoulder.

  Dario tensed, and then whipped around to see who was there. Had his father followed him all the way down? He let out a deep breath to calm himself when he saw who stood in front of him.

  “Settle down,” Jake said, his friendly face giving a smile. He drew his hand back slowly from Dario’s shoulder. “No one’s here to get you. Just relax and enjoy the ride.”

  “Sorry, been ambushed by too many people today. It’s been odd,” Dario said.

  “We won’t have a problem. Everything’s been tested. We’re good to go.” Jake said, stepping into the line of people to go through the scanner.

/>   The security checkpoint line shortened as they talked, and soon enough they migrated to a point in front of the security scanner. Jake presented his handtab first, and the scanner blinked green. A security officer looked him over to confirm the identity was legitimate and then motioned with a baton that he should move through the scanner.

  “You’re up next, sir,” the officer said.

  Dario took a deep breath and stepped forward. He lifted his own handtab, freshly programmed with the identity that Jake had secured him. The security guard eyed him, and Dario held his wrist to the scanner. This time the scanner didn’t blink green, but made a sound as if it had failed.

  “Huh,” the security officer said.

  Dario jerked his head toward Jake, eyes wide. What was happening?

  Jake shrugged from the checkpoint’s other side. He glanced around as if people watching, playing cool.

  The security officer circled around to take a closer peek at the scanner, giving it a smack from a closed fist. “This thing has been giving me problems lately. Let me see your handtab,” he said, then holding that hand out toward Dario.

  Dario offered his wrist to the officer, tense with trepidation about the whole ordeal. He’d been so worried about his father he hadn’t been concerned about security. Jake had been so sure it would work, even up until a few moments ago.

  “Your hand’s sweaty. Maybe that’s mucking with things,” the security officer said. He roughly pulled Dario’s wrist to the scanner, pinching Dario’s flesh against it.

  The scanner turned green this time, accepting Dario’s false identity.

  The officer looked over at the console. “Thanks for your patience, Mr. Tyree,” he said.

  “No problem,” Dario said, slipping through the body scanner with no problems either, not carrying any weapons or anything that could conceivably cause a security problem.

  Jake motioned him toward the skylift. “Told you,” he said with a smirk. “Here we go.”

  They followed the crowd toward the lift. Every fifteen minutes a car pulled in and a hundred people packed into it before the descent. The drop was a fast one, softened internally by gravity plates that maintained the comfort of the passengers.

  Once on the ground level of the open dome, looking out upon the reds that made up both the landscapes of Mars and the hues of the city streets, Jake led them to another series of lifts that led down to the lower levels. As they rode in that car, Dario watched the numbers descend until they reached Level Three.

  “Here we are,” Jake said, stepping outside.

  The city streets didn’t look a lot different than the levels above, but they did appear somewhat older and more worn. Paint was faded, storefronts and buildings had dated looks to them, signs weren’t up to the latest in holo-technology. The streets hadn’t been swept by bots, and at least minor maintenance needed to be done on almost every building he’d come across. Whoever was in charge of the quality control department in public planning had failed miserably. If there was a public planning department for this level at all.

  “Who monitors everything down here?” Dario asked with a small frown.

  “Are you serious?” Jake asked as they walked. He tapped onto his handtab and pulled up the coordinates for the Regency BioTech Quality Control Plant. It appeared to be a few blocks away, from what Dario could glean with a quick frame zoom from his oculars.

  “Yeah,” Dario said, moving along with him.

  “No one does anything down here. It’s all run by AI or BioMech. Corporate’s resources for overhead providing for the people down here is low. You watched the videos and read the information I sent you, right?”

  “Of course.” He had combed through all the information and researched more. The amount of resources the corporation provided the underlevels were scarce. With that, there wasn’t any room for administrative services. That’s why the thugs were able to steal the paltry goods delivered to the poor people down here. Something had to change, whether it was hiring someone to reprogram the BioMechs to keep better order, or to get someone physically down here to do the same. But that’s what Dario and Jake were here to view for themselves. See the problem, then produce a game plan for results. Quality control in action.

  A large warehouse stood on the streets ahead, as run down as any of the other buildings that they’d come across before. This had a newly constructed façade with tempered windows on the same wall that had been knocked out during the riot. This was the first time Dario had seen any of his quality control centers in person. The holovids made a great representation, something a manager could look at any angle in three dimensions, but was inhibited by the size of the projector.

  Dario did have the trick of his oculars, which allowed him to immerse within any holoprojected setting. It helped to give him a different perspective than many others had. He’d seen sights, places, and people up close and personal that few could ever experience.

  Still, viewing a picture, even an immersive one, couldn’t help provide the feel of reality. The air felt thicker here than on the Central Office. The area smelled of lingering trash. Those senses couldn’t be replicated by a holovid.

  Dario stepped toward the center’s main doors, which opened for him. The opening revealed a clean floor, scavenged for germs and static by small service bots on the floor. How much more of an expense would it be to have service bots sweep the street surfaces? That was one recommendation he would make when he had the opportunity.

  The reception area had a couple of chairs and an access scanner to the inside. Dario looked over at Jake, not comfortable with scanning his false identity after the close call at the lift. If something went wrong and he was tracked here, his father would put him through the ringer.

  Jake stepped forward to scan his ident against the security access panel, and the door to the back warehouse opened. Conveyor belts spun and boxes stacked three levels high stood against the walls. Thousands of bots worked on the line and a swarm of nanobots scrubbed the products behind a glass wall.

  Along with the bots, hundreds of human workers performed tasks in the plant, checking the boxes for seals, repairing and cleaning the bots, standing and counting over the conveyors to ensure nothing was missed or unaccounted for. The air inside was sterile, filtered as much as the Central Office above.

  They walked through the open area, visit unannounced, no management or security bothering them. Workers and the machines, moved like clockwork in mind-numbing fashion. None of the employees looked particularly pleased with their tasks, and few spared glances for the two men who passed.

  Dario had seen the equipment before via the drones he routinely sent through to inspect the plant condition. Though none of the equipment was particularly new, all of it was clean and in good working order. The inspections served their purpose, and it did make him feel like his job held a somewhat important function, lending credence to his father’s earlier praise. His visit timing still irked Dario. Perhaps his father watched now, to see how Dario would react when down here. “Let’s interview some of the workers,” he said to Jake.

  Jake looked at his handtab, which displayed a list of employees who should have been on the clock. Something about him seemed off, or on edge may be a better way to put it. As if he were late for something. “Where do you want to start? Conveyor maintenance and cleaning?”

  “Sounds good,” Dario said, watching his assistant carefully.

  “Okay. I think the best person to start with might be Teresa Hernandez. She should be in subsection B325 by the auditory mod conveyor.” He walked in the direction of what Dario presumed was subsection B325.

  They passed several other workers and a large stress-test machine that both radiated heat and applied extreme pressure to the company products. The conveyor wound them around into another divided area.

  “This is it, now to find Ms. Hernandez,” Jake said, glancing around what was as much a non-descript area of the plant as anywhere else in the giant room.

  “Why’re
you lookin’ for her,” a woman in goggles and protective clothing popped up from under one of the conveyors. Oil and dirt covered her clothes.

  “Ahh, hello,” Dario said, stepping up and offering his hand as he would in any business meeting. He tried to coat that with a smile to relax her.

  The woman stared at his hand as if he were crazy. “You don’t want to touch this, I got machine droppings all over me. Who are you and what are you doing here? Do I need to call the security bots? You’re not spies? We don’t tolerate that. Higher ups don’t at least, and I don’t want the level’s pay docked. We already don’t got enough as it is.”

  “We’re not spies,” Jake said firmly.

  “No, actually, we’re…” He glanced at Jake and back to the woman. “We’re what you’d call the ‘higher ups’. We’re from the Central Office, upper management, here to inspect the facility. We have authority to be here,” Dario said.

  Her eyes went wide. “Ain’t no one told us about no inspection. Look, I’ll get this thing back up and running, just might need a few parts. Maybe borrow from one of the XLB machines over there.” She motioned across the room. “Please, we’re tryin’!” she pleaded.

  “I’m not here to get you in trouble,” Dario said. “I just wanted to talk about the working conditions down here at the plant. I know a couple weeks ago there were some issues.”

  The fear in her eyes left her as soon as it came. She gave Dario a once over as if to size him up and see if he was a threat. “Issues?” The woman laughed hard. “Hear that, Jim? He’s talking about issues.”

  “Who we got here, Teresa?” A man popped up from the other side of the machine, similarly attired to his counterpart.

  “Claim they from up above,” Teresa said, pointing skyward.

  Jim narrowed his eyes. “You responsible for all this?” He motioned around them.

  “I suppose so. We’re from management and I want to get an account of the working conditions down here to bring a report to the board,” Dario said, hoping honesty would defuse the tension that radiated from Jim’s eyes.