The IO Tower
By JeffreyVonHauger
The father sat smoking a fat hand-rolled cigarillo. He puffed foul smoke into the windowless subbasement unit his family occupied. Three children in dirty undershirts stood around him. One held a charging datapad with a cord running to the wall, another a holo-game controller getting no signal, and the littlest hugged a hand-me-down stuffed unicorn. The toddlers spoke to Samantha in Mandarin and she replied in English. They didn't understand but their dad did. He eyed her as she worked.
"Your router needs to be replaced," said Sam.
"It still works," said the dad.
"This thing is twenty years old if it's a day and not strong enough to get a signal down here."
He looked away and smoked. Sam already knew he was piggybacking off their upper neighbor's signal. He stared at an old laptop that was useless without a network connection.
"How much for a new one?"
"At least $1800." She knew he couldn't afford it and he looked away again. "I could splice your unit, suck a little speed from the three hundred other protected connections in the building, but it's technically illegal."
"Would we have free net again?" asked the dad.
"Yeah and I'll do it better than before so no one will find you and kick you off."
The dad got up pulling a wad of crumpled hundreds out of his pocket and the children cheered.
Back on the surface, Sam grabbed a water taxi at Canal street and headed up Broadway to the parts of town that still had sidewalks. She jumped off at Washington Square and stopped at a bank machine to digitize the $700 she just got. Only one was a fake.
She took the sky rail uptown to her next job. When she finished she grabbed a slice of pizza and ate it on the platform scanning the classifieds on her wrist-o-phone for another job. The air always felt more breathable above the twentieth-floor level.
A message popped up on her private channel.
PERSON TO PERSON
Excel Tug 9732 to Earth, NYC Subnet 2
Sammy,
Old 97 is doing a layover on the Moon's orbital repair station. We'll be docked here for three days. Our splicer jumped ship six months ago and we've been doing double duty. I told my boss you're the best and he agreed to bring you on for the Earth to Saturn to Mars run.
I put a downpayment on a badass 3D printed home inside the newly terraformed Apache crater on Mars. They have the best air quality on the inner planets. I spent my entire savings on it, so you'll need to make it up here on your own.
You have three days!!!
Charlie
Level 1, dock 4127
END OF MESSAGE
"Way to wait to the last minute," she said to herself.
Sam swiped over to the ECSE (East Coast Space Elevator) reservation site and looked at availability. In two days she could get a seat for $35,000.
"Fuck."
She'd just paid the rent and her account balance hovered below twenty grand. It would take a month to make enough money. She didn't even bother to look at flights, let alone the IO Tower Matter Transportation Systems. They were for people who could throw around six digits like it was pocket change. Inflation on the Earth dollar destroyed its value ever since the planet was deemed dangerous for human existence.
YOU ARE READING
Tevun-Krus #95 - Best of 2021
Science FictionNine brand-new stories from the nine sub-genres covered by Tevun Krus in 2021, all written by nine of your favourite Tevun-Krus contributors! Enjoy this anthology and a trip through space and time, 'troopers!
