The Skies of Obsidian

Chapter one

Clicks, slowly deliberate clicks, each one exactly three seconds apart, my sleep disturbed by each monotonous click, it’s amazing how interesting the ceiling can seem when you are millions of kilometres from any celestial body, and the station time is around midnight. These rooms were built for sheer brutal practicality, bare, reinforced concrete walls in the darkness with only a faint glow of the stars coming in from the window, although this window was more of a plastic wall, completely taking up one of the sides of the room. I felt sorry for those living further inside the station, completely cut off from the majestic sight of the jewels that populated the black canvas of space. A great feeling of loneliness overwhelmed me, I sighed, thinking about all the things I could have done, thinking how things would be different if I could change the past. But then again I was quite content in my current existence. After a while, my mind settled, by breathing slowed, my eyes closed and I felt myself sink into the deep sleep I was so used to after my relocation.

I awoke to the dull light of the rooms light, it was programmed to slowly increase in intensity in order to allow people to adjust to the light rather than just blind them as was the case in some off world colonies, it didn’t make much difference to me, my body clock always told me it was time to wake up at about 7:40, giving me just under 8 hours of sleep, I threw the covers off of me and onto the floor. The cold surface of the floor forces a wave of ice through my body, making me shiver, the one problem with having a room on the outer was that since it was so far away from the central core, the heating was severely restricted, especially since the outer section had only been added in the past 6 months or so, it was a endeavour that I doubt would be started for another 6 months,, at least, the small heating elements that were in place had to be replaced almost every week, but the alternative was most likely freezing to death, this risk still didn’t make the board think that it was an essential part to maintaining the lives of the stations inhabitants. They argued that if someone could not replace the energy cells needed to power the heating would be a prime example of natural selection. The board was the main ruling body and wasn’t out to make friends. The outer housing consisted of at most three rooms, a sleeping area, a living area, and a washing area. Personal cooking was not an issue as in order to prevent a station revolution food was strictly controlled, not to a point where people starved, but people had been taken planetside for rationing their own food and selling what they had left over. Some had taken to the art of cooking however basic food production was an automated service.

After a quick shower, i squeezed into rubbery material of my lovingly named skull suit, checking for any holes or tears in the fabric. Skull suits were known for their durability but when working in zero gee with debris flying overhead its better be safe than sorry. These suits were designed to deflect impacts away from a single point, and spread the force around the whole body. Some models were designed with directed energy nodes, so that any impact that occurred would be almost completely by the suit matching the energy, stopping whatever object dead in its tracks. Those were mostly used in military models, designed to stop bullets and shrapnel rather than save the user from being crushed to death by large fragments of rock.

I inserted my ID card into the collar, I almost always slept with on a lanyard around my neck with my card, after its better to be safe and have it at all times than sorry and thrown off the station, the trails which at first glance appeared to be seams, lit up, a bright white, before it grew dim and the colour changed to a deep blue, the trails running from my ankles to my shoulders then across my arms. Once this was completed I felt the whole suit become tighter as the synthetic fibres contracted, remembering the shape of my body. I pulled on a pair of black gloves and black boots, hearing the click as they were recognised and integrated into the rest of the suit.

A voice sounded in my ear as I finished clothing myself ‘Personal monitoring system active, all systems active and ready, user status; average’ I always felt relieved when I heard the smooth voice tell me that I was still alive ‘Good morning sir, I trust you are feeling well’ everyone in the station was assigned their own personal AI that was hardwired into their personal ID system, most had a simple bog standard model, that would monitor vital signs, and feed back important information to  the user, I was one of the lucky ones who managed to get an AI on a different station, not completely legally, but it was securely with me. ‘Thanks Ellie, what have I missed?’ I replied, Ellie was the nickname I had given to my AI, for a bit of nostalgia, Eleanor being the name of a friend I lost touch with about 10 years prior, besides, it made the AI seem a bit more friendly, rather than calling it unit 1124-M42.

‘You are required to go for your Sirius corp. implant today at oh nine hundred hours, you’re assignment will be given at eleven hundred hours’

‘I really wish you’d work on a 12 hour clock Ellie, I know which part of the day its going to be’

‘You say yourself, it's better to be safe than sorry’

I sighed, AI were always difficult to get out of old habits.