Build Sequence Is Key

Cubby

"Well that is the easy part. Come on, I will explain as I take you to your dorm." Cecelia left the lab, but instead of going back to the hangar from where they had come she turned left and went to the other end of the hall.

"This is a transporter. Step in there. Yes, right. Now I am going to beam you over to the dorm. Just go inside and ask at the front desk. I gave you a room and meal card." She patted her dress, "Oh, here is your meal card."

She handed him a card and he said, "Thanks!"

"I hope to see you again sometime!" And then she hit the button and Jason felt a oddly pleasant shift and then he was standing in front of a door. A group of people his own age where walking away from him to his right.

The corridor was dimly lit Sam's as the ones he had originally found Cecelia in. The same spartan dark metal design as far as he could see in either direction. Shrugging he went up to the doors deciding to just follow directions this time. He doubted that Cecelia was going to do anything that would compromise her investment. There were benefits to being a slave. At least he could trust her to keep him alive.

Inside the door the architecture changed drastically. He felt like he was actually in his old dorm from his college days. The carpet was mostly blue with flowers and leaves interwoven. The walls were dry wall painted a whitish beige color. There was trimming along the base boards and at the juncture of ceiling and wall. The ceiling itself was white and the desk was an opening in the wall with a matronly woman sitting in a high seat looking like she was really pissed off and tired of stinking college students.

"Excuse me, I was told that this was my dorm?" Jason began.

"Name, last name first." She said with no preamble.

"Um, okay. Arkelyan. Arkelyan, Jason."

"Arkelyan? Here you are. And here is your key." She reached behind her chair and pulled down a key from a cubby hole there.

"One key for your room and one for the mail room. The mail room is to the right all the way at the end of the hall. Your room is on the third floor second to the left from the elevator. See you later."

Dismissed, Jason found looked right and saw that indeed at the end of the hall there was a sign for the mail room. Turning around he hit the button to call the elevator to go up and waited.

When it opened a glut of students from his high school exited. One of them called out to him, "Hey, Jason, isn't this so great!"

But the kid walked on before he could reply.

All alone he went up to the third floor and found his room. There were three triple bunk beds built into the walls left right and across from the door. Eight of his female class mates stopped talking as he entered.

"Oh, Cecelia, what did you do?" Jason said out loud. It was the only sound as all eight girls slowly digested the fact that their ninth room mate was Jason.

"Hi, Jason. Welcome to room 315." Joce said with a smile. She was his crush and she knew it.

"Yes, welcome, it is nice to have our token male room mate finally appear. Where were you yesterday?" The school's acknowledged most beautiful student asked him. Her pert nose and sharp blue eyes seem to digest him.

Jason was shocked as it took him a second to recognize Ruth. She was usually in some kind of shockingly gorgeous outfit her make up all done up. But right now she was just in sweats and a tee shirt. No make up on and bags under her eyes.

"Um, there was some kind of error with my system. I got out late and then wondered around a bit before figuring out where I needed to be." Jason decided to be as truthful as possible.

"Oh, well, mind your own business. Your bunk is the bottom one here below mine." She pointed to the bunk that they were all standing in front of. The first one on the floor across from the door.

Jason squeezed between the women to reach his bunk and crawled in. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, but Marie had gestured to go inside so that is what he did.

The bed wasn't raised above the floor so the mattress was at the same height as the floor. But inside both the walls at ends of the bed were screens. One of them looked like it was built into the wall and was significantly bigger. But the other was just slotted in the wall. Looking back out at his fellow students he saw that most of them were either holding up the tablet like device to manipulate the screen, just looking at it, or were holding it at their waist.

Jason pulled his down and the first thing he saw was a note from Cecelia.

[I hope you like your new room.
-Cecelia]

Jason shook his head. He did not like his room, it was distinctly uncomfortable being in this room with all girls. But he wasn't going to tell her that.

Noticing a function to reply he wrote back, [Here, just arrived. Thanks for the room!
-Jason]

[Oh, I am glad you like it!]

[Yep] he said, trying to keep it real at least a bit.

[Alright, that bed where you picked up the tablet is your translation chamber. It will jack you into the Jubalnji reality. But it is also a built in recliner and desk.]

Seeing those words he put the tablet down and looked for a control. Eventually he found it. Another detachable piece of the cubby. It was a remote that came out of the inner side between the mattress and wall. Pushing a button with a cartoon of a recliner the bed folded around his body the end near the built in screen dropped lower into the floor and the end near the tablet recharging station rose up to become the back of the recliner. Then he pressed the desk button and he found himself in the perfect position to watch whatever was on the screen and write or read anything on the desk that folded out from the wall and met a support that came up out of the cubby right at the opening.

There were also options for closing the cubby and also what looked like a sound proofing option, too. This was a very interesting set up. He thought he would be going to class somewhere. But with this set up it looked like he could spend the majority of his time right here.