Subterran

Part I: Reinventing Bone Structure - Chapters 7 - 12

"Ah, I see." Junker tapped something into his console. "It is an inconvenience, I realize. Some people feel that way. There will be a bonus in your next pay period, for your trouble. You've earned it." He folded his hands, nodding too slowly at me, like functional liquid animation, like the gadgets on his desk.

"I guess that's fair. I'd better get back to work."

"Yes, you'd better."

The chair spun me clockwise, setting my feet on ground again.

#

The Infrastratos lobby sparkled clean and bright, shiny and sterile like Doctor Marc's office. The girl janitor Mari stood at the exit, her pushcart of cleaning supplies by her side, her blu-glo belly tablet exposed and blinking. She shoved an anti-bacterial sanitary wipe between my hands as the doors closed behind me.

"Would you like to see my greenhouse?" I asked, disposing of the wipe. "I just picked up some new Tunes from the Soundless Laser Light Symphony. You're able to, I mean..." I cupped my hand behind my ear.

I like music, the tablet said. Today her hair was piled up haphazardly like matted spun-sugar, and her lips were pale. Pretty in a way somehow different than most of the girls in the NightChapels. I wondered if I could keep her interested, at least through the night—not something I usually worried about.

My greenhouse that night was especially cold, another lo-power evening. They seemed to occur more frequently these days. Mari managed to slide past the security beams without me deactivating them and proceeded to make herself at home, moving throughout the unit as though she already knew where everything was. Then again, most greenhouse units shared the same floor plan.

Do you have any whiskey? the tablet said.

"There's some in the kitchen. Do you want any Plus 1s to go with it?"

No, thank you.

"Hope you don't mind if I have a few." I poured the drinks into two highball glasses with three ice cubes each.

Do what you like, she said.

"Did you want to hear that record stream? It's the latest—"

She kissed me, soft and sweet.

<3, the tablet said.

Mari the misplaced maintenance girl led me in Ceremony, slow and easy and a little surprising. For the first time I felt something beneath the euphoria—release and smug satisfaction—it was a bad feeling, like parts of my digestive system didn't want to cooperate with one another. I figured it was due to drinking that old style beverage and left the bedroom to look for the right meds to combat it. In two minutes I had downed two-fifths of my uppers and three-eighths of my downers. I readjusted my acu-tank—now regulating the quality of air I breathed as well as the frequency and consistency of my bowel movements. It asked me to deposit more funds to ensure maximum performance. I didn't have the correct credit chip on hand so I went to see if Mari had one.

Her serene face smiling at me from my bed was a little unsettling. I tried to smile back but the effort was too much. The tank burst into four perfectly same-sized quarters. I gasped and flailed at the intrusion of stale air while simultaneously evacuating my bowels. I would have been embarrassed but that response was malfunctioning as well.

She keyed letters into the tablet and I read them bright blue.

You're bleeding, it said. She used the sheet to blot a trail of liquid dripping from my stainless steel tank.

"It's alright," I told her. "I have insurance."

Mari was an excellent nurse, and after that night I saw her four times at least, maybe five. Atypical for me. She's a really good listener and her responses were very legible, I liked how she didn't cross her t's all the way. She recently received a ProProject summons as well, showing me a copy of it on her belly one night when we were watching the redscreen. The dates on our forms were the same and we were the same age, with similar build and complexion. It was a match.