The security guard in the guard shack stood from his chair as a small car entered the executive parking lot. It was a sensible four-door over ten years old and still in good working order and with good gas mileage. He pushed the door of the shack open and stepped out as the car stopped next to the shack and the drivers side window rolled down. The driver held up a badge for inspection and the guard grinned politely. "Good evening QC, did you enjoy your vacation?"
The woman inside grinned sadly back and tucked her badge back in her pocket. "I did, very much. Wished it didn't end."
The both shared a chuckle, an inside joke long since gone stale. "Well you didn't miss much, oh except tonight is the first night our new facility manager is working with us. I assume you will want to meet with him?"
The woman nodded slowly, her eyes still half lidded as if she had just woken up or were about to go to sleep. Then again so many employees of the Rainbow Factory wore the same expression. They were here to perform their tasks and nothing else. Even the short time off some managed to get was not enough to put the light back into their eyes. First, second and third shifts, weekends, overtime, holidays, birthdays, the Factory demanded them all. Before the guard could lift the gate a Live Haul truck rumbled off the intake scale toward the guard shack. "Just a moment QC, it's the last haul of the night."
The woman, QC, nodded and waited patiently as a large tractor trailer stopped on the opposite side of the shack. The tractor was what had become common in the yards of the Factory. Some nondescript owner operator with a generic name and employing nondescript drivers for their loads. By habit QC studied the trailer and its contents. It was the typical kind of trailer that was used for cattle, except instead of ponies, it now held a different cargo. Arms of many colors and textures extended out through the holes and gaps. Blue furred ones, yellow rubbery ones, others like green velvet ending in too many fingers or not enough fingers, along with the occasional hoof or fuzzy noodle like tentacle. She heard them call out, begging for help or demanding a phone call, screaming for relatives to come and save them. QC made a mental note to speak with the yard marshal over covering the holes with steel mesh or some other substance to stop the material from injury during transport to the facility.
The guard spoke with the driver and papers were exchanged, then the truck started up again and rumbled on its way to the holding shed. The guard returned and gave a slight half nod with a "what can you do?" grin. "I'm sorry QC, not like you were in much of a rush to get back to work anyway right?" he tapped a button and the gate began to raise.
"We all have bills to pay, and I couldn't stop thinking about work during my whole vacation," she took her car out of park and then gave a half wave to the guard. "Hope you have a good night."
"And you do the same QC," the guard lowered the gate after her car had gone through.
QC circled to the side of the lot where her parking spot sat empty. It wasn't labeled as her spot, but everyone knew it was anyway. She parked her car and looked around the mostly empty lot. The last management team had left quite a mess in their wake, and if she was honest with herself she wasn't sad to see them go. Maybe the new guy would be able to get the Rainbow Factory back on the right footing. QC turned her car off and took her work bag from the passenger seat, a backpack she kept her essentials in. She stepped out and slug the bag over her shoulder and locked her car. She didn't have to worry much about that in the past, but this was a new round of material, which meant the factory had been retooled in her absence, which meant that she would have to inspect and generate a whole new range of procedures and corrective actions for when things went wrong. As they frequently did in her line of work.
The halls were mostly empty as she stepped into the building. The cafeteria was silent save for a few souls huddled over simple meals in dark corners. HR's block of offices had been locked up for the day although QC doubted they would ever operate at the full capacity of the Factory's heyday. Automation and new technologies had eliminated the need for Man, Pony, or in this case, Puppet, power. Thus HR was more of a vestigial leftover of the good old days. Many of the offices were closed and darkened never to have another occupant. QC continued up the main hall past the locker room, bathrooms, housekeeping offices and others until she reached her own office. She plunked her bag down on the chair behind her desk, then went into the next room to turn lights on and grab her safety vest and clipboard. Her vest contained the equipment she needed to do her job and the clipboard had a storage compartment that held the rest. She pulled on a white labcoat over her safety vest and as the final touch, donned a yellow hard hat with the letters "QC" stamped on the front in black. Thus armored, she was now ready to start her shift.
Meeting the new facility manager would be her primary task of the evening. She doubted that anyone would have given him a proper welcome and took it upon herself to be the first. Before she closed up her office she returned to her bag and pulled out a blue gift bag with a curl of silvery rainbow ribbon. QC turned the lights off as she left and began the long trek to the managerial offices deeper in the facility.
The administrative block of offices was located on the thirteenth floor, and much like the cafeteria and HR had been, were mostly empty hollow rooms with the bare minimum of furnishings. The last group of management and supervisory personnel had been purged years ago and these rooms had been collecting dust for at least that long. So it was with some nostalgia that QC observed the tell-tale blue light of a monitor under a closed door. She stood before the closed door for a moment and studied the fresh name plate mounted at just above the normal height for her eyes.
Walden Darling, Factory Manager.
QC knocked twice, the taps firm yet polite. After a moment she heard a muffled male voice call out "Come in." Her hand went to the doorknob and she gently pushed it open.
After the last facility manager and her crew, QC wasn't quite sure what to expect. She had heard that the new guy was a Puppet, not a Pony, and her interest in him went only so far as his ability to get the job done well and right. She hadn't met many Puppets in her time, but they were a race like any other, with their own culture and ways. The office was dark with only a small desk lamp and computer monitor to provide any light but still she could see the man behind the desk clearly.
He was humanoid and well built with a barely kept mane of dark blue hair that was styled into a loose pompadour. A vintage style but he was making it work. His hands had four fingers instead of a humans five, and QC couldn't quite tell if he had skin or a fine layer of felt-like material, either way it was bright yellow. Dark brown nearly black eyes were fixated on a pair of cords he held in his hands and she couldn't help but admit that he was fairly good looking for a guy with no nose. "Good evening Mr Darling. Sorry if I interrupted you," QC gestured to the computer screen.
"Hmm? Oh this," he mumbled. His voice was deep and rather pleasant to listen to, it would be a nice break from all the high pitched screaming of his predecessor. The desk had been designed for pony use and even from this distance, QC could see that it was far too small for the Puppet man. In one hand he held a five pin coaxial cable connected to a mechanical keyboard. In the other he held a connecting end for the pony-tech that ran the current computer system. She could practically feel his frustration radiating off of him. He eventually sat up from his hunched over position and and dropped the cables to the desk in mock defeat. "Can't seem to get a decent keyboard to use. I keep calling around and no one in this entire fucked up place is answering their phones."
QC gave an apologetic nod. "Sometimes it takes IT a few days to set up accounts and credentials...or equipment."
The Puppet sighed heavily and then tilted his desk lamp to get a better look at his visitor. She was a small woman, barely reaching four feet tall and almost swimming in her lab coat, it made her seem child-like. Yellow hair peeked under her yellow hard hat and amber yellow unblinking eyes regarded him neutrally, with the beginnings of dark circles under them. She was human...of a sort. Then again nothing in this strange place was constant. "And uh...you are?"
She nodded politely again, turning her amber eyes toward the floor. "I am the Quality Control Manager of the Rainbow Factory. I ensure that procedures are followed and that all aspects of production are aligned with putting out a consistent and quality product." her voice was soft yet held an air of confidence and authority. This was a woman that didn't need to yell or scream to get what she wanted. It didn't matter how low her voice was, those around her were compelled to listen.
"Quality Control huh? Don't really need you. A rainbow is a rainbow."
"It may seem that way at first Mr Darling, but there is a lot more that goes into rainbows than meets the eye. And rainbows are only one of the products we produce. The Rainbow Factory is the leader in pigments and color export to many different realities."
At that last word, Wally raised a blue eyebrow. "Come again?"
QC glanced to the ground again, then back up. "My apologies, this is only your first day and as you see, I'm pretty much all there is of the welcoming committee. Oh!" she placed the blue bag on his desk "For you, a gift for your first day."
Darling glanced at the bag, then at QC standing before his desk. He could tell her to fuck off, but she was the only person he had seen all day, quite literally. Until he could log into the computer system he didn't have anything better to do anyway. "Go ahead and take a seat." He reached forward and accepted the bag, then opened it and pulled out a bottle of apple schnapps.
"I had heard you liked apples," she said quietly.
"Two of my favorite things in bottle, thanks," he checked the bag again and found a heavy crystal scotch glass sitting in the tissue paper. "Thought of everything didn't you?"
"I take pride in my work," she pulled over a chair and sat down. "So Mr Darling what brought you to the Rainbow Factory?"
Wally poured himself a generous amount of the schnapps in the glass then placed a pack of cigarettes on the desk. "It's a job and I needed money. Seemed like a pretty good deal for the time."
"That's how a good amount of them had started. I've been here for some time and I've worked for many facility managers. I've seen a lot of people come and go."
"Oh?" Wally sipped from the glass and then lit up a cigarette. "Well maybe you could help me out after all. Tell me what the previous guy was like, maybe even give me a bit of a run down of what it is we actually do here."
"Of course, and it would be my pleasure to give you a tour of the factory after you have finished your drink." QC settled herself deeper into the chair. "But I think that first I should explain a bit of history about the facility and maybe then you will understand the responsibility on your shoulders. Were you given a master key?"
"Yeah, it's supposed to open every door in here."
"Good, there is a break room down the hall that I think would be a good place to start."
Wally downed the drink in one gulp, winced a little then stood from the desk. QC tilted her head up as the Puppet just kept rising up and up until he was fully on his feet. Goodness he was tall!! QC slipped out of the chair and he noted with some amusement that she barely came up to his stomach. The little woman seemed unbothered and opened the door then led him down the hall past all the empty and dead offices filled with the smell of old coffee, burnt popcorn, and copier toner. The door at the end was a heavy one, one of those larger metal slabs that was supposed to keep whatever was behind it secure. Wally pulled the key from his pocket and slipped it into the lock. The door opened smoothly into a large room filled with tables and chairs. A bank of long ignored vending machines stood along one wall, filled with products and brands that he had never heard of. A rack of microwaves stood guard near a counter top loaded down with forgotten coffee machines. The whole room felt like the rest of the factory, beaten, forgotten, and left to rot. The only thing that was of any note in this dismal place was the back wall of the break room. It consisted of floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the vast production floor of the factory.
"Impossible, we're thirteen floors up," Darling breathed.
QC only nodded. "We are and we aren't," she stepped up to the window and looked down beside him. "This facility is hundreds of years old, and some parts older than that. Everything here is an afterthought. Entire wings have been added or taken away by past Managers, whole new production lines have been retooled or created depending on the materials we are using or the product we are producing. Each Factory Manager is given the responsibility to further improve the factories output. We have many customers that rely on us for their needs."
"Why was this room locked? And where is everyone?"
QC stepped away from the windows and pointed toward the far end of the break room. "A couple of former employees got in a fight and one went through the window. The room was supposed to be locked until Maintenance could get up here and replace it, but they never did, so its remained locked."
"Okay, first on the list, get with Maintenance."
"A grand gesture and I wish you the best of luck," she said with a small smile. "They're elusive at best and have been getting worse since the last administration left. You have been left with quite a mess Mr Darling."
"Yeah, about that--"
"What year is it Mr Darling?" QC asked.
Wally opened his mouth to respond but for the moment he completely forgot and absolutely could not be sure what year it was.
"I thought as much. Time doesn't matter here. There is no day, no night, no hours, no weeks, no holidays, no calendars or clocks. Because the Rainbow Factory exists in a place in between. We are untouched by time, only the progress of material in, and product out. I'm sure you noticed that the interior of the factory is much larger than you could see from the outside, that is because the way you entered and the way you leave is not the same as the entrance and exit that I take. And soon there will come a time where you cannot find the exit anymore because there is still work to be done. Follow me Mr Darling, we start with Receiving and Live Hang and I will take you through every step of the process so that you will understand how best to run the facility."
She led him out of the break room but didn't stop talking. Wally felt like he was being led by some small tour guide as she gave an in-depth history lesson of the facility. Not like he had anything better to do for the evening and he did need to learn the layout of his own factory.
"The production floor can be traced to almost two hundred years ago when the Rainbow Factory was known as the place that made pigments for simple paint." QC began. "Our chief exports at the time were Sheeles Green and Mummy Brown. For the next hundred years or so most of our colors and pigments were derived from mostly rare minerals and materials. Mainly gemstones for colors such as ruby red and emerald green. That all changed during the 1960s when psychedelic drugs hit the mainstream--"
"I thought you said time doesn't exist here--"
"Time doesn't exist within the factory, but it does exist for our customers Mr Darling," QC said with a grin. "During the 1960s, demand for deeper richer colors grew and our materials became more exotic and strange. Blue taken from a summers day, orange from a child's laughter. Do you have children Mr Darling?"
"No."
QC stopped at a supply closet and pulled out a white lab coat and white hard hat for Wally. "Perhaps its for the best. The Rainbow Factory is a harsh master. Please wear these on the production floor."
Once Wally had put the coat and hat on he continued following QC up a long dimly lit hall. She stopped at a door at the end and rested her hand on the knob. For the barest second Wally felt dizzy, but it passed before he could pinpoint the source. QC opened the door and they entered a large receiving shed. Forklifts moved hither and yon carrying cages filled with Puppets, the cages were then loaded onto a conveyor belt. "This is the receiving shed!" She yelled over the forklifts. "This is where the material is placed on the processing conveyor belts and loaded onto the Kill Line!"
"Kill line?" Wally had covered his ears but he heard that one phrase quite clearly. He shot a glance at one of the cages with arms and wings poking out, then followed QC through another door and into another darkened room that had a one-way glass mirror. From here Wally could see the cages going into a smaller pitch dark room where they were opened and the Puppets inside were snapped into shackles upside down on another line. A slight grin began to twitch at the corner of his lip. This was insane.
"The cages are opened in the dark to keep the material calm and docile during attachment to the Kill Line, from here it goes through the Stunner that renders it paralyzed for the next few steps in processing. This line has the capacity to run at over 250 PPM, or Puppets Per Minute."
The stunner seemed to be nothing more than a comically large box that active screaming puppets went in and where relaxed slightly twitching puppets came out.
"This next step in the process is very important," QC said proudly. "Once the raw material is stunned, it passes through a spectrum reader, this is where we determine what the dominant color is within the puppet. You cannot tell through fur or hair color alone. You must be able to see the color of their essence to get an accurate sorting."
Wally tore his gaze away from the Stunner, this part seemed to happen so quickly. "Wait, you're telling me this place can see the color of peoples souls?"
"I wouldn't put it like that, it's their essence. Soul is a religious term and there are no gods here."
You got that right, Wally thought.
She led him to a balcony that overlooked the most disturbing system of tracks of shackles the mind could comprehend. "Once the material is assigned a color class, they are sorted into one of these seven lines. Part of the checks I do is to ensure that the right colors get sorted to the right lines." QC pulled what looked like a monocle from her vest and closed one eye, then held the round crystal to her other eye. "Looks like the sorting system is doing well so far, sometimes the reader gets confused between blues and violets."
Wally watched as the puppets came in still twitching from the Stunner on one line and a system of wheels attached to other processing lines would catch the shackles and whisk them away at speed to other areas of the plant. "Can I see that monocle-thing of yours?"
"Of course Mr Darling," QC gave him the monocle and watched him lift it to his eye. Through the crystal lens, the puppets seemed surrounded in a haze of light, each with a dominant color at the center, reds went on one line, blues went on another, and greens on another. They were like hazy strings of Christmas lights stretching deeper into the facility. His gaze settled on one multicolored strand at the very end of the shackle line.
"What are those?"
"Manual sorting, ones that either were too dark for the machine to read or couldn't quite get latched to their proper processing line...or were already deceased when they arrived. DOAs."
Wally gave the monocle back to QC. "Too dark to read? You can still use those?"
"Black is still an important pigment Mr Darling. However I want you to look through the crystal just one more time, you notice that bit of haze on the outer edges of the dominant color? That is because there are still other colors present within the material. And sometimes the extraction process can cause those colors to shift or run."
Wally lifted the monocle again. Some of the green ones had a thin layer of red, or one with a blue aura had two or three more colors contained within. "Do you have another one of these little crystal things?"
"That one is yours to keep Mr Darling, I have my own to use," QC turned and Wally chanced a quick glance at his escort through the monocle. A sudden bright flash of yellow nearly blinded that eye. He blinked a few times while cursing his own stupidity to get the spots to clear then followed her to a catwalk above the production floor. "The color sorting processing lines were devised by one of the previous Managers, Ms Brite. She was incredibly intelligent and was the primary driving force in using Essence Driven Pigmentation. Or EDP for short. She refined it when this facility still processed minerals for color, and enlisted the help of scientists from a place known as CareALot to implement EDP processing. Ms Brite owned and operated Color Crystal mines for decades, and we still use Crystals from those same mines. One day there was a lucky accident when one of Sprites that we used for general labor at the time fell into a processing tank of raw Star Sprinkles, a refinement of the Color Crystals. The addition of the Sprite caused the resulting color to be bolder and last longer even under the harshest bleaching agents. It soon became standard practice to add a Sprite to each batch, but you had to get the right color Sprite to really bring out the best in the pigments. Thus the introduction of the spectrum reader and sorter."
Wally didn't say anything, but his smirk was becoming more pronounced. This place was crazy and he was feeling oddly comfortable with it. He had no idea what a "Sprite" was, but he could deduce that it was probably a living thing by the way she referred to them as "general labor" and what kind of fucked up management would call losing a living critter into a vat of product a "happy accident?" Just what kind of work had he signed onto?
QC continued her tour. "The second biggest innovation in EDP was actually put in place by your predecessor Ms Dash. She called it the Pegasus Device. We just shorten it to the Device. Ms Dash drove this factory hard, but I don't think she knew how to make the best use of it. The Device sorts the color spectrum on each material component that is fed into it. Observe." QC led Wally to a place on the cat walk that had a few monitors mounted to the ceiling. Below them was a strange machine that the processing lines fed into. On the monitor Wally could see the unconscious Puppets enter into a white chamber where two things happened simultaneously. They were shocked again and blasted with a bright white light. The colors were shaken from the Puppets essence and divided along the back wall, then ran down into separate channels that carried the pure colors away to parts yet unknown. QC spoke up at his elbow. "It's really a fascinating process. I could watch it all day."
Wally was indeed morbidly fascinated by the process and continued to watch for another few moments. It became easier to not see the Puppets as individuals anymore, instead it was like watching colorful exploding bubble wrap or fireworks. Once spent the Puppet was dropped lifeless from the shackle line and down a disposal chute. One Puppet entered the chamber obviously not fully stunned as they struggled at the shackles holding their feet in place. The bright light hit them and they screamed as their Essence was ripped from their body and splattered along the wall. Great gobs of red and green light dripped down into their proper channels and were funneled away elsewhere. The body dropped down the chute with the others all the same. Wally looked away from the monitor. "The screams don't bother you? The ones that slipped through?"
"Why would they? The Puppets are already stunned, they can't feel a thing by the time they reach the Device. Its more of a physical reaction than one of pain. And the ones that are unfortunate enough to be conscious by the time they reach the Device still undergo the same treatment. There is nothing to be done for them."
He watched her continue down the catwalk and mumbled under his breath. Before meeting her and going on this little tour, he had been considering cutting down the dead financial weight by getting rid of the Quality Control department altogether along with the safety department. Wally didn't want anyone to take any form of control from him this early in his position, but now that he had seen the little woman and her nearly mechanical demeanor and grasp of her position, he had to grudgingly admit that keeping her right where she was would be more to his benefit.
"Next we have my favorite part, Treatment. Also known as Second Processing."
"Uh, wait. I have a question."
QC turned on the catwalk. "Of course, go on."
"What do we do with the bodies?" he pointed a thumb over his shoulder back at the Device.
She clapped her hands together and a smile graced her tired features, she looked younger and almost cute in that moment. "An excellent inquiry Mr Darling! It really depends on what we are slaughtering that day. In the past, Sprites were thoroughly incorporated into the pigments, but by the time Ponies became our primary material, we had to build a rendering facility that would make various products from the carcasses, one of which was glue. We then used the glue in our paints or mixed a bit of the color back in for colored puff paints for use on clothing or other industry applications. Now that our primary material are Puppets, we do not need the rendering facility anymore and it lays dormant for when we start using Ponies again. The Puppet carcasses are sent through a kiln to be dried and then ground into glitter. The glitter is then packaged for sale or mixed back in with our pigments."
That answered that question. And it brought on a few more. QC spun on her toes and continued down the catwalk. She seemed very excited to show him the rest of the process now that he had taken some interest in it. Wally followed along behind her but took one last glance at the Device over his shoulder, already the gears in his head were turning at other cost-cutting and productivity boosting measures. She tiptoed down a set of stairs and opened another door at the bottom. This place made absolutely no sense. There was no way to build an internal map of the facility in his mind, it was like trying to make sense of a dream or a nightmare. Wally eventually settled on the thought that this was indeed a nightmare factory and much like Alice in Wonderland, he would just have to roll with it. QC led him through the door into a clean white hall with doors and large windows on either side. Through the windows he could see large tubes of color lining the walls.
QC opened the first door and into a room where a massive red tube dominated the central space. Along the back wall were fifteen other tubes each holding a different gradient of red. "This is the first part of the treatment process. Colored essence that has been harvested by the Device is delivered here where it is then treated. Contrary to what most people think, the lighter color sinks to the bottom of the tank and the darker colors rise to the top. This is because Essence is more based on the light color spectrum and not like mixing paints. The brighter the red, the more light it has in it, and thus more impurities. The darker the red, the less Essence is present and is either supplemented by other colors through mixing or left as a filter of sorts. These rooms sort the Essence into different tones, adding or taking away until our quality standards are met. But when they are...!" She nearly floated to a spot on the back wall by a tank near the middle that held the truest red that Wally had ever seen.
QC grabbed a small sample cup and opened a small valve on the tank and dumped the red into the cup, then presented the cup to Wally. The inside was Red. It had no weight, no smell, no visible gloss or matte finish. It was just pure Red in a cup, as if it existed as a concept of a color. Wally put his finger in and stirred it. It had no feeling, no warmth, no cold, and no real mass. He pushed the Red around in the cup for a moment and then pulled his finger out half expecting it to be stained, but it came out clean. QC grinned again and accepted the cup back, then used an eyedropper to put some of the Red on a glass slide and slipped it under a nearby microscope. "Go on, take a look."
Wally lowered his head and put his eye up to the eyepiece. All he saw was Red. Pure Red.
"And now look at this slide to see the difference."
QC slipped another slide in and Wally immediately could tell the difference. There were small flecks of orange and yellow mixed in, giving the Red an overall appearance that was slighter richer in color. He lifted his head from the microscope and up at the tubes on the wall, making a mental note to have a microscope and samples delivered to his office so he could study them later. QC then went to the door again. "There are similar labs for each base color. The Pure Colors are the ones that are used for rainbows. They are mixed with water vapor then condensed for transferal to the rainbow generators. The Pure Colors have a shelf life of only a month so they must be used in a timely manner. They are also some of the first ones to suffer when material stock runs low."
"Then I must ensure that doesn't happen."
"Every factory has its ups and downs Mr Darling. Even the Rainbow Factory had some bad times in the 1990s, if it wasn't for our biggest customer at the time, Lisa Frank, our doors would probably have been closed. Ms Dash, the former Facility Manager, did indeed improve the quality of our product through the Device, however she was more focused on the Pure Colors as the rainbows produced then were considered more of a status symbol for her. Also the process of Pony slaughter was much slower than production could allow for on a constant basis. Our deliveries were almost always late and the quality suffered. Its quite a relief that we're back to slaughter of something a bit smaller and less magically inclined."
Wally finally voiced a question he had been holding. "So why are you the only member of the management staff left?"
QC shrugged. "As is common when someone new comes into such a position, the old guard is tested, and either pushed out or disposed of in favor of the lackeys of the new administration. Ms Dash had placed her trusted friends into the positions and when they couldn't perform to standard, were led to the Device themselves. One or two managed to slip through and get away, but in the end the admin wing was left lonely until Ms Dash herself committed retirement."
That blue eyebrow went back up again. "That is an odd way to phrase it. So you're the only one she left alone?"
"I was here before Ms Dash. I was hired on by Ms Brite. I've seen a lot of Managers come and go. I was here before you, and I'll be here after you leave. I have no aspirations to run the Factory as its Manager, I am content in Quality Control. Because when I do my job, I make a lot of people happy."
"Even if so many Puppets have to die?" Wally folded his arms.
QC seemed to think this over for a moment. "If one Puppet dies so that a Rainbow can shine on to light the hopes and dreams of hundreds, then that Puppet has not died in vain. If a Pony dies so that road construction signs can guide people to safety, then that Pony has not died in vain. And if a Sprite dies so that colored indicator lights on aircraft or spacecraft can be easily read in the abyss of space, then that Sprite has not died in vain. My personal philosophy is to not let the material go to waste, and that the material need not suffer to make it happen."
"And what if suffering makes the purest colors?"
QC grinned sadly. "Then the good of the one will not outweigh the good of the many. I know I can't make everyone happy, but I try for those that are."
Wally personally didn't care that he had no philosophy on the matter of life and death. He was here to manage the Factory and ensure quality product as well as collect a decent paycheck. Puppets came in one end, product went out the other and anything that got in the way of that simple system would need to be dealt with. If QC became a problem, he had a feeling that she would produce the purest yellow the universe had ever seen. She must have sensed a change in his demeanor because she smiled sweetly at him, her tired amber eyes peeking from under her hard hat. "Mr Darling, it's only your first day, and you haven't even interviewed or assembled your management team yet. At least acquire an assistant first. You have been given a blank slate, and the Factory has just been retooled for material and product that should be successful in your hands. I care only for the quality of the end result," she opened the door and stepped into the hall. "Oh, and for the record. The purple of your essence is in very high demand."
He opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it. She was already two steps ahead of his plans. Dammit, this little shit was growing on him. He understood how she survived so many changes in management, and how she would make a better ally than an enemy.
QC led him down the hall and through another door. From here they entered a large hangar-like hall. It was hot in here, and before Wally were several large wide conveyor belts. Seven in all, one for each of the sorted colors. The dead bodies of Puppets dropped in from chutes on the ceiling and piled on the belts before being carried forward to a kiln further down the line. Live Puppets, and other creatures, probably old employees from past eras of the Factories existence, roamed between the lines picking up stray bodies or parts that had come loose, then tossed them onto the nearest conveyor belt. "This is the Kiln Room, also called the Hell Room by the employees. In response to your earlier question, this is where the carcasses are dried out before heading to the glitter grinder, it is also--"
"Shit! Watch out!" one of the employees, a grey bipedal bear with some kind of blurry design on its off-white stomach, shouted.
QC and Wally turned in time to see one of the chutes drop a massive amount of bodies onto the belt. The other employees ducked under lines or ran across the room to assist with the overflow. QC then called out to the bear. "Scorch Heart, what happened?"
"Eh, chute got clogged, finally managed to get it unjammed. I'll let Sanitation know to give it a scrub after processing."
QC nodded, then turned back to Wally. "Sorry, this happens sometimes, but Scorch Heart has been here for a while, I trust him with the Kiln Room."
"Noted," Wally turned to watch the workers pick up the bodies that had spilled to the floor and toss them on the conveyor belt. He folded his arms behind his back, already thinking of ways to expedite the process when one of the workers picked up a green lizard looking Puppet that twitched, screamed, then kicked and fought his way out of their grip. The lizard dropped to the floor. They were quick, so quick as they skittered under the lines right for QC.
"Miss! Miss! You gotta help me! I don't know how I ended up here or where--"
Before it came too close, QC reached inside of her coat and pulled a collapse-able metal baton from her vest. With a flick of the wrist the baton extended, then struck the lizard square across the jaw. It stumbled and QC brought the baton back around down on the Puppets head, splatters of color flew from the wound and across the front of her white coat. She finished it off by stamping twice on the lizards head, causing a rush of color splatters to surge around her ankles and bottom of her coat. With a tired neutral expression on her features, she flicked the last of the color droplets from her baton then collapsed it and returned it to her vest. The other employees rushed over and dragged the bleeding carcass away.
"Are you okay QC?" Scorch Heart called out.
"I'm fine, not the first time," she said with a half grin. "Although I think we found out why the chute got clogged." She then turned back to Wally. "Sorry again."
Wally's hands never left his back, but he did look down at a line of colorful splatter that went from his shoulder to knee. "Does this happen often?"
"No. But it does happen sometimes, we will get something that managed to survive the Device. It's usually attributed to the Spectrum reader needing to be calibrated or even a draw on the power of the Device being unable to fire off multiple bursts at once. I'll send one of my techs up to investigate." QC lifted a small radio from her vest and spoke gently into it before returning it to her coat. "Shall we continue the tour Mr Darling?"
Wally touched the splatter on his white lab coat and his fingers came away with whatever had been in that Puppet. It looked silvery at first, then black, but it shone with all the colors of the rainbow, like an oil slick. "Lead the way QC." Better to keep her in front of him after that little display.
She guided him past the conveyor belts and nearer to the Kiln. It was even hotter here, but before they came any closer QC turned a corner and rested her hand on another doorknob and into an observation hallway. Like the others Wally had seen, this one was equipped with a window to oversee the process without interfering with it. Once again the strange construction of the Factory was at play. By all reckoning they should have been beside the Kiln, not on the opposite side from its exit. From here the belts dropped crispy and charred Puppets down more chutes. Each one color coded to seven colors. Even from behind the glass they could hear the sound of massive industrial sized grinders chewing up the remains of the Puppets and a fine sparkling mist hung in the air. "Are you armed Mr Darling?" QC suddenly asked.
The question was unexpected but valid. He had considered it but ultimately left any protection he had behind. "Not at the moment, no," he admitted.
"I recommend two forms of self defense. Both need enough stopping power for the first strike. Instances like the one in the Kiln Room are uncommon but they do happen. However instances of disgruntled employees are much more frequent, and they must be taken more seriously." She then gestured back to the room holding the grinders. "If you do find yourself in the Grinding Hall, please make sure to wear a full hazmat suit or at the very least a Self Contained Breathing Apparatus, or SCBA. Preferably one that covers your eyes as well. It looks pretty from here but the material is fresh from the Kiln and is still at a very high temperature. I do not recommend inhaling super-heated glitter."
"Noted, and before we move on I have one more question."
"Of course Mr Darling."
Her sense of formality was both upsetting and reassuring. "What's the deal with the doors? There is no way we went from the thirteenth floor, to Receiving, to the production floor, to here through only a couple of doors and halls."
QC gave another nod in confirmation. "You are correct. The secret lies in the master keys both of us carry. Although yours unlocks more doors than mine does. You only need to approach a door with your destination already in mind, and when you open the door you will be there."
"How does that even work?"
"And that is a dangerous question to ask. Do you really want to know how it works, or will you just accept that it does and keep your sanity intact?"
That was also a very valid question. "I suppose if it's important it will come up later."
"That's the spirit Mr Darling. Now before we continue with the tour, would you like to break for lunch?"
"What all is left in the tour?"
"Mixing rooms mainly, and the shipping docks."
Wally nodded. "Yeah that can wait until I get something to eat."
QC stepped away from the door and made an "after you" gesture. "Go ahead and test out the master key. Just put your hand on the knob and think about where you want to go."
Wally stepped forward and rested his hand on the doorknob. He thought about Barnaby's house, and his friend waiting for him there to hear about his first day.
"A place within the Factory Mr Darling. If only getting out were so easy."
"Yeah yeah, I get it," Wally instead thought of his office and the bottle of schnapps waiting for him. That strange dizzy sense came over him and left quickly. The knob gave a subtle shift under his fingertips and he opened the door directly into his new office.
QC grinned. "I think you'll do just fine here Mr Darling."
"You don't have to keep calling me Mr Darling." Wally sighed. "Mr Darling was my Dad, just call me Wally."
"I know. But I call you Mr Darling as a sign of respect. And when I show you that respect, the others will show you respect. Lead by example. I'll meet you halfway, Mr Walden."
That was about as good as he was going to get from her. Wally stepped into his office and looked back at the door and strange hall that QC stood in. "So I guess I see you in an hour?"
"Roughly Mr Walden," she moved to close the door behind him.
"Wait, I never caught your name. QC is a title, not a name."
For a moment she looked genuinely surprised, her amber eyes wide and more child-like than Wally cared to admit. "Oh, my name? Uh...I haven't been asked that in a long time." She straightened up in the doorway and smoothed her rainbow splattered coat. "My name is Canary. Canary Yellow."
"Well it's nice to meet you Ms Yellow."
"And you too Mr Walden," she extended her small five fingered hand and shook his four fingered one. "I look forward to working with you."
Wally gave her hand a firm shake and wasn't terribly surprised to feel that her own grip was as firm as his. Gentle, yet firm. "I've got a couple of ideas to make the Rainbow Factory a successful place. But you are right, I've got quite a mess to clean up first, and this is not the first time I've had to deal with a cranky building."
"Then I will leave you to it and we can finish the tour another time. If you need me just call on the radio."
"Will do Ms Yellow." Wally stood back as she shut the door, then sat down on his desk in the darkened office. His hand found the bottle of apple schnapps in the dark and he took a sip directly from it. "A lot of cleaning up to do."
Canary returned to the production floor catwalks and resumed her monitoring checks, her first stop was the Device to check on its operation. It was rare to have something slip through to the Kiln Room. Perhaps she could discuss installing a few stop gaps in the chute along the way to ensure it wouldn't happen again. As she pondered this, she noted a light turn on in the corner of her eye. She turned to look and saw the management break room hovering in the dark above the production floor. Wally, the new Factory Manager entered the room briskly dragging a member of Maintenance by the collar and practically threw him on the floor in front of the broken window. She couldn't hear what was being said, but the hand gestures were more than enough to get his point across. Over the next ten minutes four more Maintenance men came into the break room followed by Housekeeping. Where the hell did he find them?
The window was replaced, the room cleaned, the vending machines were emptied of the old products and new ones were put in their place, and if she squinted hard enough Canary could see a pot of coffee bubbling away on the counter top. Wally poured himself a cup and then stood in his rainbow splattered lab coat and took the first sip while looking over his new domain. Canary lifted an arm and waved to him, and to her delight, he gave a short wave back. She felt a small amount of hope in that grumpy Puppet and went back to her work with renewed purpose.
Maybe....maybe Walden Darling was exactly what the Rainbow Factory needed.