Once again, I don't own Star Trek (If I did, that would mean I'd own Data and Odo, which would be pretty epic). Please R&R, it would be greatly appreciated.
Chapter 2
Alias was sitting on a torn up seat of what was left of the land-tram. Most of it, along with quite a bit of Omithron, was destroyed when the government decided to test the Mech prototypes on the unsuspecting population almost a decade ago. Of course, there was some malfunction with the prototypes the government's scientists hadn't bothered to notice before releasing the androids, causing them to create a path of destruction across the world, which would be quite easy for something with double the strength of an average, healthy, person and the brain power to practically create a weapon out of anything.
Since then, the land-tram had become almost obsolete with the cyber-revolution, which began when Cytrona was created around the same time as the Mech prototypes were released, but it still ran to a few lower class neighborhoods, the ones that were suspected of having a Mech-Proto or two lurking around. They sky-train's backers didn't want to risk sending their precious investment where it might end up getting destroyed by a raging machine.
As the tram rattled along, making loud grating noises on the rougher parts of the track, Alias watched the slums of her world go by out the opposite window. The buildings were ugly shades grays, browns and tans that were slowly falling apart. Nothing like the sleek, seamless black of upper class buildings, with their shining lights as far as the eye could see, glowing holo-screens as long as a tram car. Here, lights were common enough, but they always flickered, public holo-screens were rare, but you could easily rig a small one up yourself and get basic channels, making sure you didn't get caught for stealing the airwaves was more difficult.
Alias was shaken out of her thoughts as the tram screeched to a jolting stop. A warbled female voice announced "Royal Heights, Next stop; Felus Lakes".
"Royal Heights my ass," She thought as she went to what was supposed to be an automatic door, when it didn't open; she kicked it with her heavy boot. It opened a couple inches, enough for her to pull it open. She hopped out, and was about to swing her bag onto her back when she saw the message alert blinking. She found a dirty bench to sit on, pulled open the flap and pushed a button that was inside. It brought up a very small holo-screen, with a text instead of video message. She began to read;
"We've got work tonight. Security scans will be down for approx. 5 minutes at 21:30. More than enough time to get into Central Hall of Xerolite Mining Co. I hear they've got some documents on where the 117 members of Inston went. Why a mining co. would have that I don't know, but I'd like to. Be logged on by 21:00 so we have time to prep.
Lots of love my little spies,
M.
P.S: Anyone seen or heard from Elrin lately? I need my best code breaker for tonight! Try to make sure he gets this!
Chuckling, Alias deleted the message from her inbox, using a simple, yet effective, string of button pressing to make sure no one could trace it to her. She got up and left the tram platform, heading down the stairs onto the smog filled street below. Overhead, a couple old hover-bikes flew by and even higher, a vector-ship could be heard breaking out of the atmosphere.
Alias started to walk home, keeping her hand in one of her large pockets on a plasma pistol, which she carried everywhere. It would do too much to a Mech-Proto if one came after her, but in a neighborhood like this, it was certainly effective against petty thieves and rape gangs.
Her small apartment wasn't too far from the tram station. She was on the third floor of one of the slightly better buildings here. Better mainly because you had to pay rent and maybe because you got a little better connection to Cytrona.
In the doorway of the building, a young girl sat, knees pulled to her chest, her head resting on them. As she went through the door Alias thought to herself "That was me only a few years ago…" This was true, if it hadn't been for M. hooking her up through some of his other employees in Cytrona and Omithron, she never would have gotten the job fixing machines. It wasn't pleasant work, with long hours and low pay, but it gave her a bit of food, among other things.
She went up the three flights of stairs, passing a couple who seemed to be too impatient to get to their apartment first before indulging themselves with each other, and scanned her key card over the identifier. She heard the click, opened the door and went in.
Inside, she was greeted by something that resembled what Earth people called a 'cat'. It had a somewhat clear coat, but the tip of each hair changed color depending on it's feelings. It was a golden orange right now, which Alias took for happiness. She bent down and scratched the animal's head. Wherever she put her hand, the color would flicker to others quickly then return to whatever the animal had chosen.
"Hello little Vern." Whatever the animal was, it clicked quickly and repeatedly in return.
Alias tossed her heavy, dark green coat over the back of a chair, but took the pistol out first and tucked it in her belt. In what would be considered a kitchen, although it was overrun by a forest of robotic arms stemming from the center of the ceiling. On the wall just outside it was a keypad. Alias went over to it and began punching a combination of buttons. "Hungry Vern?" she asked the cat-like critter. It made the strange clicking noise twice and began sniffing her jacket as the kitchen arms worked furiously, picking up utensils and mixing ingredients together. As it worked, Alias went over to her bed and dug a long shirt out from a metal crate that was at the foot of the bed. She pulled off her coolant-covered work clothes and slipped on the shirt. A loud 'TING!" signaled the creature named Vern's food was done. A mechanical hand placed it on the floor by the wall with the keypad and Vern ran over to eat.
Alias went back across the room and picked up her bag. Opening it, she pulled out a gray box, similar to the ones in the rec-hall, but with a cord attached to it. Setting it on the table, she went over to the keypad, punched in another code and received something that looked like a sandwich. After eating it, she got ready for bed, put the gray console on the stool beside her bed, plugged the cord into her data port and got into bed. As the holo-screen came out of the box and the writing said "You are now logged on to Cytrona" Alias thought; "And Navryn wanted just to go have drinks tonight. He has no idea what he's missing!" She chuckled as she drifted off to sleep and into another world.
