Of Procul Preview - Chapter One

3201

Mercury

“Wake up Fed.”

The voice wasn’t robotic, it had human emotion behind it. Like a voice you hear through an intranet channel with a poor connection. The figure which the voice originated from didn’t even look remotely robotic. The avatar was roughly human shape and size, with arms and legs in the right place and quantity. Only the upper torso gave the machine away, with burnished spherical shoulders. And while the head gave a very flattering impression of a man, it wasn’t quite perfect.

“Happy birthday.”  He spoke again, droll traces intoning false enthusiasm in the anniversary. The automaton was sitting with one leg crossed over the other in a thin metal chair near the window. The view was stunning, but the two inhabitants of the apartment were used to it by now. It overlooked the entire Caloris shaft, with the other side of the residential ring visible a kilometre across the curve. Squinting up, you could even make out the Capital Room and Caloris dockyards at the top of the vast cylinder.

“Thanks Parvus.” A different voice, unmistakably human this time. The accompanying man sat upwards in bed, and cracked his neck. He stood, and leaning to crick his back, he advanced towards the shower cubicle of the apartment. Warmth, steam and artificial scents filled the. The robot, Parvus, stood and moved into the kitchenette. Parvus has two hands, one humanoid, and the other multipurpose. Imagine a fine point paintbrush, but each hair is an independent appendage, capable of infinite movement.  While the human hand pulls a knife off a magnetic rack and begins slicing meats, the multipurpose adjusts itself into the shape of a shovel, and moves freshly cooked cottony rice into a small bowl.

“Is that my special double birthday breakfast I smell? Parv you shouldn’t have!” The human voice is at it again, full of the sincere enthusiasm that only a double birthday can bring. Only Mercurials celebrate double birthdays, because they’re the only planet in the Solystem which follows both the archaic Gregorian calendar and their local planetary calendar.

“You’re not one hundred mercyears every day.” Replies Parvus, as he coats the sliced meats in seasoned oils and complements the rice with small green shoots. “And besides, it’s not like I did anything for your twenty-third eyear.” The meal complete, the multipurpose wraps itself perfectly around the rim of the bowl and carries it to the small one man table, where chopsticks and rum await.

A sudden roar flows from the shower cubicle, as the drier activates. The man emerges from the shower, brazen and clean. Snatching underwear and donning them, the dresser automatically opens at his approach, offering a pair of fibres and jacket, which are hurriedly pulled on. Rubbing his hands, the 24 eyear old Mercurial sits and raises his chopsticks.

“Thi-th is delicoush” Is forced out between a huge bite of fatty meat, dripping with oil. A gulping noise. “Where did you get it? The Mavans manage to save some of their livestock from that virus?”

“No, I went further up.” The higher up you shopped on Mercury, the closer you got to the interplanetary flights, and hence the better produce. Everything grown or raised on Mercury tastes of metal. “I’ll give you a Verne if you can guess which planet.”

Eyebrows raised, Fed swallowed another mouthful of rice. “You went for the offworld proddie? Effe me Parv you didn’t need to spoil me that much.” The shock and gratitude was overcome fairly quickly, as he took a sip of the oily rum and dived back to his bowl.

“You haven’t guessed yet a planet yet, Fedlimid my friend.” Parvus crossed his arms, laid back, and enjoyed watching the gears turn in his friends head. It was a difficult question. There was livestock on the Solar Bases, and Earth and Mars farmed. Venus followed their bizarre religious veganism so they could be crossed off the list. Anything past Mars was too much of a trek, and it’s not like the Coalition would sell anyone else anything.

“Mars or Earth.” Fedlimid replied confidently. “They only keep avian meat on the Bases, at least Apex does. That’s the only station near us at the moment.” He leaned forward, and brandished a chopstick towards his robotic opposite. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the total alignment!” Pointing his other arm towards the screen on the wall facing the window, Fedlimid pushes his wrist forward and clenches a fist. The personal implant fitted just above the wrist flashes a tiny red LED, as Fedlimid announces clearly. “Planmap!”

The black screen spurts into life, and shimmers into a shape of a 2D map of the solar system viewed from above. Fedlimid leans forward and by relaxing his index finger slightly, causes a thin red laser to shoot out of his wrist implant. He drags the line along the nearly aligned planets, resembling a chain of different coloured beads. It wasn't perfect, that would be impossible. The planets didn't occupy the same plane, but were undeniably closer to each other than they had been for millennia. The laser point settled comfortably on Mars.

“Given how up in the office we only order the inferior proddie from Earth when it’s closer to us than Mars, I’m going to say its Martian meat. And I’ll take that Verne now please, I fancy I’ll buy myself some chew tobacco as a reward.” Dropping his chopstick into the now empty bowl, he scratched his chin triumphantly.

Parvus also leaned forward, and rested his elbows on the table. In his human hand, the twirled and twisted the thick metal coin between his fingers. He flipped it into his multipurpose, which swallowed the Verne whole. “Your logic is irrefutable as usual Fed. But I’m afraid I went with the more classical option.” The receipt was nudged across the table into Fed’s waiting grasp, as Parvus stood and walked towards the door. Fedlimid pulled the docket up to his eyes, and squinted. It was Earthen alright, it was actually signed in Old English. The Latin letters were rare enough outside of Mercury and Earth itself, so Fed recognised them instantly. And the E.R.C.O symbol was faded, but still apparent behind the writing.

“Thirty Vernes!” Fedlimid suddenly exclaimed as his eyes reached the bottom of the paper. “Christ Parv where did you pull that from? Kept quiet about that last emonth when we needed the lights rewiring.” Fedlimid also stood, and followed Parvus to the door, picking up his binder off the bedside cabinet. Checking to make sure nothing was missing, he resealed the binder and tucked it under his arm.

“Come on boyo, you’ll be late. And as I said.” Replied Parvus, turning to open the door out to the hall. “You’re not 100 every day.” The robot chuckled smugly and left the apartment. Fedlimid cursed quietly as he forced his way into his slip-ons, and yanking the heel of one over his foot also left the room, shutting the door behind him with a flick of his wrist. Patting the jacket, he confirmed the presence of his tablet, wallet, and a small bag of Vernes and Heins. Parvus was waiting patiently in the lift now, extending and retracting his multipurpose impatiently. Fedlimid jumped in just as the robot pinged the lift to close.

“In a hurry?” Fed asked, as he zipped up his jacket. “Didn’t realise AI liaisons was in such a hubbub on Fritags.”

“Fridays. And no hurry.” Parvus replied lightly. “Although we are a lot busier than usual. The alignment’s dragging a lot of satellites into our orbit, and Capitol’s eager to make good first impressions.”

As the lift hummed, Fedlimid turned curiously. “Venusian satellites? What the hell are isolated AIs doing orbiting Venus? Didn’t they shoot that weird Buddha statue down recently?”

“No, no. It’s mainly bodies from Earth which we’re picking up. I didn’t really imply the actual scale of these orbits.” Parvus pulled his tablet out from its sheath on his torso, the screen already showing the picture he offered Fedlimid. “Maybe I didn’t express the scale, we’re talking extremely wide ellipses. Like our Perigee station, but wider.”

As Parvus descended into technobabble, his beady black eyes stopping their incessant darting around as he described a particularly interesting Neuvobrazza satellite consciousness, Fedlimid phased out. He was used to ignoring Parv’s bouts of passion about his job, and took the opportunity to think about his birthday. He and Saruit had been planning it all week. Saruit was Fedlimid’s best human friend who worked in Apollodorus, roughly three hours away by magtrain. He’d be riding over for the big celebration, as the nightlife in Caloris was the best in Mercury. They’d not decided on a venue yet, but Fed’s work mate Conair knew the entire shop a lot better than the both of them and Parvus combined, so he’d find something for them to do. They’d also need to visit Harrier for their drugs and drink. Harrier was normally out of Fed’s price range, for but his birthday he thought he’d splash out. His father would probably transfer some funds for the occasion, if he sat through an intranet call with him from Mava. Fedlimid’s mother lived on Titan so he doubted she would be making an appearance, aside from a longwave message wishing him the best from her and her wife.

The powerful shunt of the elevator hitting the roof of the shaft in the managerial district woke both Fedlimid and Parvus from their respective stupors. The two waved goodbye to one another, then quickly turned back to confirm a meeting place for this evening. Agreeing on outside Harriers, a bit later than Parvus would have liked so Fedlimid could talk to his father. Parvus patted his human friend on the shoulder, wished him a happy birthday one more time, before waving goodbye. Fed stood outside the lift for a moment thinking. Then he walked down the corridor to his office.