Future Vision: Chapter 8
Chap 8
GP had gotten up a few minutes after Nexus had left, and left the cold empty bay in the same silence he had entered it. He didn't want to bother using the lift and opted to take the stairs up to the bar which had been installed without military permission.
Thinking back on it GP remembered coming up with the plan to build it, and the perfect place to set it all up. It was in a secluded part of the station, and while the entire station went through rigorous inspections monthly, the never looked in a few spots on the assumption that it was fine. One such spot was the lift generator system, and where the bar was located. The generator system like all maintenance systems was only 2 level up from the bay on floor LQ-1 in a somewhat large subjunction.
As he climbed the stairs in the enclosed stairwell, he thought of what he was going to have for a drink. He didn't plan on getting shitfaced since that had a nasty habit of making matters worse, but he did want to forget about his pain and loneliness for a while.
Reaching the desired floor he pushed open the large red metal door that lead out of the stairwell and entered the first floor living quarters. All though still hollow in the middle and shaped like a ring, this was one of the three floors in the orbital that was enclosed and had a roof. There were no missing side panels and all the lighting was indirect and spawned from within recessed lighting in the ceiling and walls. It was still however unpainted bare metal and a very lightly carpet floor, and despite housing military Vari who were known to be rough it was still clean and taken care of.
GP took the first right out of the lift and made his way to the opposite side of the orbital. It was a long walk of over 2 kilometers but he knew it would give him time to think, which was something he desperately needed right then more than anything.
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As Nexus ran back down to the receiving bay, the only thing he could think of was how bad he screwed up. How could he have possibly missed the signs? Everything was so obvious now that it made him feel shallow and stupid.
While he was on the lift he screamed inside of his head hoping the force would urge it to descend faster, which was the exact opposite of what happened. The lift clamped down on its magnetic rails between the two floors of the RB-1 and RB-2 level and signaled a critical malfunction by emitting a continuous beep.
"Damn it to hell" he managed to yell under his breath as he pawed the lifts grating with enough force to cause it to buckle than snap back in place. Each level was separating by 3 meters of pipes, wires, and crawl space, and the lift was stuck right in the middle.
Nexus reached up and unlatched the handles holding the emergency escape grate in place and pushed it up out of place. He reached up and grabbed the edge of the opening with his paws and pulled himself out of the cage that was once a lift. Curiosity getting a better hold of him he took the time to look at the pads on the top of the lift and inspect the damage and found that the pads were so scourge and gummed up with debris that it had been drawing more power than the electrical cables could handle and burned out the whole system. Thankfully the pads were pneumatic so if power loses were to occur they clamped down on the rail with more than 4000 Psi, making 500 Psi per pad.
Nexus look up for the secondary lift door and found roughly a meter and a half above him. He never much liked the idea of climbing, and with how smooth the rails were the idea seemed more unappealing. Regardless he grabbed hold of the rail closest to the door and pulled himself up. The task proved to be damn near painful reaching the door and having to climb onto the small ledge that was less than a half a meter long. He swore that if was any heavier he would have fallen all the way back down or lose his balance on the ledge.
Holding onto the small cross bracing above the door, he punched buttons on the mechanically operated control panel. It matched the now modern holographic panels, and everything was in the same order minus some special menus, but was regular old buttons.
Nexus finished punching in the override code and the door opened sliding to the right and hiding in its little crook. Nexus wanted to scream since 30 standard minutes had gone by since he began his ride in the lift, but settled with cursing at himself in his head for being lazy and taking it in the first place.
Turning quickly and looking for the stairs, he found them roughly 12 meters to the left of the lift and made a dash for them. He'd be damned if he was going to let anything stop him.
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As the D.J. handed GP the microphone, he tried to think of the song he wanted to sing. He searched through the datapad the D.J. had handed him and to his amazement it had a good selection of songs that could describe his feelings, but most were either sissy or whiny. He scrolled back up to start over again and no later than 5 seconds he found the exact song he wanted to sing. It was a very old song that was well before his species time, or for that matter space travel. He handed the pad back to the D.J. who nodded and prepared his equipment for the playback of such an ancient file.
GP watched as the song went through a conversion process and than a silent test to make sure it did not degrade the original data. There was a muffled beep from the audio equipment once it was done with the test, and loaded the file into the player.
GP nodded for the D.J. to start the song, and let himself for a free brief seconds get lost in his own world. He mentally recalled every word of the song in his head as well as the rhythm and emotion behind them. GP closed his eyes and felt himself loosen up.
"When our time is up..."
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Nexus was both miffed yet not surprised when he did not find GP in the hanger. He was gone for a good hour and a half and why he didn't realize sooner he might be elsewhere was beyond him. The question on his mind now was where could he have gone? As he leaned over the railing of the RB-2 catwalk above the hanger, something clicked at the back of his mind. He focused as hard as he could to bring it into something useful, tried to clarify the memory, and then with a sudden ping he remembered.
"Oh shit karaoke night!" he yelled aloud to know one but dark silent walls which only in turn reflected his apparent fact back at him.
He ran out of the hanger to the lift and punched the call button only to remember that it was broken and mentally punched himself again for not having the competency to remember obvious stuff. He ran 10 meters back to the stairwell and climbed his way up with unrelenting energy skipping full 4 steps with every stride.
It took him no more than 5 minutes to reach the LQ-1 level where the secret bar was installed, but knowing he still had another 2 KM to go kept him from stopping and catching his breath. The distance he had to cover wasn't long for a Vari, military or not, but he didn't exactly have the best "lap time" and knew it was still going to take him about another 5 minutes to reach the room. The bright side of it was that it gave him time to think about the next step he had to take, and how to go about it.
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"when our lives are done, will we say we've had our fun, will we make a mark this time? will we always say we tried."
As GP inhaled to prepare himself for the chorus he saw Nexus run into the bar, but instead of calming him making him more depressed, it seemed to fuel his song. For the few seconds of pause, which seemed to be stuck in a time dilation, he thought back to what had driven him to Nexus. Nexus was quiet but not shy, obeyed all the rules of the Vari culture and standards, was smaller than him but by no means weak. He thought about that last string for a second and tried to process a word that could define that strength that Nexus actually had, but none came to mind and he had a chorus line to sing.
"Standing On The Rooftops
Everybody Scream Their Heart Out
Standing On The Rooftops
Everybody Scream Your Heart Out
Standing On The Rooftops
Everybody Scream Your Heart Out
This Is All We Got Now
Everybody Scream Your Heart Out
All the love I've met, I have no regrets, If it all ends now, I'm set, Will we make a mark this time? Will We always say We Tried"
GP opened his eyes and saw tears in Nexus's with his ears folded flat against his head, and had a sudden ping of guilt as if he had done something wrong. Nexus turned slowly and walked out, tail still as the night air. GP opted to finish the song but with less enthusiasm, but he got cheer and applause all the same. He no longer felt like drinking much less hanging out with anyone, and what he really wanted just walked away.