110918b

Wafer City

Wafer City is recycled orbiting scrap. The junk was a navigation hazard, and Indonesia was hired to clean it up. The ISF built a city 4 km across and 50 m thick out of garbage. It was cheaper than hauling the stuff away, and pretty soon they were renting space to small governments, fly-by-night corporations, and individuals who couldn't afford the rates charged by the space stations.

That's why I'm there. I run an off-grid storage business. I specialize in stuff you should throw away, but don't. Incriminating love correspondence, homemade porn videos, ugly keepsakes.

*

My first customer of the cycle. It's hard to judge ages in zero-G, where gravity doesn't drag your body down, but she looked very young.

"What can I do for you?" I asked.

"I need to stash something." She glanced around. "It doesn't look like you could keep a rat out. What kind of security do you have?"

"Only the fact that I store junk: no monetary value. My one rule."

She heaved a battered plastic crate up on the counter and passed me a credit chip.

*

She returned now and again, each time with an old duffel bag or the like. Until the last time. She looked frightened.

.

"I need the box. The blue box. I need it now."

"Sure. But what's the rush? You didn't break my rule, did you?"

"You don't understand. It's my son. He signed with Cybershipping. I have 22 hours to talk him out of it." I had evidently been rad wrong about her age.

"Why does he want to become a cyborg?"

"I don't know! I need the box now! He is ... his partner ... they were together a long time. He's impulsive. The box!"

I made a wild guess. "His partner was Dou Haffersen, the man who was sucked into the black hole." She nodded, biting her lip.

"It won't work, you know," I said. "You've got to show him WHY he needs to live, to testify. Ask him who will remember Dou, if his own partner becomes a machine."

"This will save him?" Her fingernails dug into my palm. I gently disengaged.

"I don't know," I said. She got up to leave. When she reached the door I called after her. "Tell me what happens."

She looked back over her shoulder. "Maybe."

I still have her stuff, though she's 3 months behind on the rent. I'll space it on the first if she doesn't show. Maybe.

End

From The Simian Transcript