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
