In the City of Brass

Jed I - part two of a Story from Moros.  

Jed’s eyes closed. A wave of pleasure erupted from his penis. His back arched as much as it could a slow groan began to echo from his throat. An unknowable period elapsed, suddenly interrupted by a soft shape sweeping over his belly. She was climbing down from him, halfway obscured by the peak of his hill of skin. The white, little woman slid over to the edge of the bed. The violet sheets only highlighted the silky, ice-like color of her skin. The curves were such that Jed felt he could study them for hours. Hints of her spine dotted her back, along with droplets of sweat - which he could not tell if were hers or his. At the top of her neck began the pink-fringed, black and white colored hair.

“Do you have any towelettes or something?” she asked. She turned about, the spectacular hair giving way to reveal her soft face. Black lipstick, small nose and slanted eyes surrounded by eyeliner darker than night. Jed could already tell the mix of disdain and self-loathing shaping her expression. She’s so innocent, Jed thought, the sweat is vexing her. Jed nodded and pointed toward the counter.

She got up, turned on the light with a tap on the enviro-panel and started opening drawers on the counter. Jed’s tiny apartment lit up, revealing a small kitchen module, a large VR-nest and the dresser. The girl fidgeted a bit, wiping her groin with a towelette. She walked around the corner, towards the bathroom, Jed’s eyes on her the entire time.

“Hey, Shira,” Jed said, his voice slightly raspy. “Do you want to have a shower next time?”

There was a moment of silence. “You’re kidding,” she replied, her voice echoing from the bathroom.

“Nope,” Jed said and grinned at the mottled ceiling.

Shira appeared around the corner again, half-dressed with a tight shorts and a blouse in hand. She looked at him, expecting him to say something. Jed looked down from the ceiling and met her eyes. So innocent, Jed thought.

“I’m overhauling a hab up in third level,” Jed said. “The family is gone for two weeks and I got the keys. I can pretty much come and go as I please.”

Jed felt a sudden pang of pressure. Thoughts of work began to flood his mind. In a few hours, he would be toiling in a disgusting recycling system or replacing parts of a energy management system. Looking at Shira’s body made him long for the moment to last. But she was leaving soon and work was only a few hours away. A sense of dread washed over him, and the faces of his employers popped into his mind’s eye. They all looked at him with disapproval - the hab had not met expectations. He had not done a good enough job. One of the employers also knew he was sleeping with Shira. His disapproving frown was the worst, each shake of his head sounding like the toll of a bell. He shook his head and tried to ignore those thoughts. No one had even looked at his work on the hab, and no one knew about Shira.

Shira had found the last of her clothes and was about to be fully dressed. She picked up an umbrella looked at Jed, whom had barely moved. She had not replied to his proposition. Jed leaned up and supported his weight with his arms, looking expectantly at Shira.

“You’re full of bullshit,” Shira said, Jed willfully ignoring the contempt. Jed laughed and picked a keyring from the counter. He held it up so she could see its silver adorned patterns - typical of high-habitat keyrings. Her almond eyes widened.

“It’s real,” Jed said. “Heated shower, fruit, a view of the southern tower.”

“I’m busy until wednesday,” Shira said with a flat tone, trying to sound dismissive.

“Whatever works, koishii,” Jed said and smiled.

Shira made a tsk tsk sound and shook her head. “See you on Wednesday then,” she said and started towards the door. Jed just lay down, closed his eyes. Shortly after, he heard the front door hiss open and shut. And after that followed a darkness and silence that was not interrupted by anything.

---

The dreamless darkness and silence was interrupted by the sour, harsh tones of the alarm clock. Jed jumped to and opened his eyes to a dark apartment - fans of streetlights reached through the blinds over his window. He made a defeated sigh and climbed down from his bed. The routine begins, he thought bitterly and walked into the bathroom. He bent down awkwardly, almost crashing with the cabinet and sat down on the toilet. “News,” he yawned while relieving himself. A projection of his social media feed appeared on the wall opposite of the toilet. A list of condensed stories rolled down on the wall, framed with images of muscular men, savory snack-bars and high-tech tools. In between the stories, images from his friends appeared, showing what meals they were eating and what not. Nothing from Shira, Jed thought and sighed. He looked at the towelette dispenser and pondered. Nah, he thought. He wasn’t going to meet anyone today anyway.

The Brasswater-labeled jumpsuit hung by the dresser, mottled slightly with a variety of liquids. He forced the jumpsuit over his lower legs, then with a patient effort slid it the entire way up. The thighs almost felt vacuum-packed. Zipping up wasn’t an option, to which Jed had resigned his feelings long ago. He wrapped on a Brasswater jersey and finally put on a condenser-mesh. I look dumb, Jed thought as he glanced at the mirror in the bathroom.

“Leaving,” he announced to the hab AI and walked through the doorway, the door slid open with a mild hiss and closed after he passed through. The corridor of his hab block was as neglected as the rest of his hab. Pieces of flyers, scraps of food, pocketfuls of sand, all strewn along the corridors to the elevator. Jed ambled along while skimming the feed on his infotab. He felt easier staring at the bits of stories on the feed, which relieved him of the burden of thinking. A story about a successful entrepenur in Molinete had repeated itself at least five times in the feed.

“Genious Gomio Villada seals billion credit deal with Halcon Security & Assets,” Jed read. Jed had kept an eye on Villada for some time, considering his drone prototypes to be amazing. Four years ago Villada had introduced the Sei, a dirigible that was fully automated, capable of freighting 120 tons of payload over several thousand kilometers. It was fast and competitive in comparison to the freight-rovers, which had also garnered him quite a deal of hate. The freight-rovers were the lifeblood of Spice Basin - anything that could upset that was dangerous, but so exciting idea.

Jed stepped into the elevator and tapped the transit-level button. Normally he would not have to, but the public hab AI license had expired a few weeks back. The hab block had run out of funds some time ago and services were failing slowly. It meant more manual work. Disposing garbage in a dumpster, purchasing water canisters at the market and buying food to put in the refrigerator. Jed sighed at the thought as he closed the Villada story. He wanted to stare outside, but apparently someone had covered up the window in the elevator. The elevator slid along the exterior of the hab block, which usually allowed him to watch the streets below. Now, however, a cheap epoxy-fiber plate had been glued in its place. Some drunk asshole must have broken it, Jed thought.

The transit level was silent, lit by white LED lights and filled with a variety of el-carts, containers and piles of trash. A small sandbank had formed by the ramp that led to street level. In the morning, when Jed went for work, most others were still in bed. I could be in my bed, Jed thought, considering the work hours he had. He walked over to an el-cart with the name Maxab stenciled onto it. Years ago, he had named the vehicle after his favorite ring-fighter. Maxab the Blood Drinker, Jed thought as he read the name. It had only taken half a year before Maxab had been killed in the ring, to Jed he was a legend. Jed made a jab with his left arm and awkwardly side-stepped and knee-kicked an invisible opponent. Another right handed jab struck home in the invisible opponent, causing Jed’s heart to race. A wave of pressure unfolded from the back of his head and down his neck. He launched a third jab, soundly destroying the invisible opponent, before sitting down on the el-cart. The vehicle shifted and lurched as his weight loaded onto it, the suspension system lowering the frame by a few centimeters.

“Maxab wins!” he announced with a throaty roar. His applause came in the form of a few startled rats, which skittered away. Victoriously, he pressed the main switch of his el-cart, which lit up an instrument panel and made some fans whirr. The battery counter displayed a disappointing seven percent. Jed’s eyes widened. “FUUUUUUUUCK!”

He connected the charger cable and trudged up toward the street, head hanging low. He flicked up his infotab, typing in “tram to” before the search box suggested “tram to hadayiq district level 3”. A table of travel paths popped up, showing that he could arrive there in forty minutes. At least ten minutes late, Jed thought and felt the disapproving nod from Zi’ah, his employer in hadayiq. Punctuality was a must in that part of the city. Nobody wanted people like him to be seen there after the sun rose. It took him a few minutes to reach the nearest tram point, where him and a few others waited for the tram to arrive. A boring old man, two school boys and a middle-aged woman stood in around the stop. The old man sat by the bench, leaning on a cane, while the boys were busy with a infotab that made game-like sounds. Jed flicked up his infotab again and opened up his feed, which revealed yet two more stories about Villada and another story about the injustices at Shenzen Arcology. Jed couldn’t care less about the sob stories from Shenzen, and scrolled past. Sure, some people have it worse, but that’s how it has to be, Jed reflected.

The tram eventually rolled by and came to a halt with a mellow whine, its doors hissing open to reveal its fluorescent lit interior. Jed walked while scrolling his feed, barely noticing that he was about to collide with somebody. A lithe, young lady, wearing a evening host dress, looked with wide eyes at him. East Asian descent, Jed noticed, with all the right features. Her skin was milky white, not too mottled with freckles, one of her locks of hair colored with silvery white. Her eyes were augmented, pupils a hazy mix between violet and emerald green. He didn’t notice that his mouth had opened until she shifted and around her disappeared behind him. Shira, Jed thought. Every second of her locks were white, adhering to the strange “checker” fashion. He met her by chance, only two months ago, over at the MaCheKor arcade. Much like any gaming arcade, it was filled with VR booths, Vision couches, vendor machines and bar set in the middle of the locale much like a fighting ring in an arena. A never ending staccato of sharp beats, intermingled with sweeping synth tones. It had been a Saturday evening, and Jed was out to refill his fryngi when she had stepped out of a Vision couch. At first, she had only thrown her a glance, but then given him a second look. Jed felt wave of heat strike his forehead, electric tingle dancing over his cheeks and forearms.

“Fryngi, huh?” she had said as she walked over and leaned her back against the vendor machine next to him. She had arched her back, her lower ribs accenting her midriff. She wore a white sports top and a short skirt, which Jed never even knew he liked.

“Uh…” Jed struggled to find even the most basic words, all while she had gently reached out to his plastic fryngi box and picked up a spiced, crispy mushroom. Panicked, he sought for an impressive sentence to lay out. Yeah, I eat them every day, Jed considered. No, too unhealthy, he retorted to himself. She moved the mushroom to her black lips, exposing alabaster teeth which sank into its cap. “I love fryngi everyday,” he said with a unexpected whiney voice. She think’s I’m dumb, she thinks I’m dumb, she thinks I’m dumb. To his utter surprise, she smiled.

“Do you play any Vee?” Shira asked.

“Who doesn’t, right?” Jed quipped and grinned more than he ever would have. He realized he might have fallen into a pitfall - less than ten percent of the lower levels citizens had Vision sockets. Shira didn’t seem to mind.

“Espejo negro?” she asked, referring to a Vision game.

“Yeah, I’ve tried it, but I’m usually more into Daedelus Wars,” Jed said.

“Try it with me?” she pleaded with a perky voice, which made Jed’s belly tingle, his heart race.

“Sure! You want another fryngi?” he replied.

“Eumud Al’Awasat” Shira said with a monotone, synthetic voice. What? Jed thought.

He snapped to, feeling the deceleration of the tram. Ahead of him he saw a couple of passengers gather by the exit. Jed pounced up and sauntered out of the tram. The station was at the center of the city, where elevators could take him from bottom to third level in a few minutes. He headed to the closest elevator, scrolling through the recentmost feed threads, this time making a note of a new pixie band that debuted two nights ago. Shira listens to them. The elevator was a glass pod, lined with brass handrails and a black infopanel.

“Almustawaa alththalith”, he said, butchering Malikaans, but pronouncing it sufficiently enough for the Host AI to register it. The response was instant, accelerating the pod upwards, letting Jed see the dust-covered, beige and russet concrete streets from above. Stained brass ceilings glinted with street lights and neon signs that had yet to be turned off. A beat later he could see clear sky, which was faintly approaching dusk - Nyx barely emerging in the eastern horizon. The towers were more apparent from the first level as well, with blocky and crudely angled hab-blocks giving way to the more classic Maliki architecture, ivory buildings with brass onion domes, elegantly adorned with floral lines and leaf shaped windows. Second level was less covered with buildings but rather lined with verdant gardens. It was on a terrace of the city massif, which overlooked first level and the underlevel where Jed lived. It ended where the cliffside began, and where the third level built. Burnished transit funiculars rose from the second level to the third level, appearing from the orchards like sleek beetles, nesting against the sand-hued cliff.

A soft bell sound rang as he reached the third level. The doors silently opened and Jed trudged out while refresing his infotab. There was a sparse crowd of citizens dressed in silk robes and suits, awaiting as the tram arrived. Unlike the one at the underlevel, this one had windows, bright paint and chairs lined with velvet. Jed felt too dirty to even sit in one and settled with standing by the door. Only two stops, he thought and looked into the infotab, ignoring the indignant stares from some of the third-level citizens.

Another story popped up on the feed, this time an article about Villada and alleged connections to the Lost Colony. Jed frowned and suppressed a laugh. The first two paragraphs seemed to question Villada’s place of birth, while the rest speculated about where his tech company - Industrias Futuras - got all its innovations from. It was mental garbage and failed to even make a connection to the Lost Colony story. As far as Jed could remember, the Lost Colony myth was that allegedly Colony One had sent an expedition that met a disastrous fate, which afterwards the ship AI simply removed from the logs to cover up the failure. Jed had not quite made up his mind on what he found plausible. These days, most people knew next to nothing about Colony One - and artificial intelligences were often quite shady.

The tram reached his stop. Not far from the stop was the estate he was assigned to. Whoever built the estate had no shame. From the street, the house itself was not visible, as palm trees and hedges blocked out his view. He walked over to the service gate, finally having tired of his infotab and pocketed it. His keyring signalled the gate automatically, which caused the gate to silently open. A few steps from the gate brought him into the garage yard, where various estate vehicles were parked, as well as the service entries to the building itself. While the family was on vacation, most of the staff was also away. If anything, the estate was decorated to the point of being obnoxious. Jed almost sighed as he passed a couple of golden statues of toddlers, playing in a pond. Having a pond, or statues that sprayed water, was close to insane in his city. Only the rich could do that.

The interior of the estate was even more garish than the garden, with gold-plated furniture, chandeliers inlaid with gems and indoor fountains that trickled with water. A slender brass robot unfastened from the wall next to a service terminal and spoke with a soft and pleasant voice.

“Greetings Jed Braxley,” the robot said as it approached him. It looked spindly, with limbs thinner than his thumb. By design, they were meant to look non-threatening, but Jed knew they could just as well lift a man and hurl him several meters. “May I carry your toolbag for you?”

“Uh,” Jed grunted. “That’s alright, just show me where to find the central machine.”

“Certainly, Mr. Braxley,” the robot said and turned on the spot. The two walked through half of the estate, down to the basement, where the tone of decoration abruptly changed from luxurious to spartan. They had barely even bothered to set up wall plates in some of the frame sections. Eventually, more and more wires became visible, indicating that they got closer to the central machine. After rounding the next corner, the central machine was visible. It was a great, black device studded with several LED lights and pale blue screens. A mass of wires converged from the entire estate, ending in banks of connector points in the machine itself. The air felt decidedly warmer too, as the machine had several coolant fans whirring at all times.

“I may need you to do patching work for me,” Jed said. “Do you have a maintenance module?”

“I wish to assist you,” the robot said. “However, I am entirely built for social service. There are other robots in the workshop that can assist you.”

“Fine,” Jed said. “Activate those and have them report here.”

Jed began to work with the machine, setting it in diagnostic mode. The massive estate had thousands of systems linked to the central machine, ranging from climate control to entertainment devices. Switching the central machine to diagnostic mode had one benefit, which was that the internal security systems went down. Those prying security cameras made him feel uncomfortable.

In the next few hours, he mostly worked on running system analysis. It was time consuming work, which mainly meant Jed had the opportunity to walk around in the estate. Most of the actual work was automated, and his patch computer was linked to his infotab. If he had been able to set up a tunnel to the internet, he could have done much of the work from home. However, at home he did not have such ready access to water. The estate owner wouldn’t mind if Jed drank some water here.

Walking around in the massive building made him wonder how it would be like to actually live there. Aside from the bathroom, he only had one room in his apartment, while the estate was just shy of two hundred. He passed by a bedroom, its door open. He checked on the infotab, which indicated it was the room of Lahyia, the 21 year old daughter of the estate owner. He ventured a peek through the doorway, revealing a wide bed, two dressers and a lavish mirror. A desk was set against the opposite wall of the bed, which was littered with the young woman’s paraphernalia. For a moment, he imagined Shira sitting by the desk, applying makeup or maybe playing with her infotab.

A new impulse struck Jed. With a rush of excitement, which tingled across his back and up his belly, he walked over to one of the dressers. He slid open a drawer, revealing neatly folded underwear. He felt an uncanny mix of excitement and shame, then picked up a panty. It smelled of lilac perfume and almost glittered in his hands. It was silk - real silk. He manipulated the cloth with his fingers for a bit and then put it in his pocket. He imagined Shira wearing the underwear, the white of her skin meeting against the mocha colors of the panties.

---

“Sir, I believe your work hours are beginning soon,” a pleasant voice told Jed. He struggled, but his eyes opened. He was next to the central machine - the brass servant robot standing a few paces away. “Would you like some breakfast?”

“Uh,” Jed sighed. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

He struggled to his feet. It had been a long day. He had eventually decided not to go home and rather sleep on his work mat. He shook his head a bit, forcing himself to wake up. He still had to unpackage the water recyclers by the east wing, he considered. Then it struck him that it was Wednesday. Shira would be visiting.

“Servant,” Jed said before the robot almost walked out of sight. “An assistant will be visiting today.”

“An assistant, sir?”

“Yes, her ID is Shira Nako,” Jed replied.

The robot was silent for a moment, the lights of the central machine reflecting over its brass surfaces. “That ID is not registered with your employer,” the robot said flatly.

“Ah, yes, she’s an ad-hoc contractor,” Jed lied, poorly.

“Adding her to the guest list,” the robot replied.

The robot returned after a few minutes, bringing a tray with a bowl of yogurt and cereals, a glass of juice and a protein bar. Servant food, Jed thought. He ate some of it while checking on the infotab. It would probably take around two days to update most of the life support systems.

The next four hours passed by sleepily. Jed was about to reset the air filtration controls in the workshop when his infotab beeped. Feed from the security camera at the gate showed Shira looking somewhat bored. He pressed the unlock button and Shira seemed to notice. She’s finally here, Jed thought and began walking up to the servant entrance. He felt the same excitement, the rush in his belly, the tickling sensation. The anticipation of touching Shira was overpowering. He tapped the lock button by the entrance, which made the doors slide apart.

Instead of Shira, there were three men at the door. Dressed like Underlevel denizens, they could pass for street thugs, for all Jed cared. They were of the same ethnic configuration as Shira. The man in the middle sneered and stepped inside, then sidestepped Jed. The two others followed, before Shira stepped into view. She looked at him with a blank face.

“Shira…” Jed whispered.

“Nice digs you got here,” one of the men said. “I can’t wait to make some cash out of this.”

Shira stepped past him and walked into the hallway. Jed’s eyes followed her as she walked over to the man who had sneered at him. She leaned up against him, her arms around his waist. She looked beautiful, but Jed’s anticipation had been purged and replaced with a harrowing heat and pulsing adrenaline.

“My girl did good,” the man said.

“Shira,” Jed said.

“What? You thought she loved you?” the man said. “She’s a whore.” Shira didn’t blink. “Give her enough creds and she’ll blow me and my buddies right here.”

“No…” Jed said. This was not supposed to happen. Shira looked at him like he was a stranger, which hurt more than he could have ever imagined. His chest felt like it was caving in. His eyes were blurring. His fists clenched together, his nails digging into his palms. He wanted it all to go away.

---

His apartment felt bleak. Empty. He had left the estate in something that did not quite feel like rage, but it was bad enough. On the way to the tram, he had instructed the servant robots to evict the men… and Shira. He browsed for job openings on rovers. Anything that could get him away. He had applied to the Davica, Rose and the Yosai-Fu.

Tears still running from his eyes, he started packing whatever he had in his apartment. The VR station, the Vision adapter and some of his clothes. The sheets from when Shira had visited were still on the bed. He touched the sheet and imagined her sitting on the edge of the bed. However, when she looked at him, she had the flat stare that she had at the estate. He closed his eyes, pressing more tears onto his cheeks. Why, Shira? he asked - no, begged.

His infotab beeped. He opened his eyes again and picked up the infotab. It was a message from a Centia Alessandro. She was asking him to meet aboard the Rose.