Sector 7, zone 2.
Arron walked down the cramped streets filled with large warehouses, garages, and mechanic shops, there was little to no human traffic or even hovercars passing through the area.
Even though right now in many other sectors and zones of the first level the roads were clogged with the evening rush hour, his only company on this street was the hundreds of flying drones carrying metal boxes, a large presence of patrolling security drones, and Chewy.
Chewy was sniffing the ground leading the way to Arron’s target for this outing. He had decided that instead of using the well-tested NavGuide he would test out Chewy’s new navigation system.
He really couldn’t tell a difference between the two other than one was a light pixie and one was a robotic dog. Although he did not know why the researchers had programmed Chewy’s navigation mode to make her sniff the ground while she led him to the desired destination. It made him look like he was a hunter that was hunting some big game inside the city.
Chewy stopped and sat down in front of a decent-sized Garage. She turned her head and looked back at Arron proudly, “Arf.”
“This is the place?” asked Arron, looking at the holo-card he had been given some time ago, and then back up at the sign on the garage.
“Huh, it was quite easy getting here,” said Arron, as he looked at the open door to the building where a lot of loud mechanical noises were coming from.
“Should we go in?” he asked Chewy.
“Arf!”
Arron walked to the open door but before he could enter, two well-worn cleaning bots popped out from the side of the entrance and blocked his way with a thick metal mop and a broom which they waved threateningly at Arron.
Chewy let out low electric growls at the bots ready to pounce and tear the old bots into garbage.
“Chewy sit,” said Arron putting his hand on Chewy’s back. “Hello? Anyone here?”
The loud whirs and thuds continued just as loud as before.
Arron waited for a minute before getting ready to shout again but he was stopped as he heard a pair of footsteps making their way toward him.
Two females appeared out from between rows of towering sturdy shelves filled with parts. They were rather young appearing to be in their early to mid-twenties, not exactly who he was expecting to see in such a rundown part of town.
Arron stared at the older of the two girls who was wearing glasses and had a stern look in her eyes as she took a solid stance in front of him.
She looked at Arron’s uniform that he was still wearing and then quickly inspected Chewy with a great interest for a few seconds. When she looked back at Arron she saw that he was still staring at her.
“Yes, I am Jena,” said Jena in a tired voice.
“Who?” asked a confused Arron.
“Jena,” she said confidently. Before she could decline to give him an autograph…
“Am I supposed to know you?” asked Arron, a bit confused.
Chewy looked between Jena and Arron just as confused as he was.
Jena blinked a few times and was quite shocked at hearing this.
“Are you a caveman? How could you not know who Jena is?” asked the younger girl standing near Jena.
“I guess you could say that. I was in the military until some time ago, so I am still getting up to date on a lot of things. With all my work I don’t keep up on local politics unless it affects my job.”
“What? Jena is not a politician! She’s the best actress in all of my favorite movies and Tv shows!”
“Oh?” asked Arron his eyebrow-raising in doubt.
“That’s enough Julia,” said Jena holding up her hand to stop the heated Julia from blowing a gasket. “Sir, may I ask why you have come to our garage?”
Arron accessed the Holo-card and let it float visibly above his hand.
“An old man who is friends with Chief Chesty told me to come here if I ever needed parts.”
Hearing this the two perked up. Although they were not losing money like before it was still a struggle to keep above water with the bubble burst still affecting the market as well as new regulations always popping up.
“Ah! You have indeed come to the right place. We have many rare and hard-to-find parts here! And if we do not have it we can find it for you for a low fee,” said Jena ready to pounce. A new fire was lit in her eyes as she looked at Arron like he was a luxurious full meal course.
Chewy stepped in front of Arron and let out warning growls letting Jena know she was not allowed to eat her butler/personal attendant.
“What a strange robo-dog toy. I haven’t seen one like it before. Is it one of the newest models on the 4th level?” asked Jena.
“A research Prototype,” said Arron as he grabbed onto the harness he had made to keep Chewy under control.
“Ah! Where are my manners? Please come right this way to my office where we can discuss what parts you need and see if we can help you with anything else,” said Jena.
Arron held Chewy’s harness tightly, stopping her from jumping at several parts on the lower shelves as they passed through the rows of thousands of random parts.
Arron entered a small office that only had a desk, two hover chairs, and a few data-bank server cabinets.
“If you have a list of the parts you need, I can do a quick search of our inventory and get the items to you quickly if we do have them,” said Jena sitting behind the metal desk.
Arron accessed the files on his wrist-datapad and then swiped the recently created list toward Jena.
The list opened up hovering over the desk on the right side while she tapped onto a holo-keypad and opened another window to start her search for the parts.
“Looks like we have everything you need,” said Jena a few moments later as she tapped a few more options on a menu. “The service drones will gather the parts shortly.”
Arron was quite pleased with the quick and efficient process. These parts were hard to get as they were more advanced than the normal parts seen on level 1 of the mega-city.
Seeing Arron still staring at her she politely asked, “Is there something else I can help you with?”
“I was just wondering… Why do you still wear glasses?”
“Uhh…” Jena was thrown for a loop at the question.
Ping! Bleep!
Several opaque blinking notifications popped up over her desk causing Jena to frown after reading them.
She pressed a button on her desk and a third screen popped up over her desk as the internal call connected to a second office.
A familiar face of the old man he met before popped up over the desk.
“How can I help you, my beautiful niece? Wait… shouldn’t you already be off work for today?”
Her uncle saw her accusing gaze and tried to flatter her to try and soothe her anger, even though he had no idea what he did this time.
“How many times do I have to tell you to stop moving parts from their designated spot?”
“I was just polishing them,” said the old man while he scratched his head. “What’s this all about?”
“We have a customer waiting for parts, but the service drones can not find a few of them because of ‘Polishing’ habits.”
“Oh? I’ll be right over!”
“Bring the…” the call cut off before she could finish her sentence.
A few seconds later the door opened.
“Ah! It’s the new officer under the chief! I knew It was the right idea to give you my business card. What brings you here?” asked the old man as he walked over to the desk and looked at the list.
“Hmm, hmm, yes… I see why you came here. Follow me, I can get the parts you need!”
“You wouldn’t have to get it yourself if the parts were in their proper place!” said an exasperated Jena.
As the old man walked to the door he noticed Chewy standing next to Arron.
“Oh! Is this the new prototype I heard about from the chief?” asked the old man, forgetting all about the hunt for parts, and walked over to Chewy to begin a thorough inspection.
Chewy’s ears flattened back as she leaned away from Jena’s uncle and moved closer to Arron while letting out a few quiet electric whines pleading for Arron to save her from the crazy man.
“Ahem,” Arron cleared his throat loud enough to bring the old man back to his senses.
“Oh right, the parts. Right, this way!”
Arron followed right behind the old man and Jena while Chewy stayed as close to Arron as she could, almost tripping him a few times.
As they made their way to the wayward parts Arron found an old model 1967 Phord Zelby ZT500 hover-car. His eyes grew large as he inspected it. Unfortunately, it was not in the best shape and was missing many parts.
“You have a good eye for old hovercars, she’s a beauty right?”
“Definitely I would love to have one myself!” said Arron.
“I keep telling Jean that this is a special car all the time but she is always so grouchy. It is my passion project.”
“It’s taking up space that could be used for other things!” said Jena as she picked up the missing parts and then taped up a receipt for Arron.
“This will be the final price of everything. If you are satisfied with it we can ring up everything in the office and make the payment there.”
Arron grimaced when he looked at the cost but he needed the parts and there were few to no shops that could be really trusted so he only nodded his head.
“Great! You are helping us out big time by buying these. If you ever need other parts, come to us first! We also do mechanical odd jobs.” said Jena, full of smiles. After fishing up such a large sale her anger from before was non-existent.
