Several days later.
Arron stepped out of his apartment’s Mag-shoot and into the 300th-floor hallway.
Unlike his normal routine, he had not returned with Kix and Tooth after work.
Instead, he had gone to sector 12’s MagLev and waited a half hour for an important person.
“Riding on the MagLev has been on the to-do list for a while, so I decided to check it off today instead of my normal mode of transportation to come and see you. I have also been wanting to see what normal apartments look like,” said Yumi.
“Where are your usual guards?” asked Arron. This was something that was bothering him for some time.
“I snuck out of my room without them noticing! Tehee~,” said Yumi as she made a cute victory pose and stuck the tip of her tongue out while winking at Arron.
Arron decided not to comment on her odd pose as he did not know if this pose was a new fad in her social group or just her own weird personal quirk.
“That won’t cause any problems for us will it?” asked Arron.
“I left my father a note. It should be fine.”
Arron quickly unlocked the door to his apartment with his odd hand movements.
“Please after you,” said Arron stepping to the side of the open door.
“Thank you.”
Before Yumi could walk into the apartment, Chewy slid in front of her and slowly sauntered into the room first.
Yumi looked at Arron who only shrugged.
The door closed silently behind them as the lights in the room turned on.
Not much had changed inside his apartment over the many months that he had been living here. There were only two new additions to the living/dining area. A second-hand poofy couch and an old 2d holo-tv hanging on the wall, it was several generations behind the newest models on the market and was almost as old as him.
“How quaint,” said Yumi as she looked around at the almost bare apartment. “Did you just move in?”
“No, I’ve been living here ever since I moved here and got a job,” said Arron as he walked over to his small refrigerator which was rarely used. “Feel free to make yourself comfortable while I prepare dinner for the both of us.”
Arron accessed a few options on his Wrist-datapad and connected to the holo-tv, turning it on for Yumi to watch while he was busy cooking.
“I don’t pay for any of the extra shows so there are only the free news channels. I hope that is okay,” said Arron as he started to take out fresh ingredients from the refrigerator.
“You like watching the news?” asked Yumi curiously.
“I wouldn’t say I like it, but with all that is going I have to keep up to date on everything so I’m not left behind,” said Arron as he started preparing the fresh ingredients for cooking.
“I’m surprised that you know how to cook real food! Most people I know on the first level just eat synth energy-jelly or use a synth-processor to create different meals. Do you cook often?” asked Yumi, looking at Arron’s well-worn synth processor in the corner.
“Well… as a proper host, how could I offer you such a simple meal that was made from a synth processor,” said Arron. He was sweating a bit as he quickly decided not to open any of his few cabinets that were filled with nothing but synth energy-jelly and synth pouches for the processor.
He had spent a large chunk of his monthly rations all to get the items for this fancy dinner.
An awkward silence filled the air as the two did not know what else to talk about. The sound of Arron chopping, mincing and mashing the ingredients along with the low murmur of the news filled the silence.
“… the current 5-year plan set by the members under Mother and Father is on track to reach the goal well before the originally expected time frame ends,” said Kommy.
“That’s right Kommy, the current 5-year plan to limit births by offering a healthy reward to all women who receive sterilization has been a major success on every floor but the first level,” said Fela shaking her head in exasperation.
“They are only causing themselves more problems. I heard that those who did receive the large rewards and benefits have already seen their reputation rise and many others in their local community are jealous of all the benefits they have received.”
“In other news…”
Yumi turned to Arron and asked, “What do you think about the new 5-year plan for the Megacity?”
Arron was stumped for a second while he tried to find an answer that would not get him in trouble.
“It’s a bit odd. But they have their reasons for doing it I guess,” said Arron with a shrug.
“That’s all? You don’t have an opinion or find it anything more than ‘odd’.”
“I have seen and have to deal with more strange things every day so yeah…” said Arron, as the silence returned to the room once again.
Kommy’s voice continued to drone on as the two were quiet, “… Mother and Father have asked The Office of Reason to crack down on the new scammers who are creating fake college certificates for low-tier job interviews. They have stated that the majority of these certificates are easy to spot so you will be caught. To date, several thousands of troubled criminals have already been normalized by The Office of Reason.”
Arron finished cooking the food and placed it on a temperature plate. Which could keep the food hot or cold for as long as the food stayed on it. He grabbed two temperature glasses with one hand and grabbed a bottle of expensive wine, which he had to spend an even larger chunk of his food rations on. It was the price he had to pay just to get a rare wine that was not created with synth material.
While walking out from the small kitchen area, he accessed the couch’s menu and activated its main function.
The couch split into two chairs and moved several feet apart before turning 90* to face the other chair. From the base of where the two hovering couch chairs were previously, a white table rose and came to an average chest height between the two hover chairs.
Arron placed the glasses and wine on the table and then grabbed the piping hot food from the counter and slid them onto the table.
“Let’s eat!” said Arron as he popped the cork and began to pour Yumi a glass of the expensive wine.
They spent a pleasant half hour chatting about this and that while getting to know each other in more detail than their wild dates allowed before.
Still, they did not go too deep as neither of them wanted to nose into the other’s private life, mainly their job.
Arron was quick to clean up the plates, utensils, and glasses before putting them in the auto-washer and tapping on the couch menu to return it to its normal mode.
He plopped down next to Yumi so that he could watch the news with her and continue their chat.
“AH!” said Yumi, when a jealous Chewy hopped onto the couch shoving her metal body in between Arron and Yumi.
“Chewy, what are you doing?” asked Arron.
“Arf,” said Chewy nonchalantly.
“What an odd robo-dog. Where did you get it?”
“Uh… well it’s… I’m testing it out for a friend… they like creating things,” said Arron as he tried to say something believable but did not connect him to his real job. “And Chewy is a girl according to them.”
“How interesting… Anyways, how about we watch a movie! I know of several good ones that we can watch,” said Yumi.
“Sure,” said Arron.
Yumi opened up the movie catalog on her newest model wrist datapad and started sorting through several million movies. While she did that Arron turned his attention back to the news.
“…the best hospital on the first level is severely short on human doctors and is looking to hire over a thousand to fill in the gap of those who have recently… passed away. For those interested, you must finish the first free year of college and take an additional second year of classes to learn the necessary skills for hacking into the mind and limbs of mechanical and biological implants. Programming classes are also an absolute must.”
“Speaking of that hospital, the new cremation reactor has been built to replace the decade-old reactor that was constantly breaking down. Its specs are said to be at least triple that of the previous generation’s cremation reactor,” said Kommy.
“That’s great news for everyone on the first level! With such a new reactor there should be fewer scheduled power outage maintenance in that sector. If the other hospitals can do the same then they can help power the power-hungry first level.”
“Mother and Father are sure wise in finding such a solution,” said Kommy.
“In other news, a new soap and fertilizer factory will be built soon to process the rising stockpile of ashes produced by the new reactors…”
Arron’s jaw nearly fell to the floor upon hearing all this. He had never thought about it too deeply before but not that it was mentioned he realized there were no graveyards in all of the mega-city. If you looked hard enough he was sure you could find a few small plots on the land that the politicians and rich people leased from Mother and Father, but for the average citizen…
“Ah! I found the right movie!” said Yumi as she flicked the movie file toward the old Holo-tv.
Arron’s NerViz notified him of a waiting notification.
[Play holo-movie from user Yumi?] Arron tapped on yes.
The news was immediately replaced with the title screen used for the promotion of the movie as it was quickly loaded.
“This movie is one of my favorites!” said Yumi, happy to have Arron watch it with her.
Arron let out a small gasp when he saw the female lead actress.
“What? Have you seen it before?”
“No, I was meaning to watch it,” said Arron, looking away from the screen.
“Are you sure you wanted to watch it or just stare at the former actress Jena?” asked Yumi, her eyes squinting as she stared at Arron.
