A man with extremely untameable curly hair sat at his desk. Markers and doodles covered his calender and paperwork was piling up. Yet behind him on a large plack that spanned the entire 8 feet of the wall behind him was a plaque that read Roger Simpson Chief supervisor.
Surrounding him was a call center build in 8 x 8 x 8 boxes open on one side to a series of lifts. The technology was originally used for vending machines but here it was applied to an office. Each square an office stacked on top of each other with lifts for them to get down at the open side of the cubicle. An incoming hologram call pops up in front of him caller ID Danny Larson with the picture of a Danny with a face that read confusion. Oh no not you Roger thought to himself. Roger groaned as he leaned in to activate the call. He was overweight so the lean in was uncomfortable.
"What is it now Danny?" Roger was clearly running out of patience.
"Uhh Hey Rog.. I mean Mr. Simpson umm. There seems to to to be some kind of counting error. The manual count confirms 317 registered passengers but the scanners show 316." Danny twitched nervously as he stuttered out his report. Oddly enough Danny was Roger's boss.
"Danny this isn't rocket science. Charlie can't fucking count and he was on lunch around the same time as arrival for this ship." Roger knew that Danny was going to give him some OCD bullshit about protocol. "I just finished the review of the last time he did this. He better be getting flagged for this bulshit Danny. I'm suppose to be going on vacation leave tomorrow. I can't do this you're gonna have to take care of it." he said as assertive as he could without sounding completely disrespectful but was interrupted by Danny.
"Roro ro Roger!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "I have headquarters bra bree breath" Danny stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. When they opened he seemed calm "breathing on my kna neck right now with this Moore quarantine happening in th the Orion sector. Wha What if if it's one of them? He asked as the live video feed froze for a few seconds. Roger kicked the desk in front of him and it started back up with Danny in mid sentence. "So that's why I can't do it. I'm not going to get to leave this office until the cri crisis is over. So pa please figure ou t t t OUT your side." Dany said after ending the call more firmly then Roger had ever seen.
"There would be fucking twice as many lifeforms if that was the case!" Roger growled with building irritation he yelled and people in their surrounding desks stopped to ease drop. "Fucking tickets can't be refunded!!" he walked out to the platform keypad and entered his office coordinate C25 and the lift came to get him like a bottle of coke. In moments Roger was storming down a metal grated hallway towards Charlie's closet of an office.
"Show me the footage Charlie. If you fucked me out of my vacation for nothing your paying for it." Roger said as he stormed into Charlie's office.The space was closer to a dungeon then an office. Pipes dripped into bowls surrounding the workstation. Charlie was dirty from working all day. He swallowed and rebuked "I'm telling you this is for real this time!"
"You half assed, alarmist, AERRR!" Roger growled "You fed me the same bullshit last time. If you counted a droid as a person I will end you." Roger could feel each second as it passed like a whiplash knowing that he wasn't going to make the last scheduled shuttle back down to Earth.
"No i didn't count the droid. Here look. Count shows a ship with 11 people." Charlie pointed at the screen and wrote right on the hologram faces to prove he didn't miss any. "There's the droid. 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 passengers the scanner only reads 10 lifeforms." In the footage sat Isaac at number 5
"Well I'll be damned." Roger looked at the images in complete disbelief. "Let's bring that ship in for maintenance. It could be a scanner malfunction or it could be something way bigger but I'm not sending this report to the top without solid facts."
Isaac walks into a small nook of a shop inside of the space station. A salesmen sits with his boots on the desk with multiple holograms of different types of spacecrafts. The salesmen was riddled with implants of both enhancement and art. Gears rotated and bearings twisted as the salesman stood to greet Isaac with a mechanical Grace. A tattoo like image of a vine growing over his arm with blooming flowers randomly traveled through the visible areas of his skin.
"I love your tattoo." Isaac said without blinking with a slight grin on only one side of his face.
"Thanks man names Smo what Can I do for ya?" he spoke with an accent but Isaac couldn't place from where.
Isaac walked the store looking at the holograms that showed the various specifications of the spaceships he had for sale. Smo approached unobtrusively like an expert salesman and let Isaac find what he was looking for.
"I'm here to purchase a vessel. I do have some special specifications though here they are." Isaac activated a portable holographic interface from his wrist that responded to the movement of his hands.
"Oh shit thats some gnarly tech bro." Smo said as he clapped his hands together completely impressed. He then analyzed the specifications Isaac had given him. "Fuuuuck, your going after the full monte son! Speed, offense, defense.." he paused "Kinda weird medical specs but hell man you're the boss. This is gonna cost some serious credit though." he stated it truthfully.
"I'm well aware of the costs my friend. I expect it to be finished by tomorrow. I will pay for any fees necessary for expedient service." Isaac waved his hands around to pay the shipbuilder.
"Fuck that's a tall order but I'll do my absolute best but I'll need a chunk of change upfront to get the people here." Smo said it with confidence and seemed to enjoy the idea of a challenge.
"This should be more than enough for full payment." Isaac started to walk out the door
Smo checked his store credit received and when he saw the numbers he knew after this job he would never work again. "Yes sir! Anything you want I got it!" Immediately Smo began calling in help
"Oh and by the way. I'd like the interior to be decorated in Victorian decorum and please see if you can find a manual navigator as well for me. I'm willing to pay handsomely." Isaac turned back almost forgetting these details.
Smo stopped looking a Isaac a little puzzled. "I'm not sure I know anyone like that. Any reason why? I've never heard of a nav failing in my life."
"In my experience a plan b is almost never a wasted endeavour. Besides who doesn't enjoy company on those long trips into the unknown?" Smo could tell Isaac was speaking from experience.
"Hey you're the boss." Smo grinned then continued "Or should i say captain?"