Springs reach to space, replacing trees, leaves rotting to dirt. Eye's looked through him to wet brown canopy beneath. A rhino, a ram, something grey with horns. It's skin tunnels the sun's glare into sight. Reflections reduce to matte black, a muzzle, a boom, another, another, another, another.
Lukas' eyes burst open in annoyance at the banging coming from his door. A rush of adrenaline helped him ignore the fuzzy buzzing still in his body and sit up with his hands supporting him.
"Come on guy, we don't have all day," Came from a voice with a slight rasp equally annoyed as Lukas.
For a moment, in the sweet shift from asleep to awake, Lukas forgot where he was. For a second he was still back at his messy apartment, sound asleep and ready to sleep in another hour or two. That was until his brain let yesterday catch up. He ran his hand through coal-black hair, huffed himself up to standing with a groan, and groggily walked to the light switch to turn it on. After a pause of contemplation and a continuation of non-stop knocking, he decided to open the door.
"Fates, you could've put on some underwear at least." Said a tall, buff man in a safety orange jumpsuit. His fair-skinned face was adorned by a large flat-ridged nose, two completely black eyes, and a full ginger beard that matched his outfit.
"You wouldn't stop. Come in then?" Lukas turned to go to his drawers, grabbed a white tank top and some lower wear, and started to get dressed. The ginger man sat on the lower bunk as he did.
"I'm the technician sent to train you. Name's Cygnus."
"Lukas, I wish I could say nice to meet you, but I'm still recovering from stasis."
"Very common with filler. They don't expect you to leave anytime soon, why make it comfortable."
Lukas responded with a solemn chuckle. "What do we have in store for me today boss."
"Straight to business, saves me time. It says in your file that you had experience in temp jobs in Inokum, about how much?"
"I grew up working in the Rerrum physical market district in the Tas section," Lukas said with a little bit of pride in his voice.
"That means absolutely nothing to me, I'm not from Inokum."
"Ah shit, not used to being away from home. Even then that was just a bad answer."
Lukas pulled the rest of his shirt over and faced toward the technician who was staring straight at the wall. 'Either he's giving me some nice privacy or he must have an NHN.' Lukas instinctively flexed his thoughts toward making a connection with him, only finding himself to be greeted with a dismayed drone in his ears that made him slightly wince. 'Fuck, that's right. Wonder how I can get mine turned back on; I feel incomplete.'
"Basically it means I can do some basics of mechanics and electronics, anything more complex sort of flies past me. Don't throw anything with fluids at me though, never did any plumbing jobs. By the way, you happen to know how to turn my NHN back on?"
Cygnus slowly looked at him, his jaw visibly twitching. In a strained voice, he said, "Don't. Wait as long as you can. Just use your PDA." He then looked back toward the wall and took a deep breath. "So you've never worked water, yeah? Don't worry, that's a whole 'nother department from what I've you on."
"Oh.. great. But hey I was just wondering because, like, I usually rely on it for most of my jobs so if-"
Cygnus took a couple more deep breaths, his body starting to shake a bit. "There are apps on the store panel that'll help you and I can teach you the rest if you really need it." He shuddered, "Just stop asking about it,"
"Ok, I guess I won't ask about it anymore." Lukas went over to the man and put his hand on his back. "Are you ok, dude?"
Cygnus took a couple more deep breaths before responding. "I'm fine. Just listen when I talk, and you'll live long enough to keep your body. You should know enough about Briareus to.. to.. you know."
'They must do something to the NHN. I've heard rumors but never seen anything like this. Of course, he could just be putting on a front, but that wouldn't make sense.
"Yeah, I get you, I think. You need a couple more minutes?" Lukas asked while moving over to the wall to face Cygnus.
"I'm fine; let's just keep on. Today you'll be learning where to report to, the command structure, and how to use your PDA, alright?"
"Sounds good, lets get to it. Are we doing it here or..?"
"You rushing me after making me wait for your eyes to open? We'll be doing it as I give you the grand tour." He got up from the bed and headed over to the door frame, motioning Lukas to come with.
Lukas was surprised at how active the corridors were after being led out of the bleak housing hallway. "Why are there so many people up at this hour."
"Well, Briareus is a giant company, their rigs run 24/7 to keep up with demand. That and us being the department that keeps this place going, it's like this at every time of the day. Just think of it like different shifts."
After more large corridors, Cygnus led him to a large hexagonal room. The room was built in an atrium-style, going up three floors with a ceiling that showed the planet's night sky. "I didn't know we were that far up."
Cygnus sniggered at Lukas' optimism. "What? No. You really think they'd give us that prime space. We're in the belly of this beast so to say. The upper floors are for people who just run numbers and marketing... shit like that."
"Oh, ok..." Lukas brow shriveled in confusion. "Wait, marketing? Numbers? Isn't this a mining rig?"
"You didn't read fucking anything that was sent to you did you?" Cygnus groaned. "These things are more than just sand suckers, they're mobile offices, housing, everything else Briareus needs too. Even though most of that crap can be done through NHNs and interface screens their policy requires the "employees" to live here."
Lukas thought for the rest of the silent walk. It made sense from a business standpoint. After living through the costs of a single person apartment he couldn't imagine the cost for an office building. Buying territory for mining operations was probably cheaper in the long run.
In the middle of the tall room was a circle of kiosk desks. They were haloed with a red triangle hologram that said Assistance on each side and surrounded with a dotted circle of white benches which appeared to bulge out of the ground. Left and right of the room directly across from them was two elevators, and the rest of the faces were doors that led to wherever else one needed to get to.
"Here's The worker's hub. It's the cleanest place in our department, partly because almost no one comes here. This place is more for assignments and newer people, but most people just hop on the NHN train so they don't need to come here.
"So why can't I just-"
"Moving on, Ill send you a link to the directory later, we've got other shit to see." Cygnus said, moving toward the left elevator.