Fredric Kingsley had always been good at fixing things. From a young age he tested well and had a high problem solving ability. He could fix everything from home appliances to solving puzzles. He would have had a bright future if not for his abusive Tier 3 father. He and his mother's life had been horrible. His father had great ambitions but could never over come the limitations of his citizen Tier.
Almost a millennia had passed since humanity left earth, but Tiers were still absolute. When the first group of Ark ships were built outside of earths atmosphere. It was a global undertaking. Every corner of earth federation had used all thier resource to escape the impending doom, that remaining on the planet would have brought upon them. Earth had gone through a world war that was like nothing that had ever come before it. With the advent of a central world government. The people of 2100's thought peace had been a sure thing for the foreseeable future. They were wrong. Peace didn't last long, With the help of human greed and lust for power, and the release of the body modification tech, known as PCA's changed the world forever. In the year 2120 the PCA's were introduced as a way to digitize thought. It was cutting edge tech that would allow for thought control over our everyday devices. After a year the second generation of the PCA's were released they were capable of accelerating ones ability to think and process information. Code named Hyper Thought, the PCAs drastically increased the processing power of the mind giving almost divine intelligence to its users. That was when artificial intelligence in its final form was introduced. The saying at the time was. If you can make thought digital why not reverse and make that which was only digital able to think. The tech progressed over 7 generations and like all good things that fall into human hands it got twisted to become very very evil. It was discovered in the 5th generation that The AI's could be used to control people. From a young age thier PCA would train their thoughts habits and desires. There was a cold war between the factions in the one world government. They secretly amassed followers to thier side by simply making PCA's available to everyone. The victims would conform to what ever faction in the world government happened to be controlling the coding of thier ai. It didn't take long before all these people became irreconcilable. They had no ability to compromise leading to increased tension through out the world. It wasn't known who started it, But two senators were killed in a building collapsed. The faction of the two senators blamed the opposing factions. Soldiers were sent to retaliate and it devolved into a full scale territory war within 3 months. Very few called for peace. Brainwashing had made almost everyone want to see thier enemies destroyed. The first nuclear weapon was used 9 months after the first engagement, and so nuclear war descended. Killing hundreds of millions. The human race was on the verge of wiping itself out when One faction conquered another and reveled to the world the use of PCA's. All factions were guilty of this but the victor writes history. The defeated faction was blamed by the remaining ones. In the after math of the war. It was discovered that the effects of the war were drastically more devastating than it was first thought to be. Radiation had poisoned large swatches of earth. Earthquakes and Nuclear winter threatened to wipe out the remain 3 billion people on earth within 2 generations. The greatest minds of the day put together a plan. A plan to leave the atmosphere till the earth had stabilized enough for the human races continued existence. These ark ships would house us all they claimed. From that day the world government called marshal law. Ceasing all assets and conscripting every one to work. They had less than a hundred years to finish. For survival all citizens were were cast into Tiers. From Tier 1 to Tier 4 with Tier 5 being the label for criminals and prisoners. The Tiers dictated ones usefulness in construction of The ark ships and your usefulness in the continued survival of the human race.
Even as Fredric thought about it he couldn't see is father as anything useful to the human race. Tier 3 citizens were usually skilled craftsmen. While Tier 4 were simply laborers. His father wanted to become a Tier 2 citizen by starting a company. A company that built family transports for Ark city's. By day he was a failing businessman. At night he would take out his failures to over come his citizen tier on his family. On his worse nights when he would be high on stimulants and drunk on alcohol. He would beat his mother while complaining how life was unfair. If she hadn't been such a useless T4, holding him back, he would be successful. This went on for as long as Fredric could remember. He once told the Ark Security Forces, but when they came to investigate. His mother said he was lying and beat him in front of the officers. He was 12 at the time. Later she came to him and said that I shouldn't ruin their good life. Fredric could even remember her face as she gave him a look of spite like he had almost ruined her life.
" Without your father we would be tier 4 good for nothings." she said. Her voice resounding through his memories.
Tier 4's would receive the lowest standard of living. Even the air quality in the T4 zones are of a less standard compared to other zones. She scolded him for an hour after the ASF left that night. That night was a night he would always remember. It was the night his father came home really wasted. He beat his mother as usual but after he was finished he came to my room.
I thought he was going to beat me to vent what i had done that day. I was ready for it. Even thinking I was stupid for saying anything. This is what life was supposed to be. My father didn't say anything and just took off my clothes. That day he started a new form of abuse. Instead of just beating his wife, from that day he would then take out his sexual frustration on me. Saying i might as well be useful for something since all i did was eat, and slander him in front of people.
It had went on like this for two years. Two long years. Fredric still had the same talent all this time, he was still good at problem solving and fixing things. So he decided on his 14th birthday to fix his fathers problems. He had done some research on why stimulants were illegal. If taken in a large enough dose they would cause heart attacks. So he thought to help his dad who hated his life to finally end it and fix his problem. His dad would always drink before his visits. He would never come sober. It at least showed he had some conscience left. So Fredric spiked his wine with twice the dose of stimulants that he usually saw his father take. He wanted to put more but his mind told him it would be better for him if he didn't put to much. His father did the same as always beat his mother drank for a little while before coming to his room. Everything was like always. His father grunted aloud before falling on top of him, usually he would lay there a moment then get up and leave, but this time he didn't get off of him. He just lay there pressed on top of him. Fredric remembered being too scared to move so he didn't. After a while of worrying what his father would do next, he wore himself out and fell asleep. He could remember thinking his father would leave by the time he woke up. Except the next day came and his father was still there. The ASF had been alerted by his fathers link that his heart had stopped some time through the night and sent officers over to investigate. There they found a 14 year old boy pinned under a corpse. After an investigation His mother was arrested for negligence. She became a T-5. While Fredric was sent to an ark mental facility to receive psychiatric care. He would spend hours a day in full link immersion with a virtual family that was suppose to simulate a loving environment. He knew it was fake even tough it felt real, but that didn't stop him from loving it all the same. It was what he needed most.
By the time he was 26 they had labeled him as fully recovered. He had been raised by psychiatrist and his virtual family to be a T2 citizen. Based on his psych profile they had specialized him as a administrative secretary. He had become what his father only dreamed of and always wanted. It was now his. He still felt hallow inside but, he would always go visit his virtual family when ever he needed them.
It wasn't until he was 30 that he needed to fix things for someone again. He had been dating a Tier 3 woman named Kelly Ruben. Who saw him as a way up. He knew what she wanted, that it was more status than love for her but it was nice not being alone. She had a boss that would make unwanted sexual advances to her that she told him about. She was able to keep him at bay but it was really annoying. The job market on the ark was very small. So switching jobs was not always a wise choice.
Fredric took the opportunity to investigate her boss. After an investigation Fredric found a litany of evidence that Kelly's old boss was a chronic womanizer. He took advantage of those under him with the the promise of raises, promotions ,and threats to a varying degrees of success. So Fredric took it upon himself to send him an escort with a bottle of stimulant filled wine.
The evening he made his move. Fredric had followed the business man to a restaurant. There around 5 in the evening Kelly's Boss had a business meeting with a councilman and some of his partners. That was the first time He saw Veronica Butler. She was at the table meeting with a few business men including Kelly's boss. Who seem to only be a small time player. He looked completely overwhelmed at the table in front of those with actual authority. After observing them while he ate. Fredric decided to leave ahead of kelly's old boss. On his way out he noticed The councilwoman give him a passing glance. he was in her direct line of sight so he never thought twice about it. Hisbmind was preoccupied with how much of the stimulants in his pocket he would use this time. Arriving before the business man to a gentleman's club in the T2 Zone. He spent the time trying to find the ideal girl to send to the businessman. In a perfect world he would be able to guess which girl the man would choose for the night, but he couldn't tell his preference from the women he harassed.
The only thing they had in common was they were reluctant to be with him but his offer and thier circumstances caused them to give in.
So he chose the girl that hid it the worst that she didn't really want to be there. He paid for a private dance and instead just talked to her for the time spent in the private room. The girl was shocked at first but didn't hesitate to take his money for a conversation. After a while he headed back to the main floor to keep an eye on his mark. The man was spreading his money around on the main stage. Fredric observed him for an half an hour before buying a drink and crushing and mixing stimulants inside. He called the girl over who was more than willing to come to him this time. She even asked if he really wanted a dance this time, saying she would do her best for him. He declined again asking this time if she would send this drink over to The businessman for him. She hesitated at first but agreed only after he promised to bring her back to the private rooms again. He watched as she offer the business man the drink claiming it was on the house.Just as he told her to. At that time the business mans attention was on her completely. He downed the drink and asked her to join him. Before she could respond Fredric had came behind her and directly sent enough credits for two dances, which instantly flashed on the girls link in front of all the observes letting them know how much he just spent on her. He then asked her to follow him which she did without even batting an eye at The business man. Paying customers always come first.
Fredric allowed her to dance for him, before they were talking again. The dance hadn't really done anything for him but he wanted to seem like a normal customer to her. This time she had opened up about herself and her situation and why she ended up at this place as a tier 3 citizen usually only beautiful tier 4 women were in places like these and only the most private establishments offered women from the higher tiers. The longer they chatted the more he had to pay but to him it was worth it. It was one of the best conversation he had in his life.
The next day Kelly told him that her Boss was found dead that morning. His death had been reported by an escort. It was concluded that he had OD'd on stimulants. Kelly wasn't sad but she felt ashamed to say she was happy to see him die.
Fredric was just glad that he was abe to fix her problem, but it didn't take long for problems to find its way to his door. Monday morning he received a video of him at the club friday crushing the stimulants in a drink . It wasn't from the bars security feed but from a customers link. He could tell by the angle. Along with it came a request to come to a job interview at the ArkCoucil building. The councilwoman had asked him one question on the interview she didnt ask his motives didnt threaten him, or even seem to care that the man was dead. She just informed him that she needed a secretary like him which she could trust. She then asked would he do a repeat of friday night.
He remembered his answer clearly. "
If there is a problem that I can fix. I wouldn't stand by and do nothinh. I'd do it again."
The councilwoman smiled and hired him on the spot. He had fixed problems for her from time to time after that but his main job was her secretary.
Fredric always thought about how he got this job everytime he was sent to fix a problem.
Before him was a Space Walker Suit. The suit had been built with dexterity and safety in mind. Fredric worked on it for a while. Weakening the air way system at certain points. It would leak air rapidly after being exposed to the vacuum of space for more than 20 min. Following the instructions of how to do this given to him by the councilwoman. He had set it up so the air from the back up tank or main tank wouldn't make it to the head of the suit. Asphyxiating the wearer in 2 minutes flat.
Fredric looked at suit one last time comaparing it to the altered schematic he received in his link , before putting the suit back in its place and leaving. Haven and Jason would be here soon. The councilwoman now had Jason monitored 24-7. They knew everything about his life. Even his date with haven that night. The couples date would bring them here soon and he didnt want to cross paths. Fredric left the storage chamber to an empty office not far a way too monitor thier date and make sure everything went as planned. A half an hour after he finished the young couple entered the storage area hand in hand.
"I really wanted to show just how beautiful space is." said jason. "Its the perfect place to go just to think."
Haven had never set a foot in space so she was looking for ward to this part of there date
"How are you even allowed to do this" she asked.
"Im maintenance manager I just scheduled a routine check around this time. It shouldn't be a big deal. Im probably not the first to bend the rules." he said as he chuckled a little. He remembered his supervisors suggestions. The man had probably done the same before.
" don't know how to suit up she said looking at all the space walker suits in the hanger.
"That's what im here for," he said with confidence as he walked over to his storage locker.
"hmph," Haven scoffed in fake offense. "If i didn't know any better. Id say you were using this opportunity to get handsy."
Jason chuckled and gave her his best sly smile. He hadn't thought of that, but it was a good idea. He bagan to wonder if she was thinking of taking thier relationship there. Why she even brought it up.
"Just show me how you do it. she continued, pretending to ignore his look as she felt the proverbial butter flies in her stomach.
"Ill do it myself. Also im going to wear your suit. at least i know it works. I don't trust the ones used by others," she said