Outside the door to my place is a white balcony with railings in front of it so no one falls off. We are quite high up after all. That elevation would give me a chance to enjoy the amazing view in front of me, if I wasn't currently trying to save Soph's life.
Instead right now it's just background. The metal towers and bunkers dotted all over the ground, the floating castles in the sky, even eccentric buildings such as a giant metal cactus and a similarly large gloating golden throne that you see in most major cities.
I have to ignore that right now though, so I turn my attention to the right on the balcony floor. A few doors down from me is something that appears very similar to an elevator tube. It appears to have gone through the previous floors and continues on the floors above me.
Of course there's no actual elevator there. Instead it's just a clear tube with metal accents and a hatch at roughly the height of my hips. I dash over to the hatch as fast as my legs will carry me and grab the handle on the hatch before wrenching it open. I didn't have time to be gentle and I'm sure it can take the stress.
Sure enough it withstood the onslaught of sudden force and simply opened for me without a peep. No creaks from wear and tear or squeaks from a lack of oiling over the years. Not due to good maintenance though I'm sure that helped to.
I don't have time to ponder this. I think to myself as I practically dive through the hatch and immediately slam it behind me. It would shut on it's own in time but I don't have that kind of time right now.
I then swiftly manoeuvre my body mid-air and point my head downwards. Immediately my surroundings disappear from around me. Pulled by gravity at a speed nothing but a ship meant for space could replicate I head straight for the ground.
The ground approaches at such a rapid speed that everything around me becomes a blur. I don't even have time to process the fact that I'm not floating above the ground in the tube before I'm stopped abruptly and all my momentum suddenly dissipates as if it was never there.
I quickly give the hatch in front of me a tap and impatiently watch as it opens on it's own at such an agonisingly slow pace that I thought I could run my way to Soph's place in the time it took to open. In reality it was only a few seconds at most and likely less than that but to me right now everything around me feels incredibly slow. I once again make a dive a little like I'm jumping into a pool or something and pop my way through the hatch.
On the floor in front of me is a sort of mat that's made of a material famous for dampening impacts. Grateful for the consideration I roll to keep my momentum and once the souls of my feet touch the floor again I push off the ground as hard as I could in the direction of my destination.
I head onto the street. Specifically the path for walking which is just off the side of the highway area marked off by red hexagonal barriers of energy to avoid pedestrians getting caught in accidents.
Running straight to the left of where my house is I make a mad dash down the crowded streets. People pass me at a dizzying pace trying to avoid my frantic dash. There are a few in the crowd who are in a similar situation though I doubt it's so dire. It's more likely that they are simply late to work and that they thought my situation was similar.
Even near enough 8AM this is how busy the street is on my planet. I started to wonder to myself if I shouldn't have lived off on a countryside world like Soph did just so I could avoid the people traffic. Unfortunately it's a little too late to be having those regrets now so I just ignore them and continue on my sprint.
The people on the streets have varied appearances and mannerisms. Some are obviously rich, with gaudy clothing and arrogant smiles. Some are obviously the opposite. With clothes so well known for being government issue that most would be embarrassed to wear them. Yet even the poorest of the people aren't sad or starving.
It's not as though we don't have anyone who's got mental health issues or physical ones. But their environment is always provided for them. Even if they don't work, they still get a house and three meals a day provided free of charge by the government.
Though if it was up to the government of this star-system I'd bet that they wouldn't provide that service. Fortunately for the lazy among the populace, it's become part of the human rights movement that all necessities will be provided for free by any nations above the planetary level.
I turn a few more corners filled with people who are either lazy or rich with no middle ground and finally arrive at my destination. It looks a little like a hangar and technically it is one. In front of me is a building with an open front and a number of ships docked inside.
The ships however aren't varied at all. They're all the same type of ship. A spacetrain. Well their proper name is a transport vessel but ever since they've been in service they've been known by anyone with any hint of culture as spacetrains.
Groups of people of varying races and classes line up in front of the doors to the spacetrains waiting for the doors to open. I join one such line behind a man three times my height. His blond hair is obscured by his massive muscular frame and I nearly didn't spot the rounded ears on his head because of how far I had to look up at him.
Being fairly average for a girl my age height wise, I was rather impressed that I had to crane my neck to look at the guy. Regardless we didn't talk to each other as I was in a rush and he was likely just as antisocial and everyone is nowadays.
With the advancement of technology making casual acquaintances in places like this only happens when you want it to happen or when you get into a dispute. People are far more inclined to just talk with people they know online especially since interstarfield friendships are fairly common and even relationships.
The line is brought forward one by one in front of me and people are scanned at the door before being welcomed inside. The line, like everything else today, appears to be moving incredibly slowly to my eyes and it annoys me to no end.
I watch with blatant impatience as one by one the number of people in front of me dwindles until only the blond man is left. He takes a step into the train and suddenly the light turns red. Knowing exactly what this means I click my tongue at him annoyed. If you have the gaul to commit a crime in this star-system at least have a hacker obfuscate your identity. Especially if you plan to use public transport.
The guards come rushing over and the lion like man attempts to kick up a fuss so he can escape by taking the nearest person hostage. That would be me… "Ugh what a pain" I sigh to myself annoyed and impatient before not even drawing my weapon as I sidestep the man's attempt at grabbing me before twisting his arm behind him and breaking it.
I whisper into the man's ear so only he can hear me as he starts squirming around in agony. "I'm rather stressed right now and you are the perfect target to blow off some steam. No one's going to complain if I break all your bones and hand you in without the ability to resist" I tried to make my whisper sound as sultry and seductive as possible.
I love playing the role of a femme fatale and it calms my nerves immensely. Even if my sense for danger is really dull nowadays my stress levels most certainly are not. With that thought I proceed to break the man in a way no physical damage could before actually breaking him physically.
Once I was finished, he was lying on the floor unable to even twitch but still breathing perfectly fine. I on the other hand was perfectly energetic and now a lot calmer. He was in the way of my mission so I can definitely harm him my rules don't have any objections.
With that thought I leave the now pretty much catatonic man on the floor and head into the spacetrain. Once I was scanned and subsequently the money was taken from my account for the ride I hopped into the train and looked around for a seat.
The seats in the train were incredibly varied. Some seats had indents on the back of them in various shapes. Wings, tails, holes through the middle of the seat for fins there were even some seats that were specifically stated to be warmer or colder than usual.
These varied seats were on the left side of the train. At the back of the train were seats that were even more specialised. Bowls of water that had been nailed down, pots of magma even a massive fish tank that took up the entire back of the train and actually had an entrance and exit to the back of the train that was filled with water.
The seats I was looking for however were the ones on the right. They were just normal seats. No indents or special characteristics. Just normal everyday seats. There were quite a few more of them than there were any individual type of specialised seat. Partially because they needed to accommodate space for all the different specialisations but also because there were plenty of races who could use normal seats even if they found it uncomfortable.
Humans weren't the only race in these seats. There were also other races who weren't specialised enough to have a seat of their own. Succubi with small wing mutations, cyborgs who didn't really have any features that needed specialising. Well people are arguing that one right now actually. They want cyborgs to be given a sort of charging mechanism on public transport but that's not the point.
I pick out one of the normal seats away from everyone else and I sit down in the not really comfy chair before bringing my arms into my lap and curling in on myself. I wasn't anxious or the like about the strangers on the train. I simply enjoy the cool breeze on my skin from the air conditioning and it makes me rather tired so I will likely end up falling asleep.
I did become far more relaxed than earlier after beating up the man so who can blame me. With that I ended up falling into slumber. Every time I heard the bell for the train ring I would wake temporarily, check the stop on the holo-screen and when I discovered it wasn't my own I would immediately fall back into slumber.
This continued for what I believe was several hours until eventually the bell rang once more and I checked the stop to finally find that I had arrived. So my consciousness awoke swiftly after that and I headed off the train.
Once back in another hangar it almost looked to my eyes as though I hadn't gone anywhere. When I exited the hangar though I finally realized that I had in fact moved quite a distance. The biggest indicator being the lack of people.
Back home there is essentially no time in the day or night when you could walk into the street and not bump into someone else doing something else. But now as I walk out from the hangar I notice that the people around me are incredibly sparse in comparison.
They don't appear to be in any sort of rush though some do look a little frightened. Presumably from what happened yesterday. The thought brings back the stress from earlier and I use it to fuel my sprint through the streets.
This time the scenery passing me by doesn't command any of my attention as it did before. I simply ignore the few pedestrians I do pass and the buildings all look pretty much the same with no gaudiness or even variety.
There's bunkers everywhere and the only exceptions are the small apartment buildings I come across every so often. They all look incredibly similar to the apartment Soph lives in and they are likely made from a similar model.
One such area where an apartment building should be however contains only a deep crater. Looking inside the crater only reveals a massive hole with the remains of what was once plumbing and electricity mixing together in something that is clearly incredibly dangerous.
Surrounding the area are a force of what appear to be police officers and their vehicles. There aren't too many of them on the scene as would be expected from a rural place like this but still the area is blocked off with another of those red hexagonal shields and no one is getting into there without the police's permission.
I could always sneak past or break the security measures but there's no need to resort to crime just yet. With that thought I approach one of the officers with a smile. I make sure to look happy go lucky and utterly unconcerned with the wreckage surrounding me and the officer.
"Oh my! What happened here! There's a giant whole in the floor!" I exclaim keeping the smile on the whole time. Obviously I do so within hearing distance of the officer and make sure my curiosity is plain on my face as I lean on the hexagonal shields surrounding the area.
The officer seeing me gets a smile on his own face talks to his partner a little and approaches me to explain the situation. "Sorry Miss but this is a crime scene. I can describe the details for you if you want but please stay off the shields." He scolds me sounding neither upset nor particularly wary. You know I could've destroyed this shield 3 times over by now if I wanted to. Country bumpkins honestly…
Even his face screamed country bumpkin. Just the friendly officer vibe that people in areas like this give off tells me they haven't seen how the world truly works in the big cities. Or they have and they couldn't accept it. But this guy seems like the former.
He has kind baby blues and brown hair cut fairly short with a design of some sort of car cut out the side of his hair. Honestly do these people actually think that looks good. It just looks like you're balding in a specific way to me.
His physique isn't even intimidating. He looks like a twig I could snap if I squeeze hard enough. Seriously, even his partner had a bit of bulk to him but this guy looks like he'd snap at the slightest twitch. He's probably got SOME combat training but clearly not much.
I scoff to myself while outwardly smiling. "Oh! That sounds interesting. C'mon gimme a story" I shake the man's shoulders keeping the force to a minimum and trying to make my voice sound as excited as possible.
"Certainly miss though it's not a particularly long or convoluted story. Yesterday this building was blown up by a terrorist that lives in it." He explains utterly dryly with a cheeky smile on his face. You little… You just want to make me beg for it don't you. I mean I'll do it but you certainly are an as-
"C'mon make it interesting or something. At least put some embellishment on it. Like I don't know, what was the terrorist's goal? Why blow up their own house along with themselves? Who are they? What was their life like? Were they a married man with a couple kids in the house who went through a mid-life crisis? Even that would be more interesting." I frown at the man putting some of the real displeasure from his dry explanation into my words. In a pouty tone of course. With a bit of a real pout on my face.
Seeing that the man snorts to himself before explaining the situation with a bit more clarity. "A girl by the name of Sophie Filavar. Last name's from an orphanage down the road where she was raised. Apparently she blew herself up to get back at flux for something they did to the orphanage. Their misdeeds came out a while ago so I'm really not surprised. There were a few survivors but I'll spare you the gory details." His explanation comes off surface level but I think that's just his knowledge of the situation rather than him trying to skimp on the details for me.
I try not to let the shock show on my face. So I really was right, Soph has something to do with this. He said there were survivors though? Even if Soph survived I can't imagine her going to the police least of all when they immediately branded her a terrorist. So even if she did survive she's either in prison or on the run.
Just as I'm showing the officer my most interested face someone else comes by and joins in the conversation. A woman who was walking by apparently heard our little chat and came to join in on the gossip. "Oh, you talking about that incident yesterday? I witnessed it I'll have you know." She sounded somewhat proud to have been there. If she was there I'm surprised she can be nonchalant about it let alone proud.
Gossip girls are definitely made of sterner stuff than I give them credit for. That or she's spinning a tall tale or exaggerating to an embarrassing degree. Either way I may as well ask. "Yeah? What'd you see?" I ask plastering that same look of innocent curiosity on my face as I had when talking with the officer.
The officer himself also seems slightly interested in the woman's account but judging by the fact that he's not taking notes on his tablet and not recording this conversation I have to think he doesn't put much stock in the woman's story either.
"Well first there were a group of guys in black suits and glasses who showed up near the young girl's door. It was really rude, they were pointing at the apartment building and talking to each other for a while until they started firing lasers at the door." Her explanation hits right on what I want to know. Who are these people in black that even the news didn't want to acknowledge?
"My cousin works in engineering and I could've sworn the lasers they were using were really high end models from Flux. He works on them all the time see? Cause Flux is really famous and all. Isn't he cool." The woman proudly puffed out her chest while talking about her cousin but I don't really care. Still if tickling her familial pride is enough to squeeze this information out of her then I'm willing to flatter her cousin all she wants.
With my obligatory clapping and energetic 'that's so cool' out of the way the woman finally gets to the heart of the matter. "Where was I? Right, once they started shooting the door a personal shield sprang up around the door and they seemed a little surprised and annoyed by that but they persisted anyway. They kept shooting and shooting until eventually the shield shattered" The gestures she's making have suddenly become a lot more animated and every so often she would throw in a "CRASH!" or a "BOOM!" for effect.
What are we children? You've gotta be in your late twenties at least by now don't gesticulate like a child you idiotic fool. Despite the scathing criticism in my head though I make sure to keep my look interested and I try not to miss a single word of her explanation.
Still I didn't know Soph had a personal shield around her door. Now that I think about it, how can Soph afford a personal shield with only earnings from a few freelance coding jobs. Something's clearly up here. Either my knowledge is wrong or this woman's batty.
"Once the shield shattered all the men rushed towards the door and I got a peak inside from a distance away. They lit the girl up like a christmas tree with laser shots and she became swiss cheese in an instant. But before she died she did something with her hands I couldn't see and then BOOM!" She used her hands to mimic an explosion once again before continuing.
"She and the men in the house imploded on themselves. It almost looked like a mini black hole collapsed in on itself. Obviously the power wasn't that big or we'd all be dead but it could've just been concentrated or something. That's how powerful the blast seemed to be." She finished her tale with a flourish and looked at us expectantly.
While praising her I got to analysing the information she revealed. So these people were after Soph's life and in a last desperate struggle she blew everything sky high. I feel like she'd do that but something seems to be missing. I'm missing an important piece of the puzzle and more importantly who were the men after Sophie. They're obviously rich or have a banker but that's all the information I can get from this woman.