Leah’s clinic was exactly how I rembered it, a heavily fortified bunker surrounded with security and anti-theft asures. Now that the Shelter was complete, it was the second most secure place in the district. The exterior had a massive steel security door, it was strong enough to even deter the low level Antithesis in the Incursion a few weeks ago. I used to find it difficult to pull open, but now that I had synthetic muscles I found it quite easy.
The front of the clinic was empty. No one stopped in for minor injuries or illnesses around here, only life-threatening concerns. I could see Leah’s silhouette through the frosted security glass that separated the waiting room from the dical area. She was easy to identify, no one else in the district had such a ss of curly red hair.
I was about to sit down, when the inner door opened and a young man stumbled out. He took one look at , turned pale, then ran out of the clinic. “You’re quite infamous around here after what you pulled yesterday,” Leah said from the door. “I can’t say I really approve of your thods.”
I wanted to give her a cocky grin, but couldn’t quite manage it. Not after what happened yesterday. “Trust , I already regret it.”
“Good,” ca her curt reply. “You should be a role model, and not go around destroying buildings. Seriously, nothing good can co out of you lowering yourself to the gang’s level.” She sighed. “Now, what can I do for you today?”
“I always wanted to pay you back for helping during the Incursion, so I thought I’d ask if you’d like any new dical equipnt. Perhaps, a supply of free augs for you to install in the less fortunate?”
Leah blinked in surprise, “Really?”
“Of course. I’m pretty sure I can make the augs with my equipnt, and if you’re willing to install them in the local kids it would really help out,” I replied.
She looked even more confused at that statent. “Why…?”
“I’m planning on offering free education to the local kids. I know most of them either struggle to survive, or join the gangs just to get by, so I plan on offering them free als as an incentive to show up. Quality augs would help with that.” I gestured excitedly while explaining. I hadn’t really worked out all the details, or any of them really, just an outline. It made sense though. I’m sure Jane, Alan and I wouldn’t have hesitated to put the little ones into a school if it was as secure as my base, and it gave them free food. Well, considering my current reputation people may be hesitant, but I could work on that.
Leah stared at for a mont. “Fine, I can get behind that. I’d appreciate so new tools to help install them too, thank you for offering.”
“No problem,” I said with a smile, a genuine one this ti. “I’ll include a small number of nanite injectors to help critical patients. I doubt it’s a good idea to keep too many here, they may attract too much attention.”
“Fine.” She turned back towards her operating room but paused. “I’ll send you a list of tools I’d like updated. Please only send one of your helpers here when you need to make a delivery, people feel a little safer around here, but they’re still hesitant to approach one. I can’t have people afraid to co in because of your bears.”
“That’s fair,” I replied, nodding.
“Now, run along. You’re as much of a deterrent as your little robots.” With that, she stepped into the surgical room and slamd the door, leaving once again standing alone in the waiting room.
“Well that was fun,” I muttered to myself. There was no point in sticking around any further, so I let myself out. The streets were busy; people felt safer around my bears, but it seed like word of my attack yesterday got out, and most residents were giving a wide berth. Not that I could bla them, in my own mind I wasn’t much better than a common ganger. I resorted to violence, instead of diplomacy, stealth, or any number of other options. I had to do better going forward.
“So, Nyx, are there any abandoned buildings nearby that I could renovate to make a school?”
Unfortunately no, it seems like people have flocked to this area and taken up residence in every available building, even the ones that are structurally unsound.
“Great… is that going to be a problem?”
Stolen story; please report.
In the short term, no. Fortunately, the main avenues are built with a multi-tier road structure. There are suspended streets connecting all the buildings on the fifth, tenth and fifteenth levels.
“Yeah, great, but they’re badly maintained so most people avoid them. No one wants to have a piece of pavent collapse under their feet, then plumt five floors downwards.”
The streets may be a ss, but the steel superstructure is still sound. This allows the stress to be distributed to nearby buildings.
“That doesn’t sound safe.”
In the long run, it’s not. If one building does actually collapse there’s a chance it could twist that sa superstructure and create a domino effect.
“Great! Wonderful! I’ll add it to the list.” I stopped and looked up at the massive interlocking network above . I’d always seen it as a hazard to cross, I’d never considered that it could be a hazard to the entire district. “Fuck, well… I still need a place for a school, and a way to obtain nutritious food to feed them.”
Well, the food can easily be handled by either opening a couple of catalogs, or buying it from a wholesaler topside. As for the real estate, you could block off the north side of the shelter to make a school, temporary or otherwise, or buy a building and kick people out.
“You know I don’t like that second option.”
I’m aware.
I groaned. Having a square block to set up in seed like almost too much space to begin with, but between the residence, production center, multiple vehicles, and now a school, I was beginning to wonder if it was really enough. Whatever, it was for a good cause. If I used temporary walls I could always set the school up in the shelter while I worked on a more permanent solution.
“Fine, talk to about food catalogs. Is there any way I could produce enough food to feed the local kids?”
Sure, you just need the space to build the growing areas.
“Of fucking course I do.” I paused, the anger draining out of . “I honestly don’t know why that never occurred to . We’ve been discussing the lack of space for the last couple minutes. Maybe I should consult an expert about this shit instead of flailing wildly here. I need to follow up with the Family about Corona Technologies anyways.”
I could contact the administration and get an update for you.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll contact Barricade directly.”
I sent a quick connection request through my augs, and waited to see if it would connect. After a few seconds, it did.
“Howdy kid, what can I do today?” Barricade asked as soon as the call connected. He sounded like he was in a good mood.
“I’m calling for two reasons actually. First, to find out what happened with that Corona Technologies company I found out about. Did anything happen with that?”
“Oh, those jokers.” He grumbled, “There’s always so idiot that thinks they know better than the Samurai, and can get away with so bullshit. Zero Drift, one of the other Samurai they stole from, found out about the operation and completely ruined the company and everyone involved. The kid wasn’t happy that they were targeting his ch. He treasures it more than anything else.”
“Like… physically destroyed, or…” I asked hesitantly.
“Naw, financial and reputation-wise. Haven’t you been watching the news?” He asked.
“I didn’t really do that before awakening, and I’ve been kinda busy ever since I got back from Seattle,” I replied.
“Really? Well, trust when I say those idiots won’t be bothering you again. Unfortunately there will always be people out there that think they can get away with this shit, so I can’t promise you it won’t happen again. What was the second thing?”
“Sothing more personal. I could really use the help of an architect, or even an experienced builder to help plan out so improvents I want to make in the area,” I said hesitantly.
“Don’t tell you’ve run out of space down there already. I’ve heard you did good work in Seattle, but I didn’t expect such explosive expansion. Most Samurai have a much smaller footprint than you.”
“It’s not for ,” I huffed. “I’ve realized that trying to fight the gangs down here is a stupid idea, it doesn’t fix anything, so I want to build a school. Get kids off the street and out of the gangs’ hands.”
I heard a pause on the other end of the line, “You don’t have schools down there?”
“Most people are too busy trying to survive to worry about things like education.” I shrugged, not that he could see it. “I plan to offer incentives for kids to show up, I’m just lacking the space to do it. Pretty much every possible space down here is occupied, so I need to figure out another option. Figured you might have so ideas I don’t.”
“Maybe… I do have so ti tomorrow. I can’t promise that I’ll have any solutions, but I can check out the situation and maybe give you so ideas. Is that ok?” He asked.
“Sure, thanks. See you tomorrow!”
“Later kid,” he said as he hung up.
I took a deep breath. I didn’t have a solution yet, but I felt like I was making progress… sohow. Maybe I could actually do so good for my neighbors after all.
Reviews
All reviews (0)