Page 22 of Across The Stars
“Grunts are at the bottom of the ladder,” he shrugged. “Gotta work our way up. Guess we should get started, huh?”
I nodded, referring to my list. “First up is H27-HyperCells,” I said, reading the first item.
“Yup. Fourteen crates.”
The two of us looked around at the stacks and stacks of metal containers in rows throughout the warehouse and slouched.
“Shit,” I muttered.
“Don’t look so worried,” Quinn said, walking over with her hands in the pockets of her jumpsuit. She had a crooked smile on her face as she lightly nudged Omar with her elbow. “If you swipe, there’s a log of where everything is on your Buddy. Get used to using it. A lot.” She turned, pointing to stacks of bluish-silver crates on the far end of the warehouse. “HyperCells are usually in those crates. There is a method here, though. Everyone’s got the same list, so we mark everything as we get it. That way we don’t overfill orders.” She pulled up the list on her Buddy and scanned it once. “See? Four crates out of the fourteen needed have already been moved. So why don’t we start further down. Hmm.” She wriggled her finger over the list, biting her lip. “Let’s do medical supplies. No one has claimed that yet.”
Omar and I both referred to our own lists and zeroed in on the medical section, following Quinn toward lines of mag-carts that were parked near the lifts. She approached one, which was large enough to lay out five human bodies on the flat surface, and swiped her Buddy over the scanner on the front podium.
“Just sync your Buddies and the cart will follow you anywhere,” she said.
Omar and I both mimicked her actions, following her deeper into the warehouse with our own carts in tow. We hiked all the way to the back, through rows of silver, red, and blue cargo containers, to a pyramid of white boxes that were small enough for one person to fit their arms around.
“Ok,” Quinn sighed. “Eight 4-YT7 crates. Twenty-four 6001-HG crates. Thirty RE-X12 crates.”
None of that made any amount of sense to me, but I searched for the numbers on the boxes and just started loading up. From there, it was pretty self-explanatory. Every time I loaded something onto my cart, the cart scanned the crate and marked it on my synced Buddy. That info was sent to everyone who had a Buddy with the list uploaded to it. When my cart was full, I looked up where it had to go and hauled the floating supplies toward their respective cargo containers.
I stayed close to Omar and Quinn for a couple hours, but once I got a hang of things, I began doing things on my own, trying my best to get a feel for the warehouse’s layout. Navigating the giant warehouse of supplies and shipments was my biggest priority. If the place wasn’t a bunch of straight lines, I could get lost in there for days.
“Lunch!” Quinn announced, stretching her arms with a yawn. “Let’s get out of here. I need a view.”
Omar and I, as well as a couple other recruits that started migrating toward our section over the hours, filed out of the warehouse toward the mess hall to eat. I grabbed myself a plate of fried chicken and salad and dined with the group, listening to abridged stories of how everyone ended up on the Nexus. I kept my head down, hoping to be overlooked, when Omar had to open his mouth and direct all eyes toward me.
“How about you?” he said to me. “I mean, you said you went to Cooper.” The whole table stared, impressed, and I alreadyfelt buried in my oncoming lies. “What made you want to come here?”
“My dad,” I said.
“Who was your dad?”
Suddenly, I remembered that his records were scattered all over the Nexus database and telling everyone his name would just bring more attention to me.
“He just expected big things from me,” I said vaguely. “But he’s dead, so…”
Mentioning someone was dead always made people drop the subject. It worked. Everyone slouched over and did the nod and frown thing to express condolences. I listened to everyone carry on their conversations after a few apologetic words were directed toward me, and then finished my plate. Before waiting for Omar to finish, I walked my dishes to a cleaning station and dropped them off.
Looking at my Buddy, I pulled up a map of my level, leaning up against the wall in a corner to search for a proper place to be alone. Down the main hall near the docks, there was a round section that saidH Deck Viewing Platform.I had no idea what that meant or if I had clearance to just wander everywhere I pleased, but it was worth a shot. I marked the area on my map and let my Buddy direct me where I needed to go.
Halfway to the viewing platform, my Buddy *dinged* and I saw a pretty little photo of Sam pop up in front of me. Next to it was a message alert. Rolling my eyes at Sam’s perfect profile photo, I opened the message.
WHERE ARE YOU?It read.
Excited to hear from my friend, I ducked into another corner to answer.
In a big hallway on Level 12. Where the fuck are you?
I’M ON LEVEL 7. I JUST FOUND THE LIFTS> I’M COMIIINNGGG!!!
What’s with the caps!?
I’M JUST EXCITED TO SEE YOU.
Mark your map. I’m heading to a viewing thingy. H Deck or something.
GOT IT
