It was a strange feeling knowing he was free. Sure it had takewo years, but it had e far faster than Alexander had predicted or even pnned for. The fact that he hadn’t foreseen this possibility was a good remihat he was still out of his depth in this new reality he found himself in.
He barely even uood daily life oatio alohe plexities of their ws or bureaucracy. While he had read some of the ws because they were free to peruse, Alexander hadn’t spent much time digging into them, other than the ohat pertaio his pnned freedom.
That was something he would o rectify as soon as possible. Being ignorant of the local ws usually didn’t get you off the hook if you broke them.
His general knowledge was g as well, but there was very little he could do about that at the moment. He simply didn’t have the free credits to purchase learning modules, even the elementary ones meant for children were outside his current budget.
As he made his way through the ring to the freight elevators, he garnered a few looks. But most simply went back to their business, already familiar with him from his years aboard the station. The few whose gazes lingered were already on Alexander’s ‘naughty’ list. It was made up of the scummy people that Yuri dealt with.
Thankfully, nobody approached him or caused problems and he arrived at the freight elevator ued. He holy wasn’t sure what he would have done or even could have done had someoopped him. The limitations imposed on him by the trol box were very much still in pce.
This wasn’t his first trip down to the sed ring, but he had only visited the pce a few times to clear out some of the old scrapper's ste rooms. It was a wonder Yuri had made any mo all with all the junk he had lying about in the yard and other locations oation. Yuri’s colle was a veritable treasure trove of old obsolete parts if you knew what to look for.
All of which would now belong to the station if what Miss. Kuzsova said was true. That was a shame. Alexander had been hoping to borrow some smaller parts and bits without Yuri figuring out what he to.
The man didn’t keep a good iory of all his junk. From what Alexander had seen, the ma most of it straight in his head. Which would be an impressive feat, except Alexander knew Yuri fot where he pced things from time to time. On more than one occasion, he had been stuck waiting for Yuri wheem the old man had told him to retrieve simply wasn’t where it should have been.
Alexander always got a little chuckle out of seeing an angry huffing Yuri e collect him when he failed to return.
The elevator didn’t groan wheepped onto the ptform. While Alexander’s body may weigh in excess of fifteen hundred pounds, the rge cargo lift had been built to transport things many times his size.
He tucked himself into a er and simply waited. Uhe normal lifts, which he was too heavy to use, the cargo lifts only activated at certain times throughout the day. As he waited, more and more automated loaders trundled into the lift. They would staeat rows of crates he back before zipping off to retrieve more.
When he had first seen the devices, he had wondered why Yuri didn’t use the automated cargo handlers. That ged when he saw one of the dumb robots nearly run someone over once. On another occasion, one crashed into a ship that Alexander had beeo retrieve some parts from.
He had gotten a front-row seat to a heated exge between the owner of that cargo handler and the ship captain. It ended with the cargo handler’s owner losing his trad having to pay for the damages to the ship.
There was also the fact that most of Yuri’s items didn’t fit ly into crates or pallets. But Alexander suspected the real reason Yuri didn’t use the things urely because he was a cheap bastard. He retty sure the man never spent a dime unless it was to buy more junk or pces to store more junk.
An hour passed and the warning lights outside the freight elevatan to fsh amber, indig that all cargo deliveries had to cease. One final material handler mao squeak through before simply stopping in the middle of the floor.
Alexander did a mental shake of his head. The things were so dumb. He expected futuristic maes to be much more capable or at least AI-driven. He had a vague recolle of self-driving cars from ba his time. Certainly, the teology should have improved. There was likely a reason behind why it hadn’t, it was just another piece of history he would o figure out.
A groan and loud k sighe closing of the door. Much like every other door oation, this one was thid sealed tight in case of actal depression. Not that he had experienced anything like it since he had woken up. And if it had happened, everyone would have known because there were depression arms along every corridor. He would know, he passed the signs and arm stations more times than he could t. Now that he thought about it, the infrequency of venting issues robably why nobody bothered with the vac-suits.
As the elevator slid to a halt and the doors opeo the same fshing amber lights, Alexander waited. Sure enough, as soon as the lights stopped, the dumb loader zipped back off the elevator almost clipping someone walking past the door.
The man cursed out the mae befoing about his business.
Seeing no more loaders lurking about and waiting to run him over, Alexander exited the elevator.
Much like the other rings, the sed ring had multiple floors to it. If it was the same as the other rings, it would go to plus three minus three in the elevators. At least that was what everyone called the floors above and below where the freight elevator stopped. He didn’t know who decided to design the rings that way, but they had.
In an ideal world, he would have purchased his cheap shop somewhere close to the elevator and the main avenue of traffi this floor. But this certainly wasn’t a perfect world. At least he had mao find a p the main floor. He walked along the huge circle of the ring until he was nearly three-quarters of the way to the far side.
Even here among the main traffie, he would have been happy. Instead, he turned down a smaller side passage. Three more turns brought him to a stop outside a grimy door with an equally grimy sign hanging above it. The sign had long siopped being legible, but the pte bolted o the door firmed he had the right location.
He sighed internally and pressed in the code on the faded touchpad. There was a moment of hesitation from the trol where he thought he may have ehe wrong code, but eventually, he heard the cck of security bolts retrag. Instead of opening inward slightly, the door didn’t budge. Alexander was forced to push the door open. Which given his strength, wasn’t all that hard. The door squealed in protest on rusty hinges as he pushed into the room, leaving a trail on the filth-covered floor. With the door fully opened, he ducked to avoid hitting the top of his body on the bulkhead as he stepped inside.
While the doorways were small, he was gd the ceiling was high enough for him to stand upright. It would have been a stant pain to have to duck all the time while in his own shop.
Other thahick yer of dust on the floor, the room was empty. He stood there for a moment, taking it all in. It still hadn’t quite clicked for him that he was now free to do what he wanted.
Of course, that was just the beginning. He o find out how he ended up in this body, or even on this station. Now he had time and he could do it at his own pace without w about Yuri catg him. And while his pn to masquerade as an invalid with an auto-immune disorder that could only unicate through this robot form wasn’t a great o was the only one he had mao e up with in the previous years. Or at least the only pn that wouldn't get people to ask unfortable questions about him or his situation.
Maybe getting stu the ass end of the station was a good thing. He was certainly out of sight. This would give him the time he o make his cim more believable.
But first things first, this peeded to get ed.
After walking down the hall to the closest terminal – yeah, no personal terminals down here – he was able to purchase some ing supplies and rust remover.
It took a day or so to get them, but that was fine.
He spent the few days scrubbing every inch of the space, including the ceiling. His ability to reach without a dder was handy for that. The dot lubed and eveside crud was removed. His corridor was now the est corridor in this se of the sed ring. It would make it stand out, but he simply couldn’t work with the disgustihat had been here when he arrived. Alexander was itg to more eg hallways, but he reined in that instinct.
He spent a bit more moo have a sign prio repce the faded one over the door. It simply read, ‘Alexander’s Repair Shop’. Nothing fancy, but it got the point across. He didn’t have many applicable skills but thanks to Yuri’s library of manuals, he had a good handle on how to fix most basic items. Aill had some money set aside to purchase more manuals if he o.
After the pce was ed and the sign , He simply waited for his first er.
He probably should have advertised.
Days flew past, and while his small out-of-the-way corridor wasn’t super busy, people walked past at least on hour. A few even stopped to look at the sign, then they would look ihe door, see him, and slowly back out without a word.
It was a rather disheartening turn of events if he was ho. But he didn’t let it get him down. While he waited, he purchased a small programming ded spent the time perfeg the data disk he used to respond to people. He just finished his test iteration when a greasy-looking man strolled in carrying some piece of equipment.
“Greetings, Sir. How may I assist you?”
With a grunt the mahe heavy-looking po oal ter, smearing dirt and oil across it to Alexander’s annoyance.
The man looked around, “Where’s the owner, I his fixed up.”
It was time to test out the new features of his program. With a tiny movement of his hand, the holoprojector that doubled as his trol module let out a sigh. “I am the owner, Sir.”
The man bli him. “No, you’re a robot.”
“I apologize for the fusion, Sir. I suffer from a disease and must i with people through this mae. But I assure you my work speaks for itself.”
The man seemed skeptical. “Fine. Whatever. But I don’t have many credits and I his dooday.”
While Alexander would prefer to haggle for a better deal, he really didn’t have the leeway to refuse any work. “Well, let's see what we have.”
He moved over and ied the grime-coated device. After wiping arobably decades of residue, he finally found a serial elling him what it was. It appeared to be a gearbox for some sort of industrial application.
While Alexander didn’t have a whole warehouse of spare parts like Yuri had, he had purchased himself a small 3D printer. It had been expensive, eating into his limited funds, but it had been necessary if he wao fix anything of hout having to purchase from the manufacturers.
“I should be able to repair the damage, please return in two hours with payment.”
“Fine, but if you run off with it, I’m calling station security on you.”
After the ma, Alexander used the prio create the tools he o take the gearbox apart. That had been another reason the printer was his first purchase instead of a good set of tools. He didn’t need power tools since he had more strength than any of those.
As the tools printed, he finished removing the grime. The case on the unit had cracked which is likely what led to it breaking down. That was annoying because he didn’t have a welder or the schematic to print a new case. It meant he would have to purchase the printable design and that would eat into his profit.
With a sigh, he made his way to the local terminal and looked up the manufacturer. One hing about the future is all manufacturers had to provide printer schematics for all pos. They didn’t do it freely of course, but Alexander paid the cost and headed back with the data disk for his printer.
An hour ter, with a new case and two repced gears, the er left satisfied. The pay barely covered the cost of purchasing the schematics along with the printer material and power to print them, but it was a start.
