Chapter 1
“Meteorologists report a snow storm will be sweeping through the bay this coming week. Predictions say up to 8 inches of snowfall will be hitting the city, the highest in almost 120 years. In preparation for this momentous occasion, the Mayor has loaned over 200 snowplows from the Portland City Office to help keep the streets clear and moving this coming week. So don't forget to dress warm and try not to miss this historical moment in bay area history, as it will be one to remember. Back to you James…”
Sofia takes a sip from her coffee, staring at the TV in the top corner. “Can you believe it?” someone says. She puts her cup down and turns around. There are maybe 7 people cramped in the break room.
“Didn’t you say you always wanted to go to Alaska to see the snow?” She says to one of her coworkers.
“Yeah but this is different. I have to work in these conditions. Up in Alaska I can leave anytime I want.”
Sofia shrugs and turns back around. Before she can reach her coffee, she feels the all too familiar vibrating notification of her mesh communicator. Reaching down in her pocket, she feels the notification again. “What’s so urgent?” she thinks, before taking it out to investigate the small screen.
It reads “We need the encryption cracked tonight” followed by “When can we get it done?”, signed jWorm. She had gotten the files just yesterday when she was in town. “The urgency was not communicated properly” she thinks. Sighing, she uses the keypad to type out her response.
2-8-0-9-666-777-55, send.
3-666-0-555-2-8-33-777, send.
On the screen it reads “at work” and “ do later”. He gives a one word response. “Acceptable”.
“Who’re you talking to weón?” It’s George, Sofia’s neighbor and coworker. Well, maybe neighbor is an overstatement. She lives in the megablock in his neighborhood, next to the thousand other people in her building.
“It’s work.”
“And by work I guess you mean not-here-work”
“It’s a gig. Some old guy across the bay needed some help with his computer.”
“Uh huh. And that’s worth your while?”
“It pays.”
“You could try asking for more shifts here. It would mean less time split, more time with me. Earn some proper luca.”
“I’m not aiming to spend the rest of my life here, and besides I already spend enough time with you.”
“What? You wanna leave me here all alone?”
“I just don’t wanna do something I don’t really care about for the rest of my life.”
“Alright, but I won’t be the one begging the manager to re-hire you when you come crawling back.” George has a sly grin on his face.
Sofia pushes him with her shoulder and mutters a playful profanity under her breath.
A light above the door begins blinking and an artificial voice comes over the intercom. “WORK WILL RESUME IN 5 MINUTES” it says, repeated three times.
“That’s our cue” George says, standing up and reaching down a hand to help Sofia up.
The work days were long here. Mostly locals, failures and dead-enders. Her and George were anomalies here. Too young with too much to look forward to. Sofia hoped this place would be nothing more than a stepping stone to keep her afloat while she kept doing gigs, but a year later she was still here. George however, he was just an insane person. Actually enjoying the work here was a luxury most people were either envious of or found completely irrational.
The horn of a small freighter signaled the arrival of another shipment. George ran over with an air of excitement, pulling Sofia with him. He called it ‘memorabilia’. Scrap, from the war. Freshly scavenged from the lands.
Sofia filled up a wheelbarrow with small pieces of scraps and electronic, walking it back to her station. The first thing she grabbed was a locator beacon. It was an orange cylinder no bigger than a water bottle with caps on either end. It was routine at this point.
With a flathead screwdriver, pry along the seam of the cap until all rust and dirt has been cleared and the cap loosened. Now you should be able to unscrew the cap in its entirety. A chrome cylinder should now be able to slide out of the orange case. There is a seam that runs along the side of this cylinder, with four screws. Unscrew these and pry the whole thing open to slide out the electronic chassi. Now it’’s just easy picking. Any valuable metals get put in the blue bin, any salvageable tech go in the green bin, and any potentially important data storage devices get packaged up and given to the shift supervisor.
Sofia had done this a million times. She knew what metals and tech were usually located, and how to easily pry of the data chip without having to remove any solder. Then it was onto the next piece of derelict technology to pry open and salvage. She wasn’t sure where these things ever even went, and if anyone was actually using any of the recovered data.
The shift continued smoothly. She had to go outside to refill her wheelbarrow twice, and every time she’d feel the cold front quickly approaching. Everyone was working a little faster today so they didn’t have to work in the impending snowfall. Sofia was working through her last batch as the sun set outside and the first snow came.
Unscrew this. Slide that out. Have to be careful with not breaking those cables. Then she stopped. The processing unit on this one was much more powerful than what was usually in these types of recording devices. And when she turned the thing over, the memory card that was of much bigger capacity than it usually was. Nice she thought, before quickly removing the processor and memory card to slip it into her pocket.
“We were gonna go get some drinks after work. Want to come along?” said George.
“I can’t. I have to run some errands”
“Some ‘errands’? No sick rider type stuff?” he asked mockingly.
“I can’t”
“Alright jote. I wont push it.”
Now finally off work, she got out of her work uniform and grabbed her things from her locker. On her drive home, she stopped by a local shop. It looked like a local convenience store, except all the packs of chips and sodas had been replaced with all kinds of things like pre-owned computer paraphernalia, bins of components, racks of different kinds of wearable technology, and all sorts of shady cyberware that came from god knows where. A voice came from behind the counter.
“Sofia! How are you lady?”
He was a man of short brawny stature, with teeth crooked as the tower Pisa and a set of hair he should’ve let go of a long time ago.
“Hey Alfons. I got something for you.”
“More of your salvage?” he said with a semi-sarcastic tone.
“What? You not interested?”
“Of course I am. You’re just always a little fuzzy on the details. You know… place of origin. That kind of thing.”
“When has that ever really matter to you?”
“I guess not. Let me take a look.”
Sofia took the processor and memory card from her pocket and placed them on the counter. He picked up the processor, inspecting it closely.
“I’d probably give you a few bucks for this.” he states so matter-of-factly.
“You gave me at least 20 for it just a few weeks ago.”
“People aren’t looking for em anymore. Shipments of chips just as powerful are flooding in from way out east. The supply is way up.”
“Well what about the card?”
He placed down the processor and picked up the card. He noticed the big red lotus on the front.
“Can I see what’s on it?” he asked
“No can do I’m afraid.”
“Considering it’s from the war… I’ll give you 40”
“Come on now. That right there could turn public opinion. There’s no way of knowing how valuable it could be.”
“Look. Just because it’s Eshi don’t mean it’s valuable. I mean damn, most of this city is Eshi, and it’s all equally as shitty as everything else.” he paused. “The most I’ll do is 50”
“55”
“Fine”
He handed her the money and she quickly went on her way. She couldn’t waste much time. She was going to spend the night hunched over the damned vault file she’d been given by Joshua. The earlier she’d be done with it, the better.
And that's where it ends for now. I've been working on this project on and off since 2022, and finally having something out there (even if it's just part of a chapter) for the public feels really good.
Feedback is highly appreciated to [email protected]!