It was a strange feeling knowing he was free. Sure it had taken over two years, but it had come far faster than Alexander had predicted or even planned for. The fact that he hadn’t foreseen this possibility was a good reminder that he was still out of his depth in this new reality he found himself in.
He barely even understood daily life on the station, let alone the complexities of their laws or bureaucracy. While he had read some of the laws because they were free to peruse, Alexander hadn’t spent much time digging into them, other than the ones that pertained to his planned freedom.
That was something he would need to rectify as soon as possible. Being ignorant of the local laws usually didn’t get you off the hook if you broke them.
His general knowledge was lacking 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 unmolested. He honestly wasn’t sure what he would have done or even could have done had someone stopped him. The limitations imposed on him by the control box were very much still in place.
This wasn’t his first trip down to the second ring, but he had only visited the place a few times to clear out some of the old scrapper's storage rooms. It was a wonder Yuri had made any money at all with all the junk he had lying about in the yard and other locations on the station. Yuri’s collection 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. Kuznetsova said was true. That was a shame. Alexander had been hoping to borrow some smaller parts and bits without Yuri figuring out what he was up to.
The man didn’t keep a good inventory of all his junk. From what Alexander had seen, the man kept most of it straight in his head. Which would be an impressive feat, except Alexander knew Yuri forgot where he placed things from time to time. On more than one occasion, he had been stuck waiting for Yuri when the item 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 come collect him when he failed to return.
The elevator didn’t groan when he stepped onto the platform. While Alexander’s body may weigh in excess of fifteen hundred pounds, the large cargo lift had been built to transport things many times his size.
He tucked himself into a corner and simply waited. Unlike the 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 stack neat rows of crates near the 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 changed when he saw one of the dumb robots nearly run someone over once. On another occasion, one crashed into a ship that Alexander had been sent to retrieve some parts from.
He had gotten a front-row seat to a heated exchange between the owner of that cargo handler and the ship captain. It ended with the cargo handler’s owner losing his contract and having to pay for the damages to the ship.
There was also the fact that most of Yuri’s items didn’t fit neatly into crates or pallets. But Alexander suspected the real reason Yuri didn’t use the things was purely because he was a cheap bastard. He was pretty sure the man never spent a dime unless it was to buy more junk or places to store more junk.
An hour passed and the warning lights outside the freight elevator began to flash amber, indicating that all cargo deliveries had to cease. One final material handler managed to 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 machines to be much more capable or at least AI-driven. He had a vague recollection of self-driving cars from back in his time. Certainly, the technology should have improved. There was likely a reason behind why it hadn’t, it was just another piece of history he would need to figure out.
A groan and loud clank signaled the closing of the door. Much like every other door on the station, this one was thick and sealed tight in case of accidental decompression. 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 decompression alarms along every corridor. He would know, he passed the signs and alarm stations more times than he could count. Now that he thought about it, the infrequency of venting issues was probably why nobody bothered with the vac-suits.
As the elevator slid to a halt and the doors opened to the same flashing 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 machine before going about his business.
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Seeing no more loaders lurking about and waiting to run him over, Alexander exited the elevator.
Much like the other rings, the second 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 traffic on this floor. But this certainly wasn’t a perfect world. At least he had managed to find a place on 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 traffic lane, 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 since stopped being legible, but the plate bolted next to the door confirmed 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 control where he thought he may have entered the wrong code, but eventually, he heard the clack of security bolts retracting. 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 glad the ceiling was high enough for him to stand upright. It would have been a constant pain to have to duck all the time while in his own shop.
Other than the thick layer 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 needed to 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 worrying about Yuri catching him. And while his plan to masquerade as an invalid with an auto-immune disorder that could only communicate through this robot form wasn’t a great one, it was the only one he had managed to come up with in the previous years. Or at least the only plan that wouldn't get people to ask uncomfortable questions about him or his situation.
Maybe getting stuck in the ass end of the station was a good thing. He was certainly out of sight. This would give him the time he needed to make his claim more believable.
But first things first, this place needed to get cleaned.
After walking down the hall to the closest terminal – yeah, no personal terminals down here – he was able to purchase some cleaning supplies and rust remover.
It took a day or so to get them, but that was fine.
He spent the next few days scrubbing every inch of the space, including the ceiling. His ability to reach without a ladder was handy for that. The door got lubed and even the outside crud was removed. His corridor was now the cleanest corridor in this section of the second ring. It would make it stand out, but he simply couldn’t work with the disgusting mess that had been here when he arrived. Alexander was itching to clean more connecting hallways, but he reined in that instinct.
He spent a bit more money to have a sign printed to replace 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. And he still had some money set aside to purchase more manuals if he needed to.
After the place was cleaned and the sign was up, He simply waited for his first customer.
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 once an hour. A few even stopped to look at the sign, then they would look inside the door, see him, and slowly back out without a word.
It was a rather disheartening turn of events if he was honest. But he didn’t let it get him down. While he waited, he purchased a small programming deck and spent the time perfecting the data disk he used to respond to people. He just finished his latest iteration when a greasy-looking man strolled in carrying some piece of equipment.
“Greetings, Sir. How may I assist you?”
With a grunt the man set the heavy-looking component on the metal counter, smearing dirt and oil across it to Alexander’s annoyance.
The man looked around, “Where’s the owner, I need this 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 control module let out a sigh. “I am the owner, Sir.”
The man blinked at him. “No, you’re a robot.”
“I apologize for the confusion, Sir. I suffer from a disease and must interact with people through this machine. But I assure you my work speaks for itself.”
The man seemed skeptical. “Fine. Whatever. But I don’t have many credits and I need this done today.”
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 inspected the grime-coated device. After wiping away probably decades of residue, he finally found a serial number telling 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 wanted to fix anything of note without 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 man left, Alexander used the printer to create the tools he needed to 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 nice thing about the future is all manufacturers had to provide printer schematics for all components. 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 later, with a new case and two replaced gears, the customer 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.