The gray, stagnant water from the decanter tank quickly filled the ventilation tunnel she sought refuge in, for the first time she was glad this whole portion of the ship did not have life-support and so she wore her pressurized suit. That might help her escape this ordeal but did not guarantee she would remain alive after.
Worst of all this was Beryl's favorite placement so far, doing maintenance on waste disposal machinery. They were always running and needing supervision and at the same time humans hated coming here, like this work was beneath them, and so all she had to do is put in the hours and make sure it was all working smoothly, then she would not have to see their bald faces for weeks if she were lucky.
She held in a chuckle, wasting air would be a terrible idea but for a moment she imagined one of them being in this position, she thought it would be hilarious and so well deserved. In that moment though she was glad they made her so resilient and resistant to fear, compared to every other thing they put in her those attributes were what she needed to get out of that tunnel without freaking out and breathing eight hours worth of oxygen in less than one.
“Okay there must be an emergency hatch somewhere in this, if it's wide enough for a bunny to get into, if only they gave me a helmet with a HUD…” She sighed, nervously biting her lip with her long incisors. Her mother always told her not to do that, that her kind gets written up for self harm and they would reduce their rations, giving them less points. What the hell, they made the Cunimorphs like this on purpose didn't they? she thought in a moment of clarity, of all things they kept in just for their amusement they had to leave the anxiety and self-harming behaviours of our gene stock?
She blinked, the water reached her shins and brought her mind back to the tunnel. Finally noticing the carved depressions on the near vertical walls she began to climb upwards, the holes just wide enough for the large boots her kind required. Those idiots only thought of themselves didn't they? she would think, breathing heavily as she pulled herself up as fast as she could.
Beryl banged on the emergency hatch as hard as she could, screaming even if the dry air of her suit’s supply made her throat hurt and her nostrils bleed. There were faint noises on the other side, barely noticeable over her breathing, someone knocked on the hatch and after she banged again she could hear it depressurizing.
“Finally” It was barely a whisper that the stranger didn't hear, he extended his hand and pulled her out of there before closing the hatch.
When her vision adjusted she noticed he was one of the ferrets, the wrinkles under his eyes and sparse grey hairs on his muzzle were the first features she noticed under the glare from his helmet.
“So you must have something to do with what we were called here for, little doe.” He said in an inquisitorial tone while trying to wipe the slimy crud out of his gloves. Looking down at herself she could barely see the yellow, white and black patterns of her uniform, she was completely covered in grey slime and dust from the tunnels.
“C3F4529, waste disposal.” She mechanically recited her serial number and occupation as she was trained to do at official matters “But they call me Beryl at the warren, and i think i'm okay, besides being in this suit for too long.”
“F3M6323, construction. I was sent here with a team to assess the damage.” He looked over her short, slender body “but you look like you need to be escorted back and given a medical assessment, also full decontamination before you get out of that.”
“There was no rescue effort?” She asked, confused, humans cared about their lives if it meant losing experts to accidents so there was no reason to not send a team first.
“As far as I was informed, there was no one down there, no data about it in the system either.” He shrugged “you’ll have to explain what you were doing there to management, also i hope you don't get blamed for it.”
“I was scheduled to work there today! I replaced all the gaskets down there yesterday, that pipe had no reason to burst like that.” She raised her voice, clenching her hands into firsts.
“All you can do right now is follow me. Can you walk?” He was fiddling with the intercom cable on his suit, trying to find a spot where he could plug his suit into the filthy, old maintenance console on the wall.
“Yes, I'm not really hurt but thanks. If the wireless worked inside the tunnels I wouldn't have gotten myself into this.” She followed him in case they asked her to speak with them as well.
The ferret nodded and pressed the emergency switch on the wall resulting in a short conversation with the operator. “So there will be a team waiting for you on the airlock closer to your assigned transit hub, good luck Beryl.” He said as he carefully zipped the audio cable back into its pocket.
“Thank you, can I plug in and call my mom?” She asked him, already sure she would be getting an earful, and hers were particularly large.
“Sure”
[Scene Break]
As soon as the airlock closed behind her she braced for the decontamination shower, it was always way too cold and she hated the lingering smell of chlorine on her suit, but it meant she could get out of it the moment the other side opened. After the quick blast of air from the drying cycle the chamber hissed until it was pressurized, Beryl pulled her helmet and padded hood off and checked the integrity of her suit. No rips in the seams, the electrically pressurized gloves were fine - she was glad these were okay, they fit tight all the way up to her elbows and were way better than the usual ones. - her boots had a lot of their coating worn off but that was not unusual, so at least she would not be written up for ruining her suit.
She shoved it back into her locker and was glad to be out of it, her back hurt from all that extra weight and her nose would feel funny for a few hours but she was made to endure way longer in it. She kept her jumpsuit on, she was not wearing much under it and as long as she kept the hoses going into her gastric system and her airways plugged from the outside it was okay. They were probably going to ask her to undress anyway and she would like to avoid that for as long as she could.
The door opened and the uniformed team walked inside, one doctor and two paramedics, these looked like shepherds, and one man with an electric prod, these were always masked but she guessed they were humans just like the doctors.
“C3F4529, waste disp-” The doctor shoved his gloved hand in her mouth before she finished and pulled her lip up to reveal the number printed on its inner side. She hated when they did that.
“Did you upload the data from your suit's health monitor?” He asked coldly, pulling his hand out of her mouth to type her number on his stretchtab.
“I did.” She answered dryly, wishing she had the guts to bite his hand. Both paramedics were undressing her and pulling the tubes out, checking for bleeding on their respective sphincters and on the flap leading to her airway.
“No bleeding, sir” one of them said, moving on to flash a light on both her eyes.
“Are you in pain or otherwise feeling anything unusual?” He went on with his questions, unfazed by her nudity.
“I’m fine” She crossed her arms, both to cover her chest and due to how cold it was in the airlock.
“I think we are done, report to your superior he is expecting to debrief you.” They put all their equipment back in their cases and left the room, leaving her to go back to her locker and dress herself.
She took a good look at her body, or rather the one made for her. It was made as a mockery of theirs, their bodies being almost identical, besides her feet, tail and head, those were too rabbit-like for it to count as human. She brushed her mostly white fur back into shape all the way up from her black feet and to the bushy black tuft on the top of her head and rubbed some cream on the extra holes they added. Beryl could never get used to how it felt to stick her fingers under that flap on the base of her neck leading to her airway or the sphincters that opened into her esophagus and colon but at least they made her long periods inside her suit more bearable.
She also had no idea how all this meant she wasn't a person but that was something she grew used to. Apparently to the builders of this ship, whoever had the idea of carving an asteroid into one and launching it to a far away star, being made in a plastic bag from fully printed embryos was enough for her not to be an animal or a human and undeserving of the rights of either. Beryl put her provided set of T-shirt and pants and left the airlock, unsure of what was waiting for her outside.
The transit hub was empty of both passengers or trains and even if she could go home right now, she did not have clearance to leave her work sector at that time. Realizing she had no idea what time it was she pulled her Stretchtab and saw it was 1530 of the next day, she had no choice other than go look for her manager and set all of this straight so she shrunk the device and wrapped it around her wrist. She hurried across the catwalk that linked both north and south platforms, her steps muffled by the polymer-tiled floor still echoed on the stone that formed the walls and ceiling of the platform, Above her innumerous human families went and came about in a comfortable imitation of Earth’s surface, whatever that was supposed to be like. Beryl believed it was accurate after all, humans had very high standards for everything save their service people's living conditions, but she disliked going up there, being up there among them felt wrong to her yet it was what Cunimorphs like her were made for: customer service and hospitality.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
She walked across the equally drab looking corridors of the office block right beside the station, where the management team of this sector’s waste treatment center was located. Endless rows of cubicles and small rooms made of prefabricated steel and faded grey polymer filled with opossums. She sometimes wondered what the logic behind the division of labor between species of Zoimorphs but given their masters' twisted sense of humor there was some relation between the ‘possums and trash, as for Cunimorphs she knew, humans found them adorable.
Her manager’s door was halfway open and made of milky plastic but she knocked anyway.
“I know it's you, I can see your ears from here” She opened the door to the office, not much occupied the room besides an old desk with a number of mismatching monitors anchored to one side. Her boss was elderly, dressed in the yellow button-up shirts provided to managers in his line of work, he was the kind of man to spend the leftover points his position afforded him in lavishly greasy food and as such the uniform didn't fit his form so well anymore. Upon seeing her he straightened himself, resting his elbows on the table and lifting one of his thick grey brows. “You’re
looking too good for someone that went through all that trouble.”
Beryl rested both hands on the chair’s backseat, nervously biting on her lower lip. “The decon shower did a thorough job, but I don't have to say that, right?”
He nodded slowly “I could smell the chlorine the moment you got inside, hate it” then swiveled one monitor so it would face her, it displayed security footage of the incident. “So one of our main tanks ruptured, not the worst problem by itself on usual days but we have a compounding issue here on our hands, you’ll see.” He swiftly joined his palms, and Beryl’s ears folded back. “Sit please”
Slumped into the chair she felt her breathing get heavier again. “I don’t know anything else that happened after the breach, Shredder.”
“Of course you don’t, I saw all the footage and how you were dragged out of there by the flood. The problem is, hundreds of humans right above us will have to ration water and use emergency sanitation equipment, because for some reason there was a misplaced shipment of spare chipsets for the plants computers right in that room and those were set to be replaced today. Now the working set and the spare are dead and we can't ask the priority queue on the level 5 fabrication units to change because suddenly it's like all sectors are undergoing maintenance one after the other and I’ve spent hours on endless calls trying to find someone that could change the priority list and couldn't!” Beryl was shaking, trying to mumble something but it just would not come out.
“Sorry, the thing is at this point they are going to pick whoever was in that footage, namely you, and throw you somewhere not so easy to come back from.” Shredder’s ears folded back. “The political climate up there is not that great right now, it's like once every ten years they remember they are cooped up in a ship and take every little problem as a sign that it’s going to fall apart.”
“But the ship was built to last twice as long as needed, that's what the fabrication sectors are for.” Beryl looked down, crossing her arms as she kept licking the wound she made on her lower lip.
“Humans act like they are always in scarcity. Every time we get a slight improvement they act like we are taking all the resources from them, it's just how it is, probably since the start of the journey.” He played the footage again, her number displayed above her head as provided by her implanted tracker.
Her eyes went to the time of the recording, right next to it was boldly written: Condensed version was edited by the Overseer’s team.”Wait, the ferret that requested a medical check for me said they had no idea I was there!” She leaned forward, resting her firsts on the desk.
“I thought you were rescued, Beryl” His demeanor shifted, the large and dark marsupial eyes wide open. “As far as i knew they were spending all this time to get you out of there.” But look just… wait for them to come to you, as far as we know nothing changed, i don't have to fire you and neither will they do anything to you or me before investigating, Remember we are very expensive to make and train and you have 7 years of experience with this.”
She took a deep breath. “Would suck to go somewhere else, I liked it here. Can you believe it?” and tried to smile.
Shredder snorted “and I remember how hard you argued to get in, but I get why, after what happened to your father, no one on the surface wanted anything to do with your family.”
Beryl was too young to remember all the details, and her mom wouldn't talk about it but she knew her father was framed for killing a councilman, at least she was sure he was. She was not too young to work though as most Zoimorphs began working when they turned twelve years old.
“I was the only one working for a long time” She nodded, lowering her ears.
“I really hope you get all of this behind you, doe. If they bother holding a trial I'll do my best to get you out of this mess okay?” He reached for something under his desk with his massive hands. “Here, have a donut, beats that paste the suits been shoving into your gullet the whole day.” She reached for the open bag and picked one.
She bit into it, most of it tasted real, but the chocolate probably wasn’t “Thank you”.
He relaxed in his chair, giving her a lopsided grin. “Now go home, there's a train going in that direction coming in the next 5 minutes and I'm giving you clearance.”
Beryl got up and after hurriedly saying thanks she left for the hub, nearly bumping into a coworker on her way out.
He turned back to face her “Hey! You're alive!”
“Sorry Screamer, I’ll miss the train!” She shouted as she hurried to the platform, the noise of the train becoming more perceptible over the background sounds as she went on. It had to be the train running clockwise around the diameter of the ship, and because of that it was a short trip between here and the warren.
The train arrived, a capsule-shaped vehicle that ran autonomously between the hubs, it was one of the only methods of transportation zoimorphs were allowed in unless authorized as it minimized their presence in the surface and reduced the time they could justifiably spend up there.
Beryl sat on the metal bench as there was plenty of room, the only ones using the train at that odd hour were either specialists with no fixed workplaces or people cleared to ride it for unusual reasons like she was. She saw some ferrets, probably from the team the old guy that saved her was from and several cats and foxes with similar uniforms who were probably coworkers from the same restaurant.
After a minute or two the chime indicating her stop was coming played. She had finished the donut and depending on how her mother would be acting like when she got home that meant she would not worry about going to bed hungry. Who would be home at this time? probably her youngest brother and her sister, if she got hired as she was expecting she would not be going to work until very late in the night, and her brother was still too young to work for the next two years.
Maybe it would be a good idea to pick Jasper at the daycare before going home if she could, but maybe it was too early, she would try it anyway as her mother would appreciate if she did. She pulled her Stretchtab out of her wrist and stretched it so it would fit on her lap then sent a message to her mother saying she would try to pick him up earlier, after that it didn't take long for the train to stop and she wrapped the device back on her wrist.
The long maze of tunnels and chambers they called the warren used to be just a fraction of its size and a very unsanitary place to live back when the ship was still brand new. What let it grow was the effort of all cunimorphs that lived there, slowly digging bigger chambers and adding sewage pipes. Those additions were allowed after much protest from its population that was in the end allowed to self govern and use their earned points to request parts and equipment from Fabrication.
Beryl liked living there, she didn't know too well what living on the surface was like, but in the warren it was like they were all family and they all worked to make their lives as comfortable as they could.
She got out of the platform and into the lit, smoothed out tunnels that were her home. The main tunnel was wide and tall enough to fit most of the digging equipment used to build it so she was surprised to see it so full at that time. Her stretchtab pinged and so she swiped to see that her mother had answered “Pick Rosemary up as well”
As well? did the doctors give her mother another child? Beryl always wondered how that worked, the baby making that is, she was too young when Jasper came to remember. She knew they were made in bags in a sector of the ship no zoimorphs were allowed inside, as well that sometimes the doctors gave them updates, like her bypass sphincters. Her mother was too old to receive a new baby however, there's always younger couples available and they seemed to prioritize those.
She rushed to the daycare where her old caretaker Lily was giving a lesson to the children, Beryl waved at her and she came, carrying one of the youngest ones in her arms. Lily was a spotted rabbit just like her and the rest of her family, she barely had black spots on her face unlike Beryl, with her two large spots on each eye and one extra on the right side of her muzzle.
“Beryl! it's great to see you're not hurt, we were all worried.” Lily hugged her with her remaining arm.
“Yea and they let me go earlier today after a medical check, I wondered if i can pick Jasper and Rosemary earlier today?” She asked meekly, not entirely sure how much she would be overstepping.
“Well here is Rosemary…” She then offloaded the baby onto her arms, Beryl couldn't hold back a gasp. Babies were heavier than she remembered, she wondered what the doctors added to this one. “Jasper! Your sister is here!” She shouted back at the room.
Her brother got up from where he sat and came to her, with his fur all messy and tangled as usual, he shared the black tuft on his head like hers. “Youre alive,” He said shily.
“Of course she is.” Lily giggled “she came to pick you up, so be good and go straight home.”
He nodded and walked over to Beryl's side. She held his hand and the two of them walked away.
“Tell me this one isn't ours.” She asked him, the desperation obvious in her voice.
“No, mom is helping Tyme for a while, they gave her to her but she's been too sick.”
Beryl breathed in and out slowly.”Great, I got worried for a second.”
“I think it would be fun” He reached to tickle the baby’s feet.
“For you!, now that Emerald is working again it would be a nightmare.” She pulled the baby out of his reach.
“Does almost dying make people cranky? cause you're cranky?” He chuckles.
“...I just need to get on my bed.”
She opened the sliding door to her home, a circular chamber with enough space for a kitchenette, a small table and four excavated alcoves hidden by curtains. She laid the baby on her bed with her, unsure of what to do with her but too tired to do anything at all.
Her mother would arrive soon anyway.