I stared at the orbital ring.

The massive construction project was a herald of the 28th century.

The massive, kilometer wide ring stretched around the planet. The complex calculations kept it in orbit. The ring served as the central network that helped humanity spring forward.

There were very few people there now though.

The rich moved to the terraformed moon, Lua.

The poor lived in the shadows of any major city.

On Earth, it was Neo Detroit. A touch was ironic considering how many times the city had fallen into poverty. Now it once again held the largest slum-blocks in any city on Earth.

“Next!” a grouchy lady hollered.

“Hey Gina,” I said with a smile.

Gina frowned at me. To be fair, she frowned at everyone.

“Order?” she choked out. Her dry lips clamped onto the vape pen like it her life depended on it.

“Cold coffee, sweet.”

“That will be fifteen minutes.”

I blinked. Last week it was only twelve and a half minutes.

Gina looked into my eyes.

I gave out a weak laugh. “Of course. No problems, Gina.”

I moved my hand forward, writes up. My pale skin slid past the pay light.

I watched as my time decreased, and Gina grunted.

My feet moved me to the side, as Gina called out to the next customer.

On the side of the cart, Petra smiled at me. The robot’s digital face smiled at me, and she began to prep my order. One of the hands, a nozzle, spray out a foamy mist that quickly became a semi-clear cup.

Then her other arm moved forward. Dense brown liquid dripped down, as other liquids got dripped in.

As the final touch, Petra’s little double-spoon arm mixed everything together. A rough mix in my preferred style, letting small tendrils of liquid sweetener float about.

It was cute, knowing that Petra kept me in her memory, despite the fact that she had so very little to spare.

I grabbed my cup and made my way back to the apartment.

While I could have called Transport, it would have cost time.

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With a thought, my internal systems brought up my time.

77 Days: 15 Hours: 30 Minutes: 10 Seconds

I grit my teeth and took a sip of my favorite Cold Coffee.

Say what you will about Gina. She was fair with pricing, considering her quality. Clean cart, clean plastics, traceable goods.

I walked for an hour.

All around me, the people moved. Some laughed. Some were somber.

I felt my body clench at the thought of everything.

I hated life.

I loved life.

It was frustrating.

I was not going to even see my thirtieth birthday.

If my math was correct, I was going to die a full three months before.

“Hello! Would you like to earn back Time?” a man asked as he stood in front of me.

I shook myself and looked at him. The man stared back at me.

“I am sorry, not interested in any fancy meetings,” I replied with a smile. It was always good to be polite. Or so my parents always said.

“Oh, but it isn’t a generic meeting. Its something a bit… more,” the man said as he moved up beside me, and draped his arm over my shoulder.

“Look, I am not-”

“Everyone is born with a hundred years, yeah? Thirty-six thousand, five hundred days. Or Eight hundred and seventy-six thousand hours,” the man leaned in.

“You are under forty years old. I will bet, I will give you a hundred hours. Right here, right now,” the man looked into my eyes. His blue eyes stared deep and hard. “That you have less than five years left.”

I looked away.

“It's quite common. Most people don’t live past fifty, what with base rent, food, and services. Even if you worked like a dog, you would be lucky to see sixty.”

“What do you want?”

“I want something that only a unique individual such as yourself can give.”

I narrowed my eyes. While it was true I wasn’t going to live long, neither was I going to sell my body to random people.

I frowned as thoughts ran through my head. At least not for another five weeks or so. Let's see how crazy I got near the end.

“Hahaha,” the man laughed, as he watched me twitch before him. “Come, let me introduce myself.”

He handed me a card.

Jonathan Carlos Morvini.

The name sounded familiar.

“First, I am getting hungry. Let us go to eat. My treat,” Jonathan said as he snapped his fingers.

A Transporter rolled up. The shiny, chrome finished showed that it was a first-class ride.

I hadn’t used one of them since I lost my job as Chromatech didn’t renew my contract. No reason given. The breach of the contract gave me a bonus of two years.

Which was further aggravating as I hadn’t been able to find work since. I was burning through my time and now I was getting into a car with an unknown man.

All because I didn’t want to die.

----------------------------------------

The pain was sharp, relentless, and horrific.

I coughed as I stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling. It wasn’t my apartment, as I could see out to walls that were far away. Very far away.

The standard 9.0 metered apartment was small. It was 15 meters if you measured the loft.

This room was larger than that. Much larger.

“Good morning,” a soft voice greeted.

I almost jumped out of my skin. My body instead rolled over, and off the bed. The carpet was very plush.

I was slow to get up.

Memories of a rich dinner. A menu that didn’t show cost.

I had real meat!

Then there was a pill, and then nothing.

I looked over at the young woman looking at me with a smile. She wore a form-fitting, but sharp looking blouse and pencil skirt.

“I see that you had an exciting night. There is water on the table, as well as a Time Card,” she said as she nodded to herself. “Please meet me in the kitchen when you are ready.”

The woman left.

It allowed me the grace to crawl over to the table. Water sounded so good right now.

I sat on the leather seat and chugged the bottle in one go.

I checked the Time Card. It was a standard looking card. I saw the back, and there was holographic chrome, which was the QR security code.

I concentrated and brought up the Time Card app. The code scanned.

Legit.

This was a legit card.

I tapped it against my left wrist. My internal systems buzzed. It hopped through the many security checks, and the online system touched my system.

75 Days: 23 Hours: 1 Minute: 16 Seconds.

Then my systems updated, and I stared at the new number.

80 Years: 75 Days: 23 Hours: 1 Minute: 6 Seconds.

I stared at it again.

What. The. Fuck.