Employee engagement is a simple thing once you get down to it. Create a small task. Reward the employee for a successful completion. Repeat. The feedback loop of task-reward has begun. Creating additional steps - but not TOO many! - between the reward and increasingly time consuming or complex tasks builds a sense of sunk-cost and a desire to keep going. This is not cruelty, merely manipulation and as we all know manipulation is the grease that keeps the cogs of profit grinding.
If you want further proof that this method is valid, just look at the Interface. Syntropy obviously agrees.
-Chairwoman Nina Ellory, Ad Astra Space Shipping, Passenger, Mining, Acquisitions, Exploration and Exploitation Corporation.
Alex realized he wasn’t going to be able to change their behavior, but he wasn’t a pushover when it came to things that mattered. This is the culture they exist in. But that doesn’t mean that I have to join them.
“Patina. Harmony. Let me point out some issues.” he cut into their chant.
“Kill! Ki-oh, what? Come on, it’s not that hard to end a life.” Patina declared.
“Alright, then how would you do it?” Alex queried.
“I would remove the atmosphere from the target’s location.” Harmony said, “If I were allowed to do so, I mean.”
“I’d stab him up the ass with my mop!”
“Or I would introduce a short-lived pathogen through the life support systems.”
“I’d stab him in the eye socket with my mop!” Patina shook a fist triumphantly.
“I might introduce his brain to a high-speed projectile. An adjustment of gravity here, a twist of the retro jets there to create momentum…”
“I’d stab him in the heart with my mop!”
“I could release the mag-clamps holding the lower decks of the carriage to the upper, ejecting the entire section of the train into the void.”
“I’d stab him in the-”
“Alright, stop.” Alex interjected. “These are all awful ideas.” He was sure his voice was laced with at least a small amount of horror.
“They are perfect ideas.” Harmony argued.
“Flawless!” added Patina.
“Patina, all of your ideas involve stabbing someone with a mop. The non-moppy end, I assume. Do you think he’ll just hold still for you? Or be unguarded? And do you think he’ll have soft skin and muscles and not wear any clothing to allow a mop to be just driven into his chest or whatever?”
“We might have to be a little sneaky-like.” Patina frowned. Alex turned to face the digital entity on the wall screen.
“And Harmony - what the hell? Where do we even start with how bad these ideas are? Removing the atmosphere, introducing a pathogen, or disconnecting half of the carriage? How many other people would die?”
“Some sacrifice is permissible for the good of the company. The board of directors have gone on record to declare this.”
“And I can sharpen the handle of the mop…” Patina suggested, reluctant to let her idea go.
“This is not going to happen.” Alex put his foot down. “And even if it was, I would never even consider accepting some sort of weird corporate assassination job without being armed, trained, and having a very good plan.”
Alex’s mind briefly drifted to the would-be assassin Sophie, who was likely still asleep in his bed or perhaps experiencing the hangover of her life. He hoped she would be okay and not be alarmed by his absence.
After some silence, Patina grudgingly said “The boss makes some sense, I guess.”
“There is a level of logic to his words.” Harmony allowed. “So, we shall begin training by accessing security boot camp files, and-”
“Can I just do the job you hired me for, please?” Alex begged, “Do I actually need the omnitool?”
“You do.”
“She’s right, “ Patina shrugged, “An omnitool is, well, pretty much every tool you think you might need, plus a bunch of others.”
“If nothing else, the omnitool contains a miniature matter deconstructor and reconstructor which are vital to the tasks you will be required to do.” Harmony finished.
“Well, shouldn’t there be things to do that don’t need a highly specific piece of equipment? And, by the way, I’m not suggesting anything here but it’s highly convenient that the only omnitool in the whole carriage is in the hands of the person you’re urging me to kill.”
“That’s just a coincidence.”
“Of course it is. And the last person to have a job like mine didn’t have his own?”
“That is the omnitool of Second Technician Gustav Bellows.”
“Which is really suspicious on its own, because Old Gus should have had it on him when he was trying to repair that diss-piss leak.” Patina added. “The fact that it’s in Vod’s hands means he either stole it or took it from Old Gus’ corpse - and there wasn’t much left of the guy.”
“As stated before, there are no moral issues with killing the fake overseer.” Harmony said, “He’s a terrible person.”
“He treats us all like his personal slaves.” Patina added.
“And he keeps smashing my screens and speakers so I can’t communicate in large areas of the carriage.”
“I saw him kick a cat once.” Patina said, until Alex looked at her with a raised eyebrow and her green cheeks darkened with a blush. “Okay, that wasn’t true. I don’t think we have a cat, but he totally would do it if he could.”
“Enough, please.” Alex sighed. “My job - Technician - how does it work exactly? I assume I don’t just wander around finding things to fix.”
“Wouldn’t be hard to find, “ Patina muttered.
“Ignore her, “ Harmony said. “Your Interface add-on will display a list of tasks and possible rewards for completion.”
So there’s more than just the base pay involved. Okay. “Rewards?”
“Okay so, like, you need to do a set number of duties related to your position every day in order to qualify for your daily wages, “ Patina explained, “Or work for a total of 12 hours in the 30 hour day. But some tasks award bonuses for completion.”
Patina went on to explain that a lot of the bonuses weren’t worth it, because they took longer and were much harder; For cleaners, deep-cleaning was a standard bonus. The biggest thing that kept them from bothering though was that though the base task was tracked through the Interface, the bonuses needed to be verified by the Adjunct.
“And if she can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. Another reason why the onboard sensors are being destroyed by the fake overseer. It keeps folks struggling.”
“Alright, “ Alex ignored the attempt to pull the conversation back to Fabian Vod, “So Harmony, why don’t you just assign me some tasks that don’t require the omnitool. I’m not completely useless with my hands, and I need to practice these skills anyway.”
“I can’t do that. Regulations state that you need both an Ad Astra technician’s uniform and an omnitool.”
“So bypass the regulation. Using [Jury-rig] on some stuff with what I have on hand, even improperly dressed, is still a benefit to the train and to Ad Astra, right?”
“I can’t bypass it.” Harmony grumbled, “It’s hard-coded as part of your employment conditions. You must be issued a uniform and an omnitool.”
Patina let out a little sound of realization and snapped her fingers. The sharp sound echoed in the mostly-silent room. “I have an idea. The maintenance closet.”
The maintenance closet - or, as Harmony quickly corrected, the Technical Support Resupply Room - was something that each carriage had. While carriage 9500 had the main engineering and repair facility, small rooms had been allocated for storage of resources and parts to prevent lengthy travel time if an engineer or technician needed something.
“Old Gus was in there a couple of times a week, “ Patina continued, “He should have a spare uniform in there at least.”
“Well that’s a start.” Alex nodded and smiled at the goblin. “Where is it?”
“A bit of a walk from here, “ she confessed, “And it’s in part of the lower decks.”
“I would really rather you focus on your bonus task to retrieve the omnitool, Alex.” Harmony urged, “Which can be done by killing Fabian Vod.”
“As far as I’ve been told, I’m allowed to refuse these bonus tasks.” Alex said, “With no retribution or consequence. Right?”
“Technically, yes. But Patina accepted the task already.”
“I didn’t. Drop it.” Alex said flatly. He was starting to get frustrated by this continual push to go and kill someone. That just wasn’t right.
“You need that omnitool, Alex.”
“I’ll deal with that when the time comes. Right now let’s start with the uniform. Patina, please show me the way to the resupply room or maintenance closet or whatever you guys want to call it.”
“Yes, boss.” Patina tapped her fist to her chest in a somewhat mocking manner, but added plaintively “Are you sure we can’t go and kill Vod?”
“Patina, I accept that in your life, in this place, killing someone might be acceptable behavior. But in my life, in my heart, it’s not.”
“Nine hundred glim…” the goblin muttered, and then sighed. “But you’re the boss.”
The goblin led Alex out of the room, with Harmony still calling out after them that doing things out of order or not following her suggested tasks would just make things harder in the long run. Once out in the corridor again, the AI’s voice was cut off as there were no working cameras, screens, or speakers.
>Incoming Message: The multiverse is awash in the blood of millennia. Killing is a road to growth. -Peri
You said there were other ways to advance. Name them.
>Incoming Message: Completing tasks, clearing entropy sinks, destroying anything entropy-made, and practice. -Peri
Show me.
>Incoming Message: Alriiiiight! Interface tutorial time! First, think ‘Interface’ with intent. -P
Interface.
~STATUS - TASKS - ADVANCEMENT~
Incoming Message: Obviously, ‘Status’ takes you to that display of your current state that you saw when you were being scanned by that AI. Advancement is useless right now because you don’t have anything to select yet. Choose Tasks. -P
Alex did so, and a new screen appeared.
~TASKS~
Personal Advancement Tasks
Syntropy Tasks
Add-On: Ad Astra Tasks
Without needing to be prompted, Alex concentrated on the Personal Advancement Tasks. A list of three separate tasks appeared.
~PERSONAL ADVANCEMENT TASKS~
Skill Advance: [Evaluate] (1) (3/100)
Skill Advance: [Jury Rig] (1) (0/100)
Skill Advance: [Repurpose] (1) (1/100)
~
Can I assume that the number out of one hundred is the number of times I’ve successfully used the skill? Alex recalled that though he didn’t get much from it, [Evaluate] had worked on several things in the pod. [Jury Rig] had failed.
>Incoming Message: Correct. Once you reach 100 you advance a rank, so for example [Evaluate] (1) becomes [Evaluate] (2), and will allow you to get more detail and evaluate more complex things with greater accuracy. Once you get to rank 5 you can choose an evolution option for your skill to customize it. -P
The whole skill thing seems like cheating. How am I getting better at, say, evaluating a complex futuristic machine by using the skill on a hundred other things?
>Incoming Message: Syntropy. The Interface tool is designed to not only guide us all but to push us forward. There are literally no disadvantages. You still have to practice. I don’t have a technical explanation for you right now, but using skills utilizes the whole of you - every tiny scrap of possible knowledge you’ve obtained is quantified, sorted, and used to guide you. So yes, your [Evaluate] skill can figure out things that you don’t think you know, but once you collate everything you’ve picked up subconsciously you actually do. Obviously only to a point, but studying and learning will build the knowledge that the skills can use, making advancement faster. -P
“What prevents me from just looking at everything around me and using my [Evaluate] skill in an attempt to advance it?” Alex asked. Patina looked at him and Alex realized he’d spoken aloud.
“Won’t work, “ she said, “I dunno why. You have to be trying to use a skill with the intent it’s designed for. That question came out of nowhere.”
“Just thinking. Sorry. Everything’s a little complicated.”
>Incoming Message: I was literally typing that. Can you ditch the goblin? -P
No.
Patina guided Alex down a side corridor that led to a hatch in the floor. There was a camera pointed at the hatch, and a small light showed that it was active even if it was half-hanging off the wall.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Look, “ Patina paused at the hatch, her hands gripping the metal bar that served as its handle, “I’m sorry if I came on too strong in there. Sometimes I get…pushy.”
“Your last name seemed far more of a promise while you were chanting.” Alex joked easily. Patina shook her head and grimaced.
“I was talking about pushing you to take me as an assistant. I just…I need things to change. Life has to be more than just scrubbing walls and mopping floors, right? Void, Alex, I’m only a level nine [Cleaner] and that’s considered good.”
“I’m guessing it’s not?”
“Advancement gets harder as you level. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed that you have ‘path points’?” Alex nodded in assent, “It’s easy to get the first few levels in. Do a few tasks for Syntropy, or kill some bilge rats, that sort of thing. But it slows down. Maybe it’s two or three tasks at first, or ten bilge rats.” Patina looked at her hands and scowled. “Do you know how many bilge rats I’d have to kill to advance to level ten?”
“Quite a few?”
“Six hundred! And that’s with a non-combat Path, so it’s not easy. Especially when they come at you in packs.” Patina said. “With you here, there’s more opportunity to do things differently. Opportunity for a Path change. I know I’d be starting from level one again but purge, boss, it’d be worth it.”
“I didn’t know you could change your Path. Or if I was told that, I forgot.” Alex admitted. Patina gave him a crooked half-smile.
“It’s been a long day for you.”
“Truly. So what did you want to be? What sort of Path? I don’t even know what options there are, to be honest.”
“I dunno yet, “ Patina said, “It depends on what gets offered. There are literally tens of thousands of Paths.”
>Incoming Message: Path changes aren’t very rare, but they’re usually awarded as the result of a mission or task from Syntropy that alters something about you - an outlook, a belief, a way of doing things. Not rare, but not easy either. -Peri
“Do you have a task or mission or whatever for it?” Alex asked curiously.
“Not yet. Anyway, we're going down here.” Patina yanked open the hatch in the floor, exposing a ladder leading down. She performed one of those slides down the ladder that Alex had seen in movies and winked at him from the bottom. Alex opted to descend in a more sedate manner.
>Incoming Message: Let’s move on to your Syntropy Tasks. -P
Alex did so as he followed Patina down a new corridor - a narrower one than above, but surprisingly cleaner. It was also better illuminated than he’d somehow expected.
~SYNTROPY TASKS~
1 - Complete Major Event #1283
Is that it? Alex mused, concentrating on the task for further detail.
Complete Major Event #1283
Event #1283 reward is dependent on score.
0% - 9.99% - Path Points.
10-49.99% - Path Points. Restoration.
50-74.99% - Path Points. 10 free attribute points. Restoration.
75-89.99% - Path Points. 18 free attribute points. 2 free skill rank-ups. 50% chance of guaranteed return to point of origin. Restoration.
90-99.99% - Path Points. 25 free attribute points. 5 free skill rank-ups. Guaranteed return to point of origin with temporal adjustment within 0-90%. Restoration.
100% - Path Points. 30 free attribute points. 5 free skill rank-ups. 1 free attribute enhancement. Guaranteed return to point of origin with temporal adjustment of 75-90%. Restoration.
CURRENT SCORE - 1%
Scoring:
1% - Accepted Ad Astra employment offer.
~
Alright Peri, what am I looking at there?
>Incoming Message: Only good things, for you. The higher you score on the event, the better the rewards. Of course, you don’t get to see what advances your score because that would make it too rigid - Syntropy wants you to grow your own way. Restoration is the part we’re aiming toward, and it starts being rewarded at a very low score, which tells me you’re going to get magic one way or another unless you severely fuck up along the way. -P.
That’s…sort of a relief. I’m practically guaranteed to not die from this whole soul problem.
>Incoming Message: The temporal adjustments are great - if you score well enough to be sent home and get a temporal adjustment, less time will have passed than you spend here. -P.
I thought Sparkles said that time magic didn’t exist.
>Incoming Message: It doesn’t. Time magic doesn’t exist, but natural or technological means do. I don’t know the details, it’s not my area of expertise. You’ll probably be shunted through some physics-approved bullshit. -P.
Huh. Okay. Why not?
“Hey, you’ve been fairly quiet.” Patina gently poked Alex in the leg. “And you’ve got that glaze-eyed look of someone going through their Interface.”
“Yeah, just learning. And thinking. Sorry.”
“I’m assuming your world isn’t as violent as most of the wider universe. Your reluctance to kill is probably admirable on your homeworld, but out here it’ll just cause problems.”
Alex considered this. Earth wasn’t exactly the epitome of peace, but even with all of the strangeness caused by [Interesting Times] he’d never experienced true violence before. For the most part it had been avoidable, but that was a privilege he’d been lucky to have had.
I can’t say ‘I will never kill’ because I don’t know what would push me to do so. All I can state is that I think killing isn’t right, and it’s not my place to judge who should live or die. Plus, I’m not a violent person.
Yet.
Alex sighed aloud.
“I’m still lost, “ he confessed, “But I’ll learn. This whole thing just seems…thrown together.”
“Well, you’re new to all of this so it’s expected. If you have any questions, fire away.” Patina shot him one of those wide toothy grins. “As your new assistant, I won’t even charge you for the answers.”
“Is it safe down here?”
“Relatively? Parts of it.” Patina shrugged. “We’re in the lower decks - service corridors, all the stuff the higher ups don’t like to think about or see. Though some carriages are different, the standard layout is the upper decks are assigned to fulfilling Ad Astra’s purposes - shipping, mining, passenger and freight transportation, and all that. Lower decks are all the support and background stuff.”
“We haven’t passed as many doors up here. Mostly branches in the corridors.” Alex observed. Patina nodded.
“Behind the bulkheads here, “ she smacked the wall gently with her hand, “it’s all stuff to keep the carriage running. Pipes, conduits, wiring, all sorts of things. As far as I understand, anyway. We’re not allowed to access any of that, of course.”
“Doesn’t that mean it doesn’t get cleaned?”
“Exactly.” Patina shook her head. “The system’s broken in multiple ways, and there’s no convincing the Adjunct to give a sanitation worker any additional access. ‘A request for maintenance access has been sent’.” she mocked.
Alex fell back into silence and when prompted by Peri brought up the final set of tasks.
~AD ASTRA TASKS~
Kill the Fake Overseer
A miscalculation based on insufficient data has resulted in an unsuitable candidate being promoted to a minor leadership position within the company hierarchy. This must be resolved outside of the usual means. Kill Fabian Vod.
Reward: 900 glim. 1000 Duty Credits. Omnitool.
~
Access Technical Support Resupply Room
In order to complete your employment intake, a uniform must be provided. There is a high likelihood of one being located in the Technical Support Resupply Room. Collect the uniform, if it exists.
Reward: 1 Duty Credit. Possible uniform.
~
Complete Daily Duties
In order to receive daily wages, within the current daily cycle you must complete the following:
12 hours of work in your current role
or
5 pieces of Ad Astra property repaired.
Time Remaining in daily cycle: 15:11:21
~
“Well those are self explanatory, “ Alex muttered, “And based on the ‘automatic promotion’ I saw on my status earlier once I reach a certain threshold of duty credits advance me up in my position - if Harmony allows it. Hey, Patina. Promotions - you said the AI isn’t processing them currently.”
“The Adjunct says she’s not promoting anyone else because she needs authorization from another Adjunct, but I think there’s more to it. Even crippled, the artificial intelligence should be able to identify ways to adapt and change to keep things going. Like, as you pointed out, giving cleaners access to all the things that might need cleaning. So don’t worry too much about duty credits. It’s the glim that counts.”
“Yet another thing to figure out, maybe.” Alex mused. He was rewarded for his thoughts.
>Syntropy task assigned: Investigate Adjunct Artificial Intelligence Nine/Harmony
Well, fine.
“I guess I need to find a way to fix that. As far as I understand it, if I do well enough I can be sent home.”
Patina looked at Alex skeptically. “Did you get that in writing?”
“It’s in my Interface.”
“Huh. And does it define what ‘do well’ means?”
“That’s…a bit more vague. There’s a score attached, but no guidance on how to increase it. Or if there are things that decrease it.”
“Heh, “ the goblin chuckled, “Typical. Anyway, here we are.”
The pair had halted outside a door that looked like all of the others. There was a mount for a camera above it, but it looked like the device had been torn away long ago. Instead of a door sensor to allow access, a small panel beside the door flickered with intermittent light.
Alex took a moment to examine the strange squiggle of alien characters engraved on a small plaque above the panel and he frowned.
“Okay, so I can’t read that, but I can understand you. What’s up with that?”
“The train has language translation spells layered all over it. Not all of them work anymore. There are places where we wouldn’t be able to understand each other, so you’ll need to work on your language skills for when we run into them.” Patina shrugged, “There are several kinds, for written and spoken language, as well as scent and color and even psychic communication. Most of this carriage lost those before I was born. Now it’s just voice translation that works, and not always that.”
“Is that why you guys were surprised that I knew a little Latin? The, uh, Ancient Tongue I mean?”
“That one never translates. Anyway, “ she pointed at the plaque, “That says Technical Support Resupply Room. Concentrate on it for a second and think about the words I just said.”
Alex did so, and was only slightly surprised when the Interface let him know that something had changed.
>Language Gained: Ad Astran (0/100)
“Ad Astran? There’s a language named after the company?”
“I’m not a historical linguist, but the train has been around for, well, a really long time. They say languages develop over time, so…”
The goblin gestured toward the wall panel. Alex put his hand on it gingerly, remembering that he got jabbed with something when he last performed that action. The panel flickered, and after a while it registered his touch, allowing the door to slide open. At least the door was smooth, Alex mused.
As they stepped through the doorway, the room automatically lit up - mostly. Two dim bulbs illuminated the best they could, leaving dark shadows pooling between shelves and squat, chunky devices. What Alex mostly noticed in that first impression was the mess.
Strewn across the floor were bits and pieces from the mundane (Alex saw screws and nails) to the unknowable, with strangely shaped gadgets and parts that Alex had no understanding of making it hard to walk without stepping on something.
His walk turned to a foot-sliding shuffle as Alex took in the mess - racks and shelves had fallen, boxes and bins tipped over spilling their contents everywhere. Broken glass, metal shavings, and dust covered almost every available surface.
This is slightly worse than the standard IT office space, he joked to himself while inwardly wincing at the disorganized chaos. Strange machinery lurked in the gloom; An almost R2D2-shaped machine squatted off to one side, and a large metal framework took up half a wall. Alex noticed that the framework held shards of shattered glass. A workbench that was piled high with junk half-hid a thing that looked almost like a microwave, if a microwave was pyramid shaped.
So not really like a microwave at all, he thought and then shook his head. “Has this room been looted or something?” he asked Patina quietly.
“No…” the goblin replied, “Nobody else can access this room but you. You have the Authority and job for it. Old Gus was the last one who could get in here and that was over a decade ago. Things have been jostled about a lot over the years, I guess. It looks worse than usual.”
“You’ve been here before.” Alex observed. It was not a question, but the little goblin nodded.
“Yeah. Toward the end. Old Gus needed help walking around. I got in trouble for it a few times, but…you know.” she sounded uncomfortable. Alex gently poked her.
“This is the same Patina Bloodfiend who was chanting ‘kill kill kill’ recently.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes the benefits for doing things aren’t tangible. It’s not like I’m nice or anything.”
Include the word ‘baka’ at the end of that, I dare you. Alex challenged the universe. He’d seen very little anime, but the internet as a whole had educated him on some of the more common tropes.
>Task completed: Access Technical Support Resupply Room. One duty credit awarded. 10 path points awarded via Syntropy. Uniform awarded.
>Incoming Message: Your first path points! Good job! You could have gotten some sooner if you’d killed that bilge rat, but anyway…Syntropy won’t always award path points for completing these add-in tasks from your employer, but it looks like you’re getting a few bones thrown your way since you’re new to all this. As for the uniform reward, it’s probably in the room somewhere. This is just like a hidden object game! Ha! - Peri
“Harmony? Can you hear us here?” Alex called out, wondering if the AI had access to the room to monitor it. Patina pointed to a place on the wall where a blank, shattered screen hung.
“Too broken, “ she said absently, still looking around the room. “I guess we need to find your uniform here somewhere. The locker might be the best place to-”
“Ah. Hello, my replacement.”
Patina spun around toward the voice, her mop already out and held up defensively. Alex turned after a brief moment of surprise and saw a shimmering construct made out of light. An old man - a human, bent with age and wearing a threadbare uniform - gazed vaguely in their direction.
“I’m not sure who you are or what your background is, “ the old man said, his image flickering and turning to static for a moment before reforming, “But either the old Relentless Exploitation has recovered sufficiently to bring in engineers and techs from other carriages or, more likely, you’re an outside hire. For that I’m very sorry.”
“Old Gus…” Patina murmured.
A hologram? Neat!
“However much time has passed…it doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine things are improving.” Old Gus continued, “It’s evident that the train is broken - truly broken - and quite possibly Ad Astra is as well. We keep moving forward, but it’s clear that leadership has been out of reach for…well, longer than I’ve been alive. Something, or more likely many things, have gone wrong.”
“That’s an understatement.” Alex muttered.
“Since you’re here, you’ve probably been tapped to fix it. Let me tell you right away that you can’t. But since the AI is likely insisting that you do it anyway…you have two options. Firstly, you could do everything the Adjunct tells you to do. She won’t steer you wrong - to a point. Her programming is set to a very specific and rigid hierarchy, and so she will work you toward completing her goals. This is not a bad thing.”
The hologram paused as if thinking. Alex could see that it was a recording, so he didn’t ask it any questions. Patina was wordless, staring wide-eyed at the hologram as if she was seeing a ghost which, Alex supposed, she was.
“Or you could follow your instincts. Do what you think is best. You might see things the Adjunct doesn’t - especially since her monitoring infrastructure is spotty at best.”
“Look, “ the hologram continued with a sigh, “I’ll be honest here - I’m not the best techie. I’ve tried to keep up over the years, but I was pushed into this Path and it never really resonated with me. Being a [Technician] isn’t what I wanted. But it’s what I am, and it’s what I likely died as. So here’s the thing - there are a lot of systems that are way beyond my skills to repair, even after decades on the job. If they’re within yours, great.”
You can get a Path you don’t want?
>Incoming Message: Yeah. It’s not ideal, because you never really advance very quickly with it. Everything is a struggle, and it takes a very strong person to do well. But it can happen, and if you don’t have a drive for it, well…look at your little green friend there. Stagnation can happen. -Peri
“Don’t step beyond your role.” Old Gus cautioned. “There are things happening that are none of your business, or mine. Whether you do it on your own terms or follow the Adjunct’s breadcrumbs, stick to your job. It’s not worth looking into the…”
Static obscured the recording, white fuzz shorting out the recording for a moment. When Old Gus reappeared, he seemed more tired. “Sorry, I removed that last part. Temptation and all that. I’ve left some gifts for you.”
“In the locker, “ the hologram pointed to the place where the locker had been standing before it had fallen to the floor, “there’s a new uniform. I wasn’t going to be able to use my glim anyway, and when you die it gets cycled back into the company, so you get shiny clothes instead. Then there’s three major pieces of repair tech…”
“The disassembler, “ he pointed to the R2D2-looking machine, “The reconstructor, “ a gesture toward the pyramid microwave, “and the alchemical manifold.” Old Gus waved a shimmering hand toward the wall of broken glass and metal framework. “With these you’ll have an easier time of things. But…”
“They shouldn’t be here.” the old man confessed, leaning forward as if to impart a great secret. “They were supposed to be in the main engineering bay within carriage 9500. Instead I found them secreted away in the lower decks of this carriage. Someone moved them here, long ago. Before the carriages were sealed. I have my theories, and you will too if you get too curious. Don’t.”
“You’re really just dropping hints here to push me toward looking into things, “ Alex said to the hologram, knowing it wouldn’t hear him. “That’s a fun little manipulation.”
“I guess that’s it. I don’t have any meaningful message to impart. If you’re any sort of engineer or technician then flowery words will just be wasted on you. Do what you can, and don’t let the job kill you too quickly.” Old Gus sighed. “Ad Astra Liberatis…and farewell.”