Redundant Phoenix - Part 01

My shoes echoed off the walls, harmonizing with the murmured conversations of my former colleagues in the lobby as I continued stomping towards my lab. Trolleys and hand trucks were already marshalling equipment and effects from the corridor, my coworkers weren’t bothering to look me in the eye as they sheepishly crept past clutching whatever they had scrounged. Office supplies, PPE, the lumbar rest I purchased two weeks ago, the tag still pinned by a plastic loop sewn into the base. 

Shaking my head, a feeling of vertigo crept across my mind. The hallway spun as my blood boiled over. A tall security guard moved in front of me. He held up a hand, speaking something I couldn’t quite parse. “Out of my way I’m cleared to be here!” I snapped, my voice cracking as I forced my way past him and into the large brick and linoleum space. 

“Ma’am that’s no longer valid—” He said, stepping towards the lab. 

Spinning in place, I hurled my badge in his direction. “Then take it! I’ll be gone in a minute.” The card bounced off his chest and clattered to the floor below. Before he could react, the slam of the hallway doors against the wall was ringing in my ears. 

No one else was present in the short hall leading to my former lab. The echo in the room sucking the air from my lungs. The space was a shell, vultures having practically cored it out. Rows of barren stations, a couple of stools, and the larger equipment were all that was left. The Mark I sat against the wall, the servos clicking away in idle as I walked through the nearly empty room. Deep scratches in the floor led away from the center of the room where the heavy safety shield had been installed. 

“Five bloody years, gone…” I groaned, snatching up a cardboard box. “And for what?” I set some of my personal effects inside, collecting what little remained. Luckily, the thieves had left my personal tablet, but really there wasn’t much. Just an old novelty stuffie from some retreat, a stapler, a couple of personal photo album’s I’d brought to show Sophie, a calculator and my prescription UV screen glasses. “I didn’t have much here I guess.” I said to no one in particular, setting my car keys within. 

“That’s an understatement.” Came a soft voice from behind. The venom in her Blackpool accent dripping from her maw set my teeth on edge, glaring I slowly spun. Jenna was prancing through the empty lab, hands behind her back. As she approached, she set a small tape measure on a lab bench before setting her hands on her hips. “I guess the board finally saw things my way.”

Rolling my eyes, I leaned against the bench, my pinky glancing off the screen of my tablet. “Oh this is petty. Even for you.” I hissed, glaring at her. 

She tapped her chest with her fingertips, feigning hurt. “Nicole dear, how could you think so low of me.” She chirped, stepping forward. “I’m not here to gloat. I’m just here to start planning my new lab.” Her cheeks pinched up high, her dimples forming deep black pits at the corner of her impish grin. 

“They gave you all this space… for what?” I growled, my fingers scraping against the tan slate bench top. “You’re going to fill it with server racks for your little digital sex dolls?” My vision tightened to a tight dark circle focused entirely on Jenna. 

“Ugh, you’re such a bore.” She groaned. “Dismissing tech you don’t understand, how old fashioned. Your talk last year seems a bit hollow now, doesn’t it?” Stepping forward, I arched an eyebrow. “We’re on the cusp of something amazing, A.I. is the future. I need the space, and you don't. Why it may even get your little… what do you call it again?” She gestured to the side of the room. The Mark I whined as it dumped the stored energy in it’s cyclotron into the grounding shroud. “Matter Transposition Generator working…” She choked back a laugh, holding her fingers to her lips. “I mean seriously, you may as well have promised them a portal gun.” She let her head dance on her neck, clearly relishing the experience. 

The smug bint slunk forward, the hem of her skirt flowing with each step. She paused 3 meters away, coyly posing as she basked in the moment.  “I’ll be able to give them something worthwhile. Something… marketable.”

As she posed, light caught my eye. Teal, blue and amber light caught in the polish of the shorter woman’s nails. The Mark I’s emitter had powered on, its nacelle was glowing and the air in the lab took on a slight charge. Glancing down subtly at the screen of my tablet, the control program was running, the generator was over half charged.

My face ached as I moved slowly, deliberately. My hand shielded from the petite usurper by the box holding my personal effects. 

“What’s wrong Nicole?” She purred, smirking at me from across the room “Cat got your tongue?”