No time to lose

You’ve kept Dan waiting long enough you think, and continuing on you pass the industrial elevator hidden in the back and instead opt for yet another set of stairs leading downwards.

Going from the bright and inviting retail floor into the basement was what you imagined stepping into a universal portal must feel like. The business side of things was your world, the basement is where the black magic happens, this is Roksanas domain, and it’s looks like it was pulled straight out of a cyberpunk nightmare.

Leaky pipes and thick cables spiderweb across the ceiling and walls of the huge multilayered basement. ambient red lighting and the constant humming of various machines make for an extremely uneasy atmosphere. The place Surprisingly lacks any overtly fowl scents, or even scents in general as the only things that reach your nose are subtle traces of silicon and tobacco.

The basement is far larger than the floor plan of the upper levels would suggest, extending under your neighbouring businesses and even partly being built into what you’re sure is an old section of unused sewer. It’s layout is seeming random and labyrinth like with haphazardly constructed rooms, hallways leading to nowhere and countless blind corners.

The various rooms include the generator room, it containing a microfusion reactor powering the immense energy requirements of your operation. The storage room, filled with numerous stasis chambers, storage shelfs and freezers. There’s the robotics room, where all androids and technological modifications are handled. The “therapy room” as it’s been cruelly nicknamed, containing the equipment necessary for a number of mental modification techniques. The surgery room, where most basic body mods are applied. And finally the “chop shop” connecting directly to the loading bay it’s where all the “fresh meat” is processed.

All of these rooms and all of these facilities are managed singlehanded by Roksana. She’s an absolute genius, workaholic, somewhat unhinged and the perfect business partner for a lazy bastard such as yourself. Work smarter not harder after all.

Making your way through the twisting hallways to the chop shop you eventually come across the woman herself, sitting on something, earphones in and blasting some kind of Russian Heavy Metal music.

You cautiously reach out and gently tap her shoulder, attempting to not startle her, Not that she’s the type of woman who easily startles anyways.

At your touch she simply turn the music off and turns her head towards you, her slightly curly black hair is tightly held in place by both a bandana on her head and a pair of thick round welding goggles. Pulling up the goggles to her forehead a pair of rectangular glasses is revealed along with the top half of her sharp, slavic face. “Ah, wat? We’ve a job?” You shake your head and reply “nope, delivery. Dans at the loading bay. You really have to keep an ear out for him.” She nods her head in realization. “Ah! Monday.”

Roksana stands up from what you now realize is her folding cot, brushes some unidentifiable materials from her heavily stained overalls, and walks with you to the chop shop.

Quickly reaching the largely stainless steel, sanitary room, you open the loading door to reveal dan leaning up against the side of his vans rear doors. He exclaims out to you both, this time looking visibly exasperated “jesus, took ya long enough. These goods got an expiration date y’know!”

“Danny!” Roksana exclaims with a smile, opening her arms wide and wrapping them around his midsection. her head barely comes up to his chest with her diminutive 5 ft frame. Dan happily returns her hug and his annoyed expression quickly falls away as he steps back from her, and begins to look around as if to check if we’re alone.

He leans in close to you, nearly shaking in excitement as you both begin to discuss business. “Alright James ol’ buddy ol’ pal, i told you this was a fantastic haul yeah?” You nod in silence and he continues “yeah like good enough i dipped outta work early good, that kinda good right?” he certainly wasn’t lying, his caution tape covered overalls and the powerful stench of garbage back up his words. He continues again, at this point beginning to trip over his words “like, yeah… y’know yeah, so… you know i have a little deal with the other guy on truck right? But this time i had to sneak stuff right? Cuz’ it was so good”

You interject “woah woah, okay man. Don’t start hyperventilating on us.” He takes a shaky breath “yeah, you’re right” thinking a moment you ask “listen, I don’t need the spoilers man. Why don’t we just take a look in the van, see what you snagged?”

Dan takes another deep breath and agrees “yeah, yeah… okay.” With practiced motions He moves to unlock the rear loading doors with a number of keys and keycards. Four individual locks later and both doors swing open with a swish.

The soundproofed interior of the van is nearly pitch black, but immediately noticeable are a number of feminine bodies stacked inside. There’s eleven of them, good haul you had to admit, but nothing to go crazy over. Ignoring the smell of rotting fruit and copper now strongly permeating the air, you squint closer. Some of them are perfectly still while other twitch or writhe slightly, thin trickles of blood drip from either side of the door, a mix of red and a familiar shade of green. “Shit, you got a Vulcan in here dan? Must be buried in there somewhere. I don’t recognize most of these characters.” You hear a slight mumbling deep in the vans interior over the roaring city afternoon, and you quickly fish out your phone, activating it’s flashlight.

Now with a light source in hand you peer past the pile of slightly shifting bodies and see a few Characters sitting and crouching in the back. You can’t help grinning “nice, a couple of lively ones. Oh hey, there you are!” You point your light directly onto one of the crouching women. “There’s our pointy eared friend! Haven’t seen a T’pol in years.”

T’pols olive complexion is noticeably paler than you remember it should be, and her eyes are locked on your group like a deer in headlights, contrasting with her furrowed defiant eyebrows. You’re slightly disappointed at the lack of her regular skin tight Vulcan uniform, but a red bikini and matching stripper heels was hardly a downgrade. Her arms tightly clutch her thin athletic belly, and judging by the green blood practically pouring out beneath them, despite her efforts, you know she’s concealing a severe injury.

Continuing to scan the cargo your eyes pass by an middle aged, plain looking and vacant eyed Character you’re unfamiliar with, before falling on the vans final occupant “another sci-fi hottie huh? What are the odds!”

Sitting there you see Amy Pond from Doctor Who. She’s in her police costume, and rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped around her pantyhose clad long legs. Her slightly muted ginger hair is a mess and falling heavily over her face, past the various matted strands you can just about see her features, painted with a manic expression as she mutters quietly in her thick Scottish accent “Doctor… He’ll save me… the Doctor, He promised he’d come back… he’ll be back. Five Minutes.”

As a sob suddenly wracks her body you turn to Dan, satisfied with what you’ve seen. “Alright, i gotta admit” you waggle your finger for emphasis “this is a good haul man, damn good.” You quickly consider a few factors in your head, crunching some numbers trying to find an appropriate offer. “Now you know i gotta make money here, I’ll give you ten thousand even for the lot. And I’m taking a gamble on that T’pol pulling through.”

“Deal” You’re slightly shocked at his swift agreement but You both seal it with a handshake and immediately Roksana gets to work, poking and prodding at the unmoving bodies and swiftly pulling a tranquilizer gun from her overalls to deal with the others.

“Uh hey, maybe should’ve mentioned this but if you want this in cash I’m gonna have to get it to you Thursday…” he quickly moves on, seemingly unconcerned “yeah, yeah. Listen i got more for you than just these ones. And I honestly don’t know if you can afford it.” your ears perk up a little “reaaaallllyy, well you have my interest. shoot. what’s gotten you so excited?”

He grins widely, and moves to the side of the van near the cabin and begins to open a secret compartment you had never known to be there.