The Rise Of The Consortium

The sky was a beautiful shade of pink and violet and Termist was warmer than the past hour when the sky was filled with a hue of gloom. The city was starting to fill up with people as it was approaching evening. But the inside of the coffee shop was still empty, except the one in the corner, doing something really odd in the shop.

Drenched in sweat, Rio was trying to put the screws to the coffee machine for the fourth time which kept slipping from her sweaty hands. She quickly looked up on the left wall to a small box to find it switched off which was supposed to cool down the room, she then looked at the counter, trying to catch anyone's attention to turn it on. When she found everyone busy in their own preparation, she gave up and focused on her screw instead.

Her eyes caught the sight of her blinking ID on the table, signaling her next shift of work in about five minutes. Her heart thumped as fast as it blinked. Wiping her forehead on her shirt's sleeve, Rio started tightening the screw, hoping she could reach the printing press quick enough.

She was done with the machine and started dusting it and the workspace. As she was trying to put it in its place, she remembered that she didn't bring that machine on her own. She was going to search the fellow mechanic, she saw a dark-haired boy in a hoodie approaching her table with a paper cup in his hand. Rio gave him a quick light smile and continued dusting the machine.

"Hey," said Rio as she started putting her tools in her bag.

"Hi," said Kner, putting the cup on the work table.

"Will--y-you help me in--" she asked as she was trying to lift the machine.

"Yeah, why not?" he gave a short smile as he held the machine from one side and Rio from the other, together they moved it to the kitchen countertop.

"Thanks", said Rio picking the coffee cup and her bag full of tools.

"No problem." said Kner dusting his palms."Can we talk now?"

"I wish I could, but I've to hurry, you see, I'm running late--" said Rio taking a sip from her cup and showing him her ID with a countdown running on it.

"Ah, it's ok. Tell me when you're free. We can talk later." Kner gently patted Rio's shoulder with a smile.

"Ok, I'll call you as soon as I finish. Thanks again for the coffee." Kner watched her rushing out of the door and soon she was out of sight.

The ID clutched in Rio's palm blinked very fast and occasionally it gave mild shocks. The time to check in to the printing press was ending. And then the time was up and instead of blinking, her worker's ID now gave numbing shocks. Frowning, Rio put that in her bag it out and walked slowly to catch her breath. Grabbing her knees, she found that she was still in the midway and had to cross five more blocks in the approaching street to reach the place.

Without wasting her time, she reached there quickly and as expected, the building closed the entrance which was normally met with a screen enquiring employee details. She put her card underneath the scanner to enter the credentials. One of the most ridiculous rules of Termist that was applied as per the new set of codes was to pay fines for not reaching the workplace in time. The delay of a second meant 10 or 20 coins for food or health.

While she was waiting for her information to be accepted, she heard two passersby talking something about how the fresh graduates not getting work even after doing really well in the training and how some people are distorting their lives by not supporting them in those hard times. After paying 15 coins for a delay of 5 minutes, she walked to the elevator to get to her workplace.

Her heart sank as she had to pay money worth two persons food. But she couldn't have avoided Kner. He suddenly came when there was a very low chance of seeing him. Where was he for two days? How was he? Did he know what happened the day before? What did he think about that? Everything felt so chaotic to Rio as she ascended towards upper floors thinking about a lot of questions.

The reason for such feeling was explained by her mind as she said to herself, welcome to another week of unbreathable intense work, Miss Rionora 'idiotic' Tarnilier. She smiled to herself as that sounded something Meilae would have said like that. Really, after leaving the cafe meeting Meilae, all she could do was to run to reach the coffee shop to do some real work for the first time in six months. She actually fixed something, like separating machinery and working on the actual motor and the circuitry of it. Her muscles must have felt refreshed as they did a lot of hard work with tools and not with the brushes and sprays to dust the nasty stubborn silver dust that no one chooses to touch.

Floating in the ecstatic feeling of the work satisfaction, she almost banged her head on the door of the only room on the fifth floor where she had to work the first on-demand job of the day. No one was found there, no security guards, no employee. Simply, no one. Gulping, she went to the interactive monitor to assign her details and to get a detailed task list quickly. She found that she had to photocopy three sets of really large doc.u.ments and a package full of ready-to-print pamphlets.

Without delay, she started working as soon as possible as her time was running out. Such was the style of on-demand work. One had to finish a given task in a fixed time depending on the complexity. She had no problem with it, unlike many workers who felt that was extremely exhausting. Upon asked by colleagues, Rio couldn't even say how she felt doing those. She was happy as long as she was able to do things and get any rewards.

While putting things in order as pages kept printed, she thought about how she should start the conversation with Kner that day. The first thing she would want to know would be the reason why he wasn't at his home the previous day. And why he didn't let her know if he felt really stressed about the friendship.

She picked out her ID and saw that she had more than ten minutes to finish the ongoing task and five minutes to reach the next destination, the details to be known in seven minutes. Rolling her eyes, she put away her ID and moved on to check the details of the pamphlet design she had to print.

Her mind drifted off to the thoughts of him in his hoodie. She was quick to recognize him that day although he never dressed up that way before. Maybe he was trying to stealthily meet her due to the effects of nasty news headlines. He was rich, and he had helped her in many unusual ways, she thought to herself. Everyone was content with how things were going on, then why was the sudden upheaval of emotions? Was it because of the single charge against a new spoiled youth? He wasn't spoiled, she corrected herself. She reminded not to think nasty about anyone. After all, he also deserved respect like everyone else. The only boy who was almost perfect for her, neither too demanding not too detached was slowly slipping away from her.

She didn't realize she was in tears until her worker ID blinked with a red screen notifying her deduction of 5 coins of health from her salary as she ruined one pamphlet due to her teardrops. She moved away from the table to face the window and forced to think about something different. She wiped her face with her shirt sleeves by not touching her hands in case those might get dirty and something else might get ruined. She had to be careful not to lose her money like that.

While putting the print outs in their respective boxes, she searched the address to send it. The register where it was written was in a transparent cupboard which was covered with numerous colorful posters. A sparkly purple colored one was standing out more which looked similar to the one seen in the cafe where she met Meilae that day. It was on the cable box of the Termist Broadcasting Company, and maybe somewhere in another coffee shop. It read something like Life Solution AI for all. Anyone can get a quick solution to any of their life problems. Stuck in a boring job? Is girlfriend mad at you? Or facing the emotional breakdown after a heartbreak? This AI will always be there with you. Get it soon only at sixty coins. Visit LifeAI thread in the intercom for more details. No machine, no installation software. Connect this service to your mind and find your buddy always by your side.

After reading that, Rio felt she must have that. There were problems in her life too. And there was no one to give her the exact solution. Maybe this AI will be in her aid. Maybe it might help her get more money. As she started drifting off again, her ID vibrated in an ugly manner, making her jump. She saw that she had only three minutes to reach the clothing warehouse which was two blocks away from the current location. She had to rush to get there on time.

She was glad that the warehouse had no system to charge for reaching late. But she was drenched in sweat and that place had no cooling or fanning system to get back to the normal state. Unlike previous tasks, she didn't have a time limit of some minutes, rather it depended on the number of tasks given. She had to move the imported boxes to the respective rooms and check the list of inventory whether everything arrived as listed. And also, if she managed to do that in time, she could even open some of the packages and set them in places.

All those hundreds of big containers were near the entrance, so she had to use an automated roller cart to keep those in their places. That might take her about half an hour, she thought to herself. She couldn't understand why she had to do work of this kind, although that was the first task of the day and the week. Sometimes she had to work apart from fixing or dusting the machines. She sometimes did one shift at a coffee shop or at a diner, either making things as per order or delivering the prepared things. There were very less or no workers in some places. What was really going on? Thinking hard on the given circ.u.mstances, she could think of only one thing, maybe everyone was on leave or they somehow ended up in Zolzeim. Once touched the grounds there, no one can think of getting out of there.

And that thought gave a chill to her, thankfully the roller cart was there to fill the silence, she focused to get her things done. She remembered how everyone protested when classmates of her session got to know that they had to do work on a completely different field than what they had learned. Many hunger strikes, crashes and maybe some midnight protests, but the higher authority paid no heed. But the normal life was hampered a lot. So to get the graduates on work, they were not given the proof of intensive study of many years and they could get that when they would start working. She was glad that things ended quite peacefully, as she had to clean the places of crashes with her own hands. She never participated in those public campaigns as she was forbidden by her mother. She rather stayed at her home, working on her skills. That was another reason why Meilae considered her an idiot. She imagined how Meilae would have thrown some empty threats but would have ended up crying as she would have learned how to get their certificates.

She couldn't forget how Meilae ranted for many weeks in afternoon sessions how the works listed in the criteria was unfair and mean. It was written that graduates had to work certain delivery jobs, cleaning jobs, repairing jobs, writing jobs, housekeeping jobs, etc. Rio didn't understand anything about it. So she ended up doing whatever she could. That was the reason why Meilae almost spat mean words to her one day, in tearful eyes. What did she expect out of Rio? To join the riot and get nothing out it? Eventually, she got used to her work and news of Rio hanging out with Kner filled the place. Her friend circle found it fun to pull the legs of her. Rio was happy as long people were happy around her, as she was almost ready to do anything for others' happiness. Unfortunately, the happy days were gone, she didn't know what the friends would talk about instead of fun fanfic about her and Kner. one of her friends was gone and she didn't know whether the conversations would be fun anymore or not.

After taking almost an hour to place those containers in places she checked her ID to find any work listed there and there was a session in the pizza shop in about twenty minutes. That place wasn't too far, she could reach there in time. Having some spare time, she thought she should give Kner a message that she could meet him after an hour. Projecting her screen on a container, she connected to the local messaging stacks and found unread messages from him. He sent her messages that read 'yes, we can talk here but not that often' and another one, 'I'll reply as soon as I see your message'. If that was the case then he might or might not see her message quickly. Anyways, she sent 'Can we meet at the diner near the broken bridge?". That might be a bit formal, but that's how she preferred to write to him. There was only one diner near the broken bridge, above the lake that was considered as the end part of the city.

She couldn't do any unpacking the containers, so she ticked off her task from the list, and went to the pizza center comfortably in five minutes. While putting on the official apron in the preparation section, she saw on the task list that she only had to pack the fresh pizzas and put those on the desk counter. The orders were more in the evening than during the day, so she might have to do really fast. Checked her worker id just to see whether there was anything. Neither there were next work schedule nor had any messages from Kner. Feeling quite slow at first, her speed gradually picked up after ten minutes. Her work was to pack the boxes and to keep those on the table. Sometimes she had to bring the baked pizzas from the oven onto the boxes and pack them.

She didn't realize when an hour had passed when there was a break in her work. More staff had arrived to do the next shift and after relaxing for five minutes, she went out of the store. Her salary was quick to arrive as she saw she got twenty coins for her food. That was the perk of doing something out of the usual work. She wondered if others worked as she did. And saw message of Kner saying he would there anytime. And then there was no more work, or as she thought to herself. The diner near the lake was a bit far from the current location. She felt that might take her half an hour to reach there. She didn't have any vehicles on her own, nor there was any public transport for them. And any vehicle would not fit her budget, but apart from that, she thought that was a bit selfish. Only the ones who were self accomplished looked good with the expensive automobiles.

She occasionally saw self-made bikes or motorbikes and wondered how they might have got the parts and how they would have got access to the fuel. Building the vehicles wasn't difficult for her, getting the parts legally was. She could not imagine herself being charged for having any parts that belonged to the city administration. Even the scraps belonged to the city head, maybe someone managed that, but one had to get permission to get those, and maybe pay something. She didn't know whether she could get anything from her home.

Due to the populous area in such a small city like Termist, there weren't any threatening cases. The bright lights and active area, there was nothing to be afraid of. As long as she didn't feel any pain, she could walk like that for hours. She was scared if someone catches her meeting with him again and write more nasty news. But she remembered Meilae was working hard to prevent that. She didn't know what she might be facing that week.

On her way, she saw a crowd gathered around the market around the lake. A person with the badge of the court in light green hair was questioning two dark-haired males. They must be from Zolzeim, she thought to herself. It was common for travelers to visit the market near the lake. But questioning them wasn't something she saw before. Was the rule against the Zolzein started being effective? Would she have to do something like that in the near future? She already met one and didn't know how many people knew that. And how people would react if that would be released in news. She walked quickly ahead before she could be noticed by anyone. Slowly her mind filled with worry about the reactions she had been getting, and what she should not do to get any. She said to herself, she was only meeting certain people because she had noble reasons, not for any ill purpose. If that was the case, she wondered whether she should meet Kner as her boss or as a really good friend.