Hukks looked out, and up in the sky. He stared at a nearby flying ship which was probably heading to the docks section. As the ship turned towards the western side of the building, another familiar ship attracted his attention. This time the ship moved towards the parking area and settled quietly. Hukks smiled, moved away from the window, and ran towards the control panel. He switched open his apartment's panel door as Sandra became visible through the surveillance cameras.
Hukks woke up. As he tried to feel Sandra's soft skin, he opened his eyes and turned around. But Sandra wasn't beside him. He hurriedly woke up, and went straight towards the bathroom. The water credit panel still showed that same 230 credits that were left after their last night's shower. So therefore Sandra must be in the kitchen. But Sandra wasn't even there. He vainly fetched throughout every room. Then he had a sudden thought. He rushed to the control panel. He switched to his current credits account, and looked at that day's transactions. "Oh shit!", Hukks screamed. It seemed that the enormous sum of 50 credits had been transferred to another account. Hukks looked again. Raby had warned him to be careful with such girls, and to put on all the necessary passwords. "Oh, shit! 50 credits just for one night is too much." So, he decided to contact Raby, just to see if there was something he could do. Switching off his credits account, Hukks set up the communication system and tried to get through to Raby. It wasn't long after, that Raby replied.
"Hi Raby, it's me, Hukks!". Raby soon understood that something had went wrong over last night, and therefore he tried to think of some possible excuses.
"Hi there my friend! So how did you enjoy your evening?"
"Oh, the evening was fantastic. I never thought that artificial women could be so sensual! If you lied, I mean, if you had told me that she was just a friend of yours, looking for some fun, I would have surely believed you!"
Raby laughed, but was really relieved by those words. "So what's the matter now, little boy?!"
"Oh yes. That bit*h grabbed 50 credits out of my account! 50 credits, Raby! I thought that in return she would just be happy to expand her memory with more emotions. But instead she wanted credits! You didn't warn me Raby! It's just your fault, my friend!"
"Aaah, Hukks. It really shows that it's the first time you've been with an ARTY! You know, these girls, aren't just like the older arties. Usually you can't distinguish an arty from one of us, because as you know they are implanted with a basic memory and then sent out to the factory sections. But these new artificial women are an exception. They were only devised to keep men happy and I must say that they do the job excellently! And you must pay for that! They aren't looking for experiences to enlarge their hungry memories. No, these are of the newer type. You surely have heard that sometime ago they had managed to fix the fault, eh?"
"Yes sure. Almost everyone was speaking about it!"
"This time, the new generation of arties are just plain bio-mechanical machines! A Predefined memory, according to the job they need to do, is implanted. No personal memory shit this time, so the guys didn't want to take any risks any more!"
"So what can I now do about my credits?"
"Well ... nothing! If you're looking for more fun, then let me know! I'll try my best to fix someone...". Raby shut down the communication channel.
Hukks stood by, really depressed. It had only been 2 days since he moved to this new section, and he had already spent a lot of credits! But it was useless to think about it now. So he decided to take a quick shower.
The rest of the day went by as usual for Hukks. Out of the shower, he got into his working clothing, and went down to the parking area, where he boarded his little B040 ship and headed for work. Back home, in the evening, he just looked, as he usually did, through his mail accounts, but there was nothing for him. Today, he decided to jump to the TUNES, a very popular meeting area, in that section. After he set all his security passwords (you never know who might try to break in!) and switched off his holographic dog, it was time to go.
Unfortunately, the weather was not the best that day. A spark storm had been hitting for the whole day, and god knows when the weather people would fix it. Actually, this was one of the main problems on Section 5. The climate conditioner reactors were old technology, and they usually broke down, making this section of planet BORD 1, one of the worst places to live in. But apart from the usually catastrophic climate conditions, life in this section was very cheap and there were many research implants, as together with Section 6, they consisted of the main research sections on BORD 1. Furthermore, it was possible to move to the lower sections, and gain TIME, because BORD 1 was also equipped with TIME Reactors. Hukks had chose to move to Section 5 mainly because of TIME problems. He was one of the brains behind the ASI corporation, owners of the last possible implant on Section 5. This new implant was able to produce the ANIMO, a recently discovered substance which enabled biological researchers to develop more advanced human part structures.
Hukks had recently lived on section 2, since when he was born. In fact, his parents had decided to settle there. But things had changed a lot in this section since the last 20 years. Some years ago, some arties managed to escape from the factories, situated on Section 3. One specific series of arties, who worked as machines in production factories, had a malfunction, and a rebellion was imminent. The National Security thought that these artificial workers would move over to Section 4, thus advancing in TIME, where they would probably find more advanced technology and change most of their inadequate body parts. So, most part of the security guards were sent over to patrol Section 4. Although they searched for the possible fugitives, they found no one. Later, it was known that all rebels had moved over to Section 2, where they hid in an underground network. Through time, they fixed more developed parts to their artificial bodies, and mixed themselves together with the normal humans living on this section. Through pirate researchers, they were able to obtain advanced personal memories, which were being illegally imported from Section 6, the most advanced part on BORD 1. Thus arties, were now able to have a normal social life, and no one would possibly uncover their identity, because LIFE SCANNERS were not commonly available on Section 2.
It was at that time, that Hukks' parents accidentally lost their lives. Hukks' father never wanted any artificial parts on his body, because he hated arties, and although most of the human population on BORD 1 had artificial parts, Hukks' father disliked the fact of being equipped with such parts. He preferred to suffer from illness that to change the rotten parts of his body! Even though he didn't know that his wife (Hukks' mother) had more artificial that human parts! But her main organs were human, else she couldn't have been able to have children. Hukks' mother had had an accident, way back, when she was still living with her own parents. One evening, an energy malfunction caused a huge explosion, and incidentally, Hukks' mother was injured very badly. Moved to Section 5, most parts of her external body, and some outer parts of her reproductive organs (!!!) had to be replaced urgently.
At that time, biological centres offered two options. They could temporarily fix you all the needed artificial parts. Then, later on and if the patient wanted to, he was able to choose the actual parts from the current available stock! These parts would then be permanently fixed and were guaranteed to last forever. They could be even re used when the patient was deceased.
This was of course, the cheaper option. Because it was also possible to have other human parts fixed instead, but this was very much expensive, only due to the fact that living parts were being marketed at enormous prices. Nowadays, the possibility to have high quality living parts as replacement is almost obsolete, as through time, good quality organs became very rare, as the human organism had a high deceasing factor. Actually human man was the last kind of the whole animal race. No one knows why man had survived through all these centuries, whilst all other animal races were vanishing rapidly, until time came, when man was the last known EARTH inhabitant. Maybe man was too intelligent, but then why did the Earthlings start a nuclear war which practically destroyed the whole planet. Planet EARTH was nowadays considered one of the cheapest places where to dump all kind of radioactive junk.
It was also a fashion amongst human women, to change parts of their reproductive organs! Not only could they get rid of many venereal diseases, but they could also be able to choose from various artificial part models!
Hukks' grandparents, were not the richest ones around, and they were only able to fix artificial parts on their daughter. Hukks' mother, was always telling him about the life on Section 5, when he was just a little kid. Though, she never told him of the accident. Hukks' only got to know this, after his parents died. It all happened, when Hukks' was out, having fun with some local friends. Security guards were patrolling in Section 2, because someone had passed on a clue on arty refugees. That evening, Hukks' parents were dining at a newely-moved-in couple. Suddenly, tens of guards burst in. Hukks' parents' friends knew what was expecting them. One of the guards pointed a life scanner towards the four people sitting around the table. The scanner signalled the presence of artificial forms. Hukks' father, who couldn't understand what was going on, moved out from his place. One of the guards promptly blasted him with his plasma gun. The women screamed, and the other man tried to escape. The guards immediately began to fire plasma shots all around the place, and finally they got the man. But unfortunately, also the two women were killed.
That same day Hukks swore to never thrust artificial men and the National Security Force any more. Hukks has, since then, been living with IGLY, his father's best friend and partner. Hukks always listened carefully to the wise IGLY's words. Indeed he was a Metamorphe, one of the most intelligent of all known races. It was because of IGLY's contacts that Hukks began his work with the ASI Corporation.
To be continued in the next issue...