Season 6, Chapter 22

FLORA

With a satisfying click, the digital lock disengaged and Flora slipped inside the back door of the facility. The old Warbotics building in Atlas had been repainted in blue and yellow, and as Flora entered, she noticed that the interior had been redone — and improved quite a bit — since her last visit months prior, when she used to do some freelance work for them. Through a newly installed clear window, she could see into a storeroom area nearby. Perfect. Lots of useful machines.

Flora was there for parts. Ever since the Reactor had fallen during the Trust War, she had been working in secret on building non-Reactor tech, something challenging enough to hold her interest. Usually she just preferred destroying things, particularly those that someone had specifically built not to be destroyed. Like the lock. She hadn’t broken it, of course, but she had hacked it with relative ease and solved the algorithms guarding the back door. She had half expected the same lock as when she had worked there, but they had changed it completely — new kind of lock, new mechanism. She smirked to herself — they had probably changed it just for her. And here she was, waltzing past it after no more than a couple of minutes. It was almost too easy for her.

She entered the storeroom, not bothering to close the door. It was late afternoon and no one was likely to be around. Hyperbotics wouldn’t miss a few parts, she thought. She grabbed a couple of computers and a mechanical arm and started loading up a nearby hand truck.

Suddenly, the light was obstructed and Flora looked up to see a huge, hulking figure standing in the doorway.

“Miss Flashfire,” said the large automaton in his deep, slightly muffled-sounding voice. “I don’t recall signing a new contract with you.”

“That’s because you didn’t,” she replied acidly, with a shrug. “Not my fault you wouldn’t pay me what I’m worth.”

“Clearly no one else will, either,” replied Meridian, “Or you wouldn’t be here scrounging for parts you can’t afford.”

“What are you, my accountant?” said Flora. “Look, are you here to arrest me or something, or can I finish stealing your stuff in peace?”

“Actually,” said the head of Hyperbotics, pausing a moment, his eyebrows elevated at least six inches. “I’m willing to overlook this dawnbreaking and entering, though you know it is at odds with every fiber of my being.”

“Ok, what’s the catch?” Words tumbled out of Flora, because not talking was boring and Meridian was once again wasting time. Same guy who had wasted a hundred years doing nothing after the Hyperion shutdown. “You want me to work for you again? For peanuts? EvoS is that way.” She gestured with her head.

“I’d be interested to hear why you wanted these parts,” said Meridian calmly. GET. TO. THE. POINT, thought Flora. “And indeed it dawns on me that I might like to hire you again, in this new dawn of unseen threats, but I won’t have an employee behaving like this.”

Okay, so he wanted to hire her. Glad somebody did, even though she didn’t need any of those Trusts to make cool stuff and break cooler stuff. Meridian might look stupid, but he had even previously been the only one willing to put up with her insubordination in exchange for her talent. She’d considered applying to Omni, but that Su-Ren bitch was even more insufferable.

“Face it, bucko. I’m the best there is. You want security? Cybersecurity? You gotta know how to build it, and you gotta know how to destroy it. I’m like Helio, Celeste and those stupid Helio AIs all rolled into one. What’s the matter, you like Helio? Well, he doesn’t work for you, last I checked. You want somebody on staff, pay up.”

Meridian sighed. “It’s a specific project, Miss Flashfire. In Hyperion.”

Flora’s eyes lit up. Going to Hyperion was at least different. And there were TONS of resources there. If she could get her hands on those…

But of course, she played it cool. “Oh, and traveling, too,” Flora said, feigning exasperation. “You got a destination wedding you want me to attend while you’re at it? You and Helio tying the knot?”

“Miss Flashfire, do note that Rampart is currently upstairs and has not forgotten the last time you tried to reprogram him. I’m sure he would not be thrilled to know you are on the premises.”

Meridian never did veil his threats much, she thought. “Okay, tell you what, big boy. I don’t even want regular pay. I’ll do this Hyperion job gratis, but here’s what I want: a Freelancer contract.”