Vending Machine Lunch (14 page)

"Who's the
lucky person today who gets outside control?" asked Johnston.

"Can't be me,"
said Jacob, "I defiantly did it last time."

"It's me," said
Jaimie, smiling a little knowing that she had an easy shift.

"Right," said
Jacob, "I'm in the outer hanger and you two are in the chamber
control rooms then."

Johnston felt
like retaliating to Jacob, but he knew this time he was right.
Jaimie left and headed towards a canvas structure in the centre of
the concrete nothingness that had just been erected by a handful of
blue uniformed employees.

“Any news from
Phobos?” asked Johnston.

“Nope.”

"Okay then.
Heigh-ho, let's go," said Johnston, entering the facility with Josh
and Jacob.

They walked
through the outer hanger, a large room with nothing much in it
except a control desk. Johnston wiped his face, feeling how great
it was to get out of the continuous miserable misty drizzle that
onslaught everything outside. Inside, everything, yet again, seemed
to be illuminated blue and was made of some sort of metallic
substance. At least everything was blue, Johnston thought. It gave
him confidence that the engineers had actually fixed the
lights.

With Josh,
Johnston walked through a smaller metallic hydraulic automatic
door. The motors made a whiney whooshing sound as the door slid
upwards, revealing, the Deimos Facility chamber.

It was a mass
cylinder, just like the exterior, except, obviously smaller. In the
centre of the cylinder was a slight gap going all the way round, in
a zigzag style. This gap revealed a small portion of the resonance
chamber, and, like everything else, was glowing light blue. At
opposite ends of the chamber were two control rooms, both metallic
and boxish. One each for Josh and Johnston.

Many people
were milling around, usually with clipboards or their pagers,
checking stuff off, scanning parts of the facility with scanners,
getting ready at their controls for the trial.

Johnston
entered his control room through another metal hydraulic door and
sat down on the rather plush spinney chair it contained, before his
control desk and the window view to the chamber. Collapsing on the
chair, Johnston tried to think of a place with a better chair. This
certain one was a dream. More comfortable than his bed, Johnston
had many times desired to take this particular chair home. It was a
dream.

"Com-link radio frequency check. This is Control to all
Deimos Facility staff. If you can hear this, please enable two
clicks of static through your com-link ear piece. If you see any
member of staff not wearing their com-link radio ear piece, please
remind them to do so. If any member of staff does not possess a
com-link radio ear piece, they must leave the interior of the
facility immediately and report to radio control where they will be
able to collect one for use. Over and out."

It was Jaimie's
voice. Johnston internally sighed and coughed a little. Maybe he
was just getting old, or maybe he was just slow, but he would have
personally appreciated some time just to sit and do nothing. Not
long, maybe five minutes at most, but more than the two seconds he
had just got. Jaimie was a damn good worker, but Johnston felt that
she was perhaps just a little too enthusiastic. And it often felt
awkward when Josh was around her. It was crystal clear he had a
crush for her. Or at least Johnston thought that.

Coughing again,
he tapped the small button on his ear piece twice, enabling two
hisses of static to be broadcast over the com-link. He could
imagine Jaimie right now, trying to keep on track of all the hisses
of static she'd received, working out which employee it was from
the ear piece ID and then crossing them off on a list. Johnston
hated that part of the job, but the rest of the night in the radio
control tent was a breeze.

"Regulator Johnston, confirm you are in chamber control
room one, and all supervised staff are in the correct locations
over."
said
Jaimie.

Johnston tapped
his ear-piece, looking out the window to his staff, "Confirmed
over."

"Encoder Josh, confirm you are in chamber control room two
and all supervised staff are in the correct locations
over."

"Confirmed over,"
Josh's cheeky voice piped up over the radio.

"Regulator Jacob, confirm you are in the hangar control
room, and all supervised staff are in the correct locations
over."

"Confirmed over."
came the arrogant reply, as though he wanted things to
hurry up. But you couldn't hurry up safety.

"Control to all Deimos Facility staff, in approximately
two, we are going to commence trial mark forty six,"
said Jaimie over the
com-link,
"May I remind staff that any trial briefing notes should
have been read before entry to the building. Safety regulations
apply as usual. Com-link ear pieces are to be worn at all times
during the trial.

"Please note
that during the trial the transmission barrier will be active,
resulting in no transmissions being able to enter or leave the
interior of the facility. Please note that all com-link
transmissions are recorded for training and security purposes, so
please refrain from using foul language or flooding the com-link
with unnecessary transmissions.

"You are
kindly reminded that colour coding will be active at all times. As
a reminder and for safety purposes, I am to state the colour codes,
which are displayed by the majority of lights in and around the
facility. Blue means the facility is in stasis mode. Green means
the facility is running or running a trial with no issues. Red
means the facility is running and is in danger of failure or
meltdown. In the unlikely event that the colour code is red, please
shutdown any machinery you are able to do so. An emergency
transmission is to be sent via gamma-link immediately when red
colour code occurs, by any member of staff, by inserting their
emergency transmission card into the CRT terminal in the interior
communications office. The gamma-link is able to penetrate the
transmission barrier and alert the exterior of the facility, in the
unlikely chance that we have an exterior colour code failure.

"If there are
any queries, please voice them within the next one, otherwise,
prepare for the beginning of trial forty-six. Over and out."

Johnston sighed
and coughed at the same time. He'd heard that speech many times, in
fact, around forty-six times in total now. He helped write the damn
thing, but it was always necessary to make sure that everyone was
full prepared. One mistake and who knows what would happen.

The thought of
the contamination lay heavy on Johnston's mind. He was not happy
running such a bold trial at the moment, never mind running it with
contamination. Josh had done all that was possible, and sent the
sample off to an independent scientist, however, he was still not
impressed that Jacob was happy about running the trial, despite the
circumstances. It was as though Jacob actually approved of the
land's father's decision. But it was this type of recklessness that
ruined the land in the first place. For the first time in his life,
Johnston wished he had been conceived in Union City. He hated this
land, Elision City, so much. He hated his job. He hated the
government. He hated Jacob. He was beginning to hate his life,
slowly, day by day.

"Sierra Delta Jan to control, there is a problem with lever
13b-18HTC. Please advise on course of action over."

Johnston had no
idea who Jan was, but the Delta team was not his concern. Their
object was to maintain the power flow in the facility, obviously an
important job, an energy spike or power fluctuation could take the
entire facility out, however it was a pretty easy job in Johnston's
opinion. If power was fluctuating, the port of call was simply just
to drain the land's grid power. It often resulted in power failures
in people’s homes, however, the Deimos facility got priority. Or
the Phobos facility.

"Control to Sierra Delta Jan, could you elaborate with your
problem? Over."

"Yeah, um... the lever is unable to move, it is seized in
the upright position over."

There was a
short pause. Johnston examined his control desk. Everything looked
okay. At least he got a bit more resting time before the trial.

"Okay Jan, could you please confirm that you are on about
lever 13b-18HTC? Over."

"Yes control that is correct over."

Another pause.
The thought of Jaimie attempting to make a decision amused
Johnston's mind. There was usually some sort of hiccup or query at
the start, and you could tell that poor Jaimie was uncomfortable in
making a decision when they occurred.

"Okay Jan, we would like you to continue as normal, just
without that particular lever, it isn't that essential to tonight’s
trial over."

"Understood Control. Jan out."

And that was
the nights small problem out of the way with.

"Control to all Deimos Facility staff. We shall be
commencing trial forty-six after a count of ten. After the count of
ten the trial run of the Deimos Facility mark forty-six shall begin
and the transmission barriers shall be in action. This trial is
estimated to take the usual time of around sixty to one hundred and
twenty, depending on result collection progress. Please remember
all safety regulations whilst the trial is running. Please prepare
for countdown. Over."

Johnston sat up
in his chair, coughing slightly as he did do. Breathing deep, he
leant forward and inspected his control desk quickly. Everything
seemed to be in the right position. Looking out of his room's
window, he noted that the staff he was supervising were also in the
right positions. Everything was good at his end.

"Control to all Deimos Facility staff. Countdown
commencing. Ten..."

Johnston
flicked a small lever on his control desk. A few more lights
illuminated.

"...nine..."

A small humming
sound began. The facility was beginning to start.

"...eight..."

The blue light
from the inner chamber intensified.

"...seven..."

Johnston
checked his panel again. Can never be too sure.

"...six, insert nymphet rods..."

Johnson began
pushing down on one of two cylindrical rods on his control desk.
They were the nymphet rods, without them inserted, his side of the
facility wouldn't be enabled, thus, the entire facility being
unable to boot out of stasis mode fully.

"...five..."

He began
pushing down on the second rod. Johnston hated how they were so
stiff and hard to push in.

"...four..."

Johnston's
second nymphet rod was still being pushed in.

"...three..."

His second
nymphet rod was now successfully down. He slumped back into his
chair.

"...two, power fusion phase deconstructions..."

The humming
grew to a higher pitched whine. Numbers and graphs began to dance
on Johnston's CRT displays on his control desk.

"...one, activate resonance sequence..."

Something
caught Johnston's eye, outside his control room, in the chamber. It
hadn't been much, just a sly shadow. It had appeared near the top
of the cylindrical resonance protector in the centre of the room.
Just a small shadow, there and then gone with the blink of an eye.
Johnston thought nothing of it.

"...zero, activate Deimos Facility. Transmission barriers
up in half. Best of luck guys. Over and out."

As soon as
Jaimie had got off the com-link, the facility turned green. Every
blue light now shone green, dazzling Johnston for a while as his
eyes slowly adjusted.

"Sierra Alpha Jacob to all interior staff, the transmission
barriers are now active. Control will not be communicable until the
trial has been completed. As you all should know, in this trial we
are taking the resonance chamber to one hundred and ten percent, to
be sustained for sixty to one-hundred and twenty. We shall start at
a level of sixty percent to begin with. Over and out."

Johnston
flipped a few switches which enabled his staff to take the
resonance level to sixty percent. How he hated Jacob's smug voice,
as though he was in control of everything. Johnston felt like
slapping him. Or punching. Or even knifing...

The humming
intensified. Johnston kept a keen eye on the CRT screens in front
of him. It seemed more interesting than the CRT evening casuals he
watched back at his flat. The figures, climbing upwards, the graphs
growing upwards, the green light reflecting off Johnston's
face.

"Sierra Charlie
Johnston to Sierra Alpha Jacob," said Johnston over the com-link,
"Charlie unit at sixty percent over."

"Received and understood Johnston over. Sierra Bravo Josh,
E.T.A of sixty percent please? Over."

"Let me just check that Jacob, we are going a little slow
over."

"Well yes, I can see that Josh thanks,"
said Jacob over the com-link, sounding
irritable as though Josh was patronising him.

"Sierra Bravo Josh to Sierra Bravo Jeb, why are we taking
so long to get to sixty? Over."

"Sierra Bravo Jeb to Sierra Bravo Josh and Sierra Alpha
Jacob, we are having a small problem with getting the
electromagnetic radiation to a decent level of stimulated emission
for the optical amplification unit. I think Jaiden can provide some
more detail over."