Rayse walked into the precinct office of the Zygerus Circuit Security. She had been summoned to the office by her commanding officer, Commander Urether, for a new assignment and to meet her new partner. Rayse had been a beat cop, walking the streets of Zygerus in quadrant three, zone sixty-five, between Alsuria and Dearen, and Fodge and Hilkanz Streets in the suburb of Miltzenax.
Rayse walked into the precinct office of the Zygerus Circuit Security. She had been summoned to the office by her commanding officer, Commander Urether, for a new assignment and to meet her new partner. Rayse had been a beat cop, walking the streets of Zygerus in quadrant three, zone sixty-five, between Alsuria and Dearen, and Fodge and Hilkanz Streets in the suburb of Miltzenax. Sixty rotations ago, Rayse had requested a transfer and applied for a promotion to Zygerus Security Force Investigator, which would give her nearly free reign to patrol the entirety of the Zygerus Circuit including its moons, stations, as well as the planet itself. Since she hadn’t heard anything since then, she assumed the position had been filled and she wasn’t going to get the promotion. However, when she got the message this morning to come in for a briefing on her new assignment and meet her new partner, Rayse was surprised and excited at the opportunity.
The officer at the desk never looked up from his terminal. “Commander Urether is expecting you. Take a seat and I’ll tell him you’re here.” He lifted a hand and gestured toward a bank of chairs along the wall behind her.
Rayse approached the row of seats and sat down next to a petite, porcelain doll-like biomechanoid in an investigator’s uniform. Rayse smiled politely at the tiny androgynous being and waited for her name to be called.
“Uh … You know,” Rayse said running a hand through her coarse shoulder-length hair.
Rayse had never heard of someone locked into a contract that did not allow them to be promoted. “How long have you been in your contract?” she asked.
“Always read the fine print in your contracts before you sign,” the biomech replied. It must have been eager to gain employment that it neglected the first rule in Zygerus Contract Law: Always read before you sign.
“Can you get out of your contract?” Rayse asked.
“That’s horrible.” This poor little biomech was no better than a slave to the system. It would take it nearly a hundred cycles to earn a hundred thousand shares.