Blue Star Enterprises

The next few weeks were much the same for Alexander. His only customer was the single guy from before. At first, he didn’t mind. Work was work and he was still making money, even if it wasn’t much.

But after the man came in for the sixth time with a completely different component, Alexander started to get suspicious. So he paid to look up the component numbers. Every single item the man had brought him came from machinery used in various tasks.

That in itself wasn’t all that strange. Except he had worked with Yuri long enough to get the feeling when people weren’t being completely honest. So after he finished fixing up this latest component, he followed the man.

It wasn’t hard, the man grunted and cursed the entire way as he struggled to carry the heavy item back to wherever he was going. Which turned out to be another repair shop.

From within a side passage, Alexander watched as a man in orange coveralls entered the shop an hour later and left with the very same part he had just repaired on a cart. The guy had been subcontracting out his repair work to Alexander and pocketing all the profit. The nerve!

He wanted to go over there and have a word with the man, but that wouldn’t get him anywhere. Instead, he turned around and headed back to his tiny repair shop. As good as it would feel to tell the guy off, he had a better idea. One that might drum up some actual work.

Two days later, the guy returned with another item to repair. Alexander happily repaired it, but he did it in such a way that it would break almost immediately after the first use. It was scummy, but it was also his only real option. He doubted the sleazy shop owner would continue using him if he raised his prices, and he still needed the money. But if the man was ruined by his own shoddy work, well, that was on him.

Had the man bothered to disclose that this work was for a third party, that would have been fine with him. Alexander would have negotiated a better rate at that point. But the shop owner hadn’t. It was clear the man who ran the competing repair shop didn’t want to pay his fair share or do the work himself. So he found a sucker to do it for him. Alexander didn’t like being taken advantage of one bit.

It took time, weeks in fact for the faultily repaired items to come back to haunt the repair man. But haunt him they did and Alexander was there to witness the whole event. A group of angry people stomped into the man’s shop and started screaming at the owner.

Just as the discussion was really getting heated, Alexander strode past, making sure the owner spotted him. Just as he hoped, the man pointed at him. “I wasn’t the one who fixed your items, it was him!”

The group turned to glare at Alexander, and he paused. One of the men in the group stomped up to him. “Are you the one working for Maxim that did such shoddy work?”

He pointed to himself. “Me?”

“Well… whoever is controlling you,” the bearded man spluttered.

“No. I don’t work for– Did you say, Maxim? No, I own my own repair shop just down the corridor.” He gave the group the location number. “If you are having issues with his work, perhaps I can interest you in my own. I offer excellent rates and a money-back guarantee.”

As he was talking to the bearded gentleman, Maxim was turning red and throwing out all sorts of accusations to try and discredit him. But it was clear that the crowd's interest in the owner had turned. After three years aboard this station, Alexander could say one thing with certainty, the people that lived here were a pragmatic bunch.

“Can’t be any worse than this shyster,” the bearded man jerked a thumb back over his shoulder. “If you do good work, I may have even more for you in the future.”

Alexander flicked a finger, causing his holographic face to nod. “Would you like me to follow you or will you be dropping off the item?”

Surprisingly, that simple question got more interest than the fact he offered good rates and a money-back guarantee. But the other people weren’t quite sold just yet. They were shrewd people.

One woman crossed her arms. “Pick up and delivery included?” she asked with a stern gaze.

“For a small additional fee.”

That seemed to be the crack that broke the dam. These people were all busy men and women. If they didn’t need to lug heavy parts around the station, they could get much more done. They all exchanged contact information with him and set up a time for him to come get the broken components before hurrying back to their respective jobs.

After the last of the group left, Alexander turned to an apoplectic Maxim. “If you hadn’t tried to screw me over, this wouldn’t have happened.”

The man didn’t apologize, he simply turned redder. “One of these days, that robot of yours is gonna need fixing. And when that day comes, I’ll make sure there isn’t a single shop on this station that will even consider helping you!” After his hate-filled tirade, the man slammed the door to his shop and locked it.

Alexander laughed internally. In the time he had been on this station, he hadn’t seen a single piece of tech even remotely resembling him. So he doubted anyone on this station would be capable of fixing him. Not that he trusted anyone here to fiddle with the thing keeping him alive for the last nearly four hundred years.

One of the reasons he spent most of his extra money on schematics was he hoped one day to stumble upon one that might hint at his origins.

With a smile on his avatar’s face, he turned and headed to pick up his first real repair.

***

After the blowup at Maxim’s, Alexander acquired a decent bit of extra work. It wasn’t enough to keep him busy all the time, but it allowed him some breathing room and time to work on some projects of his own.

It was during one of these tinkering sessions that he noticed the head of a little girl peeking from around the entry to his shop. He didn’t turn his head or acknowledge the child as he continued to work.

There were a surprising number of kids left to just roam the second ring without supervision. But given what he knew of the second ring, he shouldn’t be all that shocked. Nobody lived on this ring willingly. They either fell on hard times or they couldn’t make it on the higher rings. Not that he could judge these people, he was in the same situation after all.

Alexander had seen other kids peeking through his door from time to time over the last weeks. He got it, he was a robot, something of interest. Most of those kids were in and out in a flash as soon as he even slightly turned in their direction. Almost like someone had dared them to do it and they were terrified of the consequences if he caught them. He wondered what they would think if they knew he saw everything.

This little girl seemed to be different. She just stood there silently for a bit, staring at him with a look of wide-eyed curiosity only a child could show.

He sighed audibly, making the girl jump slightly. “Can I help you, Miss?”

He thought the kid might bolt, but instead, she threw her arm inside and grabbed the doorframe and sort of hung there in the doorway, arms outstretched and feet against the wall. “Is it true you snatch up naughty kids and devour them?”

The question was so absurd that it caused Alexander to miss the circuit he had been soldering, ruining the entire board. “What! Who told you that?” He finally turned to face the girl as she swung back and forth in and out of the doorway while holding the frame.

“Markus said so. He's one of the older kids in the orphanage. Said you eat naughty children.”

Orphans? Well, that explained why nobody cared what the kids got up to.

“And what if I said it was true?” He didn’t have anything against children, he just thought there were better places for them to be playing than around his shop.

The girl paused in her swinging and put a finger to her mouth as she scrunched up her face in thought. Then she shook her head, her dark hair swirling around. “Nuh uh, I wouldn’t believe you,” she stated with conviction.

“So you think I’m lying or that Markus is?”

She scrunched her face up again but didn’t seem to have an answer for that. Then he saw her grin before giggling. “You can’t eat children!” she screamed in triumph. “No mouth!” Then she laughed and bolted down the corridor.

Alexander sighed. He should have just remained quiet, now he was certain this girl or her friends would be bugging him even more.

***

He needed to add prophetic to his resume. Each day after, the girl returned. Most of the time she would just hang around in the doorway, literally. Other times she would creep inside his shop and lean against the wall, just watching him until she got antsy and left.

Sometimes she was quiet, but most of the time she jabbered on and on about everything as kids seemed to do. It didn’t seem to matter to her one bit that Alexander simply ignored her presence until she finally left.

One nice thing was that no other kids seemed to come to try their luck. Whether he had her to thank for that or not was unclear.

He had been tempted to shoo the girl away, but he learned a surprising amount about the station or at least the second ring from this child. And he didn’t even know her name.

After three weeks of her constant chatter, he finally decided to interrupt her and ask. “What’s your name?”

The young girl didn’t even miss a beat. “Yulia. I’ll be this many this year!” He looked over to see the girl holding up eight fingers.

Alexander didn’t have a good grasp on child biology, it seemed to be among his missing memories, but she seemed small for her age.

“Tell me, Yulia, why do you hang around here? Certainly, there must be more interesting places to be?”

She giggled. “You talk funny.” She somehow managed to shake her head as she said that. “The other kids are afraid of you. They say I’m a scaredy cat cause I get nightmares. But they don’t call me that no more 'cause I stay here.”

Ah, the flawless logic of children.

“Fine. You may continue to visit.”

The girl squealed in delight and Alexander had to hold his hand out to settle her. “But if you’re going to be here, you need to help me.”

If the girl nodded her head any faster, Alexander was sure the thing would have flown off her shoulders. But then she paused, seeming to realize she had no idea what sort of help she could offer.

Alexander smiled, and he let it show on his holographic face. “You attend some sort of study or schooling?”

She nodded again. “Mrs. Weber is teaching us the alphabet and I can add and subtract numbers.” Then she looked around conspiratorially before whispering. “I can even mullyply. Only the older kids are supposed to be learning that.”

“That’s very impressive. Do you know any history?”

She nodded.

He walked around from behind his counter, carrying a stool he had printed for her a few days prior. He hadn’t put it out until now because he didn’t want to encourage her to hang around. But if she could be helpful, that was a different story.

Alexander set the stool next to the side of his counter. “Have a seat and tell me what history you know.”

Giving a young kid like this carte blanche to talk was like opening the floodgates on a dam.