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003 “ “Welcome To Bay City, Kid.”


Jackson Slade pulled his white four-door hover into the pick-up area of San Francisco Air Terminal North just a few short miles outside the city in Sausalito. He idled there for a minute before the driver’s door rolled up and he stepped outside.

One wouldn’t have been able to determine Jackson’s profession easily from simply judging his plain vehicle or his indistinct gray pants with matching jacket. He wore his brown hair short to the scalp and possessed a set of hazel colored eyes which most likely had seen a lot more that most would have guessed at first sight. To appear unassuming was a plus in his line of work. And he would have been able to pull it off too, had it not been for his slightly stiff demeanor which he was unable to shake even when he tried to casually lean against the car. Something about his mannerisms spoke of official business, military even.

His insistent eyes scanned the swarms of people coming out of the large glass and steel construct which was the air terminal’s arrival building. They were travelers coming from all over the planet and yet none of them looked as if they had traveled for long. No wonder, a shuttle ride to the farthest destination only took an average of three hours.

“Hello.”

Startled Jackson looked to his side to see a short, young woman in her mid-twenties. She reached just about his shoulders and in fact appeared so delicate that it seemed to border on a miracle that she was able to carry the large holdall that was slung over her shoulder.

“Can I help you, Miss?” Jackson asked without paying her much more attention. After all he had come here to pick up a new team member and not to engage in frivolous conversations with young bright-eyed girls.

The woman brushed a few strands of her long blonde hair out of her face. “Well, yeah, I hope so.”

“Cabs are down the street. You can catch the Trans Fran from level two, that’ll take you into the city,” Jackson replied, keeping his eyes on the thinning crowd.

“Alright then,” she said and walked off. She stopped after just a few steps. “I think somebody was supposed to come and pick me up though.”

Slade slowly turned his head to study the young blonde from head to toe. She wasn’t bad looking at all, a bit too young for him perhaps. She looked quite innocent, perhaps even a tad naïve, like a country girl making her first trip to the big city. Could it be her? He was waiting for a cybernetics and computer expert. A person who had spent the last five years of their life inside a lab. This girl looked more at home at the beach.

“Where you coming from, Miss?”

“Cambridge.”

Damn. “Bobbie Case?”

She lightened. “Yes, that’s me. You must be Mister Slade,” she said with a beaming smile and held out her hand. “It’s great to meet you, sir.”

Jackson stiffened even more when he awkwardly took her hand. She had a pretty solid grip too.

“Gosh, this could have been really weird, don’t you think?” she asked still displaying those pearly whites.

Could have?
“I apologize, I wasn’t expecting a …”

“Woman?”

Girl more like it. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Don’t feel bad I get that a lot.”

“Let me take this,” he offered and took her holdall. He stepped to the back of his vehicle and the trunk quickly slid open. “You just don’t look like one of those whiz-kids coming straight out of college.” He placed the bag into the car and the trunk lid slipped back into position. When he looked back at the young Case he found that her smile had vanished.

“Please don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

She was practically frowning now. “Call me a whiz-kid. I really don’t like it.”

“Duly noted,” he replied and pointed the passenger door. “Ready to get to know your new job?”

And just like that the frown was gone again. “Am I ever?”

No two minutes later they were on the road. By her large, all-consuming eyes, Jackson quickly determined that she had never been to California before. She radiated excitement from seeing pretty much everything he took for granted. The endless Pacific, the massive sequoias and then finally the San Francisco skyline and the bright crimson Golden Gate Bridge.

Amongst the skyline one building stood out more than any other, easily twice as high as the famous white Pyramid and adorned with a large blue and silver Federation emblem it was easily discernible even before they had reached the bridge.

Jackson noticed the special attention Bobbie was giving it.

“Federation Plaza. The most recent addition to the city’s skyscrapers. Not the most popular building around here though.”

“Why’s that?”

Jackson shrugged. “San Franciscans are old fashioned I guess. While most cities have built massive skylines, San Fran has for the most part stuck to the old ways. Even after the Breen the city was reconstructed almost exactly the way it had been before. And FedPlaza doesn’t really fit in with the old look.”

With that Bobbie could only agree. The mega-scraper struck a bit of a sad picture, all by itself as the undisputed tallest building in the skyline. Nobody even came close.

The young girl had quickly found another sight to focus on.

At this Jackson smirked. “Starfleet Headquarters,” he said and Bobbie Case was certain she could hear a tiny hint of sentimentality in his tone.

Bobbie nodded slowly as he watched the massive campus which as always was a hub of activity.

“If the locals don’t like FedPlaza they’re really not crazy over Starfleet having made the city their home,” he said and then continued before she could ask why. “I guess Starfleet has a tendency to think that because they’re the single biggest institution in the Federation that they can run the city. They practically own the entire air space in the county, one of the reasons we had to come pick you up from the Sausalito terminal. The other, because of their heavy use of transporters, civilian transporter activity in San Francisco is lower than in any other city in the Federation.”

“A bit ironic, isn’t it?”

“Sure. But then again you might prescribe to the emerging faction who believes that excessive beaming can lead to long term cellular damage.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of that,” Bobbie said. “They say they don’t have any scientific proof of it.”

“It’s nonsense if you ask me but ever since the theories surfaced, overzealous politicians have been trying to curb transporter activity, especially here on Earth,” said Jackson and put the hover onto the on-ramp, leading up onto Golden Gate. “Normally we’d take the tunnel but seeing this being your first trip to the city I’ll show you around a bit.”

The young woman seemed to appreciate the gesture and gave him another large smile. “So you guys been having problems with the Fleet?”

The driver shrugged. “Some in the department don’t like them very much. But I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

“I thought about joining after school. I mean it was difficult to go to a recruitment event without them trying to sign you up.”

“They never fully recovered from the War.”

The Starfleet campus disappeared behind a tree line and Bobbie turned her attention back to her new superior. “They don’t really have a cybernetics program anymore, that’s what made my decision to go to MIT instead a lot easier.”

Jackson nodded but didn’t say anything. Bobbie got the distinct impression that Starfleet was not his favorite topic. And then she noticed the masses of people crowding the bridge ahead.

The hover came to a crawl.

“Protestors,” Jackson Slade almost spat.

Bobbie didn’t have to ask what they were protesting against. Their large computerized banners and slogans flashed numerous messages which made their cause unmistakably clear.

“Leave nature alone, we don’t want no cyborg drone,” Bobbie said, reading one of the signs out loud.

Jackson had already rolled down the windows. “Come on, people, don’t you have jobs to go to!” he shouted and angrily hit the horn.

The crowds couldn’t have cared less.

“These anti-cybernization protestors are a real pain in this city.”

“You think these guys are bad,” said Bobbie. “I was in Paris over the summer. You can hardly turn your head without running into some protestors there.”

Jackson maneuvered the vehicle slowly through the crowd. “That’s the French for you. Protesting about something is in their nature.”

It might have been intended as a joke but Bobbie didn’t find it very funny. In fact she was certain the protests in Paris had been due to the fact that it was the capital city of the Federation and not because of some outdated stereotype Jackson Slade still prescribed to.

“I don’t know what all the fuss is about to be honest,” she said. “It’s a voluntary procedure and dramatically increases anyone’s potential.”

Jackson shot her a quick smile. “Of course you would say that,” he replied. “You’re a cybernetics expert. Just do me a favor and don’t advertise it until we’re out of here.”

Bobbie looked downright scared when she glanced back at the crowd. The fear didn’t persist however. This was no angry mob just a group of people who felt it necessary to voice their opinions more blatantly than others. No matter if one agreed with the sentiment or not, it was within their rights to do so.

“Let’s see what the newsfeeds have to say about this,” said Jackson and opened a link on his enhancers.

< -- anti-cybernization rallies have been reported in two-hundred metropolises around Federation space, marking today the second consecutive week of protests. > The female news anchor reported. < While most local governments have declared that they will not pass any cybernization restrictions a speaker for the Federation Council said that the Council has not ruled out a recommendation for more stringent laws to oversee or possibly restrict the use of cybernetic modifications on sentient life-forms -- >

“That’s just obtuse,” Bobbie commented, listening in on the same feed.

Jackson seemed less concerned. “It’s just people fearing what they don’t yet understand. It always happens, it always passes. It’s that New Gaia movement and their insufferable leader Heracles. They're the main instigators of this whole mess. Once people find out that they are nothing more than fear mongers this whole thing will go away.”

< In other news, the sectarian violence on Asuka III, a colony world of the close Federation ally of the Nyuchiba Confederacy continues after days of continuous fighting amongst the rival clans. The Nyuchiban ambassador to the Federation has informed us that his government has declared a state of emergency effectively immediately after the prefect of Asuka III was killed in an assassination plot two days ago. The ambassador further stated that his government would look favorably at any assistance the Federation could provide. In response Federation President Kentii’la has asked Starfleet to dispatch the USS Tripoli to Asuka III to assess the situation. We have learned however that opposition in the Council is warning that too much involvement -- >

< Slade, Masamune here. What’s your current position? >

Jackson replied instantly to the incoming message. < I just picked up our new techie. We’re on Golden Gate right now. We should be there shortly. >

< Belay that. We have a situation out in Daly. Looks bad. Get over there now. >

< Copy that. >

“Looks like the sightseeing tour has to wait. Duty calls,” Jackson said and hit a control which caused the vehicles shrill sirens to blare loudly. The astonished crowds jumped back from the hover as it suddenly began to pick up speed. “Let’s go people. This is an emergency!”


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