Another Story
By: Michael Boehmcke
What To Do About Nothing?
“That’ll be three months for the repair,” said the man from behind the counter, his voice as flat as his hairless, annoyingly perfect jawline. “One for labor, two for parts.”
“Three!” Martin took a half-step back as the price rolled across the ticker in the corner of his vision, settling in a line of red beneath the white of his current account balance. “I bought the damn thing for two a couple years ago, why the hell would it take three just to fix it?”
“For starters, SoLuna discontinued this model two years ago, so you can’t get the parts wholesale anymore. I’m sure I don’t need to explain why it’s particularly difficult to get second-hand neural fibers?” The employee smiled at Martin, who felt his hand curl into a fist on the cold metal of the countertop, his fingernails pressing into his palm. “Not to mention that repairing an out-of-warranty implant is against the UNE Convention on Bio-Augmentation. You’re not going to find anybody else who can handle these repairs for you.”
Martin sighed, letting his shoulders slump as he leaned over the counter. He knew his Cortex was going to need to be replaced sooner or later, he had already bought it second-hand and three years out of date, but he had hoped that sooner would have arrived much later. He flicked his eyes back up to look at the repairman again, and the poor tracking that had made Martin bring it in to get checked for repairs reared its head again, popping up the browser tab he had shoved to the bottom of his view and planting an ad for some other product he couldn’t afford directly atop the employee’s face. They were indistinguishable from each other.
“I guess I’ll have to try somewhere else anyways. I can’t do three just for some shoddy repair that’ll break in another month,” Martin turned, shoving his hands in the pockets of his oversized hoodie.
The man behind the counter leaned forwards, placing a hand on Martin’s upper arm, and pulled him back towards the sale. “Now hey there, repairs are for those bums who just use Basic to mooch off the rest of us. And you’re right! A real winner like yourself deserves something that’ll last. I’ve got plenty of models on the floor for Cort3x, a couple Cor 4’s, and I’ve even got a display for the Cortex 5.”
Martin tensed as the salesman ran through the options, and each he knew was more expensive than the last. But still he hesitated. Maybe it could be worth it to upgrade, if he could afford it. He’d have a model that wouldn’t need to be repaired all the time. He could finally find a job, now that every listing required a Panoptica compatible Cortex. Martin turned back to look at the salesman, the periphery of his vision swimming as it passed over his form, revealing the dull, metallic reality of the machine.
“How much for the Cor 4…?”