After his eventful delivery on the fifth ring, a few weeks went by in blissful peace. Alexander’s only during that time was reading more teical dots and moving about scrap along with other deliveries. Not that he mihe work was dull, sure, but every day brought him closer to his goal of freedom.

  That bliss was shattered as a hurried set of steps he entry. It was a good thing his body had excellent hearing. Even so, Alexander had to rush to log out of the terminal aurn to his spot before Yuri practically ran into the salvage yard bay. It would not have been good if the man caught him away from his assigned spot.

  The man had a panicky look on his face as he practically sprinted across the entry area and into the room he used as his office. Which was impressive given the man robably in his eighties. Alexander had never seen the old man move so quickly or seem so flustered.

  He could hear muffled cursing as items crashed to the ground from ihe room. After only ten minutes, Yuri rushed out carrying a duffel bag. “I knew I shouldn’t have taken that damn job!” The man spat as he hurried over toward Alexander.

  Fearing he had been caught, Alexaiffened. What could he do if he had been discovered, kill the guy? That... That wasn't going to happen. Alexander wasn’t a killer. During his moment of indecision, the man had made it to him a down his duffel bag. Then he reached into a dirty pocket on his overalls and fished out a data disk.

  When the man didn’t call him out, some of the tensio him. Alexander had seen the digital ste devices before but hadn’t ever used any of them. They looked like quarters, only with pletely bnk faces. The man shoved the tiny disk into the trol module glued to his chest.

  “Greetings” the same meical yet somehow cheerful voice that apanied all of the unications from the box responded.

  “I have given you a list of responsibilities ordered by priority. You are to tio carry these out until I return.”

  “I uand,” the voice repeated.

  An actual dar appeared inside Alexander’s mental space with a list of duties for each day. As he read through the ridiculous list of tasks, he also watched Yuri.

  The man ied a credit stito the terminal Alexander had only just logged off from. From his vantage point, he could clearly see the maying his bank at into the digital wallet. He only left enough for what seemed like a month’s worth of operating expenses for the yard.

  Either Yuri wasn’t ing back, or he expected to be back within a month. her option was great for him. There was a moment where he thought it would be beneficial to let the older man in on his secret, but rationality quickly pushed that thought to the back of his mind. Even if he didn’t mind Yuri, he certainly didn’t trust the man. And there was no way Alexander wao get caught up in whatever nonsense had him so flustered that he ag for a one-month trip in the middle of the night.

  Yuri Sokolov, the old man and owner of Sokolov Repair and Salvage stopped at the exit, taking one more longing look at his life before vanishing down the corridor.

  The man hadn’t even shut the door in his haste to leave. Waiting a few mio make sure the man was truly gone, Alexander went over to close the door, but the program Yuri had installed beeped at him.

  “Deviation from assigasks. Please remain iil your assig is scheduled.”

  The robotic voice repeated this message with every step. Alexander sighed mentally, this was going to get old fast. He closed the door auro his spot he wall. He had tried just standing still but every thirty seds the voice would repeat itself if he wasn’t where this dumb program wanted him to be.

  It obviously wasn’t an AI, but some sort of tracker or assistant that Yuri had modified. He wondered briefly why the man hadn’t bothered installing it until now. Then again, maybe Yuri knew how annoying it was and didn’t want to listen to the things stant yammeriher.

  Alexatempted to remove the disk from the trol box, but paranoid Yuri had added preventative measures to block him from attempting it. To be fair, the man was right. Of course, Alexander already knew of these hard-coded rules. He had explored most of the features and rules that prevented him from doiain things over the years. Part of getting his freedom was knowing what he could and couldn’t do.

  Not that he couldn’t bypass most of them by now. But some were stubbornly ingrained in the device. Alexander couldn’t afford to damage the trol module either. It was literally the only thing keeping him scious.

  That being said, he already had a ast this specific restri. He made his way over to Yuri’s office, the stupid program badgering him the eime to return to his ste space. He ig, although he wished he could turn off whatever allowed him to hear. Unfortunately, willing it to happen didn’t do anything. He sighed a going.

  Much like the mairy door, Yuri had left the office door wide open. When Alexander peeked inside, he saw the tents of the office were scattered everywhere. He shook his head and dipped below the door frame to step inside.

  Scattered items y on the floor and Alex pushed them aside with his feet so he didn’t crush anything. The office would o get ed up, if anyone saw the state of it, there would be no doubt that Yuri had fled. And if he wanted a new life, he needed more time to save money.

  Inside one of the still-open desk drawers was exactly what he had been hoping to find. He reached in and plucked out the soft-tipped stylus. It was a good thing that capacitive touchs tablets were still a thing.

  Alexander easily maneuvered the stylus to the eject button on the trol interface. He didn’t actually he capacitive properties of the stylus, he just needed something soft yet sturdy enough to activate the simple pressure swit the trol box. There was a clid the silver disk ejected halfway from the device.

  Using his other hand, and taking care not to touch the box, Alexander removed the data disk. As soon as it came free, the annoying voice him to return ceased.

  He held the disk up to get a good look at it. How something so small could cause him sunoyance was beyond him. He gave a mental shake of his mind and crushed the disk. The about tidying up the office.

  ***

  When it came time to open for the day, Alexander followed the dar he had been given. There were certaiime slots ihe dar that he wasn’t quite sure what to do with.

  He didn’t have to ponder long though. During the first free slot, a group of men came in looking for Yuri. They appeared to be maintenance workers. When they couldn’t find him, they sent him a digital message. Essentially an email.

  When they left, Alexander went over to the terminal and logged into Yuri’s at to read the correspondehey were looking for some rept pos for an EVAP system. Alexander had no clue what that was, but they were helpful enough to leave part numbers. And he kly where those parts were.

  As he was retrieving the parts, a realization struck him. Surely that cagey old bastard had factored in random people ing by. He must have built responses into the new program to at for them. Alexander was suddenly wishing he hadn’t just destroyed his only way to unicate.

  In the meantime, he wrote a note and taped it to the office door.

  Tell the robot what you need! I’ll be back ter.

  It wasn’t the greatest solution but it would work until he learned how to code a new interfad install it. After pg the note, he took the parts to the destination in the email.

  ***

  It was sort of funny that nobody questiohe hey would e in, read it, and e over to where he was and tell him what they wahen he would retrieve it and they would send payment to the pany at. Thankfully the walk-ins only happened during the select few hours marked as free. The rest of the time was scheduled for other deliveries and s ining iory that Yuri must have scheduled weeks or months in advance.

  This would have bee had it sted. But less than three weeks ter, a group of three ehe salvage yard. These were not the normal blue-colr type that normally frequehe yard. The woman in the group had a tight hair bun and a severe face. She was also wearing something that looked like a cross between coveralls and a full-body scuba suit. It was not a very fttering look. He assumed this was one of those elusive vac-suits. He had heard about the vac-suits but none of the statiurs bothered wearing them. They were difficult to move around in, making any work slow and tedious. This was the first time he ever saw someone oation wearing one of the things.

  Thankfully Alexander had mao cobble together a basic assistant program that could ask people what they wanted.

  “Greetings. How may I assist you today?”

  The woman gnced over at him but didn’t say anything before returnitention to the other men with her. “Make sure you get a full iory, everything must go. We have a party ied in purchasing this spad I don’t want any of this junk here when they move in.”

  Move in? What was she talking about?

  “You sure?” One of the men asked. “The old man could e back.”

  She barked out a ugh. “Uhat old bastard figured out how to breathe in a vacuum, he isn’t ing back. I received firmation that the freighter Livera was destroyed by pirates with all creassengers aboard. And that included Old Man Yuri. That means this space reverts back to the station to do with as it pleases.”

  “What about the bot?” the other man oward Alexander.

  She gnced back over, looking at him more closely before frowning. “What about it?”

  “Well, it looks uhe one man stated.

  “Unique? Do you know what runs through my mind when I hear that word?” The man paused for a moment before he shook his head. “I hear expensive, hard to maintain, proo failure. I mean look at it,” she waved her arm in Alexander’s dire. “Yuri didn’t even bother fixing the damn thing. He stuck a cobbled-together pat it and called it good. The stupid thing doesn’t even have prreeting protocols built into it.”

  Rude!

  “Just scrap it,” she stated before turning and leaving.

  After the woma, the two men began to tap on tablets as they quickly ioried the room.

  Alexander had a choiake. After Yuri’s te-night escape, he had made a pn B so to speak, assuming the man would never return. Although he never expected the man would die. He just figured Yuri would start a junk pile in some other station. He wondered if the trouble he had been trying to run from had caught up with him or if the attack was simply random bad luck.

  He pushed those thoughts aside as there were more pressing s. As soon as the two men passed into the aisles of stored junk in the back of the yard, he made his way over to the terminal aered Yuri’s credentials. He really hoped nobody looked too closely at the log or his pn would quickly fall apart. Being as fast as possible, Alexander scrolled through the dozens of purchase and sales logs until he found the one he had set up.

  The sale of himself was dated on the same day that Yuri left the station. It didn’t have a delivery date but Alexander quickly filled that in and stamped it paid in full using Yuri’s identity. He would have transferred the remaining funds inside Yuri’s business at to his own, but he was certain that would be noticed. He would just have to hope the meager amount of money he mao earn was enough to keep him afloat. Closing the terminal, he returo his spot o the wall and waited.

  It took just over an hour for the two men to catalog every item in the warehouse before one headed toward the office. The other walked over to him and waved a ser over the code embedded into the trol box. His tablet gave an angry beep and he frowned down at it.

  “Kirill!”

  “What?” Kirill shouted from ihe office.

  “This robot says it’s been sold.”

  “So?”

  “So! So, Miss Kuzsova said everything o go.”

  “Well, when’s it supposed to be picked up?” Kirill asked, stepping outside the office.

  The man standio Alexander looked down at his tablet and scratched his head. “Says it's supposed to be delivered sometime today.”

  “Then I fail to see the problem, Grigory.”

  Befrigory could respond, Alexander moved, startling the man. Kirill ughed at his panion as Alexander simply walked out of the salvage yard for the st time. If he had a heart, he was sure it would have beeing a mile a minute.

  The st thing he heard was a muted chuckle from Kirill. “See, Grigory! If you wait long enough, some problems solve themselves.”