Public Spaces

Dinner with a client

Adjusting your tie, you step into the breezeway outside your front door. The cool wind has a hint of damp pine from the evergreens around the corner. Turning, you stride past Heather's door, making a mental note to invite her to dinner again soon. Winning the neighborhood chili cookoff recently had given you that inroad you had been hoping for and you had finally been able to ask her out. You debate sending her a text immediately but discard the thought, you need to focus on that client you're meeting soon.

Becoming aware of your surroundings again you stride into a tram terminal and note that that as usual, you showed up as it was leaving. Ah well, another's coming shortly. You glance around and note that it's quiet for a Thursday night. Wondering, you glance around and see the sign in the corner scroll to an advertisement for the evenings entertainment. Ah, that hot young singer was doing her first show tonight. You consider hitting the music hall if the meeting is short, but discard that idea too - you can see better from the video feeds and it's much more comfortable to watch in your robe from the sensa room anyway. The ad shows a live view. She's belting out her new single and you sigh, knowing that it'll be stuck in your head for the next couple of hours, again.

Splashing water intrudes on your attention and you see the waterfall on the north wall running vigorously. A small hint of spray wafts towards you but falls well short and you glance up. It's raining hard outside. The falling water is being channeled and captured, explaining the strength of the usually quiet fountain. The drumming on the high glass fills the room with an almost subliminal roar. Lightning flickers above and you watch as it throws bright fragments of white light all down the light well.

You look again at the waterfall, artificial but rather well done, you really like that Japanese style with the bamboo stakes and bonsai trees. The waterfall usually looks like a mountain creek through a miniature landscape. Now it looks like a mountain river that aught to have kayaks sporting in it's rapids.

The tram pulls up and you hop on. A young couple is riding in the far front seat. Their infant burbling in a carrier grins at you and squirms. Smiling you head for the back giving them their privacy. Not that you can go far. This tram is a single car that only seats 10 if they are cozy. Light queue tonight - most of the big trams must be moving people from the public parking to the music hall.

Sitting down you pull out your communicator. The tram's menu is flashing insistently. Touching the icon, it zooms to cover the screen and the map centers on a moving dot at your location. Pulling the map around with your finger, you note your destination. It's a nice pool hall, bit older and the decor is rustic and muted, good for a private business meeting. The short skirts on the waitresses didn't hurt at all. A confirmation appears and you see the menu icon start flashing. Picking a beer takes only another moment and you glance up as you leave the lightwell - noting another fork of lightning dancing across the glass.

You make yourself comfortable as the tunnel lights turn into a long multicolor line. The couple begin to pack up their things. Why do people with kids always seem to have so much stuff with them?! The trundlebot accepts the load and you note it's balance is perfect. Your software really helped the spider looking things deal with the tram system. Coding for that initial lean of exterior momentum was so easy in concept... yet so much a pain to finalize. You grumbled again that the tram acceleration announcements were broadcast in MPH instead of the micrometer per second robot movement standard. So bizzare that holdover had been kept.

Shaking your head you glance back to your communicator's screen and open up a video feed of the pool hall's interior. Scanning you don't see your client yet. Excellent, you'll be first - always good to get the upper hand by being first to a meet. Opening up your search you skim through the last 10 minutes of video along restaurant row. No sign of anyone you know. They must all be at the concert. Noting who else is vidding the restaurants tonight you see that the police are watching too. Interested your slave your screen to see what they are watching... bah - they're watching a large broken trundle being gathered up by a custodian. The voice chatter grows from a whisper as you move the audio slider. It's just basic questions about the state of the bot. Tuning out you wonder again if they have secret vidding capability. All the rules say no, and the code that handles the vids are open source and there's no sign of it anywhere, but you still wonder.

Tuning into the concert you sit back as another hit washes over you. You don't have this one so you flag it for your personal record set, approving the charges absentmindedly and add a tip for the concert. After a bit of crowd scanning you don't see Heather and give up, letting the feed center on the stage and the contortions of yet another 17 year old superstar. Glancing out the windows you see the tunnel open up into a huge lightwell. The tram's moving fast enough that it climbs the curved wall like large luge even as it spirals up to the upper stories. Glancing to your right you can see down the lightwell and you imagine you can hear the water flowing into the huge vats below you. The fish are swarming around in the lake below, so dense in places that it's just a black mass where the light can't penetrate.

The tram darts into another tunnel, but then slows quickly and comes to a stop right at the beginning of the shopping plaza. Probably headed to the baby shop that's right there on the corner you think as the entourage hop out. You debate walking from here but sit back. There's no-one in the queue for the tram so you're going to get there faster just sitting tight.

Moving quickly again you see the new glass blower shop glittering all sorts of colors go sliding past. Looking ahead you see the great lightwell between the forest of market canopies. Slapping your hand against the wall you tell the tram to stop in an overloud voice. No matter, you're alone. The tram glides quickly and smoothly to a halt and you jump out as another lightning bolt flickers down and hits the Vertical Farm's lightning rod. Here the storm outside is very obvious. Lightning keeps striking the rod with loud rumbling accompaniment - making the entire well strobe and pulse. This well isn't completely covered and the area around the vertical farm is being drenched in a biblical downpour. Cats & Dogs indeed, maybe a horse or two! The water is flowing into a stream that meanders down the middle of the street, quaint little bridges and stepping stones all along it's length. Usually placid enough to only wet your ankles, it's full enough that the water is overflowing into the side drains. You step lively over one of the bridges trying to picture an amount of water that could actually flood this place. Given that this storm is a doozy and isn't making much of a dent, you find that difficult.

More strobing light and afterimages are burned into your retina's. Blinking them away you glance at your communicator again and pull up the Gia Ship's charge level. The graph is climbing even as you watch. Checking the distribution, hydroelectrics spiking as high as you've ever seen and solar is bottomed out. Even the lightning strikes are feeding in, but they are really just drops in the energy torrent. You smile because it'll be cheap to recharge the runabout and your communicator for a week or so and you make a note to refill your house's water reserves when the price bottoms out tonight.

As you walk up to the door of the pool hall, you see your client stepping down from a tram. His coat still shows water droplets on the shoulders. "Wet out?" you quip as you hold the old west swinging bar door wide for him.
"This is from the park and ride." He replies "I'm dry again compared to what I was, coms say it's going to rain like this for another day or so."
"Oh really?" You make a mental note to perhaps wait until tomorrow to top off your tanks.
"Yeah, hey good suggestion coming here. After this I'd like to hit up that place you took me the other week. That Salmon was phenomenal. I really need to look at moving in, the downtown condo I'm in is nothing as nice as this."

Stepping inside you glance around. The pool hall is crowded and a bit noisy. A new waitress steps forward and hands you your beer. "Hello sirs, would you like a table or would you like to head to your reserved room."
"The room please" you respond, wanting to get down to business.
"Follow me!" She chirps and spinning on her toes her skirt flares and it's all you can do to keep from staring. You note that your client is unable to resist and you take a sip of your beer to cover the grin as he flushes and grins embarrassed when he sees that you caught his social faux pa.

"What would you like? A local brew?" You begin the pleasantries as you are led into a 2nd floor enclosed balcony looking out into the light well.
The light strobes again. Staring at the lightning rod your client nods absentmindedly and mumbles to himself "really aught to move here."
Touching your communicator you order a round and open a tab for your friend here. Yeah, you're going to get the contract, you can feel it, a tab tonight is a small price to pay for landing it. You're going to be a hero at the office tomorrow.

Noting that he's still watching the lightning capture, you thoughtfully queue up an email with the Gia Ship's resident's application web site.