8.0 – Jax

Year: 2287

Jax was home. As she walked into the building her neighbour, Mrs Onishi was at the computers, no doubt checking her mail.

“Hello Mrs Onishi” Jax called and waved. 

“Oh, Jax. I’m so glad to see you. Come over here and help an old lady with the computer, won’t you?” Mrs Onishi replied. She was always struggling with the computers. Jax was surprised any of them still worked, they were old, decades old and only a few systems were minimally compatible with them. Some residential buildings had communal workspaces for residents, most hadn’t been upgraded for a long time. 

As Jax walked over to Mrs Onishi she said “I’ve told you these systems aren’t what they used to be. You need to get an upgrade in your room” 

“Do you think I’m made of money? Besides, I don’t trust all that holotech and they work perfectly fine, nothing wrong with these old things” She said, as she slapped the screen. “Oh, what now? It’s gone black.” 

“It’s just a loose cable, you need to be gentle with them. Let me have a look. There, see? All back to normal. Now what seems to be the problem?” 

Half an hour later Jax was finally in her room. She didn’t mind helping Mrs Onishi, but her long day had just got that much longer, and she was ready to slide into her pod and drift to sleep with some cyber jazz playing in the background. But that would have to wait.  

Jax was living in the lowest cost accommodation you could find in London. Everyone in the building had their own private living pod, which had just enough room for a person to be upright while sitting on a small seat (if you weren’t too tall). Inside there was space for a single bed, a small rotating seat with extendable desk and storage space for limited clothing and peripherals. If you paid some extra money you could get an entertainment system installed with hologram and audio technology. 

Every floor of the building was a bit different, the higher up you went the more expensive and luxurious (if you could call it that) it got. Jax’s floor was about mid-way up and had a communal kitchen and bathroom that were shared with the two floors above and below. 

Jax sat down in her seat pulled out her small desk and with a swipe of her hand switched on her HoloTop. She switched to the tracking system for her HoloWatch and saw the little dot appear on screen. It was still close by and moving. Clearly the person didn’t know about the tracking system or they didn’t care. She hoped it was the former, she didn’t want to corner someone who didn’t care if they got caught.