Clone Earth: MELVIN

Chapter One: ARI

Light on her feet, Ari's thick black boots shuffled her down one of the more quiet corridors. Trying to be inconspicuous her mind wandered to escape plan A, plan B, and plan C. Always prepared in case she got caught. She couldn't risk someone retracing her steps and finding the one place on this large hunk of space metal, that she could be left alone. Thus Ari took extra care not to be discovered until she was a good distance down the corridor.

Her mind was about to return to the task at hand when a beeping behind her managed to break through, just in time for Ari to dodge clear of a transport unit loaded down with containers. She threw her body to ground, a safe distance from the machine, but an awkward landing rolled her body over her left hand sending a sharp pain through her wrist and fingers.

"Next time I flatten you!" The driver shouted.

"Looking forward to it!" She yelled back, grinning as she gave the fading man a double thumbs-up. A motion that she regretted instantly as more pain shot through her tissue.

Favoring her injury, though happy it was her left hand, she caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall. Cursing through her teeth she set into a dead sprint down the corridor.

"Sorry I'm late!" she exclaimed, skidding into the maintenance hub for the mess hall. The extra heat and moisture in the room made the processed air sticky. Ari quickly looped her hair back in a knot to keep it from frizzing out of control.

The room was filled with seven members of the usual mess hall staff, each several years older than she was. They went about their business washing dishes and collecting trays from the discard containers. No one acknowledged Ari's presence, though she had to get someones attention in order to get credit for her time served.

"I could have skipped the last half of class but that's kind of what got me this death sentence."

Traeger, the maintenance chief for the section, shook his head as he threw one of the heavy-duty aprons from the rack, at Ari's head. "You did skip class," he drawled. "I received the penalty notice thirty minutes ago. Now, I have to use you for three more hours today."

She grinned. "You mean you get to?" Traeger didn't flinch, she didn't expect him too. It never worked on her when her brother used that positive rephrasing trick, why would it work on a full grown, overweight janitor, with no sense of humor?

Using mostly her left hand she tied the heavy apron around her waist and followed Traeger to a row of deep sinks, lining the back of the hub. It was crowded with personnel using pressurized hoses to clean off trays and utensils. Traeger pointed his thick finger to the one vacant sink, that is vacant of people, the sink itself was piled high with soiled trays.

"Seriously, we're hand-washing today?" Ari looked back at the large contraption that filled the center of the hub, unusually silent for the time of day. "I thought you were getting the washer fixed this week."

The old man chuckled dryly. "Shut up and start washing, Kana." Ari opened her mouth to protest but Traeger was no stranger to her attempts. "It's a punishment, Kana. Wash with your hands; it's not gonna kill you."

"It might kill you when my punishment is over and you have to wash these dishes."

"With your reputation, your punishment will never be over," mumbled one of the personnel members.

Traeger's glare cut off his snide remark, as well as the reply about to snarl from Ari's mouth. "Start washing. And feel free to get some of that water on your face. Without that grease you might look a bit human." He said lumbering back through the cluttered heaps of metal.

Ari looked down at her hands. They were clean, until she ran her fingertips over her cheeks. Traces of black and gray residue transferred onto them. Her eyes rolled before she set to work with the pressurized sprayer. With the accelerated speed the water hit the trays, bouncing back into her face and she shuttered at the feeling. Though it looked clean, it wasn't clean water. It was processed and filtered through the same drains that also carried the waist they cleaned off of the trays.