CHAPTER 2
After I’ve checked all the rules, Phantom’s missive tells me to wear whatever I’m comfortable in, so I choose the familiarity of the booth uniform and then it directs me to the private elevator to the ring-view rooms.
You can only access them through Phantom’s, and as far as I know… half the people on the station don’t even know they exist.
They’re completely private rooms, separated from the rest of the club… Whoever Mooralan is, he’s passed all of Phantom’s checks and requirements.
I wasn’t aware that I had, too, but the sign-offs on the digital stack of paperwork have me cleared for things I didn’t know exist.
The room is nice… but there’s no view.
I thought the name was literal.
Slipping through the door, I’m glad he’s not there yet, so I have time to explore.
The space is almost like a hotel room, but there are discreet tie down points and the thing I’ve always thought of as a strange sort of sofa is definitely made of a material that can be sprayed down.
The whole place probably has sanitization settings.
All the luxury vibes with added quick clean-up appeal.
“Welcome to Ring-View Room Number Two, Jade.” The bot here has a different voice than the one downstairs. “Your client is running just a little late, but that gives us more time to get through the preliminaries without rushing.”
“Cool.” I sit down on the floor and run through my normal stretching routine as the room bot talks.
“As always, your safety is a priority, here at Phantoms. Use any of your pre-approved code words at any time, and the interaction will cease. If the client does not respect the rules, we will make him.”
That sounds ominous, but I don’t say it, in case it takes it as a question and buffers, wasting time.
“Please confirm your identity by placing your hand on any one of the six bulkheads.”
I press one palm to the floor and wonder why it didn’t accept visual confirmation as secondary from the hand print I had to use to access the elevator.
“Thank you Jade.” There is a whirring sound.
“Please vocalize your consent to participate in this interaction. And know that if anyone has coerced you into this private setting, we will cancel the appointment and Phantom will deal with the perpetrator by any means necessary. You are always safe at Phantom’s. ”
“Thank you, but no one is coercing me. I consent to this interaction in general. Please provide specifics.”
“General consent confirmed. Please view the list of possible activities and accept all, or deselect the ones you are not willing to participate in and then accept with changes.”
The list flares to life on the wall—not so different from the booth, after all—and I stand out of my stretch and go to it.
I deselect bondage… and almost all the other kinky stuff. They’re not hard nos, but they are not first date activities.
There’s a collapsed section at the bottom that says “Advanced (0)” and I can’t even open it to see what it would entail. But none of the items are selected, so I don’t worry about it this time.
I press the spot on the wall to accept with changes and the list disappears.
“Thank you and enjoy your time in the ring room.”
The bot goes quiet and the room starts to rotate. “Um…”
“Don’t worry, this is normal.”
That doesn’t really set my mind at ease, but anxiety disappears when a wall that had once been blank metal is replaced with one that seems to be all glass.
Beyond it…
The star field is almost completely obscured by a plane of ice and dust I’ve never had the chance to see in person before.
There are virtual postcards I’m not allowed to take back home with me, and ads for excursions and the restaurant at the top of the station—that I’ve never had anyone to go with—that gives you an unimpeded view, but this…
MiNo station orbits a planet with a ring system that is all blue haze and floating debris. I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know any of the science. I just know it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
I had expected something like the narrow porthole in my hotel room. This is so much more. I feel like I can see everything… I feel like anyone could see everything.
“These rooms are private, right?” I ask the bot.
“A one-way filter keeps the exterior of the three foot thick plasglass opaque to anyone on the other side. But ships and shuttles aren’t allowed this close. They would disturb the rings and the planetary governing bodies have authorized the station to use lethal force to keep that from happening.”
I look up at the ceiling, confused. “Why?”
“The rings are part of the planet’s main draw for tourism. But, there is a general consensus that damaging the rings could destroy the planet itself.”
“Okay…” I don’t ask if she means literal destruction or economic collapse.
I lean against the glass, trying to look in either direction, but I can’t see anything. I’d hoped I might see the shuttle line that ferries people back and forth to the planet’s surface. I thought it was on this side of the station.
Someday, I’ll be on one of those shuttles. Maybe I’ll come here for a week and go straight to an island paradise down there. Maybe I’ll convince Feather to take a girl’s trip after I’ve gotten to know her a little better.
The bot makes an exultant noise. “He’s here.”