Cars did fly, but full flight was only allowed in certain air spaces, and the car had to be on autonomous, self-driving mode—it had been found too dangerous otherwise. There were enough accidents near the ground, why create more in the sky?
Of course, despite being in automatic, the driver still had to be awake. Sleeping in your car while it was on autonomous mode was very illegal, whether you were hovering on the ground or in the sky. That being said, you could still do a lot of shit while driving now and not crash—just not sleep. Though, if you got caught ignoring the road completely, the ticket would be hefty. Also trying to fly across the oceans to other countries had been made illegal.
The use of elevation stones on ships and boats for the water had been heavily regulated and, in some capacities, banned. It had initially set up a whole new era of piracy over the open ocean—not that there weren’t some still out there.
With his mind spiraling off on random shit, he realized it was very much time to get some coffee… His brain was way too out of it if he was sitting there reminiscing about sea pirates—space pirates were definitely more worrisome.
He sighed. His flight was at four, so no napping until he was safely in the pod-like seats of first class.
Two hours later,when Severo was cozy in his seat on the plane, he texted Cyrus, informing him that they were about to take off. After adding that he’d let him know when they landed and he was on the ship to the spaceport, he buried himself in the covers and conked out.
At a hand touching his shoulder, Severo’s eyes popped open what felt like mere moments later. Head throbbing, he looked blurrily up at what must have been a flight attendant. “Yes?”
“Sir, the plane has landed. It’s time to disembark,” the young man stated.
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of sleep, and hurriedly freed himself from the covers. “Ah, sorry,” Severo murmured thickly as he grabbed his duffle bag from the above compartment, and made his way off the plane.
Funny how time moved quickly when he didn’t want it to. Yeah, three hours of sleep apparently would not make up for the many hours he’d missed over the three months that he’d spent chasing down that fucking slippery-ass Chupacabra.
Pulling out his phone, he ran his thumb over the thin blue rectangle, unlocking the screen, it slid out fully. It was clear at first, much like his tablet, but the home screen appeared the second he tapped it. He quickly texted his boss that he was on his way to the shuttle bay, and that he’d let him know once he had made it into space.
At a fast pace, he made his way across the airport and outside in under ten minutes. He only had thirty to get to and check in for his ship off of Earth. Luckily, the place was right next door to the airport, and he got to skip most of the security—why they didn’t just join the buildings together, he didn’t know.
The shuttle bay looked similar to the airport; white walls, round and tube-like, with a lot of plants growing everywhere. He pulled out his credentials and his ID Passbook.
The check in went fast due to his badge, and him being on official CEB business. He was quickly escorted to his dock point and inside. The seating was similar to his pod on the airplane, but a bit more secure, and he had opted for a fully sleeping seat.
As Severo settled into his fluffy first-class bed, a bubbled dome formed over him. Gravity stabilizers activated to prevent him from being displaced once the spacecraft changed angle. Before the ship even took off, he was fast asleep.
When he woke again, it was once more because of an attendant. The dome was off, and as he glanced out the window, all he could see was the blackness of space and the beauty of the stars. Shaking his head, he smiled wearily at the attendant and muttered a groggy apology. He couldn’t say he felt much better than the last time he woke.
Severo groaned as he sat up. Grabbing his bag at the foot of the bed, he hopped out of the pod, nodded once at the attendant before making his way off the craft and into the spaceport.
Pulling out his phone, he quickly opened it and called his boss. The spaceport was white, and basically shaped like a donut with large windows. Paths to docks for spaceships were both inside and out of the ring.
Without a greeting, Severo barked, “I’m at Intermediate Spaceport Beta. I still have to cool my heels for about three hours before I can board the ship for Mars. Not going to lie, I plan to just catch up on sleep for the next seven days. So, I would say don’t expect a call until I make it to Mars.” Severo yawned, his jaw cracking as he absently flashed his Cryptid Enforcement Bureau badge at security, so he could skip all the protocol one encountered when entering space.
Cyrus chuckled. “Good idea, you sound like shit.”
“You don’t say.”
“You did just get off a case, didn’t you?” his boss mused.
“Nice of you to remember,” Severo groused.
“Call me when you have any more updates,” the man said, ignoring his sarcastic comment.
“Are you sure she is there? And again, are we sure about this case?”
“No more arguing about the legitimacy of the case. You will be capturing her…end of discussion. And yes, according to our intel, she is there. Intel being Killian, who has spent hours scanning surveillance footage in too many places to count. Because whatever name Seri is currently using, it isn’t traceable to her.”
“Sounds like someone got a finger scanner cap and a deluxe fake ID Passbook…”
Basically, it meant that Seri was using a forged ID Passbook that was linked to another real person. Add in that she likely had a thumb scanner cap, and anytime Seri scanned the book, or the fake thumb print, it would temporarily overhaul the database system and bring her picture, along with the altered information, up with someone else’s name. But if one were to look up the name directly, Seri would not show up. So, the Nymph could travel without anyone knowing who she was.
“That being said, if you would like to inform Killian directly that you question his abilities to do his job, be my guest.”
Yep, nope, he did not want to question the scary Siren that was Killian. The male tended to have a short temper.
