First Day on the Job
Colin, a new employee of Elevate Corp, boards an elevator to space for his first day on the job.
Colin pulled his car into the Elevate Corp parking garage. His designated parking spot was twelve levels down in the underground facility, so he began the slow descent, preferring to keep his vehicle in neutral most of the way, allowing gravity to do the work. He watched as beam after beam of concrete passed mere inches over the top of his car as he went deeper and deeper into the structure.
Today was Colin's first day on the job with Elevate Corp, well, the first real day. He had gone through a weeklong training course to prepare for today, his first-day going solo. He queued up for the elevator that would take him to sub-level four, the level where his department called home. The fill-to-capacity elevator car was mostly silent this morning during the brief ride. The young lady standing in front of Colin wore a backpack that pressed uncomfortably into his gut.
On sub-level four, Colin followed the colored lines on the wall that led to the locker room. The lockers were small, only about 30cm wide and 90cm tall, and they were stacked two lockers high. His locker was #3087, an upper locker. No one else seemed to be in the large locker room. He supposed that was one of the benefits of his day starting so early in the morning - it was only 4:30 in the morning. His launch time was promptly at 5:00 am. Due to the nature of his work environment, he was highly motivated to be early for his shift. If he were late, he would be left behind.
After donning his dark brown jumpsuit, Colin walked the long hall, pressed open the door to the stairwell, and ascended to ground level. He exited the stairway to find himself in Terminal C. He looked up at the glass ceiling and caught his first glimpse of the elevator. Of course, he'd seen it before. You'd have to live in a cave not to have seen the elevator, but he'd never seen it from this angle before. It looked like a busy train station with tracks spaced out just far enough to allow the trains, or in this case, the elevators, to pass by one another. The tracks covered nearly the entire surface of the structure, which rose up into the sky as far as the eye could see.
Despite the early hour of the morning, there appeared to be thousands of people in the terminal, some waiting for their departure, others leaving the gates and heading for the garage or the tram that would return them to the city.
Colin followed the wall to an employee-only gate. He presented his badge to the woman at the turnstile, who waved the badge over a magnetic reader while giving him a bored look, her eyes only half-open.
"You're good to go," she said. "Have a nice day."
Her tone seemed to indicate that she didn't really mean what she said.
"Thanks," said Colin as he passed through the turnstile and headed toward Gate 26.
A loud whoosh overhead signaled an approaching elevator, and Colin looked up just in time to see the bullet train-like elevator descend into its cradle. Each elevator was composed of a single car, but that car was over three stories tall and lined up with five corresponding gates. The lowest gate was where low-level crew like Colin would board. That way, they could board the elevator without being hindered by the mass of passengers waiting for their turn to board. The middle three gates were for passengers, with the lowest and largest gates designated for economy passengers. The next gate was for business-class passengers, and the next was for first-class passengers. The final and highest gate was for the elevator's captain and "flight" crew.
Colin entered Gate 26 and approached the hatch that led to the lowest level of the elevator. He pressed his badge to the reader, eliciting a beep and green light from the small box, and the hatch hissed as it slid into the wall. The lower deck was dimly illuminated, but it was a warm light, easy on the eyes this early in the day. It was now 4:50 am. The launch was in ten minutes. Colin found his assigned seat and fastened the harness around him securely. He looked around but didn't see anyone else. Was he going to be the only lower-deck personnel on this flight? That seemed odd. Where were the engineers? Security?
As Colin settled in for the launch, a few crew members finally trickled it. A chime sounded, and the lights dimmed twice, warning that the launch would occur in one minute.
They are really cutting it close, thought Colin. He recognized the newcomers by the color of their jumpsuits. Gray for security, red for engineering. Colin's jumpsuit was brown, designating him as part of the Utility Maintenance crew.
Colin pulled on the straps of his harness, tightening them once more. His training had been in a classroom and a simulator, so this was his first time riding the elevator, so his nerves were a bit on edge. He leaned his head back and took a deep breath. A young woman in a red jumpsuit harnessed herself into the seat next to him.
"First flight?" she asked.
"Yeah," Colin replied.
"I'm Sam," she said, reaching out a hand.
He accepted her hand and said, "It's nice to meet you, Sam. I'm Colin."
"There's nothing to worry about, Colin. You'll hardly feel a thing - after the first 15 minutes or so, that is. You'll feel like you weigh 200 kilograms for the first leg of the trip, but once we reach microgravity, we'll stop accelerating, and you'll be nearly weightless," Sam explained.
"Thanks," said Colin.
Colin hadn't been sure about taking this job with Elevate Corp at first. He really wanted to be an engineer, but the Elevate rep explained that the training program was currently at capacity, but she would put his name on the 18-month waiting list. He couldn't wait 18 months. He needed a job now. So he accepted the Utility Maintenance role, thinking that at least he'd have his foot in the door.
"Seriously, you look a little green. Do you need an anti-nausea patch? I have an extra you can have," said Sam.
Colin couldn't help but notice the absence of a ring on Sam's finger. Maybe being an elevator garbage man wasn't going to be as bad as he had thought.