Chapter 7.19 - Hard Work

It was the peak of summer heat. And with it, Haven had one universal enemy. This was not the duplicitous neighbors that constantly tested its borders or the attempted strike teams from the GWA, it was the smell. Due to its shape, the one thing Haven feared was when the wind shifted currents and travelled from Southeast to Northwest, carrying with it the smell of the bio-fields.

Now in comparison, Haven's method of trash and waste recycling was way ahead of other nations. While most cities spilled their waste into the streets or carried it off to be burned in giant pits, Haven was different.

There were two main places where waste was handled in Haven, the Sewage Treatment facility and the Recycling plant. Haven's sewage treatment was a large wastewater refinery, which took in the sewage water from the city, broke it down in large turbines, treated the water for disease and parasites, and then deposited it through specially made pipes that seeped the liquid into the soil. The land here was fertile, but that was because a few meters under the ground there was highly processed wastewater feeding the soil. These were the biofields and sometimes the winds passing over the turbines carried the smell of sewage back to town.

The other facility was the Haven Recycling Plant. This large facility took all physical materials collected through town from trash and scrap to carcases. First, the plant sorted the materials. Homunculi hard at work sorted the reusable materials (broken glass, scrap metal, etc.) and sent them for refining. Glass was turned into beads for reuse while scrap metal was sorted by type and turned into ingots. For materials that could not be reused, they were sent to the Haven Compost. Until recently the only workers in the Haven Compost were homunculi, just like all of Haven's recycling facilities. However now there were a few small looking grim reapers walking around helping to speed along decay of the larger corpses.

Here the non-recyclable materials were left to rot for a few weeks, then sent to the shredder, a large device Shurik's lab designed to breakdown large biomaterial and mix with an outflow pipe of wastewater. Afterwards the biomaterial slurry dried into compost bricks. It was determined that the fertilizer developed by this method was highly effective with the traditional farming methods found in a few neighboring countries. A single brick could fertilize an entire acre of land for a season. These bricks were one of Haven's 100% government controlled exports, the profits of which went straight to their national coffers. Between the spirit folk of decay and the homunculi working these places, there was one thing they had in common. They did not mind the smell.

Neither did Rico.

Rico was a Forged. He was a soul transferred from a living being into a crystal, the sins of his past washed away. All that remained of his former self was his name, and he was the only one of his kind with a body. At least, for today. Today he would raise a brother or sister.

Rico knew the bargain he had struck. To bring to life a brother or sister, he had to pay for their body. This was a fair and honest land of give and take. Rico was alone in this task, and there were several dozen soul crystals waiting for bodies. If he managed to pay for all of them, he could then ask master Jan Kopek to bring more souls, at a price.

Although he was alone in this task, he was aware that the people of this land were giving him a bit of help. He was afforded the opportunity to take jobs the organics preferred not to do.

So for today, Rico focused on his task. He had been tasked with raising 250,000 credits. It was a hefty sum by this world's standards, but Haven was a rich country. And there were many tasks that the organics did not like to do.

That was why he was here. Due to his skillset, in his first hour of the day he was recalibrating the Homunculi of the Recycling Plant and Sewage Treatment Facility. It paid well. Haven forked over 500 credits a day for this task. Rico was happy to do it, because although the conditions were not pleasant for organics, as a synthetic being, he was unphased by the putrid slurry of rotten carcasses being ground into mush. Rico had 16 hours each day that he would work. Today he was going to be receiving a bonus, as it seemed a few dire rats had caused a blockage in the sewer outflow pipes.

A few well placed spear thrusts, and a bit of [fireball] and the issue was solved. It was best to be sorted early before the blockage became a backup, and the city noticed their toilets would not flush.

From here Rico headed to his next task.

It was still early morning when he wheeled his covered hand cart up to Master Jan's lab. Many people were unaware the Master Jan was involved in 'personnel recycling', but it did not phase Rico. Rico was born from one of these bodies, and once the plate and life was pulled from the body, Jan had a corpse. Corpses didn't do so well sitting out in the summer heat.

So from here, Rico was paid to dispose of the bodies. At first he moved them to the recycling facility, but then with a bit of investigation he found he could sell them.

Specifically, there was a restaurant, 'The Ravenous', situated in district 4 of the Capital region. It was a bit out of the way for most people, but this restaurant catered to a specific clientele: Changelings and Dhamphirs.

For most restaurants, meat was expensive, because the amount of animals hunted, pulled from the dungeons, and harvestable from the few ranch facilities in Haven, was finite. Although this number was ever increasing, there was always a higher demand for fresh meat. That was why, 'The Ravenous' existed. Changelings preferred a diet with meat. For the Dhamphir, it was a necessity, as their bodies could not process most grains, fruits, or vegetables. And while there wasn't an issue getting them meat, it was cost prohibitive to eat from the same supply as the general populace. Most organics liked eating meat.

So here was where Rico carted the bodies. Although it was just the dutiful reuse of organic material, Jan explained that many humans did not take kindly to their kind being eaten by their neighbors. This was why Rico did it before most humans were awake, and always kept his cart covered from the Lab to the restaurant's receiving bay.

And like always, he received a hefty few thousand credits for the delivery of the fresh biomass.

It was going to be repurposed anyways, its just that now Rico made an extra profit.

***

Rico parked his cart for the day. He had roughly 2 hours left until his off-cycle.

He had done deliveries, cleaned waste, repaired a few personal homunculi, and reprogrammed a few more to be more efficient at their tasking. While the organics could program his kind, they were at best yelling at the homunculi, while Rico wrote poetry.

At the end of the day, Rico smiled as he arrived at Jorvik Brai's laboratory.

For health reasons, Rico had himself sterilized before entering. He was aware he had spent a considerable time in raw sewage, and Master Jorvik Brai was fairly susceptible to disease. A weakness of his people that was offset by their mastery of mechanical.

As Rico entered, he was surprised to find Jorvik hard at work. He was working on a strange looking beast. It reminded Rico of an entry from the book 'encyclopedia monstrosity', specifically a 'Demon Dog'. It was not organic, but was instead made entirely of metal, plated in adamantine. The words 'sobaka voyny' were scratched into the side of its chestplate. It was fairly obvious that the shell was meant for a Forged, as it was too complex for a normal homunculi. 'I guess no one said a Forged body had to be humanoid.' Rico thought to himself. As he was admiring the work, Jorvik finally noticed he had a guest.

"Ah Rico, I was able to get the last batch of goods for a bit cheaper, so I finished the model. I even had some left over to start the next shell."

Rico looked. It was a perfect shell, like his. This body would serve as the shell for his next brother or sister. The only difference is where over his left breastplate the word 'Rico' was scratched in, this one's plate was still clean, or as the changelings called it, 'tabula rasa'.

Rico hurriedly transferred his credits he had earned to Jorvik. Jorvik took them without missing a beat. "Are you ready to meet your new family?"

Rico nodded. He was at a loss for words.

Jorvik hopped down off his step stool and walked over to a secure shelf and removed a crystal from the supply.

As he came behind the shell Jorvik spoke. "Rico, meet your new sister, Kara."

Rico watched as the ocular crystals glowed with life. He was no longer alone in this world.

1 had become 2.

***