Hydraulic Lab
Jackie stepped onto the green moving path, feeling the subtle vibration of the corridor's conveyor beneath her boots. The path hummed as if alive, pulling her forward while faint light coursed beneath the translucent surface. Other strips — blue, red, and gold — branched away at intervals, vanishing into different hallways that curved out of sight. Each one pulsed with its own rhythm, color-coded veins in the body of the station.
BDJ's voice flickered across her mind, calm but alert. "Green path. Hydraulic Division. One hundred and eighty meters. Keep forward."
She adjusted her pace automatically, though the path itself carried her along at a steady glide. Ahead, the hallway stretched long and gleaming, its walls plated with a mixture of brushed steel and glass panels. Behind the transparent surfaces, Jackie caught glimpses of liquid currents—fluids rushing through channels like veins, powering the massive systems hidden within the station's frame.
She swallowed. The air smelled faintly of ozone and machine oil, sharper here than in the living quarters. Every sound echoed differently too: boots clanging on metal mesh above, the hiss of vents, the steady drone of pumps cycling somewhere deep below.
It's like walking through the inside of a machine, Jackie thought. And maybe she was.
"Why hydraulic?" she asked under her breath, though she knew BDJ was listening.
"Primary load-bearing division. Stabilizers for the manufactured islands that help in city overcrowding, climate and mechanical systems. Water. Pressure. Power. Without it, nothing else runs."
Jackie exhaled. She wasn't sure if that explanation made her feel steadier or more intimidated.
The green path curved right, pulling her along a bend that narrowed slightly. The walls here carried warning stripes, glowing symbols shifting across their surfaces: pressurized warnings, energy locks, maintenance seals. Jackie caught herself slowing as she recognized a faint vibration in the soles of her boots, rhythmic, like the pounding of a giant mechanical heart.
BDJ chimed again, "Approaching entrance. Hydraulic Laboratory: ahead."
And then she saw them — the doors.
They rose from floor to ceiling, three times her height, a fusion of alloy and transparent glass, with streams of pale blue light running through etched channels across their surface. For a moment, Jackie thought she saw her reflection ripple across the glass as though it were water, bending and stretching unnaturally. A low thrum emanated from them, steady and alive, like a creature breathing.
Her chest tightened.
She slowed at the threshold, uncertain. Do I just… knock?
Before she could speak, the station answered.
"Biosignature confirmed," said a neutral, resonant voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once. "Neural pulse recognized. Access granted: Jackie Cannon. Clearance provisional."
The final words struck her with more weight than she expected. Provisional. Not full access. Not permanent. She glanced at the doors, at the glowing veins in the alloy. Did they know what she was? Or what she wasn't?
A hiss of pressurized air filled the corridor. The glass and metal shifted, folding back on themselves with smooth precision. The doorway opened not like a single panel sliding, but like overlapping layers peeling apart, revealing a widening archway of light.
Jackie held her breath and stepped through.
The Hydraulic Lab unfolded before her like the inside of a cathedral built for machines.
The ceiling stretched high above, disappearing into shadow, supported by vertical piston-towers as thick as trees. Each tower pulsed with hydraulic fluid that glowed faintly blue, rising and falling in glass tubes that spiraled up their length. Catwalks crisscrossed the space, suspended by heavy chains and anchor points, some swaying slightly as automated drones zipped across them.
To her left, vast transparent conduits ran like rivers suspended in air, streams of liquid rushing upward and sideways through reinforced pipes. To her right, a series of vats bubbled with thick, viscous fluids, stirred by mechanical arms dipping in and out of the mixture. Screens and diagnostic panels hovered above them, cycling through endless streams of calculations.
Suddenly her ocular implant whirled and a torrent of data swamped her brain and just as soon as she was inundated she had processed it all.
Angles, trajectories, temperatures, depths, compositions, usefulness, inadequacies, dangers in the room, dangers in different experiments. Her mind reeled even as it processed and calmed.
The sound hit her next.
A deep, steady thrum. Pumps cycling in rhythm. The hiss of steam. The metallic clang of gears locking into place. It was overwhelming, a symphony of machinery, yet ordered — a heart keeping perfect time.
Jackie stopped on the threshold platform, hands curling into fists at her sides. For a moment, she didn't move. She only stared.
BDJ broke the silence in her head. "You're hesitating."
"I know," Jackie whispered. Her throat was dry. "It's just… bigger than I thought."
"It should be. This lab isn't for one person. It's for the entire city and several of the neighboring islands. You're stepping into the circulatory system of Nexus."
The words made her shiver. She tightened her jaw, forcing herself forward onto the first catwalk. The platform flexed faintly under her weight, the vibrations of the pumps humming up through her boots.
"Welcome to the lab Jackie." Patrick's voice gently spilled from her personal comms. "I see you have entered the main entrance of the lab. Head west and up two levels to the testing areas. Choose testing room six. Everything us already set up for you and the room will recognize you biometrics and your unique cybernetic flows"
She found herself looking up and a little put out. '… To the west and up two levels? …the main entrance?" She shook her head she realized there was a lot to learn her and Patrick was not the one ro teach her.
'All right testing room six let's go BDJ.'
"Okay. Walk ahead to the next junction and make a left."
Jackie froze. 'Did you just hear my thought?'
'Yes. Thoughts are merely electrical impulses but your cybernetic systems actually translate all of your thoughts in real time."
Jackie shook her head. 'I have a lot to learn.'
"Walk up this flight of stairs and testing rooms six, 8, and 10 are just beyond…"
BDJ was cut off when a large drone dropped in Jackie's path. Well Jackie didn't hear the end of her statement. Jackie's eyes went wild and gazed at the lower left side of her vision. There was the visual summary of this drone waiting.
Her ocular eye had labeled it as a security measure. She calmed after she reprimanded herself for not paying attention to her ocular input and she spoke clearly.
"I am Jackie Cannon. I am here on Dr. Patrick McGregor's orders to use testing room six."
"Jackie Cannon. New lab member. Starting today June 13, 2635. Provisional clearance."
It reached its hand down to her palm side up and his thumb up in the air. In its thumb was an ocular reader and in its palm was a slot to read cybernetic pathways.
She placed her left eye onto the ocular reader and she pulled a blue cable from her right side and connected it to the drone's palm.
All of this and the drone clearing her only took seconds and she was up the stairs and in front of testing room six. She entered the room rather simply and as the door closed behind her she heard Dr. McGregor in her comms again.
"You did well getting past that drone Jackie. He is an older model and does not understand lab protocols. Normally once inside no one is checked again, only if you want to enter different areas.
"Today you will do a Hydraulic Pressure Test and a precision challenge. As you can see the room is essentially split down the middle. On your right will be the Hydraulic test and on your left the precision.
"You can begin with either test and once you enter the area instructions will be given. Good luck and do your best."
She wanted to cry. Was this what her life was reduced to.
'Well you chose this. Let's get a move on.'
"You didn't choose this. You chose the lab not to be a lab rat."
Jackie almost laughed at BDJ's way to accurate assessment.
She stood looking for a split second before choosing. All she needed was that split second and her ocular implant had captured every aspect of the room.
She fought not to look up at the ceiling where her cybernetic eye told he that there was a hidden door.
She moved to the hydraulic test first and was almost startled when the Nexus Directive system began explaining the rules.
"Participant. You will standing on shifting platforms while supporting a platform above you. This will prepare you for work on both the Nexus Directive islands and within the environs of the Nexus Directive volcano flows.
"Once you are ready move to the white circle and the test will set. The circle will take you to the correct position and slide free once it senses that you are in proper position."
Jackie did as she was told and the white circle took her to a position high in the room, and without warning, the platform lurched sideways. Jackie stumbled, catching herself as hydraulic arms pushed at the edges, tilting the ring. The entire world swayed like a ship in a storm.
BDJ highlighted pressure points in her display:
"Counterforce: left foot. Weight redistribution: 37%."
Jackie gritted her teeth, adjusting, each movement logged in her ocular implant. Then a platform was lowered on top of her. She strained under the pressure moving one, two, and then three degrees to allow her cybernetic strength to take most of the weight.
Hydraulic arms struck harder, slamming into the platforms, trying to throw her off. She bent low, hands splayed, using her cybernetic arm to grip the slick surface as sparks spat around her. The restraints flexed but held.
"Good," Patrick's voice cut in. "Now stay standing when it fights back."
The hydraulics roared. A piston shot upward, nearly tossing her. Jackie twisted, bracing with her metal arm, recalculating every micro-shift. BDJ fed her corrections in rapid-fire pulses.
Balance maintained. Neural synchronization: stable.
When the platform finally stilled, Jackie was gasping. Her skin prickled with sweat, her cybernetic arm humming with stored tension.
But she had held.
A arm reached over a d lifted the platform from her shoulders. She had forgotten that it was there and almost lost her balance when i4 was removed.
"Not bad," Patrick said, approval masked behind his clipped tone. "Let's see how precise you really are."
Then the Nexus Directive's AI voice buzzed to life.
"Hydraulic Pressure Test complete. High degree of efficiency. Cyborg effectiveness high.
"Please move to the precision testing area. Once inside the white circle the test will begin. This will test your precision, processing capabilities, and mental acuity. Please note not all targets are hostile and some targets are about repair.
"Please proceed to the white circle in the precision testing area."
Again Jackie follows instructions and went to the circle and again the test started instantly.
Panels slid open on the far wall. Target drones whirred to life, darting through the mist with erratic speed.
BDJ," Jackie muttered, flexing her arm. "Dial cannon output to 12%. Safety mode."
"Confirmed. Reduced yield engaged."
Her ocular display locked onto the first drone, crosshairs rippling like waves. She raised her cybernetic arm, the cannon sliding open with a hiss of energy. A thin beam of blue light cracked across the room, slicing the drone in half.
More targets appeared — ten, then twenty — weaving between hydraulic arms that pumped up and down like living barricades. Jackie steadied her breath. One shot, then another. Her arm moved in tight arcs, every flick of her wrist guided by BDJ's annotations:
"Trajectory clear."
"Margin of error: 2%. Corrected."
Drones burst in sparks and smoke, falling into the fluid tanks below. One slipped past her field of vision, diving low. Jackie dropped into a crouch, firing a pulse shot between two pistons just before they clamped together. The drone shattered mid-spin.
"Precision test complete," BDJ whispered.
The lab fell silent again, save for the hiss of hydraulics cooling.
Jackie lowered her arm slowly. Her cannon closed with a metallic click, her chest heaving. She had passed both tests — balance and precision — but the weight of unseen eyes pressed at her.
Up on the catwalk, half-hidden in the vapor, a figure watched. His heat signature glowed faintly in her ocular overlay. BDJ tagged him again:
"Alias inferred: Kieran. Observer present. Recommend caution."
Patrick's voice returned, steady and unreadable.
"That will do for today. Report to the next sector."
Jackie stepped off the platform, her boots hitting the walkway with finality. The Hydraulics Lab had tested her — and revealed just enough. But she knew the real challenge wasn't the machines. It was the man in the shadows, watching.