Cassie sat at her laptop, the 15″ screen glowing dimly in the evening. The acceptance letter she had received sixteen months ago highlighted her conditions of keeping her scholarship.
She knew why the two conditions were there. A lot of schools were required to keep certain education standards for athletics departments. Fail to meet them and the local governments begin to reduce grants and funding, fail to put good athletics displays and alumni begin to reduce donations, so they give full scholarships to players who are exceptionally talented but at the same time dumb as a stump. To make up for their low grades, people like her get a chance at a better life. A shit system, but one that gave her a chance.
The scholarship was good but it didn’t pay for food or clothes. For that, she needed a side job and the one she had found was a little less than legal, but it paid the extra bills well.
It started with her grade 11 science fair. Her display was in robotics in the workplace. She had made four small robots which could all do different tasks. One for assembly of components, one for welding, one to test the finished components, and the last would attach itself to the others and provide movement. Noticing her talents, they visited her booth and left their information.
Using their influence, they helped her get into the McGill University Robotics Program. Approaching her after her extra cash ran out, she accepted cash jobs on the side. She never questioned what she was doing but she also knew that the jobs, while illegal, needed to be done. She justified it as best as she could but she still cashed the checks. Then the accident happened.
It should have been an easy job. The drones go under the water, weld the barrels and then come back up in under an hour. She forgot to calibrate the scanning drone’s under water settings causing it to register the barrels wall thickness as over twice it’s actual depth. The extra thermal energy was way over the acceptable heat range, melting the barrel. The water was heated up through electrolysis and began to react with the waste in an exothermic reaction. With the welder’s heat readings spiking, she decided to dive to see for herself.
She neared the barrels and began to see the reaction just before it erupted. The waste began expanding and ruptured the barrel violently. The waste and the hydrogen atomization became a self reciprocating reaction, exploding under the water and sending her out of the water, the waste cascading all over her. She rushed to the dorm and gathered her things. She needed to get out of town. Exhausted, she collapsed into bed…
She woke up a couple hours later to find her hair wrapped around her, covering the bed and the floor. It was writhing like it was alive.
The Dronings of Rayven 