Standing at the curb outside the café, JT flagged down a skycab that hovered just down the street about twenty feet off the ground. The skycab driver landed his vehicle on the surface street. JT entered the skycab’s rear seat. The driver and an older man with a Russian accent named Renlo greeted him. “Wair to?” JT replied, “Cybernotics Corporation.”
They started to move upwards into the sky above, turning and dodging other cars as they tried to make it into the flight lanes. Renlo entered a flight lane (a path where flying cars move east, west, south, north, up and down around the city. Older conventional gas-powered vehicles drove on the dark and dirty surface streets. JT questioned the sky cabbie, “You’re not a droid?”
Renlo replied in a strong Russian accent, “No. I hate those mevchanical devils. Da’ are taking all the jobs.”
JT looked through the interior partition window of the cab as he asked, “Little driodaphobic aaaaaa.?”
Renlo answered, “Ya. I'm one of the last human sky cabbies.”
JT asked, “How long you been a cabbie?
Renlo answered, “30 years, boss.”
JT stated, “Long time.”
The skycab continued to weave in and out of the traffic lanes as Renlo said, “Ya... It's the only reason I get to work a skycab. Grandfathered in before the droid bastards. You look like a cop.”
JT then looked at him in the rear view mirror to see his reaction and answered, “A detective. What's your rate for 72 hours?”
Renlo looked at JT from the mirror and asked, “You mean by da hour?”
JT replied, “No! 72 hours straight. I'm going to need transport 24/7 for the next few days. Can you do it?”
“Da. For you. Five thousand credits,” answered Renlo.
JT agreed to the price with a little sarcasm, “Done, and you'll get paid if I'm still alive on payday.”
Renlo didn’t get it and asked, “Vut? Vut you mean?”
JT pointed ahead and told Renlo, “Just fly.” Then he turned his attention to Cella and said, “Transfer the funds to Mr. Renlo's account.”
Cella completed his request and stated, “Transaction completed JT.”
JT and Renlo continued to fly for ten more minutes until they reached the far side of the city.
As they approached Cybernotics they started to descend into lower flight lanes. A high-speed futuristic subway could be seen high above the ground. Flashing bill boards read "McDoogles Over One Trillion Bigums Sold." They made their descent over the lower, older parts of the city.It was dark and dreary. In the distance, a building could be seen far above the rest. It had a cylinder base outline extending fifty stories into the sky and a spaceport on the top.
Fancy high-end personal flying cars, skycabs, flying mass transit buses, and other city use vehicles zoomed by in the flight lanes around the city. There were no banged up trash heaps in the sky; the regulators wouldn’t allow non-airworthy vehicles to transit the city skies. The underlings still use gas powered vehicles to get around town on the surface streets.
Upon final approach for landing they had to get into the landing pattern with other flying cars (that were landing and taking off from on top of Cybernotics.) On most buildings you could just land or take off at will, but heavy traffic buildings used sky controllers to keep landings and take-offs organized.
Renlo announced his attention to land, “Cybernotics Control, skycab 709 requesting permission to land with a passenger drop-off.”
The controller answered, “709 approach from the south and follow the two skycars ahead of you in the pattern.”
Renlo acknowledged him, “Control entering the pattern from the south. I see the two ahead.”
Control stated, “Thank you and have a nice day sir.”
Renlo entered the pattern and followed the other two to the landing port. As they approached many other skycars were taking off. You could also see thousands of people through the exterior glass windows working in their offices.