Despite its ungainly appearance, Honda’s UniBall turned out to be more comfortable than Askatla had imagined. The trio of spherical wheels, with their honeycomb textured tread, provided a smooth ride and precision movement in any direction while still maintaining stability at higher speeds or when reversing. After a quick test in the lobby to familiarise herself with the hands-free controls, she manoeuvred through the monotonous maze of blank blanc walls, colourless ceilings with embedded soft tone lights, and tiled floors just grey enough to not look filthy the first time someone walked or rolled over them.

The grumblings she heard around the corner approaching her chamber raised her suspicions and had her slowing to a silent crawl. Quietly activating the UniBall’s parking brakes, she leaned forward and peeked around the corner to see Mr. Best’s robin-egg pinstripe navy slacks and brown cordovan oxfords beneath the back of his lab coat. Wishing she were not confined to the UniBall, Askatla watched him hunch over and nervously fidget with an unfamiliar device to hack the door’s security system in an attempt to gain access to the Primordium, the chamber in which the progenitor Kamiumi were contained. While indistinct, his short sporadic utterances…