Dave found a dark alley and finally collapsed. There was no way he could move any further. Getting here had taken all his strength, and he was surprised he’d got this far. But he was certain he was now facing death, and he decided to face it his way: analytically, clinically, and observant. But it was difficult to focus on what was happening to him. He almost laughed at himself. Too weak to die properly, he thought. He coughed, and when he touched his lips with his hand, it came away bloody.
Hearing voices nearby, he knew he was beginning to lose his grip on reality. There was no one there, so he thought he must be dreaming.
Someone touched him carefully, and low voices whispered something. Was it still a dream? He heard his name.
“I thought he was up north...” someone said.
“Take him inside before the officers come.” A female voice.
He opened his eyes and saw a face he recognized.
Mayor Robertson. The woman who had been the senior official of Charlestown for as long as he could remember. A former Janissary.
He sank back, closing his eyes. The mayor was English, but she was also a citizen, loyal to the Legacy leadership and to the Moon people. It didn’t matter, though. There was nothing he could do, anyway. He let himself pass out.
Chapter 8
Sue
They were in space, and Sue was looking out at Earth, a big blue ball against the star-speckled background. It seemed to have grown smaller since she last was able to see it. She realized it was just because they were moving away from it, but it made her realize, probably for the first time in her life, how small Earth was. That again, made her realize how small she was. Also, it made her realize Earth was more than the Covenant. She remembered what Colonel Marsden had told her when she was being held captive by the northerners, before the soldiers came and broke her out. Before they gave her Bliss to make her forget what she had seen and heard.
But she had begun to remember again, and Colonel Renee Marsden’s words still stuck with her. There was a world out there, with people living their lives; so different from everything she was used to. There were places where everyone was equal, without an upper age limit for non-citizens, where the Moon people held no sway over anyone else. She wondered what it would be to live like that, but she had a hard time imagining it. It was just too foreign to her. But it sounded nice.
She looked around at the soldiers sitting in their seats, calm and easy, like this was nothing. They were all going to Luna, the cradle of the Moon people. Some of the people around here were probably born there, as well. She wondered what kind of place Luna was. She had learned that the Moon was a cold place without an atmosphere, which probably meant nothing could grow. She wondered if there were greenhouses everywhere, if there were airtight houses where the Moon people lived, or perhaps they all lived underground? How could such a place give birth to a people such as the Moon people?
“Last I heard, forty thousand will be going to the Corpus,” she heard someone say. She located the young man speaking; he was sitting in the seat in front of her. The one next to him mumbled something.
“The rest? Well, we don’t need them.” They both laughed, and she saw the man in front of her draw his hand across his throat.
“At least we don’t have to worry about the French any more.”
It seemed they were talking about something that had just happened up north, but Sue couldn’t be sure what they had meant. She leaned forward to hear better.
Meridian Shukov coughed discreetly, and she turned toward him.
“Something on your mind?” he said. She looked down.
“I’m sorry. It’s just... I have friends up north, Janissaries, near the border. I was just wondering...” She trailed off.
“There is no more border. We took the North, all of it. The savages are all gone,” he said.
Dave
Dave awoke in a big room; a cool breeze with a hint of newly mowed grass came from an open window. His bed was wide, with clean, white sheets covering him. He felt amazingly refreshed, but he decided to take things slowly. He lay staring up at the high ceiling for a while, feeling the soft pillow beneath him and trying to come to terms with where he was, and how he’d gotten here. There was so much he didn’t remember. But he remembered the Belt, with its Kill Zone and electrified fences.
Someone walked into the room, soft soles on the lightly creaking floor.
“Good morning, David,” a woman said. He moved his head slightly, and saw Mayor Robertson standing over him.
“Morning, Mayor,” Dave half-whispered, before he had to clear his throat. Robertson smiled.
“Call me Carol, please,” she said. She found a chair and sat next to him.
“And do be careful. You’re not fully healed yet.” She paused, and her eyes narrowed.
“David, you were in pretty bad shape when we found you. We brought you here immediately, and I made sure the best doctors worked on you. You would have been dead, if it weren’t for me having access to medicines the English aren’t normally given. And the doctors I had working on you wouldn’t normally touch us English at all. You’re damn lucky, son.”
Mayor Robertson, Carol, sat back. Someone came with two glasses of water. Carol took one and offered to help Dave take a sip. Dave waved her off.
“What happened?” he said.
“You should drink something. We’re cutting the IV now that you’re awake,” Carol, said, annoyance apparent, as she held out the glass again. Dave let her give him a few sips of water, and he felt the cool liquid slosh down his throat.
“So, what happened?” he repeated.
“I should ask you the same thing. When we found you, you had lost a lot of blood. You had cuts all over, but what puzzled us most were the pieces of shrapnel we found in you. Your legs, especially, but also your elbow, your thigh, a small piece in your chest. Like you’d been too close to an explosion.”
“The minefield,” Dave whispered. He remembered bits and pieces from crossing the Belt. He had stepped on a mine. Surviving it had surely been mere luck, because the explosion must have torn the fence apart, giving him a clear path to freedom. But even then, to have made his way from the Belt to Charlestown. It wasn’t far at all, but wounded...
“Will you turn me in now?” he said, suddenly. “I’m a fugitive, you must have guessed. I’m wanted, dead or alive. Surely, there must be a warrant out for me. You must have heard.” Carol just shook her head.
“Haven’t heard a thing. Last I heard, you were selected for the Janissaries. I thought that was a bit odd. I would have taken you for Student material. But it seems you’re quite the survivor after all,” she said. Then she pursed her lips and cocked her head.
“However... Only the refugees from the Corpus would do a thing like that, crossing the Belt...” She looked at him quizzically. Dave had to remind himself that in Charlestown, everything was as it had been.
“They made an agreement... Long story...” he said. This wasn’t the important part.
“The Wardens took me in, and I did pretty good. But there is something... Something turned out to be very wrong. The Moon people, they... We killed innocent people, Mayor. We had to flee, Sue and I. Sue came just a few days before, and they wanted to kill her, too. Something she discovered up north.” He stopped when he saw the confusion on Carol’s face. He let out a sigh.
“I’ll tell you everything, just... They have Sue, and they are looking for me. Seems we are enemies of the State now. So, will you turn us in?”
Carol got up and paced the floor a few times before answering. She seemed to be making up her mind, Dave thought. He watched her, and sympathized. Mayor Robertson had served the Covenant all her life, had earned her citizenship through Service with the Janissaries, and kept serving once her time was up. She was one of the few who had returned to her people, elected mayor by the people of Charlestown and approved by the Moon people. Now her loyalty was torn. She stopped pacing and went to stand by the window. She looked out, alth
ough Dave didn’t think she was actually looking at anything in particular.
“You must rest for a couple more days. You are still tired, but most of your wounds are almost fully healed. We had to remove most of the right leg. It’s cut right below the knee.” Dave was jolted by a shock unlike anything he’d ever experienced. He’d lost a leg. And only now did the mayor think to mention it. He couldn’t find the words, but he motioned to lift up the covers, to see for himself.
“Don’t. Just listen to me,” Carol said, and Dave withdrew his shaking hand.
“I told you I had the best doctors working on you. Well, these doctors also have the best technicians and the best equipment. They have already made you a new leg. The prosthetic looks very good. Moon-people tech. We’ll try it on later.” She turned and looked at him again, with sympathy.
“Don’t worry, son, you will walk again. With this kind of prosthetic, it will only be a matter of days. You will have to train, of course. Takes some getting used to, but you’ll get the hang of it soon enough,” she said. “Trust me, I know.” She winked, as she reached down and knocked on her own leg. The metallic sound was unmistakable.
“As for your question, no. I will not turn you in. We are kin, and that’s that,” she said.
“But you are a citizen, a servant of the Covenant,” Dave said. Carol nodded.
“Yes I am. But you are English, like me. A Charlestown boy. I think I have a responsibility toward you, as well. The Covenant is strong, and you are here, all alone. I think you need someone in your corner, to listen to you, to hear what has happened, why you are suddenly being chased.”
Dave let his head rest back on his pillow, letting out a breath of relief. He had no idea what to do next, but for now, at least he could rest. And he had to get used to the idea of having lost his leg. The mayor moved as if to leave, but turned at the door, and spoke to him again.
“David, I don’t know how he could know you wound up here, but I got a message from a friend of yours just a couple of hours ago. He said not to worry, that nobody else knew.” Dave cocked his head, wondering.
“He said he only wanted to speak to you in person, or rather, VR. He said that was how you usually met.” She motioned toward the table next to the bed, and Dave saw the VR set. Then she walked out and closed the door behind her. Dave already knew who it was, and he wondered what this would be about. He took the VR set, already connected to a computer fastened to the wall, and turned it on. The system immediately began working, and he entered the virtual space.
Sue
Sue was still shocked by the news that the Covenant had conquered the North while she was on the run or in Corpus captivity. She worried for her friends: Keisha, Julian, Laurie, and all the others. There was nothing she could do for them, though, so she tried to put it aside. The shuttle had just landed, and she looked out the window, fascinated by the view. Some might have thought of it as a disappointment, the dead sterile landscape, the swirls of dust blown away from the shuttle’s thrusters, and the complete lack of color, but she found herself mesmerized. The stars were so visible, and in the distance, she could see Earth, half in daylight and half in complete darkness. Meridian Shukov helped her out of her straps, and she stood.
“Careful there. Gravity is only about sixteen percent of what you’re used to,” he said. She nodded, having learned as much on the way here. But hearing of it and experiencing it turned out to be two quite different things.
“Woah!” she exclaimed, as she bounced up from her seat, lost her balance, and fell between the seats in front of her. Someone laughed.
“Told you,” the meridian repeated in a dry voice. She got up, carefully, while she avoided looking at anyone else. She stood, and Shukov helped her into a bulky orange suit. He turned on the separate air supply and helped fasten her helmet. It had a wide visor, and the suit seemed quite easy to wear. She could feel the tug of weights underneath her feet. She said as much.
“Helps keep you stable when you walk. Else you’d be bouncing all over the place,” Meridian Shukov answered, while concentrating on his own suit, dark green and more military looking. The last of the other passengers entered the airlock, and the two of them stood alone.
“Okay then, Miss Atlas. Can you hear me?” She heard inside her helmet. She gave him a thumbs-up.
“Loud and clear,” she said. Shukov nodded, and made a small adjustment on the control panel on his chest.
“Right. We’re ready to go outside now, Miss Atlas. Remember that you are in my custody, by the order of Counselor Novak.” She nodded affirmatively, and he continued.
“You will not attempt anything. You wouldn’t last more than a couple hours alone here, even if you did manage to overpower me. I am what keeps you alive, and I am in charge of everything, as far as you are concerned. Our current location is Boris Spaceport, and I will take you to your new home in Nidaros.”
“Never heard that name before, sir,” she said.
“Of course not. Only Moon people learn anything of importance of Luna,” he replied, and headed into the shuttle’s airlock. Sue followed.
A red light blinked while the door closed behind them. Once the doors were securely locked, the blinking stopped, but the red light still held. A loud bang startled Sue, and the air seemed to get sucked out of the room. Then, after a few seconds, the red light turned green, and the outer door opened. They stepped onto a three-step ladder and climbed down. Sue made sure she had a good grip on the handlebar on each side of the ladder as she descended. It was incredibly strange, and the thick gloves made it impossible to feel anything. She had to rely on sight to know that she was actually gripping anything. She stepped off the ladder and saw a small cloud of dust rising where her feet landed. She took a tentative step forward and almost giggled at the lightness of her own body. She heard a low chuckle and realized Meridian Shukov was watching her. Embarrassed, she straightened, and stood still.
A big, bulky vehicle stood waiting on what appeared to be a road. Actually, it was more of a gathering of tracks, dusted over, but obviously where vehicles used to drive to and from this spaceport, picking up passengers from the shuttles. The vehicle had six enormous wheels, and the driver gave them a quick nod from his window, high up on the side closest to where they stood.
“Right, let’s go,” Shukov said, and pointed at a door halfway up on the huge vehicle. A retractable ladder had already extended to the ground, and Sue began climbing, while Shukov waited for her to get up before he followed. Once up, Sue stood on a small platform outside the door, waiting. The door didn’t open until Shukov was up as well, and then it slid aside, allowing them to enter another airlock. The procedure was the same as on the Shuttle, only this time, once the outer door was closed, vents quickly filled the room with air. Once the light turned green, they walked through another door. From the slight jolts, Sue could tell they were already driving away from the spaceport.
Shukov took off his helmet, and found a seat near a large window. Sue loosened her helmet and looked around at the spacious compartment. It would be large enough to hold twenty people.
“Hmmm,” Shukov said. “Too early to see anything yet. But you are about to see the birthplace of the Moon people. Very few English have had that experience.” Sue sat down next to him and looked out at the dusty landscape, with its silvery glow. She hadn’t expected the Moon to be anything like this. It wasn’t like anything she could have imagined, except maybe something out of a fairy tale. She wondered what would come next.
Dave
Dave found himself in a space with no floor, ceiling, or walls, a light that had no source, and structures that weren’t defined or tactile. He flicked his hand, and everything seemed to move around. He took a step and remembered that he had just been told he had lost a leg. A pang of unprocessed sadness hit him, but it didn’t seem real yet, so he pushed it aside. In this space, this virtual reality, the fact had no meaning, and he stood just as if both of his limbs were intact. He smiled sadly; at least this was
a space in which he wouldn’t be hampered by his new handicap. Mayor Robertson had claimed he’d be good as new, able to walk within days, and she was probably right. But the loss he felt was different, and he knew it wouldn’t just go away, simply because he got some new, amazing, Moon-people tech, robot leg.
He waited for a few minutes, passing the time by flipping files around, looking into folders that all seemed empty. There were no passwords here. It seemed this space was created for this meeting alone. There was nothing else, just an empty structure of lights and shapes. A grey mist suddenly appeared, sweeping along his feet, his arms, his head, and then moving on.
“That was just a security check,” a voice said, from nowhere in particular. Dave looked around. He couldn’t see anything.
“You can never be too careful,” the voice said. A blue mist appeared, and soon converged into a tight ball. Then it dissipated, and Counselor Mark Novak stood before him. He looked just like he had the last time they met, only a little more pale, a few more wrinkles perhaps.
“So we meet again, David Wagner,” the counselor said, smiling. Dave greeted him with a nod.
“From what I’ve heard, you have had some rough times since last we spoke,” he continued.
“Rough times... Yes, I suppose you can say that,” Dave replied. Had this man played him? Was he just a pawn in a bigger game, or was Counselor Novak really there to help? Once again, Dave had a hard time deciding what to believe.
“Miss Atlas is safe, for now,” Novak said. Dave had a hard time hiding his puzzlement, but he didn’t say anything.
“She’s safe both from the Corpus and from Ivanov and his thugs. But she is out of the game, for the time being at least.” So he did see this as a game, Dave thought. He wondered what that must be like, moving his pawns around, trying to gain some advantage, for some purpose he had no way of understanding. All Dave had wanted was to know the truth, and now that he did, he didn’t know what to do about it.
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