Vallar

by Cindy Borgne

  I circled the center of the room, and sweat covered me. As I went around, I imagined the cement floor wearing away beneath my feet. Desperation welled up inside, making me queasy. Keeping everything inside, made me feel about to explode. I couldn’t stand it any longer and bolted out to Sonny’s office.

  When I got there, the door was open with the lights on, but nobody was in sight. Next to the desk on the floor was a holo broken into pieces. An assortment of objects were on Sonny’s desk. Everything that had been on the shelves was scattered all over the floor.

  “Sonny?” I looked around his office and room.

  The unmade bed was empty. A distant clanging came from the shop. It happened again, yet all the stations were empty. Who could be out there? Is someone stealing things?

  I planned to stay out of view in case it was a thief. Around the corner, only a few lights kept the area partially lit. The lonely stations waited for another day of work.

  Toward Sonny’s station came a soft rumbling noise. I listened hard and walked toward it. It wasn’t a typical sound for the work area. Everything looked normal, until I came to Sonny’s station. My friend slept on the cold floor surrounded by elevator parts, curled up and shivering. An empty wine bottle was next to him.

  I ran over to him and knelt. “Sonny? What happened?”

  “Ian?” Sonny blinked. His blue eyes looked darker in comparison to pasty-white cheeks.

  “What are you doing sleeping here?”

  “Apparently getting a kink in my back.” Sonny sat up and rubbed his neck. He picked up the wine bottle and tried to suck the last drop out of it. “Only a few elevators left.” He leaned over and rummaged around in the elevator. “Damn thing, can’t figure out what’s wrong with it.”

  The production board showed they needed eleven more elevators repaired to meet the quota. I glanced at the monitor. My eyes dropped down to the statistics at the bottom of the screen. Elevators repaired: fifty-two. That can’t be right. I looked at it again, but it still showed fifty-two.

  “You’re not going to fix anything like this,” I said.

  “Whatta ya mean I won’t?” Sonny grumbled.

  “Let me finish them.”

  “God, this sucks. All these years and this is what I have to show for it.” He motioned with his free hand at the shop. “This is all I have.” He raised the bottle and tried again to get out one last drop. When he found nothing, he tossed it across the shop. It clanged and shattered.

  I helped him up and brought him to his room. “You fixed fifty-two elevators today.”

  “Big deal.” Sonny opened the door to his office, “and my reward is missing the quota and demotion.”

  I stood in the doorway of his bedroom. “You should’ve kept everyone until it was done.”

  “I don’t care anymore.” Sonny grumbled on the rumpled sheets and coughed.

  I lingered in the doorway, wanting to tell him everything, but he wasn’t in any condition to hear it.

  “Go on,” Sonny urged. “Go get some sleep.”

  I wanted to help him the way he helped me. “I’ll get you some water.”

  “If you must, can you bring me a couple of pain pills with it? They’re in the bathroom.”

  I went into the bathroom, getting the water, but couldn’t find the pills. “They’re not in there.”

  “Try the desk.”

  I went through the drawers and found a bottle of pills next to the picture of a young lady in a Marscorp military uniform with mid-length blond, curly hair.

  I grabbed the bottle of pills and brought them to Sonny. He took two at once, gulped them down and flopped down on the pillow.

  “So who is that picture of in your desk?”

  “What picture?”

  “The young lady with the blond hair?”

  Sonny sat up and his face tensed as if he touched something too hot. “Never you mind about her. Now leave me alone!” He roared and flopped back down.

  I flinched. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean . . . .”

  “Just go.”

  I hurried out and stopped outside the office. The girl’s eyes and shape of her face resembled Sonny. She even had his hair. I tucked in my lower lip and dreaded at how rude I’d been.

  “Ian, get back here,” Sonny called.

  I turned back and stopped by the door to his room.

  “I don’t mean to be such an ass.” He hiccupped, sitting halfway up and his eyes dropped down. “It’s just . . . .” He turned his head to the side. “That was my daughter.”

  The brief visions of Sonny yelling ‘no’ over and over again made sense. But when did she die and how did it happen? What was he doing with a daughter? I wanted to ask, but feared being rude again. His daughter had looked so formal in the Marc military uniform.

  “She was beautiful.” I hesitantly sat on the side of his bed. “When did this happen?”

  “A year ago, today,” Sonny said. “Seeing as we’re awake, I can tell you more.”

  “Are you sure?” I didn’t want to upset him.

  “It’s not an entirely depressing story.” He turned on his side. “You see, shortly after coming to the factories, I met this cute thing named Crystal. We were together for a year when she had this idea of having a baby.”

  Oddly, he had something in common with my real parents. They too had been soldiers who disobeyed by doing the same thing.

  “I thought I had convinced her not to do it,” Sonny continued, “but she tricked me and managed to get out of the injections. I about exploded when she told me she was pregnant.”

  “Didn’t anyone notice?” I made a motion of an enlarged stomach.

  Sonny chuckled. “No, because she hid the pregnancy in big overalls, and nine months later I’m somehow delivering a baby in our room.”

  I tried not to look shocked, but I’d never heard of a baby being born the old-fashioned way. “You knew how to do that?”

  “Hell no. I was a nervous wreck. That day is burned into my memory.”

  I covered my mouth, but not in time to prevent a nervous chuckle from escaping.

  “But what surprised me is that it turned out to be the greatest day of my life. I experienced something that Marscorp denies workers and holding Lina, well I had to protect her.” Sonny stared off to the side with a small smile like he wanted to go back in time to that day.

  “We tried to keep her hidden,” he said, “and a couple of friends helped us out. Eventually most people in the shop knew.” His content expression faded. “When she turned two, someone reported to the overseer that I was hiding a child. I never did find out who or why. They took her away to a childcare facility.” Sonny shifted in the bed. “I was devastated at first, but it turned out to be not so bad. She went to school, had friends and I visited a lot. We talked all the time over the holo.”

  Sonny’s voice lowered. I strained to listen.

  “But like most Marc kids she was trained for the military. I begged them not to send her into combat, but nobody gave a damn. She had a lot of successful missions, until . . . .” His voice cracked and lowered to a whisper. “A year ago today, she died in combat. She was only a little older than you.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Sonny stared up. “As for Crystal, she couldn’t handle it when they took Lina to childcare. She blamed me and found some other guy.” His voice grew softer with every word. “Last I heard, she had some sort of mental breakdown and is working in recycling.” He leaned back and covered his eyes with his forearm.

  The quota, it wasn’t finished. Only five hours remained.

  I touched his shoulder. “I can’t let you be demoted. I’ll finish those elevators for you.”

  He didn’t respond. I took that as an okay and went out to Sonny’s station, hoping he’d be ready to hear my problems in the morning.

  Chapter 17

  After a few hours of work, I finished the remaining elevators and checked the production board. The number of elevators repaired glowed in green right next
to a clock reading 0410 hours.

  My feet crunched across pieces of the broken holo as I switched on a small lamp on Sonny’s desk and checked on him. In the dim lighting, he snored peacefully under the rumpled sheets. I turned back to the trashed office and grabbed the broom.

  After several minutes, I had the clutter cleaned up. I even found a spare holo in the storage closet and set it on his desk, but I didn’t bother hooking it up. At least, the office looked good enough for the overseer to see.

  I took one step to leave and stopped. Beacon’s threats of drugging or arresting me brought my memory back to the vision where he leaned over me, and I was unable to move. My stomach clenched and a chill went through me.

  “Sonny?” I called a few times in a normal voice.

  Sonny’s snoring didn’t miss a beat. He’d had such a rough night I hated to wake him. I locked the door and plopped down at Sonny’s desk, shifting back and forth while I waited for him to wake up. My eyelids fell with the motion, so I put my head down.

  In a few seconds, I dozed off and caught myself before falling out of the chair. I looked over Sonny. His snoring kept me company. Letting him have a couple more hours of sleep wouldn’t matter. I pulled an extra blanket from the end of his bed and wrapped it around myself and curled up on the squeaky easy chair in the corner.

  Upon shutting my eyes, the image of Beacon and his threats repeated in my mind. I squirmed in the chair, half asleep, wanting to think of something good long enough to fall into a quiet sleep. Kayla came to mind. I saw her painting a picture of a hill full of wild flowers and tall grass. I imagined the both of us in the picture heading to the top where we’d have a great view of the surrounding forest.

  We ran, hand in hand, smiling at each other. Her hair, of course, was long again, blowing in the wind and shining golden red in the bright sun. But the dream didn’t last long enough. Her body lightened, and she disappeared.

  I stopped and slumped, disappointed at having lost the image. Then I straightened as the grass faded, the flowers dimmed and the ground turned to rust. From the top of a hill, I overlooked a several buildings and giant bio-domes all linked together with tubes. As I drifted closer, rows of corn became visible under one of the domes.

  Cargo vessels of all shapes and sizes hovered around the busy terminal. Massive tankers forced any other vessel out of the way as they arrived at their docks. The vibrations from their engines alone made the dust tremble. Workers in envirosuits went about with hoses refueling docked vessels.

  I had to be seeing my arrival at the Argyre Farming Colony. No more Marscorp, no more Beacon - the chance to do whatever I wanted for once. At last I moved in the right direction.

  I jumped up and waved my fist in the air. “Whoohoo!” I floated inside the terminal. A cart of cackling chickens rolled past. Forklifts hurried back and forth with crates and sacks of grain. Workers loaded the crates and other supplies into the huge tankers. An older lady with her gray hair in a bun sat at an office by the Tempe Union terminal waiting to sign me up for work.

  Feeling free, I floated back and forth down the hall. Then I stopped, and the feeling was knocked out of me.

  In the corner of a lobby, three Marc officers equipped with laser pistols talked together. Yet, it didn’t necessarily mean anything. Argyre was halfway to the mine, so maybe Beacon sent them there for security reasons. Yet, I didn’t want to be anywhere near them.

  I drifted through the hall leading out of the terminal and onto a platform before an enormous dome. Carts rolled down small paths twisting their way through acres of crops. A passenger tram went up about twenty feet along the sides of the dome. It traveled so far across the dome the end couldn’t be seen. A supply train with several cars circled the dome traveling between the fields and back to the terminal to unload. Workers lined up waiting to ride the tram.

  The enormous place made me feel eons away from Kayla, but leaving was for the best. Nobody would be able to use me for spying again. I floated over rows of corn, apple trees and hundreds of brown cows chewing hay scattered on the ground –all under enormous pressurized domes.

  A familiar rumble came from the outside. Beyond the wall, two Marc scouters circled the dome. I clenched my fists at seeing another reminder of Marscorp. Scouters were not supposed to be here. To find out why, I drifted through the barrier and back to the front of the post.

  “Shit.” I stared, not wanting to believe it.

  A fleet of Marc vessels moved in from the south and surrounded the area. Beacon’s flagship lingered at the rear of the fleet along with an aircraft carrier hovering nearby. I tensed up and braced for what I might see.

  Laser blasts streaked out of the Marc ships and hit the Vallar loading docks.

  “No!” I screamed.

  Plumes of smoke flared up. A Vallar tanker tried to escape the area, but it too was struck and sent plunging to the surface. The giant vessel cracked in half upon striking the surface and spilled out tons of grain.

  As I drifted over to the wrecked vessel, the grain disintegrated. I sank down by a couple of the bodies that somehow stayed intact. Several other vessels of different types fled the area. The Marcs fired on all of them, not just Vallar. It was clear they came to take the farming colony. Why can’t I leave? Why?

  I was cut off from another escape route and stared down at the ground feeling numb. When I looked back up, I fell backwards as everything had changed. I wasn’t at Argyre anymore. A row of jagged reddish hills ran for kilometers in front of me. I recognized the area as Red Ridge.

  A black dot appeared to my left with another behind it. As it neared, I recognized Phantom One soaring over the jagged hills. Behind them, a sleek Marc midrange moved gracefully through the winding edges of the ravine and gained on them. A laser shot tore across the canyon and struck the tail of the Phantom causing it to shake.

  I pointed at the Phantom and a blur of colors twisted as I made the jump inside. Bret gripped the shaking control stick. Kayla sat at the weapon’s console, targeted the Marc vessel and fired the rear weapons. A laser tore across the Marcs bow and struck its front viewport. Sparks flew off the metal. The vessel spun out of control, smashed into a cliff, and two broken sections tumbled down into the canyon.

  Bret fought to keep the Phantom’s nose up. “Kayla, hang on.” He turned the vessel toward the flat plateau behind the hills, but it was well out of reach.

  An explosion came from the rear engine.

  “Bret!” Kayla screamed.

  The vessel tipped down toward a row of jagged hills. The ground came up fast, looking like a bottomless pit.

  I jolted up right, clutching the blanket. Sweat dripped from the edges of my hair.

  Sonny scrambled under the covers and sat up. “W-what?” He looked me over. “What’s wrong?”

  I tried to steady my breathing and swallowed hard. “Bret and Kayla are in danger.” My voice sounded hoarse.

  “Who’s Kayla?”

  I wiped my forehead with the blanket. “That’s Casey’s real name.”

  “Real name?” Sonny shifted to the edge of the bed. “But how are they in danger?”

  I hesitated, having no idea where to begin.

  “Was it a nightmare?” Sonny asked.

  “No.” I wondered why I blurted out that it was about Bret and Kayla. Clare’s words to never tell anyone whispered in a threatening way in the back of my mind.

  “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Of course, I do.” I said. “But I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

  “I know you’ve been holding back shit.” He hiccupped and rolled his eyes at himself. “Tell me, damn it.”

  “There’s something different about me.” An easy way to tell him came to mind. “I received some messages from Clare and Beacon yesterday. If you hear them, you’ll know almost everything. Can I log into your holo and play them?”

  “What holo? I smashed it?” Sonny got up with a slight limp. Still wearing his work clothes, he straightened his smudged
shirt. He went into the office and turned on the lights. His mouth dropped. “You shouldn’t have.”

  I sat at his desk and finished hooking up the cables, powered it up, logged into my account and brought up the messages. First, I played Clare’s warning about Beacon drugging me.

  Sonny covered his mouth at hearing the words “visions” and “drugs”. He listened intently until the end and took a long pause after it was over.

  “So you’re psychic?” Sonny asked and waved his hand. “Never mind, it’s clear.” He paused. “Damn, she’s so cold.”

  “It gets worse.” I started Beacon’s message.

  Before the end, Sonny got up and took a swing at the holographic Beacon. “Bastard.” He spun around, wobbled and grabbed hold of the desk. “I have to get you the hell out of here.” He breathed heavily, tapping his fingers on his chin. “So that’s how you helped Hector and some of the other things you’ve done.”

  “Yes,” I said softly, feeling a rush of relief at having told him.

  He pried the two blinds open with two fingers and peered out the office window into the shop. “You finished the quota?”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t have to do that.” He kept looking out the window.

  “Yes, I did.” His acceptance of me with little question choked me up.

  He spun around. “I know. We can go to Argyre and hook up with another org.”

  “I already thought of that, but I just saw that the Marcs are going to try and take Argyre.”

  Sonny frowned, but his eyebrows quickly flew up. “I might be able to convince Bret to help us. He owes me.” He reached for the holo.

  “Wait, I’m not done explaining. This next part isn’t easy.”

  “What could be more shocking than what you just told me?”