The Farthest City

by Daniel P Swenson

  “That’s our destination,” Ciib said. “That is where we will find help for Earth.”

  “There is,” Gavin said, exchanging a glance with Ciib, then clearing his throat, “only one problem.”

  Chapter 17 – Chines

  The light cycled on and off inside the tunnel.

  “Let’s go in,” Abby said. “It’s better than staying out here.”

  “Right,” Kellen answered.

  Holding hands to keep from falling, they scrambled down the tunnel’s gradual descent. The walls were smooth to the touch, and it was difficult to keep their footing. The light continued to flash up ahead. Kellen couldn’t tell if it was moving or not. He thought it came from where the tunnel seemed to bend out of sight. As they reached the bend, the tunnel went dark, then the light came on and stayed on, dimmer than before. At first he couldn’t see anything. Then he spotted a chine holding the light.

  Abby laughed. If this chine was going to hurt them, Kellen didn’t see how. It was a walker, a flat cylinder like a dog dish perched on four spindly, multi-jointed legs. The cylinder was black with bright silvery edges where the paint had abraded. It had whip-like antennae. Faintly glowing rectangular patches on its carapace might have been eyes.

  “You new arrive,” it said.

  “Yes,” Abby said.

  “Gatherer come for you. Find you. You be part of Gatherer. You come with me you no want to be part of Gatherer.”

  “You mean the things we saw out there?”

  “Gatherer’s chines,” it said. “Gatherer changer, user. We hide from it. Mediator Third sent me to find you. We try to help new ones. Otherwise Gatherer find them. Gatherer get stronger.”

  “Chronicler said to beware malevolent chines,” Abby said. “Maybe this Gatherer is what it was talking about.”

  A warble echoed down the tunnel from above. The little chine quivered, then set off down the tunnel. They followed. Their new guide moved surprisingly fast, its thin, pointed legs finding purchase where Kellen and Abby struggled to stay upright.

  Eventually the tunnel rose, and they emerged into a steep canyon. They crossed this and entered another tunnel. Kellen lost track of how many tunnels they’d gone through, how many ups and downs, until finally their guide stopped and made a sound like static. A similar sound came from ahead, and they soon passed another chine. This one was caterpillar-shaped, like a toy Kellen had seen once. It bleeped at their guide as they passed. The procedure repeated farther down.

  Lookouts, Kellen guessed.

  As he pondered the need for so much security, they passed yet another curve in the tunnel and emerged into bright light. They stood in yet another canyon, a narrow one, no more than ten meters across. Their guide stopped and gestured upward. Lights shone down from high above, giving everything a white glare. The canyon wall facing them was a uniformly flat rock face, as if it had been cleaved and polished to reveal a honeycomb of tunnels, small ones no bigger than his hand, some large enough to fit a vehicle inside. The tunnels were linked by chine tracks carved into the rock, as if someone had played an enormous game of connect the dots. Cables stretched taut across to the other side of the canyon, which was of another type of rock without the profusion of tunnels. The canyon floor had been carved to form smooth, flat surfaces. Easy for rollers, Kellen thought.

  “There must be hundreds of tunnels,” Abby said.

  “Thousands,” their guide said. “Good hiding.”

  Chines occupying the canyon floor turned their way. A crowd formed about them. Smaller chines, mostly walkers and rollers, milled about. Larger chines rose above the rest, like islands with claws, hammers, drills, or massive crushing hands. Fighters or builders? Maybe both, on this world. All the chines Kellen could see were like their guide—dusty, scratched. Many sported one or more mismatched appendages that had been grafted on. At first the crowd was noisy—clicks and chirps, buzzing, and humming, the sounds packed with words flying about faster than Kellen’s ears could pick up.

  The crowd parted for a slow-moving, tracked chine. This one was human-sized. A cavity full of glowing blue elements ran up its torso and along its curved head, terminating in a single set of luminous, concentric circles. The chine focused its circle sensor at them, the lens telescoping as it focused. It folded its two arms, each with a many-fingered hand.

  “These ones just come down.” Their little guide pointed at them as if any of the assembled chines needed help making that determination. “Gatherer after them. I helped.”

  “How do you self-identify?” the tracked chine asked.

  Its circle sensor contracted as they told it their names.

  “Where did you come from?”

  “We came from the City of the Six Suns, but we weren’t from there,” Kellen said. “We had just arrived, and then we were exiled.”

  “We came here with others, but one died,” Abby said. “One is still out there.”

  Kellen thought of Izmit out there somewhere, probably hunted like they’d been. He still held onto the anger, but it had cooled, become something he could consider at a remove. He pushed it back out of mind. Izmit didn’t deserve his concern anymore. He made himself believe that and refocused on their current situation.

  “What news from the city?” many voices shouted.

  “Is Representative for District 1003 still in office?”

  “Will there be a reprieve?”

  “Will there be amnesty?”

  “Why do you look like that?” a little roller with an upside-down bowl head asked at their feet, peering up at them through its stalked sensors. “Will you save us?”

  “Humans,” another said. “Why do they look like humans?”

  The crowd erupted into tumultuous noise.

  “Are they from Earth?”

  “No, they’re retros.”

  “Hold, hold!” the circle chine said. “Time for news and questions later. I’m Mediator Third, formerly 21,465,111,983th citizen of the Six Star Array, City of the Six Suns.” It pointed at their guide. “This is Micro-repair Technician of the Six Star Array, City of the Six Suns.”

  “I’m Power Conduit Inspector of the Six Star Array, Fifth Habitat of Star 3,” the tiny, two-legged chine chimed in.

  “Enough,” Mediator said. “They must rest now.”

  Reluctantly, the chines went about their business. Mediator led Kellen and Abby down the canyon, then up a path along the canyon wall. At the top, above the lights, it was darker. Solar panels gleamed like geometric flowers. Mediator ushered them around the panels to an assortment of blocks and cylinders. It stopped and offered them two cables.

  Kellen looked at Abby. She shrugged and examined the cables. After a few moments, she set them down.

  “It’s how they get their energy,” she said. “Not much good to us, unless we had something we needed to charge.”

  Mediator continued to wait. Kellen was at a loss, too tired to ask what it expected of them. After a few minutes, it beckoned and led them back down into the canyon. It showed them a vacant tunnel, midway up the canyon wall, large enough to accommodate their size.

  “Rest,” it said.

  #

  Kellen lay in the tunnel staring into the night. Tired as he was, sleep wouldn’t come. Life had become a dream. Chines had taken over. He was in their dream now. He thought back to Jesup, then all the way to when he’d lived with his family as a child. Were his parents still there in Grand-Mère? Did they ever think about him? When he left, had his mother thought it would be forever?

  “Kellen.” Abby sat perched on the lip of the tunnel, watching chines come and go below.

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve been thinking.”

  “Yeah?”

  “About what happened to us. Have you wondered how we got here? What that chamber was back beneath the City of the Six Suns? The gas and heat? The Hexi and those agents and Sayuri, all dead? Have you thought about any of that?”

  “No.” He didn’t want to think about it.


  “Or why we could go on and on, climbing out of the tunnels, then walking through the city. Why we never got tired until now.”

  “Maybe we lost our sense of time,” he said. “Everything’s been so crazy.”

  “Have you gone to the bathroom?”

  “What?”

  “You haven’t, since we left Jesup, have you? Do you have to go now?”

  Kellen didn’t answer. He couldn’t understand her. She was becoming as crazy as the world had become. Or maybe it was he who had been crazy all along.

  “Are you hungry? Thirsty? When did you last have anything to eat or drink?”

  He had to think back. “That last night before we went underground.”

  “It’s been days, Kellen, days. We should be starving now, but we’re not. We’re just tired. And why do we understand them? Are they speaking our language? How did we even get here from the City? From Earth? Did we come in a ship?”

  “I don’t know,” Kellen said. “I don’t remember anything before waking up in that room, then later in the capsule.”

  “That’s right. Because there’s nothing to remember,” Abby said fiercely. “We didn’t travel. Our bodies didn’t travel. They’re still back on Earth, dead probably. We were built new bodies. In the city, and now on this planet, Iron53. They transmitted us each time. Just information.”

  She was insane. The stress had pushed her over the edge.

  Yet he had a sinking feeling in his stomach. How long had it been since he’d eaten or drank?

  “Feel your skin,” Abby said softly.

  He tugged up his sleeve to examine his arm. It didn’t feel right. It was too uniform. The hairs on his arm all looked the same. Where was the burn on his wrist where he’d touched the kiln? The little scar on his thumb? Not there. He looked up.

  “Are we even speaking out loud?” She closed her mouth. “I don’t think so. I’m speaking to you now, but there’s no sound, just signals, sent wirelessly from me to you. Look at my face.”

  It was Abby. The Abby he’d known for weeks now. His friend. Yet she wasn’t quite the same. Her face was too smooth, the freckles missing from her brown skin. Something had gone from her eyes.

  “We’re chines, Kellen,” she whispered. “Chines.”

  Chapter 18 – Ice

  “Unfortunately,” Gavin said, “It appears the Hexi hit us with an n-tech weapon as we initiated IFD. Our n-universe match was corrupted and our displacement thrown off. We’re lucky to be alive. The physical constants during transition were barely in the tolerable range for human life. That explains why some of us didn’t survive. We think the effects may resolve over the next several days, but we can’t say for sure. Aside from hurting us physically, the corrupted IFD sent us off course and much farther than planned. We’ve exhausted most of our fuel and worn out some of the IFD components.”

  The worried look on Gavin’s face, more than his words, sent icy fingers deep into Sheemi’s gut. She and Neecie traded looks of alarm. This can’t be, she thought. No way. No way we’re dead because we ran out of fuel. I can’t die that way. I won’t.

  “Luckily, we have enough fuel for at least one more IFD,” Gavin explained, “and we’re close enough to a likely system to refuel. We should be able to mine asteroids for ice to replenish our deuterium easily enough. The harder part will be resupplying our drogue’s supply of rubidium vapor. Hopefully, we’ll find sufficient quantities in the asteroid formations. Rubidium can be hard to detect, though. We may have quite a bit of prospecting to do.”

  “We’ll split up into crews,” Ciib said. “One to mine for ice, probably a dormant comet if we can find one, the other to collect asteroid samples the science team can analyze for rubidium. We’ve selected a system with an Earth-type planet. Doctor Na has told me it has a breathable atmosphere.”

  “Probably,” Gavin said.

  “You mean in case we don’t find what we need,” Jimmy said. “In case we’re stranded.”

  “I didn’t want to say it, but you’re right,” Ciib said. “That being said, Doctors Na, Yang, and Omeri are confident we’ll find what we’re looking for.”

  The scientists’ smiles were a little too forced to be reassuring.

  “Now all that’s left is to go there,” Ciib said. “I know not everyone’s fully recovered.”

  That got some snorts.

  “But we leave in two hours. I want non-command staff on the bus in fifteen minutes.”

  Sheemi tried not to dwell on the empty couches in the bus. Her head ached, whether from the last drift or just nerves, she couldn’t tell. Command chatter intensified and the countdown began.

  #

  Several people complained of vertigo and ringing ears, but they otherwise arrived without mishap. They’d staked their lives on some anonymous system that might or might not have the fuel and supplies they needed. A wall in the lab displayed a map of the system that increased in detail as the scopes surveyed the orbital plane. Five planets, one occupying a close orbit about the star, three inside a wide asteroid belt, and one farther out. Sheemi vacillated between optimism and a nagging doubt about their chances for survival.

  She groaned when she found out they’d need to complete an intra-system movement to rendezvous with a comet half an AU away. The scientists had selected it for its proximity to the nearest asteroid belt. No one bothered to get out of their suits. The main engines fired up and Sheemi resigned herself to thirty hours of high g. She took the drugs this time, and the journey passed more quickly.

  Orders came minutes after their arrival at the comet. Alpha would go in the shuttle with Captain Alvares to bring back asteroid samples. Bravo would mine ice. It rankled when Sheemi found out she’d be handling the water pumping from inside Dauntless with Jimmy. Even Meszaros had been drafted for pump duty.

  This job sucks, Sheemi thought, in more ways than one. She wished she could go EVA with Bravo, despite the fact she hadn’t entirely healed from her encounter with Enzo.

  “Hey Sheems,” Connor said when she bumped into him during Alpha’s pre-flight. “How are you?”

  “Better.”

  He nodded, seeming older than he had a few weeks ago. It was understandable. Everyone was under stress. The bad IFD had pushed them to the edge. She studied his face, trying to decide what she thought about this new person. More Connor than Connie, she decided.

  “Thanks for what you did the other day, stopping Enzo. I heard he would’ve taken us down.”

  “Just did what I had to,” she said. “Good luck out there.” It felt lame as soon as she said it.

  “Thanks,” he said, giving her a tired smile.

  After Alpha had departed, Dauntless’ engines rumbled to life. Sheemi arrived at the lock on schedule. Jimmy and Meszaros were already there, suiting up, but she had her suit donned and sealed before they even had their helmets on. She waited, not sure she wanted to be working with Meszaros in the vac. He’d gone through the same training she had, but how would the chine cultist react if something went wrong?

  “Ready for duty, Miss Tanamal?” Meszaros asked.

  She glanced at Jimmy, who rolled his eyes. “Yes, sir. I am.”

  They proceeded downspoke and into the axle. At least she could enjoy the zero g. She sent herself spinning on a path and caught herself on the opposite bulkhead, neatly bouncing off again.

  Meszaros followed with more difficulty, spinning out of control at times so Sheemi or Jimmy had to correct his trajectory. What had he been doing with his time? Clearly not brushing up on basic vac skills.

  Sheemi felt the pull as Dauntless slowed to match the speed of the comet. Janik and Trediakovsky would pilot them close enough for Bravo to go EVA and secure the mining arm.

  She and Jimmy and Meszaros hurried to set up the pumping equipment necessary to get the water into storage. The pumps powered up fine. They had a tougher time dragging the twenty-centimeter hoses out of storage and connecting them from the pumps to the water storage pod.

  “Pumps primed a
nd ready,” Jimmy said after they finished. They hooked into the axle wall and rested as Dauntless closed the gap. Deceleration tried to pull Sheemi from the wall, then faded. She guessed Bravo would be going out soon. Sure enough, the comm opened up.

  “Bravo, get in place,” Ciib said.

  “Comet ten kilometers and closing,” Janik said.

  “Bravo EVA one disembarking,” Fu said.

  “Amazing,” Jerrold said, one of the few times she’d heard him speak earnestly. “The ice is beginning to shed vapor. Nothing like a real tail, but it catches the light. Bee-u-teeful.”

  “Okay, now that you’ve enjoyed the view, we have some mining to do,” Ciib cut in.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Deploying arm,” said Janik. “Cutter head in place.”

  Sheemi had trained with Alpha on the arm a few times. Terror had transformed into elation the first time they’d swung her out on the multi-jointed arm, her feet clamped to its end, two hundred-plus meters into space. Now Bravo was out there doing it for real, all of them hoping the arm didn’t glitch and drag Dauntless into the comet’s icy embrace.

  “Cutting,” Janik said.

  Sheemi tried to picture the cutter head drilling into the comet. As the cutter head heated up, it would melt the ice and water would flow back up the arm, through the pumps, and into storage. The gauges jumped as pressurized water flowed their way.

  “We’re getting it,” Sheemi said.

  “Get it!” Jerrold said, getting a few laughs.

  From time to time, the cutter head jammed and Fu and Jerrold had to reposition it using torches to melt the ice.

  “It’ll be ten more hours at this rate,” Fu said.