Citadel 32: A Tale of the Aggregate

by Tom Merritt

“Unless you have some ideas, we’re fresh out. No alarms were set off?”

  “No,” Ibrahima said. “Which makes me worry about them more. If they were moving and giving off heat signals, it should have set off sensors.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Chi-lin said hopefully. “We’re pretty far up. If the cave-in didn’t set off an automatic alarm, it means it’s above the sensitivity grid and didn’t impact airflow. So if they did make it out from under, they must have had enough air.”

  “We did,” LeAnn said, almost out of breath from behind Chi-lin.

  Chi-lin squealed and screamed and leaped and hugged LeAnn all at once.

  Muffled under all the hugging, Corge could barely hear Ibrahima’s tinny voice yelling, “What!? What happened? Whose voice was that?”

  When they all settled back down, Chi-lin, barely able to form words through her grin said, “Well, I didn’t kill them. LeAnn and Corge just walked up behind me. How in Schmitz did you guys find your way out of there? That tube has no other access but the surface.” Chi-lin’s eyes grew wide as she began to consider the idea of them walking in vacuum without suits.

  “We’re not supermen,” Corge assured her. “LeAnn found an old Telfer tube.”

  “A Telfer tube? Up there?” Chi-lin asked. “I thought they were all small pipes down by Central.”

  “Well, at least you know what they are,” LeAnn smirked and nudged Corge.

  Ibrahima’s voice crackled over the com. “It must have been a main bypass. They allegedly used those a lot right after Disconnection. In fact, there’s a big argument over whether there really were big tubes near the surface or if we misread the records. Nobody’s ever found one until now. It’s a historical find in addition to a life-saving one.”

  “It also means you can stop worrying about clearing out this cave-in for now,” answered LeAnn. “I’m 98 percent sure I found an alternate route to the machine, and one even less likely to be noticed.”

  “Now that IS a historical find,” Ibrahima answered.

  “Historical or not, we should get to it,” Corge said, uncharacteristically impatient. “We lost a lot of time here. How much, actually?”

  “About 12 hours,” said Chi-lin. “You two need to sleep and eat first.”

  Corge shook his head but Ibrahima contradicted him, even though she couldn’t see his response.

  “Don’t argue, Corge. I know you’re worried about the Passives. Leave that to me. We’ll keep them at bay for now. Get rested and fed and in six hours we’ll go over your Telfer tube plan. Go!”

  Chi-lin’s com made the characteristic pop of a closed connection.

  “You heard her,” Chi-lin smiled. “I’ll clear all this up and do my best to explain the cave-in.”

  CAPITULUM 7

  “Miiii-chaellllll,” a sing-song voice accompanied the flashing of a knife in front of his eyes. “You’ve slept long enough, Michael. Time to work the machine, Michael.”

  The knife moved away to reveal Guteerez. He was using the knife to peel potatoes. “I will make us these potatoes, Michael. Doesn’t that sound good? I knooooow you’re hungry. Just work the machine. Go ahead. I’ll make the food.” Guteerez waved his knife toward the control box.

  Michael noticed that they were in Jackson’s metal shack. But the machine was there. He couldn’t quite see the control box behind one of the old tables in the shack. He looked around. The shack seemed bigger than before. When he looked back, the music machine from the bar blocked his way to the box.

  “Don’t mind that,” Dabashi’s voice came from behind the machine. “Just work the machine!”

  When Michael walked around the music machine, he found the control box, but in the middle of it, where the screen and controls would be, sat Dabashi’s head. Chao was removing part of Dabashi’s skull.

  “The controls were in there all the time, Michael. We just needed to open it,” Chao smiled in a gentle way.

  “Hurry up, Michael. Before I forget everything. It’s these parts here,” and Dabashi’s eyes looked up toward his open brain. Somehow Michael knew what he meant. Parts of Dabashi’s brain glowed. Michael had never seen brains before. They were red, pulsing lamps like light bulbs. Dabashi’s brain was laid out in the same way as the control box.

  “Is it OK for Chao to see?” Michael asked doubtfully.

  “Yes, of course,” said Guteerez from his chair across the room.

  “It can’t be helped,” snapped Dabashi. “It needs to be done. Stop delaying.”

  “I’m here,” Chao said, raising his palms up in a shrug. “What can you do?”

  Suddenly, Jackson barged in the room and with unnatural speed shot Guteerez and then Dabashi’s head, destroying the controls.

  “That was a mistake,” Chao said.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Michael answered slowly. “I can still control it. Look, the brain is glowing. Look! Look!”

  Michael snapped awake from his nightmare to see one of the women attendants. “You were dreaming,” she said. “What were you yelling ‘look’ about?”

  “Nothing,” Michael croaked. The woman spooned him the usual ration of water and gruel.

  “How long have I been here?” Michael asked.

  “You know I’m not allowed to say. You ask me that three times a day, you know,” she answered.

  Michael thought maybe she was trying to help him, but he couldn’t remember how many times he had asked her. He’d long ago lost track. Was it 12?

  “How many times?” he gasped.

  She smiled but then they both heard footsteps. She said no more and hurried out of the room.

  Chao came in without speaking and got to work. Michael no longer expected talk. They all knew the question. He would not give the answer.

  CHAPTER 14

  “And you’re sure this will hold vacuum seal?” Corge said, pointing to the big metal ball LeAnn had finished installing at the end of the Telfer tube.

  “Yes, 1000 times, yes. I’m not planning to pull the plug on the balloon that is our civilization,” she said, using a crusty old phrase, implying how much of an old worrywart he was being.

  If what LeAnn said was true, Corge could suit up, walk into that metal ball, unseal the ancient Telfer tube’s access to the surface, and be 10 meters from the machine.

  It hadn’t been easy getting there. LeAnn and a small team spent several days discovering more bewildering networks of Telfer tubes. It amounted to enough previously uncalculated air that, after this was all over, they could add a bit of time to Armstrong’s longevity clock.

  After many dead ends and a lot of time spent mapping and logging everything, LeAnn finally found a tube with an old vent seal. It could only be accessed from the inside and did not have an airlock. It was meant for maintenance after a feeder tube was blocked off. But none of its feeder tubes had shut-off mechanisms. They had probably been removed when the Telfer tubes were abandoned.

  That meant they had to install a temporary airlock. Getting one up there without anyone noticing was one of the premiere achievements of Ibrahima’s career, if you believed her. The only way she got it signed out was to run simulations in her lab. The Mechanics team would come to take it back in five days. They needed to be done and have it back in Ibrahima’s lab by then.

  A tortuous series of Telfer tubes led to the access valve. The secrecy of their activities was nearly compromised several times as teams got lost and showed up in places they had no easy explanation for being in.

  Somehow, they avoided detection and got the airlock installed. But they only had two days left if they wanted the whole thing to remain secret. Ibrahima gave them a less than 50 percent chance of success. The Passives had the machine under constant surveillance. It would be quite a trick for Corge to be able to fire up the machine and send a signal without anyone seeing him. In which case, returning the temporary airlock was the least of their worries.

  Corge insisted that, when the time came, only he would head to the surface. If caught, he would claim he
was solely responsible. If pressed on how he carried a temporary airlock sphere five times his size and weighing hundreds of kilograms, he would say he tricked some team members into bringing it there for a simulation run. As unbelievable as even that might seem, if he stuck to it, they couldn’t bring evidence against anyone else.

  He could work the airlock alone, but LeAnn would have to show him how, so he didn’t kill himself or leak air. She insisted on testing it unoccupied first. Which made him worry about the integrity of the seal.

  “Why do an unmanned test? You’re risking losing air and I won’t even be in there. I could be suited up and ready and, if the test went well, head on out. We don’t have much time to spare.”

  LeAnn threw her hands up. “Fine!” If there’s a bad bolt that goes explosive and jets you into orbit, far be it from me to complain that I wasn’t given time to test. If the whole thing catches fire and melts you down, I’m sure your burned corpse won’t blame me, since you wanted to go in without proper safety procedures. Go ahead, Corge. You’re probably right! You probably won’t explode or burn or be ejected. There’s only one way to tell. Oh. Wait. No, there are two ways to tell. One that doesn’t involve risking your life and one that does. But I guess that first one is too tame for a celebrity like you!” She stormed off down the tunnel, leaving Corge with another vent technician who had been tuning up the airlock for the test.

  The technician looked unsure what to do. “Do you want,” he motioned at the door and stuttered, “to—to go?”

  “No!” Corge shouted. “She’s right. Hold the test. I’ll get her back,” and he stomped off after her.

  He caught up with her at an intersection of three tubes.

  “LeAnn, I’m sorry. We’re all just worried—”

  She turned, grabbed him and kissed him hard. Taken by surprise, he did nothing in reaction because his body had taken over, and he was kissing her back just as hard. His hands began to do things on their own.

  Corge decided that, as much as he seemed to enjoy this, it wasn’t the proper time or place. As if having exactly the same thought at the same time, LeAnn pushed him back just as Corge was pushing her away.

  “I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” Corge heard himself say.

  “Stop being sorry, you reclamation bin. I’m worried about you, too. Let me do my job!”

  She stomped past him, but he decided he needed a little more clarification on what just happened. He gently grabbed her arm.

  “I liked that, LeAnn. But I’m not sure what you meant by it.”

  She turned and smiled. “Always thinking too much, Corge. I think it’s pretty clear what I meant by it. And while the timing may or may not have been the most romantic, I couldn’t bear the thought of not getting a chance again. And that thought was distracting me. So. Thanks. It’ll help me focus. Try not to ponder too much what any of this means until you get back, OK?”

  She laughed at his stunned expression. “I realize that, with you, that’s a little like asking you not to take up space. But try. Just for me. And I promise, when you come back in from the cold, we can approach the subject again in private.”

  Then he was straight blushing as she left him alone by the three openings.

  CHAPTER 15

  Ibrahima risked coming down into the tunnels to see Corge off. Corge stood near the airlock sphere, suited up and preparing for his walk on the surface. Chi-lin was checking off protocols while LeAnn fussed with Corge’s suit. A few other technicians finished their last bits of prep on the sphere.

  “You’re 100 percent practiced and ready to do this fast, right Corge?”

  “At least five nines Ibrahima,” he responded with a smirk.

  “You’re actually getting a bit saucy. LeAnn must be rubbing off on you.”

  LeAnn choked a bit at this phrasing.

  “Great!” Ibrahima declared clapping her hands together. “We’ll get out of here so you can get to work. Give us about 20 minutes to get back into areas of plausible deniability. Then have at it.”

  “It’ll take me about that long to get everything double-checked and ready to go,” said Corge.

  Ibrahima shook his hand, wished him good luck and then headed off.

  Chi-lin gave him a hug. “You’re going to be fine,” she said.

  “Thanks to you, Chi-lin. You were perfect.” Chi-lin nodded and dropped her eyes at the compliment, then turned to follow Ibrahima. A few more technicians shook hands, patted him on the back and shared some last jokes. Finally, only LeAnn was left.

  “I want to insist on staying,” she said. “You need backup. But I know you won’t have it,” she held her hand up to stop his objection. “So go. And we have a date when you get back.” She leaned in and gave him a light kiss on the lips and then left.

  He was finally alone. He climbed into the airlock and shut the inward door. He sealed his suit by putting on his helmet and began the process of cycling the air out of the lock and back into the vent behind him. He went through all the double-checks for lock integrity and good seals with the older vent valve he would be pushing out of the way.

  “Channel 5 test. Testing for observation mission tomorrow. Channel clear?” Chi-lin’s voice came through the suit com.

  “Clear, Chi-lin. Test out.”

  They would not communicate much during the mission unless he needed emergency help. Any Passives listening in would hear a small amount of normal chatter for a channel being set up for a very mundane observation mission on the surface.

  The 20 minutes passed quickly, and before he knew it, Corge was on the surface. He had so much routine to deal with that he hadn’t been nervous until he was about to take this first step up and out. He bent for the little jump he would need to make to get out of the angle of the tunnel when he realized he had almost left the case with his materials behind.

  The case had the codes he recovered from the manual page. He had practiced a million times on the simulator, but if he ran into any snags, he wanted all that information at the ready.

  His first job was to sneak up behind the machine without being seen. The Passives were observing the perimeter from the main surface observation area. The machine wasn’t easily visible from there, but they had set up telescopes and cameras to watch the area. They didn’t expect anyone to go to the trouble of sneaking around behind it. In fact, not being aware of the Telfer tubes, they didn’t know anyone could.

  The idea was to get to the machine unobserved, access the input mechanism without being noticed, enter the code, fire it up, and then dash back. If observers noticed anything, it would be the rising antenna, not Corge.

  He got to the machine and clicked “open” on his coms three times to signal he’d made it.

  “Channel 6 clear,” he heard Chi-lin say. “Oops, crap. Wrong channel. Sorry, anybody listening!”

  That confirmed to Corge that there was no indication anybody had seen him. Chi-lin was at the observer deck ostensibly preparing for a few upcoming missions while checking the reactions of observers. If anybody heard her signal, they would assume that old Chi-lin was messing something up again.

  Now came the rough part. Corge inched around the side of the machine to the control screens. Ibrahima had drilled into him that if anybody saw him at that point, there wasn’t anything they or he could do, so he shouldn’t waste time looking around.

  He resisted the urge to look and bent to the task, navigating through the selections and entering the codes. He could have easily left the case behind. He knew every step from memory and had no problems. He felt a thrill when he saw the diagram showing the signal being sent to the repeater box that would boost the message and send it to Earth.

  His excitement almost overwhelmed him when the destination map came up showing a desert outside LA that must be SLC and a destination where New York once had been and might still be.

  “Here goes nothing,” he whispered to himself and entered into the screen, “CIT32 Active, NYC acknowledge. Comm REQ.”

  He pres
sed the screen to send it and let out the biggest sigh of relief in his life, feeling a big grin come on his face. Ibrahima had warned him to work fast and unemotionally, but he couldn’t help it. He’d just sent a signal to Earth. He would wonder later if it was that moment that busted him. His com crackled to life.

  “This channel isn’t clear anymore. Repeat, not clear!’ It was Chi-lin still in code but clearly alarmed. Someone suspected something. She would have requested the channel be shut down if they had seen him. He began to inch back around the machine to the place where his path back to the tunnel could not be observed. As he disappeared from view, he saw a few men in pressure suits walking toward the machine.

  Every impulse in his body told him to run but he had to resist. If he ran, he not only risked propelling himself too far into the air and being seen, but also kicking up a lot of dust. If those people heading this way suspected something, they would look for telltale dust. He didn’t dare look back for fear of wasting time. He marched determinedly straight toward the tunnel entrance.

  He got back to the vent and started to crawl inside, finally letting himself turn and look behind him as he climbed in. He squealed to see three people reaching out to grab him. How did they get there so fast? They must have seen his dust after all and run after him. Why hadn’t Chi-lin warned him?

  “Come with us, Corge. You’re charged with breaking the will of the Assembly and risking the well-being of the station.”

  Corge slumped. Nobody got the death penalty on Armstrong anymore, but that charge, if proven, would be as close to it as possible. They marched him back across the surface to the observation area. As they dragged him through the official airlock, he saw Chi-lin arguing with some official observers. No wonder she hadn’t warned him—she’d been trying to keep them off her own back without revealing him. To her credit, she managed to look surprised as they pulled him past her. Or maybe she really was.

  CAPITULUM 8