Vortex of Evil

by S D Taylor

  Erin nodded that she would. “I can’t really trust you, but I don’t have many options at this point.”

  Jelk continued, “Good. You must not say anything to the others verbally since you are always being monitored. In four days, I want you and Doug to go on a journey to a town called Lopfa. It is a seaside resort with lodging and restaurants. It is quite popular as a vacation spot. You should go there and try to blend in. Someone you trust will contact you there with additional information.”

  Erin tried to digest the concept of a vacation resort in Dara’s world. This was going to be interesting. She had to admit that much. She sent a conscious thought back to Jelk, “How will I know it is safe to speak to this person in Lopfa?”

  Smiling he thought, “Don’t worry. You will know when it is safe to talk to them. I must go now. Wait three minutes and then proceed as you were when you saw me. When you are alone with him, tell Doug that you want to go to Lopfa for a vacation but don’t discuss it with the others. Doug will be informed about it. Thank you. Go with safety.” He released her hand and severed the thoughtlink.

  Erin nodded, but Jelk had turned and left so quickly she doubted he noticed. She sat down on the bed for minute and tried to quiet her racing heart. What did this mean? To Erin this felt like another of the complex behavior tests that Dara had concocted for them. Or did Jelk really want to survive so he go on living with his family and escape this world? Erin could hardly get past the concept of Jelk having a family. It was too much information for her all at once. But she had fewer and fewer straws to grasp now. She had little choice but to go along with this and see what happened. She would just have to find the right time to talk to the older version of Doug about Lopfa. She hurried out of her room and down the hall to join the rest of the group in the courtyard. She wasn’t sure what Doug knew about this or how she would even be able to communicate with him without being monitored.

  Doug and Peter were sitting at one of the tables having an animated discussion as she walked up to join them. Peter was still wearing the same clothes he arrived in. “Wow, Erin. You clean up quite well.”

  Doug turned towards her at Peter’s comment. She paused, slightly embarrassed by the sudden attention. “What’s the big deal? I took a shower and changed clothes.”

  Doug walked over to her, grasped her by the shoulders and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “The big deal is that you are a very beautiful young woman and you look especially fetching in that blue thing you are wearing.”

  She could feel herself blushing at the compliment and the awkwardness of this unexpectedly familiar behavior from the older Doug. Their eyes met and she could tell he picked up on how she was feeling. He smiled sheepishly and sat down. Neither one of them had a clue how to handle a relationship where he had essentially been married to “her” for twenty years, but she had only met “him” eight days ago. The words boyfriend and father kept bouncing into each other in Erin’s head.

  Fortunately, Gaby joined them at that moment and she drew the same sort of attention from the men that Erin had. The German woman appeared like a Norse goddess in her white jumpsuit and flowing blond hair. Erin wondered how she managed to get that effect without a blow dryer. Peter’s eyes indicated that he really appreciated Gaby’s new look and he began having second thoughts about his generally rundown and scruffy appearance. The rest of the group looked scrubbed and ready to blend in with the rest of the people in this strange future world.

  “You look absolutely stunning, Gaby.” Doug had met Peter and Gaby in the hallway after he left Erin’s room so the initial shock of seeing him had dissipated.

  “Thanks, Doug. It felt wonderful to get cleaned up and change clothes. Ever since the Rasputin was destroyed I have been desperate to find a shower. I am sure they had facilities on the boat that brought us here, but Dara didn’t share them with us.”

  “You can’t count on Dara for much. She is more interested in our behavior than our comfort. Based on the rooms at this place, I have to assume she is no longer making the decisions.” Doug had to suppress his conflicted feelings about Dara or he would be headed back to some of the emotional dark places she had put him since he arrived.

  Peter kept staring at Gaby as he got up, walked over and kissed her on the cheek. “You look wonderful. Please sit down.” He pulled out a chair for her and she smiled at him as she took her seat. Doug and Erin exchanged a glance that featured raised eyebrows on both sides. Erin got her own chair. Peter turned and headed for his room saying, “I need to get cleaned up if I want to hang out with this group. See you a few minutes.”

  “Well, what do we do now? Any ideas Doug? How long have you been here?” Gaby was trying to fill in the more details of this improbable chain of events

  “About two weeks. I have had the run of the place since the second day when I regained consciousness and could use my legs. I wasn’t playing nice with my kidnappers and they stunned me several times. I don’t recommend trying it, but I doesn’t seem to have any lasting effects. I have learned that actively resisting them doesn’t work very well.”

  He pointed over his left shoulder. “There is a small cafeteria there, if you can call it that. It is for the prisoners, ah, I mean guests, and the staff. It has food and drinks in little boxes on the wall. You just take what you want. And there are several restaurants on the trail into Selenton that are pretty good. It isn’t too far from here. I have been trying to go for a walk every day to scout the area around this place and see what their defenses are like.”

  Gaby was intrigued. “What kind of food do they have here?”

  Doug laughed. “It isn’t too satisfying if you are a committed carnivore. The closest you will get to meat is fish or tofu. Apparently, meat production went out about two hundred years ago due to the lack of resources.”

  “Doesn’t sound too bad, but I wonder why they gave up on meat? It is such a part of human history.” Gaby was a committed carnivore, but she was also pragmatic about making do.

  “Probably the same reason they only allow people thirty six years to live. Everything revolves around this global plan to stay within their resource capacity. No matter how much it changes the very nature of being human. They have taken the expected life span back to where it was in the dark ages. But at least the food is creative. They use lots of interesting spices. The world really became a melting pot for the people left over after the great famines and plagues. Cultural differences have been completely blurred. According to Dara, most people in Transarctica can trace their roots to three or four different ethnic cultural traditions. There is a lot of food that is a fusion of prior traditions, but adjusted for the ingredients available now and the lack of any meat to eat.”

  “Well it has been a while since we ate breakfast, so anything is going to look pretty good right now. After a week of pot luck on the island, going to any restaurant will seem pretty special.” Erin looked at Doug. “But before we go, is there anything else about this place you want to share with us? Any ideas about getting back home?” Erin thought she should start a discussion of escape in case anyone was listening. If they avoided the subject it would seem like something was being plotted. She wondered if Doug would think that made sense.

  Doug leaned forward and spoke softly. “Hard to say what might work and I am not sure it is wise to talk about it here anyway. My observations haven’t shown me any weakness and the only thing I know for sure is that Dara and the Insect Guy continue to make round trips to various locations and they keep bringing people back with them. Usually a single person. You guys are the first group they brought back. Whatever we come up with as a plan, it has to involve them or some of their colleagues since they have the technology we need to find where we came from and go back there.”

  “Are they listening to us now?” Gaby looked around without trying to be too obvious.

  “I am sure they have the ability to listen in if they want to. I suspect that the nanobots they put inside us have little microphones in them or wh
atever their version of a listening device would be. But I don’t know. We need to get out and about so we can talk more freely. We may be less noticeable when we are in a crowd.”

  Erin’s stomach rumbled softly. “Let’s get going as soon as Peter gets back. Whatever food they have, I need some.”

  The three of them got up and walked slowly to the open end of the courtyard, the opposite from where they had been sitting. Erin decided they were heading east. There was a ramp that dropped at a steep degree angle to the ground below. There was a single stairway in the center that led down the steeply sloping ramp. Stretching out from the compound were open fields that led to the foothills about a mile away. There were some trees growing on the foothills and the mountains in the distance, but Erin imagined that in her time these hills would have been covered with a thick blanket of evergreens.

  “What about the air? Dara warned us about it and said we might need to wear masks until we had adapted to it.” Erin looked back to see if Peter was back.

  “I think the nanobots running around inside us have taken care of it. They must put some drug or mineral supplement in our systems that correct for the atmosphere. We should be ok. Let me know if you start to feel bad. I found a mask in my room and I assume you guys have them as well but I haven’t had any problems since the first day.” Doug was ready to go as Peter came walking up to the group.

  “I didn’t notice the mask, but I didn’t spend much time in my room.” Wearing one of the dark blue jumpsuits, Peter was judged as presentable and they all headed down the stairway to the field below. It was covered with a lush green grass that was uniformly about two inches high. Erin wondered if they mowed it or just engineered it to stop growing at that height.

  They could see the power towers far to the north, stretching skyward to an unbelievable height. Doug wondered how long it had taken to build them and who came up with the idea. They walked in silence for a few minutes, staring around at this unfamiliar world and unsure whether to be interested or terrified.

  “Any idea where we are going to eat?” Erin had caught up with Doug and took him by the arm.

  “I’ve been over here a couple of times since I arrived. There is a fish place that isn’t bad. It’s called ‘Fishtara.’ It seems that the science of marketing hasn’t evolved too far in the last three hundred years. At least it isn’t called ‘Fishateria.’”

  Erin laughed as they walked along. “The way you said that, it almost feels like we are on some demented vacation trip and you are the tour guide.”

  Doug smiled cynically at that thought. “I guess you could view it that way. But it seems like the vacation to hell. No matter how many small tastes of freedom they give us, we are still very much their prisoners. But for now, let’s just have lunch and forget about our troubles for a little while.”

  Chapter 29

  They followed Doug up the trail to the top of the hill where the restaurant was located. It featured a panoramic view of the city and the harbor in the distance. Like all the buildings in Selenton, the one that housed the Fishtara restaurant featured flowing curves and a shiny exterior surface that disguised the many windows that offered the customers a spectacular view. Doug explained that the food was pretty good but there was a limited selection. Actually no selection since there was only a single item offered each day. Upon entering the restaurant, scanners registered your presence and you were automatically billed for your meal as you picked it up from the serving counter on a lightweight metal tray. Seating was completely open with many different sizes of tables and chairs at different levels of the restaurant dining area.

  Splashes of bright colors filled the room and formed geometric designs that covered the floor, tables, and chairs and retained their shape even when things were moved. Erin took her chair, which was part of a large blue triangle and moved it into the adjoining orange circle and it immediately adjusted to the new color scheme of its location. As it crossed the border of the two colors it was momentarily two colors. She wondered if the nanobots they made them swallow had the ability to turn humans different colors as well.

  The four of them found a pentagon-shaped table on the top level that offered a good view of the city to the south and the ocean to the west. Peter smiled as he sat down and contemplated digging in with his spife utensil. “It is good to eat at a restaurant again, even if this one is a little strange.”

  Erin stared at the bowls of food that sat on the table in front of her. There were three bowls for each person, one with small square pieces of cooked salmon, a second bowl with a mixture of seaweed, asparagus and broccoli and a third one with an oatmeal-like substance that she hoped tasted better than it looked. There was a glass of a thin green liquid as well, but Erin had limited expectations for what it might taste like. It looked like something from a health food store that was supposed to be good for you.

  Gaby tried the oatmeal-like substance first, showing a certain bravery that impressed Doug. “It has a strong cinnamon flavor and is not very sweet. I like it, but it is hard to tell if it is meant to be a dessert or a side dish.”

  Doug ate with zeal as he continued to enjoy restaurant meals after a nearly twenty year hiatus. Erin smiled at his enthusiasm as she tried the salmon. It had some spices she wasn’t familiar with but it was good. At least the food in this strange world was reasonable and one less thing they had to worry about. But she knew she would have to get over her craving for a cheeseburger.

  “You chose this place so we could watch when the ships come and go from the command center, didn’t you.” Peter stared at Doug as he said it quietly.

  Doug said nothing, but nodded slightly and gave Peter a brief smile.

  Erin strained to identify the various types of vessels in the harbor below. Dara’s boat was distinctive due to the hover vehicle pad located just behind the bridge. There were several of them at the Yir-Lak compound dock and it would be an important piece of intelligence if they could determine the sailing schedule and average length of time each boat was away from the base.

  Erin looked at Doug and smiled. “How many variations of this meal do they offer? Have you been here every day since you arrived?”

  “Not every day. But I have managed to cover the past seven. They don’t always have salmon. The halibut is excellent. They don’t usually serve the cinnamon oatmeal. That is a new one in my experience. I just hope I can afford to keep coming here since it is such a great lookout point. The Yir-Lak boats seem to depart between 1pm and 3pm. Arrivals are in the late morning. Maybe we can work it in shifts and see what we can observe.”

  Gaby leaned forward. “Peter and I could eat lunch early. You and Erin could eat later. Would that work?”

  “Actually, I was hoping you and Peter could cover the observations for a week. I wanted to test the amount of freedom they are going to give us and I want Erin to come with me.” Erin looked at him with surprise at this suggestion. It would provide a perfect opportunity for her to tell him about Jelk’s plan that they visit Lopfa. But she couldn’t say anything verbally and Jelk said not to mention it to Peter and Gaby.

  “Where are we going? Do you think it is wise to spilt up?” Erin rapidly tried to process the idea of leaving with this older version of Doug and leaving Peter and Gaby behind. But Peter didn’t have any reservations about the new plan. “Good idea, Doug. We can cover more ground if we split up. We can also see if we receive the same treatment from the authorities if we try some different things.”

  Erin turned to Doug. “What if we discover some way to get home and we need to act immediately. How can we communicate with each other? I wouldn’t want to leave anyone behind. Unless they wanted to be left behind.”

  Doug shot her a quick, intense glance but then turned quickly to Peter. “Erin is right. We need some way to check in with each other. Think about it and we can discuss it later.” Doug held his finger to his lip in a brief gesture that could have been interpreted as wiping his mouth. Peter nodded and instinctively looked around in subtl
e ways. It occurred to him that they may have said too much until he realized that Doug was probably telling whoever was listening exactly what he wanted them to overhear. It was “game on” in Peter’s view.

  Erin polished off the last of her salmon and realized that she was the last one eating. “Sorry to take so long. I was spending too much time analyzing what I was eating.”

  Doug reached over and squeezed her arm. “No problem. I was just checking out the rest of the crowd. I seem to be getting some attention from the other diners, especially the kids. With the population control policies, you don’t see many people over forty. Certainly not much gray hair. I know there are lots of people here who want to ask me how I survived so long. Just by being here I am planting a few doubts. If anyone can survive as long as I have, there must be some way for them to get past their thirty-sixth birthday as well. It seems like our best chance to find some help around here is to find somebody who isn’t thrilled about dying at age thirty-six.”

  Erin glanced around the restaurant. The family groups. The young couples. The groups of friends. “You would probably find that everyone here wants to live beyond thirty-six. The challenge is finding anyone who would admit it.” Erin stared at Doug so intently that he was about to say something when she winked at him. He turned quickly and said something to Peter but squeezed her hand under the table. She grasped his hand and turned it over, spelling out the word “Jelk” on his hand with her finger. He didn’t look at her but turned over her hand and spelled out the word “Lopfa” and a question mark. Erin squeezed his hand. He then spelled out the word “Dara” on her hand. She wasn’t chewing anything at the time, but she suddenly seemed to choke on something. Peter handed her the glass of green liquid and it seemed to help. Erin thought it tasted like an unsweetened lime mocha. She decided that she shouldn’t think about Dara while eating.