by A M Russell
‘You know her. She’s stubborn. Besides she’s a better scientist than all of the rest of the ones they sent added together.’
‘Yea; she’s stubborn alright…..’ I was thinking of that kiss. Janey didn’t seem disposed to give me anything else. And with Jared gone….. I felt my heart sink.
‘You thinking of getting her to let up?’ he seemed quite serious.
‘No. She wouldn’t forgive me. I understand what she means to do, even if it means game over for her. She’s been wanting an answer to the mystery of the Cloud Fields since we left. She is trying to defeat them. Sort of…. like a personal vendetta. Besides, I couldn’t do that to her…. I want.… I mean, I wish.…’ I looked down.
‘I see,’ said Aiden, ‘I’m sorry for you. I truly am. But you have chosen well; the wisdom of a Man instead of the passions of a boy. Love is hard… cruel. My friend, I am truly sorry for this.’
‘That’s ok,’ I said eventually. And rubbed the tattoo, the flesh had healed smoothly and well. A few threads of cloth still hung loosely around my forearm.
We sat in silence for some minutes, I began to wonder about the gushing water dropping down into deep chimney holes thousands of feet into the earth; ‘I was thinking…. Tell me about the tides. The err… waterfalls. What do you know about them?’
‘Very little.’ Aiden looked up for a moment. The mute girl had brought us coffee. The one called Kay came behind with a plate of breakfast. I started to eat. It was utterly delicious. ‘Thank you!’ I said with my mouth full.
‘You’re welcome.’ She had a sweet rather comical tone and a cheery smile. She skipped off to set up the next lot of breakfasts.
‘They are not a talkative bunch,’ said Aiden putting his glasses back on, ‘Oh good! Scrambled egg. Made from dried egg of course but she’s very good.’
‘We could never get our lot to shut up.’ I said, then felt sad, as a picture of Marcia yelling ‘Seconds!’ nudged its way in.
‘Don’t think about it.’ said Aiden sensing what was up, ‘just remember that she’ll come back to Main.’
‘Are you a mind reader?’
‘No. I’m like you,’ he stabbed a small piece of toast, ‘I see the future. Or rather all possible futures.’
‘I bet in the one you prefer your best friends aren’t dead.’ I shut my eyes for a moment, ‘I’m sorry…I don’t know what I was thinking.’
‘I’m not offended. I remember Jared on the first mission. He was so young and eager. Hopelessly naïve and idealistic.’
‘Sounds like me.’
‘Yes. I rather gathered that…. there is one thing that I wanted to ask you when I first saw you.’ Aiden lowered his voice then: ‘Did you get another letter?’
‘No. I mean yes…. that is to say I got one but didn’t open it.’
‘So you didn’t read it?’
‘No.’
‘You got out. And came back?’
‘Yes. Of course I did, before I started out on the expedition. The weather.’
‘Ah! The weather….’ Aiden looked thoughtful.
‘I think they tried to get rid of you. But you went back. The second letter was one that I think told you that you hadn’t been accepted on the expedition. If you’d left anything at Main they would have just discretely returned it to you.’
‘You think? I thought they just sent the same one twice.’
‘Was anything different when you went home?’
‘Not really.’ I chewed thoughtfully on the toast, ‘I wouldn’t have noticed. Even my friend Alex seemed to think it was just a glitch. Besides I had a hangover, so I wasn’t paying attention. Not really.’
‘What else did you do?’
‘Well I wrote a letter to my mother… I posted it. I had tea. And I spent some time in the pub, the beers awful. I had cider.’
'In an English Pub?'
'Yes.'
'The beer was awful you say?'
'Yes... What does that have to do with anything?' I felt that even on the scale of weirdness I had grown accustomed to this was getting to an eleven.
'Just one thing?' Aiden spoke slowly and precisely.
'Yea... Sure.' I shrugged casually.
'Tell me the location of the pub.'
'Well it's on the corner of that street.... Uhh I don't know the name of it. Lots of trees. South London.... But it's five minutes’ walk from where I work.... I can describe the route if you like.'
'You're doing just fine. Do you know the address of where you work?'
'Well of course I do! What does this have to do with anything?'
Aiden turned and called Kay who was just passing with someone else's plate; 'Get Ruben up, straight away!'
She quickly put the plate down in front of the one I thought was called Sarah; then dashed back into the network of caves.
The same Sarah did pick up her fork but stared at me in a frozen kind of way and ignored the pile of delicious looking scrambled egg.
'If you're not going to eat that can I have it?' I joked.
'Captain...' this Sarah said with a familiar accent. But Aiden had followed Kay leaving me perplexed.
'Was it something I said?' I often made a pathetic joke at work when the lesser minions of the boss tried to get me riled.
Sarah held out her hand as if to touch my face; 'I can't tell anyone where I'm from... I don't even know my surname... They didn't put it on the tag.'
'You don't remember anything at all before coming here?' I watched her face. Her lips trembled as if trying to find the words. Then her eyes flickered as if she was having one of those moments of Deja Vue. She smiled at me then. Disconcertingly, it was as if the last few things that had been said had gone from her mind. She went back to her breakfast.
I was in the communications room. Without the rocky walls it would have looked very much like a place inside Main Base. I sat down near a microphone. Ruben operated the computer and adjusted input levels.
'It has voice recognition software. Just tell it all in your own words starting with your place of work.'
So I rambled on for ten minutes or so telling them everything I could think of about the whole run up to being involved in the project. I saw my words turned into print magically on the screen.
Aiden came back in just as I had got to the run out of things to say with lots of "um!" and "err...". He passed something to Ruben.
'Oliver told me that Marcia switched this tag on, but that she'd not told him how.'
'Me neither.' I said. It was only yesterday. I tried not to think of the Dell as I saw the tag in Ruben's hand. Marcia and Jared must have known what was happening but they came here anyway.
'I hope it's worth it.' I said, as Ruben rotated it open and clipped it into the reader.
He regarded me without animosity. 'If George has done his work well we should get something we can use.'
Aiden leaned over: 'Ruben, whatever there is make Davey a hard copy.'
'Ok.' he got on with it and ignored me then.
Aiden took me to see Oliver. I was thinking about reams and reams of paper printouts. I was sure it didn't mean that. Oliver was still with Janey. They'd obviously had a long talk. She got up to go. She was slipping away from me and there was nothing I could do.
'Bloody good coffee Milnes!' as Oliver spoke all that agony in his eyes was staring at me, but his tone of voice was light and conversational.
'Yea. Certainly helps.'
'You're the Captain now. And don't argue.' Oliver waited for me to do just that.
'Very well.' I said, 'but just tell me why.'
'Because....' Oliver's voice was thick and his accent was even stronger, 'Because he saved your life.... Jared stopped you from letting go; just as Aiden unlocked the gate. I saw it. I got out without passing out. Aiden had to take you one at a time. The current was too strong. I was nearly out of air... I pulled myself up the rope. Jared was on the end of the other line when he hit his head. Aiden pulled him out.... He wasn't breathing.' Oliver's voice started to crac
kle, 'I just coughed and coughed while they were trying to help you both.'
'They?'
'Aiden and Janey. The kiss of life Milnes!' Oliver smiled in spite of his sadness, 'she certainly knows how to lock lips with a man! Just a pity you weren't conscious at the time.'
'We need to tool up Reece!' I said suddenly determined, 'We are going to fix this! All of it!'
He looked at me startled as if he’d heard that before from someone else.
'Ok Milnes. So what's the plan?'
'I don't know. But I'll meet you in the room with the big bench.'
‘Ok.’ He said suddenly energised, 'I'll sort out all the remaining packs and do a check,’
'Right... We need all the meds replaced or refilled if you can get it. Don't take no for an answer. And the oxygen too. We'll need to be ready to suit up really quickly for the Ice. Can you arrange it?'
'You bet! If we use the third pack for the suits and head gear. What about the spare?'
'Jared's suit? Get it ready too. Is our Jules the same size as Jared was?'
'He's lighter than Jared. But they're more or less the same build and height. So that would work fine.'
'I've still got Marcia's tag. What do you think we should do with it?'
'It ought to be destroyed.' Oliver said; 'We need another one for you.'
'I'll see what I can do about that myself. We will need them to be let back into Main, won’t we?'
'Yeah. Inconvenient isn't it?' Oliver thought for a moment, 'I better get moving.' We checked our watches, both were still synchronised; 'I'll have it all done in an hour. It's ten now.'
'Thanks Reece.' I thought he'd shoot straight back with a smartarse remark. But he just stood moving his weight from one foot to the other as if already doing a checklist in his head.
'Eleven in the bench room.' I said, 'I'd like hot tea too!'
'Yes Boss!' finally he grinned at me.
After Oliver had left I looked out through the arches of this morning room. Through the doorway there was a tiled floor and a viewing gallery. I walked to the low wall that gave way to the outer air. From here I looked onto forests and fields in the valley beneath, which rolled out as far as the eye could see. A warm breeze reached me from the Summer Land in hazy morning light. This balcony in the cliff face was the only way to see it for now. I had no idea how the tunnels of Aiden's people connected down to these rolling meadows and rivers. Without warning, and with a feeling of terrible foreboding, I saw images of it all destroyed. I squeezed my eyes shut and took two steps backwards. There was a bench, I sat down. I shuddered and looked again, slowly standing up. Quiet curling mist lifted in the morning air as the sun warmed the earth. I shook the momentary vision aside. This predictive insight was starting to disturb me a lot. I must not let this muddle up my current clarity of thought. I needed to keep to my purpose. I turned away from the view. It was time to put the past aside. I had a mission to complete. There was just one last thing I had to do.
*****
Twenty Two
I entered this cool place. It was made of a different kind of rock: a smoky grey with the faintest marbling of muted green streaks. Lamps burned at intervals from the straight and level entrance to a smaller raised area. At the back there was a ledge of the same stone. Someone had covered it with flowers. Blue and gold; long supple stems and leaves that gleamed like wax. He was there, laid on the bier. A bearded king it seemed; on this final resting place with the folds of purple spilling into swirling patterns on the floor. At his feet and around his head like a crown were fragrant clusters of the herbs I had seen before, spreading from this long streamers of vine like strands heavy with tiny pale bluish-purple flowers like stars.
I felt I had entered then some ancient Kingdom. I was, for a few all too brief hours part of this mythical place. I vowed I would not forget! If everything else died. If they were about to extinguish all of us with one stroke of a pen; I would not let go of this memory! I would rather die first myself, than let whoever was ultimately responsible have their way!
I stepped forward then…. As if I could perhaps erase some anger. As if I could be the Man he was. What was he? What would he have been? Why?
Jared Arden…. A man with no past. Why did someone go to so much trouble to stop you and the others from discovering the ultimate prize?
Was the answer here? Staring me in the face?
I moved forward then; my heart stilled. As I approached him I became calmer. I stood looking down at him. No footfall of memory touched me for a moment. Rather I saw in my mind’s eye other things in quick succession: Jared with Marcia in a park; Janey laughing and throwing a paper napkin at me; Jared leaning on one elbow and laughing holding a bottle of beer; Marcia in a sunhat reading the Sunday papers, sitting on a picnic rug; Then Jared standing in a suit asking me something…. No sound, an impression of words: Does this tie look alright, I don’t do ties. I could hear myself replying: You never do; except today.
I breathed in sharply. I was stood so close to Jared now. What did all this mean? But I thought of a thing to do. I lifted the tag over my head. I hesitated for a moment, and then I reached out to Jared’s hand.
There is something in our nature that tells us we should not disrespect the bodies of the dead. Perhaps some people only gain some dignity in that brief transitory period, and are treated with the care and attention that they were never blessed with in life. Not so Jared; I thought about all the team. And even Hanson had not said anything against him. Perhaps, like all things we find the best in what we knew after the fact of it has past. With me it was that, just as I got to know him, I was robbed of his friendship and trust. These were special circumstances. I had no other option. Besides, they should stay with Jared here. Micro circuitry! I wished that I could find out if the earth Magic (for so I must by my nature think of it) would really work. But there was still the rest of this day and the night to run; and I had no time to test my ideas.
Carefully so as not to disturb anything, I turned Jared’s left hand slightly, I tucked the silvery metal tag and chain into his palm, and curled the fingers around it, turning his hand back to the same position palm down as I did so. I stared down at him for a long time. Trouble seemed a distant utterance, muttered out of earshot.
‘I promise…’ the sound of my own voice surprised me in the quiet cool room; ‘I promise I will find out what happened on Janey’s Birthday. And if it is within my power I will bring the perpetrators to justice.’
‘I never said why I wanted to be on the expedition Jared; not really. Forgive me my low and rather selfish motives. If I could be as brave as you… then I think I can change everything.’ I felt a little foolish but continued: ‘I’m sorry for not having a bit of faith and going into the End Zone that night; I wish I could have shared more of your adventures. I’m sorry I didn’t know you better before it all went wrong. Maybe we can meet again….Perhaps, in my last hour. Knowing you…’ here I felt choking hot tears welling up. Dear God help me please! Give me the strength to face what is out there!
‘Knowing you Jared, the honour; was all mine.’
It was done. The transition through this door had been made; not to be undone. I stepped back. This time would live forever in my mind, whatever happened next. It was now complete. Fate… it was then as if the stone chapel flowed away from me; Rather than me leaving it.
I was standing in the cave with the bench quite overcome by some odd sensation in my limbs. I couldn’t quite recall walking back to there. The contents of the bags had been spread out in order ready to be repacked in order. Oliver was out of the room to get the med case doses recharged.
I rubbed my left arm absently, at the same time realised the truth. The secondary drug was beginning to exit my system. It wasn’t yet eleven. I guessed (later I found rightly) that I’d pumped it out of my system unusually fast, on account of nearly getting killed (the main cause), and then being kissed by Janey (even more alarming from my point of view). Even an unconscious man knows whe
n the woman he loves is intimate to him.
Realising that time might be more limited than I‘d thought I went and found Aiden. He was in the place with all the techy stuff and the computer screens.
‘You must have a generator.’ I said.
‘Of course.’ Aiden reached over to pick up something from the table; ‘I’ve got your copy here.’
‘That?’
‘Yes. It has to be undetectable to Main. There’s no electronics to peek at with their magic scanners.’
‘But what is it?’
‘Low tech. but clever. You’ve watched spy films. This is strictly B Movie style.’
‘Microfilm?’
‘Well not that low tech. Micro dot. Very small. Just need the right kind of viewer.’
‘George?’
‘Definitely. On the outside that is. Could be at his place, or somewhere else. I’ve included everything. Copies of all the documents; Even your info. session; in case your memory develops some holes.’
‘I’m guessing that George couldn’t do this the other way round.’
‘That daft rule about metal…. It’s actually platinum…. Gold works nearly as well. They aren’t going to make it anything like easy enough to let him sneak it. But who would notice an extra tag?’
‘I see! And if you leave the base, of course you’d take your personal effects with you…’
‘Such as rings, lapel pins, earrings and such. I thought you wouldn’t like an earring so I put it in this.’
He gave me the silvery looking metal ring. It had a tiny depression on the inside, but apart from that looked innocently smooth and unimpressive.
‘Forefinger of your left hand is best, as you are right handed.’
‘You know that?’
‘I know everything. Even your height and weight. Everyone’s file is on here too.’ He looked slightly worried then: ‘Just don’t let anyone else have it. It’s almost impossible to open. But they’re a clever bunch of evil delinquents.’
‘You’re putting a lot of trust in me.’