Beyond Ever Blue Skies

by Clive S. Johnson

  “You’ve spoken with her?”

  “Well, as best I could. She’s not all there now, unfortunately; poor dear. Thought I was Brenda most of the time. Anyway, as best I could gather, Agri-Prod was closed for some weeks after the ‘Great Shake’, as she kept calling it. She said they nearly ran the storage silos empty before it mysteriously reopened.”

  “That must’ve been worrying.”

  “She said she turned up for work the morning after it happened only to find all the workers milling around outside, both sets of doors sealed, no sign of anyone inside, not that they could see. They were eventually sent home until further notice.”

  “Did she know why it was closed?”

  “I’m not sure. She rambled on a bit about no one being hurt, that it had happened during the night when the place was empty. But I couldn’t get much sense out of her otherwise. What she was sure about, though, was the damage they found when they were eventually allowed back in. She said few of the crops had survived, but the trees had, although a lot of their branches had been torn off.”

  “Torn off? Blimey. Was she sure?”

  “As I say, I’d have to pass on whether she was remembering it properly or not, but she was adamant they’d had a lot of reseeding to do. But that first day back in was when she first set eyes on this tower. Apparently, it stands where her own plots had been. They had to reassign her to work with someone else for a while, someone she’d plainly not got on with, from the way she went on about them.”

  “Did she say anything else?”

  “She fell asleep then, and I didn’t have the heart to wake her.”

  “But someone must’ve known how this tower got here; it must’ve become common knowledge at some point. I mean, look at it. It’s not exactly a minor feature. What must it be, twenty or thirty yards across, maybe twice that height?”

  “About that. But, well, it’s not its size that got me but where it is.”

  “What, slap-bang at the centre of Agri-Prod?”

  “It’s not quite; it’s offset—both across it and lengthwise. No, I was meaning in relation to what we know to be directly above it.”

  “Eh?” but then Morgan’s eyes narrowed as he stared up, his mind forcing its way beyond the convincing illusion of sky above.

  “As best I can estimate, from what I remember of our view from the glass sphere, I reckon it’s as near as damn it directly beneath that huge yellow-rimmed hole we saw in the far side of the shaft.”

  “But I don’t see the connection, Steph?”

  “You know when you told me that if we’d not stopped the sphere when we did it would likely have come off its rail and crashed down onto the sky?”

  Morgan nodded, then realisation likewise crashed in on him and he gasped. “Ah, so you reckon both holes must be the result of some sort of damage, and something from that far one actually did fall to the sky…the sky above where we’re standing.”

  “And whatever fell was so big that those things we saw crawling all over the sky’s upper surface couldn’t cope—couldn’t repair what must have been a pretty big hole in the sky.”

  “So to hide it, to remove what gave away the illusion, they, or something like them, boxed it in with a tower.”

  “To keep out questioning eyes, yes. It makes some sort of sense of it all.”

  “It certainly does.” He went over and rapped his knuckles against the tower’s white wall. “Although… Well, it seems such a solid structure just to keep out prying eyes. This wall sounds really thick. But I’m buggered if I can see how it helps us.”

  Stephanie remained strangely silent, though, as she distantly stared up at the tower, all the while ever so slightly nodding to herself.

  22 Best Case?

  When Morgan woke in the morning, he immediately checked his latest changes. The overnight reboot had successfully recognised the new links he’d configured and so all was now set for the next step in Ken’s instructions. He confirmed this with a bright and breezy sounding Stephanie, asking her to meet him where they’d arranged but a bit earlier if possible.

  “I’m up and about,” he lied, “so it’d be useful to get started as soon as we can. Do you think you could be there in half an hour?”

  “Sure thing,” she breezed in such a carefree manner it made him remember their afternoon together. He smiled.

  The smile felt as though it had taken root on his face by the time he came to greet Stephanie outside the Atmos building, his cheek muscles aching when he attempted to broaden it. The ache eased during their lingering kiss, though, only to return when Stephanie stood back and stared at him.

  “What you grinning at?”

  “Nothing,” but her eyes gave away his lie.

  “So, what do you want me to do…I mean with this cable thingy you mentioned?”

  “Oh, well, I’m not sure myself yet. Lots of crawling under floors and squeezing through gaps I imagine. Come on, let’s find out,” and he placed his finger on the number plate and the door opened.

  They went inside, but as they passed the side door part way down the corridor, Stephanie stopped and read its nameplate. “So, this is Atmos?”

  “Yeah, but there’s not much to see.” He opened the door to prove it.

  The control room looked just as deserted. Stephanie sniffed the air. “You know, everywhere we’ve been, like Caelum and here, all smell like they’ve not been used for ages. Surely there should be some signs of activity.”

  When Morgan said nothing, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Well?”

  “Well what?”

  “You’re avoiding saying something; I know you well enough by now, Morgan Travis.”

  “Hmm, clearly you do. But it’s nothing important, really.”

  “What isn’t?”

  “Well… It’s more of a puzzle than anything else.” She tilted her head to one side and raised her eyebrows.

  He led her into the room and showed her what was on the desk’s screen, once he’d tapped the long bar below it. Nothing of what it displayed had changed since the last time he’d seen it.

  “There,” he said, pointing to the start of the top line of text. “What does that mean to you?”

  She peered at the groups of characters separated by an assortment of colons, dashes and slashes. Eventually, she shrugged.

  He pointed lower down the screen, again at the start of a line. “And that?”

  “The day before yesterday’s day, date and time, so what… Hang on. She looked back at the first line. “Nah, it can’t be.”

  “That’s what I thought. I’d dismissed it until what you just said made me think.”

  “But it doesn’t make sense. Maybe it isn’t really a date, just the end of whatever went before it, what’s scrolled off the top of the screen,” but then she peered even harder at the text. “Although…it does look like it should be a date.”

  “In which case, the last time anything was done on the Atmos system—before Ken remotely rebooted it the first time…here, see?” and he pointed to the second line from the top, “when he set in motion the air’s deterioration—would be… Well, that would be an awfully long time ago. An awfully long time.”

  She counted on her fingers, then narrowed her eyes before asking Morgan if there was a word that meant a hundred-hundred centuries.

  “Not that I know of, but I think you’ll find you’ve miscounted and dropped a digit.”

  “What?” and she stared at the screen again.

  “Anyway, we’ve more important things to be getting on with. Come on,” and he opened the door and waited for her to stop slowly shaking her head and to close her mouth.

  Ken’s next task did indeed involve crawling about in small spaces, made the harder by the weight of the drum of cable Morgan had gone off to get from one of Lecy’s close by stores. But together they managed to route it exactly as Ken’s instructions required, and by mid-morning Morgan was sitting on the floor of what looked like a small wardrobe filled with an array of sockets. S
tephanie squatted in the corridor, looking in at him.

  “You’ve not much space in there, Morgan.”

  “Won’t be long. Just need to get this end of the cable terminated, then I can get out and stretch.” He’d already aligned all the parts of a plug in one half of the terminating jig held in his hand and was now feeding the prepared end of the cable into its slot. He double-checked the alignment against Ken’s instruction and finally closed the top of the jig onto itself.

  “Press the button and wait for the beep,” he read from the task he’d again briefly flashed up onto his vision. He did just that, and when the short beep finally echoed along the corridor, he reopened the tool and removed what he hoped would now be a perfectly formed cable plug. Stiffly, he shuffled out of the cabinet and moaned as he straightened and stretched.

  “That it then?” Stephanie asked.

  “Nope. Got the other end to do and plug in, then back here to plug this one in.” He blinked up the time and smiled. “But it looks like we’re well ahead, thanks to your help, Steph. Don’t think I could have done it at all without it,” and he briefly kissed her.

  She rubbed at some of the aches and bruises she’d clearly earned in that service, but smiled back at him, anyway.

  “You know, I think we might be in with a chance of getting the whole lot finished off today,” he told her, “if you don’t mind it being a long one. Mind you, I can always do the very last task on my own if you need to get off. We’d then stand a chance tonight of hitting the scheduled system reboot it needs, and so saving ourselves a week’s wait.”

  “But you just said ‘The very last task’, which’ll mean you’ll have completed everything in only four days, not the best case five you quoted Connie-Jay.”

  “I think I was being a bit overly pessimistic, plus I have been lucky with the reboots, and anyway, it’s only a day earlier.”

  “Than the best case!”

  “But that should please your uncle and Connie-Jay, shouldn’t it?”

  “Connie-Jay, certainly.”

  “Be fair, Steph, I gave them my best estimate. It is the first time I’ve done anything like this.” He gave her his most disarming look. “So, you on for staying the course?”

  “Er, well, all right. I’ve nothing else on, so yes. But…but we’re going to need to eat before long. Do you need me while you’re finishing off here? because I passed a café just round the corner on my way here. I can get us something to take out.”

  “I’ll be fine on my own for this bit, Steph. Just the other end to terminate. So, yes, if you don’t mind? I’m beginning to feel a bit peckish.”

  “Okay. I shouldn’t be more than half an hour,” and she skipped over the raised floor tile and hurried down the corridor, but then stopped at the door. “You will let me back in when I knock, won’t you?”

  He nodded, then, as the door closed behind her, packed up his tools and clipped them onto his belt, ready for the long crawl beneath the floor again.

  23 Truth or Dare

  When Morgan finally crawled out from under the floor, having taken longer than expected finishing off the cabling, he was sure Stephanie would be fuming, waiting to be let in. The alley proved empty, though, when he went to take a look.

  He blinked up the time. “More than fifty minutes. Where’s she got to?” But as he was closing the door, he spotted her coming into the end of the alley, arms laden with boxes and a couple of bottles.

  “Where’ve you been, Steph? It’s been nearly an hour,” he said as she drew near. Morgan thought she looked flustered.

  “The café was busy. It’s getting near lunchtime,” and she pushed past him. He closed the door and watched her hurry down the corridor and stack the food and drink on the floor beside the removed tile.

  “You all right, Steph?” he asked as he joined her.

  “Yes,” she almost snapped back, then more softly, “Yes, I’m fine. Why?”

  “You just seem a bit…well, put out.”

  “Oh. No. It was just the café; they don’t do takeouts, so I ended up having to grovel. Then I’d to wait out of turn for them to fit my order in.”

  Morgan glanced at the boxes on the floor as Stephanie hurriedly bent to flip their lids back, each small but recognisable “Jafour’s Tasty Takeaways” legend swiftly overturned.

  “Come on, then,” she urged. “Get it before it goes cold. I don’t know about you, but I’m famished. You choose first. I’m easy with anything. Matter of fact…” Whilst she chatted on, Morgan chose a cheeseburger, sat on the floor and leant against the wall, watching her thoughtfully.

  “Steph?” he said after a while, and she stopped abruptly, midway through offering him a napkin, her wide eyes now meeting his measured gaze. The corridor went eerily still for a moment whilst Morgan gathered his thoughts. “I’ve… I’ve got four tasks to do before we tackle the last one.” He searched her eyes but she remained silent, stilled as though holding her breath. “But… But it should only take me an hour or so. They’re quite straightforward.”

  He saw her take a breath, saw her relax a little, her eyes less fixed.

  “So, once we’ve eaten, I’ll need to sit here and devote myself to them—without interruption, I’m afraid. They’re not difficult to do, but they do need a great deal of care. That okay?”

  “Of course, Morgan. Is there anything else I can do to help? You know, whilst you’re doing that. Anything that won’t disturb you?”

  “No, there’s nothing, Steph, but you might want to have a rest before we get around to the last task.” He bit into his burger and began chewing, despite his appetite having deserted him.

  Ken’s next instructions, as with all those before them, never failed him. The various system changes went through smoothly and he found himself returning his sight to Stephanie earlier than expected. She seemed asleep, lying across the corridor, her back propped against one wall, her breathing deep and steady. The takeout boxes were nowhere to be seen, just the two bottles of fruit juice, hers already empty.

  He took a swig from his own and a moment to reflect on his nagging fears. He could no longer deny the sense he had of peering into a cold and inevitable endless void. He shivered, despite outrage growing within him at having been nothing more than a pawn in Ken’s own game, a game he now suspected was fast drawing towards its end move.

  Stephanie shifted position and sighed, no doubt uncomfortable on the hard floor. He lowered his gaze to her face, seeing… Seeing what?

  Her eyes shot open, catching him looking. “Oh. Have you finished?” and she pushed herself up onto her elbow. “Has it all gone all right?”

  He forced a smile. “Time for the last task, Steph. Time to…to rise to the occasion.”

  Her brows knotted, briefly, then she was all smiles as she stood and smoothed the wrinkles out of her skirt. He admired her legs: shapely, strong—exciting once. And again, he forced a smile as he too got to his feet.

  After replacing the floor tile he gathered his tools together and clipped them to his belt, although no longer needed. “Time marches on,” he said, forcing resolution into his voice, “and we’ve a deadline to meet,” at which he led Stephanie down the corridor and through into the room beyond the door at its far end.

  24 Endgame

  “Hang on a sec’, Morgan,” Stephanie said, cautiously going further into the dimly lit room. “I recognise that desk.” She then darted a look at the ceiling and gasped before turning her surprised face to Morgan.

  “Maintenance Docking Station JAC326, Steph.”

  “There are two?”

  “At least two we now know of.”

  She returned her gaze to the glass hatch above, angling her head this way and that, then froze for a moment. “‘Rise to the occasion’, you said. You don’t mean…” She searched out his eyes in the gloom.

  “Yes, Steph. Our last task is up there, probably not far from the large hole, the one above Agri-Prod’s white tower. So, we might get a chance to look down into it as we cl
imb up the shaft; to see if you put two and two together and really did come up with four.”

  “Yes, then at least… We? You said ‘We’. But won’t you need me to stay here to operate the desk for you? To get you out once you’ve finished, like we had to get my uncle to do for us. No, that can’t be right, ‘cos you said earlier that you could do this last task on your own if I didn’t fancy staying on.”

  The whites of her eyes hung stark in the gloom and Morgan could hear, in the now oppressive silence, that she was holding her breath.

  “You are intending coming back down…aren’t you, Morgan?”

  In the next silence he again saw that cold, endless and inevitable void, clearer this time, although its previously imagined emptiness now held a faint light. Stephanie’s eyes had all the while grown steadily wider.

  “Morgan? Say something; you’re worrying me.”

  It was the way that faint light flickered, the way it looked so vulnerable—as vulnerable as Stephanie now sounded—that fuelled its sudden brilliance, and with it the void vanished.

  “There’s no need to worry, Steph,” and her sharp intake of breath sounded loud in the small, dead room. “We’ll now both be coming back down, both of us safe and sound.”

  She stepped towards him, but he moved forward and swept her along in his arm. “Come on; we haven’t got all day. We need to hit tonight’s system reboot,” and he positioned her away from the floor’s platform. “Same as before, I’ll go through the access procedure on the desk, you jump on when the platform’s ready and I’ll leap in before the column descends. Okay?” to which she barely had time to nod before he’d left her for the desk, over which he now pored.

  When they presently rose into the sphere, the yellow light only dimly lit the great cavern above, its source out of sight far up in the roof-obscured shaft. Morgan had refreshed his memory from Ken’s instructions and so the poor light hardly slowed him as he set to: methodically swinging the chair into place and getting them seated. He placed Stephanie in front of him, as before, then went through the brief sequence that cut the pod free of its moorings.