by Kir Lukovkin
Rick had already guessed that a red square meant denial, while the green meant confirmation. He pressed the green one.
“Maya! Be quick and read!”
Burly men in dirty yellow robes ran out from the rows of cabinets and pushed Tommo away. Their fierce faces turned to the chair.
Arcadius screamed from the door, “Stop them!”
“Launch particle accelerator? Yes—No.”
And Rick pressed on the green square before he was dragged out of the chair and thrown to the floor. Arcadius was red in the face from his run, and stood opposite them, breathing heavily. It took him a minute to come to himself—his hands trembled and his cheeks shook.
Suddenly, a low rumbling sound started to grow behind the wall. Arcadius grabbed Rick by the front of his suit and shouted, “What have you done? Answer me!” He shook Rick furiously in a moment of rage, but quickly ran out of breath and threw him down. “It is forbidden to enter here! This is the holy place of the Reactor, and you have desecrated it! It is all my fault. I should have left guards with you. What have you just done? Tell me! Just tell me!”
Arcadius was almost begging in desperation.
“You have committed a crime! Now god's wrath awaits us all! We will have to punish you and this trollop. Pray, pagans, to all the gods that you believe or don't believe in. You will beg me for a quick death. The test before the Red King will seem like child's play compared to what I will do to you! Ah, ah, ah! Oh, oh, oh, mighty Reactor, forgive us!”
Arcadius had finally completely lost control. He ran around the chair, but then gave his clothing a sharp tug to put it in order and calmed down, addressing Rick again, who was by then being held tight by the elbows.
“Listen. I have allowed myself a weakness. Let's forget about it all. Of course, there is no reason for us to give you to the Reactor, if you put everything back. Tell me, what did you just do? Tell me all you know about machines. I give my word that I will let you go.”
The room fell silent. The rumble of the sphere behind the window changed, growing quieter, but having a more intense quality to it than before, as well as being a tone higher.
A worker entered the room and said, “Mentor! The amulets are all lit and they blink with holy lights. The Reactor has become brighter, and everything is full of light!”
Rick saw that it took Arcadius a superhuman effort to remain calm.
“Good.” He turned to Rick. “I am listening.”
“I will tell you everything, but let's go upstairs. The Reactor will be fine.”
Arcadius was about to open his mouth, but Rick added, “I give my word, the same as you gave to us. The Reactor is safe.”
The Mentor glanced at him dully and motioned for everyone to leave.
11
“SO,” Arcadius said, looking at Maya and Rick, “I am listening to you carefully.”
Around an hour had passed since they were taken out of the underground storeroom. Rick demanded food and water, as well as a meeting with Ahmed. Only once he was sure that the dark skinned engineer was held in decent conditions and nothing was threatening him did he agree to talk.
Rick's tale was short and to the point. He told the whole truth. Arcadius obviously did not think so. Eyes full of doubt, with his arms crossed on his chest, he listened to the story of Rick's escape downwards with his new friends, Yarg's camp, the empty levels of sector Pi, the wild jungles and their denizens and the way that the runaways finally understood that they will reach their target.
“And that is all.”
Rick took a glass of water from the table and downed it.
“Fine. What were you doing in the storeroom?”
“I just sat in the chair. I suddenly really wanted to.”
Arcadius watched him intently.
“I sat down,” Rick continued, “touched the buttons, and then this thing started to blink. I was afraid, so I tried to switch it off, but I never did it in time, because that oaf,” and Rick pointed at the guard standing a step away from him, “threw me down on the floor and pulled my hand behind my back. He left a bruise, by the way.”
Rick demonstrated his bruise to everyone present. The guard grinned with pleasure. Arcadius looked back at Rick, whose only desire was actually to get some decent sleep.
“You are lying,” Arcadius said. “Tell me true, what did you do and why?”
“I am telling the truth.”
Arcadius gritted his teeth. He looked at Maya and back at Rick.
“Let met tell you about our Brotherhood, so you understand where you have ended up and why we are so worried about this issue.”
According to Arcadius, the history of the Brotherhood stretched over many centuries and began at the moment of the great epidemic of an unknown disease. The safety system turned on and separated the worker's sectors from the upper and lower aeons, and the residents of these sectors knew nothing of the fate of other humans since then. No one tried to communicate with them for a very long time. This is why the workers of Sigma and Tau considered themselves the only survivors. Fear of the unknown infection became part of their consciousness. The aeon survives due to the great Reactor—it provides the people with heat and light and sustains the machines that produce food, transport cargo and passengers and do a lot of other important jobs. The wisest men were selected among the workers, who started to call themselves Mentors and solve all of the most important issues, from food supplies to pipe repair. The aeon survived without any significant events for a while. Several generations of people changed.
Then, the machine responsible for heat distribution in Pi and Rho sectors got damaged as a result of one of the internecine wars. It was a disaster. Many died. Even more suffered as a result of burns and a terrible illness that seemed to dry a man out from inside—their hair fell out, their bodies quickly lost moisture and the affected person turned into a walking mummy. The zone around the accident became forbidden. Some escaped upwards, and some downwards. The Brotherhood attempted expeditions above several times, but all that returned later became sick and died from the same illness. The higher levels started to be considered cursed. No one went there anymore. The life of the Sigma and Tau Brotherhood was entirely dependent on the machines and the Reactor. If the Reactor would break down, everyone would face slow agony and death.
“Do you understand our concern now?”
“Completely. But my Commune and the Kappa Order are in a far worse situation. The people of my homeland are already dying of the cold and going blind in the darkness.”
Arcadius nodded, with a look of concern, and asked, “So what did you do to the Reactor?”
“It is not a reactor, it is a particle accelerator.”
“What?” Judging by his facial expression, Arcadius did not understand.
Rick patiently repeated himself.
“The true source of energy is located far deeper, on a lower level. That is where we are going, to switch it to full power and bring our whole world back to life. Then we can forget about the issue of the cold. There will be enough energy for everyone, do you understand? Everyone will have as much heat and light as they want. We passed through the jungle, we managed to do that, so we have nothing more to fear. All the peoples of the world must unite to achieve one aim.”
Arcadius, who had obviously cheered up, was listening and nodding along. Once Rick finished, he asked, “So how do I control the Reactor? Teach me how to do that.”
“I only managed to do it randomly. I have no idea how it happened.”
“Maybe we should go down there and try again?”
Rick became wary of Arcadius' insistent requests, but he tried not to show it, turning to Maya, then glancing at the guard and back at Arcadius.
“Do you think I can do it?”
“I have no doubt!” Arcadius declared.
“And what about Cornelius? Does he know nothing about the Reactor?”
Arcadius waved dismissively.
“All he thinks about is fighting and entertai
ning himself. He is rather stupid. Well then, shall we go?”
“Not now.”
Arcadius motioned to the guard, who separated himself from the wall. Two others that were waiting by the doors also came into the room.
Rick understood that he had made a mistake by calming the Brotherhood Mentor, as Arcadius was now sure that the Brotherhood was in no danger and that he did not need those who came from above. Rick nodded to Maya and said, “Fine.”
He made an approving gesture and assessed the situation in the room at the same time.
It would all be a matter of seconds now.
“Now, that's better.” Arcadius arose from the table. “Don't forget that we are looking after your third companion. We don't want to do evil to anyone.”
“Neither do we,” Maya replied. “Which is why you will let us go, right now.”
“And why would we do that?”
Maya took the weapon she picked up below from underneath her clothing and pointed it at Arcadius, “Because of this. A single movement, and your brains will spatter the walls.”
Arcadius laughed.
“Where did you pick up this toy? Down below? It is a useless piece of metal.”
“I don't think so,” Maya pressed a lever on the handle and the room was lit up with a flash of light, as a crackling bolt of lightning hit the wall by the Mentor.
Arcadius face immediately changed.
“Now, all of you must go to the far corner,” Maya ordered. “Quick!”
Rick watched out that they would have a free path to the door, and stepped towards the exit—there was no one in the corridor apart from Tommo.
“What are you going to achieve?” Arcadius spoke up again. “Where will you go? Up above? There is nothing below apart from emptiness and monsters. You have nowhere to run.”
“That's none of your business,” Maya countered. “Stay in place, and count to a hundred. Slowly.”
Rick waited for her to leave the room and barred it from the other side.
“Run,” Maya whispered.
Tommo immediately followed them.
“How did you manage to use the weapon?” asked Rick on the way.
“I just entered all the codes I could remember in advance. We were lucky.”
They took a turn at a junction, and Rick came to a sudden stop, turning to Tommo.
“Can I trust you?”
The prole, who stood still opposite him quickly nodded, but Rick had no time to say anything to him as a siren blared in the corridor. Red emergency lights started blinking and a mechanical metallic voice began intoning, “Alert! We are under attack! Alert! We are under attack! All workers must gather in the main halls. Defense forces must occupy the top level!”
The worried residents of the sector started running around the corridors. Rick ordered Tommo to take them to Ahmed and they ran after the prole. The siren continued to blare, inspiring fear and putting pressure on their eardrums. Rick and Maya nearly lost each other in the commotion and the push of the crowds at another junction. They once mistook another prole for Tommo and had to double back, but it was fine in the end, and the three of them continued on their way.
“Alert! There has been an attack!” the metallic voice sounded again from the ceiling. “There are infiltrators in a sector! A young male accompanied by a red haired woman! Apprehend them and terminate them! I repeat...”
Tommo turned at a junction, taking the escapees into an empty corridor.
“Hey, you! Halt!” they heard behind their back.
Rick looked back to see two men rushing after them.
“They're here!” the first of the men shouted. “Get them!”
The two men threw themselves towards them. Rick met the first with a fist to the jaw, but the second was faster and tackled them both to the ground. It turned into a brawl. Maya rushed to Rick's help, but the locals were joined by several other men. The situation was becoming desperate. Tommo tried to help, but got quickly pushed away as they started to beat the escapees. Rick covered up with his hands, shouting to Maya that she should no resist—they had no way of getting out of a narrow corridor filled with that many people.
Suddenly, the strikes came less often and they heard worried shouts. Rick managed to get up—new participants entered the struggle. Several proles quickly cleared the space around Rick, Maya and Tommo in perfect coordination. Cornelius stood behind the proles, swinging a sledgehammer.
“Get out of here!” he shouted at the workers. “Get lost, if you value your lives!”
This worked, and the men ran back behind the corner, freeing the way.
Cornelius glanced at Rick.
“I owe you something. Your life in exchange for mine. And I always pay my debts.”
“Thank you. How do we get down below?” Rick immediately moved on to the main issue.
“Follow me.”
Cornelius flashed a predatory grin. Rick could not understand whether the former Operator was happy because he got into a fight with the workers, or just because he could spite Arcadius.
They ran after Cornelius, who led them through empty corridors, constantly turning to get them away from busy places.
Rick finally managed to orient himself—they were running towards the periphery, where the air became colder and there was a perceptible draft. They could hear the wind howl in the ventilation shafts. Cornelius stopped at the end of the radial corridor.
“This is where we need to go,” he said, pressing a button on the panel with a Tau sector glyph. The door panel on the wall slid to the side, opening a cargo elevator.
“Get lively!”
People appeared in the corridor far away, screaming as they ran.
The escapees entered the elevator, and the cabin rapidly surged downwards as soon as the panel closed. Rick only just managed to grab a railing, while the prole saved Maya from falling. After passing around ten levels, Cornelius gave the lever on the panel a sharp tug, making the elevator come to a smooth stop and they ran outside. There was a corridor which was nearly identical to the previous one, save for the two paneled gates blocking entry. Cornelius approached the control levers on the panel. Rick thought that he started to understand where they were.
“Does this door lead to the edge of the Expanse?”
“What?” Cornelius did not understand. “It leads to the parapet. Let's get a breath of fresh air!”
Rick had no time to reply, when Cornelius pulled the lever. The panels slid open, letting gusts of wind and snowflakes into the corridor. Frosty air blew into Rick's face so strongly, that he could not even normally breathe out at first. His eyes and nose were immediately covered in snow. The bright white light was blinding. Rick shut his eyes—the radiance beyond the gates was brighter than a hundred of the most powerful lamps and was painful even through his tightly shut eyelids.
“Move your asses!” Cornelius roared and gave Rick a sharp pull on his sleeve. “Take this and put it on. Hurry up!”
He threw Rick a thick jumpsuit and a pair of gloves and got another for Maya from the locker by the open panel. Then he took coils of cable, carabiner clips and torches for everyone and started getting changed himself.
“Wait!” Rick shouted to him. “We have another friend! We can't leave him behind!”
“That black one?” Cornelius zipped up his jumpsuit with one swift movement and took up the cables again. “My proles will take care of him!”
Cornelius gave each of them a torch, explained how to use them and ordered them to put the torches in their pockets. Then, he attached the carabiner clips to Rick and Maya's belts, passed the cables through them, and silently disappeared into the white mist. Tommo followed suit.
“Rick, I'm afraid!” Maya shouted.
“Me too! Let's do this together!”
They held hands and stepped into the unknown.
12
RICK THOUGHT that they were about to fall and plunge into eternity. However, he felt a hard surface beneath his feet, and Maya and Tomm
o were also by his side. Far away, they could make out the silhouettes of Cornelius and the rest of the proles. Rick caught his breath and looked around.
His eyes no longer hurt as much—something was strange about the surrounding space. The three vertical flat surfaces, the walls that he was used to, were not there. The ceiling could not be seen either. It was like an unfinished sketch of the world, as if some unknown creator had not completed what they started, having only created the floor and the wall behind his back. The thought of them simply not existing made Rick's head spin. He held onto the wall and stood still, not daring to move on. The wind fiercely threw handfuls of prickly snow in his face, but this did not stop him—the platform ahead ended in twenty paces, and ended in a looming abyss. Rick looked into the unknown beyond the edge, and the white Expanse seemed to be laughing at him. Maybe there was so much snow that the ceiling and walls could not be seen? That's what he wanted to think. It was probably just a very big internal space, greater than all that he had seen and all of them put together, but which definitely had a normal floor, ceiling and walls. Yes, there was definitely no doubt about it.
The panels hummed behind his back and closed.
That was it, there was no way back.
“How are you?” He turned to Maya.
Her face was covered in snow and her eyes were two narrow slits.
“All right.” She barely moved her lips.
Cornelius returned and worriedly examined them.“What, haven't you been outside before?” he shouted over the wind.
Rick shook his head.
“Stand one behind the other!”
Then he dragged Rick after him, while Tommo helped Maya detach herself from the wall and follow them. They crossed the platform and jumped down onto the ramp, walking along for a while until they met two of Cornelius' proles. The proles were standing beneath a massive vertical cutaway section, which went away from the wall and downwards at a sharp angle. The cutaway looked a little like a gigantic, vertical fin. A fragile looking ladder led to the spine of that fin. One of the proles was already hanging from it, using the carabiner clips to attach the cable to its bars. Another was laying wide metallic plates on the ground.