by Kir Lukovkin
They continued to sit at the edge of the precipice, each thinking their own thoughts.
“He won't come back,” Maya said suddenly.
“Why do you think so?” Rick understood her completely—she was talking about Tommo.
“He's either been killed or taken prisoner.”
“I doubt it. Those guys are agile as anything. I still don't quite understand what they are.”
Maya thought for a little and offered, “Maybe they are artificial humans, not machines?”
“How can this be?” Rick did not understand.
“They are not born the way we are. They are grown like flowers in a pot. Or assembled from different parts. Basically, they are made. Which is why they are completely different to normal human. They have different thoughts, desires and requirements.”
“Do they die?”
“Probably not. I can imagine that they break, hibernate or go insane. But dying means ceasing to live, but can their existence be called life? That's the question.”
Rick asked Maya to tell him something about herself in the same way as he did. This is the way he found out about life in the Kappa sector and about the traditions and customs of another small people. Some things genuinely amused him. He found the strict ban on eating in front of others especially funny—the people of the sector considered it to be sacrilegiously amoral behavior. The society of Kappa sector was strictly divided along gender lines—men and women lived apart. The Assembly, which was a long celebration of life, labor and love took place during special months, usually once a year, and united representatives of the whole sector.
The family did not exist as a social unit. It was replaced by brigades, teams or units, that were formed from people of one gender, but different ages. For instance, in a unit which was formed from the male half of society there were always children, youths adult men and a male elder. These groups were formed for exactly one year and all of their members bore collective responsibility for each other's actions. Maya herself had gone through several such units. Being part of a unit did not mean that there was a strict band on interaction with peers or other people, but the residents of Kappa sector had no private life. It was even regulated by the Mentors of the Order.
Work was distributed by lot and was also assigned for one year. At the end of the annual celebration, the Order organized a lottery, where everyone drew their lot and chance determined the fate of the participant for the following year.
“I got assigned to work in the greenhouse,” Maya said, “for the third time in a row. This is probably why I am the best at botany.”
“And what about hard labor which the children and the elderly can't do?”
“The Order has thought of that too, so they organize a separate lottery for every age category. This tradition has persisted for hundreds of years. They say that it was started at the very beginning to exclude the possibility of the usurpation of power and social stagnation. Machines help us a lot.” Maya was silent for a while and then added, “We also have one important custom. Every person in the sector must compose and sing a song about their whole life. It is considered that the song contains their very soul. Everything that the person has lived through in their years is included in that song—their work, those close to them, their victories and defeats, all of their achievements and all their most important actions. A person might be composing the song for their entire life, but if they do not sing it, then they are struck out of every chronicle and forgotten forever. This is why our elders sing the Song of Life every year, and we enter these songs into the sector chronicle.”
“What, every single song?”
“Yes,” replied Maya with great seriousness.
“Are you already composing yours?” Rick asked with a smile.
“Of course!” Maya exclaimed. “But only the first line.”
“Sing that one at least.”
“No.” She firmly shook her head. “I can't. Maybe later.”
Rick decided that he would not insist. Maya continued telling her tale, while he lay on his back, put his hands behind his head and started examining the ceiling. The light falling from the Chorda gave a strange color to all imperfections, protrusions and depressions. At first, it seemed that the relief of the floor was composed of chaotic combinations of lines, shapes and dots, but the eye could not help finding some sort of order, some unity or harmony, as if it was a mosaic that combined different elements.
Maya spoke, but Rick no longer listened with the same attention, consumed by hi study of the view that lay before him. Every figure and every line carried more than it had originally seemed. For instance, the circular shapes—their half circles were parts of more complex forms. They were crossed diagonally by lines that turned out to be the sides of a square that completed two other in itself. Rays radiated from the dots in some place, but they were also the sides of triangles, that built up an even more complex figure, and so on, to infinity. At one point, Rick realized that he saw the shape of a man, but this image soon fell apart into formless parts. Then, it seemed that a face appeared on the ceiling, with clearly visible lines forming its eyes, nose and mouth.
Rick felt uneasy.
“Are you listening to me?” Maya elbowed him in the side.
“Oh, yes,” he snapped out of his reverie, finding it difficult to tear his eyes away from the ceiling.
“What did you see?”
“I...” Rick looked up again.
And he was struck dumb.
One of the dots in the center of the circle opened like the bud of a flower and a cable flew throw the torchlit opening. Then, a figure in an orange jumpsuit appeared there.
Maya also noticed the prole. They jumped up, grabbed their things and hurried to the place where the cable was hanging.
Rick figured out that Tommo had no intention to come down and that the cable was meant to bring things up. He tugged on the end, checking that it was secure, and then asked Maya to lift up her arms, skilfully making a loop which he fastened with a carabiner clip across her chest.
“Take her up!” Rick waved to Tommo.
And Maya started to smoothly go upwards. Rick stood there, looking up, amazed at the strength of the prole. It was unbelievable—only a machine could pull on a cable without stopping, like a windlass that has a motor and a spool, but even the strongest man would require rest, and a man would raise the weight by fits and starts...
Tommo pulled Maya into the opening and threw the cable back. Rick quickly tied himself to it, clicked the carabiner clip close, shouted to the prole and set off upwards.
Soon, he could see a view of the space of the fourth aeon. He looked won at the abandoned mutant settlements, tamps and ladders, corridor entrances—everything did not look the same as he was used to. He would normally observe the world from the side or from below, and now he could see it from a different perspective. This must have been the way that the Creator saw the world.
Tommo grabbed him under the arms and dragged him through an opening in the bottom of a well, which had walls covered with a furry layer of mold and dust. The air in the well was dry and warm. Rick realized that they were in a ventilation shaft. Tommo looked at them, waiting for orders.
“You're a true friend!” Maya happily declared and tried to hug the prole, who quickly moved out of the way.
“He's just a little wild,” Rick added and smiled at Maya.
He stepped forward and looked up.
“We will need to go up again,” Maya said. “And I don't seem to see anything apart from darkness up there.”
Tommo took two excellent torches out of a backpack that he had procured somewhere. Maya clapped her hands.
“What else have you got there?”
Tommo showed them his spoils: a pair of unusual goggles that had a compact battery like a torch but did not emit light when they were switched off, offering the ability to see in the dark instead. The prole showed how to use them in great detail and then put them back in their case. Then, he
took out a pair of flasks of water, a box of tools and two breathing masks. Rick and Maya told him that they knew what the masks were for and how to use them. Which is when Tommo started to coil up the cable.
“I would like to know where you got all of this,” Rick admitted, as he accepted a flask of water from Maya. “But you won't tell us anyway, will you?”
The prole nodded.
Rick took a swig from the nozzle and fastened the flask to his belt.
In a few minutes they were climbing up. A yellow line which fluoresced weakly in the darkness could be seen around the walls of the well at different distances, and there was always a ledge that followed the circle of the well over the line. Narrow branching pipes were placed symmetrically above it.
These narrow pipes probably provided ventilation to rooms in the sector. It was a shame that it was impossible to squeeze through them and confirm his suppositions—even Maya would have got stuck.
They quickly learned to use the cable and the safety harness, quickly attaching the carabiner clips to the rungs on the walls and then moving their bodies upwards and repeating the process. Just in case, Rick went first and Tommo went last. The prole could react quickly and he was very strong, so if they were both to fall, Rick had no doubt that he could catch them.
Maya was counting the floors. After every ten floors, the air shaft was connected to horizontal air ducts that were waist-length in diameter. It was easy to get through there, so they made short breaks to drink water and rest for a few minutes.
“We're going up through your sector,” Maya said suddenly. Do you want to say hi to anyone?”
Rick did not reply.
“Floor five hundred and twenty,” Maya reported a little later. “If I have counted right.”
They were drenched in sweat and breathing heavily from fatigue.
“Let's go up to five hundred and thirty and have a long rest,” Rick offered. “I want to eat.”
They continued the climb, knocking their feet against the ribbed walls of the well. Rick looked down—the entrance was a tiny dot of light somewhere far way. What a climb! It seemed that they were separated by such a huge distance that this little dot was a little... star?
“Maya,” Rick called out once they had sat down in the niches at the crossroads with the horizontal air ducts. “Do you know what a star is?”
Maya looked at him with a strange expression on her face for a while.
Then, she asked, “Where do you know that word from?”
“I don't know.” Rick rubbed at his temple with his fist. “It just came up in my head, and that's all.”
“Have you ever heard it somewhere before?”
“No. Nowhere.”
She was looking at him intently, as if she was trying to read his thoughts like the mutant dwarf.
“Are you sure?” Maya asked as doubtfully as before.
“No, I'm telling you. So do you know what that is?”
“I heard or read about it somewhere, but I don't know. It's an ancient world, and it means an object from the outer limits.”
They finished another flask and chewed on another couple of pieces of the mushroom that Rick had saved.
Maya spat it out and said, “How disgusting!”
“When you woke up, you didn't complain,” noted Rick and chuckled. “When you want to eat this isn't the only thing you'd eat. What do you eat in your Order?”
“Food concentrates. The Councilors issue them from the warehouse, where they are defrosted after the freezer. We have a giant freezer, filled floor to ceiling with various supplies. The Councilors do not say anything about the levels of supplies, but someone had a look and less than half remain. This is why we try to grow some things ourselves. We also breed baby fish in baths.”
“You're lucky,” Rick offered a friendly smile. “When Omicron was established, we barely had enough supplies for a few years. The First Warden launched the generator and ordered for seeds to be planted in the ground. It was he who developed the plan to save the sector. If it wasn't for the inventiveness of the Warden, our people would have died out long ago. Since then, we live according to the established plan that forms the Circle of Life. Spring is a time of sowing. Summer is the time for collecting moisture. Autumn is the time for harvesting. And the winter is the worst time. The main thing in winter is to survive. This winter ended later than all others.”
“Oh, really? Did you see the snow in the outer limits?”
“Yes,” Rick admitted unhappily.
“Then you understand everything yourself.” Maya grimaced. “It's time to move on.”
They put their supplies away in the backpack and gave it to Tommo. Rick started to climb and Maya followed him. The prole followed behind them, as usual. They soon passed the fourth dozen floors of the Omicron sector. Rick was sadly thinking of what Aurora and Kyoto might be doing and what Croesus and his former Brothers in the Patrol were worrying about. It would be funny to tell them about the way he climbed through the sector, if that moment would ever come...
Rick had a sudden urge to go two floors back down and get into the air duct, knocking out the grille and going home. He started shaking and his heart started to beat faster and stronger in his chest. Let them arrest him and throw him in a cell, but at least he will be inside the walls of his homeland and will probably get to see Aurora and old Kyoto...
However, the urge went away as quickly as it arose.
“Floor five hundred and forty,” Maya offered from below.
“I already guessed that,” grumbled Rick.
He didn't even want to get distracted by her reports about the floors.
“Then you can count for yourself next time!” Maya declared.
Their climb continued in grim silence. When they stopped at yet another crossroads for a short break, they heard distant shouts and noises coming from the air duct. Rick listened and determined the direction. A crying woman and the shouting of men could be heard. Someone was being forcibly led along the corridor. The woman was begging for mercy, but it seemed like it was pointless.
“Don't even think about it,” Maya said.
“The thought never even crossed my mind,” he lied and let out a quiet sigh.
They set off again. The Omicron sector was long behind, and they entered the space of the Xi sector. There was a technical floor between the sectors which was more a lot like a storeroom that was used for the dumping of minor garbage, tons of dust, huge rolls of moss and mold. The light of the torches outlined huge insects that crawled away in a panic. The sight of them made Maya shiver violently and she barely restrained herself from screaming when Rick took a fat woodlouse off her chest.
“Don't be like that,” he told her. “Beetles are a good source of protein. When they are fried with oil, salt and herbs, they combine rather well with...”
“Stop it,” Maya demanded.
“Oh come on, I was only joking,” Rick lied to her hurriedly.
Beetles and larvae really were a source of protein, and a great one, at that. This was something that old Kyoto told him and taught him how to cook them as well. It was really tasty. It's a shame that there was no way to properly explain this to Maya.
“Listen, Rick,” she said to him. “I didn't want to tell you, but take a look at the ceiling.”
They looked up together. Hundreds of carrion bats hung off the ceiling, looking like little bags of nuts, holding on to the ledges with their tiny claws. Most of them were asleep. Some of them poked their muzzles out from beneath their wings and let out quiet squeals.
“Mother Darkness,” Rick could not help whispering. “We are going to wake them up with our talking. We need to get up.”
“What are they?”
“Quiet,” Rick bent down to Maya's ear and whispered. “Haven't you ever seen them? Those are carrion bats, it's just they're really small for some reason. The ones we have on our level can be the size of a baby and if they attack in a swarm, a man won't survive. They're vampires. They quickly dra
in all of your blood!”
Maya's eyes went wide and she quickly pushed towards the well, implying that he would go first as usual and they lost no more time in continuing to climb up. The creatures hung by the opening over the ledge and it would be difficult to get past without disturbing them. Rick managed to somehow hold on to the ledge pulled himself up higher. Maya repeated his movements, but still managed to squash one of the carrion bats, which immediately started to squeal and beat its wings. It was as if a wave passed over the rows of creatures.
“Faster!” Rick barked, and gave Maya a leg up, letting her go ahead.
A few of the small bloodsuckers sped upwards through the well in terror. The rest still hung in their places, raising a wave of squeals and squawks.
Tommo stopped by the opening of the air duct where his companions had just rested. He got out his toolbox and bent over, hidden from sight by the ridge.
“Rick!” Maya hissed from above.
Rick did not reply as he was watching Tommo. Once he was done, Tommo quickly climbed up the wall and grabbed him by the scruff of his jumpsuit to pull him up to the level at which Maya was hanging. Something unexpected happened next. A fine mesh suddenly slid out of the sides of the well from the ridge and closed it off. The bloodsuckers started to squeak even louder and tried to fly upwards, but another mesh slid out there to separate the creatures from the humans.
“Wow!” Rick exclaimed and turned to Maya.
“That was really great!” She nodded in amazement. “Well done, Tommo!”
They took a relieved breath of air and started to calmly ascend without fearing an attack by tiny bloodsuckers.
They did not encounter any other dangers on the way. They kept moving upwards and resting in the air ducts, spending their time studying the ancient papers. Rick also got to practice his reading. Following another completed task, Maya looked at him with an expression of true admiration and respect. However, all it did was annoy Rick—he had not achieved anything special yet, he just learned how to put letters together into words, so what?
“I'm sorry. It's just you learn too fast,” Maya understood what he was thinking about. “A man that never knew how to read is basically unable to learn that quickly.”