Millennium Zero G

by Jack Vantage

“Okay, okay, but if you want some fun later just ask. I made them myself.” Brandon winked.

  “Can you believe this night? Till nine in the morning,” Leon said. “No stopping till then.”

  “I’ll be head banging all night, fucking heaven in hell,” Drake snarled.

  “With the ghouls, Drake, with the ghouls,” Dylan said.

  Dylan looked up at the elevator closing in on the four hundredth floor. Almost there. The night was about to begin.

  Dylan had thought hard about Lecodia and how to win her over. She seemed like a stubborn girl sure of what she wanted, but she might loosen if they could just get on. He thought about showing her around the club, dancing with her, drinking with her, getting to know her. If he could just have her to himself for a few moments, maybe she would loosen up, relax and enjoy the night with him.

  Of course, she could just brush him off, ignore him, and shun him. He couldn’t be too persistent or place too much pressure on her. If he did, it would never happen. He had to let her do her own thing and make the decision herself, and most of all he never wanted to be a sex pest.

  “What time are we meeting the ladies?” Fredu asked. “I haven’t been able to contact any of them.”

  “They’ll be outside at seven. They’re coming from Lexines,” Brandon said.

  “I would give anything to watch them get ready. Those girls smoke. Makin’ me hot and bothered under the collar just thinking about it,” Jack said, pulling his collar up.

  “Keep your eyes off mine,” Fredu said.

  “Not yours, Fredu. You’re okay. There’s a shield around her that says taken, don’t touch.” Jack laughed.

  “Fredu the husband!” Brandon said.

  “Brandon the cheesy quaver raver!” Fredu replied.

  Brandon grabbed Fredu and wrestled with boisterous notoriety.

  “Children!” Hammed remarked.

  Brandon and Fredu stopped their childish scuffle and straightened out their clothes.

  “Guys, let’s have fun, be cool and get wasted, pick up some girls and leave happy.” Leon said firmly.

  “Deal,” everyone said.

  “Hammed, you have to get laid tonight. I can’t bear to think of you masturbating again. You must be the king. Your technique must be ferocious.” Brandon laughed

  “I will be with someone by the end of the night. I want to bet you Brandon, a hundred credits, and I want an apology from you for thinking I cannot.” Hammed replied.

  “The love god has spoken. A bet it is, then?” Brandon replied.

  “You’ll see,” Hammed said, then made Brandon shake on it.

  “Get ready, here we go,” Dylan said as the elevator slowed.

  Through the elevator glass, Dylan looked out over the city. The vast topographical landscape was intricately patterned with a million structures. Dylan watched the sun setting to the west, and the full Enzine moon rose to the east. The surrounding organ-horn-like buildings of Central Capital 8 pierced the thin blankets of little fluffy clouds, holding their presence as the tallest buildings around as the cities backdrop. Sky-mobiles skimmed and danced through a grid of criss-crossing airways, all under the setting sun, as night descended and marked the beginning of the cities gathering.

  The elevator stopped with a beep and the doors opened. Zero G rested atop a super structure, high in the thin atmosphere. The huge building stood two hundred metres in front of them, a massive ribbed neon venue. In large radiant letters Zero G discoed above the club’s front entrance. To the left and right of the white building, sky-cab ranks bustled and moved with pickups and drop offs. The famous wave-like roof surfed the glowing building like a designer hat.

  Central to the entrance a frustrating queue held hundreds of people. It moved forward in two separate lines where clubbers huddled like a flock of peacocks in their bright club attire. Thousands of colourful identities were ready to find themselves in the sound of the music. It was a fluorescent, sparkling sight.

  The boys exited the lift and breathed the high-altitude air. Sky-ways flowed and crossed above the club in front of them. Zero G was a super club that played every style of dance and rock music, a place where you could lose yourself. Every time Dylan visited, he always found something new within its walls.

  “Where the girls going to be?” Hammed said as they exited the lift.

  “Back of the queue, Deve said,” replied Brandon.

  The excitement of a night out was a nice feeling. The kind of excitement you felt when something good was about to happen, but you weren’t exactly sure what. The club had the best line up of DJs credits could buy, each with their own unique style of music to blend and mix throughout the night. It was a transcendental experience, clubbing, a night where music took centre stage and guided your body and mind to ecstasy.

  Dance could vibrate your ear drums to a state of pleasure, then tickle them with lust. Dance was a scene that the youth kept to themselves, like a secret.

  Like one big family the dance scene looked after each other and came together to party in any way they wished with outside eyes blinded from the truth.

  All Dylan could think about was Lecodia. What would he do if he didn’t get the chance to know her? But this was her first big night in a club. All he had to do was impress her with his knowledge of the music and venue.

  “I think I can see them,” Jack said.

  Dylan looked across. The girls stood a hundred yards in front of them, all looking bright and eager to get in.

  “Guys, if we lose each other inside just use the communicators,” Leon said. “The second I find a honey I’ll be missing for a while.”

  “Me to,” Hammed said.

  “Don’t forget the bet Hammed,” Brandon said, smiling.

  “Okay guys, here we go. Fredu, Xandu looks fit,” Jack said.

  “That’s why she’s with me,” Fredu replied.

  “I thought it was because she’s blind,” Brandon remarked.

  “She will be if she carries on looking at you,” Fredu replied.

  The girls were in front of them, standing just off the back of the queue. Lecodia shone, stood out, transfigured. Her body ached with sex appeal, her look a dazzling exhibition of perfection. My god! Dylan thought. I’m going to die if I can’t make her mine!

  “Ladies,” Leon said with vigour. “Are you ready to party hard and make us happy. You all look sensational. Lexine, what you’re wearing you could pass for a star.”

  “Always good to see you, Leon,” Lexine replied as she hugged Jack.

  Lexine’s hair was spectacular, a braided tubed matt. Each thin tube glowed with a fluorescent shine, like glow sticks.

  “You okay, baby?” Jack said.

  “Can’t wait. Let’s get inside,” she replied as Jack scanned her body. He liked the short rubber blue skirt, and the something that resembled a bikini on top.

  Fredu and the Lolita like Xandu hugged each other. Her hair was a manufactured curly tone. She looked a cartoon.

  “I love you, baby,” Fredu whispered in her ear.

  Bandon wrapped his arm around Deve. “Hey bitch.”

  “Hey bastard,” she replied, smiling.

  Drake and Joan smiled at each other’s evil death black image. They grinned with sinister sweetness. The gang moved the queue as Dylan moved up beside Lecodia.

  “You look great,” Dylan said with a little stutter, the nerves obvious and embarrassing.

  Come on, Dylan! he thought. Come on. That didn’t exactly sound appealing. You sound like a dick not a lothario.

  “Thanks. You look cool,” Lecodia replied with a little smile that Dylan couldn’t read. Was it pity or lust?

  He had thought long and hard about his clothes for tonight. For the first time he cared about how he looked—well, that much. Usually he’d go as he wanted, casual and smart, but tonight he had to be better, had to be sophisticated. To get someone’s attention you had be more than you were, and Dylan scrutinised every item of clothing he had. He’d even bought a new shi
rt to wear. It was expensive, but to look the part the credits had to match it. His shirt was two toned. He liked his variation in colour. It pleased the eye, shifting from indigo to yellow with a glittery glow that sprinkled from it. His pants were slick black trousers and his shoes a soft red. His hair was neatly styled with every strand carefully shaped to his required glossy dread-like blonde clumps. He felt good, older, confident, and ready to tackle the challenge of attracting the girl of his dreams, never forgetting his virtuous intentions.

  “I’m really nervous,” Lecodia said. “This is the first big club I’ve been too!”

  “Don’t worry” Dylan chivalrously said. “It’ll be a night to remember. I promise,”

  “Oh yeah? And how’s that?” Lecodia said.

  “It would spoil the surprise. I’ve been thinking about what I could do for you,” Dylan said in the smoothest, coolest voice he could muster.

  She looked at him, intrigued. Her pupils were extremely dilated.

  Don’t overdo it, Dylan. Don’t overdo it! he thought. Keep composed and keep it real.

  The queue neared the front of the club, where a line of ten bouncers, all suited in black, towered over the hordes of youth. Each person received a pat down and then was let in. A grey textured canopy overlooked the entrance, with each letter of Zero G alternating in colour intermediately.

  Brandon stepped up to the bouncer who raised one hand, halting him. The bouncer, a huge monster of a man, waved a silver violet rimmed metallic tube up and down his body, then in between his legs. It hummed.

  “Don’t touch me there!” Brandon said.

  The crew cut bouncer grumbled, then let him in. One by one the gang were checked and allowed into the big night.

  Leon said, “Okay everyone, we’re here. The best party of our life. Everyone enjoy and let’s be who we want to be.”

  All walked to the automatic doors, which slid open and released a filtered distant baseline from within. The gang stepped into a circular tunnel that was dark and dangerous, until rings of purple lights ignited around its circumference and shot down the walkway, illuminating a tiled glass cylinder. Like a plane ready for take-off, the rings guided toward the main arenas entrance where dance heaven awaited. Lecodia pressed against Dylan, nervous.

  He smiled.

  “The music makes me high!” Leon bellowed with arms raised and joy overloaded.

  The boys moved through the tunnel with excitement coursing through their veins in front of the girls. Only Dylan stood with them next to the nervous Lecodia.

  “Good bye world, hello heaven!” Brandon said clapping hands.

  The entrance neared, and the baseline grew stronger like a thumping heartbeat. Dylan promised himself that tonight he’d let go, fully let go and immerse himself into the world of dance.

  Call me a sinner! he thought. But this feels so right that it must be wrong.

  The gang stopped at the entrance, feeling the base thudding through the door like an angry beast. They all eyed each other in excitement and Dylan took a deep breath. He stepped forward, triggering the sliding door, and the base almost knocked him off his feet. He looked to Lecodia who beamed and viewed club land.

  A sea of society danced together in an array of brilliant colours. Some people wore fluorescent clothes—some no clothes, just digital paint—and imaginative costumes, but all danced and all were lost in the music.

  A glow of ultra-violet light radiated the dancers, with colours so bold and bright Dylan felt dreamy. Glowing rods swung through the air, creating a dreamscape of hedonism.

  Dozens of rounded bars worked the outskirts of the large arena, with an inner ring of archways offering glimpses of the large central dance area, which strobed and smoked frantically. The clubbers were cloaked in a hyper-reality as they moved to the loud beat, like silhouetted shadows through the archway openings.

  “Drinks now,” Brandon said over the pulse-pounding progressive house music.

  Dylan placed his hand in Lecodia’s and walked her to the bar, a round, retro-like glass area. A wall of arms outstretched the bar, nagging for service. The clear, glass, bar top faded from a cool vivid red to a cool viridescent glow, with dozens of bartenders all neatly dressed in black and cream tuxedos. Around the bar, bubble-like seats held clubbers taking a welcomed break. The glass-like seats glowed with the span of a rainbow.

  “What do you want to drink?” Dylan said, leaning towards her.

  “A nice cocktail, something fruity,” Lecodia replied.

  Dylan extended his arm and somehow got attention form a young black bartender.

  “What can I get for you?” the busy bartender asked over the deafening music.

  “A beer and twister please,” Dylan replied.

  The bartender placed two blue cups on the bar top and pulled a silver nozzle tipped siphon up. He pressed a button on the nozzle and filled the beer, then reached under the bar and packed the second cup with crushed ice and straw. Then he filled it with a tanned exotic liquid.

  Dylan held his hand out and the bartender waved a small chip reader over his hand.

  “Thanks,” Dylan said as the bartender moved to the next customer.

  Dylan picked the drinks up and turned to Lecodia, who took her drink and sipped through the straw. Her eyes looked different, larger than life.

  The group gathered together with drinks in hand.

  “Me and Joan will be in Grounded Metal all night if any of you decide to join the men.” Drake said.

  “Have a good night and communicate at twelve to say happy millennium.” Leon said.

  “Everyone rock.” Joan said as they turned to leave together.

  “Okay everyone, I want all of your glasses in the air,” Leon began. “To the best night of our lives, and friends forever.”

  “To the best night, friends forever.” replied all as they toasted their glasses.

  “It’s time to party.” Jack said.

  “Let’s go.” Brandon ordered with frantic excitement.

  The group moved toward the archways entrance, which lead to the main dance floor. The crowd within looked crazed and brainwashed as they danced hard with glowing lasers and sticks tracing the air. From Dylan’s experience progressive house held like gravity to the mind, all he could do was accept it and let it pull him in like a hypnotist.

  Dylan could dance, could groove, had rhythm. He was one of the lucky people who naturally was able to move their bodies with the music, slide it through the air. You were either born with rhythm or not. It wasn’t something that grew on you or could be taught, like the imagination you are given. Dylan drew allot of attention from girls because of his natural symbiotic relationship with music, he considered himself lucky in that respect.

  “Hammed you better have been practicing your dancing” Brandon said. They neared the arch.

  “I will pull lots of women with my moves,” Hammed replied. Jack and Leon burst out laughing.

  Dylan looked at Lecodia and her eyes where wide. She beamed with excitement. No hold that thought, she looked almost terrified by the feeling, no wait happy.

  “Can I have this dance?” she said into Dylan’s ear, with the voice of an angel.

  What has come over her? Is it because all the other girls had boyfriends and she felt left out. Whatever it was he didn’t want to complain.

  Dylan took her by the hand and led her through the archway.

  From above, a red laser beam widened to a vortex and swallowed the entire crowd in a whirlpool, as trickles of smoke floated the air, and faintly cut the beams.

  The crowd raised their hands as the track reached its climax. Whistles and shouts pierced the deafening music as the beat dropped back in. Then the frenzying crowd began a hard dance again.

  Lecodia moved her hands over Dylan’s body, sending a flourish of love into his mind; she really knew how to move.

  Chapter 8

  Nothing Can Stop It.

  It should have been there. What on Earth is going on? David Bell thought
.

  In front of him posted two military guards with assault blasters in hand. Both were statue like in their stance.

  Together they travelled upward in a space elevator to meet the one person he never imagined he would. Shortly after being apprehended, he was told that the President himself required his services and expertise on a matter of planetary security.

  David explained to the military guards that he’d uncovered the biggest discovery in the history of astronomy; a massive asteroid belt, approximately ten thousand miles in width, had vanished. The belt floated the edge of the solar system, was always there, but it had disappeared like an abducted victim. Theories stirred David with anxious vexation. This was big, and the belt must have something to do with his summoning. Why else was he called to see The President? He untied his tie and loosened his collar. He needed as much air as he could breath.

  Only a handful of times had David left the world and entered the space zone, all when he established his telescope and organised its orbit, when he had to meet with senior members of the space committee. Their offices operated from the network of space stations that orbited Quazar. He also visited, from time to time, to view and study the sun in all its glory.

  The oval space elevator travelled at five kilometres per minute and was entering the clouds towards the top of the troposphere at eight kilometres from Quazar’s surface. Centre of the elevator was a cylindrical pipe that covered the carbon nanotubes, the strongest most durable material known to man, that reached into space taught from the outward centripetal acceleration of Quazar. The elevators mechanics moved the elevator up the nanotubes and into the space zone with swift pace.

  He looked through the windows and viewed nothing but a cloud blanket against the night sky. His stomach churned. Not many people met the president of Quazar. Something had gone wrong. He mused possibilities as the elevator shuddered and moved through the Stratosphere at forty kilometres. The next layer of atmosphere arrived quickly in the form of the Mesosphere with another shudder.

  David flustered and re buttoned his collar, straightened his tie, and looked at the military officers standing motionless and cold. The elevator trembled slightly as it entered the Thermosphere, where the space stations orbited from. He looked again from the window and viewed a network of lights above him against the blackness of space. Miles of structures, interconnected via tubed walkways and lifts, were operational.