She was trapped, a moth hammering away inside a light, only the light was her brain and she was no longer in control of it. She was in a maze, running down long, dim corridors, the walls covered in scenes from her life. In every scene she was bowed over, tatty and broken and weak. She ran and ran, rounding corners, expecting something but always seeing yet more of the same. She stopped, her hands on her knees, gasping and panting. The wall in front of her contained the scene she had just left, her and Stem sitting in the engine, faces angry and disappointed. As she watched she saw her mouth move in the picture, repeating the words she had spoken a few minutes earlier.
There was something here. Her mind was telling her something and she couldn't see it. She ran at the wall, fists slamming against it until the pain seeped in, and she stopped, cradling her wrecked hands. She ran on, around corner after corner, becoming slowly aware that in the scenes she was getting younger and younger. She stopped suddenly, seeing something that couldn't be there, that didn't belong in her mind.
On the wall in front of her stood her mother, cradling what could only be her, a baby while her dad, young, smiling looked on. She dropped to her knees, tears springing up and running down her cheeks. Dad had been right, she was beautiful, and Ally's heart crumpled, becoming a tiny, aching pit in her chest.
Dad's mouth was moving and she realised she could hear him, just make out his voice. The familiar sound made her swallow hard, reach out with one battered hand to the picture. She scrambled closer, still on her knees and listened intently.
"Do you think she'll be like you sweetheart?"
"She might be my love. But she might be more. My mum could barely read and I can see so much. I can feel your emotions, I know what you're thinking. Mum didn't have any of that."
Ally groaned quietly as she watched her mum reach down and stroke her face.
"What do you think Ally, you gonna be gifted like your mum?"
Her dad came closer and wrapped his big arms around them both. The scene slowed, became still and she gasped, resting one hand against the wall. Her head dropped and she felt the tears slowly dry up.
The words her mother had said were spinning round her brain and when she looked up again, the maze was gone. The walls had become see-through and she could see for miles. She stood, gingerly pressing her hands against the floor only to realise that the pain was no longer there, the damage gone. She stepped forward and the wall gave way before her, parting like curtains, and she felt something click in her mind.
It felt like when she flew, only more, everything. She felt alive, alert, as if every day before this she had been sleeping. She understood now that was exactly what she had been doing. Her mind was racing, pathways opening as she rushed down them. She could hear a thousand different voices all speaking together. All the voices were dim, flat, no one shouting or laughing and she smiled sadly, understanding who it was she could hear.
Her eyes opened and she sat up, looking at Stem who was staring at her, brows furrowed.
"Are you ok?"
She laughed, a bright, pealing sound, a sound she'd never heard before. She reached out and touched the pipe, feeling the roughness of the metal and the gentle throb of the liquid flowing through it. She touched his face, laying her hand against his cheek. He rushed into her and she gasped, her chest hitching as she skipped a breath. She could feel his emotion, a deep worry overlaid with frustration and sweetened with a little desire. She could hear his thoughts, not like words, but as pictures, moving images that endlessly split apart as his mind raced.
"Ally?"
She grinned.
"I'm good. I mean, I'm really good."
She grinned again.
"So, you wanna know why you haven't found anything?"
He was grinning himself, though still looking a little worried and she took his hand. The sensation was weaker, but she could still feel him. The worry had eased, but the frustration was still there and the desire had grown.
"Easy sugar, there'll be time for that later."
She gave him her best sexy look, wondering at herself as she did, but enjoying it anyway. He groaned, before jerking back and pulling his hand away.
"What's happened Ally? What's going on?"
She shook her head.
"I have no idea. I feel like my brain's just been supercharged. I can hear what you're thinking, what you're feeling. I can feel every part of my body like I'm looking at it through a zoom lens. And I know what's going on, with, you know, everything."
Stem was shaking his head, doubt writ large across his handsome features. She went on, quickly.
"The Lords, whoever they are, control minds. We should have realised it earlier really. You remember at the ball, when it spoke in my head? They communicate through their minds."
"It's called telepathy."
"Yeah that. So, they don't just communicate, they can do more than that. It's the people that made me realise. We live on a ship with thousands of slaves, right, and between us we've spoken to quite a few, but no one's wanted to bitch, or moan or make any complaint about the Lords. It's not that they're scared, it's that they simply aren't able to."
Stem was nodding vehemently, and she went on.
"They have this power, this ability to control us. It makes sense, perfect sense. Why would the people on Earth be so happy to watch us struggle and die? They're slaves, just like us, only they don't know it."
"You're saying the entire human race is enslaved by them?"
"Yeah I am, yeah, exactly that."
She was flushed, caught between excitement and disgust. Without knowing why, she stepped towards him, placing her hands on either side of his head. She felt her mind sink into him, flying through his veins and arteries until she reached his mind. She knew now why they had been attracted to one another, why she had made a wrong turn that day. His mind was full of walls, walls he saw as dull metal but she saw as glass. She showed them to him, nudged him to step through and he gasped.
A few moments later they were out and he was staring at her, his eyes bright and smiling. He touched her face and she could hear him in her mind. What had been vague pictures to her minutes earlier became so much more. They both gasped, and she could feel his laughter, running through her in a wave.
They stepped back from each other and the thoughts went, but she could still feel him, his emotions so changed from where they had been only a minute earlier.
"Pretty cool, huh?"
He laughed again, shaking his head.
"So why did that happen?"
"There's something about us, you and me. We're special somehow. I think it's a gift, like people used to have magic, you know, before the Lords came..."
She drifted off, shaking her head.
"They've changed everything. How did they do it, how did we not realise?"
"So you think other people have this as well?"
"I'm not sure. It felt like I was flying, you know, like when it's all just flowing and going smooth. I've felt like that since I was 6. I don't think other people have that."
He'd begun nodding as soon as she said 'flying'.
"Yeah, that was exactly it. But it can't be just because we're pilots."
"Well duh. I think we're good pilots because of, whatever this is, you know?"
"Ahhh."
He looked sheepish. They gazed at one another, then reached out and held hands, and she felt the world explode again.
Eventually she stepped back, cheeks flushed and breathing heavy.
"So what now?"
"Now we have a weapon. Everything we've seen, here and on Earth, has been happening because the Lords are controlling everything. They act like they want a partnership, but if you don't follow things exactly as they want it, a tweak here, a nudge there and suddenly, you've changed your mind."
She could feel his anger, surging and crashing within him and felt her own rising. He went on.
"We've lived believing that we're slaves, but in reality, it's much worse. A slav
e can be free in their own mind, but we don't even have that."
"But why haven't people realised?"
He shook his head violently.
"I don't know. I can't believe we're so easy to control...."
He trailed off, suddenly quiet.
"But we must be, I mean..."
He fell silent again and they stood, trying to take on board what they had discovered.
"You said we had a weapon?"
"If the Lord is controlling all the slaves with its mind, then maybe what we've got can somehow counter it, or stop them from being able to control them. It worked for us, right? "
"So how do we do that? The only time I ever got close to one, I threw up and thought my head was going to explode."
"Well yeah, that's a good point, but there must be some way we can mess with them. Maybe we could try to change the people, you know, rather than going anywhere need the Lord."
She laughed, taken aback by his sudden optimism. He was right, as well. There was no guarantee it would work, but it felt like it might actually be worth trying.
"OK, fair enough. What first, oh wise and mighty leader?"
"I wanna see what we can do. I say we find some other people and see whether we can read them. It might be that we can free them, or wake them up, or whatever you want to call it. And we might find others like us, people with gifts."
She grinned, nodding. They left the engine and went in search of others.
She was jerked back to the present, eyes flicking across the screens in sudden panic. They were empty and she sighed, rubbing the heel of her hand across aching eyes.
She could still remember how exciting it had been, how good she had felt to be finally free. It was amazing how much could change in just a couple of months. Now when they touched, all she felt was the sadness, and the fear. Out here, there were no voices, no people to read and be part of. And she could still hear the screams, the cries of the people they had 'freed', the people they had doomed. She glanced over at Stem, feeling a sense of relief at seeing that his head was back, his mouth open and his eyes closed. One of them had to sleep, and she didn't know if she ever would again.
Chapter Nine
"Hey, you wanna lie down for a bit?"
She jerked awake, her cheeks turning red.
"Huh, yeah, ok, what? How long did you..?"
He smiled down at her.
"Not very long. Don't worry, it's all clear, relax. Go and lie down for a bit, see if you can sleep."
She shook her head, but unclipped and dragged herself out of the flight seat. She shuffled across the cockpit and into the back, where the tiny bunk they shared, had shared, was pleasantly ruffled. As she slipped out of her clothes and climbed in, she felt welcomed by the warmth left by his body. She frowned. He said it hadn't been long, but he'd managed to wake up enough to move from his seat and into bed. She glanced up at the screen above the bunks. The veil filled it now, close enough to see huge rocks, spinning gently through the gas.
They knew there were ways through. There had to be, but the challenge was finding one and not getting spotted. They would change course soon, fly parallel with it and keep their eyes peeled. Not the best plan, but as good as they had.
She lay back, eyes drifting closed. She waited for sleep, expecting any second to be waking up, but her mind was alive again, racing over what might happen when they broke through. Eventually she slipped away, hoping against all hope for a new dream, for something different than the endless replays of the weeks before they escaped.
They left the engine and made their way through the Homeship. It felt strange to be out, away from her comfort zone. She had no problem in flying through laser fire and mines, but walking the tunnels was another matter. It felt like being inside one of the engine pipes; rounded walls and ceilings, dark and dismal.
The people they passed were all hurrying, eyes down and frantic to get somewhere. Knowing what they did made her stare at them in pity and wonder. It was odd, knowing that everyone they met was being controlled, almost as if they were a different race entirely.
"We need to be somewhere people are standing still."
Stem raised an eyebrow, taking her by the elbow and guiding her through one of the narrow, tall doorways. There were no actual doors anywhere, as if privacy wasn't an option. Of course, she supposed, it wasn't really, not if something was already inside your head.
They emerged into a long room, and she stopped, staring again. The number of people in here was amazing, she'd never seen so many, except on the long walk, and there it felt quite different. Here they were packed in, shoulder to shoulder, standing at the long benches that filled both walls and seemed to go on forever.
"This is one of the manufacturing areas. It's really crap labour, just fitting things together. You'd think they'd automate it, but why bother I guess?"
She shook her head, the feeling of remoteness, of being apart from the people around her coming back strongly. She gave Stem's arm a squeeze, being careful to avoid his bare skin.
"So I'm gonna go and touch someone. Wish me luck."
She could still feel him through his shirt and the waves of faith and confidence buoyed her as she walked towards one of the benches. She walked up until she found a space, then pushed in. The man stood on her right ignored her, the other glanced across, grunted, then returned to his work. She gently placed her hand on his arm and he looked up again, eyebrows raised.
At first she felt nothing, then suddenly rushed in. The physical was revealed immediately as her awareness flashed around his body; his beating heart; his tense muscles; the small tumour that nestled in his right lung. She reached his brain and recoiled, coming back to herself with a gasp. The process had taken almost no time and the man was still staring, a slight smile crossing his lips.
"Help you there, love?"
"Umm, no, sorry, my mistake."
She stepped back, ignoring his bemused look and walked briskly back to where Stem stood, curious and watchful. As she reached him she shook her head, grabbing his sleeve and carrying on walking out of the room.
Her voice seemed loud in the silence of the corridor, but no one seemed interested. There were groups as well, twos and threes engaged in conversation, but no one stopped to look at them.
"What, what happened?"
She moaned, a soft plaintive sound.
"It was there, inside his head."
Stem stepped closer, wrapping his arms around her and she relaxed, letting her head rest against his shoulder. Her voice was muffled as she spoke into his shirt.
"It's like his brain's been dunked in oil. It's all there, but there's a greasy coating that stopped me getting in. And I didn't want to, like it was gonna rub off on me as well, you know?"
"Do you think we could, I don't know, clean it up or something?"
She looked up at him, her forehead creased.
"Clean it up?"
She thought for a moment.
"Yeah, I mean, it's worth a try. But what happens if the Lord can feel it, knows what we're doing?"
Stem shook his head and she stepped back. They stood for a moment, watching the passers-by. Being out here, away from the engine, she was again struck by just how big the Homeship was. This tunnel went on for hundreds of metres and was one of hundreds of tunnels, criss-crossing as they wound through the ship. There was a constant stream of traffic, in both directions, and everyone was doing something. Slaves didn't get leisure time.
She hadn't known what that was until she saw it on the screen in the canteen. Adults hanging out in a park and chatting, or cycling. She'd spent ages trying to work out what they were doing, before she realised that they weren't really doing anything. The idea had seemed bizarre at the time, but she got it now. The creepy thing was that since the change, she saw that even during leisure time, the people on Earth seemed somehow spiritless, going through the motions but never truly engaging.
She had never understood why they were allowed to watch the images from
Earth. It showed them a life they would never have, so aside from being some cruel kind of torture, it seemed to encourage them to want to rebel, to try to escape. Of course, now she knew that it didn't really make any difference. What she found herself wondering now was whether the images were real. If everyone was being controlled, wouldn't things on Earth be the same as they were here? Or maybe the Lords had realised that it was easier to keep control if you made people think they were controlling themselves.
She ground her teeth, feeling the rage as she balled her hands into fists. They were told that the Lords had come to Earth hundreds of years ago. Hundreds of years of lies and servitude, of mental rape. She thought about dad and the fury threatened to overtake her. Stem stepped back, hands held up as if to defend himself from her as she hissed through clenched teeth.
"We have to try. If they know, they know. They're gonna find out soon anyway, so let's see if we can't screw things up for them before they do."
Still taken aback by her sudden anger, Stem only nodded, then motioned back towards the manufacturing room.
"It's too public in there. We need to find somewhere quieter, c'mon."
The next room he led her into was considerably smaller. The man who was sat at the desk in the entrance was wearing a uniform, dark blue and black. He nodded at them, extending a hand for Stem to shake.
"Nice to see you again Stem, how are you?"
"Can't complain thanks, Tulson, how about you?"
"Yeah, same as always, not too bad, you know? Do you have an appointment, or is this a social call?"
The end of his sentence sounded like a joke to her, but his voice gave nothing away. Stem grinned however.
"No appointment. This is my girlfriend Ally."
She stepped forward slightly, smiling at him. He smiled back, then turned back to Stem.
"So it is actually a social call. You're a weird one."
Stem laughed.
"It's mostly a social call. I told Ally about your hand thing and she was desperate to see it. Us gamers like strange things, you know that."
A Game of War Season One Amazon Page 7