Escaping the Sun

by Rhett Goreman

  In front of us, the ground fell away to form an impressive entrance the shape and appearance of a huge glass eye, nestling under the nearest edge of the solar array. A series of large transparent walls and doors kept the weather out of the subterranean complex. Like the fire-fighting compound, we had just walked from, there were no guards around or any other people to be seen.

  We stood up, and walked down the gently sloping, rock strewn, incline to arrive at the entrance. Tukarra touched an illuminated symbol on the first pair of doors and they slid apart. We took a few steps inside, and the doors coasted shut behind us.

  After being battered by the wind, surrounded by the rumble of thunder, and immersed in the noise of heavy rain, the silence we now found ourselves standing in was deafening. Our clever suits stopped glowing, and slowly retreated from our hands and faces, as the air temperature dropped.

  Continuing to walk forward, through a few more sliding glass doors, we emerged into what can only be described as an air conditioned shopping mall. The full effect was completed by pristine, cream coloured, marble pillars and flooring, edged in gold, and by the easy listening music that seemed to waft in our direction - but as yet, there were still no signs of life.

  Tukarra told me this was only one of twenty or so shopping areas, within the confines of Vidora. The Elite lived in apartments overlooking the shops, whilst most humans were provided with accommodation in the deeper levels, under the city. She said, ‘Prior to the Endimian shuttle missions, these areas used to be teaming with Elite and humans acting out their daily lives.’

  We advanced towards a balcony. An amazing vista began to open out in front of us. I suggested, to Tukarra, that the lighting could have done with being a little brighter. She agreed, saying, ‘It’s a pity you are not going to see the city at its best. The lighting always used to be much brighter than this, but Vidora has just been isolated from the global, fusion power, distribution network. The entire underground complex is now relying on its secondary, fall back, local power source - the vast array of solar panels we saw on the surface.’

  Tukarra explained that as far as she could remember, the city had always been pretty self-sufficient, ready for the next potential disaster scenario. Everything was recycled. Modified algae, and cyano-bacteria farms consumed most types of household waste and commercial effluent, to produced starch, proteins, fresh water, and oxygen. The recycling process not only included worn out materials, but also old or injured people. They were all sent to a special recycling room, where they would either be repaired or broken down into basic chemicals for re-use across the entire complex.

  The thought of recycling people, and probably rather more humans than Elite, made me shiver. I still didn’t like the sound of that idea any better than when Tukarra had first mentioned it, back in the tunnels, whilst we had been tied up together.

  I walked forwards and leant on a golden handrail, to take in a view of the central atrium. I drew a deep breath of the fresh cool, oxygen enriched, air. Two floors below us, there was an oasis of palm trees surrounding a pool of blue water and several multi-coloured fountains. To either side, there were grand, sweeping, marble staircases, moving walkways, and sparkling tubular glass lifts. They were clearly intended to carry significant numbers of people between the various floors and mezzanine levels.

  All around the oasis and other public areas were cafés, restaurants, and shops selling smart materials of every description. Some had essential children’s clothes, pillows, blankets and duvets in their windows. A few advertised spray on T-shirts, dresses, and costumes with a built in light show or video message for party goers. Others sold the now familiar pink, blue, white and silver uniform chips.

  I asked Tukarra if she knew how any of these smart materials worked. She said she had no idea, but then pulled a puzzled expression, as though she was in deep thought, whilst she queried the Ether.

  ‘I’m told “the magic is in the micro-structure.” Whatever that is supposed to mean,’ she said.

  All the shops were closed, their window displays still illuminated by spotlights to attract the non-existent shoppers. One window in particular, looked quite creepy to me. It contained a choreographed display of slowly moving, smooth skinned, humanoid robots. Although they were entirely grey from head to toe, the self-healing, smart materials they were made from, perfectly mimicked human hair texture and human muscle-tone. At first I thought they were animated manikins, or shop dummies, but then I got the feeling they were all looking in my direction, and wanting to be taken away to a good home.

  High above the central oasis, a large television screen was suspended. I supposed it would normally have been showing commercials relating to the shopping and other activities available in the mall. But for now, it was simply a dark blue canvas, apart from half a dozen small, pale yellow, numbers in one corner. The digits were slowly counting down. It would not be long before they all reached zero. Annoyingly, I didn’t have time to work out how long that would take, or to worry whether the whole place was about to explode, with the two of us inside it.

  Tukarra seemed really excited to be home again, even though there was no-one else around. Instead of getting into a lift, or walking down a staircase as I expected, she asked me to follow her around the gold trimmed marble balcony. She skipped past a number of plain white doors and briefly stood in front of one, marked ‘1007’.

  Tukarra touched the door, and it swept to one side. With a spring in her step, she took hold of both my hands and pulled me through the open door. I had never seen her look so happy. The room we were in turned out to be her own, modest, studio apartment. The floor was plushly carpeted and appeared to ripple, like wheat in a summer breeze. Our smart suits knew this and shrank back away from our bare feet, to let them breath and allow us to feel the cool flowing fibres gently massaging our toes.

  The door closed behind us, and I looked around. There was a bed, a sofa, a low table with a lamp on it, and another door leading to a small shower room. Any wardrobes, cupboards, drawers, or kitchen equipment must have been seamlessly hidden in the glossy-white, gently glowing walls.

  Half way up one of the walls, in pride of place, was a specially lit, built in, glazed shelf displaying three human skulls.

  ‘I see you bring your work home with you,’ I observed.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You are my latest acquisition!’

  I gave her a wry smile, but fell speechless.

  For me, at least, it had been a very long day and the sight of a bed was just too much for me. I collapsed onto the soft duvet, and Tukarra lay down next to me. She looked fabulous. I stroked her silky pearl-white hair, and gazed into her sparkling sky blue eyes. Close up, I could see she had pale golden blonde eyebrows, long black eyelashes, glossy pink lips and a really cute nose.

  ‘How come you still look so fresh, after all we have been through? Your make-up hasn’t smudged at all,’ I observed.

  ‘I don’t wear make-up,’ she said. ‘That’s one of the wonders of Elite genetic engineering. What you see is what you get.’

  ‘Wow,’ I said.

  Tukarra raised her arms over her head and had a stretch. I instinctively kissed her cheek. She turned towards me. Our lips met and we kissed each other full on, long and slow, for the first time. The room seemed to spin around us. It was a great moment. We both felt good about it, the ticking countdown now a distant memory. The whole world could have been collapsing around our ears, and we didn’t care any more.

  Detecting our location, proximity, and a sudden rush of hormones, combined with an increase in skin conductivity, Tukarra’s uniform shrank back to a being a small plastic disc, stuck to the nape of her neck. She rolled on top of me, completely dis-robed. My arms cradled her silky smooth, and wonderfully curvaceous, totally naked body - surely more beautiful to behold than even Schrödinger’s Wave Equation.

  My own uniform started to melt in a similar way, only to reveal I was still wearing my tattered, and by then rather smelly, pyjamas.

/>   Tukarra broke out in a fit of giggles.

  A moment later, the Earth moved for us. It really did. It was as though there had been a massive earthquake. Anything that was loose in the room ended up on the floor, including the two of us.

  During our brief flight from the bed, my whole life flashed before me. Perhaps that countdown really did mean Vidora was in the process of being scuttled.

  Happily our fall had been cushioned by the strange carpet and, after quickly checking no bones were broken, we looked into each others eyes and began to cry with laughter, until our sides hurt.

  Sensing a missed opportunity, both our uniforms resized themselves, once again covering our bodies and, in my case, my tatty old cotton pyjamas as well.

  ‘What on Earth was that?’ I asked, whilst helping Tukarra to her feet.

  Then we both sat on the edge of the bed, and she explained, ‘As I told you before, the Earth and the Moon have been drifting apart for millennia. With the aid of Dark Matter Engine technology we have simply accelerated the process. That tremor was due to the very last push from the Earth engine, the one Woynek called the Obelisk. The force of that push should also have finally stopped the Earth’s rotation. Vidora’s solar panels will now be permanently bathed in a manageable twilight.’

  ‘Is that what the countdown, on the screen outside, was for?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘The countdown has stopped now. It must have been telling us when to expect the earthquake.’

  ‘Surely, you must have known that all along, yet you had me believe we could have been blown up,’ I complained.

  But before Tukarra could think up a reasonable reply, there was a loud bang on the door.

  Chapter 21 – Televisualisation

  There was another loud bang just outside the apartment.

  Tukarra made a quick hand gesture and the door, rather frighteningly, turned transparent. An angry looking mob was running along the balcony, and a hairy chested Scavenger, similar to those we had encountered in the tunnels, was stood right in the doorway, pressing one of his filthy ears onto the door.

  ‘Don’t worry. The door is locked. He can’t see in, or hear us,’ Tukarra said calmly. The Scavenger soon lost interest and the balcony became empty again. With another hand signal she returned the door to being opaque once more.

  ‘It’s a real shame,’ she said. ‘They don’t realise this city is their inheritance. It’s a gift the Elite have left to them. They are like small children left unsupervised, playing in an executive toy shop. The whole place will be wrecked and ruined in no time at all.’

  *

  Tukarra ran her fingers through her hair and continued, ‘Anyway, as I was saying. It was time for one last impulse from the mighty Earth engine to halt the Earth’s rotation. The Earth will now permanently present the same side towards the sun and the opposite side will become much cooler. The global winds will become even more violent and that should prevent the atmosphere from freezing out on the dark side. Along a great circle, at right angles to the Sun (a line that passes directly over Vidora), there will be a habitable zone of twilight for the next thousand years at least. At the same time, the Moon has now finally escaped the clutches of Earth’s gravity and is on its way to the outer solar system.’

  ‘You knew all this. Yet you let me think this place was going to self destruct!’ I complained for the second time.

  With a cheeky smile she answered, ‘I was going to tell you, really I was, but I kind of got caught up in the heat of the moment. Sorry. I’ve spent far too long studying those skulls, wondering what those people were really like, and now I suddenly find I have a living specimen in my apartment. It’s all so exciting.’

  ‘Tukarra, look, I’m finding it hard to believe you, about the Moon and everything. You’re making it harder for me to believe what you say, because you always seem to be keeping something from me,’ I said with an air of frustration in my voice.

  ‘Well, what do you want me to tell you about?’ she asked.

  ‘That’s my point. I don’t know what to ask you,’ I replied more frustrated than ever.

  ‘Okay, why don’t you see for yourself? Then you will know what I know,’ Tukarra suggested, waving a hand towards a hidden panel in one of the walls. A draw opened up, moving out from the wall, and revealed an assortment of knick-knacks. She picked out a small five pointed gold star, the size of a coin, and stuck it on my forehead.

  She went on to explain, ‘This will connect you with the Ether. As a human, you won’t be granted access to the most interesting stuff, but you should be able to pick up a general news channel or two. Don’t expect too much too soon. The star will need some time to adapt to your brainwaves. The process will be completed more quickly if you are totally relaxed. So lie back on my bed and have a rest. I’m going to take a shower now and after that I think it would be a good idea for you to have one too.’

  I lay on the bed with my head on a pillow, just as I had been told, and closed my eyes.

  Tukarra, stood up and walked over to the shower room. Shortly before disappearing inside, she popped her head around the doorway and gave me some advice, ‘Don’t get too carried away with some of the programmes. You can’t believe everything you see and hear in a televisualisation session. For example, I am pretty sure the Skan newscaster is not a real person!’

  *

  As I relaxed, the first programme I tuned into was indeed the news. The news reader seemed to float in front of my closed eyes. Supported by video clips, dramatic music, and 3D graphics, he announced...

  ‘The News, from Skan Today, read by Bazun Kertoli. Today’s headlines: The Earth and Moon have finally stopped rotating. The Moon is leaving Earth orbit, bound for the outer reaches of the solar system. The last of the Elite have now left the Earth, and are riding in shuttle Endimian 389, to catch up with the Moon.’

  I was happy up to that point, apart from the statement that the last of the Elite had left Earth. The last of the Elite was in fact taking a shower, at that very moment, just a few feet away from me. But apart from that slight oversight, the news had indeed confirmed everything Tukarra had told me, but then I was left stunned by the following bombshell of a headline.

  The floating newscaster was replaced by a picture of myself. ‘This man is an enemy of the Elite. He is probably armed and is extremely dangerous. The Ether has decreed that if you see this man, and you have the means to do so, then you should kill him on sight.’

  The picture must have been taken by surveillance cameras as we came through the entrance and into Vidora.

  I lost concentration and accidentally lost the channel.

  I went over to the shower room door and called out to Tukarra, ‘Well are you?’

  ‘Am I what?’

  ‘Going to kill me.’

  ‘No. Of course not. I need much more time to study my favourite specimen,’ she called back.

  Pondering over whether her reply contained a joke or a lie, I didn’t know what to say or do next.

  Picking up on the pause in my questioning, Tukarra added, ‘That message has come from the Ether itself. The High Elite are getting annoyed with the Ether telling them what they should and shouldn’t do. But the Ether controls the media, you see. Actually, the Ether controls pretty much everything around here.’

  Probably sounding rather exasperated, I asked, ‘Tukarra, please tell me, what am I supposed to have done? Why does the Ether want me dead? And once again, why didn’t you tell me.’

  ‘So many questions,’ she said. ‘However, there’s no need to panic. For one thing, the Elite and their human assistants are no longer here. I didn’t tell you about the death threat, because you already suspected as much. And if you had known for certain, then you might not have come with me to Vidora. As to why the Ether wants you dead, I have no idea. Perhaps you know something that could start a revolution or a rebellion against it. Either that, or the Ether thinks that to be the case.’

  I told her I would need some time
to take all this in.

  ‘That’s okay with me,’ she said. ‘I’ve been longing for a good long shower for ages.’

  *

  I lay back on the bed and tried to relax again. Once I got the hang of the thought controls, it was really like good old fashioned television. Just by focussing my attention on the various widgets and icons that appeared to float in front of me, I was easily able to hop around hundreds of televisual channels. Yet all I could find, this time, were Reality TV shows.

  The first channel I stumbled upon was called ‘Malash TV’. It was broadcasting a re-run of a series called ‘Starship’. This particular programme was about ‘The Bridal Suite’.

  Quickly moving on, I stopped on another channel, ‘Cerrina: Today’, that seemed to be showing edited highlights of what must originally have been a live broadcast. The sense of complete immersion, of being there, was breathtaking. I was not only able to see and hear the participants from almost any point of view I chose, but I could also pick up on their thoughts, and even any emotions they were feeling for each other.

  I was apparently on the Moon. There had been a big explosion throwing a girl out into the lunar vacuum. She looked like a human cannonball bursting out through the roof of a domed circus tent. The whole thing had been filmed in slow motion. I could call up background information on most of the items in the scene. The girl’s name was Suran.

  The picture gyrated around to focus on a bulldozer a short distance away from the flying girl. The driver of the bulldozer was called Khonen. I now seemed to be looking through his eyes and I could see a plume of debris from the explosion in the distance. Khonen selected a video camera fitted with a telephoto lens and steered it to get a better view of the damage to the dome. It was weird seeing someone else’s hands working the controls in front of me.