1 Ceres

by Takemoto, D. J.

  “No, that’s not it. It’s just that…Mother, did Father leave anything else for me…something hidden, maybe, like a map?” Eve asked.

  “I…why do you ask this question now?” her mother asked, standing in front of the stove. She had her hands on her hips, looking nervously around the room, maybe even indecisive, and afraid. Eve could not help noticing how frail and thin her mother had become.

  “What was my grandmother’s name? What was Father’s family name? Why don’t I look like you or James?”

  “Overhearder, of course…It’s why you are Eve Overhearder. What a silly question,” her mother said, now sounding very defensive. “No, I mean her name before she got married. What was her maiden name?”

  “It was Lightfighter…like our founder. Don’t look so surprised. It’s not so unusual, Eve. He was our founder and many citizens took his last name out of respect. Why…are you writing out a family tree or something?” she asked. Eve knew her mother had meant to speak to her about staying out all night with Dirk before they were officially married; it was highly frowned upon by the officials.

  “But what about my necklace; did it come from a long time ago? And you still have not answered my question about Dad leaving anything else for me, or why I look so different,” Eve stated. She surprised herself. Eve did not usually talk so rudely to her mother.

  “I have no knowledge of the origin of that necklace; it’s just…old. And…lots of children look different from their siblings. It’s not so unusual. And really Eve, are you bringing this up to keep me from discussing last night’s issues?” her mother asked. Eve could tell she was trying to change the subject. “No, well, yes; I have to know. Did Father leave anything else for me?” Eve asked. She knew she’d made her point because her mother now looked even more defensive, and afraid.

  “This does not have a thing to do with your staying out all night with Dirk Heatherfield. You know it is forbidden. You have broken the curfew rules, and I don’t even know how many other rules. You could get both of us chit deduction fines for your behavior. That would mean less food for James. It was very irresponsible of you. What’s gotten into you? Maybe I should not have given you a separate room with its own door before your marriage ceremony. First the food hoarding and now out all night, Eve…you have got to obey the rules!” her mother almost yelled, for the first time in quite a while.

  “I’m sorry, Mother. But you need to answer my questions first,” Eve persisted. “It’s much more important than rule breaking issues. You have to trust me.” Eve’s mother looked as if she was going to issue another strong reprimand, but then she stopped.

  “What happened last night? Where did you go? Maybe you should tell me that first,” she told her daughter. They sat down at the eating table, and though it was near the start of a work day, and they might both be late, Eve told her mother everything about the previous night, beginning with when she and Dirk entered the vessel, and ending with Gerta saying goodbye.

  Eve left out the part about their city founder, who was a woman and not a man. She did not tell her mother about the way inside the food bunkers, the ΩD-marked mosaic tile, or the key now in Dirk’s pocket. She also left out the part about the target date because her mother already looked too frightened. Eve wanted to protect her mother in case security questioned her. Her mother remained strangely quiet at first, and then got even quieter as Eve continued her story. Finally, as the town clock bonged seven o’clock, and they had only another hour before work, she got up and told Eve,

  “Wait here, I have something to give you…it’s time.” She went into the room they’d once shared. Eve heard a scraping noise, like a brick was being removed from one of the walls, and then her mother came back holding a small metal box. It appeared to be locked, but did not have a key or a place to insert a key.

  “Do you know what’s inside this box, Ma?” Eve asked, turning the small box over in both hands. “Your father told me once you had come of age, I should give you this box. He did not tell me what was inside; only that you had the means to open it. He didn’t tell me more. Keep it safe. He said to keep it safe and never to tell anyone of it. Now I need to get to work. And no more curfew violations, Eve…please!” she begged. She kissed her daughter on the cheek, and grabbed her worker badge and lunch bucket. Right before she left, she turned, looked back up the stairs at Eve and said, “You were so young when you came to us. You were an infant and they said we could have you, that we should raise you, that the genetic codes demanded it.”

  Eve sat for several minutes, holding the silver metal box in both hands, hoping it contained the rest of the map, or the ΩD stone, or both. She stared out the window off over to the decay zone, idly fingering her necklace. She sat for several more minutes to absorb her mother’s second revelation. Eve was adopted. That explained everything. Then, she put the box into her pack along with her other things, and left for work. She knew she should have said more….but what could she have said, and would her mother believe her?

  She took the steps down to her lower level room, and luckily exited her back door. It was fortunate because she just missed the two security officers who had arrived at the front door of her home. They knocked, noted the place was empty, and left a cloth note saying Eve Overhearder needed to present herself to the Office of The Committee Security Division as soon as possible for critical business. Luckily both Eve and her mother were not there, and tiny James was at school.

  Eve took a direct route to work, again missing the security guards. She was worried about her mother and James. She knew she should not have spoken to her mother so forcefully, but she also knew what she and Dirk were doing was far too important to put aside for the curfew rules. And besides, if she was careful, and if Gerta helped her, she would not get caught…she hoped. Plus, Eve knew if she found more supply bunkers for the city, the new Head of the Committee, Mr. Darbin, would see neither she nor her mother were fined for rule breaking.

  “Maybe I’ll have to tell Stanley Wormwood some of what is going on…so he’s not worried about me,” Eve thought as she walked purposefully to work on her second day. But she knew the truth would most likely only worry her boss even more. She walked past Bothman’s Bread Bakery on Talisman Street, then past the shoe repair shop, where she turned left onto Lightfighter Town Square. At first, she was so deep in thought she did not hear someone calling her name.

  “Miss Overhearder, you’re in a rush to fix them engines. But you’re a bit early for work; sit and have a tea with us until start time,” Rose yelled from across the town square, over at the Rabbit Hutch Tea Shop. Eve looked across to see Hugh, Rita, Rose, and Stanley sitting on rusty metal chairs around an overturned round, recycled trash brick storage box. They were all drinking mint tea and eating morning rolls…and they smelled delicious. Eve had been in such a hurry to leave her home that she’d not finished her mush and now noticed she was starving.

  “Sounds wonderful…I’m starving, thanks,” Eve yelled, walking back across the square through a throng of students, to the single town tea shop. The shop was filled with workers, mostly older men and women who stopped there for a quick breakfast before going to work. The older workers usually had grown children so did not bother to make a proper breakfast in the morning before work. They preferred to sit and visit a bit, going over the news and gossiping. Many lived alone, so the tea shop provided their social outlet. Some, who were single, came to flirt.

  “Your face is looking a tad bit more normal today, Eve. Never you mind if someone teases you. You just tell them you work in Steam…they’ll get it. We come out with bumps and bruises all the time. It goes with the job, little one,” Hugh said, sipping tea from his own metal cup. He had a copy of the City Happenings set out in cloth copy on the table in front of his chair. Eve noted the headline had a story about that batch of rabbits that had gotten loose and eaten two rows of carrot tops over in greenhouse #7.

  She also noted the dark drawings on Hugh’s face remained identical to the previou
s day, so she guessed they must be permanent. Later Eve learned they were called tattoos, and that it was common in his family to have such markings on their faces. Hugh explained they had some religious meaning from long ago, but that the stories had been forgotten.

  She sat down at the table once Rose got her a chair from one table over. Workers had to bring their own cups to the shop, so Eve took her metal cup from her lunch bucket, noting her mother had neatly made her a fine lunch of cheese, two hardboiled eggs, and a bread roll; she had even added some extra food to replace what Eve had borrowed the previous day.

  “I told mother I slipped. She was about to tell me to fill out a worker accident report, but then I showed her some…things…and she forgot,” Eve said softly, glancing around the table. There was a brief pause. Stanley finally spoke. “Well, glad your crawling about is over with then. We’ll be having you check out ol’ Elsie today. Maybe you can make her happy. Hey, I see you brought your own lunch bucket today. I hope you brought enough to pay us back for the food you ate yesterday,” Stanley said, laughing and winking at Rose and Rita. He looked around the room to see if anyone was eavesdropping because they had all signed that confidential thing about the steam engines so he had to be careful what he said in public.

  “She does not have to pay us back for that food, Stanley Wormwood…and you stop teasing the poor girl. Eve, don’t you pay him no attention. He does this to all the new workers. Stanley, you be nice,” Rita said, her short, mousy brown hair bobbing as she spoke, but she was also chuckling.

  “Hey, I hear they’re having a race over in the park tonight at the Greenview Pond. Some kids from the school made those sailboat things again like last year. Is anyone going?” Rita asked, trying to change the subject. She glanced over at Hugh, her blue eyes dancing with mirth. Eve wondered if she was married, and if not, if she was flirting with Hugh.

  But Eve’s mind wandered while they discussed who would be going to watch the level 6 school children’s boat races, and where they would meet up before, for a picnic. She knew her fellow workers in Steam had grown kids, less financial worries, and probably made twice her worker chit level…especially when Rita bought second rounds of mint tea and strawberry morning rolls with goat cheese for everyone. They were the deluxe variety and cost double. It was the first time Eve had felt so full in many days.

  Rose continued with the daily town gossip while Stanley fidgeted in his seat, running a hand through his black hair and around the patch over his eye. Eve thought he was going over the daily steam engine fix list, already in his superintendent mode. Stanley mumbled, “I’m anxious to get back down to that supply room and move the new engine up to the work floor from the supply bunker.” “What will you use it for?” Eve asked. He told Eve he planned to swap it out with the one now used for The Committee’s power needs and then use that older one as an add-on to ol’ Elsie. “I’m worried of late about the town’s need for power. It isn’t that they need more,” he explained, “it’s just that I know how close we are to just plain running out of power…period.” And even Eve knew no amount of food in a million magical secret supply bunkers could fix that problem. If they ran out of power, there would be no air or heat to protect them from the void outside their dome.

  Rose scrunched her eyebrows and blew steam from her mint tea, her curly blond hair dipping into the edge of the cup. She glanced up at the wind-up clock on the back wall of the tea shop, noting all the other workers were finishing their tea and rolls. “It’s time to go fix the engines, folks,” she said, dropping a handful of pay chits onto the table. They all slurped down their tea, stuffed the rolls into their mouths or pockets, stood, and marched as a team to the door of Steam.

  Eve was proud to be part of the group. She was the last to enter the large, grumbly worker lift, taking them all down 77 levels onto the steam engine works floor. They arrived a full ten minutes before the worker start gong, for which they would each get one worker chit for the extra time. As they exited the lift, Stanley pulled Eve aside and whispered, “I went into work earlier today to check the new engine out. Miggly left a memo. He wants you to visit his office as soon as you get in.” “Did the memo say why?” Eve asked, a feeling of dread clumping her stomach.

  “To be honest, the note sounded kinda strange. So I’ve decided that today you need to crawl back through the pipe and take the left turn. I want you to stay hidden until after lunch. That way I can check things out,” Stanley whispered. He stopped talking when the lift opened and several workers got on. He nodded to them, and once they’d left at level 72, he continued.

  “Take your lunch bucket and pack with you. I’m gonna tell Miggly you haven’t reported in yet. It may be nothing, but Miggly’s a real nasty sort when he wants to be.” Stanley continued, “You just stay out of his way until I find out more about what’s going on.” “But what about the others; won’t they say they saw me?” Eve asked. “As far as Steam is concerned, you never showed,” he replied, winking at Eve as she slid into the pipe.

  ●

  Once Eve was inside the pipe, Hugh and Stanley pushed the shelf back in front of the pipe for good measure, turned, and nodded to the rest of the team. Everyone nodded back in understanding; as far as Miggly was concerned, Eve had not shown up for work, and no one had seen her since yesterday.

  “Alright team, don’t stand around gawking at a shelf…we got us a steam engine to shove up a bunch of stairs,” Stanley ordered. Rose and Rita left to climb some stairs down to Pipe Repair and Water Works to recruit some muscle. It would take the entire morning to shove that steam engine from the bunker up to the floor of Steam. And they still had to shove ol’ Elsie out of the way. Stanley stood watching them go to work; he mentally tallied the tasks ahead. They’d need serious muscle to ferry a six ton steam engine up those stairs. Plus, he was worried about Eve, hidden in that pipe.

  Miggly arrived just as a team of eight huge workers descended into the bunker to inspect the new engine. Stanley knew his boss had noted they were early. Miggly usually did not like giving out the extra pay, but Stanley explained they needed to get that engine up to the worker floor and up and running as soon as possible. And even Miggly did not argue with the chief of steam engine works, not on power issues.

  “Good morning Steam workers. Where is our newest member…that girl Eve something?” Miggly asked, trying to sound nonchalant. No one missed a beat. Stanley pretended not to hear, which was easy because ol’ Elsie was belching, and everyone was talking at once, trying to devise a moving plan. He yelled out at the top of his lungs, as near to Miggly’s left ear as possible…and on purpose.

  “Alright folks, let’s team up. We gotta move a two ton piece of metal up sixteen steps, through that latch door, and it has to be done without damaging the goods. I know we won’t be finding a fully-tricked-out, brand new steam engine again anytime soon. So be careful with it. Hugh, go get Iris and the other muscle from Welding and Repair up here. Rita, get Doctor Avery from Level 3 in case someone gets smashed under that beast.”

  Stanley noted his boss had on one of his pasty faces. “Superintendent Wormwood, I asked you a question. Have you seen the girl, Eve Overhearder?” Miggly persisted. Stanley then knew he had been right. Eve was in trouble, and he would keep her hidden in the pipe until he found out why. No one was going to mess with his team.

  “What did you say, Sir?” Stanley shouted back in Miggly’s face; he stood at the top of the stairs, looking down into the bunker. The place still had a slight rotten egg odor, so Stanley noted his boss had to wear his good suit to work, probably while the cleaners got that awful smell out of his other suit. Stanley knew his boss did not want his replacement suit to pick up that same rotten egg smell. He continued yelling into his boss’s face.

  “You’ll have to come down here so I can hear you, Mr. Miggly, Sir. Sorry but we gotta get this steam engine upstairs. Here, can you hold this chain line so I can tie it up,” Stanley replied, handing the chain pulley to a reluctant Miggly. Of course he didn’t
take it. Miggly flinched, dropped the chain, and backed away from the door like he’d been handed a snake; he backed towards his nice clean management lift, preparing to vacate the menial place.

  “Send her to my office as soon as she reports in,” Miggly yelled from across the room and Stanley pretended not to hear him. Then Miggly turned to his assistant, Arlo Stevens, the same greedy spider who’d inventoried all that food the day before and started to yell to him.

  ●

  And because Stevens and Miggly were standing on the floor of Steam, right next to that big metal shelf filled with boxes, Eve, heard everything they said. It was a fortunate event, because she should have been much further into the pipe, but had stopped just inside to check the light on her helmet and the communication device on her belt. Eve reached down to her belt to silence the device and turned her helmet light to off in case Miggly or his weasel assistant decided to look behind the shelf.

  “You say you saw her enter the Boardroom Building by that door in the decay zone? We have to find her. She’s either found a biosample or has the stone,” Miggly spoke, now loudly into Steven’s ear because the room was so noisy.

  “Yes, Sir; it was her and her mate…Dirk Heatherfield,” Steven’s answered. “I already put a security note out on both of them. But they are not to be found. We already checked their homes. The boy didn’t show for his work either. My bet goes on their being back inside that Boardroom Building again. You want me to send security to check it out, Sir? We could blast the door.” “No, definitely not; send for Blakeley. Have him come here at once!” Miggly ordered. They both walked to the management lift so Eve did not hear the rest. But she dare not move inside the pipe because she knew Miggly might be waiting near the lift until Blakeley arrived.