1 Ceres

by Takemoto, D. J.

  ●

  Eve’s mother and brother, James, were at home eating dinner and wondering where Eve was, when security hammered on the front door. Her mother peeked out the upstairs window, and then she hurried James down the back stairs, through Eve’s room, and out the back door, informing him to slide through the hole in the fence, pass through Lightfighter Park, and to then hide in the tall weeds out near the pond.

  As she handed him his coat and boots, she told James he should stay there until she’d sent someone to get him. She said the person would be named Robin. “Remember that, James. He or she will say Robin. Do not go with anyone else.” James whimpered but put on his coat and slid silently out the back door. Eve’s mother watched as his tiny legs carried him off into the taller weeds, where he disappeared. She then walked back upstairs, wrote a note on the wall of the closet, and shouted down to the guards below as she covered the note with a bag of toys.

  “I’m coming. Please wait, I have to dress,” she called to the door bangers. She already knew who they were. She’d had that deep down intuition thing all mothers get when they know one of their children is in trouble. She’d felt that way at work all day. Plus, after that conversation about the box, and Robin Lightfighter, and then Eve’s stone, she now guessed The Committee was after her only daughter, Eve Lightfighter Overhearder, the keeper of the stone.

  If they found her, the stone would be taken, and Eve would be sent into the void. Eve’s father had explained it to her that night, right before he’d died. So Eve’s mother would not say a thing to anyone who questioned her, because she would rather die than have The Committee catch her daughter and get the ΩD stone. In the wrong hands, the stone could control everything, and access to some things would be catastrophic! And Eve was critical to the future of her people! She checked her daughter’s room to be sure the secret box was gone, and then she opened the door to six fully armed security guards.

  “What is this about, please,” she managed to blurt out as she opened the door, and before they grabbed her and swarmed through the house like biting insects, tearing things to pieces as they searched for the object they’d been told may be hidden inside in a small metal box. But they found nothing. As they dragged her away through the street, she managed to glance over at the park, noticing James peeking through a tall weeded area near the pond. “He should be safe if I can send someone to protect him,’ she thought.

  Now she was glad she’d given the box to Eve because the guards would not find it when they ransacked her home in full force. As they dragged her away to prison, she smiled, happy the secret of her city was still safe after five hundred years. But it was time…Eve’s mother knew that the five hundred year target date was near. “I just won’t be here to see it, but Eve and Dirk are in place to see it happens,” she thought, knowing she would be dead in the void before morning.

  ●

  “This is Bunker Z…it’s the one Gerta told me about,” Eve spoke aloud to herself. The ceiling lights had turned on once she’d entered. The room was not especially large, not like the one beneath Steam, and not as full of boxes. In fact, Eve thought it was rather disappointing at first. The room resembled the other bunkers, was unpainted, made of concrete, and was not especially pretty. But once Eve pried open one of the several thousand boxes, she discovered the treasures inside. “There must be a hundred thousand light bulbs in this room,” she exclaimed, happy that at least something good had happened that day. Eve opened four more boxes, to discover half the boxes contained solar bulbs and half regular light bulbs. After counting the boxes, she sat down on the floor and did a quick estimate.

  “There are at least three hundred thousand solar bulbs in this room. It’s not a forever supply, but will at least keep the greenhouses going for another one hundred years,” Eve said to one of the open boxes. Then she burst into tears, sobbing, partly because she was so exhausted, but mostly because she was worried about Dirk, and her mother and James. James was much too young to be involved in any of this!

  ●

  It was Hugh Endley who first heard the faint whimpering sound. He, Stanley, and Rose were searching through the tall weeds off by the pond as instructed. After work, when it became apparent Miggly was going crazy over finding Eve, Steam had quietly left work a bit early, taking the back exit out of the building through the loading dock. The back dock was a leftover from some ancient time when many more things moved into and out of the engine repair buildings. Most had forgotten about that back exit, until Hugh rediscovered it late one night on one of his constant searches for more steam engine belts. Now they used it to come and go when the team wanted to do something in secret…a covert, dark-time special ops mission…Hugh called it.

  Tonight they were supposed to have saved Eve’s little family. But they’d all arrived too late to a home torn apart by the full security team, front door wide open. Rita noticed the half-cooked mush, and that coats still hung on their hooks, except the brown school jacket James always wore. “You suppose the little guy got away? Maybe he ran off out the back and is hiding someplace. Should we go look for him?” Hugh asked.

  He looked all around at the mess the security had made of Eve’s home; he grew angrier by the minute as he noticed they’d torn clothing, broken looms, and furniture, and even broken valuable cooking pots. Hugh and Stanley had talked about this happening at their secret meetings of the Citizen’s Protection Society. They all knew The Committee was taking too much authority away from the citizens…that things were becoming too much like what Rose called a dictatorship. Rose read old history books at the archives so knew about such things.

  Hugh spent several minutes carefully going through each room, to check if anything was worth saving. “I suppose they’ll be sending her through the tunnel into the void right about now,” Stanley whispered to Hugh, breaking the silence. They all knew that when someone was taken away by a full security team, they had about two hours before they got through the joke that was a court trial, the sentence, and then it took another half hour to steam-power-up the cart for the tunnel ride. It was too late to save Eve’s mother…they all knew that much.

  “Yes, I suppose so,” Hugh replied, with tears in his eyes. And then they heard the town alarm sound for the first time in ten years to announce someone had been sent into the void. Hugh noted there were no candles glowing in the windows of the houses on Eve’s street. He knew everyone had seen security arrive and drag her away. They were afraid they could be next. But although Mrs. Hammersmill from across the street had seen James run off into those weeds, she would not be reporting it to security. That’s what she told Hugh in secret. She was also a member of the Citizen’s Protection Society, and was not about to help those committee beasts drag a child off to the adoption building, or worse, the void. She told Hugh someday she hoped they would all rise up against the iron hand of The Committee and take back the power that rightfully belonged to the citizens.

  “Stanley, Hugh, come here. Take a look,” Rose spoke from upstairs. She was standing in the tiny room where James had slept, looking at some writing on the wall. It was written in pink chalk. The message, hastily written by Eve’s mother when she’d heard the banging on the door said, “Find James in the weeds, you are Robin.”

  “What do you suppose she means by the last part?” Rita asked. “I think it’s a code. Maybe he’s hiding. Maybe she got James away and told him to go look for someone named Robin,” Hugh Endley suggested, eyeing the marking on the wall. He quickly erased the writing, in case security returned for a second chance to destroy property and loot. He was now deep dark angry down in his bones.

  “I have to erase this. Security only missed it because it was behind a bag of toys. They’d find it on their next search when they come back to loot. If they find him, he’ll go to the adoption building…to new parents on the wait list, or maybe even to the void. He’s too young for The Committee to send off into the blasted void…damn them!” Hugh spat out. He reached over with the sleeve of his work sh
irt and wiped the wall clean.

  “The writing said you are Robin…like I am Robin…like maybe we are supposed to say I am Robin to James and he will come out of hiding. We have to go look for him…right now before security finds him,” Hugh stated, and he turned, taking the stairs to the first floor. Hugh started to leave by the front door, but then stopped when he noticed the back room with its own door.

  “He left this way. His mother told him to take the back door. It must lead out to the park. Let’s go.” Hugh left by the back door, jumped the fence because he was too big to crawl through the hole, and started across the park to the tall weeds near the edge, off by the pond. They finally coaxed James out of hiding when Hugh, Rita, Rose, and Stanley all told him they were the Robin people and that his mom had sent them, and that they were from Steam where Eve worked. Rita finally convinced him to come out of hiding once she’d described Eve’s necklace. Hugh picked the tiny child up with one hand, hiding him inside his coat. The huge man took an instant liking to the poor, terrified, shivering six-year-old.

  “I’ll take him to my place,” Hugh offered. “It’s off in the trade district. Security rarely goes there what with us all having so many sharp tools to use as weapons. We had that little uprising last year, so they mostly leave us be. And anyway, my place is closest to the recycle unit so smells too bad for The Committee uppity-ups to pay us a visit,” he explained. The others nodded.

  Rita finally drew a smile from a shivering James with one of her strawberry and cheese morning rolls. Hugh walked off in the direction of the trade district with James clinging to him under his huge overcoat. Hugh had a nice little place, but it was now just him because his wife and daughter had died four years previous…from the same winter fever sickness that took Eve’s father.

  ●

  The other three decided it was too dangerous to return to their homes. Miggly was after them because he thought they knew where Eve was hiding; Steam knew once Miggly got a bee in his bugger bonnet he was a real angry goat. “I say we hide out at the back loading dock until morning. I got some extra food in my lunch bucket, and I hid some strawberry wine down there last month. We stay until work time tomorrow, then show up for work,” Stanley said.

  “I’ll be sure the town gets word of the new steam engine…we’ll offer tours to the citizens just to keep Miggly off our back until we can figure out a way to save Eve,” Rita added. “Agreed?” Stanley asked, glancing to the other two. They nodded their agreements.

  “What do you suppose Miggly wants with the kid and her mother? I mean, she crawled through that pipe and got all that food for him. What do you suppose he’s up to?” Rita asked. “I don’t know, but I think it’s time we found out. Or at least it’s time we send a report to someone who will help us find out,” Stanley replied. “Who would that be?” Rose asked. “The new Head of The Committee; Henry Darpen just got elected. He’s from my district over near the bakery. He never did like Miggly…our previous esteemed Committee Head. I say we write a little note and slip it under his door…shake things up a bit. Because whatever Miggly is up to, it’s bad for Eve, and she’s Steam, so it’s bad for us.”

  Stanley and the other two walked on in silence, entering the back alley behind the building through what was now the town laundry, then past the big doors and through to the loading dock entrance. On the way, Stanley stopped off to borrow a writing cloth, ink, and quill from the laundry management office. The anonymous note appeared late that night mysteriously under the door of the posh home of Henry Darpen, newly elected Head of The Committee.

  Once they arrived back at the loading dock, Rita took out several blankets, some canned foods, and a jug of water she’d hidden behind an obsolete boiler for an emergency. It would be a long night.

  Chapter Eleven

  The Bunkers

  Eve wiped her red eyes and snotty nose on her shirt sleeve. Now her red work shirt was covered in dirt, water, grease, and snotty tears. She removed her pack, looked through what she had left of her food supplies, checked her shock gun, and made a decision. “I have to continue on through these tunnels. There has to be a tunnel to the main door out into the decay zone. If Dirk didn’t make it inside the vessel, he may be in the bunker under the marked tile. Maybe he’s safe inside the bunker.” She walked around the room, checking to be sure the boxes all contained light bulbs, then did a mental tally of the supplies she’d found thus far. “The medicines are in that direction. I should go check those out first.”

  Then, as she stood in the middle of the room, looking in all directions, Eve saw the other door off to the back, just as the tunnel continued out of Bunker Z. There was a sign on the door that read, Bunker Y---authorized citizens only---highly restricted area. The door was locked, and this time it was the normal old-fashioned key type door. Eve guessed what was inside the room. “There has to be a key someplace,” Eve mumbled, glancing around her.

  After several minutes, she found the key hanging next to a sign that read, Room capacity 32, fire extinguishers inside, break glass. Next to the sign was a glass enclosed wall box with a grey hose inside. At first, Eve thought it must be a water hose to put out fires, but the sign said, Use only in an emergency...extremely caustic materials.

  “I guess it’s not to put out fires. Water is not extremely caustic. I wonder if this pours out acid,” Eve said aloud. “Why would they need caustic stuff here?” She broke the glass with the tiny hammer hanging next to the glassed in box, removed the box, and took the key from inside. But as she approached the door with the key in her hand she became aware of a buzzing in her head, then a muffled voice attempting to contact her. It was speaking in that Gerta math-speak, so she did not understand the voice.

  But she understood that the security AIs were locked inside, and that Gerta or the mainframe did not want her to accidentally release the AIs from hibernation mode. Then, just as she reached over to unlock the door…her green stone started to glow. A panel opened in the door revealing a viewing portal into the room. Eve pulled back her hand, and approached the portal, her heart pounding.

  She already knew why her stone was glowing. It was a warning signal. She peered through the portal at the capsule-filled room. Each eight-foot-tall silver metal pod stood upright, unlike the stasis pods in the vessel. The pod contents caused Eve to pull back, first in terror, then amazement. “Oh, globbers,” she blurted out, eyes wide; she was rigid with fear. Eve stood looking at a room filled with larger, but hopefully hibernating, versions of Gerta…about three hundred of them, she would later realize, after a quick count. And they had claws for hands! These AIs were definitely not housekeepers. The com voice spoke.

  Danger; do not open this room. The AIs have been inactivated but have developed subconscious controlling techniques as on 2-Pallas. They will attempt contact and control. Do not use the stone! This is a direct order from Commander Robin Lightfighter.

  “Now I know what this stone does. It’s not just a key…it activates and controls everything, doesn’t it?” Eve asked, again glancing to the ceiling. In answer, a keypad came from the wall displaying an answer…it was the mainframe, and it wrote a message to her in plain city-speak.

  Do not access the door. The AIs will attempt to compromise the stone. It can awaken them. Do not open the door.

  “Gerta told me, but at first I didn’t understand,” Eve typed back to the mainframe. It took her quite some time to type out her message on the keypad because she had never used one for communication. “So that’s why there is only a single stone. It’s why only Robin Lightfighter ever possessed it. She passed it on to someone…to me. It can be used to wake up those AIs…it can be used to activate the stasis pods. It will restart the vessel for the evacuation on the target date, correct?” Eve finished her typed message to the mainframe. The answer immediately appeared on the screen.

  That is correct. If the AIs are awakened, they will return to your city and take over…like on 2-Pallas, they will eliminate all the humans. That is why Commander Lightfigh
ter left the stone outside the vessel and tunnels…it was to protect the humans from the AIs. Over centuries, your family guarded the stone. The target date approaches. Soon you must open the main pod in the chamber,” the mainframe explained.

  Eve read the mainframe’s message, and backed away from the door. She would have run screaming down the tunnel, but where would she go? Without thinking further, she glanced at the key in her hand, set it on the stone floor, and opened the acid hose, watching the metal key dissolved under the acid spray. Inside her head she imagined the angry screams of those three hundred, supposedly hibernating, clawed AIs. But she’d had no choice…even Gerta, or maybe especially Gerta, could have been compromised. The little housekeeping AI could have been turned, and those security AIs could have killed everyone!

  “Now I know why Miggly wants my stone. It’s not just to get inside the vessel and leave; it was also to make sure everyone else he left behind was killed. That way he and his followers would have more food for the trip. He must have found out what the stone does. It must be written someplace in The Book of Rules. My family has been hiding the stone in plain sight for centuries.” Eve finished typing her message and waited for the mainframe to reply.

  I can only affirm that this information is indeed in The Book of Rules.

  Eve nodded, while further examining the AI pods through the viewing portal. Then she typed out another message.

  “Thank you for the information.”

  She continued peering thru the portal, noting that unlike the human stasis pods, she could see inside those facing the door. Each AI wore a black, tight-fitting suit and boots; almost identical to the one Robin Lightfighter wore in the drawing in the archival book. Each had huge hands with razor sharp claws on the ends of what she assumed were their fingers. The AI in the front row nearest the portal had letters embossed on the top left front of its black outfit…SIM 33788, product of CLOCK, Inc.