“Much better,” Shannon said, on-screen. The baby's head glanced around the lift. It tested its arms and legs before sticking its foot in its mouth. “Stand-by subroutines. Don't worry about it.”
The clock counted down, three minutes from arrival.
“You going to be alright there, chief?”
“Now I'll be, yes. I still couldn't break my locks. Thanks for the assist.”
“Uh, anytime,” Jessica raised an eyebrow. “So we going to be safe up here, or what? Are there people up there? Do we fight? Do we just run to an escape pod?”
“Don't sweat the details,” Shannon said. “Look down.”
The frosting dissolved. The rail they were riding shimmered out, revealing the ascent as if she was literally flying. She stepped back, seeing not just Alaska's shore, but the sweeping line of the American coast. Russia was just across the water, before the curve of the horizon swallowed it. Black all above the hazy line of blue, she was really up there.
Jessica was in space.
~ 61 ~
The view from above
December 1, 4124 — 12:22 PM
Jessica's breath caught in her throat as she tried to say something, but couldn't. Ayla whimpered before sprinting headfirst towards an invisible wall. Holly snatched her up before the poor girl could knock herself out. The bot aimed the dog's head towards the sky, blew a quiet breeze on her belly, and cooed her into distraction. Kahn raised his head, but then lowered it on his paws, content to nap.
“This is...”
“We've entered the thermosphere,” Nicky said, his voice filled with awe. “I never imagined...seeing it for myself.”
“I never get tired of it,” Shannon smiled, “and this was my first home. My birthplace.”
Jessica paced, taking it all in, every brown, green, blue, and white. Nome was just part of the shoreline—they could barely point it out. She jumped a few times for good measure. The gravity was still the same. Eventually, what seemed like a half-hour later, she noticed the clock was gone. They had arrived long ago. She looked to the screen:
“Getting bored of space.”
“I understand, Jessie, but I'm having a problem getting in.”
Considering no one in the lift could die other than Ayla (and she might even resurrect if she did), eternity in this glass tomb might be rather insanity-inducing. The disorientation was already making her feel a little weird.
“Should I shake the baby?”
“No,” Nicky said.
“Will you let me shake it?”
The lift lit-up as walls, floors, and ceiling materialized around them. The center of the radial middle opened above in a mechanical iris. Calm yellow light beamed down in pulses. Without word, Holly rolled into it, still holding Ayla. As they floated up, Kahn followed, legs walking in open air. Nicky and Baby-Shannon were next, leaving Jessica alone with Bunny. She activated the targeting, trusting she wouldn't need him, she just thought it was right for him to be awake for this. Bunny bowed in front of a crayon-colored backdrop of the Sol-System's planets. Saturn was pink. Mighty Sol had a smiley face. Jessica smiled back and nodded.
Rows upon rows of empty workstations extended as far as she could see in every direction. Nicky confirmed the size: a one mile radius. Towards the edges, large clumps of green ringed the expanse, gardens with manicured bushes and trees. While there didn't seem to be walls, or a ceiling other than the sun, he explained that the lights were indeed on, which did bathe everything in an even glow. The sun was filtered through the ceiling, which could be turned visible or not—right now it was just a ball in the sky with no real thermal or visual strength other than the novelty of seeing it without glasses. He said the suborbital station was held aloft with the same AG technology that kept The Mission afloat, yet needed its tether to Nome or it would lose its place in the sky.
“Escape pods?” she said.
“Dozens. In the floor.”
“Many have been used. A precaution in case something came up.” Shannon now popped into existence as a full three-dimensional hologram, the only thing giving him away was the subtle, violet tint, something techs usually do so people can tell reality from these projections.
“Like us. Glad we're alone.” Jessica knelt down to pet Ayla, who seemed shy after revealing herself under a silver desk. “I asked earlier, what about the news?”
“Terrorism,” he said, his expression betraying neither surprise or anger. “Anatali and the Sol-Union released a joint statement that it was sabotage from Triton operatives protesting their embargo. It still damages the credibility of DETH's safety, but they can manage that with a focus on higher security. The Dettal Group was only too happy to accept credit for 'the attack.'”
“Trent and Calvin were there. There was no attack.”
“Yes,” Nicky said, baby still in his arms. “It was either negligence, or an inherent instability within the technology itself.”
“I guess that makes us conspiracy theorists, when shit goes public.” Jessica exhaled deeply, staring at the sun. “I wish they'd made it, for a lot of reasons.”
“About that,” Shannon said. Her eyes narrowed on him, lips set in a line. “The Winslow brothers were picked up in a field fifteen miles from city limits yesterday morning. I'm just now unlocking these documents. Apparently, they were in critical condition. They are in the custody of Anatali Corp.”
“Well, let's go get them!”
“I agree,” Holly tapped a button, bringing up a map of Alaska, with a big arrow over Fairbanks. “We can strike within the hour.”
This surprised the hell out of Jessica, but she didn't want to get in another debate about the bot's motives. The logistics would likely take care of themselves, if recent days had any say about it. Then again, it wasn't like anything they'd done had worked out as planned.
“Hold up there, cowgirls.” Shannon raised a flat palm as he sat on the edge of another desk. “This isn't like Nome, and it's not like going up against a handful of Sol-Union operatives.” Jessica tried to break in but he raised a finger, “An information war is going to take time; we need different ammo. And what do we all have? Time. The pantry has plenty of food for Ayla. Trent and Calvin Winslow aren't going anywhere other than under Anatali's watch. They'll both be fine. And to the public, the sting of losing Nome will be over before we can do any real damage. The outrage has already been directed elsewhere. All we need to do now is remind them, every so often, that we do remember Nome, and that if they embrace this technology, the same thing will likely happen again.”
It was a hard speech to argue with, and yet, just as hard to accept. Jessica could use about a hundred years just to process the last four days of her life, much less understand whatever socio-political-economic mechanism that killed her, her family, and her city, only to have the ruins be fought over, then spun off and lied about.
Jessica didn't get it now, and wondered if she ever would. But unless she started to rot, and that seemed unlikely considering the pink in her cheeks, she'd be able to physically interact with this universe long enough to try and understand it, and later convince someone else how and why Nome had died. Mom was down there right now, standing in their trailer, still unwilling to leave their lawn, much less the town. So, while it was pretty obvious that none of the Dvoraks could escape city limits, and that The Mission would make sure that never happened, no one but those in the observatory were even thinking about Nome's future anyway.
So that was Jessica. That was Verdandi.
Nicky had said his Valkyrie was the goddess of the present, wrapping threads around the past and the future, weaving the tapestry of fate. With all these lives in her heart, and all these stories in her mind, she reckoned she was the only one that could carry this past into the future. Weaving fate from fifty thousand threads.
The best player on the losing team; it wasn't unfamiliar. She hoped Jacob could comfort Mom. She hoped Dad was proud of her.
Acknowledgments
I am blessed with incre
dible family and friends. I'd like to thank my parents, Kirby and Lorrie, for their unwavering support, my brother, KC, for his continual insight, and my best friend, Emma, for her patience and compassion. I'd also like to thank Tracy Dumalski and Michelle Baker for helping me with this novel, and all the support I've received from the communities at MT-CW, Locution-Zine, Acme Writers, and from my band-friends, The UnderCovered.
This novel is dedicated to Ayla, my bestest of best friends, who I miss very much.
Table of Contents
Epilogue
Anatali: Ragnarok Page 33