Beta Planet: Rise

by Dayton Grey

  Nothing.

  He made his way around his corner of the room and closer to the stairway, looking up at it and wondering if that was the key to getting up.

  It doesn’t seem likely. I can’t picture Lastentar Grilagan and his top officials, climbing their way down hundreds of flights of old, rusty, and rickety stairs. Keep looking, G.

  He made his way to the center of the room, just as the others did as well.

  “It has to be here,” Sabien said, trying to peer through the debris at the elevator door. He pulled aside just enough of the junk to get to the button for the elevator, but was disappointed to find that the button had been torn out and there was nothing left by a few dangling wires. They each walked around the column, looking for anything unusual, but couldn’t find anything. After nearly an hour of searching, Geon was beginning to give up hope.

  “There’s nothing left,” he exclaimed. “There’s nothing here!”

  “I dunno,” Sabien muttered. “I don’t know what we’re looking for. Allea did you try holding the tube up in the air?”

  “No,” she said. “Here you go.”

  She handed the tube to Sabien and he held it high in the air, his arm outstretched as far as it could, the other four stopping and staring at him.

  Nothing happened.

  “I give up,” he said, handing the tube to Kumuki, who walked off with it held out straight in front of him.

  “Guys, I think we need to consider an alternate plan,” Sabien said. “Maybe the location of Zenith has moved. Maybe it’s somewhere else. Aurora, maybe you can get more information and we can try again.”

  “No,” Geon said. “I don’t think we’ll ever get another shot. Her father will find out what she did soon. You know that, Sabe.”

  Allea pulled up schematics of the building before it was demolished on her cuff, trying to look for some anomalies in the structure.

  Suddenly, Kumuki cried out from behind the column where the elevator was.

  “What’s this?”

  The four of them ran to him and found him crouching down on the floor, his face inches from the ground.

  “What is it?” Geon crouched down next to him.

  “Here. There’s a little dent.”

  Geon ran his fingers gently against the edge of the floor where Kumuki was pointing.

  There WAS a dent!

  “It’s a small indentation,” Geon said, feeling the semicircular notch but being careful not to put his fingers inside of it. “It could be nothing, but, it’s so… symmetrical. Look at it.”

  The other peered forward, barely even noticing the tiny groove in the floor.

  “Kumuki, place the tube there,” Geon said. “You found it. It’s your honor.”

  Kumuki smiled and placed the small tube in the dent. A flash of blue light came out of a tiny pinhole on one side of the indentation. It appeared to be scanning the contents of the tube.

  “Oh my God!” Geon whispered.

  Please open. Please open. Please open.

  Suddenly the light disappeared and there was a clicking noise and a strange whirring sound from behind the wall. As the five of them stood up and slowly stepped backward, the entire concrete wall in front of them made a deep ‘thunk’ and a door opened from the opposite side.

  “Kumuki, you did it!”

  Geon slowly crept around the open doorway and peered in. It was the area where the elevator used to be, but in the square shaft stood a circular clear tube, running upward and out of sight. On the front of the tube was an opening and a small round platform on the ground, and in the middle of the platform was a vertical pole about five feet high.

  “Guys,” he said with a smile. “This is it. Aurora, you really found it!”

  “We all found it, Geon,” she said, patting the now smiling Kumuki on the arm.

  “Okay,” Allea said in a serious tone. “Let’s stay focused. I’m running the security program from Helano now, since we don’t know what we’re going to encounter up there. Let’s go.”

  They climbed into the tube one by one and crowded around the small platform, each of them holding on to the vertical pole in the middle. Once inside, Geon could see there was a button on the inside of the tube. Sabien was about to press it when Geon stopped him.

  “Guys,” Geon said. “I just want to make sure. This is our last chance if anyone has doubts. Are we all in this together?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, Geon.”

  “YUP!”

  “Do it.”

  Geon hit the button and suddenly the platform took off, hurtling them rapidly straight up into the depths of the old building. As they flew upward, each floor of the building whirled past them in a blurred frenzy. Floor after floor passed until finally, the platform began slowing down. Before it stopped, Geon asked Allea to scan for other people or active LifeCuffs nearby. She scanned and found nothing. The platform came to a stop and the door slid open, each of them stepping out one by one.

  The sudden cold and powerful wind hit Geon by surprise. He hadn’t expected them to be outside when they stepped out, but looking around, he could see they were now on the roof of the enormous building, high in the sky and above the permamist. The air was wet and stung his face.

  “Oh my God,” Allea whispered. “Look!”

  Geon followed the direction of her arm, pointing toward the sky above them. As he and the others turned to look up, they all simultaneously gasped in shock and Geon found himself breathless with wonderment. In the sky, about fifty feet above them, was a round structure, about four times the size of their home. It had windows all the way around the sides and lights from within those windows, but no lights from the bottom of the structure. Geon could make out thick cables protruding out from the edges of the structure, which appeared to be extending toward other buildings nearby. The most astonishing site, however, was what Geon saw as he looked up. Above the object was a dark massive round balloon, connected to the top center of the structure by a set of more thick cables.

  Unbelievable.

  He wanted to scream out in shock and delight, but they had to maintain their stealth position to avoid being noticed by anyone that might be up there.

  “LOOK!” Kumuki loudly whispered, pointing to the sides of the structure.

  Geon squinted his eyes, trying to adjust to the dark, and wiping away tears from the blistering winds. The large round structure was surrounded on all sides by more, similar looking, smaller round structures. There were about fifteen in total. Each of them was separated by length of long thick cables that connected them to each other and to the remains of the buildings around them. Each of them also had a large silver balloon strapped to the roofs with cables.

  “Oh my God, it’s a floating city,” Geon said in awe, unable to take his eyes off the surreal sight above them.

  “Incredible, Geon,” Aurora said.

  “Truly,” Sabien added.

  “It’s amazing,” Allea said. “It’s truly a feat of engineering marvel. They used the defunct remains of the abandoned buildings as structural supports to keep them steady in the high winds, and then used those balloons to keep them afloat. Hydrogen, maybe? This is years ahead of any construction technology that we know about.”

  The cluster of round structures slowly came into clear view as Geon’s eyes adjusted to the conditions, each of them glowing softly from within.

  “You can even see the transport bubbles there, along the outsides of the structure. They run along cables from each unit to the next.”

  “It’s like Enkia,” Kumuki said. “Except this one floats in the sky and that one floats in the water!”

  Geon nodded and added, “It is remarkable. But we can’t stay here forever. The large structure right above us looks like the main one. I think that’s where we’ll find what we want. There’s another tube right there under it, behind that wall.”

  “He’s right,” Sabien said. “We need to keep moving. Let’s go.”

  They scurried across
the roof quickly, making their way to the wall and creeping carefully around it. On the other side they found a tube like the one that brought them to the roof, leading directly up the middle of the structure.

  “You guys ready?” Geon said. “Once we get in, let’s get the info and get out.”

  They climbed through the door in the tube and hopped on the platform and tapped the button once more, sending them flying straight up into the center of Zenith.

  The door slid open and Geon stepped forward, carefully prying into the room before them. It was a dimly lit entry point, and Geon could see that they were right in the middle of the structure. From the inside, it looked similar to the homes in Enkia, and appeared to have multiple divided rooms all the way around the exterior edge. Directly in front of them, Geon could make out a room with a long table and seats all the way around it. Seeing no sign of anyone else in the room, he motioned to the rest of them to step out of the tube. The only sound was a very quiet “wow” from Kumuki, and a low pitched hum from behind them.

  “Stay close to the wall,” Geon whispered, as he pressed his body up against the wall housing the tube and slowly made his way around the large wide circular column. They followed in single file, stepping slowly and deliberately. Geon saw another room through a small window that appeared to be a medical clinic of some sort. It was hard to make out, but there was a cooling box in the corner with strange objects inside of separate glass jars.

  “What are those?”

  “Keep moving, Kuki,” Sabien said softly. “We don’t have time for that now.”

  “We need to find the central brain,” Allea said quietly. “There will be some sort of primary holographic nervous center which houses all of CARE’s information.”

  They continued around the room until they were finally face to face with a sliding door of the largest room in the structure. They looked at each other and nodded and stepped up to the door as it slid open.

  “Wow!”

  Inside the large, semicircular room there were holographic images all the way around the outer area. In the center of the room was a floating hologram of Earth, similar to the one they saw at the MOOH, except that this one had red and blue dots scattered all over it.

  “What are those?” Geon asked, to no one specifically.

  “I don’t know but we don’t have much time. I’ve set my cuff to monitor any activity outside this room, so if someone comes here, we won’t have much time to get out!”

  “Okay, Ally, what do you need?” Geon said.

  “I need to find a port,” Allea said. “It must be somewhere in here. Wireless transfer of information will be blocked here because of security. So the only way to get what we need is to find a physical input and hardwire in with the security override program.”

  “Okay, guys,” Sabien said. “Everyone split up and search for this port!”

  “It’s probably going to be protected,” Allea said, dashing around the room and looking high and low for anything that could be it.

  Geon scrambled around focusing only on trying to find an input. He desperately wanted to stop and look at the images around the room and see what CARE was up to, but knew they might not have much time to spare, and couldn’t risk getting caught.

  “Is this it?” Kumuki squealed from the side of the room. Allea dashed over to him but shook her head and told him no, saying it was just a button for something.

  “Guys, over here!” Aurora loudly whispered from the other side of the room. They all rushed over and saw a large black monolith standing in front of them. On the front of it were numerous blue blinking lights, and it was housed behind a wall of metal slats.

  “That’s it,” Allea said. “That’s the brain!”

  “I think I see the port,” Sabien said, crouching down and peering through the slats. “Is that it?”

  “Yes, I think so,” Allea replied, pulling out a multi-tip wire from her suit and plugging one end into her LifeCuff. “Okay, we need to get the door open so I can get in there.”

  Sabien and Geon simultaneously grabbed the solid heavy door and pulled, but nothing happened.

  Oh no.

  “Pull harder!”

  They pulled again, this time with the help of Kumuki, but the door wouldn’t budge.

  “It’s locked solid!” Geon said, grabbing his hair with both his hands in frustration.

  They pulled again and again but nothing happened.

  “How do we open this, Ally? Is it biometric? Try the hair!”

  Allea grabbed the tube with the hair and tried placing it near the door of the large rectangular device, but nothing happened.

  “I don’t know,” she cried out, looking flustered herself. “We don’t have time to figure this out! I think I might be able to get my arm through the slats. Hold on.”

  She crouched down to where the port was and slid her petite hand through the slats, it barely fit and she had to push to get her knuckles through. As she pushed her hand back toward the face with the blinking lights and port, the slats jabbed her in the forearm, stopping her about six inches short of reaching it. She pushed and pushed but her eyes began to tear up from the pain of the jagged metal cutting against her skin.

  “I can’t do it,” she said. “It’s too far!”

  “Let me try,” Aurora said, sticking her arm in but getting even less far than Allea. Sabien made a half-hearted effort but was unable to even get his hand through the slats and Kumuki also tried but was stopped short at his forearm as well.

  I can do this, Geon thought to himself, pushing his right hand through the slats and wincing in pain as the metal scraped against his forearm as well.

  It’s too far. It can’t be done.

  “Oh no,” Allea said, looking down at her cuff, her eyes bulging with fear. “Guys, I see activity in the premises. I think someone might be approaching this structure on one of those transport bubbles. We’re running out of time!”

  This can’t be. We’ve come so far and are so close to discovering all the mysteries about CARE and we’re going to fail. We can’t fail!

  Geon pushed harder still, and his arm was suddenly cut by the metal, small drops of blood dripping down from it.

  “G, you can’t do it! Forget it, we need to go!”

  No. No! I won’t let this happen, he thought to himself, looking down at his other arm. This is why I’m here.

  “Wait!” Geon yelled. “I can do it!”

  He pulled his right arm out, grabbed the wire from Allea with his left arm, and shoved it through the slats with furious abandon. It too got stuck on his forearm, but this time, he pushed and pushed as hard as he could, grabbing the entire cage with his other arm and pulling toward it with all his might.

  “AGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

  Geon howled out from the pain as the metal from the slats and nano-skin from his bio-limb pressed against each other in a battle of tension. The skin shredded apart from his arm, unable to take any more pressure.

  “OH MY GOD!”

  “GEON!!!”

  “ARE YOU OKAY?”

  “NOOOOOO!”

  Geon kept pushing, ignoring the pain shooting up his arm. It hurt to push, but in a different way from his other arm. The skin peeled back further still, exposing the alloy limb beneath it.

  “Oh my God,” Allea cried out, tears falling down her face. “Geon, please stop! PLEASE! IT’S NOT WORTH IT!”

  “NO, ALLY! One more second. I’m almost therrrrrrre… YES!”

  He pushed forward one more fraction of an inch and pushed the tip of the wire into the port.

  “It’s in! Ally, DO IT!”

  Allea quickly brushed away the tears from her eyes and furiously tapped away on her LifeCuff.

  “I’m in! Downloading the info now.”

  “Guys we’re going to have to run,” Sabien said, peering out of the doorway. Whoever it is, I think they’re almost here.”

  “Five more seconds,” Allea said, staring at her screen and tapping the gro
und with her second.

  “Four… three… two… one!”

  “LET’S GO!” Sabien shouted as he tried to help pull Geon out. His arm was still stuck between the slats and the two of them pulled harder and harder. Finally, with all their might, they heaved their bodies backward and pulled Geon out, the skin from his limb ripping completely off in the process.

  “NO! MY LIFECUFF!”

  Sabien looked down and saw that Geon’s LifeCuff had ripped off as well, and was now sitting at the bottom of the device, behind the slats, and once again out of reach.

  “GEON, FORGET IT!” Allea shouted. “WE DON’T HAVE TIME!”

  “If I leave it they’ll know I was here!” Geon screamed back, trying again to reach in and grab it.

  “They’ll know anyway! FORGET IT. WE NEED TO RUN!”

  Oh my God. We’re going to be caught… all because of me.

  The others got up and ran toward the door and Sabien finally grabbed Geon and pulled him up as well.

  “It’s gone, brother. We need to go. Now.”

  Geon nodded and they took off running toward the tube.

  “Everyone in,” Allea said, tapping the button and sending the platform down the clear tube. As they made their way out of the structure and down into the dark of the night, they could now clearly see there was a pod approaching the building with CARE members in it.

  “Oh my God, they’re getting onto the platform!”

  “What do we do what do we do what do we do?”

  Allea looked up at Geon and Sabien and shook her head.

  “It’s the only way,” she said.

  What’s the only way?

  “Zeppwings. Geon, Sabien, when you hit the ground, you run for the edge of the roof and you jump. Jump as high and as far as you can. Just as you jump, hit the button on the left right here,” she said pointing to Geon’s chest. “When you get close to the ground, then hit the other button. Got it?”

  WHAT?

  “WHAT? You want us to JUMP?” Geon exclaimed, suddenly terrified.

  “Trust me, G. You’ll be okay. Kumuki, you and Aurora follow me. We need to scatter.”

  Sabien looked at Geon just before the platform hit the ground. “G,” he said with a smile. “Race you to the ground.”