by Magus Tor
Again, Aurelia drank and waited. Elza curled her legs up beside her and closed her eyes, remembering.
“Once I was at a mine, and the dome stopped functioning. I was eating at the time, breakfast, and I froze. The alarms all went off, people ran for their suits, but I didn't, I couldn't.” She shivered. “It got colder and colder, and I felt each breath getting harder to suck into my lungs. Then a young Worker dragged me to my suit, and I got it on just as I couldn't breathe anymore. It's terrifying; you've got no idea. And they deal with it time after time. And when the breathing suits malfunction...” She trailed off and looked at Aurelia. “Have you ever seen it?”
Aurelia shook her head.
“We get them here, sometimes. Not often. Usually the bodies are left out there; there's no point in bringing them in. But every single body that I've seen from out there has a look of utmost horror etched onto the face. Complete and pure terror. You have time to realise what's happening to you, but there's nothing you can do. Nothing. You suffocate, well aware of each breath that you're taking.”
She was right that Aurelia had no idea. The thought of being Out suddenly terrified her. There was nothing more that she wanted to do than forget all this and go downstairs to crawl into bed and finally sleep. Then she thought of Nicholas and gritted her teeth.
“And what about the non legitimate Workers?” she asked. Nicholas wasn't likely to be hiding out at a mine or scientific research station, after all.
Elza sighed. “That, I don't know so much about. I know they exist. I know that some people have somehow made lives out there. The criminals, the hunted, those that could escape the clutches of sec Workers long enough to make it out. How and where they live, I have no idea. How they get out, I've no idea either; I just know that they're there.”
“How do you know?” There were no news reports.
“Everyone knows.” Elza shrugged. “It's just the way things are. I heard that some of the people there are descendants of the original Workers who built Lunar. When the City was finished, the Elite wanted to send them back to Earth, and they didn't want to go. So they went Out and used the skills they'd learned building Lunar to construct lives for themselves. Now, though, now you would only go out if you were forced.”
Aurelia put her empty cup down. “Elza, listen, I've got to get Nicholas. I don't know why he ran from us, but I do know that he doesn't deserve to die, either out there or in here. He saved Jonathon's life, more than once.” She referred obliquely to the occasion when Elza herself had tried to kill Jonathon. “And he's my friend. I don't know what went on, but I do know that Nicholas has no intention of turning us in as Resistance or giving anyone information.”
“Why did he go, then? You were about to get him to safety.”
Aurelia sighed impatiently. “I've already said that I don't know, but I'm going to find out. I'm going to get him and bring him back, and that means that I need to go Out.”
Elza shook her head at this. “You can't, Aurelia. And you don't want to—trust me on that.”
“I know I don't want to, but I've got little choice in the matter. This is a man's life at stake, here, a man that I like very much.”
“This is a Clone's life at stake,” Elza pointed out.
“My friend,” Aurelia repeated.
Elza watched her for a moment but didn't comment. Then she shook her head again. “It's no use, Aurelia. You can't get out there.”
“I don't suppose we're doing any more studies Out, are we?” Aurelia asked hopefully.
Elza smiled. “No, and even if we were, it took me months to get permission to go Out.”
“Any other ideas?”
“Not really. I mean, the only people who probably know are those that are criminals themselves, right? Even the Resistance doesn't send people Out.”
Aurelia nodded. “I guess you're right,” she said.
Still, she now knew more than she'd known before, so she was a step ahead, if only a small one. She thanked Elza and bade her goodbye.
“Aurelia, listen,” the woman said as she was about to leave. “Promise me that if you find a way to get Out, you'll come and see me first, discuss it one more time? It's dangerous out there, and you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. I don't want you to go, but I can't stop you. The least I can do is try to persuade you out of it.”
“Okay,” Aurelia agreed reluctantly.
“And maybe I will have come up with a way to contact Nicholas so that you don't have to go Out.”
“Okay,” Aurelia said again, with a small smile. But she knew that Elza wouldn't be able to do that. She knew, deep down, that she was going to have to go Out.
Aurelia knew that she really should go back to work. But Jason was taking care of things, and as far as he knew, she was still at the Arena. She desperately needed rest, so she headed back to her quarters. Lying in bed, she felt her mind spinning. She was sure that Nicholas was Out. If he isn't, then he would have been caught by now. A report from someone as important as Jonathon Hansen wasn't about to go unnoticed, and she knew that sec Workers would have poured every resource into tracking the Clone down.
What she didn't know was where to go from here. If Nicholas was in hiding, there was no one she could trust to get a message to him. No one she could send in her place. And she trusted no one else to be able to persuade him to come back under the dome. What she would do with him when she got him back here, she wasn't sure, but she'd figure something out. Or Jonathon would. Well, once Jonathon realised that Nicholas was no threat to them, he would.
Eventually she drifted into an unsettled sleep, her dreams plagued with images of suffocation and portable domes that collapsed, caught fire, or unbelievably grew wings and took flight.
She managed to drag herself down to the hospital floor after a short rest. Working on automatic, she saw several patients and completed some paperwork.
“How was the tour?” Jason asked, jauntily.
“Fine, I guess,” Aurelia said, distracted by a form she was trying to fill out.
“You didn't enjoy the pretty boys playing war?” he teased. He keyed his number into a cupboard and began taking out some supplies.
Aurelia considered telling him off, but what was the point? He only had the same attitude towards Clones as everyone else had, the attitude that he'd grown up with. It wasn't his fault. Instead she bent her head over her paperwork and left him to his stock checking. There was no point in fighting with him; he was only excited because he was looking forward to his days off, and besides, she was too tired.
She didn't see him again until an hour later, when he knocked on her door.
“Someone here to see you at reception,” he said.
For a second she thought about Nicholas. He'd been to the hospital once before. But it couldn't be him; he wasn't that stupid.
“Shall I bring her through?” Jason asked, destroying any hope that it could be Nicholas.
“Sure,” Aurelia said, wondering who it could be. Pretty much the only woman she knew in Lunar was Elza, and Elza wouldn't need an escort to get to her office.
A few minutes later, her questions were answered when Jason ushered a tall young woman through the door. A tall young woman with purple hair.
“Hi,” Aurelia said, trying to appear casual and at the same time as if she didn't know the girl. Jason nodded at her and closed the door behind him.
“What on earth are you doing here?” she hissed as soon as the door was closed.
Tara shrugged. “Just checking you out,” she said, picking up an instrument that was lying on the desk. “Making sure you're who you said you were, that kind of thing.”
“Put that down,” Aurelia said. “You shouldn't be here. Why would you want people to connect us?”
Tara looked up, surprised, and laid the instrument back on the desk. “We're not doing anything wrong. Besides, I wanted to check out the hospital—seems interesting.”
Aurelia sighed. Tara was just a kid, and a bored kid at
that. She rolled up her screen and put it away. “Come on,” she said. “It's my turn to buy you coffee. And we shouldn't talk here. Let's get out.”
Tara seemed faintly amused at the Clone coffee bar that Aurelia took her to. Although, to be honest, Aurelia didn't actually know any other cafés in the area except this one that Nicholas had taken her to. The girl looked around her, studying the men in Military uniform and the odd tired-looking Worker.
“So, what did you find out?” Aurelia asked, placing a mug in front of her.
“Nothing,” said Tara. “He's not hiding out in any of the places that I know of, and he'd stick out like a sore thumb, being a Clone, anyway.”
Aurelia nodded; she'd thought as much. Tara had done what she’d been asked to do, but Aurelia wondered if possibly the girl could help her more.
“What do you know about Out?” she asked, cautiously.
“It's sucky,” the girl replied, taking a drink. “Cold, dark—I wouldn't want to go out there.” Then her eyes darkened. “You don't think your friend's Out, do you?”
She was quick; Aurelia had to give her that. “He might be,” she said.
Tara sat back in her chair, a thoughtful look on her face. “Hmmm. I don't know anyone Out, though. Sorry.”
“Do you know how people get Out?” Aurelia asked her, knowing it was a long shot.
“Sure,” Tara said, giving Aurelia a jolt of surprise. “It's tough.” She raised her cup and spent an overly long time taking a drink, apparently enjoying keeping Aurelia in suspense.
“Out with it,” Aurelia said. “Come on, tell me.”
Tara put her mug down. “Fine. They go underground,” she said. “I've never been down there, but I know some people who have. There are parties down there sometimes, Elite kid parties, you know. Sometimes the guys go down on dares and stuff, but, like I said, I've never been down. Don't like the dark, me. Much prefer it up here with the nice shiny lights.”
“Underground?” said Aurelia thoughtfully. “Like, literally underground?”
“Yeah, there are tons of tunnels under the City for all kinds of things,” Tara told her. “You can't get through the dome, so it stands to reason that if you're getting Out, then you're going under it, right?”
Okay, that definitely made sense. “But no one you know has been Out?”
Tara shook her head. “Nah, we might be young and like some trouble, but we're none of us stupid. It's dangerous out there. Anyway, there are other people underground; they'd stop us for sure. They don't mind when we party a bit—the noise keeps people away, you know, but they wouldn't let us go Out.”
“Sec Workers?”
The girl laughed. “No way. I don't know who they are. They wear black a lot, but definitely not sec Workers.”
Aurelia finished her coffee and raised a hand to order two more. She needed the drink to keep herself on her toes. “I'm gonna be honest with you,” she said. The girl wasn't much younger than she was, but she still seemed like a child. “I've got to get Out.”
“You in trouble?” Tara asked, her eyes narrowing.
“No, but my friend is, and I want to help him, and that means I've got to get Out. Can you help me?”
“Maybe.” Tara shrugged.
“Can you at least help me get underground where there's a chance I might get out?”
Tara looked reluctant, but she nodded. “Give me some time to talk to some people; I'll do what I can,” she said. “But I think you're a bit psycho.”
Aurelia laughed, the first time she'd laughed for ages. “So do I,” she said. “But this is something I have to do.”
“Alright. I'll com you tomorrow. In the meantime, you'd better find something better to wear,” Tara said.
“Why?”
“Because I can't take you into an Elite kid party looking like that.” Tara pouted. “You'll never get in. Work with me a little here.”
She huffed in irritation and was still shaking her head at Aurelia's naivety as she walked out the door. Aurelia watched her bright purple head bob through the crowd and then disappear. Another small step, but she was closer. Her time reader said it was still early, but she headed back to the hospital anyway. She had things to do.
Her first stop was Elza, as promised.
“Look, I'm not saying I'm going Out; I'm just going underground to see what I can find out,” she said.
“Right,” said Elza. “And if you get the chance, you'll be Out, right?”
Aurelia nodded.
“There's nothing I can say to stop you, is there?”
This time Aurelia shook her head.
“Fine,” Elza said with a sigh. “But go Out and get back in as soon as you can. Remember, more than three-week cycles out there and your body will start to degrade. Besides, it shouldn't take you more than a day or so to find him. He won't have gone far, not yet.”
“And work?” Aurelia asked.
“I'll cover for you. I'll say that you caught my flu, but on one condition.”
“What's that?”
“That you tell Jonathon what you're doing. I don't want to be the only one who knows, and he has the right to know.”
Aurelia hesitated for a moment. Elza was right. She might have been angry with Jonathon, but that didn't mean that she wasn't thinking of him. She did understand why he couldn't do anything, and the only real reason that she hadn't contacted him in the last day was that she didn't want to put him in a position where he had to compromise either her or himself. That wasn't fair. But now, yes, he should know.
“Okay, I'll tell him,” Aurelia agreed. Fortunately, Elza hadn't said when she had to tell him, and if she played things right she could com him right before she left, not giving him time to try and stop her.
“You're going to need something to trade,” Elza said, thinking aloud.
“Why?”
“Because you can't go out there without a breathing suit, and I can't give you one because I don't have one,” she explained. “I assume that whoever leads you out will have them; there must be some kind of black market in them, and you'll have to buy one. Money doesn't do much good Out, nor do tokens, so you'll need to trade something.”
Aurelia marvelled at how fast Elza could work her mind around the practicalities of things, and she was suddenly glad that she'd come up to see the woman. It was obvious why she'd been chosen for the Resistance, and she had the ability to put aside her own concerns to concentrate on the logistics of things. “What can I trade?”
“That's pretty easy; I should imagine medical supplies are fairly important out there. Take some. You'll need to sign them out under your name, but there's little we can do about that right now. Hopefully you'll be back before anyone notices that you're gone. Just don't take anything too suspicious. A few pain shots, healing patches, that kind of thing should be fine, I would think. Especially since you're only renting a breathing suit, you don't need one to live in permanently.”
Aurelia nodded. Again, Elza made sense. “Is there any way I can contact you from Out?” she asked.
“The com system works from out there,” Elza said. “Workers use it, so it must. Whether or not you can find an intercom to use is another matter. Other electrical devices won't work, though—something to do with frequencies and atmosphere and all kinds of other stuff. Devices need to be specially designed to work Out.”
“I guess that'll do,” Aurelia said. “If I need you, I'll just have to find a com.”
And that was that. The practicalities dealt with, Aurelia got ready to go back to her quarters.
“You're brave,” said Elza, as Aurelia was standing to go. “I see why Jonathon wanted you. But sometimes you're a little foolish as well. Putting your personal feelings to one side is difficult, but it’s something that you're going to have to learn how to do.”
Aurelia thought she was wrong, but she said nothing.
“Go and get back,” said Elza. “And good luck.”
Aurelia still had the dress that Jonathon had once
sent her, and that would have to do for the party. It was the only thing she had to wear except for her uniform, so it wasn't like she had a choice. Aurelia sat on her bed. She was beginning to wonder about her choices, her life choices in particular. She wasn't entirely sure how she kept getting involved in things like this, other than the fact that it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and that no one else seemed to be willing to do what needed to be done. Her parents had always strived to foster a sense of morality in her, even on Earth where such things were considered old fashioned and, well, unnecessary. In a world where everyone had enough, the argument went, there was no reason to feel morally obligated to do anything. Aurelia sighed. I’m scared. Of course she was. But she felt that she had to find out what was going on with Nicholas. Why did she owe him anything? She didn't. Not really. But he was her friend, and that had to mean something, didn't it?
She had already picked up medical supplies during her morning at work, and when Tara's com call finally came she excused herself from the floor, saying that she had a headache. Then she went to her quarters and dressed. She took a small bag and stuffed her uniform inside it, along with the med supplies, and as an afterthought she picked up the stunner that she'd taken from Jonathon and put it in the bag too. She could put off calling him no longer, so she keyed his number into the com and waited. She had no idea how she was going to explain herself, so she was relieved when the com didn't pick up. Instead, she left him a message, a cryptic one, just in case. She was going away for a day or so, not to worry about her, and to talk to Elza if he had any questions. There, promise fulfilled.
A transport pod was waiting for her at the gates, and she carefully entered the address that Tara had given her into the console. Then she sat back in her seat and tried very, very hard to relax. She counted each breath, tensed, and then relaxed each muscle in her body. But it was no good; her heart was still racing, and her stomach still squirmed with anticipation. She'd deliberately not thought about what was going to happen if she did get Out. But Elza was right: Nicholas couldn't have gone far. And besides, with so few people out there, it couldn't be too tough to track him down.