Exile: Arc

by Jack Lance

  The enclosure he found, was a garden that had been torched, probably by one of the hopeless looking exiles he now saw milling around. The grass had been charred black and also the trunks of the trees on either side had been burnt narrow and twisted. The red foliage seemed to have been untouched and still clumped together high up at the arched ceiling. One of the trees had leaned steeply to the side so that they now had to duck underneath, looking almost as if it had been tugged by some fierce hurricane.

  As they walked under it Bailey glanced back at the cave and waterfall they’d come from. He found it to be a fountain of sorts, that extended from the wall, in the shape of cupped hands reaching out at different heights, with the largest pool just above the cave ceiling. The dank water dropped between gaps in the fingers to lower pools down to the main pond at the base. Dirty yellow moss covered the wet parts, and seemed to illustrate how carelessly the place was maintained by the robot.

  “It’s this way.” the rat like officer pushed Bailey’s shoulder impatiently and Bailey continued toward a broad archway at the opposite side of the place.

  Only now, once away from the roar of the falling water Bailey heard a strange noise coming from above. It sounded like a pig or some other animal howling constantly and without pause. He looked at the two men that didn’t seem to give it much thought.

  Zep and the two goons took Bailey through the garden, avoiding some screeching kids that played around what he assumed to be their medicated parents. They sat on the burnt and slightly wet grass with other men and women that looked to be part of the wrong element of society.

  “Home sweet home.” Zep swung his arms around at the hydroponics garden majestically, and then marched down the mossy steps through the stone arch in the wall.

  Bailey followed them out into a smaller hall soaked through with water trickling from the arch. There was a stair case leading down to a dark place below, but Zep walked away to the side, toward another stone arch leading to what looked to be the first of a row of cells.

  Before it was a corridor leading back along the side of the gardens with small windows looking in at the nasty place. More rows of cells junctioned off from it, lined with uninviting cubicles. Bailey followed along the corridor to a stairwell at the end and then up past another similarly inhuman floor to the third, being the top.

  There was a door with a key coded lock that looked to lead to a further stair well and Bailey asked what it was.

  “Is this where the screams come from?” Bailey asked bluntly.

  Zep looked at him over his shoulder as he walked along the nearest row of cells, and said “Don’t go near there.”

  Bailey followed along the freezing corridor, its floor covered in shoe prints from the charcoal mud brought up from the gardens. He said “You know, this place is a bit of a dump yeah?”

  “This floor is actually the warmest in the unit.” the man with the rouge complexion said, barely selling the idea to himself.

  “Lucky me.” Bailey said into his face, causing him to flinch slightly.

  They took him to the open door of a cell, with a strip cut out of the wall to the right that was apparently meant to serve as a window.

  “You can hang a drape over this door or anything you choose.” the rat faced goon said, pointing at the corners of the gaping holes. “But at 8 in the evening you must be within your quarters for lockdown. If not you’ll be left outside all night, which is sadly, unheated. You’ve already seen pretty much all there is here so there’s no excuse not to make it back. It’s a tiny unit, you won’t get lost.”

  “The air can freeze at certain times of the year.” Zep backed him up. “So get back here, son.”

  “I will.” Bailey sighed sarcastically.

  A smile dawned on the big goon’s face. “You’ll learn, I’m sure. And hopefully not the hard way. Watch your back for cattle, and don’t provoke them.”

  “Cattle?” Bailey asked.

  The goon looked to Zep Teppi, who sported a brief uneasy look and then went on “Cattle, you know? Murderers. Bull fags and the like. They cattle together in places like this, so be on your guard. It might be best if you just stayed in your cell.”

  “Can I call you if I need anything? I might need to talk to someone.” Bailey pushed.

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Zep said cluelessly. “You can talk to me about anything. But you must accept your place here, and all medication I prescribe for you. You aren't going to heal yourself after all...”

  He’s a very basic read-write artificial intelligence for the quantum processor. I’ll cave his robot head in!

  “What? I’m not crazy like them.” Bailey said emptily.

  “Of course… Well we have other duties to other exiles so we’ll leave you to get settled in.” Zep’s rat faced backup tried to smile.

  Bailey stepped back through the doorway of the dank room as Zep held up his fists and said “Yes! No! We’re on a roll! Let’s go!”

  Bailey watched Zep point away, then they turned and headed back along the corridor.

  Like Hell.

  “What?” Bailey said, then realized that neither of the men or the robot had said it.

  He continued to watch them leave down the stairwell before entering his dark, foul smelling quarters. He looked to the hammock on the far side, then looked to the small chalk board on the floor and the words “Points exam: What shape are you feeling?” permanently embedded at the top. The toilet was in a slight alcove near the bed, and the smell of girly-poo was still in the air, suggesting that a woman had been here previous to him.

  He sighed and left again, listening to that strange guttural howling from above. He walked back to the adjoining corridor that he now saw had a number of porthole-like windows looking down on the gardens through the red leaves. He stood a moment looking down at the ugly folk there and felt his attention being dragged in the direction of the scream, to the locked door at the stair well.

  Cequodus security system PTY55-g. The default passcode programmed by the manufacturers is 3333. You know if the robot changed it we’ll need to beat the new code out of him. Go!

  “Go.” Bailey mouthed the word, then walked to the door and looked at the keypad.

  Bailey entered the code, not expecting anything to really happen, and watched the door click and open slightly.

  The scream suddenly washed over him and he dived through it onto the stairs, and closed the door behind him.

  He was sure nobody had seen him at least, and so turned and walked up the freezing steel steps toward the piercing screams. Finding a large fur lined coat on a hook at the top, much like the one worn by Zep’s Security guards, he put it on in the dark at the top of the stairwell.

  Here there was another small door, that looked to be half frozen to its metal frame. He pulled on the freezing handle and cracked it open and slowly moved inside.

  Beyond it was a large room that filled the entire upper floor of the unit, with just a sloping cabin holding the door to the stairs. At the far side, along the outer wall were a series of tall open gaps, allowing the harsh weather outside to spill inward. The whole room was frozen in ice, and if it weren’t for the steady, blood curdling scream he would have sworn he were alone in the glistening place.

  Bailey scanned his eyes around the whole of the room, and eventually found something that looked strange in the direction of the noise, beside one of the towering gaps to the outside.

  There was a crucifix there, lit by the small amount of light coming from the setting sun beyond a mountain range. He walked over to it, huddling in the warmth of the jacket. It had been jabbed into the solid ice floor and to it had been screwed a large, gaunt creature. He limped up to the foot of it, finding it to be at least twice the size of himself and looked up at what had been making the noise. For the first time since he had come to the place it stopped and coughed slightly, then lethargically looked down at him.

  He recognized it as anyone would from their society. It was a Grey, one of the ancient race tha
t had created great space mainframe, The Lord. It was a massive AI network that served as the robotic foundation of their space faring society, the Eclipse Empire.

  They were an ancient race of engineers, totally absorbed by their magnificent creation, and jealously obsessive in their charitable goals. The Greys were indifferent by and large to the pettier politics of power dynasties they had liberated from their homeworlds, as they each squabbled over the democratic rights to be 'ruling house'. They instead enforced a common legal system over the whole of Empire space; a harsh reminder of their scientific monopoly.

  It was human in shape but starved thin and tortured by the freezing planet. It was screwed and chained to the crucifix and had been partially frozen to it so that parts of its limbs were encased in the ice. Only its pale, bulbous head seemed to hang completely free. It was clearly watching Bailey now with its dark, almond shaped eyes.

  “Hello?” Bailey said, and half expected it to scream back at him.

  “What are you doing here?” it said.

  “I’m a prisoner.” Bailey said. “Are you a prisoner?”

  It seemed to smile through its impossibly thin chin, and then said “What does it look like you Lantis halfwit.”

  “I dunno. I didn’t think we had authority to detain your kind.” Bailey said. “What happened?”

  The creature laughed slightly then said “It doesn’t matter. And you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Do you want me to set you free? I don’t care much.” Bailey said.

  “Kill me. I don’t want to live like this. Please, I’m sick of my dirty soul.”

  There was a honk of a siren and then the words “Lockdown in five minutes!”

  “Don’t say that.” Bailey said as he turned to leave. “I’ll come back tomorrow and set you free.”

  The alien creature laughed as Bailey turned and ran across the ice toward the door. A roll of thunder could be heard in the skies through the gaps in the wall.

  Bailey returned to his cell and stopped dead in its one, bleak room, still wearing the heavy winter coat.

  He walked forward and stared close at the hanging bulb that burned at the center of the ceiling, then bowed his head and stood, waiting. Night was falling and the time for lockdown had come.

  Bailey stayed with his head hung low, his eyes half closed as a harsh rasping voice shouted “Lockdown in 20, 19, 18… “

  It counted down to two before omitting one and then lockdown began with the darkening of the bulb over his shoulders. The open doorway behind Bailey was sealed with an old plate sliding up from the ground. The window that ran along the rest of the outer wall was filled first with strips running upward, and then by strips running from the left. For a second the room was in complete darkness, before a pattern of square holes in the seals lifted outward allowing light in through small, glass windows. The holes were no bigger than his hand but there were enough of them to light the room, but only just.

  Bailey casually turned on his heel to look at them, then walked over to the hammock and slumped into it. Outside the place, in the real atmosphere of the planet a storm began with another low roll of thunder.

  There were no more screams from the creature on the top floor, and Bailey wondered if he had done a little good here in this terrible place.

  Something within Bailey still was racing, like the quantum mind of that robot, but as for Bailey, it was time to fall asleep. He heard the sounds of the storm begin to rage as he sank into some dream.

  You know you’re so close to the end.

  Bailey opened his eyes as a harsh rasping of thunder sliced through the walls of the prison.

  Had he dreamt that voice? Or had the words been here just like the storm?

  “Hey Chico?” Bailey heard someone speaking and turned to look at the wall just over his shoulder. He saw in the low light, one of the bricks slide away and then someone began to speak through the hole in the wall.

  “Got any bread? Got any women? Got any bread?” it said.

  “Go away.” Bailey said flatly.

  “No need to be unfriendly. Pokey just wants to be friends with the new boy.”

  “We’re not friends. Up yours pal.”

  There was a sound a little like a laugh and then the brick was put back into its place. Straight away, the sound of extremely irritating music with an unnecessarily heavy beat began blaring on the other side of the wall. Whoever lived next door banged a few times just to indicate that he was doing it deliberately to annoy Bailey.

  The music continued into the mid-morning when the lockdown ended and the door and window were uncovered.

  Bailey immediately donned sandals, a t-shirt and cord pants that he found in an old chest beside the hammock. Casually he strolled around to his neighbors’ quarters, finding both the door and window closed off by reinforced metal. There was a strange knocker on the door and a keyhole the size of a child’s wrist.

  “Hmm.” he said, noticing a few of the other people eying him warily, apparently realizing that he had scored disfavour with the crazy person living at this address.

  Bailey nipped his mouth comically and knocked on the door. A moment later he heard someone scrabbling around at the large keyhole.

  “Pokey? Is that your name? It’s your neighbour.” he said.

  A small child’s voice answered him, whimpering through the hole “Daddy not in. Please help me. I can’t feel anything.”

  Into the dark. Go.

  “Hmn. I see.” Bailey said and then walked away.

  Straight past the corridor overlooking the gardens and ignoring the door leading up to the creature he walked down to the bottom level and around to the small hall by the gardens. Ignoring the gardens he stepped to the top of the broad stairs leading down to the dark place below.

  Wherever it led to was below the entire rock structure of the unit, including the gardens, but it was the only place he had not seen with his own eyes within the narrow limits of the place.

  He stepped cautiously down into it, letting his eyes adjust to the dark, and straight away heard a throng of voices within. He found first the murky green tank of the underside of the garden pond, with its clear sides shedding a meagre amount of light on that far side of the basement. Next he found the glimmer of lights from a keypad to his right, illuminating the numbers on the pad.

  His feet reached the bottom and heard the creak of old wood, and as his eyes adjusted fully he saw he was standing on a set of old boards that had been suspended over what looked to be a bottomless drop. There was enough space between boards in places to fall through so he decided to be careful.

  “You want to be friends with Pokey now?” he heard that same voice from the hole. “We gonna be gooood friends.”

  He looked and saw the throng of men and women approaching him in the dark.

  “I’ve got friends.” Bailey said, and seemed to anger slightly the man called Pokey.

  “You no feel sorry for Pokey?” he said with a fake indignance. “You no feel sorry for Pokey’s childrens?”

  Kill them all! Butcher! Slaughter! Kill!

  “No!” Bailey cried out, then turned and ran back up the steps.

  He ran right back to the top level, and entered the door to the frozen attic. Forgetting to shut the door properly behind him he ran up and stumbled out onto the icy floor while fitting another of the big jackets over his shoulders.

  He ran across toward the dull crucifix and bowed before the alien, panting and said “I’m not meant to be here.”

  “That’s where you and I differ.” it said in quiet reply.

  “Oh Gosh. I am alone aren’t I?” Bailey whimpered.

  “You are not alone. I hear whispers. Millions of Lantis. Millions of halfwits!” it hissed. “I can hear shapes. Homes. Engines. I have something to show you. Take a look outside! Climb out to the ledge and tell me what you see.”

  Bailey said nothing, and stumbled around the crucifix to the first of the towering gaps in the wall. He looked out i
nto the murky daylight of the planet, across a shallow valley to a gothically twisted power station just before the beginnings of a jagged mountain range. Wind farms reached up out of it, capturing the flow of air from between the peaks. Beyond it all the glowing multi coloured orb of a gas giant rested down into the horizon, with its plethora of moons littering the rest of the sky.

  “I had already guessed that this lost little place was a moon of some kind.” Bailey sighed as he stood in the gap. “Not quite sure how, but I seemed to… err… nice view.”

  He turned and looked at the Grey, who chuckled slightly and said “Not there. Go right outside and look up…”

  Bailey slid through one of the gaps slowly, and hugged one side of the metal divides as he stepped out onto a narrow outer ledge. It was a long drop below to a ring of floodlights around the entrance and the same bright blue and grey marbled rock that the moon seemed to be mostly made up of, besides the ice.

  Bailey steadied himself and looked upwards as directed. He had expected to see a short wall and then the roof, but here he saw a massive wall reaching up, and curving away into the grim clouds. The smooth white wall reached away to both sides for an equally gargantuan distance.

  A dome. Approximately 20 miles in diameter. A lie…

  A gust of wind threatened to budge him from his perch, and so he slowly slid back through the gap.

  He dropped down onto the icy floor and walked back around to the alien, who had a knowing smile on its gaunt face.

  “I know I’m right.” it hissed quietly as he walked around to face it. “Tell me I’m right. I haven’t lost it.”

  They’re testing to see how long it takes it to die! Kill!

  “This place is huge. You are quite right about that.” Bailey said, and walked back around to the side of the crucifix. His foot caught on something and looking down he saw it was a ladder.

  Bailey looked up sheepishly at the side of its alien face and then sat down on it and stared out at the mountains, and the flowing, milky cloud over it.