by Kir Lukovkin
“Scum!” Rick hissed.
The large man was taken aback. The other guard also froze in expectation. Silence hung over the platform. The people surrounding them stared at Rick with obvious interest. Olivia and Igor stopped talking and turned around.
“What? You little rat!” the bearded man raised his fist.
But Olivia called out, “Hornet.”
The man twitched as if he had been slapped and stopped. Only his lips trembled nervously and the hand he had raised to strike shook.
“You would never have survived a minute down below!” Rick told him clearly.
Hornet's whole body flinched, but he did not dare to disobey Olivia. He obviously did not understand what was going on. His pockmarked face went red. More gawkers started to gather around the altercation. Igor looked at Rick as something interesting instead of an object for the first time.
“Would you survive, runner?” he asked.
“Perhaps!” Rick replied, with a note of challenge in his voice. “Want to test me?”
Igor frowned. Olivia chuckled, “The runner obviously hungers for the ordeal.”
“Well, why not?” Igor suddenly looked cheerful. “Do you agree?”
“What awaits me?”
“You have challenged Hornet, which means you have challenged the whole Cluster. This is only washed away with blood. A runner that dares to do such a thing is unworthy of even maintaining the perimeter.”
“All right,” Rick replied hoarsely.
He immediately remembered his homeland of Thermopolis and the sector which was ruled over by Cornelius. History was repeating itself. Everything really was the same all around the world.
“If it is my fate, I will die free. What are you suggesting?”
“You said it all yourself. Go down into the canal.”
Rick wanted to agree, but then Olivia interrupted, “He has already been there and proven that he can get through it. It would be unfair to do such a thing. The fords value honor. We need something else.”
“As you wish,” Igor gestured, showing that he had no objection to any alternative.
“Wall. Ring. Tunnels. Choose,” Olivia offered.
“What are all of these things?”
“Choose.”
“Ring.”
The inhabitants of the Cluster clapped their hands approvingly.
“The fords like your choice. Let's go.”
They let Rick go. He noticed that the convoy had taken a couple of steps away as if there was an invisible barrier around him. Everyone present slowly followed Olivia, who let them to a small platform, bordered by low transparent walls on two sides and pointed at the middle of it.
“Go there,” she ordered.
Rick obeyed.
“Who will go for the Cluster?” Olivia turned to the people.
“I will!” Hornet bounded forth and grabbed a whip twined from a thin line with a slim blade on the end from the pile of iron bars, clubs and chains at the edge of the platform.
“Of course.”
Olivia waved her hand and two translucent green barriers appeared on the two sides of the platform that did not have walls. “Resolve your dispute. Only one of your will leave the ring, and he will be a ford.”
As soon as she finished, Hornet went on the attack. The whip whistled through the air. Rick did not react in time and the blade sliced his shoulder, while Hornet was already preparing to strike again, growling with excitement. Rick ducked and the whip whistled over his head and cracked, only brushing past his hair.
Rick needed to get a weapon — he threw himself towards the edge of the platform, but he miscalculated. As soon as he stretched his hand out towards the pile of metal bars, the green energy barrier turned on and the energy wave threw him backwards, making him fall onto his back and saving him from another strike of the whip. As soon as he got up, the whip cut into his upper arm, shearing through the skin.
“Dance, rat!” Hornet guffawed as he swung the whip yet again.
Rick understood that he had to get closer, but Hornet was not bad at this and did not let him close the distance. Rick started to dodge and feint at his opponent, jumping back as soon as he raised his hand to strike. He managed to catch Rick another couple of times, wounding his hip and the right side of his torso, but he never managed to make him fall or cut his face with the blade. The denizens of the Cluster silently watched the fight. Time dragged on and Hornet started to run out of breath, his movements becoming slower and his strikes getting weaker, but Rick was also slower and less agile than before.
When he jumped away again to put more distance between them, Hornet lost his self-control and roared, “Come here, rat! Come!”
Rick was waiting for this moment — his opponent did not even raise his whip hand to strike but rushed forward with a twisted expression on his face. Rick lunged forward to meet him head on. The whip whistled through the air. There was a crack, but the strike never reached its target. Rick's fist flew into Hornet's chin, making him stumble. His opponent grunted in surprise and fury and threw down the whip, grabbing Rick by the neck with his hands.
Hornet was almost a head taller, had much wider shoulders and his eyes were filled with hate and anger. Rick tried to struggle, but Hornet had an iron grip that squeezed his neck like a vice. His vision started to go dark and his body went limp as his legs went out from under him. Hornet was glaring in Rick's face as he strangled him, slowly forcing him back onto the floor.
In desperation, Rick grabbed and tore out a clump of Hornet's beard. However, his opponent did not even make a sound — his anger about being humiliated before the residents of the Cluster only gave him strength. Rick tried to get free again. He twisted himself around, hit his opponent with his knee and tried to push himself away from the floor with his hands... He suddenly felt a piece of rope under his hand. No, it was the whip!
“Filthy vermin,” Hornet hissed. “You're going to die now!”
The thought of salvation was so clear in his fading consciousness that Rick did not even have to see. Rick gripped the blade at the end of the whip in his hand and stuck it into Hornet's neck and face several times. There was a gurgling sound and a gasp and the strangler's grip weakened abruptly. Rick coughed and wheezed and then rolled away with great difficulty, breathing heavily. The mist in front of his eyes cleared and he turned his head — Hornet was holding his face and neck, trying to close the wounds that were gushing red blood.
That was it. Another test had been passed. Rick wanted to get up onto his feet when the platform suddenly shuddered. Frightened shouts could be heard from the gathered crowd. A great rumbling sound followed and the air started to vibrate. Many people fell to the ground, but some remained standing, including Olivia. She stood there, looking at the barrier wall that surrounded the arena. Rick also cast his gaze in that direction and he could not believe his eyes — buildings were moving beyond the wall, with glass domes, sections of roads and service lines and whole districts sliding by.
“It's a shift!”
People darted in every direction as if they had been stung.
“Shift!” could be heard coming from every side.
The energy barrier at the borders of the platform flashed and went out. Rick made an uncertain step towards the edge when the Cluster itself started to move. The arena with the buildings began to slowly rise like a giant transportation platform, crushing the structures on the barrier wall with its edges. Many of those who ran upwards along the stairs and walkways on the walls were out of luck. Desperate cries for help came from everywhere at once, mixed with the final screams of the dying. The air shivered, saturated with pain, death and fear.
The arena rose to the edge of the barrier and stood still. Rick tried to step to the edge of the platform again, but the floor shook under his feet, even though it was not so noticeable this time and everything started to move horizontally. Rick finally realized that it was not the buildings to the side of the arena that were moving, but the whole of the Cluste
r.
Where?
Why?
For what reason?
The arena was getting covered by a giant shadow, as if the sun had descended below the horizon. The city at the edge of the Cluster was raised to a significant height and the districts of the Cluster gradually lowered as they moved horizontally and it was an ordered movement, subject to the algorithms programmed into the mechanisms. A network of intertwined tunnels, halls, corridors and spaces opened before his eyes, where everything was also rearranging itself, putting itself into blocks and being rebuilt in a predetermined order.
Mother darkness! What was happening?
District after district descended into the darkness under the surface of a new segment of the city that grew before his eyes. The sky turned into a gradually constricting rectangle.
Thirty seconds...
A minute...
The rectangle of light turned into a narrow strip.
At last, the sky disappeared and the world was covered in darkness.
Well, at least here was something he did not have to get used to. Falling to his knee, Rick looked ahead, quickly getting his bearings in the dark. Gradually, the shapes of walls, ceiling and floor became clearer around him and a constellation of glimmering lights appeared above like stars.
A shadow moved close by, so Rick quickly rose to his feet and sidestepped, clenching his fists.
“A ford has come out of the circle!” Olivia declared.
Other people surrounded them.
“What happened?”
“A shift,” Olivia replied calmly, as if that explained everything. “Absolute night usually falls once very eight years, but then everything goes back to its previous place after about a day or two. The shift happened earlier than usual this time.”
“Why did that happen?”
She shrugged.
“That's the way the world works. We didn't make it up. Let's go.”
When he was brought to a residential block with transparent walls, where shell cases full of flammable fluid were used for lighting, the first thing that Rick asked for was for some water so he could wash as his face and hands were covered with Hornet's blood. Olivia issued an order and he was brought a little water and then given a brick of dry concentrate to satisfy his hunger. While he ate, he noted that most of the people had gone back to their usual activities. They started to climb in and out of the hatches on the floor. Sometimes, someone would visit the block and quietly make a report on the situation to Olivia, going away after receiving their orders.
“Thanks for the food,” Rick told her as he finished his concentrate.
Olivia nodded.
“Have you seen the other runner?” he enquired.
“Runner? Oh, you're talking about your companion. Yes, he set off towards the freezers and the rollers followed him.”
“Those strange spheres?”
“That's right.”
Red-haired Igor entered the block and glared at Rick.
“The newbie wants to find his companion,” Olivia reported.
“Forget about him,” Igor replied.
“Why?”
“Consider him dead already. No one has managed to run away from the rollers in the freezer sector yet.” Igor sat down on a box by the entrance, smoothing out his overalls and then asked, “Who are you?”
Rick briefly told them about his and Paul's expedition to the citadel.
“All of this is unimportant. You are a ford now,” Igor concluded.
“What does that mean?” Rick did not understand.
“A ford...” Olivia spoke up. “Everyone who is strong and intelligent is a ford. Those who are weaker are ersatzes, who are our servants. What is your name?”
“You already heard,” Igor interrupted. “His name is Rat.”
Rick wanted to object but a man he did not know entered the block and asked, “Igor, can you come outside for a minute. Something is happening.”
Rick's stomach growled and he cast a worried glance at the corridor where the men were talking to each other. There was obviously something going on in the Cluster. The people had returned to their usual way of life as the shift was nothing new to many of them, so everyone had calmed down, but not the leaders or the watchers. It would be a good idea to fill himself with food in advance.
“Where does the food come from,” Rick asked Olivia.
“From the synthesizer barrels,” she answered, without emotion as usual. “Rat, you saw them when we were approaching the Cluster. Everything is simple in our world — food from barrels, water from the pipes and air from the world. Light from darkness. Do you want to eat again?”
She threw him another briquette.
Rick quietly chewed what she gave him and washed it down with the rest of the water from his cup. All of this time, Olivia watched him indifferently.
“Why were you going towards the center?” she enquired.
“We were going towards the tower. Do you know what's inside?”
“Death is there. Many fords have gone there and not returned.”
“Because of the rollers?”
“Not only them.”
“The possessed? Is that what you call them too?”
“Yes. But there is something else as well.” She paused. “Well, it doesn't matter, it's too dangerous there. We're fine here as we are. We maintain the perimeter around the walls and take everything we need in our lives from the world, no more, no less. Exactly as much as we need.”
“I see. So you have lived here for a long time.”
“For many years. It has always been this way. The Cluster has lived, it lives and it will keep living.”
Rick thought for a while and asked another question, “What are the rollers?”
“We don't know. They are very fast and they live in the canals and that's it.” Olivia undid her jacket, dragged up her shirt and showed him an ugly scar on her stomach. “See that? Once, we found a dead roller in the canals of the Cluster. It did not shine and it was covered in rust. One of the fords decided to come closer. I stood further away than everyone else, but even I got caught. I was young and inexperienced then and always stuck my nose where it did not belong.”
“What, don't you even leave the boundaries of the Cluster?” Rick asked in surprise.
“Why would we? Everything is the same everywhere.”
Igor stepped into the block again and beckoned Olivia. Rick rose as well.
“You stay here,” Igor ordered.
Rick decided against arguing. He came up to the transparent wall and looked out into the Cluster, which was shrouded in darkness. The ceiling was quite distant — it was two or three Thermopolis levels in height. Lights glittered at even intervals, with barely perceptible communication hubs and pipes underneath. The arena had barely changed apart from the steel pillars that appeared between the floor and ceiling. They were obviously there to reinforce the structure and probably extended when the Cluster stopped under the city segment that had grown on the surface. The segment was pressing down on the Cluster with incredible force.
The pillars could be seen everywhere beyond the arena as well, even in places where the standard, low buildings stood. There were impenetrable walls at the outer boundaries of the Cluster. Rick was used to enclosed spaces, but his was still worried as he did not understand what was going on. He needed to work out what the situation was.
The residents of the Cluster were setting up their life in their world, which had sunk under the surface of a new city. They were lighting shell lamps, carrying water and changing into lighter clothing. Surprisingly, it became noticeably warmer with every passing hour. The rumble of gigantic machines had long quietened down and there was only the noise of machines moving around deep underground coming from far away. Rick remembered the view that he saw from the hill when they approached the city gates and understood how infinitesimally small the Cluster was compared to the area of the gray disk around the citadel.
He looked around. Igor and Olivi
a were not in the corridor anymore. Ignoring his orders, he left the block and looked around, but his new acquaintances had disappeared somewhere. Rick felt a growing unease. He pointlessly wandered around the arena, until he found himself by the border — a standard, squat building which was obviously empty was ten paces away.
Hmm, that was strange, why did the fords stay in the arena and not use the buildings? Rick approached the metal ladder on the wall of the building, climbed up onto the roof and looked out at the arena from his high vantage point, trying to find Olivia and Igor. He noticed a bright light off to the side and turned in that direction — people were busily working by the entrances into the dark tunnels, which were the height of three people.
Rick moved to the other edge of the roof, carefully looking ahead of him — several fords were trying to do something at the edges of the entrances to the wide tunnels that had a platform fixed above them crowned with shining searchlights. People were shouting, swearing and waving their arms, sometimes pointing at the edges of the tunnels and into the darkness.
What could this all mean? Rick frowned. Were they arguing about the way to close the gates? He stepped forward.
Suddenly, a scrawny human jumped out of the tunnel. It was impossible to determine If it was a man or a woman because the hair of the new arrival was long and matted and it hid their face, while their clothing consisted of torn and filthy rags. The fords recoiled. The creature shouted incomprehensibly and ran away from the tunnel, from which more ragged wretches emerged. The fords tried to stop them and quickly mixed into a large and noisy crowd. The space of the Cluster was filled with worried exclamations, which changed into screams of pain and terror. Rick froze, trying to decide what he should do as he could not understand whether those that arrived in the Cluster were possessed or just the people from some clan that had lived nearby where the living conditions were far worse, considering the appearance of the newcomers.
The wretches kept on coming and Cluster residents armed with steel bars and sharpened disks rushed out to meet them. However, the wretches did not try to resist them for some reason, dodging them and trying to run deeper into the Cluster instead...