House of the Galactic Elevator

by Gerhard Gehrke

  Ceph grumbled as Jeff put the bar to one edge of the door. The detective produced a stunner.

  “Ready, set, go,” Jeff said.

  He gave the pry bar a pull and the door slid halfway open. A red flash ruptured the air near Jeff’s head and burned a hole into the door’s frame. Jeff hit the ground. Ceph took cover, stuck one hand into the room, and blindly snapped off three yellow stun bolts with his blaster.

  “Throw in the towel, Irving!” Ceph said.

  Another crimson bolt passed through the open door. This hit a wall behind Jeff, leaving a melted cavity that looked like a crying baby’s mouth.

  “Throw in the towel?” Jeff asked, but Ceph didn’t comment.

  Jeff stayed down, chanced a peek. Irving the Grey crouched inside a box that looked like a ski lift gondola with open sides. The Grey pointed a small weapon in Jeff’s direction and fired. Jeff tucked his head back behind the door just as a patch of floor next to him was melted. A burned plastic smell filled the air. He reached into his pouch. His own weapon was in there somewhere. He found his water bottle and some of the tools he had last used when helping Oliop with some repairs. Dozens of interactive business cards and product samples cluttered the space. He would have to empty the pouch to find his stunner.

  “Where’d Irving get a weapon?” Jeff asked in a low hiss.

  Ceph said, “Perhaps his accomplices.”

  “All right. Let’s try something else. Can you access the emergency protocols? Fill that room with the green goo?”

  The green goo was the Galactic Commons’ last line of defense, the previously unknown automated resource that had stopped the Bunnie invasion of the city. The substance waited within special plumbing lines throughout the city for a security emergency, much like water inside a fire sprinkler system. The goo was messy but effective, an organic binding agent that hardened around anything it touched without harming anyone, a perfect nonlethal solution to an emergency.

  Ceph pecked at his tablet. “It’s offline in this room,” he said. “The Grey is one step ahead of us.”

  “What about your bot? Can you draw his fire?”

  Ceph considered the small bot.

  “It’s fitted with a hover mode, isn’t it?” Jeff asked. “Hopefully faster than it moves on the ground.”

  Ceph thought for a second, one face tentacle scratching an ear hole, and he nodded enthusiastically. He worked the bot application on the tablet. “Solution hiding in plain sight. My thanks, Jeff Abel.”

  “Well, as long as you don’t mind kissing your bot good-bye.”

  “I will learn to let go.”

  “Tell me when you’re ready.”

  Jeff hopped up to a crouch. From inside the room, a deep hum started that sounded like a well-machined motor.

  “Can’t be good,” Jeff said. “Hurry.”

  “All in good time,” Ceph said.

  With a last swipe of a finger, Ceph engaged with the bot via his internal app. A calmness washed over him and his eyes became distant as he assumed direct control. The bot began to float. The air beneath the bot rippled like heat rising from a desert highway. The machine made a sound like a slow inhalation through nostrils. The bot floated higher in steps until it hung in the air where Jeff’s head would have been if he were standing. Then it moved quickly through the half-open doorway, veering right. A flurry of blaster fire erupted from within the room.

  Jeff scrambled forward and headed left. He saw a low stack of crates and threw himself behind them. Irving switched targets, its next two shots just missing Jeff. The drone buzzed about on the opposite side of the room, but Irving now ignored it.

  The incoming firing ceased. Soon all Jeff could hear was the soft hum of whatever machine the Grey was working on and the soft pushing of air from the drone.

  “Is that the human Jeff Abel?” Irving the Grey asked. “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have fired if I had known it was you.”

  “Is that so?” Jeff said.

  He crawled to the far corner of the stack of crates. Each box had a code printed on it, a label identifying contents, all readable with an app. Similar freestanding stacks of stored items filled the room. These would all make for good cover, but he wouldn’t be able to get much closer without getting burned by the Grey’s blaster. He was near enough to smell the Grey’s pheromone-laden off-gassing, though. The odd mix of pine needles and burned oatmeal filled the air. This translated as smug contentment. Could scent packets be excreted ironically?

  “Put the blaster down, Irving,” Jeff said.

  “Oh, human, I’m glad you’re here,” Irving the Grey said brightly. “We need to get reacquainted. So Captain Flemming has you working for the police? How interesting. After getting to know your psychological profile, that’s the last thing I would have calculated you doing here in the city.”

  “Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Jeff looked behind him for Ceph but didn’t see him.

  Irving the Grey laughed. “I would have expected your technophobia to have taken root and that you’d have locked yourself into a closet somewhere. But here you are, a police employee. Good to see you taking advantage of the opportunities here in the Galactic Commons. But there are other opportunities, you know. I was wrong about you, and I accept that. This city was originally purposed to exchange ideas and technology. To spread culture. And to profit from all of that. That’s what’s driven each member race of the Commons. That’s what will repair the damage I’ve done. Help me help the city. What do you say?”

  Jeff peeked around the crate. The Grey snapped off a shot, disintegrating the corner of the box, missing Jeff by a hair’s breadth.

  “You little bastard,” Jeff said.

  Irving the Grey laughed. “Sorry about that. Just reflex. My mistake. It won’t happen again.”

  The drone swooshed around the room in a wide arc and headed towards the Grey. The flying bot hovered low, then high, zigging and zagging in quick, jerky lunges. The Grey started shooting, spraying the room with blaster fire. Jeff stood and grabbed a box and threw it through an opening of the gondola. It bounced off Irving the Grey’s bulbous head, knocking the Grey down. Jeff sprinted forward. The Grey lay flat on its back. Its milky eyes fluttered. It began to reach for the dropped blaster. Jeff stuck a leg through the bars and punted the weapon. It slid out of the gondola. The drone above ceased its frantic pattern and hovered. Ceph entered.

  “Caught him red-handed with a better mouse trap,” Ceph said.

  The Grey panted, glared at Jeff. “You human,” it said, spitting the words out like an accusation. The smell pumping out of its glands hid nothing. The sour, rotten apricot stench said “hate” as unambiguously as if the Grey were speaking the word.

  “What were you up to, Irving?” Jeff said. He walked around the outside of the gondola and scooped up the dropped blaster.

  “You know me,” Irving said. “Working for the greater good.”

  Something moved atop a tiny junction box near the bottom of the gondola. Jeff saw a short worm inching its way into the box’s exposed interior. It dragged a wire along with it that connected to a ruptured electrical conduit. Jeff got close, reached between the bars towards the worm. A white spark flashed from the box. Jeff withdrew his hand.

  “We’ll see you,” Irving said.

  Something below the gondola made a whizzing sound and the entire metal cage shifted. Ceph grabbed Jeff’s shoulder and yanked him back just as the gondola dropped into the floor and down a shaft. A recessed door snapped shut behind it, sealing the shaft.

  “He’s escaping!” Jeff said.

  Ceph walked around the door, pushing at it with a foot. Jeff worked at the door with his pry bar. After fiddling with it for a moment, he gave up.

  “How do we get down there?” Jeff asked.

  “We don’t know where that path leads,” Ceph said. He took out his tablet and brought up building schematics. “There is no lower level on the building’s blueprints. Something new has been added, or something old forgotten
.”

  ***

  Jeff sat on a crate in the corner of the once-forgotten storage room as a team of maintenance workers and their bots forced the shaft doors open. Captain Flemming spoke with Detective Ceph, all out of earshot. Several other security personnel watched the activity, but none spoke to Jeff. Soon, Ceph had his flying drone up and was sending it down the hole.

  “This is where Ceph would offer a penny for your thoughts,” Flemming said.

  “I’m sorry Captain,” Jeff said, “But the little bugger got away.”

  “Yes, I heard. We’ll find him. But what concerns me is that you went in after him while he was armed with a lethal weapon. Why?”

  Jeff shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  “Galactic Commons medicine will fix you right back up if you get hurt, but dead is still dead. That was reckless. And seeing how you are one of only two humans in this city, I want to evaluate your work status with the security service. As a representative of your species, you have value to the Galactic Commons beyond your service with us.”

  Jeff cocked his head. “Captain, Irving the Grey needed to be stopped. If he got out, it wasn’t just to escape. He’s up to something, and it can’t be good.”

  “Acknowledged. But his animosity for you knows no bounds.” There was a dignified strain to Flemming’s voice, like a grandfather speaking with his progeny. “I also asked you not to pursue. So I regret needing to restrict your duties until he is found. Go back to supervising Oliop. I’ll call you if we need further assistance.”

  “Captain, you can’t take me off of this! I’ve helped catch him before, and I can do it again. I’ll be more careful. I’ll have my stunner ready next time.”

  Flemming’s dark eyes fixed on Jeff. His face remained placid. “No. Your shift today is finished. Tomorrow check in with headquarters, and you can monitor the situation remotely, assuming you get your devices in order. Your counsel will prove invaluable, I’m sure.”

  Jeff got up and kicked a crate. Whatever was inside was heavy and it didn’t budge.

  Flemming appraised him. “You’re not used to having another being hate you. Stick around this job long enough, and that list will grow. We will continue the chase and have Irving back in custody. Get some rest. Keep an eye on Oliop and assist him with his work. We need him to succeed in his repairs. Maybe spend some time with Jordan. It’s good to be with your own kind on a regular basis. I know.”

  Jeff didn’t laugh at Flemming’s attempt at humor. Flemming was always with his own kind. A mold colony never got lonely. And Jordan? ’She was too busy being a tourist to return a simple message. Jeff said nothing. Just nodded. He walked over to Ceph and checked out the drone navigation software displayed on the open screens of the detective’s tablet. Ceph was still logged in to his machine, his face blank.

  “Knock ’em dead,” Jeff said before leaving.

  CHAPTER 8

  The gondola’s gut-churning descent only enhanced Irving the Grey’s excitement. After being cooped up in a small cell for days on end, and after a lifetime of pretending to feel nothing as was the Grey way, Irving couldn’t stop grinning as the conveyance dropped beneath the lower levels of the city and only seemed to go faster. A few sovereign buildings were built downwards, but none went this deep.

  “I live, I think, I am,” Worm said. It continued to keep one end of its body wrapped around a loop of exposed wire, closing the electrical connection that kept the once-dead elevator powered.

  The Grey clung to a rail with both hands. Its grip got tighter. It considered its situation. The worm got it here, had a means of escape, and for what? To kill it in an elevator? Irving the Grey let go of the rail, ignoring the rational urge to hold on. It laughed. It screamed. It hooted. Eventually the gondola slowed.

  “I live, I think, I am,” Worm repeated.

  “Indeed,” Irving said. “Me too.”

  The Grey’s face felt flush. The normal grey hue of its skin had, during the invasion, given way to a sickly pallor, especially around its face and hands. Now Irving practically glowed white around its cheeks. With a hiss, their descent came to a complete stop. Worm released the wires and reached out to the Grey. The lights in the elevator faded. The Grey scooped Worm up.

  “Take me to your leader,” Irving the Grey said and began walking in the only direction the shaft led.

  Orange track lights illuminated an otherwise dark corridor with a low ceiling. How old was this place? Irving didn’t know. Large parts of the city had been constructed by hands unknown even before its own race had arrived. The flurry of trade and the interchange of ideas between intergalactic species newly introduced simultaneously stimulated the city’s growth while obscuring the actual origins of the galaxy’s new shared space. This renaissance became chum in the water that increased entire planets’ profit margins. Few gave any in-depth consideration as to how the entire city had even come into being. Many sentients asked the whys and hows, but these lines of questioning were tertiary, and soon became tamped down to musings made over fermented beverages.

  The air around the Grey felt warm this far below the ground. It ran a finger along a wall of the corridor as it walked. The melted stone felt perfectly smooth and surprisingly dry, lacking any of the condensation that might form in an abandoned cavern lacking proper scheduled maintenance or ventilation.

  After a while, the Grey’s stubby legs felt tired.

  “How much further, Worm?” it asked.

  “I live, I think, I am.”

  “Of course.”

  The corridor took a slow turn. The overhead lights stopped here. The Grey saw a grav bike parked in the center of the hallway. The Grey walked around the vehicle. It put a palm to the bike’s activation switch. The bike drew itself in, lowering the seat and extending a running board. The handlebars telescoped out to accommodate the Grey’s arms.

  “How considerate!”

  The Grey got on the bike. A giant metal door dropped down, sealing off the hallway behind them. A soft glow filled the space around Irving and the worm, revealing the hidden parts of the corridor ahead where bundles of dark, ugly pipes ran down the walls and along the ceiling. Plenty of space for the bike. The Grey turned the engine on. The vehicle came to life instantly, its power level full. There was only one direction to go, and there the Grey went.

  Soon it encountered an intersection with three nearly identical hallways. Only one was lit. Irving turned down that one. After a dozen similar decisions, a ramp descended to a dead end with a wall covered with dark gauges on one side and an open vat of green liquid on the other. The liquid reminded the Grey of the goop that was part of the Galactic Commons’ once-forgotten defense system, the frothing foam that had blanketed the invaders and stopped them and Irving in their tracks. A slow pattern of ripples moved outward from the center of the vat.

  Irving the Grey kept its distance from the vat.

  A metal door in the wall was slightly open. A light came from beyond the door. The Grey got down from the bike and approached.

  Irving knocked three times. “Ha-llloooo?” it said as it pushed the door open. A squeak came from the hinges. As the Grey passed through the door, the corridor behind went black.

  Inside the room Irving saw a green light of some kind obscured by a swirling cloud of insects. Irving’s app identified the flying creatures as clusters of flying nanobots. They circled the light in slow motion as if they were caught in some invisible eddy.

  The floor seemed to move as well. There Irving saw worms, dozens of them, hundreds, identical to the one in his hand. These creeping things milled about as well, to and fro in no discernible pattern. They collectively made a scrabbling, scritching sound like hands working wet pebbles together.

  And there in the center of the room was a creature with two pelvises.

  He sat awkwardly, three jointed legs dangling on a low couch or divan. The creature sat up, torso twisted, two arms out as if he were posing as a garden statue. His skin shone pale like m
arble, the green swirling light playing patterns across the creature’s body. A black matrix of stripes ran up him as if someone had taken a brush and painted thin, long lines in random places. Irving saw some of these lines were moving. Upon watching for a moment, these turned out to be chains of linked worms wriggling about the lounging creature’s body.

  The worm in Irving’s hand gave a finger a squeeze. It extended itself straight out toward the creature in the center of the room.

  “I live, I think, I am…finished,” Worm said.

  “I believe this belongs to you,” Irving the Grey said. It walked forward, careful not to tread on any of the worms. They moved out of the way as Irving walked forward. Irving placed the worm on one of the lounging creature’s outstretched hands. It hopped and crawled over its fellows and up the arm until it wriggled around on the creature’s shoulder. The creature kissed it.

  “You’ve returned,” he said with a voice that sounded as if it echoed up from inside a well. He wasn’t speaking to Irving. The worm trembled as it received another kiss.

  “Well, I suppose a thank you is in order,” Irving said. “Worm proved quite helpful in accelerating my departure from my holding cell.”

  The creature on the couch opened two icy blue eyes. They glowed in the odd light. He gave the Grey an appraising look. He offered a faint smile.

  “I know you, Irving the Grey,” he said.

  “My infamy precedes me of late,” Irving said. It took a look around the room, at the nano swarms, and at the worms on the floor. It shook its head. “Well, this was swell. I have to get going.”

  “Surely you want to know who I am and why I orchestrated your release?” the creature said.

  “Curious, of course. But everyone’s got reasons for things. And I’m under some time constraints, considering my recent escape. So thanks!” Irving gave a wave and turned to leave.

  “You will be safe down here for the time being,” the creature said. He readjusted his three legs, lowered his hands slowly to allow more of the worms to climb on board, and turned a cocked head in the Grey’s direction. “And to get out of the city via the elevators, you’ll need my help.”