Undersea

by Geoffrey Morrison

  Ralla said nothing, justifiably confused. Oppai seemed to change tactics.

  “Your father, a great war hero, yes?”

  “Yes,” she conceded hesitantly.

  “Have you ever asked him how many he killed, and why? How many people did he force to flee as he took their homes and jobs, taking it all for the Universalis?”

  “No, that’s not right. That’s not what happened.”

  “How can you be sure? Who told you?"

  "My father."

  For a moment, it looked like Oppai smiled. It decayed hastily back to anger.

  “Your Council has been systematically and surgically trying to eradicate the people of the Population for decades.”

  “No, that’s not true!”

  His anger turned into fury.

  “We have tried war, and you crush us. We have tried peace, and you crush us. Well, no more. No more will we stand by and let you purge us from this world. Now we fight back. Not on your terms. Not on fair terms. You have taken fair and obliterated it. We will take back what is ours with the overwhelming force and might of the Population Fleet. And when we have taken what is ours, we will make you pay! Pay for every citizen of this great ship you have slaughtered. Then you will live by our rules. This world will be ours. Not yours. Not anymore. Not ever again!”

  Oppai was near apoplectic, his whole body shaking. Ralla leaned back in shock. She looked around, but she was the only audience. Then, like a flushing out of a bay, the rage drained out of him, his face returned to its normal color, and he sat back down, as it nothing had happened.

  “Good wine, yes?” he asked, taking a bite of the meat. Ralla couldn’t think anything else to say.

  “Yes.”

  “Sorry?”

  “Yes,” she answered more forcefully. This time she definitely saw the hint of a smile cross his face. A hint it may have been, but it was still the most unreadable, most unsettling smile she had ever seen.

  The next morning, Ralla had Dija and her helpers start planting the seeds of a plan among the people. It was simple, and word was spread by whispers. When the soldiers entered with the vat of food, a wave of silence washed over the room. It was eerie how quickly everyone hushed. As the soldiers made their way to the stand, Ralla stood up, and in almost perfect unison, so did everyone else who was able. The rustle of clothes and shuffling of feet were the only sounds. Everyone turned to watch the soldiers.

  Ralla took a peek at the rest of the room, and even she found it creepy, everyone standing, watching in silence. The soldiers there to deliver the food did so with spooked haste and made for the nearest door with almost comical expediency. The guards near the door kept their hands on their rifles, eyes nervously darting from silent face to silent face without locking eyes with any of them. The eyes definitely looked back, though. Only a few minutes had passed, but it was clear from the rapidly increasing anxiety of the guards that to them it seemed much longer. Finally one of the guards freed his shaky left hand from the barrel of his rifle and banged his palm against the door, which subsequently slid open. Still facing the crowd, the two guards on that door stepped outside. The guards on the other door almost immediately did the same.

  Everyone near her cracked smiles, and Ralla bounded over to the stand with the food, and rose her arms in triumph. There was thunderous applause.

  That evening, four guards took her again. She tried fighting them this time, as did a few others, but all were met with the butt of a rifle to the head or a fist to the gut. It was clear they were headed to the Oppai’s cabin once again, and once again she saw no civilians, only soldiers.

  After one of the guards pushed her out of the elevator, her temper flared, and she punched him—not in the face she was aiming for, but straight in the neck. The taller man staggered back into the elevator clutching his throat while the other three crowded around her menacingly, but no one touched her. She pushed one of them back, and from the way his eyes burned, not killing her was obviously a matter of some effort on his part.

  They’re under orders not to hurt me, she realized. The thought was fascinating, though somewhat confusing. She held up her hands, and motioned for them to proceed. They kept a tight cluster around her for the rest of the walk to Oppai, but they didn’t make any further physical contact. By the time she entered the cabin, she was rather amused with herself.

  The door slid shut, and she immediately went on the offensive.

  “I demand to know what your plans are for the citizens you’re holding against their will.”

  Oppai was pouring himself a drink and barely noticed that she had spoken. He wore a different fitted suit, light brown in color.

  “Wine? I’m afraid we finished the one from last night. This one is, sadly, not quite as good.”

  She said nothing, but glared at him. He poured her a glass anyway.

  “Shall we sit? Can I call you Ralla?”

  “Councilwoman Gattley will be fine.”

  “Ralla is shorter. You may call me Herri.”

  He moved from the bar to sit on one of the sofas, and motioned for her to do the same. He placed the wine intended for her on the table.

  She begrudgingly obliged to the sofa, but let the wine sit. He lounged in silence, sipping his wine, his eyes never leaving hers.

  “Are you going to answer my question?” she finally asked.

  “Well, for the moment, you’re all fine and I don’t see much reason to change anything. It won’t be long before we’ve taken control of the Uni. After that we’ll undoubtedly have work for you to do.”

  Ralla scowled at him.

  “What else did you expect? Letting you go is not an option, and it’s not like I can have you swim home. I need the resources you and your people had, and the prisoners below impeded that effort. You should be thankful we just didn’t kill them all.”

  “But that’s just it, why can’t you let us go? Why are you doing this? If you were doing so badly, why didn’t you ask for our help? We could have worked together.”

  “My people feel that you would sooner kill us than help us.”

  “They feel that way because you tell them to feel that way, with your pep rallies and propaganda.”

  Herri looked puzzled for a moment. “How would you know that…?” but even as the words came out of his mouth, his eyes widened. “It was you. It was you who got onboard and stole our sub, wasn’t it? Do you know how long it took to clean up that mess?” There was no malice in his voice. If anything, he seemed amused. “I am impressed. You come across like this privileged Daddy’s girl. I guess I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

  Ralla said nothing.

  “Well, it’s too late for that now,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

  “Why? Why is it too late? We can contact the Uni right now. I can talk to the Council. We can stop all this tonight and start working together. There’s so few of us left.”

  “For starters, you know that’s not true.”

  “What’s not true?”

  “You’d never be able to convince your Council to work with the people of this ship. There have been too many generations of hatred.”

  “What are you talking about? Most people on my ship hadn’t even heard of the Population before you attacked our dome. I hadn’t thought of this ship since my grade school history classes. Even the people of my father’s generation that fought in the last war haven’t held a grudge.”

  Oppai looked like he hadn’t expected this. He quickly recovered with another shrug.

  “You don’t understand what it was like here barely a year ago. There were food riots at least once a week. Many of the cabins were so unsafe as to be uninhabitable. People were being murdered for their ration chits. What food we could grow, half would be stolen. A chunk of the other half would end up on the black market. We didn’t have the manpower to police the population, and the police we did have were corrupt. We were this close to complete anarchy.”

  Herri stood, and swirled the rest of his w
ine around in his glass.

  “Then I stepped in. Before I ran for office, I...” The statement just sort of hung in the air. And when the words stopped, Ralla noticed that everything about him stopped. It wasn’t until he started talking again, having sorted out his thoughts, that he even appeared alive at all. “I have a certain knack. A gift, if you will, of explaining. A gift of getting people to listen, to believe. People have always looked to me for direction. So running for office was a natural thing; it just became a matter of timing. To win, though, to be sure of a win, I needed to promise them something. Something big. So I promised them you. You were the cause of all their problems. The old regime had been hiding the facts. You were stealing all the resources. You were waging a war of attrition. It was easy. People wanted to believe. The violence stopped overnight. We started putting people to work building the new fleet. We tore out all the old ships from inside the hull and converted them to new subs.

  "But it's all lies. There have to be people who realize that.”

  “Is it? Is it a lie? Your people control the resources that my people need, for reasons too complex for most people to understand. I've merely taken that truth and... simplified it. My predecessor took over our only media a decade ago. The government has all the mainframes. We inserted reports, stories, testimonies dating back years to show the Universalis's treachery. Within a few weeks, the citizens of this great ship were united. It's easy to get people to rally around a common enemy, wouldn't you agree? ”

  Ralla grimaced at his obvious reference. Oppai smiled his eerie smile, and continued. “My people have pulled together in a way they haven’t since the last war. They’re happy now, or as happy as can be. They don’t care that they have no food and live in squalor. They’re willing to make sacrifices because they know it’s for the greater good. And that greater good is the destruction of the people who put them in this situation.”

  “But you’re lying to them. You're creating this conflict, this animosity. You’re killing innocent people.”

  “Your people.”

  “Our people! It’s just people you maniac. We all come from the same place. You have to stop this.” Ralla stood and leapt over the table. She knocked the glass out of his hand and grabbed him by the tailored suit. “Stop this. Stop all of this. You created this mess, this insanity. You can stop this. Please, you must stop this!”

  Oppai gently but firmly removed Ralla’s hands from his suit and held her by her wrists.

  “Hating you was the best thing for my people.”

  “You couldn’t possibly believe that.”

  “I took the rage of a populace on the brink of annihilating itself and turned it somewhere else. If you honestly think there’s any way to calm that sort of rage without giving it an outlet, then you are every bit the naive girl I first thought. Look. Look at them.” He took her by the wrist and walked her out onto the balcony. The briny air was thick with the smells of metalwork and construction. The war machine in the shipyard hadn’t abated, subs of all sizes being built, modified, armed and readied. He made a sweeping motion with his free arm. “These people live with purpose. An energy and a purpose and I got them here. I saved them from ruin. So no, Ralla. I’m not going to stop anything. This is better than anyone could have dared dream just a year ago. We have jobs, we have food, we have mining and farming domes.”

  “Which you stole!”

  “Which my people needed. Still need. But soon we’ll take the Universalis and our needs will be met.”

  “Killing thousands of innocent people as a consequence.”

  “Their innocence is known only to myself, my Cabinet, and you. My Cabinet I trust implicitly.”

  “Was that a threat? Are you going to kill me?” Ralla asked, surprised at her lack of fear. This close to the railing of the balcony, she figured she could bring him with her if he tried anything. Seeming to notice where she was looking, he led her back inside. The smile returned.

  “No, Ralla, I have no interest in killing you. The guards will see you back to your, shall we say, accommodations.”

  Thom was tired of sitting in the dark. They had struck out at the first dome they’d snuck up on, its docking bays empty. The second was perfect timing. From the thermal layer above, they could see a transport being loaded through the permiglass dome. The place was lit so brightly, they had joked they could have seen the thing from the surface. They waited for a few hours for the sub to leave, then shadowed it.

  It kept a straight course for the better part of a day, then on the long range sensors Thom made out a blip. They slowed, cut power, and dropped beneath the thermal. Sure enough, the Pop loomed in the distance. They determined its course, and rose above the thermal. This time, there was no one else around. They sped off for their intercept position.

  The intercept was a planned version of how Ralla and Thom had gotten on the Pop in the first place. They cut all power to their sub, slowly descended to the sea floor, and landed softly on a bed of gray silt. Then it was a waiting game. They calculated that if Pop continued on the same course it would pass over them in six hours. Plenty of time to eat and drink their rations and get in a short nap.

  If all went according to plan, they would flood the rear compartment and float up to the passing sub, all but invisible. Finding a way in would be the tricky part, but they were prepared to hang on for a little over two hours for the ship to stop and open a bay. If it took longer than that, they would let go, return to the transport, and start over at a different location. Thom didn’t relish that idea, as the tiny suit motors could only propel them at a fraction of the speed the Pop moved. Worst case it would be nine hours in a suit in the dark.

  The main sensor screen, set to its lowest brightness, showed a mass moving in their direction exactly at the calculated time. Thom switched it off and put on his helmet. The others did the same. He sealed the cockpit behind him. Tegit activated the pumps that would store the air in the compartment, replacing it with water. In the dark, with just the glow of their helmet readouts, Thom would have been surprised to find a single man in the bunch who wasn’t terrified. He looked over at Cern, whose ghostly face looked ready to snap. Thom grabbed Cern by the shoulder and locked eyes with him. Cern closed his eyes and let out a long slow breath. His eyelids rose slowly, but he seemed stable, if not relaxed.

  The cabin fully flooded, they opened the hatch and stepped out onto the dark sea floor.

  VIII

  This time, after they stood in unison, they started to chant “food,” quietly at first, but with quickly escalating volume. Stomping feet soon followed, a few at first, then a few more. Soon the noise was deafening, the shouting, the chanting, the banging of the feet.

  Two more soldiers entered carrying a large square device between them. They set it on the platform where the food was usually set. One pressed a button on the side, and a projected image filled the wall above and between the two double entrance doors. The image was of the room they were in, from a camera somewhere above the projector. The noise slowly abated as people tried to see what was going on. The image of the room was replaced by a new image, and the near explosive energy in the room was extinguished as if by open lock. The image was of Ralla, with a plate of food, glass of wine in her hand. Murmured confusion rippled through the crowd. Those near Ralla looked in her direction, their faces looking for explanation. Then it got worse.

  The image was actually a video. Speakers hidden in the walls supplied audio. It cut to Oppai, looking resplendent in his dark green suit. This must have been recorded at a different time, she though, as he was in mid paragraph explaining who he was. Then it cut back to her, just her face. This was from the night before, where she had said her name and title. Then it showed the wine glass in her hand, mostly empty. There must have been cameras all over the room. The next shot was Oppai, starting one of his bizarre rants.

  “Do you know who ordered innocent people killed on stations all across the hemisphere? Entire domes flooded, full of woman and childre
n?”

  Then it cut back to her.

  “My father.”

  The shock hit her entire body at once. All she could do was collapse to her knees. Her mouth agape, her whole body paralyzed with the horror of it. Yet she couldn’t look away.

  “Your Council has been systematically and surgically trying to eradicate the people of the Population for decades.”

  “Yes,” her projected avatar responded, forcefully.

  The video continued with Oppai’s questions and her with either a dismissive look, or worse, one of her many yeses. The video ended with Oppai’s grand tirade that had seemed so confusing two nights before. The video went black, then Oppai appeared again, this time with the backdrop of the shipyard. He wore an outfit similar to what he wore when he addressed the crowd months earlier; neat, but not as showy as the suit from the video.

  “Men and women of the Population, the video you have just seen was recorded on the security cameras in the Dignitary Dining room. I had invited a representative from the Universalis here to see if we could come to some peace between our two peoples. As you can see, I was met by condescension and disdain. When I asked her up front about their role in our troubles, she didn’t deny it. She didn’t even try to hide it. It is clear to me that we mean nothing to them. They would as soon have us die as to lend us a handful of grain. It saddens me, but we will be proceeding to the next stage of our action against the Universalis. It is our only path to peace, and our only path to survival. Thank you, everyone.” The screen went dark.

  Ralla couldn’t move. She kept her eyes shut, but could feel all the others in the room burning holes in her flesh. They would have no way of knowing it was cut-and-pasted lies. It would be her word against a video. And with the food and wine, why would they believe her? She had failed. These people would never listen to her again. She had failed them, and she had failed her father. There was a part of her, a familiar part, that just wanted to hide, have her father fix it. But as this thought fully formed in her head, she rejected it. He wasn't here. But she was.