Oversee of One

by Joshua Cook

  So leaving the sphere for the transit station, the long walk, was the only way he saw to get some answers. Assuming the transit station was still manned. And even if it wasn’t, it was close enough to the surface to have communications and to try and find out what exactly was going on the surface. It was decided. Let’s move for the surface through the emergency tunnel, and try and get some answers. Jameston decided to at least attempt to get himself together before leaving however. He took a nice longer than normal shower, and then headed down to the galley to get a good meal in himself. He had the galley make him a huge bowl of pasta, with something that was almost but not quite spicy Italian sausage. Lots of water, and a double-glazed still warmish doughnut for dessert with a cup of good coffee. With a yawn, Jameston knew he needed to get a good rest in before the trek. He knew that the tunnel was technically safe, he also knew that the inspections were only every 2 years, and he wasn’t sure how hard the going would be. So a good rest in the sun room would probably help a great deal. He walked up the spiraling hallway to the sunroom with a wry smile. Now that the trams had stopped, he found himself oddly relaxed. He had processed this whole time phasing thing, you would think that would be the major cause of his stress.

  But it seemed to be that without the system constantly barking at him with various alerts, errors, and alarms, he felt like he had before he made the trip down. Once in the sun room, Jameston got into the reclining chair, closed his eyes, and listened to the waterfall, smelled the fresher air, and generally relaxed. Sleep quickly claimed him, leading him off into the deepest quiet of the body, a deep total sleep. He awoke with a bit of a start, jolted out of a normal if pleasant dream of floating down a river back when he was a boy. He always thought the waterfall was the reason he had that dream in here, but none the less it was a good dream. He stretched, and headed for his quarters one last time. A quick shower, shave, and then it was time to get on the suit for the trek to the junction station. The shower he set to a colder than normal temperature, and a higher water pressure setting. He wanted to be invigorated, and very much awake for this trip. One brisk shower later, and a quick shave, Jameston was ready to tackle the actual leaving of the sphere. As he travelled to the exit hatch, he turned off lights, and other equipment. He eyed the plants in the sunroom sadly, even though they were just foliage, he felt bad about leaving them to wither and die, so he left the water and light systems enabled in that room. He grabbed a few meal bars out of the galley before he found himself at the emergency exit. The external evac suit was behind a protective barrier that forced him to read it before he could get access to the suit.

  NOTICE: UPON OPENING THIS SUIT CONTAINER, THIS ROOM WILL BECOME SEALED, AND NO OTHER EXITS WILL EXIST OTHER THAN THE EXTERNAL EXIT. ONCE YOU ARE THROUGH THE EXIT, THE DOOR TO THE SPHERE WILL SEAL PERMANATLY FROM THE INSIDE. DO YOU AGREE AND UNDERSTAND CHAGES?

  Jameston looked at the disclaimer and thought carefully. He had known about this, any sphere jockey does. You can get out, but once you start that path, you can NOT change your mind. DTA doesn’t want to make this an easy choice. But at this point he didn’t think there were any other real options. He needed answers, and he wasn’t willing to sit around for a month or two to get them. If anyone even came to get him out. With a deep breath, Jameston opened the container for the suit. He had expected there to be alarms, or some sort of huge notification that he had taken this step. But silently, the container opened, and just as silently behind him the door to the rest of the sphere, his home for the last year, closed and locked itself. There was no turning back now, he didn’t have any choice in the matter. He looked at the suit, and began the process of getting it on, and getting it on right. One of the issues with a one-size-fits-all suit is that to have it fit properly there is an innumerable number of straps and tightening and loosening to be done. One would think that there would be a better, more automatic way to do this, but it seemed straps and Velcro were the way to go. Jameston struggled to get into the suit and get it fitting correctly. He truly wondered about the thought process of whoever came up with the design for the thing, knowing that this had to be a one man job. Finally, an hour later, sweaty, and very annoyed, the suit was on, and fitting as well as he could do solo. He checked the oxygen levels on the tank, checked the built-in water bottle, put a meal bar in the slot that was supposed to auto feed it to his mouth if he wanted it. All seemed to be fine, and ready. He glanced around the room, one last look at the inside of the sphere. He felt sad at leaving, oddly, he didn’t think he’d have that reaction to moving out, but considering the circumstances, he was leaving a place of relative safety for a multi-mile hike through an emergency access tunnel to a place he’d never been, and all to find answers. Helmet clicked into place, Jameston punched in the exit code, and watched as the door opened. The light from the spotlights on the top of the helmet lit up the bare rock tunnel. While he couldn’t feel it with the suit on, he imagined the dry hot stale air that filled the tunnel spilling into the room, devouring the fresher air like a pig at the trough.

  Chapter 8 - Tunnel

  He stepped through the door, the feeling of bare rock versus the smooth metal and thin carpets of the inside of the sphere apparent. One more step, and he heard the door snap shut behind him. That was it, he was now outside the sphere, and no way to turn back now. He started walking, carefully picking his steps. While he didn’t expect any real issues, he also knew that things can happen to a tunnel of this length underground that really is only inspected yearly. Minutes turned to an hour, an hour turned into three. Jameston decided to stop for a rest, a drink and a few bites of a food bar. He had already come across a few minor rock piles; shifting earth, having sent granite cracking, deposited it here on the floor of this tunnel. Jameston came a across a fairly flat piece, and sat down on it while taking a sip from the built -n water bottle. His legs felt a little weary from the hike so far, but he was heading up at a decently steep angle, and his legs weren’t used to it. He figured that he was roughly half way. , A few more hours, and he should make the transit point.

  He got up and felt a minor shake through his body. Earthquake? Minor tremors were probably pretty common down here, and without the sphere to compensate, he expected he’d have one, the odds were at least not against it. But then looking down, he realized that none of the rocks were shaking at all. Fear gripped him, a time phase? Here in the tunnel? That was bad on top of bad. Before any more thoughts could come he was plunged into hot stifling darkness. His suit, that second skin that protected him, was gone. The air was near-oven status, and he knew that this was it. He was going to die here. His skin started to blister. Pain covered him. He staggered, one hand hit the rock and burned down to the bone in a second. Pain engulfed him, but he couldn’t scream. As he felt himself burn up, Jameston briefly wondered if he should have stayed in the sphere, but no answers came to him, he was gone.

  PROJECT PERCEPTION: SUBJECT JAMESTON HARLAN EOL. PHASE ONE TESTING NOW COMPLETE TESTING SHOWS TOTAL CONTROL NOW POSSIBLE FOR SUBJECTS

  RECCOMENDATION: MOVE TO PHASE TWO IS NOW RECCOMENDED.

  Harry raised a drink to his lips as he read. “Poor bastard,” he said out loud. “Imagining burning to death so real that you actually die” Char, sitting next to him, shrugged. “Subjects were chosen for reasons, he wasn’t going to be missed, and showed the right profile. He was hard to influence and control, the final test for those like him is the death test.” Harry glanced at her, she was cold-blooded to the core. But he was no angel either. He had helped prod a man into thinking he was being burned alive. But it was for the greater good. If humans were to survive the mess they had made, there needed to be unity. Unity that by themselves the human race had never managed to create. What they were doing here, the steps that they were taking would either save the race, or doom himself and the other conspirators to hell. Harry smiled, took another drink. He punched in the number of the Administrator. “Sir, phase one is now complete, total control possible.” A voice, non-descript and as eve
ryman as it could get responded “Very good, what is your recommendation on phase two?” “It’s a go, sir, we see no reasons to delay,” Harry responded “Very good,” said the voice. “Phase two now starting”