Cobalt Slave

by Walker, Jon

  The butler leads John through the house, up the stairs and into Councilmember Madison’s home office. The room is spacious, crisp and modern in design. The walls are painted an off white. In the back of the office is a giant, single-piece custom window fit between the two massive natural timber pillars that support the whole structure. It provides a beautiful view of the garden and valley below. The wall opposite his desk is dominated by a massive 150 cm screen. It is playing an old documentary with the volume muted. The rest of the walls are decorated with four abstract paintings which add the only splashes of color to the room. Each piece of art is set in an identical metal frame.

  Councilmember Madison is leaning back at his desk, working on something on a tablet, when he sees John Snider come in. He looks up and says nonchalantly, “Oh, John. Yes, I understand you have a proposal to show me.” With a hand gesture he indicates for the butler to leave and close the door behind him.

  As John walks over to the desk with a tube of papers in his hand, he mimes "Is it ok to talk here?"

  To this Madison rolls his eyes and answers with, “Of course. Now let's see what your thoughts are on my garden.”

  John had sent Madison an electronic version of the blueprints and the computer renderings right before he left, but he hadn’t expected Madison to look at them on his own. The well-connected expect to be wowed with a show -- they don't want to do their own research. That is why John brought the tube of printouts to show him. John’s excuse is that he prefers to discuss details using real paper he can touch and feel. While John enjoys the tactical sensation of making real changes with a pen, the peculiar habit was developed for far more practical reasons. Paper doesn’t automatically try to connect to a network. You can’t build secret backdoors into paper. You can’t program paper to spy on people or flag key words. All it takes to destroy paper is a bit of fire, and all the information on it is truly gone forever.

  With a dramatic flip of his wrist John unfurls the rendering of the redesigned garden on the large chrome and glass desk. Councilmember Madison’s eyes go wide with shock as he looks at the rendering and accompanying plans closely without speaking. He stands up to flip through them. This is clearly more than even he was expecting. John isn’t just proposing the addition of a few nice water features. This plan would be a radical redesign of the entire back half of Madison’s estate grounds. The shape of the hill itself would need to be changed, but the result would be worth it. The garden would be an exquisite wonderland. Four massive fountains would dominate each level, all connected by a set of waterfalls, dancing water features and a new custom artificial river. Each layer would have its own theme, plants, and even microclimate thanks to the clever use of shade, misters and heating systems.

  After getting a grip on the basic idea Madison finally says, “Well, I did ask for the best, and you delivered. It is a garden fit for a king.” Madison needles John as he makes one weird chuckle at his own joke.

  John responds, “I personally can’t take all the credit. I have several people working on it. My wife actually has quite the talent for design.”

  “I guess so,” Councilmember Madison says still examining the plans. He struggles to decide on how to phrase his next thought. An individual in his position doesn't talk about such a menial concern as money. The department heads are above the very concept of personal wealth but even they face certain physical and logistical limitations. Eventually Councilmember Madison says, “I’m concerned about the level of resources this would take at such an important junction. We have more important concerns.”

  This brings a mischievous smile to John’s face as he answers, “That is actually the point.”

  Madison raises one quizzical eyebrow to John to indicate he is expecting to hear more.

  “The grander the project, the better excuse it is. The magician wants the misdirection as showy as possible. This,” John says while pointing to the picture of the new garden, “will be the perfect reason to attract defiants from all over Prime to Ararat, to dig ditches, lay pipes, and relocate trees for this magnificent garden. I have the strong suspicion the amount of blackmarket cobalt is going to mysteriously start drying up very soon, so we will have a lot of desperate defiants looking for a savior who can rescue them on the cheap. In addition, a project of this scale makes it easier for certain materials to accidently go missing without anyone really noticing. Materials you and I might have more important uses for elsewhere.”

  As John speaks, Councilmember Madison’s predatorial smile steadily gets larger. By the end he is practically licking his lips in anticipation.

  “I was right about you, John. You are a remarkably resourceful man, Shit King,” Councilmember Madison says while giving him an approving nod. He then turns back to the plans before adding, “How long until we can start? I can’t wait to make the others envious.”

  John responds, “We can begin the primary work almost immediately. After that, the heavy landscaping would start in a few months.”

  “Good, good, although there are some modifications to the plans I want you to make first,” Madison says pointing to a particular feature on the second level he is not very fond of. In response John hands him a red marker he brought with him to make notes.

  After another 40 minutes of discussion and revision, John finally leaves the estate with a finalized set of plans for the garden that the councilmember is very happy with. The new design is roughly 20 percent more opulent than John’s original proposal.

  CHAPTER 16

  Two weeks later

  Jessica is in the process of watching her favorite cartoon series all the way through for the fourth time when the screen makes a sharp ping and the little official message icon appears in the top corner. Instinctively, she yells out the news while never taking her eyes off the animated ducks, “Mom, there is a message!”

  The little girl's yell causes Mark, his mother and his father to all quickly gather in the living room. This is the moment they have been waiting for. All three just look at each other for a while until Stephanie finally prompts her son, “Go on now, read it.”

  Mark steps in front of his sister to switch programs, which immediately triggers a protest. “No! I was watching that! This is the best part and it is my turn, Mom,” Jessica wails. Standing up in an attempt to add gravitas to her protest, Jessica stomps her feet, “You said it was my turn! There are still 10 minutes left…”

  Her tantrum is abruptly interrupted by her mother saying in a harsh tone, “Jessica Corvus!” Once it is clear the little girl is listening, Stephanie asks her a question: “Do you want to lose cartoon privileges for a week?”

  “No,” Jessica answers with a pout.

  “This is important adult business that will only take a few minutes,” Stephanie says pointing to the screen. “You can either sit quietly until we are done, and if you do I will let you watch two more episodes today for being good, or you can keep yelling and lose cartoon access for a week.”

  Jessica answers by sitting down and not saying anything. She crosses her arms to let her parents know she isn't happy about this.

  With the little one now behaving, the adults lean in close to the screen to read the message. It is a formulaic message written in the polite yet official tone that corporate human resource divisions perfected centuries ago for delivering bad news to large groups of people: While the Department of Education appreciates his effort, Mark Corvus' placement exam scores were insufficient to get him accepted into the university or receive a job placement with one of the Departments. They wish him well in all his future endeavours.

  The message was expected. It is even the message Mark honestly wanted to receive, but it still stings a little. Old habits and desires die hard. It is never fun to be rejected, even when trying to be. The worse part for Mark is the look of sad disappointment on his mother’s face. He can’t tell if it is genuine disappointment or an act for his siblings, but either way it hurts.

  After staring at the screen silently for a few se
conds, David puts his hand on his son’s shoulder in a reassuring gesture before saying, “Well, I guess it is time for you to look for a real job.”

  ------

  Finding a job didn’t prove difficult, since the job offer Mark really needed found him. The week after getting his exam results, Mark’s parents let their networks of friends and family know their son isn’t interested in becoming a farmer so is looking for another occupation. Two days later among other possible job leads, they hear from a third cousin they basically never speak to.

  The third cousin just so happens to know about a fisherman, Captain Reed, who just got a new boat that he is custom-rigging to catch the huge rainbow fins in the open waters to the south of Prime. The captain is convinced it is an untapped resource. He believes it could be huge in the city if he can use it to revive an ancient Earth style of food known as sushi. The captain is looking for strong young men who are willing to learn something completely new. The job is dangerous but pays well. It comes with a small room by the harbor and has a chance for advancement. If the catch sells as well as the captain is hoping, he plans to fund a fleet of similar ships. The offer is good but not great. It's decent and exciting enough to potentially entice a farm boy sick of working in the fields, but not so generous that it might raise suspicion. Most importantly, it is the job offer Mr. Snider told Mark he should be waiting for, so Mark quickly lets Captain Reed know he is interested.

  For the next several days Mark and his parents get his affairs in order, pack his two bags, and get him ready for his new job. There is not much Mark can do to prepare to be a fisherman but there is plenty of covert studying he can do for his real task. As Mr. Snider suggested, Mark spends his days watching old movies and reading old books that just happen to contain some information about the handful of terrestrial insect species he will be looking for or about wilderness survival techniques. Mark's domination of the family’s one screen does prompt a significant amount of jealousy and complaining from his younger siblings, but their protests are dismissed with a simple statement: This is Mark’s last week home, so he gets to watch what he wants.

  Come Monday morning after his favorite breakfast, it is time for Mark to leave. The whole family walks him down the country path to the nearest tram stop. Mark is wearing a large backpack, David is helping by carrying his son’s overstuffed duffle bag, Stephanie has the baby in her arms, and his two other siblings are simply walking along for moral support. Once they get to the main road they wait until they see the tell-tale faint cloud of dust down the road which signals the tram will be there in a few minutes.

  Mark first hugs and kisses each of his siblings on their foreheads, going from youngest to oldest to say goodbye. When he gets to Bobby, Mark looks him directly in the eyes and in his most serious voice says, “I’m going to miss you. I want you to promise me you will be good and look after your younger brother and sister.”

  Bobby responds slightly dismissively, “I promise, ok?”

  The response annoys Mark, but he knows it shouldn’t. While Mark knows this is the last time he will see them for a while -- it may even been the last time he will ever see them -- his brother has to be kept in the dark. It is not his fault he doesn’t understand the gravity of the goodbye, so Mark just gives him one more hug and says, “I will hold you to that.”

  Now it is time to say goodbye to his parents. Neither of them know exactly what he is about to do, but they at least have a general idea of the risks involved. Mark first hugs his father and simply says, “I love you.”

  David squeezes his son tight and says, “I love you, too, son. Make us proud.” After that David quickly ends the embrace. Ever the practiced stoic, he wipes a tear from his eye in a way to make it seem like he's simply reacting to the dust kicked up by the arrival of the tram.

  As soon as Stephanie hands the baby off to David, she engulfs her oldest son in a big hug, tears already streaming down her face. She struggles to decide just what to say to him and when to stop talking, "I love you… Be safe, Mark… Promise me you are going to be safe… I don’t want you… I know you are… It is just… I don’t want you to do anything foolish… You understand.”

  With a few tears in his own eyes, Mark answers each line as his mother says them, “I love you too… I promise… I will try.”

  A series of honks from the annoyed tram driver gets David to put his hand on his wife. That finally convinces Stephanie to let go of her son. As she fixes his hair for the last time she adds a final, “I love you.”

  Mark pays his fare. With the help of his dad he loads his bags in the back before taking a seat. As the tram slowly pulls away Mark watches his family wave goodbye and slowly fade away in the cloud of dust.

  The trip back into Ararat was slow and uneventful. The scenery is basically unchanged from a month ago, but as it moves by, Mark tries to remember every detail, both the things that still fill him with rage on sight and the things he finds beautiful. He does his best to remember the people he passes, both the beggars on their last legs and the connected lounging outside their mansions. The only way he will ever see this valley again is if he succeeds. If that happens, everything on New Eden will be very different. As the train carries him to Ararat Central Station, Mark makes a mental catalogue of all the reasons he is taking this risk.

  After the train pulls into the station Mark has a quick lunch and then does his best to schlep his backpack and large duffel bag down to the harbor where he will meet Captain Reed. It is a slow and uncomfortable trip. The problem isn’t just the weight but the awkward way his belongings are distributed in the bags. Mark is forced to stop every few blocks to readjust. Carrying it all on one side quickly starts to make the opposite side of his back ache, and carrying it in front blocks his knees from taking full steps. After an hour of wrestling with his bags, he finally makes it to the fishing fleet section of the harbor, exhausted and sweaty.

  Asking around, Mark is soon pointed to the right boat, the Morning Dove. It stands out among the rest of the fishing vessels for being noticeably larger than the majority of ships docked at this hour. Most fishing vessels only go out for a few hours at a time to fish in the harbor or in the immediate area in the nearby Crystal Sea, which separates Prime from the main continent. Rocksuckers are still abundant along most of the shore line, and large schools of the torpedo-shaped red septopus frequently traverse the waters just a few kilometers out. The Morning Dove, on the other hand, is built to catch much larger and luxurious creatures in deeper waters. The hull is extremely bright white, thanks to thick layers of repel paint that stops anything from sticking to it. It has an extra tall mast for a set of sails controlled by a series of levers and winches. The front contains the entrance to a small cabin, and the top of it is covered in standard solar cells.

  Captain Reed is on board repairing some device Mark doesn’t recognize when he calls out to him. His skin is dry and deeply tanned, his face mostly covered by his large hat with a small amount of black hair showing. Mark calls out loudly to get his attention, “Captain Reed? I’m Mark Corvus. Nice to meet you.”

  The captain looks up and gives Mark a once over before saying with an annoyed tone, “So you are the Corvus kid. You have much experience on a boat?”

  Mark answers, “I can’t say that I do.”

  The captain sighs and turns back to his work, sounding even less happy. “Well, you better learn quickly. Also, what damn good are you to me holding all those bags?”

  Mark shrugs and says, "I’m sorry… I was told to meet you here. I don’t know where I should…”

  He is abruptly cut off by the unpleasant captain. “Go down to 431 3rd Street. Tell Rebecca who you are, and she will show you your room. Just stay there. You’re so late you aren’t going to do me any freaking good today anyway, so you aren’t going to be paid for it, either. Be back here at 6 tomorrow, and God help you, if you are late.”

  ------

  The next three weeks for Mark are an unpleasant blur of chum, sore muscles, exhaus
tion, near death experiences, frequent seasickness, and being forced to eat raw fish constantly. Most of his time is spent on the small boat with the perpetually unhappy Captain Reed and three other young, inexperienced men trying to learn port from starboard, how to sail, set long lines and how to avoid being mutilated when a massive, angry rainbowfin is pulled onto deck.

  Almost everything on the vessel is either wind or human powered, and Captain Reed has made it clear he is determined to get every ounce of power out of these “worthless kids he has been stuck with” while he can. The only electronics are a small motor to help with docking and the ancient and amazingly tiny GPS/emergency radio mandated on all ships. The only other item of significant value is the large, super-efficient cooler which is the heart of the ship. Without it, there would be no way to make the business plan work, since sushi needs to be eaten while still very fresh. The cooler is insulated on all sides by 20 cm of encased airgel. Before every trip Mark is responsible for filling it with massive blocks of ice to keep the catch cold.

  Only two incidents truly stand out to Mark during these miserable, fish-filled weeks. The first was only six days into his new job when embarking on a fishing trip into open water. While wrestling in a line, one of the catches got away from them, and Tony ended up with a 30 cm rainbowfin barb impaled clean through his right calf. The combination of pain and frustration finally broke Tony. He started to curse the captain, saying things like, “Why the hell are we even out here fishing? I’m supposed to be on the main continent hunting…”

  Before Tony could even finish his thought, Captain Reed stooped down to sucker punch him across the face and started beating the living snot out of him. For a few seconds the rest of them were in such shock they didn’t know what to do, but eventually Isaac got Mark to help pull Captain Reed off of a very bloody Tony.

  That is when Captain Reed gave the speech that will forever be seared in Mark’s brain. “Do you have any idea what I’m risking to do this?" the captain screamed. "What you are risking? What so many other people are risking? This is not a game. You were told to pretend to be fishermen, and I was told to pretend you all aren’t worthless pieces of shit who'd normally be fired after the first day. That is all we are going to do, and that is all we are going to be at all times. It doesn’t matter if we are in the Director’s Palace, at the harbor, or out in the middle of the damn ocean. The only thing I ever want to hear any of you talk about is how excited you are to be fishing until we get the signal to do anything else. This is your one warning. If I ever hear any of you talk about anything else, I promise that I will personally cut off your arms, jam a hook through your mouth, and drag you behind this boat until I get a record breaking catch. You all understand?” Fortunately, the captain's words worked, and he hasn’t had to make good on his word yet.