by Raylan Kane
“You and me both.”
Minus 17.
“We’re almost to your transport,” Bulis said.
“Why would our transport be down here?” I said. “We’re underwater by now, for sure.”
“Yes.”
“Are we being taken to Niona by submarine?” Milne said.
“That’s classified,” Bulis said.
“Aren’t we about to find out anyway?”
“Yes.”
"No one on this ship makes sense," Trident said.
We reach Minus 22 – there are no more stairs only a steel door. The mister turns the wheel on the steel door until we hear a ka-thunk sound on the other side. He pulls the door open and ushers us through. Bulis is not stepping through with us.
“What about you?” I said.
“I am required back on the bridge.”
“You have to go back up all those stairs?” I said.
“Please walk to the end of the hall and you will see the transport room on your left,” he said. He seals the steel door behind us.
I look at Trident, “and I thought you had the worst job in the world.”
Light shines in on the hall from the archway at the far end. We walk toward the light and voices echo as we get closer.
“No!”
“Shhh,” Milne looks at the clone and places her finger over her lips.
We walk toward the archway; the echoes grow louder. I reach the point where the light shines in and step through – the others follow suit.
The room is square and contains a large bottomless pool in the middle, a white tiled floor runs around it. Two objects, each about the size of a car, sit side by side half-submerged in the pool. I have not seen anything like them before. They look like what I picture cars of the future would look like - half polished metal, half glass dome at the front - no wheels though. The glass domes on the two transports are flipped up from the craft - inside there's a bunch of red plush seats. A dozen workers in white coveralls are climbing all over the vehicles, working on them.
A man standing on the floor near them looks up and sees us; he waves for us to step down to where he stands. We walk down a few stairs from the archway and to the floor that rings around the pool. The workers pay us no mind as we walk to the man standing and watching them work.
We reach the man and he extends his hand. “Hello – I’m Anders. You must be Bramen?”
“That’s right.”
“And this is Milne?”
“Yes,” she said.
“And Trident?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think they allowed clones into Niona,” Anders said.
“Oh, my skin, well – that was a mistake,” Trident said. “In actual fact he’s the clone.” Trident points at me.
“That a fact?” Anders said.
“Yes. Believe it or not it’s turned out to be my key selling point to the High Command. I can’t figure it out either.”
“And who is this one?” Anders said, he points to the clone who is busy staring at the ceiling.
“He’s our friend,” I said. “He’s coming with us. He doesn’t speak much.”
“Okay then,” Anders said. “So, we’re almost ready to go here. As you can see we’re just prepping the transports.”
“The transports to Niona?” Milne said. “Those things?”
“Yes,” Anders said.
“If we’re going into Niona on these little boats – why wouldn’t they just take this ship right into the capital and save all this trouble?”
The man chuckles; “oh, that’s right – I’d read in your report – this is your first time in Niona.”
“So?”
“This ship is far too old – incompatible with their servers,” Anders said.
“Old? I saw computers and things on that bridge I’ve never seen before in my whole life,” Trident said.
“Yes, well – I suppose all of our definitions of what is old and what is new are different.”
"Is that the motto around here?" I said. "I swear I'd heard someone else say that same thing.
"Are you all ready to go?” Anders said.
We nod.
“Good – looks like they’re just finishing up. If you would just follow me over here.” Anders walks around to the other side of the pool and we follow. He stands next to a small metal step that reaches down toward the water and close to one of the boats. “So, one at a time, please step down there, and from there you can step into the transport.”
I have butterflies dancing in my stomach. Milne looks at me with worry in her eyes. “I don’t like boats,” she said.
Most of the support workers climb off of the boats and walk away. Three workers climb into the boat beside us and sit down.
“It’s time,” Anders said. “If you would please get in.”
I hold Milne’s hand and help her step down to the metal platform. From there she takes a large step forward and squeals as she steps onto the boat and it rocks a bit on the water. She looks back at me and steps down again and sits on a red cushioned seat with her hands folded. I help the clone step down next. He stands frozen on the platform, too afraid to step down onto the boat. Trident gives him a bit of a nudge and the clone falls onto the boat, landing on his side.
"You idiot!" I said.
“Careful!” Milne said.
“Oops,” Trident said, cringing. "Sorry."
Milne helps the clone over to her and he chooses to sit on the floor in front of her, his whole body trembling.
“Your friend is not the most coordinated,” Anders said.
“No, I suppose not.”
I step down next to the small metal platform, and then onto the boat. I jump to the floor of the boat. While standing the floor where Trident and Anders stands is at shoulder height. I take a seat next to Milne and she leans against me and grabs my arm. The seat is very comfortable. Trident is next into the boat; he takes the seat beside me.
“Have a safe trip,” Anders says.
“You’re not coming?”
“Unfortunately no, my work is here. Enjoy Niona – I am sure you will.”
With that three workers step to the sides of the craft and together they remove the glass dome from our craft as other workers do the same at the craft beside us.
"Uh, aren't we going to need those?" Trident said.
"Hey!" I yelled to Anders. "We're sitting here in an open-faced boat - we're pretty far under the ocean's surface down here - how does this work?"
Anders chuckles, "just sit back and enjoy the ride. See you." He walks away and up a flight of metal stairs out of view.
"Are they trying to drown us?" Milne said. "Should we jump out?"
"I don't know. I'm thinking," I said.
Bubbles form on the water on both sides and there are vibrations beneath our feet. I look to the ship's wall in front of us. The wall extends down in the water well below us - it's the hull of the ship so of course it would. I see Trident looking at the wall in front of us as well, he looks nervous.
“We’re sitting on a boat, how is this going to work?” He said; “even if they were to open that wall the entire room would be flooded with sea water. How are we supposed to get through that wall sitting on this thing? Or move underwater without a cover over us?” Trident said.
“I don’t even want to think about that,” Milne said.
"This is strange," I said.
The clone clutches Milne’s legs, clearly frightened.
“No idea how this is going to work – these aren’t subs – there’s no roof,” I said.
“That’s a problem,” Trident said. “Maybe before we leave they’ll put the roof back on. Those guys over there don’t have their roof either.”
“That's why I'm not advocating we all jump out of this thing yet, they're not about to drown their own people," I said.
I look for Anders - no idea where he went. A high-pit
ched squeal fills the room – it must be the engines on this thing. The floor beneath us vibrates and water churns on all sides. The vibrations get stronger – panic rises throughout my body. Part of me wants to jump out of this thing, but another part is intrigued and keeps me glued to my seat.
No sign of Anders - he's done this dozens of times I'm guessing. The excitement of seeing people off probably wore off long ago. The vibrations and the sound have my head spinning. One of the workers sitting in the craft next to us waves and says something while smiling but I cannot hear anything but the engines now. We're rumbling, vibrating - the water around us looks to be at full boil and yet we're not going anywhere. Is this an elaborate ruse?
"What are we waiting for?" I yell.
Milne squeezes my hand, she looks at me as though it's for the last time.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
Milne closes her eyes and pushes herself against my side. The vibrations and the noise reach a pitch that rattles my bones. A glowing pale blue membrane appears like a dome over us. I nudge Milne to open her eyes, she does and her jaw drops at the sight of this wisp of blue light surrounding us. Trident is frozen unsure what to make of this transparent light film. I reach up to touch it and my fingers pass right through as if it were an innocuous beam from a dying flashlight. I see through the membrane the workers in the boat beside us give a wave. I wave back. Our bodies shake wildly, water shoots upward around us and we are violently sucked downward from the transport room and into the depths of the ocean with ferocious speed. Amazingly no water is seeping through the membrane. We should be soaked or drowning and yet we are completely dry and breathing.
The four of us have hold of each other with white knuckles as we scream our lungs out. The deep blue-green water and passes around us as though we are strapped to a torpedo. The thin film dome is invisible against the color of the water. I feel exposed to the open sea and yet the water passes around us as though we are covered by a force field. I reach out for the light dome and the tips of my fingers feel the terrible cold of the water and pressure from our velocity. I bring my hand back and my fingers are bloodless and soaked.
“Try it!” I said, yelling to be heard over the engine.
Milne reaches out and smiles as she shows me the water on her hands. “I could feel the rush of the water against my hand,” she said. “It almost hurts!”
“Yes!”
“This is no boat,” she said.
“No!”
Trident touches the water and laughs. “Watch this!” He said. The transport vibrates as we push away and displace the deep ocean at a startling pace. Trident fights to get his balance and he attempts to stand.
“Don’t do that-“
My words go unheeded. Trident stands and his head goes through the membrane. There’s an awful splash. Milne and I are soaked – Trident immediately falls to the floor kicking, spitting and sputtering. He spits out streams of water as he coughs and hacks. He rubs his eyes; his forehead is red.
“Are you alright?”
He coughs again and is careful to keep his head down as he sits again. “They really should warn you about that,” he says.
Milne and I burst out laughing at the fool. “What were you thinking?” I said. “Do you know how fast we’re probably going?”
“I have an idea now.”
The clone has his head down – he is not looking – not experiencing the amazing capability of this machine we’re in – he stays shaking and quiet on the floor. Above us the water turns lighter; we pass into a giant ray of light beaming down through the water. The light above us gets closer at breakneck speed.
“We are going way too fast. I don’t like it!” Milne said.
The light above us gets closer and closer.
“I don’t like it!”
The engines reach fever pitch – the light is almost upon us. Trident grabs the seats with both hands.
“I don’t like iiiitttt!”
We’re all yelling – the craft slams through the surface of the sea and bursts straight upward into the sky. My cheeks squish back toward my ears. My stomach is in my throat. We leave the ocean far behind as the transport engine roars – we hurtle upward, our bodies held fast against the seats. We scream ourselves hoarse and the transport twists as we arc and level out, now parallel with the wavy surface below. The engine falls silent and we glide through the air in total quiet, nothing but blue sky around us – the thin membrane dome remains invisible. Far off to our right the other transport floats along with us.
The sensation of us hurtling toward our death lifts and instead it feels as if we are flying with no effort at all, though our speed seems to remain constant.
“This is better,” Trident said.
“Please let us never do that again,” Milne said.
“Agreed.”
“Have you ever seen anything like this transport craft in your life?”
“Never.”
“Do most Sydinians know that these things exist?” Milne said.
“I doubt it,” Trident said with a grin. “Then everyone would want one.”
“No!”
“I want one,” I said.
“Looks like our friend is back to his old self too,” Trident said. The clone looks around. He stares at the water far beneath us.
“Look,” Milne said pointing straight ahead. “I think we’re here.”
A strip of land appears on the horizon. As it draws nearer, the silhouette of tall towers appear. More floating ships come into view like dots hanging from the sky. The tall silhouettes become the tallest buildings I’ve ever seen. We float ahead toward a city unlike anything I ever knew existed. We pass over the leading edge of land that juts into the surf. Ahead of us the sun glares off a beautiful tall thin metallic blue tower with a diamond of white light perched at its top. The sun glints off the blue tower and the other ornate buildings creating the kind of utopian diorama I’d only have thought existed in a madman’s dream. Everywhere around the towers is perfectly flat and gray - concrete I suppose.
“This is Sydin?” Trident said.
I reach my hand up and feel the cool wind brush through my fingers. I cannot help but smile in my euphoria as we float closer to this futuristic vision before us. “This is unlike the Sydin I’ve grown up on.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
We float among the towers; our speed has slowed. We appear aimed to make contact with a white marble column that reaches high above the ground. Other transports float all around us, above and below. I look to my right and see the transport that had accompanied us from the ship still there.
“I think we’re going to hit this building,” Trident said.
“No!”
“You will not hit the building,” a voice speaks to us with the clarity of someone seated here on our craft.
“Who is that?” Trident said.
“That is us – over here.”
The people wave from the transport off to our right. “We have been in control of your craft. We will place you on the platform outside your quarters.”
“Our quarters?” I said.
“You have the top two floors of this tower. You will stay here tonight and meet with the High Council in the morning. Stand by.”
As the building draws nearer I can make out individual levels and windows. We close in on the top level. A long flat marble platform extends toward us from a set of glass doors situated just below the tower’s roof. The platform has no railings of any kind and is out in the open air attached to a swimming pool with no sides and with a clear bottom that dips below the level of the platform itself. On either side of the platform on the left or the pool on the right is a sheer drop of many thousands of feet.
The transport slows to a crawl as we hover just above the platform and sit gently down.
“Enjoy your stay,” says the voice, and in a flash the accompanying transport is gone and the thin light dome disappears.
; “Look at how high up we are,” Trident said.
“As if I hadn’t already noticed.”
I look behind us at the vastness of this place. We are exposed to the wind now; it is warm but intense at this height. I cannot believe I am here in Niona; there is a buzz in the air here, even the color of the sky is different – an almost blinding mixture of blue and white and pink. The city seems entirely devoid of any green space and yet it is strikingly beautiful.
“Shall we go inside?” Milne said.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
The platform is not thick. I can feel it wobble on the air. Every gust of wind shakes the surface and sends numbing shocks up my leg as it would be so easy to fall from here given there are no barricades – just a straight drop on two sides. Milne and Trident walk ahead of me to the glass doors. We snap our heads around as the clone screams and falls into the pool that runs alongside us. His arms and legs kick wildly at the water.
“He cannot swim!” Trident said.
“I can see that.”
"Grab him!" Milne said. "If he tries to get out on the opposite side, it's a straight drop."
Height and water – two things I do not like. I jump in and grab the clone. He panics and fights as I attempt to bring him back to the platform. Trident lays on the pool’s edge and extends his arm to us.
“Here, grab hold.”
I have the clone controlled enough to push him toward Trident.
“No! Yes!”
Milne helps Trident pull and I push the clone up as best I can while treading water. We hoist the clone just over the edge of the pool and he gets to his knees and runs around screaming.
“Curses! Stop him!” I said yelling from the pool. “He’s going to fall!”
Trident rushes to the man and puts his arms around him trying to stop him from moving. They step close to the edge of the platform.
“Watch it – you’re too close,” Milne said.
“Tell that to him,” Trident said. “He needs to calm down. His wet feet are sliding all over on this marble.”
Milne walks over and puts her hands in his. “Let him go,” she says to Trident. Trident releases the clone and Milne speaks to him in a gentle tone. She holds his hand and gently touches his cheek. I cannot make out what she’s saying, but it seems to be working. The clone settles and Milne takes the clone through the glass doors inside.
