Digital Venous

by Richard Gohl

  Shane ignored him and said, “None of these buildings should be here. I’ve told them to remove if not in use…”

  “Yeah,” agreed Charles, “but people fall in love with their own stupid designs, even if they’ve moved they never seem to get rid of them.” He was referring to a series of apartments which had been built to look like natural landforms—mountains, mainly.

  Shane activated his Iris bio-sensor, which showed him the location of anything that was alive.

  “Scan and go,” said Charles. “There’s nothing here.”

  “We’ve got to do the walls. Under stairs—everything. They burrow, y’know?” Shane was thorough. Charles, on the other hand, had served in the guard for nearly as long as Shane but had lost his desire for the hunt. “The edge of this bloody mountain comes right up against the city wall!” said Shane. “Go round the other side. There might be a trapdoor.” Charles walked through the building, looking for a doorway out on the other side. Finding a large opening where a window had been, he climbed through and out to near where the “mountain” edge connected with the city wall, yelling out to Shane: “They’re like fucking rats! In the walls, under the ground.”

  They were now only a few meters apart, separated by the mountain building. “Oi! Keep it down!” whispered Shane.

  Charles continued in a more subdued voice. “They say that before the floods, down in the old city, no person was ever further than six feet from a rat.”

  “Rat?” said Shane. He hadn’t been listening as he checked lower sections of the wall for break-ins. “What do you mean rat?”

  “Er… omnivore, big front teeth, long tail, related to a wolf.”

  “Those big wild dogs?

  “Yep.”

  Finding the section clear, Shane looked around and asked, “I’ve heard they still exist…”

  “Wolves?”

  “No. Rats… down in the real world. I’ve heard Subs talk about them. How big are they?”

  “Probably similar to a wolf. Pretty scary. People were terrified of them,” said Charles. “No wonder; bloody giant disease-bearing predators never further than six feet away!”

  Shane climbed the mountain structure a small way, looking down along the edge of the city wall for irregularities.

  Charles continued his musings. “Imagine how much a rat would have to eat! It’d be like, ‘Dad, where did Mum go?’ ‘Oh, she went outside to hang out the washing…’ ‘When?’ ‘Oh, about an hour ago…’”

  Receiving no response from Shane, Charles noticed an irregularity on the ground in front of him. He tried to yell “Shane!” but cut himself short, almost choking on the word. He hissed, “There’s something here.”

  “What?”

  “Like a flat piece of…”

  Shane scaled sideways across the mountain, down towards the wall, switching his scanner to magnetometer providing him with a three-dimensional image of exactly what was below the surface.

  “Wow. It’s been excavated right underneath. There’s a tunnel…”

  Shane felt a powerful blow smash him just under the collarbone. He thought something had fallen on him. He was sent careering backwards. As he fell he looked up and saw a man leaning, with his back against the mountainside of the building, with both hands around a crossbow. As Shane struggled to take cover, the man reloaded and let off another arrow at Charles who, in the dark, could barely see what was happening. In his attempt to move aside, Charles received an arrow through his bottom left rib and into his lung. He played no further part in the confrontation.

  The man, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, swung the bow on to his back and then clambered around the edge of the “mountain” to fire another shot at the injured Shane. But then panicked when he saw that Shane was not where he was supposed to be.

  Shane had crawled like a snake to the very base of the structure, out of the line of fire. He switched his lens back to bio and enabled a heat sensor.

  Quietly the intruder slid down the side of the wall. He moved over to Charles’ inert body and availed himself of the state of the art bolt weapon. Being unfamiliar with the Napean gun, it took him several long seconds to work out how to prime the thing. He crouched, and then at full stretch, clasping with one hand, peered around the edge of the mountain. The man’s athleticism was impressive. But no sign of the Napean guard.

  The intruder then noticed something glistening on the ground. He put his finger in it. A telltale sign of victory: white, oily Napean blood, a large smear of it. Can’t be too far away, he thought. The real man was a smuggler of some note and had survived a number of Napean skirmishes in the north. “Do the unexpected,” he coached himself, moving silently suddenly upward. Two meters, three meters; his foot quivered and scraped lightly against the structure, feeling for a hold.

  Now inside the building, Shane was lensing with both temperature and movement—heat and sound waves lit up colorfully. Being in a quiet, dark area of Napea, he magnified the sensitivity. The tiniest scrape of a foot sounded like an avalanche.

  Thin, light-blue brushstrokes lit up in his field of vision. Shane pointed the molten bolt gun at the hottest spot on the fugitive, decreasing bolt width for enhanced velocity. The man’s head was now three meters off the ground. Shane pulled the trigger, melting a tiny hole in the side of the apartment and almost simultaneously through the man’s brain.

  No point checking him, thought Shane, who hobbled right around the far side of the building to where a paralyzed Charles lay in a pool of his own blood.

  “C’mon, let’s get you to the hospital.”

  “What ‘appenin’ to Robin Hood?” slurred Charles with his eyes closed. “Fell out of his tree.”

  Chapter 34

  The Galaxy

  THEY CALLED A meeting: Wez, Claire, Bes, Madi, and Alia—and by now everyone knew there was another person, Mark, who might be sitting in. When everyone was seated, it was Madi who addressed the elephant in the room.

  “Nobody knows him, nobody knows where he’s from, he’s new to the area and”—she said, over-applying the sarcasm—“he’s a lovely, lovely man… who just might happen to be a Napean spy. C’mon, guys, there are people I consider family who I wouldn’t talk to about what we do. I know we all get bored with our little group but it’s insane inviting him.”

  “It’s inconsistent with our usual policy,” Claire pointed out.

  “Well, he is genuine,” said Wez. “We actually approached him—but he wasn’t keen to talk to us at all.”

  “So that makes it all okay?” If it could be seen as strength, Madi’s forte was her belief that everyone was out to get you and that no one should be trusted.

  Bes usually had an opinion. With a strained look she said, “I don’t like it—it’s been the famous five now for years and that’s how it should stay. Unless… is he good-looking?”

  “No,” said Alia.

  “Well, that settles it,” said Madi. “No Mark.”

  “I’ve already told him he could sit in on the meeting,” said Wez.

  “Well, you’ll just have to untell him.” said Madi. No one spoke to back her up but she didn’t need it. “It’s a female thing anyway,” said Madi. Wez rolled his eyes. And she said with a wry smile, “You’re basically female, Wesley”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “It’s a compliment,” said Bes

  “I know,” said Wez, getting from his chair. “He’s waiting. I’d better let him know so we can get started.”

  “Thank you, Wez,” said Madi.

  “Yeah, yeah…” Wez left the room.

  “He’s basically a good boy,” said Madi.

  “Don’t talk about him like that,” said Claire. Injustice, big or small, was Claire’s call to intervention. Her friends were frequently in need of moral management.

  Alia agreed, “Yeah, don’t push it—you were correct, but don’t rub it in.”

  Madi’s eyebrows were raised as if to say, “What’s so bad about creating drama and aggravating people?” />
  When Wez returned Alia began:

  “Okay, these seem to be the main points. Thanks to Ryan.” As Ryan was asleep in bed, everyone smiled at Madi, who nodded slowly, happy to take the compliment.

  Alia continued, “I’ve tried to summarize everything from the recording and notes taken of Ryan’s three trips into the network. Ryan went in again yesterday—with just Madi and I. Again, there was so much information there—overwhelming—you don’t know what you don’t need to know, if you follow me. We still didn’t find anything on our children but we did find out a whole lot more. In short, it seems some of the Napeans, at least, are leaving.”

  A shockwave rippled through the group and Alia continued.

  “There are eight new planets with life. There may be more, but as far as we could tell, that’s all. The life forms seem to include, on a hot planet, primitive forms of algae, yet other planets have more complex plant life forms and oxygen-rich and temperate conditions.”

  Alia continued scanning her notes. “A further twenty planets had no evidence of life, yet seem perfect for colonization- and a number of these were found over fifty years ago, which begs the question: why the big secret? It seems the Service are obsessed with secrecy—like a compulsive group delusion… anyway, it seems they have delayed announcing discoveries because they keep finding other planets with valuable and rare resources.”

  “So,” said Claire, “they maintain secrecy on this because they want to maintain the Telesync system for as long as possible to locate as much wealth and resources as possible.”

  “Yes,” agreed Wez, “if Napeans knew the planets were there waiting, surely they’d demand to go.”

  “Exactly,” said Alia. “Except for a number of little problems: it appears that Service officials internationally do not have room on space ships to accommodate all Napeans. There is room to transport about one third of them.”

  “Wow! That’s big news!” said Bes.

  “I’d be keeping it a secret too!” said Madi.

  “… And the stakes get higher,” said Alia. “We stumbled across the international Service forum. Listen! There is a time limit to all this. The sun is due for another explosion in three months. As scientists are not sure of exactly when—that is, which day—it is impossible to say which side of the planet will be in the firing line. They… we… need to leave before this happens—unless we can survive under here. There are maybe one hundred spaceships docked in orbit over the main Napean centers around the world. However, there is nowhere near enough room to take everyone.”

  “They certainly like their secrets. That’s quite a conspiracy!” said Claire.

  “Let’s just say,” said Alia, “that it’s probably the biggest scam since the idea of ‘heaven’…”

  “What’s heaven?” asked Bes.

  “Happy place up in the sky,” clarified Madi. “You go there when you’re dead as a reward for being good.”

  “And people believed that?” asked Bes.

  “Well, a long time ago—it was an ancient idea that there was a kingdom…”

  “What if people were bad?” asked Bes.

  “Anyway!” said Alia.

  “Sorry!” said Madi and Bes.

  Alia continued: “We also found that contrary to what Napeans apparently think, transition back to a ‘real’ lifestyle after Napean living has never been achieved. Most Napeans went into it thinking they would eventually return to their old selves. If they found out it’s no longer possible, it could cause... unrest.”

  “But they’d never protest about anything! They wouldn’t care!” said Madi. “You never hear a Napean saying ‘I’d love to be real again!’”

  “Yeah,” said Bes, “you would think that they had never been like us.”

  “They hate us,” said Madi.

  Claire agreed: “I really don’t think any of them would be upset to find out that they can never be real again.”

  “Maybe,” said Alia. “But the point is: none of them know they can’t go back.” No one seemed to react much to the news. “Oh, okay,” said Alia. “I thought that was important… moving on…”

  “Wow, you guys were busy,” said Wez.

  “Well,” said Alia, “the third time we accessed the network we found lots of information, not just data. It showed just how isolated we’ve been for so long. Genuine News from other Napean states is an exception. But we know there are thirteen other Napean cities across East Asia, North and South America. Laos, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Denver, Las Vegas, Santiago… there was one in Mexico I couldn’t pronounce, and Bogota…”

  “That’s twelve,” said Madi. “Where was the other one? Mongolia, wasn’t it?”

  “Oh!” said Alia, stumped. She looked back through her notes. “Er… Ulan Batar.”

  “Where?” asked Bes.

  “It’s in North-central Asia. A lot of people from what used to be Russia moved down there,” said Claire.

  Alia continued. “Each city has a space station a few hundred kilometers above it with a fleet of ships. As to how many ships or how many people each ship can hold, we don’t know, but what was fairly obvious, by the cryptic nature of the information, was that each ship was going to fall well short of carrying the intended number of people from each city. It begs the question: who decides which passengers are going?”

  “And,” put in Wez, “why haven’t Napeans taken action against any of this?”

  “It seems they don’t know,” said Alia.

  “Or do they just not care?” asked Claire.

  “Like I said, they wouldn’t give a shit either way,” said Madi. “They’ve got everything they want. Why would they?” said Bes.

  “So they should get what they deserve,” said Madi. “To be well and truly fucked over by their own stupidity!”

  “Well,” said Bes, “it’s not our problem.”

  Frustration was showing on Alia’s face. “I’m not saying it’s our job to rescue them—but we’re connected to them. They live just up here—on top of us. What they do directly affects us. They steal our children!”

  “And how many of our people have been taken over the years?” said Claire.

  “Some of our ancestors chose to become Napean and others didn’t. They pretend they don’t need anything from us, yet they’ve been using us for a hundred years. Up ‘til now, we’ve been focused on one thing: survival, but now we know that that may not be possible unless we too leave the planet—and right now, we can’t do that. Only they can.”

  “So what do you think we should do?” asked Bes. “It’s payback time,” said Alia.

  “Finally,” said Madi. “Speaking some sense!”

  “I don’t mean that metaphorically—hitting them...”

  “Oh,” said Madi disappointed.

  “I mean literally; we need to be paid back for what is owed to us. We’ve slaved for them, borne children for them… rumor has it that Intelava which is run by the Service have been behind lots of abductions. 175 people went missing from across the Lofty Mountain region in 2182. They were gassed and woke up on the moon—or god knows where. Haven’t you wondered who does all their mining? They certainly don’t.”

  “Really?” said Claire.

  “I have heard that,” said Madi.

  Alia continued: “We need to find who runs the Service. Business seems to be conducted from space. I mean, who are these people to think that they rule from on high?”

  There was a general hubbub of outrage.

  “I think we should demand children be brought forward and returned to the Real world or we will release all Telesync information and shut down their cities.”

  “We can do that?” asked Bes. Alia sat down.

  “Wow,” said Wez. “What’s gotten into you?”

  Chapter 35

  Real Education

  IN COMPARISON TO Real children, Ryan was well educated but Madi and the others decided it was for the best that he start attending a Real school where he mi
ght pick up some social skills. Children only attended two days a week as most spent the rest of their time in agriculture. Claire was a teacher at the Stirling transdome.

  Each of the seven gates around Napea had between three and six transdomes and it was underneath, at the edges of these that classes took place. The class consisted of about 40 students varying in age from about 11 to 15. Teachers did not have specific subject areas but elected to do lessons on particular topics throughout the year.

  “Today’s lesson is on the topic of Napean biology and we’re very lucky today to have, as I think you all know, a young Napean with us, Ryan Wing, welcome Ryan.” Many of the Real students turned slowly to give Ryan a stare. Yes it was true they all knew who he was but the adults had underestimated the level of animosity the children would feel towards him, believing their curiosity would over-ride their contempt. They were wrong. Claire decided to ignore the tension; her exhibit ‘A’ was going to be the centerpiece of a very stimulating lesson.

  She continued: “We should all remember that Ryan had no choice in becoming a Napean. He was only a baby when he was taken to the surface and given the Nano Enzyme Therapy. Ryan has only just been reunited with his mother and we are very lucky to be able to meet him today.”

  “How have you been finding it down here,” asked Claire rather awkwardly. “It’s been good; I’ve met lots of new people. Before, I never got to meet anyone.” ‘Had you ever met another child Ryan when you came down here?”

  “No.”

  The other children who hadn’t yet been staring at Ryan also turned and stared at him. Unaccustomed as he was to human company, he began to feel a distinct chill as all the faces turned coldly towards him.

  “Is it true Ryan that you are becoming a Napean?” asked Claire. “Yes it’s true.”

  “And what does this mean for you now?” Ryan felt she was asking him in a caring way. He thought his new teacher was lovely. He didn’t like what he felt from the students.

  “It means I never have to eat. It means I won’t get sick. It means I’ll live a lot longer than any of you.” Gasps and sounds of disapproval carried very clearly across the dome. A young teenage student raised her hand. Claire responded, “Yes Donna?”