by Jack Lance
He stopped just below it and looked to the places within and muttered “Church lied.”
Randall had always thought of it as just another cooky religion, and one of many that had sprouted up in the wake of certain scientific disclosures about the quantum nature of the universe, and how it physically relied on some supreme being dreaming the dream of our realities. Since reality was more like a nightmare it all sounded like bullshit to Randall, but then again it was the science basis of all robotics, that somehow tapped into this dream mind, and formed the foundation of the Ancient Mainframe that their society depended on.
Not that Randall was about to know or care.
On entering the dark hall at the front of the church the sermon giver’s voice became clear. They stopped in the shade just before a gaping doorway into the broader hall.
“Not a single scratch on you?” Randall put to him while looking him over. “Fucking weird.”
Bailey shrugged flippantly and stepped toward the back of the surly congregation.
The church was full of people listening to three men standing on a raised stage at the front.
“So it is written, and so it must be believed… “ the young man speaking was a Friar of the Church of Naturalistic Mind, who stood leering down at them all and shouting with a strangled, feminine voice. “Beyond all prejudice and hate… is the love of the ‘all’. Without this love is to be without the seed of all love…”
There were murmurings of amen and other affirmations from the assembly.
Randall shook his head and smirked at the inane words of the religion, which was just one of many similar organizations that he normally avoided like the plague.
“It’s a puzzlebox is it not, placed there by the universe!” the man squawked down at the believers. “We live in a furnished parkland of equilibrium. We stand on the dust and look up at the stars and ask ‘why’? When we should be looking at the pattern within ourselves.”
One of the other men on the stage seemed to notice Bailey and waved slightly, before walking from the rock platform as subtly as possible and then around the side of the crowd toward them.
The effeminate man continued on the stone pulpit as their contact approached “Addiction to emotion and its egregious lifestyle! We covet it yet it enslaves us; imprisons us. We must stand closer to God? We must switch off the lights of our life and become ‘bored’. Can we make boredom our priority above all else? In switching off the animal mind we find new rivers beneath our universe, and they lead us to the structures of God.”
Randall coughed and laughed at what he perceived as bullshit coming from the stage, and tried to hide it as the contact came to them.
He was a man of black skin from the south Lantian continents, and a Reverend of the Naturalistic Mind. His handshake was religious, with hand to wrist at both sides.
He shook Bailey’s hand then shook the hand of Randall.
“I have been asked to act as emissary in this matter.” the reverend said.
“This is my new minder, Flynn Randall.” Bailey said. “This is Reverend Dane Angell. He’s new here on the colony.”
“Reverend.” Randall acknowledged professionally.
“Now you understand this has come from the top.” Dane said. “I wouldn’t normally deal in these matters, but when I heard about the escape I was intrigued.”
“Escape?” Randall said looking grimly at Bailey.
Bailey waved a hand at Randall, and continued to speak with Dane “Yes. I have agreed to act as an advisor in this matter. If Old Gang want to escape then I can’t exactly stop them… I hope you aren’t thinking of going along with them, Reverend?”
“Not at all. My mission is here. But like you I don’t want to see them die out there in the snow, so I will help them where I can.”
Randall didn’t believe either of them. He sensed they both wanted to get off the planet as much as any sane person would, except Randall, who didn’t ever want to risk going back in The Shell.
“Come with me. You might want to replace your ear guards.” Dane said, walking around them to the exit.
They followed him out onto the wasteland, then to the side along the base of the dome wall. They were making their way beneath the damaged rail track toward where one of the outer city blocks met the dome.
After stepping carefully over broken paving and shattered foundations, they made it to open ground leading up to the building. Graffiti was tagged all across the base of the building and the ground here.
Behind them the party continued to throb below the speakers, and they made their way up a ramp to what would have been the sliding door entrance to a mall. Inside, the place looked dead with it being abandoned of all robotic activity and services.
They walked through the mosaicked promenade, past dried up fountains and empty store windows. The elevators were all out of order so they made their way to a long, old fashioned escalator and began making speed up it. There was no power to it, or anything else on the lower floor, but on reaching the first of the upper floors, Randall found it to be fully lit, with a somewhat bustling promenade of store fronts and bars.
The reverend took them past the weird looking people there and through the front of a neon lit bar to a flight of stairs at the far back. The stairs led to a single heavily reinforced door that the reverend opened into a huge pill-bar sporting both male and female strippers.
The bar was full of prostitutes and the intense, sweet chemical smell of narcotics. There were tables all around the walls, surrounded by fat, angry looking dregs of society. Randall felt ill but a job was a job, and hopefully a stepping stone to better things than this.
He followed the two other characters past the strippers and bar to the curtained VIP doors at the back.
Through they went, and stood facing a single cards table full of faces that he recognized. They were famous faces in the colony, not that many people ever actually met them in person.
“That was fast, Bailey.” the man, Josep Fincle said smiling through his scarred face. “And it seems you were right. That map is of the other dome.”
Randall had to wilfully stop himself saying "What fucking map?"
“I knew it. I just needed someone smarter than me to confirm it, that’s all.” Bailey said, approaching them with an enthusiasm that to Randall seemed as transparent as glass.
“There’s more.” his brother Nash said standing up. “But we’ll have to show you…”
The Fincle twins walked around the table and gestured for them to follow toward the backside of the VIP room.
Randall didn’t like any of this, and didn’t trust the Fincles. It was just a matter of time before they felt a cold comforting snake-bite.
He followed Bailey and Dane, who followed the two brothers as they exited what would have once been an innocent bar, through a fire exit and into a series of disused mall corridors out back. They used these abandoned passages to move quickly to the outer side of the building, and down a flight of stairs to street level.
“There is an eye in the winter storm passing over the prison dome.” Josep raised his voice as they left the building, and had to contend with the now slightly distant but still incredibly loud party.
Nash continued his brothers words “I don’t know how long it will last, but for now we can show you something that we have discovered about the other dome.”
The Fincles took them through a tunnel from Old Gang Central to one of the disused outer factory districts eastward along the dome shell. They walked in file through the moss covered abandonment to where a tall entrance had been built into the dome wall by the old scientists, and so Randall now found some rumours to be true.
“Here we have an airlock.” Josep said. “We may or may not use this for our escape, but if you wish to travel to the other dome then this is the closest exit you will find.”
Bailey nodded, which was something that filled Randall with dread.
Nash entered a code and the huge door opened, sliding upward in i
ts groove.
They walked into the space beyond, which was a long tunnel leading though the dome shell. There were relatively small lockers where you could take fur lined coats and goggles, or for more harsh atmospheres, a foil space suit. They put on coats for today, and once they were checked and ready, Josep closed the inner, that then automatically opened the outer door at the far side.
They walked to it and then through the opening.
The white sun was intense since the atmosphere was so calm and clear. The passing eye of the winter storm had created a serene place on this small area of the planet.
They walked outside onto a rock ledge that ended at the cliff face dropping to the crater basin. From this ledge, they saw head on the adjacent dome. It was the closest point to it, it seemed, and it seemed Old Gang had a uniquely clear view of it.
“Over here.” Josep said, and led the group to a broad, old fashioned monitor atop a trolley full of frozen equipment. “Here we have a three dimensional representation of the other dome. We’ve shot sensors into different points around the outer shell of the dome. From this data we can monitor the shape of movements within the city structure. What we’ve found has been a little… disturbing.”
“Disturbing?” Dane asked.
“It’s hard to explain in regular terms.” Nash said. “Our father told us a story. Generations back for our family, Old Gang came across a man who claimed he had made it here from the other dome. He insisted, even under torture that he was the only person left alive from the colony. He said Cequodus had done it. Released what he called dragons into the colony to wipe them all out. For years we had thought this guy crazy… But observe...”
Nash turned to the trolley and switched the equipment on. The screen flickered and a white on dark blue skeletal image of the other dome could be seen.
Josep reached behind the trolley and picked up a bazooka, that had been well hidden from view until now. He walked up to the edge of the cliff and aimed at the distant dome structure.
On firing, Josep stumbled against the kick and a long line of smoke blasted out, pushing some kind of small rocket out over the basin. The rocket arced down landing roughly on the middle of the dome roof.
They could hear, from a speaker within the trolley, a dull rhythmic thud.
“The sound attracts them. What sounds quite normal to us seems to enrage them...” Josep said joining them where they stood.
They all stood a few moments, watching the screen, and the live image of the dome.
For a while it seemed that there would be nothing, then an alternating tone began like an alarm, as three white worm-like shapes began moving from the topmost part of the dome. The wind whistled between them as they watched the huge unknown creatures spread out in separate directions as if to cover the space within faster.
“They’re in the walls.” Josep said. “They’ll keep hunting until they find the source of the disturbance and eliminate it in their way.”
“So if I go over there…” Bailey said. “And find whatever this map is about… What’s in it for me? I’m not coming with you off planet.”
“Well, Aaron…” Nash said putting an arm around his shoulder, and walking back toward the gaping door. “Old Gang take care of their friends. Always! And it’s all pretty simple stuff. See the cable car yonder?”
Bailey and the others looked to the other side of the ridge, and the cable car sitting in its old hut. It was small and easy to miss amongst the rock and snow formations.
“It takes you straight down to the basin floor. And then we have ideas to get you from A to B as it were.”
The others followed Nash and Bailey back into the dome, and the door began to close behind them.
Dane stopped and pointed at the clear skies just as the door began its motion, and said “That Shadow Security ship is still up there. It’s been what? Three, four months?”
Randall joined him and looked up at the ship, in blue negative beyond the Narcosia sky.
There was a ship there, and it looked to be the same ship that had been parked in orbit since before the first escape. These ships were meant to come and go, bringing new exiles that they had hunted down during the season. They would be losing millions of starcredits, each day that they remained here.
Perhaps they expected a successful escape imminent. This seemed likely to Randall, but it still wasn’t worth the billions it would have costed to date.
They turned away, and followed Bailey back into the colony.
East Syndicate.
Randall had been sitting opposite his new boss for more than a quarter hour. He had brought him to his apartment, that had once belonged to the founder of the company that Aaron Bailey now ran.
Randall knew but stayed silent about the fact that Gen Colec had fought in the South Syndicate arena, and had died as a result, a few days before Bailey had been brought into the ward. He stayed quiet about how he had seen Aaron Bailey entering and leaving Colec’s room, and how within the next few weeks he had taken over full control of Colec’s company, and quite conveniently ingratiated himself with the Sagars to whom Colec’s company worked in subsidiary. Aaron Bailey had no relation to Gen Colec, he was sure, but Randall remained silent.
He watched Bailey now sitting on the rocking chair opposite, with his head bowed and hands cupped around the back of his neck. He had said he needed a minute, just to cool the mind, but it was now a long time and Randall was growing uneasy.
Just then there was a ringing at the door, and slowly Bailey raised his head to look.
“Do you want me to…” Randall began but Bailey stood up and walked down to the door.
He leaned down to the view screen and asked “Who is it?”
“The one you love. Truly. Dearly!” the face of Bede Sagar slowly appeared on the screen in fizzy black and white.
“Hello my dearest.” Bailey slavered into the screen. “Your place?”
“Be quick!” she waved and the screen switched back to standby.
Randall let this fall into his eyes, and silently, he followed Bailey down to the street, where they met with Bede Sagar by her the robot escort she journeyed with when out in the big city.
It was simulated night time, and they walked in the moonlight down to the road side where Bailey took her in his arms and kissed her. Randall tried not to wince and looked away along the street.
Bede’s car had been disposable and they took Bailey’s car across the city back toward the village. Randall drove with the robot attaché in the next seat, while Bailey and Bede rode in the back, with hands locked.
They entered the East Syndicate village and drove through the disorganized erection of terraces to a long row of homes at the furthest side from the tunnels. The stilted street was at a higher point in the overall favela and looked down over the moonlit homes, warm with the glow of blue and orange light.
They parked up at one of the center most homes and entered the Sagar house.
They entered the front door without knocking and walked up stairs near an antigrav elevator, and then through the theatre lounge to the stilted front room.
There was a bar at the far left side of the living room, where two old men sat drinking and chatting about something unheard. Across the rest of the floor near the front windows were a series of low glass tables with a weaving line of leathered sofas closing them in from the rest of the room. To the far right, close to where they had entered, was a mini holographic theatre along the corner wall playing some kind of music video television for two youngsters of the Sagar family playing on the floor.
They stepped up to back of the sofas, where a line of units were affixed to the marble floor, topped by a neat rockery and gentle water cascade.
There were a few notable faces sitting along the sofa line, looking out of the windows that leant out over the gardens below, and then beyond them the night lights of the village.
Bede pointed at the bar without speaking.
“The usual for me.” Bailey said, kissi
ng Bede on the lips in front of her family, who had turned with wide smiles on their faces. “And for my new partner in crime, Randall will have…”
He waited and Randall said “Earth Scotch, straight.”
“Always good to sample our nearest neighbours culture, ai?” Bede smiled and Randall did too, despite his reservations.
Randall took his drink and Bailey waved for him to follow to the small kitchens behind an opaque glass bricked wall at the rear of the bar.
Bailey took a bottle of old wine from a large rack of similar wines, and said “What do you think of Bede?”
Randall looked at him considering the response of an obedient dog “I think Bede Sagar is a great lady.”
He was lying. He thought all of the Sagars were Machiavellian jobsworths, with half of the moral integrity of the Beldins, and the others involved with South Syndicate. He felt a tinge of sadness cut with anger inside, masking it easily with the phony meat headed façade.
He noticed a smirk on Bailey’s face, who then threw him a beer bottle that he began opening with his thumb and forefinger. Bailey winced at this and continued his own technique with a screw.
Randall wasn’t paying attention, but vaguely noticed that Bailey had stopped unscrewing his wine and was now looking into the living room through the opaque glass wall.
Randall followed his eyes, and saw that in the living room, another lady had joined the Sagars. She was smiling shyly while trying to fit in.
He had met her yesterday just after his release from The Shell, and strained his memory to recall her name. Wendall Jayne, was it? Would someone call their kid that, he wondered?
Bailey seemed fixated on Jayne, and judging by his cold and ruthless approach to his business with Old Gang, and now his close ties to the criminal empire of East Syndicate, he doubted his interest in her was romantic. But Bailey did seem fixated.
They returned to the living room and Bailey was introduced to Jayne, which he did smoothly as if uninterested in her. Randall nodded to Jayne as they noticed one another, and then Randall stepped away as they all moved to places by the window.
