by Kir Lukovkin
Paul nodded in agreement.
“It looks like a highway,” Rick pointed at the canal again. “Like some sort of special highway. See how it stretches out through the sector past most of the intersections to the bottom of the tower?”
“Yes”
“That's it,” Rick shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand.
He was still tortured by the question of how a whole sector with a city suddenly appeared in front of the tower and where it came from.
“What?” Paul asked, also looking out ahead.
“The third Thermopolis.”
“There were ruins at the location of the second one,” Rick was looking ahead intently, but the top of the tower was hidden by clouds.
“I don't understand,” Paul said with irritation. “It's time for some explanations. Stop speaking in riddles, Rick. Where did we finally come and what for? What is Thermopolis? What is this unusual city? What do the possessed have to do with it? What is going on, anyway?” he demanded.
Rick glanced at his companion and then continued to stare intently at the faraway citadel. He could understand Paul.
“See this?” he gestured at the view before them.
“Yes...”
“This is our future. I really hope that I won't be mistaken this time around.”
H
WHEN THE FRIENDS DESCENDED to the bed of the highway, Rick immediately noticed the narrow metal plates that had been pressed into the plascrete. Paul was also interested in them, as they did not see anything like that on the way here. Rick supposed that the plates were elements that conducted the energy that would be supplied to car engines to enable them to travel in the direction required.
Paul was very impressed with what he heard and declared that he wants to study various sciences and resurrect cars so he could travel in them all around the city. Rick smiled with amusement, but said nothing and they continued on their way.
The decision to travel along the highway seemed to be correct. Firstly, it was a path straight towards the citadel. Secondly, they could easily change direction if they found themselves in danger, because there were many tunnels connected to the wide canal, the ladders and flues of industrial units could be seen along the walls, bridges and arches stretched out above casting a latticework of shadows upon the bottom, and the flyovers and the roofs of tall buildings could be seen above its tall edges.
Rick felt like an ant that was trapped in a rain gutter compared to all of these structures.
“So it turns out that you don't even know exactly where we are?” Paul asked with interest.
“That's right. This is the first time I have seen architecture and structures of this kind.”
“That's good.” Paul nodded at the distant citadel. “Then explain what Thermopolis is.”
“A giant tower that contains a city. A whole city in one fortress. A thousand floors.”
Paul whistled.
“That's unbelievable!”
“I was born and raised in a tower like that, but my homeland is far behind me now. To add to it, the fortress did not quite turn out to be a fortress at all.”
“What do you mean? I'm confused.”
“No wonder. It's difficult for me to understand it myself, but I saw it with my own eyes,” Rick chuckled. “The Citadel turned out to be a huge air transportation device, a machine that flew up into the sky.”
“By the almighty,” Paul muttered. “But what for?”
“I think it was for the salvation of humanity. To be honest, I haven't entirely worked out the plans of the Ancients yet.”
“What do you mean?”
Rick sighed, and told him about the Uranus program that he had launched when the Citadel was taken over by rebels from the Omicron sector. Then he understood that he did not start at the right point and told Rick the story of his escape from his home in the Commune in the search for phantom generators that would have defeated the darkness and cold which had engulfed his world. Rick told him about the sectors and their inhabitants, about the manlike proles, about the internal design of the tower, about their journey on the external shell and finished his story by describing the way that the ark was launched.
“I should have been up there,” he pointed up at the sky, “but as you can see, I am here. After the transport left, I spent a long time searching the Command Center for important information, but I did not find much. That's when I made the decision to set off and try to find some sort of traces and answers here on Old Earth so that I could try and work out what was going on. This is the third month that I have been wondering on the surface. I came across a huge city similar to this one once, but everything was destroyed there, including the citadel. None of the buildings were intact and everything was irradiated. I got away from there as fast as I could as I did not want to sentence myself to a long and wasting disease and eventual death. And then I saw you caravan when I came across the canal that led from your Retreat to the domed settlements. The possessed appeared, and you know the rest of the story.”
“I see...”
They walked along in silence for several minutes, each lost in their own thoughts.
“So what do you think about this place?” Paul asked at last.
“It's too early to come to any conclusions,” Rick admitted. “But some of the details give me certain ideas. Look over there, at the walls of the highway. Pay attention to the joints between the segments. What do they look like?”
“They look like scars and welts that appear at equal distances along the way.”
“Now, look at the floor. Especially at the way the floor slabs are connected.”
“The same sort of seams. Wait... something is inscribed on the slabs. It looks like a series of signs.”
“Yes, they are called glyphs. The walls of my fortress were covered in similar glyphs and had similar seams.”
“So what does this mean?”
“At the very least it means that the same technology was used to construct these structures.”
“Then why wasn't there a city around your tower?”
“Well done, that's a good question. You're thinking, Paul. I also ask myself this question. But I swear by the Darkness that I will find the answer! The main thing is to reach the tower and get inside. That's our main goal and then...”
Rick spun around aiming his blaster in front of him. Paul also turned and saw a silvery sphere about the height of a human in diameter standing still behind them. Two intersecting lines could be seen on its surface following its circumference — a horizontal and a vertical line that divided the object into four equal parts. The sphere emitted a muffled hum and it seemed to Rick that the highway under their feet was vibrating slightly. He guessed at the distance to the object — it was around half a hundred paces.
Suddenly, the sphere started to move forward.
“Run!” Paul shouted and dashed away from it.
Rick only stopped for a moment — the sphere had moved, but it did not roll along. The horizontal and vertical lines around its circumference stayed in place, while an unknown force accelerated the movement of the sphere.
A crossroads could be seen ahead, with narrower canals that joined the highway. The humming noise behind their backs grew louder. Rick glanced over his shoulder and saw that the sphere was covered with sparks that it was discharging. He turned to face it, walking backwards and raising his blaster as he flicked the power switch to maximum to blast their pursuer.
A wave of heat swept through the air, but the sphere consumed the ball of energy without any visible effect.
“Damn it!” Rick exclaimed. “That piece of scrap is tougher than I thought!”
He sprinted after Paul.
“Let's split up!” Rick shouted at his back. “You go left, I go right!”
Without thinking, Rick rushed into the side canal. It was darker here, but he had no time to look at the details, so he ran, trying to keep his breathing under control. He could hear a drawn out hum behind him.
He heard the hum behind his back again. Rick took a look over his shoulder. The sphere slowly emerged from the canal. At first, he tried to go for the blaster, understanding that even though the weapon was useless, he should not surrender. What if he was lucky and found a weak spot? But then, blindingly bright lights lit on the upper sections of the sphere and two red rays quickly darted towards Rick as he froze, holding his breath.
He felt a chill run down his spine and his shoulders and knees trembled. This demonic machine would turn him to ashes now.
The red rays transfixed Rick's chest and there was nowhere to run. He retreated until his back was to the wall. The sphere remained calm, sparkling with its charges and continued to hum.
A moment later, two new spheres that looked like copies of the first emerged from the canal. They released more rays that clustered on Rick's chest. Was everything about to end here and now?
He swallowed loudly, squeezing his fists tight. Mother Darkness. By the great Expanse, why?
Rick quickly took in the walls — they were smooth and even, with no ladders or handholds to grab, nothing at all. Nothing apart from the rope hanging down near him. The spheres had blocked the way into the canal — another one, then two and then more and more of them emerged.
If they were not attacking, it meant that they were waiting for something, Rick decided. He started to slowly move towards the rope. More and more spheres pushed themselves through the canal, gradually filling up the square. Their numbers grew — there were already nine of them, ten... twelve. The rays were blinding him with their bright red light. The first sphere shuddered a little and rushed forward. Rick jumped towards it with his remaining strength. His hands grabbed at the rope, the inertia carrying him forward, swinging as he managed to quickly pull himself upwards. Like a pendulum, he swung back towards the wall, turning around and continuing to climb, putting one hand over the other as he rose higher and higher. Only the thought of escape reverberated around his head — the main thing was to hold on and that the old rope would not break.
When his feet finally rested on the wall, the sphere below him crashed into the barrier. Rick stopped, trying to get some rest. The sphere had struck so hard that dust rained down from above. The rest of the spheres followed and the square was full of humming and the sound of discharging electricity. More and more spheres appeared from the canal, pressing on their neighbors and pushing them upwards.
Rick pulled himself up higher, glanced downwards again and almost let go of the rope — the diabolical spheres were rolling on top of each other, filling up the space below him and trying to reach their quarry. He gritted his teeth and finally managed to clamber up onto the wall. He immediately rolled away from the edge and lay there on his back, breathing heavily.
“And we thought you wouldn't make it,” a jovial female voice sounded out of the darkness.
Rick rolled onto his stomach, his hand automatically going down to his hip to look for the blaster, but then he stopped as he rose onto his knees. Around a dozen people stood in front of him on the edge of the wall, dressed in drab green camouflage. Many of them wore protective goggles with wide lenses set in a soft and thick frame. Some wore helmets with opaque visors. One of the strangers took off their helmet and...
“They usually just have a little left to go,” said a woman with dark hair plaited into dozens of little braids and a friendly and attractive face.
Her eyes, or rather the look in her gray eyes was cold and harsh, which spoiled the first impression. But Rick had learned not to trust his emotions.
The rest of the group quickly surrounded him and took off and emptied his travel bag, quickly distributing its contents among themselves. One of them started to skillfully coil the rope that saved him.
“And then they fall,” the woman kept looking at Rick, as before. “I wonder why.”
“I imagined that the wall was even taller and that I needed to climb just a little more,” he replied. “But the end of the wall was nearer.”
He did not mention that he had a wealth of experience of testing situations in his home citadel. What was the point of telling too many people about it? His journey through Thermopolis taught him many things, mainly not to trust people.
Strong hands helped him to rise up from his knees, but they did not let him go. The metallic clang of colliding spheres could be heard from below. Rick thought of the blaster that he left below with regret.
“So then, Olivia,” a tall bearded man asked the woman. “Shall we let him fly?”
“No,” she replied calmly, glancing at Rick intently again. “He will always have time to do that. Do you want to tell us something?”
“No,” Rick immediately answered, as he wanted to first see what was going on and avoid mentioning his companion yet.
At the end of the day, the spheres did not go after Paul, so he could have easily survived and could be somewhere nearby. Maybe he could come back and rescue Rick in case of serious trouble with the locals.
“That means you're coming with us, little birdie,” the bearded man laughed out loud. “Move your little feet!”
They pushed him in the back and led him along the wide girders. The movements of this group were quick and nimble, so it was immediately obvious that they had lived here for a long time and knew the environment that surrounded them very well. Olivia issued a short order as they traveled and three figures armed with sharpened disks separated themselves from the group and disappeared in the labyrinth of structures under the dome. The group kept going, along girders and roofs, walking from one building to another along narrow walkways and constantly changing direction. The walls and roofs of the buildings were mainly constructed of pale yellow plascrete. They emerged into the light from under the dome and descended by a metallic ladder into a sector filled with pipelines and industrial service lines. It was humid and oppressive here, with clouds of caustic fumes and a blue mist filling the space around them.
The group walked through the mist for some time until they reached a dirty gray wall, which had a phosphorescent purple circle with a yellow dot in the center.
“The Cluster,” Olivia announced.
Rick would have given her forty years of age, but when he remembered how wrong Paul had got his own age, he decided against guessing. He was roughly shoved in the ribs and made to hurry up. They walked along the wall and found themselves in an open space — the service line zone had ended and a huge sporting arena appeared in front of them, just like the one that Rick had seen in the Thermopolis documentary chronicle, but surrounded by a very tall barrier wall. Assemblages of boxlike structures piled on top of each other rose in the middle of the arena, with some having see-through walls. All of this partly reminded him of the underground settlement of the people of the Network, but with the difference of everything being larger, more spacious, better lit and much cleaner. People were going about their business everywhere. Each person was engaged in their own tasks. Rick noticed that there were hatches and wells in the floor of the arena and people kept going in and out of them. He could see stairways and walkways here and there on the barrier wall which led to platforms on its upper edges where observers stood watch. Part of the arena was lit by the sun and something glittered there, so bright that it hurt his eyes. The facade of the nearest residential block had “ESCALATORS” written on it in large letters, together with a signpost pointing in their direction.
An elderly man wearing dark overalls came out to meet the returning party. His hair was burning copper, with freckles covering his face so
thickly that they looked like droplets of pain.
“What's happening?” he asked, stroking his fiery red and carefully dressed beard.
“The rollers tracked down two runners. One of them ran off.” Olivia nodded at Rick. “And this one turned out to be quite nimble.”
Rick got tense. It turned out that Olivia was testing him when she asked him a question before they came to the Cluster. The locals had noticed him and Paul even before they came across those accursed balls that they called rollers. And now she obviously let him know that she knows about Paul, who had never been mentioned before.
“He isn't rabid, is he?” the red-haired man glanced at Rick sideways. “The rabid are strong.”
Olivia approached Rick and took him by the chin, turning his head and examining it in the light.
“No. Say something!”
“What for?” Rick asked. “Why did you bring me he...”
“Be silent.” She let him go and turned around. “See, Igor? He can be formatted and placed on the perimeter.”
“He seems quite scrawny,” the red-haired man called Igor replied, as he considered Rick with doubt in his eyes.
“It'll be fine. He'll get bigger on the synthetics. We need ersatzes.”
“All right,” Igor agreed reluctantly.
“Send him for digitization,” Olivia ordered.
They started to lead Rick away. He took a couple of steps, but then stopped and loudly asked, “Who are you?”
Olivia and Igor looked at him dismissively and turned away, continuing their conversation. Rick was prodded in the back and then someone grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Hey, let me go!” he shouted, but his arms got twisted behind his back, making him bend over.
He was punched painfully in the ribs a few times and once in the face, making him choke and feel a surge of fury. After spitting blood onto the floor, he glanced at the tall bearded man who had offered to throw him back into the square with those diabolical spheres.
“What're you looking at, rat?” the man barked, smirking crookedly. “Want some more? Get a move on!”
