Fixer 13

by G. Michael Smith

  Chapter 35: Children of the Biome

  The children of the original biome population were not necessarily committed to the whole project. Many of them reached adulthood and felt the restrictions placed on them were unfair. They argued that they had not been involved in the original decisions and therefore could not be required to take part. They wanted to have the freedom afforded any citizen of Earth. It was decided, by the politicians and scientists of the time, that the freedoms of Earth citizens could not be applied to the people born on the biomes because they were not, nor had they ever been, citizens of Earth. They were citizens of the biome on which they were born.

  Many tried to escape to the planet below. This was impossible according to the biome filters that checked for markers on every organic thing that left or entered the biomes. Still, young omies disappeared, it was thought, to the Earth below and the black market in body parts thrived.

  Months passed and Jayne’s life became tedious. Her relationship with Joseph Kane was cool. She did not ask him for much and he did not offer much. She spent her time scouring the records of Biome 7, looking for any information she could find on whatever went in or out of the biome.

  There were only two ways of getting materials and people to and from the biome. The most common method was to transport material to the nearest spavator and send it up or down the wire. This was the most common because it was the safest. The use of ground-to-biome chemical rocket ship transport was very expensive and very difficult to keep secret. The stability of the biome orbits was critical. Their mass was such that a powerful rocket might alter the orbit. So rocket ships were discouraged. Some of the omie governments banned their use altogether. Biome 7 was not one of them.

  Jayne woke with a start. She sat up. Something was wrong but she had no idea what it might be. The biome was still in its sleep cycle. All was quiet. She slipped from her bed and toggled her VID. There were no messages. She could not shake the feeling that something bad had happened or something bad was about to happen. She got dressed in the Sergio Partelli. She changed it to gym wear, left her quarters and headed to the gym. It was still considered nighttime but morning was close at hand. Jayne headed to her most favorite piece of gym equipment. It did not exist outside of this gym. A couple of bored fixers from the last fixer cycle had mocked it up. Its functions had been tweaked by others. It was a work in progress and Jayne loved it. It was a gravity cube also known as the GC. The cube’s dimensions were slightly under three metres. It had gravity generators set in each of the six faces. All the faces were transparent making it a fantastic spectator sport. There was a large button in the center of each of the inside faces. The players in the cube had to get to, and push, whichever button was green before their opponent was able to do the same. The patterns of lit buttons and the gravity strength of the faces were random. It was also used as an individual event. The faster a player could push the buttons, the higher their score. It could be played by an individual wanting to get a work out or it could be played against an opponent. Rules varied according to who was playing and how much aggression they needed to purge. There had been a few accidents, so helmets were now mandatory.

  As Jayne approached the GC, she noticed something in the cube. It did not have the telltale hum of active gravity generators. As she entered, she could make out someone sitting in the far corner of the cube looking at her. She flipped on the light. It was Joseph Kane. He was not smiling his usual mocking smile that she hated.

  He spoke. “Hi. What are you doing this not-so-fair morning?”

  “You couldn’t sleep either, eh?” she asked.

  “Nah, thought I’d come here and practice but just could not get into it,” he responded.

  Jayne looked at him, all forlorn in the corner. She remembered playing GravBall against him. “You want to have a friendly?” she asked.

  “Sure,” he said and he clambered to his feet. “You think we will need helmets? I really don’t want to mess up my hair.” He grinned at her with his hair still a mess from the night before.

  “Helmets for a friendly game? I think we can survive without them,” responded Jayne. The banter was making her feel like she was Thirteen again, and not an old liaison officer.

  They both walked out of the cube and placed their palms on the ID recorder. “Let’s play one round,” said Joseph. “I’ll score blue and you score red.”

  If Jayne hit the button first, it would turn red and if Joseph hit it first, it would turn blue. After six rounds, the person with the most buttons of their color would win. In case of a tie, one more round would be played to determine the winner.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  Jayne nodded and they both entered the cube. All the lights cycled through various colors until the horn sounded, indicating the start of the game. All gravity disappeared inside the cube. Both players gently pushed themselves off the floor so they were hovering in space. Jayne immediately twisted her body so that she was now upside down beside Joseph. He looked puzzled by her move. The horn sounded and the ceiling button turned green and the ceiling gravity came on full. Jayne fell to the floor which, from any spectator’s view point, was the ceiling. It would look like she was standing on the ceiling. She had already pushed the button at her feet before Joseph recovered from literally falling on his head. He got his hands up just in time and rolled to the side. He stood up. They were both standing upright on the ceiling, with a red button at their feet.

  “God, you are still the luckiest person I have ever met. How did you know that the ceiling button was going to go on?” he asked.

  Jayne said, “Just a good guess.” She finished her words and the gravity went to zero again.

  Jayne swam through space to the wall facing her and tried to twist her body so that her head was pointing to the wall nearest the gym door. Joseph mimicked her movements with a grin and was floating horizontally beside her. She looked at him, irritated that he had copied her. He grinned back as the floor nearest their feet clicked onto full gravity. They both landed on their feet. Joseph reached out his long arms and hit the button. It turned blue.

  “Thanks!” he said. He watched her carefully.

  “Cheater!” she exclaimed.

  The gravity became zero and Jayne did nothing. Joseph stared at her and she stared back.

  “No hints for the copycat.”

  Suddenly, Jayne twisted around, her head facing the opposite way. Joseph followed her move. He grinned as they both completed a full turn, their heads facing away from the door, horizontal to the external floor. Jayne, however, kept turning and twisted to the side so her feet were facing the far wall. Gravity came on and they both fell towards the far wall. Jayne fell on her feet and Joseph fell on his back. The button on the sidewall turned green and Jayne walked over and pushed it. It turned red. She was up two to one.

  “Nice try, cheater,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t want to get a helmet?”

  “I didn’t cheat. I observed and reacted. You are the cheater. Did you rig the game? I bet you have access to the program. The LO has access to everything,” he said, his face flushed from exertion.

  The gravity went to zero. Jayne pushed off the floor. Joseph followed her. A klaxon sounded and the cube lights went out. The gravity returned to normal. They both fell in a heap to the floor. Jayne was now lying on top of Joseph.

  “I knew it,” he said, hugging her to him. You really are in love with me.”

  “Let me go, you big goof,” she said and sat up, “Listen.”

  The loud speaker blared, “All fixer personnel please report to emergency stations and await orders.” This was repeated.

  Both Jayne and Joseph leapt to their feet and ran out of the gym.

  Jayne started to return to her quarters to change her clothes and then she realized she was wearing the Sergio Partelli. She rounded a corner and spoke quietly. “Override – thirteen – suggest liaison suit.” She was immediately wearing a navy suit jacket and skirt. Not her favorite, but adequate
. She headed for her office.

  It was really early but the emergency warning kick started everyone. People seemed to be rushing around.

  She stopped a young fixer. She asked, “What has happened?”

  “Not sure, but I think our orbit was altered slightly. It has been fixed and reestablished, but the cause has not been determined. Ms. Banks sent everyone out to scan all under sectors for possible landing sites of chemical rockets. The most probable cause of the shift in the orbit was an unscheduled landing,” she replied.

  “Under sectors?” queried Jayne.

  “Oh, the under sectors are a unique property of Biome 7’s base asteroid. They were not discovered during the initial sculpting. A fixer crew working on some gravity generator repairs discovered them. There are a series of natural caves that can be accessed from the underside of the biome. There is no known access point from the caves to the biome proper. The biome sensors would automatically close off any breech. There is a landing pad for emergency ships. When one is scheduled to land, the attitude computers automatically compensate for any shifts in the orbit of the biome. If one that has not been scheduled lands, there is an alarm that sounds, just like the one that sounded a few minutes ago. Sorry, Ms. Kai, but I have to go,” the young woman said and she rushed off.

  Jayne entered her office and scanned the desk VID for reports. It was indeed an unscheduled departure from somewhere on the underside of the asteroid that made up Biome 7. All seemed to be well now and the emergency was over. Jayne considered looking up all there was in the archives on the under sector of Biome 7 when Joseph banged on her door and entered.

  “We have a problem,” he said ominously.

  Jayne looked at him and asked cryptically, “A biome problem or,” she paused to make her next words more poignant, “a Thirteen problem?”

  “Biome. A death. Maybe a murder. Let’s go!” he said, turning to leave.

  Jayne followed him.

  “Where?” she asked.

  “The biome proper. Out near the edge of the tree line in the highlands,” he said.

  Jayne thought of Poppy’s warning and hesitated. He had asked her to stay out of the biome proper so she would stay safe.

  “What about Poppy’s warning? What if I am discovered?” she asked, already knowing the answer he would give and the answer she would accept. But if Joseph, her supposed protector, said it was OK, then Poppy could not blame her. She felt a momentary flash of guilt that she quickly pushed aside.

  “You are the LO and you have to see this. I got a look at the initial reports. It is really nasty.” He moved to one of the lifts that would take them to the surface.

  “OK,” said Jayne, “but I have to change first. She turned and walked back into her office, shut the door and muttered, “Override – thirteen – suggest fixer surface wear, Biome 7.” Her navy suit turned into a standard fixer suit, tools and all. Jayne turned back to the exit and ran to the open lift door. Joseph was waiting.

  “Cool,” he said. “Have you been hiding that in your office? Looks like it has been fitted to you. Definitely not standard issue. Lookin’ good, Wu.” He grinned as she entered the lift.

  Jayne frowned at him and whispered, “Don’t call me that.”

  “Sorry. I just reverted to old times. Won’t happen again,” he apologized.

  Fixers used small antigravity-fitted air carts to travel quickly around in the biomes. They lifted a few cm above the ground and used a small electric motor to thrust air out the back. They were clean and quiet. Jayne and Joseph climbed into one. They were open to the air and were not designed for comfort. Fixers could transport small pieces of equipment to repair sites. Joseph entered the coordinates into the floater, as the carts were commonly called. The top speed was slightly above walking pace, unless the emergency called for an override. Joseph asked for one now. “Hey, W— Kai,” he said, with a quick correction. “What is your override code?”

  Jayne spoke at the floater without a thought of keeping her code from Joseph. “Kai 13131, top speed.” The floater sped up to about 30 km/hr. That was top speed. They rode along in silence until they reached a group of people standing around a small copse of trees and low bushes. Jayne could see Cornelia Banks down on one knee, touching something concealed in the bushes. The floater stopped and they walked to the area. Jayne scanned the group that was standing nearby. She could see three omies grouped together. One was obviously weeping, while the other two were consoling her. The rest were fixers who had arrived on their own floaters. Their eyes were filled with a mixture of anger and fear.

  Cornelia stood up, just as Jayne and Joseph arrived. They made eye contact.

  “There is one body here. It appears to be a teenage girl. It was most likely dragged here by some beast. Could be one of those big cats but more likely a pack of dogs or wolves or whatever they have here that eats things like people,” Cornelia said. There was a bitter lilt to her voice.

  “Just the one body?” asked Jayne. She lowered her voice. “I was told it was a murder.”

  “I think it is, but let’s keep this quiet. I don’t want to start a panic. Let’s get the body on a floater and take it back for autopsy,” she responded quietly. “There is a lot more here than meets the eye.”

  She turned to the fixers standing near and spoke loud enough for the omies to hear. “Please take the body back to the hospital.”

  Cornelia turned to the omies and spoke to the one weeping. “I understand you found the body. Is she a friend of yours?” she asked.

  The woman nodded and wiped her eyes.

  “Please ride on one of the floaters to the hospital and be with your friend.”

  They all climbed on one of the two floaters leaving for the hospital. The body was wrapped in a blanket and placed respectfully on the back of one of the floaters. Those who remained were Cornelia Banks, her fixer aides, Joseph and Jayne. They watched the floaters disappear.

  Once gone, Cornelia became all business. “We have a major problem and this one is not going to go away quietly. You can be sure of that,” she said and she left no room for a response by anyone. “Follow me!”

  Ms. Banks strode up the hill, looking at the ground as she walked. “That girl was not just murdered. Most of her innards were missing and her eyes were gone. She was butchered. Some animal got her after she died. The wounds on her legs were inflicted post mortem but, be assured, this is cold-blooded murder of the vilest kind.”

  She looked up and then strode to an outcrop of rock 30 metres up the hill. Beneath the outcrop were some smaller rocks set in gravel. “Look around here!” she ordered.

  “Why?” asked Joseph.

  “Because there is a trail of blood leading right back to this outcrop,” Cornelia said, as she walked further up the hill. She was standing on the top of the largest rock, looking down at the others below. “There is no blood trail here. It stops right there,” she said pointing down.

  Jayne was about to clamber over the rocks and peer into the space when Joseph put his hand on her shoulder. “Let me do that, Ms. Kai. This is a fixer job, not a job for the LO,” he said and he nudged her out of the way.

  Jayne was about to protest and then quickly reconsidered. She stepped aside as Joseph crawled into the space behind the loose rocks on the doorstep of an opening in the rocks. He kept going until only his large feet were sticking out of the hole in the rocks. The rest of him had disappeared. They all heard his voice echo from the space beneath the outcrop. “I need a light. There appears to be a cave here.”

  He wiggled out and quickly started to remove the rocks that were blocking the entrance. The aides helped him and soon the hole was big enough for him to wiggle all the way inside; this time with a powerful flashlight.

  There were no sounds for a few minutes. The silence continued for longer than Jayne could control herself. She stuck her face near to the hole into which Joseph had disappeared, and yelled, “Hey, Kane, are you alright?”

  There was no answer.

&n
bsp; She turned to Cornelia. “I’m going in to check on him. I need another flashlight.” She turned back to the hole.

  Just then, Joseph stuck his head out of the hole and wiggled his body through. He stood up and brushed off the dust. There was dirt that looked like it had gathered in the moisture of a tear on his face. He wiped it away unceremoniously.

  “This is bad,” he said and he turned to Cornelia. “We need a forensic team and a couple of top notch biome structural fixers here now.”

  He sat down on the large rock in front of the hole and wiped his face with his arm. The dirt smeared away. The telltale tear was gone. His jaw was set hard.