So Long Been Dreaming (20 page)

“Eat first.”

Hurston sat and devoured the meal. Kage looked away. It seemed unbecoming to see such desperate hunger. And Hurston, she could tell, needed her pride. Had she been the same way, coming off the line, that need to hide her weakness, the sham of self preservation? No, Kage had been different, a bundle of fear that had frozen that desperate instinct to flee. Kage remembered that she had hidden under the bunk slab for weeks. Altzar had been the patient one, coaxing her out with treasures of food. Altzar the master, Altzar the enemy.

“Eat this one slowly.” Kage held out another ration in her hand, along with a cup of water.

Hurston looked at her and chewed. As Kage ruffled through the storage box, she handed to Hurston what looked like treasures: a protein cube, soy spread, and miracle of miracles, a hard boiled egg. Kage smiled as Hurston struggled to hide her surprise, surprise and relief, her solid realization that she was safe for now – you don’t waste a meal on a dead skivvy.

Kage turned and busied herself with a wire console in the corner, careful with her movements.
Close enough to keep an eye on, far enough for privacy
. Always a balance when the world’s spun sideways, coming off the line.
Space enough and this one will come to me
.

“So who is this Altzar?” Hurston, her cup empty, her food eaten.

Kage sat down beside her. “Altzar is a gunnar in United. I am her second.”

Hurston nodded, taking it in. “So Altzar is a woman,” she murmured.

Kage continued. “We’re in the third Quadrant; it’s still pretty much United, although we do get raids, torch gangs mostly. Sometimes an Alliance of citystates, they get together, give us a go. You see, United has control of the mining in the Rubble, where the mountains used to be.” Kage filled Hurston’s cup. “Altzar is decent. She’ll give you no trouble. Besides, you’re my second.”

“Your second? Where do you get the chops for that?”

Kage smiled, waved her hand around the room. “This may not look like much, but it’s better than most in the shithole. Now you, where do you come from?”

Hurston’s eyes fell. “East. I got taken in the east. Around the salt flats. We were surveying for potash.”

Kage sighed.
This old game. We play as if our lives depend on it. And they do
. “You’re a Tech, aren’t you?”

Hurston, the slightest hesitation, as she answered, “Nah, just a horse, trucking equipment here and there.”

Kage sat back. “You know, we could waste a lot of time –” She thought of slapping a scan on her, but no, lose her now and she’d be lost forever. Kage gestured for Hurston’s arm.
Careful, she may just bolt
. Hurston’s face, like stone but her fist held out, fingers curled, defiant.
She’s thinking it’s another link, but it’s now or never
. Kage traced the protrusion on Hurston’s wrist. “You’re Ark.” Kage held out her arm, pointing to the jut on her own wrist, a small, circular cicatrice. “Like me.”

Ark VI

Kage sat on the hillock, running her hands through the long meadow grass. Green, green, she watched the sway of willows by the riverside, above her, the darting swoop of swallows, a burst of finches, yellow and red, roosting by the raspberry bushes that covered the Observation Station. For as far as she could see the lush woodland spread out before her. Tomorrow they would release the higher mammals from the cryolock: four wolves, two black bears.

Integration was going well, yet it seemed a shame; the place was a paradise, but Kage knew the balance of the ecosystem: predators were a necessity. She had had the same argument with Zhang, the entomologist – were mosquitoes really vital? What about those aphids? – and had gotten a lecture for her troubles. Yet she enjoyed arguing with her, Zhang’s passion, her precision, that frisson of – what? Kage sighed. Here, so many miles below the embattled world, they were allowed these flirting distractions. Yet the Ark was still under the protection of United Corporation and it was best to be cautious. The reports coming from topside were ominous. Cities collapsing, armed resurrection. Kage thought, I should be out there, overthrowing this monstrous regime. But here she was, safe and secure, in the belly of the armoured beast, doing its bidding.
Well, not the belly, some useless appendage
. Project Ark, a subsidiary of United. She sighed.
And what could I do, I’m only a scientist
. She was the youngest on board, lucky to be sent here, lucky to be chosen.

The Project at least held some promise. Ten underground libraries, scattered throughout the northern quadrants, biospheres of natural habitats, like they had been before the UC Weather Umbrella Initiative. Kage shivered. At least she didn’t have anything to do with that catastrophe. Like the frying pan into the fire, seed clouds to ease the drought brought on by the global greenhouse effect. Rains that washed out the continental agricorps, followed by a blistering drought that tore off the remaining topsoil. Kage pulled up a handful of grass, let the blades fall. But then, that’s what you get when the world is carved up by Corporations.

But here, Kage leaned back, hands behind her head, looked up to the wispy vapour swirls that passed for clouds, under this artificial sun. She could smell the blossoming lilacs, hear the drone of bright and bumbling bees nestling among the buds. The Ark. Like life before the Corps, before the devastating environment regulation. But here, the birds, the flitting birds, the call of frogs in the riverbed, the chase of chipmunks in the orchard, everything in balance.

Except they weren’t allowed to live in paradise. Maintenance, yes, and research, but limited impact. What did it mean, when they couldn’t stay in the biosphere, that their human presence undermined the very harmony which they worked so hard to preserve? Outside the bubble, they catalogued and controlled, guarding the seed libraries, upgrading the cryolock. Stanton had petitioned for a community garden, but Kiran, sticking to her rulebook, had overruled all the scientists. The sphere would not be contaminated. Which reminded her.

Kage sighed, began to shamble towards the quarters. The air, so calm, so lush, not like the antiseptic, iron-tinged drafts pumped in from above, filtered and flushed, but here, a warm, living creature, tendril caresses. Kage grabbed a handful of grass, sprinkling it around her. She froze. The blades of grass had fallen but not scattered. She looked up. The trees, so calm, not a leaf fluttered. The river, too, had stilled.

She turned, breath clutching her chest. The birds. Kage burst into a shouting run, jabbing at the comlink on her arm. She was rounding the air shafts when the explosion hit her.

When Kage woke, her clothes were singed, the grass burning. Red Crested United uniforms swarmed around the river, pumping water topside, but she had not been spotted, not yet. She brushed her damp forehead, her hand bloody, comlink smashed beyond repair. She blinked, her temples pulsing with a dull, insistent pain. She’d been blown into a hollow, the tall grasses obscuring her from the soldiers. UC military – hostile takeover – they must have overrun the research branch, Kage thought, why else this carnage. And the others – Kage crawled to the service tunnel below the Observation Station. She could feel the earth beneath her shaking, the rumbling blast of a field detonator.
Why? We have no weapons
. If the others had made it to the evacuation checkpoint, there’d be some chance of saving something. Maybe they’d overlook the cryolock, if this was just a raid to line some commander’s pocket. A chamber breach could be sealed off and the biolab saved. But as Kage scrambled through the darkness of intersection five, she stumbled, sprawling, foot caught on –

Kiran lay below her, comlink blinking.

Relief flooded Kage, her choke of tears. Kiran, the architect of this sphere, she’d know where to go, where the others would be. Kiran, with her clicks and rattles, her protocols and procedures, she would know what to do. If they hid, they could wait out this battle, start over when the dust settled.

Kage grabbed her by the arm.

“Thank God –”

But Kiran’s arm wasn’t there. Kage’s hand came away bloody. She held it against the light. The light, falling so dimly, she could barely see – half of Kiran’s face had been blown away. Kage scuttled back, legs kicking, thrashing, a scream crushed down in her chest. Kage, panting, sweat stinging her eyes, shaking, as she dragged herself beneath a buttress. They were a scientific ob station. Non-military. It didn’t make any sense.

A blast shook the tunnel, obscuring her vision. Kage brushed off her tears. And ran.

“I ran and ran and ran. Ran so long, dodging soldiers, fire, ran so I didn’t have to sit still.” Kage passed Hurston a bottle. “Eventually I hid in the air shaft, one of the auxiliary tubes, until the smoke cleared. They didn’t stay long, the soldiers, just another snatch and burn operation. We didn’t know, in the Ark, we didn’t know how bad it was topside. I mean, the civil war, the linkup just talked about containment. Bullshit.” Kage shook her head.

“I went back in. They were all dead, some blasted, some shot running. The rest they just lined up and pulled the trigger.”

“Yeah,” Hurston spoke in a monotone. “They came down through the freight tunnel, blasted through the chambers. They torched our seed libary, slaughtered our bio reserves. Then they wiped their asses with our field data. What a waste.” Hurston took a swing of the bottle, winced.

“Easy on that,” Kage cracked. “Even rocket fuel doesn’t have a cleaner burn.” She turned to the console.

Hurston studied Kage, this little rat’s pup. Everything about her was small. Feral and furtive, she had survived, twisting through the bowels of this city, right under the Eye. Hurston just had to ask. “So how did they catch you?”

Kage looked away. “I made it topside, pretty banged up, half starved, half scorched. Smoke was billowing out of all the shafts. Red flag for miles, you know, for scavangers, a trawl. Got caught by a torch gang, slumped the line to the eastern board, then I was traded to Caravan. Dragged here. Altzar bought me when I was barely skin and bones. But she doesn’t know about this.”

Hurston leaned forward. “She knows you’re Tech.”

“Yeah, but she won’t sell me out.” Kage smiled. “I make her life too easy.” Kage paused. There was more to it than that, she knew, but this wasn’t the time nor the place. “Like I said, she’s okay, but I don’t tell her anything. She’s smart, but none too bright.” Kage faced her, her eyes flickering over Hurston’s face. She placed her hand on Hurston’s shoulder. “You should sleep.” Kage stood.

“Altzar –”

“I can handle Altzar. Rest.”

No way I’ll be able to sleep, Hurston thought as she leaned back on the bunk. She watched Kage retreat to the console in the corner. Hurston took a deep breath, feeling her ever-present weariness surge to the surface. She clawed back, her mind snapping clear, a habit of survival: on the line you never slept. But here? How much could she trust this little pup?

Hurston’s eyes fluttered. The world spun heavily, her legs sinking into the mat, her head, swamped by churning fears that exhausted themselves in the battle for supremacy, she floated, desperately hanging on to that edge, until finally, eyes closed, stomach full, she sank into a clear, uncluttered sleep.