The Tower (13 page)

“How was Pleasure World?” I asked.

“Oh, Bill, you gotta go!” he enthused. “Beaches, casinos, fun all the time.” Odd—he didn't look sunburned or even suntanned. Neither did Gwyneth, who was serving up breakfast a few feet away. Maybe they just weren't sun-worshippers. Whatever, I'd ask to see pictures of their trip later on.

After the morning shift was over, I headed down to the Reactor Room; I had a report to file on the energy process. Nearing the entrance, the alarm bell suddenly went off and I heard the “click” of the deck-level doors being closed; that was an automatic feature on the ship. Only the Ultras had the Override code. What the hell was going on?!

Someone screamed, “We got a breach!” and a crowd of people swarmed past me, terror on their faces; they were running to the lift but it wasn't in operation. That was part of the safety features on the Tower. If the deck was sealed off, then the elevators wouldn't operate. I ran to the window, saw that one of the reactor rods had fallen out of position and the core wall had cracked; poisonous gas was quickly filling the room.

One of the techs frantically pushed the intercom button near the door and screamed, “Get Mister Particle down here! We got a breach!!” He then took a count of all personnel and his face froze. “Where's Carol?”

Damn, she was in the reactor room along with another tech. Her suit was in place, but it wouldn't last long, and she'd fallen unconscious. The other tech lay closer to the core and he wasn't moving, either.

“Move, people!” I turned around. Particle had arrived, all six-two of him in his brown-black bodysuit. He spoke with a genteel Southern accent. He turned to the frantic technician who'd made the call and said, “Y'all got a breach, alright; stay here and seal off the door once I'm inside!”

Entering the Override command, he ran inside. The door slammed shut after him and he went to re-position the rod. He then extended his arms and the gas seemed to “flow” into him as he absorbed all the excess radiation, and then closed off a valve. The room was soon clear.

Particle rushed over to the fallen techs. The woman was still alive; he picked her up over his shoulder and turned over the other fallen tech. I couldn't watch—his suit and helmet had been burned away by his proximity to the core, the right side of his face was missing. He was gone. Just like that.

Particle came out with Carol slung over his shoulder. “She'll be okay, I'm taking her to Sick Bay,” and he ran off. Flying wasn't one of his abilities.

“Aw, god damn it!” cried one tech and then he vomited once he saw what was left of the dead technician. Other techs just sobbed brokenly. I slumped back against the bulkhead, shaken badly by the experience. The alarm bell stopped ringing and the threat was over. It was my first time to see death up close and personal, next to my own mother dying, and I hoped that it would be my last for quite some time.

Two hours later, PowerGuy led a non-denominational funeral service. Everyone attended, Ultras on the left, regular staff on the right and at the back. The service was held on Deck #8, the room in which Tenkita had performed; it was the largest area we could find. Everyone looked at each other but no one said a word—no one wanted to.

The tech's name was Elmer Middleton. PowerGuy praised his service to the Tower, spoke kindly of his character and his abilities on the job and vowed that safety would be the number one priority for all who lived and worked on the ship. This was the sworn duty of the Association as long as the satellite was in operation. Black Guardsman took possession of Middleton's body and took him home to be buried on Earth. He was only twenty-six years old.

In the hallway after everyone had filed out, I caught sight of Particle leaning against a wall, PowerGuy with his hand on the other man's shoulder. “Ah'm sorry,” he sobbed, silver tears coursing down his face, “should've been there earlier, I should've moved faster…” He seemed inconsolable, and PowerGuy took him back to his quarters. Oriana came over to me, face taut with emotion.

“Never seen him so torn up,” she said. “It wasn't his fault.”

“I saw it happen,” I replied. “He couldn't have done any more than he did.” Damn, those words sounded so hollow; “A choice to be made; the price to be paid.” What did people say in a situation like this? Particle had done the right thing, I felt. A person had died but we'd all been saved from a worse fate.

Oriana touched my cheek gently, interrupted my thoughts. “Yeah, he made his choice, but it sucks all the same. I've gotta go back to my cabin for a bit, see you later?”

Yeah. A kiss, and then she was off. The fact that I'd see her later was the only good news I'd had all day. Heading back to the elevator, I saw Mark waiting for me in the corridor, his eyes coolly watching me. “Have you been allowed to leave your room?” I asked. I was in no mood to talk, and just seeing him there almost set me off.

His face twisted in anger and he responded, “I don't know how you managed to get the jump on my buds a while back, but your luck won't last long, buddy-boy.” He was referring to the two goons Oriana and I had owned planet-side and he was still steamed about it.

“You're an idiot,” I stated flatly. “A person just died and all you can think about is your own problem with me. Don't you have any respect for what happened?”

He took a step towards me and then stopped, thought better of it. “I didn't know the dude and it was his tough luck,” he said. “Too bad it wasn't you. This ain't over, jerk,” he finished and then stalked off. What a loser. He had no respect at all for what happened, none. I only wished that there was some way of having this over and done with, and wouldn't you know it, Karma was just around the corner.

Thirteen: Let's Settle It!

Ten days after the funeral. While the crew was over the initial shock of a fellow member dying in the line of duty, there was still a lot of bitching over the delay in Mister Particle's rescue. Why hadn't he been there? Was he even doing his job? Wasn't he supposed to be ready for this kind of emergency? I heard these questions and more.

Truthfully, it was total BS. Particle had been off-duty, he wasn't slated to return to the Core until 18:00 that evening. After the call had gone down, he'd arrived on the scene in less than a minute. Had he been away any longer, the radiation from the reactor would have leaked out and there weren't enough Darts on board at the time to get everyone safely off. I'd read through the Tower Ops Manual and learned it all by heart, especially the Emergency Evacuation Procedures. Paraphrased, it went like this:

Had I been inside the Reactor Room at the time of the accident—and it had occurred to me that I'd been seconds shy of entering there in order to check the readings and write up my report—then I would have been toast. It was written clearly in the manual on the first page, and it read as follows:

In other words, you had to know what you were getting into. Now, I knew.

I was there and all the rules had been followed to the letter. The other personnel had done the same, and Avenger told me to write up a report on it and make sure all the facts were written down correctly. I replayed the situation in my mind numerous times and wrote it down, just as it happened.

When it was done, I was then summoned to a formal hearing. This was my first chance to see how things were done the Tower way. The hearing was held in the Reactor Room. Some structural engineers and radiation specialists had been summoned from the surface, along with three Superior Court judges. “The specialists need to see the evidence first-hand, instead of relying on videos,” Avenger told me. “These professionals aren't from my factories,” he added. He didn't want me or anyone else to think he was trying to get off the hook.

The lawyer for Middleton's family called me as the first witness and I gave my testimony. He asked me a few questions, Avenger's lawyer didn't ask me anything. After a few minutes, I was excused and sat quietly outside waiting for the other witnesses to come out.

An hour later, all the specialists and the judges left, and then Avenger walked out. “The case is closed.” That was all he said, and he didn't look all that happy.

Asking Carol about it later, she got teary-eyed when she spoke. “It was Elmer's fault because he…” she then broke down sobbing and a couple of her friends took her away.

Even so, some people were still convinced that negligence on the part of the Ultras was the culprit, and not human error. Dan told me about some altercations over who was right and what should've been done. I heard there'd been a punch-out between one of the Reactor workers who sided with Middleton and someone else on the cleaning crew who was all for the Ultra version. It seemed like the sides were pretty even, but after a week or so it had quieted down some.

“There're a lot of bad feelings about this, Bill,” he told me while we were in the Recreation Room. I looked around and it seemed everyone was on edge. Dan added, “I was off-duty at the time, but Particle followed the play book and it's a good thing he did. I didn't want to get fried, either.”

Still, did all that really matter? I hadn't known Middleton but from what everyone said he was an alright guy. The fact remained that he'd died. Middleton buying it made me realize something: Death didn't discriminate and didn't care. It came with a singular purpose and took everyone whether they were bad or good and always with a terrible impartiality.

Anyway, back in the Commissary, a few of the techs greeted me with, “Hey, Bill, what's on the menu for today?” That was a good sign that things were getting back to being what they were. And I wanted that normality—that feeling of “sameness,” the feeling that came when you woke up in your familiar bed and went to your familiar everyday job and met the same familiar cool people and all was right in your particular corner of existence. It was something that I'd longed for and felt most comfortable with and things were all going to be fine.

Or so I thought. During my shift, Mark Evans, the wart on the butt of humanity, came in, along with his two playmates as backup. “I dunno how you managed to pull what you pulled on Earth,” he started, “but here's a different story.” What was his problem? He was still bitching about his friends being taken out a while back.

“You actually like being their pet?” That ticked me off. I was dating an Ultra, so to speak, but that didn't mean I sided with them exclusively. In fact, I'd done my best to be friends with everyone, only Evans didn't see it that way, nor would he ever.

He continued his little tirade. “I heard Oriana's great in bed, you two doin‘ it? Damn, man, some chicks'll do
anyone
.” He said that with a little leer. It made me want to smash his face in and I almost took a swing at him…but it wasn't worth it.

“Bugger off,” I told him. “Your friends got owned planet-side and you get owned every day you wake up. Take your jealous willy somewhere else.”

His face turned red. “She's a slut, man, and she could've had the real thing….”

The mouthing off stopped when I launched a right hook that caught him squarely on the chin and sent him down. He got up slowly, rubbing his jaw and for a second, neither of us made a move.

Silence; everyone was watching and waiting.

This had been building for a long time and I knew pretty much everyone felt the same way about Evans that I did. They wanted to see me lay a beating on him and his friends rushed me but before a blow could be struck, a large, blue energy shield slid between us. Black Guardsman, eyes flashing angrily, stepped between us and the shield vanished.

“Is there some trouble here?” His voice was deeper than it usually was which meant he was really ticked off.

Mark was still rubbing his jaw. “The little bastard hit me,” he cried. “
Hit
me!”

“So I see.” He paused, thinking things over. His voice settled down to its usual rumble and he stated, “Alright, since this little dispute won't go away on its own, we'll settle it the old-fashioned way. PowerGuy has told you both that problems were to be taken planet-side, right?” We both nodded. “Well,” he continued, “this time I'm going to keep everything in-house, so here're the terms: We're settling it here and now.”

With that, he ordered everyone out of the cafeteria and closed the doors—this was an in-house deal and he didn't want anyone else seeing it. After the room was cleared, he touched his uniform and said, “Shield cones of combat.”

Instantly, eight blue cones of energy five feet in diameter surrounded us and he yelled, “Get it on!” Mark didn't wait for me to set myself, just came out fast, firing punches from all angles, but as strong as he was, he wasn't in good condition, and he soon slowed down.

And something else soon became clear to me; I could fight. I'd been afraid of brawling for the wrong reason, not because of actually getting hit but because of the
fear
of it…and that fear was now gone for good. I'd been jumped by three dudes at one time and lived through it. So, yeah, Give me your best shots; come at me, bro!

His best shots weren't good enough. After about five minutes of slugging each other, I caught him with a shot to the gut and he went down on one knee. There were cuts under both his eyes and his nose was bleeding. I asked him, “Had enough?”

“I'll kill you!” he said between bloodied lips. “I'll kill you,” he repeated, but those words were just words. He'd hit me hard a few times but hadn't hurt me.

“C'mon, man,” I urged, “come and get it!” As tired as I was, this was my time and no one or nothing was going to take it from me.

“You can't hit, you maggot!” he yelled. “I'll kill you!” Evans screamed and came rushing at me. Instead of punching him, I caught his arm in an arm-bar and twisted him down. I had him good and tight and in such a position, it would've been easy to break his arm, it would've been so easy and…

“Cool it, Bill.”

That came from Oriana. She'd come in unannounced. I didn't let go of Evans, just kept twisting his arm up and by now he was screaming in pain.

“Bill, let him go, it's over,” she repeated. The wall disappeared and I looked up. She was staring at me and the look on her face was fear, fear that I'd actually break this moron's arm. I let him go, and he just lay there crying, a bloody mess.

Guardsman went to the door, opened it up, and motioned Sal and Perry in. “Pick up your friend, pack your things and take the next shuttle back to Earth,” he ordered. “All of you, you're finished.” The two other men just nodded, hauled Evans up and took him away.

Walking outside, Oriana and I were surrounded by well-wishers. “You did it, champ,” said John, and the others said the same.

“Big man on campus,” Oriana remarked, and everyone cracked up. BG came out and told everyone to get back to work. After all the tension, this had been sort of anti-climactic. I felt no triumph, no glow, nothing. This had all been so unnecessary. For a second, the thought occurred to me that it all could've been worked out somehow, someway; then again, no. It had to happen and what was done was done. It was over.

As Oriana and I walked towards the elevator, I saw Crazyman. He'd been waiting outside all this time. He gave me a thumbs-up and nodded, then turned away.
Thanks coach
, I thought. Well, yeah, I did feel something—gratitude.

At my room, Oriana took the disc out of my hand and opened the door, then followed me inside. She kissed me, our bodies came together and then our touches became more urgent. I groped at the back of her costume—wasn't there a zipper or something?

Abruptly, she broke off, pushed me away and sat down on my bed. “I…I can't.” I wondered if it was because I hadn't showered yet, then I realized that she was, oh, not possible! This wasn't happening!

“You, uh, you haven't…?” and left the question hanging.

“No,” she said in a small voice, looking up at me in a childlike way. Far from being the confident super heroine she was, she reminded me of another uncertain teenager I knew—me. “Is that bad?”

Oh, man!
One of the toughest women alive, super-confident, sexy, the object of every guy's lust, could kick anyone's ass into tomorrow and she was…? If this weren't so serious, I would have laughed but I didn't, I was the same way.

“No,” I answered, resigned to the situation, “it isn't.” Yeah, look at the two of us: She, the gorgeous model type female version of Avenger and me, the thirteen year-old kid in a man's body, telling the hottest woman in the universe it was okay not to have sex. I just got up, went to the porthole window, looked out at the stars for a second, then turned back and came over to the bed.

“Have you known a lot of girls?” she asked.

Now it was my turn for confession. “No, not, never,” I answered, feeling that honesty was the best policy. She just looked at me for a moment, stood up, and then let loose a shot to my jaw that sent me off the bed and flying against the door. I didn't just see stars, the whole universe exploded. Damn! I got up slowly, rubbing my jaw and stood there, I'd been hit enough already.

“You bastard!” she exclaimed. “And after I told you…
ooooh
!” she turned her back on me. Is this how couples acted when nothing was going to happen? I'd been honest, but I told her it was okay, and this had to happen?

“You want me to leave?”
Yeah, leave my own room and go where
? She grabbed my hand and pulled me down to sit with her again.

“Stay, I need you.” Looking at me, really looking at me, I could see the uncertainty in her eyes. Not fear, just uncertainty. And she'd seen the same look in mine.

So I stayed, we sat on the bed holding hands for awhile, and after calming down a bit I realized that having sex would've been great, except that inside I really wasn't ready and neither was she. Funny, I didn't feel so emo anymore. Deep down I knew that she was someone I wanted to be with and if it meant waiting, so be it, and told her so.