RAINBOW RUN (6 page)

All the urbodes in the complex faced in the same direction, each with slidestrips heading toward a slideway that ran from left to right. From what I could find out, the grays in this complex found their way from one urbode to another by using a mental map. The first row of urbodes that faced the slidestrip was called front row one; the last row was called front row ten. The first line of urbodes on the left was called left line one; the last line, on the far right, was called left line ten. I lived in an urbode mentally identified as front row six/left line four.

With this map in my head I could find my way to any of the hundred urbodes in the square and get back again. I was pleased to have mastered even this small bit of orientation even though I had no one to visit in any of the other urbodes in the complex.

I was sitting alone, thinking about Lyonella and the possible implications of what she had said to me when Mirall interrupted my musing by saying, "Rathe, you have a visitor."

I knew it wasn’t Errox because Mirall would have said his name. Could it be Lyonella? I felt both lust and apprehension about the possibility. I looked up as Mirall ushered Kahalyton into the room and left. I rose to greet him.

Kahalyton smiled and clasped both my hands in his. We exchanged nods and sat down. "You're a hard man to find, Rathe. I had to get some help to learn your whereabouts."

"Didn’t Errox tell you where I am?"

"That one! We do not talk. I'm sure he would be displeased to find me here. Someday when I've drunk my fill of jarva, I will tell you all about him."

I didn’t want to wait. I was desperate to know more about Errox, but not badly enough to risk driving my visitor away. After two days among Mirall's gray shadows, I craved significant conversation and stimulating companionship

"Why did you move?" Kahalyton asked.

"I felt uncomfortable at Ural's."

He nodded sagely. "Running into Ural's personality is like falling face down on a slidestrip. I can’t see why Errox finds her attractive, but I’m certain they deserve each other."

I nodded in agreement.

"How are you getting along here, Rathe?"

"Better. At least I can come and go on my own," I said, proudly holding up my right arm to show my wristlock.

He started in surprise. "How did you come by that Rathe?"

"Errox arranged it."

Kahalyton grabbed my hand roughly and examined my wristlock. He made several clicking noises and said, "It doesn't look like a forgery. The VIS would put you through a cell-strip if they found a fake on you. Now I think I know why Errox was in the Rainbow Room, am I right?"

I shrugged my shoulders in feigned ignorance. Errox had told me not to tell anybody that I'd been a blanc or how I'd gotten a wristlock. Kahalyton already knew that I'd been a blanc and that Errox had brought me to Ural's. Maybe I'd already said too much, but Kahalyton was the only person who’d shown any interest in me, other than Lyonella. Still, I had only a limited amount of trust in Kahalyton.

"Errox told me not to tell anyone about the wristlock."

"For your sake, I hope this isn't one of his multiple-player scams."

"Multiple-player scam? What's that?"

"Sometimes two or more colors band together to help each other play the Game. If they are high hues, they sometimes get away with it—for a while."

The more I learned about this world,I found myself in, the less I cared for it.

"Why are the abodes so crowded?" I asked. "There are more grays here than at Ural's. Mirall has seventeen people here and a three-shift schedule for the sleep rooms."

"Ural has powerful associates. Most of the gray abodes are overcrowded. When I first slid down the color scale, a dwell like this would have housed six and been considered crowded if a seventh moved in. Things have changed rapidly. When I was a white just hitting my stride in the rainbow run, I talked to an elderly white who told me that only three or four grays shared a dwell when she had emerged from the House of Rebirth."

"Do all colors share dwells?"

"Almost all of the shades share dwells—the grays, beiges, blues, browns, purples, and greens—but the highest hues have private dwells." Kahalyton's eyes took on a distant look. His face was slack as if he were lost in memories of a distant time.

"Are all the dwells like this one?"

"Yes, except for the residences of the rainbows. During transit the rest of us have to move from one urbode to another and into a different dwell. Even the high hues move, but they don't have to share. The VIS and other white wristlock wearers, who all live in white urbodes, can return to their private dwells in the same urbode if they choose to do so. Shades like Ural and Mirall, who get enough jarva to bribe the best spotters, take possession of a new dwell as soon as the urbode is cleaned and opened. Then offer shelter to friends or foils who won't complain when the householder cuts their gruel."

"So that’s what Ural is after. I've heard transit mentioned before. What is it?"

"Transit is the time of change when all colors except rainbows have to leave their old urbodes and find new dwells in different urbodes. Just as three shifts make a cycle, thirty cycles make a transit. On the first day of the new transit, all urbodes—except those that are limited to whites and rainbows and have a separate cleaning schedule—open their doors and stay open until the occupants leave. Even if they want to stay, they’re forced to leave because everything in the urbode ceases to function. If any continue to stay the VIS arrests them. When the urbode is empty, the doors close for automatic cleaning and maintenance. The doors open after that and new occupants come in. The doors won't open to previous residents."

"How do people stay in touch with their friends?"

"The permanent grays use spotters and runners to keep track of new available locations and old associates. Those who stray too far from their compound during transit may or may not ever encounter anyone they knew before. Some grays use transit as a way of starting fresh, running or moving away from the old life. Most find that the newness gets old after fifty or sixty transits—especially for those who don't play the Game."

"Are there many urbodes where different colors live together?" I asked, thinking of Lyonella with her white wristlock.

"In a gray urbode only grays can key into the individual dwell identification system. A higher color can enter the urbode but can't get into any of the dwells without assistance. Not that many want to. The exceptions are rainbow and white wristlock wearers; rainbows have universal access and whites have limited access. But there is very little mixing. Dedicated Game players don't have the time."

"What does a white wristlock signify?"

"White is the service color, worn by medics, clergy, helpers, and listeners. If the wristlock has black stars on the white band, the wearer is a member of VIS. Anyone can apply for a white wristlock after reaching the fifteenth level of the Game; some use a period of service as a timeout from the pressures of the Game. Service people are free to live in the lower thirty levels of any urbode; those who choose to live in urbodes that house only whites and rainbows have the privilege of continuing to stay in the same dwell at transit time."

Making certain that I wasn't being overheard, I asked, "What will I do at transit time?"

"Rathe, I'm a member of the Counter Colors, a political group working for the abolition of wristlocks, transit time and the VIS. You can join the movement and come with us."

I shook my head. "I appreciate your offer, but I'm too new to this world to commit myself to a political viewpoint and a system I know nothing about. I need more information and more experience to understand the situation."

"You've already got enough experience to know the system has serious flaws and stinks of corruption. The Counter Color movement needs you. Unlike the majority, you are open-minded, perceptive, alert and not addicted to the Game."

"But where would I go and what would I do?"

"Believe me; we have a place for you. We are better organized than anyone suspects. Remember, I found you; didn't I? For now, we want our enemies to underestimate us, but we have our own spotters, runners, busters, and other skilled people." 

"Kahalyton, I don't know enough to be sure that I share your views. I know you're sincere, but I have to learn firsthand what this world is like before I can commit to changing it. I'm vaguely aware of your ideas; I know very little about your plans or goals."

Kahalyton's eyes burned like brilliant displays. "Once we have destroyed the color barriers, all people will be equal, naked before each other as on the day they left the House of Rebirth. We intend to create a new society based on equality and universal good will. We will abandon the Game in favor of pursuits that will benefit the new colorless community.…"

Kahalyton's speech quickly degraded to rhetoric that I couldn't dispute or verify from my own shallow well of experience. I found myself tuning out, thinking of Lyonella while Kahalyton wound up his talk of glowing ideals and great changes.

After assuring me that he would see me again, he departed. I liked him better than the others I'd met so far, but I felt as if he viewed me more as a possible convert to the Counter Colors than a person or possible friend. I didn’t know enough to have an opinion about this culture, but I preferred his impassioned fanaticism to the cold pragmatism of Errox. I wondered if I would have to choose between the two of them at the next transit.

They weren't my only choices. I could go to any gray dwell that would accept me and try to find my future in the Game. On the other hand, I wanted more from this existence than the dull existence that I had experienced so far with the grays.

Just before the second meal, Errox came to see me, acting friendly enough to make me suspicious.

He took a crystalline flask of greenish liquid out of a bag made from a tunic, offered it to me, and said, "Rathe, share a drink of jarva with me."

I took a sip. It went down smoothly, tasting like the purple food cubes, while warming my throat and stomach.

"Drink up," Errox said, as he took a deep drink. "I got jars and jars of jarva."

I downed another mouthful. Maybe it was the jarva that made Errox so friendly.

"Has anyone told you about the Simulike Palace?"

"No," I replied. "What is it?" The jarva had made me feel free to ask Errox questions. I took another drink.

"The Simulike Palace is where all things are possible. When you have the Simulike experience, your dreams, desires, and needs of the moment are fulfilled totally."

"Like in a dream?"

"It’s as different from a dream as jarva is from water. It's as real as the taste in your mouth or the feel of a willing lover in your arms. You can exercise surprising powers. You can dominate or submit, create or even destroy. You can choose any man or woman for a lover and explore sex like never before."

My loins stirred with sexual excitement. The encounter with Lyonella bubbled to the surface of my mind. Errox and I both took another drink. Then I asked, "You've done this before? How did it make you feel?"

Errox's eyes glowed with a demonic gleam as he answered, "Like a god. There are no color bars in the world of Simulike."

"I might like to try that."

"Drink up, Rathe, and I'll take you to the nearest Simulike Palace."

We left Mirall's dwell and walked to the front slidestrip where we traveled to the main slideway. Hoping that the jarva hadn't befuddled me, I attempted to memorize Errox’s route by counting pyramids and remembering directional changes after we left the original complex.

Errox maintained a friendly attitude but said little. We stepped onto a slower slidestrip and saw a large squat building which I suspected was the Simulike Palace. I was eager for the Simulike experience. Maybe this experience might jog my memory…?

As we approached the entrance, Errox said, "Don't tell the attendant that this is your first time. The procedure is simple. The attendant will lead you to a cubicle. There you lie down on the couch, fit the golden band around your head, and then put your arm in the right hand channel so that your wristlock fits in one of the grooves. The attendant will hypospray your left arm. From there on out, just relax and enjoy."

"How long will the Simulike experience last?"

"Longer than a meal, shorter than a sleep shift. It varies."

"How do I get back to Mirall's?" I asked.

"Whoever finishes first can wait outside for the other. Come on."

I eagerly followed Errox in. The attendant, who wore a white wristlock, took Errox to an empty cubicle and then led me to an adjacent one. I laid down, put on the golden headband and dropped my right arm into the channel so that my wristlock was in a groove. I felt the hypospray on my left arm. My awareness slowly drifted away.…

* * *

When consciousness returned, I was leaning against a large cask in a narrow, dark tunnel. I heard voices from beyond a bend in the passageway. I understood the words although they sounded foreign to my ears. I cleared my throat.

The sound attracted a young woman in a flowing red dress who emerged from a side passage and said, "There you are. Come on. It's almost time for the ceremony to begin."

She took my hand and led me toward the voices. We entered a large chamber lit by smoky torches and pale yellow candles. Each torch illuminated a metal plate. Some of the plates had names engraved on them and others were blank.

The young woman and I took adjacent places along with ten others, all of us wearing red. We stood before a regal pair—a woman of incredible, ageless beauty and a handsome man with flowing white hair. The man said, "All the candidates are here."

The woman announced, "You are here before the priest and priestess of the tribe and in the presence of the other tribal members for the supreme initiation. Today the twelve of you will become torch bearers, keepers of the flame, sharing the enlightenment of the tribe of Eshkadella. The names you choose will be engraved upon our plaques illuminated by the torches that symbolize your new positions as fully initiated members of the tribe."