Spheria (24 page)

Frankie got a good number of usable shots from their backs and behinds but failed to get anything useful from the father’s penis. “I don’t think this is big enough to actually use,” he said. “What do you think?”

Min chuckled and countered with, “Certainly not big enough for me!”
 

Frankie grinned at her response. “You do have a sense of humor after all!”

“What do you mean?” she snapped back, not hearing this type of comment for the first time.

“Well, you always seem so serious. Maybe the fresh air is doing you some good after all.”

Before Min could formulate a comeback, Frankie’s eyes locked onto something behind her. She turned to follow what he was looking at. Across the street the Health Center was building a parking garage. A group of construction workers walked out carrying lunchboxes. Min and Frankie watched them get into a couple of trucks and drive off.

“This is our chance! C’mon.” He grabbed her hand and quickly pulled her across the street, darting into the new structure. They ducked under a barricade that said “construction zone.” The garage was far from complete, having rough surfaces and layers of rebar crisscrossing all over the place. “This is perfect! Just what I was hoping to find. This is a windfall of cave textures – alien enough to not look like stone, but with enough texture and variation to make an interesting surface.”

Frankie led her down a level as the garage wound underground, presumably to get out of view from the street. It was a little bit darker, but not so much that the camera wouldn’t be able to get some good shots. He went to work, positioning the virtual view, then snapping texture after texture. He layered some over what he’d taken outside, so they blended together, forming even more interesting variations. Finally, the walls and floor of the virtual cave were complete. Only the ceiling remained.

Frankie raised the tablet over his head and zoomed the view out until the entire cave ceiling was on the screen. Then he froze the position once more and activated the camera. “I need a nice texture for the ceiling. I think I can get most of it in one shot, then it’ll look completely seamless.” Frankie wandered around the area some more, aiming the camera at different things, but didn’t find anything that satisfied him. Eventually, they found an open yellow door that led into a storage room. Frankie was trying to get an image off the door when they heard footsteps approaching.

“Shit,” whispered Frankie and he darted into the room. Min did as well. They stood there listening as the footsteps grew louder.

“Is it a guard?” Min murmured.

“Probably.”

“Do you think he saw us?”

“I hope not. Now hush.”

They stood as still as possible. Min could literally feel her heart beat in her chest. Not that they’d be in super trouble anyway, but the adrenalin rush of being where they weren’t supposed to be was ramping up her system. The footsteps stopped. As their eyes adjusted to the dim light, the room became visible. It was covered on every wall and the ceiling with rolls of pink fiberglass insulation. This meant it was probably not intended for storage but would become some kind of an office. In the corner was a set of work lights on a tripod, currently turned off.

“You think he’s gone?” she whispered.

“Not sure,” Frankie replied in a hushed voice. “I didn’t hear the footsteps leave.”

Suddenly, they were blinded by bright light as the work light came on. “You there,” said a loud voice from the door. “What’re you doing here?” A security guard stood in the doorway, looking stern, and blocking their exit.
Oh great
, Min thought,
just what we need, a rent-a-cop with an attitude.

“I’m taking some photos for a project we’re working on,” answered Frankie. As he answered, he hid the tablet behind his back. Although it might reinforce his statement, it technically wasn’t a camera.

The guard squinted and scanned them up and down. “This area is a construction zone and is for employees only.”

“We work at the Health Center, so we’re employees. Are we good?” It was a lame attempt by Frankie. The guard obviously meant ‘construction crew’ rather than ‘employees.’

“Not quite. It’s for workers only.” So that confirmed it.

Changing tactics, Frankie replied with, “Can you make an exception for us? We won’t be long.”

“I get what you're saying, but you can’t remain here. You need to leave immediately.”

“Why?”

“Regulations require it for your safety. You don’t even have any protection on.”

“Like a hard hat? C’mon, nothing is going to fall on us right now.”

“There’s plenty that can fall. Things aren't fully secured yet.” The guard glanced at the insulation in the ceiling. It didn’t look like it was going anywhere.

“Is there a time when we can come back?”

“You can come back when it’s done.”

“Okay then, thank you,” Frankie breathed. He decided it was better to leave than make a scene, especially since they were blatantly in violation of the rules.

The guard stepped to the side so they could exit. Frankie and Min left and rushed up the cement incline beneath the crisscross of girders. Frankie took a look at his tablet and realized it was still filming textures and displaying them on the cave ceiling in real time. Worse, a flashing indicator showed something he never expected to see. “Shit,” he exclaimed. He quickly took a photo of the cement floor and hit the ‘Paint’ icon, locking that image in place.

Chapter 28 - Streets of Gold

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." - Jonathan Swift

Sa∙ma stumbled into the Colony. He wandered to the center, lost in a daze. An assortment of Drones swerved around him, not wanting to run into him. He sat on the edge of the celebratory staging, staring toward the mountains.

“You alright?” asked Ti∙ni, who was too new to have developed a proper respect for, or fear of, the higher castes.

Sa∙ma turned to face her but said nothing. A few other three-legged Drones stopped as well, and in an instant, Sa∙ma had an audience. He scanned the crowd. The Drones gathered before him looked expectantly, as if he’d come to impart some knowledge upon them. Indeed, this is something that Lumen Masters were known to do from time to time.

A few Drones sat down, and he took this as a sign that he needed to share his experience. He began.

“The Colony is at full capacity. The last remaining hive, which could hold five of you Drones, was given to Fa∙ro. We need to increase our dwellings before the next breeding season. We Workers spread into the wilderness in search of more building material. I headed toward the mountains but was blocked by the river. Something compelled me to follow it, and I moved deeper into the wilderness, forgetting my original intent.

“I noticed something different, or rather felt it, ahead. Not just ahead, but
below the ground
.”

“Below the ground?” repeated Ti∙ni, in a hushed tone of wonderment.

“Indeed. I could feel it getting stronger and stronger. I could see it there, shapes changing beneath the ground. Then I found it on the side of a hill – a hole. A large hole… the entrance to a cave.”

“Mmmm,” said several of the Drones in unison as they fidgeted. Caves were a fantasy to most of them, although quite real to the Workers.

“I entered the cave. But it was unlike any cave I’d ever been in.”

“How so?” asked Po∙ni, forgetting her manners. Ti∙ni stood next to her admiringly.

“It wasn't a room. It was a tunnel. It sloped down, and I descended. It got dark fast, but I could see a light ahead. After quite a while, the tunnel ended, and a large room appeared. At least I think it was a room, although it was more like a maze interwoven tunnels. Scattered about were glowing protrusions, emitting a faint green light. I’m not sure what they were. They almost seemed like a plant.

“I tapped one with my foot, and it seemed brittle. I hit it, and the tip broke off, and a beam shone out from it, sending light down a passage. I followed the light until it ended on the side of a wall. I smashed another of the plants, and a new beam of light emerged in a new direction. And so I followed the beams, making new ones when each one ended. I could feel I was getting closer to the thing that drew me forward.

“Suddenly, I no longer needed a beam. I stumbled upon a room bright as the Source. It was a perfect octagon, and the ceiling was pure yellow. It was not rock like the previous caverns and wasn’t like any material I’d ever seen. I could only assume it was from out of our world.”

The Drones began talking among themselves. This experience was way beyond their comprehension, and they tried to make sense of it to each other.

“Then I saw it,” said Sa∙ma.

The Drones immediately fell silent, watching him with rapt attention.

“The ceiling of the room… changed. I could see… movement. Blurry shifting patterns until it went entirely… violet!”

“Violet?” they all repeated, astonished.

“Yes. There I was, looking through a window into the Qubessence. I was gazing into the world of the gods. And every surface, every single object, was an energy crystal. In such a place, there would never be a need to forage or hunt ever again.”

More whispers spread through the crowd. Sa∙ma noticed the gathering of Drones had grown as he relayed his experience.

“And I know this to be true,” he said, “because a god spoke to me.”

Ti∙ni couldn’t control her excitement. “What did it say?”

#

“What’re you doing here?” asked the voice from beyond the ceiling. It echoed throughout the chamber.

Sa∙ma wasn’t prepared to address a god, although it wouldn’t be the first time. He apologized and relayed the truth, as he had done before. “I sensed something and followed it.”

“This area is a construction zone,” said the voice, “and is for employees only.”

Employees?
That was a word Sa∙ma had never heard before. He had no idea what it meant. He did understand the first part. “Construction zone?” he asked. “Are you saying that this cave is being built right now?”

“Not quite. It’s for Workers only.”

“I’m a Worker,” explained Sa∙ma, realizing the stupidity in trying to explain anything to a god. He tried to recover by adding, “I guide all the Workers.”

“I get what you're saying,” responded the god, “but you can’t remain here. You need to leave immediately.”

“Understood. I'm going now.” He turned to exit the room.

“Regulations require it for your safety. You don’t even have any protection on.”

Sa∙ma stopped. Apparently, the god wasn't finished with him. “What do you mean by protection?” He looked around the barren cave. “What can harm me here?”

“There’s plenty that can fall. Things aren't fully secured yet.”

Sa∙ma looked upwards into the billowing violet Qubessence. He imagined a piece of that breaking off, falling through into the room, and crushing him. The irony of being killed by a giant life crystal made him uneasy. He didn’t want his life to be extinguished that abruptly. “Okay, I'm leaving.”

This time, he moved quickly into the passage and found the light beam that would guide him out.

“You can come back when it’s done,” said the god.

“Thank you, supreme one,” he responded. But instead of heading down the tunnel, his curiosity got the better of him. He peeked into the room and stared at the ceiling. What he saw then was beyond description.

#

“What did you see? What did you see?” squealed Ti∙ni.

But Sa∙ma knew she wouldn’t understand. None of them would. He barely did. He could still see it in his mind. For a brief moment, the Qubessence shifted and changed. The billowing violet walls were replaced with straight red beams. They connected in a zigzag pattern, forming flat but open geometrical surfaces. They established a structure larger than the materials present. This structure clicked in his mind, and he immediately understood the elegance of its strength. It was incredible: a glimpse of arcane knowledge not meant for him to see. He felt a combination of shame and bewilderment. He was still in shock even after having relayed his story.

“What did you see?” chimed in Po∙ni. “Yea what did you see?” said others, eager to hear the mysteries of their universe.

Sa∙ma declared, “How to make larger and stronger structures than anything we’ve ever built before.”

“Most interesting,” came a voice from behind Sa∙ma.
 

The Drones cowered, then scattered among the hives.
 

Sa∙ma slowly turned around. Fa∙ro was standing behind him. “Take me to this cave,” he demanded. “Now!”