Vessel (12 page)

I smelled honeysuckle, so sweet I could taste it in my mouth. And then suddenly it was gone like the memory of a dream you try so hard to grasp but can’t.

My eyes flickered open, and I remembered I wasn’t in the apartment anymore. The Reticents had come. I didn’t even have a chance to hide. Now I lay in a rickety bed in a small, square room with a high ceiling and no windows. The pain in my elbow had finally gone. Try as she might, Alana hadn’t been able to stop the pain.

Alana
…
she’ll think I’ve left her.

In truth I had, but not by my own accord. I hoped she might get away. I’d failed her, and I knew it.

I wanted to get up and look around, but my legs wouldn’t move. I could sit up but nothing more. Twice now, a man had injected me with something that made me unbearably tired. Restful sleep was impossible. My body craved the rest, but it felt like betrayal to lie there when Alana needed me. I let the drug convince me she didn’t. Who could I help anyway? I couldn’t even help myself.

Maybe Alana will go east
, I consoled myself.
Maybe she’ll take the story to heart. It’d be hard, but she might have a chance
. The story wasn’t true, of course. It was a juicy turnip to a starving slave, the light of a distant star called Hope.

The days and nights bled into one another. I was no longer certain of how many there’d been, until one day my mind was a clear, blue sky. I sat up easily and looked around me. The room was spare, the light low like afternoon before sunset.

Feeling no pain, I examined my elbow first, then my knee. Apart from finding myself dressed in red shorts, everything seemed normal. I longed to see the sun, to know the true time of day, but the room had no windows. There was only a door and a light source hanging up by the ceiling.

I stared at it. The light glowed like a tiny Mother Sun captured in a glass globe, and like Mother, it burned my eyes to look at it.

What is this place?

I got out of the bed and crossed the room to the door.

Locked, of course
.
If I’m a prisoner, why heal me?

No longer drugged, I took to pacing laps around the room. The muscles in my arms and legs were much weaker than before. I needed them back. I even tried push-ups. My arm held as good as ever. I pushed against the floor until the lock turned, and the door opened.

A hooded figure in a red robe stepped in and handed me an identical garment.

“Put this on,” he said. “Hurry.”

I got up off the floor, my arms aching, and took the heavy woolen robe. “Where am I?”

“You are safe in the Gora Compound among the Reticents. Get dressed.”

“Reticents?” I murmured, trying to understand.

“Come,” was all he said as he turned and left the room. I threw on the robe and hurried after him, glad to be out of my solitary confinement at least.

Tubes of light like the glass ball in my room dimly lit the hall he disappeared down. The tubes snaked along the walls, glowing a faint blue. I ran after him, still barefoot, my feet slapping the slick floor.

I caught up to him but stayed a step or two behind. The floor sloped downward as we walked, and I had the feeling we were going deeper into the fortress. No windows anywhere. No escape in sight.

A familiar odor hit my nose when we reached a pair of heavy doors, and he pulled one open. My stomach suddenly ached from the smell of butter, warm bread, and rich, greasy meat drippings. After the dark hallway, the room nearly blinded me with the brightness of the light in the ceiling. I blinked, wanting to both open and close my eyes at the same time.

Men and women, some old, some young, most dressed in red, sat at several long tables eating the food that smelled so good. I had to have some. I didn’t hesitate when my guide pointed me toward the food line. Someone handed me a bowl of meat stew, someone else, a hunk of bread. I followed the people ahead of me to a table. Oblivious to everyone else, I crammed the bread into my mouth, hardly chewing enough to savor the flavor of the creamy butter on it.

In fact, I wolfed down everything I had and looked up for more. I studied the line wondering if seconds were allowed here. I didn’t really need more. My belly was full, but I was accustomed to stuffing myself when there was plenty, to make up for the times when there wasn’t.

Glancing around, I noticed someone at the next table staring at me. His hair was different now, short and spiky, but it was clearly Tiber. The corners of his cracked lips curled when he saw me recognize him but otherwise he didn’t move. More questions sprang to mind, twice as bad as before.

What’s he doing here? What am I doing here? Are all these people captive?

“What is this place?” I asked the boy next to me. Silent stares were all I received from several people at my table.

In fact, no one in the entire room spoke. They finished their meals and delivered their empty dishes to a hole in the wall as they filed out of the room. My guide, who’d disappeared, found me again and directed me to follow him along with two other boys, one older and one younger than me. Both looked as confused as I felt.

The larger groups ahead of us turned down different hallways until we were the last ones left. The guide ushered us into a round room with a high-domed ceiling. Another hooded figure waited for us to enter, and then closed the door behind us with a heavy thud.

“Welcome. Please stand around the platform,” said the figure as he pointed to a round, raised area in the center of the dark room. Lights like candles with no flame illuminated the floor.

“Who are you?” asked one of my cohorts.

“I am Master Bane, your teacher. I’m sure you have many questions. They’ll all be answered presently. Please pay attention.”

His voice was warm and reassuring. I felt my innards unknot a bit listening to its singsong quality.

“You are among the Reticents now. You’re safe.”

I never would’ve put “Reticents” and “safe” in the same sentence.

“If Mother Sun wills it, you may join us one day.”

Join the Reticents? What nonsense is this? I’m not joining this crazy cult!

“Observe.” Bane touched a panel on the wall, and the platform erupted in light. “The first of many lessons.”

An unnatural blue light filled the room and shaped itself into three-dimensional images so real you could almost touch them, spheres floating in the air above us. A woman’s voice out of nowhere began to describe the spheres, one small and green, the other a fiery ball of orange.

“Earth, our home as you know, is millions of years old,” the woman’s voice said. “Its star, known to you as Mother Sun, provides the necessary amount of heat and light to support life on Earth. This star consists of hot ionized gases, constantly exploding, releasing the heat and light on which we rely. The magnetic waves from the star collide with Earth’s magnetosphere, creating the phenomenon we know as Mother’s Love. It is not malevolent or benevolent. It just is.”

I looked at the two boys next to me. They were staring, agape, at the images swirling before us as I did. The younger of the two, who was perhaps twelve years old, hugged himself tight. His face was a kaleidoscope of confusion, anger, and wonder. I’m sure he wanted to know about this magic and where it came from, fearing Mother’s wrath like we’d always been taught. The woman’s voice continued.

“In 2112, the star entered an extremely active phase, emitting an unusual number of explosive bursts. The phenomenon known as Mother’s Love, or Aurora Borealis, is created when electrically charged particles from the sun collide with the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. On April 18, 2112, the sun emitted an explosion so vast, the Earth was showered with energy.”

The fiery ball floating above us churned and a fountain of flames shot out from its surface. Suddenly the image of the Earth became huge as we watched the wave of energy reach the planet.

“At that time, the human population of the Earth was as plentiful as birds in the sky. They’d become so because of the technology they’d created.”

The scene above us became a farm with miles of corn—more than any human could possibly plant. Wheeled machines plowed the dirt and planted seeds, and other machines watered the crops.

“Their technology allowed them to grow vast fields of food. The efforts of one person fed thousands. Technology gave them the freedom to spend time doing things besides growing food. It kept them warm in the winter and cool in the summer.”

The scene showed us elaborate homes, factories, and buildings so high they seemed to touch the clouds. And there were people everywhere, hundreds of millions of people.

“Technology provided the means by which to communicate and travel great distances in a short time, to exchange and store information in great quantities.”

I thought of Kinder. This is exactly what he wanted to know. But why were they telling us? The light showed us people using machines both big and small, doctors using machines, people traveling in machines, even machines that flew through the air. The boy next to me sat down. It was all too much.

“They accumulated vast amounts of knowledge, recorded first in books but later in machines. As their natural resources were depleted, they recorded more and more in their machines. These machines were dependent on a power source called electricity, which could be generated in different ways, many of which were destructive to Earth’s environment.”

The scene showed us acres of trees felled, giant holes gouged out of the earth, and thick black smoke in the sky.

“Humans did their best to solve these problems with technology as well, but on April 18, 2112, all that changed. The solar superstorm wave washed over the planet, destroying 76.4 percent of all electronic equipment.”

As we watched the scene, the machines stopped. Flying machines crashed. Lights all across the planet went out.

“The remaining technology was unable to support the 76.4 percent of the planet without electricity, and humankind began to die. Most had no way to obtain food, no way to grow it, and no transportation to get it. Medicine could not be mass-produced, let alone distributed. Those who didn’t starve died of disease. It was a black time. The Dark Time. Wars over the remaining power broke out but were short-lived as people began to starve.”

“In the Dark Time, much knowledge was lost, but there were those who knew our long-term survival depended upon saving what could be saved. The first Secret Keepers, the Reticents, were formed. Knowing the basic nature of humans was greed, they kept this knowledge hidden away deep within the Earth, protected from the sun and those that would abuse it. This is the charge of a Reticent, the guardian of knowledge and protector of truth.”

The light suddenly faded and the room grew dark again. The kid on the floor shook his head.

“Truth?” he muttered.

It did seem like the opposite of truth. All we’d been told about Mother Sun, about technology being evil, was a lie. It wasn’t a shock to me really. Kinder had long suspected the Reticents were hiding something. I knew his tinkering had never incited the wrath of Mother Sun, but the kid on the floor had bought into the whole story. Tears shined on his cheeks.

“But Mother Sun … ” he whispered. “How could they?”

Our teacher, Bane, stepped forward.

“You must trust that the first Reticents had their reasons. Don’t doubt that,” he said kindly to the boy on the floor whose head hung between his knees now. The boy didn’t respond.

“Master Seck?” said Bane. The door opened again and our guide reappeared. “Master Seck, please take young Daniel to his room where he can rest a bit.”

Seck bowed silently and walked over to the boy as Bane turned toward me and the other student.

“Recks, Shim, please follow me,” he invited. Having little other choice, we did as he asked.

I let Shim go first so I could watch him and Master Bane. I needed to collect my thoughts and study the passageways for an exit, although it seemed hopeless. The solid black walls went on forever.

Shim was a tall and lanky red-haired kid. Maybe without knowing it, he hunched over the way big people often do to appear less imposing. He made a phlegmy sound to clear his throat.

“May I ask a question?” he said to Master Bane.

“Of course. You’re here to learn,” said Bane, but he didn’t slow his pace at all.

“Why aren’t there windows?” Shim asked the question I was dying to know myself.

“Very good, Shim. There are no windows because we’re underground, nearly half a mile underground in fact.”

“How can that be?” I interrupted. “No one could ever move that much earth.”

“The technologists could. This was once a mine.”

“But why build all this underground?” asked Shim.

“The reason is twofold. It provides the Reticents with the privacy they need and protects our technology from the sun’s more harmful rays.”

Privacy? That’s a nice way to put it. They lock it all up and hide it away from everyone.

Shim seemed as perturbed as I did. He glanced over his shoulder at me, his green eyes locking on mine. I stared back to let him know I understood.