Tool

Chapter three

The entirety of Lunar City was under the dome, and a clever system of vacuum locks allowed shuttles to enter and leave through the bubble itself. Stretching as far as the eye could see, in reality the dome covered an area only a little larger than that of City 01, where Aurelia had been born. The rest of the moon surface was left fairly uninhabitable, though there were always scientific Workers or resource projects going on out there. The enclosure made things safe: the air good to breathe, the atmosphere safe to live in, and the city, contained as it was, mostly okay to live in. It wasn't until she considered Nicholas that Aurelia could see while to her the dome made Lunar safe, for others it might make Lunar a prison.

She was shocked out of her sky watching by the impatient metallic beep of her transport shuttle, which had obviously been waiting for her for some minutes.

"Sorry," she muttered, getting in, well aware of the fact that she was apologizing to an inanimate object. These days, she was never sure who or what was listening to her.

One of the first things she'd learned when arriving in Lunar was that you could trust no one. Everyone in the city was out for themselves, hoping to improve their status, at best to be elevated to the elite ruling class or at least to get more rations, more luxuries, or other favors. She guessed she'd been more than lucky in meeting the people she'd met. Okay, she had sort of fallen into the resistance, a decision she was more secure with now, knowing what they were fighting for, understanding what Lunar City was doing to Earth and her people, knowing that it had to stop. But it was still a risk, and one she had carefully chosen not to think about whenever possible.

Thinking of Earth made her homesick. She missed her parents, and she resolved to intercom them as soon as she was able. She wondered if there was somewhere in Lunar she could go to at least see Earth. She should ask Nicholas.

The transport pod slid to a stop at the security gates, and this time Aurelia didn't make an idiot out of herself by trying to unbuckle her safety belt. She waited until the pod had stopped safely in front of Jonathon's house before leaping out. He wasn't waiting for her this time, and she hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do. Was she supposed to walk in? That seemed kind of presumptuous. She wasn't used to the protocols of Lunar yet, especially when they involved the rich and famous. In the end, she settled for ringing the bell, which brought Jonathon to the door in seconds.

"Um, you really don't need to ring," he said, lowering his head to kiss her. "Next time, just come in and yell if you can't find me, okay?"

She smiled. For someone both wealthy and renowned, he was quite nicely normal and down to earth, which was really what had drawn her to him in the first place. "So what's the plan?"

Jonathon shook his head. "You really are impatient, aren't you? Come on; we'll go downstairs, and I'll tell both of you at the same time. There's no point in telling the same story twice."

They walked through the long white corridor. It was completely empty of furniture, and Aurelia couldn't help thinking that if she lived here, she'd at least hang some paintings or maybe put a side table in or something. Then, she chided herself, half amused that she was already decorating the place in her head. Partly to stop herself from mentally redesigning Jonathon's entire house, she decided to tell him about the clone training protocol while they walked.

Jonathon listened closely and nodded. "I see what you're getting at," he said as they descended the stairs. "Such skills could be very useful to us. We might take advantage of them later. But right now we have one priority: we need to get Nicholas out." They were approaching the door of Nicholas's room, so Jonathon stopped for a moment. "He's a dangerous man, Aurelia, and it's best for us all right now if we get rid of him."