Runaway World

The Fugitive

     "In a movie, you've got to be able to see the actor's faces," pointed out Susan. "What's the point in it being a Tom Falcon movie if you can't see it's Tom Falcon? God, I had such a crush on him when I was a teenager." She saw the expression on Andrew's face and burst out in laughter. "I was a teenager!" she said. "And besides, Tom Falcon must be about fifty by now."

     Andrew decided it would be undignified to make any reply to that so he went to the kitchen area and took a packet of cottage pie from the storage canister. He pulled it open, added water and put in in the microwave oven. "James, have you eaten yet?"

     "I'll have some beef later," his son replied from the armchair in the other corner of the room. "I'm not hungry yet."

     "What about you others?" asked Andrew.

     "We ate with Jasmine," Susan replied. "We had turkey. I'm not that fond of beef."

     "It's the same stuff," pointed out David. "Just different flavours and textures."

     "She knows that, buttface," James replied. "She's been eating it longer than you."

     "No name calling please," said Andrew. The microwave beeped and he took out the hot packet of algal paste textured and flavoured to resemble cottage pie. As he took it back to his armchair it occurred to him that it had been two hundred years since anyone had eaten a real cottage pie. It had been two hundred years since anyone had eaten real beef or real turkey or real Italian food. What were the chances that the meal he was about to eat bore any resemblance to the ancient meal it was named after? What had real turkey tasted like? He dismissed the thought as irrelevant. The food they ate now tasted good. It was hot and satisfying and came in endless varieties. Those with culinary tendencies could buy simple ingredients and make their own foods according to complicated recipes that they spent years perfecting. Yet another way for those back in the city to entertain themselves as they tried to forget that their entire world consisted on walls, floors and ceilings.

     He dug into the cottage pie with his fork and lifted the steaming brown paste to his mouth, but before he could eat it the movie disappeared from the screen to be replaced by the face of Phil Badger. "Ah, Andy, you're there," he said. "Where are you right now?"

     "Just east of Bassenthwaite Planitia," Andrew replied, putting the ceramic bowl on a sideboard beside a dangling spider plant. "I told Ben about our problems crossing the glacier."

     Philip nodded. "Listen, we need you to take a little trip further east. There's been an incident here at the dig site."

     Andrew sat up straight, suddenly alarmed. "What kind of incident?"

     "Reg stole all the dysprosium," said Philip. "He disabled the other two rovers, then took off in the one we'd loaded all the dysprosium in. He also disabled all our transmitters. We've only just managed to get one of them working again, but the rovers aren't going anywhere without spare parts from the city. We need you to go after him and get our dysprosium back."

     "He's a Remainer?" said Andrew. "But he was the one most enthusiastic about the Return!"

     "Just an act, it seems. To hide his real feelings."

     "Was anyone hurt?"

     "Not really. My son disturbed him sabotaging our rover. Reg tied him up and gagged him. He's okay, just a bruised ego, but I'm going to have a few things to say to the bastard when I get my hands on him."

     "Thank God," said Andrew with heartfelt relief. Joe could be a bit strange at times, but Jasmine was fond of him. She would be devastated if anything happened to him.