SmackDown: Back to Our Roots

Round 5: Albatross - @sacredlilac

Paulo joined her. "They used air plants so they didn't need soil or a hydroponic system, just water. They must have a lighting system in here too. Yes, up there!" He indicated several long track lights suspended along the ceiling and in-between wall panels and pointed out the large discs where the air plant roots rested and could be watered. The discs had been secured to several points up the walls and suspended from the ceiling overhead as well as scattered over the floor.

Paulo rubbed his forehead, deep in thought, as he continued, "My guess is Richard was the one behind the plants. He wanted to be in Agriculture, not Levitation Maintenance. He was crushed when the Lottery assigned him down here, away from the sky and plants. Same reason his son went over the side. He drew the Archives."

Junko looked shocked. "Are you sure?"

Paulo nodded. "My wife works in Security and saw the footage. He left a note, too. Security isn't supposed to talk about anything, but it shook her up so much she was having nightmares. In all the years we've been up here, there's never been a successful jumper until now."

"I've always said the Lottery is a bad way to assign jobs," Abeni said. "How did his son get past the Rebound Barrier, anyway? I've never heard of it not bouncing something back up."

Paulo walked forward, moving tendrils and vines to examine the mess. "Richard's father worked in the Barrier Department. Their son visited him at work, found out what section they'd be turning off next for routine maintenance that wouldn't have any jet-pack pilots who might catch him on the way down, and voila. Boy meets Earth. It was an ingenious plan, really. He had to time it perfectly and had a six foot gap to pass through. They've got a guard on the sections being turned off now."

"I bet the Director rolled a few heads when that came out," Junko said, jumping and pulling down lengths of plant for Paulo to slice with the laser knife he'd taken from his toolbelt.

Frederica and Abeni went to different sections and started cutting. I worked my way deeper into the room and pulled out my own laser knife.

Paulo hummed affirmation. "The security cameras caught the whole conversation, even if Security didn't. The Barrier team was on poop pipe for weeks."

We all groaned at the mention of the worst punishment on the island: cleaning the sanitation pipes. Almost every resident got into enough trouble once in their life that they had to do it, so there was always someone for the job, because, like all manner of vehicle, even one spanning miles in circumference like ours, it needed regular upkeep. Especially since our lives literally depended on the island being in perfect working order and, until now, nothing sent a spanner into the works of our relatively sedate and predictable lives like the toilets malfunctioning.

"What's really bad is how to fix this mess," I said. "We'll have to evacuate if we can't get the engine working again."

Abeni asked, "How long do you think we have? We need to alert Emergency Services, the Tether Department and the other islands just in case. We'll need time to get every airship and private transport over here ASAP for evacuation and to save as much of the food stores and equipment as possible."

In silence we needlessly calculated and recalculated.

Frederica cleared her throat. "The problem will be finding enough replacement parts fast enough to fix what's broken in here."

No one dared voice what we'd known as soon as we'd stepped in the room because none of us wanted to be the one to say we couldn't save our home. It was on us for letting it come to enough harm that it would crash into the yellow fog that was all we saw of the ground.

Everyone froze when deep within the room an ominous thunk sounded followed by a grinding and screeching of metal.

"Thunder and lightning! That doesn't sound good," said Paulo.