Aurelia's heart raced. It was the first hint she'd had of where Nicholas could possibly be, and instinctively she knew Zak was right. Out. The clones on the parade ground were beginning to form back into lines, preparing to exit the arena.
"How do I get out?" she asked.
Zak looked at her and shook his head. "You can't," he said simply.
"But Nicholas did . . . or maybe did . . . so how did he do it?" There had to be a way for her to get to him.
Zak shrugged. "I don't know. But I do know that it should be impossible. Besides, it's dangerous out there."
"I don't care," Aurelia said impatiently.
"You have no idea." Zak turned to her. "Under the dome is safe. Everything here is safe. Out there are no guarantees. You need equipment even to breathe, and if it fails, well . . ." He shrugged once more.
The arena was almost empty again, and noticing the sudden quiet, Zak stood.
"And that concludes the tour," he said, back to his guide self. "Are there any questions I can answer for you, ma'am?"
Oh, so many, she thought. Her head was full of questions, but she knew he wouldn't answer any of them, so she shook her head and allowed herself to be led back towards the stairs.
"How can I contact you again?" she asked in a whisper as they approached the stairway.
"You can't," he said, shortly. "I'll contact you if necessary."
Smiling politely, he shook her hand in front of the reception desk and she was back in the bright light of day, standing on the busy street outside the arena. What now? Slowly, she returned to the hospital, thinking about leaving the dome.
The dome stretched above her, the colors almost white at this time of day, signaling heat, though the temperature was comfortable. She could walk 'outside' under the dome in only her uniform, and she knew that this day was the same as any other day on Lunar. Unlike on Earth, there was no rain, no clouds, certainly no snow. Water was shipped up from Earth and filtered onsite. There was no winter or summer, though the lights of the dome reflected the seasons in that some days were longer than others. The effect helped to preserve the circadian rhythms of those who lived here. The first Lunar inhabitants had rapidly learned how these rhythms were more important than they had first thought. Without the right light and dark cycles, the body lost track of time, both eating and sleeping became difficult, and med Workers ended up handing out thousands of antidepressants.
And the air. Again, filtered and pumped into the dome. Did it smell different than on Earth? She hadn't really noticed. There was always a sort of metallic tinge to the taste of breath in her mouth, which could be from the manufactured air, she supposed. The carefully stored water she drank could also be to blame.
She reached the hospital and bypassed the front entrance, going instead through the rear gate, where she could head straight to her quarters and avoid seeing anyone. Once in her living pod, she kicked her shoes off, grabbed her personal screen, and curled up on the couch. Her first stop was research.
Accessing histories of Lunar was easy, and there were hundreds of them. She skimmed her way through a couple of intriguing titles before giving up. Lunar histories were about the city and nothing else. Next she tried a news search, running as many combinations of "Lunar," "Out," "Moon," and "Dome" as she could come up with. Nothing, but she hadn't really expected anything. News was strictly controlled everywhere, even here on Lunar, and if out was not a place people were supposed to be, then out was not a place to be written about.
Idly, she searched the terms inside the hospital database, more as a thinking exercise than anything else, while she tried to come up with somewhere else to look. To her surprise, she got a hit. The resulting document was a research study conducted on scientists working outside of the dome. The only reason the search engines had caught it was because the slang word out was used in the first sentence. Aurelia read through the report with slight interest. The study was well done, and the results showed that working out for more than three-week cycles could be detrimental to health, which was more or less what she would have expected to find. What interested her most, however, appeared at the end of the report. The author's name. It was Elza.
Alright, so it's a small lead, but at least it's something. If Elza had done this study, then she must have been out at some point, making her the only person Aurelia knew who had done so. It was a start. Hurriedly she pulled her shoes back on and then, remembering that she hadn't eaten for Gods knew how long, grabbed a protein bar. Then she was on her way upstairs.
Knocking on the door, Aurelia had already decided to be honest with the woman. There had been too much suspicion between them lately, and Aurelia needed Elza's help. She felt sure that she would get it, if only because Elza still felt that she owed Aurelia something. She found the hospital head lying on the couch in her living pod, a distinct improvement from the last time she'd seen her, when she'd been in bed.
"How are you feeling?" Aurelia asked, out of politeness. She was anxious to get to the point of her visit.
"Much better. I was thinking about going down to my office tomorrow morning." Elza smiled. "Take a seat."
Aurelia gratefully sank into an armchair. She hadn't slept for what seemed like years, and for a moment she thought of the stim patch that Elza had once given her with a pang of longing. She hadn't known then how addictive the patches were, but Elza had found that out the hard way. At least she was nearly back on her feet now.
"Elza, I have to ask you something."
"Mmm?" The woman was keying instructions into her screen. "I'm just getting us a coffee, if that's okay? You have time, right?"
"Yes, sure. So, I read this study you did about the effects of working out," Aurelia said. "There's some stuff I need to know."
Elza rolled up her screen. "Sure, I remember the one. It was a good study, got some good peer reviews. I was quite proud of it. What do you need to know? Tell me you didn't find any flaws!" She was smiling, though, sure that her scientific mind wouldn't have missed anything important.
"No, no, it's nothing like that. I need to know about out," said Aurelia.
There was a knock at the door, and a young hospitality Worker brought the coffee in. Elza thanked her, and the young woman left.
"I've got good reason to think that Nicholas is out," Aurelia explained, picking up her cup. "And I don't know anything about out. You must have been there; what was it like?" She decided to keep quiet for the moment about her intention of going out to bring Nicholas back, which she realized was absolutely her intention.
Elza shuddered. "It's awful," she said. "Cold, dark, just a terrible, horrible place. You couldn't pay me enough to work there like some of those mine Workers and scientists do." She cradled her coffee in her hands, as if its warmth could stave off the cold memory of being outside the dome.
Aurelia sipped her coffee and waited. She hoped that her silence would prompt Elza into talking, and eventually it did.
"You have to understand, Aurelia, that I was out there with permission. I mean, I visited Workers, ran tests, went to government-sponsored work sites and mines. Still, it was brutal. There are a legitimate number of people on the outside. They live dangerous lives. Housing pods and amenities are usually under small, portable domes, and Workers wear breathing suits to protect them from the lack of atmosphere. And those suits are never far away, even when Workers are under bubbles. Portable domes break down all the time, they leak, and you have to be able to jump into your suit within seconds, wherever you are."
Again, Aurelia drank and waited. Elza curled her legs beside her and closed her eyes, remembering.
"Once I was at a mine, and the dome stopped functioning. I was eating at the time, breakfast, and I froze. The alarms went off, people ran for their suits, but I didn't. I couldn't." She shivered. "It got colder and colder, and I felt each breath getting harder to suck into my lungs. Then a young Worker dragged me to my suit, and I got it on just as I couldn't breathe anymore. It's terrifying; you've got no idea. And they deal with it time after time. And when the breathing suits malfunction . . ." She trailed off and looked at Aurelia. "Have you ever seen it?"
Aurelia shook her head.
"We get them here, sometimes. Not often. Usually the bodies are left out; there's no point in bringing them in. But every single body I've seen from out has a look of utmost horror etched onto the face. Complete and pure terror. You have time to realize what's happening to you, but there's nothing you can do. Nothing. You suffocate, well aware of each final breath you're taking."
She was right about Aurelia having no idea. The thought of being out suddenly terrified her. There was nothing more that she wanted to do than forget all this and go downstairs to crawl into bed and finally sleep. Then she thought of Nicholas and gritted her teeth.
"And what about the non legitimate Workers?" she asked. Nicholas wasn't likely to be hiding at a mine or scientific research station, after all.
Elza sighed. "That, I don't know so much about. I know they exist. I know some people have somehow made lives out there. The criminals, the hunted, those who could escape the clutches of sec Workers long enough to make it past the confines of the dome. How and where they live, I have no idea. How they get out, I've no idea, either; I only know they're there."
"How do you know?" There were no news reports.
"Everyone knows." Elza shrugged. "It's the way things are. I heard some of the people there are descendants of the original Workers who built Lunar. When the city was finished, the elite wanted to send them back to Earth, and they didn't want to go. So they went out and used the skills they'd learned building Lunar to construct lives for themselves. Now, though, you would only go out if you were forced."
Aurelia put her empty cup down. "Elza, listen, I've got to get Nicholas. I don't know why he ran from us, but I do know he doesn't deserve to die, either out there or in here. He saved Jonathon's life more than once." She referred obliquely to the occasion when Elza herself had tried to kill Jonathon. "He's my friend. I don't know what went on, but I do know Nicholas has no intention of turning us in as resistance or giving anyone information."
"Why did he go, then? You were about to get him to safety."
Aurelia sighed impatiently. "I've already said I don't know, but I'm going to find out. I'm going to get him and bring him back, and that means I need to go out."
Elza shook her head. "You can't, Aurelia. And you don't want to—trust me."
"I know I don't want to, but I've got little choice in the matter. A man's life is at stake, a man whom I like very much."
"This is a clone's life at stake," Elza pointed out.
"My friend," Aurelia repeated.
Elza watched her for a moment but didn't comment. She shook her head again. "It's no use, Aurelia. You can't get out."
"I don't suppose we're doing any more studies there, are we?" Aurelia asked hopefully.
Elza smiled. "No, and even if we were, it took me months to get permission to go."
"Any other ideas?"
"Not really. I mean, the only people who probably know are criminals themselves, right? Even the resistance doesn't send people out."
Aurelia nodded. "I guess you're right."
Still, she now knew more than she'd known before, so she was a step ahead, if only a small one. She thanked Elza and bade her goodbye.
"Aurelia, listen," the woman said as the younger one was about to leave. "Promise me that if you find a way to get out, you'll come and see me first to discuss it one more time? It's dangerous, and you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. I don't want you to go, but I can't stop you. The least I can do is try to dissuade you."
"Okay," Aurelia agreed reluctantly.
"And maybe I will have come up with a way to contact Nicholas so you don't have to go."
"Okay," Aurelia said again, with a small smile. But she knew that Elza wouldn't be able to do that. She knew deep down that she was going to have to go out.