Cassidian
Knowing that Myria and I would not be able to speak to each other once our wetsuit masks were on, my final words before we entered the tank were not ones of affection but of practicality.
I told her that it would be best if she didn’t look down.
Seconds later we were fully suited up, standing close to each other in the airlock as I sealed the internal door. While the water slowly rose up and passed over our wide and clear visors I put my hands on her shoulders, mouthing words of encouragement. I purposely let her get adjusted to the feeling of near weightlessness for a good minute before opening up the external door’s emergency lever. The small cube, although clear, still somehow conveyed the nature of shelter. Once through the external door, I knew that the blue vastness of the tank would become immediately apparent and the sensation of falling would be inescapable.
She did far better than I expected. Almost better than I did, since after we rose up and out of the underwater airlock I immediately ignored my own advice and looked down.
Earlier when I had been standing behind the clear wall in the staging area and looking out upon the blue water, I had never realized that it had been artificially illuminated. Perhaps I simply assumed that the blue water was brilliant and bright out of its own doing, although such a thought seems childishly simplistic to me now. All there would have been was blackness, were it not for the floodlights mounted into the curved walls as far as I could see.
Floating inside the tank and looking down as I was, it was these lights which were immediately apparent to me. Like a spiral of white dots, the huge flood lamps circled the tank as they illuminated it for hundreds of meters into the deep. But with this distance also came cloudiness. I could barely see another airlock beneath us – presumably level minus five hundred. But the one after that (assuming there was one) I could not discern.
As Lin promised, there were short black marks on the curved wall in front of us, easily noticeable now that we were inside the tank. These painted lines rose out of the darkness and continued on into the brighter heights like an unending ladder. Every ten ticks there were numbers written into the wall as well. Minus three-ninety. Minus three-eighty, and so forth.
We let our suits’ buoyancy controls do most of the work as we gradually ascended, using our fins sparingly - mostly to maintain balance. I had grabbed onto Myria’s hand earlier in the airlock, and since that time I had never let go.
Within twenty minutes time we passed up two airlocks - level minus three hundred and minus two hundred. As we reached each of them I could see through the clear cubes and curved walls, noticing they were dark and empty. If Myria could hear me, she would have heard a sigh of encouragement.
Besides the two cubes which we passed, the slow climb was silent and uneventful. At most times it was hard to tell we were even moving, unless we fixated on the measured black markings on one side of the curved tank wall. However a predictable five minutes after we passed the second airlock, a thick red horizontal line ringing the tank could be seen far above us. As we neared it, large block lettering which was also in red was readable on either side of the line. Below the line read “TORSO,” with an arrow pointed downwards. Similarly, above the line with an upwards pointed arrow read “CANOPY.”
As we passed through the red line, I pointed to it and gave Myria a thumbs up. She nodded, but I am not sure she understood the full weight of the situation. We had finally reached the uppermost tier, but inside the tank everything still looked the same to us. I knew though that this was only a misconception. Whereas inside there was only a painted line, outside there was so much more. Beyond the desalination chamber at the exact elevation we floated at was another energy floor which extended over the entire island towards the outside curtains. Above this floor was an entirely different classification of people who called their remote heights home. There were lightweight buildings, parks and fields, assertive spires and broad ledges, and of course limitless sky.
And high above this sky was the CTC.
Scissoring my legs, I carried us from the center of the tank towards the curved wall, knowing that level minus one-hundred was fast approaching. Looking up I could eventually see the clear cube above us with its bottom-facing airlock door. Motioning upwards, I made sure Myria saw it as well. Pushing out our free hands at the last moment, our palms absorbed the initial hit as our bodies gently collided into the closed door above us.
Swinging over I pried off the access panel underneath the keypad and pulled hard on the exposed handle there. The door slowly opened and our bodies naturally rose up into the cube, hitting its ceiling momentarily.
I let go of her and swam downwards again, ripping open a similar access panel on the inside of the bottom door we had just passed through. It closed slowly once I pulled the handle, and water started draining from the cube. Within seconds I could feel my full weight once again, and we both fell awkwardly onto the cube’s floor.
Opening the door to the main staging area was easy – I used the same technique as before while pulling off both of our masks once we were inside. The lights in the room turned on automatically, sensing our movement.
Myria gathered her hair in her hands as she spoke, full of excitement. “That was unbelievable,” she whispered, and she flashed an unforeseen smile at me.
I returned it, although my grin was probably brief due to my trepidation. Looking around the room I was preoccupied with thoughts on how we would reach an innership. The room was exactly the same as the one at level minus four hundred. The lockers were the same. The doors to the changing rooms were the same, as was the door to the utility closet from which we entered with Lei. The last remaining door was also similar – it had a clear window through which I could see a lit hallway. Moving towards it I cracked it open and listened.
“Come on,” I said after a pause, opening the door wide and beckoning her to follow with a motion of my hand. I saw her nod as the exhilaration in her face was replaced by caution.
The hallway was curved to match the tank’s shape and was brightly lit as well. I unzipped my side membrane and withdrew my serrater as a few doorways became visible around the bend. Some were closed, but the ones that were open were all empty. In fact the entire floor was deserted until we progressed what seemed like half the circumference around the tank. It was then that I heard the guard station before I saw it. In the silence of the hallway I could actually pick up the minutest sound of dialog – most likely coming from one of the guard’s commpatches implanted in his ear. Then, much louder, a man started laughing and replying to whomever was on the other end.
I inched forward, looking around cautiously. The hallway we were in ended up ahead, but turned left into what seemed like a large room. However directly before me and to my left was another doorway which obviously led to the guard station. Peering in from the hallway I quickly analyzed the small room through the agape door. There were multiple monitors there, an entire desk covered in keyboards and finger pads, a small locker on the wall which was open (displaying racked weapons, ID scanners, and miscellaneous items) and a few swivel chairs. On one of these sat a guard, with his feet up on the desk and his hands behind his head. Directly in front of him was a wall of clear windows, through which I could see the very same large room the hallway in front of me most likely turned into.
It was a garage full of innerships.
Feeling my weapon to make sure it was on stun, I waited until the guard completed his sentence, at which point I shot him. While his unconscious body was slowly spinning in the swivel chair I moved past him and looked behind the clear wall for signs of any others. Once I determined it was empty I looked down, finally activating one of the touch pads embedded in the desk in front of me. The monitors came to life, two of which showed the same large room behind the clear window at different angles.
Myria asked me what I was doing.
“Trying to give us some privacy,” I said while cursing under my breath as I navigated through the arcane menu system. Soon I was in the administrator screens and I was able to take the cameras offline, one by one.
As I did this the monitors in front of us went dark.
“Alright.” Exiting the small guard station, I rounded the bend in the hallway before turning back to grab Myria by the hand. “Come on,” I said eagerly.
Directly in front of us stood three black innerships parked precisely over red “X”s painted on the grates below them. Their perfectly clean exteriors reflected the bright lights above in curvature. Beyond each of these ships were three matching circular doors – obviously set into the desalination tower’s external wall. I ran up to the first one nearest us and extended my hand towards the red button on the wall, activating it.
The circular door dilated slowly like a blooming flower. As the opening grew, it let in a cool breeze and the soft highlighted colors of the full moon could be seen beyond.
“It’s the Father Sea,” Myria said startlingly, taking a small step forward and peering out at the stars above.
“The night sky, you mean?” Looking back at her I saw her nod.
But almost immediately my optimism turned sour. With my head partially outside the bay door’s opening, I looked up at the silhouette of the spires set against the starry backdrop. Even in the near darkness, at our height I could easily see the pinkish hue of the CTC so very far away, but nearer to us I could also see other unexpected black specks in the night sky. Some of these black specks had rings of fire trailing them. Others hovered in place, the stars near them blurring behind the heat zones of their exhausts. Cursing, I ducked back in reflexively.
“What’s wrong?” asked Myria.
I looked at her briefly, but didn’t say anything. Hitting the red button on the wall again, I watched as the circular door closed until only a speckle of moonlight remained in its center. Then with a hiss even this was lost.
“We’re trapped,” I said.
“What do you mean we’re trapped?”
“There are hundreds of blacksuit ships above us.” I pointed upwards with my finger. “Maybe Hunion as well. I can’t tell for sure, but they’re hovering only a few hundred feet away.”
“I didn’t see anything out there except the Father Sea-”
“They’re there. Trust me.”
“What do they want?”
I ran a hand through my hair as I thought. “To capture us,” I said.
She sighed in both frustration and confusion before raising her voice. “Well if they want to catch us, then why don’t they just come down here and do it?”
I nodded, understanding her confusion. “Cyris sold us out, which is what I had expected. They assume we’re ascending to the surface, since that was our plan. So they’re waiting for us up there.”
“They don’t know we’re down here then. That’s a good thing-”
I shook my head. “You’re right, it’s good they don’t know we’re down here, but it’s still a problem. There’s no way we’ll be able to fly through them. It’s a web, and we’re stuck beneath it.”
“Can’t we sneak away somehow? Evade them-”
I felt cynical, continuing to shake my head at her comments. “We’re lucky we didn’t cause attention just by opening this door. The second an innership leaves this tower, those blacksuits will be all over it. Even if we don’t go up. Even if we try to go a different way.” I cursed again as I tried to think of a plan.
After many seconds of silence Myria started to say something to me, but at that point I was not listening. By then an idea had begun to form in my mind and I rushed out of the room and back into the guard station via the open door in the hallway. Walking over the unconscious body of the guard, I reached into the small locker mounted on the wall there. Next to two racked stun guns were a few sets of manual override keys which dangled from hooks. I started pressing them one by one, looking out the clear window of the guard station to see which innerships were activating themselves. Quickly I found the correct key as I saw the interior lights of the closest one turn on.
Grabbing the key from the locker, I left the guard station and returned to the garage, placing a hand around Myria’s waist as she approached me.
“You’re going to stay here,” I said quickly.
She shook her head. “Slow down,” she said. “What are you doing?”
“I am going to cause a distraction, so we can leave.”
“What kind of distraction?”
“A flood.” I pointed upwards again. “Lei said there are large compression tanks on the surface. I am going to cut them loose. If I’m right, they’re going to fall in the tank and should sink immediately due to their weight. When they reach the bottom, they should-” I spread my hands out, palms down. “The tank will be compromised and water should escape. It will cause major damage-”
“You said Cyris is waiting for you up there-”
“I know,” I said, grimacing. “I’m going to have to deal with him as well.”
“This is insane,” she said. “I’m coming with you-”
“No,” I said forcefully, pushing her towards the nearest innership with my arm. The door opened upwards as I clicked a button on the key. “You’re going to hide in here.”
“Anon-”
“Innership, darken the windows.”
“Certainly,” it replied in a female voice.
I told her to get in. Perhaps it was the tone in my voice, but she did as I asked.
“If anyone comes into this room, don’t make a sound. They won’t be able to see you behind the windows, alright? Here’s the key.”
“What should I do with this?” She was holding the tear-shaped device between her thumb and forefinger delicately.
“Nothing. Just hold it for when I return.” I backed away as I spoke. “Innership, close the door.”
“Closing door,” it replied.
“Anon, I-”
She was about to say something, but the sealing door muffled her words from me. It did not matter – my resolve was already the voice I was listening to.
Turning to leave the room, I ran back down the hallway in the direction of the staging area. While doing this I took my serrater off stun and set the power controls to maximum. Immediately the weapon started beeping, frantically warning me of potential depletion, but I stifled it with a determined flick of my thumb.