Siff doesn’t hear the first shot, but the shouts that follow fill her with terror. Gunfire in the distance as she ducks behind cover coming to grips with her reality. She is now in a firefight. Her  comms wake up with Karl calling for their advance on the enemy: they have managed to break through in two different positions and Siff’s team is being organized close to where she is stationed by the elevator. The damn elevator that Macy hasn’t got working yet.

Siff stays put, still waiting for her chance to leave as her team begins to group near her. Their gunfire and shouts becoming more urgent, “Siff! Siff? Can you hear me? You need to get to our position now! We have to keep them inside the vents. We need you to help secure our position. Siff! Can you hear me?” She stays hidden behind the crates, staring toward the elevator, praying for Diana to get it open. Terrified of what might happen if she doesn’t.

“Siff? Are you okay? Answer your damn comm, Siff!” Karl’s voice is loud and clear, and greatly concerned, “Siff, I’m coming to you. Team, hold this position. Don’t let them gain a foothold.”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Siff, can you hear me? I’m coming to you.”

Oh skita. No. Don’t come here. Please don’t. Come on Macy! Get the damn door open!

As if her silent prayers were heard, the elevator doors slide open. The interior lit by a soft warm glow. Siff’s eyes open wide and she braces herself to run. She takes two quick breaths and on the third launches herself into the open space between her and her goal. Pure terror becomes adrenaline for her legs as she sprints forward. Gunfire around her as she closes the distance, and a familiar voice, “Siff! What are you doing? Siff! Get to the team! We need you on the line! Siff!”

She dives into the elevator and turns as the doors close: Karl’s betrayed face staring at her from where she was just hiding, “Siff. No. What are you doing?”

Siff takes her helmet off and begins to sob as she comes to terms with her decision. She falls against the door crying for her new friends and what they must now think of her. She feels the elevator begin to move upward and sits for a few seconds, lost in her grief. All she wanted was the freedom to dream. How could one desire bring so much pain? And now the promise is so close, she has to hold on to it. She can’t let it go now. Everyone down there is doing the exact same thing as her, aren’t they? If they had the chance like she did, they would have taken it as well. Hell, they’re in the process of taking it. This is the right decision. It has to be. It’s already been made.

Siff reaches into her jacket and pulls out the headset. She ponders it for a few seconds, not sure if she’s ready for Macy’s instructional voice just yet. She sighs and puts it on her head.

“Hey there stranger. How’s it going?”

“I just…I just…”

“You made a decision and followed through.”

“But I left them.”

“Not all decisions are easy, Siff. But they have to be made. And here you are. Are you ready?”

“What took so long with the elevator?” Siff starts to bring herself back together, but is still wiping tears and snot from her face.

“Hey, running a battle-plan and controlling systems throughout the ship isn’t as easy as I make it look y’know. Besides, it’s not just about being able to get you up here. It’s also about timing.”

“Timing?”

“Yeah Siff. See, there’s a number of factors in play right now and getting you into the Tube is relying on a few of them. The first is this: The AI systems in the Tube are completely cut off from those on the rest of Janus. I have zero control over the Needle or anything to do with the Chosen Ones. That’s a big reason why the brainers were able to infiltrate from up here. Second, there are security protocols blocking anyone from entering the Needle without the Council’s authority. Where you’re headed is no different; though it’s a rarely used route, it’s no less secure.”

“But how-“

“How in the hell am I gonna get you in? Glad you asked. I happen to know that in a few minutes the upper-level techs are going to reboot the entire system in order to regain control from me. Not gonna work…But! When that happens everything will shut down outside of life-support and you’ll have a few seconds to get through the doors before it all comes online again.”

“But-“

“Don’t worry, I’ll guide you through everything. The reason I waited with the elevator was because your route had to be clear. And with the brainers preoccupied with infiltration, the only thing you have to worry about is getting through the doors when they get shut down. Like I said, timing. Yes, I know. I’m a genius. But it is nice to be told every once in a while.”

Siff can hear Macy’s grin on the other side of the comm, “Okay, you’re coming up to your stop. Bring your helmet but keep the headset on and I’ll draw out a path for you.”

The doors slide open to a well lit and empty corridor. Bare and polished paneling let Siff know she is back on the upper-levels. The path is laid out for her as a visual overlay and she follows it down several eerily quiet hallways until she reaches a locked door, “This is it. Wait here. It shouldn’t be long.”

Siff listens to her own breathing. It is fast-paced and anxious. She spends a few seconds focusing on slowing her heart-rate before Macy speaks up again, “Okay, ready? Here it comes.”

The hallway goes dark and all sounds of the ship disappear; sounds she had never noticed before are now eerily absent, “Go!”

Siff sees the scenery through her headset and grabs the door-handle. She pulls with all her strength, the heavy steel slowly moving sideways, “Come on Siff! You have to move faster than this if you want to make it. Push!”

Siff squeezes herself through the first doorway and sees her path lead into the distance. She sprints down the hallway and finds a second door. She doesn’t wait for Macy’s instructions before heaving it to the side, “Damn these are heavy!”

“Less talk, more push. There’s one more after this and you’re running out of time. Systems are already starting to come back online.”

“Shit!” Siff sprints again through the partially opened doorway and finds the final door only a short distance around the corner. She begins pulling on it as she hears the familiar background noises come back online, “Shitshitshitshit!”

“You got this girl! Push!”

She lets out a cry as the door slides open and she dives through. It closes immediately behind her, “Nice job Siff! How’s the view?”

“Holy shit where am I?”

“In a maintenance elevator between the grav module and the Tube.”

Siff looks out the viewing window at the walls of steel she is between. Behemoth distances all around with open space visible between distant grav-modules. The mighty Needle above her acting as the connection hub for all these moving parts. It is a majestic and powerful piece of engineering, “It’s terrifying. And beautiful. Get me out of here.”

“Just one minute, Siff. The reboot should kick in the reset protocol any second. Then you’ll be on your way.”

“On my way where?”

There is a sudden jolt as the elevator separates from the grav module and begins to violently slow in empty space. Siff falls into the wall from the deceleration and grits her teeth. Macy’s voice is cheery and encouraging, “There might not be any artificial gravity in the reset, but you’re only slowing down about 200 kilometers an hour, so it shouldn’t feel that bad.”

“Fuuuuuu…”

It is a few seconds of extreme discomfort before Siff gradually becomes weightless from reaching a steady velocity. She clambers back to stare out the window as the elevator approaches an opening and passes into the wall of the Tube before accelerating once again, “Fuuuuuuuu…!”

A few more seconds and the elevator finally comes to a halt and the doors slide open for her, “…ck.” Siff crawls out on her hands and knees before unsteadily getting to her feet. She leans against the open doorway and takes a moment to orient herself.

Siff stands on a platform against the wall on the inside of the Tube. The Needle above her, the holographic forcefield below her, and many kilometers below that, the ground. Macy wastes no time, “Okay, so you’ll notice that you’re rotating and the Needle isn’t. That’s because you’re attached to the Tube, and the Tube rotates once every twenty-four hours around the Needle. The grav modules on the outside rotate way faster than that and keep it at one G in there.”

“Yeah, three thousand kilometers an hour or so. Conner told me.”

“Lucky for you, on the Tube and this close to the center, you’re spinning much slower than that. See that platform coming up? You need to jump to it when it reaches you”

“What?”

“Listen, you can’t make it to the Chosen Ones with that forcefield up. And I can’t shut that forcefield off unless you make it to that platform. I told you: I don’t have any control over this environment at the moment.”

“So how do you know where I am?”

“This headset you’re wearing, that’s how. Now get ready to jump. And don’t miss: that forcefield ain’t a cushion.”

Siff waits a few seconds on still shaking legs. It’s less than a two-meter gap, but the rotation and the threat of imminent death is psyching her out. Okay. You got this. C’mon. You got this. Skita! C’mon. Go! The platform comes within reach and she makes the leap, falling to her hands more for a feeling of security than as a necessity. The adrenaline makes every part of her shake, Siff struggles to get it under control. She stands uneasily, getting used to the new gravity, and follows Macy’s overlay to a system of wires on a steel mesh platform, a single guardrail protecting her from the…how far down is it?

“Okay Siff, this is where you leave me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I need to shut off the forcefield long enough for you to get through.”

“You want me to jump? From up here? Jump?”

“That’s the only way down, girl. And the only way that forcefield is shutting off is if you wrap this headset around the cables in front of you. Once connected I can get you in. And you just have a few short minutes until you get what you always wanted.”

“That’s a long way down.”

“There’s no turning back, Siff. The security is back up: the only way is down. You have to jump. The suit and helmet will keep you warm, and keep you from spinning out of control. The helmet will show you where to land, and I reckon you’ll be happy with where I’m putting you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Check it out.”

Siff looks over and follows the headset’s optics, zooming into her landing site…roughly five kilometers from where Lucas is at camp outside the End Forest, “Shit! Really, Macy?”

She lets out a laugh, “No need to thank me, just land, burn your gear, then head on over and introduce yourself. Okay, a thank-you would be nice.”

Siff rolls her eyes, “Thanks. I guess.”

Macy chuckles again, “You are most welcome, Siff. The helmet will let you know when to pull the chute and when to prepare for landing. Remember what to do?”

“Pull down and across.”

“That’s right. Pull down and across. This is where we say goodbye, friend. Look at you, living the dream for both of us. Thanks for everything, Siff. Without you we wouldn’t have the opportunity we have now. We owe you everything.”

“Thanks Macy. I missed you my whole life; you were my best friend. I’m so sorry for what happened to you.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. It gave me the chance to live for something bigger. Now stop saying goodbye already. We’ve got to get you where you belong.”

“Okay Macy. Thank you so much.”

“No problem Siff. Put the parachute on, wait for this section of the forcefield to go down, then jump. Don’t hesitate: I won’t be able to keep it open for long. Remember to burn everything when you get down there. Good luck.”

Siff takes the headset off and places it on the nearby cabling. It reorganizes itself around the wires and settles into a clamp-like structure, indistinguishable from the other hardware used to secure the wires. She takes the backpack off and puts her legs through the parachute like Macy showed her, then her arms as well. Taking a breath, she puts her helmet back on and activates the face covering. Her heads-up display comes to life and she stares at the scenery. The magnificence of the Tube and Needle surrounding her, continuing into the far distance. It is night-time around her, a projected event, stunning to look down on, but one that gives Siff feelings of vertigo and unsureity as her heads-up display portrays images of mountaintops and forests far below. She climbs over the handrail and leans forward over the drop, staring at the distant red dot that is her landing site, her gloved hands the only thing keeping her from the point of no return. There is a flicker and a kilometer-radius section of forcefield below her disappears. Siff bites her lip and lets go.