<<Citizen#0022-48299735

Entry#21962

What are we, if not gods? We provide for our subjects, give them food, water, shelter, help them grow. We teach them from afar and lead them to their destiny. We have the power to give and take away, to save and destroy. We are prayed to, worshipped, longed for. What is a god if not all these things?>>

Siff wakes up the next morning still in her clothes, face planted on the screen of her homework. She groans and rolls over, shaking the cobwebs from her head and checks the time: 5:30 am. Dad will be leaving for work soon, maybe I’ll try the door again when he’s gone. How did that person hack into Janus’ systems? Its AI is supposed to be insurmountable. I am in so much trouble if anyone finds out. Oh crap I hear him coming.

Footsteps approach her door and Siff jumps back on the bed, eyes closed. She doesn’t feel like talking to her father today. She hasn’t felt like talking to him at all lately. They haven’t had much to talk about. Her mind always wants to question things that are unquestionable, and she finds not talking to be safer than opening up. The footsteps stop and she hears her door open a crack, “Have a good day sweetheart; I love you.”

Siff’s door closes and she hears her father walk away. She waits a few minutes to be sure and then gets up again. Walking into the kitchen she grabs a bite to eat and continues to read her homework at the dining room table. She glances over occasionally at the door, suspicion and curiosity slowly overtaking her nervousness. Who is contacting her? And why are they contacting her? And how are they contacting her?

It takes all of thirty minutes before she can’t resist checking the door again. Siff slowly approaches and sees the sensor trip, but the door does not open. She raises a disappointed eyebrow and begins to walk back to her monitor. Her focus is nowhere near her responsibilities however: there is one more clue she received last night. Opening the closet Siff reaches for her jacket, remembering the journal paper she had received: saved from the furnace with a message on the back, “Not alone.” Siff reaches for the pocket she remembers putting the paper in, then the other pocket. Then the sleeves, the hood, and eventually she frantically turns the jacket inside out.

Oh no.

She put it in her pocket. She definitely remembers putting it in her pocket. Maybe it fell out when she left the garbage, maybe it fell out on the way home, or maybe…

“Oh no…”

Siff doesn’t know if her contact can hear her, but she figures she has to try, “Hello? Can you hear me? Look, um. That paper you gave me last night. It either fell out of my jacket on the way home, or my dad found it. Either way I need to get out of here.”

No response.

“Listen. If that paper is given to security they are going to make me disappear.”

Nothing.

“Can you hear me?! I am going to be killed! You’ve got to get me out of here! Please! Don’t let me die over a stupid paper!”

There is a quiet click as the front door unlocks. Siff panics and jumps behind the couch, expecting her father or security to burst through the door. But all remains quiet. Gingerly she makes her way over and peeks through the window. She doesn’t see anybody. It is still too early for most people to be about, especially in this upper-class section of the ship. She tentatively opens the door and sees, lying on the ground not one meter away, a headset. Her eyes widen and she closes the door again, Siff begins to hyperventilate and focuses on calming herself down. What choice does she have? Stay here and get arrested again, or put on the headset and see what creepy mystery-person wants. Terrified she puts her jacket on, opens the door, grabs the headset, and puts it on.

There is a brief light from a retinal scan, and then a voice comes on. The same voice from last night, “Well, Siff. This won’t be as easy as yesterday. I haven’t had time to calculate a safe route in its entirety, so we’ll have to go section by section. Are you ready?”

“How did you get the headset here? And how did you hack through Janus’ systems?”

“Questions come after the life-or-death situation, not before or during. Copy?”

“Sure.”

“I’m serious. I’m going to guide you through step by step, but you need to do what I say the moment I say it. No questions. Your life may depend on it. Ready?”

“Oh skita.” Siff takes a deep breath, “Let’s go.”

“Okay, I’m overlaying a path into your headset now. When the path is red it means wait, yellow means get ready, and the instant it turns green you move. Ready?”

Siff sees a yellow path come into her vision, leading in a different direction than before, “Aren’t I going to the garbage again?”

“Not safe right now.” The path turns green, “Go!”

Siff runs as fast as she can, following the path around the back-side of her house and through some shrubs. It turns red again and she ducks behind her neighbor’s shed, “Wait here just a moment. Exciting, huh?”

“No.”

“Go!” The path leads her through two more yards and down a flight of stairs to a large courtyard, “Okay, walk through here. Catch your breath and look down. Try not to attract attention.”

“It’d be a lot easier if you didn’t lead me into crowds.”

“It’d be a lot easier if you didn’t lose that paper. Stay on course. Once you’ve gone down the next set of stairs follow the path to a service door. It will open for you.”

Siff keeps her eyes on the ground and follows the directions. From the corner of her vision she spies a familiar oversized shape. Bear? Skita! Why is he up so early? Why is he here? Did he just spot me? “Oh skitaskitaskita, hurry up! I think I’ve been spotted.”

“Calm down, get to the service door.”

As she approaches the service door Siff hears the lock click open and enters, hurriedly closing it behind her.

Bellerophon walks through the throngs in the courtyard, meandering his way to Siff’s house. He’s not sure if he’ll be allowed to see her, but he wants to do what he can. Hearing about her troubles has his stomach in knots: he told her to be careful, but she got caught anyway. She’s lucky house arrest is all that happened. His eyes wander over the crowds milling about their daily lives, but one hooded girl gains his attention. She is the same size and walking exactly like Siff. His eyes widen with terror; if it is her he has to stop her from doing whatever it is she’s doing. He can’t let her get in more trouble than she already is.

Bear begins pushing through the crowd, following the girl as she makes her way to a restricted-access service door. It opens for her and Bear runs to grab the handle, but the lock clicks in place just before he makes it. His momentum slams his shoulder against the steel, bouncing him back. Bear puts his palms and frustrated forehead on the door, takes a breath and turns away: back toward Siff’s house, hoping it won’t confirm his worst fears.

There is a thud on the outside of the door, as if someone was trying to catch it before it closed. Leaning against the wall in a narrow hallway she takes a deep breath and sees her pathway illuminate to the right. It is a short walk to where the path stops: a disposal chute with a sign showing it ends in a furnace, “Get in.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It’s the only way to me, and you’ve got about four seconds before a maintenance crew comes around the corner.”

“It’s a furnace!”

“I saved that paper, didn’t I? You’ve got to trust me. Get in, or you are going to get caught.”

Siff can hear footsteps and chatter, “But…” The first worker comes around the corner and sees her, “Skita!”

“Hey! What’re you doing back here?” He begins running to her and Siff cries in fear as she jumps into the darkness of the chute head-first.

She bangs against the steel walls a few times as she picks up speed down the near-vertical descent into darkness. The air billows by her and she cannot slow herself down as she tries to get a grip on the interior walls. A few seconds go by of this acceleration in the pitch black before a low hum begins to resonate around her. She can’t feel the change in acceleration, but she knows the hum of a grav engine when she hears one. She must be traveling incredibly fast. It is a couple of minutes before the hum dies down and she starts to feel the air rushing about her once again. Siff has no idea how far she has fallen, but starts to discern an orange glow and heat radiating from below; panicking she slams her feet and arms against the walls but it does nothing. Certain she is going to die, Siff can feel the heat get stronger and begin to hear the roar of the furnace. The chute ends and she begins a free-fall directly into flame as a net is fired across the opening. Siff is captured and hangs one-hundred feet above what she imagines hell must look like: an ever-burning mass. The massive fans drawing the foul air away for recycling and power generation. She turns her gaze upward as she starts to ascend, three silhouetted figures wait for her on the ledge above.

As she is pulled onto solid ground a young woman’s face smiles in greeting, “Hi Siff, my name’s Macy. Welcome to the underworld.”