Authors: Wade Andrew Butcher
Chapter 53
21 Days Remaining…
Breccan could not sleep. Nova had screamed from one of her dreams, but she was quickly back asleep while Breccan stared at the ceiling. He could not shake the memory of the voices that spoke to his mind, nor could he resolve the concern he had about the looming landing. At some point in the past, someone on the vessel must have known more about the destination. Then it occurred to him – he knew very little about the history that led them there. Maybe there were hidden secrets in the untraveled places onboard, maybe answers or maybe more questions. He decided to explore beyond the conservatory in the unseen dark sections he and Nova had traversed two weeks before.
Around the bend and through the conservatory he went, quietly but deliberately. The trees towered over his head, teeming with bats that dropped their excrement all over the ground. The smell was overpowering, but the whistling inside his head distracted him. He soon arrived at the portal and found it cracked open inviting him into the dark corridor.
The light behind him slowly faded as he walked the hallway. There should have been some lights, he thought. He ran his hand against the wall feeling for doors and switches. The surface was smooth, just like the walls in the familiar sections of the ship, but it was featureless. The light disappeared as the hallway slowly curved to his right. He made no turns for fear of losing his way in the pitch-black surroundings. He banged his foot against a ladder tube raised from the floor, but he kept going, not wanting to deviate from his trajectory around what seemed to be a main artery in the dark labyrinth.
Finally, his hand met a crease in the wall. He pushed, and a door swung open, but nothing filled his eyes except the darkness. He regretted not bringing Nova. Waking her would probably have been welcomed, but something about letting her sleep seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Unable to find any controls for lights on the other side, he continued to walk down the main passage. There was an eerie silence between each footstep as Breccan proceeded deeper into the unknown place.
Up ahead there was a glimmer of faint blue lights on the left side of the hall. The lights were coming from narrow tracks in the floor of the connecting passage. As he approached, he could once again see his own shoes. Breccan followed the luminous floor wanting to see more and soon got his wish when four rooms with windows appeared, two on each side.
He entered the first room. It looked like a lab of some kind or a clinic that had raised, padded platforms coming up from the floor. Breccan walked to them and pushed down on the soft surface and looked around the room. He turned around to the windows. His reflection stared back at him and mimicked every subtle movement. His broad shoulders pushed out on the garment that tightly covered his muscular arms. The rest of his thermal suit, issued when he was still growing, also revealed the features underneath. He ran his fingers through his hair, thick and dark. He stepped closer and ran his hand over his stubbly beard, grown for at least a week or two between shaves. He looked at his face, not out of admiration, but of curiosity. He seldom dwelled at the sight of himself, and in comparison to the faces etched in his memory, he looked different. He had a hard and dark look about him that he had not seen in many of the others.
He quickly lost the initial interest he had in seeing his reflection and left the room to continue down the dimly lit hall. Another room on his right appeared to have bright lights inside and a door that was half open. He drew closer to the light until he could push the door.
When the thin, lightweight door rotated on its hinges, another person stood unexpectedly facing him. Breccan stood frozen in the doorway, completely surprised to find a man in the historically off-limits portion of Neptune. In the first split-second of the encounter, Breccan could see by the markings that the other was a tier-three. He looked up quickly to see a face he had just seen moments before in the reflection. The face was his own. Before he could react, his look-alike hit him squarely across the jaw.
…
Breccan awoke with a terrible headache. Lying on the floor disoriented, he pushed his hands under himself and lifted his body partially off the floor before collapsing. He thought he heard footsteps down the hall. He lifted again until he was standing and leaning against the wall. He had forgotten where he was. His blurry vision did not help to discern the sight of the unfamiliar room. He had not had a chance to see it before he was knocked out. Then he remembered the brief glimpse of his twin just before he was knocked unconscious. He could not remember the blow that struck him down, but he could deduce from his pain what had occurred, and it angered him.
His attention swayed to the space in front of him, where there were rows of cabinets built into the walls of the lighted room. He stumbled in their direction and placed his hands on the release lever to open one of them. Behind the small cabinet door were shelves full of vials, labeled with what appeared to be names of people. He shut the cabinet and gazed around to the adjacent wall, which before appeared plain, but on second observation contained an intricate set of small shelves. He stepped slowly closer to find that the surfaces were not empty. There were unrecognizable tools and devices scattered on them, objects he did not recognize, the largest of which was no bigger than his smallest fingernail. They were too complicated to be mere pieces of debris, but they were certainly nothing he could identify while he stood alone in the room.
He departed, barely remembering how he got there or the correct direction for his return. He staggered through the obscure passage from where he came while pondering where his twin had gone and what had happened. His anger had diminished to annoyance, but while he was making his way through the dark, the emotion increased again to infuriation. He banged on the wall at the notion that someone would have the nerve to strike him down. Furthermore, he wanted an explanation how his twin could go unnoticed his whole life. Extrapolating his questions further, he wondered how a clone of his could be of tier-three classification.
Breccan emerged back into the conservatory. The bats had taken flight from their perches in the trees and the whistling in is head grew loud until it subsided into a succinct thought.
There are two.
Breccan did not linger. Visions of his twin entered his thoughts and he was ready. He would find him.
Chapter 54
18 Days Remaining…
Nova accompanied Breccan to the commons during the regular distribution of rations. It was an event they often avoided. As traditionally privileged individuals, members of the tier-one class had rations delivered in their area of the ship. It was a process facilitated by the Keepers and carried out by some of the tier-two clones, but now the process had broken down. The interest in human affairs shown by the Keepers had diminished to near zero as the people of all tiers were left to themselves. Their abandonment was under the rationale that little harm could be done in the short time remaining. The pilots were ample for the remaining approach, and now that the key was permanently in place with no chance of theft on the bridge that was staffed at all hours, the Keepers had no urgent need for the humans at all. Other than a potential food source for the unconfirmed rare existence of meat-eating dodecapi, the people had become more of a burden than a benefit. None of the Keepers had been seen since their final unexpected appearance in the testing facility.
Breccan had a different reason for attending the commons this time. The search for his clone twin had been unsuccessful for three days, and he was determined to find the one who had been hidden from him, the one that struck him and given him a three day-old headache. The mob parted and scattered when he entered.
Breccan had always believed he knew the exact number of humans on Neptune. He scanned the area and counted while he cast eyes over the premises. At one point in the recent past before Andre’s demise, there were ninety-eight, and he did not discount the possibility that Keepers could have taken one or two without his knowledge. Without Andre and Rose, the count was ninety-six. Ten of them were tier-ones, all still present and accounted for on Neptune. There were twenty-one tier-two clones the last he heard a number, and the remainder were tier-three.
At present, the people in the commons were grouped in cliques, and Breccan could distinguish their status without getting close enough to see the markings on the back of their hands. There were two collections of tier-twos on the edge of the commons with a total of nineteen gathered. There were probably the usual two providers working the stock room. He counted by fives to sixty and then four more revealing sixty-four of the third tier present.
There was only one missing, the one he could not find and had never seen. The coincidence was too strange. Someone had to know.
“Nova, how many people do you count in here?”
“What? Why do I have to count?” Nova protested.
“Just do it, please?” Breccan persuaded his sister.
After a few seconds, Nova said, “Eighty-three, not counting the two of us.”
“Thanks,” Breccan said and counted a second and third time with the same result.
“Why do you have to know how many people are…” Nova started to say, but Breccan was walking away toward the stockroom. Many of the people in the room were staring at them. She followed behind and grabbed onto his hand so he would not forget to keep her close.
Breccan took his sister’s hand, but his focus was elsewhere as he plowed through the crowd. He went through the door to the back of the stockroom with his sister following closely, and almost immediately the older provider he had seen before with Ace objected.
“Hey – off limits…” the old provider started, but then he saw who it was and silenced.
Breccan ignored the protest and asked, “Where is that kid, Art? I need to talk to him.”
The old man did not say anything, but he pointed to the room where Breccan could look to find the young provider.
He pulled Nova along as they entered a long room, one that curved all the way around out of view. They followed the path around with shelves full of vines surrounding them on both sides, plants that were alive but had no leaves, fed by soft lighting and drip hoses. The vines had a tan color strangely similar to the skin of the Keepers. Their roots stretched through grates on the floor out of view.
“Flesh vines – I always wondered where those things were,” Breccan whispered to himself.
Art was tending to the vines, cutting them and putting the trimmings into a large bucket. When he saw Breccan and Nova approaching, he stopped what he was doing. He was wearing clear protective eyewear, which made it difficult to read his expression from a distance.
“Mr. Breccan? How can I help you… what are you doing back here?” Art asked with words slower than a normal spoken tempo. His demeanor was much less friendly than when Breccan had seen him with Ace a few days before. He acted much the same way a guilty person trying to hide something would behave.
Breccan smiled and treated him like an old friend in an effort to get him to relax, “Hey Art, I was wondering if you could help me with something.”
“Of course,” the youngster said as he tried to smile.
“I noticed outside – every single person on board is in the commons right now, except for one. He looks exactly like me, and he has tier-three standing. Do you know who I’m talking about?”
“No, Mr. Breccan,” Art replied very quickly.
“You sure?”
“Yes, Mr. Breccan, positive.”
“Ok. But he would have to get his rations from somewhere, and you guys control that. Have you noticed anyone taking double portions?”
“No, we don’t give out double portions – against the rules.”
“Hmm, ok,” Breccan said keeping his disbelief to himself. “If you see him, tell him I want to talk, okay?”
“Sure thing Mr. Breccan. I’ll tell him,” Art said.
Breccan released Nova’s hand and approached Art slowly. Art tried to show no signs of concern, but he took a step backward as Breccan got close.
“Breccan, don’t!” Nova pleaded.
The words were ignored, and Breccan slipped his hand slowly inside the collar of Art’s thermal suit and held it firmly. Then he crossed his other hand inside the opposite collar, and he twisted and squeezed, restricting Art’s throat until he couldn’t breathe. Art put his feeble hands on Breccan’s wrists and appealed to him with a look of terror. Tears filled Art’s eyes as Breccan let him suffer for a few brief moments.
“Breccan, stop it!” Nova hit him on the back. “STOP!” This time she slapped him in the back of the head. That got his attention. His sister had never been that bold with him before, but he wasn’t surprised and knew in his heart that his bullying ways were wrong. On this occasion, however, they were a means to an end.
Breccan released Art’s shirt and said, “I think you’re lying to me. If I find out you’re lying, I’m going to come back and hurt you, badly, so this is your last chance. You’ve never seen a person that looks just like me or given him rations? This is the only place to get rations that I’m aware.”
“No,” Art said cowering away from Breccan and bending over to regain his breath.
“That was so unnecessary,” Nova said and crouched down by Art. “I’m sorry,” she said with a hand on his back.
“You remember what I said,” Breccan warned as he took some of the vines Art harvested. Breccan offered Nova his hand, but she simply folded her arms and followed him back through the bending room.
They made their way to the commons with flesh vines in hand. Breccan went straight to the center of the large hall and without any hesitation stepped straight up on top of a table and yelled while holding the flesh vines above his head.
“Extra rations!” he yelled. That was enough to get almost everyone’s attention. When he shouted a second time, the room was silent. “Extra rations for the one who tells me where my clone is hiding.”
The people had turned to face him and stepped toward him at the promise of additional vines, but they froze when there was mention of Breccan’s clone. By his way of thinking, the room was too quiet. If they did not know whom he was talking about, they would have been whispering among themselves, but they were not. Dead silence filled the room, and all eighty-three including Nova just stared. They were hiding something. He was sure of it. Something occurred to him.
They were more scared of the other than they were of him.