The Constant Star (14)

THE STORY SO FAR

“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.”

9

Bear runs from the courtyard and sprints the last hundred meters to Siff’s front door before urgently knocking.

Nothing.

He bangs harder, “Siff! Siff! Are you in there? It’s me, Bear. Listen, you’ve got to answer me, okay? It’s really important. Please!”

Nothing.

Bear runs to the nearest window and looks into an empty living room. He checks the others and confirms that she is either hiding or—and most likely—she is not in the house. Bear is torn up; his duty is to report her escape from house-arrest immediately, but his loyalty to his lifelong friend needs to give her a chance. Whatever she is doing, she is already in so much trouble. If he rats her out right now without talking to her first, he may never see her again.

Bear makes his decision and leaves, determined to report if asked that he assumed she was refusing to answer the door. And forget about seeing her in the courtyard. And whoever that was going into the service entrance. That could have been anybody.

But it could have been Siff.

10

It takes a few seconds to untangle herself from the netting, even with the help of the two silent young men—identical twins—who accompanied Macy to retrieve her, “Did you have a fun trip?”

“I thought…I was going…to die…”

“I wouldn’t let that happen. Plus, if we did miss you it’s not like you would have burned to death: the impact would have killed you for sure.”

“That’s reassuring.” Siff is starting to regain herself, along with her sarcasm. She pulls her headset off and glares at her…rescuer? She feels some anger is justified, “What the hell was that? I’m assuming you’re the one who was leading me through the headset?”

“Yep, that’s me.”

“Leading me to a furnace chute, then giving me an ultimatum? Then cutting off all communication while I plummet to my death?!”

“Almost death.” Macy is beaming, on closer look Siff reckons they are about the same age.

“What the hell?!”

Macy puts her arm around Siff’s shoulders, “Yep. That’s where we are. Let me show you around. C’mon.” She practically pushes Siff away from the ledge and into a semi-lit hallway. The two men follow silently. “What you’ve never been told is that the lower levels of Janus, filled with the engines and tech that powers the ship, is actually filled with people. And we’re the ones that run those systems. Everything from the rotation of the Chosen Ones’ environment to the grav controls for each level, we make sure it all runs smooth and you all have a great day.

“‘But why would they lie to me?’ I hear you say! Great question, Siff! Why would they lie to you? Because to keep your upper levels in line, the less they know about what happens down here, the better. You see, if everyone up there knew how things were down here it would break your precious belief of how perfect you all are—some might even dare challenge the way things are!—and we can’t have that!

“We are the detritus of humanity. The scum beneath your feet. The forgotten souls in the machine. The dwellers of Janus’ anus. The undiscovered underworld…” they come to a door and Macy hits the button to open. It hisses as it slides to the left, “Welcome, to the Lower Levels!”

Siff looks out upon a shanty-town style city. Barely anything over five stories high, with dirt, grease, and rust on every…home? Those are homes, right? I mean, it looks like people live in them. And speaking of people: there are thousands of them. Siff cannot believe what she is seeing. She gawks at the scenery as she is ushered down into it, “Come on, Siff. It’s not a good idea to be out in the open for too long. Might get the

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