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Extended Work
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| Delta City (Ch 3) | |
| By AmeliaWonderland | ||
| 16 March 2008 | ||
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This is it. Another instalment. I feel really exposed now, but the fact that I have not met any of you in person helps. I received some helpful reviews for my opening prologue and chapter 1 but revealing chapter 2 last week and now 3 was a real test. Alex’s new home was Delta City – a giant metropolis covering most of its home planet, Sar-sa, orbiting one of the stars in the constellation Orion. Having grown up far away from the Milky Way galaxy, Alex knew very little about the planet, but with so many celestial bodies in the Universe it was to be expected. She gave one last glance to her Little Meadow home and opened a glass hatch of a plane-car that had been brought to her house by the authorities. For a moment she thought of her time here and felt sad that it did not last long. Lizzie had been very kind to her and she could not understand why the Establishment had decided to move her somewhere else. Lizzie stood quietly by the door waving goodbye. She kept her distance as was expected from a person of her stature. Alex had a sudden urge to break the convention and give the housekeeper a hug but hesitated – she was not fond of saying goodbyes and never managed to muster them properly. With slight irritation, she waved Lizzie back and swiftly clambered into the car’s reclined seat, which was set inside a glossy metal base. Like a cocoon, the seat fit snugly around Alex’s form, and she felt its claustrophobic effects immediately. Alex fidgeted to find a comfortable position but finally gave up. Buckling herself in, she shut the glass lid firmly over her head and turned on the controls. She noticed that the car had been already pre-programmed for her destination and all she needed to do was to turn on the autopilot. The plane-car brought Alex to the heart of Delta City where wide long streets swarmed with people rushing to and fro and moving vehicles zoomed up and down the roads so swiftly that it was impossible to distinguish one car from another. Alex tried her best to follow the directions Sitho had given her but it was not easy to navigate the obstacle course that Delta City was. ‘Hey, girl!’ shouted somebody as Alex pushed her way out of the entrance port. ‘Watch where you going! Don’t you know there’s not a minute to waste?’ ‘Sorry,’ Alex spoke, ‘I did not realise that I slowed you down.’ The complainer did not hear Alex’s reply. He was out of earshot by the time Alex formulated her response. Alex had barely progressed a hundred yards when somebody nudged her on the shoulder. She turned around and saw a young lady dressed in a white suit. The lady smiled and invited Alex to a small building located near the entrance port. ‘Who are you?’ asked Alex unsurely. ‘I am a nurse, of course,’ the woman said with a smile. ‘Hello, Alex. We’ve been expecting you.’ Alex rubbed her forehead. Of course! Medical examination! But for a couple of shelves packed with labelled glass containers and a few chairs, the examination quarters were almost empty. They were painted white and looked cold and uninviting. As Alex entered, she shivered, wincing from the strong medical smell filling the building. The nurse invited Alex to sit down. She examined Alex’s face, stretching her skin mercilessly. Then she scanned Alex’s body with a small silver-plated device attached to her waist, keyed in something into her techbook and with a grin of satisfaction suddenly jammed something sharp into Alex’s arm. ‘Ouch!’ Alex gave a faint scream. ‘That hurts!’ Alex studied the needle in the nurse’s hands and did not like the look of it: the leftover greenish liquid dripping from the tip did not instil any comfort. ‘Nothing that you will hurt you,’ the nurse said hastily, noticing Alex’s stare. She gave a mocking grin and patted Alex on the arm. ‘Just a little something to protect you from local germs. Your arm will be as good as new tomorrow.’ Alex nodded. She was glad the examination was over. Leaving the medical office, Alex checked her watch: there was still an hour left before she was due to meet her foster family. Wondering about the wait, *she pushed the scanning button in order to check the area for tunnels. There was one that connected Delta City with an Interstellar Hub, which she passed on the way here, but she wanted to know about the others. The watch, however, remained idle. It did not even pick up the one tunnel that Alex knew about. Strange, Alex mused. Must be out of sync. She took the watch off, pressed a ‘reset’ button and returned it to her wrist: soon the scanning feature would be back to normal. It turned out that Sitho was not kidding when he said that Alex’s new home would be full of character. It was not a home at all, but rather an old space ship converted into a museum. It was a large oval construction in a shape of an egg, with the pointy bit being its head where the driver would usually be sitting. Alex recognised the model: her parents had taken her for a ride in a working replica once. It had two parts – the bottom layer where all of the engineering was kept and the top one where the passengers travelled. The passenger compartment had several layers of its own – dining halls, clubs and other communal areas on the bottom; then a winding maze of sleeping rooms and study areas next; and finally a glazed deck at the top – a viewing area for watching the sky at night. The museum must have been very popular. At the time of Alex’s arrival, the deck was thronged with people, and more people congregated at the foothold. It looked like some special event was on today, but Alex did not stay to find out. She pushed her way through the crowd gathered near the ship and finally made it inside. ‘Hello! You must be Alex.’ A young man with thick wavy hair pulled Alex’s shoulder. He appeared very proper and polite, although there was something artificial about his manners. He retrieved a piece of paper from his trouser pocket and looked at it intently, glancing at Alex a few times. ‘Welcome,’ he finally said. ‘My parents have been expecting you. Common, I’ll show you the way.’ The young man led Alex through the maze of corridors to a family apartment located in the passenger section of the ship, which had been created by knocking down the walls of several cabins. It was decorated to a very high standard with seemingly every latest gadget utilised and looked like it had just been cleaned. The front of the apartment was a spacious living area, where the family had congregated. It led to the rest of the dwelling and had a large round table in the middle of the room. ‘Let me introduce you,’ Alex’s guide said. ‘Mom and Dad,’ he pointed at a couple sitting at the table, ‘and my brothers and a sister, Rick, Christopher and Becky… Oh and my name is Ron or Roni.’ Each sibling briefly got up and nodded in turn. ‘And I am Alex, but I guess you already knew that,’ said Alex feeling somewhat uncomfortable as six people stared at her. Trying to retain her foothold, she looked back at them with as much confidence as she could muster, assessing their guises. Becky bore the least resemblance to her parents and looked like she had been genetically engineered from an exclusive catalogue. She was tall, slim and very attractive and her expression of self importance suggested that she was either a doctor or a lawyer. Roni was also quite handsome, but his looks were hard to read. Rick, on the other hand had a more down to earth appearance and his figure suggested that he was either a sportsman or a soldier. Christopher was the only one out of the four siblings who bore the most resemblance to his parents. He looked forlorn and slightly uncomfortable as if apologising for his family. He gave Alex a reserved smile but said nothing. Roni came around and slapped Christopher on the back. ‘Hey, philosopher, make an effort to smile… you can call him Chris,’ he added turning back to Alex. ‘Mom and Dad – I don’t know what you would prefer to call them. Aunt Sue and Uncle Ross I suppose.’ Slightly shocked by Roni’s roughness, Alex hesitated. ‘Sue, Ross.’ She looked at each parent in turn. ‘Nice to meet you. Thank you for letting me stay with you.’ ‘Don’t thank me.’ Sue smiled. ‘Thank the Establishment. They’ve been searching for a home for you for ages. When they contacted us, we were delighted to help. They’ve your best interests in heart, you know.’ Alex did not feel like agreeing just yet. She had so many questions and what the Establishment’s intentions were exactly she wanted to understand the most. Pushing her concerns to the back of her mind, she smiled. ‘So, living on a ship, ha?’ ‘Yes! Can you believe it!’ said Sue excitedly. ‘Our Roni is a property developer, and it was his idea to convert this part of the ship into an apartment. We’ve been the caretakers of the museum for ten years now, but moved here only last month. It’s very convenient – no need to travel to work. You probably noticed how busy our city is. To get a descent house is next to impossible. But Roni is very resourceful. He managed to obtain all necessary permits and watched the project from start to finish. He is gifted in this area, you know.’ Gifted meaning genetically enhanced, Alex thought, but did not say anything out-loud. Go figure. Genetic engineering had been in fashion for the last fifty years. It looked like only Chris managed to escape its meddling claws. ‘Okay, everyone!’ Ron spoke, raising his voice. ‘It’s time to go back to work. Mom, Dad, the simulation committee just called. They ran into some problems – again. And you, Alex, are probably dying to see your new room. Sorry to leave you like this, but work comes first. We can’t afford to sit idle. Every five years the Establishment stages a flight simulation. And it just so happens that one will take place next week. Our parents are inevitably in charge of the preparations. Remember those people on the deck? They all have been queuing to get a ticket and we need to attend to them as soon as possible. Otherwise this ship will sink.’ Ron laughed at his own joke. ‘You are very lucky to come just in time for one of Delta’s most famous events,’ he added. ‘Really?’ Alex pretended to be interested. ‘That’s great!’ she said. She did not mean it though. She had been on a real flight before. The cleanliness of the living room extended to the rest of the apartment. As Alex moved deeper inside, she encountered different knick knacks that made the dwelling look almost as homey as her Little Meadow’s mansion. But her room was much smaller. It was painted a pale pink colour and had just enough room for a bed, a small table and a few shelves. There were no knick knacks akin to those in the hallway, but there was enough space to assemble her own things around the room. Alex sat down on the bed and noticed a bag of crunchy biscuits on the pillow. She opened the bag at once and ate one quickly: no other stranger, except perhaps for Lizzie, had cared for her like this before. It was from the bed that Alex noticed a big sheet of paper pinned to the door and titled ‘Timetable.’ Leaping from the bed in one swift jump, she lifted the paper and saw that it was fixed over a sample schedule with a list of various activities to choose from. Looking at the list, Alex cringed. It made sense, she thought. The way the city people were worried about wasting their minutes… the way the family rushed back to their chores… and now the schedule… Perhaps this was why she was sent here – to learn one of the key Establishment’s directives to always maintain a strict routine… Well, she could pretend to have learned it quickly and return to Little Meadow in no time. Then she could go back to her easy-going life style that her parents had taught her… Alex let go of the paper and it fell down onto the surface of the floor with a gentle swoosh. Her parents… she mused. How she missed them. If they could see her now! They had been the worst in the area of strict schedules, but that’s why she always loved them. They were so different! Like aliens… Alex was still staring at the sample timetable when Chris interrupted her. He had changed his attire and now wore a dark blue jacket that suited him perfectly. His face glowed and there was not a hint of his previous forlornness in his expression. ‘I am in charge of showing you around,’ he announced. ‘Do you want something to eat? We usually eat at the museum’s cafeteria. It’s almost lunch time.’ Chris looked at the timetable and smiled. ‘Don’t worry about the schedule. Believe me it is better if you don’t decide in advance what you’ll be doing. This way there’ll be at least some element of surprise left. So how about lunch?’ Alex glanced at the sample timetable one last time before answering. ‘If I have to.’ ‘Of course you have to. There’s no escape. Roni’s probably already placed a tracking device on you.’ ‘He did what? Why? When? Where is it?’ ‘He’s a genius!’ He tracks everyone in our family to make sure we follow our routines.’ In a sudden frenzy Alex started feeling her arms and legs and then the rest of her body as if a mere touch would let her identify the hidden device, but Chris got a hold of her hands. ‘Don’t bother. It is for your own good. If you eat quickly, I can use the pretence of giving you a tour around the ship and show you a couple of places where you can have some privacy, if you know what I mean.’ ‘You can do that?’ ‘I’d love to do that. Why do you think I volunteered to help you? In about an hour, you life as you know it will end and a new one will begin. But if you stay here and wait till you are called for, then your life’s already ended.’ Alex looked at Chris questioningly, wondering if she could trust him. She could not decide just yet. ‘Hey,’ said Chris, ‘I almost forgot. Here’s something from Mom and Dad. They could not give it to you in person.’ Chris retrieved a small brown box from one of his pockets and opened it. Inside the box there was a moving creature. It resembled a horse, but it was so small that it easily fit on a palm of a hand. It had a funny looking head, which was fixed to a long neck with a white shiny mane, and moved back and forth like an extremely flexible mechanical toy. ‘What is it?’ asked Alex with interest, carefully picking up the delicate creature with her fingers. ‘It’s a toy. In his spare time my father also makes toys. The Establishment does not approve of toys, not out here at any rate, but Father does not call them toys. He says they are learning aids. All it needs is grass and some water.’ ‘Grass?’ Alex smiled. ‘You mean like a real horse?’ ‘Yes, my father engineered it himself. He’s got a whole circus of miniature creatures,’ said Chris nonchalantly while Alex was transfixed by her present. ‘That’s one use of genetic engineering I never heard of.’ ‘Neither have I, but it’s a cute little thing. I looked after it before you came, and it’s very entertaining.’ Alex put the horse back in the box. This was an unusual gesture from a family that placed tracking devices on its members. Something did not add up in Chris’ story but she pushed her concerns to the back of her mind – she had other things to worry about first. She looked back at Chris and smiled. ‘Thanks.’ She could trust him. The dinning room was bright and spacious. It was filled with visitors who congregated in groups all around. Some of them were sitting down at white smooth tables, which protruded from the floor like an extension of the floor surface, but most of them were standing near the windows enjoying a view of a shore line. Slick simulation technology! Alex noted. Very believable! It would be interesting to see what kind of views it will deliver during the simulation event next week. Alex would have liked to sit by the windows and enjoy the view, but she did not like crowds and instead opted for a small area in a quiet corner of the room, away from the windows and the food counter. As if reading her mind, Chris went ahead and threw his jacket on one of the tables to reserve the spot and then returned to get the food. He brought back two cups, each filled with a liquid of different colour, and gave one to Alex. She looked at the cup questioningly. ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ Chris responded with as an equal expression of surprise. ‘Drink it of course.’ Alex sipped the drink a few times and winced – its bitter taste did not appeal to her at all. She waited for Chris to finish and studied him intently: he drank his shake slowly – the taste did not seem to appeal to him either – and when he was done, he went to get another portion. Alex glanced around the room and decided to give the tunnel searching another go. She turned towards the wall so that nobody would be able to see what she was doing and pushed the required buttons. However, when she checked the dial, she instantly froze in shock: the dial displayed a red triangle, which only meant one thing – extreme danger. Beside the triangle a message also flashed. It indicated that the tunnels leading to and from Delta had been blocked by a special frequency that was usually used in zones affected by a severe plague – to prevent inhabitants and visitors from coming in and out. Her heart pounding, Alex looked around. A plague? Could this be true? There were several wash basins next to the food counter and Alex briskly walked up to one of them. With cold, shaky hands, she opened the tap and filled the basin with ice-cold water. She dipped the edge of her face in it and then waited a few seconds. When the skin became accustomed to the temperature, she lowered the rest of her head and immediately withdrew it, feeling instantly refreshed. Perhaps the watch was not working properly, she wondered hopefully – after all, it did not appear like the city was under a threat of a deadly disease – but when she rechecked it, the watch was in perfect order. ‘Where am I?’ she whispered concernedly.
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