Vessel (13 page)

“The sun still bombards us with energy more than any other time in the past, except for Reckoning Day of course. It is unclear why. Technology’s susceptible to that,” Bane continued.

My mouth flew open before I thought. “It doesn’t work on the surface,” I said.

Bane stopped and looked at me as if to memorize my face. With a nod, he acknowledged, “It doesn’t work outside these walls. Not reliably. But the Reticents are ever vigilant, always searching for new ways, better technology.” He resumed walking while he spoke to us.

“We’ve been able to reconstruct simple engines we can use for farming outdoors that don’t require electronics. The building itself protects us from the sun’s radiation and magnetic waves. Inside Gora Compound, we’ve been able to generate electricity on a small scale and to reconstruct electronic computing systems. Outside Gora, people live as if it’s the twelfth century. We alone can safeguard the world’s data. One day we’ll find a way to bring it back into the light. Here we are,” said Bane, stopping by a set of double doors. Something about his smile wasn’t quite right to me. “I want to show you something. You’ll train here one day, but today we’ll just observe.”

The doors opened at his touch, and the sounds of struggle spilled out into the hall. We stepped inside, joining several other red-cloaked figures observing the students in an arena below. The room was a mass of movement. Bare-chested men in red shorts battled each other one-on-one, some with short sticks, others with their hands, until a Reticent at the end of the room blew a whistle. All struggle ceased and everyone knelt on the floor, all eyes on the man with the whistle.

“Obstacle course!” Everyone moved into silent lines along the walls as the center of the floor moved. As it split apart, machinery erupted from the gaps. The students shuffled with nervous energy while the room transformed. I realized for the first time that some of them were women. All of them had hair cut like the boys’ and most had well-developed muscles. The fear on their faces unsettled me. What was happening?

I looked at Bane. His wrinkled face pulled back into a smile.

“This will be good,” he whispered to me when he saw the question on my face.

The machines unfolded to reveal an array of blades and spikes that rotated at various speeds, whirring with an unnatural sound.

“Begin!”

A familiar form stepped up—Tiber. He readied himself, seemed to gauge his timing, and then he sprinted through the machines, ducking and weaving, diving and rolling. Tiber made his way across the room easily.

“Nicely done,” said the instructor. “Next!”

A slim girl started through the course, so small she looked like a dark-haired boy of twelve or thirteen. Something in her movement was familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it until I saw the terrible scar down the right side of her face.
She’s here!

I gripped the railing to stop myself from jumping over it into the arena. I had to let her concentrate or she’d be slashed to pieces. She wasn’t as quick as Tiber, taking her time getting by each obstacle, but she was graceful like a cat. My chest ached as I remembered her curtain of black hair, how she must’ve cried when they cut it.

“Faster!” the instructor shouted. Alana clutched the back of her neck as if injured, although she hadn’t been hit as far as I could tell. Strangely, I felt the pain in my own neck, and I heard Shim cry out softly too. Alana bent over but ran harder through the last obstacle. A blade struck her face and she recoiled, collapsing on the mat outside the course. Even from the balcony, I saw the blood on her cheek. It drove me crazy, and I forgot where I was.

“Alana!” I yelled as I stepped up on the railing ready to jump. She looked up at me, and I knew it was her. A sharp pain like the stab of a dagger screamed in the back of my head and brought me to my knees. I saw Shim collapse beside me, and I heard Bane above me.

“Such behavior will never do, Recks. I simply won’t tolerate it.”

At least that’s what I think I heard before I passed out.

When I awoke, the arena was gone. I sat upright in an armchair, plush with velvet. Shim sat in an identical chair next to me. I rubbed my aching skull.

“What happened?” I groaned.

“I don’t know,” said Shim. “This whole place is nuts.”

“I’ll tell you what happened, Master Recks.” Master Bane’s voice came out of the darkness behind us. I looked around, but there was no one there, only shelves and shelves of books illuminated by a single, tiny light, like a lamp that glowed without fire, giving the room an eerie glow. Why would Reticents keep books?

“Where are you?” I asked.

“Where is of no concern to you. We’ve implanted a device in each student’s cranium that allows us to send signals to you collectively or individually. The signals may be in the form of discipline, which you experienced today, or in the form of information downloads. I’m speaking to you remotely via this device.”

I dug at the back of my head with my fingers. A small lump, no bigger than a pea, rested under a tiny scar in the hollow at the base of my skull.

“Order is of the utmost importance here, Recks. When one recruit acts out, all will suffer for it.”

“That’s barbaric,” said Shim.

“It’s effective. Most effective,” said Bane. “Recruits discipline each other for the good of the Order so we don’t have to.”

Anger seized my thoughts, and I tensed my jaw.

“Why? What’s the point of all this?” I demanded. “Why don’t you kill us and be done with it?”

“We only execute heretics, Recks, those who’d steal our information and betray us. Our recruits are the best young minds we can find. We mean to cultivate that, not destroy it.”

“Cultivate it for what?” I needled him.

“To perpetuate the Order. Recruits train mentally and physically so that they may be ready one day to protect our way of life as the Elders have.”

“And if a recruit doesn’t want to?”

“That would be unfortunate. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” The tone in his voice was a clear threat.

“But there’s no need to make your mind up now. You must become educated before you choose the right path. That’s what we’re here for,” he continued.

I looked at the books around the room, feeling too weak to get up and open them. The chair sucked me down into its soft cushions the way his voice did.

“I’ll teach you things you could never learn. How to read, write, create, invent, and experiment. Then you can make up your own mind, Recks.” I heard the smug smile in his voice.

“Those things are forbidden,” said Shim.

“Only for commoners. Not to us,” said Bane. Shim slumped in his chair too, struggling to absorb everything.

“This will be your classroom. Young Daniel will join you as soon as he’s able. You will join the other recruits for meals and various activities, athletics, and such. You will soon learn the routine. Let us begin. Close your eyes,” said Bane’s voice in my head.

Tired, my eyelids drooped and closed at the slightest suggestion. I wanted to imagine what Alana looked like now but another scene was broadcast in my mind. Master Bane stood before us in a now bright room, ready to teach.

“Your classes will consist of a series of downloads via the device we’ve implanted in your head. This will allow you to experience the lessons in a much more interactive way and more quickly than I could speak them. It may seem a bit overwhelming at first, but you’ll soon acclimate to the method. Ready?”

I involuntarily grasped the arms of my chair as the stream of data flowed into my head. It poured into me like water from a never-ending pitcher until I thought I’d drown. I heard Shim’s heavy breathing over my own and opened my eyes to look at him, but the data didn’t stop coming. It wasn’t that I saw it in my mind or even heard it. I just suddenly knew things I never knew before, like what the sun was made of, the technical details of exactly how it ruined Earth’s technology, statistics of how many people starved, what diseases others died of, and how long it took the survivors to recover. I knew how the first Reticents found this place, knew it was a former molybdenum mine; I even knew molybdenum was a chemical element. But more than that, I knew the magnitude of what was lost, the terrible cost to humankind, and the terrible suffering the sun caused the world.

Tears streamed down Shim’s face and my own. Finally, mercifully, the data stopped. I held my head in my hands, to keep it all in. I felt as if my head would explode and I’d die if I let go. Who knew this? Who could know this? Who could bear it? Kinder must know this. Where was he?

Shim and I continued our downloads, at least two a day, sometimes more. Daniel never rejoined us, and I never knew what became of him. Mornings started with a simple meal of protein and carbohydrate before our work tending the agricultural fields, which took us back to the surface where the sun blinded us underground dwellers. It also served as our daily doses of vitamin D, which I now knew prevented rickets.

I hadn’t seen Alana since that day in the arena. It seemed like weeks ago. I hoped they’d only moved her, not something worse. Did she even see me that day? Did she know it was me? I hated myself for exposing her. I should’ve kept quiet. I might’ve been able to get closer to her if only I’d kept my head. I’d seen immeasurable pain in the world, but to see hers had been unbearable. I didn’t know why.

It got colder. The potato vines wilted in the frost, and the Masters directed us to dig up the tubers today. The Masters’ farm was several acres of vegetables and fruit trees. I didn’t see farm machinery anywhere, though. The downloads taught us we needed to learn the old ways of survival and never be reliant on machines for food. I suspected they wanted to keep the technology hidden as well. If the others knew …

I always worked fields with the same group: Shim, Tiber, Stef, and Anne. Tiber barked orders at us, which we mostly ignored. I gazed at the woods while I dug the potato hills. I was pretty sure Tingrad lay just beyond them. Being on the surface always made me think about escape. It seemed my whole life had been about escape. Maybe it always would be.

“I see you looking at those woods,” hissed Tiber at Stef. It seemed she thought about the same things. Stef shot Tiber a look she never would’ve given a master. No one liked Tiber, even here. He smiled at her, part leer and part threat.

“There’s nothing for you out there.”

“How do you know?” Stef said under her breath as she knelt to pick up the potatoes I’d dug up.

“Don’t pay him any mind,” I whispered to her as I started on the next hill.

“I don’t,” she said. “But I’d sure like to brain him with your shovel. He must be the only person who likes it here.”

“Yeah, it suits him,” I agreed, keeping an eye on Tiber walking down the row to empty his basket.

“It would be so easy to slip away if he wasn’t around.”

“And go where?”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter where.”

“Besides, you do that, and we’ll all suffer for it.”

“If we all went, it—”

“Shh!” I warned her. I wasn’t so sure Anne wouldn’t turn her in.

“She’s okay. She’s a friend,” said Stef.

“How do you know I am?”

“I’ve seen how you look at the woods. You don’t hide it so well.”

I wiped the sweat off my cheeks where the fall wind hadn’t dried it. Mother’s Love was brilliant orange today with trails of hot pink tracing the clouds. Surely it would burn through any electrical signal the Masters might send. Every day I was out here I went through this. I could run. I could even get away. But where was Alana? If she was still with the Reticents, I couldn’t leave her.

In my daydreaming, I missed the slight form of Stef stealing away. Tiber took off after her. His bulk slowed him down, but his determination made up for it. He was going to get her. Stef wasn’t too bright, but I didn’t want her to get hurt. Without the microchip to control her, Tiber would surely beat her.

I threw down my shovel and sprinted after him, reaching him as he plowed into her. Stef was ready for him with a punch to his throat. He toppled her, but he sputtered and gagged, trying to clear his crushed windpipe. Stef took the opportunity to kick his chest hard with both feet. I pulled him off of her, but she did the hard work of knocking his breath out. He flopped over gasping for air he couldn’t find. Stef struggled too, holding her arm tight around her ribs as if they hurt, but she took off again.

“Damn it, Stef, stop!” I shouted, running after her. Having to dodge through the trees slowed her down. Her feet slipped on the damp, fallen leaves, giving me the chance to catch her in my arms and tackle her to the ground, but she never stopped moving

“Don’t … don’t make me stay here,” she begged. “Please.”

Her breath on my face was ragged as I fought to still her flailing arms and legs without hurting her.

“Stop … listen … ”

She grabbed me back. “No! You stop! If you want this, that’s fine, but don’t choose for me.”

“But you’ll be killed.”

“This is my choice, Recks.” Her eyes burned into mine, and I released her. She lay perfectly still like a moth that doesn’t know it’s been freed yet, her eyes wide.