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August 20, 2526. Breanna, Cash, Tertius, and Aeterna made it out of the
soup, and onto solid ground. They escaped Leviss, and walked through the
tunnel that led to Breckenridge. After taking a perimeter railtrain to the
next exit, they walked downstairs to the vactrain station, which could take
them anywhere in the colonized world. Breanna turned out to have
credentials, which allowed her to look through the logs to determine that
the Levins and Breckenridgers had gotten on train pods to travel northwards.
They apparently stopped before reaching the northern polar region, however.
“Something must have gone wrong,” Tertius says. “The northern pole might
have denied them entry. Aeterna, we’ll have to stop where they did to
investigate.”
“We’re on the same page,” she agrees.
Tertius sighs, and looks back over at the empty vactrain. “You two get on
this one and go as far north as possible. We’ll take the next one.”
“No, we’ll go with you,” Cash volunteers. “We lived on a sentinel. Our
entire job was to watch over these people. We’re certainly not gonna stop
doing that now.”
“We might encounter more toxic air, though,” Breanna warns. “I know you two
are pretty hardy, but if you could put on your own suits, it would help us
communicate. I prefer to keep my filter fully on, in case my carbon
scrubbers stop working.”
“We don’t have suits,” Tertius says apologetically.
Cash is operating her handheld device. “The dome where they had to stop is a
lot more advanced than these two. It will have IMS units for you to check
out. Let’s get over there before the roof collapses.” They all file into the
pod, but have to come right back out. This station was disconnected from the
network due to the hazardous conditions. The tubes aren’t safe enough
anymore. They spend the next two days traveling through the spines, and
along the perimeters of the next several domes, sometimes using railtrains,
sometimes electric carts, and sometimes on foot.
August 21, 2526. Finally, they have reached the dome where the Levins and
Breckenridgers went, but no one is here. It’s totally empty according to the
life signs detector. So they start to walk down the next connecting spine.
Near the end, they find a ton of people, which Aeterna says could plausibly
make up the entire population of Leviss and Breckenridge combined. She
recognizes someone from Leviss, who doesn’t act like he recognizes her back.
“What’s going on here?” she asks.
“There were a lot of people living in this dome before, but some of them
died in an explosion, or something. Now, the people who are still here won’t
let us through the gate. They say it’s for our safety, but we’ve been trying
to negotiate with them this whole time. We know that we can’t go back, so
we’ve been camping out here. ”
“It’s not safe in there?” Tertius presses.
“The dome itself is evidently safe enough, but they’re afraid if we all come
in, we’ll try to get to the train station, but if they say we shouldn’t,
we’ll listen to them. We’re fine with just walking.”
“That’s not the problem,” a young woman says. “One of the negotiators is my
sister, so I heard that the Summerspringers are so afraid of the train now
that they’re looking for land vehicles. They don’t want to share, because
they don’t know how many there are. They’re not even sure if there are any
left. They found a bunch, but there weren’t enough for everyone. It was
apparently quite dramatic, the chaos of deciding who got to leave, and who
had to stay behind to look for other alternatives.”
Breanna steps over as she’s working her wrist interface. “I think it’s right
here.”
“You think what is here?” Tertius asks.
Breanna chuckles lightly. “I have credentials for this too.” She makes one
more tap, and the giant door starts to slide open. The Levins and
Breckenridgers back away nervously as they watch it open. Lights begin to
flicker on inside the big open space. It’s a garage. It’s a garage full of
cars. Real big ones.
Tertius takes his daughter by the hand, and guides her in front of the
entrance. He kneels down. “Get on my shoulders and address the people. You
know what to say.”
Aeterna climbs on, and has no trouble balancing when he stands all the way
up so she’s towering over the crowd. “People of Breckenridge and Leviss,
this is your way out. These vehicles are automated, and syncable.” She leans
over. “They are, aren’t they?”
Breanna nods.
“We will drive the lead vehicle, and tell yours where to go,” Aeterna
continues. “All you have to do is sit there, and enjoy the ride. Is anyone
too nervous to try?”
Many people raise their hands, presumably all from the less advanced
Breckenridge.
“Is anyone both too nervous to try and ready to die?”
They nervously lower their hands.
“It might be scary, but you will get through this!” she cries. “If the
Summerspringers aren’t going to let you through, this is the only way! We’re
not gonna force you, but if you stay, things will not be getting better.
What you were running from is going to catch up to you, sooner or later.”
She pauses for effect. “If you wanna live, follow us inside.” She hops off
of her father’s shoulders, and they begin to walk in.
They don’t really pay attention to who chooses to stay in the main corridor,
if anyone. There are more than enough vehicles for everyone here, but since
they do not belong to them, they decide to not be greedy. Once these
evacuees are secure, they will send a message to Summerspring, informing
them that this garage is what they have been looking for. Until then,
they’re going to prioritize the people who did not actively decline to help
their neighbors. The vehicles are completely vacuum sealed, so they are in
no danger from the inhospitable environment outside the domes, as long as
they remember to actually stay inside.
The four outsiders initially lock out nearly all of the controls, so the
intentionally technologically illiterate can’t accidentally push any wrong
buttons. The Levins are more advanced, but they have never operated anything
like this before. The domes are relatively small, so they had no reason to
invent the car. Still, they will be able to figure things out after some
studying the operator’s manual, so every vehicle is about three-quarters
Levins and one-quarter Breckenridgers. They will be able to override
controls if they so choose later, but that will be up to them.
Breanna, Cash, Aeterna, and Tertius select a smaller vehicle for themselves.
The giant rovers can hold a few dozen people, but this one only maybe a
dozen. Several other people ask to join them, seemingly out of pure
curiosity. Finally, amidst all of this death and destruction, there might
actually be hope. They open the exterior doors, send that quick message to
the Summerspringer authority, and then head off into the unknown.
