Deep Underground

Lenny the leader did not look all that good. There were dark shadows under his eyes from the late nights he had been putting in, stubble across his chin because he could not be bothered finding the time to shave, his clothes were creased and scuffed because last night he had so little time to sleep he hadn't even bothered changing.

The others did not look much better, although Teresa had made an effort to make herself look a little bit more presentable.

It is a common misperception that, once one has a security camera recording of a scene, then obtaining full knowledge of what happens does not require any further effort.

If only.

Security camera recordings are not like the scenes from a movie, where everything is laboriously and meticulously coordinated and controlled to present to the viewer exactly what is needed to advance the plot. Instead it is more like a confusion collage of multiple views, from different angles, showing an immense amount of irrelevant information, with the video being constantly interrupted and broken up by the constant movement of the people concerned, and the audio dropping in and out, depending on how many people are talking at once and how loud.

And, of late, the committee had a lot of security coverage to wade through. There were twelve in Teylon's group, and they certainly didn't stick together all of the time. Also, only some of the time were they actually doing anything relevant. Most of the time, of course, they were doing the equivalent of asking for the salt to be passed across the table, or discussing the weather, or planning on whether or not to go swimming or a walk. Even with automated computerised systems, it still took time to go through them. And for this sort of surveillance, getting someone else to go through it was out of the question.

"OK, let's start this special extra meeting, as if we don't have enough to do anyway without all of this Teylon nonsense." said Lenny.

"Yeah, bloody hell. Is this all some sort of a soap opera?" said Arnold, "Teenagers and their angst, I'm fully past all of that crap."

"Oh, I don't know, it could be all so amusing. In different circumstances, that is." said Teresa.

"We need to stay focused here. And start thinking about the possibility that they will all be paying us a little social visit." said Lenny.

Groans from some of the others.

"Should we get out our best china wear? Perhaps Prakash should bake some of his delicious scones?" said Terrence.

He got a death glare from Arnold.

"More to the point, they don't know where we are, and unless by some weird chance that USB stick contains that information, there is no way they can know." said Arnold.

"Well, that is one point in our favour. I mean, what are the chances of Adalace cracking the encryption of that stick, and that it contains our address?" said Lenny.

"Pretty low, I would say," said Terrence, "After all, it is just a random lost stick Teylon found, there is no reason why it should be something that was lost thirty years ago. And even if it was, since it's encrypted, even with Adalace's super computer it would be very unlikely that the code will be broken. And, of course, we don’t have an address as such. And thirty years ago this place was just some unknown void deep underground, which appeared on our scans as we were doing a geological survey for some sanitation tunnels."

"But, still, the stick did come from the Sanitation Department.” said Lenny.

"Yeah, but, how can it be one from thirty years ago? I mean, hasn't the place been renovated at least once since then?" said Prakash.

"Actually, I don't think it has. Why should it have been, when it was perfectly good in the first place? And we haven't exactly encourage frivolous wastage and empire building by our public servants." said Teresa.

They all looked glum at this statement.

"Although, if I remember correctly, about ten years ago they put in that openable window so that flyers can visit directly. The one that Teylon climbed out off. Apart from that, the place hasn't changed all that much." she said.

"Fine, then, let's just disable her computer." said Terrence, "For example, let's just switch off the power subsystem that supplies it. I can do it right now from my terminal."

Everybody looked at everyone else. They seemed strangely reluctant to act on this suggestion. Eventually Lenny summed up the prevailing mood.

"Judging by our previous efforts to intervene, will it really be all that easy?"

A mediative silence.

"I suppose we can only try it?" said Prakash.

So Terrence spent a few minutes drilling through the sub menus until he finally arrived at the one he wanted.

"Yep, here we are: Electrical sub systems/Watch centre #77/Transformer #3(Adalace)/Options"

"I click on the Power status: Disable button and..."

A very sour expression gradually appeared on his face.

"And?" said Lenny.

"Not Allowed."

"Oh" said Lenny.

Arnold started laughing. Although he did not sound the least bit jovial.

"Ha Ha! I'll bet you lot 50 to 1 that it will come to pass that they will make onto us a visit! Esmeralda the Angel of Death has spoken!"

The others did not seem to be disagreeing all that much.

"OK, if you can stop laughing now? I mean, we can't just stop after one measly attempt." said Lenny.

"Sure, sure. What say I contact my senior technician, who is currently in Verdant right now, and ask him to rock up at the power substation box and physically turn off Adalace's power?" said Terrence, "Of course, I hope that he doesn't drop dead. It's not as he deserves it or anything."

"So, you're implying that we do deserve to drop dead?" said Teresa.

"Please, no more of this needling each other. And, remember, we have all agreed to fully own the moral consequences of our actions." said Lenny.

"Yeah yeah. And how does the Ajaeren brain washing stuff sit with that?" said Arnold.

Lenny looked extremely irritated at that, so Arnold kept on talking. "Oh, just do it for God's sake and stop wasting our time."

Consequently, Terrence rang up the senior technician, using a telephone handset. He spoke to him for a few minutes, then disconnected.

"OK, in ten or so minutes he should be contacting us again."

They were too distracted to do any constructive work, they just waited.

"Ah, at last, my technician is reporting in.” said Terrence.

He picked up the telephone and listened for a few moments. Carefully keeping a straight face, he said:

“OK, Jonathon, perhaps you should continue to the hospital. Contact me when you are better.”

Then he put the phone down. The corners of his mouth curled upwards and he started to giggle.

“Oh my, you know how he is ever so straight laced? Well -”

By now he was visibly suppressing the urge to laugh.

“He told me he was on the way to the transformer substation when -”

He started laughing.

“When he had to make a dash for the nearest toilets -”

“He said something about - explosive diarrhoea!”

Terrence laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. The others waited in stony silence while he got himself under control.

“Well, I suppose that is funny, but...” said Lenny.

Terrence went silent and serious. “Well, you see, this Angle of Death business must be real after all. And they’re going to be coming for us.”

Silence for a while.

“Ok, then, should I bake some of my scones?” said Prakash, “I can also bring some of my plum and raspberry jam and some fresh whipped cream, if you like.”

Everybody else ignored his suggestion.

“Now, now, this is all just a possibility,” said Lenny, "After all, there are other groups trying to find us, and none of them have come anywhere near to working out who we are and where we are."

“But none of those other groups have an Angel of Death helping them! After all of the very peculiar incidents that have happened around Teylon, I think the possibility is pretty high that they will succeed.” said Terrence.

“Ok then, perhaps we should make plans for what we might be saying to them?” said Lenny.

“I can see there could be some extremely problematical conversational topics.” said Arnold, “Which, nevertheless, they will be extremely interested in pursuing.”

“Yeah, for example Devina will really really really want to know why Juniper was subject to what she experienced.” said Teresa.

“For that matter, who that white haired man was...” said Terrence.

Lenny did not look very comfortable as he moved in his chair. “Well now, that topic could be a bit close to the bone.”

Teresa looked at Lenny. In particular, she looked at his white hair. “Oh shit, don’t tell me...”

“Ah, actually, it was. I mean, I used my own money, and, well, morally speaking if we signed off on it, then whether or not it’s one man or another that does it, it doesn’t make any difference. And then, of course, as it turned out, we were adversely influenced by Ajaeren. So, ah, right?”

“You stupid idiot.” said Teresa.

“My, this is going to be one intense meeting.” said Arnold, “I’m glad I've always stuck with adult prostitutes who knew what they were doing.”

“But, nonetheless, we all own those moral choices we made... Sort of.” said Lenny.

“Yeah, sure, morally speaking it’s all the same. But, you do realise that it’s Devina you will be meeting? And Francesca?” said Arnold.

“Perhaps you should make a run for it?” said Terrence.

Lenny, looking somewhat older than he had been at the start of the meeting, ran a hand through that white hair.

“All things considered, I think I don’t have any other option but to stay here. So, let’s move right on, shall we?”

“Well, in the hypothetical case that they do turn up, we should cancel all implantation procedures on the day, and evacuate all staff from this centre except for us. Seems reasonable?” said Lenny.

“I still find it hard that we are actually planning for this, but, yeah, I suppose so. Can’t have anyone else caught in any crossfire.” said Terrence.

“How about we activate the automatic defences?” said Arnold, “It should be interesting, putting them to their first use.”

“They will have Shane, you know.” said Prakash.

“Yeah, but still, I designed those defences, so it would be nice to see them in action for once... Even if they make no difference.”

“Fine, fine, we’ll turn them on.” said Lenny.

He did not look as if he cared one way or another about them. For that matter, neither did anyone else apart from Arnold.

There was further dispirited conversation, but their hearts weren’t really in it. They finally decided that there was nothing much they could constructively plan for, so it was just a matter of waiting. They made plans for their next meeting, since they still had to manage Mars, and then they left.

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Arnold: Keeps a little bit of information to himself

During the playback of the security cameras, Arnold had been very interested to hear that Sarsaparilla was the granddaughter of that bloke from whom he had stolen that logistics company, right before he became involved with the esp businesses.

Let’s just keep quiet about that, shall we?

Nobody else should pick up on that; after all, it was a third of a century ago.

Wouldn’t want Sarsaparilla getting all judgemental about it.

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Teresa: Remembering how it all started

Before retiring that night, Teresa reflected on their situation in general and on esp implantations in specific.

These mothers, they get life endangering choices made for them, without any consultation at all. They don't play any part in picking what esp ability they want for their baby, either.

But then, I didn't get any choice either.

I walked the walk. I choose to go ahead with it, knowing the dangers.

I mean, they can't complain, can they?

They shouldn't complain. We are doing the best that we can. Yes, definitely the best.

How did it go, again?

That's right, with that bloke leaving my life.

She ran through the memory again, the thirty year old memory of the pain of being dumped and deserted.

Flashback time for Teresa: Chooses her future

The middle of the night after Lucy died:

How cliché. The memory of a door being slammed as he disappears from my life.

Teresa had just woken up from her usual nightmare. Not one that she had all her life or anything, just one that she had acquired in the last couple of months.

She sat up in her bed, being careful not to make too much noise. The walls of the compartments weren't all that soundproof. She looked out of the porthole. The walls of the crater where barely visible in the darkness, while the shadow of the mining machine loomed over her.

Face it Teresa. He was just using you.

All of that starry eyed love? Purely a construct of my own imagining, my own desires. Yeah, didn't he play me like a maestro. I never noticed how he was so perfect in every way. Perfect because he was faking it, fitting his behaviour to my expectations.

And then he dumps me.

Just before I was going to tell him that I was pregnant.

Maybe I should just go and get an abortion. It's not too late, although I had better do it soon. And never tell him anything. He doesn't deserve to be told.

And now I've got one more thing to give me sleepless nights.

Lucy dying - what a shitty thing to happen.

She thought about it.

Maybe that's a way out of this. I'm one week short of precisely 100 days. So why don't I volunteer? If it fails, I die.

Do I really care?

Well, maybe I do. But, still, it feels like a reasonable risk to take. For me. Right now.

Or, maybe the foetus dies. Well, that's just like an abortion, isn't it?

Or, or, I give birth to the first human with genuine esp powers.

I suppose that certainly might make me feel better about things. Surely?

She lay back and did her best to get to sleep again.

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Terrence: Remembering the past

Terrence, in his own room, was also doing some retrospection.

Again, I wasn't of much use, was I?

Bloody hell, this time I'm up against an Angel of Death!

Or at least that is what Teylon says.

He tossed around in his bed.

It was so much more fun sleeping next to Teresa - pity that ended long ago.

He decided to run through those ancient memories once again.

Flashback time for Terrence: Someone to admire

The group were meeting again, sitting around a folding table, directly under the Artifact. The tabletop was reflecting an orange tint from its lighting.

"You want to be test subject number 2?" Terrence said.

"That's right. I feel that if the message says 100 days, then it means precisely 100 days. So, hopefully, I'll be all right." said Teresa.

Now that's - gutsy.

I wouldn't have thought she would have the balls to do that. Err, I know what I mean.

There must be more to her than just that colourless flat exterior.

I suppose, because I've only know her for a few months, I haven't seen anything more.

Prakash, eyes red from sleepless nights, stared at Teresa.

"Are you sure you really want to do this?"

"Reasonably sure."

Prakash shrugged his shoulders and turned away.

"Fine, I don't really care."

Lucy's death has really flattened him. He really doesn't care, anymore.

Lenny looked at Terrence, raising his eyebrows.

"Well, OK, I mean, if we are going to own this whole esp business, we need to prove that it works, somehow."

One week later, Terrence attached the USB cord again and accessed the artifact’s control page.

He looked around. Lenny nodded his head. Prakash was looking away. Teresa was already up on the artifact.

Should I tell Teresa to get ready...? On the other hand, let's just get this over and done with as soon as possible.

He clicked the GO button. There was an orange flash.

Then Lenny called out.

"Teresa! You OK?"

A small tense moment - "Yes, I'm still here - was that all?"

Oh bloody hell, that's a relief. Now all we got to do is wait for the birth.

I don't think I could have done that. She's actually quiet admirable.

They had some simple medical monitoring equipment as part of their safety kit. As far as they could tell, the foetus was still alive and well.

"Next step, if we make the assumption that we do get real live esp babies, how do we go forward from here?" said Lenny.

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Flashback time for Teresa: The first esp mother

Teresa was holding court in her little unit, somewhere in the depths of the North Tower. However, in spite of being ruler of all she could currently survey, which was mainly her living area, she was not a very contented queen. She rocked her two month old baby in her arms, but he was being fractious, he had been irritably crying all morning and most of the previous night. She was irritable herself, having spent all night trying to get him to sleep.

The door chime sounded.

"Come in! It's unlocked."

The rest of the crew shuffled in. None of them looked very lively.

"So, what's the latest news?" said Laura.

"According to the paediatrician there's no longer any reasonable doubt, little Keltain is definitely brain damaged. He can't work out why, according to him the symptoms don't match up to any known causes."

She scanned the faces around her, and got back a lot of glum looks.

"Could this have been caused by the Artifact?" said Lenny.

Teresa shrugged her shoulders, but didn't bother saying anything.

"This isn't working very well, is it? Two failures in a row. Wasn't this supposed to be our great chance for fame, not to mention humanity's chance to make a great leap forward in its march of progress towards a glorious future?" said Prakash.

The others looked even more glummer. Fortunately for the collective mood, there was another visitor.

"Oh, Hi Dr Stanford." said Teresa.

She had a look at the briefcase-sized piece of medical equipment he was carrying.

"Is that the advanced ECG monitor you were talking about?"

"Of course. The stupid hospital board weren't going to let me use it, something about it being too valuable to loan out to anybody who hasn't done the instruction course for it. Bunch of stupid idiots."

He looked around at the crowd.

"You're having visitors?"

"Ah, don't mind them, they’re all as interested in Keltain's condition as you are." said Teresa.

He put the machine down, took off his backpack and extracted a bundle of wires and other paraphernalia. And, also, an instruction manual.

Teresa, seeing as some of her audience were looking puzzled, decided to explain.

"Dr Stanford wants to check out Keltain's brain wave patterns, except that the only top of the line ECG machine suitable for babies is in high demand and fully booked out during the week. And the only time slot he could get was in three weeks time."

The doctor was busy attaching wires to the machine. And reading the manual. He looked up for a moment, and said:

"Cases like this are rare, and we should find out as soon as possible what is going on. After all, with a bit of luck, we might be able to ameliorate the symptoms. Or something. But the fools couldn't be bothered making time for little Kelly. And, can you believe, the specialists who use this machine never work on the weekend, so it just sits there unused! Lazy incompetents. Where's their commitment to their profession?"

He turned a few pages in the manual, and muttered to himself as he read the instructions, and started adjusting settings on the machine.

"Ah, right. OK, if you can make him as comfortable as possible, and I'll start attaching electrodes."

The baby whined a little, so the doctor gently stroked his head, and let him suck his thumb. To the amazement of everyone watching, including Teresa, he quietened down.

An hour later.

Dr Stanford scratched his head. "God knows what's going on here. Some of these ECG waves are completely and utterly weird. I mean, look at that one, and this one! What the hell are they?"

He was pointing to the screen of the ECG machine. The others looked on in interest, but all they could see were about fifty squiggly lines in fifty different colours.

Arnold cleared his throat. "Maybe you haven't quite set up the machine correctly?"

"Rubbish! It's not rocket science. The manual is written to be understood by a twelve year old, which I sometimes suspect is the mental age of some of those doddering derelicts who call themselves senior doctors. If they can use this machine, then so can I!"

By this stage, the baby had finally fallen asleep, and Teresa was rocking him.

The doctor crossed his arms, looked at the baby, then glared at the charts on the screen again.

"Right. I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and I shall understand what's going on!"

He stopped glaring and deflated a bit.

"Unfortunately I have to return this machine before they notice it's gone. What a pain."

A snort of amusement from Arnold. "So, you actually pinched it without authorisation?"

"I did not pinch it! I just borrowed it when no one else was using it! And if I take it back right now, no one will be the wiser."

"Sure, sure, as if I could care." said Arnold.

So the doctor packed up his stuff, said good bye to Teresa, gently stroked the baby's head, and rushed off.

"A bit of a character?" said Lenny.

"You bet. The best paediatrician on this side of the planet. But he's always getting in trouble for charging ahead without getting permission."

Arnold laughed out loud.

Which maybe was not a good idea, as it woke the baby. He screwed up his face and waved his arms frantically and gave a big yell. And a patch of wall, directly in his line of sight and two metres away from him, flared with a burst of red flame. The baby immediately quietened down, seeming to be entranced by the spectacle of the burning flames, which soon died out.

"Oh, shit." said Arnold.

The next hour was spent in intense discussion. And, for some reason, they were all extremely cautious of the baby.

Eventually Lenny summed up the conclusions.

"The sooner we get Teresa and baby to accommodations in the void, the better.

So we had better get moving with building some stuff.

Arnold will be providing initial finance, and the others will provide help in whatever capacity they can.

And, we look into hiring that doctor as our first employee. It appears that he is very good at what he does, but is prepared to bend the rules quite a bit to get what he wants."

Everyone agreed.

Except for the baby, who had gone back to sleeping.

"Say, can we give a name so we don't have to keep referring to it as the void?" said Terrence.

"Well, it looks like we have a glorious future in front of us, after all." said Prakash.

Teresa was unable to decide if he was being sarcastic or not.

"So what say we call it Futures City?"

Lenny put his hands out, palms up. "Well, sure, why not?"

Nobody else complained.

Six weeks later.

Teresa looked out of the reinforced high strength window. On the inside, she and her baby were warm and comfortable. On the other side, there was a vacuum. A few external lights and the room's own light cast hard-edged shadows on the ground outside of the window, the rest of the Futures City void was midnight black.

Futures City. What a grandiose name for what is just an empty expanse of rock floor a few kilometres below the surface.

Keltain was currently sleeping in her arms. She looked tired; there were black smudges under her eyes from sleepless nights.

This is exhausting. If I put him down, he'll just wake up. And if he is startled too much, something will burn.

She looked around the room. Here and there were black scorch marks on the walls due to little burning incidents. And there was a scorch mark on the ceiling.

I only narrowly avoided that one. At least I'm getting a feel for when he is likely to burn something.

She felt bitter and sour.

Glorious future my arse. I was thinking of some wonderful esp power like levitation, or seeing the future, or anything, something useful and inspiring. Instead, I spend my time dodging flame bursts. And my baby is severely mentally retarded.

I don't blame Prakash for his attitude at all. Why should I have to pay such a high price for humanity's introduction to esp? When we get it right, if we get it right, there will be happy doting parents with happy little kids doing wonderful and productive things - maybe pushing space ships along, or helping build wonderful new domes to live in, or, or, lots of things. Instead, I'm stuck here with a baby who will barely recognise me when he grows up, and I'm in constant danger of being burnt to a crisp.

Later that day, still holding the baby, she was present, in their main building which contained the Artifact, at a small presentation by Dr Stanford.

"I certainly can't claim to understand much of anything about this whole esp business, but at least I'm making some small progress."

He's having fun, I'm sure. While I'm certainly not.

"Those weird extra ECG signals must be something to do with the esp ability. I guess that Keltain's brain isn't really all that different from a normal baby's brain - well apart from his unfortunate brain damage -"

Yeah, rub it in, bloody hell, he doesn't even realise it, does he?

"So the source of the esp power must be from something radically different - you know, maybe like those science fiction descriptions about patterns imprinted on the space time fabric, or whatever. But, it needs to be controlled somehow, and I surmising that those brain waves are the visible representation of the communications link between Keltain's brain and the esp ability mechanism."

He produced some pretty graphs on the projector screen.

"Using our brand new ECG machine, thanks to Arnold for generously purchasing it, I can use it to display the relevant waves, and filter out all of the rest. So we have a reliable means of detecting if a random person has an esp. Naturally, when I try this on myself or any of you adults, those particular waves are almost, but not quite, absent. Not that this particular ECG machine is designed for adults, mind you. But it will work for them."

Yep, he's having fun. I thought that he was dedicated to helping baby and infants. But, in reality, he's dedicated to the study of baby and infant symptoms and diseases. And, right now, he is fanatically dedicated to the study of esp powers.

I wish I could have fun, too.

Later Terrence escorted her back to her small dome, which was permanently connected to the main building by a pressurised tunnel. He stayed for a while, chatting, before leaving.

As Teresa waved him of, she had a little thought.

That's an idea. I could get a little fun after all. Even if it will never make up for Keltain's condition.