Adalace: About bloody time.

A few days passed, and it became the first day of the new school term.

None of the teenagers went to school. Teylon and Sarawatch did not even bother to make an effort to get them to do so. Instead, Adalace kept on travelling the trains, back and forward across Verdant dome, accompanied by one or another of the teenagers.

"Ugh," said Adalace, "Let's do this one more time..."

It's been a long day, and it's only mid afternoon. I'm so sick and tired of all of this.

And now I've got Leroy helping me. What a drag, but everyone else says they're exhausted.

Ha! What about me? I have to do this every bloody time!

She stepped into the cabin, followed by Leroy, who was carrying her school bag. She flopped down on the closest chair, and held out her hand. Leroy dutifully handed her the laptop. She twitched out a few commands, and with weary eyes looked at the display.

And kept on looking at it.

What's this display? That's not the usual one... Oh, stupid. It's the one that shows a successful match. I've found it!

Hmm, yep, sixteen kilometres out, the cabin slows right down, then branches to another track, another couple of kilometres, and then it stops.

Gotcher.

Now I'll just save the trip details and command codes used to control the cabin.

"Hey, Leroy! We're going back to Teylon's. Pack the laptop back into my bag and don't drop it! It's got all the details we need."

Before the evening meal there was a meeting, the last meeting, at Teylon's.

"Adalace has the command codes, which she says she should be able to use to get a cabin to go to the secret destination. So, I guess, tomorrow morning? Any comments?" said Teylon.

Nobody seemed up to saying anything.

"Then, I'll contact Shane and ask him to be at our local Maglev station at, say, 9:00am?" said Teylon.

A nod from Sarsaparilla.

They had a meal together, catered as usual. There was hardly any talk, and they all retired early.

Adalace held Sarsaparilla's hands as they huddled up to each other in their bed.

"My dear, ah, well I suppose, this could be dangerous, you know?" said Adalace.

"I know. I'm scared too."

If she dies, then this is the last time I sleep next to her. Or, if I die, then this will be her last memory of me next to her.

She gripped Sarsaparilla's hand just a bit tighter.

Comforted by each other's presence, they managed to get some sleep.

For cross dome travel, a cabin had twelve seats. But, Shane made thirteen. And most of the others did not want to sit next to him.

Juniper nervously tried to keep behind Devina all the time, while Kaydence stuck herself to Leroy. Shane, on his part, appeared to be distinctly uncomfortable with the crowded space, and he volunteered to remain standing.

"Ah, thank you, Shane. The older I get the more grateful I am for such simple courtesies." said Teylon. He had been the last to get in the cabin, and had taken the last remaining seat and nodded amicably to Shane.

Teylon does that so well. Perhaps we could all learn a lesson or two from him? Since most of the rest are basically wishing Shane would just disappear.

Adalace shook her head to clear her thoughts, then started issuing commands to her laptop, just as the cabin closed its doors and started gently accelerating away.

Here goes.

Hack into the cabin's computer... Done.

Override current control commands with the ones copied down from yesterday... Done.

Check new status... Yep, it's changed, it's now going towards our mystery destination.

Everyone was perfectly silent as they waited for Adalace to say something.

"OK, it appears we are on our way."

"Yes, our cabin is now entering the correct track... And if everything is going correctly, we should be slowing down in about twelve minutes time..."

This is getting stressful, what is everybody else thinking I wonder?

She looked around the cabin.

Of course, Teylon looks unperturbed and calm as usual. Well, apart from the times when he was on the verge of having a mental breakdown.

Sarawatch is keeping a perfectly neutral expression on her face. Hmm, she is a police officer at heart, and we are all off to do something, which could be just a tiny bit illegal.

Francesca looks as if she was thoroughly enjoying herself. Typical. To think that I am socialising with a killer... Apart from Teylon, that is? Or what about Sarsaparilla? Well, anyway... And she appears to have brought a bag of some tools or other. Actually, did anybody think of bringing lunch? Or anything else?

Whatever. Juniper is sitting between Devina and Teylon, naturally. She looks like she is still trying to hide behind Devina. But you can tell just by looking at Shane that he is not going to be threatening anyone any time soon.

Of course, Kaydence is between Leroy and Sarsaparilla, and is concentrating on using Leroy to protect her from Shane. Because Sarsaparilla's attention is monopolised by me!

Adalace gave Sarsaparilla a little smile.

Tamara, for once, is trying her hardest not to hate at Shane. It can't be very exciting looking out of the window at the pitch black of the tunnel walls.

And finally, it looks like Maggie has finally gotten over the last of her resistance to being Erasyl's girlfriend, they're hugging each other like there's no tomorrow.

Actually, that's the wrong phrase to use. Definitely the wrong one.

Ah! We're slowing down.

"Everyone, I'm tracking the cabin's location using the inertial navigational abilities of my laptop, and we are slowing down right on time, about sixteen kilometres from the dome."

The passengers distinctly felt the cabin come to a halt, then slowly move again after changing direction. Then it appeared to point its nose straight down.

"Ark! We're falling!" said Sarsaparilla.

"Rubbish. The cavity is supposed to be a kilometre or more down, and a kilometre or so high, so this spur line has to go down at least two kilometres to get there." said Adalace.

"Still, it's the first time I've ever been in a cabin that is tilted forward by 45 degrees." said Maggie.

It slowly made its way down the slope, then levelled out and at last came to a halt. A faint hiss and the cabin's door opened, to show a perfectly normal maglev station corridor.

Dead silence, both within and without the cabin. Finally, Teylon stood up.

"I suppose, since this is my quest, I should be the first one out. Shane, if you could put a shield around all of us? Keep it up until we get to, ah, wherever we are going to, and, well, I suppose, when we find those people, take it off us and put the shield around them?"

Shane nodded his head.

Shane looks nervous. I don't blame him, everyone else is also. Except for Francesca, of course.

In a compact little group, they all stepped out and stood on the platform. With another faint hiss, the platform doors closed and the cabin went back the way it came.

"Damn, I should have put a hold on it!" said Adalace.

"Never mind," said Teylon, "We can always call for another one."

Can we?

The corridor extended ten metres before coming to a door, currently closed. On the wall was a name.

"Futures City"

"A bit of a grandiose name, isn't it?" said Sarawatch.

Right under this sign were three motorised hospital beds, sitting on some very light gauge rail way tracks, waiting in a line.

"Could these be used to take the expectant mothers, who arrive here sedated, to the implantation location?" said Adalace.

"Makes sense, I suppose." said Maggie.

Hefting her tool bag in her hand, Francesca gestured towards the exit door.

"Come on gang, let's get going!"

Francesca: Her second time here.

I think I had better provide a bit of guidance to this bunch of school kids

Although Sarawatch at least has got some sense.

"Shane, if you could stand in the middle of the group and provide a shield for everyone? And, don't let anyone get out of it, even if they appear to want to. OK?"

"Ah, yes."

Unlike Maggie's shields, which were always clearly visible and produced a small buzzing sound, Shane's shield was totally silent and completely invisible. If he wanted them to be. He could also adjust them to block out whatever part of the electromagnetic spectrum he wanted to. So, for the time being, he produced a shield that wrapped around everyone in the group and which was slightly translucent.

Francesca walked to the front of the group, reached out, and tapped the shield just in front of her. The shield itself made no sound, but her knuckles hitting it did.

"Good, good. Now, if Devina could walk at the back, Sarawatch walk on one side and Maggie on the other, and everyone else keep sort of in the middle? I know that Shane can spread the shielded area much wider than this, but I suggest we all keep reasonably compact?"

Can't be too bossy here, those kids know nothing about discipline in adverse conditions. I'm so glad the shield keeps them in as well as keeps stuff out, it could be a real disaster if somebody decided to take off on their own.

"Well, let's go on to the next bit, shall we?"

Francesca gingerly opened the door. As she did, bright light shown in and onto them. Briefly, dust motes in the air lit up like little fireflies, and then the door was fully opened. They shuffled out in their compact formation, squinting from the unaccustomed glare.

"It looks like another dome!" said Adalace, "But how can there be sunlight down here, ah, right."

She realised that the sunlight was from multiple points of light, high above their head.

"Artificial lighting," said Francesca, "I wonder if they have their own fusion power station here, or if they have a feed from Verdant Dome's main power supply?"

Maggie had stepped forward, and was leaning against a railing. They were on a balcony, jutting out from a rock wall, and two metres above the ground.

"Wow, there's sure a lot of empty space here!"

The rock wall behind them rose up vertically, then gently curved over as it disappeared in the slight amount of atmospheric haze. The wall also curved from side to side, making a huge circle. Looking horizontally and outwards, the other side of the circle could just be seen. And the floor of the cavity was flat.

"Wait a minute, this isn't a natural cavity, not by a long shot!" said Adalace.

Francesca took out a hand held instrument from her bag.

"Laser range finder." she said.

She pointed it up and looked at the display.

"Hmm, a ceiling two metres above me. Shane, could you allow infrared through your shield? Only for a few minutes, mind you."

"Ah, that's better."

She pointed it up, then out to the horizon, then swept it around.

"Let's see, it says the highest part of the roof is one and a half kilometres, and the horizon is three kilometres away, and the shape is almost a perfect half sphere. It calculates the volume to be about seven and a half cubic kilometres. And, obviously, it is artificial."

"So, they started with an irregular cavity, and smoothed it out?" said Leroy.

"I suppose so. But doing so would generate a tremendous amount lot of tailings, so where are they?" said Devina.

"I dunno." said Francesca, "But, anyway, let's leave that question to later, shall we?"

The next question was who lived in the twelve huts that were spread out just in front of them?

There were in two lines of six. Each hut looked different, as if they had been constructed at different times using different materials, and about half of them were surrounded by gardens of some sort. Some were just trees and shrubs, others had flower beds and there was even a water fountain. The vegetation looked healthy and well cared for, and there were various signs of habitation; a couple of bicycles leaning against a house wall, a set of barbells and weights under a veranda, a pile of leaves and branches that had been heaped up next to one of the garden beds - but no signs of any people.

"Considering they were all gung ho on developing this as a real estate gold mine - there's certainly not much development after all of three decades." said Sarsaparilla.

There wasn't. To the right of the houses were a collection of standard green houses, used in all domes to recycle carbon dioxide back into oxygen. Behind them was what could only be described as a junk yard. A sprawling expanse of junk of all kinds, including, for some reason, three or four burnt out remains of houses.

Noticing this, Sarawatch was shocked. "So many fires, they should be taking more care than that!"

And behind the junk yard was a lot of nothing much at all. The floor of the dome stretched out in all of its boring flatness and uniformity to the perimeter. Scattered here and there were occasional bits of junk, a couple of small electric cars, a couple patches of built up gardens, a grove of trees, even a small pile of rubble.

"Say, could that rubble be from when they bored a hole down from the surface?" said Devina.

She looked up to try to spot the entrance point, but the glare from the lights was too much.

"And after all this time they didn't bother to clean it up?" said Maggie.

Francesca cleared her throat. "This is all very interesting and all of that, but I suggest we concentrate on our first priority?"

Sigh, they're all procrastinating.

"And, may I suggest that we just follow these rails?"

The rails that Francesca indicated came out of the Maglev station and went in a gentle curve down from the platform and to their left. The track had a roof over it, and to the side that faced the centre of the dome was a line of trees, each one in a large pot. The track went for a hundred metres then disappeared into the only other building visible. This building was much more substantial than any of the others, it was made from concrete slabs and was two stories high.

"Yep, there it is, the lair of the evil overlords!" said Leroy.

"Or something. Actually, I can vaguely remember all of this. So this is definitely where I was taken as an innocent little kid." said Francesca, "Anyway, let's go."

"Everything is so silent!" said Sarsaparilla.

Hugging Adalace's arm with both of hers, she followed the group has they moved down from the platform and onto the floor of the dome.

Tamara, closest to the first trees, pointed.

"Look here, each tree has a small plaque. This one says Lucy, and a date... About thirty years ago."

"Commemorative trees for people who have died?" said Maggie.

In silence, they slowly walked along the rails. Their footfalls were clearly audible, while in the distance they could heard the faint muffled rumble of an atmospheric fan, circulating the air. But there was no other machinery sounds, nor any other signs of life.

Thus, still in silence, the group came to the side of the main building that was facing them. The rails were laid right up to it and entered via door. Which silently and automatically opened as they approached. The rails continued inside, up a ramp, and disappeared from their sight.

The faint swish of air conditioning was all that greeted them. On the dome wall side of the corridor were a series of doors, on the other side were windows overlooking the dome area. The building style was strictly utilitarian, no fancy marble floors, no expensive polished wood panelled walls, just a boring beige painted fit out.

"This is a pretty bland secret headquarters; I'm a bit disappointed." said Leroy.

"Never mind," said Adalace, "I'm sure you can jazz it up when you appoint yourself the next evil czar."

"Children, please." said Francesca, “Also, note that this building was built to function in a vacuum. So, maybe it was built before they managed to fill the dome with air?”

Not having anything to say to this, they continued up the ramp, walking next to the rails.

They were now cautiously walking along the upper corridor. Both sides of it were bank walls and the rails went straight down and through another door. This door had the first sign they had seen: 'Operations'. And the door next to it, in the side wall, had a sign saying 'Committee'.

"Isn't all of this far too easy?" said Sarawatch.

"It is. Definitely." said Francesca.

It sure is nice being spoilt by having an Angel of Death take care of all of the messy little details.

As if to underscore this sentiment, there was a sudden commotion. Puffs of smoke and flashes of fire appeared along the walls, and there were a lot of bangs.

The Girls in Pink stood there and watched. Sarawatch flinched, then also stopped and looked around to work out what was happening. Shane stopped, and concentrated. Everybody else was spooked out. There was a certain amount of confusion, before Francesca managed to get them to calm down.

"Hey, stop freaking out! This is obviously some sort of defense, which we all knew must happen at some point, so stop moving around!"

Everybody became still.

Sarsaparilla watched, in morbid fascination, as a gun port half a metre from her face fired bullets at her. She could see the smoke and flash, and then a squashed bullet falling to the floor, after bouncing between the shield and the wall. When they all became still, the firing stopped.

"Right, it must detect motion somehow." said Francesca.

She waved her hand, and a few more bullets were fired at her. There was now quite a collection of spent bullets lying on the ground.

"This is no time to delay, what say we enter the door marked 'Committee'?"

So, with Francesca in the lead, and everyone else following, accompanied by the sounds of bullets hitting the shield, all trooped into the committee room.

Clunk. The door closed behind them.