“Before us stands our Pilot and Navigator—but who will be honoured and who will be elevated?” Malikus ran his finger gently under Andrana’s chin, smiling at her wildly. She bit her lip and struggled to contain a giggle.
I looked on in disgust, corrupt grifters the pair of them.
Malikus let his contempt for me burn freely on that repulsive face as he walked by. He licked at his lips, pushing an insect back into his mouth that had crawled out onto his chin.
He turned towards the group standing before us; eight of them. They stood in a line behind a table that held an orb, small enough to fit in your palm, big enough to bash his head in with.
The room was monstrous in size, a perfectly round hall that imposed itself on you whichever way you turned. Inscriptions followed the inside of the wall, telling an epic five-mile tale. Images of the dead and anguished between archaic passages of the damned. It was written in an ancient language—it spoke of great feasts, hell, sex, the Pilot and the Navigator. Malikus raised the orb and whispered to it.
His voice echoed senselessly about me like an irksome fly as I tried to push down my worry. I doubt it spoke back. It would be decided now - Pilot or Navigator? A part of me hoped that orb had a say in the decision.
Malikus held the orb to his ear. “It has spoken!” Malikus smiled at Andrana and I. “Corvas.”
I perked up.
“You.” he pointed at me.
I felt like fleeing, hammering the curved wall with my fists for any way out. “You are to be given the honour of Navigator! You are the envy of us all!” Betrayed and outwitted by a scoundrel and his whore. I had predicted this. I had a plan for them all.
Malikus looked at me a moment as he stood before my wife. His vile teeth were lined up like alabaster icicles; cold and deathly. He turned back to Andrana in a show of arrogance and embraced her. He locked into a deep, slow kiss with her. The rot in my gut curdled and threatened to rush up my throat.
She turned to me after the kiss, her gorgeous mouth painted with his stench. “Thank you, Navigator…your sacrifice is the greatest show of love, my Husband.” she almost moaned that sentence. How she did such a wonderful job of taunting me.
I awoke to see Remsher first and Leena standing behind him, their images resolving as my foggy vision cleared.
“What the fuck are you doin’ in my office and on my chair?” said Remsher.
I sat up. “I came back to get Leena but you weren’t in…I fell asleep.”
“In my chair.” Remsher scratched his mighty chest. His face had collected a day’s worth of dirt and shit like mine. There was no escaping the clinging filth of this rock.
“I haven’t been sleeping well recently.” My shoulders had stiffened into lead blocks. His chair wasn’t built for napping.
“He has a bad time in his sleep,” said Leena.
Remsher perched himself across from me to engage in conversation, but I had already started to stand. “We need to get going now, c’mon, Leena,” I said.
Remsher interrupted my attempted flight. The look on his face wasn’t inspiring. “You saw the news?” His eyes were uncomfortable on my face.
I wanted to look away. “I did.”
“Well, we should reconsider this whole Yunar nonsense.” Remsher picked up the bird, mimicking my past interest, perhaps to comfort himself at this point.
“I have already secured our I.D. snap and an engineer who can run a jump, plus I’ve confirmed with Him—it’s all in stone now.”
Remsher waved his hand, joining me in this dance only ten years of respect could recite. Ray was going to do everything he could to pull out of our agreement. When he said reconsider, his mind was made up. “Nah. Look, Omedertha hasn’t seen a jump in nearly thirty years—too risky...tell Him this ain’t happening.”
“No, Ray.” My irritation crawled from the back of my throat.
“Well it’s not your choice is it, Den? So let's have my snap back and we’ll meet tomorrow and get some deliveries going. There will be plenty to do when Vicky arrives, eh?”
He was still jovial in tone, but his choice of words told me differently. I had seen this detonation sequence before and I preferred not to be the catalyst. “No Ray—we are going to Yunar and we are doing this delivery.”
Remsher placed the bird figurine down very gently, albeit with a shaking hand. “Give me the I.D snap, I’ll speak to you tomorrow.” Ray’s jaw had clenched like a stone carving.
“No—it’s already modified and I have traded it off for the new snap. It’s safe, we set off in two days. Be ready.” I stood my ground, but the room was spinning. I felt overwhelmed and I was already rueing the decision to position myself between the wall and Remsher’s desk.
“Wait outside, Leena,” said Remsher.
I took a breath when I heard that big, green steel bulwark groan, like a prison door slamming before a life sentence.
“Last chance, Den.”
I shook my head. “Jovik’s changed it over. It’s a Royalist ship now, and if we don’t leave, the Royalists will track you. They won’t care for your cries of innocence...” I placed my hands on the desk and leaned into my power play.
Remsher shoved the desk mightily. The screech of the table legs echoed about the room in agony as they scraped along the floor. I was pinned to the wall, helpless, as Remsher rose like a mountain forming.
“I’ll have to kill you, and beat Jovik into submission till he changes it back.”
“If you kill me, you’ll not get the snap back. You don’t know where Jovik lives.”
“Some mate you are. You’re nothing but a backstabbing weasel, no wonder Skarlet left you.” Ray laughed. It was his laugh of defeat. A furious laugh that only came out when he was trying to be his most venomous self. It was almost feminine.
I’ll admit, that shitty laugh and his daggered comments lit the fury inside me that I worked so hard to keep calm. A peasant once shoved Leena out of the way, I pushed him down a flight of stairs. The slightest indiscretions would sometimes ignite my soul and burn the back of my eyes.
“You’re the one who fucking pulled out!” I said, slamming my fist on the table. “You accepted, I have done my part, you’re coming or you swing.” As real as the fire inside me was, the glow of its flames wouldn’t intimidate Ray.
Remsher took up his bird figurine and hurled it. I tried to move away but the dense base caught my temple and dazed me. A stream of blood rushed down my cheek and dripped off my jaw.
“You fucked me!” Remsher said, his voice a little muffled as my senses found their way back to my conscience.
“I’m going, so are you going to let me? Or are you going to keep having this pathetic tantrum?” I held my hand against my head to trap the fleeing blood.
Remsher slumped back into the chair. He was beaten. I didn’t want to do this to him but had no other choice. I needed a pilot and a ship. Remsher was bound to this mission now. From friend to hostage. I’d have to hope he didn’t kill me out of spite.
“Just fuck off.”
I eased out of the desk and tentatively walked around his heaving mass. My cheek was smeared with blood from wiping it. Not my best look.
As the door closed on Remsher’s cage, I could hear him inside, thrashing like a wild baboon. He bellowed unspeakable words. The crashing of furniture rang out into the stairwell.
“Is Ray hurt?” asked Leena.
“Ray is fine—he’s just a bit upset.”
Leena looked at me quizzically. “Why?”
“He broke his bird ornament.”
“Oh, how sad, you're bleeding.”
“I’ll live.” For now.
Hastily, we bundled ourselves through the apartment door. The air was stagnant and the streets had pockets of activity. Chitter-chatter from the folks finishing or starting their shift. It was the only reason anyone left their house now. A peal of laughter would sometimes bounce out of a shaded nook. I always found it impressive how such an impoverished population found humour. These people had nothing, over the last thirty years their technology was whittled down to pre-space flight times.
The crime was low at least, then again, there was nothing to steal. Food was handed out in exchange for daily work tokens. Surplus tokens were pocketed to hand in for a retirement package at the end of working life. Good luck with that.
Leena linked arms with me as we made our way back home. It brought me no comfort. I was almost marching and she struggled to keep up. They were coming five years early. I was prepared enough to take action, but not to feel confident. Everything we’d worked on would come down to this. I had to go to the Below.
When we arrived back home I stationed Leena in the sleeping quarters and closed her in. The computer beckoned me. I checked it for messages…nothing. So I sat, trying to be natural for an invisible audience.
I tried to calm myself with deep breaths. Everything in our apartment seemed smaller. The walls contracted around me as if I was hallucinating. It was so lucid that I was able to control the contracting and expanding walls now. Inhales would bring them in and exhales would push them out, at first by inches, then by miles.
Then came the dull drum at the metal door. I pressed my thumb to the lock. I hesitated…then wrenched the spy open and looked out into the cool night. Nothing.
A disturbance by the window caught my attention. I pulled the stained netting away from the glass. Two dots beamed at me through the murky window from the darkness. At first, I thought they were lights. Then they blinked. They were here.
I pulled the door open and stood at the entrance. I wasn’t intimidating in the least. My rank meant nothing. My body lacked the fulfilling nourishment it was used to in the past. Only heavy-duty labourers got the extra cubes. Cushty delivery jobs didn’t provide.
“How were your visits?” His voice was the first thing to force me to acknowledge its existence. It was a croak and a rasp. It suggested infirm weakness, but that would give the ignorant a false sense of security. Tucked inside of that rasp was malice far exceeding the imagination of the average plankton that floated about in this sea of mundanity.
“My visits were pleasant,” I said. Looking at him was like drinking my own vomit, a cruel feast for the eyes. His face was partially shaded by the hood he wore. His mouth was accentuated by the shadow cast over the top of his face, a hole filled with evil spines.
“Coming top-side was a risk, you might have been seen,” I said. A vain attempt at small talk to calm my nerves. His deep-set eyes scrutinised me.
“Then it’s best I come in,” He said, shoving past me with his brutish strength. Everything about his touch showed no ability of gentleness. I waited for his retinue but none arrived.
“You came alone?” I said.
“I don’t need a chaperone.” He sat down slowly. His rancid odour made my eyes water, it had been so long since I had seen these horrors in person. He smelled like a pile of dead rats left out in the sun. It filled the room and gave the air a thickness. “Malikus would like to see you both.” His teeth chattered almost mockingly.
He let his hood drop to reveal his hairless head, those marbled fingers over his moist scalp. He might be mistaken for a dredged corpse if he fell asleep by a river. His beady, yellow eyes rolled about in those loose sockets. “Where is she?”
“She is sleeping,” I said. “I will see Malikus alone.” I glanced back at the sleeping quarter's entrance. Was Leena prepared?
“Malikus was adamant he wanted to see you both.”
“You know how she is—always wants to do her own thing…”
He leaned forward towards me, a silent challenge that sent a quirk up my spine. I shuddered as I prepared my body to spring forwards. He stood quickly, turning to the quarter's door to open it.
I thrust myself towards him and slammed my hand against it. “She doesn’t want to be disturbed.” Standing up to Ray was one thing. I felt Vizer, who wouldn’t kill me, would be more than happy to inflict pain on me.
The monster snarled at me and shoved me aside as if I were a child, my arse hit the floor and the back of my head flopped back, cracking against the table edge. The room split into four.
“What do you want?—I am resting.” Leena had called through from behind the door—a well-rehearsed delivery. If not a tad wooden. It lacked the edge she had once carried.
“It’s Vizer.” The beast was resting his forehead against the door to speak to her. “I have come to take you to Malikus.”
“I am not feeling well, Den will go. Leave me be.” That’s right Leena, you’re busy. My senses had returned and I hauled myself vertical to meet Vizer's glare.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Vizer looked at me for a moment then back at the door. “You’ll have to explain to Malikus why she isn’t coming.”
“Know your place, Vizer, she said no.”
I made sure to lock up behind us carefully. Blackness had crawled over the city and gave everything an eerie shroud. The only sounds outside were the trams battling down the rails in the distance. They never stopped. The mines were manned twenty-four-seven. However the voices had stopped, I couldn’t hear a single citizen. It was a silent spot, the time everyone was either in bed or at work.
I followed behind Vizer like a naughty school child being walked to the principal's office. I hadn’t agreed to this rendezvous time. I didn’t like it when I wasn’t the one knocking.
Vizer stormed down an alley and I had to put a skip in my step to keep up. He wasn’t comfortable up here. His head ducked low as we passed someone. He could hide his face but not his stench.
“This one,” said Vizer. He tapped his foot on the floor.
I helped him lift the paving stone, out of sight in an empty alley. Vizer glanced about diligently as we pulled it away to reveal a circular drainage hatch. It was finished beautifully. A glistening matte white that had spiral patterns carved from edge to centre. It bowled towards the middle. Dim white lights flickered around the rim. I had forgotten what beauty was hidden behind the dutiful layers of this city.
Vizer unsheathed a blade from his sleeve and clenched his fist around it. His pale yellow blood meekly dolloped into the central bowl of the hatch. His blood was so viscous it would take a powerful heart to pump that gunk through his veins.
We waited a moment until the handles turned automatically. Vizer gripped them and heaved the plate to one side. It sounded as if a dying soul called out to us as the echo of the moving hatch bounced down into the abyss. I peered into the unending void and looked at Vizer.
“You first,” said Vizer, nodding.
“Den!”
I looked up in the direction of the new voice. Vizer followed my head towards the approaching figure, the lights from the hatch had brightened my face. It was the block hopper from this morning. He sounded happy to see me, funny how his tone changed when there was no gate between us.
“Den, look pal, I really need you to let me through to the next block, I’ll pay ya.”
For fuck sake, he needs to leave now. I watched as Vizer rose from his kneeling position. “Fuck off!” I called back. It was the best I could think of to save his life. Not that I cared too much.
He sauntered towards us both. “What the fuck are you two up to?” He said. As he came within arms reach I saw his illuminated face coil in disgust.
Vizer pinned him to the wall by his throat before he could say anything. I just watched. He was like a gazelle that had been pinned by a mother lion. There was something natural about it. He gasped for air but all that came out was blood. Vizer had buried his claws deep into his throat. I imagined how it must have felt, having those talons scratch at the back of his neck from the inside.
He wriggled, kicked and then hung loosely against the wall. Vizer bit into the dead man's face, tearing a chunk of his cheek off. Vizer looked back at me in his primordial rage, the dead man's flesh flapping between his gnarled teeth. He spat the man's torn cheek meat into the hole below and then tossed the dead man after it. Vizer wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and bore his teeth at me in an act of dominance. The sound of the block hopper's body impacting rebounded up to us, followed by a monstrous howl.
They were hungry.
“Down you go,” said Vizer.
Cautiously, I anchored my stomach over the lip and lowered myself. My feet scrambled for the foot grips, scratching the inside of the curved wall until they hooked. My hands clasped the edge. I sucked in a deep breath before plunging into the darkness.
Vizer pulled the hatch over us from above, shutting out our last flicker of light. Now in total darkness, I descended into the Below. Vizer's feet would catch my fingers or my head. Every so often a gap in the climbing nubs came by a slippery drainage hole. I was just glad the darkness hid what was living in them. With each step down I felt the air begin to warm around me.
I felt critters crawl over my hands and up my arms as I disturbed them. A larger bug latched onto my foot. Its legs padded up my ankle. I shook my leg like a dog having a piss to fling the bastard off, it felt like a dragon spider. Horrible bastards that loved to bite…almost just for the hell of it. It was well suited for the Below.
At last, my feet found the damp ground. I expected to find the corpse of Vizer’s most recent victim. The hollow dome we both stood in bore no evidence of his kill. Vizer pushed around me and opened the hatchway door into a tubular corridor. It was well lit and comfortably heated.
I followed Vizer as I studied the tapestry of torment that ran down each of my flanks. Painted images of feasting and people screaming in terror or agony, it was hard to say where it began and where it ended. The doors between the corridors were automated, smooth—a luxury I’d forgotten.
The next door opened out onto a platform. More of them were about, their yellowed eyes searching me. They were known as the changed ones. In my youth I’d found them to be God-like. I was envious of their strength and what I thought of as great beauty. Time in and out of their company amended my view on these creatures; however, now all I felt for them was spite.
This platform was one of the travel hubs for the Below. The bullet cart pulled in quietly. It was a thing of wonderful craftsmanship. The cart’s silver and gold exterior was marked with cultured swirls and depictions of great industry: factories, hammers, and trains—all intricately etched into the side panels.
I looked around the station hub. It was so clean and enticing. Stone arches curved over my head powerfully. It brought back my time here. Little details I had forgotten, like the crests of the various sects carved into the brickwork. It was a message left in time to remind other sects they had been here too and witnessed a great feast.
“I want to see the ship remember?” I said.
Vizer shot me a look of insult as we climbed into the cart. The golden handrails felt brand new as I lowered myself in. The seats were soft blue velvet that let your body melt into them. A far cry from the trolleys that belted about in the above world.
Vizer had made it a point to not respond to me.
“The ship, Vizer, the Beluga.”
He sat across from me and offered only his sneer. “I will show you the Beluga.” The cart gently slowed into our station hub. It was so smooth I’d hardly realised we’d moved. I looked up at the platform name board: Mergunt. Odd name, I don’t recall it.
We stepped off and walked down more wide, tubular hallways. Although surrounded by this undercity’s moist, metallic guts, it still felt more open than any place above. I reached out and ran my fingers against the ribbed walls. I felt the inside of the smooth drainage holes. My fingers followed the tapestry.
Vizer held out his hand to stop me as we approached two grand doors. They opened with a pneumatic gasp. On the other side was my quarry. The Beluga in all her majesty.
“Here is her ship—the crew is prepared.” Vizer seemed pleased with his little show. “You’re really not going to run?” Vizer looked back at the ship and then at me.
“I will serve Mother and the Pilot…let me check aboard, she wants me to, she trusts me.”
The doors closed bashfully at my demand.
“You have seen the ship—that is enough.”
My heart battered at my rib cage. “I need to go aboar…”
“Silence!” His ire was on full display. The monster approached. “You are odd—Den. I have had enough of you already.”
I felt his bony fingers clasp my arm, locking tightly and then with frightful strength they squeezed. I was practically dragged back to the bullet cart and tossed aboard like old luggage. I didn’t feel safe anymore. What if they didn’t need me? What if Malikus found someone else and this was it? Not possible, ridiculous, I was Mother’s son, she wouldn’t let them, it’s tradition.
As the cart screamed through the tunnel, I focused on not vomiting. My knuckles were white against the side rail. I reached into my pocket and turned Omerdetha’s I.D snap between my fingers. The Belgua was so close...I had to make that switch.
The next stop brought us to an even more shamelessly opulent platform. The scent of the air was unpleasant as if someone had lit incense to cover up cat piss. Sapphires, rubies and emeralds were all embedded in the marbled pillars. Just this platform alone was more valuable than the entirety of the overworld.
Other monsters were hovering about, I caught their stares and returned them. My nostrils flared to suck down air and calm the carpet moths that crashed about in the pit of my stomach. A glorious shag ran through these tunnels. I bounced on it lightly, a pleasure I may as well enjoy while I can. It reminded me of my old office.
Alcoves that ran down the corridor's sides now were filled with art and technology. I stopped to touch the screen of a holo-unit. Historical moments captured in programmed light rotated before me. I looked at the over-city map. Its symmetry was beautiful. A perfect maze to keep its occupants moving in endless squared circles. I felt a swell of pride bubble in me. The next hologram was of a Royal, his form was shapeless. As it danced in front of me I was almost able to see something resembling a being before it fizzled away into obscurity once more. Vizer’s cold grip finally peeled me away.
The dripping and running water that echoed through the hallways was soon joined by the most wondrous of man's creation: music. It was divine. I stopped and quickly pushed off Vizer’s hand. “I haven’t heard music in nearly eight years,” I said.
I opened the door to let the sound wash over me. Inside several changed ones danced and swayed to the music. I watched as they spun to the rhapsody. I knew this song. The notes dragged me back through to the moment I first sat and heard it. I closed my eyes to let it carry me adrift.
That icy pull soon sank my sailboat. I opened my eyes to see they had stopped dancing to stare at me. They knew who I was.
“Apologies,” Vizer called them over my shoulder. I continued to follow him but had become more brazen; sampling the fine delights of these gluttonous hoarders. I stopped once again to run my fingers over a bust, not sure who it was. The deft touch this marble had been subject to enticed me. A buffet for my senses that was too hard to resist.
“Should I leash you?”
“You try living up there.” My voice had been softened in quiet contemplation by the masterful art.
“I’d rather die,” said Vizer.
“Then give me just a moment?” I said.
“Your hand is always out to take, but never to give,” Vizer said. He had some nerve.
Arches of gold and lapis lazuli spiralled over our heads here. The majesty amplified as we wandered deeper through the intestines of this parallel world. We stopped at another door. Its golden surface was almost irresistible. I reached out to place my hand on it. Perfection. Engraved on the main plate of the round door was our coat of arms. A hand holding a world that bled down its fingers.
Vizer turned to me. “Be well mannered with your betters.” He said.
“Vizer — may I ask you a question?” his eyes lost their glare momentarily.
“Quickly.”
“Will you be dining in here when she lands?” I said.
“No, I’ll have other duties to attend to.”
I leaned into Vizer and breathed out my parting gift. “Then you will be left behind.” I couldn’t help but wobble my head with a smarmy smirk to accompany it. I studied his face, which had now been repainted with a moment of dull shock. The golden doors pulled themselves apart with that pneumatic hiss and I walked through.
The space in this room was astounding, curving inwardly for miles. I was under the sleek central plate that the overworld people worshipped. I looked up to the ceiling. It was painted with thousands of images all so detailed. Such splendour underneath a lifeless flat disc, surrounded by the starving. Not starving for food, but starving for man's true capabilities.
What a wretched game these monsters played. They writhe in the stolen art and craftsmanship…then behave as if they are the arbiters of such excellence.
Four banquet tables, each a mile long, ran parallel through the centre. About every ten meters, an ornate brass filter blossomed from the middle of the tables. Hundreds of them. I looked all the way down the room, barely making out the edge.
I walked down between the four tables. The fine ceramic tiles tapped under my boots before changing to a dull thud. I looked down to see a sheet of glass that expanded outwards in all directions around me. I felt vulnerable as if the glass might shatter if I stepped too hard.
I focused on the movement below the glass, water, like an ocean in a box. The space under my feet darkened. I froze, watching as the shadow grew before it morphed. The mercurial form contorted and flattened. The outline began to resemble a large sea creature. Its pale features became more visible as it rose closer to the glass. An eerie call reverberated in the glass beneath me. The shudder of the glass made me skip forward timidly. The shadow sank back into the cold depths below.
“Magnificent isn’t she?” His sickly voice danced around the room and pricked my flesh with a forgotten fear. He always sounded painfully energetic.
“I suppose,” I said. I looked down the aisle between the tables from where Malikus approached. I offered a respectful bow.
“Only yourself?—disappointing.” He said.
“She didn’t feel like coming.” I raised my head to meet his eyes.
His robed corpse glided toward me unnaturally. “Well, the pair of you are certainly always very busy, it raises suspicion.” He passed by me and took a seat at the table. “Sit…” He waved his hand to the chair across from him.
Walking around the table would have taken a good 15 minutes so I hoisted my backside onto the elegant rose finish and awkwardly slid across.
“Well, we have been running the delivery company,” I said. Malikus seemed to wait for something, an excuse perhaps? “We were ready for Vizer’s arrival…” I searched his ghoulish features for approval. His cheeks lined with spines that puffed out in synchronization with his breathing, those were new.
“You look filthy.”
“I fell.”
“Clumsy. You needn’t bother yourself with that silly pantomime. You should be focused on Mother, and escaping, no?”
“I won’t run, but I’ll say goodbye to my crew.”
Malikus smiled with a closed mouth. “Oddly sentimental of you.”
I looked around the open room once more and then back to Malikus. “Is there a reason you brought me here?” I wanted to get this over with.
“I feel as if you’re hiding something from me…Mother won’t say.” Malikus tilted his head playfully.
“Nothing.” Footsteps clacked from behind me. I turned myself on the chair to find the source.
“Look at me.” Malkius’ voice tore into my ears. It was calm but still made me wince. I did as he asked without deliberating.
“You think you’re smart.” His ribbed skull shook gently. “Smarter than me.” Nothing offended Malikus more than him believing someone thought they were smarter. I was smarter than him though.
My shoulders had two great clamps placed on them. I sucked in a steely breath, my lungs heaved as the air scraped against them.
“Vizer—place Corvas here in the half- maiden.” At that moment, Malikus stood and walked away. “Feed him to a Glory Seeker in a couple of days. You won’t ruin Mother’s feast by breaking tradition boy…”
I reached out to him. I wanted to reason with him. “No!” My voice rippled through the great hall and taunted me several times. I squirmed weakly as I was pulled out of my chair. Vizer’s arm came around my chest to hold me still. “You can’t do this! It’s my right to give myself to Mother!”
Vizer wrenched me away. My feet kicked out wildly, sending my chair skittering across the glass and away. I tried to wriggle free but my body had given up on me an hour ago. My arms felt as if they were pushing through molten steel.
“I have been waiting to shut you up.” Vizer’s cruel mockery and the sound of the rattling iron wheels from behind sent a surge of fevered fight through my limbs. I wrenched away and fell onto my knees. I stared into the abyss below until I saw my reflection in the glass.
I was hauled up with ease and shoved back into the standing dolly held by two assistants. The spikes in the plate needled at my spine. A spiteful contraption. Vizer placed his hand on my chest to help the spikes hold my flesh. His assistants clamped the vices around my wrists, ankles, neck and stomach.
“Let me go — I’ll do better,” I said.
“I’ll bring our pilot to see you, she’ll be entertained,” said Malikus.
I arched my back as the dolly that I stood in angled backwards. I looked up at the colossal ceiling through a hazy, tear-filled mask.
As we made our way down the hallways, acolytes would look at me scornfully; shaking their heads and even spitting on me. They knew for whom this contraption was made: For the navigators who broke tradition. Perhaps Malikus was smarter than me.
I watched the tiles of the curved roof fly past me until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The whizzing pattern hypnotized me and lulled my senses.
My body jerked and battered inside the half maiden as we halted. I was spun to face a small door. It opened into a blank box of a room, I recognised these…lobotomite storage units. I felt the metal mask clamp over my mouth to muffle any attempts of screaming or calling out.
“Sleep tight, Den the delivery boy.” Vizer laughed as I was shoved into the room. The decals of the wall faded into a distant memory as the door behind me closed and the light was banished.
Tears streamed down my cheeks. My eyes felt like pools of lava. I had failed miserably. I never really had a chance. I dug my heels into the back of the footplate and leaned forward with what room I had behind the clamp.
My back peeled away from the irksome nodules ever so slightly. With defeat compounded and exhaustion conquering. I faded out of this nightmare and into another.