Engineered Magic

2 AL: Irene

Irene pressure washed the last air filter. She did a few floors worth of filters last year. This year she felt like she washed every last one. This was her fifth day working on them. The washing system was set up to capture and recycle all the water but somehow Irene always ended up soaking wet. When it was clean she put it in the drying rack and went to find a towel. Irene was wiping the water/mud from her face when she heard Agatha call to her.

“I am glad I caught you,” Agatha said after greeting her. “Can you come by my desk before you go home?”

“Sure,” Irene replied. She watched the old woman walk slowly away. Agatha was using a cane to steady herself. Irene frowned as she wondered when Agatha started using one. Irene checked the time and saw that it was getting close to the end of her shift. She decided to reinstall the last of the air filters before going to talk to Agatha. That way the task would be done and she would be free for anything Agatha needed her to do. Agatha was pretty much running the engineering division since Dennis passed away. She continued to work the night shift. She said she was too old to change her sleep patterns.

It was well after the end of her shift when Irene returned to the engineering center. She took the time to clean the dirt from her face in the bathroom mirror. Irene found Agatha sitting at her desk looking at a complex spreadsheet.

“You wanted to see me?” Irene said as she sat down beside Agatha.

“Yes, thank you for coming by,” Agatha responded. She pushed herself back from her desk and focused her attention on Irene. “I have run the numbers over and over and the conclusion I always come up with is that the colony is failing,” Agatha announced. “The only way forward that I can find is to stop the drain of manpower off to the ruins.”

“Ok,” Irene replied. “How do we do that?”

“I don’t think declaring it illegal will work. Not only is that against our bylaws and I don’t like having the precedent but it might just make it more appealing to some,” Agatha explained. “I think our best bet is to publicize and compare the living conditions inside the structure versus what we have here. Not knowing what it is like inside has let people imagine a paradise. If we can show that you have to work just as hard and you have poor living conditions, that should change people's minds.”

“What do you need me to do?” Irene asked.

“I hate to ask this of you,” Agatha said, “but what we need is video from inside the structure.” Irene sat back in her chair. Real fear flashed across her features. Agatha saw it and reacted. “One of my sons is sneaking out to the structure tomorrow night. He is going with a large group. It is large enough that I think you can join them without anyone noticing. It should be a fairly safe trip to the first green.”

“Why doesn’t your son make the recordings for you?” Irene asked.

“I tried to talk him out of going into the structure for most of the fall. More recently I tried to ask him about making recordings and bringing them back but my early efforts to dissuade him have come back to haunt me. He won’t listen to me at all now,” Agatha explained. “We are going into winter now. I think this will be the last group this year. You would need to get back before spring, when I expect the hemorrhaging will start again.”

“You want them physically brought back?” Irene asked.

“I believe the structure is actively blocking communications. The only way to assure that the recordings make it back out is if you carry them,” Agatha explained.

“That might not be so easy,” Irene replied. “As far as I can see, no one has ever come back out.”

“That can’t be true, can it?” Agatha asked. She fell into thought, trying to come up with the name of someone who returned. “I couldn’t have missed that, could I?” she said softly to herself. “Perhaps the fact that you can see it will help you avoid that fate,” Agatha commented. Irene rather doubted that was true. She always thought seeing a thing did not make you immune to it. Look at how her parents complained about the things their parents did to them only to turn around and to do it to her and her siblings.

“Can I think about it?” Irene asked.

“Yes, of course. This isn’t something I can order you to do,” Agatha responded. “They are assembling on the west terrace at the start of the second shift tomorrow. If you don’t want to go, that is completely understandable.”

“Do you have a camera to make the recordings with?” Irene asked. Agatha turned and pulled a tiny item out of the top drawer of her desk.

“I have modified this uniform camera. I removed all the non essential circuitry in order to lengthen the recording time. With the movement regeneration it should last three to four months, it has enough memory to hold the recordings for six months.” Agatha handed the device to Irene.

Irene turned the tiny device over in her hand. It was built to go through a hole in fabric and clamp into place. The unit appeared to be sealed.

“How do I turn it on and off?” Irene asked.

“You don’t,” Agatha responded. “I did a statistical study and the more time a camera was shut down the faster it failed. The medical staff all turned their cameras off when they treated patients and they were the first to fail. It is on right now and will run until its charge is gone. I removed the filming light to save power so no one will suspect it is active. If you don’t want it to record something, just put your hand over it.” Irene handled the camera a little more carefully. It was odd to think it was already recording. “You should clean the lens and check it for corrosion at least once a day. If you see any signs of decay head back here right away.”

“Ok,” Irene said. She tried to hand it back to Agatha.

“Keep it with you,” Agatha said. “Take tomorrow off. You can use the time to think it over and gather supplies if you decide to go. You can give it back to me tomorrow night if you decide not to.” Agatha went on to discuss the type of things she wanted to see on film. She wanted everyday life stuff like housing and meals and how they obtained both.

Irene tossed and turned most of the night. Only falling into an uneasy sleep in the early morning. Still undecided when she got out of bed she decided to put together a kit as a kind of practice exercise. She went down to Stores and requisitioned two new sets of work clothes, underware, socks, a set of workboots and a backpack. She raided the engineering tool room for one of the pen lights they used when crawling through the ducts. Although small it was powerful and had a movement recharge system built into it. She grabbed a length of rope she saw there.

She pulled the heaviest blanket from her bed. She folded it and rolled it into a short cylinder. She used her rope to hold it in that shape and secure it to the backpack. She packed the bottom of backpack with emergency rations. They were nasty to eat but provided full nutrition. On top of them she stacked her extra set of work clothes, underwear and socks. Lastly she placed two water bottles on the top.

She set out the outfit she would wear and installed the camera. She took all the tools off her tool belt except for her knife and flashlight holder. She requisitioned the belt weeks ago when she survived the ‘not a rat’ incident. Looking at the discarded attachments she wondered if she could get something to hold a water bottle. She did a quick computer search and saw there was one available in Stores.

She remembered the animal in the ruins and how she wanted something long to keep it away from her. She looked through Stores’ inventory list but didn’t see anything that really impressed her. She went through the contents of the apartment. She threw a few small items into her backpack that she found. These included personal grooming equipment, a set of gloves, a sharpening stone and eating utensils. Her father kept a small multitool that Irene figured couldn’t hurt. Nothing really struck her as the perfect weapon.

She ended up holding a broom. She considered the long handle. In stick fighting they used shorter sticks. The broom handle was a good diameter. It was designed to be held by a hand. The handle was made of a plastic that was easily recycled. It was engraved with a series of lines that was supposed to make it look like wood. As a child she believed that was what wood looked like. It was only after the landing when she saw real wood that she realized what a poor imitation it was.

Down on the engine levels there were brooms in the closets that rumor claimed came all the way from earth. Their handles were made of carbon fiber and were incredibly tough.

She went down to the bottom level of the ship. The ship landed on a concrete pad the advance ship constructed using computer controlled equipment. The ship rested not on the engines but on a skeletal structure that locked into the concrete. The material of the engines was the ore they were building the colony out of. The area was not in use. The air was cool and there was a funny smell to it. In the third cleaning closet she found a broom with a dark carbon fiber handle. She unscrewed the handle and appraised it.

She turned it over in her hands and made a quick jab with it. She couldn’t visualize it as a weapon. She thought it was little more than a walking stick. She considered binding a knife to one end but decided she was more likely to cut herself just carrying it around than injuring an animal with it. She carried it back up to her apartment along with the water bottle holder she picked up from Stores.

She put on her new clothing with her belt on top. She slung the backpack into place. She picked up her broom handle and looked at herself in the mirror. She didn’t look much like an adventurer. It was only a couple hours before the start of the second shift. She needed to decide.

At the end of first shift, Irene wandered over to join the back of a group of people standing on the western terrace. This late in the year darkness was already falling. The amount of stuff people were carrying varied wildly. Irene’s load was someplace in the middle. What surprised her the most was the lack of visible weapons. Her own staff made her one of the few armed people. She spotted a man with a large ax standing next to a woman with a bow. Irene headed over to stand next to them.

“Nice bow,” Irene commented when she got near. She could see it was the same dark material as her staff. She wondered if it too was carbon fiber. Irene knew it didn’t come from Stores and wondered where the woman got it.

“Thanks,” the woman replied. “Archery is a tradition in my family. My father made it for me.” It was interesting that her father made it. Family traditions usually ran down just the male or female lines. Without that limitation the small population in transit would have led to everyone having the same traditions. If Irene’s mother’s family had a tradition it was lost long ago. Irene wondered how this woman’s family kept the archery tradition alive during flight. It could not have been easy.

“My name is Sophia,” the woman said. “This is my partner, Jake.”

“Irene,” Irene said, introducing herself. She kept close to them when two construction vehicles pulled up. The group split into two halves and they all piled inside the back of the vehicles. Irene wondered if they planned to leave the carts at the entrance. At least Agatha would know what happened to them.

Everyone around Irene talked excitedly with their neighbors. It was easy for her to blend into the background. She was surprised to hear that several people planned on coming back in the spring. Irene wondered how many people thought that way in the past.

Everyone quieted down during the drive. Several people fell into a light doze, which made Irene think they slept no better than she did last night. Her own fear of discovery kept her awake. The cart jolted side to side as it crossed the stream, waking everyone for their arrival at the entrance.

The group reformed on the grass. There seemed to be two or three subgroups along with several extra’s like Irene. Group leaders moved among their people, checking loads and distributing goods. In the dark with everyone shifting around it was hard to get an accurate count. Irene thought there were at least thirty people. Several large work lights powered up inside the entrance courtyard. The light drew people up onto the stone paving and off the grass.

Irene swore she felt something as she crossed the line of broken wall. Irene recognized the work lights. They were large and unwieldy and had a far shorter life than you might expect. They were made to be recharged each night. They would probably only last two or three days. Fingering her own small light, Irene turned to look back at the inside of the broken wall and the construction carts beyond.

Irene was glad to see one of the construction carts pulling away, heading back to the colony. Her eyes turned to the last broken section of wall that held the disk of dark glass. There was no sign of the glass. The wall was covered by thick vines just as she found it last time. She knew not nearly enough time had passed for the vines to naturally regrow. Irene studied the vines closely, looking for the cuts she made to clear them from the wall. There was no sign of any. A chill went down her spine.

“Keep close,” a man’s voice called out to the crowd. “We won’t be stopping for stragglers.” Irene turned and saw that everyone was pushing forward to the northmost opening. The big lights were being carried near the front. Irene stumbled over the loose debris on the ground. She switched her small pen light on and hung it from her belt so that it illuminated the floor beneath her feet without completely ruining her night vision. She hurried across the open area and joined the back of the group just as they left the courtyard and entered the first hall.