Chapter 36: Secret Secrets
The construction of the biomes to the stage of habitability took over 30 years. A project of this magnitude must be carefully planned and re-planned many times. After the first 10 years, most of the original designs were discarded. It was never a case of starting over, it was a case of incorporating the most up-to-date science into the final construction. The multiple redundancies of the biome systems were constantly upgraded. Without them a breakdown would have deadly consequences.
After all of this care, it was hard for some to believe that the biomes were riddled with things that were not on any of the final blueprints. There were doors where there shouldn’t have been doors, rooms behind hidden panels, ventilation ducts going to places that didn’t exist, and electrical conduit that passed right through a wall of solid base rock feeding power to somewhere unknown. Many of these had been discovered over the years and chalked up to the need for redundancy, but some remained hidden to all but a secret few.
“What is in there?” asked Jayne.
“What is down the rabbit hole?” asked Cornelia.
“Bodies. At least 10. There is a large natural cave with metal racks against one side. They are all on the racks, wrapped in body bags, with the clear plastic over their faces. They are all young,” he said softly. “This is a cave-in,” he said and he pointed to the hole behind him. “I don’t know what happened but it looks like someone left in a hurry.” He looked up at Cornelia. “Has anyone found the location of the unscheduled departure?”
“Not yet. Why?” asked Jayne.
“I think they are connected,” answered Joseph. “That body was hauled out of the hole by some animal. It tore into the body bag and pulled out the body and dragged it over there.”
“Those omies were out looking for her. They were worried. As far as I can discern after interviewing the girl who found the body,” Cornelia said gesturing to the now distant floater, “the victim wanted to leave Biome 7 and escape to the planet below. She had heard rumors that others had escaped by coming to this area. Supposedly there was access to a secret spaceport. Passage could be bought.”
“How could an omie girl come up with anything valuable enough to interest a smuggler?” asked Cornelia’s aide.
“If I were to guess, I would say diamonds. A lot of the original omies were allowed to bring family jewelry and heirlooms with them. I saw a man’s diamond ring on a string around the dead girl’s wrist. But whoever killed her did not want her diamonds. They wanted and took something far more precious,” Cornelia said ominously.
“Her life,” stated Jayne flatly. “That must be the ploy. Spread rumors about how great it is planet-side and how restrictive it is up here. Tease the young and lure them to wherever you want them. Capture them and murder them and take the parts of them you can sell and trash the rest. Fracking bastards!”
“Well, I intend to stop it and stop it now. If that was a cave-in,” Cornelia said, pointing to the hole in the ground that Joseph had crawled through, “then there must be some other entrance near here and that entrance will inevitably lead to one of the under sectors and to a ship pad. If we find it soon, maybe we can get some idea who is behind these horrors.”
Joseph rubbed his head as if he was trying to figure out the ‘how’ of the whole thing. “How could there be a connection between this hillside and the underside of the biome? This is all pressure sealed. Any opening would immediately be detected by the computer systems and an emergency seal unit would be activated,” he said.
“No idea,” replied Cornelia.
Jayne walked to an area up the slope. The forest, if you could call a biome woods a forest, became denser as she moved upwards. She was feeling lucky. That is how she always described the feeling she was now experiencing. If she broke it down, analyzed it and described it, she would say that there was a shiver and a sense of ‘more’. She felt larger; expanded, if you will. The larger she felt, the luckier she would be. The feeling was strong and the coolest thing of all was that Jayne felt she could now begin to control it. Before, it just happened and something lucky followed. Today, she felt she could push out and become larger and, by definition, luckier.
She travelled about 20 metres. The trees were almost all conifers. They were not exactly like earth conifers because all vegetation was genetically engineered to suit the environment. Jayne reached out and ran her hand down one of the trees. She was familiar with Earth trees and this bark was similar to a dwarf pine, only it was taller due to reduced gravity. She picked her way over some large rocks. She slipped and reached out to the nearest pine tree to catch her balance. She regained her footing and was about to step forward when she caught a shiver of luck. She pushed a little and her fingers tingled where she touched the tree. This tree did not feel like the other tree. It felt a little plastic. She looked back at it. There was nothing she could see that would indicate that anything was different or wrong. She stepped back and touched the bark again. There was something wrong. This was definitely not a real tree. Jayne scanned the area. There was a slightly worn path that seemed to lead right to the base of this fake tree. She looked up. It looked very real. She looked down at the base and then jumped off the rock on which she was standing. There was a definite clunky echo that was not natural. She walked down the path. It led away from the others waiting below. The path followed an angle that meandered down the hill. Jayne walked it and stared at the ground. She was looking for some sort of marker that would set this path as the one to follow. A teenager would see this as a grand adventure, especially a teenager from a biome. She smiled. She was just a teenager and this whole thing was an adventure. Then she saw it. A sequence of rocks pressed into the surface of the path that formed a small 10 cm arrow pointing behind her to the fake plastic pine tree. If you were not looking, you would never have noticed it. She walked a little further and saw another arrow.
She stopped and called to the group, “I have found something.”
They all moved toward her. Once they arrived, she walked up the path pointing at the arrows as she went. “It stops at the base of a pine tree, only the tree is not real.”
They all stopped in a small clearing that surrounded the base of the pine tree. Joseph walked up to the tree and ran his hands down the bark and rapped it with his knuckles. “Sounds metallic,” he said. He continued to explore the surface.
“And there’s this,” said Jayne. She jumped up and down. The ground beneath her feet reverberated.
“It sounds hollow. There must be a way to get down there,” said Cornelia.
Joseph was now on his knees and both his hands were feeling the surface of the tree. “There is nothing here,” he said. He stood and shifted his attention to the small rocks. He kicked at a couple of them. They were all fairly round and rolled away at his kick. He looked to the opposite side and kicked another. This one did not move. He kicked it again. The rock remained in place. He knelt and looked more closely.
Jayne was watching his exploration. Joseph was about to give this new rock a twist with his fingers. “Stop!” she shouted. “Wait! There is something wrong. I feel it.” It was just like the day in the Biome 3 pods with Spike, right before she sensed the Stink Bomb lizard.
Joseph stood up and spoke to Jayne. “What is wrong? I think that rock will get us inside. I bet it opens something nearby.”
“I think it does too. I think it is how the young omies got captured and killed. If you open up whatever entrance gets you inside, it might set off alarms that tell whomever set this up that their trap had been tripped. I would rather be safe than sorry,” said Jayne cautiously.
Cornelia stepped in front of them and stared down at the rock. “Damn it! I am the coordinator here. I am responsible for all aspects of the function of this biome. If there is something here that shouldn’t be here then it is my job to deal with it. I won’t be frightened off by a bunch of murderous body-part snatchers.” And with that, she knelt and twisted the small rock at her feet.
&n
bsp; A voice came from the tree. “Welcome biome dwellers that seek freedom from oppression. Step to the edge of the clearing and the door to freedom will open at your feet.” No one moved. There was a minute of cautious waiting. The voice sounded again. “Please step to the edge of the clearing.”
The entire group stepped to the edge of the small clearing. A few seconds later, a rectangular section of the clearing opened up, revealing a staircase to a small two metre square room below. Cornelia looked at one of her aides. He was a burly looking fixer named Gregor. He was not assigned to Cornelia because of his brains. She nodded at him and he walked down the stairs into the room below. He tapped at the metal walls and generally inspected the room. He turned and looked up at Cornelia.
“There is no exit that is obvious. Maybe there is another something to twist to open a door. I don’t see anything though,” the aide said and turned to tap the wall again. “Nope. Nothing I can see. Maybe you should come and have a look.”
Cornelia stepped forward and was about to step down into what Jayne now viewed as a dangerous pit. She shivered and automatically reached out and grabbed Cornelia Banks by the arm and held her from taking that step.
Cornelia turned and was about to say something when they all heard a yell from the aide and the opening shut with a snap. They could all hear the fixer aide in the pit below. He was yelling and then there was nothing but a light breeze rustling the pine needles.
Joseph froze for a brief moment and then reached over and turned the stone again. There was the same message emanating from the pine tree, requesting that they move to the edge of the clearing. They all did and the ground opened as before. They all looked into the room at the bottom of the stairs.
It was empty.