It's My Party

The boat house was an empty rectangular box, but it was large enough to shelter their six kayaks. It could even be locked. Its door had the same simple twenty-key access code as the door from their home base. The code was clearly displayed, and anyone wanting access simply had to enter the code within one-minute without mistakes, otherwise the lock would beep and a new code displayed.

The existence of the boathouse had simplified the logistics of their training enormously, so much so that they had even discussed setting off on their expedition yesterday rather than today. But yesterday had been the day of a major storm. Their rational minds insisted it was entirely artificial, but the experience of the strong gusty winds, the blowing rain, the thunder and lighting, to the senses it was all deeply real. And under the gloom of the dark clouds, the cylindrical nature of the sky was not too apparent. To the senses, the storm and the forested river world were completely real.

And what an incredibly beautiful and wild world it was. It was a rain forest, but definitely not tropical. Typical temperature ranges for the days they had measured ranges from overnight lows of 5C to 10C, with afternoon highs of 15C to 20C. And in this cool paradise the days were slowly lengthening. It was Maddy's conjecture that the world represented Earth ecology and was following a 365-day cycle. Perhaps they were at mid-spring of a high northern or southern latitude simulation.

Jada had never kayaked before, but she found the boats fascinating and fell in love with their beauty and functionality. She also experienced first-hand something that Mandy had taught her group in a crash course on kayaking. When paddling up to speed, a transverse bow wave would form a trough and then a second bow wave behind the trough. The stern of the boat also created a wave. If Jada paddled fast enough, the second bow wave would join with the stern wave near the stern and create a very noticeable drag.

Mandy explained that this was a prime reason the longer boats were faster. With more of separation between the bow and stern waves, the longer boats could travel faster before the two waves overlapped. Their group had practiced extensively on Monday and Tuesday, and they all felt confident they could hold a 10 kph speed relative to the water for several hours at least.

Relative to the water… They were at the headwaters of the Mississippi, the name Madison had given the great river. Mandy estimated it was flowing southward at an average rate of 2 kph, or perhaps a little faster today with all the recent rain. They had fourteen hours of daylight today, and were leaving before dawn. They could easily make the far southern lake area in one day, but it was Jada's plan to make journey partway down the river and return home by nightfall. She felt she wanted to understand this world better before being fifty kilometers away from the security of their sanctuary.

Mandy had positioned her kayak pointing south down the center channel of the Mississippi. She was moving with the current so that the unmanned kayak she was towing would not bump into her. Behind her tow was Tom who was also towing an extra kayak. To the left of Mandy was Jada, and on her right was Madison. Mandy looked carefully at each one of her pupils and nodded in satisfaction. She couldn't be more proud of them, especially Jada who had never canoed as a child. Mandy smiled and called out to her leader just as the great morning line of sun began to break on the eastern cylindrical sky. "All set to go then?"

"Take us out Mandy!" Four paddles from six boats hit the water in unison. The great exploration had begun.

Seven hours later.

Time: Thursday, February 14, 2019 11:40 AM

Four hours after leaving the Blue Mall home complex, Mark and his team were unexpectedly back home and rewarding themselves with an early lunch before taking off again. Mark was alone in the downstairs library preparing for their noontime departure. He was comparing satellite imagery with the route they had just traveled and taking a detailed look at the next set of obstacles.

Shortly before 11 AM they had been approximately four kilometers southeast of home and had come across a modest but unusual building. It was almost featureless on the outside, a uniform hemisphere except for a single tunnel on the northernmost point of the sphere. The tunnel was invisible on the satellite imagery, and they found it had a noticeable upward incline that after five meters ended in a blank wall.

But when they entered the tunnel, the end wall retracted to admit them, and once inside, their eyes lit up with delight. The inside of the hemisphere was absolutely bare except for a small core consisting of an elevator and stairs going up and down. Finding a working elevator would be a major prize and they headed for it immediately.

More grins. The elevator was displaying an access code. Mark used his Leophone and spent a minute confirming the code with both Aggie at Green Mall and Holly and Toshi at the Hilton Complex. Then he touched a key, expecting the keyboard to blank out.

It did not. The elevator was fully operational. Mark keyed in the code for the Blue Mall complex and a moment he and his team were back home. They returned immediately to the spherical building and then Aggie tried to join them. It was at that point they first discovered something unusual was going on. The Green Mall library elevator would not recognize the code.

Aggie jumped to the Blue Mall library and tried the code from there. No luck. There was a brief, intense period of multiple testing and then the pattern became clear. Journeys both to and from the new elevator required Mark to be among the travelers for the transport to work.

"Here, I brought you something." Whitney laid a tray by Mark's console in the library. It held some milk, a sandwich, an apple, a small pile of potato chips and a few raw vegetables. Mark smiled happily and began to eat. "Thanks Whitney. This is great."

"Yeah." She pulled up a chair and sat down nearby. "Are you still thinking of leaving at noon?"

"Yeah, pretty close. Will everybody be ready?"

"Oh, I think so…" Whitney squirmed uncomfortably in her chair for a moment. "Mark?"

Mark paused until he swallowed his bite. "Yeah?"

"I'm glad I've found a moment to be alone with you. I want to ask you something."

"Sure. What's up?"

"Paige and Cassidy and me, your whole team, we were among the most vocal in condemning Toshi…"

Mark stopped eating and thought for a moment. "That was a tough situation. But I'm not holding any grudges, if that's what you're asking."

"Is that really true? I mean, she is your wife, and we did dethrone you. I can understand if you're pissed at us."

Mark shook his head and gave Whitney a kind smile. "Want to know something? I'm glad I'm not the leader anymore. And I think it's good for all of us. My time is better spent exploring and trying to earn my Section-0 status with the interface. And as for the rest, heck, I accept other people can have different opinions, even about Toshi's actions."

"But she's your wife Mark. Jada's reaction I can understand. Yours…"

Mark gave a small cock of his head, a body gesture that had become a polite way of asking for eye contact. It was more gentle than an open stare. Whitney looked away for a moment and then accepted the offer. She stared into Mark's eyes. The link formed at once.

"Don't be afraid Whitney." Mark transmitted the request as a sub-vocal desire.

"What makes you think I'm…" Whitney paused for a subjective moment. "Wow. I can read you so clearly. Are you reading me as well as I'm reading you?"

Mark transmitted an affirmative gesture but then added, "My enhancement gives me super sharp input. But to answer your question in detail, I'd have to probe a bit into what you're experiencing, and I don't want to do that."

"You can sense that I'm holding back?"

"Yes. I don't mind. Really Whitney, you have an absolute right to the privacy of your own thoughts."

"Cassie and Paige and I, the way you were defending Toshi, we weren't sure if you really believed that or not."

Mark replied with a complex emotional construct, sorrow strangely mixed with a conviction that his own perspective was also valid, plus a request for Whitney to trust him. There was also something else there too, very low-level but part of the base foundation of the thought. Whitney gave a mental gasp. "Mark! Is that what I think it is?!"

Another complex construct from Mark, embarrassment mixed in with playfulness. "Ah, desires. The higher-level reasoning centers guide and pattern the desires underneath. We can allow or prohibit avenues of thought, add structure to how they develop. I'm not trying to hit on you Whitney, but yes, I think you're very pretty."

Whitney gave a mental humph. "I never dated a Caucasian. Did you ever date an African American before?"

"No. I had some friends, but we never dated."

"Uh huh. My last boyfriend was Pancho. He was Indian. His real name was Pankaj. That's what I used to call him before he joined that awful fraternity. He once told me his name was the Hindu word for lotus."

Mark whispered a thought in reply. "I can't hide this. I saw him die. I… I was the cause of his death."

"Show me?"

"It was gruesome Whitney, horrible. Six people were killed by the ivy. I wouldn't have done it if there had been any way to run away."

Whitney could sense Mark's extreme reluctance, but she persisted. "Show me?"

"Whitney, are you sure? Please…"

"Show me!"

And the world transformed. Whitney gasped as found herself standing next to Toshi and Frida in the bottom a transparent double-helical stairwell. And almost on top of them, on the other side of a clear barrier, stood Gilberto, Berto, and Pancho, and Nadine. Whitney watched in disgust as the men teased Toshi and Frida about being raped. Whitney's jaw clenched as she watched her boyfriend Pancho jerk off in full view of the women. Then Nadine started playing with Berto's nut sac. "This is right before they died, isn't it?" she whispered.

Mark's voice replied in her mind. "Yes. Toshi and Frida both shared their memories of this with me."

"Why?"

"I felt awful about murdering Gilberto's group, even days afterwards. Toshi and Frida tried to show me what I did was necessary. They helped me accept what I had done."

"Oh… What exactly did you do?"

Mark didn't answer, not directly. He simply let the dream unwind. Whitney's perspective remained in the stairwell. She watched Gilberto's party walk halfway down the black cobblestones, and saw Mark jump up and become visible high on a ledge to her left. Gilberto's team including Pancho started firing. Then Pancho jumped off the pathway, firing in midair and doing a belly flop into the ivy. He sank out of sight. And then the dream paused.

"At this point Toshi and Frida turned and started climbing up the stairs. The ivy attacked the remaining five people just a second or two later. I looked over the edge of the ledge once the firing stopped. Whitney, I don't want to burden you with the images, but I will share what I saw if that's what you want. You knew these people. You deserve to know how they died."

"No. Let me leave here." An instant later Whitney was back in the Blue Mall library. She found it astonishing to move from the dream to reality in a mere instant of thought, and to give herself a moment to recover, she turned her head to make sure the link was broken. After a few moments, she mumbled, "So that's it? He jumped to his own death?"

Mark nodded and shivered. "Yeah…"

Whitney gave a deep sorrowful sigh. "You never knew him Mark. When I first started dating him, Pankaj was a very decent man. That monster masturbating in front Toshi and Frida, I…" A long moment of silence passed. "Forgive me."

Mark offered his hand again and Whitney accepted, staring at his hand for a moment as she held it. "And that dream… It seemed completely real. I was there with them! Is that what it was like for Holly with Toshi?"

"In terms of the quality of the dream, yes, I guess so."

"Oh boy…" Whitney wrung her hands and looked nervous. "We were pushing for Toshi to be exiled over this. But being in a dream with you wasn't so bad. I was afraid…"

"Of what?"

"Of someone controlling my thoughts. Mark?"

"Hmmm?"

"Being exiled around here could be a death sentence. Does Toshi hate me?"

"Heck no, not at all. And to the extent things almost got out of hand, I forgive you too. Really Whitney, let's leave the issue in the past. We have a good solution. Toshi is officially forgiven and we have laws in place to stop undesired dreams from happening again."

Whitney surprised Mark by lifting his hand and kissing it. He gave her a shy smile. "I try to think of it as a growing pain. We have so many adjustments to make."

Whitney stared at him for a moment and finally whispered, "Wow. You are so different from…" She didn't complete the thought, instead rising and leaving the library. Mark watched her go. A moment later he sighed and got back to his sandwich and maps.

Time: 12:43 PM

Four people were staring at a small portal in a deep chamber six levels below ground. Mark was having a lively discussion with Emily over the Leophone as Cassidy, Paige, and Whitney stood quietly by.

"I don't know Mark," Emily said in a worried voice. "I don't think I'd try it even with janitorial authority. You're describing too many symbols I don't understand."

"Yeah, I'm not thinking of going through either. Pity though. I think your hunch is correct. This site might be part of core engineering."

"Yes, in which case I'm astonished the first portal admitted you into the building."

"Yeah. I've got a theory about that. The central interface allowed me a small upgrade in my command authority with the satellite last night. I think I'm starting to look like a Section-0 director to some of these low-level decision processors. I think that's why the elevator here is responding to me. And the upstairs portal spent a noticeable amount of time deciding whether to admit us into the stairwell. I was very surprised when the door opened."

"Mark, do you want some free advice? Get the hell out of there."

"Yeah, we're almost leaving. I just thought of an experiment I want to try."

"Uh… What are you doing?"

"I'm placing my lunch apple in the airlock. I want to see if it's still there after we cycle the lock."

"Uh…" Emily felt like objecting but couldn't think of a reason why. She finally asked, "Mark? Would you do me a favor?"

"Sure. What?"

"Are you doing the experiment now?"

"Yep. The door just closed with my apple inside."

"Oh hell. And I assume you're the one who's about to open it again. I was going to ask you to forget about this."

"Really? Why?"

"I can't say. Just a hunch I guess. Mark, do me another favor. Have the rest of the team stand as far away as possible. And run away as soon as you activate the open cycle."

"Okay." There was a moment of silence, and then a series of yells could be heard over the Leophone.

"Mark?! What's happening?!"

"Wow!" came a squeaky voice. "Emily, thank you! You were so right!"

"Mark! You sound like Donald Duck! What's going on?!"

"An awesome display of cryogenics," replied the squeaky voice. "It's freezing in here! Leaving now." A moment later his normal voice continued. "We're heading up now. The floor of the portal, it was frosted with snow. I think it was the old atmosphere inside the chamber when I closed the lock."

"Holy Shit!"

"Yeah. Going through myself would have been fatal. I'm guessing the other side is super cold helium, still a gas but below the freezing temperature of nitrogen and oxygen."

"How cold is that?"

Mark thought for a moment as his group shivered and climbed the stairs on their way out. "I don't remember exactly, but I would guess about 60K for both. And the helium must have been much colder than that to flash freeze the air so quickly."

"Mark! I've got another favor to ask you."

"Yeah, I know. Agreed. No more exploration of the engineering areas. But it was worth a try Emily. I was hoping there would be a means of locating the lost groups here. I'd be amazed if their presence isn't being recorded on some of the core engineering systems."

"It's not worth the risk, not now anyway."

"We're on the top level, leaving the sphere now… We're in the sunshine. It feels delightfully balmy out here."

"Yeah. The library diagnostic here is registering 1C."

Mark gave a thoughtful grunt. "Yeah. Our record low this winter was -27C. If the summers don't get too hot, this might be a very nice place to live climate wise. Well, anyway, we're going to continue our mapping." He paused to take one last look at the building. "This sphere is still a major find. I'm planning to return here at sunset and then hop back home." After Emily acknowledged, the team started hiking south through the soft snow.

Chapter 50.


Campus plan of the University in the area of Yellow Mall.

Time: Thursday, February 14, 2019 3:10 PM

Fatima's team walked as two pairs across 400 meters of an eighteen-sided enclosed park. They had just exited the southern dorm areas and were heading north to administration building. Fatima and Hannah in the lead and they took a moment to admire the view. It was very sunny day, and the yellow buildings on their right that held the classrooms and labs were bathed in the pretty orange sunlight of late afternoon. The stone walkway under their feet was covered with mushy snow. There had been some melting earlier in the noonday sun, and it was not quite cold enough yet to refreeze.

With the planet's fast orbital period, the spring equinox was only fifteen days away, and as she stomped through the snow, Hannah took a moment to reflect on the remarkable transformation they were about to experience. They were at the beginning of a period when the world would go from eight hours of daylight in a day to sixteen hours in less than five weeks.

"You know Hannah," Fatima said quietly as she pulled Hannah out of her climate daydream, "I don't think Party #6 ever came this way."

Hannah looked about the campus one last time. They had discovered a compact university setting packing into an array of a dozen large hexagonal buildings surrounding a core open space of seven hexagons, with each hexagon the size of their home complex. The campus appeared completely functional, including a row of three hexagon dorms to the south which they had just finished exploring. Towards the northeast were impressive collections of classrooms and lab areas.

Adjacent to the dorms was a hexagon of luxuriant dining and common areas to the east and a fully equipped exercise area to the west which included running tracks at ground level and a magnificent Olympic-sized pool below. The center hexagon on the northern face was an office complex that could serve as an administrative area. Finally, the three hexagons to the northwest formed a very extensive hospital area. The university could easily serve as a very respectable regional teaching hospital in any city on Earth.

They had found the campus earlier this morning after traveling about four kilometers southwest of Yellow Brick's home complex. The buildings were extensive, and it had taken them the rest of the day to realize the campus was deserted, or more precisely, the two floors above ground and the first floor below ground were deserted. Fatima's team had discovered numerous doors that suggested one or more deeper underground levels, but unfortunately they were all double-door airlock-type portals, and it was part of their core mission plan not to use what could easily be one-way passages.