It's My Party

At 1:30 PM sharp the meeting started. Fatima went first with a description of what the monitors were showing at Black Mall. The servos were chopping up the last of the chicken-wire barrier. There had been several small explosions during the deconstruction, including several that splashed a cloudy liquid onto the mattress that Alfonso used to lie on. The liquid made the mattress smoke and blacken, and the scene was a grim reminder of the ruthlessness of their opposition. If Alfonso had been chained to the mattress when the explosions went off, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he would have suffered horrible burns. And his own group had set him up for this.

But Alfonso was nowhere to be seen. There was a brief discussion about his current location. Their sensor network now had a view inside Jacob's again and Alfonso did not appear to be in there, and least not on the lower floor. The discussion concluded there was a small chance Alfonso returned to the surface, but it was more likely he had fled down the spiral. The question of how the society would respond to this development was tabled by Fatima until tomorrow's meeting. She then asked Tom to report.

"Well, we're on track for returning to the surface. We completed our fifth flight of stairs about five minutes ago. I should also report Carla has her pistol with her. She remembered to bring it, her spare clip too. I left my pistol in my bedroom. Emily, I take it you're at the top of the stairs now?"

"Hi Tom, and congratulations for getting out of Wobanakik. And you are correct. My team is sitting around the circle of the top step. Looks like a nice day. The killer ivy outside looks very happy."

"Uh, yeah. Fatima, that's about all I have to say. And Emily, you really don't have to come down for us. Maybe I wish we had a little more water but it's nothing dangerous."

"Oh, don't say that Tom. Everyone with me is eager to meet the new people. Carla, Suvarna, Tajana, welcome! Have you figured out which one of you will try out for White Mall janitor?"

"We're still discussing that Emily," answered Carla. "I think we'll have a decision by the time we reach the surface." It was a great stroke of good fortune. Their original hope had been that the reset would allow for employee training in the library of the central island. That had not happened, but now they had three people with White Mall citizen IDs on the other side of the Wobanakik elevator.

Jada and Lynn next described what they had managed to analyze over the past hour. They still could not interact directly with the main interface, but they were able now to pull up the scheduled cycle for Wobanakik's year.

"Our original estimate… I should say Madison's original model was correct. Wobanakik runs on a 252-day cycle. And the system has moved forward seven days and is now at the summer solstice position. There's a very interesting three-year cycle between Wobanakik and the surface, a recurring coupling of our solstice and equinox positions. To show you what I mean, am sending you a table of data through the library system. We decided to start Wobanakik's calendar at the winter solstice, just as we do on the surface. Hold on…"

A few seconds later, the following information appeared on the Fatima's console.

Summer solstice, Year 1 Wobanakik Era : Spring equinox, April 1, 2019

Fall equinox, Year 1 W.E. : Mid summer, August 8, 2019

Winter solstice, Year 2 W.E. : Winter solstice, January 1, 2020

Spring equinox, Year 2 W.E . : Mid spring, May 8, 2020

Summer solstice, Year 2 W.E. : Fall equinox, October 1, 2020

Fall equinox, Year 2 W.E. : Mid winter, February 8, 2021

Winter solstice, Year 3 W.E. : Summer solstice, July 1, 2021

Spring equinox, Year 3 W.E. : Mid autumn, November 8, 2021

Summer solstice, Year 3 W.E. : Spring equinox, April 1, 2022

"See how this works?" asked Lynn. "Two Wobanakik years equals three years on the surface. Our solstice positions here are locked to alternating solstice and equinox positions on the surface, and every two Wobanakik years our equinox positions are locked to hitting all four mid-season positions on the surface."

Jada spoke up. "Lynn found something else too. The moon has recovered its periodicity. There will be no more random phases one night to the next. It's on a pure 28-day cycle now, nine cycles per 252-day year."

Sitting in the Red Mall library, Mark made a comment back to his wife. "That was an interesting word to use, recover. Are you suggesting the lunar phases had periodicity sometime in the past and then lost it?"

"Yes," answered Lynn. "That's the one really frightening part about this. I don't have access to much, but I did manage to open a log charting the lunar phases. They've been random for just over three hundred Wobanakik years. I've calculated the exact date. In old Earth time, the moon lost its rhythm on July 13, 1809."

There was a long pause of silence on the bridge. Finally Ann who was sitting with Aggie in the Green Mall library spoke up. "Well, what's so frightening about that? It proves Wobanakik has existed for at least a few hundred years. Didn't we already know that? We've got the genome for Dinofelis down there, an animal that went extinct on Earth one and a half million years ago. The Great Hexagon could be immensely old."

"It's not the age Ann," Lynn replied from the central island. "Don't you see? The technology here is so far beyond our comprehension that we've been thinking of the builders as all powerful beings, entities who are godlike in their knowledge and perfection. But they're not. There was a system failure down here in Wobanakik. The file that I opened was an error log."

Chapter 72.

Time: Saturday, April 2, 2019 5:20 PM

It had been a very quiet day for Diego. Yesterday he had been busy de-arming all the booby traps Ricardo had laid in their home complex, with a heavy concentration near the elevators in the lounge and library. So many! Diego removed the booby traps but kept the elevator doors open with some furniture what were acting as wedges. And Ricardo had even laid traps in Diego's old bedroom. The bastard! Diego had almost missed one of the tripwires.

But today was different. He spent a little time in the morning doing an inventory of his food supplies and searching for a weapon. The best he could find was an extra Bowie knife that Ricardo had forgotten about, not great but better than nothing. And then there seemed nothing else to do. Diego ate an early lunch and then spent some idle time watching a boring movie in the entertainment room on the first floor. He brought a few beers with him, but the alcohol seemed as boring as the movie.

Diego was alone, truly alone, far more isolated than he had ever been in his life. And the smell of stale beer was getting to him. He had to admit, they lived like pigs when they were running that pussy-on-the-hoof shit. It seemed like so long ago. What a total waste.

So the question now was, what next? There was surprisingly little food left in the complex. The issue wasn't super critical. With the stockpiles of food still at his old lockup location at the southern vertex, Diego would be fine for several months. But Uno had been much more interested in stocking up on his favorite whiskeys than keeping the larder filled with wholesome food. There was so much within a few stores of Jacob's, Uno never bothered to keep a buffer in the pantry. Diego shrugged his shoulders as he took a small sip of beer. Food wasn't the issue.

The issue was, what to do? Diego had no hope of getting any forgiveness from his former rape victims. He had committed enough crimes to be locked away for life if he were on Earth, and why would the women see things differently here? They'd either kill him, or even worse, pity him and lock him away in a room for the rest of his life. Diego grimaced at the thought, his memory playing his crimes over and over.

How many did he rape? Diego liked variety. It was his secret fantasy since puberty to mount one beautiful woman after another, and incredibly the strange trip through the elevator provided him the opportunity. Maybe he didn't beat the slaves, at least he wasn't senselessly cruel, but the nightly feel of a new woman's vagina around his cock, the variety of legs and breasts and how the women tasted, Diego was in sex heaven.

He probably rutted on at least... Hell. He couldn't even bear to think of the number now. His favorite technique was to have the women lying on her stomach and he would be kneeling between her legs, holding an ankle in each hand. Diego loved shoving into a captive woman from above, riding with the thrill of sexual power. Sometimes when he was about to release, he would lie on the woman's back and bite her neck as he made his final thrusts. Unloading into a female from that position was a pure aphrodisiac. It felt as if his orgasm would go on forever. But now looking back, he struggled to remember the point. And did he really not care if the women were crying?

Diego felt damned, plainly and simply damned, but there was nothing he could do about it. So what should he be doing? Just wait in this foul-smelling house day after day, month after month until the food ran out? Not fucking likely. That would be a pathetic way to finish a life that he had once been proud of. So what to do?

He had a plan and was all prepared for it, taking as much food and water as he could comfortably carry, the binoculars Ricardo for some strange reason had left him, the Bowie knife, a change of underwear… Early tomorrow morning at the break of dawn, assuming he had the courage, Diego would walk out of the lounge and follow the perimeter of the diamond complex. He would retrace the path on which so many compadres had lost their lives. What would he find? Diego had no idea. But at least he didn't think he would meet Ricardo. That was one particular encounter Diego never wanted to have.

Time: Saturday, April 2, 2019 6:01 PM

One and a half kilometers below, the good citizens of Wobanakik still had another two hours of daylight left, but here on the surface Amber was enjoying the last few minutes of deep orange sunlight and shadows. It had been a beautiful day, getting up to 9C earlier and it felt almost that warm now. Amber was sitting quietly on a park bench in the pine tree courtyard at the home complex of Green Mall. Two hours ago she had returned with Aggie, Heather and Ann from a ten-hour excursion to search for the lost members of Green Mall. They had found absolutely nothing, and the implications were driving Aggie crazy.

Ann came out the door in the central stairwell and walked over to Amber. "Dinner's almost ready. Aggie made something that smells really interesting."

Amber gave Ann a small smile. "Ah, Aggie's famous Hungarian cuisine. How is she feeling now?"

"Better I think. Perhaps the cooking is therapeutic."

"Ah…" Amber patted her flat stomach. "More Apfelstrudel for dessert I bet. If this keeps up, I'm going to start gaining weight."

Ann shook her head. "With all the exercise we're getting? I doubt it." She paused for a moment and then joined Amber on the bench. "So, what's the thinking?"

"Want to link?"

"Sure."

Amber hesitated. "Sorry. I wasn't being serious. But I'll try to answer your question." She fidgeted for a moment. "Aggie was fit to be tied. Our latest expedition, we seem to have proven that the lost people from Green Mall never existed."

"Yeah. I'm sure Aggie is going to have a lot to say about that at tonight's meeting. But Amber, that's not what's bothering you, is it?"

"No." Amber sighed. "You really know me, don't you? I guess I should be flattered." She stretched and took a deep breath. "I got a call from Fatima about an hour ago, right after we got back."

"Uh huh."

"I've convinced so many people that we should be active in Black Mall that Fatima is finally going to agree. And Fatima says I'm the one who championed the idea and I'm the one who knows the mind of our enemy the best. So she's going to put me in charge. Me!"

"Wow! You've made team leader. Congratulations! This will be quite a step up in base pay."

Amber chuckled. "Yeah, right." She shivered as a cold gust of wind blew in from the north. "Brrrr! We probably should be heading inside. Look at those clouds moving in. We might be in for some rough weather tonight."

They rose together, and as the stood Ann gently petted Amber's shoulder and felt her friend trembling, and somehow she knew it wasn't from the air temperature. "Are you worried about failing?" she whispered.

After a moment of silence, Amber turned and offered her friend eye contact. A second later she whispered in a thought, "I'm worried about getting people killed."

Time: Saturday, April 2, 2019 7:30 PM

Bingo! Jenaro had been forced to spend the previous night sleeping out under the stars, which was marginally okay with him. But the weather outside tonight would be awful. He was moments away from getting soaked with a freezing rain when at long last he found an unlocked door. Jenaro hurried inside and was so eager to get out of the numbing wind that he let the door close behind him. Then he remembered that might be a really bad idea.

Cursing his own stupidity, he tried the door again and breathed a huge sigh of relief when it opened easily. Unaware that the door would lock from the inside a minute after being closed, Jenaro let the door shut again without wedging it open. He then sat down and rooted around in his backpack for something to eat. He thought the flashlight he had with him was wonderful. It never seemed to run out of power. Suddenly he remembered something, Ricardo's frustration in the strange lobby when main power seemed to be out. Jenaro stared at his flashlight thoughtfully. What the hell?

Time: Saturday, April 2, 2019 9:15 PM

To hear the wind, Fatima would have to go outside, and she had no intention of doing that. She snuggled with her blanket instead and enjoyed the show through her bedroom windows, enjoying the power of the rain lashing against the windowpanes. There were even occasional flashes of lightning.

Fatima knew she should try to get some sleep but her mind was still racing. They had so many projects going on, so many decisions to make. And then after tonight's meeting she had another date with Mark. How strange this was! He was a married man, one of his wives was already pregnant, and yet Fatima shivered like a schoolgirl when they kissed goodnight. Had she truly accepted polygamy in her heart?

And his wives! Frida and Toshi had both hugged her very affectionately after the meeting and before her date began. Fatima was beginning to feel that she didn't want to wait for the year and her term as leader to end before she committed to Mark. Would anybody mind? It was something she needed to think about.

It was such a busy meeting, but at least they had completed their reorganization, and that was a major piece of work. So many projects were going on simultaneously, both on the surface and below.

Wobanakik was starting its summer, and the reports from below were describing a lush sub-tropical climate with a high today of 25C after an overnight low of 15C. There was also an interesting observation made on the Missisquoi, as Jada had sent a new team to occupy the entrance rooms. The central channel had become more focused, increasing its flow rate to 8 kph along the entire length from the central island to the lake by the entrance rooms, and also continuing into the other half of the river. Jada had probed the river almost to its northern end today. Her conclusion was that the new river dynamics were not a problem. They made getting to the central island a little more challenging but the landings were still doable.

It also made travelling north along the river very easy without hindering the return trips south. The waters outside of the channel were still very gentle, perhaps flowing north at 1 kph. There were also unexplained and vaguely unsettling changes in the water temperatures. The gradient between channel and non-channel water had shifted markedly in the day after reset, finally stabilizing at 4C in the channel and 24C along the shore. For safety reasons with the kayaks, Jada felt very fortunate that they had a good selection of wetsuits in the mini-mall beneath her home.

Jada had split her group of thirteen into two halves. Remaining at the central island with her were Thara, Oona, Abit, Lynn, Mandy, and Charles. Madison and Sandra were co-leaders at the entrance rooms, and with them were Amy, Margaret, Sachi, and Parni.

Lynn had made a startling offer to Fatima during tonight's meeting. In two year's time, Lynn thought there would be an opportunity to force another reset in the telecom network from her library station, and she suggested that if their group was still trapped in Wobanakik then, Lynn would be willing to sacrifice herself and perform the reset from the library while everyone else was by the elevator in the entrance rooms.

For a while Fatima was at a complete loss of words for how to respond. Jada spoke instead and said it seemed inconceivable to her that any of their group would accept such a sacrifice. But Fatima wasn't so sure. Attitudes and a desire for life outside of Wobanakik could grow and change dramatically over the next 504 days. Fatima ended the discussion by thanking Lynn for her selflessness and added that she prayed the issue of leaving Wobanakik would be resolved long before they would need to consider such a gift.

Fatima and twelve other members of the Society comprised the home team, and their mission had expanded earlier this morning when Mark announced that employment opportunities for Medical Technicians had opened up. Lucia who was already an RN was a natural choice for Red Mall, Paige volunteered and was accepted by the interface as Black Mall's representative, and Suvarna and Tajana were accepted as White Mall candidates for Janitor and Med-Tech. Mark was also continuing his studies.

In addition to the people studying for employment, the home team had the responsibilities of monitoring the sensor network, exploring the interface at the surplus library locations, being a support group for the away teams and finally acting as a reserve force in case of emergencies. In addition to Fatima and the student employees, the members of the home team were Hannah, Emily, Holly, Frida, Toshi, Akiko, and Kiyoko.

The next largest team had eight members was now headed by Amber, and it was dedicated to resolving the open issues with Black Mall. The team included Husna, Ashley, Brandi, Whitney, Cassidy, the five women who had proven to be the most proficient with the crossbows. Kiyoko as Black Mall janitor would also join the team when the possibility of surface exploration existed.

Also on the team were Tom and Carla who were armed with pistols. Carla had put aside her own desires for employment training in order to provide armed support for Amber's team. Their tentative schedule was to spend tomorrow planning their first operation on Monday. They were still discussing their options when Fatima said goodnight to them after the meeting.

And then finally there was Aggie's team which included Alison, Heather, and Ann. Aggie and her team were in a somewhat bewildered state this evening. Over the past month, they had completed a very extensive map of the area south of the Green Mall home complex, and they had found something that didn't make any sense. They had identified six hub locations within their target area that any wandering group would have had to visit. Each hub had sleeping and bathing facilities and ample supplies of food.