“Is this everyone in the Underdeck?” Gio asked, distracting herself from the crowd’s probing eyes.
The murmurs reaching her would override soft speech so she’d spoken quite loudly. Then everyone quietened suddenly, startling her.
“This is only a few hundred of the deckers. People who had time to spare from their work and the representatives of groups. Some of them have radical ideas, so don’t be surprised at anything they say.”
What radical might be to a decker such as Ryke she wasn’t sure. What surprised her more was that he cared enough to tell her anything.
Then she looked higher, drawn by movement. Squinting past the layer of suspended lights, she found the distant ceiling wasn’t simply patched metal, it was an upside-down suburb. What had before seemed holes were windows and hatchways. What had seemed flat, up there in the gloom, beyond the lights, was an irregular landscape of small houses. People sat on balconies, or swung their legs off them as they peered down. This was a beehive of people, plastered to the ceiling, in home-made apartments – like London bridge in medieval times, they’d used a pre-existing structure and made it their own.
There’d not been people visible before and so she’d missed it.
“Does everyone live there?” She jerked her chin. “And...why?”
“Most. It’s the farthest from the sea they could get.” He lowered his brow and studied the immense shaft opposite the king’s residence that was a bookend to the farm area. “Some live in those. The shafts connect to the upper landship but they also hold hundreds of deckers.”
These people, men and women, had the blue on their skin. Crawling blue tendrils showed on those at the front – either the marks moved or they faded and brightened. She hadn’t seen extreme changes like this on Ryke.
Ryke wore dark brown pants and a brown shirt with random, burnished gold patches. The shirt fastenings were toggles. His boots were the ones he’d worn down here. She recalled them on the ladder above her – distinctive black heavy things with metal clips. She half-expected him to kick someone to death with them.
The man had abandoned wearing the hood, so obviously he’d used it above to conceal his marks. It was a window into his psychology. Was it from shame of the blue marks or a need to remain anonymous or both? Or some reason that escaped her?
Badh sidled through a gap in the crowd and strolled to Ryke. Though his head was shaved like his brother’s, his dark hair and unhurried manner were a contrast to Ryke who, in every way – manner, appearance, moves – seemed the embodiment of a weapon. They nodded at each other and Badh gave her a short nod of acknowledgement.
Which was almost a gift – she’d been seen as a person.
“Ryke. Sorry about the numbers, though maybe that’s best.”
“They’ll tell friends of friends, yes. So I should make this a good speech?”
“Yes.” He turned to the crowd and they quieted as he raised his arms. “Morning, deckers! I present to you my brother, Ryke, who you all know of, if not personally. He lives above most of the year, visits us yearly, and some of you see him as something special.” He eyed a group she thought disliked her, from the way they’d stared and muttered earlier. “But this time, there are new problems. You will listen? Yes?”
Yes came back, echoing into a minor roar.
Relegated to a decoration, or worse, Gio waited, anxious and a little in awe. This Underdeck population hung on Badh’s words. He was like a minor king.
That her neck felt naked was odd, and she had to repress the urge to put a hand up to touch the scar the doctor had left.
“There’s information, things, I have to tell you after, though I will take you to the bow first,” Badh said in an aside as he looked out over the crowd. “Remember this, if anyone lets slip what’s been going on down here. I did mean to inform you.”
What she’d already surmised, was that what he referred to? Was it real then? If so, how could she use it to her advantage? The Mekkers were in trouble. She clenched her hands into fists, quelling her excitement. First, make sure of the facts.
If the landship was going slower... Why?
But Ryke was talking and this talk might end with her dead or sent above. She examined him, from boots upward. In her bones, she didn’t believe she would be killed, not anymore, and her certainty was rooted in him. He was determined to keep her.
Whether as some sort of sex toy, or a mascot, or an information base he wanted to fuck...any of those were good, weren’t they? Being his and being in the Underdeck must be better than being with whoever had chased them down here?
It was, it was.
“Thank you all for coming! I know you don’t have time to be idling. My problem is simple, but first I will tell you who I am. This is the reason why I live above. You know me as Ryke. I am the brother to Badh, your Overmekker. I am also the King’s Own Lawgiver. The rumors of years gone by are true. The king employs me to do things no one else can do. I am a secret, though perhaps no longer?” He laughed depreciatingly and the crowd laughed with him.
“Because you are deckers and know what duty is important, I ask that you not in any way spread this fact to those above. Whether due to some incident where an Above comes here or communicates with you in the course of your work, or due to military service...”
An Above? First time she’d heard that label. Decker, yes. But to call those in the upper part of the landship by a different name too said the people here saw themselves as very different.
Make a note of that.
Tensions, there were potential tensions within the ship.
“And so here is what I really need to ask of you. I am on a mission from the king concerning this female.” He extended his hand in Gio’s direction. “She is of course a human and a slave. I need your dispensation, your permission to keep her here. It is the safest place simply because of where we are and who you are. Without this, my duty to the king is hindered.”
His voice rose in volume. “Do I have your permission?”
The people all seemed to talk at once. They turned to each other and talked, or to Ryke and Badh. A few scowled at her.
Badh stepped forward. “I ask that you raise your arms if you give permission. Because of who you are, we will consider this a valid vote for the whole Underdeck. Do you say yes?”
A sea of arms rose.
“Down.” After the arms were lowered, Badh added, “And those who say no?”
Only a few arms could be seen above the heads.
“Then permission has been given! Thank you!”
A few cheered. Most simply talked again, louder. Some of those who seemed annoyed or angry at her began to come forward, surging past the limit of the main crowd until Badh intercepted them. They pointed toward her, some gesturing wildly, until he settled them down.
She wondered why these were more hostile than others.
However, it was done. Relief seeped through Gio – a little toxic with these weird ones who seemed to hate her, but this was better than before. She was going to be allowed here and this seemed a good place to search for some morsel of freedom, for a way to go home.
Dreams. She couldn’t bear to part with that one yet.
The grass underfoot bent beneath her shoes same as grass had back home. Smelled like grass too.
“You can stay.” Ryke wrapped his hand about her upper arm and squeezed. “Now I will have the leisure to find out what you know. I expect you to tell me tonight.”
Her heart pitter-patted and she searched his face. He wished to hear about what he thought was her lie. Then Badh returned and leaned in.
“I have a hopper coming. I’m taking us all on a trip to the bow. You want her to come?” He winked at Gio.
“I do, but for reasons to do with why I brought her here. Over the next few days, I mean to let her be near every single person who lives in the Underdeck.”
“Well. I think that can be arranged. Though within only a few days seems a stretch. But come. It’s here.”
The people dispersed through pathways in the crop, leaving the stalks swaying but undamaged. Fat green pods hung from most of the stalks near her and a haze made the air seem thicker in the distance, as if seeds, water droplets, or perhaps pollen, fogged the air.
She followed Badh and Ryke to an open vehicle and sat next to Ryke, facing forward. Badh sat opposite them, the shift of his weight making the hopper rock.
The strange background thoughts of mechlings sifted to her from the farmland once again, making her wonder what was out there. One in particular seemed as colorful and strong of aura as an orange placed among rocks.
This three-wheeled hopper had no roof and its hull was a faded gray with the paint peeling away in layers. The brown seat upholstery was cracked. It took off with a throaty stutter once they were seated, forging past the crowd and headed toward what must be the bow. A few hoppers joined them, aiming in the same direction. As they passed the big circular gaps in the farmland floor, she saw blue sparks floating upward. Slowly those faded and vanished.
Delinquent energy from the sea below, she guessed. The name was odd – to call it an Engine Sea, as if you could set a boat on it and travel somewhere. This was the first time since almost forever that she’d felt relaxed enough to think of frivolities. The hopper rocked a little, reminding her of cars and trains on Earth.
On solid land, this might have been a farm if not for the lights and the strange birds. If not for the distant overhead ceiling or the wide shafts leading upward. Or the weird people with blue squiggles on their bodies. Or the sound of waves sizzling and washing up below. Or the throbbing of engines and the lack of sky.
It gave her much to contemplate and to weep over. The longing for home hit her unexpectedly, and she pressed finger and thumb to the bridge of her nose to lessen the strain of a headache.
Ryke rearranged the position of his arm, stretching it along the seat behind her. When his large hand grasped then began to massage her opposite shoulder, she nearly glowered at him but stopped. Instead she met his brooding smile with a tweak of her brow.
“Thoughts?” he asked.
“I have none.”
“Hmmm.”
Crops gave way to more crops, then to a shaft wall that had the entrance to several square tunnels in it that were large enough for the hopper. Birds flitted through. Tiny blue ones went by so fast she couldn’t see if they had teeth. To either side of the tunnel were doors and more doors with faded, chunky red numbers on them. Mekker numbers, and Mekker letters too, on some.
“So. She goes where you go?” Badh had his arms splayed across the back of his seat and a smile spread over his face as he studied her. It was as if all the family happiness had gone into him.
“She does for the meantime. That may change.” Ryke placed his hand on her knee and gripped her there. “She is a slave but a possession of the king for the present.”
“So I can’t have her? A pity.”
Heat rushed to her face and neck. Nevertheless she answered his blatant stare with her own, until she wavered and ducked her head. She’d learned during the last year. Give in to a Mekker and things were ten times worse.
Don’t give in and sometimes they were too. The stats were a bit ambivalent. Luckily he swung back to his brother. Jaded, she was so jaded by past humiliations. That he’d even suggested she might be swapped between them should enrage her.
“What you’re going to see is to be kept secret. The king knows, as does anyone who needs to.”
“Now you have me intrigued.”
“I wish it wasn’t necessary.” He was silent for a while. “Those were our schooling and technical education sections, Gio. The children learn there.”
“Children? You have those? I mean, I saw so few above. I thought maybe your birth rate was low.”
Both men studied her.
“Is... Is it true?”
“Does it matter if we say?” Badh questioned Ryke.
“I doubt it. Why would it?” Ryke twisted to face her. “You want to know?”
Though uncomfortable at the scrutiny, she nodded.
“The Scavs will never meet her. Gio, we don’t reproduce as well as we should. And children are often sent here. The Underdeck has a high turnover.”
Turnover? That seemed ominous. “You mean a high death rate? Short life expectancy?”
“Yes. Those.” Ryke’s focus switched to his brother and they exchanged looks that held some odd quality.
Her persistent brain flicked through the facts she knew. High death rate. The king leaving the Underdeck. The blue in their skin and how others bore much more of that than Ryke, a man who’d left here long ago.
The Engine Sea was killing them...or the waik power. Both were one and the same though, weren’t they? The Mekkers seemed to have some major problems.
She needed certainty. Needed to understand them. Her priorities had shifted. Saving humans was near impossible because a portal mage was no nearer to being found. She might as well search for hen’s teeth... Wait, those were possibly doable here.
No mage, but what if she could do something that inconvenienced the Mekkers? They’d banned slaves down here because the Engine Sea was important, and here they were letting her see everything, have the grand tour. Ryke might regret setting her loose.
They emerged from the shaft that was a building and were spat into a labyrinth of tall containers. Rust dribbled down the sides. The rows further away were rolling toward the shaft building and disappearing into it. A few men and women policed the movement of the containers. There were little islands of desks and stacked crates. Seedheads, grains, crushed fruits, and stalks littered the ground. She guessed supplies went upward, to feed the masses above.
As they neared the bow, the sound of some mighty mechanical apparatus intensified. Soon, she might’ve been in the middle of a factory at war with itself. Much of the noise seemed to come from the very front, where the hull curved away. Badh had to shout to get them to exit the hopper.
What’s that noise?” she yelled.
“The jaws that eat the land! It’s how the landship feeds. They’re just ahead of us but on the other side of the hull you can see.” Then he added to Ryke, “Here is where we suffered the most from that DRAK missile!”
She stood beside them at a railing, staring down at where the glossy vivacious sea sloshed and climbed about yet another vast ball. If that were a perfect sphere, it projected above the sea by almost as much distance as what lay below the surface. Crackles of blue spat from the waik core and fell and deckers labored on its surface with tools rising and falling as if adjusting or fixing something.
Two giant cables swung down to them, connecting somewhere at the top of the sphere. The cores must have those to carry away power.
“That’s a waik core!” Badh told her, forgetting that Ryke had told her this before and taking up her hand to use to point at the ball. He let her pull her hand loose but the warmth of his remained in her palm.
“What makes up each of those facets?” she asked.
“Every one of those is a pure waik crystal. We mine them as we go.”
The ball, when she peered and focused, seemed to be carpeted with thousands of glinting facets.
She wanted to leap and cheer but only clung to the railing with both hands. These people were not as all conquering or all seeing as she’d thought.
For the first time, she contemplated doing something terrible.
Their power source, the Engine Sea, looked vulnerable. Whatever had hit this ship, they still hadn’t repaired it completely. Part of the hull, above the sea, showed where a hole must have been torn and the waik core’s top was missing a ragged chunk.
The next wonder had her shaking her head in disbelief. A man swept in on wings of sheerest, perforated and iridescent silver to land upon the core and fold them up to...nothing. They’d gone into a tiny backpack.
She pointed. “Uh. That?”
“A core flyer. It’s a skill and a talent to use those, like my brother.”
Those should not get enough lift to stay airborne. Surely?
“So, they’re adding new crystals?”
She thought perhaps no one had heard that question but Ryke had. He leaned on the railing to her right.
“Yes, they are. Rebuilding her. It’s hazardous work.” His words hit a monotone and stayed there, as if he was sunken in memories, cruel ones, from the way his mouth twisted and the mark creasing between his eyes. “Sometimes they fall into the sea. Sometimes the waik blows out, leaves more tracks than anyone could ever want. We age and we die working on the sea and the cores.”
And the missile they’d spoken of had created damage they were struggling to fix. Leaning her elbows on the railing, she put her hands together in almost a praying position, settled them over her face while she thought.
What if. Could this help her?
“Did you feel anything like a portal mage on the way?” Ryke asked, nudging her elbow, then his hand touched her neck, and he began gathering her hair slowly into his grasp, tugging softly, melting his touch into her mind.
“No,” she answered, voice muffled, looking down at the waik core.
Thoughts whispered. She could see... She could see a fault in the core.
Light screamed outward, blinding her. A wind tearing at her skin.
The blue blossomed in an explosion that blew a massive chunk off one side of the sphere. Fragments raining, raining, pattering into the sea, scattering into the air. People thrown high and flailing as they plummeted. Their mouths open in an eternal cry.