Exterminator : The Dark Beneath

“The ARC has a range of areas designed with relaxation and socialization in mind. Why not go shopping in the mid-ARC Malls? Walk through the hydroponics gardens and see where much of the ARC’s food is grown or visit the trees that clear our air. Fancy something new? Our Monorail station offers a range of shopping and eating opportunities as you wait to travel”

-Information on ARC tourism and leisure Site

Jack left Stevens’ office and headed to the monorail station hub to get some breakfast. His colleagues could do their own bloody maintenance for once. He walked along the corridor out into the public areas heading the station. The corridors became wider, the dull grey plastic and overhead piping of the maintenance level giving way to clean white walls and ceilings. The offices and doorways around became more aesthetically pleasing, hydroponic planters recessed into the white plastic of the wall providing colour and life to the otherwise sterile environment, and the occasional clear screen displayed public information in scrolling lines of data. He started passing people heading to the station hub, most likely to grab some breakfast at one of the cafes or restaurants before the morning shift. There were even some children in the crowd, being escorted by family ‘members. Further on, clear screens, some displaying travel information, weather reports and Gentech stock variables populated the walls, whilst others advertised hub shops’ advertisements in bold colours and styles.

He received a few glances and odd looks due his uniform and people gave him a wide berth. Many viewed Exterminators with a degree of distaste and derision, but knew that they were needed and so had to tolerate them. Ahead of him he could just glimpse the rust coloured hills of the valley through the outer tech-glass wall of the ARC, and as he moved out into the hub, his eyes were drawn upwards. The station hub sat under the southern face of the ARC, looking out-wards was the sloping tech-glass wall, ten metre square panels of nanoparticle treated glass, held in place by a grid of treated alloy beams. The hub ran along the wall; open space reaching eight stories up to create a huge triangular area.

The back wall was broken up into shops of various sizes, along with the preschool that catered for residents of this section. Spreading up the wall were several stories of apartments and offices, allowing their occupants to look through the ARC wall out over the desolate expanses of the planet but also down at the plants and attractions of the hub. At the highest point were luxury apartments, level with the tops of the tallest trees. Their location and the views made them some of the most sought after accommodation in the ARC, each costing per month more than Jack made in a year. The main floor of the hub area had sections filled with planters and small gardens, with fully grown trees ranging from ash and maples to a scotch pine, all fed and watered via Aquaponics from small ponds filled with Koi Carp and other ornamental fish. Under the trees were several seating areas for citizens to enjoy their food and beverages from the surrounding eateries.

Moving out through the crowd towards the two story block of the station set into the outer wall, he had to stop a few times to let children run past on their way to the school, as well as the flood of workers coming into the ARC from the monorail. Although most of the ARC’s employees lived on site, there were always people travelling to and from it, some from Yorktown, the largest settlement and main food growing area on the planet, others to the mines and refineries that huddled on the cracked continental plates to the south.

He swung right, walking along the front of the station to the station and ignoring the clear-screens surrounding the entrance and groups of commuters, until he reached the end of the blocky structure. Nestled between the lee of the glass wall and the bulk of the angled station was his favourite eating spot, a simple food stall that sat right beside the glass of the outer wall. He waited beside the circular hut as the server dealt with the previous customer, and then ordered a synth-protein tortilla and a coffee, nodding to the older gent who always seemed to be working there. Grabbing his order, he took a seat right next to the glass, the hub to his left and the view through the walls to his right.

The bulk of the station hung over the cliff face the ARC sat upon, supported by tall concrete pillars stretching up from the valley floor two hundred metres below. The monorail itself stretched out from it, the concrete and metal tube snaking above the desolate dunes and rock formations of the ARC valley. The red tinged rock and sand that comprised the bulk of the planet’s surface contrasted with the pale blue of the sky, lit by the coming sunrise. The only visible movement came from the dust devils conjured by the wind, and distant silver snakes of the monorail train approaching from the shuttle port in the distance, its tall satellite relays, control tower, and squat hangers no more than a faint glint on the horizon.

To his left was the huddle and bustle of the hub, people going to and fro under the shade of the trees, talking and arguing, laughing and playing, as clear screens set into walls or standing info-points displayed local and system news, gossip and politics.

Normally Jack disliked the busier times of the day. Though the borderline hostile looks that his uniform and job inspired in others and the petty concerns of the corporate drones irritated him, after a long run in the under-works he sometimes liked to just sit and soak up some humanity for a little while. His job left him isolated, most of his human contact coming from his incompetent boss or his co-workers, a mix mostly made up of social outcasts, thugs, and petty thieves. Sitting unobtrusively in the corner, he drank his coffee and studied the passers-by, enjoying their drama, sometimes making up back-stories to explain their behaviour. Apparently I’ve become a voyeur, he thought, snorting in gentle amusement.

A gentle chime sounded through the hub, and the information clear-screens switched to display the ARC overseer’s emblem, causing people to turn and pay attention.

“This is a citizens’ information announcement,” came a smooth female voice from speakers set around the area. “Due to predicted solar activity, travellers are reminded that monorail transport will be unavailable from the 12th till the 28th due to hazardous levels or ionizing radiation from the solar storm. Citizens who will suffer disruption in their travel arrangements should consult their supervisors or ARC representation officers about temporary accommodation. On behalf of the Gentech Corporation, and the overseer’s office, we wish you a productive day.”

As the symbol disappeared and the regular displays returned people started moving again, talking animatedly about the announcement. Jack checked his watch and programmed in the restrictions. Seven days till the twelfth, not that he’d be affected much as his work took up most of his time, and he didn’t have a social life to take him out of the ARC.

As if summoned by the talk of solar storms, the sun started creeping over the horizon, its fierce light flooding across the landscape and moving down the ARC, glinting off the apex overhead before working its way down the glass walls. Although the human eye only saw the bright visible light, the dawn bombarded the planet’s surface with inferno of invisible radiation, from UV to microwaves and other more exotic particles. Jack watched the tech-glass shimmer as the nanowires and particles embedded into its core shifted position to absorb the radiation, filtering out the harmful excess to allow light levels similar to those found on the earth’s surface, though tweaked to remove the more harmful rays.

It always struck Jack how little people appreciated the extraordinarily unlikely conjunction of factors that made earth suitable for life, from solar distance and high amount of liquid water, to the projective shielding of its magnetosphere. Even the other planetary bodies helped shield the earth from asteroids. Nowhere else seemed to have had the almost ideal conditions which had allowed the evolution of advanced life.

In all of humanity’s interstellar travels the only life forms found were simple cells, mostly carbon based but a few utilising silicon as their base molecules. Certainly nothing resembling the hordes of aliens depicted in twenty first century science fiction, however much he enjoyed the classics. The lichen found here on Ares was actually one of the most advanced organisms yet discovered, and was part of the reason that its barren surface justified what colonies it had. Well ….that and the gold and heavy metals.

He looked out over the red landscape and gently touched the glass as the people moved around in the hub, seemingly paying no attention to the fact that just a foot of tempered silicon and a collection of nanoparticles was all that protected them from cooking to death.