Illumination

Jack woke up to the sound of the buggy’s engine rumbling. Her whole body felt sore all over, which made sense considering that she was slumped against the buggy door, her cheek mashed against the frosted window. How long did I sleep? she wondered, rubbing her face and glancing around.

The scenery outside had drastically changed. Instead of driving on plains of sheet ice, the cold had thawed out and was replaced by closely packed moss that almost looked like snow. Blathyme, Jack remembered. Have we really been driving for that long?

“We’re about five minutes away from the new colony,” Robin informed her. He was still at the wheel, rubbing his eyes. “How did you sleep, Jackie?”

“Okay,” she responded, ignoring the nickname. Looking around her, she saw that Bailey was still asleep but Liam was up and working in some strange booklet.

“Whatcha doing?” she asked him, peering around the back of his seat. At her words he quickly shut the little book and set it in his lap.

“I am making a journal to prove my innocence and the matter in which I was involved with this...incident,” he told her, choosing his words carefully.

“Seems a little bit excessive to me. We could just tell the General,” Jack said, leaning back suspiciously.

“Yeah, if we even get the privilege of speaking to her in person.”

“In times like these, I don’t think it’s that hard,” Robin added.

***

“This is Bird from buggy 2X-T requesting clearance...along with three registered passengers,” Robin radioed as they approached a laser security gate.

“Permission granted,” a voice said from the speaker in the gate. “Please standby.” The lasers deactivated with a buzz that made the frost around it disintegrate into a puddle. Jack gasped as they rolled past the security and into the main colony.

Unlike her colony, which was a big, ivory dome with attached buildings, this one looked much more like an army camp. Tents were strewn about in the darkness, haphazardly clustered together. Thick, tubes stuck out of them, trailing across the ground to large generators of liquid Illumination. This all followed a circular pattern around an ominously large, stone building. Nothing like our colony, Jack thought.

“Well, I guess we’ll get used to it,” Bailey commented, now wide awake.

“That’s a bit of an overstatement,” Liam muttered. “At least compared to the luxury apartments and room service every day.”

“You used to get room service?” Jack asked, awestruck. He blushed and looked away.

A couple of mechanics approached and helped guide the buggy in between two others, then manually popped open the side doors. “Welcome,” one of them greeted. He had bristly, caramel hair, a thin mustache, and slight bags underneath his eyes. He looked as if he’d been working long hours. “My name is Trevor and I’ll be servicing your buggy for your stay here. I also have a message to send along to all of you.” He pulled out a slip of paper, unfolded it, and read aloud, “The General—yours, not ours—requests an immediate and urgent meeting with the following persons, etc, in the main office by 7:00 IT. Failure to do so will result in immediate detention and disciplinary action.”

“What are we, kids?” Robin muttered, taking the piece of paper from him. “Alright, direct us to the main office then. And will there be snacks? Real snacks, I mean. Because I don’t think I could stand another second of those gross, frozen beans.” Jack couldn’t help but agree with him.

“Well, I don’t know about the snacks,” Trevor said, gesturing for them to follow him. “But I do know that your General is upset about whatever it is. We’d better hurry.”

“Yeah. It’s 6:48,” Bailey added, checking her holopad. Trevor switched on his Illuminator and led them through the camp.

The conditions truly were horrendous, at least compared to what Jack was used to. Families emerged from the tents to watch as the procession went by, bundled up in full uniform and cloaks. The tents were tiny and looked as if they’d been set up in quite a hurry. “We weren’t prepared for such a large population growth,” Trevor explained. “The news of the evacuation of your colony came fast and you were all on our doorstep within eight hours. But we’re working to make conditions better. We had to evict some of our own colonists to make room.”

Jack couldn’t help but feel a pang of remorse. We did kind of intrude on their way of living. But it was an emergency. So that justifies it, right?

They exited the outdoor camp and entered the gargantuan, stone building through a security door in the side. Trevor waved his wrist in front of every door they encountered and it opened up without a sound. Jack was surprised by how modern the inside of the main atrium was, at least compared to the outside. Every surface was faceted to fine points and shone like di-dust. There’s a lot of security here. We’re safe. Somehow, that didn’t comfort Jack. The idea of strange, leathery creatures with long tongues lurking in the dark still haunted her.

“Just up these stairs,” Trevor said after a while, pointing up a staircase. “Then it’s straight to the right, next to the water filter. Number 503. The access code is YG94-2S” After a moment, he added, “I’m not authorized to go any further.”

They watched as he turned and left them, moving at a quick jog to get back to the buggy he was fixing. There was a pause as they looked up the ominously long staircase, then Liam took the lead. “Let’s go,” he said, and the others followed him up the stairs and onto a carpeted balcony lined with doors. Sure enough, office 503 was next to the water filter. The numbers on its door were knocked slightly askew and a sign was hanging from the access pad that said “Knock Before Entering”.

Liam rapped on the door three times and then punched in the code. A light flashed green and there was a click as the door unlocked. “Enter,” the General’s voice said from inside at the noise. The four of them looked at each other apprehensively before pushing the door open and stepping inside.

The office was surprisingly cozy. The walls were a warm shade of brown and striped with auburn. A large, rectangular desk took up most of the space and behind it was a large bulletin board hanging on the wall. Various holograms sat on the desk, most likely from security feeds. Four chairs had been drawn up on one side of the table. On the other sat the General, looking stern as usual. Her black hair was drawn back into a long ponytail and she wore an informal blouse and padded skirt.

“Good evening. Please, have a seat,” she said, leaning back against her chair and gesturing to the seats in front of her. After they were all seated, she pushed a plate of steaming vegetables and crackers towards them. “Eat. You must be famished after living on rations for almost two days. I admit, when the food scientists designed the ration packets, they did not design them for frequent consumption,” she joked. She leaned back with an easy smile, gaze still sharp.

There was an awkward pause as she offered the plate to them. Robin finally reached forward and took a cracker; the others soon followed. The General folded her hands, satisfied, and began rifling through a stack of holocard files on her desk. “Unfortunately, I did not bring you here for food. We have more pressing matters to discuss. I am, of course, relieved at your safe return. But I’m more concerned about the suspicious behavior that you may or may not be the source of.” What suspicious behavior? Jack tapped her fingers on the armrest of the chair.

Liam must’ve felt the same, for he immediately started forward. “Ma’am, before you proceed, I must strongly object to any disciplinary action being taken on my side. I had nothing to do with the guns. In fact, I objected at first but was forced to give in by the necessity of weapons to defend ourselves.” Is he trying to back himself out of this? Good luck with that.

“I was unaware of any weapons being stolen, but I’ll add that to the report,” the General noted, raising an eyebrow. Liam cursed under his breath. “My main concern is that my monitor reports three suspicious logins to one of our off-campus territories. These logins were unauthorized and were under your names.” Jack’s heart jumped. The strange tropical cavern! “The first one was logged as Jacklyn Ferris-Amundsen. The second came approximately seven minutes later, under the name Robert “Robin” Amundsen. Five minutes later, the monitor logged Liam Griffiths as having exited the building. Would anyone care to explain how you discovered Sector V8 and why in the world you left the gates open?”

All eyes turned to Jack. She realized that they were waiting on her and sat up straighter. When in doubt, flip the question, she thought, remembering a trick Bailey had taught her when they were in highschool together. “What is that place? Why have you been hiding it from the colony?”

The General didn’t even hesitate before answering, “Sector V8 and all other sectors contain highly classified information that is only available to high-rank individuals, not college students.”

“All other sectors?” Bailey asked. “ You mean there’s more?”

The General sighed and looked around, as if debating whether or not to tell them everything, then nodded. “Fine. Come with me. I want to show you all something. But what you’re about to see is highly classified.” She stood up, towering over them, and gestured towards the door. The four of them stood up and followed.

“Down this way,” she instructed, leading them back down the flight of stairs. Jack watched at the Illumination lighting their way grew dimmer and dimmer until they were practically walking in darkness. The General led them through a side door and down another flight of steps, this one smaller. Jack began to feel claustrophobia tug at her chest and she swallowed her fear as the ceiling grew lower and lower. Soon, they approached a steel door with several access pads next to it. Three of them, in fact. “Turn away,” the General instructed. They did so, except for Bailey, who watched out of the corner of her eye as their leader punched in the three access codes and used her ID chip to unlock the door.

“Welcome, Gianna Byrne and guests,” the monitor greeted. There was a series of clicks as several bolt locks and laser grids deactivated, then the door swung open on its own. The General gestured for them to step inside.

With all the hype that she’d put into it, Jack was expecting a giant vaulted room with high-level technology. Instead, she found herself in a modestly sized planning room with a holographic projector in the center and multiple maps tacked up on the walls. This time, the General didn’t invite them to sit on the couch. She strode right to the center of the room and began fiddling with the controls on the projector.

After a moment, a hologram appeared on the map. The General enlarged it and invited the others to come closer. “This creature is called a solfect. There are only ten of them in existence, as far as we know—one in each Sector.” The hologram was of a strange, leathery creature that looked like a small Apex. It had a long, creased snout with a drooping, white tongue and a bristly hide. Its skin folded into pockets where its eyes would be and its nose was two holes poked into the snout. It looked like its flesh was sagging and threatening to peel off, but then it tapered to thin, taut points at the feet, showing off bare bone and muscle. It was less scary than it was gross.

“What are they? How did they get here?” Liam asked, eye shimmering.

The General walked over to one of the maps on the wall, which looked strikingly similar to Robin’s. However, there were ten Xs marked on the map in red ink. She pointed with her finger at an empty spot on the map. “This is where we are now.” She moved her finger to the east until it rested on a tiny, black dot. “This is where the 382nd colony was located.” Jack felt a pang in her heart at the word “was”. Finally, the General moved her finger down to the nearest X. “This is Sector V8—a simulated paradise meant to appease the creature that was contained inside of it.” She paused and looked gravely at them, saying, “This is not light information to throw around. These creatures are the closest thing to invincible. Centuries ago, when the Sun went out, we captured all ten of the solfects before they could breed. housed them in separate, holographic enclosures. We hoped that they’d eventually die of natural causes.”

“So you mean that the whole tropical room was a simulation?” Jack asked, confused. It had all seemed so real to her.

The General smiled sadly. “It’s amazing what technology can do these days. But apparently, it wasn’t enough for the solfects. I’m afraid to say this, but Miss Amundsen, thanks to you, we may have another mass extinction on our hands. This time, of the human race.”

“Why? Wha—what did I do?” Jack asked, stepping back and rubbing her temples nervously.

The other leaned forward, face dead serious, and folded her hands on the holographic table. “My dear, when you left Sector V8 with your friends, you left the gate open. The Eighth Solfect, or S8 for short, escaped alongside you. And now it’s busy freeing all of its friends.”

“Why is this a problem?” Bailey asked, crossing her arms. “We captured them once. We can capture them again!”

“Yes, but that took years of lockdowns, bombings, and chases. The colonies combined are not what they were many centuries ago. I’m afraid that the cost of securing all these monsters will be too great for our fragile population. We have no easy way to capture them, and they are too strong for us to kill.”

Here she stopped and looked at them all in turn, inspecting them. As if debating whether or not to drop some big news. “After all, it’s impossible to kill the creatures that killed the Sun.”