By David C. Daoust
Mari Haul could not help but wonder how long a person could wander a seemingly endless series of corridors, without going completely bonkers. She figured she may be just the person to ask, at some point. That is, if she could do anything but jibber-jabber incoherently once she had a definitive answer. On the plus side, thanks to her daily walks, she’d lost quite a bit of weight. Or would that be on the minus side? Clearly, she was no longer on the plus side. She snickered at her poor play on words, and thought it may be an indication she was that much closer to that definitive answer.
She’d given up on trying to send a message out through the hub. She simply could not out maneuver the Ark… Her walks were the only thing she had to occupy her mind, most of them led her back down to the lower caverns; the hot springs below were incredibly relaxing.
Nora, the split AI that dragged her here, had vanished completely.
Noreen, whom should be in every droid body from here to the Droid Cities edge, no longer spoke to her either. Wasn’t terribly surprising- AI’s had taken to silence shortly after the Ark Age had ended. What was surprising- the droids were eerily absent. They had been for days.
Absolute solitude.
Mari was still being fed at least. She wasn’t sure where the food was coming from, but she’d find a dish in the morning when she woke up, she’d find lunch waiting for her somewhere during her walks, and dinner was usually waiting in her room when she was done for the day. The most she ever said aloud was a quick ‘thank you’ for the food- often times the phrase was filled with snark.
Mari had the ark-temple pretty well mapped out at this point. There really weren’t very many notable land marks. Her rooms, the hangar she arrived in, and the elevator down to the lower cavern, other than that, just a series of over-sized corridors, each one identical to the last; it was all about remembering the turns.
The caverns were a dead end, going too far in any direction, led to a severe drop in temperature. The hangar was sealed tight, even if she could open it, the hangar doors were on the ceiling; crafts landed and took off from above. And her room was so high up in the temple, climbing off the balcony would lead to a horrible fall; plus- cold.
The ark-temple was built on the polar cap of the moon.
Ultimately, she was trapped by the cold.
That didn’t stop Mari from checking each corridor again and again, like she was doing at this very moment. After all, originally, there was no elevator down to the caverns, until one day, there it was. Mari figured it was probably to keep her busy, and the hot springs surely did that…
The madness was setting in. What Mari wanted was something new, something different.
“Come on, ya damned AI,” Mari suddenly said aloud, possibly tempting her madness to show, “I know you got another elevator around here somewhere… open it up! I command you!”
Suddenly, the wall to her left, split down the middle and whisked open!
“Ah-ha!” Mari cheered, “Damn right- better do what I command.”
Without much thought into what this may entail, the crazed War Hero hopped onto the lift, and pushed the ‘up’ button. She figured she already knew what was ‘down’…
Discussion ¬