Paul Collins - Earthborn The

The images suddenly took on a darker hue, as if filtered. The resulting effect suggested a sinister, even maniacal intent. Suddenly, the two troopers appeared on screen. Welkin groaned, but to his mounting horror he realized the memory engram had been faked! The image showed Welkin sneaking up on the two troopers who were taking a breather, exchanging harmless jokes, wishing they were back inside Colony with their brethren. Without warning, Welkin leaped out of the shadows, snapping off two shots that dropped the troopers in their tracks, dead.

A horrified gasp sprang up in the Assembly chamber and quickly became an enraged howl. Welkin's head sagged. The elders had set him up, had edited his memories, and yet he felt obscurely guilty about the troopers. No matter what the circumstances were, lives had been taken. Taken by him. Somewhere

inside the huge lie engineered by the elders there was, he realized, a kernel of truth.

"Enough!" cried Tobias theatrically. "I think we have seen enough. The elders will vote."

Each elder pressed a button on the table before them. Elder Ja-mieson gazed at a computer screen.

After a moment he lifted his head and gazed at Welkin. His face was expressionless.

"Judgment has been rendered. Welkin Quinn, you have been found guilty of high treason. By the Law of Association, your sister, Lucida Quinn, shares your guilt. Together, you will be taken herewith from this place of judgment and banished to the lower decks, and there you shall remain for the rest of your natural lives, short though they may be. You are from this moment on stripped of your membership in our society, deprived of your former privileges, and dispossessed of your humanity, which is hereby revoked.

You are thus cast out from the normal world; from this time on you will dwell in darkness! Begone!"

Welkin was too racked by pain to react to the anger that camethundering from the gallery. Shouts of

"traitor" and "murderer" rained down on him from the gallery. The synaptic needles were yanked from his scalp and left dangling from the limbic apparatus.

He was unceremoniously dragged from the chair and, together with Lucida, was dragged from the courtroom.

Moments later they were in an elevator, descending fast. The ordio announced, "Level five."

Welkin gasped as it hit him. They were being discarded. He must have made a sound because a heavy suddenly spun around and slammed the heel of his hand in Welkin's face. "Shut up, traitor!"

Lucida whimpered, but she was spared a violent response as the elevator doors slid open and the heavies spilled out. Wearing riot gear and carrying snap guns they ran helter-skelter down a long corridor, dragging Welkin and Lucida like rag dolls between them.

When they reached the end, they trained their weapons on the bulkhead separating them from the lower decks. On the squad leader's signal, Welkin and Lucida were pushed to the bulkhead. The heavies crowded around while two of their number released the lock.

As the door opened, a dank smell wafted from within.

"It's dark in there!" Lucida cried. She pulled back frantically, but the heavies caught hold of her flailing arms and twisted them sharply behind her back. She cried out in pain.

"Let her go!" Welkin elbowed a heavy in the abdomen, then buckled as the butt of a snap gun thudded into his head.

"Welkin!" Lucida lurched toward him.

"Shove 'em in!" the squad leader ordered urgently, aware of movement in the darkness beyond the bulkhead. He stood back with his snap gun held firmly against his shoulder.

"In!" a heavy screeched frantically. "Move it!" He shoved Lucida so hard she stumbled against the door seals.

Welkin swung clumsily around, and as he did so something was flung out of the dark. The heavy behind Welkin cried out and toppled backward. Several chunks of metal then clattered against the doorway.

Welkin pulled Lucida down to the ground, but even as he hit the deck with her, they were pushed from behind. They tumbled into theblackness and were trampled as screaming mutineers struggled to get clear of the bulkhead before the door closed.

Welkin and Lucida curled into tight balls on the deck. Several bodies landed on top of them.

"It's dark. I can't see!" Lucida wailed. "HELP!"

Welkin dragged her firmly to him. We're going to die, his mind screamed at him. But Lucida's closeness cleared his mind. "Shhh. It's not like space . . . we can breathe . . . it's okay," he soothed awkwardly. We're going to die and Lucida will never see Earthside. She'll die down here and it's all my fault!

Lucida's body was racked with violent muscular spasms. Her throat convulsed and her mouth opened and shut involuntarily. "We're going to hell!"

"We're on Earth," Welkin whispered close to her ear. He held her tighter until her sobs were muffled against his shoulder.

Welkin and Lucida jumped as the door suddenly slammed shut.

"Hit the lights," said an authoritative voice.

Someone hot-rigged some wires. Pilot lights flickered, then became stable. The tension eased.

Ravaged faces with eyes as hollow as death peered at Welkin and Lucida. A group of lower deckers moved hungrily in on them. Some were clothed in rags, others seemed to have made a valiant attempt to maintain appearances. Most of them were kids no older than fourteen, though there was a sprinkling of older men and women. One man looked like an elder with a long, unkempt beard flecked with gray. The leader was in his early thirties. He held the others back with his outstretched hands and looked down at them.

"We've been convicted of treason," Welkin said quickly. "We're like you."

"Not like us, kid. You're a softie from the fat upper decks," said the older man. A scar cut a livid line from one cheek to the other. His nose had been hideously flattened; several missing front teeth muffled his speech. He looked worse than any Earthborn.

"I'm Lee. We can't linger here long. It's not safe. So we have to make a decision."

Lucida looked up. "A decision? What do you mean?"

Lee shrugged. "Nothing personal, kid. Scarce resources. Down here, we obey the inexorable laws of economics. So. You have thirty seconds to convince us you're worth preserving."

"Thirty seconds?!" Lucida stared at him, aghast. "You're going to kill us?"

"Twenty seconds."

"That's not fair!"

"It sucks," said Lee. He raised a makeshift crossbow loaded with a steel dart. He took aim at Lucida.

"Ladies first, huh?"

Welkin stepped in front of his sister.

"Whoever said chivalry was dead?" Lee's cohorts laughed, and Welkin was immediately struck by the lack of malice. These people didn't hate them. This was just their life.

"My sister is a top-rank technician! She was first in her class and majored in primitive and obsolete technology."

"Like the kind we have down here?" Lee asked cynically. "Nice try."

"No, like the kind the Earthborn use."

There was a sudden raw silence. "Told you!" cried a ferret-faced kid. "We did land on Earth." He laughed. "I could smell it!"

Lee pursed his lips. "You think that qualifies you?"

"I lived among the Earthborn. I have friends there. They want to help us."

Somebody pushed through the crowd of onlookers and threw himself at Welkin. Welkin instinctively started to defend himself, then realized the newcomer was hugging him.

"Welkin! Space! I'm glad to see you!"

It was Harry.

Welkin stared at him, hardly daring to believe his eyes. Then they were hugging again and pounding each other on the back. Harry turned to the others. "This is my friend and his sister. I claim privilege!"

Lee lowered his weapon. He stuck out his hand and grinned. "No hard feelings, huh?"