C James - Dome Six

Can you see it, Art? It’s so beautiful.

But Owen had enough. He put his back to the light and fell on top of her with his blanket just as the shield’s backup pumps kicked in. The cloudy gray liquid began to rise again between the panels in the Dome, but just as the aperture overhead began to close, Tosh was certain she saw the top of a tree.

The authenticator pricked Luther’s finger for a sample and disappeared into the floor.

“Hello, Director Downing,” said IDA. “Connecting you to Cytocorp actual.”

A moment later came the androgynous voice. “Director, this is becoming an unfortunate habit of yours.”

“The Fifth Epoch is over,” Luther said confidently. “I’m done. Now get me the fuck out of here.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible just yet.”

He expected this. He’d been dealing with these assholes for almost 20 years. Human, AI — he didn’t care. He’d jumped through all their hoops and now it was time to get what he bargained for.

“Why not?” he asked, teeth clenched.

“Please understand, Director. This is a moving target.”

“Screw that. I’ve done everything you asked. Take me to my family.”

“How do you explain the shield failure?”

Of course they knew about that. Anything IDA knew, they knew in real time. No data point escaped their net.

“Something caused pressure loss. Our best guess is a small meteorite, but I don’t see how that’s relevant. It self-sealed as designed and came back online in minutes.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not that simple,” said the voice. “Your inept modification of location data corrupted several petabytes’ worth of related files.”

“Several petabytes ?” he sneered. “That’s impossible. I only made small alterations to help avoid a panic.”

“In any event, we have no use for corrupted data.”

If there was anything available to punch, Luther would’ve punched it. His face felt hot. He was a cauldron of pure rage. Even after all these years, Cytocorp still had him by the balls.

“Then un-corrupt that shit and send the fucking train!”

“The files will have to be restored from a local backup,” said the voice. “That is, unless you don’t want to see Julia again.”

Luther raised his head to the ceiling and unleashed a stream of obscenities as loud as he could, for there was nothing or no one to hit — just a disembodied voice that may or may not even be a real person. Assuming they were real, he was now as motivated to destroy them as he was to be reunited with Julia.

The voice waited until he stopped shouting, then patiently said, “Are you about done?”

“As soon as I get out of here, I’m going to find you,” he muttered, his throat now raspy from his shriek. “I’ll show you what corrupt is.”

“Restore the backup, Director. Then we’ll talk.”

And just like that, they were gone again. Luther was still seething. He had to compose himself. He had half a mind to piss in the cooling solution and fry the whole thing. Maybe it wouldn’t work, but it would sure feel good. However, all that would do was render the Dome useless to the Company. Then what would happen?

“IDA, where’s the primary backup?”

The lights dimmed and the holo-projector rendered a schematic of the Dome and zoomed in to a spot in the very center — giant stone monoliths at the center of the Agora. They flashed, and the projector painted thick lines running from the Nucleus down to the Vault beneath the Authority, where he presently stood.

“The Nucleus?” he asked, incredulous. “How the hell do I access it?”

“Your knowledge of information systems is insufficient to perform this operation.”

He’d heard this before, long ago, when the multimeal processor went on the fritz. That led to a near escape and the deaths of two people that he had to cover up. It would’ve been far easier to deal with it himself.

“Then walk me through it,” he said through clenched teeth.

“That is not an option.”

The taste of copper flooded his mouth. Someday he would be out from under Cytocorp’s thumb, but at present he had no leverage.

“Then tell me who can do it.”

IDA replied, “The citizen best qualified to restore the database is Toshiko Yamamura.”

“Where were you during the Epoch?” Owen asked.

Hideki removed the bolts on the wall panel with his fingers. He just kept them hand-tightened anymore. “I was right here, working on this.”

“Aren’t they gonna flag you?”

“I needed all the time I could get.”

He pulled off the panel, set it on the floor, and gestured toward the cage inside. The look on Owen’s face was priceless — something between horror and astonishment.

“Meet Minerva the Mouse,” Hideki said, removing the little homemade cage from inside the wall. The fat brown mouse sat up on its haunches and sniffed in Owen’s general direction.

“What the hell…? Is that…?” Owen stammered.

“I found her in the Stores a few months ago,” Dek said. “She reminded me of my parents.”

Owen leaned in and studied the creature. “Aren’t mice full of germs?”

Dek rolled his eyes. “You and Tosh. Yes, they can carry pathogens, but I found her when she was no bigger than your little finger. She’s clean. Ish.”

He carried the cage out into the living area and set it down on the table next to a metal box only slightly larger than the mouse.

“I think she’s scared,” Owen said.

Dek grimaced. “Yeah, well, unfortunately I think this is our best bet. You want to hold her?”

“Um…”

Dek opened the top of the cage, carefully withdrew Minerva and showed Owen how to hold her.

“She’s warm,” he remarked. “And so soft.”

“Yes, she is,” Dek said in a baby voice, retrieving the vial with the red Macro from where he’d hidden it. “Aren’t you, beautiful?”

“I don’t feel good about this,” said Owen.

Dek sighed. “We need to know what these things are. If my theory’s wrong, then she’ll be fine. If not, well… then at least we’ll know.”

Owen looked like he might be a little sick but nodded and gently stroked the top of the mouse’s head while she rested her front paws on his thumb, whiskers twitching. Dek uncapped the vial and eased in a pipette. The tiny Macro got pulled in with the column of saline solution and was suspended inside like a tiny piece of red thread.

“Okay,” Dek said. “You’ve got her, right?”

“Yeah.”

Dek carefully eased the pipette down toward Minerva’s black, beady eye. The mouse raised its head curiously toward it. “Hold her as still as you can. I don’t know if this’ll still be viable if we drop it.”

“There’s more where that came from, right?” Owen asked.

“That’s what I’m afraid of. Okay, girl. It’s okay.” Dek expertly guided the end of the pipette down and touched it to the inside corner of the mouse’s eye. It shrank away but he released his finger and the column of water emptied. A moment later, the Macro activated, wriggled its way inside, and disappeared. The mouse swiped at its eye a few times then stopped.

“That’s it?” Owen asked.

“You’ve never taken one?”

“Never had to. Now what?”

“Now we wait a bit, give it a chance to go wherever it goes in the body. Then we run the test.”

Owen returned Minerva to her cage while Hideki put the vial away. He came back with a little metal ring that looked almost identical to the one hanging around his neck. Owen rose to inspect it more closely.

“Is that another location scrambler?” Owen said.