The Foundling Saga: Revelation (9 page)

Sophia returned shortly after. She told Keller that he would need to sleep. It was the middle of the day, but she was concerned about his lack of sleep given that he had such an early ‘awakening’ as she called it. He thought of it as a nightmare but said nothing to her.

He was tired. He had eaten and washed about an hour earlier but his mind was struggling to take it all in. He slept fitfully for several hours and woke with a start.

Sophia had returned.

“Drink this Keller, you have a visitor coming in soon. You have been sweating in your sleep, so have a quick shower to freshen up.”

“Again?” he said, privately wondering if these people spent all day cleaning themselves. This seemed all the more odd as they didn’t seem to do anything that involved getting dirty.

“Yes, it will help wake you up. There are spare clothes on the side,” She said, pointing behind him, but then noticed the face he was making. “You should change after every sleep, Keller.”

He quickly showered and changed. As soon as he had finished changing the door slid open.

Marcus was back.

“Keller, you’ve rested.” It was a statement. He continued “That’s good. You will be resting here for three days, possibly four. Sophia will be here for you during the day and evening. Just ask if you are hungry or thirsty. We will continue to check on your health, but we have no concerns at the moment. Don’t be surprised when one or two doctors attend. They will ask questions just to help them assess you.”

“We have some people who will call in to talk to you. You need some information, call it ‘education’, about us. You also need to understand the ways of the off-worlders, your travel arrangements, and of course, Rayleigh.”

“You still want me to go?”

“Yes, you have to.” No apology.

“How will my mother know where I am - she will be frantic?”

“Apart from your mother, who else will be concerned about you?” Marcus asked, but saw Keller frown again and so he gestured with his hands as though offering something to Keller. “Keller, just tell me their names.”

Keller thought about this. He couldn’t yet find a reason to distrust Marcus. “My Uncle Cormic, my friend Merna, Aunty Ida, Aunty Nerys, others. Why do you ask?”

“Keller, write a short note here and now to those you have named. If you care that they are going to receive this note then please keep it very simple as we can’t allow any suspicion to fall on London for you being here. You must understand that. We can arrange for a short note to be left somewhere ensuring it reaches them one way or another. Tell them that you are well and have decided to travel - that you will be back soon and will write again in three months.”

“They won’t believe that I have decided to travel.”

“Quite possibly they will harbour suspicion. However, a note in your hand will at least show them that you have not come to any harm. Then write a second note. Keep it simple again and tell them that you are still fine, enjoying travelling and that you are now travelling with friends. I will personally ensure that this is delivered in three months’ time.”

“Three months!!” He shook his head in disbelief.

Keller thought about this. He desperately wanted them to know he was okay. He did however realise that the same note would be equally useful to the Londoners. He thought about their livelihoods and knew Marcus was correct. If the families in Suffolk Road thought that one of their young men had been taken by Londoners, someone may take action that would not be in anyone’s interest. It could change the delicate balance of cooperative living between the Londoners and the Suffolk Road families. It was true - the two groups needed each other. In the short term, the Londoners might cut out one group of families from the Arpo but they would suffer a lack of supplies, particularly medical.

With a heavy heart, Keller nodded towards Marcus.

Marcus left the room and a short while later came back with two plas tubes. From each he pulled a square of cloth. Keller recognised the tubes and maps as they had been taken from his backpack. They were two rough maps of the two cities he had taken as Cormic’s backpack was so full. He also had some charcoal.

“Since these are yours, you may as well write your message on the back,” said Marcus.

Keller wrote the two notes.

Marcus looked at them afterwards. Satisfied, he placed them in their tubes and put them in a small box beside his chair. “The delivery of these will cost us. But it should help settle them and they will know it’s your hand.”

“What sort of cost?” asked Keller.

“Any covert operation outside of the city requires planning, men and resources.”

“Then it must have cost to find me.”

“Yes, it did. You have much to learn about life outside Suffolk Road, particularly life in the port cities. Hence we have some people coming to talk to you - to help educate you. You’ll need to understand your new environment and the way the various parties work, whether it’s the Regents, the troopers or the off-worlders and so on.”

Keller was barely listening. For the first time since this morning he felt something positive had happened. His mother, uncle and family would hear from him. He interrupted Marcus. “When will the note get to my family? They will be frantic.”

“I think we will do this tomorrow. The more I think about it, the better it will be for all of us to calm your family.” He seemed to consider his response for a few seconds. “We can’t help the approach we are having to take.”

Marcus paused, seemed to make a decision, and then said, “I need to get moving. I will be back again tomorrow. Just keep calm Keller, you are still obviously finding this difficult. Just work towards each meal. Make sure you rest tonight.” He put his hand on Keller’s shoulder. “It will become easier tomorrow.”

Marcus turned to walk towards the door.

“Before you go,” Keller paused for a moment and then asked “Has my... my birth Mother sent any further messages?”

“No. You can think of the perma-link as an invisible pipe - it has limited capacity and is in demand between off-worlders and our planet. It’s also costly. However, the original message from your birth mother requesting that you go to see her at Rayleigh also indicated that she is involved in some key regional elections of various officials. That’s quite an involved process. She said she would await your arrival in due course.”

“That seems very formal,” Keller said frowning.

“Maybe. It may also have been transcribed for her by one of her diplomatic staff. I am sure she is waiting for your arrival anxiously.” Marcus added. He paused, considering Keller with a sympathetic look. “Besides, I would imagine you both need time to get used to the idea of meeting up. Words passed via the perma-link are inadequate compared to face to face meetings. She may be a Governor, but I am sure she is anxious to some degree as to how you will both get reacquainted. I am sure you both are.” With that he got up, picked up his box and left.

Keller was alone again, and for the second time that day he put his head in his hands.

Over the next four days, Keller had two visits each day from Marcus, who took him out to a large courtyard garden area for a change of scene. The area was about half the size of his field, but it seemed have no purpose other than decorative – all the plants seemed to be decorative and not food, however he welcomed the change. He noticed that many of the plants in the small area were flowering. His mother would have appreciated this, he thought.

On the third day, Marcus was able to confirm that his family had received the first note. He didn’t know their reaction but he could tell Keller the exact second it arrived at his tent due to a clever temporary tracing mechanism. Keller was comforted by this news but, at the same time continued to have occasional bouts of private despair.

“Culture shock. Understandable,” one of the doctors commented after he enquired of Keller’s state of mind one day and having learnt of his fitful sleeping pattern.

Apart from meal times and late evening he wasn’t ever alone for very long. He had visits from various doctors, ‘teachers’ and several Regents. Some of the latter, he thought, were checking him over for their own satisfaction. It was as though they were concerned that the process of transportation to his mother would have no room for failure lest they themselves might take some of the blame. “They are political people, diplomats,” said one of the tutors when he asked him about his Regent visitors.

He was fed, clothed and generally pampered by Sophia in between all the visits. He spoke with her about some of the tutors, who clearly had a huge task to educate him. They taught him about the way London lived, breathed, traded and what its position in the world and beyond was and what they wanted it to be in the future.

He recognised that Sophia may have been placed with him to help provide a coaxing but sympathetic hand during his stay. Thus her initial warmth towards him may have been part of her instructions. However, he welcomed her visits and whilst it had only been four days he could see that she was fond of him. He wondered how much choice she’d had in taking on this role.

In the space of a few days, he still found many things he could touch and see that were alien. Attending the Arpo gave some clues as to how different the Outsiders and city dwellers were. The extent of the difference of how they lived, spoke and reacted was a constant wonder to him. He had several chats with Marcus and was persuaded, reluctantly, that he needed to see through what Marcus called a diplomatic duty to both the Outsiders and the Londoners. That is, to do the bidding of other people for the good of all. Marcus and some of his colleagues had been persuasive but there was no other sort of coercion suggested at any point. However, he did wonder what would have happened had he refused to go.

One of his visitors explained the route he would take to Rayleigh. There was a stop-off en route. “All passengers are woken up the day before,” his visitor said.

“What do you mean?” asked Keller, who hadn’t been listening fully. “We can’t sleep on the last day?”

“You will be asleep for almost two months until you reach the hub - then you will have to transfer to another flight for Rayleigh leaving two days later. The onward flight is around two months again. You will be asleep again for that. It’s like hibernation - similar to a hedgehog.” He then went into detail about the process of hibernating. This left Keller once again thinking that his family in Suffolk Road were worlds apart from the city dwellers and the off-worlders.

This visitor, who Keller thought of as a journey guide, also explained the speed of travel concept that they called ‘Zipping’. The technical explanation left Keller with a blank look - but the visitor continued to explain that traversable wormholes were used which allowed superluminal flights. This meant that travelling faster than the speed of light was possible. The craft wouldn’t travel faster than light that entered the wormhole but would travel faster than light that was outside the wormhole.

His visitor explained this further. “If you approached a very long but narrow strip of forest, then you can imagine that walking through the narrow midpoint of the forest (the wormhole) would still be quicker than riding around the forest on a fast horse. However, if the rider took the same route as you did walking then he would still be faster.”

Zipping was a revolution three centuries ago. Manned flights were mainly restricted to the Earth’s solar system. Prior to Zipping, Those few that had gone further afield were multi-generational - the crew had to rely on continuing their own population in order to have any pioneers available when they arrived at their destination.

The problems associated with such long voyages were colossal and only one of these expensive exercises still survived. This craft had been detected many light years behind the vessel that had left ninety years later using the Zipping techniques. Wormholes weren’t common. Whilst the older craft was nearer earth, it would take too long to travel back to it without the use of a wormhole. This particular group of colonists would probably never make it back to Earth in generations to come or reach any other colonised satellite or planet before its life support systems completely gave up.

Keller’s guide demonstrated a small device that told him a story about the vast craft, its’ construction and layout and how the journey would take him to the hub. Travelling onwards from the hub was basically the same in reverse it implied. He was left with the device and watched it, not daring to touch it once it started and look on in awe at the ‘educational programme’ as his guide had called it. Finally, when it was complete, it simply went dark and made no more sound.

Keller was left staring at the device and wondering when he was ever going to get back home.

Keller was told that he would be going to ‘Gate 12’ the following day which was apparently a two hour journey from his temporary home in London. Prior to that journey, he would have further visitors. These would be from a variety of Regents - all of whom seemed to perform various functions.

One uniformed man advised him of what he called ‘protocol’ which specifically referred to how he should communicate with, and approach, various groups of people. These included different grades of passengers, security, pilots, stewards and so forth. Then there would be another set of protocols once he arrives at New Exeter. There, he would be met and handled by other advisers, including representatives from Rayleigh.

Several Regents who visited seemed to be interested in how he reacted to certain questions and generally wanted to be sure his state of mind was okay for travelling a long distance. Two of them repeated medical checks that had already occurred on his arrival. They even examined what he deposited in the toilet - which really puzzled him until Sophia told him that it was possible to detect many illnesses from these deposits. He had already begun to just believe what he was told - no matter how fantastic or unlikely it sounded. He could see that the Londoners were very clever people with complex tools. Each of these tools being useful in some way or another to find out whatever they needed to know about almost anything.

Despite all these clever tools, they still seemed like ordinary people to him. They were all as different as any group of Outsiders might be, some were serious, some withdrawn, some friendly, some unfriendly, some funny, some kind and some disinterested or even just a little mean. That observation meant that, whilst he felt alone, he was not totally lost amongst them. It did, however, concern him that he liked one or two of them and this made him feel guilty when he thought of his family on the Outside who would, he knew, be worried sick about him.

He was wearing a small disc with dots on that he was told should not be taken off until he arrived at New Exeter, an I-disc they called it. It apparently allowed easy identification of his unique attributes (finger and palm prints, eyes, DNA, travel information, credits etc.). Credits allowed him to buy things during travel and at certain off-world centres.

He was informed he would be joining a great many other passengers who would be taken into the sky, and a little beyond, to transfer to a great craft taking them to the New Exeter hub. The vehicle in question was known as the Maurice Gould and Keller was informed that for several weeks this craft had been receiving various types of freight, including some live animals, which would accompany them to New Exeter for holding and distribution to various off-world colonies. The Maurice Gould would apparently receive a similar type of return load, albeit smaller in terms of both freight and people, for its return to Earth.

Finally, Sophia came to say goodbye. She had a tactile manner about her, but Keller was still surprised when she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him hard. “Don’t worry. What happens now will be an astonishing experience. You will be able to see just what marvels the best of mankind is capable of and it will give you hope, I am sure. Just keep your wits about you and watch and learn. Your family will be proud of you.” She turned away quickly, put something down on the table and wiped her eyes. “Don’t open this until I have gone but you will need it when you wake from hibernation,” she smiled and left.

He sat down and looked at the small package, wrapped in a cloth. He removed the cloth. It was a small hand held plas shaver. He smiled and felt close to tears. Whilst he had been treated well by most people in the last few days, he suddenly realised that he may not meet another warm and friendly face for some time.

Keller was then escorted for the final time from his room to a long tunnel. He was seated in a four man vehicle and this cart took him on the journey to Gate 12. He had two escorts who told him they would be with him until he was strapped in and ready to leave Earth. After that, there would still be an escort, but he or she would be looking after about a dozen people – a privilege of travelling in ‘Royal Class’, he was told.

Several times his I-disc was scanned briefly by various people. His photo and other information would then appear on a tiny screen that was held in their hands. They would then nod and allow him to pass.

The journey to Gate 12 itself was actually only fifteen minutes. The rest of the two hour journey was a series of pre-boarding checks. He had no personal effects except his clothes and the shaver given him as a gift by Sophia, so this part of the check was fairly swift. Every item seemed to be weighed and catalogued. He then had to eat a meal, take a drink, and visit the toilet provided. Some final medical checks were passed and he was led through a door and realised that he was finally on the craft that would take him to the main vessel waiting in orbit.

He was taken to a small white cubicle in the front section of the craft. He could see other cubicles nearby. Further back, he could see other travellers sat in a larger area but not in cubicles.

Keller was being paid a lot of attention. This was apparently because he was travelling in the so-called Royal Class. Once he had been shown to his cubicle and seated, he was offered a fruit juice and shown how to operate a viewing screen where he could select more educational programmes on the viewer. His new escort was another woman about the same age as Sophia, and she told him she was his hostess and would look after him until take off. She introduced herself as Tia and very patiently helped him operate the screen. This required him to wave his hand over certain areas to ensure programmes were selected, started, paused and stop. He could also talk to the viewing screen and it would understand the commands.

Tia left the cubicle. He was seated in a very long chair that he could instruct to recline she told him, and if he did, it would slowly move to allow him to lie down if he needed a sleep. He had another screen next to the chair which would allow him to see outside the craft when they were in flight. He settled down, as Tia had advised him.

After about an hour, the craft started to hum. The screen next to the chair showed the craft was moving. It suddenly sped up and he could see the craft was now aloft and as he found himself leaning slightly, he could see the plane was now at an angle with the ground. At this point he asked the screen to stop. It didn’t so he shouted “off” remembering the advice from Tia. The screen went silent but the wall in front illuminated and Tia’s face appeared asking if he was okay. He sat up with a jolt. “Yes, fine.”

Tia smiled and said “Just call if you need me,” and then faded from the wall.

A short while later, Tia re-appeared and said he would soon experience some weightlessness and not to be too concerned. She told him that he wouldn’t experience this when they got to the main transporter. He was well strapped in and should remain like this. A few minutes later he had a strange light feeling and he wondered how long it was going to last, as it left him feeling like he needed to hold on to something.

Eventually, Tia re-appeared again on the wall in front. They had arrived at the Maurice Gould and she would come to get him shortly. Again there was a little more waiting. Then Tia opened the cubicle door, fussed over him a little as she released various straps and asked him to follow her. The weightlessness had all but gone. He was led back out through the craft into a tunnel - the entrance to the Maurice Gold. It was supposed to be huge but the corridors were no wider than the last craft and could see many doors leading through to other unseen areas. Tia waited at a table and another person dressed in the same uniform introduced herself as Sylvia. Tia went back the way they had come in.

Sylvia asked Keller to follow her. “I will take you to your cabin. You and your fellow passengers who have just embarked are the last arrivals.”

Keller was aware of two different voices. One was female, one male. “He’s cooking nicely,” The female voice said.

A little while later, he heard a male voice. “He’s almost back with us. Muscular, isn’t he? Not your usual Royal Class passenger.”

“Diplomacy, Edwin. He’s cooking faster than usual. Young, and very fit. Won’t take him long to recover.” Pause. Then the same female voice whispering “Look at the scan, he’s hearing us.”

Later, he saw bright lights around him, then faces. “We are going to help you sit up Keller. Just relax, you are coming out of a deep sleep and we need you to start moving, but slowly. You will feel dizzy but we are holding you,” said the same female voice. He felt various hands lifting him, supporting his head and body. Someone held a cup to his lips. He took a drink of tasteless, milky-white liquid.