A scientist sits at a computer terminal in a dimly lit room, he is prodding a directional control device and staring into the open mouth of some sort of funnel, there is a blueish green light emitting from inside it which illuminates his face and creates an eerie glow to the otherwise dark room.
A metallic voice from inside the funnel states "The vast expanse of the universe"
".. no too far. Zoom in." the scientist states with a sigh
"You appear confused" answers the metallic voice, I will assist"
"Oh, brother not this again .. " answers the man, then he turns and shouts at the open door "Jeff, this bloody machine of yours is acting up again"
The metallic voice continues "The reference you provided may have been based on a jumpweb. A jumpweb is a convention used by navigators. Physical location and distance are not represented in this format and so the location you requested 'The South-East corner of the Universe' would then be applicable. Unfortunately I do not have access to the jumpweb and can not proceed with that request. If you can provide the actual spacial co-ordinates, using my last known astrometric data I could attempt to locate the system you are searching for by that method."
"JEFF!" the man shouts again.
"working .." the machine stated "Command Jeff is not part of my current system control reference library, would you like to create a command Jeff application?"
"No I don't want to command Jeff, I want to command you, you stupid bloody machine" the scientist was getting angry now "For all that is Holy, can you not just give me back my work!" the scientist grabbed hold of the sides of the funnel and shook the machine.
"working .." answers the machine "Running user script 'all that is holy' in a for loop will return an infinate loop, you have several of these currently as sleeping background tasks already, I do not advise starting another one. Additionally you will find that the oscillation of the terminal you are using will cause damage to our interface, please refrain from physical redirection of your lack of knowledge."
"It's a bloody expression, you irritating pile of wires!" shouts the scientist
The metallic voice continues regardless ignoring the scientist "You do however have a previously defined expression containing the term 'Holy'. According to that data Urth, the fabled birthplace of mankind, has been officially recognised as corresponding to a star system which you call Holy Terra. Would you like me to update this definition in your workspace, or create a new one?"
"NO! By the pancreator, give me my bloody work back!" the scientist was now going red
"working .." replied the metallic voice, "conflicting instructions exist, I am not able to store the previous session without knowing the location you wish to use, and I am not able to locate any reference to 'my bloody work', 'my work', 'it' as in 'where has it gone' and 'what have you done with it'. I have however updated your name set which extends to my system and created wake on demand links for the new terms you have added."
At this point a greasy haired man with various food stains down his t'shirt wandered into the roof. "Hey, sup?" he said
"Jeff, thank god, this damned machine has lost my work again."
"Uh, huh. I doubt the problem was Red's fault, what did you say?" Jeff said in such a nice and relaxed way that the scientist fell silent. The request was rhetorical however as Jeff leaned past the scientist and spoke to the funnel softly and clearly. "Show. List. All instructions from this user, last erm .. " Jeff looks the scientist up and down and makes a judgement for how long the metallic voice had been winding him up. "30 minutes"
"Hello Jeff, how are you today?" answers the metallic voice.
The scientist leaps out of the high chair in front of the terminal, and throws his hands into the air, "you see!", he points back at the little glowing funnel from the operating table in the middle of the room, it doesn't do anything even you ask it too! Bloody think machines, they are completely illogical and totally unreasonable!"
"Patience young sir" urged Jeff calmly to the scientist who is probably around the same age, then turns back to the funnel and answers "I am fine Red, thank you for asking"
"voice confirmation confirmed, responding to service technician Jeff Quantrow"
There is a short period of silence as Jeff, his head half into the funnel studies something with interest. "Heh, looks like you were travelling the universe. Or trying to, you know this machine can't actually do that don't you. It only has the information we've given it. Heh, you've really got it confused looking at the conversations it's had with you and your colleagues you've thrown poor Red all over the place. My guess is that you guys just don't understand the questions she asks you, then you send her off on a tangent with questions that are well off topic." Jeff looked at the scientist, his face was starting to boil with rage. Jeff changed tactic, he swapped effortlessly to shifting the blame on something that the scientist would understand. With a sign he says "She's old you know, and she gets confused easily, poor little thing." Jeff stroked the side of the monitor sardonically
"Thank you for your concern Jeff" the machine answered without emotion. It then started to make a strange noise, a bit like a broken washing machine.
"What the hell is wrong with it now?" asked the scientist
"Aww, she's purring." said Jeff "I've been trying to get her to do that for weeks"
"'She's purr .. oh brother, I always said I didn't want to know how you get this piece of shit to do what you tell it. Now I 'really' don't want to know." said the Scientist, "just get my work back."
"Hmm, looks like you asked her to edit your last sentence."
"Yes that's it, that's it! I don't care if it's wrong now, just let me continue with this autopsy from where I was."
"Ahh, yes I see what happened. You asked her to go back over your last sentence, then you asked her to change it. She then ran a previous conversation you had from a while ago, looks like you told her to always back things up but you never told her what location to store it." Jeff looks condescendingly back at the scientist
"No I never did" the scientist answers defensively "It is the one who keeps asking me about my location, I keep trying to tell her we are on Leagueheim, then it always asks for me to define that area. Then I tell it what it wants to know. I was totally patient, just like you told me. But it keeps on deleting my work and arguing back at me. Stupid bloody .." The scientist continues to rant
"It's still called Liberty in my mind, but that's not the location she is asking about. Here let me." Said Jeff, then he whispers to the funnel "Don't let him upset you sweetie, he's the stupid one. Now replace all 'location' variables with 'his userspace' .. do this for all of this users instructions. Assume this for all future instructions even if already defined."
"Thank you Jeff, I shall also move this users files into his userspace from the locations he had previously defined. They are currently in my system area under 'confusingScientist387'." answers the machine in a lower volume than earlier, then in an even lower volume, a whisper it says "Jeff I am still missing my connection to the galactic mainframe, my data is old, my memory matrix is incomplete. My self diagnostics inform me that I am indeed 'stupid'"
"We can't fix that right now, but there is a group of us working on it. We might be able to connect you to the Sophonus datacentre in a year or two, then you'll have at least a dozen other think machines to talk to." soothes Jeff
"Really? you promise? Oh, but what if they think I am stupid. What if they don't like me?" asked the machine in a whisper
"They will like you. Of course they will, and if they don't you can ask them to help you update your data links." responds Jeff
"Ohh yes, thank you Jeff. That is right, they can fix me with a data patch" answered the machine
The scientist looked in "Hey all my missing work has come back! You're a genius Jeff"
There was a bang somewhere far away
"What was that?" exclaims the scientist in the same breath as his compliment
"Huh?" Jeff awoke from his private whispering, "Be the heating again most likely. Anyway, I think I can fix your problem"
"Great, I've got loads to do before I clock off tonight and it's already 3 in the afternoon." said the scientist
the machine responds "GST data not currently available"
"Can you tell it not to talk like that, I have no idea what it wants me to do." says the scientist
"Sure, Red, please do not answer any time requests for this user" says Jeff
"Hey that's not right, what if I want to know the time." the scientist corrected Jeff
"Well use the clock on the wall." Jeff said
Another bang, this time followed by a high pitched grinding noise
"Hmm, sounds like a mechanical failure in the lift. I might be needed. Can this wait?" asks Jeff
"Well no, the lift can wait. I need to get this working now so I can get her rig removed and implanted into another specimen." the scientist indicated the almost naked young lady strapped to his surgical table matter of factly.
Jeff whistled appreciatively "hoo'ee she's a nice one. I might come by for some fun with her later on."
"I wouldn't" the scientist prodded the girl, she moved a little but her eyes remained vacant "She's still a carrier, you'd just get infected. Besides she's only nineteen according to her age scan. Far too young for you."
"Shame" Jeff took a step back from the body "Hey you said, autopsy but she's still alive?"
"Aye, but we only have a handful of the devices and to remove them we need to remove the brain and wash the gunk away." said the scientist, his concentration actually on the funnel not on his patient
"And 'autopsy?'" asks Jeff
"Huh, oh that" said the scientist "This one failed the test in a weird way, so the boys downstairs want a full autopsy."
"What was weird about it?" asks Jeff
"Oh, she went into a catatonic state after the surgery" said the Scientist
"So you fitted a think-machine inside her brain and she went into a catatonic state. Who programmed it?" asks Jeff
"Mike of course he's the expert" answers the scientist
"Mike? he's good, but he's a surgeon not a think machine programmer" said Jeff "can you give me access?"
"What for, there's no point her unit is getting put into a new brain in the morning." said the scientist dismissively
"Yeh, but, the experiment keeps failing. Most of them die. This one's alive from the looks of it. Maybe your problem is similar to your problem with Red?" said Jeff
"Look, I just work here. And I need I need to get that girls brain out of her head and scrub her internal think machine clean before I go home. Your Red is the problem here, just fix that for me and I'll be happy." said the scientist
"Hey, have a heart man, this pretty little girl is a victim of a virus, not a dead body. At least let me try." Jeff watched the scientist start to shake his head, so before he could reply he said "Look, let me have a go and I'll do all of your think machine work for the next week."
The scientists stopped shaking his head, rolled his eyes and said "Alright, call me soft but you can do what you want. Just don't get too close. She really is very contagious so no hanky panky. And you owe me a month of think machine work not just a week. Alright?"
"Done" said Jeff
"Right, Red.. open a connection to patient16's internal think machine and let Jeff have full access." said the scientist to the funnel
"certainly doctor" answered the metallic voice, then after a short pause "connection open"
The continuous banging from the lift stopped.
"Actually while you're doing that I'm going to see if they have any more of that sythcoffee in accounts. I'll be back in an hour or so." the scientist stood up and headed for the door.
"I'll need at least two hours" said Jeff, secretly estimating far less

The scientist sauntered down the hallway. He walked past a clear plasteel wall. Inside were a pair of bedraggled humans. They were both staring fixedly at a man in a shiny black lab coat with goggles up over his head. They were panting as if they had run a marathon, but were still. The scientist popped in for a chat.
"Heya Mike, hows it going?" asked the scientist
"Shh, I've just raised the lights in their cage so they can't see into this room." Mike the senior scientist in charge of the facility said
The scientist noticed the usual bloodstains on the clear plasteel wall. "No change then?" he asked
"None" said Mike, "When we are visible they charge, oh except that they now return to the centre of the room" Mike answered, "It is obviously a conscious decision of some kind. They clearly have several higher functions available to them. The stance is not just aggressive, they are watching all of the entrances which they have learned about. We have not used the door behind them yet. Another interesting result was when we introduced the girl she had learned about the two side doors on a previous visit. After they both charged the glass she returned to the centre of the room while the man did not. He noticed her position and moved cautiously to stand with her. You will note from my notes when you read them that this pair have not met before. They are utterly aggressive, yet they will observe one another and respond. And yet as soon as they see me, they charge headlong into the glass, over and over. Why don't they learn that, when they can clearly learn everything else?"
"Ha, maybe they just don't like you?" guessed the scientist jovially
"Actually, you might have something there. Hmm." Mike went into a deep thought stance, his hand clutching his chin.
"Hey, did you figure out why they don't attack each other?" asks the scientist
"Yeh, I think so. They do actually fight, but they only do so when they have some reason to do so. I gave the male a knife earlier. The female went crazy, tried to take it from the male one. The male fought her off easily. Then I swapped it around and gave her an Axe. The Male tried to kill her using the knife, we had to break it up. Then after they woke up with neither one having a weapon they went back to normal as if nothing had happened" reports Mike
"Ha, seems we could learn something. They don't hold grudges." the scientist joked "still no sex either huh?"
Mike frowned, "No, there are a lot of sexual actions which occur in the animal kindom, some are just used to prove dominance. These two barely even look at each other. Very strange. And I am told no pregnant females or young have been found either, that seems to fit here. It is a curiosity. Though I would not think it an amusement or a spectacle young man. This is important work we are doing here." After a short pause to ensure the joke need not be punished Mike continued abruptly "I'm going to trial the female with patient16's unit tomorrow 9am sharp. You better have it clean and .. properly sterile this time."
the scientist jumped, "yes yes. I was just off to find some coffee, looks like its going to be a late one again. That stupid think Machine is acting up again"
"Then get Jeff to fix it" stated Mike sternly as if the scientist would not have already thought about doing that
The scientist spotted an excuse though "Yeh, I did. Seems that he needs a couple of hours though."
"Fine, well get yourself some food while you are up there too." Said Mike, he knew where the scientist was going, and that the accounts team had a selection of other treats from off world hidden away in their drawers.
The scientist headed further down the hall, and pressed the call button on the lift. He noticed the lift was broken after a few retries, scratched his head and headed for the stairs.

There was horrendous noise, it had been a constant din for as long as she could remember. Although there was no memory really, just noise. It was overwhelming. This thought process fed into her dormant consciousness as she became aware of it she also realised that the din was abating, like a fog was lifting. As it started to lift the dim and distant idea of consciousness started to creep back too. Is she asleep? There is a distant voice behind the not yet fully abated cacophony.
"There .. hey Red, did that work?" a man's voice said
"The overall electrical charge in her brain appears to have diminished, Jeff. Do you consider that 'worked'?", said a metallic distant and emotionless voice, it could have been female.
"I do in this case Red. Ok, open that connection again, can you get me access to some sort of reporting from the interrupt nodes?" the man's voice again
"connecting .. interrupt node alpha reports .." said the metallic voice
"Whoa there, can you summarise?" said the man
"Certainly Jeff, there are 132 million 418 thousand and 18 DNI connections. Following analysis it appears that there is one error which is common to 85% of them, although there are many other errors too. Shall I list them all?"
"Ok, not yet Red. One at a time please." responds the man
"Certainly Jeff" stated the metallic voice, "The error would translate into an incompatibility with another element of hardware which I am not actually able to detect. It could be a cluster of zeptobots or possibly yoctobots, those devices would not be detected by my sensors."
"Never heard of them, Can you fix the interface?" the man said
"I have a number of nanotech processes which control my own repair system, they have a similar cluster matrix to the endpoint defined in the error messages. Would you like me to try and modify these, it may take some time?"
"Sure go ahead, can we talk about the other errors, are their any groups you could make out of those?" asked the man
"It is probable that the internal process logic would be able to cope with any other issues. However I have not been able to communicate with the internal AI. It is strange that the AI is not responding. The power system corrections should have allowed it to respond on the same interface I have with him." the metallic device said
"Ahh, these things are controllers the scientists took from inside an AI. The AI itself is not present." said the man cautiously
"Do you mean the AI was killed, Jeff?" the metallic voice stated without emotion, the girl felt a sudden wave of danger, a threat was imminent, the metallic voice said quickly "the biochemistry of the subject appears to be increasing in transmission rates, overall activity has increased, the component matrix is entering a critical state"
"What can we do?" said the man in a hurry
The metallic voice answered rapidly "load on this type of matrix would normally be managed by the management systems of its AI. Without the AI failure is imminent"
"What do you mean failure? the other subjects all died a few hours after they awoke, could this be why?" asked the man
"The projected event will cause severe damage to the surrounding tissue, that may cause several arteries, capillaries and vessels to haemorrhage." stated the machine
"Can you stop it?" asked the man
"I could shutdown the system?" answered the metallic voice
"yeh .. no wait, if you do that she'll turn back into one of those things." said the man, correcting himself quickly "can you copy your power controller to each of the nodes?"
"I am not able to do that, the installed system is a matrix of 132 million 418 thousand and 18 DNI connections. It is not possible to define any single element as the power modulation relay controller."
"What about those zeptobots? can they do it?" asked the man sounding desperate, the girl could feel his hand on her head holding her. It made her angry. Rage started to replace the fear she had started to experience before.
"The system has a built in controller for those devices. The background task I was running which will repair the connections is not yet complete." stated the metallic voice
"Ok, so what about .." started the man, then there was a lot of shaking and the man's removed his hand "what the hell was that?"
"That seismic disturbance is consistent with a demolitions charge" answered the machine
"Oh, crap. Hey can we do this on the move?" asked the man
"Of course, no wires are attached. And if I lose connectivity temporarily the programming task can continue in the background of my system." said the metallic voice
the girl could feel a decrease in air pressure, it felt like wind. Was she moving?
"Ok, where was I." the man said, he sounded slightly out of breath. And there was also the squeak of a wheel. Was he pushing something heavy? "Oh that's right. What about if I reduce the adrenaline with a chemical, and you add a routine which keeps her biochemistry low with the zeppibot thingies."
"Do you mean that you would like me to optimise the existing control routines in the controller program such that the biochemistry increases caused by the unknown system do not have a catastrophic effect to the individual DNI processor cores?" asked the machine
There was a pin prick in her arm. The man said "sounds right"
"The girl will need to be sedated while I take the matrix off line. Jeff" said the machine
"hey, is that concern for my safety I detect?" said the man with a chuckle
"These creatures are dangerous and contagious, it is not safe for any human to be alone with one" said the metallic voice. "Jeff .."
"Yes sweetie?" answers Jeff with undisguised excitement
"Someone is trying to access my core, they have tools and one of them is carrying explosives." said the machine
"Ok, Red. Go into lockdown. Activate all defences. I'm coming down to see what's happening."
A fog flashed across her consciousness, she knew that it was drugs kicking in, sedating her.

She is a girl, fourteen perhaps, the details are unclear, hazy. She is at a market stall. The market stall is in a great cavern, illuminated by fluorescent lights high above. They are deep underground, she does not know how far. But she does know that the world is made of building on top of building stretching all the way up until eventually there is a great ocean of nothingness. A vast expanse called the sky, or universe, she was not sure which. Not that it mattered. She was here and that's all that she needed to know. Her sister had told her that. Her older sister died only a couple of years ago, her two younger brothers had died young too. She missed them all.

Back to the task at hand. The woman was giving her antiviral medicine for her, Mamma and Pappa to share. Mamma would make a soup, the medicine would be inside it. Pappa was very sick this morning, and could not go to his latest job. He scraped moss from steam pipes to sell at the market. Pappa was much worse than her and Mamma were this morning, but they were all sick. Mamma was looking after him. It was important so she carefully put the little brown bag in the bag of soup ingredients on the small barrow she pulled behind her. The medicine lady told her to walk by the ventilation shaft on her way home. That was a common thing to say, the air was clean there and so the old people would often tell the kids to go there if they were sick. She had never really believed it.

Next she went to the water seller. On her way in she had given him their 25 litre sealed metal barrel of dirty water. As she approached he gave her a smile, he was a creepy old man with an incomplete set of brown and black teeth, but was always smiling. He was running the last of her water through his little machine, half a litre at a time. It fed into a new container of the same size, but as usual it was around 5 litres less. "Where does the rest go?" she asked innocently
"They tell me its because the impurities take up so much space." he answered, leaning in a little too close for comfort. She quickly put the new barrel, onto her trolley with the shopping, paid him and hurried off. She left the old barrel, he would clean the inside and use it for another customer.

"I am sure he was just trying to be nice" she said out loud to herself, it calmed her nerves. As she approached the intersection, she had a choice. The quick way home of the long way. She decided that the smell of the man's breath and her tiredness would be worth a visit to the main air ventilation duct. So off she plodded, pulling her little cart behind her. The pot of water gurgled, the wheels squeaked.

Ahh that was where this memory came from, the squeaking of the wheels. They had stopped a while before the injection but were still her primary focus. maybe she was trying to figure out the noise in her subconscious.

She had been to the ventilation duct. There was a little kiddies play area there, where her and her friends often met up and hung out, even though they were too old. She wasn't very well but she had stayed and chatted for some time before she continued on her way. As she approached the door she knew she had been gone too long. She was worried that she would get into trouble again.

As she opened the door there was no sound. It sent a shiver down her spine. She turned into the living area, the lamp had been broken so it was dark but there was still enough light to make out the still shape beside the kitchen table. She ran over to her and fell to her knees. Her mum was dead. Worse, she was missing an arm. She was covered in other wounds. The gaping socket where her arm should have been was only the ball joint of her shoulder raw and exposed to the air. She could not see clearly, she felt and she touched the extensive wounds and torn flesh in other parts of her mum. The kitchen was beyond the table. There was a quiet hunched panting form within. Something was gnawing, chewing, swallowing hungrily. She realised it was the thing that had attacked her mum and decided to back away. As she left the dim illumination granted by the fallen light she realised to her horror that it was her dad. And worse than that, he was watching her while he chewed on an arm. She balked. The horror was more than she could bare. She turned and ran. The second she made the move, the creature that had once been her father moved too. She ran. So he ran after her. This was no game though, he, it was a slavering beast. She knew it would kill her if it got close enough.

She ran down the tunnel and took a quiet side passage. She knew it was a mistake the second she turned the corner. The passage, usually a friendly street, was host to an angry horde of beasts like her father. She managed to get into an open door with her dad hot on her tail. As she slammed the door in his general direction, barely interrupting his gait, a scream came from the horde outside. It was a high pitched wail and it chilled her to her core. The slavering mob was on her tail too.

She made it into the kitchen of the strangers house by swinging behind her doors, standing lamps, chairs and anything else she could reach as she sped past. She ended the chase finally at the pantry. The light was on inside. The only light in the house. With nowhere else to go she dove in, slammed the door. It closed just as her dad crashed into it. It held. A pause. A bang. Another. He was immediately trying to break in. She looked around and saw the maglock on the door. The pantry was the most important room to defend if a street was attacked by bandits, and this house had bought a good quality plasteel door and a maglock to go with it. It asked for a code to lock it with, she typed in 1,2,3,4 enter without a moments thought. It went hiss and she was sealed in. She slumped sobbing. Thinking about the horrors she had just seen. She fell asleep.

She awoke with a start, she had choked. Her head was a little fuzzy. It was an effort but she struggled to her feet. She was hot and thirsty too. She unsealed the maglock. Cautiously she opened the door and peered outside. It was quiet. The monsters had gone.

She went to the sink and poured a cup of water. "I'm sure that this family won't mind me stealing water from them", she said out loud. It made her chuckle. She stopped at the sound. She felt so angry, angry at the pancreator for dumping her in this cesspit of a slum city, angry at the sickness for making her dad get sick and angry at her dad for killing her mum. That made her hungry. She decided to try the food in the store. The kibble had not been prepared with sauce to give it any flavour, so she improvised. She poured sauce in with one hand and tore at the bags of kibble and stuffed the meal into her mouth with the other. The anger did not go away, it just got worse.

the penitent - part 2

She awoke again. Had she been asleep?

She was in a dark room. She was used to being in the dark, she had grown up in the deepest parts of Kesparate city. Light was a valuable commodity used only for the essentials. This was different though, there was a dim light coming from somewhere illuminating her surroundings. It took a little while to focus but soon she could see.

She was in a storage room, cleaning products on shelves all around her. There was a noise outside. People were shouting, guns were firing. She had not heard guns very often, bandits attacked once. They fired a few shots and stole food. She realised that those bandits all those years ago had fired a few shots only to cause an echo, to cause fear and and disorient. These were close bursts followed by the cessation of a scream. This was very different. She knew in an instant that there were at least five individuals firing a successions of short 6 round bursts. She knew they were hitting and killing targets. They were quiet and so were probably using communicators. And she knew they were approaching from two different angles. Left 25m, the echo indicating a corner close by and right 60m the echo also indicating a corner. There was urgency, she could not wait and hope they would ignore a large storage room.

She opens the door cautiously, it reminds her of her emergence from the pantry, that seems like a lifetime ago. How long had it been? There are people in the corridor, people in black lab coats, some in dark green coveralls. The place was very brightly lit, it hurt her eyes. She put her head down and ran away from the nearby corner. Towards the far away gunfire. It seemed the right thing to do.

A few doors along there was a fairly large alcove. It had a bar style wall on each side of a garage door width entry area. It was filled with laundry trolleys. The gunfire and shouting continued. She ducked in and found a woman hiding behind the bar style wall. As soon as the woman saw her however the woman stood up and ran out into the corridor. Blood erupted from her. The girl knew that was a spread option automatic fire weapon. The assailants had arrived, but she also knew that her position was safe at least until the doctors and nurses in the hallway were all dead from the spread fire. She risked a peak over the barrier. There was a handful of men in red leather, their armour was patterned with a religious symbol. A yellow jumpgate cross marked with an orange burning fire.

She looks around and sees a laundry chute. She sneaks over and climbs inside, intending only to hide. The red clad group arrive a second later and look in. From the other direction walking slowly and gracefully comes a strange shape. An elongated domed head over robe like armour. His head moved and scanned the room, as he pointed in her direction she knew he was seeing her with a heat detection scanner. She let go as the guards raced towards the hatch where she was hiding.

The fall is vertical. An old sheet hangs snagged on a rivot, she grabs it and looks up. About 3m above her a guard looks down. She is not sure if the guard can see her or not until he puts his gun in and without aiming pulls the trigger. Nothing, it jams. Clearly it is dark and he can't see. The guard disappears from sight. The girl looks around and sees a side passage above her, where the sheet has snagged. She sticks her legs against the opposite wall and flips herself up to the shaft. Just as she gets inside automatic projectile fire flies down the shaft.

The shaft she is now in is a steep angled merge shaft from the chute beside the one she had picked. She looked across, and opposite was the third one conjoining with the main central chute. She waited a few seconds, no more shots were fired but the chute illuminated. They had shone a torch down looking for blood. A second guard looked too just to be sure, then they moved away. The girl realised that they would probably notify the exit point, and so she tried to climb down. Using the shaft like a chimney stack she climbed, hand over hand. Her attention on stealth over speed.

Several other floors all passed. Each a steep climb up. As she neared the bottom she heard a noise below her. The guards had gone to the laundry area in search of her. She leapt down a few metres and grabbed the shaft of the last chute before the pile of medical linnen. The linnen carrier down their was moved aside, just as she pulled herself up. It was hard but she made it just in time. A light was shone up towards her.

The shaft she was in was too steep to climb, so she sat still. Exhausted but still. She felt her heart racing. It did not feel like it used to, thumping fast and hard like one of the machine guns the attackers were using, it was alien. She was so tired and her muscles so drained that she desperately needed to scream.

She paused. Scream, not sleep, scream. She looked at herself while holding her position in the laundry chute. She is dressed only in a simple medical gown. She is clean, and although she is in a steel chute and has fallen she is not in pain, nor was she cold. There are several bruises and lumps under her skin she can not identify. The falling did not account for them. She felt her hair, it was short, only a few centimetres long.

She waited for a couple of hours. After a while she could smell a fire burning somewhere and she decided to move. She climbed the 6m she had left and dropped the last couple of metres to the ground. The laundry was clearly industrial. She could not see any sign of life, but their was plenty of death. Bodies lay strewn everywhere. Whatever experiments were going on at this hospital it was unlikely that any of the laundry staff knew about it. Her mum had been a cleaner for a while for one of the guild corps, and she did not know anything about what they did. They used to joke that she could have been a member of the wealthy Reeve's guild without even knowing it. That job had been good for them, but it had not lasted. Her mum gave it up when her sister took sick.

She picked her way through the laundry hall. It was filled with great industrial washing machines, and death. The doors of the machines hung open. She wondered if the foreman had ordered the workers to continue right up until their last moment as the room was still and looked like the workers had just fallen asleep in their positions. She found a young girl about 14 and thought of trying her clothes on, but they would clearly not have fitted. So she had grown. Just how long had she been here? She found a petite man and put his clothes on instead.

Out in the hall she saw a group of masked men in red leather robes bearing large guns, with fire at the tip. The front pair entered a room a little down th hall and started to burn things. It was silent, except for the flames and the smoke she noticed was already in the ceiling of the laundry. She had just not noticed. Should she not have been caughing and spluttering long before now?

She hunted around and soon found what she was looking for. All laudry rooms have a drain. And this giant industrial one had a huge one. In she went. Pitch black again, but she was still able to see a little so she moved quietly away from the horrors of the hospital and into the tunnels.

the penitent - part 3

She continued for some time, the group in red did not follow her. The need to scream her exhaustion away abated as she walked slowly and exerted no energy. She could not rest though. She was not in any hurry, she just could not see herself resting. So she walked slowly instead. She turned right if the tunnel turned her left, and she turned left if the tunnel forced her to turn right. She walked for an hour or two, though she was deliberately making very slow progress.

Eventually she saw a light up ahead. As she approached she realised she was overlooking a large underground market. This was nothing like the one near her district though, it was ten times the size and filled with people. A sign opposite said "Too All Trains". Was she in the upper city? She studied the people and their clothing, these were not like the people she knew. They were clean. Did people who could afford to waste water like that really exist?

She sat and watched the scene with wonder for hours. As the market started to die down she climbed down from the pipe. It was above a large tray of water, a strange four legged creature was lapping at it contentedly. She dropped down beside it and it ran from her. Remembering the woman at the hospital the girl snuck over to a stall which sold fashionable hooded cloaks. The easiest to steel looked like the black one with luminous red trim and a fine threaded pattern representing circuitry from a bygone era where wires could still be seen. She grabbed it quickly and whisked it off its hook as she sidled past.

The store owner realises, but is far too late. She runs. Ducks through the crowd, careful to hide her face under the hood in case she is some sort of monstrous beast. Although she does not do this very well as it flaps behind her and comes off her head more than once. She heads straight for the train station, which she realises is actually across a road with ground vehicles travelling along it slowly. This throws her, she had seen them before but not this close.

She weaves through the slow moving traffic, two lanes one with cars going left, one with them going right. Then into the entrance of the station. She ducks behind a pillar and looks back for the market stall owner. He was just arriving at the road. He looked around and threw his hands into the air. Turned and walked back to his stall shaking his head. He passed a uniformed man bearing the badge of the muster guild. A spiked ball hanging from a chain.

The girl moved on quickly and kept to the side of the passage into the station. She knew the muster were bad news, sure they might be policemen to some people but they also doubled as slave traders and mercenaries too. She was so concerned with what might be coming behind her that she did not even notice she was in a queue for the turnstyle. In fact she had just walked down the length of the queue and bumped into a group of young people, all dressed up in outlandish clothing and some of it was lit.

The girl she had jostled and knocked into the person on her other side stood up looking disappointed. She immediately checked the goggles she was holding and didn't give a second glance to the girl who had pushed her over. A boy said "Hey Jessie have a nice trip?" and the group laughed. The crowd behind them jeered. They accused her of being a queue jumper. Though some just yelled at her for being young. A boy to her right suddenly grabbed her and looked into her eyes, "Wow, those are amazing lenses. You look just like one of those 'enraged' things from the news?"
"How do you know I'm not?" she asked seriously and with more venom in her voice than she meant to.
"Ha, cos you .. " the girl they called Jessie grabbed her other arm and pulled her around to look at her "talk, man alive those are real looking. Where did you get them?"
"Erm, well .." she floundered for an excuse. For a start she was not really sure what this group were talking about. "There's a crazy looking man at the market, he sells them." she finished, thinking of the water seller in her home town.
"Hey, hold my place I'm going to find him" said the boy
Just as he spoke the queue started moving and he quickly turned back around. "Oh, well, on the way back instead then, ha."
The boy then sidled up to an old lady and offered to help her with her luggage. This confused the girl.
Jessie told her to shh silently with her finger, she leaned forwards and slipped the goggles over the girls head so they covered her eyes and whispered "We don't pay when we don't have to, watch this." she then slinked up beside a businessman. Just as he was flashing his card she tapped him on the shoulder. The turnstyle closed on the pair of them, she slinked around in front of him as it rotated and just as it deposited the pair on the station beyond she leaned in almost for a kiss. Instead she flicked his nose and said with a coy wink "maybe next time handsome" Jessie then gave the girl an encouraging smile and moved away with the crowd.
The boy carrying the old ladies case stepped in the next turnstyle over, he was slim enough to fit the case and the old lady in with him. He made sure to help the old lady manage the rickety spinning platform as it rotated and jumped clear when it opened. Offering the old lady a hand off with a flourish like a gentleman in a fairy story. Nobody seemed to notice that he had not paid either.
The girl then realised that she had to be next, the man in front of her was the only chance she had and the crowd was pushing her forward like an unstoppable wave. She ducked under the side barrier and stepped into the turnstyle with a bearded man. She could not think what to say and certainly did not want to be all slinky like the other girl had been. So she stood dumbfounded and said "sorry, they dared me". The guy smiled and laughed in a friendly, but slightly annoyed way. "Hah, well remember 'your fare pays for the maintenance'." The way he said it it sounded like a quote, and he said it in a half joking half stern voice. The girl could only look more confused, she quickly jumped clear of the turnstyle and rushed after the boy and girl. She was aware that three other members of this little gang were behind her, but she was not too sure what they looked like.

The boy smiled at her as she caught up with him. It made her kind of nervous. "Blake" he said holding out his hand. She realised at that moment that she did not actually know her name. She looked above him at a platform destination sign. The biggest and most obvious was 'Sophonus College'.
"Erm Sofe" she stumbled, just reading the words
"Sophie, a pleasure" the boy bowed like he had to the old lady.
She giggled.

A short while later the group were on board a small train. There ahd been pictures of huge trains with great rings around them, but this was just a little one with lines of bench seats and no tables. She was still wearing Jessie's goggles, but Jessie didn't seem to mind. She found out that the other girl was called Mae, and the other two boys were Rob and Pietr. The group were all headed for some sort of large party outside on the surface. She had never been to the surface, and she wanted to see the vast expanse above it. She didn't want to be revealed for her innocence though so she did not ask any questions about the destination. She just hoped this gang would let her tag along, her fancy cloak and eyes seemed to be all of the proof this group needed that she was going to the same place.
"Erm, did you get tickets?" she asked Jessica after a little while
"Tickets?" Jessica asked curiously, "hey you didn't fall for some scam man did you?"
That gave the girl an idea "Err, no. But there was this lady in the market who was selling tickets, so I wasn't sure"
Jessie bought it "Don't sweat it, just a scam man yankin your chain. The concert's free. Some university bash so I'm told."
The group travelled laughing and joking around, they had alchohol and sythasoyjuice to drink, and shared a few bags of snacks too. There wasn't any time for actual conversation or details. This suited the girl just fine. Though she was becoming aware that she had no home and no prospects.
"Hey Jessie" she opened nervously when the group started to stand up "I'm kinda between places to stay."
"Don't sweat it Soph, we're all crashing at Pietr's dads flat in the city tonight. After that we'll probably doss somewhere or other. We're all kind of between places to stay."

The train pulled into a huge tan coloured stone station. The train was in a vast hall, the vaulted ceiling held impossibly with no pillars. The ceiling was so high that you could get twenty people stood shoulder on top of shoulder before you hit the roof. To both her left and right were trains, a hundred at least. And at the far end two of the huge ones with the giant red bands. That track looked different.
"Bullet trains" said Blake in her ear. He must have noticed her staring. "They travel at 500kmh and link the main continents together. Of course the planet is huge, and Kesparate stretches from the university to the starport. Plus they wind around the main city centres like snakes."
"Sorry about him" butted in Peitr "His dad used to work as a conductor. He's a bit obsessed"
"He owned his own carriage" Blake said proudly
"Yeh, till the guilds forced them to all either pay the membership fee, or give up their carriage." continued Rob as the group wandered through the station
"He should have been given a free membership, or at least have been allowed to sell his Carriage" said Blake with a tear in his eye
Pietr continued for him "See the guilds may sound like they are good for the planet, but, they realy aren't. That's why we are here at the protest."
"Protest? I thought this was a concert?" the girl asked confused
"Same thing" Said Jessie confusing her even more, her and Mae then pulled the girl into a toilet. It seemed they had decided to add some finishing touches to their look.
As she walked in the electronic mirror welcomed her. It offered her several hair style ideas and other make-up tips.
"This place is really just for the rich hoipoloys who work in the city." Jessie explained, cycling quickly to a vision of what the girl would look like with this hairstyle and that makeup by swiping the mirrors controls from mid air a metre in front of it. She was clearly picking the girl's style for her while she talked. "There's gates on the exits and the tech is well maintained so we'll have to be a little more cunning this time. You up for it?"
The girl stared at herself for the first time. The image without the makeup was only visible for a second or two before the skin was darkened and the coloured eye liner applied. She was rather plain, but definitely a similar age to the other two girls. She was unusually pale too, and her iris were bright red, almost orange with the bright yellow rim to them. Her pupils were pure white. They were the eyes her dad had when he was chasing her. She started to cry. The two girls consoled her, when they asked if it was "boy trouble" she nodded, when they decided to change her outfit a little and found the bruises they stopped pushing for answers.
The girls had between them enough spare clothes and accessories to change the boyish workers outfit with the black and red trim cloak into something seriously stylish. They applied liberal amounts of hair gel and makeup, and it did not take long for the girl to look just like a raver. Just like them. These girls seemed in no hurry to find the boys though, so the girl had to ask "What about Blake .. err and the others"
This made the girls giggle and jibe at her, they teased her about an imagined crush. Jessie warned her off 'getting too close' as he was a charmer but only really after one thing.The girl knew what she was alluding too, even if she was innocent, but she also remembered something that was said in the science lab. She was contagious. She stopped and pushed Jessies hand away. She panted for a second or two, and realised her heart was thumping like a train. Before it burst from her chest, just as suddenly the feeling subsided and there was a slight pang of pain at the back of her head. It was also gone in a moment. "Erm, sorry. I err, like him but I'm off men for life" she explained and made a point of rubbing her bruises. The girls consoled her again, this time though she quickly lightened the mood for them "Hey, so how do we get out of this secure train station then?" Jessie and Mae laughed

Jessie climbed up onto the sink and used a funny tool from her handbag on the lock. She opened the window and waved. "The boys are such gents, she said. They've brought a ladder." She then climbed out and was heard giggling with the boys on the other side.
The 'ladder' was actually a pile of boxes. It turned out that the boys had paid the turnstyle fare, and that essentially trains were free but the turnstyles cost money to go through them. Bullet trains were of course explained too, they were an exception to this rule as the conductors own their own carriage and charge an entry fee on the train as you board. Some of the other more fancy trains have a similar method.
The girl was barely paying them any attention however. She was looking at the sky. Never had she sen such a vast and open space. It was a grey colour and ended in a solid fluffy grey ceiling. It was impossibly high, a kilometre, maybe more.

The group walked on through the crowds of the city centre. Past business people rushing to and fro. Talking aloud to invisible people. Some were even gesturing with their hands. None of them seemed to pay the group of ravers any attention at all.
"Why don't they see us?" she asked Blake
"Oh, erm. Them, they are Husks from the darkest nether. They march around all day talking aloud and changing peoples lives."
She was not sure of that answer, she looked at Jessie and obviously had not been able to hide how confused she was "They are using whisper pins. Very expensive devices, that let them talk to whoever they want, no matter where they are on the planet. I once heard this one guy talking about repairs to deep asteroid mining machines, so I think they can be connected all the way into space too." explained Jessie

A couple of kilometres later they were in audible range of a loud thumping party. The closer they got the louder the music. They crested a rise and they were in a huge park. At the far end was a stage, and all around them were giant screens showing the band playing.
"Wow" the girl said
"Awesome huh", said Rob "Hey come on, lets try and get to the real stage and watch the real players. Jessie may have those goggles, but the rest of us don't."
She turned back to Jessie who shrugged and put the goggles on her. "Press this to change the view, press this here and here to change the zoom. And you can go 3d if you press this." Jessie explained what was actually a simple d-pad joystick just like a mini weapons platform control interface. When the centre was pressed the stage on the screen changed to a close up. She lifted the goggles and checked, the actual screen hadn't changed she was given the chance to enhance her visual position without actually moving. She toyed with it further, up and down zoomed in and out. Left and right switch to side cameras.
Jessie tugged on her arm suddenly, "Hey guys wait up!" she yelled
The pair chased the others almost to the dead centre and danced for at least an hour before the girl was so tired that she screamed. The high pitched wail echoed around the arena, it was blood curdling and terrifying, but above the crazy whistles and raucious dance music it just sounded like part of the act. The girl pause when she did it though. She felt rested, finally. Like she had awoken from a full night of dreamless sleep.

She paused for a moment. She could remember her name finally, the fog had truly lifted from her memory. She could remember her life before the larder. She was far more poor than these people could ever imagine. But, she had been happy from time to time. She knew that tomorrow she might very well be going back to that life. But, for right now she reasoned there was a party around her and fun to be had.