The Bloodlight Chronicles Reconciliation by Steve Stanton

Author:Steve Stanton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781550229547
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2010-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Zakariah paced back in forth in his assigned quarters, deep under the crust of the frozen planet Babylon, trying to decide if he was a prisoner or a volunteer. His door was unlocked but certainly monitored electronically by Colin Macpherson, the Architect of all. Everything around him was controlled, bent to a sure purpose, moving implacably forward. He hated the thought of it.

He lay down on his bunk and feigned sleep in the darkness, wondering about the gods of fortune and mechanical madmen. Life was a long list of insignificant details that added up to a mountain of evidence in the end. At every rung on the ladder, the choice to go up or back presented itself, at every crossroad, the choice of left or right, but reason alone often dictated the pathway, and the spirit of man prodded this way or that. Was free will just an illusion, a conjuring trick propped up by his puny rationalizations? Did his own father discover this truth years ago when he stole off in the night with Zakariah’s baby sister? Was he merely following the path laid out for him, his own inexorable destiny?

“A pawn in someone else’s game,” he said aloud, finally, and rose to his feet. He donned his flight boots and shrugged his heavy coat over his cardigan. In the darkness he opened the air-duct grate over his bunk and climbed up into the tunnel. Down the hallway he kicked open another grate and dropped to the treadway. He jogged up the gentle slope to the elevator.

He arrived at the shuttle dock at shift change. A cargo shipment was half unloaded, the new crew yawning and sipping coffee, the shuttle pilot waving goodbye with a young partner on his arm. Zakariah exchanged pleasantries with a supervisor as he accepted hot chocolate from a free dispenser. The cup steamed pleasantly in the frigid air.

“Any traffic in the area?” Zakariah asked absently, looking away.

“Naw. We had a bogey earlier, but it turned out to be a corporate jet heading for the Silver Lake Minesite. The girls in Control are antsy as hens. We’re expecting one more shuttle today with dignitaries from town. You in on the big event upstairs?”

Zakariah chanced quick eye contact and a plastic smile. “I have a small part to play.”

“Good luck. Sounds like you might need it.” The supervisor tipped his steaming cup at him.

“Thanks,” Zakariah responded. He sipped hot chocolate and ambled away.

After circumventing the shuttle dock twice, he finally noticed a green light over one of the landing bays. He accessed through the launch gate and stepped into the shuttle. The passenger hold was empty, the lights all powered down. He crept through the galley and peeked in the door to the cockpit. A young man with a red toque sat at the controls.

“You’re late, slumlord,” the red leprechaun said, a young man with a wry smile.

Zakariah sat in the co-pilot couch and strapped himself in. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Colin7.”

Zakariah peered at him closely, seeing a family resemblance, the narrow face and pointed chin.

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