The Artificial Structure Formerly Known as the Moon by I K Stokbaek

Author:I K Stokbaek [Stokbaek, I K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ida Stokbaek
Published: 2024-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“Why do they live inside those domes?” Darlan asked the young Lobbyist trailing behind him.

Rasmus’s pale brows contracted. His legs had been cut free, but his wrists were still bound. “Where else would they live?”

Darlan gritted his teeth without turning around to look at the prisoner. “They could live in houses, like we do. Or in caves or on floating platforms or whatever.”

The captive stumbled when Darlan gave his leash a tug. Attached to the man’s wrists was a smooth length of rope, and he had no choice but to follow along or be dragged.

With a sneer, Rasmus elaborated. “Inside, the conditions are just right for human habitation. The temperature and air composition is controlled and regulated. And there is good light instead of this dull, hazy sunlight.”

Darlan looked up at the daylit sky, grey as usual. Brownish-grey clouds hid the sun, as always, and the light shone barely bright enough to form shadows. “And inside the domes, everything is perfect?”

“We don’t call them domes,” the Lobbyist murmured, rolling his grey eyes.

“So what do you call them?” A question motivated by simple curiosity.

A wry smile accompanied Rasmus’s answer. “Lobbies.”

They reached the dilapidated slums of the old city by noon. The abandoned ruins of ancient habitations showed no sign of life except for an occasional rat, a lazy swarm of flies and stunted vegetation. Yellowed vines. Darlan startled as tiny monsters alighted on his skin and buzzed around the satchel Paul had given him – provisions for several weeks, packed alongside various tools the order members had thought he might need. Darlan hadn’t had a chance to investigate what exactly he carried, but the amount of food alone seemed excessive. How hard could it be to grab one man?

“You don’t need to keep me tied up,” Rasmus said again. “I can’t go back to my family or my job. They will see to my immediate cessation if I do.”

“I don’t get that,” Darlan admitted. “Surely, you’d be valuable to them still. You have information about the Order of the Demolition – you could pass it on to buy your life.”

“Ha,” rasped the Lobbyist. “It’s a simple matter of statistics. Everyone who’s been in contact with Indigents comes back with dangerous ideas. In order to keep the higher society of the Lobbies safe from pollution and degradation, once someone’s been out here for as long as I have, they can’t come back.”

“So you’re sullied just by speaking to me?”

Rasmus shook his head. “Had I bumped into no one from the Order of the Demolition, the cessation of my life would still be necessary.”

The phlegmatic way he said the words gave Darlan cold shivers. “So if I cut you free and let you go, what would you do?”

The Lobbyist shrugged again. “Face my cessation.”

“Pointless!” The blood suddenly ran hot under Darlan’s skin. Even their own weren’t treated fairly. His anger wrapped itself around him like a mantle of outrageous certainty. The heart of this pointless, unjust society was the Ladder, and he would not be deterred from demolishing it.

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