Season 05 - Episode 20

‘once more now’

It's time for Ak to decide.

He's been hiding behind the electrical cabinet for almost a full day now as more and more people have streamed into the cavernous space. Meanwhile, the lines of Enforcement Officers below him have swapped in and out in shifts and the atmosphere has soured steadily.

The celebratory, almost carnival atmosphere of earlier has evaporated. At first, upon realising that the elevators were inactive, the people built fires and sang songs. As the hours ticked by and the crowds continued to grow however, patience began to wear thin.

The people know that only one of them needs to make into the control room to switch on the elevators. The Enforcement Officers know it too and that they are becoming more outnumbered by the minute. The air is crackling thick and everyone is braced for the explosion to come, just waiting for the spark. The right push, the right shove and people will start to die.

Ak is staring at Ya's lighter, absently rubbing his thumb against it, picturing the line of her jaw, the flow of her walk, remembering the sound of her voice. He stands and stumbles slightly, his legs numb from sitting too long.

He lurches clumsily out of his hiding place and reaches the door to the control room in a few steps. Slipping into the darkened room, he closes the door behind him. It seals with a hiss and that's it, he is trapped. He locks the door and moves to the control panel. It all seems pretty straight forward. He takes a breath, thinks of Ya again and then flicks all the necessary switches with a single sweep of his hand.

Nothing happens.

The room is gloomy, the panel flat and grey, the screens blank. There is no power. Ak stares around and notices for the first time a set of large red levers in the shadows at the back of the room. He dashes over and yanks each in turn without ceremony.

As he does so, a great rumbling begins beneath his feet which quickly translates into a scalp tingling hum. The lights come on, in the room and outside too. The crowds freeze in surprise, looking first to the high, high ceiling, then to one another and finally to the elevators. Ak hurries back to the control panel and sweeps the switches once more. Now the doors to every elevator slide neatly open to the earsplitting delight of the crowds

The Enforcement Officers have finally worked it out and Ak can hear them at the door now. It will take them days to cut it open though, assuming they don't just leave him here to starve, so he slumps against the nearest wall and slides down to sit, despondent.

The mighty, ancient generators are all back up and running and the people of this strange, backwards little place are even now fleeing upwards by the dozen. Meanwhile his life is over, either right here in this room or else later in a some prison cell.

He takes no joy at all in granting the dreams of the masses outside and only a little in the knowledge that Ya would approve and be proud. As he weeps for himself however, a little metal machine, all skittering legs and a red light for an eye, scuttles over to sit before him.

“What do you want?” he says morosely.

The thing projects a three dimensional schematic, a red line tracing a path from a vent on the wall nearby and then up and up and up. Ak squints at the image, following the route.

“Forget it,” he says, sniffing. “It'd take months. Look, here, you've got me walking along the same floor for a week just to find the next hatch up. It's too far, I can't do it.”

The little machine thinks for a second then replaces the image with streams of numbers, statistics about the people's movements. Eventually just one number is displayed.

“What's this now?” snaps Ak, irritated.

The schematic returns, this time showing a measurement of distance. Ak stares at the number until suddenly, he understands. A single barking laugh leaps from his throat then turns to a sob on his lips. He catches it with his hand at his mouth.

“You're saying, if I follow this route,” he says, tears streaming down his face. “Back up to The Levels and beyond, I'll become the most travelled human of all time.”

He laughs and cries at the same time for over a minute. Then, taking one more look at Ya's lighter before returning it to his pocket, he drags himself back to his feet.

“Alright then,” he says, wiping his nose. “Show me how to open this vent.”

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