Dreaming in the Dark

22

They entered a crawlspace, a barrier zone meant to shield the inner structure from astral debris. There was no atmosphere, but there would be an airlock somewhere. They disengaged their mag-boots and propelled themselves down the corridor using handrails installed for that purpose. Lights flicked on and off as they went by, motion activated. But that was the only sign of life. They reached the corner of the building and found a hatch to take them up. It was an airlock, and on the other side, they found another utility buffer, but this one had a map built into the wall.

"Where do we go?" Jo asked.

"It's gibberish." Ange said.

Dez traced a path with her finger. "I think this will take us to the command deck."

DitD - 27 Wed Nov 6

Another hatch brought them within the central structure. There was a huge surface story chamber that on the map looked like it had an open gate system leading through all of the levels up to the top of the tower. It was a cavernous warehouse, illuminated here and there like a stage. Spotlights glorified three apes, each the size of a house and sitting cross legged on iron daises.

A path shimmered, leading to the daises, and on that path was a cuckoo bird with a broken wing.

Jo picked it up. "Poor thing." She said, "where shall we take you?"

It chirped at her, but allowed itself to be carried. As they approached the daises, they saw the warehouse was home to massive unlabelled vats and barrels, all of stainless steel. Among these shapes floated blue-green holograms of various people; men, women, and children, wearing strange clothes.

"Can you tell us about this place?"Jo whispered to the cuckoo, but she received no answer.

When they came to the foot of the dais, the middle ape leaned forward and furrowed its face. It sniffed the air. Its eyes were pus white and patterned like cheese cloth.

"I AM MIZARU," he said, bass voice so powerful that it resonated in their bones. "Forgive my brother's their silence. They listen, and they look on my behalf. But I am the one charged with your judgement."

"I don't understand." Dez said. "For what are we being judged?"

"For your lives."

Ange ground her teeth, but said nothing.

"Excuse me, Mr. Mizaru," Jo said. "But this bird is hurt. Can you help him?"

"I can." Two massive finger plucked the bird out of Jo's hands, and hid it in his palm. The ape appeared to squash the bird, but when he opened his hands again the cuckoo flew away.

"Thank you." Jo said.

"ARE YOU READY?" Mizaru asked.

"Does it matter?" Dez said.

"NO." The ape sniffed. The other two leaned in to confer with him, and their whispers sounded like the rumbling of a landslide.

"We have decided." Mizaru said finally. "You will not remain here in the realm of ghosts. Instead, you will ascend to hell, into the realm of Ahriman."

Jo gasped, and Ange slipped out the nano-knife.

"Aren't we allowed to hear why?" Dez asked.

The ape considered this, scratching its chin. "An odd request, but not one beyond my power. Each of you has sinned in your own way. Each has been blinded by your emotion to the detriment of others. None of you has come to us with a heart whole and complete."

"I have all of mine." Dez said, "if not all in one piece."

"That is not the heart I mean." Mizaru said. "We are all of us born with privileges and obligations. These privelages represent our debt to use them wisely."

"I don't owe you anything!" Ange said.

"Not me, yourselves. You are responsible to yourselves to not waste what has been given. Judgement is not a task lightly undertaken. It does not help you that you have come to me alive. If you were dead, I would return you to life, so you could do better in the next. As it is, you have but this life to be judged upon, and it is not finished. You cannot remain in the land of the dead. You must journey in to hell. It is the only possibility."

"What about heaven?" Jo asked.

"THERE IS NONE." The ape leaned back on its dais. "If that is all, the time has come for you to ascend."

"That's not all." Ange said, but they were already rising. Gravity had reversed, and they were falling upward. From this direction, they could see that the barrels and vats were all filled with glittering stones, unused hearts, or perhaps too used, belonging to the ghosts and others. So many they could have populated a nation. The chamber rose so high that the apes became small, and they witnessed a single note of fire above expand into a burning ring. Before they reached it, the cuckoo bird appeared carrying a weed in its mouth. It flew by Jo and delivered the weed into her hand. Then they were at the ring and through, deposited on a metal deck beside the burning gate. It irised closed as they watched.