Beatrice's Birthday Surprise

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room.

Beatrice cannot wait to look out that window again. She visits her father on the top level exactly once a year, and tomorrow is her day.

She wakes up before her alarm, thinking of nothing else but tomorrow’s trip. Bea’s mind is racing. Will her father notice that she has grown? Will he like her hair? Will he have any presents for her? Will he let her pilot the drones and walkers he uses in his research? Will the sky be blue?

Beatrice’s father is a scientist whose task is to study surface conditions. He and his team occupy the top level of the vast underground system of compounds where Bea lives. Beatrice and her mother are assigned to the algae farms in Sector Five, which are far away from her father by way of tram tubes.

“Beep. Beep. Beep!” Her alarm goes off and Bea taps it and then gets out of her sleeping cubby and mechanically slips into her work coveralls. Her room is still dark so she waves her hands to trigger the motion sensor lights. The room is painted with various shades of brown and red stucco. Bea used clay from various parts of the compound. There is a chair and a desk with a music player on it, last year’s gift from her father, and her most prized possession.

Beatrice touches the player and Paul Simon starts singing about a bridge over troubled water. She wonders what a bridge looks like in real life, but she does know what it means to be weary. Every day since she was eight, Bea has worked with her mother in the algae farms. Well. Almost every day. She will have been working five years tomorrow, and every year on her birthday she gets one day off to travel to see her father. Tomorrow is her day.

“Bea!!!” Her mother calls from the next room. “Come and get your breakfast!”

Her mother has fried the food patties today. It is the same food that they always eat, but her mom keeps trying new ways to cook it. Today the outside is crunchy, just like Bea likes.

“Thanks, Mom! See you at the farm!” says Beatrice as she takes her second patty to go and sets off quickly down the dimly lit tunnel that passes for a hallway.

As Bea walks down the hall, she sees a group of girls ahead, blocking her path, all wearing identical brown coveralls.

“Finally!” Says the closest girl as she grabs Bea’s arm and locks elbows. The group starts walking together and everyone is talking all at once. Jasmine has news about her sister’s date with a girl from the 3D-printing compound. Apparently, they kissed, and Jazz’s sister says she might have done more but the other girl is shy and wants to go slow.

As the group walks the hallway, occasionally Jasmine lets go of her arm so that someone can pass going the other way, but quickly they come back together. This is the best part of working on the farm: her friends are all with her. But sometimes it is the worst part, like when Jasmine got in a fight with Aldera last year and everyone had to choose sides.

The workday passes with idle conversation and the daily drudgery of the farm. Their farm consists of a cavernous room filled with vast networks of clear plastic tubes that circulate algae and water under grow lights. Other farms in other sectors raise mushrooms and chickens and various plants, but Beatrice has never seen those farms. Her sector specializes in algae of all kinds and uses.

The fully-grown algae must be sorted from the substrate and then packed into cakes. These cakes will be mixed with other ingredients to make the food patties that everyone eats. Bea and her team monitor the various algae cultures and harvest as needed. It is not hard work, but it can be boring. They sing and talk and tell stories to pass the time.

Jasmine asks Beatrice to tell her a story about her father and the window. Beatrice is aware that Jazz has never met her own father. Unapproved procreation within the compounds is strictly forbidden. When people moved underground, generations ago, scientists warned of the dangers of inbreeding. The leadership tightly controls who can mate with whom, and all fertilization is done using artificial insemination. The DNA is matched to prevent inbreeding and ensure the survival of humans. Sometimes a father and mother know each other, but usually, the sperm donor comes from a completely different part of the underground network of compounds.

Jasmine’s mother chose an anonymous donor, but Beatrice’s mom paid extra to find out the identity of the father and she surprised Bea with that information on her eighth birthday. So now Bea gets to use her one day off a year to visit her father, and Jasmine gets to live vicariously through Bea.

As they were decanting vials of algae, surrounded by the pink glow of the grow lights, Beatrice begins the same story she tells all the time.

“Jazzy. The first thing you have to understand is how bright daylight is. You know about the warm yellow of the hallway lights. You know about the soft white of the lights in our rooms. You certainly know all about these pink grow lights. None of them can prepare you for how bright the light of the sun is through my father’s window. He has to give me special glasses, so I won’t have to squint all the time when visiting him.

“The other thing that I was not prepared for is how warm the sunlight is. All of our LED lights are cool to the touch. But to stand in the sun and have a real sunbeam warm me is something that I have to have my father pull me away from every time I visit. He laughs, but he also knows how I treasure the sunbeam.

“The final thing to know is that I can see the sky through the window. Sometimes there are clouds, and sometimes it is pure blue. The blue of the sky is like no color we have down here. I could stare at it for hours.

“Sometimes the window gets pelted with rain, and the sky is grey, but I always want the sky to be blue when I go up to see him.

“Then, when the sun is going down, the light that comes through the window is yellow, then orange, then goes to shadows. I have only seen the clouds at sunset once, but father says sometimes they are glorious. Our video games and VR animations don’t come close.

“Then after a while, the moon and stars might come out. It depends if it is cloudy or not. But if there are no clouds, then the moon and stars can send their own light through the window. And when father turns off the electric lights, we can still see each other by the moon and starlight. Unlike the sunlight, this is a cool light, like our LEDs. I think I might love the moonlight even more than the blue sky.

“I have been tracking the moon, and it will be near full tomorrow evening when I am with father. I cannot wait.”

After work, Beatrice and Jasmine return back down the hallway, arm in arm. They never talk about why they always walk home together, but they both know. The hallways are not safe places at night. Being robbed or kidnapped by outlaws is a remote, but a real possibility. There have been outlaws living on the edge of society in the unoccupied sectors ever since people moved underground. And outlaws live off of stealing and sabotage.

Beatrice has never seen an outlaw, but she has heard stories from her mother. Outlaws do not follow the breeding protocols, and if they kidnap you, they might force you to breed naturally. Beatrice is almost to an age where she could have a child of her own through the artificial insemination program, but she can’t imagine natural breeding with a man, let alone a smelly outlaw.

Every night she and her mom lock the door to their unit, and sometimes they hear sounds of people running down the hallway, shouting. Beatrice’s mother keeps the door locked, and in the mornings the hallways are safe again, patrolled by the compound’s guards.

Today, Bea says goodbye to Jasmine and then runs to her door and unlocks it. Bea is home first and her mother will expect dinner to be ready when she comes home in about twenty minutes. Beatrice goes to work, making a thick soup with the food paste and a few herbs and spices from the cupboard. This is their dinner most nights, but sometimes there are eggs or fried mushrooms to go with it, depending on what is available.

The warm smells of the soup greet Bea’s mother when she unlocks the door and enters the unit. She gives Bea an approving smile and slips out of her work coveralls as she walks into her room. When she emerges from her room, Bea can tell she has something she needs to talk to her about. She has that look.

All through dinner neither Bea nor her mother says anything. Finally, her mother speaks.

“You won’t be able to go tomorrow.”

“What!?!” Bea gasps in horror. “Why?”

“Outlaws have taken control of Sector Six. My supervisor told me they are suspending all trams going in that direction.”

“No! Mom. There HAS to be a way! Father is waiting for me!”

“You are staying home. That is final, I’m sorry. Now go get to your schoolwork. I’ll clean up.”

That evening, while Bea struggles to pay attention to school, all she can think about is how terrible it is that her mother is making her stay home. She uses her device during class to communicate with Jasmine.

Jazz…Mom is making me stay home tomorrow

No! WHY?!!!!???

She says outlaws have taken the tram station in sector 6

Well? Have they?

I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything on the newsfeed

Neither have I

Maybe she just doesn’t want me to see father

It seems like quite a story to make up

I wouldn’t put it past my mom. I don’t think she likes the thought of me up on the top level. I bet she is worried I won’t come back

Would you stay if he asked you?

I don’t know. I would miss you and the girls too much. And, I suppose, mother. I would like to be able to visit my father more. But I couldn’t move there. Besides, what would I do?

You could do whatever you want! Your dad is a hotshot scientist. He could get you a job

I would miss your face too much

You could get me a job too!

Got to go. Mom just walked in

Bye

“Quit chatting with Jasmine and pay attention. You need to pass night school if you ever want to work off the farm.”

“Ok, mom.”

Beatrice tries to pay attention, but the idea that her mom is lying to her about the outlaws keeps popping into her thoughts. What would mother say if she asked her why it isn’t on the newsfeed? She would say that they don’t want people to panic. What would she say tomorrow night when the Sector Six tram station is magically open? She would say that the guards did their job quietly and we should thank them. Mother would have an answer for every question, Bea knew.

After class, Beatrice tries to get to sleep. But she can’t stop thinking about her father. How will he know she isn’t coming? Until her eighteenth birthday, all communication has to go through her mother. And now Beatrice is wondering if her mother will even tell him.

The alarm goes off like normal. But today is not normal at all. It is Beatrice’s 13th birthday and she should be getting ready to go see her father. Instead, she has to spend the day alone at home. She puts on her clean blue coveralls and taps the music player. Morrissey is crooning about being depressed and Bea feels it in every bone of her body.

“Come for breakfast! I made pancakes!”

Her mother is being nice. Beatrice loves pancakes, which they only get when her mother trades for eggs. Today there is one bright red strawberry next to her pancakes. Bea almost stops being mad at her mother. Bea knows she works so extra for them both to have a private unit and the occasional egg.

“I want you to enjoy your day off. Use your device to search for shows from before the people went underground. You can see the sky in the shows.”

“It is not the same, and you know it,” says Bea, with a little too much sting in her voice. Her mom is trying to be nice.

“I know. I wish you could go. I do.”

“Do you?” Bea bites again, without meaning to.

“Yes. Now I have to go to work. Don’t open the door for anyone. During the workday, there are few guards in the halls.”

“Yes, mother.”

After her mother leaves, Beatrice tries to do what her mom told her to do. Enjoy her day off. She watches a show about a man who lives with a bear in the forest. There are rushing rivers and fish and trees everywhere. But it is not the same as the view from her father’s window. That window is real and now. This story is just a story from the distant past. It is not the same.

The thoughts keep niggling at the back of her mind. What if mother was lying to me? She has never lied to me. But, what if this was the first time? Why would she lie to me? Because she wants to keep me here forever. No. Why would she want that? She is always talking about night school and me getting out of the farmworker life. Wouldn’t she want me to talk to my father about a job there? I’ll be old enough soon. Yes. She would want me to see him. So maybe she is telling the truth? Maybe. But what if she has another reason to lie to me? What if I went to our station just to check? Someone there would know about Sector Six. It is my day off. Yes. That is a good idea. Maybe the danger has passed and I can go meet father after all. Yes. I could at least go and check.

Beatrice locks the door behind her and looks both ways down the empty hallways. She has never been out in the halls during the workday, so it feels strange for them to be so empty, devoid of the usual rush hour bustle. She turns right and walks quickly toward the tram station. The lights are dim in the hallway because during the workday all available power is routed to workstations. She walks faster as the dark seems to gather behind her.

When Beatrice turns to take the hallway toward her sector’s tram station, she hears voices behind her, yelling. The voices are coming toward her. She runs to the tram station and ahead of her, she can see the lights of the open room where the tram stops. If she can just get there and talk to someone.

“Bang. Bang. Bang!”

Beatrice hears the crack of gunfire behind her in the hallway. She is running now. The bright lights of the station are just a few feet away.

“Bang…..Bang!”

Now more gunfire is coming from in front of her, in the station. Beatrice stops.

She walks slowly to the entrance of the station, staying in the shadows. From her spot, she can see the landing next to the tracks. There are two guards on their knees with their hands on their heads. There is another guard on the ground. Not moving. An outlaw is standing behind them.

“Hey, you!” The voice is right behind her, in the hallway. The man behind the voice has a gun in his hand and it is pointing straight at Bea. Behind him is another man, who has a rope in his hands and is dragging a guard, who is stumbling along.

Beatrice notices in horror that the guard being dragged along is her hallway guard, Juan, who is always nice to her. She sees him recognize her. His wide eyes also see the station guard on the ground, bleeding.

“Both of you. On your knees next to the other two.”

Bea and Juan walk into the station and kneel down. Juan’s hands are still tied, but Bea puts her hands on her head, like the two kneeling station guards.

The outlaws are dressed in dirty clothes. Their long hair is tied back, but they look freshly shaven. The guns look clean and new, and Beatrice guesses they took them from the guards.

“Strip!” an outlaw tells Juan and the other two guards. Bea watches as the three outlaws take turns watching the prisoners while the others put on the uniforms. With their long hair tucked into the hats, they could almost pass as guards.

They tie all three guards up and walk them to the corner of the station, where they are then tied to a heavy bench.

“And her?” An outlaw points his gun at Beatrice.

“She’s coming with us.”

An outlaw pulls Bea to her feet and stands behind her with the barrel of the gun resting against the small of her back.

The sound of the incoming tram from Sector Four fills the station. The brakes squeal and the tram comes to a slow stop. It is empty except for the pilot.

The pilot opens the doors and then she steps off onto the platform. She looks at the outlaws dressed as guards.

“This is as far as this tram goes today, boys. Outlaws have taken the station in Sector Six. If she is trying to go forward today” the pilot looks at Bea, “send her home. My tram is going back where it came from in an hour.”

The look on the pilot’s face changes. She has seen the naked guards tied to the bench. She looks at the outlaws and sees them for who they are. She looks at Beatrice’s face and says “You don’t need her. Take me, instead. Let her go. She is just a girl.”

“You are both coming with us, and we are going to Sector Six!” He points his gun at the pilot and then motions to the tram.

Soon all five are on the tram and it is leaving the station. The pilot has two outlaws up front with her, while Beatrice is sitting in the first car across from the third outlaw, who can’t be much older than she is. It even looks like he did not need to shave to pull off the guard disguise.

Beatrice knows it will take thirty minutes to reach Sector Six, so she sits back to think.

When the tram pulls into the Sector Six station, Beatrice sees dozens of outlaws on the platform. There are young and old, men, women, and children. As the tram approaches, Bea watches six outlaws emerge and point guns directly at the tram.

But then the doors open and the outlaws emerge yelling “Don’t shoot! It's us!”

A great cheer goes up on the platform, and people start piling into the tram. Soon there is standing room only and the smell is overpowering. Beatrice is still sitting next to the outlaw boy in the guard’s uniform. He has his gun on his lap.

“Where are we going?” Asks Bea.

“All the way to the top,” says the boy, with a grin.

The tram lurches forward and gains speed as it climbs up toward the top level. Everyone is talking excitedly and Beatrice can only make out half of what they are saying because they talk so funny. It is English, but not quite. From what she can tell, they are planning to shoot their way through the top level. Bea is suddenly scared for her father. She had wanted to see him, but not like this.

The time passes slowly for her as the train climbs. She knows that the trip should take forty minutes, but with her thoughts racing it seems that time is standing still. Should she try to take the gun from the boy? Could she get to the comms and warn the station ahead? There are too many of them. And she couldn’t pull the trigger, anyway. Better to hope that they don’t hurt anybody on the top level.

Beatrice turns to the boy guarding her.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Casey.”

“Beatrice. Why are you all going to the top level?”

“We want to leave the compounds. We are tired of living in caves, starving, and on the run all the time. You don’t know what it is like. It has to be better outside.”

“You can’t go outside.”

“How do you know? You are a Sector Five farm worker, what do you know about outside?”

“I know more than you. My father is a scientist. He sends drones and probes outside all the time to check on conditions. If it were safe to go outside, he would know.”

“We outlaws have been in danger every day of our lives. I think we can handle it.”

“Okay. You know what you want. If you really want to leave so bad, maybe I can help.”

“How?”

“My father is one of the scientists on the top level. If he knew that his daughter was in danger, maybe he would help you in exchange for my safety.”

Casey calls to the outlaws in the front of the tram, who join him for a hushed discussion, which is punctuated by glances at Beatrice.

The sound of the brakes fills the tram. As the tram slows down, Bea sees the darkness of the tunnel give way to the blinding bright sunlight that streams down into the Top Level station through light tubes. She squints and the outlaws all are covering their eyes and cowering. They are not prepared for the intensity of light.

As the tram slows to a stop the armed outlaws regain enough composure to stand in the doorways waiting for the pilot to open them. Beatrice shrinks into her seat and she can see that Casey is trembling.

The tram doors open and Bea can see that the Top Level must have been warned of the incoming tram full of armed outlaws. There is a half-circle of guards with weapons drawn and pointing at the tram doorways.

“Come out with your hands up!” Says one of the guards into a megaphone.

Bea feels a stabbing pain in her shoulder. She doesn’t know where he came from, but a big outlaw has grabbed her and is pushing her through the crowd, onto the station platform. Now they are in the center of the half circle and the outlaw has a pistol to Bea’s head.

“If any of my people are hurt, this girl gets a bullet. We don’t want to hurt anyone. We just want to go outside. Let us out and the girl lives.”

“Father!” Beatrice screams as she sees her father standing behind the guards. He has on his white lab coat and he pushes through to the front, frantic.

“Bea!” Then he turns to the guards. “Put down your weapons! I will talk to the outlaws.” The guards point their guns at the ground, but they seem ready to lift them back up anytime.

Her father walks into the center of the circle, a few feet from Bea. He looks at the man who holds the gun to Bea’s head. “What is your name, sir?”

“I’m Gage.”

“Well Gage, I’m Enrique. Nice to meet you.” Her father reaches his hand out and Gage reluctantly shakes it. “I would love nothing better than to let you outside.” He pauses. “But the radiation levels are still too high for humans. You might live for a while. But you would all die of cancer within a few years. I don’t want that for you.”

“Nice try smart boy. I’m not buying it.”

“I can show you.”

“Show me, then.”

“Okay. Let Beatrice go and I’ll show you.”

“No way. Where I go, she goes.”

Soon Beatrice finds herself in a small room stripping out of her blue coveralls and into another type of coveralls that feels metallic. This set has a hood with a tinted visor to protect her face. There are boots and gloves too. Her father and three of the outlaws, two women and one man are also getting into metallic coveralls.

“This machine measures radiation. You can see that in here we are in the low range” Her father shows the readout to everyone.

He closes the door behind the group and then points at a set of steps on the far side of the room. Everyone walks to the steps and climbs up to a landing where there is another door. After they go through the door, they find themselves in a small vestibule. Beatrice’s heart is racing. Her father opens the door on the other side of the vestibule and a blinding light enters the room.

“Don’t worry. Your visors should protect your eyes!” Her father says as he calmly walks out into the outside world.

Beatrice and the three outlaws step out the door and stop. She doesn’t have any context for what she is seeing. The sky is beautiful. It isn’t just the speck of the window. It is everywhere. It is overwhelming. She spins slowly, looking at the blue sky and clouds. When her gaze finds the ground, it is nothing like the shows on her device. She sees no green trees and no birds. For as far as Beatrice can see in any direction, there is brown in all shades. There appear to be rubble and ruins everywhere.

“I’ll give you a moment to take it all in.” It is her father’s voice. The outlaws are walking around and talking amongst themselves. “Come look at the radiation levels.” Her father gets out the machine and shows the readout to the Bea and the outlaws. The needle is somewhere between high and very high.

“Is it like this everywhere?” Asks one of the outlaws.

“We don’t know.” Her father answers. “We keep sending out drones further and further and we haven’t seen any changes. As far as we know, we are all that is left.” Her father pauses. “We need to get back inside. These suits only offer partial protection.”

The group turns around and goes back inside the vestibule. Soon Beatrice is taking a shower and then back in her blue coveralls. The outlaws stay with her and keep the guns in their hands as they walk back to the station.

When they return to the station, they find the guards and the outlaws from the tram eating lunch. Her father had ordered the guards to feed the outlaws and amidst the sharing of the food, a wary truce had broken out. People are all sitting on the benches of the station and talking. Some guards are talking to outlaws, while they pass out more food and drinks.

“Can I have your attention please!” her father’s voice booms without the need for a megaphone. A hush fills the air. “I have been speaking with our leadership. I told them that you were all ready to force your way outside, risking certain death, rather than continue to be hunted as outlaws.”

Beatrice looks around and sees the outlaws nodding their heads.

“Let us out!” yells one woman.

“Your leaders will tell you there is no future for you outside.” Her father continues “but there could be a future for you here below. Your leaders told me that you all want a safe space to live and raise families. That seems fair. If humanity is to survive, we need you all to survive. We can’t afford to lose you. I spoke to our leaders and they have agreed to open up a new sector, which you could manage as you see fit. The only thing we would need in return is to do regular DNA testing to make sure that your population stays fit.

“We can help you learn to grow food and use 3D printers to make necessary items. We can share knowledge and resources. You don’t need to live on the edges anymore.”

“What’s the catch?” Beatrice recognizes Casey’s voice.

“There is no catch. I explained to our leaders that what is good for you is good for everyone. If the outlaws can live in peace with us, we will all have safer communities and happier people. We have plenty of space available and there is enough food for all of us.”

“I’m in.” The lead outlaw puts down the gun that he had been pointing at Bea. He turns to Bea’s father and extends his hand. Her father shakes it and looks Gage in the eyes.

“I promise... Now, can we get word to the rest of your people in Sector Six to stand down?”

An hour later Beatrice is with her father in his quarters. The fading light of the day is coming through the window and Bea walks over to have the final sunbeams hit her on the face.

“Father. Can you also talk to the leadership about getting farm workers like me more days off? I want to see you more.”