Living Things

In her heart of hearts, Soniya was against the tunnel.

When she had first moved in with Andromeda, she had been higher than the lights to share a LiveSpace. She had been a solitary for a long time, and the company of Marie, her Artificial Sociable Simulated Interlocuter System and Temporator, was starting to drag. Marie was the latest model, with a fully upgraded games system, but she was still not quite...something.

Soniya would find herself pacing around, having imaginary conversations with her best friend. They were not very...something, either, because she refused to cross the line into speaking out loud. That AQ>10 before last, when Andromeda had proposed that they declare themselves a Family, she had been doubtful. When the supervising body had actually agreed to it, she was gobsmacked.

And so, Andromeda and Soniya had been shifted to a new Ugloo, closer to the Plain, with an F in its number. It was similar in design to the solitary one she had occupied before, but for the fact that the LiveSpace was divided into three neat, box-shaped spaces instead of being all one. The Observation Deck had different flooring, too; softer and squishier. Andromeda had said it was because children insisted on falling over all the time. Apparently, she remembered this from the time she had had a small brother.

"What happened to him?" Soniya had asked, astonished. She had never heard of a brother.  

"He got bigger, I suppose." said Andromeda, vaguely. She had on her face that disinterested look she got when she looked at children in the Plain. Soniya did not ask any more.

After some time, Soniya felt that by becoming Andromeda's Family, she had merely pressed a reset button on her problems, bringing up a new set. Andromeda was not quite...something. Firstly, she would not stop talking about something called a 'bee'. It was a strange little thing that looked like a dried-up leaf. Andromeda claimed that it used to be alive, and that it had been sent to demolish her last Ugloo. It had expired before the job was complete, but there was a possibility that its children would complete the task.  

When Soniya heard this, she was reminded of the time Andromeda had heard the Air Quality alert non-stop for three cycles and had to be treated by a doctor. She spent a lot of time thinking of ways to check whether Andromeda was well or not.

She checked with her ASSIST.

"Marie, what is a bee?"

"Bee. Potentially mythical flying creature."

"Marie, what does a bee look like?"

"Rounded body, six legs. Usually yellow, black, orange or red. Other colours possible."

Soniya examined the thing Andromeda called a Mason Bee. It did not look rounded, but it did have several curled stick-things that might be called legs by a generous observer.  She shuddered.  It did give one a feeling of ex-life, like those times when Tree Specimen 13 turned leafless and grey, but worse.

Actually, it reminded her of something she had seen once, as a child. In those days, there had been steps up to the hatch in the top of an Ugloo. One never saw them now; they had been done away with and replaced with platforms that automatically lowered deliveries to ground level.  

Soniya had been the only one in her family awake one day when a DDrone had come by with some toiletries. When she ran up the steps, there had been an irresistible gap around the hatch; being a slender child, she had managed to wriggle through it.  She still remembered the delight of standing on the top of Ugloo 43F, on top of her small world. Around her, she saw rows and rows of Ugloos, glass domes containing dark black LiveSpaces. Inside each, there was a person or family who had no idea that a five-year-old was standing in the sky.  

Soniya felt strong and clever. In the distance, in the centre of the Managed Zone, she could see the Plain, an expanse of green surrounded by trees. Half-clambering, half-falling, she had reached the ground. Having never been anywhere else, she had instinctively run towards the Plain. She had never seen it empty before. Giggling to herself, she began to run around. It wasn't long before she fell over and came eye-to-eye with something lying on the ground. It was grey-brown and ugly. Soniya was alarmed, but crawled over to the thing anyway. It had four skinny little feet. She stood up and realised that there were several of them; at least ten. When she nudged them with her toe, they didn't move, but her skin still tingled with a sense of danger.  

Suddenly, she was lifted off her feet.  

"Where are you from, little girl?"  

"Put me down!"  

The man had no intention of that. He was carrying her out of the Plain.

"What's your name?" he demanded.

"Soniya. Put me down!"

He did not.

"How did you get out?"

"I climbed through the hatch."

They were out of the Plain now. The man put her down but kept strong, warning hands on her shoulders.  

"Which Ugloo are you from?"

"I don't know."

He sighed and picked her up again.

When she woke up, she was home. She didn't know why, but she never told anyone about the pointy-faced things lying in the grass.

---

"Andromeda, how did you learn about bees?"

"Lena told me, eventually."

Andromeda's ancient ASSIST whirred into life. 

"Instruction not understood. Kindly repeat."

Andromeda sighed. "Lena, unintentional activation."

"Do you think..." asked Soniya. "Do you think if I described a strange thing to Maria, she could help me identify it?"

"That silly new-age thing? No. The warnings are too difficult to override now. Lena might, though."

"Lena." said Soniya, wondering how to ask.  

Lena birrred politely.

"Lena, what has four legs?"

"Chair, table, some beds, pre-2147 DDrones."

"Um." said Soniya.

Andromeda frowned. "Wait, are you talking about a living thing? You have to tell her that. She always defaults to Ugloo things."  

She took over.  

"Lena, what has four legs and is alive?"

"Humans have two legs." replied the ASSIST.

Andromeda rolled her eyes.

"Tell me about it." she said to Soniya.

---

Andromeda had gained a wild light in her eyes which worried Soniya. She was taking long, quick steps around the Observation Deck.

"This is amazing! Why didn't you tell me? I had no idea there were so many living things!" 

She flopped down, looking suddenly conspiratorial.  "My mother told me about something called a hamster once. She had it when she was little. It lived in the Ugloo with them. It had four legs. Maybe the things you saw were hamsters! Lena, archival image of hamster."

"Error warning. Unnecessary access to archival information may cause malfunction."

"Lena, override error warning. Archival image of hamster."

A plump creature appeared on the screen. It had fuzz all over it, like a bee; some of its colours were similar. Soniya studied it.

"Um, its feet look the same. Its face is too fat, though."

"Maybe its face shrunk when it..." - Andromeda's voice shrunk - "...died."  

"I don't think so. It wasn't that shape at all."  

Andromeda shrugged. "It takes a while. I had to go through lots of things before I found out about bees. Lena, what looks like a hamster but has a skinny face?"

"Gerbil. Shrew. Rat."

"Lena, show us a gerbil."

A small furry creature flashed up on the screen. It looked positively intelligent. Soniya bit her lip.

"Too small, I think." she said.

Andromeda nodded. "Lena, is a shrew bigger than a gerbil?"

"Negative. A shrew was smaller than a gerbil."

"Lena, is a rat bigger than a gerbil?"

"Affirmative."

"Lena, archival image of rat."

Soniya gasped when she saw it.

"Yes! It was one of those! Well, about ten of those. Maybe more."

"Wow. So rats are not gone!"

"That was a long time ago, And. I was little. And they were dead"

"The bees aren't dead!"

"That one is. And that is the only one we have."

---

The monitor read:

0257 19C AQ: 5 CYCLES SINCE AQ>10: 47 T'MO EXPECT AQ: 5

Andromeda had dragged Soniya out of bed to show her the darkness. Soniya remained unimpressed.

"It's called night." said Andromeda patiently. "We are supposed to sleep at night."

Soniya snorted. "Like I was?"

"Bees also sleep at night but rats don't, necessarily. That might be why you saw them when everyone else was asleep. They had come out during the dark and been killed."

"Why does it dark at 0000 then?"

"I don't know. Maybe the supervising body does it, but I don't think so. Sometimes we go to the Plain when it's dark."

"Do we? I never noticed."

"No." said Andromeda. "You wouldn't."

Then she took out her tunnel-making...thing.

Soniya didn't know what it was or where Andromeda had got it. It was a flat piece of metal with which she had first slit through the spongy flooring, finding nothing but more spongy flooring for ages; and then rock. That had put her in a bad mood for days.

Then she had had a brainwave; attack the Ugloo itself. That was what the bee had done. So, she dug into the wall. Every night, chip-chip-chip. And she was getting somewhere; not quite through, but these days when Soniya passed that part of the wall, she could swear she felt something; a different texture in the air.

Still, she hoped that a problem would appear. She did not want to leave the Managed Zone, where she had always been, and go somewhere else. If they were in a Managed Zone, then everywhere else must be Unmanaged, which didn't sound...great.

Andromeda was obsessed with bees, and desperate to meet something called a cat. She said it used to live with people, like a hamster, but it was bigger.

"The next time it's AQ>10, I will walk in the other direction." she announced one night.

"Huh?" said Soniya.

"I will not go to the Plain. I will go past the other Ugloos."

"What? Is that allowed?"

"No-one has ever said it isn't, have they? I've never seen it anywhere - you must go to the Plain. Everyone goes to the Plain but we don't have to."

"Huh." said Soniya.

The monitor read:

0456 19C AQ: 7 CYCLES SINCE AQ>10: 53 T'MO EXPECT AQ: 8

At night, she heard chip-chip-chip.

AQ: 8 T'MO EXPECT AQ: 9

Chip-chip-chip-chip-chip.

After three nights - that was what Andromeda said now, there was no more talk of T'MOs or cycles - the alert went off. Andromeda didn't move.

"Aren't you coming?"

"I am waiting. I think it is better to go when everybody is already at the Plain." Her voice was oddly stilted.

"Shall I come?" asked Soniya.

Andromeda hesitated. "It's up to you."

Soniya realised that the odd thing in her voice was nervousness. The only time she had seen Andromeda nervous before was just before she had to see the doctor; just before the AQ alert had started going off in her head. Maybe she was getting ill again. Maybe it was very stupid to walk to the end of your world with a sick person. Probably Soniya ought to report her disorder to the supervising body. But she couldn't. What would she say, even if she could? 'My friend...does not go to the Plain. She doesn't like Ugloos. She wants to see bees. No. It didn't sound like madness. It sounded like she didn't love Andromeda any more.

She realised she was still staring at Andromeda. It had been one minute, two minutes. A lifetime, perhaps. Andromeda stared back, and it was not the face of a mad person. It was just Andromeda, whose peculiar questions had evolved into a peculiar plan.

"I'll come." Soniya said.

They walked and walked. Andromeda counted. Their family Ugloo was quite close to the Plain. They walked for a long time.

"A hundred to one-oh-five steps between Ugloos." Andromeda said. "Do you know when we left?"

"The AQ alert went off at 15.07. Then we waited. Might have been 1520?"

"OK. We've passed 97 rows of Ugloos so far."

Sudden fear seized Soniya. What if we can't get back before the Ugloos are locked again?"

"We'll have to run. That must be what people all the way out here do."

"I haven't run since I was little, And."

"You can practise now, if you like." Andromeda flashed a grin. Then she began to look around shiftily again. She crept up to the side of an Ugloo. It was 857. She peered inside.

"What are you doing?" hissed Soniya, aghast.

"Trying to see the time. I can't make it out, though."

Suddenly she jerked away. "Run!"

She grabbed Soniya's hand, dragging her away. Her careful counting was forgotten as she hauled them both away. They ran for a long time, or at least, it felt that way to Soniya's inexperienced legs. Andromeda pulled her behind Ugloo 1187 and looked around carefully.

"What just happened?" puffed Soniya.

"There was someone in there!" said Andromeda. "I didn't know there were people who didn't go to the Plain. A man just came and looked at me!"

She stared around the Ugloo again; there was still no-one there.

"I wonder why he didn't follow me." she mused, calmer now.

Soniya wondered too. It stood to reason that there would be one or two people who couldn't be bothered to go to the Plain sometimes. But what were the odds that they would reside in the very Ugloo that Andromeda looked into? Andromeda had a... history. She pushed the thought away.

They rested; the air was warm, and Soniya wondered why she hadn’t thought to bring water. She closed her eyes.

Andromeda cursed, shook her and then spat out: “How are we back here?!” She pointed.

There were trees just ahead; they were at the Plain. Soniya sighed, but there would no point in pretending to herself she wasn’t a little relieved. They could drink from the fountains there and lie in the sun under their usual tree. In fact, this outcome was ideal; nobody could claim she hadn’t supported Andromeda, but she was not going to have to set foot outside the Managed Zone.

She took Andromeda’s hand. “Come on, And. We may as well go there and lie down.”

Andromeda rolled her eyes, but began walking with her.

“It’s strange,” she remarked after a minute, “how quiet everything is. There are hundreds of people behind that row of trees but I can’t hear anything.”

“Well. Maybe they’re all sleeping. It’s warm.”

Andromeda looked at her doubtfully. “Even the kids? There’s usually one or two of them screaming the whole time we’re there.” She stopped. “The trees look weird, too, don’t they?”

“Yeah.” Soniya admitted. “Less organised.”

“This is not the Plain. This is the way out.” said Andromeda. “That is the Unmanaged Zone.”

Soniya shuddered. “Let’s go back.”

“Let’s look, at least.”

When they reached the trees, they found a mesh fence stood between them and the foliage. A faint buzzing reached their ears; it reminded Soniya of the sound of the hatch opening, when it would sparkle with static and you weren’t allowed to touch it.

“That fence is electrified, And. Don’t touch it.”

“It’s not electricity. Look.” She picked up a clump of grass and threw it at the fence; nothing happened. She pulled her tunnel-making-thing from the back of her clothes somewhere and began to dig.

Soniya stared. Maybe Andromeda was mad. Who could prove she wasn’t when she carried on like this? The buzzing grew louder; something bright darted past the corner of her eye. It was reddish, plump, purposeful-looking. It settled on a tree.

“And. And? Is that a bee?”

Andromeda glanced up and grinned. “I told you it wasn’t electricity.”

The ground was surprisingly soft beside the fence and Soniya could see that she was making progress with her digging. Every so often she tugged thoughtfully at the fence but it didn’t budge. Soniya got down beside her, wishing for her own tunnel-maker but doing what she could with her hands.

They both jumped when the announcement rang out, perfectly audible even here.

“AQ 9; please return to your Ugloo of residence. Automatic lock in 60 minutes; current time 16:47.”

“Damn.” said Andromeda, pulling harder on the fence.

“Relax, we have an hour.”

“Do we though?! How do they make sure everyone is in? Are there patrols?”

Soniya noted that little nervous shake in Andromeda’s voice again, but her own fear was somehow gone.

“We don’t know, but it’s too late to worry about it now.”

They dug; they pulled, and again, and again. Soniya’s mouth was bone dry, but it no longer seemed important. When the fence finally shifted up, she gasped but Andromeda groaned.

“It’s no good, Soniya. We’ll never get through this little gap.”

“If one of us pulls the fence up while the other crawls under?”

“It’s going to hurt. I don’t think we should do it.”

Soniya was gripped by a sudden desperation. “YOU’RE giving up?! After all this?! After dragging me out here and scaring me silly and making me run and all the rest of it?! Is it going to hurt more than being stuck in an Ugloo for another fifty cycles? Is it going to hurt more than going back to the hospital? Cause that’s what going to happen when they find out this was us, And. That’s what’s going to happen.”

Something flashed over Andromeda’s face; a shadow. “No.” She said. “No hospital.” She yanked up the fence. “Get under there.”

Soniya breathed and got down on the ground; it smelt damp. She closed her eyes and wriggled through. The fence snatched at her clothes and scratched her. Even pulling herself forward with her hands too, it seemed to take an age until she got through. On the other side, she stood up and woozily realised she was in more danger than she had ever been in in her life. Who knew what would happen if someone from the governing body happened by? If Andromeda had to run now, she was on her own. She grabbed the fence up and hauled with all her might. Andromeda made her way through a little quicker, the earth under her flattened by Soniya’s passage.

She got to her feet and snorted in laughter, pulling something from Soniya’s hair. “If you could see yourself.” she said, and threw the grass blade on the ground. She pulled at something else, squealed and dropped it. They looked down and saw something pink wriggling on the ground.

“I suppose,” said Andromeda, back to her self-assured self, “that’s another animal. Let’s get out of here.”

They walked slowly away from the world that was all they’d ever known, hand in hand again. They didn’t look back.

Behind them, a man sat on the ground, watching.

--------------

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this story, please like and subscribe to see more of my writing in your feed.

You'll also like my other stories set in the Managed Zone:

The Solitaries (Andromeda and the bee)

The Flood