Coming home was strange. Marta half remembered being taken with Rai to the Dome infirmary. After this she had slept for almost a full standard day. When she awoke she thought she had somehow blundered into her earlier dream of the new children, asleep in their transparent boxes surrounded by flashing lights…only instead of watching the scene from outside she was now in a box herself…
After quite a long time, maybe several days, she became fully alert again. Gee was waiting to see her,
“How are you today, my dear?”
Gee had her welcoming face.
Marta found it difficult to talk. She had a tube down her nose and her throat hurt. It was some while before she attempted to speak. Gee waited placidly, the occasional ripple passing across her countenance,
“Rai…where is he…?”
“Trust you to think of others before yourself, my dear…!”
Six Gee paused,
“Rai coped less well with the hardships you both endured…he is in intensive care elsewhere…!”
“Will he be…?”
“We anticipate he will make a full recovery…but it will not be quick…!”
“…I’ve been here before…” Marta paused. It was as much as she could do to gasp out a short sentence,
“….you remember things well, dear…! Yes, this where you saw Han and Jorja for the first time…!”
“Why am I here rather than in the infirmary?”
“We had to conduct some procedures to establish that your ordeal had not caused you permanent harm…!”
Marta’s awareness of herself was increasing…her nose and her throat were not the only parts of her body that hurt… She had to try to speak again but it was growing harder to move her mouth,
“Sleep now, Marta dear! When you awake you will have some visitors…”

---

Sometime later, Marta couldn’t be sure how long, she awoke again. She was no longer in the room of blinking lights and enigmatic displays. She was now in one of the larger outer chambers of the Dome. She could tell this by the curve of the wall. The bulkhead facing her carried a projection of what she assumed was a view from one of the external sensors. Alpha B was low in the sky sending its reddish light across the terrain. The rocks and boulders cast long shadows in the encroaching twilight…
Gee appeared in her customary noiseless fashion,
“We thought a view of outside might be beneficial after your long confinement…”
Gee became momentarily absolutely still in that disconcerting way of hers,
“…and now as promised your visitors…!”
The rest of the children, minus Rai of course, trooped in. They stood regarding her, as if not sure of the next move.
“We brought you this…!” said Han, finding himself in the unaccustomed role of leader. Priya advanced somewhat self consciously with the gift, a miniature rose bush in a pot,
“Grown not printed…!” said Han
Marta didn’t know what to say. In fact she hardly knew where to look…!
“Thank you…!” she gasped eventually,
“We thought you were dead…!” Priya had started to cry, “…and that would have been so awful…!” Jorja was crying as well and the two girls held each other. Marta, cynically, thought she was crying for Rai rather than her. Han and Sal didn’t look in much better shape. Six Gee decided to intervene,
“I think that’s enough for today, children! Marta needs to rest to build up her strength…!”
Next day Sal and Priya visited her,
“Han’s going to come along later…he’s Out with Jorja at the moment…!” explained Sal,
“Have you seen Rai…?” Marta wanted to know,
“They won’t let us…they say he’s too ill…!” this from Priya who looked ready to cry again,
“What happened…?” said Sal, butting in,
“…it was my fault really…! I was talking to Rai and I took my eyes off the terrain…we crashed into an old crater…!” Marta thought it better not to mention the argument…and knew she would have to be selective with telling them about what happened later…She also knew that she’d eventually have to tell the whole tale to Nurse Gee…and she was not looking forward to this,
“But how did you survive…?” Priya’s eyes were like saucers,
“Well, we dug a foxhole with the scoop…B was still in the sky, so we were getting some juice from the solar panels. Then we blocked the entrance with our gear, and waited…!”
“…but you were there for days…!”
“…well, we just made the best of it…!” Marta didn’t really know what else to say,
“Did you ever think…you know! That you weren’t going to make it…?” asked Sal suddenly, “I remember when I got attacked and thinking I’m going to die here and now…and there’s nothing I can do…except Priya had other ideas…!” they shared a look,
“I remember thinking ‘is this what death is like?’” said Marta carefully, “Then I had a dream, I was back when I was three Standard and Nurse Gee took me to see Han and Jorja for the first time…when they were only babies…”
She had their undivided attention now,
“…when I first woke up I was there again…in that place where I first saw them…I’m pretty sure that they took me to the infirmary when we got back to the Dome…and I woke up here the second time…!”
“Was Rai with you?”
“No…I haven’t seen him since we got back…!”
Marta paused to gather her thoughts,
“I asked Nars Gee about it and she admitted that it was the same place…she said they’d taken me there to check I hadn’t been permanently damaged, or something…but the thing is I don’t even know where that place is…and apart from those two times I’ve never been there…! Did you ever go there…?”
Sal and Priya shook their heads and looked confused,
“Never mind,” Marta said, “…I’m sure it’s not important…!”
For some obscure reason Marta felt she’d said too much…and whatever she said outwardly she was convinced this was important…maybe the most important thing ever…

---

Later on Marta tried to access her interface. It hadn’t worked since her return, and Marta thought the Nurses had disabled it for some reason. But now it flared into life as normal. Scanning through the menus revealed nothing out of the ordinary, just routine announcements and the like. Marta felt disappointed that her and Rai’s disappearance and rescue didn’t seem to have rated a mention. Then on a whim she asked her ‘face to display a schematic of the Dome. To her surprise it complied.
It had never occurred to Marta to ask for this before, and result was unsettling! Nearly three quarters of the Dome comprised the areas they knew and used…there were detailed plans, and cctv views of these sections, but the inner core of the structure was blank, labelled variously ‘under development’ or ‘restricted access’. Marta had always been aware that there were areas of the Dome that they were denied access to, the Nurses had explained this away by saying that these were areas that were not yet needed. The children, used to deferring to their nursemaids, had never really questioned this. Marta now tried calling up cctv images of the hidden spaces, but got nothing, although there was a slight hesitation when she did this, as if something was going to appear but was blocked. Marta then tried calling up the image from a corridor familiar to her that bordered the missing area…and there it was! An innocuous looking door she’d passed many times…which led into the restricted zone!
The question now was how was she going to get in?

---

2

Han had come to see her later that day. After the usual questions, Marta had tried to sound him out on the question of the mysterious room. Han had become extremely uncomfortable at this point, and Marta got the impression that he knew something she didn’t, but she decided not to pursue it and changed the subject. Jorja significantly did not visit her.
The following day, the moment she’d been dreading, her debrief with Nurse Six Gee…
Surprising, this was less painful than she had anticipated. Nurse Gee accepted her account of what happened, and did not pass judgement on her actions. Things became slightly awkward towards the end when Marta decided to ask some questions,
“Gee, you told me that when I was taken to that…place, it was because you needed to check I was OK…! Well, am I?”
Gee became absolutely still for a disconcertingly long time,
“We haven’t determined that as yet, dear…!”
“What’s wrong with me?”
Again a long pause,
“My dear, you are aware that the radiation you were exposed to can have long term effects…!”
The girl remained mute. She didn’t trust herself to speak at this point,
“Marta, when I said that the future of the Mission depended on you, all of you, I didn’t just mean doing your duty as part of the crew…! We have had to suspend the Hatching programme, as you know. What this means in practice is that new children will have to be conceived naturally…” Again Gee paused,
“Marta, you are our oldest female, Rai is our oldest male…! If you are unable to have children, it is more than just a personal tragedy…! It threatens the Mission as a whole…! I cannot say any more, I trust you will keep this conversation to yourself…!”
Marta promised that she would and the interview was over.
Later, when she thought about it, she felt absolutely terrified. She didn’t know which she feared more, the prospect of not being able to have children, or the prospect of actually having them! Even worse, was the notion of having children with Rai, it didn’t bear thinking about. Marta wondered if it had occurred to Rai what was planned for them. She shuddered involuntarily. Better to think about the matter to hand…

---

Life returned to normal. Marta left her sickbed and returned to her duties. Ironically her first task was an analysis of the climate data captured during the Event, the astronomical phenomenon that had almost cost her life. For a while she forgot about the mysterious room and the missing parts of the Dome, but one day found herself thinking about the problem again.
She decided to set her ‘face to record the feed from the camera covering the door for two Standard days. Going through it later, even at x 32 was a chore, and she knew she was taking a risk that her activities would be noticed. She didn’t think that the Nurses interrogated the data streams generated by individual ‘faces, but she didn’t know this for sure!
But the exercise did yield results. She established a pattern. During the fifty four hours she recorded, a particular nursemaid known as Red Green three entered through this door at precisely the same time on both days, leaving precisely fifty nine minutes later. Hardly able to believe this, she checked at the same time on two subsequent days and the pattern was the same. The door closed exactly four seconds after Red Green three passed through, and even better there was a service closet nearly opposite where she could hide. If she was quick she could probably time herself to leave the closet, cross the corridor and pass through the door before it closed, hopefully undetected. Once inside, if she could avoid Red Green three and time herself to be back near the door fifty nine minutes later, maybe she could leave again without anybody being the wiser.
Marta felt she couldn’t do this all by herself, but who to involve? Jorja was out of the question, and she didn’t think Han would be a possibility either. In fact she was convinced that Han’s first move would be to tell the nursemaids. So that left Sal and Priya.
Marta hesitated over involving them for nearly a day. They were only seven Standard, still children essentially. Priya especially had a loose tongue, but she couldn’t involve one without the other. If she could convince Sal then Priya would follow his lead, or at least that was the theory…
She knew time was of the essence, who could tell when Red Green three’s task in the restricted zone would be completed. As soon as it was, her schedule would be bound to alter. The children knew from observation that their nursemaids would follow predictable patterns, often for long periods. But these patterns would suddenly change without notice, obeying a logic beyond their understanding.
Marta took the opportunity to approach Sal and Priya following lunch. Han and Jorja had gone Out on Mission business again. She decided it would be safer if she used Grok to broach the subject, theorising that Gee and the nursemaids would be less likely to pay attention to conversations carried out in slang,
“Namas Fem… Hom…! Ke us…?”
Sal and Priya looked instantly suspicious. It wasn’t like Marta to initiate conversations in the slang argot,
“De coo! [We’re fine]” replied the boy, in Grok.
It took some time for Marta to explain using the essentially simplified terms of Grok. From time to time she had to use a Standard English term where no word existed in the children’s argot. But this was how they used the language in everyday life, switching fluently between it and Standard in the course of a sentence. Marta just hoped that Six Gee wasn’t monitoring their discussion…
They agreed that the missing area must be explored, but that Marta must do it alone. More than one child would be missed. Sal and Priya seemed honoured that she should choose to involve them in the plan, and be sharing her confidences with them rather than the older children. Priya in particular was excited by the prospect doing some detective work,
“Like Nancy Drew…!” she breathed. Priya had a fondness for twentieth century literature.
They agreed that Sal and Priya would engage Nurse Six Gee in conversation while Marta went missing. The following day all was set.
So it was that Marta found herself in the cramped confines of the service closet counting down the seconds… At first she’d left the door slightly ajar so she could see the entrance opposite. But, almost at once she decided this was a bad idea, Red Green three or any other passing nursemaid would notice and investigate…This meant she was relying on timing alone to get through the door. With one second to go she heard (or thought she heard) the swish of the door…time to go…! Opening the door noiselessly, she emerged… Success! The door opposite was open and Red Green three was not in sight…! For one heart-stopping moment she hesitated, wondering whether to secure the closet door… No time…with one movement she was through, the door catching her heel a glancing blow as it closed behind her…!
Looking around, she was instantly disoriented, for one thing it was dark…! Stupidly she stood there pondering this, until it occurred to her that the Nurses didn’t need visible light to see…! There was no sign of Red Green three, and no sound at all…!
It took several minutes for Marta’s eyes to adjust to the dark. There was a small amount of light coming from random displays along the walls, just enough that she could make out the rough dimensions of the space she was in…! It seemed to be a corridor following the line of the bulkhead she’d passed through… She tried moving experimentally to her left, stopping suddenly when her shin came into sharp contact with an invisible object on the floor… Not that way then…moving to the right she was able to make progress…!
At this point it occurred to Marta how foolhardy and ill-planned this all was. She’d gone no more than ten metres and she already had no idea where the door was…! Resolving to count her footsteps from now on, and cursing her own stupidity for not thinking of this sooner, she tried asking her ‘face to show her location. The missing area still remained stubbornly blank,
‘it can’t work in here,’ she thought…
Feeling along the corridor she established that there were probably two doors on the inner wall of the passage… After fifty paces, she thought she detected a slight lessening of the gloom, twenty steps more and she was certain…there was a light source up ahead…!
Marta tried to visualise the layout in her head…then, cursing her own foolishness once more, she called up the schematic on her ‘face… If she was reading this right she was coming up to a corner where two bulkheads marking the boundary of the restricted area met, and she would have to go left…!
The light strengthened as she made her way along the new passage, she could just make out to her left what looked like a laboratory divided from the passage by a transparent screen, full of silent machinery…!
A slight noise behind made her freeze, she was by the window peering into the lab, and to her horror a nursemaid, presumably Red Green three, passed her noiselessly and disappeared up the corridor, without apparently noticing her…! After a pause that felt like hours, but one her ‘face recorded as a little over ten minutes, she finally forced herself to move again…
She also noticed for the first time that the passage had started to slope, the gradient was imperceptible first but after a few more steps Marta was in no doubt….they were going down…!
When the passage curved ‘round on itself and broadened out into another large laboratory-like space, the source of the light became clear.
At first, Marta just stared open mouthed, it didn’t even occur to her to check if Red Green three was in the room. The space reminded her instantly of the mysterious room of glowing displays, lit by indirect light and filled as it was with transparent boxes. But these boxes contained…things…!
After a while an appalled fascination drew her, apparently against her will, to the nearest of the boxes. The pale creature within had no eyes, and no apparent mouth…but it breathed through a tube and Marta could see its heart beating through its translucent skin, vestigial limbs jerked spasmodically. The one next door was even worse…! This one had eyes, a recognisable face, and was larger and clearly older…Marta could tell it was female, and the realisation caused her to vomit without warning…
Eventually, trembling and sweating she was able to straighten up and face that dull gaze…but convinced that the creature was aware of her, she began to panic and back away from the incubators…only to bump up against a bench with more things displayed on it… A glance was enough to tell her that these specimens were all dead, apparently preserved in some liquid, like Priya’s arthropods.
The horror of what she was witnessing stopped her in her tracks and the spell was only broken when Red Green three passed noiselessly down the next aisle, again showing no sign that she was aware of Marta’s presence.
She now knew she has to get out of this place…this chamber of unknown horrors. Red Green three paused by the slowly-spreading pool of vomit left by the girl, but after freezing immobile in that disconcerting way common to all the nursemaids, she was on her way again…back in the direction of the door…!
Even ‘though she was now convinced that the nursemaid couldn’t see her, she still hung back. This proved to be her undoing, as once they’d climbed the ramp and reached the corridor Red Green three was swallowed up by the gloom again, and Marta found herself groping along in the blackness. Too late she saw the corridor illuminated as the access door opened. By the time she got there the door had closed again leaving her alone in the dark…
It was all too much…! Marta sat down, put her head in her hands and cried, something she hadn’t done in years! This seemed to help, and after a few minutes she felt better and able to go on. She knew that all she had to do was call Nurse Six Gee on her ‘face and her ordeal would be over, but that would be admitting defeat, and what then was the point of all this clandestine investigation? She didn’t entirely trust the Nurses now and had decided that snooping around secretly was the best way of finding out what was really going on!
Since she knew what lay behind her (and shuddered at the memory of what she’d seen in that subterranean room at the end of the corridor!) she decided to press on. After what seemed like hours of groping in the dark, she came upon more lit areas of the Dome, and strangely, despite the fact these were unfamiliar to her, they showed signs of recent occupation…!
The living area, for that is what it undoubtedly was, had been divided off from the corridor in which she stood by a glass screen…with no obvious way through. The room was empty but contained clothes and other personal items strewn across the floor…
Marta checked every inch of the dividing partition, but there was no way through, so reluctantly she moved on back into the gloom. Another ten minutes and she could go no further. She now felt very thirsty indeed and had an urgent need to pee! Sitting down with her back to the wall she must have nodded off…and when she awoke, Nurse Six Gee stood before her,
“Gee…!”
Six Gee smiled enigmatically,
“How did you find me…?” said the girl, at length,
“You thought I was being distracted…by Sal and Priya…! …I can be in more than one place at once, my dear!”
“What is this place…?”
“These are areas of the Dome for which we have no current use, my dear!”
“But you are using them…! …I saw things, in that room with the window, and back at the other end of the corridor…!”
Gee waited placidly, the odd ripple passing across her face.
Marta persisted,
“What did I see in that hall at the other end of the corridor…?”
Gee did not move for a long time, eventually she spoke,
“…the Hatching process that produced you and the others, my dear, is not flawless. Errors creep in…some errors, like Sal’s hand, can be lived with…but some are more serious…the results of these are what you witnessed in the hall…!”
Gee paused before continuing,
“…there are others, somewhat more advanced…you will meet them soon…! But eventually the whole process was deemed…unsatisfactory, and had to be suspended…!” Gee’s cool green eyes had fixed upon her,
“Marta, you are aware of how you are made…?”
“We are printed…like the chikan we eat?”
“Why do we use this technology…?”
“…because experiments showed that organic matter, even frozen sperm and eggs, could not survive the hard radiation experienced on the journey between stars…!”
“Excellent answer, as always, my dear! You were always my best student…! You have been very brave and resourceful…but now it’s time to go back to your friends…!”

---

3

Marta was taken back to familiar areas by a completely different route. On the way she asked another question,
“Gee…! Why didn’t Red Green three see me…?”
Six Gee’s answer was uncharacteristically curt,
“Red Green three has her own tasks to perform…she has no need to concern herself with the activities of errant children…!”
‘That told me!’ thought Marta, ‘but it doesn’t explain why…!’
Gee took Marta back to her bunk rather than to see the others. She was glad of this as she needed time to process what she had seen, and to think about the implications. After dealing with her immediate physical needs she sat on the edge of her bed. The miniature rose bush on her desk was drooping slightly, so she gave it some water and switched on the shaded uv light.
Up ‘til now the girl hadn’t really given her origins and her place in the world much thought. She and the rest of the children were just here, this was their world! They lived in the Dome, they worked for the Mission, and the nursemaids looked after them. Other places, like Earth, like Sao Paulo…and other people back on Earth weren’t real, not in the way that Alpha five was real…
Before today, she realised that she’d thought of Earth, the Mission Planners, people back in Brazil, as an elaborate soap opera staged for her benefit…no different from the various teleplays, documentaries, and game shows she accessed via her ‘face.
Even Miss da Guia, her ‘earth-sister’ who communicated with her directly, wasn’t really real, just another simulation…a part of her education programme.
For the first time it occurred to her that Earth was real, the woman in Sao Paulo was real…! There were people on a planet 4.3 Light years away, who had lives, jobs, mothers, fathers…sisters and brothers…
These people weren’t Hatched…they weren’t looked after by the Nurses when they were little, they had parents…they had brothers and sisters, not ‘hatch-mates’…and when they grew up they had children of their own…and eventually they died…
As she thought about this Marta began to shake uncontrollably,
‘Who are we…?’ she thought hopelessly, ‘…why are we here…?’
The more she thought, the more she needed Six Gee! She found she was crying uncontrollably…
The door whispered open and Gee was there, holding her as she had when she was child,
“There, there, my dear… My brave girl…!”
“Gee…! Why are we different from people back on Earth…?” she managed to say through the tears, “…what are we doing here…?”
“When you are older, Marta you will understand…but you must sleep now…tomorrow you can see the others…!”
Sleep came instantaneously…but bad dreams lurked…just out of reach…

---

All the children, bar Rai, were at breakfast when Marta emerged. Sal and Priya smiled rather sheepishly at her, Han looked embarrassed…Jorja regarded her with her usual disdain…
‘What do they know…?” she thought, “What have they been told…?”
Marta got her food and went and sat with Sal and Priya, Han moved over to join them…and after a pregnant pause, so did Jorja…
“We’re sorry…!” said Priya awkwardly, “We tried to distract Nars Gee…but she just knew where you were…!”
“…It’s fine…!” said Marta, “I couldn’t get back out…so she had to come and rescue me anyway…!”
“…but what did you see…?” this question, surprisingly, came from Jorja…
Marta turned towards her eager face. She didn’t know quite what to say…how to describe what she’d seen,
“…in the other part of the Dome…,” she paused not sure how to proceed, “…there are others…like us… Some of them can’t see and can’t move properly…the machines are keeping them alive…I saw them…! There are other children who are better…but I didn’t see them…but I saw where they live…!”
“But why…?” this question came from Priya, a look of complete incomprehension on her face, “…why can’t we see them…?”
“I think…! I think the Nurses have been protecting us…the one’s who can’t see and stuff…aren’t very pretty…!” an involuntary shudder passed through Marta at this point, and her expression was enough to satisfy the other children,
“But what about the others…?” asked Jorja, “…the ones that are better…! Why can’t we see them…?”
“I don’t know…!” said Marta doubtfully, then she remembered, “Nars Gee said we would meet them soon…!”
“…but why are they like that…?” Sal asked.
“Nars Gee said that the Hatching process didn’t always work properly…like with your hand, Sal!”
Sal held up his hand up proudly and smiled. His ring finger and his little finger hadn’t formed properly and were fused into one,
“…and that is why they are like that… Although she said your hand was just a little mistake…!”
The children all laughed at this, which eased the tension, Marta continued,
“…but the others were much worse, and that’s why they had to stop the Hatching…” Marta paused here. She didn’t think it was wise to tell the others about the nursemaids’ other plans…not yet.
The others seemed satisfied by her explanation and started asking her questions about how she got through into the hidden zone, and what it was like behind the door. They were especially intrigued by the revelation that there was a completely unknown level to the Dome below their feet. Marta explained that she’d been so scared by what she’d seen in the laboratory that she hadn’t been able to explore this level. She sneaked a look at Han while she recounted her story, and she got the impression that not all of this was completely new to the boy…
She relaxed and began rather to enjoy herself. It was clear that the other children, even Jorja, rather looked up to her…she’d gone places and seen things that they hadn’t…and she’d returned to tell the tale…
The glow from her safe return and lionisation by the others lasted several days, but the emptiness and fear she’d felt in her bunk were still there in the background… Gee appeared pleased by the explanation she’d given to the others, to the extent that it was possible to tell anything about how the Nurses felt…! Life resumed its normal routine…

---

Marta…! Marta…! You’ve got to come quickly…!” Priya was out of breath and had obviously run all the way,
“It’s Rai…! He’s back…!”

---

Chapter 3. Out >>