22 - Syianne

The office elevator brings me downstairs to "take the tour". I stare at the cavernous hall, the "Portal". After scanning the line of silver-clad Jewels in front of the glass elevator, I search for something that tells me where I need to go. The place reminds me of a train terminal. Across the far side there are three huge flat-screens with rows of numbers, names and times, like a train schedule with a platform number and a final destination. The third screen is different from the others: It looks like something taken out of an action film, a round dark green radar screen with colorful dots drifting over its surface like leaves on a pond. The dots flicker, blinking in and out of sight in a steady tattoo, like beating hearts.

Tiger's story of the Zephyr taking people and not returning them comes to mind as I notice how the dots are drifting about in twos. It is strangely disturbing to think of one of those dots wandering over the dark face of the radar for days until it finally flickers out forever.

I look away from the screen with a shudder, my gaze coming to rest on the only sign in the hall; it says "Central Control Room". There isn't really anywhere else I can go, my only other option are the toilets. I cross the hall and peek into the open double doors of the Control Room.

It looks like the command deck of the spaceship in a science fiction television show. Dozens of large screens, each showing something else which I can't decipher, mainly jumbles of numbers and colours, line one wall. There are perhaps a hundred Jewels, all Undefined, sitting in three half-circle rows, drumming furiously on the touch screens in front of them. The central and largest screen shows the radar again.

"UE in P16," announces an Undefined man with thick horn-rimmed spectacles standing with a worried expression, as he supervises. It looks like he's trying to see everything at once. "Evacuate 454B, 667R to a 15 meter radius."

"On it, Lev," pipes in the small voice of a tiny, brunette Undefined woman sitting in the front row before the screens. She's so small that the chair she's sitting in looks huge. She adjusts her white headpiece, her fingers rapping over her screen. "454B, 667R, UE in P16. Evacuate, I repeat, evacuate to 15 meter radius."

"Milon, pull up the EL Fade chart," Lev commands, as he scrutinises the screens. The main screen changes from the radar to a very complicated colourful graph showing hundreds of different colourful columns and zigzagging lines with equations along the edges. It looks like a drawing of a furious four year old who found crayons in every imaginable colour. Lev points to an area in the graph. "There, what's going on there?"

"It looks like an erratic field," suggests an Undefined man with a large round face.

"Or an under-sustained area," intones a rather bony Undefined woman with a pointed nose.

Lev rubs his chin and strides up to a touch screen that sits before an empty seat. He taps it a few times. "Looks like it's in UD12 — send Team G to investigate, please."

"Exciting, isn't it?" says a voice behind me. I start and turn around. An Undefined girl around my height smiles at me, one of those adorable faces that are like a human manifestation of a porcelain doll and I can only envy the way her blond hair falls to her shoulders in perfect shining bouncy locks.

"I'm Kaitha Luegreem, you're Syianne, right? We're waiting for you to start the tour." She waves her arm toward two people waiting on a nearby bench. I recognise Fellin Quaine, who is grinning broadly at me, and the other is a sandy-haired, bespectacled boy who looks like he's not yet twelve years old. He wears an evil glare as he looks at me, as if he already hates me. I guess it's because I'm staring at him, I can't help it — his Jewel is black.

The thirteenth Black.

"Is Cello joining us?" Kaitha asks.

I shake my head, "No, he left through a hole in the wall." Fellin's eyebrows shoot up at my comment.

"Okay, then!" she replies cheerfully clapping her hands together. One time, my family and I went on holiday to Sortinity. Since we don't speak Sortek we went on an organised tour along with a few other Medanese families. The tour-guide had a sunny disposition and a deep tan and called us each by our first names and nothing we said seemed to penetrate through her enthusiasm.

Kaitha Luegreem is exactly the same.

"Dairyk, this is Syianne," Kaitha introduces me. "Syianne, Dairyk just arrived today. Fellin told me you are acquainted."

"We're not just acquainted, she's my friend." Fellin says, placing a small emphasis on the word friend. I feel my face flush as a strange warm feeling spreads out across my chest. I give Fellin a sideways glance through my eyelashes, he considers me as a friend and I feel more honoured than I have ever felt in my life.

Having a charismatic friend like Fellin is something new for me. I can't find anything to say, I end up only smiling to myself.

"Syianne, you don't have to be shy, Kaitha is my cousin."

I look up at Kaitha curiously, "cousin, as in, family?" I'm amazed, and envious, how much easier it is to have family in this place.

"Kaitha is my father's sister's daughter. And we're not even the only Quaines here. Our grandpa's cousin's son is here but neither of us know him very well."

"That's because he's in the Core and he can't show preference to any ordinary Jewels like us." Kaitha points out cheerfully, as if the thought of an uncle who is snobbish because he's in the Core is a reason for merriment.

"Anyway," Fellin goes on, preventing the impending awkward silence, "I met my guide in green, he's nice but really weird. How was your guide?"

"Terrible."

Fellin blinks at me, but I don't want to be talking about my peculiar meeting with Sagastus next to all these people. I turn to look at Dairyk instead.

His glare is directed away from me, as if he lost interest. I can't imagine how horrible it is to turn into a Black when you're barely twelve and then have everyone spooked that you're a Spare Black.

"Let's get started," Kaitha says oblivious to the atmosphere. "I hope you like your new shoes because we'll be walking quite a bit. But I promise to let you go in time for lunch."

None of us say anything. We don't have to — she doesn't care.

"So let's go for a walk and come back here after we know where here is!"

We go outside and Kaitha points out the different buildings to us as we walk down the wide circular street surrounding the main dome, explaining the function of each building. Aside from the dining dome, most of the buildings nearest to the main dome are associated with "Processing." Each building deals with a different colour or "sub-colour".

"Sub-colours are mixed colours — violet, green and orange, as opposed to base colours - yellow, red and blue. Ideally, you'd have a building for every different shade of colour, but then we'd have to evacuate the entire city to have enough room for all the buildings we'd need. As you can see, there are more than six buildings surrounding the Zephyr dome. That's because certain shades are so important they receive colour recognition. For instance, over here you can see the Brown Building, brown in Zephyr terms is considered a shade of orange, but since it has such strong properties and powerful shades of its own, the Brown Building was created. Same goes for the pink, over there on your left and the Turquoise right next to it."

"Is there a grey building?" I ask, because it occurs to me that grey would be a mixture of Black, and Undefined — which is white.

"There's no such thing as grey energy so there's no grey building," Kaitha answers confidently. "Have you ever seen a Grey Jewel before? It doesn't come in that colour," she laughs at her own joke.

It still doesn't make sense. If there are Jewels in every single shade and hue in the world, how could there not be grey, or silver?

We move on to the next ring of buildings. "So the Zephyr works like a mine, except we don't mine coal, we mine something called Sophisticated Energy. Sophisticated Energy is not what gives us electricity; it serves a much more important purpose than that. What we do here sustains the entire planet. I won't delve into what that means exactly because you're supposed to review that with your personal guide."

I very nearly groan — there's no chance Sagastus would tell me anything.

"Anyway, after the energy is mined, and then processed into the correct energy sequence in the Processing buildings, it is transferred to the Distribution buildings which are divided into colours as well."

We're shown every single building as we move on to the next ring. "All these buildings here are dedicated to the study of certain components in the energy. Some of the things we find in the Zephyr behave erratically or unpredictably, or aren't even energy at all. They're all brought to these buildings where they're studied carefully. "

We're introduced to office buildings and Team buildings, and storage buildings, and buildings that have no doors or windows; Kaitha doesn't tell us what those buildings are for. We're told the history of the Zephyr. The central area of Rockdem has remained almost exactly as when Meda took control of it — a rare Tagrin architectural wonder. Although whether Tagrya was the one to have built the Zephyr is open to speculation.

I'm tired by the time we drag our feet back to the main dome, while Fellin looks as fresh as if he just started his day. He's chattering amiably with Kaitha. I am exhausted from all the happy energy and I don't know any of the people they're talking about. So I fall back until Dairyk and I are walking side by side.

"She's lying about grey energy." Dairyk's voice is soft and scratchy, tickling the air around him, and I can tell he's lowering it on purpose. He still has the voice of a little boy. He's walking next to me, but his glare is directed forward.

I figure out that he's not actually glaring, it's just the way his eyes are or something. They're slightly almond shaped and his spectacles enhance the evil effect.

"What makes you so sure?"

"I always know when someone is lying." He says it in a creepily confident way that makes my skin crawl. He's talking to me, but he doesn't really seem engaged in the conversation -- he wants to point out the lie but doesn't care what I think about it.

"Did they tell you that you're the thirteenth Black?"

He looks at me, interested now. "They were worried and... hiding something, I just couldn't tell what."

"There are only ever twelve Blacks at a time, you're a Spare."

He stops walking and looks at me, I've worried him now, "What does that mean and how do you know?" he demands.

"I'm a Spare too," I try to reassure him, but secretly I'm glad to have distressed him and deflate his arrogance. "The Zephyr created us to solve its problems."

"And what problems are those?"

"I don't know, but they're probably very big ones."

He stares at me with a mixture of fear and annoyance in his face. I've managed to unhinge him and on the other hand he's annoyed that I don't know any more than I do.

"Syianne! Dairyk!" Kaitha calls. We've reached the doors of the main dome. "Don't lose heart yet, we just reached the interesting part!"

*

Dairyk and I don't speak any more while on the tour. Kaitha shows us the Control Room and the Portal, she explains about the radar, and what the names on the other two big screens in the Portal mean - another form of tracking everyone on the Plunge, what "layer" they're in, when they went in and how much energy they've managed to absorb already.

"Your guide will explain these things to greater detail when you do your first Plunge. Everyone has to Plunge at least once a year, even if they're not compatible with energy. For instance, Undefined like Syianne and me are not very useful when it comes to cultivating energy. As I explained before, only Sophisticated energy can be mined, and Sophisticated energy is energy that has been broken down to create a colour. The only energy we can absorb is Wild energy, which is white and there's plenty of that everywhere. You don't have to Plunge to find White energy — it's floating in the very air we breathe."

"That's not true," I blurt out, "about only being able to absorb White energy."

"Of course it's true," Kaitha says cheerfully, "it's a scientific fact."

"Cello had an Overflow. He absorbed energy directly from touching Risa Medrick."

Kaitha grins at me. "You're mistaken, Syianne. It's impossible to absorb energy from touching someone. Maybe he simply lost his head because Risa's so gorgeous," she laughs at her own joke again.

I don't say anything. We get only a very brief peek into the Control room, as Kaitha praises how useful Undefined Jewels are in that inner sanctum.

"How many Undefined Jewels are there?" Dairyk asks.

"50% of the Zephyr population," Kaitha replies. "Put all the colours together, including the Blacks, and that's how many Undefined you have. There's always been an exact amount of Jewels in the world."

My eyebrow twitches, but I don't say a word. I look away in disgust, but realise it's not fair to hate Kaitha. She's doing her job in the way she was trained to do it — the words in her mouth aren't her own.

All this order, all these social structures and rules, are layers upon layers of secrets and lies. As Kaitha continues to recite all the supposed facts about the Zephyr, I watch a man approach us.

It's not that he's much taller than everyone else, but he seems to call my attention as if he's pulling me by my nose. I'm not the only one looking at him — everyone turns to watch him pass. He walks as if he owns the place. He's got spiked dark brown hair, a black earring in each ear, a rough, wildly handsome face like the perfect rock star. He's also got a Black Jewel.

I know who he is. I've seen him twice already — Leolan.

Kaitha stops her chatter and stares, Fellin and Dairyk turn. Everyone's wondering what his business is and where he's going. The crowd parts to let him pass.

He stops next to us; I can't peel my eyes off him. He's mightily cool, especially up close.

"Hello." He's got a rogue smile, dashing.

The four of us are silent. "I was wondering, Kaitha, if I can take Syianne out of the tour ahead of time."

Kaitha looks like she's going to faint. She's probably never been addressed directly by a Black before. She looks at me and then at Leolan — "I, me, well, you're, you, of course, why, yes!" she stutters.

I look at Dairyk, he's not as mesmerised as we are — he's looking at Leolan with contempt, and he directs the same expression at me.

I look at Leolan in what I think is a brave way. "I liked your song," I say, "Last night. Your band is good."

He smiles at me. "It was especially for you." He places his hand on my shoulder and my body goes rigid with nerves. Somehow he manages to lead me away from the tour group without my feet faltering.

Everyone stares as we go.

"I liked your show yesterday as well," he says to me as we head for the office elevators, "And now it's time for some business."

I try not to stare at him, but as my eyes dart to examine his profile he catches me watching him and grins.