Bruins Peak Bears- Complete Series, page 165
part #1 of Bruins Peak Bears Series
Eden stared down at the computer screen. Everything she saw that morning filled her mind so she couldn’t concentrate. One minute, she was sweeping her parents’ floor on the surface. The next, she sat in this stately apartment being admired and argued over by these powerful men in their dignified suits and spotless ties. Their black leather shoes shone under their pant cuffs.
She let her eyes drift to the windows in front of her. She didn’t hear her grandmother get up and leave. The city spread out below her. Trains and hovercraft whizzed back and forth. Tiny people crisscrossed the streets. They entered buildings, left them, paused to talk to each other, and went on their way.
She sat still until the lights faded into night. Something waited for her out there. Her life and her future grew up out of that city teeming with potential and possibilities. She just had to find out what it was.
She found herself searching the city records for something more interesting than the Labor Pool roster sheets. There must be something in this city to spark her curiosity. She had to find her own path in life. She couldn’t wander in confusion forever.
She remembered something Serenity told her, and she pulled up the genealogical records on her extended family. She studied every detail of her cousins’ lives, but that only made her more depressed.
Everyone in this city had their own unique and useful job to do. Everyone had his own place. Even Serenity knew what she wanted to do, and she did it.
Eden envied her sister Luna. Luna never suffered any uncertainty about her path in life. She always knew she would leave the surface to study at the Engineering Academy. Now that she got over the shock of parting from her parents, she could sail away to where she wanted to be. What did Eden have to compare with that?
Then she noticed something odd. The records listed her aunts and uncles, all her cousins and their children, their jobs—everything. She followed the family tree to her mother Amelia. The records indicated her marriage to Eden’s father, but it didn’t list Eden, Luna, or their brother Abel. That was strange, and yet the computer system registered her arrival in Arion with no trouble.
She searched some more. Yes, the system logged Luna getting on the train. There was the signature where she got off and where she entered the Engineering Academy building. There was the time mark when Eden got on the train and where she walked into her grandparents’ apartment.
So why didn’t the family tree show any record of her and her siblings’ existence? Something odd was going on. The mystery sparked Eden’s curiosity. It gave her something interesting to think about, something a lot more interesting than her own sorry life—or the lack thereof.
That discovery led her to research a lot more interesting things going on in this city. She followed the train loads of food stuffs streaming into the distribution hubs. She studied the work schedules of farming crews, livestock handlers, and even miners on the surface. Anything related to the surface interested her.
That first night, she learned more about Arion than she ever knew before. She learned how the manufacturing sector piped the smoke and steam from their underground factories through strata of rock within Renegade Ridge to mask it when it finally escaped onto the surface. The NightShade couldn’t have any passing helicopter noticing plumes of smoke billowing out of the bare mountain, now could they?
Close to twelve, Eden retreated to her room down the hall. The light still shone under Serenity’s door. That girl must be burning the midnight oil again. That’s what it took to be the best. Eden wouldn’t stay up this late again, but her first night in Arion left her jittery and hyper-alert.
She turned down the lights to darken her room, but she left the curtains open. She wanted to see the streaming rivers of tiny stars flowing everywhere through the great city outside, even in the middle of the night.
She curled up under the blankets and stared out for a long time before she got tired enough to go to her room to sleep. Arion would watch over her. Arion would take care of her and give her the life of her dreams.
Chapter 3
After the rest of her family went to bed, Eden drifted down the hall to her new room. She eased the door closed until the latch clicked. She slotted her computer screen into its docking port in the wall.
Then, for the first time, she let herself look around the room. She looked, not with the eyes of a girl who spent months of her childhood in this city, but as a young woman who lived her whole life on the surface.
For the first and last time, she compared her life on the surface with this new world in which she found herself. The same towering windows overlooked the city to the far distance. Massive skyscrapers blocked her view beyond a few blocks. Tiny pinpricks of light in those buildings gave evidence of the millions of inhabitants living their lives beneath Renegade Ridge.
A satin coverlet shone on her soft, broad bed. Cut glass embedded in the wall separated the main compartment from her private bathroom. Every bedroom in this apartment and every other apartment in this city had a indoor bathroom.
She migrated to the bathroom door to stare at the flush toilet. A girl from the surface didn’t use toilets. She went in the outhouse tucked between the trees behind her father’s cabin. She had to tiptoe out there in the snow in her bare feet on winter nights and first thing in the morning.
Eden didn’t have to see the panel by the door to know she could order any food she could dream of on her computer. The panel would slide open, and she would remove it to eat wherever and whenever she wanted. She didn’t have to slave and sweat for hours over an open fireplace or a wood-burning stove to prepare the simplest meal.
When she finished her food, she slid the plates and cutlery back into the same opening. The computer whisked them away to the recycling center so nothing in this city got wasted. Even the bathroom waste went to composting plants to be prepared for use in the city’s farming operations.
She sauntered over to the panel. She punched the computer screen a few times, and the panel opened on a folded set of linen pajamas. She lifted them out. They glided over her fingers in silky soft waves. No one on the surface wore clothes like this. They wore scratchy old homespun clothing. Eden and Luna had spent their winter days in front of the fire, carding and spinning, knitting, weaving, and darning for the whole family. They made all their own clothes.
She laid the pajamas on the bed. With deliberate care and slowness, she peeled off her old clothes until she stood naked before the big windows. She turned this way and that until her skin soaked up as much of Arion as she could get. She wanted to wash the surface away once and for all until she became as much a NightShade of the city as everyone else around her.
She pulled on the smooth pants and buttoned up the shirt. The pajamas cradled her in the city’s gentle caress. She was part of this city. She belonged here now.
She picked up her old clothes. Dirt and wood smoke clung to their fibers. They smelled and felt like Renegade Ridge. They gave an electric charge when she touched them. They didn’t want to let her go. They wanted her to keep them, to belong to the surface. They didn’t want her to change.
She held them at arm’s length and carried them to the panel. She opened it. Just for a moment, her hand holding the clothes hovered in mid-air. Did she want to take this step? Did she want to let it all go? Did she want to forget what it was like up there?
No, she would never forget. She would never forget her family’s sacrifice. She would never forget Abel or any of the other NightShade they lost. She would cherish it all in her innermost heart. She could cherish it just as well wearing these pajamas—or any other clothes, for that matter.
She had never wanted to leave the surface. She never would have if her parents didn’t insist. She would have lived there all her life. She would have chopped wood and fed the fire and swept the floor and changed the bedding. She would have done all the jobs the computer did in Arion, and she would have done them willingly. She would have done them in joy and contentment.
Well, she wasn’t on the Ridge anymore. She was in Arion. She wouldn’t do that work anymore. She wouldn’t even think about it. If a scrap of food fell on her carpet, she wouldn’t think about sweeping it up to keep the rats and mice away. She wouldn’t think twice about taking a blasting hot shower twice a day instead of a sponge bath once a week.
Without thinking about it again, she opened her fingers. Her old clothes dropped into the compartment. The panel slid closed. She didn’t hear any whir of machinery inside the building, but she knew it was there. Her old clothes, the clothes she worked so hard to make, the clothes she wore for so long, the clothes that made her who she was—gone in the blink of an eye. The computer would sense the dirt and decay. It would sense the worn-out elbows and the patched sleeves. It would take them away to the recycling tumbler, just like everything else.
Even as those thoughts passed through her mind, it was too late. Those clothes no longer existed. The computer system would reconstitute their molecular structure into something else, something useful. Maybe the wool would become the stuffing for somebody’s pillow somewhere. Maybe the clothes would become the fibers for the carpet in some new building far away on the other side of Arion. That would be just perfect.
The minute she let the clothes go, her computer pinged next to the door. She called, “Come in,” and Serenity entered.
Eden sighed and sat down on the bed. “I was just going to sleep. You should be in bed, too, girl.”
Serenity took a look around the room. Nothing escaped her eagle eye. “So you got rid of your old clothes, huh? Good riddance. Have you taken a look to see what you’ll wear tomorrow?”
Eden hung her head. “No, I haven’t looked. It was hard enough throwing away the old ones. I only went through with it because I had these pajamas to put on.”
Serenity cocked her head. “Hard! Why was it hard? They couldn’t have been comfortable. They looked like you hadn’t taken them off in twenty years. They looked like they could scrape your skin off.”
Eden had to smile. “I hadn’t, and they could, but I made them with my own hands. I even sheared the sheep with a pair of rusty scissors, and it took me almost a whole winter to get them made. I never thought I’d wear any other clothes. Now they’re gone, just like that.”
Serenity sank onto a chair by the window. “Do you miss your life upstairs?”
“Not really,” Eden replied. “It’s just… you know. It’s the only life I’ve known. Oh, I know what you’re gonna say. You’re gonna say I spent enough time down here to know the drill, and you’re right. I just never thought I’d leave the surface. Even when I spent time down here, I always knew I would go back. I thought I would take a mate up there. I thought I would raise my children that way, that I would grow old and die up there if the Midnight didn’t get me first.”
Serenity closed her eyes. “Don’t talk about them.”
“I have to,” Eden exclaimed. “The Midnight might be terrible, but they’re a fact of life upstairs. No one on the Ridge can go a day without thinking about them. That’s almost the only thing we do think about, and now I never have to think about them again. I don’t have to think about where my next meal is gonna come from. I don’t have to worry if we’ve got enough wood to last through next winter. I…I don’t know what I’m supposed to think about next.”
Serenity regarded her from across the room. “You haven’t changed your hair yet.”
Eden’s hand flew to her head. Then she let it fall and stretched out on the bed. “I haven’t changed it, and I’m not going to change it any time soon. Changing my clothes is one thing. I’m not ready to change my hair. My whole family wears it this way. All my friends upstairs wear it this way. I’m still one of them. If people hold that against me, then they aren’t anybody I want to have anything to do with.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you change it if you aren’t ready to.” Serenity stood up. “I can see you’re tired, so I won’t bother you anymore. Get some sleep, will you? Grandma’s got a full schedule lined up for you tomorrow.” Serenity crossed to the door, but instead of going out, she paused to turn back. “Hey, Eden.”
Eden rubbed her eyes. “Yeah?”
“I’m so happy you’re here. I’ve been lonely since I came to live here. I’m the only young person, and I miss my brothers and my parents. I can study better here, but that only means I don’t have anything to do but study. I understand how you feel, leaving your family behind. I haven’t seen much of my family since I came here. It’s a lonely way to live. I’m glad you’re here so I have someone to talk to about something other than the medicals.”
Eden flashed her a grateful smile. “I’m glad you’re here, too, Serenity. Living with Grandma and Grandpa alone would be too much for anyone to bear. People our age need each other. We’re not machines who can just study or work all the time. I’ve always had my sister to talk to, but now she’s gone. I’m relieved I don’t have to live here alone.”
Serenity’s face lit up. She nodded, but didn’t say anything. She bounced out of the room, and the door slotted back into its place.
The room fell into silence. Exhaustion weighed Eden down, but she couldn’t climb into bed—not just yet. She had to see one more thing. She walked into the bathroom, flipped on the light, and when her eyes adjusted, she took a long look at herself in the mirror.
She still looked like a NightShade from the surface. That hair stuck out like a neon sign. No one could mistake her for anything else. No, she wasn’t ready to change it yet. She could let go of every other facet of her old life. She could transform herself into just about anything to make a future for herself here, but she couldn’t let go of that. She had to cling to it. She had to keep being the same thing as her parents and her brother and her sister and all her friends upstairs. She couldn’t be anything else.
Chapter 4
At another apartment in the city, Eli and Damian Powers entered their living room for breakfast. Eli stopped dead in the doorway, and Damian collided with him from behind. “Hey!”
Then he saw what surprised Eli. A dozen men crowded the living room. Damian recognized some as Elders on the council conversing with his father. The rest he didn’t know.
Two men in dark suits approached the brothers. “Come in and sit down. We want to talk to both of you.”
Eli cast a glance around the room until he found his father standing to one side. “What’s this about? Who are these people?”
Old Joshua Powers clamped his lips shut and looked away. The man who first addressed the brothers spoke for him. “I’m Constable Ross Griffin, and this is my Lieutenant, Cain Graves. We’re members of the Police Corps.”
Damian gasped and his eyes popped out. “The Police Corps!”
“That’s right. We’re here to investigate a crime.”
“Crime!” Eli exclaimed. “There is no crime in Arion.”
“There is no crime in Arion, but there is a Police Corps, and it is for situations like this that the Police Corps exists.”
Eli sank onto the couch. “This can’t be possible.”
“I’m afraid it is,” Joshua replied. “You better sit down, too, Damian.”
Damian didn’t move. “What’s this all about? What crime are you investigating?”
Constable Griffin faced him. “Ryder Law was murdered last night. His body was found outside the Elders’ council building.”
“What’s so criminal about that?” Eli asked. “He must have gotten in a fight with somebody, and he lost.”
“He didn’t get in a fight with anybody,” Constable Griffin replied. “His head was smashed in from behind. There’s not a claw or tooth mark on him to show he ever shifted or that his assailant ever shifted. He was ambushed and attacked. He probably never knew what hit him.”
Eli’s hand flew to his head. “This can’t be real.”
“I’m afraid it is very real. He was murdered in cold blood.”
“But who would do something like this?” Damian asked.
Constable Griffin turned on him. “As a matter of fact, that’s why we’re here. We want to talk to you boys—especially you, Damian—about your whereabouts last night.”
“Me!” Damian cried. “What do you want to know that for? You can’t suspect me of this crime.”
“I’ll ask the questions, son,” Constable Griffin replied. “Where were you last night?”
“I was right here. I never left home all night. I never went out, and I never knew anything about this until just now.”
“When was the last time you saw Ryder Law?”
“I saw him yesterday. I see him every day—at least, I did. We had a meeting at Elder Hood’s office. Then Eli and I talked to him outside. That’s the last I saw of him.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Nothing much. We talked about the session, and we agreed to talk again today.”
“You didn’t argue with him?”
“Of course not. I never argued with him.”
“That’s not true, Damian,” Eli interrupted. “You know you argued with him all the time.”
Damian colored. “That’s not what I mean. I never argued with him about something like that. We were friends. I’ve known him since we were kids. I would never do anything to hurt him.”
Constable Griffin frowned. “What did you argue about?”
Damian shrugged. “Political stuff. Nothing serious.”
“Tell me.”
Damian took a deep breath. “There’s a heated discussion going around the Elders’ council right now. Some young NightShade want to leave Arion. They call themselves the Emergent faction, and they want to return to the surface. They want to join the rest of the world and interact with outsiders.”
“And you argued with Ryder about that?”
“I argued with Ryder about that every day for the last three years,” Damian shot back. “I never killed him over it, and I never would.”
“Do you support these Emergent people?” Constable Griffin asked.
