Tube Dwellers

“Tara, I have something to tell you.”

Farmer Smith 55B pulled his fiancée by her hand into some trees beside the gravel pathway. The narrow road led from the Council Building to the Sector 55B farm.

“What is it, Smitty?” asked Tara. She was alarmed by the suddenly serious tone of voice he was using.

“Let’s go a little further away from the road,” whispered Smitty. “Sometimes they listen, or at least that’s what Uncle Elmo used to tell me.”

“Who listens?” asked Tara, while looking around in disbelief.

“”Just a little further, Tara,” urged Smitty, again in a whisper. “Up ahead, ah, over there, under those bushes; where the little stream comes out of the rock.”

The stream emerged from the ground at the base of a three-metre high rock wall to form a quiet little pool. Smitty manoeuvred Tara with gentle tugs until she was sitting down beside him on a smooth rock ledge.

Smitty was a tall, muscular young man with an unremarkable but friendly face, and light brown hair that he always kept short. Tara was a very pretty young woman of average height with shapely, muscular limbs, and dark brown hair that she also liked to keep short.

People always said they made a nice couple when they were seen together.

They could hear birds chirping in the bushes nearby, and there were frogs and turtles on the banks of the pool, and some minnows in the water. Smitty smiled at Tara, and he felt a surge of affection when she smiled back at him. He wanted desperately to make love to her, but he knew that would have to wait until after their wedding in a month’s time.

“Are you happy about the decision, Tara?” whispered Smitty apprehensively. “I mean, I’m not much to look at.”

Tara initially looked surprised, and then she got angry. “You’re a very handsome man, and never, ever say that again!” she spat out in a harsh whisper.

Smitty looked down at the surface of the pool in silence for a moment, and when he looked up at her, he was smiling.

“It’s very unusual, you know, for the Council to allow a marriage between friends from the same Sector,” said Smitty quietly. “It helped, I think, that Uncle Elmo brought me here from Sector 37A when I was little. And, it’s Uncle Elmo that I want to talk to you about now, Tara.”

Tara looked at Smitty with concern. “I’m sorry he died, Smitty,” she said quietly. “I liked him too; a lot. My, that was only last week, wasn’t it? I’ve been thinking so much lately about the interview we finally had today with the Council. I’ve been thinking too much about it I guess, in hindsight. It was a bit of an anti-climax, you know; the way they were so official and cold about everything.”

Smitty reached for Tara’s hands, and held them both between his own. Then he whispered, “Tara, before he died, my Uncle Elmo told me some very strange things.” He paused for a few seconds, looking into her eyes. He wanted to get the quote exactly right. Then he whispered, “Uncle Elmo said, ’Smitty, there were once ‘Engineers’. You are an ancestor of that class of people, and an obligation comes with that heritage. I want you to remember two things, and pass them on to a descendent you can trust. And don’t ever write this down! Firstly, the world is a machine, Smitty, a very big machine, and it’s moving between two much bigger worlds. And secondly, the most important number in our world is 5029.1216.’”

Tara took her hands away, and looked away in confusion. After a moment she said quietly, “How very strange! What was an ‘Engineer’? And do you think they had anything to do with plumbing?” Tara’s full name was Plumber Tarantino 55B.

“Possibly, Tara, I don’t know,” whispered Smitty in reply. He looked around for a moment to confirm they were still very much alone. Then he added, “I’ve never heard of anyone named ‘Engineer’.”

“And the whole world is a machine; a moving machine?” Tara continued. She found it hard to keep her voice down, but she was starting to guess why Smitty thought it was a good idea. Then she asked, “What kind of nonsense is that?”

“I don’t know, Tara,” said Smitty, shaking his head. “But those were his last words to me, I swear, and he said them over and over, so he really thought it was important for me to remember them.”

Tara sat silently for a few moments, struggling to comprehend what she had just heard. Then she whispered slowly, “The number is like a date. It’s now 5029.0105. It could refer to a date, a little less than a year from now, maybe?”

“Maybe, Tara,” said Smitty very quietly, looking around again to make sure they were still alone. Then he whispered, “And this is where it gets really strange. Uncle Elmo told me he used the number once to get inside a door. He showed me how to get to the door last year when he could still get around on his own, even though he used a cane. It’s at the Grey End, just inside the wire fence, and he said you have to swim under water for ten metres or so to get to it. He said there was a tunnel inside the door, lit-up with red lights. He said the tunnel curved upwards under the forest on the forbidden side of the wire.”

Smitty paused for a second, then he added, “Tara, Uncle Elmo said he hoped I would someday go into that tunnel to see where it led.” Then he whispered, almost inaudibly, “He said he never had enough courage to try that, or to tell the Council he found the tunnel. He was worried they would punish him for crossing under the wire Fence Line.” Smitty paused for a second, and then he put his lips close to Tara’s left ear and mouthed, “I’m hoping you’ll explore that tunnel with me, Tara. Before the wedding, while we’re allowed some time off to get ready.”

“You said we would do some parabiking and camping,” said Tara in a faint whisper. “I’ve been really looking forward to that.”

“We can do both, I think,” whispered Smitty with a smile. “The Grey End is eight kilometres away. It will give us a reason to go there.”

“I knew marrying you would be an adventure,” said Tara with a laugh in her normal voice, then a sly smile. “I just didn’t think it would start before our wedding night!” She paused for a second, then said in a whisper, “We’ve talked before, Smitty, about how the world does not seem quite right, and about what might be outside. Because there has to be an outside; I mean, far underground, I guess. And knowing more about ‘outside’ might help us know more about what life is all about. If doing this might help answer some of those types of questions, then you’re on, Mister!”

“Thanks so much, Tara, you won’t regret this!” said Smitty in his normal voice. This was the answer he was hoping for, but was not sure he was going to get. Then he said, “Look, Tara, the Sun Line is starting to really fade. We should probably get back on the road now, and quick hike back to the farm.”

“Okay, my dear Farmer fiancé!” replied Tara, eagerly reaching for Smitty’s hand. Then she whispered, “Now, let’s start planning this trip of ours… ” She trailed off happily.

2

The world that Smitty and Tara knew was flat with cupped edges for ten kilometres in one direction, and upwardly curved at a right angle to that direction. If you walked completely around that curve in a straight path, you would travel almost thirty- one and a half kilometres to get back to the same spot. And a person could essentially do that, weaving a path on foot, bicycle or electric vehicle through irrigated fields, mills, workshops, warehouses, and groups of fifty-person communities with their parks and playgrounds and above- ground civic centres.

People lived underground, accessing their front doors using stairways leading downwards seven metres or so. The roofs of houses were often farmland, forest or parkland. Even though there was always a haze from moisture in the air, it was not difficult to conclude and believe that people lived inside a cylindrical world, with outward-bending hemispheres at both ends of a very large tube.

Down the middle of this gigantic tube ran the ‘Sun Line’. From ground level, it looked like a thin strip of very bright light during the twelve- hour day, and it was completely invisible during the twelve- hour night. There was a half-hour light transition period at both dawn and dusk. During the day, a person could just see that one end of the closed cylinder was grey in colour above the vegetation line, and the other end of the cylinder was green in colour.

So, the world had a ‘Grey End’ and a ‘Green End’. There was a high, electrified fence at both ends of the tube to remind a person that travelling more than a kilometre into the hemispheric sections was forbidden. Even crossing over the Fence Line in a parabike was said to be a capital offence, and the Council Police monitored the boundaries continuously. Beyond the fence was a forest that transitioned to bushes and vines, then smaller plants as the terrain became steeper. The final transition was to completely barren desert where the terrain became a vertical plain.

The Council, Sector Leaders and Sector Coaches of Tube World encouraged people not to think about the way the world was, or why it might be that way. Rather, people were encouraged to do the job they were selected for, and trained to do. People were expected to be ‘happy in their work’ and rejoice in being an integral part of a mostly agrarian, family-oriented community.

Most people actually did just that. Rebellious people, loners and non-heterosexuals always seemed to disappear eventually. People suspected they were taken away discretely by the Council Police; , but such things were not talked about.

If a person asked the Police to investigate a disappearance, they were just told they already were investigating, and not to talk about it any more. And, everyone knew by oral tradition, when a person ‘disappeared’, it meant one lucky married couple would be allowed to have a baby.

Their finite world could only tolerate so many people. And the people that lived in this world were expected to grow up to marry, and have children, and end life as doting grandparents or great- grandparents.

For their trip to the Grey End, Smitty was fortunate to have inherited his Uncle Elmo’s two-place parabike. It had fragile- looking wings that were actually very strong. The wings were covered in a taut, thin, translucent, synthetic skin that was reinforced with imbedded fibres of some sort. The fuselage, wings and control surfaces were made of very light but strong structural members that were pinned together. The two riders sat in tandem and powered the propeller at the rear by pedalling with their feet. A stick controlled the ailerons and rear- mounted elevator control surfaces. The pilot could also use a hand-operated lever to change the rear-mounted rudder setting. Weight and balance greatly affected the trim, and had to be adjusted by moving a weight behind the riders that was mounted on a sliding rack. The weight could be replaced by luggage. A few trial take-offs were required to get the trim exactly right.

There were parts available to repair intricate things like parabikes, but they were very expensive, and the purchase of parts required Council approval. The Council would disapprove such a purchase if they even suspected negligence had caused damage, so all equipment was handled and maintained with great care. No one knew how most of the parts of a parabike were made, or what they were made of exactly. They originated in the distant past; just some very useful things inherited from their mysterious ancestors.

Every Tube Dweller on Tube World was paid the same amount of money. The currency was in the form of metal discs of various denominations. There was just enough money for the essentials of life, so saving for ‘extravagant’ things like parabike parts was very difficult. There was a ‘black market’ where people traded things, but it was very risky to engage in that clandestine activity. Smitty suspected his Uncle Elmo had been very active in the black market.

Smitty was an expert parabike pilot. He logged a lot of time with his Uncle Elmo as he was growing up, and with his friends, including Tara. It was a thrilling and sometimes disorienting experience. It took a great deal of effort to achieve take-off, even with the help of a small electric motor that could be engaged or disengaged from the propeller drive shaft. But it got easier for some reason the higher up you went. It was not a good idea to go above one kilometre or so. The light and heat from the Sun Line would make things uncomfortable above that altitude, and potentially damage the skin of the wing. And if you pushed higher anyway, the controls would eventually become ‘soft’ or less responsive, and the parabike would lose stability.

Smitty and Tara packed their lightweight and compact camping gear in one waterproof backpack. They had sufficient dried food for a week. They knew they could get clean, fresh water anywhere.

They took off on the gravel road that ran through their Sector. Tara was in the front seat to help with the balance. Both seats had flight controls, but Tara wanted Smitty to do most of the piloting. When they got high enough to make the pedalling easier, they took a spiral course over towards the Grey End to take in the many interesting sights along the way. They saw a couple of other parabikes during their journey. They waved to the other pilots, and those people waved back. They also waved to people on the ground, and sometimes those people waved back too.

When they got to within a couple hundred metres of the fence at the Grey End, they took a parallel course to the Fence Line. Smitty yelled, “Tara, there’s a road that goes to the little waterfall I’m looking for just inside the Fence Line! We can land on it; I’ve done it before! Keep your eye out for it; it should be close!”

After a few minutes, Tara yelled, “There’s a waterfall coming up on the right, Smitty! Is that the one?”

“Yes!” yelled Smitty. “There’s only one! Let’s hope we don’t have to share it with other folks! Do you see anyone?”

“Nope, it looks deserted!” replied Tara loudly. “But there’s a police cart moving slowly on the road leading to the falls!”

“Yes, that figures!” yelled Smitty with mild disgust. “Let’s get lined up to land on the road! I’m sure the Law will want to talk to us!”

Smitty and Tara made the landing look easy. The parabike rolled to a stop on its own, without braking, about five-hundred metres past the flat section of the road. The road continued to rise towards the falls nearby, where it ended.

Smitty and Tara pulled the parabike off to the side of the road. They dropped the wing-tip parking poles to the ground, and began staking the parabike down. Sometimes a wind would come up in Tube World, never a very strong wind but probably strong enough to move or even flip the light weight machine. As they finished securing the aircraft, the electric police cart pulled up beside them.

The policeman got out of his cart, and came over to them. He was wearing camouflage coveralls and a matching cap. He had handcuffs, a heavy baton and a blaster pistol hanging from his belt. He was average in height, but he was swarthy and very muscular, with a shaved, bald head.

“I am Council Police Constable Wu Grey,” said the policeman. “Just what are you folks up to?”

“I’m Farmer Smith 55B, sir, and this is Plumber Tarantino 55B,” said Smitty pleasantly. “We’ve got a week off ahead of our wedding. We’re going to set up a camp by the waterfall, and explore the woods this side of the Fence Line.”

“Oh, you are, are you?” asked Constable Wu aggressively. Then he barked, “Let me see your proof cards!”

Smitty and Tara handed their identification cards to the Constable. He then went back to his cart with their cards in his right hand. They could see him making a call on his cell phone from inside the cart, while looking carefully at their cards. After a few minutes, he got out of his cart again and came back to the young couple.

“Here are your cards back,” said Constable Wu in a cold voice. He handed over the plastic covered documents. Then he looked sternly at both of them in turn, and said gruffly, “You came too close to the Fence Line with that ‘flybike’ of yours! When you leave, make sure you go straight out away from here; down the road.”

“Yes, sir!” said Smitty loudly. He knew they had flown well inside the Fence Line, but he also knew it would be counter-productive to challenge the policeman’s intimidating statement.

“Your records are both clear, but I’ll remind you of the main rules around here anyway,” said the Constable in a lecturing manner. “No open flames. Don’t damage a tree, or any plant for that matter. Don’t go within ten metres of the fence. Don’t leave a scrap of garbage. Use the toilet sheds. And be quiet! I don’t want to hear any complaints!...